Chirality - GoKawiil

Nobel Chemistry Award Recognizes Reactions Producing Chiral Molecules

Henri Kagan and Kenso Soai received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discovering how certain reactions can favor the formation of one mirror-image form of a molecule over the other. Their work sheds light on how biological systems might have developed a preference for specific molecular handedness, despite initial conditions producing equal amounts of both forms. This breakthrough advances understanding of the origins of life's molecular asymmetry.

arstechnica.com · 2026-10-07

Henri Kagan and Kenso Soai share 2024 Chemistry Nobel for chirality research

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Henri Kagan of the University of Paris-Sud and Kenso Soai of Tokyo University, splitting the 12-million-kronor prize. Kagan's 1980s experiments showed how small imbalances in molecular handedness could be amplified, while Soai's 1990s work demonstrated that a single-handed molecule could catalyze production of more molecules sharing its own chirality, together explaining how life's building blocks end up uniformly 'one-handed.'

nature.com · 2026-10-07