GoKawiil
Tech News
The 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was announced to chemists Kagan and Soai for their work explaining homochirality, the phenomenon by which all biological molecules share the same molecular handedness, or chirality. The essay recounts the news through a conversation between the author and a neighbor who is a chemistry professor, who excitedly explains the concept upon hearing of the award.
A books-in-brief roundup covers four forthcoming 2026 titles: Siri Carpenter's edited collection on science journalism craft, David Helvarg's book on the ecological importance of cold-water kelp forests, Kit Chapman's history of alchemy's role in founding chemistry, and Roberta Kwok's 'Lost in Curiosity.' Each entry summarizes the book's core argument and notable details, such as kelp forests producing a fifth of the world's oxygen and the 1901 exchange between Frederick Soddy and Ernest Rutherford over radioactive transmutation.