The 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to Henri Kagan and Kenso Soai for discovering chemical reactions that can produce a strong bias toward one form of molecular handedness (chirality). This breakthrough helps explain how life, which relies exclusively on one enantiomer of key molecules, could have emerged from a prebiotic world that likely contained equal mixes of left- and right-handed chemicals.
Background
Chirality — molecular handedness — is a fundamental property where molecules exist as non-superimposable mirror images. Life on Earth is homochromatic, using only L-amino acids and D-sugars, making the origin of this selectivity a major unsolved problem in biochemistry.
- Source
- Ars Technica
- Published
- Oct 8, 2026 at 02:48 AM
- Score
- 8.0 / 10