Chemistry Nobel Honors Breakthrough in Molecular Handedness

Life relies on molecules with a specific handedness, or chirality, where only one mirror-image form is used. This poses a challenge for origin-of-life research, as scientists must explain how life selected one form over the other. The 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Henri Kagan and Kenso Soai for discovering chemical reactions that can produce an excess of one chiral form, providing insights into this fundamental aspect of life.