Paris, 7 Oct 2026 – The Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to French chemist Henri B. Kagan and Japanese researcher Kenso Soai for solving the long‑standing mystery of life’s preference for one enantiomer of chiral molecules.
Chiral molecules, such as the amino acids that build proteins, exist in two mirror‑image forms. Life uses only one of these forms, but why that one was unexplained for decades.
In a joint study, Kagan and Soai demonstrated a chemical reaction that spontaneously produces a single enantiomer from a symmetrical starting material, thereby offering a plausible origin for biological homochirality.
The Nobel Committee applauded the work for providing the definition of the basic mechanism that has shaped the chemistry of living organisms.
For a detailed explanation, see the Nobel Prize press release linked below.
