Share to ClassroomTwo Scientists Win Nobel for Mirror Chemistry
Two scientists have won the 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. They are Henri B. Kagan from France and Kenso Soai from Japan. They found ways to make chemical reactions produce much more of one mirror form of a molecule. The prize was announced in Stockholm on Wednesday. Soai, 76, said it was one of the most exciting days of my life.
Many molecules come in two forms. They have the same parts, but one is a mirror image of the other, like your left and right hands. Scientists call this chirality. Living things use almost only one form, but reactions in a laboratory usually make both forms equally. This matters for medicine. One form of a drug may help sick people, while the other form may do nothing or even cause harm. One form of the drug thalidomide, given to pregnant women, was toxic, or poisonous. Thousands of children were born with serious health problems.
In 1986, Kagan found that a small imbalance in a catalyst, a substance that controls a reaction, could create much more of one form. Soai then made reactions where the products make more of themselves. In 2003, his reaction made almost only one form. The Nobel committee said nobody except life itself had done this before. Today, chemists use this research to develop new medicines.
