Life Is Asymmetric. The Scientists Who Figured Out Why Won the 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Henri Kagan and Kensō Soai win the 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for work designing reactions that produce only one of a molecule’s two mirror-image forms. The finding matters for synthesizing pharmaceuticals and other biological substances.
The work addresses a fundamental challenge in making molecules with the desired mirror-image form, which is important in pharmaceutical synthesis. The Nobel recognition also highlights the significance of this approach to chemical production.
