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These two researchers helped answer one of the great questions of science: How could nature create homochirality from achiral starting materials? Click the link to learn more: buff.ly/XOxdSPT 1/7

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7/10/26, 7:32 pm3 reposts5 likes

American Chemical Society

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The amino acids, sugars, and nucleic acids that make up our cells are homochiral, which means that in living systems you’ll only find one enantiomer, or one molecular version of a mirror-image pair. 2/7

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American Chemical Society

@acs.org

We knew of reactions that could make chiral molecules from achiral ones, but the products would be 50/50 mixtures. A reaction that could create an enantiomerically pure product from completely achiral reagents seemed elusive, until … 3/7

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American Chemical Society

@acs.org

Henri B. Kagan showed in 1986 that a small excess of one catalytic enantiomer can lead to a larger excess of the desired product due to mutual inhibition, a phenomenon known as “non-linear effects.” 4/7

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American Chemical Society

@acs.org

Kensō Soai reported a reaction in 1990 that was both autocatalytic & enantioselective — two things that had been done before but never together. 5 years later, Soai & colleagues reported an asymmetric autocatalytic reaction in which the product had a higher enantiomeric excess than the catalyst. 5/7

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