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Quanta Magazine
@quantamagazine.org

The 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to Henri B. Kagan and Kenso Soai for their breakthrough research that produced a solution of homochiral molecules, which all share the same handedness, solving a more than century-old problem. 🧵

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Quanta Magazine
@quantamagazine.org

In the 19th century, Louis Pasteur stumbled across one of the deepest mysteries about life inside crystalized dregs of wine. Some molecules can exist in two mirror-image arrangements: a left-handed form and a right-handed form. 2/9 www.quantamagazine.org/how-the-univ...

quantamagazine.orgHow the Universe Differs From Its Mirror Image | Quanta MagazineFrom living matter to molecules to elementary particles, the world is made of “chiral” objects that differ from their reflected forms.
Quanta Magazine
@quantamagazine.org

These chiral counterparts can have wholly different properties. For instance, mirror-image configurations of one molecule have different scents: Pine and citrus scents are opposite-handed chiral forms of the molecule limonene. 3/9

Quanta Magazine
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Life tends to use one of these forms exclusively. For example, the sugars that make up DNA are all right-handed, and the amino acids that make up proteins are all left-handed. In other words, life’s chemistry is “homochiral.” 4/9

Quanta Magazine
@quantamagazine.org

Chemists who tried to produce homochirality in the lab always ended up with both chiral versions of the molecule in equal proportions. This was a big problem for developing pharmaceuticals, as the wrong-handed version of the molecule can be toxic. 5/9