Many drugs have mirror chemical structures, one helpful and the other harmful – a Nobel‑winning discovery allows chemists to make either on demand

From thalidomide to resveratrol, molecules with the exact same chemical properties can have drastically different effects in ...
The Economist

A Nobel for illuminating life’s asymmetry

It is for progress towards understanding how such asymmetry might have come about that Henri Kagan, of the University of ...

Could a Small Bias Lead to Life? Thinking About the Origin of Life from Enantiomers, Asymmetric Organic Synthesis, Nonlinear Effects, and Autocatalysis

Could a small bias lead to life? Thinking about the origin of life from enantiomers, asymmetric organic synthesis, nonlinear ...

Chemistry Nobel goes to reactions like those that gave life a hand

Life is remarkably selective. Life relies on many molecules with what is termed “handedness”—they’re chemically identical but are mirror images of each other. Most chemical reactions will make a 50/50 ...
Science

Nobel Prize honors researchers who showed how ‘handedness’ can emerge in chemistry

Henri Kagan of the Université Paris-Sud and Kenso Soai of Tokyo University of Science share the 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry ...

Scientists win chemistry Nobel for discoveries about mirrored molecules that led to many drugs

Henri B. Kagan and Kenso Soai won the Nobel Prize in chemistry Wednesday for their efforts to resolve mysterious mirror ...
Scientific American

2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry awarded to pioneers in ‘mirror’ chemistry

The prize recognizes Henri Kagan and Kenso Soai's work showing autocatalysis in asymmetric organic synthesis. The 2026 Nobel ...
Science

AIMNet2-rxn: A machine-learned potential for generalized reaction modeling on a millions-of-pathways scale

Mechanistic modeling of chemical transformations offers a compelling basis for understanding reactivity and allows for ...

For those who struggle with chemical equilibrium calculations: How to set up equilibrium constants and tips for calculation explained with examples

I am Yamamoto, and I teach university entrance exam chemistry at Galileo.Chemical equilibrium is a unit that many people find ...