{
  "id": 12764572,
  "title": "2026 Chemistry Nobel: Mirror-image molecules and the chemistry of life",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/08/2026-chemistry-nobel-mirror-image-molecules-and-the-chemistry-of-life",
  "topic": "science",
  "section": "Science",
  "published": "2026-10-08T02:00:15.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Indian Express",
    "slug": "the-indian-express",
    "url": "https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-sci-tech/2026-nobel-mirror-image-molecules-chemistry-of-life-10911414/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "The Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2026 has been awarded to Henry Kagan and Kenso Soai for their groundbreaking work in understanding and controlling the emergence of homochirality, the preference for one enantiomer over another in chiral molecules. These molecules exist in two non-superimposable mirror-image forms, much like the left and right hands of humans, but only one form is typically used in biological processes.\n\nTraditionally, chemical reactions producing chiral molecules yielded equal proportions of both enantiomers, but this changed with the work of Kagan and Soai. Kagan developed a method to manipulate these reactions so that one enantiomer was produced in much greater quantities than the other. Soai then went further and designed the first chemical reaction where only one enantiomer was produced.\n\nPreviously, it was believed that the chirality of a catalyst used in chemical reactions directly influenced the proportion of enantiomers produced. However, Kagan's research in the 1980s disproved this notion, showing that even a mildly chiral catalyst could lead to significant asymmetry in product formation.\n\nBuilding on his earlier work, Soai discovered that certain reactions could become autocatalytic, meaning that the final product itself acted as a catalyst for the formation of the same enantiomer. Through years of experimentation, Soai was able to achieve an autocatalytic reaction resulting in a 99.5% production of one enantiomer, a rate comparable to biological processes.\n\nThis work has far-reaching implications, particularly in the pharmaceutical industry. Many drug molecules are chiral, and the human body prefers only one enantiomer, which is often more effective while the other can be ineffective or even harmful. Before Kagan and Soai's research, pharmaceutical companies had to separate the desired enantiomer from a mixture of both, a costly and complex process.\n\nTheir discovery has simplified this process, allowing for the direct production of the desired enantiomer. This technique is now widely used in the pharmaceutical industry, significantly improving the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of drug manufacturing.",
  "summary": null,
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}