Chemistry Nobel honors the scientists who taught reactions to pick a molecule's mirror image
The mint-versus-caraway example makes a hard idea click.
Henri B. Kagan, 95, of France and Kenso Soai, 76, of Japan won the 2026 Nobel Prize in chemistry. Many molecules come in mirror-image versions that behave differently: one form of carvone smells like mint, the other like caraway. In the 1980s Kagan showed reactions might be designed to favor one form; Soai later created the first reaction to efficiently produce only one, now called the Soai reaction. The committee called it a feat never achieved by anyone "other than life itself," and the American Chemical Society's president said today's medicines would not be possible without it.
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Chirality (chemistry)
After exploring Scientists win chemistry Nobel for discoveries about mirrored molecules that led to many drugs, the core idea is Chirality (chemistry).
A molecule is chiral if it can't be superimposed on its mirror image, the way your left and right hands can't. The word comes from the Greek for "hand."
Wikipedia · Wade · 5 min
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Thalidomide
After exploring Scientists win chemistry Nobel for discoveries about mirrored molecules that led to many drugs, for why it matters so much, read about Thalidomide.
The drug withdrawn in Europe in 1961 after causing severe birth defects. Its two mirror-image forms act differently (one sedates, the other causes harm), and the body converts one into the other, so even the "safe" form isn't safe.
Wikipedia · Plunge · an evening
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