Nobel Prize in Chemistry awarded for solving homochirality mystery

The 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry went to Henri B. Kagan and Kenso Soai for solving a century-old puzzle: how homochirality emerges spontaneously. Kagan found a way in 1986 to create an excess of one mirror-image molecule, and Soai in 2003 ran the first reaction producing only one mirror image.

• Prize awarded to Henri B. Kagan and Kenso Soai
• Kagan achieved an excess of one mirror image in 1986
• Soai ran the first reaction yielding only one mirror image in 2003
• Discoveries are key for pharmaceutical synthesis