Henri B Kagan and Kenso Soai bag Nobel Prize in Chemistry for work on molecular mirror images

Stockholm, Oct 7 (UNI) The 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to Frenchman Henri B Kagan and Kenso Soai of Japan for work that helped explain how chemical reactions can favour one mirror-image form of a molecule over another. Some molecules exist in two forms that are mirror images of each other, containing the same atoms and possessing the same chemical formula. However, they differ in the way their structures are arranged. The distinction is important in living organisms, which often use only one of the two forms. Kagan and Soai helped explain how such a preference can…