Chemistry Nobel Awarded for Solving Mystery of Life's Asymmetry
· World · BBC News, India Today
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to French scientist Henri B. Kagan and Japan's Kenso Soai for solving the chemical mystery of why life favours specific mirror-image molecules. All life relies on chiral molecules, such as amino acids that build proteins, which exist in two mirror-image versions. While these versions are chemically identical, biological systems are highly selective and operate using only one version. The two laureates explained how this biochemical asymmetry emerged and why living organisms consistently choose one version over the other. The Nobel Committee recognised their pioneering work in asymmetric synthesis.
Why it matters
This discovery explains a fundamental biochemical property of living organisms, advancing our understanding of how molecular asymmetry originated in nature and shaping future research in pharmacology and synthetic chemistry.
Read the original report — BBC News
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