Chemistry 2026 · Announced Oct 7
They showed how a tiny tilt toward one "hand" of a molecule can grow.
Shared by two people
In plain words
Many molecules come in a left-hand and a right-hand form. Kagan showed that a helper that is only a little lopsided can still give a very lopsided result. Soai found a reaction where the product helps make more of itself, so a tiny lead becomes almost total.
Why it matters
Drug makers often need just one hand of a molecule, because the other can do nothing or do harm. This work also gives a clue to an old puzzle: why living things use only one hand.
The official reason
"for the discovery of non-linear effects and autocatalysis in asymmetric organic synthesis"
The winners
40
years from Kagan's key paper (1986) to the prize
The long road
- 1986Kagan reports non-linear effects in handed reactions.
- 1995Soai reports a reaction that copies and boosts its own handedness.
- 2026Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Kagan is 95.