Henri B. Kagan and Kenso Soai were awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry on Wednesday for their efforts to resolve mysterious mirror images in chemical molecules.
“Henri Kagan and Kenso Soai have provided a solution to a chemical mystery that is over a century old: how homochirality can emerge spontaneously,” Heiner Linke, chair of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry, said in a news release. “The chemical reactions they have developed are spectacular.”
The duo's discoveries, the news release said, “have been decisive for chemists who design reactions for the manufacture of pharmaceuticals.”
Kagan, 95 years old and born in France, is affiliated with Université Paris-Sud in Orsay, France, and Soai, born in Japan, with the Tokyo University of Science.
Many molecules of life come in versions that look alike but aren’t exactly identical, like right and left hands. One mirror-image of the chemical carvone smells like mint, for example, while the other has a whiff of caraway.
When designing drugs to treat diseases, scientists want to be choosy about which mirror-image they’re getting. They want the version of a molecule that’ll treat a cold, not the kind that’ll make the sniffles worse.
Kagan and Soai found ways to make chemistry pick a side, designing and manipulating reactions to produce the desired mirror-image.
“I’m very excited to receive the very nice news,” Soai told the committee and journalists by phone. “Of course this is one of the most exciting days in my life.”
He said he was shopping near his home when he was reached by the Nobel committee.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced the winner in Stockholm.
Last year, three scientists won the Chemistry Nobel for their development of new molecular structures that can trap vast quantities of gas inside, laying the groundwork to potentially suck greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere or harvest moisture from desert environments.
This year's prizes began with the Nobel for Medicine, awarded on Monday to three scientists whose work led to a tool that uses light to help unravel how the brain works.
Meanwhile, the physics award on Tuesday recognised a scientist's efforts to demystify a rare group of neutrinos.
The literature prize is set to be awarded on Thursday. After Friday’s peace prize is awarded, the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences will be announced on Monday.
The prize money this year is 12 million Swedish kronor (about $1.2 million), whether for an individual, a small group of laureates or an organisation.
