Why it is in the news
On 7 October 2026, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2026 to Henri B. Kagan (France; Professor Emeritus, Université Paris-Sud) and Kenso Soai (Japan; Professor Emeritus, Tokyo University of Science) “for the discovery of non-linear effects and autocatalysis in asymmetric organic synthesis”. Their work explains how a small imbalance between the two mirror-image (chiral) forms of a molecule can be amplified into an almost pure single form — the chemistry behind making the right-handed version of a drug, agrochemical or fragrance.
The exam angle
Thesis: Control over molecular handedness turned an abstract property of molecules into the basis of safer, cheaper and greener medicines — and this Nobel rewards the insights that made such control efficient.