Mirror molecules claim Chemistry Nobel
nature video · Published on October 7, 2026
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Description
Experiments showing how life may have ended up ‘one-handed’ have won Henri Kagan and Kenso Soai the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Chiral or ‘mirror image’ molecules such as DNA and amino acids all exist in only one form: ‘left-handed’ for amino acids and ‘right-handed’ for DNA. Kagan in the 1980s and Soai in the 1990s showed how that single-handedness could have arisen. Read more here: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-03093-0 - Produced by Dan Fox - Presented by Benjamin Thompson and Flora Graham - Supervising Producer: Shamini Bundell - With thanks to Maren Hunsberger and Micheal Szebor Subscribe to Nature Briefing, an unmissable daily round-up of science news, opinion and analysis free in your inbox every weekday: https://www.nature.com/briefing
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