Science TechnologySunday, 11 October 2026·The Hindu - Science
2026 Chemistry Nobel: Kagan and Soai’s work on chirality and enantiomer purity
The 2026 Chemistry Nobel recognised Henri Kagan and Kenso Soai for methods to amplify molecular handedness and produce high-purity pharmaceutical compounds.
Key highlights
Direct fact
In 2026, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Henri Kagan and Kenso Soai for showing how a molecule’s “handedness” can be amplified to produce pharmaceutical products of very high purity.
Key specifics
- “Chirality” comes from the Greek word kheir, meaning hand, and explains why left and right mirror forms differ.
- The mirror-image forms of a molecule are called enantiomers, and living systems show homochirality rather than a 50:50 mix.
- Laboratory synthesis of amino acids often gives a racemate, that is, a 50:50 mixture of both mirror forms.
- Louis Pasteur observed mirror-form separation in tartaric acid as early as 1848.
- Ethambutol’s (S,S) form is about 500 times more potent than its (R,R) mirror image, showing why enantiomer purity matters in drugs.
Exam lens
Question type: Science match-the-following and concept-based MCQ, chirality, enantiomers, racemate, homochirality, 1848 Pasteur, 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. TNPSC may ask which term means mirror-image molecules or why pure enantiomers matter in pharmaceuticals.