Nobel Prize in Chemistry awarded for solving mystery of life’s asymmetry

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to French scientist Henri B. Kagan and Japanese scientist Kenso Soai for providing a solution to the chemical mystery of life’s asymmetry, the BBC reported.

Molecules used by living organisms, including amino acids that make up proteins, are chiral, meaning they exist in two forms that are mirror images of each other, the Nobel Committee said.

Although both versions exist, life uses only one. Kagan and Soai addressed the question of why living systems favour one mirror-image form over the other.