The Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded for research that clarified how living systems produce only one form of certain molecules, a property known as homochirality. French scientist Henri B. Kagan and Japanese researcher Kenso Soai received the prize and shared a prize amount of 12.0 million Swedish Kroner. Their work explained how nature selectively creates one mirror-image form of molecules rather than both. This property, called chirality, describes molecules that exist in left- and right-handed versions, similar to human hands. In biological systems, only one version is typically used; for example, amino acids used in proteins are exclusively left-handed. In contrast, laboratory chemical reactions often produce equal amounts of both forms. The distinction matters in pharmaceuticals, where different versions of a molecule can have different biological effects. A historical example is thalidomide, where one version treated morning sickness while the other caused birth defects. Soai demonstrated in 1995 that certain reactions could produce only the desired molecular form, and in 2003 achieved full control over this process. The Nobel Committee stated that no prior work had replicated this level of molecular selectivity outside of living systems. Kagan had first described a method to bias chemical reactions toward one form in 1986. At the award announcement, Soai acknowledged the contributions of many researchers in the field. Royal Society of Chemistry president Robert Mokaya called the discovery a powerful example of how fundamental chemistry addresses major societal challenges. University of Nottingham researcher Angus Davison noted that chirality underlies biological asymmetry, such as the left-sided placement of the heart and the rightward coiling of snail shells. Peter Somfai, a member of the Nobel Committee, said the work resolved a question about how molecular asymmetry could arise spontaneously, a key step in understanding the origins of life. The research has become part of the foundational understanding of chemical behavior, according to the Committee.