DOMINANT ANGLE
Bogotá takes note of the 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for its pharmaceutical scope: mirror molecules are presented as the key to the manufacture of medicines, more than as a laboratory enigma.
Dominant angle identified — does not reflect unanimity of this country’s media
KEY POINTS
- 01
Henri Kagan and Kenso Soai received the 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry on Wednesday, October 7, for their work on nonlinear effects and autocatalysis in asymmetric organic synthesis.
- 02
Heiner Linke, committee president, speaks of a solution to a chemical mystery over a century old: how homochirality can arise spontaneously.
- 03
El Colombiano recalls that Kagan, seen as the father of the technique, had not received the 2001 Nobel Prize, which rewarded work in the same field.
ANALYSIS
Bogotá, October 8, 2026. Colombian media outlets are covering the Nobel Prize in Chemistry awarded on Wednesday, October 7, to Frenchman Henri Kagan and Japanese national Kenso Soai, emphasizing the practical use of their work. Portafolio, an economic daily, headlines with "the key discovery to create medicines". El Colombiano opens with a "mystery of life": why, in nature, certain molecules only appear in one form.
The two newspapers quote the Nobel Committee's statement. The laureates are being rewarded for their research on non-linear effects and autocatalysis in asymmetric organic synthesis. According to the committee, their discoveries have played a crucial role for chemists designing reactions to manufacture pharmaceutical products.
The educational explanation uses the image of hands. So-called chiral molecules exist in two versions, "right" and "left", mirror images of each other. Almost all amino acids have two variants, but only one of them is found in cell proteins. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences calls this phenomenon "homochirality". El Colombiano specifies that these versions have identical physical properties but very different biological effects.
Both articles cite the committee's president, Heiner Linke: Kagan and Soai have provided the solution to a chemical mystery over a century old, namely how homochirality can arise spontaneously. Linke judges the reactions they developed as "spectacular".
El Colombiano adds a historical element to the prize. Work in this field had already been awarded in 2001, but Kagan, considered in France and elsewhere as the "father" of the technique, had not been selected. The newspaper recalls that this absence had sparked protests at the time.
The coverage remains that of explanatory scientific information, without commentary on France's or Japan's place in the rankings. There is also no Colombian or Latin American reading: the national dimension is absent, and the narrative relies almost entirely on the Nobel Committee's statement and Linke's statements.
