DOMINANT ANGLE
Taipei takes note of the implications of this Nobel Prize in Chemistry for pharmacy and the origin of life, with local researchers detailing the significance of "left" and "right" molecules.
Dominant angle identified — does not reflect unanimity of this country’s media
KEY POINTS
- 01
The 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry goes to Henri Kagan (France, 95 years old) and Kenso Soai (Japan, 76 years old) for nonlinear effects and autocatalysis in asymmetric organic synthesis (Liberty Times).
- 02
Peter Somfai, of the Nobel Committee: "It's probably the coolest experiment in organic chemistry" (Taipei Times).
- 03
Researchers at Academia Sinica cite a medication where one form was therapeutic and the other caused birth defects, and deem the work useful for reducing pharmaceutical costs (Liberty Times).
ANALYSIS
Taipei, October 8, 2026. The Taipei Times and the Liberty Times are covering the Nobel Prize in Chemistry from the angle of its usefulness: what chirality changes for medicines, perfumes, and the understanding of living things.
The Taipei Times, which reprints a dispatch, explains that Henri Kagan, French, and Kenso Soai, Japanese, won the prize "on Wednesday" for having unraveled the enigma of mirror molecules, a discovery that served to develop "countless medications" and "transformed modern medicine". The newspaper illustrates the principle with carvone, one form of which smells like mint and the other like caraway, then recalls that DNA twists to the right and that human proteins are made up mainly of "left-handed" building blocks. It quotes Peter Somfai, a member of the Nobel Committee: "This is probably the coolest experiment in organic chemistry". The committee sees it as a feat never accomplished by anyone "other than life itself".
The Liberty Times, dated the same day, announces that the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences designated the 95-year-old Frenchman and the 76-year-old Japanese on October 7 for nonlinear effects and autocatalysis in asymmetric organic synthesis. The daily newspaper solicited, via the Taiwan Science Media Center, several academics. Chen Jung-chieh, from Academia Sinica, distinguishes between left and right forms: left-handed limonene gives a pine scent, right-handed limonene gives a citrus scent. His colleague Hsieh Chun-chieh mentions pregnant women who took a medication for nausea and gave birth to malformed children: one form cured, the other caused the disease.
The experts insist on the industrial scope. According to them, the nonlinear effect breaks the logic that the purity of the product follows that of the catalyst, and autocatalysis makes it possible to obtain a single form without a very pure catalyst, with significant savings in industry and pharmacy. Wu Yen-ku, from National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, links the work to the enigma of L-type amino acids, a signature of terrestrial life. Wu Hsueh-liang, from National Taiwan Normal University, recalls that Soai came to Taiwan thirty years ago.
The Liberty Times also notes that this field, asymmetric organic synthesis, is being rewarded for the third time. Neither of the two newspapers dwells on the French or Japanese national dimension, nor on the age of the French laureate or his absence in 2001.
