Nobel Prize in Chemistry goes to Henri Kagan and Kenso Soai

French scientist Henri B. Kagan and Japanese scientist Kenso Soai have been jointly awarded this year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced the winners' names in Stockholm on Wednesday.

They were honored for research on special chemical processes involved in the formation of biological substances, and on autocatalysis.

According to the Nobel Committee, the basic building blocks of proteins used by living organisms, such as amino acids, are "chiral." Such molecules exist in two forms that mirror each other like reflections in a mirror, but only one of these forms is found in living organisms. In the laboratory, however, both forms are typically produced in equal amounts.

The research by Kagan and Soai has shown a way to produce a larger quantity of the single required form in the laboratory.

Earlier, the medicine prize was announced to three scientists on Monday, and the physics prize to one scientist on Tuesday.

The medicine prize is linked to research on understanding how the brain functions.

Last year, the prize in the same field went to three scientists who developed new molecular structures capable of trapping gases. Those structures laid the foundation for technology that absorbs greenhouse gases from the air and extracts moisture in arid regions.

The literature prize will be announced on Thursday, the peace prize on Friday, and the economics prize next Monday.