Some molecules come in two forms that are mirror images of each other, like a left hand and a right hand. Chemists call this property chirality. Amino acids exist in both forms, yet only one is found in the proteins of living cells. Why life uses just one mirror form has long puzzled chemists.
On October 7, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Henri B. Kagan of France and Kenso Soai of Japan, for discovering nonlinear effects and autocatalysis in asymmetric organic synthesis. The two will share 12 million Swedish kronor, about 8.02 million yuan. Kagan was born in France in 1930, and Soai in Japan in 1950.
Chemists once assumed a simple linear link: the purer the chiral catalyst, the purer the product. In 1986 Kagan broke that assumption. He reasoned that a metal atom can hold two chiral molecules at the same time, and that the left-right pair reacts far more slowly than the left-left or right-right pairs. A tiny bias in the catalyst could therefore be amplified into a large one in the product.
Soai pushed the idea further. In a 1995 paper he began a reaction with only a two percent excess of one mirror form and finished with 87 percent of the same form. In 2003 he presented the Soai reaction, in which the product itself speeds up the making of more molecules of the same handedness, sometimes reaching 99.99 percent of the product. He once turned a chiral imbalance of just 0.00005 percent into 99.5 percent optical purity, an amplification of 650,000 times.
The work matters far beyond the laboratory. Mirror-image molecules can have completely different effects on the human body, so making exactly one form is vital in drug design. The findings also offer a chemical explanation for how life may have settled on a single handedness in the first place. The chair of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry said the two had answered, breathtakingly, how homochirality could arise by itself.
Words to know:
- chirality (手性)
- mirror image (镜像)
- catalyst (催化剂)
- bias (偏向，偏向性)
- amplify (放大)
- excess (过量)
- purity (纯度)
- vital (至关重要的)
长难句拆解 · the 比较级，the 比较级 与 冒号解释
例句：Chemists once assumed a simple linear link: the purer the chiral catalyst, the purer the product.
冒号在这里的作用是「先给结论、再作解释」：前面说化学家曾经假设一种简单的线性关系，冒号后面把这层关系具体讲出来。后半句是两个 the 加比较级的并列结构，the purer the chiral catalyst, the purer the product，相当于中文的「催化剂越纯，产物就越纯」。注意两个分句里比较级都放在主语前面，而不是写成 the chiral catalyst is purer, the product is purer——后者是两个独立分句，失去了「一方随另一方变化」的意味。
句中 once 表示「曾经」，暗含「后来被推翻」，第三段紧接着的 In 1986 Kagan broke that assumption 正好呼应，这是英文议论文里常见的「先立后破」写法。
直译：化学家曾经假设一种简单的线性关系：催化剂越纯，产物就越纯。
再看一句：In 2003 he presented the Soai reaction, in which the product itself speeds up the making of more molecules of the same handedness, sometimes reaching 99.99 percent of the product.
主干是 he presented the Soai reaction，时间状语 In 2003 交代这是哪一年的成果。逗号后的 in which 是「介词 + which」引导的定语从句，先行词是 the Soai reaction，in which 等于 in the reaction，说明「在这场反应里」发生了什么。从句内部的主干是 the product itself speeds up the making of more molecules，其中 itself 用来强调「正是产物本身」，不是别的物质在起作用。句尾的 sometimes reaching… 是现在分词短语作伴随状语，进一步补充结果。
直译：2003 年，他展示了硖合反应：在这场反应中，产物本身会加快生成更多相同手性的分子，有时可占到产物的 99.99%。
同义替换 · 雅思阅读利器
下面 7 组替换都出自本文，右侧是对应的替换说法，点开核对。
- come in two forms that are mirror images → exist as two mirror-image forms（两种镜像形式的同义改写）
- has long puzzled chemists → has confused scientists for a long time（长期困扰的同义表达）
- broke that assumption → overturned that idea（打破假设的替换说法）
- A tiny bias in the catalyst → A very small preference in the catalyst（微小偏向的改写）
- pushed the idea further → took the idea a step further（推得更远的替换）
- matters far beyond the laboratory → counts for much more than lab work（意义不止于实验室）
- settled on a single handedness → chose one handedness（选定一种手性的同义表达）
阅读自测 · 3 题
三道题分别对应事实、细节与结论，先不看答案。
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- 判断正误（T / F / NG）：The 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to two scientists from the same country.
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- 简答：In Kagan’s reasoning, which pair of chiral molecules reacts far more slowly than the others?
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- 判断正误（T / F / NG）：The passage says the Soai reaction product helps produce more molecules of the same handedness.
参考答案与解析
每题给出答案与判断依据，注意最后提到的干扰项套路。
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- F（错误）。第二段写 Henri B. Kagan of France and Kenso Soai of Japan，一位来自法国、一位来自日本，并非同一国家。题干把「两位不同国家的科学家」改写成「来自同一国家」，属典型的「偷换事实」。
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- The left-right pair. 依据在第三段。原文写 the left-right pair reacts far more slowly than the left-left or right-right pairs，问的是哪一种组合反应最慢，答案就是「左—右」组合。注意题干问的是 pair，不是单个分子，答 left-left 或 right-right 是把最快的组合当成了最慢的。
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- T（正确）。第四段写 the product itself speeds up the making of more molecules of the same handedness，产物反过来加快生成更多相同手性的分子，这正是「不对称自催化」的核心。题干只是把 speeds up the making of 换成 helps produce，意思一致。
中文译文
有些分子以两种互为镜像的形式存在，就像左手和右手。化学家把这种性质称为手性。氨基酸也有两种形式，然而在活细胞的蛋白质中，只有其中一种。为什么生命只使用一种镜像形式，长期以来困扰着化学界。
10 月 7 日，瑞典皇家科学院将 2026 年诺贝尔化学奖授予法国科学家亨利·B·卡甘和日本科学家硖合宪三，以表彰他们发现不对称有机合成中的非线性效应和自催化现象。两位获奖者将平分 1200 万瑞典克朗，约合 802 万元人民币。卡甘 1930 年生于法国，硖合宪三 1950 年生于日本。
化学家曾经假设一种简单的线性关系：催化剂越纯，产物就越纯。1986 年，卡甘打破了这个假设。他推断，一个金属原子可以同时抓住两个手性分子，而左—右组合的反应速度远慢于左—左或右—右组合。因此，催化剂中极其微小的偏向，可以在产物中被放大成很大的偏向。
硖合宪三把这一思路推得更远。在 1995 年发表的一篇论文中，他只用 2% 过量的某一种镜像形式开始反应，最终得到了 87% 过量的同一种形式。2003 年，他展示了硖合反应：反应产物本身能加快生成更多相同手性的分子，有时可占到产物的 99.99%。他还曾把仅 0.00005% 的手性偏差做成 99.5% 的光学纯度，放大了 65 万倍。
这项工作的意义远不止于实验室。互为镜像的分子对人体可能产生完全不同的作用，因此精准制取单一形式对药物设计至关重要。这些发现也为「生命最初为何会选择一种手性」提供了化学解释。诺贝尔化学委员会主席表示，两位科学家以一种令人叹为观止的方式，回答了同手性如何能够自发产生。