The Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to French scientist Henri B. Kagan and Japan’s Kenso Soai for providing a solution to the chemical mystery of life’s asymmetry.

The Nobel Committee explained: “Molecules used by all life, such as the amino acids that are building of proteins, are what is known as chiral.

“This means that they have two versions that are mirror images of one another.”

Life is highly selective and only works with one version. The two scientists answered the question of why life favours one of these mirror image molecules over the other.