Doesn't this years Chemistry Nobel throw new light ( and doubts) on the Fermi paradox ?

The thread OP could use a little more information on the research which earned the prize.

Guessing it has to do with the non-linearity of asymmetric organic synthesis, and the fact that all Earth life has a one-sided chirality, when one would expect two handedness.

But I'm no chemist; that was only my day job.

Edited October 8Oct 8 by MigL

Here are three things I found interesting about the prize and its subject.

1) The discovery initially concerned a question that has puzzled scientists for more than a century.

2) The timeline from the initial discovery (mid 1980s) to the second conclusive discovery was 20 years with a further 20+ years before the Nobel.

3) The second discovery also showed how unstable the chemistry could be and how thus how quickly reactions pertinent yo life could spread.

It point 3, not about the reactions themselves, but their instability and ease of spreading that suggests Life may be much more widespread around the Universe than we think and this is directly opposed to Fermi which proposes how rare Life must be so it becomes an issue of Chemistry v Statistics.

I am also surprised that the Nobel has not received attention here with all those active members who are chemists of some sort.

7 minutes ago, studiot said:

Here are three things I found interesting about the prize and its subject.

1) The discovery initially concerned a question that has puzzled scientists for more than a century.

2) The timeline from the initial discovery (mid 1980s) to the second conclusive discovery was 20 years with a further 20+ years before the Nobel.

3) The second discovery also showed how unstable the chemistry could be and how thus how quickly reactions pertinent yo life could spread.

It point 3, not about the reactions themselves, but their instability and ease of spreading that suggests Life may be much more widespread around the Universe than we think and this is directly opposed to Fermi which proposes how rare Life must be so it becomes an issue of Chemistry v Statistics.

I am also surprised that the Nobel has not received attention here with all those active members who are chemists of some sort.

Yes, I read about this. It seems the prize was awarding for discovering a class of autocatalytic organic synthesis reactions in which the chirality of the first product molecule, produced at the start of the reaction, determines through its autocatalytic effect on the rest the predominant chirality of the product generated.

It is hypothesised that such chiral autocatalytic processes could, maybe, have been responsible for the predominance of specific enantiomers in biochemistry. So yeah, that is important. We now have a possible route by which the chiral exclusiveness that we see in biochemical molecules could have arisen.

But as far as I am aware, nobody has yet come forward with natural autocatalytic pathways of this kind, during abiogenesis, for specific biochemically important molecules. Though maybe others will know more about this.

Footnote: But I don’t quite follow the significance you see in this for the Fermi paradox. I’ve always thought that was adequately explained by Slartibartfast: “In space travel all the numbers are awful.”

Edited October 8Oct 8 by exchemist

24 minutes ago, studiot said:

I am also surprised that the Nobel has not received attention here with all those active members who are chemists of some sort.

Oh, I am just silently protesting the lack of a Nobel for biology (but then, I am no real chemist).

On 10/8/2026 at 10:46 PM, CharonY said:

Oh, I am just silently protesting the lack of a Nobel for biology (but then, I am no real chemist).

I suppose that is due to the interests of Alfred Nobel and perhaps also to the preoccupations of science at the end of the c.19th.

13 hours ago, exchemist said:

I suppose that is due to the interests of Alfred Nobel and perhaps also to the preoccupations of science at the end of the c.19th.

Well and also biology was not really well established as a discipline. However, the price for economics was established in the 60s.

1 hour ago, CharonY said:

Well and also biology was not really well established as a discipline. However, the price for economics was established in the 60s.

Fair point. And there is a huge amount of bio stuff these days, of rather more significance than advances in chemistry. But it seems (I had to look this up) that the so-called Nobel Prize for economics is sponsored by the Swedish central bank "in memory of" Nobel. By the way, I had not really taken in that Nobel was a Swede but his will specified a Norwegian committee should be formed to administer the prizes. The prizes are presented in Stockholm. All a bit confusing. Must make it hard for Trump to know whom to threaten 😁.......

Edited October 10Oct 10 by exchemist

Notice that A Nobel died in his villa in Italy, but he left the administration of the Prize named in his honor, to a Norwegian Committee.
He must have known if he had left it to Italians, they would soon embezzle all the money, and there would be nothing left.
( I'm joking )

21 minutes ago, MigL said:

( I'm joking )

But are you? I can't see your hands, so can't tell ;)

45 minutes ago, exchemist said:

By the way, I had not really taken in that Nobel was a Swede but his will specified a Norwegian committee should be formed to administer the prizes.

I may misremember, but I thought that the peace Nobel price is presented in Norway, but the others were handled by a Swedish committee.

On 10/8/2026 at 5:19 PM, studiot said:

It point 3, not about the reactions themselves, but their instability and ease of spreading that suggests Life may be much more widespread around the Universe than we think and this is directly opposed to Fermi which proposes how rare Life must be so it becomes an issue of Chemistry v Statistics.

The Fermi paradox is not solely about the rarity/abundance of life. IOW, life being rare is not the only answer

IIRC, Fermi's "paradox" is just him asking during a lunch at Los Alamos, "where are they?" So not so much about rarity but about visibility.

And even the Rare Earth guys, Brownlee and Ward, only suggest that complex multicellular life is rare - their theorizing had room for widespread microbial life. So the chirality path stuff doesn't really affect their main thesis all that much.

2 hours ago, CharonY said:

may misremember, but I thought that the peace Nobel price is presented in Norway, but the others were handled by a Swedish committee.

Yep. Only the peace prize is selected by a committtee in Oslo.

9 minutes ago, TheVat said:

IIRC, Fermi's "paradox" is just him asking during a lunch at Los Alamos, "where are they?" So not so much about rarity but about visibility.

Right.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_paradox

“The Fermi paradox is the seeming inconsistency between the lack of evidence of extraterrestrial civilizations and the apparently high likelihood of their existence”

So scarcity would be one explanation, but it’s not assumed in the framing

7 hours ago, CharonY said:

But are you? I can't see your hands, so can't tell ;)

I may misremember, but I thought that the peace Nobel price is presented in Norway, but the others were handled by a Swedish committee.

Ah yes, that accounts for why Trump keeps trying idiotically to threaten the Norwegian government.

5 hours ago, exchemist said:

Ah yes, that accounts for why Trump keeps trying idiotically to threaten the Norwegian government.

Maybe the Norwegian government could let it be known (through private channels perhaps) that they are considering a possible nomination if he continues intelligence sharing with Ukraine (and supporting them militarily and economically)?

In recognition of his Uncle's Historic Service to Humanity and his own invention of the Age related Weave.

A grotesque but unsurprising turn of events these past 24 hours....

Edited October 11Oct 11 by geordief

Actually the Nobel Committee should let it be known that if D Trump resigns from the Presidency, they will award him the Peace Prize, as his resignation would greatly increase the prospects of World peace and stability.

1 hour ago, geordief said:

Maybe the Norwegian government could let it be known (through private channels perhaps) that they are considering a possible nomination if he continues intelligence sharing with Ukraine (and supporting them militarily and economically)?

In recognition of his Uncle's Historic Service to Humanity and his own invention of the Age related Weave.

A grotesque but unsurprising turn of events these past 24 hours....

It would take more than a nomination from the Norwegian government. I doubt the Nobel committee would take kindly to being leant on by any government, even that of Norway.

Just now, exchemist said:

It would take more than a nomination from the Norwegian government. I doubt the Nobel committee would take kindly to being leant on by any government, even that of Norway.

I only said to promise it .Not to do it.

It's an interesting bit of work.
It could be "the sort of thing" that explains the origin of chiral molecules for life.
But we will probably never know.
The important thing is hat it's a possible explanation and that stops anyone writing off abiogenesis as "impossible",

15 minutes ago, John Cuthber said:

It's an interesting bit of work.
It could be "the sort of thing" that explains the origin of chiral molecules for life.
But we will probably never know.
The important thing is hat it's a possible explanation and that stops anyone writing off abiogenesis as "impossible",

Yes, one to add to the armoury for when creationists claim chirality in biochemistry could not have arisen naturally. I have come across this argument once or twice, though admittedly most creationists have no idea what chirality is.

Edited October 11Oct 11 by exchemist

My linking the Nobel and Fermi had nothing directly to do with the chirality aspect of the prize.

I read several articles about the prize and one of them had a throwaway line about the instability of the reactions the prizewinners had discovered.

As I originally said it is this instability, leading to the ability to flash through to complex compounds that caught my Fermi eye.

I will try to find that line again.

In case anyone is curious, here is a link to the Nobel explanation of the award: https://www.nobelprize.org/uploads/2026/10/advanced-chemistryprize2026.pdf

And here is the Soai reaction, named after the Japanese chemist who was one of the two joint winners: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soai_reaction

16 hours ago, studiot said:

My linking the Nobel and Fermi had nothing directly to do with the chirality aspect of the prize.

I read several articles about the prize and one of them had a throwaway line about the instability of the reactions the prizewinners had discovered.

As I originally said it is this instability, leading to the ability to flash through to complex compounds that caught my Fermi eye.

I will try to find that line again.

Yes, I would be interested if you can. I didn't pick this up myself from skimming the Nobel description of the award or the Wki entry on the Soai reaction.

2 hours ago, exchemist said:

Yes, I would be interested if you can. I didn't pick this up myself from skimming the Nobel description of the award or the Wki entry on the Soai reaction.

Hope this reference comes out as there is a block on extracting bits.

https://www.nature.com/articles/378767a0.epdf?sharing_token=mKCl9WY2qbtpocxyWJtTBtRgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0OUP_WqD5Sbr74nqiv1zihid81M_ojwdLaNGdowpBR0ZJev2tU9y-LxHkE3Ka4pz7HOhJpC5splQtF2DjbJyMHj-PdbXvi-ugz67usRi5niUxRuFu5KLyyVdM-IEOMqzTkZFieRnGU4NkyekJUNM6FqkMkjIIhKelOsENdM_8nKIQ%3D%3D&tracking_referrer=www.bbc.co.uk

I think the last paragraph of the BBC article caught my eye, then I got caught up in tracking down the Nature article.

BBC News

Nobel Prize in Chemistry awarded to Kagan and Soai

The prize was given to the French and Japanese scientists for solving the mystery of life's asymmetry.

Edited October 12Oct 12 by studiot

11 minutes ago, studiot said:

Hope this reference comes out as there is a block on extracting bits.

https://www.nature.com/articles/378767a0.epdf?sharing_token=mKCl9WY2qbtpocxyWJtTBtRgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0OUP_WqD5Sbr74nqiv1zihid81M_ojwdLaNGdowpBR0ZJev2tU9y-LxHkE3Ka4pz7HOhJpC5splQtF2DjbJyMHj-PdbXvi-ugz67usRi5niUxRuFu5KLyyVdM-IEOMqzTkZFieRnGU4NkyekJUNM6FqkMkjIIhKelOsENdM_8nKIQ%3D%3D&tracking_referrer=www.bbc.co.uk

I think the last paragraph of the BBC article caught my eye, then I got caught up in tracking down the Nature article.

BBC News

Nobel Prize in Chemistry awarded to Kagan and Soai

The prize was given to the French and Japanese scientists for solving the mystery of life's asymmetry.

But is there anything here about instability leading to more complex products?