Wake Forest News

The Conversation

A molecule’s ‘handedness’ can determine whether it’s an effective drug – 4 examples of pharmaceuticals where chirality matters

“The 2026 Nobel Prize in chemistry concerns a property called chirality, which may sound like an abstract science term but is actually all around you, all the time,” write chemistry professors Cédric Schaack and Mallory Green. “You can even see this property on your own body: Hold out your hands, palms up. Your hands are mirror images of one another, yet however you turn them, you can never lay your right hand exactly on top of your left with both palms facing the same way….Throughout medical history, controlling chirality has meant the difference between therapeutic breakthroughs and medical tragedies.”

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October 8, 2026

The Atlantic

Trump might order another Iran strike before the midterms

After months of on-again, off-again fighting, the United States hasn’t struck Iran in several weeks. The stretch of relative tranquility coincides with the final phase of the midterm election campaign. “Military action has done nothing to drive down oil prices; in fact, it has done the opposite,” Will Walldorf, an international affairs professor at Wake Forest University and a senior fellow at the think tank Defense Priorities, said.

October 7, 2026