My Neighbor, Me, and a Grand Principle

The other week I was trudging through laps around the court I live on, and a neighbor yelled across the court, first “HI” and I yelled “HI” right back and then he yelled, “THIS IS THE BEST DAY OF THE YEAR!” So I asked why it was the best day of the year, and trudged a little closer to hear him better even though he was still yelling, “BECAUSE IT’S THE DAY THE CHEMISTRY NOBEL IS ANNOUNCED.” I’ve known this neighbor since he first moved here, buying his first house, he and his wife having their first baby, starting his first real job, which — relevant to our discussion — was as a young professor of chemistry. Chemistry has always seemed to combine the idiosyncratic rats’-nest of biology and the rigorous theology of physics, and I stay away from it. But I’m a science writer and professionally obliged to be curious, so I trudged a bit closer and asked who won the chemistry Nobel. My neighbor was still yelling. “KAGAN AND SOAI,” pronounced so-aye, “FOR HOMOCHIRALITY,” he yelled, which, I…