My Ph.D. supervisor just won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for designing a safer, cheaper and faster way to build molecules and make medicine

Many catalysts currently used to make many drugs are expensive and can produce toxic byproducts. Westend61 via Getty Images

The reason that ibuprofen treats headaches and ice cream tastes sweet is that their chemical components fit perfectly into certain receptors in your body. The better a drug or flavor molecule fits with its matching receptor, the more effective the medicine or tastier the treat.

But an interesting quirk of nature is that many molecules can come in two versions – a right–handed version and left–handed version – and receptors in your body must match the handedness of a molecule to fit correctly. A left–handed glove won’t fit on your right hand.