The 2026 science Nobels recognise the discovery of high-energy neutrinos from beyond Earth and a long-standing puzzle over how life's one-handed chemistry can arise.

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• The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics on October 6, awarding it to Belgian-American particle physicist Francis Halzen.
• Halzen was honoured for decisive contributions to the IceCube Neutrino Observatory and the discovery of high-energy neutrinos of astrophysical origin.
• IceCube is a research facility at the South Pole in Antarctica, led by the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where the 82-year-old Halzen is affiliated.
• Halzen first proposed the project in 1988, reasoning that clear ice beneath the South Pole could act as a detector for neutrino collisions.
• When a neutrino strikes an atomic nucleus, it gives off a flash of light that sensors buried in the ice can record.
• Neutrinos, often called ghost particles, are tiny cosmic particles that scientists believe hold clues to how the universe evolved.
• The chair of the Nobel Committee for Physics said Halzen's leadership of an international team had paved the way for a new kind of astronomy.
• Belgium's prime minister noted that Halzen is the 11th Belgian Nobel laureate and the second in physics.
• On October 7, the Academy awarded the Chemistry prize jointly to Henri Kagan and Kenso Soai for discovering non-linear effects and autocatalysis in asymmetric organic synthesis.
• Life's chemistry is homochiral, meaning its molecules share the same handedness, and the prize recognises work showing how homochirality can emerge spontaneously.
• The Nobel release describes their work as a solution to a chemical mystery more than a century old, with Soai taking the next step after Kagan.
• Each prize carries 12 million Swedish kronor, while the Medicine prize on October 5 went to three scientists for a light-based tool to study the brain.

Tags: NobelPrize2026, IceCubeObservatory, Homochirality