The Importance of Asymmetric Synthesis

Many molecules have the property of handedness which Kim is referred to as carality. But if you look at your two hands, you'll see that they're mirror images of each other. So when chemists are trying to make a molecule with a car or carbon, they really probably want to make one form or the other. Barry Sharpless' innovation, for which he was awarded the 2001 Nobel Prize, was a reaction called the Sharpless Epoxidation. It allows you to produce just the form you want and then introduce all sorts of different functionality.