How does childlike curiosity lead to a research career that may end with a Nobel Prize? Why can a failed experiment actually mark the beginning of an important discovery? And how might artificial intelligence reshape the way we search for new molecules and materials in the future? In the Science Podcast’s English special episode, Omar Yaghi, the 2025 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, and András Perczel, professor at ELTE’s Institute of Chemistry, discussed how science works and what its future might look like. The show was hosted by physicist Dr. Eszter Papp.
Molecules as building blocks
For Omar Yaghi, one of the most exciting things about chemistry is the ability to create things that have never existed before. In the conversation, he says that ever since the beginning of his career, he wanted to make “beautiful things,” and saw molecules as building blocks from which new structures can be designed, much like an architect.
One major result of this mindset is research on metal-organic frameworks, or MOFs. These structures are made by connecting molecular building blocks into highly porous but stable frameworks. The spaces within them open up countless possibilities: they can be used for capturing carbon dioxide, water purification, and even making drinking water from moisture in the air.
Yaghi believes that creating new materials is not enough to achieve a breakthrough. We must also understand what makes these materials particularly suitable for certain tasks, thanks to their unique properties. In his own research, new opportunities appeared not just when trying to improve existing materials, but when they began exploring what tasks MOFs could perform in ways other materials could not.
Thinking in molecules
A chemist can translate everyday problems into the language of atoms and molecules. If we understand the properties and interactions of the building blocks, we can create entirely new structures. Yaghi says the possibilities here are almost unimaginable: the number of structures that can be made from different combinations of molecules is virtually limitless.
András Perczel adds that much of chemistry’s beauty can’t be seen with the naked eye. To an outsider, two substances might look like the same crystal, but their molecular structure and properties can differ fundamentally.
Curiosity needs freedom
Yaghi also recalls his own story in the podcast. His interest in chemistry started around age ten, when he found drawings of molecular structures in a book at the school library. He didn’t know exactly what they showed, but the unfamiliar shapes sparked his curiosity. So one central question in the conversation is how to preserve and nurture young people’s natural curiosity.
Yaghi says that above all, space and freedom are needed. Young people don’t necessarily need constant supervision to get closer to science. It’s important they get a chance to discover things independently, experiment, ask questions, and find what truly excites them.
When failure leads to discovery
Science isn’t just a chain of successes. Yaghi talks about an early period in his career as a PhD student, when he spent nearly a year trying to solve a seemingly simple chemistry problem. His experiments repeatedly failed to deliver the expected results. This made him question his own abilities. Yet in the end, it turned out that something new and interesting was hidden behind the surprising outcome.
That experience fundamentally shaped the way he thinks as a researcher. A failed experiment isn’t necessarily just a failure: it can offer new information about how nature works. If the scientist is patient and observant enough, an unexpected result might lead to a discovery they weren’t even looking for.
Without science, there’s no progress
The conversation was prompted by the Molecular Frontiers Symposium in Budapest, which centered around the question of what a world without science would look like. Perczel and Yaghi note that while we use the results of science every day, we often just take them for granted. But behind new medicines, materials, and technologies, there’s a long process of basic research, experiments, and—many times—failures.
That’s why Yaghi strongly advocates for basic research. Its value lies in making possible directions no one could have predicted at the outset. He also encourages young people not to wait for ideal circumstances or try to plan the entire road to success in advance. In science, the path often only becomes clear once you’ve started walking it. As the conversation says: if you don’t do the experiment, you don’t have a chance of discovery. And without discovery, the thing that could ultimately change the world might never be born.