Le Bel studied at the École Polytechnique in Paris and was an assistant to A.-J. Balard and C.-A. Wurtz. He perceived that a molecule in which four different atoms or groups were linked to a carbon atom would exist in two forms, mirror images that could not be superimposed. Either of the pair would be dissymmetric and thus optically active. He published his ideas independently of, but almost simultaneously with, those of Jacobus van't Hoff (1874). He also predicted correctly that other elements also would give rise to optically active compounds.