Nobel-recognized work on light-controlled brain cells, cosmic neutrinos and mirror molecules

The short version

• Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel received the physiology or medicine prize for light-gated ion channels and optogenetics.[Scientific American]
• Francis Halzen received the physics prize for leading IceCube, which detects high-energy neutrinos from outside the solar system.[Scientific American]
• Henri Kagan and Kenso Soai received the chemistry prize for methods that produce one mirror-image molecule at a time.[Scientific American]
• The source describes multimessenger astronomy as still in its early stages, so its broader significance remains unsettled.[Scientific American]

Key facts

• Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discoveries around light-gated ion channels and optogenetics.[Scientific American]
• Optogenetics allows scientists to switch individual brain cells on and off after genetically modifying neurons to make proteins that react to light.[Scientific American]
• Francis Halzen received the Nobel Prize in Physics for leading IceCube, which detected high-energy neutrinos originating outside the solar system.[Scientific American]
• Neutrinos pass through ordinary matter almost without interacting, which makes their detection extremely rare and requires large detectors.[Scientific American]
• Henri Kagan and Kenso Soai received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for pioneering research on autocatalysis that allows one mirror-image molecule to be produced at a time.[Scientific American]
• Chemical synthesis in the lab typically yields equal amounts of mirror-image forms of chiral molecules, while biological systems use only one form.[Scientific American]

Sources

Outlet counts describe coverage, not independent confirmation. Reports may share a wire service or original source.

• Nobel week: light-controlled brains, particles from outer space and mirror moleculesScientific American metered