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The 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was granted to Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann, and Georg Nagel for their groundbreaking work in optogenetics, a technique that uses light to control neurons. Hegemann and Nagel identified a light-sensitive protein in algae in the early 2000s, which Deisseroth and colleagues later used to activate neurons with light pulses.
The 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel for developing optogenetics, a technique that allows researchers to control neurons using light. The foundational research behind the method dates back to the early 2000s, and the field previously received the Brain Prize in 2013, which also recognized three other scientists not included in this year's Nobel.
Researchers described a complete fossil of Norellraptor barsboldi, a microraptorine dinosaur showing feather traces on its limbs and tail. The team found that flight-related adaptations seen in this group also appeared independently in the bird lineage Avialae, but developed in a different sequence. The findings were published in Nature Communications.
Nature has released an interactive quiz asking readers to identify women who have won Nobel prizes in physics, chemistry and physiology or medicine. The feature accompanies the publication's broader look at the long-standing gender gap among science Nobel winners since the prizes began in 1901, and will be updated once this year's winners are announced.
David Baker, who shared the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for computational protein design, is leading a new initiative called AI BioDesign, backed by the Allen Institute, University of Washington and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center. The project pairs AI models with large-scale lab experiments to design molecules and biological functions that don't exist in nature but are chemically feasible, aiming to build public databases and tools for future medicines and technologies.
Israeli structural biologist Ada Yonath, who won a share of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for revealing the ribosome's structure through X-ray crystallography, has died at age 87. She was the first scientist to grow crystals suitable for mapping this cellular protein-making machinery, and her later work on antibiotic-ribosome interactions illuminated drug resistance mechanisms.
At a Zurich ceremony on September 3, researchers received Ig Nobel awards for offbeat but rigorous studies, including a biomechanics team that produced a cross-species definition of kissing excluding food-sharing behavior, a physics group that engineered urinal designs to minimize splashback, and soil scientists who buried and later exhumed 1,000 pairs of underwear to study decomposition rates linked to land use.