Henri Kagan and Kenso Soai were awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry today, bringing the total number of chemistry laureates to 200. At 95 years old, Kagan is the second-oldest chemistry laureate in history, after John Goodenough, who was 97 when he received the prize in 2019. Find more statistics on the chemistry prize: nobelprize.org/prizes/facts/…

“There is a big picture that brings it all into relief and my hope is that we can increase empathy and understanding,” says 2026 medicine laureate Karl Deisseroth. As a medical student, Deisseroth completed part of his training at a psychiatric clinic. He was struck by the patients’ suffering and their need for help. At the same time, he began to wonder how the brain could function so differently from one person to another. Deisseroth was awarded this year's medicine prize, together with Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel, for discoveries leading to optogenetics – a biological technique making it possible to switch the activity of individual nerve cells in a living brain on or off. Optogenetics is now helping us understand more about how nerve cells shape memories, emotions and behaviour in the living brain. Learn more about the 2026 medicine prize: bit.ly/4ru82ml

Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel – awarded the 2026 medicine prize – discovered a remarkable protein, channelrhodopsin, in a single-celled alga. Hegemann wondered how Chlamydomonas, a single-celled alga, is able to swim towards a light source. In the early 2000s, he and Georg Nagel discovered channelrhodopsin, an algal protein with unique properties, found on the surface of the cell. When it is illuminated by blue light, a channel opens through the protein. Charged ions then flow into the cell, creating an electrical impulse. They found that regardless of which cell they put the protein in, those cells became light sensitive. #NobelPrize