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A neuron, algae, and three scientists walk into a bar. The scientists receive the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann, and Georg Nagel have been awarded the prize for discovering how to use light to turn on neurons, the brain’s messenger cells.

When you think or want to act, the relevant group of neurons spring into action through signalling from neighbouring cells. Then a neuron will open its ion channels, and like floodgates, these channels allow positively charged Sodium ions to enter the neuron. This influx of positive charge triggers another signal that travels down the neuron, helping it pass on its cellular message in a process called ‘firing.’