Nobel Prizes 2026: brain switches, ‘ghost’ particle hunter, and 'the chemistry of life'

Miriam Nadeff (0:04)

Nature, why is life so far?

Dan Fox (0:08)

It sounds so simple.

Flora Graham (0:09)

They had no idea.

Karina Schliebusch (0:10)

But now the data's...

SPEAKER_5 (0:12)

I find this not only refreshing, but at some level astounding.

Benjamin Thompson (0:24)

Welcome back to the Nature Podcast. This week, rounding up the 2026 Nobel Science winners and hints of the ancient human gut microbiome.

Nick Howe (0:34)

I'm Nick Patrick-Howe, and I'm Benjamin Thompson.

Benjamin Thompson (0:45)

The start of October is always a big moment in the science calendar, as it's the announcement of the Nobel Prizes. I caught up with one of my colleagues each day this week to learn more about the winners.

It is Monday, and Monday is of course the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, and here to talk to me about it today is Miriam Nadeff. Miriam, thank you so much for being here.

Miriam Nadeff (1:07)

Thank you, Ben.

Benjamin Thompson (1:08)

So everyone is talking about optogenetics today, because the folk who won it, the three researchers who won it, won for working on optogenetics. Now, let's have a quick 101 on what optogenetics is.

Miriam Nadeff (1:20)

Yeah, so optogenetics is this very cool technique that uses light to control the activity of neurons. So imagine that this room is a brain cell, and on that wall, there is a light switch.

And using that light switch, I can control what happens in the room. So if I switch on the light, we all start working and recording the podcast. But if I switch off the light, then we all go to sleep. And this is basically how optogenetics work. And in the lab, researchers use this technique to dial the activity of neurons up or down and study what happens in real time.

Benjamin Thompson (1:54)

And it's been in use for about, what, 20 years or so now, and it has made a big impact on the field of neuroscience.

Miriam Nadeff (2:01)

Yes, it has definitely revolutionized neuroscience, especially basic science. And there's been an explosion of papers using optogenetics over the past 20 years to study brain function and brain circuits in conditions like schizophrenia, autism, Parkinson's disease and depression.

Benjamin Thompson (2:21)

So we have to talk about the winners of the prize, right? And I think the story starts with two of them, Peter Hegeman at Humboldt University of Berlin and Georg Nagel at the University of Wurzburg also in Germany. What was the starting point for this field?

Miriam Nadeff (2:35)

So the starting point was a type of green algae in Hegeman's lap. Hegeman was very curious to know how this single cell algae swims towards light and he and his colleagues identified two DNA sequences that encode a particular type of protein. And this protein, which is called channel rhodopsin, is an iron channel and when blue light is shone upon it, it creates an electrical signal.

Benjamin Thompson (3:01)

Right. And that's where the third winner comes on the scene then, Carl Dysaroff from Stanford University in the US. He took this protein and this light sensing protein and put it into neurons, essentially.

Miriam Nadeff (3:12)

Exactly. So Dysaroff and his colleagues used this technique in rodents and they managed to control the activity of neurons in the brains of these animals. And this is basically how optogenetics moved from algae into neuroscience labs all over the world.

Benjamin Thompson (3:29)

And you've been reporting on this story all day. The announcement was this morning. You've spoken to scientists around the world. What have they told you about this win?

Miriam Nadeff (3:37)

Many people thought that this was a long time coming, including myself. So yesterday, I was talking to a friend over WhatsApp and I envisioned this happening and I thought to myself, what if optogenetics wins this year? We say this every year and it doesn't happen, but it happened.

Benjamin Thompson (3:56)

Well, Miriam, could I have the lottery numbers for this week as well? That would be very, very helpful. Miriam Nadeff, thank you so much for being here.

Miriam Nadeff (4:00)

Thank you, Ben.

Benjamin Thompson (4:04)

It's Tuesday and that's the day that the Physics Prize is awarded and joining me to talk about it is Lizzie Gibney. Lizzie, hi.

Lizzie Gibney (4:10)

Hello, Ben.

Benjamin Thompson (4:11)

So right now, then we are surrounded by ghosts. They're coming through the walls. They're coming through us, billions upon billions of them, but we can't see them. These spectres, which are subatomic particles called neutrinos, are central to this year's Nobel win.

Lizzie Gibney (4:27)

That's right. Neutrinos are millions of times lighter than an electron. They interact almost never. But when they do, they can tell us something really incredible because the fact that they don't interact means they're a direct source. They go straight back to where they came from. And in this case, we're looking at cosmic neutrinos. Neutrinos created outside our solar system. That means that we can figure out what's going on in supermassive black holes or blazars or other kinds of supernovae, incredible things that are happening out there in the universe.