New Delhi, Oct. 20 -- The 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel for a tool that works a little like a light switch for the brain. They discovered the field of optogenetics-a technique used by researchers to control neurons with light.

To put it simply, the story opens with little green algae that swim toward light. Hegemann and Nagel found that these algae carry a protein that works like a tiny door. When light hits it, the door opens and lets charged particles (or ions) in which causes electrical activity within the cells. Later, Deisseroth and his team figured out how to put such doors (which is the protein) into the nerve cells of animals. This enabled them to use a f...