Research lab
Public research university in Würzburg, Bavaria, Germany.
Peter Hegemann, Georg Nagel and Karl Deisseroth won this year's medicine Nobel for optogenetics, which uses light to switch on chosen neurons. With it, researchers can switch on one circuit and see whether a behavior follows, a direct test of cause.
Reality
Karl Deisseroth, Georg Nagel and Peter Hegemann won the 2026 medicine Nobel for optogenetics, the control of cells with light and genetics. It goes to a laboratory method, unlike the discoveries and treatments Scientific American cites from the prize's 125-year record.
Perspective Coverage
16 publishersReality
University of Würzburg researchers report that Chlamydia fills about 90 percent of its infectious-form DNA package with host sphingolipids. Disrupting that lipid-DNA bridge could block infection at its start, they say, though the binding site is not yet resolved.
Reality
Researchers from Würzburg, DLR and Mendel University found Mexico City's heat-related posts in 2022 rose exponentially once the air passed 25 degrees C. Those posts name everyday problems a temperature map misses, but they count online complaints, not illnesses.
Reality
University of Würzburg researchers found injured thale cress roots send a pressure wave at about 75 mm per second that primes the plant's other roots. The work names MCA1 as the root's pressure sensor, a lead that still needs testing against real pests in crops.
Reality