Deisseroth, Hegemann and Nagel: a light switch for the brain wins the Nobel
A short euronews report on the 2026 medicine prize drew close to 48,000 views in its first eleven hours, while the channel's other uploads from the same day stayed in the hundreds.
euronewsStory of Why this story? The video opened at a pace of 71,996 views a day, 36 times a normal first day on this channel (2,008).
German and US scientists win 2026 Nobel Prize in medicine
The first Nobel of the year went to light. Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel share the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their work on light-gated ion channels and optogenetics. As the euronews description puts it, the method opens a way to map the brain that could "once only dream of." The tags file it simply under health, medicine and the prize itself.
The idea is less abstract than it sounds. Hegemann and Nagel studied a light-sensitive protein, channelrhodopsin, found in a single-celled green alga. Deisseroth's lab at Stanford then put that protein into nerve cells, so researchers could switch chosen neurons on and off with flashes of light and watch what changed in an animal's behavior. Laboratories around the world now use the technique.
For euronews the short stood far apart from everything else it posted that Monday. A short there usually ends its first day near 2,000 views, and this one was close to 48,000 after eleven hours. The same day's reports on the Abe siblings' judo golds in Baku, a Turkish grain ship sunk in the Black Sea and exiled journalists from Russia and Belarus stayed in the hundreds or low thousands. The channel as a whole has been running a little below its usual daily pace.
The comments came in much faster than on a usual first day. The most liked one asks whether the same research could be used to change people's memories and the way they think. Others hope it will help with dementia, and one viewer describes using optogenetics with blue light to make lab-grown heart cells beat.
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What viewers say
We used optogenetics to activate gene expression in iPSC derived cardiomyocytes with blue light and watched them beat in real time in vitro. It's such a cool system.
@tartarusbankai404See it on YouTubeThat medal looks very impressive. Well done to all.
@sueburgess847See it on YouTubeHopefully help dementia and other brain degeneration diseases
@JujuKru-u7qSee it on YouTube
Public comments from the video's page on YouTube
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- Channel
- euronews
- Subscribers
- 2,580,000
- Channel views, last 7 days
- 3,920,335
- Channel views, pace per day
- 338,557 (on a normal day: 508,045)
- Video published
- October 5, 2026
- Video views so far
- 47,846 (less than a day online)
- Video views, pace per day
- 71,996
The numbers
One short science report on a channel that has been running a bit quieter than usual: here is how far ahead it got.
💡 Test your knowledge
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is decided by the Nobel Assembly at which institution?
Under Alfred Nobel's will, the medicine prize is awarded by the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm.
