All six prizes at a glance
Tap a prize to jump to its plain-words explanation.
| Prize | Winner(s) | What for, in plain words | Announced |
|---|---|---|---|
| Medicine | Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann, Georg Nagel | A light switch for brain cells, borrowed from pond algae | 5 Oct |
| Physics | Francis Halzen | A telescope made of Antarctic ice that catches “ghost particles” from space | 6 Oct |
| Chemistry | Henri B. Kagan, Kenso Soai | Making chemistry choose one of two mirror-image molecules | 7 Oct |
| Literature | Anne Carson | Bold new kinds of writing that talk with ancient Greek poetry | 8 Oct |
| Peace | Navi Pillay | A lifetime as a judge making sure war crimes are punished | 9 Oct |
| Economics | Robert E. Hall, Michael Woodford | Models that help governments and central banks smooth out booms and slumps | 12 Oct |
A light switch for brain cells
- Karl DeisserothStanford University and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, USA
- Peter HegemannHumboldt University of Berlin, Germany
- Georg NagelUniversity of Würzburg, Germany
Official reason“for their discoveries concerning light-gated ion channels and optogenetics”
What they did
Your brain is made of billions of nerve cells: long, thin living cells that pass messages to each other as tiny electric pulses. For a century, scientists wanted to know which cells cause which feelings and actions. But they had no way to switch on just one chosen group of cells and watch what happened.
The answer came from a pond. A tiny green alga, a one-celled plant-like creature called Chlamydomonas, swims towards light. In the early 2000s Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel found out how. Its surface holds a protein (a tiny machine a cell builds from instructions in its genes) called channelrhodopsin. When blue light hits it, a little gate opens. Charged particles rush in through the gate and make an electric pulse. And any cell given this protein becomes light-sensitive too.
Karl Deisseroth put the gene for that gate into rat nerve cells. In 2005 he showed that a flash of blue light made them fire. By 2007 it worked in the brains of living mice. The method is called optogenetics: “opto” for light, “genetics” for genes.
1. Blue light hits the gate
2. It opens; charged bits rush in
3. The nerve cell fires
Why it matters to you
Scientists can now switch chosen brain cells on and off with light and see what changes. That has revealed which brain circuits drive particular memories, feelings and behaviours, and how they go wrong in brain and mental-health conditions. Doctors are also testing it to bring back some sight to people with vision loss.
A light-sensitive gate from pond algae lets scientists flip brain cells on with a flash of light, so they can finally test what each cell does.
Curious? Go deeperIs optogenetics already used to treat people?
Mostly not yet. Its big job today is research: it is a tool for working out how the brain is wired, usually in lab animals. The most advanced work in people is early testing on vision loss, where light-sensitive gates are added to cells at the back of the eye. Treatments for other conditions are still a long way off.
A telescope made of ice
- Francis HalzenUniversity of Wisconsin–Madison, USA (born in Belgium)
Official reason“for decisive contributions to the IceCube Neutrino Observatory and the discovery of high-energy neutrinos of astrophysical origin”
What he did
Everything around you is made of atoms, tiny building blocks far too small to see. Even smaller are particles, the bits atoms are made of, plus a few loners. One loner is the neutrino, nicknamed the “ghost particle”. Trillions fly through your body every second and almost never touch anything.
Out in space there are monster “particle accelerators”, violent places (around giant black holes, for example) that fling particles out with huge energy. Most messengers from them get blocked or bent on the way. Neutrinos fly straight to us, so they point back home. But they are almost impossible to catch.
In 1988 Francis Halzen suggested using the deep ice at the South Pole as a trap. Very rarely a neutrino hits an atom in the ice and makes a faint flash of blue light. So he and a big team hung about 5,000 light sensors through a whole cubic kilometre of ice. That detector, IceCube, was finished in 2010. It soon found high-energy neutrinos that must come from far outside our solar system.
Why it matters to you
It opened a brand-new way to look at the universe. Instead of only seeing light, astronomers can now follow “ghost particles” back to the most violent places in space.
Halzen turned Antarctic ice into a giant trap for ghost particles, so we can tell where in space they came from.
Making chemistry choose left or right
- Henri B. KaganUniversité Paris-Sud, France
- Kenso SoaiTokyo University of Science, Japan
Official reason“for the discovery of non-linear effects and autocatalysis in asymmetric organic synthesis”
What they did
Atoms stick together in small groups called molecules. Many molecules come in two versions that are mirror images of each other, like your left and right hands: same parts, but they can’t be turned to match.
Here is the puzzle. Living things use only one hand. The building blocks of the proteins in your body, for example, are all the “left” version. But when chemists make these molecules in a lab, they almost always get a 50:50 mix. So how did life end up one-handed? And how can drug makers make just the hand they want?
In 1986 Henri Kagan found a surprise. A catalyst is a helper molecule that speeds up a reaction without being used up. Kagan saw that a helper that was itself a bit mixed could still make a much purer product than expected. In 1995 Kenso Soai described a reaction whose product helps make more of itself, with the same hand. Each round, the bigger side wins more. By 2003 he showed a tiny lean snowballing into almost all one version.
Why it matters to you
Your body is “handed” too, so the two mirror versions of a medicine can act differently. These ideas help chemists make just the right version, and they show one way life could have picked a side.
Kagan and Soai showed you don’t need a perfect start: a reaction can turn a messy, almost even mix into almost all one version.
A poet in conversation with ancient Greece
- Anne CarsonCanadian poet, born in Toronto in 1950
Official reason“for her bold and inventive oeuvre that, in playful dialogue with the classical tradition, has created new forms for contemporary literature”
Anne Carson is a poet who is also an expert in classics, the writing of ancient Greece and Rome. Her books mix old and new: ancient Greek poems sit next to modern lives, and a single book can be a poem, an essay and a story at once. Her best-known work, Autobiography of Red (1998), is a novel told in poems. She has also translated ancient Greek poetry, such as Sappho’s, into fresh modern English. “Oeuvre” in the citation just means her whole body of work.
A judge who held the powerful to account
- Navanethem “Navi” PillaySouth African judge and lawyer
Official reason“for her efforts to promote peace and international law”
Navi Pillay grew up in Durban, South Africa, under apartheid, a system of laws that kept people apart and unequal by race. As a lawyer she defended Nelson Mandela and others who fought it. She went on to serve as a judge in South Africa and on international courts, including the tribunal for the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and the International Criminal Court, and she led the UN’s human rights office. The prize committee says she helped make sure war crimes and genocide (trying to wipe out a whole group of people) get prosecuted. Its message is that lasting peace needs fair laws that apply to everyone.
Smoothing out booms and slumps
- Robert E. HallStanford University, USA
- Michael WoodfordColumbia University, USA
Official reason“for microeconomic foundations of macroeconomic stabilisation”
Economies go through booms and slumps. To even them out, governments adjust spending and central banks (the banks that set the basic cost of borrowing money) raise or lower interest rates. In the 1970s the old rulebook failed: prices shot up while jobs vanished. Hall and Woodford helped build better models of the economy from the bottom up, from how real households and businesses make choices. A key piece is that people look ahead. So when a central bank clearly explains its plans, that alone can steer what people do. Central banks around the world now use models built on this work.
Curious? Go deeperIs the economics prize a “real” Nobel Prize?
Sort of. Alfred Nobel’s will set up five prizes: physics, chemistry, medicine, literature and peace. Sweden’s central bank added the economics prize in 1968. Its official name is the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, but it is chosen and handed out the same way, so most people just call it a Nobel.
Questions people ask about the 2026 Nobel Prizes
Who won the 2026 Nobel Prizes?
Medicine: Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel, for optogenetics. Physics: Francis Halzen, for the IceCube neutrino telescope. Chemistry: Henri B. Kagan and Kenso Soai, for mirror-image molecules. Literature: Anne Carson. Peace: Navi Pillay. Economics: Robert E. Hall and Michael Woodford, for models that help smooth out booms and slumps.
Who won the Nobel Prize in Physics 2026?
Francis Halzen of the University of Wisconsin–Madison won the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics. He dreamed up and led IceCube, a cubic kilometre of Antarctic ice fitted with light sensors. It catches rare “ghost particles” called neutrinos and showed that some of them come from far outside our solar system.
What was the 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for?
Henri B. Kagan (France) and Kenso Soai (Japan) won for showing how chemistry can pick one of two mirror-image versions of a molecule. Kagan found a slightly mixed helper can give a purer result than expected. Soai built a reaction that copies its own handedness, turning a tiny lean into almost all one version.
Who won the 2026 Nobel Prize in Medicine?
Karl Deisseroth (Stanford, USA), Peter Hegemann (Berlin, Germany) and Georg Nagel (Würzburg, Germany) won for optogenetics. Hegemann and Nagel found a light-operated gate in pond algae. Deisseroth put it into brain cells, so scientists can switch chosen cells on with a flash of light and see what those cells do.
When are the Nobel Prizes announced and awarded?
The winners are announced in early October, one prize per weekday. In 2026 Medicine came on 5 October, Physics on 6 October, Chemistry on 7 October, Literature on 8 October, Peace on 9 October and Economics on 12 October. The prizes are handed out on 10 December, in Stockholm and, for Peace, in Oslo.
How much money do Nobel Prize winners get?
In 2026 each Nobel Prize is worth 12 million Swedish kronor, which is a bit over one million US dollars. When two or three people share a prize, they split the money. Winners also get a gold medal and a diploma at the ceremony in December.
Is the economics prize a real Nobel Prize?
Sort of. Alfred Nobel’s will set up five prizes. The economics award was added in 1968 by Sweden’s central bank, and its official name is the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. It is chosen and handed out the same way as the others, so people call it a Nobel.
Play with the science prizes
Our free lessons explain the Physics and Chemistry prizes from zero, with pictures you can drag and tap, quick checks and a mini game. Each takes about 15 minutes.
New to chemistry? Chemistry Basics explains atoms, bonds and reactions from zero before you try the prize lesson. And if you’re looking for a better use of your phone breaks, here’s what to do instead of doomscrolling.
- Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2026: press release (Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet, 5 Oct 2026)
- Nobel Prize in Physics 2026: press release (Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, 6 Oct 2026)
- Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2026: press release (Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, 7 Oct 2026)
- Nobel Prize in Literature 2026: press release (Swedish Academy, 8 Oct 2026) and Anne Carson bio-bibliography
- Nobel Peace Prize 2026: announcement (Norwegian Nobel Committee, 9 Oct 2026)
- Prize in Economic Sciences 2026: press release (Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, 12 Oct 2026)
- Nobel Prize announcement dates (NobelPrize.org)