Reuters Science News Summary

Following is a summary of current science ​news briefs.

US and German ​scientists win Nobel ‌medicine prize ​for work on light and brain

American Karl Deisseroth and Germans Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel ‌won the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine on Monday for developing optogenetics, a technique that uses light to control individual nerve ‌cells in the brain. The Nobel Assembly of Sweden's Karolinska Institutet said Deisseroth, ‌54; Hegemann, 71; and Nagel, 73, had been selected for their "discoveries concerning light-gated ion channels and optogenetics."

Alien 'phoenix planet' was born from the ashes of a dying star

In ⁠ancient ​mythology, the ⁠phoenix was a miraculous bird with a cyclical pattern of life and death, perishing ⁠in flames only to rise again from the ashes. Astronomers have now ​found a world that rightly can be called a phoenix ⁠planet. Researchers said this exoplanet, as planets beyond our solar system are called, appears to ⁠have ​been born from material expelled into space during the death throes of a star a bit bigger than the sun, and ⁠now orbits the highly compact stellar remnant that was left behind, called ⁠a white ⁠dwarf.

How is the Nobel Peace Prize decided?

The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced on Friday. ‌Here is ‌a look at how the award ​works: WHO IS NOMINATED?