00:00The Nobel Prize in Medicine has been awarded to three scientists whose work explains how the brain switches individual nerve
00:07cells on and off.
00:08The winners are Carl Deiseroth, Peter Higman and George Nagel.
00:13The research focuses on light-gated ion channels and optogenetics, techniques that allow scientists to control and study nerve cells
00:21using light.
00:23Deiseroth is based in the United States while Higman and Nagel work in Germany.
00:27The Nobel Committee praised a breakthrough, saying the method is now being used in laboratories around the world to reveal
00:33the brain's mysteries.
00:35The prize was announced at Stockholm's Karolinska Institute, making the start of Nobel Week.
00:40The winners will share prize money of 12 million Swedish krono, worth around 1.2 million US dollars.
00:46Last year, the prize went to three scientists researching the immune system.
