For science enthusiasts, October is an exciting time of year, when the brightest minds are recognised for their work with the Nobel Prizes, the Oscars of the science world.
Earlier this month, Euronews reporters Marta Iraola Iribarren and Pascale Davies were part of the team that followed the awarding of the prestigious science medals in physiology or medicine, physics and chemistry.
In the first episode of Password, our journalists discuss the winners, their discoveries, and why in 2026 only men made it into the group of science laureates.
2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
The 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to the United States scientist Karl Deisseroth and German scientists Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel for their discoveries concerning light-gated ion channels and optogenetics.
“It is a method that makes it possible to show how nerve cells shape memories and feeling behaviours in the living brain,” Iraola told Euronews Next.
This research is widely considered a step forward in understanding how the still-mysterious brain works, and could bring about new, important medical applications.
Optogenetics, for instance, is behind a gene therapy that is currently being tested in clinical trials and shows early promise of partly restoring sight in blind people.
2026 Nobel Prize in Physics
The 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to the Belgian scientist Francis Halzen for his contributions to the IceCube Neutrino Observatory and the discovery of high-energy astrophysical neutrinos.
“His work has given us a whole new way to explore the universe,” said Davies. “He turned a massive block of ice in the South Pole into a detector that can see basically almost invisible particles that reach Earth from outer space, and he called the device the IceCube,” she explained.
The IceCube Neutrino Observatory was built between 2004 and 2010, stemming from Halzen’s idea and research. The project now comprises an international team of more than 450 people from 14 countries.
Among them is Gwenhaël Wilberts De Wasseige, a professor at the Université Catholique de Louvain, in Belgium, where Halzen conducted his higher education.
Wilberts De Wasseige explained that despite being based in the United States, Halzen keeps strong ties with Belgium and especially the Belgian universities, four of which are part of the IceCube project.
“It was just a question of time, and to see him getting the prize and dedicating it to all the people that started the adventure with him, continued the adventure and all the PhD students, to all the technicians who keep making the IceCube better, that was something very special,” she told Euronews Next.
2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
The 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to French scientist Henri B. Kagan and Japanese scientist Kenso Soai for research into molecular mirror images.
“It has actually very practical applications; one for example is for pharmaceutical development,” Iraola explained.
Some molecules, such as amino acids, occur in two variants that are mirror images of each other, yet living organisms use only one of them. These researchers discovered how chemical reactions can amplify an initial excess of one mirror-image form and produce only one of the two possible forms.
Do Nobel Prizes have a gender gap issue?
Except Anne Carson, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature, and Navanetham Pillay, who won the Nobel Peace Prize, the other 2026 laureates were all men.
“In the science awards, women are underrepresented because this reflects a broader underrepresentation of them in this area of research,” said Iraola. However, she is hopeful that things will change in the future.
Since Nobel Prize awards are handed out to research projects that take decades to develop, today’s winners reflect the gender norms of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s when science was often inaccessible to women, Iraola explained.
“However, the number of women awarded has slowly increased in recent decades, and hopefully we will keep seeing this trend,” she added.
Euronews Tech Talks is a podcast produced, written, presented and published in English.