British scientist John O'Keefe and Norwegian couple Mary-Britt Moser and Edvard Moser, received the Nobel Prize in medicine on Monday. The trio experimented on rats to discover nerve cells that "constitute a positioning system in the brain," a.k.a. an "inner GPS," according to the Nobel Assembly.
O'Keefe first embarked upon the quest in 1971, when he discovered the same nerve cell was used when a rat was in a specific location. O'Keefe's discovery led to his finding of multiple "place cells" that rats used to create "a map of the environment," The Associated Press reports. Later, the Mosers joined O'Keefe when they discovered a "grid cell" that allowed the brain to create a "coordinate system."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Israeli NGOs have started referring to Gaza as a 'genocide' — will it matter?TODAY'S BIG QUESTION For the first time since fighting began in 2023, two Israeli rights groups have described their country's actions in the Gaza Strip as 'genocide' as famine threatens the blockaded Palestinian territory
-
6 classic homes built in the 1950sFeature Featuring a firehouse-turned-home in Indiana and an award-winning house in Maryland
-
Why is the Democratic Party's favorability rating so low?Talking Points Voters do not like Republican policies. They like Democrats even less.
-
New York plans first nuclear plant in 36 yearsSpeed Read The plant, to be constructed somewhere in upstate New York, will produce enough energy to power a million homes
-
Dehorning rhinos sharply cuts poaching, study findsSpeed Read The painless procedure may be an effective way to reduce the widespread poaching of rhinoceroses
-
Breakthrough gene-editing treatment saves babyspeed read KJ Muldoon was healed from a rare genetic condition
-
Sea lion proves animals can keep a beatspeed read A sea lion named Ronan beat a group of college students in a rhythmic dance-off, says new study
-
Humans heal much slower than other mammalsSpeed Read Slower healing may have been an evolutionary trade-off when we shed fur for sweat glands
-
Novel 'bone collector' caterpillar wears its preySpeed Read Hawaiian scientists discover a carnivorous caterpillar that decorates its shell with the body parts of dead insects
-
Scientists find hint of alien life on distant worldSpeed Read NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has detected a possible signature of life on planet K2-18b
-
Katy Perry, Gayle King visit space on Bezos rocketSpeed Read Six well-known women went into lower orbit for 11 minutes
