Reacción a "Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology Awarded to Deisseroth, Hegemann, and Nagel for Their Discoveries on Light-Activated Ion Channels and Optogenetics"

Optogenetics made the revolution of “science with light” possible. Previously, it was extremely difficult to manipulate specific cell populations with temporal precision, so this represented a dramatic simplification of our ability to intervene in brain circuits with precision. But its impact goes far beyond that: it has changed the way we study causality in neuroscience. We can no longer just observe which cells or cell types are activated—as Cajal did more than 100 years ago—but can now intervene in them and directly ask what their function is. 

Congratulations to the laureates! This is great news for neuroscience!