The 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine honors optogenetics, a method for switching brain cells on and off with light using a protein borrowed from pond algae. Here is what the technology is, where it came from, and where you can explore open datasets on DANDI that use it.
In 1998, three rats flew aboard the Space Shuttle as part of the Neurolab mission, carrying tiny electrode arrays in their brains. The goal: to find out whether the hippocampus, the brain’s internal GPS, can build a map of space when there is no gravity. Over 25 years later, these historic recordings are now publicly available on DANDI as Dandiset #001754.