Notable Nobels

The 2026 Nobel Prizes are rollin’ in.

Here’s a look at this year’s laureates:

• French chemist Henri Kagan and Japanese chemist Kenso Soai won the prize in (you guessed it) chemistry for successfully producing just one “mirror-image” molecule, a process previously only seen in nature;
• Stanford’s professor Karl Deisseroth and German professors Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel won the physiology/medicine prize for their contributions to optogenetics, a technique that uses light to toggle brain cells (watch Deisseroth tell his daughters he won);
• Belgian-born UW-Madison physicist Francis Halzen won for using Antarctic ice to catch elusive “ghost particles” from deep space;
• And Canadian poet Anne Carson won in literature for genre-bending work that “created new forms for contemporary literature” (listen to her mid-snack reaction).

Announced this morning, the Peace Prize had 287 nominees (see who won); we’ll find out the economics laureate Monday. This year’s winners get more Swedish meatballs Kroner than last year (see how much and other fun facts here.)

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CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE
Nobel Prizes celebrate the brightest minds and most impactful peacemakers among us. As we honor these laureates, may we also celebrate the God who created their minds and hearts, and the fields in which they labor.

“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For everything was created by him, in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through him and for him.”
Colossians 1:15-16 (CSB) (read full passage)