Nobel Medicine Prize for brain research: Max Planck scientists Hegemann and Nagel awarded

How are you supposed to understand an organ that swims in perpetual darkness, consists of billions of cells that fire electrical impulses every millisecond, spontaneously forming into small groups, only to do their own thing again shortly afterwards? An organ that produces things as elusive as consciousness, a personality, ecstasy, anger, emotion and sadness?

The brain is the most complex human organ. This year's Nobel Prize in Medicine goes to three scientists who have found a way to solve some of its mysteries. The prize winners, including the two German Max Planck researchers Peter Hegemann, who now conducts research at the Humboldt University in Berlin, and Peter Nagel from the University of Würzburg, have revolutionized brain research.