“An odd combination” is how neuroscientists describe the joint winners of
this year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Arvid Carlsson, Paul
Greengard and Eric Kandel are all recognised for providing pivotal advances in
our understanding of how the brain works—and are rewarded with their share
of the £625,000 payout. “I wouldn’t have bracketed those three together,”
says Philip Strange of Reading University. “But they are three great men.”
In the 1950s, Carlsson, from Gothenburg University in Sweden, showed that a
brain chemical called dopamine is important for controlling movement. This led
to the discovery that Parkinson’s disease…
