Some touching research took the 2021 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine. David Julius of the University of California, San Francisco and Ardem Patapoutian of the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif., were awarded the prize October 4 for their research to identify sensors on nerve cells that detect heat, cold and pressure.
The laureates discovered proteins called receptors that turn the burning heat from chili peppers or a hot stove, menthol’s cooling sensation or the pressure from a hug into nerve signals that can be sent to the brain. Those proteins are crucial to the sense of touch and for feeling pain.
Recognizing basic research on touch
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