The 2014 Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine was awarded to UK-based researcher Professor John O'Keefe and husband-wife team May-Britt Moser and Edvard Mose.
It was in 1971 that O'Keefe's work showed that a set of nerve cells became activated whenever a rat was in one location in a room. A different set of cells were active when the rat was in a different area. In 2005, May-Britt and Edvard discovered a different part of the brain which acted like a nautical chart. These "grid cells" are akin to lines of longitude and latitude, helping the brain to judge distance and navigate. What appropriate (unofficial) name have most media dubbed this finding, that could help expand Alzheimer's research?
[As in BBC's headline, NOBEL PRIZE FOR THE BRAIN'S _______ DISCOVERY]
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=> Internal GPS - the working of these nerve cells are similar to that of a GPS, thus giving it the name.
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