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The 2025 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine has been awarded to a trio of scientists – two of them American and one Japanese – for discovering how the immune system protects us from thousands of different microbes trying to invade our bodies. Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi will share the prize “for their fundamental discoveries relating to peripheral immune tolerance,” the Nobel Committee announced Monday at a ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden. (Edwards and Hunt, 10/6)

It’s the time of year when leading scientists might not want to let any calls go to voicemail. Prizes in chemistry, physics, and physiology or medicine, established by Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel more than a century ago, will be announced this week, along with prizes in peace and literature. The awards are a pinnacle of scientific achievement. But predicting who will win is largely guesswork. There is, however, no shortage of worthy scientific advances from which the Nobel Prize committees can pick. Here are five life-changing breakthroughs and discoveries that experts think are Nobel-worthy. (Hunt, 10/6)

In place of the Nobels, a trove of prestigious awards has emerged to honor work in other fields. Here are some of the prizes that scientists and mathematicians can aspire to win, along with their most recent recipients. (Robles-Gil, 10/5)

Neuralink Corp., Elon Musk’s brain implant company, has submitted a scientific paper to a journal describing the results from some of its patients, which would be its first peer-reviewed publication with human data. The paper was sent to the New England Journal of Medicine and describes the first three patients who were implanted with the Neuralink device, including safety data, according to Michael Lawton, chief executive officer and president of the Barrow Neurological Institute, a Neuralink clinical trial site. (Swetlitz, 10/5)

Researchers used lasers to record and stimulate the activity of neurons in mice to learn how the brain processes and interprets optical illusions. (Johnson, 10/5)

Health systems’ love affair with artificial intelligence is stretching beyond obvious use cases. There is no shortage of digital health companies offering AI and tech tools to help clinicians document in the electronic health record and get providers paid faster. While health system executives praise the reduction of pajama time and an easier time with prior authorization, they’re also looking solutions to address the barriers in rural care and clinician shortages. (Perna, 10/3)

Facial recognition technology is increasingly used in airports, police investigations and sports venues. Now Amazon’s Ring says it’s putting facial recognition for the first time into its home security doorbells and video cameras. It’s intended to identify your sister, a neighbor or other people you know. While the feature will be optional for Ring device owners, privacy advocates say it’s unfair that wherever the technology is in use, anyone within sight will have their faces scanned to determine who’s a friend or stranger. (Ovide, 10/3)