physics

Georg Nagel

Georg Nagel is a physics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Georg Nagel rather than just read about it. In short: Georg Nagel (born 24 August 1953 in Weingarten, Germany) is a biophysicist and professor at the Department for Neurophysiology at the University of Würzburg in Germany. His research is focused on microbial photoreceptors and the development of optogenetic tools.

Key takeaways

Georg Nagel belongs to physics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Georg Nagel to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Georg Nagel from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Georg Nagel (born 24 August 1953 in Weingarten, Germany) is a biophysicist and professor at the Department for Neurophysiology at the University of Würzburg in Germany. His research is focused on microbial photoreceptors and the development of optogenetic tools.

Scientific career Georg Nagel studied biology and biophysics at the University of Konstanz, Germany. He received his PhD from the University of Frankfurt in 1988, working at the Max Planck Institute of Biophysics in Frankfurt. As a postdoc, he worked at Yale University and Rockefeller University, US. From 1992 to 2004, he headed an independent research group in the Department of Biophysical Chemistry at the Max Planck Institute of Biophysics in Frankfurt. Since 2004, he is a professor at the University of Würzburg, Germany, first at the Department for Molecular Plant Physiology and Biophysics, since 2019 at the Department for Neurophysiology.

Research Georg Nagel, together with Peter Hegemann, is credited with the discovery of channelrhodopsins, which opened the new field of optogenetics. Early in 1995, Georg Nagel and Ernst Bamberg demonstrated that a microbial rhodopsin (Bacteriorhodopsin), when expressed in animal cells (Xenopus oocytes), is fully functional and makes the cells light-sensitive. In 2003, Nagel showed the functionality of channelrhodopsin-2 (ChR2) in a mammalian cell line, where illumination with blue light caused a strong depolarization of the membrane potential. Following this proof-of-principle publication, ChR2 was expressed in hippocampal neurons in collaboration with Karl Deisseroth, where light pulses caused action potentials with high temporal precision. The first application of optogenetics in an intact animal, the round worm Caenorhabditis elegans, published 2005 by Georg Nagel and Alexander Gottschalk, was based on a ChR2 mutant (H134R) Nagel had created to improve photocurrents. The first successful optogenetic inhibition of neuronal spiking (2007) was based on Nagel's earlier experiments with halorhodopsin from Natronomonas pharaonis. In 2007, in another collaboration with Peter Hegemann, Georg Nagel started the optogenetic manipulation of cAMP. In 2015, Georg Nagel and Shiqiang Gao, together with Alexander Gottschalk's group, characterized the first 8 TM enzyme rhodopsin, Cyclop, which raises the concentration of cGMP when activated with light. Through the development of genetically encoded tools, Georg Nagel's group has pushed the boundaries of optical control from ion channels and pumps to second messenger systems, and has applied them to many different types of organisms, including plants.

Awards (selection) 2010 Wiley Prize in Biomedical Sciences, together with Peter Hegemann and Ernst Bamberg 2010 Karl Heinz Beckurts Prize, together with Peter Hegemann und Ernst Bamberg 2012 Zülch Prize 2013 Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine, together with Peter Hegemann 2013 The Brain Prize, awarded by the Grete Lundbeck European Brain Research Foundation 2015 selected as Member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) 2019 Rumford Prize for "extraordinary contributions related to the invention and refinement of optogenetics," with Ernst Bamberg, Ed Boyden, Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann, and Gero Miesenböck. 2020 Shaw Prize in Life Sciences.

References

External links Forschungsgruppe Prof. Dr. Georg Nagel bei der Universität Würzburg (uni-wuerzburg.de); retrieved 11 April 2018.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Georg Nagel

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Georg Nagel claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In physics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Georg Nagel before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Georg Nagel ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Georg Nagel

In research: Georg Nagel appears in physics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Georg Nagel in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Georg Nagel is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1953 births, German biophysicists, Living people, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Georg Nagel outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Georg Nagel in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Georg Nagel means in your own words.
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Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
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Frequently asked questions

What is Georg Nagel in simple terms?

Why does Georg Nagel matter?

Because it connects several physics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Georg Nagel?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Georg Nagel.