Dr Lefkowitz started investigating the receptors by following the movement of radioactive isotopes attached to hormones within cells in the laboratory, trying to track down how signals get through cell membranes.

BBC: Chemistry Nobel goes to Robert Lefkowitz and Brian Kobilka

On checking equipment in his laboratory, he was surprised to discover that the rate of radioactive decay changed before the solar flare.

BBC: System could warn of solar storms

In a lab at Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island, Gene-Jack Wang is injecting overeaters with a radioactive sugar solution and putting them into a positron-emissions tomography machine to see how their brains react to food.

FORBES: Food on the Brain