Nobel winner warns UK over migration

Nobel Prize winner John O'Keefe has warned the UK government that polices on immigration and animal research are risking Britain's scientific standing.

The US-born neuroscientist won the prize for rat research into the brain's inner "GPS system".

He said immigration rules were "a very, very large obstacle" to hiring the best scientists, and animal testing rules could prevent vital research.

The government said top foreign scientists were able to work in the UK.

Prof O'Keefe, 74, was awarded the Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine on Monday.

He showed in 1971 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 moved to a different area.

He argued these "place cells" - located in the hippocampus - formed a map within the brain.
 

Read more on the BBC website.