Night sight: Our eyes scan the action in our dreams
Our eyes swivel restlessly in their sockets during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, an aptly named period of intense dreaming that makes up 20 to 25 percent of total sleep time.
Observations
Opinion, arguments & analyses from guest experts and from the editors of Scientific American
Mind over mass: Cholesterol levels might be controlled by brain circuitry
When your stomach growls and you have the urge to reach for the nearest snack, it is, in a way, your tummy talking. Those signals are in part sparked by the gut-based hunger hormone ghrelin, which blocks certain receptors in the brain, telling your body when it is time to eat...
Unmanned Seaglider undersea vehicles could cut through debates about underwater plumes and the quantity of oil spilled in Gulf of Mexico
At least two fundamental questions remain about the ongoing environmental disaster in the Gulf of Mexico: how much oil has spilled and where exactly is it located?
Deep in thought: What is a "law of physics," anyway?
One thing that's both disconcerting and exhilarating about physics is how many seemingly simple questions remain unanswered. When you hear the questions that physicists struggle with, you sometimes say to yourself, Wait, you mean they don't even know that?...
Why so many artists have lazy eyes, and other things art can teach us about the brain
NEW YORK—When ancient denizens of central France painted leaping horses on the cave walls at Lascaux, they might not have had the late Renaissance understanding of how to illustrate perspective and three dimensions...
Web site shows how a tumor grows in 3-D
Ever wondered what it looks like when tumor cells grow inside the body? Drug maker Amgen is hoping to sate this morbid sort of Fantastic Voyage with a new Web site that takes viewers through the various stages of tumor angiogenesis in 3-D...
SpaceX completes successful first test launch of Falcon 9 rocket
Private access to space took a giant leap forward Friday with a successful test launch of the Falcon 9 rocket, developed and built by SpaceX, a venture headed by PayPal co-founder Elon Musk...
Surprise scar that appeared on Jupiter last year looks to have been an asteroid impact
When a mystery object smacked into Jupiter without warning in July 2009, an event whose aftermath was first spotted by an amateur astronomer in Australia, observers across the globe scrambled to get a look at the planet to figure out just what had happened...
Carbon monoxide man, and other pictures you can draw with molecules
Back in 1995, I had the pleasure of visiting the IBM Almaden lab of Donald Eigler, who was announced today as a winner of this year's Kavli Prize for his work on nanoscience.
The sex lives of wild crickets captured on video
As the seasons heat up annually, males and females start looking for mates, and two summers' worth of steamy drama outside of a small European town have now been caught on tape.
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