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Do Blind People See Things in Their Dreams?

A question from reader Josiah: "Do blind people see when they dream?Â I think there are two sides to the question, dealing with people who were born blind, and those who used to be able to see." Whether visual imagery is present in the dreams of the blind has been pondered by scientists since the early 19th century. Josiah is right about that last part. People who are sighted, people who were born sighted but were blinded later in life, and people who were born blind all dream differently. As the... READ ON

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9 Spiders and the Stars They Were Named For

When I read that a new spider species was named Heteropoda davidbowie in honor of David Bowie, it reminded me of several other celebrities whose names were enshrined in taxonomy because there are so many new spiders being discovered as distinct species. With a little digging, even more star spiders turned up! 1. David... READ ON

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10 Technologies We Stole From the Animal Kingdom

By David Goldenberg and Eric Vance People have been lifting ideas from Mother Nature for decades. Velcro was inspired by the hooked barbs of thistle, and the first highway reflectors were made to mimic cat eyes. But today, the science of copying nature, a field known as biomimetics, is a billion-dollar industry. Here are some of our favorite technologies that came in from the wild. 1. Sharkskin—The Latest Craze in Catheters Hospitals are constantly worried about germs. No matter how often... READ ON

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A Brief History of Closed Captioning

Whether you've encountered its unmistakable white text on black background at the gym, in a bar, or on the couch, you're familiar with closed captioning. Here's a brief history of the technology that has provided a (mostly accurate) transcript of television programming for nearly 40 years. Television captioning begins "“ with Julia... READ ON

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Strange Geographies: The Mojave Desert's Airplane Graveyard

I thought it was a mirage the first time I saw it. I was driving through the wastes of the Mojave Desert, two hours from anywhere, when off in the shimmering distance appeared the silhouettes of a hundred parked jetliners. I pulled off and tried to get closer to them, but a mean-looking perimeter fence keeps onlookers far away. All I could do was stand and stare, wondering what the hell this massive armada of airplanes was doing here, silently baking in the 110 degree heat. For years afterward I'd ask... READ ON

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How Does Scratching Relieve an Itch?

If you have an itch, you scratch it. Scratch and itch; they go together like peas and carrots and everyone—humans, apes, dogs and cats—knows it. What we didn't understand for a very long time was the physiological connection between the two—why a good scratch relieves a bad itch. A study by a group of neuroscientists at the University of Minnesota recently explained the itch-scratch link.* The group hypothesized that the relief mechanism doesn't take place along the... READ ON

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The Quick 10: 10 Bizarre Video Games

Everyone knows the video game classics "“ you can't go wrong with Mario, Zelda, or Donkey Kong. But there are some games out there that make you really wonder what the publisher was thinking when they green-lighted the idea. Although, to be fair, a couple of plumbers wandering around in a fantasy world jumping down pipes and talking to human toadstools doesn't sound very profitable either"¦ At any rate, here are 10 video games I thought were particularly strange. 1.... READ ON

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7 Space Missions to Remember

This is the International Year of Astronomy. The U.N. and International Astronomical Union have declared it so, but with a slogan like "The Universe -- yours to discover," it could be sponsored by the auto club. Still, if you've lost track of those wonderful spacecrafts NASA has been launching for a half-century, here is an opportunity to catch up with a few of them. 1. Pioneer 3 & 4 (1958,... READ ON

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Why Do Shells Sound Like the Ocean?

Kevin in Bentonville, Arkansas, wrote in to ask this question: "Why do you hear the ocean when you put a seashell up to your... READ ON

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8 Uses of the @ symbol on Twitter

Ever wonder how the symbol "˜@' can mean so many different things on Twitter? I did, and spent some time poking around online to find the answers. Having stumbled upon a very well written, informative entry on the subject over on Chicago-based tech guru Len Kendall's blog, ConstructiveGrumpiness, (or should I say @ConstructiveGrumpiness?), I asked Len to expand on the @natomy of the Twitter "@" Symbol, and these are the eight examples he came up with. One of the core differentiators... READ ON