research
Sleep on It
Hartosh Singh Bal
Dreams of a task being learnt improve performance, suggesting that they may be by-products of memory processing.
“We can’t disable our hidden brain”
Author Shankar Vedantam on the mental prejudice-graph which kicks in as early as age three, how it influences stock markets and why it turns some into suicide bombers.
Maths of Moviemaking
Hollywood films increasingly use shot lengths of a particular pattern that best holds our attention.
Fundamental Forces and Chopping Wood
From Newton to Einstein, understanding gravity has been the holy grail of physics. Professor T Padmanabhan of the Inter University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pune, spoke to Open of the work for which he was awarded the 2009 Infosys Prize for the Physical Sciences.
In Search of the Smell of Rain
A group of art students learnt synthetic biology to make bacteria produce the smell of rain in a lab. They almost succeeded.
Walking in Circles
Research says people cannot walk in a straight line if they do not have absolute references
The DNA of Sleep
Scientists have discovered the first gene involved in regulating the optimal length of human sleep
Hidden Portals
Platform 9¾ from the Potter books may still elude us Muggles, but scientists are working on a circuitous route that may yet get us there
Taking the Pain out of Itching
Scientists have been able to use a neurotoxin to reduce the urge to scratch in mice
Optical Cues from Jewel Beetles
A small green beetle may have some interesting lessons to teach scientists about optics and liquid crystals
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