Playing a complex guitar solo ought to be impossible. To elicit the desired torrent of notes, the fingers of one hand must move nimbly around the fretboard, while the other hand plucks the strings, in a dexterous combination of speed and strength. Anyone who has watched an expert player and then picked up a guitar…
The Story of StoriesKevin AshtonHarper, $32 Back in 1944, two psychologists performed a somewhat mundane experiment. The researchers asked people to simply watch a short film and describe it. Most of the viewers spun elaborate tales involving lovers, violence and abandonment. That’s pretty amazing, considering the film featured only shapes: two triangles and a circle…
This video is part of “Innovations In: Type 1 Diabetes,” an editorially independent special report that was produced with financial support from Vertex. Have you ever thought about how your body turns food into energy? Or just how carefully it has to manage that process? On supporting science journalism If you’re enjoying this article, consider…
The weather-modifying equipment used by Rain Enhancement Technologies in Utah Rain Enhancement Technologies States like Utah in the western US have been suffering from a record snow drought, raising fears of wildfires and low flow in the crucial Colorado river. But a start-up that releases negatively charged aerosols that can be carried up into clouds…
Quasicrystals are orderly structures that never repeat. Scientists just showed they can exist in space and time.
Staff members at the United States’s premier infectious-disease research institute have been instructed to remove the words “biodefense” and “pandemic preparedness” from the institute’s web pages, according to e-mails Nature has obtained. The directive comes amid a broader shake-up at the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), one of 27 institutes and…
Illustration of dark craters near the moon’s south pole Science Photo Library / Alamy Scientists want to build a laser inside one of the moon’s coldest craters that could help lunar landers and rovers navigate accurately. Ultrastable lasers are vital for timing and navigation systems that require extreme precision. They work by bouncing a beam…
Snakes would do great on Survivor. These animals can last weeks — even months — without food. A couple of recently discovered genetic changes may help. Certain snakes and some other reptiles lack the gene encoding ghrelin, commonly known as the hunger hormone, researchers report in the Feb. 1 Open Biology. The gene encoding an…
Every year more than 12 million people visit the White River National Forest in central Colorado to ski, hike, bike, fish, camp and otherwise enjoy this iconic 2.3-million-acre landscape. As part of the public lands system, the forest is collectively owned by the American people and managed by the federal government on our behalf. Recently…
One of the study’s participants asleep during the experiment Mia Lux Your brain could be gently coaxed into working on complex problems while you sleep, making you better able to tackle them the next day. Neuroscientists and psychologists are increasingly using sounds, touch, movement and, particularly, smells to influence the content of people’s dreams. This…
