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Article: Dream on; The function of dreaming.(Does dreaming help you learn?)(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- November 3, 2001
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Are dreams related to learning and memory?
IN 1865 Friedrich August von Kekule, a German chemist, was puzzling over the structure of a compound that contained six carbon and six hydrogen atoms. It seemed impossible to fit these together in a way that respected the rules of chemical bonding. Legend has it that the answer came to him in a dream: as he sat dozing in front of the fire, he had a vision of two entwined serpents biting each other's tails. He awoke to the realisation that the molecule must be shaped like a ring. By solving the structure of benzene, a hexagon with alternating single and double bonds, Kekule won a place in the annals of two disciplines: ...