On June 29th at 9pm, WPBT will premiere the latest installment in the NOVA series, What are Dreams?
What are dreams and why do we have them? NOVA joins the leading dream researchers as they embark on a variety of neurological and psychological experiments to investigate the world of sleep and dreams. Delving deep into the thoughts and brains of a variety of dreamers, scientists are asking important questions about the purpose of this mysterious world we escape to at night. Do dreams allow us to get a good night’s sleep? Do they improve our memory? Do they allow us to be more creative? Can they solve our problems or even help us survive the hazards of everyday life? NOVA follows researchers like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Matthew Wilson who is literally ‘eavesdropping’ on the dreams of rats and takes viewers into a sleep lab for a first-hand look at how scientists do their best to eavesdrop on human dreams. From those who violently act out their dreams to those who can’t stop their nightmares, from sleepwalking cats to people who can’t dream, each fascinating experiment contains a vital clue to the age-old question: What are dreams?
Then, at 10pm, NOVA Science takes viewers into the human brain. Viewers will learn whether the
secrets behind the world’s greatest magic tricks are actually wired into our brains. Also, check out the difficulties of replicating the human brain in machines like IBM’s “Watson,”
attempting to mimic the human thought process with software is actually providing new insight
into the brain itself. NOVA scienceNOW delves into some pretty heady stuff to examine magic and the brain, artificial intelligence, mind control, and the nature of reality in an astonishing episode on how the brain works.
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