Features
Who Sleeps?
The Scientist and Jerome Siegel | Mar 1, 2016 | 10+ min read
Once believed to be unique to birds and mammals, sleep is found across the metazoan kingdom. Some animals, it seems, can’t live without it, though no one knows exactly why.
Sleep’s Kernel
Sandip Roy and James M. Krueger | Mar 1, 2016 | 10 min read
Surprisingly small sections of brain, and even neuronal and glial networks in a dish, display many electrical indicators of sleep.
Go To Bed!
Kerry Grens | Mar 1, 2016 | 10+ min read
The immediate consequences of losing out on sleep may be harbingers of long-term repercussions.
Contributors
Contributors
Contributors
Meet some of the people featured in the March 2016 issue of The Scientist.
Editorial
Things That Go Bump
Things That Go Bump
Scientists still don’t know why animals sleep or how to define the ubiquitous behavior.
Speaking of Science
Speaking of Science
Speaking of Science
March 2016's selection of notable quotes
Notebook
Learning with the Lights Out
Learning with the Lights Out
Researchers are uncovering the link between sleep and learning and how it changes throughout our lives.
Perchance to Dream
Perchance to Dream
Mapping the dreaming brain through neuroimaging and studies of brain damage
Slumber Numbers
Slumber Numbers
Ideas abound for why some animal species sleep so much more than others, but definitive data are elusive.
Sleeping for Two
Sleeping for Two
Poor slumber during pregnancy may have consequences beyond gestation.
Thought Experiment
What Lies Sleeping
What Lies Sleeping
Why can science still not define this most basic biological process?
Critic at Large
Getting Animal Research Right
Getting Animal Research Right
Regulatory and compliance expectations for animal-based research are demanding, while public and political scrutiny of animal research is rising.
Modus Operandi
While You Were Sleeping
While You Were Sleeping
Assessing body position in addition to activity may improve monitoring of sleep-wake periods.
The Basics
The A B Zzzzs
The A B Zzzzs
An overview of the human sleep cycle
The Literature
Sleep Circuit
Sleep Circuit
A web of cell types in one of the brain’s chief wake centers keeps animals up—but also puts them to sleep.
Sugar Time
Sugar Time
Metabolic activity, not light, drives the circadian clock in cyanobacteria.
Out in the Cold
Out in the Cold
Serotonin’s long-debated role in sleep promotion is temperature-dependent.
Profiles
In Dogged Pursuit of Sleep
In Dogged Pursuit of Sleep
Unearthing the root causes of narcolepsy keeps Emmanuel Mignot tackling one of sleep science’s toughest questions.
Scientist to Watch
Christina Schmidt: Chronobiology Crusader
Christina Schmidt: Chronobiology Crusader
Research Fellow, Cyclotron Research Center, University of Liège. Age: 35
Lab Tools
Spoiler Alert
Spoiler Alert
How to store microbiome samples without losing or altering diversity
Dial It Up, Dial It Down
Dial It Up, Dial It Down
Newer CRISPR tools for manipulating transcription will help unlock noncoding RNA’s many roles.
Bio Business
Desperately Seeking Shut-Eye
Desperately Seeking Shut-Eye
New insomnia drugs are coming on the market, but drug-free therapy remains the most durable treatment.
Reading Frames
In Your Dreams
In Your Dreams
Understanding the sleeping brain may be the key to unlocking the secrets of the human mind.
Capsule Reviews
Capsule Reviews
Capsule Reviews
Herding Hemingway's Cats, Hair: A Human History, Restless Creatures, and The Mind Club
Foundations
Cave Dwellers, 1938
Cave Dwellers, 1938
Renowned sleep researcher Nathaniel Kleitman and a colleague spent a month underground to test the body’s natural rhythms.