A lab that reads—and writes—our dreams

The world's great thinkers probably lost a lot of sleep dwelling on the mysteries of dreams. Mathematician and philosopher Rene Descarte was so spellbound by the vivid imagery of dreaming that he questioned the existence of reality. "Whatever I have accepted until now as most true has come to me through my senses," he said "But occasionally I have found that they have deceived me [in dreams], and it is unwise to trust completely those who have deceived us even once."