DREAMS THAT TRANSFORMED SOCIETY

DNA'S DOUBLE HELIX

One of the greatest scientific discoveries of all time was the

discovery of DNA’s structure. Dr. James Watson had a dream

involving two snakes intertwined with heads at the opposite ends,

leading to his consideration of a double helix.

THE TERMINATOR

With a fever spiking to 102°F (39°C), James Cameron had the

idea of the Terminator in a dream (more like a nightmare).

Cameron saw the metallic figure with piercing red eyes pulling

itself up from a fire – not the kind of dream we’d want

to have anytime soon.

STEPHEN KING BOOKS

Global best-selling novelist Stephen King had many ideas come to

him through dreams, including the books Misery and It.

As King said: “I’ve always used dreams the way you’d use

mirrors to look at something you couldn’t see head-on.”

NERVOUS SYSTEM COMMUNICATION

In the early 20th century, scientists thought our nerves transmitted

information electrically. After a dream, Dr. Otto Loewi awoke during

the night and scribbled some thoughts on a paper. Upon waking

in the morning, he realized he had written about information being

transmitted chemically, later proven to be true and

winning him the Nobel Prize in 1936.

BENZENE

You might not know much about it, but benzene is a pretty

important foundation in chemistry, partly responsible for cars,

leather, and high schoolers dismay. Chemist Friedrich August

Kekulé von Stradonitz’s dream of a snake biting its own tail

in a hexagonal shape led to his discovery of the

six-sided benzene.

PERIODIC TABLE OF ELEMENTS

Dmitry Mendeleev first came up with the idea for the periodic table

in a dream. Unable to figure out how to arrange the elements,

he used music heard in his dream to figure out the best way

was by their properties and atomic weight.

INCEPTION

Director Christopher Nolan is fascinated with dreams. He would

frequently practice waking up and falling partially asleep again

to try manipulating his dreams in the semi-conscious state.

It’s easy to see how this love turned into the Inception thriller.

ARTILLERY GUN LEVELLER

D.B Parkinson, an employee at Bell Labs (started by Alexander

Graham Bell and at one time owned by AT&T) was designing an

add-on to the telephone in 1940. One night, he dreamt he was in

the middle of the war in Europe and, after being shown by an

artillery crewman, saw the device he was creating helped the

cannon take out Nazi aircraft with surprising accuracy.