By Sara Reardon, ScienceNOW

Snuffling around in a Plexiglas box that it knows well, a black and white rat catches a whiff of chocolate cookies. It scampers toward them—but suddenly, it finds itself teleported into another, equally familiar box. One could hardly blame the poor rat for being confused and disoriented for at least a fraction of a second, and researchers have now figured out why: cells in the memory center of its brain compete over where it is for exactly one-eighth of a second.

The “teleportation” effect in rats is similar to the momentary disorientation you feel when ele...

MONTEREY, Calif. — Porsche is changing everything everyone thinks about hybrids by proving gas-electric technology can haul ass and save gas.

The Germans rolled into the ModSpace American Le Mans Monterey race with the 911 GT3 R Hybrid and delivered a beating to every car in the GT class as drivers Romain Dumas and Richard Lietz finished 10th overall. Not only did Porsche’s gas-electric wunderkind post the fastest lap, it made just three pit stops during the six-hour event, compared to the five everyone else made.

“The start phase was huge fun, because it was relatively easy to overtake the s...