Game Development

Nearly 3 million years after the Taung Child lived, its fossil is challenging long-held assumptions about humanity’s origins, suggesting our ancient family tree was far more diverse than scientists once believed. A century ago, a child’s fossil helped establish Africa as the birthplace of humanity. Now, that same discovery is raising another question about our […]

Exercise may offer benefits for Parkinson’s disease that extend far beyond physical movement. Exercise may benefit people with Parkinson’s disease in ways that go far beyond building strength and improving mobility. A review of 129 studies suggests that contracting muscles release chemical messengers capable of influencing brain health, potentially helping vulnerable nerve cells resist damage. […]

An experimental injectable sensor could give people with diabetes a more affordable way to track blood sugar, with early tests showing that a cheaper sensing ingredient performed similarly to its costlier alternative. For millions of people with diabetes, knowing how glucose levels are changing helps guide decisions about medication, meals, and daily activities. Continuous glucose […]

Blood pressure stayed lower for up to two years after treatment ended in a small follow-up study, suggesting some people with hormone-driven hypertension could avoid lifelong medication. For people with a common hormonal cause of high blood pressure, a cure has required surgery to remove an entire adrenal gland. Medication can keep their blood pressure […]

By untangling how the crystal barium titanate interacts with light, researchers have supplied data that could reduce costly trial and error in designing faster optical communication devices. When light carries data through a communication device, absorption by the materials inside can weaken the signal. Engineers trying to build faster, more efficient devices need to predict […]

Scientists discovered a tiny new fish species in the Red Sea but have never found it again, suggesting it may live mostly on deeper reefs that remain largely unexplored. In Greek mythology, Charon ferried the dead across a river into the underworld. People were traditionally buried with a coin to pay for the crossing. That […]

A newly identified prehistoric whale had unusual adaptations that may have allowed it to hunt along the seafloor millions of years ago. An ancient whale that lived millions of years ago had a skull so dramatically distorted that its face appeared pushed to one side. Its bony nostrils were displaced entirely to the left, and […]

X-ray scans cracked an Elizabethan padlock’s code, revealing how a centuries-old security mechanism worked without damaging an unusually well-preserved piece of maritime history. For more than 400 years, a brass combination lock recovered from a shipwreck off the Welsh coast kept its secret. Lost when a violent storm wrecked the Ann Francis, the remarkably well-preserved […]

Stonehenge’s six-ton Altar Stone has led scientists from Wales to Scotland, yet even its most detailed geological examination has failed to reveal where it came from. Scientists have spent more than a century trying to determine where Stonehenge’s six-ton Altar Stone came from. Once thought to originate in Wales, the massive sandstone slab has since […]

The oldest directly dated evidence of intoxicating cannabis use comes from a Scythian tomb, suggesting the plant’s mind-altering effects had a place in ancient burial rituals. About 1,000 cannabis seeds recovered from a princely tomb in southern Siberia could not, on their own, tell archaeologists whether anyone had used the plant to get high. Cannabis, […]