Game Development

Arthritis may leave a memory in the joints, and mouse experiments suggest stress can reawaken it with help from the body’s heat-producing fat. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) can flare in previously affected joints even after the disease has gone into remission. Psychological stress has long been associated with worsening symptoms, but how it might help inflammation […]

The comfort you find in a cat’s company may have less to do with years together than with everyday closeness, a small observational study suggests. Cat owners often credit their pets with making life better, but research has produced mixed evidence about whether owning a cat benefits human health and well-being. Some studies have found […]

A stranger’s face can hold a cow’s attention longer than a familiar handler’s, video tests suggest, offering clues to how cattle recognize the people around them. When cows watched videos of people, they looked longer when the face on screen matched the voice they heard. The finding suggests that these highly social animals, which live […]

Bigger animals generally have bigger body parts, but new research reveals that certain ants defy this biological rule. In the insect world, bigger bodies usually come with bigger body parts. But some ants break this rule in an unexpected way. A massive soldier ant, equipped with an oversized head and powerful jaws, can have smaller […]

Scientists have discovered distinct bacterial patterns in the saliva of patients with a deadly form of esophageal cancer. Bacteria living in the mouth may hold clues to a deadly form of esophageal cancer that often goes undetected until treatment options are limited. Researchers in South Africa have identified distinctive bacterial patterns in patients’ saliva, raising […]

Researchers uncovered how a high-cholesterol diet weakens the liver’s defenses and lowered LDL in mice by blocking the pathway, pointing to a potential new use for a shelved heart failure drug. A diet high in cholesterol can gradually weaken the liver’s ability to remove harmful cholesterol from the blood. Cholesterol-related heart disease remains the leading […]

New compounds have overcome a longstanding challenge by directly targeting β-arrestins, proteins that regulate cellular signals, providing laboratory tools that could help guide more precise treatments with fewer side effects. A drug can hit its intended target and still have its effects cut short. That’s because cells have built-in molecular brakes that dial down signals […]

Solar grazing is helping sheep farmers expand their businesses, opening opportunities for rural jobs, new investment, and stronger agricultural supply chains. Sheep can feed on the vegetation growing around solar panels while farmers get paid to keep it under control. Too few sheep may leave farmers with grass they still need to mow, while heavier […]

Nearly identical butterflies share the same tropical forests, yet scientists still cannot fully explain how they recognize their own kind. When Andrés Orellana found caterpillars stripping the leaves from a Cecropia sapling in Venezuela, they had the familiar black bodies and yellow spines of Colobura butterflies. None, however, had the cream-colored markings seen in the […]

Ancient tooth proteins raise the possibility that Homo naledi, an extinct human relative, reserved a burial site for females, hinting at complex customs once thought unique to modern humans. For more than a decade, researchers have wondered why the adult fossils in South Africa’s Dinaledi Chamber look so much alike. The remains of Homo naledi, […]