Some primates have evolved big brains because their extra brainpower helps them live and reproduce longer, an advantage that outweighs the demands of extra years of growth and development they spend reaching adulthood, anthropologists from Duke University and the University of Zurich have concluded in a new study.
The four investigators compared key benchmarks in the development of 28 different primate species, ranging from humans living free of modern trappings in South American jungles to lemurs living in wild settings in Madagascar.
Science & Technology
During Microsoft's Most Valuable Professionals in Seattle, CEO Steve Ballmer had one thing to say about Windows Vista, one year after its release: it's "a work in progress." Just one month ago, Microsoft released Service Pack 1, fixing a number of issues that have emerged during the past year through quality improvements, improvements to the administration experience and support for emerging hardware and standards.
As Ballmer said at the conference, there's still work to be done on Vista: "A very important piece of work, and I think we did a lot of things right, and I think we have a lot of things we need to learn from," he said. "Vista is bigger than XP. It's going to stay bigger than XP."
As Ballmer said at the conference, there's still work to be done on Vista: "A very important piece of work, and I think we did a lot of things right, and I think we have a lot of things we need to learn from," he said. "Vista is bigger than XP. It's going to stay bigger than XP."
A computer system that can carry on a discussion with a human being by reacting to signals such as tone of voice and facial expression, is being developed by an international team including Queen's University Belfast.
Typing on a keyboard or scribbling on paper may be similar activities, but there is a significant difference in how the body moves, according to new motor development research.
"In language we start with letters that lead to syllables that lead to words, and we use grammar to put everything together," said Howard N. Zelaznik, a Purdue University professor of health and kinesiology. "One of the fundamental questions in motor control is whether there is an alphabet that guides movement.
"We wanted to know if discrete skills, which have a definite beginning and end, such as typing, are controlled identically to continuous skills, such as scribbling, which do not have such a clear beginning and end. Or, are continuous movements composed of a series of discrete movements that are knotted together? On both accounts, the answer is no."
"In language we start with letters that lead to syllables that lead to words, and we use grammar to put everything together," said Howard N. Zelaznik, a Purdue University professor of health and kinesiology. "One of the fundamental questions in motor control is whether there is an alphabet that guides movement.
"We wanted to know if discrete skills, which have a definite beginning and end, such as typing, are controlled identically to continuous skills, such as scribbling, which do not have such a clear beginning and end. Or, are continuous movements composed of a series of discrete movements that are knotted together? On both accounts, the answer is no."
Study in this week's Nature journal finds striking similarities and differences between quantum and classical chaos.
When a tiny, quantum-scale, hypothetical balloon is popped in a vacuum, do the particles inside spread out all over the place as predicted by classical mechanics"
The question is deceptively complex, since quantum particles do not look or act like air molecules in a real balloon. Matter at the infinitesimally small quantum scale is both a wave and a particle, and its location cannot be fixed precisely because measurement alters the system.
Now, theoretical physicists at the University of Southern California and the University of Massachusetts Boston have proven a long-standing hypothesis that quantum-scale chaos exists ... sort of.
When a tiny, quantum-scale, hypothetical balloon is popped in a vacuum, do the particles inside spread out all over the place as predicted by classical mechanics"
The question is deceptively complex, since quantum particles do not look or act like air molecules in a real balloon. Matter at the infinitesimally small quantum scale is both a wave and a particle, and its location cannot be fixed precisely because measurement alters the system.
Now, theoretical physicists at the University of Southern California and the University of Massachusetts Boston have proven a long-standing hypothesis that quantum-scale chaos exists ... sort of.
Santa Clara -- If we ever make contact with intelligent aliens, we should be able to build a universal translator to communicate with them, according to a linguist and anthropologist in the US.
Perched on a lonesome bluff above the San Pedro River in Arizona, the ancient stone ruin that archaeologists call the Davis Ranch Site seems out of place.
Staring back from the opposite bank, the tumbled walls of Reeve Ruin are just as surprising.
About 700 years ago, as part of a vast migration, a people called the Anasazi wandered from the north to form settlements like these, stamping the land with their unique style.
Staring back from the opposite bank, the tumbled walls of Reeve Ruin are just as surprising.
About 700 years ago, as part of a vast migration, a people called the Anasazi wandered from the north to form settlements like these, stamping the land with their unique style.
The seemingly far-fetched theory that Leonardo da Vinci was of Arab descent has been given new backing in a study, published this week, that suggests his mother was a slave.
Stockholm -- Quantum cryptography, a new technology until now considered 100 percent secure against attacks on sensitive data traffic, has a flaw after all, Swedish researchers said Friday.
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The voice of Neanderthal Man has been synthesised 30,000 years after the human relatives became extinct.
Scientists in the US have used a reconstruction of the larynx of Homo neanderthalis and computer models to mimic the way that the species probably spoke. Only one sound - the "e" - has been generated so far, which seems strangulated and nasal in comparison with its human equivalent.
