This article was originally published on Nov. 16, 2022. The use of human voiceover work is ubiquitous across modern media platforms, from video games to television and movies. But increasingly, the voices you hear on-screen aren’t totally human-made; they’re the result of artificial intelligence.Respeecher, a voice cloning company founded in 2018 and based in Ukraine, is currently working with LucasFilm to provide voice services for the Star Wars projects. Respeecher’s speech-to-speech tec ...read more

The insect world is full of creatures who have practically raised the principles of disguise and concealment to an art form. For predators and prey alike, camouflage is a critical survival tool, with coloration, patterning and even physical shape all playing roles in helping insects to conceal themselves from their hunters — or aid the hunters in hiding from their unsuspecting prey until it’s time to strike.Many insects are particularly good not merely at blending in with one’s natural hab ...read more

Search the term “preventing dementia” online, and a list of possible precautions pop up. One story describes a new study that finds older Americans who used the Internet — but not too much — have a lower risk of dementia. Other stories suggest that taking vitamin D, getting a good night’s sleep or learning a second language are key to combating dementia.Scientists don’t fully understand what causes dementia, a degenerative neurological condition that impacts memory, speech and basi ...read more

A new breakthrough in egg cell creation has enabled a female mouse to give birth to babies carrying only the genes of two fathers.Scientists genetically engineered this by turning male XY chromosomes into female XX chromosomes and creating eggs from strictly male skin cells.“The mice look fine — they grew up to be adults, and the adult mice are also fertile,” says Katsuhiko Hayashi, a genome biologist at Osaka University in Japan.The achievement has huge implications for same-sex parenting ...read more

According to the United States Parachuting Association (USPA), around half a million people jump from airplanes for the first time each year. The average skydiver jumps from 13,000 feet, free falling for around a minute at 110 mph. Once the parachute opens, there’s typically around five minutes to take in the views as you descend towards Earth.It’s a wild ride — one of the biggest adrenaline rushes that you can legally find. But your body wasn’t designed to barrel out of airplanes; so it ...read more

If you’ve ever woken up the day after having had too much to drink, you may be familiar with the feeling. And no, we don’t mean a hangover; we mean a hangover laced with anxiety. One that causes you to ruminate over everything you said and did the night before. You relive conversations and chew the cud of every interaction that might have gone south. HangxietyYou might get anxious or feel guilty about other things, like the fact that you drank too much and the next day feels wasted. It’s ...read more

Would you like to live a very long life? Probably only if you can stay mentally sharp the whole way. And that might be possible. Scientists are studying people known as super agers to try to unlock the secrets to a younger brain.Super AgersThough the term ‘super agers’ sounds like a marketing gimmick (sometimes it’s even styled as SuperAgers), it’s simply how researchers refer to people in their 80s or older who have cognitive health similar to that of people 20 to 30 years younger. The ...read more

This article was originally published on May 5, 2021.Early on May 5, 1961, the United States came to a standstill. A Philadelphia judge halted all court proceedings, crowds in Times Square sang and danced, and California traffic slowed to a crawl. Taverns even offered free champagne to revelers. In the White House, President John F. Kennedy stood dumbstruck, with his hands shoved deep into his pockets and his eyes fixed on an unlikely television picture. For, on this late spring morning 60 years ...read more

Many patients with advanced dementia can no longer speak or comprehend language. Researchers are finding that nonverbal dementia patients often receive substandard care because their caregivers don’t know how to communicate with them.A nonverbal patient, for example, might refuse meals because they don’t recognize a food’s texture. Or a patient might become combative during bath time because they don’t understand what is happening. Over time, skipping meals leads to malnutrition, and c ...read more

Most American launch sites are on the coast. (Think Cape Canaveral.) But have you ever wondered why, for more than a decade, spacecraft returned to water, too?Splashdown, the term for landing capsules or other spacecraft in a body of water with the help of parachutes, was NASA’s preferred method prior to the invention of the Space Shuttle. Now, in the era following it, we may be revisiting splashdowns as the best way to get astronauts home safely.Here’s everything that entails.Splashdown Mec ...read more