Time outside with your dog in the spring, summer and fall can be lovely. Visiting your favorite downtown café on a cool spring morning, going to a favorite dog park on a clear summer evening or going on walks along a river when the leaves are changing color are all wonderful when the weather is favorable. But in much of the country, when winter rolls around, previously hospitable conditions can quickly turn chilly and dangerous for people and pups alike.Winter brings some unique challenges fo ...read more
It was 1910, or maybe 1911 or 1912, when Wilfrid Voynich, a Polish-born antiquarian, purchased a strange, medieval manuscript.Similar in size to an average paperback, at around 6 inches by 9 inches, the book burst at the seams, brimming with words and pictures of peculiar plants, strange stars, and bathing female figures. At around 232 pages, the book bore no indication of its authors and lacked the luster — and the metal leaf — seen in many manuscripts from the “illuminated” age. Increa ...read more
When high-quality images produced by generative AI first began to appear in 2022, they had an undeniable wow factor. The creative process involved little more than entering a text description and waiting for the AI system to produce a relevant image. At that time, an obvious question was when AI-generated video would catch up. Indeed, various groups have since unveiled AI systems that automatically generate video, but always with important limits to their length, the type of realistic motion the ...read more
The relationship between humans and Neanderthals has consistently been shrouded in mystery, but a collection of new studies has now solved a major piece of the puzzle. Based on analysis of ancient bone fragments, researchers shed light on early humans’ presence in northern Europe alongside Neanderthals, answering questions that have long engulfed the science community. Researchers set their sights on Ilsenhöhle, an archaeological site at the base of a castle in Ranis, Germany. An internation ...read more
Living in a city is different from our how our ancestors lived, who were in a more nature-filled environment. Only 3 percent of the world’s population lived in cities back in 1800, compared to over 50 percent today. As researchers of a 2019 study published in the Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine state, our attention system was “designed for interacting with nature.”There’s no doubt there are pros and cons to city living. You step outside, and you’re closer to shops and entertainmen ...read more