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Look at that badass up there! That, ladies and gents, is a Suriname horned frog, dubbed the "Pac-Man Frog." According to Prensa Latina, scientists in the South American country of Suriname found 46 new species of animals, from insects to fish to frogs. One of those frogs was a new species of Pac-Man Frog, which are called that because their bodies are almost spherical, and their mouths are large enough to allow them to wolf down prey that almost match them in size. More »
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When I was a small child my parents would warn me that spending all day in front of the television playing video games would ruin my eyesight. Today researchers at the University of Tennessee Space Institute in Tullahoma have integrated computer games into a device that could be instrumental in saving a child's eyesight. More »
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When I was a kid, on long road trips I had to look out the window and like it. When I worked in childcare, kids would go home with a Game Boy in their hands. My kids, of course, might ride with something even cooler: games on their car windows. More »
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Reeking of amateurish CG and released by the seemingly nonexistent Japan Institute of Science and Technology, this video depicting a pair of miniature hover cars ripped straight out of Sony's WipeOut series sure gets me hungry for some futuristic racing. More »
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Better visuals in the coming generation of games may come courtesy of Mother Nature. Computer graphics researchers at the University of California San Diego were looking for way to create better animation and their work took them into the colorfully iconic rainy-day phenomenon. The results reveal exactly how rainbows manifest and includes new findings on the shapes of raindrops. Now, those researchers claim that simulations of different kinds of rainbows are possible. Those simulations will apparently help create more realistic graphics that will wind up in future video games and movies. Hopefully, this means a lot less grey and brown in the interactive experiences of tomorrow. More »
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Could you kill one person to save five? More »
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Over the years playing games, you've probably fallen into lava hundreds of times. Maybe thousands. Yet for all that falling, and dying, and cursing, did you ever wonder what would actually happen if you wound up on a pool of molten rock? Like, outside of a video game? More »
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Researchers looking at cognitive science have long studied chess. But a story on Scientific American shows that chess' days could soon be numbered, because a superior model is emerging: Blizzard's StarCraft II. More »
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Competitive board games started as a pastime for the elite, spreading to Europe during Roman conquest, according to a new study published in Antiquity. More »
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Is gaming addiction a real psychological affliction that should be recognized by the American Psychiatric Association? According to some studies as many as ten percent of all gamers could be considered gaming addicts. A new study from Texas A&M's Christopher J. Ferguson explains how those studies are doing it wrong. More »
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Who says gaming can't lead to a higher education? Ziyuan Liu and Cassee Cain of Oak Ridge High School in Oak Ridge are splitting a $100,000 college scholarship awarded in the Siemens Foundation's annual high school science competition after creating a Kinect-powered application that uses Microsoft's magical camera to analyze the way a person walks. More »
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Back in June in Birmingham, England, a rather large man died suddenly, a death the coroner has said was caused by an epileptic fit. Given the victim's love of video games, they were linked to the death during a hearing, although the deputy coroner investigating the matter stopped short of citing them as a cause. More »
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Is there any reason you're sitting in front of a computer or plinking away at your cell phone right now, or are you part of the 53 percent of 18 to 29 year-olds that go online just to pass the time on any given day? A new study has determined that a large number of us are here for no good reason. More »
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In a study presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America earlier this week, researchers believe they've found proof that violent video games alter the portion of the brain responsible for controlling emotion and aggressive behavior. How many times are we going to prove this? More »
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You gotta know when to hold them, know when to fold then and know when to press X. According to new research, teenage players who game a considerable amount have an enlarged area of the brain's "reward hub", the area with a high concentration of dopamine. More »
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The National Science Foundation is funding a project at N.C. State University [pictured above] to develop a video game that helps improve computer science knowledge retention in middle school kids. More »
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As part of a study before people are actually sent to Mars, a team of volunteers spent 520 days locked inside a fake spaceship. To see if they could all stay alive and not, you know, kill each other. More »
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The six brave non-adventurers of the Mars500 project yesterday emerged from their capsule for the first time in 18 months, finding they had returned to a dystopic Earth where their Guitar Hero skills were utterly useless. More »
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I was under the impression that it took a creative person to fully appreciate everything video games have to offer. According to recent research conducted at Michigan State University, I may have had that backwards. Does playing video games make you more creative? More »
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Some of gaming's most cunning foes have been computers. Think GlaDOS from Portal, or Shodan from System Shock 2. At least part of what makes them so memorable is that their artificial intelligence is brought to life by a cold, calculating, female voice. More »
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Video games might be the key to fighting off some of the debilitating symptoms of Parkinson's Disease, according to research results released this week. More »
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When Battlefield 3 is out next week, we'll all be playing it on either a TV or a monitor. Some of us on a big TV. Sadly, we won't be playing like this guy is, on a rig that includes five HD projectors, surround sound, a treadmill and...paintball guns? More »
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Research carried out by Nottingham Trent University, and which is soon to be published in the International Journal of Cyber Behaviour, Psychology and Learning, says that hardcore video gamers are having trouble distinguishing the real world from the virtual one. More »
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A study by Villanova University psychologist Patrick Markey suggests that the personality of the person playing a video game is more likely the cause of violent behavior than the actual content of the game. More »
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A recent study conducted by researchers at Michigan State University found that the more time middle school students spent playing games, the more negative an opinion they held about their parents. It seems like a simple matter of cause and effect, but which is which? More »
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Because of the way its camera depicts what it sees, Kinect is being used by researchers to monitor elderly patients for their risk of a fall while still respecting their privacy. The device is helping the University of Missouri's independent living community predict health risks 10 to 14 days before their most serious symptoms manifest. More »
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Lots of video games claim to be scary. Amnesia, Dead Space, you name it, if it's dark and things jump out of closets at you, it's "scary". Don't let video game developers tell you what's scary. Let science. More »
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Sounds like an email spam subject line, I know, but it's actually a claim made by Atari founder Nolan Bushnell. More »
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While gamers have been using video games to combat stress and anxiety for decades, mental health professionals are only just beginning to see the benefits (and potential drawbacks) of interactive entertainment on our physiological well-being. More »
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Do violent video games cause aggressive behavior? According to a recent report published in the journal Psychology of Violence, the competitive aspect of gaming is more likely to generate aggro than mere violence. All this from a bunch of university students, some video games, and some hot sauce. Science is an amazing thing. More »
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A floating avatar head that can look, listen and speak in the real world, a desk-embedded robot mole, high-tech tops, express-changing "minimal humans", phantom haptic gaming chairs. The 38th International Conference and Exhibition on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques sounds like a place of wild dreams and nightmares. More »
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Imagine playing a game that can caress you, run its finger down your back, make you feel as if you're flying, falling, crashing, or bugs are crawling over your face. More »
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What are you doing this summer? This dude is having his robot friend Darwin pick up Dance Dance Revolution. Beats cutting grass! More »
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The notion of the "Uncanny Valley", where artificial people are more disturbing the closer they come to "reality", has been around for ages. But now, thanks to a research team in San Diego, it's bonafide science. More »
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There aren't many things that marijuana users say weed can't make better. Take this guy I used to know. His name was Mike. Every once in a while we'd hang out with a few other guys and play ridiculous amounts of Halo 2. Occasionally Mike would light up during our fragfests. More »
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Space Shuttle Atlantis is fueled, packed with astronauts, supplies and experiments, and waiting to roar its way into space as part of STS-135, the space shuttle program's final mission. More »
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Galileo discovered the language of nature. Einstein questioned the color of rainbows. Today's physicists ponder the vertical acceleration and horizontal velocity of an angry bird in flight. More »
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Regarding life in space, everyone has three questions: How do you poop, has anyone screwed, and can you play video games up there. Alright, maybe the first two are more commonly asked, but we have an answer to the third question now. More »
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Seven years ago, in uncertain times fraught with peril, the president challenged this great nation to, by the end of 2011, rocket-jump and safely land a Spartan from one tower to the second on the Halo: Combat Evolved level "Halo." The nation's greatest minds set about to solving and answering this urgent national priority. And, against formidable odds, yet determined to win in the face of repeated failure, they have at last succeeded. More »
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In a University of Missouri study sure to be cited by anti-gaming pundits for years to come, researchers provide what could be considered solid proof of the link between violent video games, aggression, and wearing funny hats. More »
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