Humans

Research suggests hunter-gatherers were feeding dogs and giving them ritual burials as early as the last ice ageThey are humankind’s best friend, and now ancient DNA analysis has revealed that the enduring bond between dogs and humans dates back more than 15,000 years.The groundbreaking research, published in the journal Nature, pushes back the oldest genetic evidence for domestic dogs by 5,000 years, revealing that hunter-gatherers were feeding the animals and giving them ritual burials long before the emergence of agriculture. Continue reading...

• Georgia Tech researchers developed SAIL (Speed Adaptation for Imitation Learning), allowing robots to learn and execute complex tasks like stacking cups, folding cloth, and food packing significantly faster than human demonstrations. • SAIL robots completed tasks three to four times quicker across 12 evaluated scenarios in simulation and on physical platforms, while preserving precision, control, and safety. • The breakthrough addresses speed barriers in imitation learning, advancing general-purpose robots capable of any human-hand task for industrial and household use.

Monte Verde, thought to be 14,500 years old, had cast doubt on earlier idea for how humans came to western hemisphereA groundbreaking new study may have once again upended our understanding of human prehistory in the Americas.For years, the predominant theory of how humans arrived in the western hemisphere centred around the Clovis culture, which crossed the Beringia land bridge from Asia between 13,400 and 12,800 years ago, and spread south. Continue reading...