High grades despite videogames

High grades despite videogames
Yes, kids who love videogames do less homework. So what? Researchers from the University of Michigan and the University of Texas at Austin found that boys who play games on school days spend 30 percent less time on homework than those who don8217;t; girls spend 34 percent less. But the researchers say school performance may not suffer as one might expect: many kids who indulge in videogames are actually high achievers who don8217;t need to spend as much time on homework.

Bad knees will mend either way
Following anterior cruciate ligament ACL surgery, some doctors recommend a costly, rigid knee brace for support during recovery and others a neoprene sleeve. A new study finds that neither works better than the other. ACL tears, in which a stabilising knee ligament is fully or partially ripped, are common among athletes. While a patient is recovering from surgery, braces and sleeves are frequently prescribed by doctors to keep the knee secure. The study, presented last week at the annual meeting of the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine, split 150 male and female athletes into equal groups who wore either a functional knee brace or neoprene sleeve. After two years, knees were measured for stability. There was a 0.1 millimeter difference between the two groups in the degree of movement between the two bones of the knee, the researchers found. And on a quality-of-life questionnaire that covered symptoms, sports participation and lifestyle, the two groups differed by one point out of 100. However, for a subset of patients, a brace would be useful.

Nine-inch robot walks like a man, climbs hills
A typical walking robot can only make baby steps. A bipedal robot may be able to walk on a smooth, level surface, but throw in a few bumps or hills and it is likely to fall flat on its silicon posterior. Researchers at the University of Goettingen in Germany are reporting progress in developing a robot that can adapt to different terrain, adjusting its gait and posture after a few learning experiences.

The 9-inch high machine, called RunBot, has already been shown to be able to walk at a good clip about 3.5 leg lengths per second, compared with a sprinter8217;s 4 to 5 per second. Florentin Woergoetter and colleagues describe its adaptive capabilities in a paper in the online journal PLoS Computational Biology.