Military and security operations often require that participants move as quickly as possible, while avoiding harm. Humans judge how fast they can drive, how sharply they can turn and how hard they can brake, based on a subjective assessment of vehicle handling, which results from responsiveness to driving commands, ride quality, and prior experience in similar conditions. Vehicle handling is a ...

Physical interactions between particles are the result of the exchange of gauge bosons. Human interactions are mediated by the exchange of messages, goods, money, promises, hostilities, etc. While in the physical world interactions and their associated forces have immediate dynamical consequences (Newton's laws) the situation is not clear for human interactions. Here we quantify the relative ac...

This paper presents new bounds, heuristics, and an exact algorithm for the Pallet Loading Problem (PLP). PLP maximizes the number of boxes placed on a rectangular pallet. All boxes have identical rectangular dimensions and, when placed, must be located completely within the pallet. Boxes may be rotated 90 so long as they are placed with edges parallel to the pallet’s edges. The set of all PLP i...

General intelligence varies with species and environment. Octopuses are highly intelligent, sensing and rapidly learning the complex properties of their world. But as asocial creatures, all their learned knowledge dies with them. Humans, on the other hand, are exceedingly social, gathering much more complex information and sharing it with others in their family, community and wider culture. In ...

How do individuals who switch between opposing sides develop a sense of commitment to their new groups? Study 1 examined these dynamics in a live-action tag game known as Humans versus Zombies, in which players transitioned from being Human to being Zombie, thus turning against their former fellow Humans. Study 2 examined data from professional basketball players in the National Basketball Asso...

Humans are strongly tied to water and our bodies show a number of hydrostrategic attributes—both psychological and physiological—for interacting and dealing with water. We value living near water, derive pleasure and even health benefits from viewing water scenes, and seek out water areas for recreation. Compared to other terrestrial mammals, humans are exceptionally thirsty and have physiologi...