When the Mirage Hotel and Casino opened in 1989, it kicked off one of the most significant construction booms in recent history. Four new mega-casinos opened in quick succession on the Las Vegas Strip, bringing in tens of thousands of new residents to work as card dealers, cocktail servers, security guards and maids.

Eight years ago, news outlets roundly declared that the Great Recession killed the Las Vegas dream, or at least mauled it. They described swaths of darkness in the Strip’s sea of lights, with unemployment and foreclosure rippling from an epicenter of stalled construction. Gaming and tourism took heavy losses as budgets tightened. The boomtown busted, and the state with it.

While 3D printed prosthetics are good at helping people complete simple tasks like holding a pen or opening a door, we’ve also seen some special 3D printed prostheses for use in activities like playing an instrument, running, or playing sports, like baseball. 7-year-old Hailey Dawson, who is missing the three middle fingers on her right hand, wants to show people that kids with handicaps like hers can still have great lives and enjoy normal activities. You may ask how exactly she plans to do this, and the answer is pretty interesting – by throwing out the ceremonial first pitch for every Major League Baseball (MLB) game.

A sound night’s sleep grows more elusive as people get older, but what some call insomnia may actually be an age-old survival mechanism.

Trouble sleeping is a common complaint among older folks, but what if their insomnia traces back to prehistoric times when Grandma and Grandpa were in charge of keeping the cave safe at night?

If your sleep is getting worse with age, evolution might be to blame. A study recently published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B found that humans' age-specific sleep patterns may have evolved to protect mixed-age groups from potential danger in the night. And in this scenario, the elderly members of these groups may have drawn the short straw—their restless sleep made them perfect for the night watch.

You may not look forward to sleeping less as you get older. But maybe it wouldn’t seem as bad if you knew it once played an important role in human survival.

Twelve high school students stood inside a classroom at UNLV, each facing a laptop and timer on a chair. Matt Gomez, the debate lab leader, instructed the students to set the timer for five minutes and pull up the lengthy evidence files on their screens.