Australia is very strict about the kind of games it allows (Konami)Although the Australian Classification Boards website said otherwise, Silent Hill f has not been hit with the ban hammer at least not yet.When Konami laid out all its new Silent Hill projects, it was naturally the remake of Silent Hill 2 that generated the most interest. However, of all the many new titles that have been announced its always Silent Hill f that has looked the most interesting.Written by Ryukishi07, creator of the When They Cry horror visual novel series, its first real trailer is very promising, confirming a new 1960s Japanese setting, a schoolgirl protagonist, and a lot of twisted imagery.With the games website promising drug-induced hallucinations, torture, and graphic violence, it wasnt too surprising to hear that Silent Hill f was already being banned in Australia except it hasnt been.Over the weekend, it was reported that the Australian Classification Board (ACB), which is responsible for providing age ratings for video games (as well as movies and TV shows) had refused classification for Silent Hill f, based on details on their own website.However, in a statement to Stevivor the ACB said this wasnt the case: Silent Hill f is not currently classified as Refused Classification in Australia.It has now removed the incorrect data from the ACB website, adding that a classification decision will be published to the National Classification Database ahead of the games release.Although no official explanation has been given for the error, it is speculated that it was due to a self-reporting tool. The tool requires developers to answer a questionnaire about their games content, so its possible the tool automatically decided Silent Hill f wasnt viable for a release in Australia.Will Silent Hill f be banned?It wouldnt be too shocking if Australia wound up banning Silent Hill f anyway, considering the country is far stricter with censorship than the UK or the US. For the longest time, video games that featured extreme violence, drug use, and nudity were typically banned in Australia, making it the strictest country in the Western world.Silent Hill fs ESRB rating makes it clear that the game will feature such content, listing specific moments that are particularly gory as well as mentioning a nude mannequin-like character, with exposed buttocks and partially exposed breasts. Silent Hills been violent before but the new one sounds like itll take things further (Konami)In 2013 though, Australia introduced the R18+ rating, allowing more mature games to be released in the country. That said, there are still plenty of games that remain banned even with the new age rating, particularly ones that depict or imply sexual violence towards minors.Silent Hill fs protagonist is a teenager, and the trailer and website show she will come to harm throughout the game (as evidenced by her torn school uniform). Not to mention the game will feature instances, or at leastreferences to, child abuse.Depending on how far the violence goes, the ACB could deem the game inappropriate even for an R18+ rating. That or force Konami and developer NeoBards Entertainment to make a censored version, which is what happened with 2008s Silent Hill: Homecoming.When is the Silent Hill f release date?As it stands, Silent Hill f doesnt have any sort of release window. Although given it has already been rated by the ESRB, it stands to reason that itll be out before the end of the year.More TrendingFinnish outlet Muropaketti did suggest the game would launch in July (as shared in the Silent Hill subreddit), but this is likely a mistake on its part since the article has since been updated to remove mention of any date.An autumn launch would make sense, to match the Halloween vibes, but Konami may be eager to avoid clashing with GTA 6, which is still scheduled for a vague autumn release window.In the meantime, Bloober Team, the developer behind the Silent Hill 2 remake, has its own original horror game scheduled for 2025. Titled Cronos: The New Dawn, it has more of a sci-fi aesthetic, as it sees you travel back in time to 1980s Poland after a cataclysmic event has turned people into monsters. After Silent Hill 2, Bloobers earned some cautious optimism for its next original game (Bloober Team)Emailgamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below,follow us on Twitter, andsign-up to our newsletter.To submit Inbox letters and Readers Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use ourSubmit Stuff page here.For more stories like this,check our Gaming page.GameCentralSign up for exclusive analysis, latest releases, and bonus community content.This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Your information will be used in line with our Privacy Policy

By Passant Rabie Published March 25, 2025 | Comments (0) | A red giant star and white dwarf orbit each other in this animation of a nova similar to T Coronae Borealis. NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Astronomers have been watching a small constellation in the night sky, waiting for a nearby binary star system to explode. The wait may finally be over: A numerical estimate predicts the rare nova eruption could happen on Thursday, March 27. T Coronae Borealis (T CrB), also known as the Blaze Star, is a binary star system located 3,000 light-years from Earth. It periodically explodes in a recurring nova every 79 years or so, and its due for an impending eruption. The Blaze Star has spent the past decade behaving much like it did in the lead-up to its last visible eruption nearly 80 years ago,according to NASA.The current window for the rare astronomical event opened in February 2024 and remains open. Astronomy enthusiasts have been keeping a close eye on the skies since last year, waiting for that stellar boom. A paperpublished last year in Research Notes of the American Astronomical Society estimated that the star is likely to explode on Thursday, March 27so get ready to look up. When will the Blaze Star explode? To better pinpoint the next eruption date, the astronomer behind the 2024 study, Jean Schneider of the Paris Observatory, combined the previous explosion dates with the orbital dynamics of the star system. The researcher found that the nova eruptions occurred at intervals that were an exact multiple of the star systems orbital periodmeaning the explosions happened after a specific number of orbits the stars completed around each other. Rather than relying on the behavior of the star system, the paper suggests that T CrB explodes once every 128 orbits, with each orbital period being roughly 227 days. Based on these calculations, the nova is set to take place on March 27. Should it fail to explode on Thursday, Schneider lists two subsequent dates: November 10, 2025 and June 25, 2026. In his paper, he also predicted August 12, 2024, which we can now obviously rule out. To be clear, Schneider is strictly running the numbers; his paper does not take into account the physics of how or why the eruption happens. Its a one-dimensional approach, so his predictions could be way offbut wow would that ever be neat if the Blaze Star erupts according to his unusually strict timeline.What is the T CrB nova? Located in the Corona Borealis constellation, T CrB is a binary system made up of a white dwarf (the remains of a dead star with a mass comparable to that of the Sun squeezed into an Earth-sized body) and an ancient red giant star. The red giant, roughly 1.12 times the mass of our Sun, orbits the white dwarf every 227 days. The two stars are separated by only 0.54 astronomical units, about the same as the distance from the Sun to Venus. The red giant star is slowly being stripped of its hydrogen by the strong gravitational pull of its companion, the white dwarf, as the two are interlocked in a dangerous orbital dance. The material from the red giant star forms an accretion disk, which swirls around the white dwarf. As the hydrogen from the red giant star accretes onto the surface of the white dwarf, it causes a buildup of pressure and heat, which eventually triggers a thermonuclear explosion that blasts away all that material.Unlike a supernova, which destroys a dying star, the dwarf star remains intact after the nova explosion. It does, however, blast the material into space in an explosive flash thats bright enough to see from Earth with the unaided eye. The first recorded sighting of the T CrB nova was more than 800 years ago, and the cycle repeats itself roughly once every 79 years on average. What youll see in the sky When it does take place, the outburst will be brief but it will appear as a new star in the sky for a little less than a week.The star system itself is currently invisible to the unaided eye at a magnitude of +10. However, following its nova explosion, T CrB will be elevated to a magnitude of +2, almost as bright as the North Star. The nova will be visible in the Northern Hemisphere in the Corona Borealis constellation, which forms an arc shape in the night skies. You can spot the stellar explosion without a telescope for several days after it happens. The star system will then begin to dim and wont brighten again for roughly another 80 years, so make sure you catch this rare celestial event.Daily NewsletterYou May Also Like By Passant Rabie Published March 25, 2025 By Passant Rabie Published March 22, 2025 By Isaac Schultz Published March 21, 2025 By Isaac Schultz Published March 19, 2025 By Margherita Bassi Published March 17, 2025 By Isaac Schultz Published March 17, 2025

Discord is supposed to be the voice and video chat made for gamers, but in its current iteration it sucks if all you want is to see your gamer friends bedraggled, sleep-deprived mugs while youre in-game. That may finally change with Discords new update to its overlay. The new version of Discords Game Overlay should make it possible to stick your friends faces where you want, without killing your game performance in the process. If youre like me, now you just need to convince your friends to finally turn on their cameras. Discords current version of Overlay is one of those features you may not know about because it is both limited and too-obtrusive. You need to enable and disable it for your individual games, and getting a call widget to appear on screen takes multiple steps. The new Discord Game Overlay is no longer hooked onto the games window. It instead appears like it would when you open the Xbox Game Bar on PC, darkening the current screen and offering a host of widgets. This offers controls for your voice or webcam, plus you can see your various voice channels, notifications, and video calls. Discord You can then move these widgets around, resize them, and pin them to the screen where it will appear overlayed on your game. The update also offers options to change your voice or audio input without Alt+Tabbing from the game, and you can even pin a friends stream through Discords Go Live feature. Most importantly, this means you can have your friends video calls up on screen and position them away from anything you need to see while in game, like your health or ammo counter. The widget should scale to fit several video feeds at a time, which is good because you can pin up to 25 people on screen for a video call. Discord promises this new version of the Overlay should no longer run interference with any anti-cheat software. Discord noted that previous versions would occasionally get flagged by anti-virus software, so hopefully the new, evolved version of the overlay discards those issues. Previous versions of Overlay didnt play nice with games like Destiny 2 and Street Fighter V. My gaming buddies rarely open up video chats, and in their mind its for a good reason. When your friends have been marinating in their home all day, they may not think themselves in the right state to show their baggy eyes and unshaved faces on camera. Still, having a friend there on video to see your reactions to their miraculous hole in one on Golf With Your Friends may be worth the price of any inhibitions.I personally use Discord for online tabletop RPG games, and I use it whether we play on Tabletop Simulator or Foundry. Online browser-based RPG program Roll20 includes video chat, but its laggy, glitchy, and not worth the hassle for my older, luddite-minded friends. The routine problem is that video chat always remains outside the game, an Alt+Tab away. The new Discord overlay promises I might finally see my friends without needing any extra plugin or have to split our calls between audio on Discord and video on another, worse platform.

Learn more & book demo at https://chaos.com/chaos-arena Watch this video to learn what Chaos Arena is, how it works, and why its a game-changer. Discover its advantages over traditional real-time engines and how it streamlines virtual production, making it accessible for projects of all sizesfrom small setups to large-scale productions.---------------------------------------------------------------------------Imagine. Design. Believe.Chaos provides world-class visualization solutions helping you share ideas, optimize workflows and create immersive experiences. Everything you need to visualize your ideas from start to finish. From architecture and VFX to product design and e-commerce, Chaos empowers creators to bring their projects to life.Our industry-leading tools, including V-Ray, Enscape, and Corona, are built for architects, designers, AEC professionals, and CG artists. Whether youre crafting photorealistic visuals, immersive real-time experiences, or cinematic VFX, Chaos delivers the power and flexibility to render anything. Explore Chaos products https://bit.ly/ExploreChaos Get started with V-Ray https://bit.ly/TryVRay Learn more & get free tutorials https://bit.ly/ChaosWebinars Subscribe for the latest updates! Follow us: LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/ChaosLinkedIn Instagram: https://bit.ly/ChaosIG Facebook: https://bit.ly/Chaos_Facebook #ChaosArena #3DRendering #Visualization

If you could choose one superpower from the animal kingdom, many people might wish for the ability to breathe underwater. Marine ecosystems have long fascinated humans, leading to the development of specialized equipment and techniques to extend the time spent exploring beneath the waves. Unlike humans, marine mammals have evolved remarkable adaptations that allow them to hold their breath for extended periods, enabling them to thrive in aquatic environments.It was traditionally believed that mammals, including marine species, rely on rising carbon dioxide (CO2) levels in their blood to signal when they need to breathe. This is because oxygen levels are not directly perceptible to the brain. However, a recent study published in Science by researchers from the Sea Mammal Research Unit at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland has revealed that wild seals possess a unique ability: they actually can directly sense their own blood-oxygen levels.Freediving and Seals UnderwaterThe deep dive into this research was inspired by lead author Chris McKnights interest in elite freedivers athletes who push the limits of human breath-holding capabilities in disciplines based on depth, time, and distance. Competitive freediving is strictly regulated to prevent accidents, yet blackouts caused by oxygen deprivation (hypoxic syncope) still occur.While an average person can hold their breath for 30 to 90 seconds, trained freedivers can extend this to between 3 and 10 minutes. Through his work with these athletes, McKnight witnessed several blackouts, which occur when the body lacks sufficient oxygen.In an interview on the Science Podcast, McKnight explained that freedivers lose consciousness because their bodies rely on CO2 levels to dictate when to surface. The urge to breathe, the so-called air hunger, is primarily driven by increasing CO2 rather than decreasing oxygen levels.However, when it comes to seals animals capable of holding their breath for over an hour he suspected they might use a different strategy. His hypothesis was that seals must possess a sensory mechanism that directly detects oxygen levels rather than relying on CO2, as oxygen is the gas critical for survival.Read More: Are Leopard Seals as Dangerous as You Think?Seals Respond Directly to Oxygen LevelsTesting this hypothesis in wild seals proved far more challenging than studying human freedivers. To conduct their research, McKnight and his team brought six juvenile wild-caught grey seals (Halichoerus grypus) into the Sea Mammal Research Unit. The seals were trained to participate in a simulated foraging task, swimming between a controlled breathing chamber and an underwater feeding station.This experimental setup allowed the researchers to manipulate the seals inhaled oxygen and CO2 levels while monitoring their diving behavior. The results challenged previous assumptions: the duration of the seals' dives was closely linked to their blood-oxygen levels, whereas elevated CO2 had little to no effect on how long they stayed submerged.The researchers found that even when the seals were subjected to CO2 levels far exceeding those in the natural environment, their dive durations remained consistent. In contrast, when oxygen concentrations were adjusted whether increased or reduced there was a noticeable change in how long the seals stayed submerged. This suggests that their ability to regulate breath-holding is primarily governed by oxygen levels rather than CO2 buildup.An Evolutionary AdvantageIn contrast to humans, whose breath-holding capacity is dictated by CO2 levels, seals appear to have a cognitive ability to perceive oxygen levels directly. This allows them to regulate their dives more efficiently and avoid dangerous oxygen depletion.McKnight explained this from an evolutionary perspective, "If marine animals experienced blackouts like freedivers do, they would not survive in the wild. Evolution would have strongly selected against such vulnerability, particularly in species that transitioned from terrestrial to fully aquatic lifestyles. A faulty gas perception system simply would not be sustainable."Given that similar diving adaptations have evolved independently in various marine mammal species, it is likely that other diving animals also possess this unique ability to monitor their own oxygen levels directly.Article SourcesOur writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:Science Podcast: Why seals dont drown, and tracking bird poop as it enters the seaHaving worked as a biomedical research assistant in labs across three countries, Jenny excels at translating complex scientific concepts ranging from medical breakthroughs and pharmacological discoveries to the latest in nutrition into engaging, accessible content. Her interests extend to topics such as human evolution, psychology, and quirky animal stories. When shes not immersed in a popular science book, youll find her catching waves or cruising around Vancouver Island on her longboard.

A cluster of pyroxene and plagioclase feldspar crystals from Edison Butte in Oregon seen in doubly polarized light. Credit: Erik KlemettiNewsletterSign up for our email newsletter for the latest science newsTo many people, a rock is just a rock. If anyone has been house shopping, you know how realtors will mention that the countertops are "granite" and you might wonder why, from house to house, they all look so different. Turns out (much to the chagrin of geologists in the housing market), those countertops are likely neither granite nor all the same type of rock. That's because rocks are made of different minerals and rocks get their names (mostly) from what minerals they contain.Now, much of the time, once you've been trained to identify minerals, you can use those skills to give a rock its proper name. The countertop has quartz, plagioclase feldspar, potassium feldspar and biotite? That is likely granite. At another house it is all calcite...now that's marble.Slicing Up the RocksHowever, the people who study how these rocks form take it at least one step further and that is looking at rocks under the microscope. However, this isn't your garden variety "make everything bigger" microscope. We don't just take a sample in the same form it comes out of the ground. Instead, geologists make what we call "thin sections" ... which are exactly what it sounds like: very thin slices of rock, usually glued to a glass slide.A thin section of a lava sample from Laacher See in Germany. The slice of rock mounted on the glass slide is only ~30 micrometers (~0.001 inches) thick. Tiny duck for scale. Credit: Erik KlemettiHow thin? Well, most slices of rock on thin sections are cut and polished down to 30 micrometers. That is less than the thickness of most people's hair strands. Why do we bother with making thin sections so, well, thin? Because once you cut the rock that thin, light can pass through much of the material of the rock. Yes, see-through rocks.If that isn't cool enough, the microscopes we use to look at these thin sections utilize a very special kind of light called "polarized light". That might sound familiar because good sunglasses are polarized, so they only let light that is vibrating in one plane through to your eye, thus reducing the exposure of sunlight to your relatively fragile eyes. In a petrographic microscope, the light is first polarized, then the thin section is placed in that beam of light and then that light passes through a second polarizer.A weird thing happens to polarized light if you place a second polarizer oriented at a right angle to the first. That light vanishes. Okay, it doesn't vanish as much as it gets blocked. The light is vibrating all in one direction hits a filter that only lets light vibrating at a right angle through, so like a cow trying to fit through a fence, nothing gets through. So, why can you see stuff in the microscope when the light is "doubly polarized"?Bending the LightThat's because minerals are crystals and crystals can refract light. This means the light will be split into two "rays" that are vibrating at a different angle that the starting light. So, you slap a thin section full of minerals (aka, a rock) between the first polarizer and second polarizer, the mineral will refract the light. That refracted light hits the second polarizer and is recombined as some of the light is allowed through. The refraction and recombination of light is dependent on the crystal structure of the mineral and the orientation of the minerals.Each mineral type has a specific crystal structure, so they will show up differently in doubled polarized light, but their optical properties will also be specific for that mineral type. That means we can identify minerals using how they appear in doubly polarized light under a microscope!Hornblende (brown) with dark reaction rims in plain (singly) polarized light from a sample of rhyolite from Edison Butte, Oregon. Credit: Erik KlemettiEven in singly polarized light, some minerals betray their identity. In the image above, the brown mineral is hornblende. Most of the other minerals are white (clear), but hornblende is one of the few minerals that shows color in singly polarized light.However, throw the second polarizer in the light of sight and you get this:Hornblende (bright colors) from Edison Butte, Oregon, seen in doubly polarized light. Large plagioclase feldspar crystals can be seen below the hornblende, all embedded in a matrix of volcanic glass and feldspar crystals. Credit: Erik KlemettiSuddenly, there is a lot more color and the rock looks a lot darker. That's because some of the light is being blocked by some minerals and other minerals are refracting the light. Hornblende suddenly has the bright yellows, blues and pinks. The white, grey and black minerals that look like blades are plagioclase feldspars.The Fine DetailsOn top of that, different things that can happen to minerals like reactions or growth defects or "twinning" will also show up when you examine them in doubly polarized light. The image below shows a cluster of big plagioclase feldspar crystals showing both twinning (when crystals grow with changing orientation) and zoning (when conditions change in the magma as it crystallizes). A wide view of part of a thin section (at 4x) from Edison Butte rhyolite with plagioclase feldspar (in the box), pyroxene (yellow, purple, blue) and other minerals. The larger rectangle shows the field of view at 10x (below) and the smaller shows the field of view at 40x (two below). Credit: Erik KlemettiI've zoomed in (from 4x to 10x) on the most impressive crystal to show just how thin the zoning can be in a crystal. The scale at the top left is only 0.2 millimeters, so each band in the crystal is some small fraction of that sub-millimeter scale.Plagioclase feldspar crystal from Edison Butte rhyolite showing zoning, seen at 10x in doubly polarized light. Credit: Erik KlemettiIf I zoom in more, from 10x to 40x, the first thing you notice is that the image is a little blurry. That's just because of the high magnification. However, you can see just how fine the zoning layers are and you can see little inclusions in the crystal. Usually those are imperfections that trap a little bit of the magma and then quickly cools into glass. We call them "melt inclusions" and they tell us a lot about the conditions that the crystals formed.Plagioclase feldspar from Edison Butte rhyolite seen at 40x in doubly polarized light. Credit: Erik KlemettiThat is a very quick look at how geologists examine rocks, at least using light. It might be a technique that has been around for hundreds of years, but it is a necessary and vital part of the research process! It can illuminate much about the rock without needing to do anything more than make a thin section and use your eyes. Once you have that context, the geochemical or isotopic analyses that follow can give us even more insight, all built off of your observations.earth science1 free article leftWant More? Get unlimited access for as low as $1.99/monthSubscribeAlready a subscriber?Register or Log In1 free articleSubscribeWant more?Keep reading for as low as $1.99!SubscribeAlready a subscriber?Register or Log In

A baby hummingbird might have a special way of warding off predators, which threaten tropical hummingbird species in infancy. Baby White-necked jacobins (Florisuga mellivora) in Panama seem to pretend to be a fuzzy and dangerous caterpillar. The findings are detailed in a study published March 17 in the journal Ecology.White-necked jacobins are a medium-sized neotropical hummingbird species primarily found in Mexico, Central America, and parts of South America. They feed on the nectar in the areas plentiful trees and breed early in the wet seasons. In Panama, the rainy season is roughly from May through December.In March 2024, the team from this study spotted a White-necked jacobin nest with one female and one egg inside within Panamas Soberana National Park. Since this was the first of these hummingbirds that some of the team had ever spotted, they monitored the nest regularly and recruited a videographer to help document the events.Newly hatched White-necked jacobin chick. Notice its dorsal fluffy down feathers. CREDIT: Michael Castao-Daz. About 18 to 20 days later, they noticed that the egg had hatched. Surprisingly, the new baby hummingbird sported long, fluffy down feathers on its back. This plumage made the tiny bird look like a dangerous caterpillar. Some caterpillar species cover themselves with stinging hairs that can cause skin reactions and inflammation, and even headaches, nausea, and fever in humans.Additionally, a bird called Cinereous mourner (Laniocera hypopyrra) is known for chicks that mimic toxic caterpillars. Keeping this species in mind, the team scoured the internet for photos of related humming bird species and some non-related hummingbird species to see how common these types of feathers are. Most of the other hummingbird species they looked at do not have these particular feathers, showing just how special they are.The team also saw that the nest appeared to be covered in seeds from local balsa trees. These seeds are also hairy-looking and help camouflage the chick and it is possible that the feathers are used more for hiding the chick and not for making predators think they are caterpillars. However, they did observe the chick moving like some of the caterpillars do when a carnivorous wasp was nearby. Since White-necked jacobins build open cup-like nests in exposed tree branches near the ground, these strategies might have evolved in this species over time. More long-term research is needed to support these hypotheses.Caterpillar of the family Megalopygidae, known for its hairs that can cause painful reactions when touched. CREDIT: Herschel Raney, iNaturalist According to the team, who represent the University of Colorado Boulder, the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, and the National Science Foundation, tropical forests like these are full of mysteries and future discoveries. These findings show how every observation and collaboration especially might reveal something exciting.We know so little about what nesting birds do in the tropics, Jay Falk, a study co-author and postdoctoral scholar working with the University of Colorado Boulder and the STRI, said in a statement. But if we put more effort into observing the natural world, we might discover these kinds of behavior are very common.The post Baby hummingbird appears to mimic caterpillar to avoid death appeared first on Popular Science.

The Curiosity rover, seen in its selfie above, has operated on Mars since 2012. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSSThe Mars Curiosity rovers onboard mini-lab has helped confirm the existence of the largest organic molecules ever found on the Red Planet. The trio of long-chain compounds preserved in Martian soil are believed to be the remnants of prebiotic components required for life to develop on Earth. Researchers published evidence on March 24 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, which builds on their work that began over a decade ago.In May 2013, Curiosity started drilling into an area known as Yellowknife Bay in the Gale Crater. Scientists were interested in examining the region not for what it is today, but for what it may have been millions of years ago. Yellowknife Bay wasnt a randomly chosen namethe arid and desolate landscapes features still hint at a large, long-evaporated lakebed.Curiositys soil survey, nicknamed Cumberland, has been analyzed multiple times inside its Sample Analysis on Mars (SAM) onboard mini-lab and has yielded a trove of new information about the planets past. In particular, it is rich in clay minerals that often form in water, and contains sufficient amounts of sulfur to help preserve organic molecules. Cumberland also features nitrates crucial to healthy animal and plant life, as well as methane containing a specific type of carbon associated with biological processes.Most striking, though, was conclusive confirmation that Yellowknife Bay once hosted an ancient lake, further supporting the theory that Mars was once home to life of some kind.This graphic shows the long-chain organic molecules decane, undecane, and dodecane. These are the largest organic molecules discovered on Mars to date. They were detected in a drilled rock sample called Cumberland that was analyzed by the Sample Analysis at Mars lab inside the belly of NASAs Curiosity rover. The rover, whose selfie is on the right side of the image, has been exploring Gale Crater since 2012. An image of the Cumberland drill hole is faintly visible in the background of the molecule chains.Credit: NASA/Dan Gallagher Experts have since spent years examining data gleaned from SAM mini-lab analyses. In one recent experiment, a team including Glavin and Caroline Freissinet, an astrobiologist at the French National Center for Scientific Research worked to locate evidence of amino acids inside the Cumberland sample. While they didnt find them that time, something else caught their eye: trace amounts of three carbon-chain molecules known as a decane, undecane, and dodecane. With 10, 11, and 12 carbons respectively, researchers believe these organic compounds may be residual fragments of fatty acids needed for cell membrane formation and other biological functions.These fatty acids arent always definitive proof of life, however. Geological events like water-mineral interactions in hydrothermal vents can also produce similar molecules. That said, the length of many of the Cumberland soil carbon-chains could suggest otherwise. Depending on the molecule, organic life fatty acids often contain chains of 11-13 carbon atoms, while non-biological fatty acids usually contain 12 or fewer carbons. This means that at least some of the large organic molecules detected by Freissinets team may have once existed in organic life. Whats more, the discovery eases worries that Martian biosignatures couldnt survive tens of millions of years of exposure to destructive oxidation and radiation. Get the Popular Science newsletter Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. By signing up you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.Our study proves that, even today, by analyzing Mars samples we could detect chemical signatures of past life, if it ever existed on Mars, Freissinet, who also served as the latest studys lead author, said in a statement.There is evidence that liquid water existed in Gale Crater for millions of years and probably much longer, which means there was enough time for life-forming chemistry to happen in these crater-lake environments on Mars, added Daniel Glavin, study co-author and sample return senior scientist at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center.Unfortunately, Freissinet and colleagues can only discover so much using Curiositys SAM mini-lab. Organic fatty acid chains are often much longer than just 12 carbons, but the rovers equipment isnt designed to detect those. Luckily, NASA is ready and willing to assist in the next chapter of Martian exploration.We are ready to take the next big step and bring Mars samples home to our labs to settle the debate about life on Mars, Glavin said.Glavin, Freissinet, and colleagues may be waiting a while for that next step, however. While NASA has long planned on a Mars Sample Return mission, a ballooning budget and an uncertain future may push the project as far back as 2040.

NewsPlantsA nearly century-old dead date palm tree helped solve an ancestry mysteryThe iconic Cape Verde date palm comes from cultivated trees gone feral New data for a long-running debate on the origins of Cape Verdes treasured date palms raise questions about tweaking their scientific name.William J. Baker/Plants, People, Planet 2025By Susan Milius5 seconds agoWhat the island nation of Cape Verde cherishes as its own distinctive kind of date palm is getting an ancestry reveal.The Cape Verde date palm (Phoenix atlantica), native to the island nation its nicknamed for, is one of three trees there that dont grow in the wild anywhere else. The islands, scattered off western Africas big bulge, have six known species of native trees all together.Now a new DNA and seed-shape analysis adds weight to the idea that the remote palms arent desert-island wildlings at all. Researchers analyzed DNA from various Cape Verde date palms including a precious bit of the original 1934 specimen that a roving French botanist used to define the species.

Nature, Published online: 25 March 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00927-1Lesotho matters