John Edwards, Technology Journalist & AuthorApril 4, 20255 Min ReadIngram Publishing via Alamy Stock PhotoInnovations arrive at a rapid pace. To stay on top of the latest promising breakthroughs -- and weed out the flops -- IT leaders must create and staff innovation projects. Yet when working with limited resources (and which IT leader isn't?), it's important to find a way to prioritize initiatives.Start by mapping each project to a specific business goal or customer need -- this ensures real impact, advises Rohan Sharma, a former innovation team leader at scientific instrumentation firm Thermo Fisher Scientific and now an independent author and lecturer. "Next, weigh key factors such as ROI, resource availability, and risk tolerance," he recommends in an email interview. "Finally, create a transparent scoring or ranking system so everyone understands why certain projects come first."Sharma says this approach forces discipline. "Instead of running with the coolest idea, youre aligning with strategy and measurable outcomes," he explains. "It also demystifies decision-making for your team, reinforcing trust and focus."Risks and RewardsA reliable way to prioritize innovation projects is to weigh each initiative's risks and rewards, suggests Nick Esposito, founder of NYCServers, which specializes in hosting services for fintech and trading platforms. "It's about looking at the potential impact, how doable the project is, and whether it fits with the companys long-term goals," he says in an online interview.Related:Esposito notes that projects with a potentially high financial or competitive reward are generally worth prioritizing -- just as long as the risks remain manageable. Don't forget to consider the project's time-sensitivity and whether it can be completed on schedule, he adds. "By focusing on projects that offer the biggest benefits with reasonable risks, organizations can get the most out of their innovation efforts."Innovative ApproachesPrateek Shrivastava, advanced analytics manager at engine and power-generation manufacturer Cummins, says his team relies on what he calls "The WIZGIF Method," an abbreviation of "What Is the Goal in Focus?" "This approach ensures that every project is evaluated based on its alignment with the overarching business goal," he explains in an online interview. "By breaking down priorities into clear, actionable criteria -- such as business impact, strategic alignment, feasibility, and required resources -- it creates a structured framework for decision-making."Shrivastava believes that his WIZGIF method is effective, since it forces clarity and alignment from the outset. "By keeping the business goal in sharp focus, it minimizes distractions and ensures that all efforts are contributing to the organizations strategic objectives," he states. "This approach fosters collaboration and transparency while keeping teams agile in responding to evolving needs."Related:Benjamin Atkinson, innovation director at CNA Insurance, takes an alternate position. He feels that project prioritization should be generally avoided. "When we talk of innovation, we're usually talking about problem-solving in a complex adaptive system," he says via email. "We simply can't know in advance which ideas will succeed -- picking winning ideas is a loser's game."If leaders want successful ideas, they must provide their teams with a clear direction, a clearly defined problem space, and known constraints, Atkinson says. "If leaders take the time to do this, they will have created a magnet for good ideas."Seeking SupportSharma says cross-functional peers in areas such as finance, operations, and product teams, are the best innovation allies. "They offer diverse viewpoints on feasibility, budget, and timing," he explains. "Tapping into an executive sponsor can also help keep priorities aligned with the bigger organizational picture."Related:Working closely with cross-functional teams, including business analysts, finance departments, and product managers, can provide a clear understanding of a projects feasibility and potential value, Esposito says. External consultants and other industry experts can also offer valuable insights, especially when exploring new or unfamiliar technologies. "Collaborating with these resources ensures a comprehensive view of market trends, technological advancements, and business needs to inform decisions."Sharma says the biggest mistake project leaders make is spreading resources too thinly or chasing "shiny objects" without any clear business alignment. Meanwhile, trying to focus on everything at once guarantees mediocre results across the board, he adds.Parting ThoughtsDon't consider any new project without first establishing a solid prioritization framework. "A strong prioritization framework is a living process, not a one-off exercise," Sharma says. "Keep refining it based on feedback and results," he advises. "Additionally, by embracing ongoing learning, you'll cultivate a culture that values both innovative thinking and practical execution."Prioritization is not a one-time activity -- it's a continuous process that requires alignment, evaluation, and adaptability, Shrivastava says. "Methods like WIZGIF are valuable because they provide a consistent framework to revisit priorities, make dynamic adjustments, and ensure that resources are always directed toward maximum value creation."About the AuthorJohn EdwardsTechnology Journalist & AuthorJohn Edwards is a veteran business technology journalist. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and numerous business and technology publications, including Computerworld, CFO Magazine, IBM Data Management Magazine, RFID Journal, and Electronic Design. He has also written columns for The Economist's Business Intelligence Unit and PricewaterhouseCoopers' Communications Direct. John has authored several books on business technology topics. His work began appearing online as early as 1983. Throughout the 1980s and 90s, he wrote daily news and feature articles for both the CompuServe and Prodigy online services. His "Behind the Screens" commentaries made him the world's first known professional blogger.See more from John EdwardsWebinarsMore WebinarsReportsMore ReportsNever Miss a Beat: Get a snapshot of the issues affecting the IT industry straight to your inbox.SIGN-UPYou May Also Like

Is it time to consider a new IT specialty like automation engineering?Jobs site Indeed defines an automation engineer as someone who will search for ways to simplify activities for employees, consumers and companies by automating specific systems and manufacturing processes, like store checkouts or assembly lines. These individuals work alongside IT and department managers to develop automation plans and then implement automation into business processes.They use programming languages like Java, C# and Python, and they know how to work with machine actuators and sensors. Most importantly, they possess expertise in the application areas they are asked to automate. In other words, a retail automation expert might have skills in how to automate grocery checkout lines in stores, but they might not know much about how to automate a manufacturing company's assembly line.In the area of robotics, many of the skills needed for automation engineers carry over for robotics engineers. A primary difference is that a robotics engineer is working on a robot. The goal is to program the robot with the necessary instructions for it to fit into an existing business process.Examples of how working robots are used include programming a robot so it can enter a nuclear facility to perform maintenance, or activating a warehouse robot that can store, pick, and deliver parts from bins throughout the warehouse while successfully navigating around obstacles on the floor.Related:Robotics engineers use languages like C and C# and they commonly work on Linux platforms and must be familiar with the technologies of the particular robotics vendors they are using.Automation and robotics engineers are in high demand in business, although it costs considerably more to recruit an automation engineer (mid-100,000s salary range) than it is to hire a robotics engineer (the mid-point salary is around $80,000/year).Where Do These Engineers Report?Robotics and automation engineers must have the ability to cross-communicate with different departments when they implement solutions. They also need a thorough understanding of the different enterprise systems where the automation or robotics technologies will be deployed. Its not much of a stretch to see that many of the system knowledge and cross-communicational requirements are exactly what one would find resident with an IT business analyst. The difference is that an automation or robotics engineer would have greater skills in programming, and in working with various mechanical and electronic interfaces.Related:As a CIO, I once had a project that required automation between our engineering CAD design database and the parts inventory, bill of material and work order systems on the manufacturing floor. There were too may disconnects between engineering and manufacturing. We wanted to eliminate this by integrating and automating information flows between the CAD system and the manufacturing systems.Engineering was running a standalone CAD system on an entirely different platform from what manufacturing was using to run its bills of material, inventory, and work orders.The initial decision was for IT to take the lead in this integration-automation project because IT touched all systems (except for engineerings standalone CAD system). However, we found out quickly that engineering didnt want to relinquish any control of its CAD systems for the automation project.We solved this by teaming an engineer from engineering with a programmer-analyst from IT and a manufacturing engineer from, and we got the project done. It wasnt the easiest project that we ever did.Can IT Avoid Getting Involved?That project with engineering, manufacturing and IT came early in my CIO career, and I learned quickly that automation projects have many different pieces, engage many different departments, and can quickly become as politically charged as they are technically challenging.Related:Ive talked to several other CIOs about how to get past politics. Some are more than happy to just have the departments that want to automate retain their own consultants or hire in the people -- and do the work themselves -- but Ive seldom seen this work. Why? Because invariably, the consultant or the engineer that a department brings in has a question about how to integrate with other enterprise systems that IT manages.One way or another, IT will be involved.Is There a Best Approach?From personal experience and from conversations Ive had with other managers, an optimal approach to automation and robotics when IT works with engineering-oriented departments such as manufacturing, is to place the automation or robotics engineer in the engineering or manufacturing areas. Then the engineers can be savvy on the departments business processes as well as on the automation and robotics technologies that are needed. In this scenario, IT would be assisting primarily in system integration.However, if the company is in finance, healthcare, retail, or other non-engineering-oriented businesses, its likely that IT might be the best destination for a robotics or automation engineer, because the user departments wont have the necessary skillset.In all cases, automation and robotics projects require strong collaboration and cooperation between departments and IT. In this way, everyone can be assured that they are moving into each project with a complete and comprehensive knowledge base of the business, the systems, and what they want to automate.

Your missionThe product you'll help develop will have a direct impact on the maritime sector, which facilitates over 90% of global trade. You'll sit at the intersection of our product and technical teams, collaborating to deliver a cutting-edge SaaS platform that delights our customers. In this role, youll not only drive product development but also shape our tech stack and influence the architecture that powers our innovative solutions.About the roleWe're seeking a highly skilled and proactive engineer to join our team full-time, in developing a platform which will revolutionize the way decisions are made in shipping. The role presents a great opportunity for individuals who are interested in building platforms powered by Generative AI technologies and can thrive in fast-moving and dynamic environmentsResponsibilities Own and develop core product features on both the frontend and backend of our product.Contribute to the overall architecture of the platformMaintain and improve our codebase for optimal performance.Conduct code reviews and perform debugging tasks.Our tech StackTypeScriptServerlessPythonAWSLlmsReactLangchain SkillsProven track record with significant hand-on experience in full-stack developer roles, preferably as a Senior Software Engineer.Comprehensive knowledge of JavaScript/Typescript and server-side development.Proficient in working with diverse database technologies, with a preference for candidates with excellent knowledge of Postgresql and NoSql.You have extensive experience with AWS and experience with Serverless technologies like Lambdas and SST framework.Prior experience with agentic products leveraging LLMs would be a big plusGood understanding of product development practices.Fluent in English and an excellent communicatorAt Sealenic, were building the future of maritime decision-making. If youre passionate about data, innovation, and building impactful solutions, wed love to hear from you!Note: Please no agencies or outsourcing services.

Scheme expected to double annual passenger numbers to 32 millionHow the new terminal building would look when built1/3show captionPlans to expand Luton Airport have been given the green light by the government.It comes despite the Planning Inspectorate recommending transport secretary Heidi Alexander reject them over environmental concerns.Luton Rising, the airports owners, said the decision to grant a development consent order could bring significant economic, employment and social benefits for our town.The proposals will see passenger numbers almost double to 32 million a year, the airport said.WSP are providing design services on the scheme with the project team also includingArup, Aecom, York Aviation, BDB Pitmans, CBRE, Riccardo, Hope, and other parts of WSP.Source: ShutterstockAnnual passenger numbers at the airport could be doubled to 32 milion under the plansPaul Kehoe, chair of Luton Rising which is owned by Luton borough council, said: We welcome the announcement from the Secretary of State for Transport that our application for the long-term sustainable growth of our airport has been approved. Todays decision enables us to continue detailed planning for the next chapter in the success story of London Luton Airport.The benefits are clear. At a new capacity of 32 million passengers per year, our scheme will deliver up to 11,000 new jobs, additional annual economic activity of up to 1.5bn, and up to an additional 13m every year for communities and good causes.

Planning uncertainty triggered by proposed Mayoral Development Corporation could be damaging, GLA committee toldCllr Richard Olszewski speaking at a London Assembly planning and regeneration committeeSadiq Khans dramatic plans to pedestrianise Oxford Street have been backed by Camdens council leader at a Greater London Authority committee, despite warnings from another witness about the schemes potential impact on investment.The mayor of London released his proposals for the redevelopment of the area last September and, at the end of February, published a consultation on creating a Mayoral Development Corporation to deliver the plan.Khan is seeking responsibility for plan-making and the determination of planning applications across the area around Oxford Street, the vast majority of which lies in Westminster, with a small part of Camden also included.The council leader for the latter borough, Cllr Richard Olszewski, told a London Assembly planning and regeneration committee earlier this week that he and his peers at the council welcome the proposals which could transform the area and the wider West End by increasing visitors, improving air quality, creating more jobs and supporting businesses to thrive.He added that Camden was also seeking to form a partnership and set agreements with the Mayor to ensure local residents could play an active and full part in its future.> Also read:New project team to be appointed on Khans 150m Oxford Street plansHowever, the committee meeting also saw the plans subjected to strong criticism from Tim Lord, chair of The Soho Society and the Westminster Amenity Societies Forum, both organisations representing the area around Oxford Street and the West End.Lord said that Khans September announcement had been a tragic mistake because there had been consensus around an existing scheme for the redevelopment of the area.Urban design practice Publica had previously been working on a 90m plan for the street proposed by Westminster council, which had blocked a previous attempt at pedestrianisation in 2018 due to concerns over the need to reroute traffic into quieter surrounding streets.Sadiq Khans original plans for the streets pedestrianisation were blocked by Westminster council in 2018All of that work has now been lost and wasted because of a press release from the mayor in September saying that he might consider pedestrianization that then triggered all the businesses to pull their funding from that scheme, and the residents are, I would say, pretty disappointed, said Lord.We now have a whole debate about what will happen to all of planning in the mayoral development area.I think all of the property developers will wait till the end of that debate before they make any more investments, because the planning rules might change.We might have a different planning policy for the mayoral development area than we do for the rest of Westminster.The consultation on the creation of a Mayoral Development Corporation will continue until 2 May 2025.As well as planning powers, the proposals would see the GLA take responsibility for the road itself and retain the nieghbourhood portion of the Community Infrastructure Levy for developments within the designated area.The MDC would be controlled by a board of up to 13 members including an independent chair appointed by the Mayor and representatives from each of the two councils.The London Assembly has the power to veto the designation of a Mayoral Development Area with a two-thirds majority vote, although this would require some of the mayors own party to support the veto.

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April 4, 20256 min readMeet the Fluffy, Funky and Fabulous Native Bees That Call the U.S. HomeScientists estimate there are about 4,000 species of native bees in the U.S.and theyre both cooler and ecologically more important than honeybeesBy Meghan Bartels edited by Andrea ThompsonA Martinapis luteicornis bee found in the desert in Cochise County, Arizona. Amanda Robinson//USGS Bee Lab via FlickrSpring has finally arrived in the U.S., bringing its bright spectacle of budding trees and migrating birds, along with more subtle but equally important changesamong them, the first emergence of native bees.But native bees doesnt actually include the insect most of us picture upon hearing the word bee. That yellow-and-black-striped, hive-living, honey-making critterformally Apis melliferahails from Europe. Farmers rely on these tiny imports as, essentially, livestock animals that pollinate food crops and produce honey. But their wild, native counterparts are something completely different.An Agapostemon sericeus found in Prince Georges County, Maryland. The genus Agapostemon is full of bright blue or green, metallic-looking bees that are classified as sweat bees, even though, unlike their relatives, they are not attracted to human sweat.Wayne Boo//USGS Bee Lab via FlickrOn supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.Take the majority of what you know about honeybees and throw it away, says Sydney Shumar, a biologist and manager of the U.S. Geological Surveys Bee Lab. It does not apply to our native bee friends. To celebrate spring, Scientific American spoke with Shumar about North American native bee species variety, differences from honeybees and importance in their ecosystem.[An edited transcript of the interview follows.]Do I have this right that there are more than 4,000 native bee species in the U.S.? How is that number so big?The reason why there are so many native bees is you have all these different little things evolving to pollinate groups or species of plants. So they all have very different characteristics. When you look at pictures of our native bees, they look totally different than a honeybee, and you have huge ranges of color, size, how they collect pollen and how they nest.A Melissodes desponsa found in Maine. The species is closely associated with thistles and can be found across much of the eastern U.S. and Canada.Dejen Mengis/USGS Bee Lab via FlickrWhat are they like, and how do they live?There are no native bees in North America that live in a hive or produce honey. Most of them live in very small family units, or you could think of it as more like an apartment where you might have families aggregating together.If you go anywhere in the United States, you are bound to find some native bees. Sydney Shumar, biologistNone of them produce honey; none of them produce wax; none of them make big structures like you would think of with a honeybee. Some are stem-nesting; most of them are ground-nesting, so when youre walking around in the winter, you are walking on top of millions of ground-nesting bees that are just laying low until its time for them to come out with spring.Is this true even in cities? Do they have preferences or types of ground that they need?A lot of our native bees are specialists, so they do like a particular type of soil; we have a couple that particularly like sand. In cities and more urban areas, you have a lot of impervious surfaces, so that is going to make it harder for them. But if you have loose soil, if you have native plants, youre most likely going to find native bees.A Melitta eickworti found in Rockingham, Va. The species is a type of blunt-horn bee that specializes in pollenating deerberry shrubs.Erick Hernandez/USGS Bee Lab via FlickrAre there any U.S. ecosystems that dont have native bees, such as deserts or something?No, we worked on a project on xeric habitat, and when you think of xeric, you think of dry; you think of nothing blooming, just aridand the researchers caught hundredshundredsof bees. If you go anywhere in the United States, you are bound to find some native bees.Are there any species or groups that you find particularly cool?Besides all of them? I am very fond of this group thats called squash bees. Theyre medium-sized; theyre very cute and fluffy. But as youd guess, they are squash specialists. They come out super early in the morning; you have to get there at first light. And if you have squash plants, then you most likely have them. The scientific name of the most widespread species is Peponapis pruinosa, and youll find them just relaxing in the big squash bloom, usually early in the morning.An Osmia atriventris found in Washington County, Maryland. The species is also known as the Maine blueberry bee, named for its special talent for accessing blueberry pollen. Blueberry flowers store pollen behind special pores that the bees vibrate open.Brooke Alexander/USGS Bee Lab via FlickrYou mentioned that ground-nesting bees are underfoot all winter. What does a year in the life of a native bee look like?With more than 4,000 species, they are not all coming out at the same time. You have some that are very early in the season, when the first spring ephemerals [long-lived plants that are only briefly active above ground each year] come out. In Maryland, thats typically around April. And then as you get the different blooms, you have this continuing crescendo of bees coming out.A Bombus rufocinctus bumblebee found in Yellowstone National Park. The species is fairly common and can sport a wide varieties of different color patterns, such as the red patch on this example, earning B. rufocinctus the common name red-belted bumblebee.Colby Francoeur/USGS Bee Lab via FlickrTypically youre only seeing a really small snapshot of a bees life. For the majority of the time, bees are existing as eggs and as little larvae, and then theyre in this weird grub form underground. And then they emerge as what we think of as bees, and thats where they are finding food, finding a mate and then just continuing that cycle over again.Typically a bee is only out for maybe a month or two. They are kind of fragilethey have very thin wings; they have very thin antennaeand so when you catch one, you can kind of tell if its been out for a little while. It looks a little battered, and you can tell its been flying around and bumping into things and damaging its wings. Or if it looks very pristine, then you can kind of guess that its recently emerged or its a little bit fresher than some of the other bees that are out there.A sand-dwelling Augochloropsis sumptuosa found in the bootheel of Missouri.Orr Uzan-Tidhar and Grace Schilling/USGS Bee Lab via FlickrThe larvae and grub phasesdo those look really different from an adult?They look more grublike, more caterpillarlike. If you were to see one, you definitely would not guess that its a bee larva. A lot of our native bees are very tinybut theyre not baby bees. Baby bees actually dont look anything like the bees that we think of. They dont have the three-segmented body; they dont have six legs; they dont have wings; they dont have antennae.A Bombus affinis queen bumblebee found in Racine, Wis. The historical specimen was collected in 1965, before steep population declines led the so-called rusty patched bumblebee to be declared an endangered species in 2017.USGS Bee Lab via FlickrWith honeybees, we only see females out and about. Is that the same with native bees?With native bees, there are very seldom queensbumblebees are the exception.But there are males and females. You do typically find more females than males, but you dont have the queens or [male] drones or those differences unless you are talking about the bumblebees. In general, most females and males do look a little bit different within the same species. Under the microscope, for males, you typically have a little bit more coloration in the face or a little bit more coloration in general. And then they typically have longer antennae compared to females. And then the biggest difference of all is, even in native bees, females have a stinger and males do not.An Augochloropsis fulgida bee found in Lincoln County, West Virginia.USGS Bee Lab via FlickrCan humans get stung by them, then?Technically yes. Now, the stinger is completely different than a honeybees. It is not a barbed stinger, which means, one, its not as painful, and two, the native bee would not die after you get stung by it. Thats the mechanism that kills the honeybee: the barbed stinger gets embedded. [When the honeybee flies away, the stinger detaches, and the bee dies.]A lot of the time, if people are stung by native bees, its because they were handling themactively netting them or trying to grab them. A lot of times that happens with our bigger native bees: bumblebees, carpenter bees, things of that size. Everything else, they have such minuscule stingers that youre lucky if it even breaks the skin, much less gets through clothing.A Coelioxys novomexicana found in Californias Central Valley. The species is a parasite that lays its eggs in the nests of another group of bees called Megachile.Erick Hernandez/USGS Bee Lab via FlickrAlso, theyre not very territorial. The main reason why honeybees would sting you is because youre encroaching on the hive or they are resource-guarding honey or flowers. Because native bees dont really have a hive to protect and they also dont resource guard, youre a lot less likely to get in their way.What do we know about how native bees are doing?In general, native bee species are decliningand that is a result of habitat loss, use of pesticides, more rural areas becoming urbanized, more impervious surfaces, and the like.An Andrena obscuripennis bee collected in Georgia.USGS Bee Lab via FlickrIf someone wants to start paying more attention to native bees, how easy is it to start learning to identify native bees in their area?Bumblebees are the easiest to get started with, and theres tons of resources online. Theyre bigger, and typically how youre identifying them is based off the coloration of the hair on the back of the bee. So if one of them is just sitting on a flower, you can go up to it and with decent certainty know which one it is, depending on your region. In terms of the other groups, its hard. You definitely need a microscope and access to a reference collection where someone who is an expert has already identified some groups.An Anthophora affabilis bee found in Badlands National Park in South Dakota. The species is common and widespread in the western U.S.USGS Bee Lab via FlickrIs there anything people can do to help native bees around them?The most well-researched and documented way of trying to introduce native bees to your area is to plant their habitat and plant their food source. It doesnt have to be anything crazy. Native bees are tinytheyre really small. So even if you have an apartment, if you have a little garden area or if you have a pot, put some native plants in there, and I think youll be astounded at what you wind up seeing coming to visit.

April 3, 20255 min readHow Many Rogue Planets Roam the Milky Way?According to new simulations, many, even most, planets get ejected from their star early in their historyBy Phil Plait edited by Lee BillingsAn artists impression of a rogue planet in the depths of interstellar space. Pablo Carlos Budassi/Stocktrek Images/Alamy Stock PhotoAs J.R.R. Tolkien wrote in The Fellowship of the Ring, Not all those who wander are lost. But in the case of planets, its possible that most of them are.Rogue planetsplanets that are adrift in space, unmoored from any starhave been a topic of science fiction for a long time; both Star Trek and Space:1999 featured them in episodes. But they actually do exist in real life. Astronomers, who sometimes like to kill fun, call these worlds free-floating planets, which is not nearly as cool a term.Still, these interstellar drifters are pretty interesting. Most have been found via microlensing: their gravity acts as a lens that boosts the light of a background star in a measurable way. These worlds tend to be so small, dark and far away that theyre otherwise invisible to us. Some, similar to Jupiter in mass, have been glimpsed in images; these likely formed directly from the gas and dust in a nebula, much as a star does, and may have thus always lacked a home star. But others, much lower in mass, are expected to have formed around a star only to subsequently be ejected from their planetary system. Now these outcasts slip silent and cold through the sunless spaces between the stars.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.How are they ejected? While there are a handful of possible methods, the most common is likely via interactions with another planet around its host star. We know that planets dont just orbit their star in the same place forever. Over time, planetary orbits can shift because of the combined gravitational influences of other planets in a system. If two planets get too close to each other, the interaction can cause one (usually the less massive of the two) to gain a lot of orbital energy, causing it to be flung out of the system.A team of astronomers at the TechnionIsrael Institute of Technology examined this question and presented its results in a new preprint paper awaiting publication in the Astrophysical Journal. The researchers ran what are called N-body simulations, computer models that use the equations of gravity and motion to simulate the positions and orbits of planets over time. By running repeatedly while varying the input parameters, these models can give statistical estimates for how often certain events such as ejections can occur.The team ran simulations of 100 different planetary systems, each comprised of anywhere between three to 10 planets that, much like the worlds of our own solar system, were on near-circular coplanar orbits around a sunlike star. They then let the equations run for a billion simulated years.What they found was that encounters are quite common! There are lots of interactions between planets as some get nudged into elongated orbits that can cause one world to essentially cross the path of another. What can happen then is a direct collisionthat is, an actual colossal impact that can shatter the planets or at least do extreme damage. That outcome is more common than you might think, occurring, on average, 0.4 time per planetary system (so, in 100 systems, youd expect to see about 40 collisions). They tend to happen early on; most occur within a million years of a simulations start.But ejections are even more common: the team determined that on average as many as 3.5 planets are ejected per system after a billion years, and most ejections happen within the first 100 million years. That result surprised me; given that there were only three to 10 planets per system in the simulations, I wouldnt have thought there would be so many ejections. But this is exactly why scientists do these sorts of calculations; our expectations can be biased, whereas the math and physics isnt.The researchers also found that a planet at any given location was as likely as any other to be ejected over the course of their simulations, so neither inner nor outer planets could be considered safe, although an innermost planet tends to be ejected first. The ejected planets usually leave the system at a relatively leisurely velocity, about two to six kilometers per second. Earth orbits the sun at more than 30 km/sec, so these ejection speeds are fairly low.Very interestingly, they found that systems with fewer planets tend to exit their ejection phase after about 100 million years, but systems with 10 planets are still unstable even after a billion years. They also found that these more bountiful systems actually eject the majority of their planets, losing 70 percent after a billion years. Most of the ones ejected are lower-mass, as expected.The obvious question is, well, what about us, then? Our solar system has eight major planets and has been around for more than four billion years. If a system can be unstable after a billion years, are we safely past that deadline? Why are we still around?We could just be lucky. Thats possible. The results the team published are averages over many simulations, so some systems lose more planets than others. It could be that the simulations the researchers ran are incomplete and that more parameters need to be included. Its also possible that our solar system beat the odds for long enough to become stable and that, from here on out, well be fine.The team also found that to match the number of ejected free-floating planets detected by astronomers, every star in the galaxy needs to form five to 10 planets on average. Thats a lot but not out of the question. Some stars may have lots of planets, and some may only form a few (or none). TRAPPIST-1, for example, is a tiny, low-mass red dwarf star, and it has at least seven Earth-sized planets! Red dwarfs are the most common kind of star in the universe, so they alone could possibly explain all the low-mass ejected planets we see. Stars like the sun might eject many planets as well, but they only account for about 10 percent of all stars, so thats a molehill compared with the red dwarfs mountain.This work is still preliminary, and theres a lot left to explore. But the numbers do match observations pretty well, giving us good reasons to suspect there are more free-floating planets out there in the galaxy than ones orbiting stars.How many of them once circled our own sun? How many planetary siblings have we lost? None? One? Four? Well likely never know; our solar systems 4.6-billion-year history offers a long time for shedding worlds into the Milky Way. But there very well could be galactic nomads wandering in deep space that began their endless journey right here around our sun. If so, they have a lot of company.

Nintendo Switch 2 doesn't actually run original Switch games natively"We decided to take on the challenge of using new technology."Image credit: Nintendo/Eurogamer News by Victoria Kennedy News Reporter Published on April 4, 2025 Nintendo's upcoming Switch 2 console doesn't actually run the original Switch's games natively, as the two hardwares are incompatible.One of the first things that we knew for absolute certain about the Switch successor was that it would be backwards compatible. "At today's Corporate Management Policy Briefing, we announced that Nintendo Switch software will also be playable on the successor to Nintendo Switch," company president Shuntaro Furukawa said in November.But, while this means Switch 2 owners will still be able to play most of the games from the original Switch's library, this isn't possible because the two consoles are compatible at a hardware level, which would have been handy. Rather, it's all possible thanks to a workaround Nintendo has managed to implement.Nintendo Switch 2 Hands-On Preview: Mario Kart World Impressions & More! Watch on YouTubeDuring a recent Ask the Developer Q&A, Nintendo's Kouichi Kawamoto said the Switch 2 team always wanted the new system to play the original console's games, but "were told there'd be technical challenges" getting it to work."When we first started Switch 2 development, the focus was on enhancing its performance as hardware, namely, expanding its capacity," added Takuhiro Dohta. "So, compatibility was a lower priority."But, it was still something the team wanted to ensure, and in the end the Switch 2 developers settled on "the challenge of using new technology to run Switch games".Said Dohta: "If we tried to use technology like software emulators, we'd have to run Switch 2 at full capacity, but that would mean the battery wouldn't last so long, so we did something thats somewhere in between a software emulator and hardware compatibility."The team goes through many checks to make sure original Switch games run smoothly on Switch 2, but the developers noted "it might not be that all Switch games run perfectly" in time for the console's launch this summer.This method of playing older games explains why a few titles have some compatibility issues, though fixes are in the works. And while only one Switch game is completely unplayable on Switch 2, others will still require the use of original Joy-Con due to specific controls or peripherals."But we will continue our efforts so that we can support as many Switch games as possible," Kawamoto said. Image credit: EurogamerFor more, our Tom has already taken the upcoming console for a spin. You can read his thoughts on his time with the Switch 2 in Eurogamer's feature: Nintendo Switch 2 hands-on reveals a proper generational upgrade, though its biggest new idea remains unproven.Meanwhile, here's everything announced at this week's Switch 2 Direct, including pricing and more.