The Federal Reserve cut interest rates by a quarter percent Wednesday, as widely expected, but set a cautious course for lower interest rates in 2025.The Federal Open Market Committee voted to reduce the federal funds rate to a target range of 4.25% to 4.5%, marking the third rate cut since September. But the committee's summary of economic projectionspredicted rates to fall by just a half percent in 2025. After its September meeting, the committee had penciled in a full percentage point reduction for next year.Fed Chair Jerome Powell said a big reason for the committee's pullback was the slower-than-expected progress on combatting inflation this year."The single biggest factor is inflation has once again underperformed relative to expectations," Powell said at a press conference following the meeting. "I think from this point forward, it's appropriate to move cautiously and look for progress on inflation."The Fed began raising interest rates in the spring of 2022 in an effort to combat soaring inflation. It left rates at a historic high for nearly a year, which has made borrowing and financing more expensive for both consumers and businesses. Smart Money Advice on the Topics That Matter to You CNET Money brings financial insights, trends and news to your inbox every Wednesday. High inflation means you pay more for everything, including food and housing. High interest rates make it harder to afford loans or credit.Determining monetary policy is a fragile balancing act that requires considering inflation and the labor market. One risk the Fed faced by keeping interest rates high is slowing down the economy too much, as evidenced by rising unemployment. Smart Money Advice on the Topics That Matter to You CNET Money brings financial insights, trends and news to your inbox every Wednesday. Since September, inflation rates have ticked up slightly and further from the central bank's 2% goal. If the economy reheats, especially given the potential inflationary pressures of the next administration's economic policies, the Fed may try to apply the brakes by further reducing the number of rate cuts next year, or even potentially raising rates again.

December 18, 20242 min readU.S. Has a First Case of Severe Bird Flu, CDC Confirms in H5N1 UpdateLouisiana reported a person hospitalized with a severe case of H5N1, and the USDA has begun bulk milk testingBy Tanya Lewis edited by Dean VisserA person in Louisiana has been hospitalized with severe H5N1 influenza after having contact with sick backyard birds. The virus is similar to that found in wild birds and some poultry. Getty ImagesThe ongoing bird flu outbreak in the U.S. just got a bit more concerning: a person in Louisiana has been hospitalized with the first severe case of infection with the H5N1 avian influenza virus in the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced in a statement issued on Wednesday.A total of 61 human cases of H5N1 have been confirmed in the U.S. this year. Most of them have occurred in dairy or poultry farm workersand most of them have been mild. The recent Louisiana case, initially reported by the Louisiana Department of Health last Friday, is the first known instance in which a person has been hospitalized for an with the H5N1 infection in the U.S. this year. An investigation is under way, but the involved person appears to have had contact with sick or dead birds from a backyard flock. The viral strain is different from the one currently circulating in dairy cows. Preliminary genetic sequencing revealed it is likely related to the D1.1 strain that is now circulating in wild birds and poultry in the U.S. and to a human case in Canada.In addition to the Louisiana case, Delaware recently reported a probable H5N1 case that was detected by routine state influenza surveillance. The infected person did not have known contact with sick animals. The CDC could not confirm the type of influenza A virus after multiple tests and has classified it as a probable case. There have been at least two previous cases with no known exposure.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.These two cases do not change CDCs current risk assessment for the general population, which remains low, said Demetre Daskalakis, director of the CDCs National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, in a group call with reporters on Wednesday. Nevertheless, the large number of animalsbirds and mammalsinfected with H5 bird flu increases the risk of the virus potentially infecting people and potentially adapting to cause human-to-human spread.H5N1 continues to infect dairy cows in at least 16 states, with 860 herds affected as of December 17. On December 6 the U.S. Department of Agriculture launched a new federal order for bulk testing raw milk from dairy cows. The order will be phased in starting with six states: California, Colorado, Michigan, Mississippi, Oregon and Pennsylvania. Other states will be added as resources allow, Eric Deeble, the USDAs deputy under secretary for marketing and regulatory programs, told reporters on Wednesday. Several field trials for bovine H5N1 vaccines are underway at locations around the country, he added.Also this week the company Labcorp announced it will now offer a human H5 bird flu test that physicians can order.

December 18, 20243 min readWill the World's First Nuclear Fusion Power Plant Be Built in Virginia? Here's Why We're SkepticalThe fusion power plant would go live in the next decade and produce 400 megawatts of electricity, says Commonwealth Fusion SystemsBy Ben Guarino edited by Dean VisserCommonwealth Fusion Systems new fusion power plant is expected to come online in the early 2030s and generate about 400 megawatts of clean, carbon-free electricity enough to power large industrial sites or about 150,000 homes. Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS), a company with origins at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, says it will build the worlds first fusion power plant in an industrial park near Richmond, Va., within a decade. The plant is expected to go live in the early 2030s, according to a news release issued by M.I.T. on Tuesday, and the reactor will produce about 400 megawatts of electricity. Though estimates vary, one megawatt can power about 400 U.S. homes.Various parties have described this development as momentous. They include Virginias governor Glenn Youngkin, who issued a statement saying, This is an historic moment for Virginia and the world at large. And Dennis Whyte, CFSs co-founder and an engineering professor at M.I.T., said in the news release that this will be a watershed moment for fusion.But lets hold our nuclear horses for just a moment: there are several steps that must be completed before this fusion plant, named ARC (for affordable, robust, compact), could be plugged into Virginias power grid. For one, CFS has not finished its demonstration machine, SPARC (smallest possible ARC). The company says it expects the completed SPARC to show net energy production in 2027. That alone would be a feat.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.Remind me, whats a fusion reactor?Fusion, in which atomic nuclei combine and release gobs of energy, is a natural feature of the suns plasma. To mimic that process on Earth, a fuel pellet (often consisting of isotopes of hydrogen) is ignited inside a machine called a tokamak. A tokamak generates doughnut-shaped magnetic fields to control the resulting superhot plasma, which is prone to flaring. The outcome, in theory, is energy production without the long-lasting radioactive waste of nuclear fission and without the global warming contributions of burned carbon.Failed promises litter the path to workable fusion. But this time there is a sense of excitement, of rapid acceleration after decades of plodding, among certain fusion experts. In 2022 physicists at the National Ignition Facility in California showed that it is possible to exceed whats called scientific breakeven, in which a reactor makes more energy than what is required to kick off the fusion reaction.Commonwealth Fusion Systems tokamak fusion reactor design, pictured, makes use of a new kind of high-temperature superconducting magnet. The approach was first explored in a graduate class taught by co-founder and MIT Professor Dennis Whyte.Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)The Virginia plants tokamak, based on designs produced by M.I.T. graduate students, will be especially compact and economic because it will use a new kind of superconducting magnet, Whyte said in the news release.Why is the location in Virginia?Virginia is home to Data Center Alley, where the current boom in artificial intelligence, streaming services and other tech has manifested what is among the worlds densest concentration of server farms. These are energy-hungry facilities, and demand is projected only to grow. CFSs chief commercial officer told the New York Times the fusion plant will probably serve industrial customers.Havent I heard all of this before?Fusion, which has been studied since the middle of the 20th century, is the kind of technology that always seems to be just 15 years away. Constructing an artificial star is difficult; materials in fusion reactors must withstand temperatures of millions of degrees Celsius. And it is expensive. The biggest fusion project on the planet, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) in France, is behind schedule and over budget, ballooning from an initial estimate of $6.3 billion in 2006 to $22 billion in 2023, as journalist Charles Seife reported in Scientific American last year. AndITER, whose fundamental goal is to prove that fusion energy is feasible, is not intended to power anything.CFS, meanwhile, has secured about $2 billion in investments. If it succeeds, it will have done so where previous attempts by well-financed tech companies have failed. Lockheed Martin began working on a small fusion reactor in 2010. In 2014 it said it would develop a reactor compact enough to fit on a truck before 2019. But by 2021, Lockheed Martin had quietly shelved the project.

December 18, 202434 min read78 Books Scientific American Recommends in 2024A collection of nonfiction and fiction books Scientific American editorial staff and contributors read and recommend in 2024By Brianne Kane edited by Dean Visser Francesco ZorziEvery story is a science story, even the ones that sound more like science fiction. This year Scientific American introduced readers to real discoveries that sounded a bit like science-fiction, such as the crime rings trafficking sand around the world and the physicists searching for evidence of negative time. The U.S. governments former UFO hunter told readers about a past (and very real) search for such unidentified objects; and our editors described what to do when space junks falls into your yard. We watched the Great American Total Solar Eclipse of 2024 with our families and learned from neurologists how memories remain in the brain for a lifetime. After doing all that, we also read, shared and discussed some amazing books.This collection offers some recent staff favorites in fiction and nonfiction, a selection of titles we recently reviewed and some by familiar faces weve worked with this yearas well as a bountiful backlist to keep your to-be-read list stuffed.Happy reading! Jump to your favorite section here: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.NonfictionOn Call: A Doctor's Journey in Public Serviceby Anthony FauciViking, 2024(Tags: Health, Memoir)Anthony Fauci is arguably the most famousand most revereddoctor in the world today. His role guiding America sanely and calmly through Covid (and through the torrents of Trump) earned him the trust of millions during one of the most terrifying periods in modern American history.... His crucial role in researching HIV and bringing AIDS into sympathetic public view and his leadership in navigating the Ebola, SARS, West Nile, and anthrax crises, make him truly an American hero, the publisher says.I thoroughly enjoyed reading this memoir by Americas doctor. He writes candidly and engagingly about winning the trust of the HIV/AIDS activist community after being the target of its understandable rage at global inaction. He reminds us of the fearful days when bioterrorism and the anthrax scare were keeping some of the countrys top public health officials up at night. And he chronicles the COVID pandemic from the inside of one of the most erratic and dangerous administrations ever to occupy the White Housea time in which he became first a hero and then a target. Yet throughout it all, his devotion to furthering public health and serving his country are never in doubt. Tanya Lewis, Senior Editor, Health and MedicineThis memoir is inspiring, and the behind-the-scenes stories of the major public health events of the past four decades are riveting. Clara Moskowitz, Senior Editor, Space/PhysicsVanishing Treasures: A Bestiary of Extraordinary Endangered Creaturesby Katherine RundellDoubleday, 2024(Tags: Nature, Animals)This urgent, inspiring book of essays dedicated to 23 unusual and underappreciated creatures is a clarion call insisting that we look at the world around us with new eyesto see the magic of the animals we live among, their unknown histories and capabilities, and above all how lucky we are to tread the same ground as such vanishing treasures. Beautifully illustrated, and full of inimitable wit and intellect, the publisher says.Its a beautiful book, both in writing and in illustrations, that shares stories and trivia about some of the most magnificent animals on earth. It skews heavily toward the charismatic (the more than 50,000 species of spiders must share a single chapter). But despite this narrow lens, Rundelldoes an admirable job reminding us of the richness of the natural world. Meghan Bartles, Senior News ReporterThe Secret Life of The Universe: An Astrobiologist's Search for the Origins and Frontiers of Lifeby Nathalie A. CabrolSimon and Schuster, 2024(Tags: Astrobiology, Astrophysics)Celebrated astrobiologist and the director of the Carl Sagan Center at the SETI Institute Nathalie A. Cabrol takes us to the frontiers of the search for life.... This dazzling interplanetary tour [illuminates] the likeliest places for life in our neighborhood: While Mars and the icy moons of Jupiter and Saturn are among the top contenders, recent missions are redefining the limits of habitability to include unexpected worlds. Finally, we seek life beyond our solar system, becoming witness to a revolution in the night sky: the realization that there are as many planets as stars in our galaxy, the publisher says.Cabrol takes us on a whirlwind trip around the solar system, describing how life could have evolved on a variety of planets, moons and asteroids within the Milky Way. It almost has the feel of a mystery whodunitperhaps the culprits are the hydrocarbons in the subsurface ocean on Titan. Zane Wolf, Graphics Intern, JuneDecember 2024What I Ate in One Year (and Related Thoughts)by Stanley TucciGallery Books, 2024(Tags: Memoir, Food)Food has always been an integral part of Stanley Tuccis life: from stracciatella soup served in the shadow of the Pantheon, to marinara sauce cooked between scene rehearsals and costume fittings, to home-made pizza eaten with his children before bedtime. Now, in What I Ate in One Year Tucci records twelve months of eatingin restaurants, kitchens, film sets, press junkets, at home and abroad, with friends, with family, with strangers, and occasionally just by himself, the publisher says.To match the authors tone, Id say this book was a pleasant, appetizing read. Ill soon be testing out his Tucci Minestrone recipe from page 107. Isabella Bruni, Digital ProducerThe Cleopatras: The Forgotten Queens of Egyptby Lloyd Llewellyn-JonesBasic Books, 2024(Tags: History, Ancient Egypt)The Cleopatras were Greek-speaking descendants of Ptolemy, the general who conquered Egypt alongside Alexander the Great. They were closely related as mothers, daughters, sisters, half-sisters, and nieces. Each wielded absolute power, easily overshadowing their husbands or sons, and all proved to be shrewd and capable leaders. Styling themselves as goddess-queens, the Cleopatras ruled through the canny deployment of arcane rituals, opulent spectacles, and unparalleled wealth, the publisher says.I was a classics major in college, so I thought I was prepared for a deep dive on the Ptolemies, but I was not! The Cleopatras is a wild ride but an enjoyable oneand surprisingly easy to follow despite the uncreative names and the deeply tangled family tree. Meghan Bartels, Senior News ReporterTheres Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascensionby Hanif AbdurraqibRandom House, 2024(Tags: Memoir, Cultural Criticism, Sports)Growing up in Columbus, Ohio, in the 1990s, Hanif Abdurraqib witnessed a golden era of basketball, one in which legends like LeBron James were forged and countless others werent. His lifelong love of the game leads Abdurraqib into a lyrical, historical, and emotionally rich exploration of what it means to make it, who we think deserves success, the tension between excellence and expectation, and the very notion of role models, all of which he expertly weaves together with intimate, personal storytelling, the publisher says.Abdurraqibs profoundly moving narrative requires absolutely no interest in basketball for the reader to find something of beauty in it. It is a gorgeous and heartbreaking account of his childhood through early adulthood, a disquisition of that which binds him to the place he calls home. Hector Coronado, EngineerA Small Miracleby Tessa VenellSelf-published, 2024(Tags: Memoir)My book is about my experience recovering from a traumatic brain injury, when I came back to college, and the time immediately following my graduation from Brandeis University. It delves into the symbiotic relationship between medicine and the patient's environment, and how both elements can work together in unexpected ways. My story demonstrates these unexpected intersections of the medical profession and the patient's environment, and shows how these intersections provided key support to my ability to recover," says the authors in her description of the book.This is an astonishing, moving, profoundly authentic first-person account of my friend Tessas recovery from a traumatic brain injury (TBI). In her generous retelling of her struggle to become herself again, Tessa offers instructive insights for other TBI survivors, their loved ones or anyone interested in this fascinating field of study. Amanda Montaez, Associate Graphics EditorBecoming Earth: How Our Planet Came to Lifeby Ferris JabrRandom House, 2024(Tags: Science and Technology)One of humanitys oldest beliefs is that our world is alive.... Acclaimed science writer Ferris Jabr reveals a radical new vision of Earth where lush forests spew water, pollen, and bacteria to summon rain; giant animals engineer the very landscapes they roam; microbes chew rock to shape continents; and microscopic plankton, some as glittering as carved jewels, remake the air and sea, the publisher says.Reading Becoming Earth feels like being taken by the hand and shown worlds you never knew existed. Its given me a newfound appreciation for the parts of this planet that are too big or too small for me to appreciate with my own eyes. Allison Parshall, Associate News EditorThird Millennium Thinking: Creating Sense in a World of Nonsenseby Saul Perlmutter, John Campbell and Robert MacCounLittle, Brown Spark, 2024(Tags: Psychology)In Third Millennium Thinking, a physicist, a psychologist, and a philosopher introduce readers to the tools and frameworks that scientists have developed to keep from fooling themselves, to understand the world, and to make decisions. We can all borrow these trust-building techniques to tackle problems both big and small, the publisher says.In dark times, this ones like a candle. If you want to learn how to avoid being fooled and how to make smarter, better decisions, reading this book is a great start. Lee Billings, Senior Editor, Space/PhysicsThe Forbidden Garden: The Botanists of Besieged Leningrad and Their Impossible Choiceby Simon ParkinScribner, 2024(Tags: History, Science, War)In the summer of 1941, German troops surrounded the Russian city of Leningradnow St. Petersburgand began the longest blockade in recorded history.... At the center of the besieged city stood a converted palace that housed the worlds largest collection of seeds.... After attempts to evacuate the priceless collection failed and supplies dwindled amongst the three million starving citizens, the employees at the Plant Institute were left with a terrible choice, the publisher says.Parkin weaves together an incredible accounting about the sacrifices and resolution of the scientists overseeing the seed bank during the Siege of Leningrad. Underneath the siege, the suffering, the political machinations and the military stratagems, there is the story of one manNikolai Vavilovwhose knowledge, passion and charisma inspired numerous scientists to follow his example in placing the safety of these seeds above everything else. This book is emotionally heavy but worth readingitll surprise you to learn just how big a role these tiny seeds played in World War II and our agriculture today. Zane Wolf, Graphics Intern, JuneDecember 2024Native Nations: A Millennium in North Americaby Kathleen DuValRandom House, 2024(Tags: History, Indigenous Peoples History)Long before the colonization of North America, Indigenous Americans built diverse civilizations and adapted to a changing world in ways that reverberated globally. And, as award-winning historian Kathleen DuVal vividly recounts, when Europeans did arrive, no civilization came to a halt because of a few wandering explorers, even when the strangers came well armed.... Power dynamics shifted after the American Revolution, but Indigenous people continued to command much of the continents land and resources, the publisher says.This is a great exploration of the ways Indigenous Americans thrived before and despite European colonization. Meghan Bartels, Senior News ReporterInto the Clear Blue Sky: The Path to Restoring Our Atmosphereby Rob JacksonScribner, 2024(Tags: Climate Change)In Into the Clear Blue Sky, climate scientist and chair of the Global Carbon Project Rob Jackson explains that we need to redefine our [climate] goals. As he argues here, we shouldnt only be trying to stabilize the Earths temperature at some arbitrary value.... Restoring the atmosphere means reducing the amount of greenhouse gases in the air to pre-industrial levelsstarting with super-potent methaneto heal the harm we have done, the publisher says.This is a wonderfully written book about our path to a cleaner climate, greener technology and overall better relationship to the natural world. I was fascinated by the developing technology Jackson was able to see firsthand and learned some terrifying truths about in-home gas emissions I will never forget. Brianne Kane, Editorial Workflow and Rights ManagerThe Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural Worldby Robin Wall KimmererScribner, 2024(Tags: Indigenous Studies, Economics)As ... Robin Wall Kimmerer harvests serviceberries alongside the birds, she considers the ethic of reciprocity that lies at the heart of the gift economy. How, she asks, can we learn from Indigenous wisdom and the plant world to reimagine what we value most...? Meanwhile, the serviceberrys relationship with the natural world is an embodiment of reciprocity, interconnectedness, and gratitude. The tree distributes its wealthits abundance of sweet, juicy berries. And this distribution ensures its own survival, the publisher says.This is a breezy read about ecology and economics that offers a beautiful vision of what our world can be if we have the courage to put aside constant self-interest and a scarcity mindset. It will inspire you to reach out to a neighbor, share what you have and glory in the joys that dont come with price tags.Meghan Bartels, Senior News ReporterFictionJames: A Novelby Percival EverettDoubleday, 2024(Tags: Literary Fiction, Historical Fiction)When the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he decides to hide on nearby Jackson Island until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck Finn has faked his own death to escape his violent father, recently returned to town. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River, the publisher says.The author mingles the voices and lives of Jim and James to give us a truly engrossing look at how racism is always just below the surface in American society, more than 100 years ago and today. Maria-Christina Keller, Copy DirectorHouse of Flame and Shadowby Sarah J. MaasBloomsbury, 2024(Tags: Fantasy, Romance)Bryce Quinlan never expected to see a world other than Midgard, but now that she has, all she wants is to get back. Everything she loves is in Midgard: her family, her friends, her mate. Stranded in a strange new world, she's going to need all her wits about her to get home again.... In this sexy, breathtaking sequel..., Sarah J. Maass Crescent City series reaches new heights as Bryce and Hunts world is brought to the brink of collapse, the publisher says.This is such a fun look at a modern world full of faeries, angels, demons and shady overlords. The series starts with a murder and ends with interplanetary travel. Its a good and quick read (or listen)! Megha Satyanarayana, Chief Opinion EditorMoonboundby Robin SloanMCD, 2024(Tags: Science Fiction, Speculative Fiction)It is eleven thousand years from now.... Ariel is a boy in a remote village under a wizards rule. Like many adventurers before him, Ariel is called to explore a world full of eye-popping discoveries and challenges: unknown enemies, a mission to rescue the world, a girl.... Ariel encounters an entity from an earlier civilization, a sentient, sensitive artificial intelligence with a special perspective on all of human history, the publisher says.Theres something really special about this book. It wanders through a far-future society full of wizards, talking animals, award-winning bogs, ancient buried spaceships and dragons on the moon. Its a mash-up of concepts and the narrative dips into each of them just long enough to get a taste of something alien but not long enough that the most bizarre ideas overstay their welcome. It feels like sitting cross-legged and listening to a storytellers yarn, forgetting the outside world. Sarah Lewin Frasier, Assistant News EditorIntermezzo: A Novelby Sally RooneyFarrar, Straus and Giroux, 2024(Tags: Literary Fiction)Peter is a Dublin lawyer in his thirtiessuccessful, competent, and apparently unassailable. But in the wake of their fathers death, hes medicating himself to sleep and struggling to manage his relationships with two very different women.... Ivan is a twenty-two-year-old competitive chess player. He has always seen himself as socially awkward, a loner, the antithesis of his glib elder brother. Now, in the early weeks of his bereavement, Ivan meets Margaret, an older woman emerging from her own turbulent past, and their lives become rapidly and intensely intertwined, the publisher says.Rooneys ability to bring to life such complicated relationships mesmerizes me in a way no author has before. Touching upon grief, love, family bonds, societal pressures, Intermezzo is just so well done. I could go on and on! Isabella Bruni, Digital ProducerThe Bright Sword: A Novel of King Arthurby Lev GrossmanViking, 2024(Tags: Fantasy, Literary Fiction)A gifted young knight named Collum arrives at Camelot to compete for a place at the Round Table, only to find that hes too late. King Arthur died two weeks ago at the Battle of Camlann, and only a handful of the knights of the Round Table are left.... They must reclaim Excalibur and make this ruined world whole againbut first theyll have to solve the mystery of why the lonely, brilliant King Arthur fell, the publisher says.King Arthur is gone, and the Round Table is a hollow shell. Though the few knights who remaina refreshingly diverse cast for an Arthurian sagaare broken and flawed, theirs is a story about hope. The book is long and meandering, but the plot is brisk, helped along by monsters and fairies and skull-cracking knight-on-knight combat. Ben Guarino, Associate Editor, TechnologyPlastic: A Novelby Scott GuildVintage, 2024(Tags: Literary Fiction, Humor, Dystopia)Erin is a plastic girl living in a plastic world.... If you cut her, she will not bleedbut she and her fellow figurines can still be cracked or blown apart by gunfire or bombs, or crumble away from nuclear fallout.... An attack at her place of work brings Erin another too-intimate experience, but it also brings her Jacob. Exploring the wild wonders of the virtual reality landscape together, it seems that possibly, slowly, Erin and Jacob may have a chance at healing from their trauma, the publisher says.This is a rollicking good time with a surprisingly deep message about families, the future, our environmental impact and where we stand in the middle of it. Ive recommended this book to more people than I could ever count! Brianne Kane, Editorial Workflow and Rights ManagerBury Your Gaysby Chuck TingleTor Nightfire, 2024(Tags: Horror, Science Fiction)Misha knows that chasing success in Hollywood can be hell. But finally, after years of trying to make it, his big moment is here: an Oscar nomination. And the executives at the studio for his long-running streaming series know just the thing to kick his career to the next level: kill off the gay characters, for the algorithm, in the upcoming season finale.... Misha refuses, but he soon realizes that hes just put a target on his back. And whats worse, monsters from his horror movie days are stalking him and his friends through the hills above Los Angeles, the publisher says.Bury Your Gays is a delightfully and chillingly meta novel that deals with queer identity and creativity in the age of algorithmic entertainment. Yes, there are literal monstersand theyre terrifying. But the studio executives trying to convince our hero to kill his queer characters offor straighten them outare somehow even scarier. Rachel Feltman, Host of Science QuicklyLet Us Descend: A Novelby Jesmyn WardScribner, 2023(Tags: Literary Fiction, Historical)Annis, sold south by the white enslaver who fathered her, is the readers guide. As she struggles through the miles-long march, Annis turns inward, seeking comfort from memories of her mother and stories of her African warrior grandmother.... While Annis leads readers through the descent, hers is ultimately a story of rebirth and reclamation, the publisher says.This is a beautiful, devastating story of American slavery. A young girl is separated from her mother and forced on a brutal trek through the Deep South. Ward is one of my favorite authors, but she will not spare your heart. Be prepared to feel. Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter EditorEnlightenment: A Novelby Sarah PerryMariner Books, 2024(Tags: Historical Fiction, Gothic)Thomas Hart and Grace Macaulay have lived all their lives in the small Essex town of Aldleigh. Though separated in age by three decades, the pair are kindred spiritstorn between their commitment to religion and their desire to explore the world beyond their small Baptist community.... Thomas develops an obsession with a vanished nineteenth-century astronomer said to haunt a nearby manor, and Grace flees Aldleigh entirely for London. Over the course of twenty years, by coincidence and design, Thomas and Grace will find their lives brought back into orbit as the mystery of the vanished astronomer unfolds into a devastating tale of love and scientific pursuit, the publisher says.Few books can reflect the devotional love between a stargazer and the night sky. I was pleasantly surprised by how this novel explored longing through romantic love, spiritual fervor and a complicated, decades-long friendshipall while a ghost story peaks its head around every chapter! This is a surprisingly philosophical and fast-paced read. Brianne Kane, Editorial Workflow and Rights ManagerRoman Storiesby Jhumpa Lahiri. Translated by Jhumpa Lahiri and Todd PortnowitzKnopf, 2023(Tags: Short Stories, Literary Fiction)Romemetropolis and monument, suspended between past and future, multi-faceted and metaphysicalis the protagonist, not the setting, of these nine stories.... [The] stories [are] steeped in the moods of Italian master Alberto Moravia and guided, in the concluding tale, by the ineluctable ghost of Dante Alighieri, whose words lead the protagonist toward a new way of life, the publisher says.In multiple short stories, all taking place in or around Rome, were given snippets into the daily lives of Italians and foreigners of different ages, classes and colors, who find their experiences and emotions intertwined. The vulnerability of the stories makes them all memorable, yet each makes the next story more humbling, heart-wrenching and raw. These stories feel very authentic to the human experiencewhich is probably the reason it hits so close to home. Isabella Bruni, Digital ProducerThe Familiar: A Novelby Leigh BardugoFlatiron Books, 2024(Tags: Fantasy, Historical Fiction)In a shabby house, on a shabby street, in the new capital of Madrid, Luzia Cotado uses scraps of magic to get through her days of endless toil as a scullion.... What begins as simple amusement for the nobility takes a perilous turn when Luzia garners the notice of Antonio Prez, the disgraced secretary to Spains king, the publisher says.A servant reluctantly becomes famous for performing minor miracles in a world where the Inquisition decides whose magic is good and whose is evil. This is gorgeous historical world-building from the author of the Shadow and Bone and Ninth House series! Rachel Feltman, Host of Science QuicklyTabitha, Get Upby Lee UptonSagging Meniscus Press, 2024(Tags: Literary Fiction)Tabitha is a lonely fifty-year-old biographer who, in order to restore her self-respect and pay her rent, attempts to write two biographies simultaneously: one about an actor so famous his face is on the side of buses, and the other about a popular writer of childrens books recently outed as an author of erotic fiction. Is Tabitha ready to deal with interviewing an actor so handsome and charismatic...? Can she form a genuine friendship with a cult novelist who pressures her to compromise her values? the publisher says.This book is delightful for readers and would-be writers alike. The main character is trying to kick-start her career as a biographer, and her ups and downs are unexpected and entertaining. Think Diane Keaton in the 2003 movie Somethings Gotta Give. Maria-Christina Keller, Copy DirectorMiranda in Retrogradeby Lauren LayneGallery Books, 2024(Tags: Romance, Humor)Practical-minded Miranda Reed plans her life with minute precision. But thats before shes denied tenure and the promotion she thought was guaranteed.... With her faith in science shaken, Miranda turns to a practice shes long dismissed as preposterous: astrology. Determined to figure out why her life has suddenly gone sideways, Miranda commits to a year of letting her horoscope guide her. Soon shes taking on new home improvement projects, adopting a new pet, and studying what the stars have to say about her ideal love match, the publisher says.This is a breezy rom-com that would be enjoyed by anyone in grad school or working in academiaor just someone who was type A enough to obviously need a sabbatical. It has just the right amount of astrology and astronomy and is open-minded enough to balance the two. Brianne Kane, Editorial Workflow and Rights ManagerThe Book of Love: A Novelby Kelly LinkRandom House, 2024(Tags: Fantasy, Literary Fiction)Late one night, Laura, Daniel, and Mo find themselves beneath the fluorescent lights of a high school classroom, almost a year after disappearing from their hometown, the small seaside community of Lovesend, Massachusetts, having long been presumed dead. Which, in fact, they are. With them in the room is their previously unremarkable high school music teacher, who seems to know something about their disappearanceand what has brought them back again, the publisher says.After years of writing award-winning, deeply experimental short stories in the weird fiction/horror genre, Kelly Link has produced a thrilling novel about the cost of immortality, the power of friendship and the complexities of sisterhood. Rachel Feltman, Host of Science QuicklyFamiliar FacesBooks published this past year by Scientific American contributors from this past year.Countdown: The Blinding Future of Nuclear Weaponsby Sarah ScolesBold Type Books, 2024(Tags: Nonfiction, Science, Physics)Drawing from years of on-the-ground reporting at the nations nuclear weapons labs, Scoles interrogates the idea that having nuclear weapons keeps us safe, deterring attacks and preventing radioactive warfare.... Through a sharp, surprising, and undoubtedly urgent narrative, Scoles brings us out of the Cold War and into the twenty-first century, opening readers eyes to the true nature of nuclear weapons and their caretakers, the publisher says.Scoles is a frequent contributor to Scientific Americans physics section. In two of her latest articles, she explored why its so hard to get back to the moon and gave readers a behind-the-scenes look at how nuclear bombs are built.Wild Chocolate: Across the Americas in Search of Cacaos Soulby Rowan Jacobsen Bloomsbury, 2024(Tags: Nonfiction, Food)When Rowan Jacobsen first heard of a chocolate bar made entirely from wild Bolivian cacao, he was skeptical.... Chasing chocolate down the supply chain and back through history, Jacobsen travels the rainforests of the Amazon and Central America to find the chocolate makers, activists, and indigenous leaders who are bucking the system that long ago abandoned wild and heirloom cacao in favor of high-yield, low-flavor varietals preferred by Big Chocolate, the publisher says.In our February 2024 issue, Jacobson explored why brains arent required when it comes to thinking: some flatworms can even remember things after theyve been beheaded. (Dont worry; their head grows back.)Midlife Calculus: Poemsby Britt KaufmannPress 53, 2024(Tags: Poetry)Britt Kaufmann set out to take calculus for the first time at age 47 so she could cross it off her bucket list. She did not expect it to lead to her first full-length collection of poetry: Midlife Calculus. Calculus is the study of how things change, so its a fitting title for poems about midlife, about learning something difficult and new, and the state of public education post pandemic, the publisher says.Kaufman shared the poem Midlife Calculus in our February 2024 issues Meter column.The Progressive Parent: Harnessing the Power of Science and Social Justice to Raise Awesome Kidsby Kavin SenapathyHanover Square Press, 2024(Tags: Nonfiction, Parenting)In this lively, accessible exploration of modern parenting, Senapathy guides readers through the complex cultural, environmental, economic and political issues facing all families today. Equipped with practical tips and research-driven advice for parents of kids from infancy to early teens, she helps readers build a more fulfilling relationship with their children and themselves by addressing pressing questions, the publisher says.This year in SciAm, Senapathy profiled five advocates and researchers revolutionizing sickle cell care and wrote an opinion article on why its okay not to breastfeed.Our Moon: How Earths Celestial Companion Transformed the Planet, Guided Evolution, and Made Us Who We Areby Rebecca BoyleRandom House, 2024(Tags: Nonfiction, Astronomy)Many of us know that the Moon pulls on our oceans, driving the tides, but did you know that it smells like gunpowder...? Mesopotamian priests recorded the Moons position in order to make predictions, and, in the process, created the earliest known empirical, scientific observations. In Our Moon, Boyle introduces us to ancient astronomers and major figures of the scientific revolution, including Johannes Kepler and his influential lunar science fiction, the publisher says.Space and physics editor Clara Moskowitz sat down with Boyle earlier this year to discuss her new book foran episode of our podcast Science Quickly, and it was reviewed by Erica Berry in our January 2024 issue as well. Among Boyles many articles for the magazine, this past March she explored how April 2024s total solar eclipse will change solar science forever.Leaving Fossil Fuels Underground: Actors, Arguments and Approaches in the Global South and Global Northedited by Joyeeta Gupta, Barbara Hogenboom, Arthur Rempel and Malin OlofssonAmsterdam University Press, 2024(Tags: Nonfiction, Environment and Sustainability, Geology)How can the world move away from a century-old global system based on fossil fuels...? This book examines the role of key actors, arguments and approaches in promoting the much-needed rapid phase-out of fossil fuels.... In addition to local resistance, the book explores initiatives for national and international policies and financial mechanisms carried out by actors ranging from social movements to governments and large investors, the publisher says.In our March 2024 issue, Gupta outlined how different types of boundaries can protect people and preserve natural resources, with graphics by Angela Morelli and Tom Gabriel Johansen/InfoDesignLab.The Well-Connected Animal: Social Networks and the Wondrous Complexity of Animal Societiesby Lee Alan DugatkinUniversity of Chicago Press, 2024(Tags: Nonfiction, Behavioral Biology)In this tour of the animal kingdom, evolutionary biologist Lee Alan Dugatkin reveals a new field of study, uncovering social networks that existed long before the dawn of human social media. He accessibly describes the latest findings from animal behavior, evolution, computer science, psychology, anthropology, genetics, and neurobiology, and incorporates interviews and insights from researchers he finds swimming with manta rays, avoiding pigeon poop, and stopping monkeys from stealing iPads, the publisher says.This year in SciAm, Dugatkin reported on animal evolution thats being driven by human activity. He also wrote about the work of geneticist Lyudmila Trut, whose decades-long experiments on silver foxes solidified the science of domestication.Why Machines Learn: The Elegant Math behind Modern AIby Anil AnanthaswamyDutton, 2024(Tags: Nonfiction, Philosophy of Science)We are living through a revolution in machine learning-powered AI that shows no signs of slowing down. This technology is based on relatively simple mathematical ideas, some of which go back centuries, including linear algebra and calculus, the stuff of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century mathematics. In this enlightening book, Anil Ananthaswamy explains the fundamental math behind machine learning, while suggesting intriguing links between artificial and natural intelligence, the publisher says.Ananthaswamy is a regular contributor to our space and physics section, including a feature in our July/August 2024 issue that asked: If quantum mechanics depends on observations, what happens if AI is the observer? The Hunger Habit: Why We Eat When Were Not Hungry and How to Stopby Judson BrewerAvery, 2024(Tags: Nonfiction, Self-Improvement)The Hunger Habit is based on Judson Brewers deeply researched plan proven to help us understand what is going on in our brains so that we can heal the guilt and frustration we experience around eating.... The step-by-step program focuses on training our brains to tap into awareness to change our relationship with food and eatingshifting it from fighting with ourselves to befriending our minds and bodies, the publisher says.Brewer contributed to our July/August 2024 issue alongside Matthew D. Sacchet. Their article delved into the emerging science of advanced meditation that could transform mental health and our understanding of consciousness.The Elements of Marie Curie: How the Glow of Radium Lit a Path for Women in Scienceby Dava SobelAtlantic Monthly Press, 2024(Tags: Nonfiction, History)For decades the only woman in the room at international scientific gatherings that probed new theories about the interior of the atom, Marie Curie traveled far and wide, despite constant illness, to share the secrets of radioactivity, a term she coined. Her two triumphant tours of the United States won her admirers for her modesty even as she was mobbed at every stop; her daughters, in [ve Curies] later recollection, discovered all at once what the retiring woman with whom they had always lived meant to the world. With the consummate skill that made bestsellers of Longitude and Galileos Daughter, and the appreciation for women in science at the heart of her most recent The Glass Universe, Dava Sobel has crafted a radiant biography and a masterpiece of storytelling, the publisher says.Sobel edits Scientific Americans Meter column. Space and physics editor Clara Moskowitz also interviewed Sobel about her new book earlier this year.Kids Field Guide to Birdsby Daisy YuhasCool Springs Press, 2024(Tags: Nonfiction, Kids and Teens)Featuring a bright, illustrative design, this guide offers accessible species profiles along with birding basics and a selection of activities to help you and your kids learn more about the birds found in cities, backyards, and various ecosystems. Fun facts appear throughout, and spotlights cover everything from protecting birds from window collisions to a fun bird-beak experiment. The species inside include many of North Americas most common birds in all sorts of settings, the publisher says.Yuhas edits SciAms Mind Matters column and is a contributor to our Opinion section, where she recently interviewed social neuroscientist Dylan Wagner about parasocial relationships in a Mind Matters piece.Absolution: A Southern Reach Novelby Jeff VandermeerMCD, 2024(Tags: Literary Fiction, Science Fiction)All told, the [Southern Reach] trilogy has sold more than a million copies and has secured its place in the pantheon of twenty-first-century literature. And yet for all this, for Jeff VanderMeer there was never full closure to the story of Area X.... There were stories left to tell. There remained questions about who had been complicit in creating the conditions for Area X to take hold; the story of the first mission into the Forgotten Coastbefore Area X was called Area Xhad never been fully told; and what if someone had foreseen the world after Acceptance? How crazy would they seem? the publisher says.Vandermeer reviewed a novel by Anton Hur for our September 2024 issue. And in our October, contributing editor Amy Brady interviewed Vandermeer about Absolution.Selections from Reviews SectionThe following excerpts from our Reviews column have been edited for brevity.A Quantum Love Story: A Novelby Mike ChenMIRA, 2024(Tags: Fiction, Romance)Grieving her best friend's recent death, neuroscientist Mariana Pinedas ready to give up everything to start anew.... Except the strangest thing happens: a man stops her and claims they've met before. Carter Cho knows who she is, why she's mourning, why she's there, the publisher says.Although the science of memory and the brain comes across as well researched and intriguing, the realm of quantum mechanics remains a cosmological question mark. Readers..., however, will appreciate how Chen builds a skiff made of paper to sail through the storm. Meg Elison, January 2024How to Win Friends and Influence Fungi: Collected Quirks of Science, Tech, Engineering, and Math from Nerd Niteedited by Chris Balakrishnan and Matt WasowskiSt. Martins Press, 2024(Tags: Nonfiction, Humor)For 20 years, Nerd Nite has delivered ... the most interesting, fun, and informative presentations about science, history, the arts, pop culture, you name it. Finally, after countless requests..., co-founders ... Matt Wasowski and Chris Balakrishnan are bringing readers the quirky and accessible science content that they crave in book form. The resulting range of topics is quirky and vast, from kinky, spring-loaded spiders to the Webb telescopes influence on movie special effects, the publisher says.In How to Win Friends and Influence Fungi, I have found my new holy bible: a scattershot blast of science-y, math-y, tech-y micro essays that span a dizzying array of subjects.... The book succeeds in making its diverse subject matter immediately accessible. Chuck Wendig, February 2024Annie Bot: A Novelby Sierra GreerMariner Books, 2024(Tags: Science Fiction, Psychological)Annie Bot was created to be the perfect girlfriend for her human owner Doug. True, shes not the greatest at keeping Dougs place spotless, but shes trying to please him.... But becoming more human also means becoming less perfect, and as Annies relationship with Doug grows more intricate and difficult, she starts to wonder: Does Doug really desire what he says he wants? And in such an impossible paradox, what does Annie owe herself? the publisher says.For all Annie Bots provocations, [Greer] never loses sight of the fact that this is not a love story. Instead it's a coming-of-age thriller, a sexbot bildungsroman page-turner.... Its a pained and moving study of a consciousness preparing itself for the moment when it will at last face what makes humans human: the burden and opportunity of choosing what it wants. Alan Scherstuhl, March 2024Fowl Play: A History of the Chicken from Dinosaur to Dinner Plateby Sally CoulthardApollo, 2024(Tags: Nonfiction, Animals)Of all animals, chickens perhaps best represent the contradictory way we humans treat other species; both beloved pet and cheap commodity, symbol of a sustainable good life and brutalised object of factory farming. The chicken is also a bird we feel deeply familiar with and yet know very little about. As informative as it is entertaining, Fowl Play tells a remarkable tale of evolutionary change, epic global travel and ruthless exploitation as well as of companionship, ingenuity and the folly of human nature., the publisher saysFowl Play ... offers stories about the way chickens have shaped the human world, including the strange effects that domestication has had on chickens and humans alike. Tove Danovich, April 2024The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earthby Zo SchlangerHarper, 2024(Tags: Nonfiction, Botany )It takes tremendous biological creativity to be a plant. To survive and thrive while rooted in a single spot, plants have adapted ingenious methods of survival. In recent years, scientists have learned about their ability to communicate, recognize their kin and behave socially, hear sounds, morph their bodies to blend into their surroundings, store useful memories that inform their life cycle, and trick animals into behaving to their benefit, to name just a few remarkable talents. The Light Eaters is a deep immersion into ... this wild and awe-inspiring world that challenges our very understanding of agency, consciousness, and intelligence, the publisher says.In an age when we often feel alienated from a living world in crisis, it is good to be reminded that other species have agency and acumen. Plants have thrived on Earth for half a billion years. They embody not only intelligence but wisdom about how to flourish in the face of change. David George Haskell, May 2024The Great River: The Making and Unmaking of the Mississippiby Boyce UpholtW.W. Norton, 2024 (Tags: Nonfiction, Nature)In this landmark work of natural history, Boyce Upholt tells the epic story of ... centuries of human attempts to own, contain, and rework the Mississippi River, from Thomas Jeffersons expansionist land hunger through todays era of environmental concern.... Upholt reveals how an ambitious and sometimes contentious program of engineeringgovernment-built levees, jetties, dikes, and damshas not only damaged once-vibrant ecosystems but may not work much longer, the publisher says.There was a time when humans had a more intimate relationship with the river the Ojibwe people called the Misi-ziibi, which Upholt translates as the Great River, and in this fascinating and troubling book, he argues that we could choose this path again. Meera Subramanian, June 2024by Jim Baggott and John L. HeilbronOxford University Press, 2024(Tags: Nonfiction, Physics)As Quantum Drama reveals, science owes a large debt to those who kept the discussions going against the apathy and indifference of most physicists before definitive experimental inquiries became possible. Although experiment moved the Bohr-Einstein debate to a new level and drew many into foundational research, it has by no means removed or resolved the fundamental question, the publisher says.This meticulous account of the tumultuous evolution of quantum physics spans more than a century.... Science writer Jim Baggott and professor of history John L. Heilbron balance depth and sophistication with sportscasterlike enthusiasm. Dana Dunham, July/August 2024Attention Is Discovery: The Life and Legacy of Astronomer Henrietta Leavittby Anna Von MertensMIT Press, 2024(Tags: Nonfiction, History)Our galaxy, the Milky Way, has a diameter of about 100,000 light yearsa figure we can calculate because of the work of Henrietta Leavitt (18681921), who spent decades studying glass plate photographs of the night sky. Visual artist and researcher Anna Von Mertenss Attention Is Discovery is a fascinating portrait of this remarkable woman who laid the foundation for modern cosmology.... Ushering us into the scientific community of women who worked alongside Leavitt..., Von Mertens describes the inventive methodologies Leavitt devised to negotiate the era's emerging photographic technology, the publisher says.Blending complex science with human-interest stories, Von Mertens celebrates the constellation of women scientists who discovered how to calculate galactic distances and classify stars by chemical composition.... This deeply researched book is ultimately an homage to the process of observation and meaning making in science. Lucy Tu, September 2024Pillars of Creation: How the James Webb Telescope Unlocked the Secrets of the Cosmosby Richard PanekLittle, Brown, 2024(Tags: Nonfiction, Astronomy)Pillars of Creation tells the story of one of the greatest scientific achievements in the history of civilization, a $10 billion instrument with a staggeringly ambitious goal: unlocking the secrets of the cosmos. Award-winning science writer Richard Panek stands us shoulder to shoulder with senior scientists as they conceive the mission..., and, now, use its unprecedented technology to yield new discoveries about the origins of our solar system ... all the way back to the birth of the first stars, the publisher says.Like any good profiler, Panek gets up close and personal with his subject, describing each layer of its sunshield as the length of a long tennis lob and the width of a tissue. Woven into the narrative is the importance of the public in shaping the missions trajectory, from electing leadership who fund the nations space agency to bestowing Internet virality on JWSTs first-released images of other worlds. Maddie Bender, October 2024Treekeepers: The Race for a Forested Futureby Lauren E. OakesBasic Books, 2024(Tags: Nonfiction, Ecosystems and Habitats)In Treekeepers, Lauren E. Oakes takes us on a poetic and practical journey from the Scottish Highlands to the Panamanian jungle to meet ... scientists, innovators, and local citizens.... Their work isnt just about planting lots of trees, but also about understanding what it takes to grow or regrow a forest and to protect what remains, the publisher says.Treekeepers is an ambitious memoir of Oakess boots-on-the-ground research under old-growth canopy and a rigorous exploration of forests and climate change. Most of all, its a hopeful profile of the people working to restore, retain and nurture strong forests. Lyndsie Bourgon, November 2024End of the World and Hard-Boiled Wonderland: A New Translationby Haruki Murakami. Translated by Jay RubinEverymans Library, 2024(Tags: Literary Fiction, Fantasy)Across two parallel narratives, Murakami draws readers into a mind-bending universe in which Lauren Bacall, Bob Dylan, a split-brained data processor, a deranged scientist, his shockingly undemure granddaughter, and various thugs, librarians, and subterranean monsters collide to dazzling effect, the publisher says.First translated from the Japanese in 1991 by Alfred Birnbaum, Haruki Murakamis award-winning 1985 novel is a tale of two worlds. Although the relative limitations of English occasionally risk reduced complexity, the resulting language often still moves, as when one narrator pledges his emergent dream-reading skills to help his romantic interest recover her lost heart.... As it is when Murakamis two storylines finally come together, its where mind, heart and morality converge that End of the World and Hard-Boiled Wonderland is at its best. Matt Bell, December 2024Bountiful BacklistMy Brilliant Friendby Elena Ferrante. Translated by Ann GoldsteinPublished in English by Europa Editions, 2012(Tags: Literary Fiction, Historical Fiction)Terrifying at times but never without heart. I read this in a book club. We pretty much mourned (and celebrated) our collective dwindling girlhood every meeting. Cynthia Atkinson, Marketing and Customer Service AssistantA Discovery of Witchesby Deborah HarknessPenguin Books, 2011(Tags: Fiction, Romance)Its a fun book about a witch and a vampire and also alchemy and old manuscripts. What could be better? Meghan Bartels, Senior News ReporterYellowfaceby R. F. KuangWilliam Morrow, 2023(Tags: Literary Fiction, Satire)All the hype is spot on. But it was so much more twisted and fun than I expected. Brianne Kane, Editorial Workflow and Rights ManagerDoppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror Worldby Naomi KleinFarrar, Straus and Giroux, 2023(Tags: Memoir, Politics)This is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand why it has become so hard to tell whats real from something else that looks very similar but differs in a sinister way. Madhusree Mukerjee, Senior Editor, Science and SocietyWar in Val D'Orcia: An Italian War Diary, 19431944by Iris OrigoFirst edition, Jonathan Cape, 1947; Reprint edition, NYRB Classics, 2018(Tags: Nonfiction, Memoir)The diary mixes mundane life with awful peril to deliver moments both more immediate and more dreadful than any melodrama. Dan Vergano, Senior Opinion EditorThese Are the Words: Fearless Verse to Find Your Voiceby Nikita GillMacmillan Childrens Books, 2022(Tags: Poetry, Feminism)I needed something comforting and short, and These Are the Words fit the bill perfectlya pep talk combined with a big warm hug, even as it faces the very real challenges of our time. Meghan Bartels, Senior News ReporterBirnam Wood: A Novelby Eleanor CattonFarrar, Straus and Giroux, 2023(Tags: Literary Fiction, Suspense)I normally dont read much suspense, but this made me laugh out loud and cover my mouth in shockeasily one of my favorite reads this year! Brianne Kane, Editorial Workflow and Rights ManagerGo as a Riverby Shelley ReadSpiegel and Grau, 2023(Tags: Environment, Historical, Literary Fiction)This is a beautifully written epic set in a Colorado mountain town in the 1960s. A young woman is dealt numerous challenges surrounding her broken family, forbidden love, chance of motherhood and, ultimately, survival. The book is inspired by true events surrounding the destruction of the town of Iola, Colo. If I had to describe this book in one word, it would be exceptional. Isabella Bruni, Digital ProducerThe Poison Squad: One Chemists Single-Minded Crusade for Food Safety at the Turn of the Twentieth Centuryby Deborah BlumPenguin Press, 2018(Tags: Nonfiction, Politics)A gobsmacking look at what the U.S. food supply was like prior to laws that required food safety testing and regulated the practices of the food industryas well as the sheer lengths it took to get those laws enacted Andrea Thompson, Associate Editor, SustainabilityThe Chaos Machine: The Inside Story of How Social Media Rewired Our Minds and Our Worldby Max FisherLittle, Brown, 2022(Tags: Nonfiction, Sociology)A harrowing account of the roles played by WhatsApp, YouTube and other social media platforms in deadly conflicts. Ill never look at Facebook-the-system in the same way. Ben Guarino, Associate Editor, TechnologyBunny: A Novelby Mona Awad(Tags: Literary Fiction, Fairy Tales)Viking, 2019This book is incredibly intense, funny and just bizarre. Simply put, its a fever dream I woke up from too quickly! Isabella Bruni, Digital ProducerTrustby Hernan DiazRiverhead Books, 2022(Tags: Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction)In the 1920s in NYC, this novels three narrators delve into how relationships, power and bias impact perspective and memory. Kimberly Lau, PresidentVera Wongs Unsolicited Advice for Murderersby Jesse Q. SutantoBerkley, 2023(Tags: Mystery, Womens Fiction)This is a very cozy mystery with a delightfully enthusiastic amateur detective sleuthing her way to a found family. Meghan Bartels, Senior News ReporterThe Nutmegs Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisisby Amitav GhoshUniversity of Chicago Press, 2021(Tags: Nonfiction, Environmental History)This is a powerful and beautifully written meditation on the colonial underpinnings of climate change and the destruction of biodiversity and cultures. Its also a great read. Madhusree Mukerjee, Senior Editor, Science and SocietyWish You Were Here: A Novelby Jodi PicoultBallantine Books, 2021(Tags: Literary Fiction)A woman in her 30s is stranded in the Galpagos Islands as the COVID pandemic takes hold. The narrative brings back vivid fears and feelings as the world came to a halt. It explores the strange juxtaposition of devastating loss amid vibrant life and love. Kimberly Lau, PresidentNeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversityby Steve SilbermanAvery, 2015(Tags: Nonfiction, Psychology)Im sad that I only learned of this book after Silberman passed away this year. This is a deeply researched, elegantly written book about the history of autism and our understanding of it. A warning: the historical accounts of the treatment of autistic children are often gut-wrenching. But it is also a richly personal homage to autistic people. Amanda Montaez, Associate Graphics EditorInvisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Menby Caroline Criado PerezAbrams, 2019(Tags: Nonfiction, Feminism)Its not an over-exaggeration to say I think about this book multiple times a day as I go about my life. This book will make you angry, and you should read it anyway. Zane Wolf, Graphics Intern, JuneDecember 2024To Anyone Who Ever Asks: The Life, Music, and Mystery of Connie Converseby Howard FishmanDutton, 2023(Tags: Memoir, Music History)This is a fascinating exploration of the enigmatic life, haunting music and enduring mystery surrounding the talented singer-songwriter Connie Converse. Highly recommended! Liz Tormes, Associate Photo EditorNinth Houseby Leigh BardugoFlatiron Books, 2019(Tags: Literary Fiction, Occult and Supernatural)I was hooked from the first scene, with its abrupt, graphic tour of Yale Universitywhere, by the way, all the secret societies practice ritual black magic. Its a blast, at once laugh-out-loud funny and edge-of-your-seat suspenseful. Jason Goldstein, Product and Technology DirectorEve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolutionby Cat BohannonKnopf, 2023(Tags: Nonfiction, Science)So much of our existence is male-centered, and it was incredibly empowering and revolutionary to realize just how fundamental and influential female biology has beenand how much it has been wrongly overlooked. Zane Wolf, Graphics Intern, JuneDecember 2024The Scandalous Confessions of Lydia Bennet, Witchby Melinda TaubGrand Central Publishing, 2023(Tags: Fiction, Fantasy)In this take on Pride and Prejudice that stars the much-maligned Lydia Bennet, Wickham is a demon, and Kitty is a literal cat. I loved the way this book plays within the confines of Jane Austens plot while concocting a completely different story around ita really fun read! Meghan Bartels, Senior News ReporterLady Tans Circle of Women: A Novelby Lisa SeeScribner, 2023(Tags: Historical Fiction, China, Womens Health)This novel follows the true story of a female physician in Ming Dynasty China. Its a fascinating view into a provincial but familiar world where womens access to careand those daring to give itwere frequently life-or-death experiences. Kimberly Lau, PresidentThe Bangalore Detectives Club: A Novelby Harini Nagendra Pegasus Books, 2022(Tags: Mystery, Historical Fiction)This fun whodunit set in 1920s Bangalore gives a fascinating peek intro prerevolution India and how society is beginning to change for a smart woman. Clara Moskowitz, Senior Editor, Space/Physics Demon Copperhead: A Novelby Barbara KingsolverHarper, 2022(Tags: Literary Fiction, Historical Fiction)Loosely based on Charles Dickenss classic David Copperfield, Kingsolvers latest book is another tour de force. Her characters are, as usual, beautifully drawn and painfully realistic, and she's able to capture the tragedy, beauty and complexity of Appalachia perfectly. Tanya Lewis, Senior Editor, Health and MedicineKnow My Name: A Memoirby Chanel MillerViking, 2019(Tags: Nonfiction, Memoir)The title of this book is apropos because when I mentioned to people that I was reading Millers memoir, the name typically didnt resonate. Then I would clarify that the author is the sexual assault survivor from the Brock Turner case. As one might guess, its a heavy read. But I found it incredibly valuable to hear from Miller. The story is haunting because its true. Amanda Montaez, Associate Graphics EditorHomegoingby Yaa GyasiKnopf, 2016(Tags: Literary Fiction, Historical Fiction)Gyasis writing is so brisk and economical that each moment is rich with emotional depth, drawing you in and making you deeply invested in every character. Carin Leong, Contributing Multimedia EditorA Master of Djinnby P. Djl ClarkTor Books, 2021(Tags: Fantasy, Historical Fiction)Magical fantasy meets mystery meets steampunk meets historical political intrigue, with a healthy dash of LGBTQ representation thrown into the mix. This book is such a fun, bizarre and easy read. It comes out guns blazing in the first chapter and doesnt slow down for a second. Zane Wolf, Graphics Intern, JuneDecember 2024Mary Toft; Or, The Rabbit Queenby Dexter PalmerPantheon, 2019(Tags: Literary Fiction, Historical Fiction)An 18th-century doctor and his apprentice encounter a woman who claims to be giving birth to rabbits, kicking off a national scandal. Of course, its a hoax, but how did all these people fall for it? Its captivating writing and almost enough to make you wonder if youd have been duped, too. Jason Goldstein, Product and Technology Director

Sihoo Doro S300 review: A space-age office chairYes, it's expensive, but by jove is it comfortable. Review by Reece Bithrey Contributor Published on Dec. 18, 2024 The Sihoo Doro S300 has to be one of the most interesting, if futuristic, looking chairs Ive seen in a long time. Its been marketed by the Chinese brand as a zero gravity chair, possibly designed to make you feel as if youre floating in mid-air when in reality youre writing an important email.Its perhaps important to address that claim first. Of course, no chair is going to actually let you float in mid-air - it wouldnt be a chair then. But, the Doro S300 gets seriously close to making you feel that way. Theres more support in this chair than Ive ever experienced before, owing to the literal suspension that the Doro S300 has, combined with its myriad of adjustability and clever dual lumbar support. The feeling of relaxation and almost zen you get from using it is like plonking your backside down on a cloud, truth be told.Thats not an exaggeration, either. Ive been through my fair share of racing-seat style gaming chairs, and while the more premium choices such as the Secretlab Titan Evo have been comfortable, they dont come close to the Doro S300. Everything on this chair is adjustable, too, from the actual seat to the armrests, and back panels. Thats good in some instances, as you can configure the Doro S300 to your hearts content, although not so good in others. Even slightly readjusting myself after coming back to my desk caused the seat to move, while the armrests would not lock in place. Theyre brilliant for changing their angle or orientation, but wont stay in that position for too long. The armrests are quite enthusiastic to move.With regard to its adjustment, the Doro S300 offers up to 138 degrees of recline over three settings. For my use, I kept to the middle setting to offer the flexibility to go back without feeling as if I was about to fall out of the chair. Combined with this, theres those pesky 6D armrests that can go up and down vertically, from side to side, and even diagonally if you want. The backrest is split into two pieces, with a wider top piece for supporting your head and shoulders, while the bottom piece is spring-loaded and adjusts the strength of the lumbar support. The chairs seat is also suspended on springs, so cushions you well when you sit down initially.This is a high-back chair, supporting everything from your back to your arms especially well, and I dont rue the lack of a head-rest, as some may do. I very rarely made use of them in other chairs Ive owned, perhaps given my posture isnt the best, but the Doro S300 nonetheless felt especially comfortable even without one. Being a mesh chair also means its breathable and I didnt get too uncomfortable or sticky from using it for hours on end over the summer months when it gets particularly hot in our office. In all other settings, its been a joy to use. Yes, that is literal suspension so you feel like you're all floatin' and stuff.In addition, its supremely well-built with a mix of a thick metal base, a velvety mesh seat and fibreglass accoutrements that make it one of the best chairs Ive seen in terms of build quality, while in the white colourway I have here, it looks immensely stylish. Its also rather heavy, which makes it a bit unwieldy to build. Assembling the Doro S300 is undoubtedly a two-person job simply given how hefty it is, as you need one person to hold a piece in place while the other screws it in. All in, building it probably took about half an hour to 45 minutes, which is reasonably okay.Then theres the price. Theres no easy way of saying this - the Sihoo Doro S300 is an 680/$800 chair, making it one of the more expensive office chairs you can purchase, full stop. For reference, the Secretlab Titan Evo 2022 starts at $549, while the IKEA Markus is $290, and those have been two of our favourite gaming chairs for quite a while. With its spec sheet and the overall user experience here, its fairer to compare the Doro S300 to the likes of the Herman Miller Cosm ($1730) and the Steelcase Gesture ($1663), and in the context of those chairs, its a fair bit more affordable. The fabric mesh is comfortable and breathable.In essence, the Sihoo Doro S300 is a fantastic office chair thats certainly one of the most comfortable Ive used in years. That goes for everything from its breathable mesh material to its heaps of adjustment and its smooth recline. In addition, its especially well built and looks fantastic. It is an expensive chair, but definitely worth the investment.

PS5 Pro deep dive reaction: GPU and RT improvements, PSSR and Sony's new AMD Amethyst partnershipPlus: what this all means for future PlayStation hardware.Image credit: Digital Foundry Feature by Will Judd Deputy Editor, Digital Foundry Additional contributions byAlex Battaglia, Oliver Mackenzie, and Richard LeadbetterPublished on Dec. 18, 2024 When Sony revealed the PlayStation 5 Pro, it did so in a very different manner to the reveal of PlayStation 4 Pro and PlayStation 5. While lead system architect Mark Cerny was 'master of ceremonies' for the Pro reveal, the debut has a shortlived nine-minute affair - and a good proportion of that run-time celebrated the achievements of the standard PlayStation 5 console. It was a far cry from the detailed presentation given for the reveal of Sony's first 'Pro' console and somewhat bereft of detail compared to the now legendary 'Road to PS5' presentation given by Cerny in March 2020. We were left hungry for more details - and now, they have finally arrived.A good three months after the reveal, Sony has delivered a brand new deep-dive presentation into the hardware design and indeed the vision behind PlayStation 5 Pro - and it's important stuff. The philosophy behind the console marks a sea-change in the way that consoles will be made. While the core graphics rendering tech of the PlayStation 5 Pro has been enhanced over the standard machine, Cerny sees a future where machine learning plays a key role in console design, and while rasterisation is nearing its limits, he sees vast scaling in ray tracing capabilities going forward.It's a vision that shares commonalities with Nvidia's strategy over the last six years, except the impression we get is that AMD will continue to be Sony's partner of choice in delivering this new vision. To that end, a new 'Amethyst' collaboration between Sony and AMD has been announced.Digital Foundry's Oliver Mackenzie had the chance to see the new Cerny presentation several weeks ago and to interview Mark Cerny himself, alongside Mike Fitzgerald - Insomniac's director of core technology. However, the presentation itself is something that all Digital Foundry team members were eager to discuss, so here's our reaction to the talk - and, of course, an overview of everything we've learned.Here's the full PS5 Pro deep dive, hosted by Mark Cerny. Watch on YouTubeGPU overview: RDNA 2.x, 16.7TFThe most obvious evolution from the base PS5 to the PS5 Pro comes in terms of its graphics processing horsepower. Rather than increasing CPU performance, improving storage speeds or targeting higher resolution displays, as you might expect from a brand new console, the main focus with PS5 Pro is shoring up performance and image quality with a more capable GPU. Interestingly, the PS5 Pro GPU is still based on AMD's RDNA 2 (RX 6000-series) architecture, but with some features backported from RDNA 3 (RX 7000-series) - and from RDNA 4 (RX 8000-series, expected 2025) as well.At a typical clock speed of 2.17GHz, the PS5 Pro is capable of a 16.7TF of performance - half the 33.5TF erroneously quoted before launch. This is more directly comparable to the circa 10TF number attached to the base PS5, versus the inflated (or "flop-flated", as Mark Cerny puts it) RDNA 3 teraflop counts. Other specs line up with early PS5 Pro leaks, including 30 WGPs, 60 compute units and a max boost of 2.35GHz - though this frequency isn't likely to be seen under normal operating conditions, perhaps due to power constraints. The maximum clock speed of the standard PS5 is 2.23GHz, but the presentation suggests that typical operating speed is the same 2.17GHz as PS5 Pro so typical TFLOPs is circa 10TF, rarely hitting the 10.23TF quoted in the original specs. As this generation has proven, however, TFLOPs is proving to be an increasingly meaningless metric - a situation acknowledged by Mark Cerny in the new presentation.As for why PlayStation 5 Pro isn't fully embracing later AMD graphics architectures, the reason is very straightforward: shader code for the PS5 GPU would not function on later AMD hardware, and there's no means by which those shaders could be re-compiled in existing games. Shader compilation on the fly? It's not viable for PS5 and - trust us - you wouldn't want it either. Therefore, PS5 Pro has to use the same RDNA 2.x baseline, with extensions added for new features - such as enhanced ray tracing.In terms of other features, we also know from separate disclosures to developers that the PS5 Pro has the full RDNA 2 feature set, including mesh shaders and hardware VRS, and there's an extra 2GB of (slower) DDR5 memory on board. Of that, there's over one gigabyte of extra memory available to developers. The GDDR6 memory used here is also around 28 percent faster than on the base PS5 - 576GB/s versus 448GB/s - despite being connected on a similar 256-bit bus. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Ray tracing improvementsPart of the PS5 Pro's appeal is its significant improvement in terms of RT performance, allowing developers to use these features more liberally in PS5 Pro-enhanced titles without sacrificing image quality or frame-rates to the same extent as on the base PS5. This is accomplished through the RDNA 2.x architecture of the base PS5, with new extensions added from later RDNA technology.The PS5 repurposes the texture mapping units to do box and triangle intersection tests for ray tracing, with the PS5 Pro speeding up this part of the process by two or three times. The Pro also supports BVH8 rather than BVH4, which also offers a speed-up. PS5 Pro also adds stack management in hardware, which again helps the traversal stage in ray tracing and was previously only seen in Intel and Nvidia hardware, not AMD. Finally, more divergent RT sees a greater performance boost than more coherent RT on PS5 Pro. This divergent/coherent spectrum essentially describes the complexity of RT calculations, with shadows and reflections on flat surfaces being more coherent, and reflections on curved or bumpy surfaces being more divergent. Again, Nvidia and Intel have come up with good ways to handle more divergent RT, such as hardware sorting units and shader execution reordering, and though we don't see exact replicas of those ideas here, the traversal upgrades and move to BVH8 ought to mean the PS5 Pro is much better equipped in its predecessor to tackle these more computationally expensive RT calculations. That opens the door to developers more easily using a wider range of material roughness for reflections, for example, rather than only sticking to mirror-like or near-mirror-like reflections. Mark Cerny postulates that there is a limit to how far we can take rasterisation. One avenue to exceed those limitations is through RT, which has a lot of potential to scale with more research. Seeing these improvements from Sony suggests that RDNA 4 is pushing more in that direction, which is exciting stuff. Of course, we still don't know for sure how RDNA 4's RT performance will turn out - it looks like a significant step forward, but there's still no equivalent to the RT core featured in Nvidia's RTX 20-series architecture onwards, which allows for more concurrent workloads. AMD has discussed in presentations how it's using greater amounts of cache on its PC GPUs to fit more into the BVH, so it'll be fascinating to see how the desktop RDNA 4 chips perform with that additional improvement. Enhanced ray tracing is a key feature of PS5 Pro - and Polyphony Digital really puts the technology through its paces in the Pro-enhanced version of Gran Turismo 7.Watch on YouTubeMachine learning and PSSRAs well as the PS5 Pro's baseline RDNA 2.x being upgraded with what Sony calls "future RDNA" for ray tracing, it also comes with "custom RDNA" for machine learning, specifically PSSR upscaling. Rather than using an existing upscaler, Mark Cerny told us that Sony focused on speed and minimising the amount of time per frame that their upscaler required. They had a choice between NPU and GPU hardware for this, and ended up going with the GPU.The actual implementation is quite interesting, as Sony discovered that even processing a single layer of a 4K 16-channel image at 128MB was limited by memory bandwidth while using only three percent of the circa 300 TOPS available. The nave solution was to take a smaller portion of the image through the chip at once, but then you end up with problems where the edges lack necessary information about the surrounding tiles, so that data needs to be discarded. In the end, Sony opted to combine their vector registers in the WGPs, giving them a total of 15MB of memory and 200TB/s of memory bandwidth. It's a similar approach to how AMD handled RT, where you're still using generalised hardware to accomplish a specific goal. The repurposing is likely area-efficient in terms of the overall silicon footprint, doesn't require massive changes to RDNA, and seems to have allowed Sony to reach its speed goals for PSSR. However, PSSR isn't yet a "fully-fused" convolutional neural network (CNN), something that Intel notably achieved with their first release of XeSS. Being fully-fused imparts a speed advantage, as you're not touching system memory partway through upscaling a single frame. Based on DLSS taking less than 1ms and PSSR taking around 2ms through our rough calculations, it means that there's the potential for games to run faster if this is achieved in the future. It could also open the door to upscaling being used at higher frame-rates (eg 120fps) where a circa 2ms upscale runtime is a significant percentage of the 8.3ms available for an entire frame to be rendered. There is the opportunity that AMD could take a similar approach with RDNA 4, making modifications to the main CUs to make it possible to run convergent neural networks locally on the GPU. Sony's PSSR upscaler is first generation in nature and the quality of implementations can vary significantly - but at its best, like here in Stellar Blade, the improvement to image quality is phenomenal.Watch on YouTubeThe future: Amethyst, ML exploration and next-genSony has also announced a collaboration with AMD called Amethyst - itself a repurposed AMD GPU codename from 2014, with its purple colour coming from the combination of Sony (the Blue team) and AMD (the Red team). The idea is to make hardware architectures that work well for lightweight CNNs useful for real-time game graphics, as well as high-quality CNNs for game graphics. There'll also be collaboration on the network architectures of those CNNs. Both parties will be able to access all of these architectures for their products. It sounds like AMD is leading the way on the main GPU designs but Sony and AMD have this machine learning collaboration that should hopefully push things forward for both companies in terms of machine learning and ray tracing. Sony gets the benefit of iterating upon PSSR on a larger scale, AMD gets to minimise the R&D gap between itself and Nvidia. It's not clear whether there will be some cross-pollination between PSSR and FSR on RDNA 4 GPUs, and it'll be interesting to see where Microsoft's upscaling efforts also fall given that they also have a PC focus, yet compete against PlayStation with the Xbox.This isn't just about upscaling either, it's about computer graphics in general. There's plenty of machine learning potential that Mark Cerny seemed quite excited by in our conversation, including denoising, improving texture quality and texture streaming, maybe even geometric quality, all within the limited bandwidth and memory space available on consoles. That's the sort of thing that Sony should be evaluating for PS6 and an endeavour like Amethyst ensures that achieving some of this is doable on that kind of a time-frame. Likewise, announcing a partnership of this nature suggests that Sony is sticking with AMD for their next-gen console, as its major benefits won't be available in the next couple of years. As well as the PlayStation 6, there are plenty of exciting possibilities for the PS5 Pro as developers get to grips with the new consoles capabilities. There's certainly potential for more advanced RT implementations as well as improved iterations of PSSR that accomplish more uniformly good results. There's also the possibility for more improvements to running games under back-compat if Sony wants to use ML to enhance the existing library of games. Overall, it's been fascinating to learn more about the PS5 Pro, and we encourage you to read our interview with Mark Cerny and Mike Fitzgerald for more detail on the PS5 Pro, its development and potential for future improvement.

The big PlayStation 5 Pro tech interview with Mark Cerny and Mike Fitzgerald"Well, it's not all going to be rainbows and path tracing." Interview by Oliver Mackenzie Contributor Additional contributions byWill JuddPublished on Dec. 18, 2024 Sony's PlayStation 5 Pro is a powerful mid-generation upgrade that delivers machine learning upscaling, improved ray tracing and more raw graphics horsepower. We've spent hours testing and discussing its capabilities, but it's always fascinating to see the other side: how it was built and how its software was designed. With that in mind, Digital Foundry's Oliver Mackenzie spoke to PS5 Pro lead system architect Mark Cerny and core technology director at Insomniac Games, Mike Fitzgerald. This tech interview covers a lot of ground through its 30-minute runtime, including the challenges and opportunities of PSSR upscaling, the thinking behind the hardware design of the new console and how developers have approached the new options - and performance - afforded to them. This piece arrives hand in glove with a deep dive presentation into the architecture of PS5 Pro with the interview taking place on October 30th, so while the topics covered are very extensive, elements like the variable nature of PSSR implementations across different titles weren't apparent at the time of the conversation.The discussion also touches on where Sony is looking to go in the future. As Rich postulated in his PS5 Pro review, as well as being a powerful machine in the here and now, this console is also a great opportunity for Sony and game developers alike to get to grips with the RT and ML tech that will define the next generation of games - and that's echoed in the conversation here. If you're looking for some hints as to the direction Sony is taking in PlayStation 6, there's plenty to think about in this piece. As always, the text has been lightly edited for length and clarity. Here's the full interview with PS5 Pro lead system architect Mark Cerny and Insomniac Games core technology director, Mike Fitzgerald. Watch on YouTubeDigital Foundry: I wanted to start off here by talking about PSSR, PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution. There has been a little bit of a difference in terms of approach between developers like Naughty Dog and Square Enix in terms of the modes that they're offering. Some studios are focusing on offering many modes, while others are using PSSR as an opportunity to homogenise their existing modes into one ultimate PS5 Pro experience. Do you have any preference for either of these approaches? Mark Cerny: My preference is that the game developers do what they feel is best for their titles, so this is really a question for Mike.Mike Fitzgerald: When we make a game and we work as a whole studio and team on delivering it, we're making some really tough trade-offs between what we want to present at a higher frame rate and what we can present at 30fps. The nice thing about being approached with new hardware is that suddenly those compromises we made while shipping the game go away. We're able to bring together a lot of what made the fidelity mode the fidelity mode and what made the performance mode the performance mode on the PS5 Pro. After spending some time doing that and having a really nice performance pro mode together, attention starts to turn to, well, maybe some people still want to play at 30fps and we do have this nice new piece of hardware, so what other fun things can we do with it? Digital Foundry: Yeah, it does depend a lot on the game. For the Insomniac games on PS5, you have so much RT in there that you can pack in all kinds of different configurations. Whereas I think a lot of other developers are going to be in a position where they can now deliver a good 4K image at 60fps, so maybe that's the way to go with one mode. Mark Cerny: Yeah. I knew there would be a lot of different strategies. I was upfront about this in that first video I did, with six games that were shown and the first three do the "almighty" mode and the other three titles do something completely different.Digital Foundry: We've seen from developers that there have been a wide range of upscaling factors that are going into this PSSR process. We've seen in a title like Alan Wake 2 that's doing 864p to 4K, while in the Insomniac titles it's more often scaling from 1440p or 1584p to 4K. Does the Sony team provide guidance with regards to those upscale factors, or is it just recommended that developers roll their own and see what kind of image quality you get? Mark Cerny: I'll talk a little bit about the tech we're developing and then Mike can talk about how they're using it. There's a lot of research going on there. We support one mode that covers a range of 2.5:1 to 1:1. And whether that's an ideal long-term strategy or not, we're definitely talking about it. We're looking at the low end of the range and the issues we see there versus the high end of the range. So I really wouldn't take that current 2.5:1 as any sort of indication about where we'll be years from now. Mike Fitzgerald: Yeah, I would say a lot of it depends too on what you're moving from. So the TAA that we had been leveraging as a studio - and still do - was really well suited for about 1440p up to 4K, but really struggled when it got down closer to the 1080p to 1280p range. PSSR behaves very well at that range, so for us, it's a big improvement and gives us an opportunity to spend our time differently there. Mark Cerny: Yeah, that fur on performance RT.Mike Fitzgerald: Yeah [laughter]. It really struggled for me playing at home in the performance modes that we had on the base PS5. And so to see that quality come back... To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Digital Foundry:PSSR is your first implementation of an ML-based upscaling model, and we're seeing wide ranges in terms of upscaling factors. In the future, are you potentially looking to increase those upscaling factors or deliver better quality out of a new version of PSSR? We heard that there were quality improvements in PSSR pre-launch, so do you think that will continue in the future? Mark Cerny: We're definitely continuing with development of these ML-based libraries for game graphics. It's just that there's so many targets to go up against. Like in that talk today, I was also going over frame generation, frame extrapolation, ray tracing, denoising and the like. So what order and what focus? Those are really good questions. Additionally, complicating this is that we announced Project Amethyst with AMD today. So it's not just us developing the networks; we have a partner that we're doing it with. And of course, what the partner feels about that technology direction and where the focus should be is also very important.Digital Foundry:Okay. So in that vein, on PC at the moment, we have a lot of technologies - frame generation, AI upscaling, frame extrapolation, ray reconstruction, which are doing pretty profound things to the makeup of a game image in real time in a pretty lightweight manner. Are those areas that you're exploring for future PSSR upgrades? Mark Cerny: Definitely. Well, it wouldn't be PSSR - PSSR is PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution. Spectral is our branding for the ML libraries for graphics, just like Tempest is our branding for our 3D audio. And so it's going to be Spectral something for all of that. And yeah, we're definitely looking at what it would be that would be that Spectral something, if not Super Resolution. But Super Resolution is a very good place to start.Digital Foundry: And in terms of PSSR and how it's implemented on a per-game basis, presumably developers will have to go and patch in to upgrade to new versions of PSSR, right? Because you wouldn't necessarily want new versions of PSSR in the mix there without a title update, or is that something you're thinking about?Mark Cerny: Well, there are a lot of interesting possibilities there. And honestly, I don't know at this time. It's wonderful to think that the game could say it's okay to update or a user could make a decision to update. Just how all of those pieces fit together, I don't know.Mike Fitzgerald: From a developer perspective, I think we can look at our games differently a lot of the time. And I know some developers would say, "I don't want the system to touch what I have confirmed looks good to me and players." Other developers would say, "Oh, your system is going to go and make my game look better for people without me having to do anything? Great." So there's options there.A look at how Insomniac improved Marvel's Spider-Man 2 with RT and PSSR improvements, along with a quick look at other titles from the studio.Watch on YouTubeDigital Foundry: With PSSR, you can have a pretty tremendous improvement in image quality while internal resolution stays similar. Is it a challenge to figure out that messenging, that this is a profoundly improved image despite the fact that the internal resolution is comparable? I know that we're part of this problem for sure...Mark Cerny: You're not part of the problem. I've heard you talk. I've spent too much time on DF. But I've heard you talk about how you really shouldn't be looking at internal rendering resolution and drawing too much in the way of conclusions from that. You really need to be looking at image quality. And I was trying to communicate exactly the same message today, that we need to change the way we're talking about resolution. Maybe we shouldn't be talking about it at all. The difficulty is if you don't have a number, it's very hard to have that conversation.Digital Foundry: Yeah, we tried to get away from it with a model that would score approximate image quality, but it's a big challenge in terms of communication. Resolution remains a big part of that discussion, for the moment at least. One thing we saw with PSSR in Ratchet and Clank in particular is that it appeared to improve the stability and resolve of RT reflections. Is that something you've seen across other titles that you're working on, and would do you expect that to carry over to other games with RT reflections and PSSR?Mike Fitzgerald: Ray-traced reflections are an interesting challenge because they are a composite of multiple images in the frame, right? And so with the information you feed into an algorithm like PSSR, you're limited in how much you can describe about each pixel. An example would be if you're passing the depth buffer in to tell PSSR how far things are from the camera, it can't tell it how far the window is and how far the reflecting thing is and how far the thing behind the window, right? As you turn the camera, you have some velocity information about how the window is changing, but maybe not information about how the reflecting thing in the mirror is changing. This can be really hard to encapsulate in an analytical algorithm like TAA, so that's one of the areas we were hoping to see improvement in PSSR as it potentially has more capability to recognise that type of situation or adapt to it.Digital Foundry: With PS4 Pro, the focus was targeting 4K displays. With PS5 Pro, you're achieving an enormous improvement in the power level. Did you have a certain kind of game experience in mind to deliver to players when you were designing this console? Or was it more that we're going to engineer big performance improvements and the developers are going to show players what that looks like? Mark Cerny: It's a mid-generation release. So really the target is better graphics and it felt like the big three were the right things to go after: larger GPU, more advanced ray tracing, and ML. Not that complex of an approach!Personally speaking, it's been just great digging into the ML aspects of this and gaining some knowledge there. Because we know that's the future we're heading into. And so what an opportunity to gain all that knowledge with the Pro, rather than waiting for the start of a true generation and having to get everything right with no experience whatsoever.Digital Foundry:One interesting thing about the PS5 Pro is that while GPU, memory and storage have all been improved, the CPU has stayed the same apart from a clock bump that developers can tap into. Why wasn't the CPU upgraded? Mark Cerny: It's really just a question of where you put your resources. And I wasn't seeing - and I didn't think I would see - that many titles that couldn't run at 60. That's kind of my litmus test. I'm not asking, "do all the games run at 120?" at this point in time. I'm asking, "do all the games run at 60?" You can count the AAA exceptions on one hand, I think, for games that didn't eventually run at 60. And so it seemed if we threw pretty much all of our resources into the graphics, that that would be the best approach.Mike Fitzgerald: Right. I would say as a developer, the day Mark comes and says, "Hey, we want to give you guys a presentation about what we're thinking about for the next hardware." That's a fun meeting for everyone and we were very happy with where the focus was here. Polyphony Digital's Gran Turismo 7 upgrade for PS5 Pro offers up big benefits for ray tracing, performance and PSVR 2 - it's probably the most comprehensive package we've seen.Watch on YouTubeDigital Foundry: With regards to the machine learning hardware in the console, do you see that as a solution for the fact that you don't get good cost scaling on new silicon nodes any more, of the kind that historically enabled mid-gen console refreshes? Mark Cerny: Yeah. The strategies that we had up through PS4 Pro or the like... I wouldn't say it's reached a limit, but mostly it's about making the GPU bigger or memory faster. And so, as we look to the future, the improvements will be ray tracing. I think we're going to see a lot happening there. And then everything we can get done with ML. Digital Foundry: The PS5 Pro seems to target similar GPU clocks as in the base PS5 model. Given that the GPU is larger, would you run up against power constraints there, and would clock speeds therefore be a bit more variable? Mark Cerny: That's a great question. It's pretty much identical. So, PlayStation 5 capped at 2.23GHz, PlayStation 5 Pro caps at 2.35GHz, which I did not talk about today because it's just such a distraction. I don't want anybody doing flop math based on 2.35GHz because, at the end of the day, when we do the set design, we tune the set design so that the games are running at about 2.17GHz. We don't want it to get too bulky. We don't want to have the fan have to be too large or the like. So, I mean, that 2.35GHz is really a red herring. I don't think too many games will get up to that too often.Digital Foundry: In the presentation, you positioned the PS4/PS5 and PS4 Pro/PS5 Pro as existing along separate tracks: the left-hand track is for generational leaps and the right track is for mid-gen refreshes, enhanced consoles. We're in an era where developers are shipping cross-gen more than they ever have, but does that chart reflect that you still believe fundamentally in generational leaps, going from one generation to the next generation, big changes in software, big changes in what people can deliver on that hardware? Mark Cerny: We're not making PCs. We're making a few very specific things, right? The Pro consoles are very tightly targeted around GPU. But when a new generation starts, then it gets opened up - what are we doing with the CPU? What are we doing with the amount of memory? What are we doing with haptics? It's a whole new experience for developers. I think it's really helpful, even if we drop words like "revolution" from the conversation, that developers can ask the question, "OK, this game will ship on one and the next, but how can it be a different creature for each of those?" Not gameplay-wise, but in terms of the visual experience. Digital Foundry: There's one other question that I had about just the kind of way that you're positioning these consoles, which is that we're talking about an era where rasterised performance improvements are maybe not as important as they used to be, and the use of upscaling technologies is changing the way that we perceive all of those metrics. Mark Cerny: Well, it's not all going to be rainbows and path tracing, so...Digital Foundry: [Laughter] Well, exactly. So along those lines, the PS5 Pro still has 67 percent more WGPs (work group processors) than the standard PS5. Even though this is the potential future of graphics rendering - a massive focus on AI and ray tracing - it's not completely here today, is it? Mark Cerny: Sure. What was that like Mike? Because you had a moderate boost for the raw graphics performance, and then you had a much better boost for the ray tracing. How did you tweak the engine?Mike Fitzgerald: Well, the nice part was that those things stacked together in a really constructive way. So we were able to use the faster RT performance to get some time to spend to drive the upscaler further. The more sizable GPU came back to cut frame-times down. So I think they stacked well for a game that was designed for the base PS5 and already had little bits of each of those pieces.Mark Cerny: Well, I liked it because very simplistically looking at it, it's faster, and so you've just sped up your rendering, and now you have 5ms to spend on whatever. And so why not spend them on improving your RT or adding a new widget or whatever? If you're making an engine, nobody is ever coming to you and saying, "you now have 5ms to do whatever you want to do that's just gravy." Right? That doesn't happen. You're desperately trying to get to 60fps.This interview was part of a press event where we had a very early look at Mark Cerny's new PS5 Pro deep dive presentation. Here, Oliver, Rich and Alex share their thoughts. Watch on YouTubeDigital Foundry: Yeah, I thought one compelling part of the presentation was seeing a 16ms workload on PS5 become an 11ms workload on PS5 Pro. Then all of a sudden you've got this big chunk of frame-time left over, looking very scrumptious. Then you can devote your resources to tackling RT, to doing machine learning upscaling, doing a lot more on the hardware. Can you explain the Amethyst initiative with AMD? What's the vision for your collaboration and what it will mean going forward?Mark Cerny: There's two components. It's a deep collaboration. It's multi-year. Don't expect some massive hardware announcement immediately coming out of this. One target is more optimal architectures for machine learning. And I look at that through a very narrow lens because we're making a console. And so I really want to hear about, number one, does it support these lightweight CNNs that we need for the graphics? But I'd also like to hear about, people want to do their AI or something on it. Is it something that is portable? Is it something that's easy to create? Because you never want to lock people into just one hardware architecture when they make that stuff. So working on this generalised architecture that's particularly good at the ML needs of consoles. I suspect AMD might frame it slightly differently [laughter].Digital Foundry: So for Sony, it's that focus on these really lightweight models that you're using in real-time rendering.Mark Cerny: That's my personal focus. AMD, of course, is incredibly broad and they have big machinery out in the cloud and they have laptops. They're in so many different spaces. But I look at it as, yes, I'd love to see these things happen. And the other part of it is for these neural networks, they are time consuming to make. I think, with no exaggeration, PSSR is the toughest technical project I've ever been in in my life. And it's just marvelous to have a partner who also has resources and expertise that can be going into very much the same targets. And what are those targets? It is super resolution. It is. I guarantee it's possible to do better than PSSR. And that's just scratching the surface of where we can head. I mean, I mentioned frame generation and the like, but there are uses I know are out there that we haven't even started talking about yet. So it's to develop those together.Now, to clarify, we're talking about developing components, not developing libraries. Because our customers are different and when it comes down to it, the hardware is a little bit different. I hope it rung true when I was saying super resolution on PCs is a little bit different from consoles, because we tend to use a variable upscaling ratio and PCs tend be fixed upscaling ratios. So having this ability to grab those co-developed algorithms and then integrate them separately is really going to be a boost across the board.Digital Foundry: We're curious about how the PS5 Pro hardware handles backwards compatibility. We know the PS5 Pro doesn't have a perfect butterfly GPU configuration like on the PS4 Pro. Mark Cerny: It's a great question. We learned a lot from PS4 Pro - going into that, I thought we had to replicate pretty much the exact timing that the game was running... and it turns out you don't need to. The timing can drift a bit and the game will still work, though there's a limit to how far that can go. We did see a few titles - like 11, out of thousands - that wouldn't respond well when did PS4 Pro to the radically different timing. But in general, the games are pretty robust when it comes to the timing. So the shorter answer is that on PS5 Pro we just didn't worry about it, and the games are working. We still need binary compatibility - all of the registers that the game was hitting need to be there. But we don't need whatever was taking a thousand cycles before to still take a thousand cycles. It's okay if it takes 600 or 900 or even occasionally 1100. Mike Fitzgerald: Well, I think we've already seen it. We've already seen that consistency of ray tracing performance pay off even in the Spider-Man 2 patch we've done. So we're able to put in RTAO. We have some RT shadows in there and places where we were bumping up against those divergence limits. In fact, for the water reflections in Spider-Man 2, we cheated them all so that they were less divergent than would be physically accurate in the water to sort of scrape that performance back. And so we're already seeing opportunities where it's paying off for us.Mark Cerny: I think path tracing on PS5 Pro would be a little tricky to do. But, you know, I wouldn't put it past the developers. There are some amazing engineers out there. Mike Fitzgerald: It sounds like a challenge. Digital Foundry: What is your kind of vision for what developers will be achieving on PS5 Pro in the future? If you're looking at PS5 Pro software in a few years, what would you be happy to see?Mark Cerny: I'm happy with the launch line-up, to be honest. We view it very simply - we're just making tools for the developers. How the developers use those tools, that's up to them. We've seen a couple different ways of doing it, I think right now. Part of the fun will be, you know, in about three or five years, there will be a lot more different ways to use these tools that we hadn't anticipated. Look forward to it.

Image: SEGA, ParamountSonic the Hedgehog's third big-screen outing arrives this week and the critic reviews are now rolling in...This outing brings Shadow into the picture and it seems the reviews have (mostly) been enjoying the fun and family-friendly action so far. Many reviews are also praising Jim Carrey's efforts as well as the addition of Keanu Reeves.Variety said it was "faster and more fun":"The plot finds room for the Master Emerald, the super-powered jewel introduced in the last Sonic film, and for Tails the fox (Colleen OShaughnessey) and Knuckles the echidna (Idris Elba), who are now part of Sonics super-critter-hero team. But the real star is Fowlers shape-shifting filmmaking, which is deft enough to revel in blockbuster overkill and skewer it at the same time."GamesRadar+ thought Sonic 3 was predictable, but great fun - awarding it 3 out of 5 stars:"Sonic the Hedgehog 3 then is a piece of overstuffed franchise affair that's simple and predictable but great fun. Anchored by two great characters, Sonic and Robotnik, it's a family-friendly adventure that does nothing to revolutionize the formula Fowler has developed but keeps the wheels turning fast enough to get everyone excited for a sequel."Gaming Bible said Sonic 3 was the "best film of the trilogy":"Sonic The Hedgehog 3 was amazing. It really is the best film of the trilogy by far, yet Im still confident the next film could be even better if they keep this momentum up. Its hard to believe that we started from a shoddy, horrific design for a live-action Sonic The Hedgehog and somehow ended up here, its honestly surreal."Our friends at Eurogamer called it a "fitting finale for the year of Shadow" - awarding it 4 out of 5 stars:"Sonic 3 is a resounding success and fitting finale to the Year of Shadow. It's quippy and self-aware, balancing broad pop culture appeal with authenticity to its source material, while its flashy action thrills alongside an unbridled sense of cool that's only enhanced by Reeves as Shadow. Between this year's games and film, Sonic's shining bright with Shadow in tow."And IGN awarded Sonic's third outing 6 out of 10 - mentioning how these movies were only getting "better as they go" and also praising Jim Carrey's performance:"They may have started on the wrong foot, but the Sonic the Hedgehog movies appear to be getting better as they go. Pushing further past the dopey buddy comedy of the original and the tiresome pop-culture references of its marginally better sequel, this third installment offers much more pleasing CGI, blessedly fewer human foibles, and a kind of tortured nega-Sonic in Shadow, a fan favorite antihero voiced by Keanu Reeves. The real draw, though, is Jim Carrey, coaxed out of supposed retirement to deliver a dual villain performance that doubles all the exaggerated comic pleasures of his ongoing turn as Dr. Robotnik." Including the all-important post-credits sceneWill you be heading to the cinemas to catch Sonic 3? Let us know in the comments.Share:00 Liam is a news writer and reviewer for Nintendo Life and Pure Xbox. He's been writing about games for more than 15 years and is a lifelong fan of Mario and Master Chief. Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...Related ArticlesSonic Racing: CrossWorlds Speeds Onto Nintendo Switch "Soon"Update: New info has surfacedRound Up: The First Impressions Of The Sonic 3 Movie Are InHere's what critics and fans had to sayReminder: Sonic X Shadow Generations 'Sonic 3 Movie Pack' DLC Now Available"Featuring the voice of Keanu Reeves"PSA: Watch Out, Sonic 3 Movie Spoilers Are Already Cropping Up OnlineIncluding the all-important post-credits scene

Image: The Pokmon CompanyThousands of pounds of Pokmon Trading Cards have been stolen from Ace Grading, a Banbury-based Card Grading company run by TCG YouTuber Randolph.As reported by the BBC, the break in took place on Friday 13th December in what Randolph and his company has called a "targeted attack". Thames Valley Police believes that an estimated GBP 250,000 worth of cards have been stolen from the company's headquarters.In a video posted to his Pokmon-focused YouTube Channel, Randolph real name Andrew Shane has outlined the situation, explaining that it seems like a "professional break in" and that no other items have been stolen or tampered with.Subscribe to Nintendo Life on YouTube789kWatch on YouTube "This is obviously the worst thing that can possibly happen for the community" Randolph continues, admitting that the team "doesn't know" if it will be able to move forward from the attack.In a separate statement, Ace Trading has advised that customers who have been affected have been contacted by email or phone and informed of what cards have been taken and on how to claim compensation. Those whose cards haven't been stolen will also be contacted to confirm that the cards are safe.Subscribe to Nintendo Life on YouTube789kThe police investigation is still ongoing, so Randolph can't share much more, but he has advised that the company has increased security measures since the theft.Customers who use grading companies send their cards to the graders in order to get a rating on them. Cards such as Pokmon, Panini, Magic the Gathering and more are evaluated and given a "grade" which is seen as a way of appraising and preserving a card's condition, as well as potentially increasing its value.Oftentimes, the value of these cards can be in the hundreds, if not thousands. And, in recent years, we've seen card collecting particularly Pokmon cards explode in popularity.We'll update you when we hear more about the situation.

The build is from a week before cancellation.After almost ten years of research and internet digging, a brand new build of the Wii version of Radical Front's Star Wars Battlefront 3 has been discovered.Footage of the build has been shared on YouTube by modder iamshaymin as well as on r/GamingLeaksAndRumours. According to the footage, the build is show is dated just over a week before Free Radical's game was cancelled, and is "potentially the last Wii build of the game".Read the full article on nintendolife.com