WHOUS Department of Energys SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, US National Science Foundation WHEN6 monthsThe next time you glance up at the night sky, consider: The particles inside everything you can see make up only about 5% of whats out there in the universe. Dark energy and dark matter constitute the rest, astronomers believebut what exactly is this mysterious stuff?A massive new telescope erected in Chile will explore this question and other cosmic unknowns. Its named for Vera Rubin, an American astronomer who in the 1970s and 1980s observed stars moving faster than expected in the outer reaches of dozens of spiral galaxies. Her calculations made a strong case for the existence of dark mattermass we cant directly observe but that appears to shape everything from the paths of stars to the structure of the universe itself.Explore the full 2025 list of 10 Breakthrough Technologies. Soon, her namesake observatory will carry on that work in much higher definition. The facility, run by the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and the US National Science Foundation, will house the largest digital camera ever made for astronomy. And its first mission will be to complete whats called the Legacy Survey of Space and Time. Astronomers will focus its giant lens on the sky over the Southern Hemisphere and snap photo after photo, passing over the same patches of sky repeatedly for a decade.By the end of the survey, this 3.2-gigapixel camera will have catalogued 20 billion galaxies and collected up to 60 petabytes of dataroughly three times the amount currently stored by the US Library of Congress. Compiling all these images together, with help from specialized algorithms and a supercomputer, will give astronomers a time-lapse view of the sky. Seeing how so many galaxies are dispersed and shaped will enable them to study dark matters gravitational effect. They also plan to create the most detailed three-dimensional map of our Milky Way galaxy ever made.If all goes well, the telescope will snap its first science-quality imagesa special moment known as first lightin mid-2025. The public could see the first photo released from Rubin soon after.

Apple is selling a special limited edition version of AirPods 4 to mark the Year of the Snake, with a specially engraved charging case available in China and select regions.Year of the Snake edition AirPods 4 Apple often marks the Chinese New Year with customized regional accessories, such as the Year of the Dragon AirPods Pro sold at the start of 2024. For 2025, Apple's doing it again.This year's special edition release is the AirPods 4, which are customized for the Year of the Snake. They're functionally the same as the usual AirPods 4, except the charging case has an engraving of two snakes and fireworks. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

Take a look at what Apple is going to bring us in 2025 and while you're doing that, take a look at everything Apple TV+ has for you right now as it launches its first-ever free weekend.An original Apple TV+ in-store promotion from 2010 image credit: William GallagherApple TV+ has never gone completely free before. There have been so many different free trials when you bought various devices, but this is the very first time that anyone can watch anything on Apple TV+, as long as they watch from Friday to Sunday, January 3 to 5, 2025. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

Sara Bronin, the Biden Administration's appointee as Chair of the U.S. FederalAdvisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP), recently announced her departure from the agency effective this month. Bronin, who is one of only a few licensed architects to hold the position, mentioned her optimism about forward movement in thepreservationfield in a LinkedIn post, along with a note about strides made in terms of outreach to Indigenous communities, housing, accessibility, and energy independence.The most recent AIA Firm Survey Report noted that 45% of all U.S. billings were from renovations, rehabilitations, and retrofits; additions to existing structures; and/or historic preservation activitiesin 2023.Related on Archinect: White House ACHP debuts draft alternatives for National Historic Preservation Act complianceI think architects are among those best positioned to help lead this dialogue, working with clients and communities to build a knowledge base and collective will to cha...

The best sports and racing games achieve one thing: they replicate what you expect the feel of being a sport or racing star is in real life but in video game form. Achieving this feeling isnt exclusive to simulations either, arcade style sports games as numerous on this list are can give you that same sense of achievement which makes this genre of video games so perennially popular.Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown Developer KT Racings most ambitious title to date has landed Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown a place on this rundown despite an onslaught of issues resulting predominantly from its always-online requirement. First, the good: Solar Crowns Hong Kong open world is consistently complex and interesting, and the car feel whilst not perfect is a step up from Test Drive Unlimited 2. The bad however outweighs the good: time wasting bugs, server issues even when racing solely against AI, and inconsistent, non-adjustable difficulty settings makes Solar Crown a racer steeped in promise but with much to fix.

Arrowhead Games creative chief Johan Pilestedt has taken to social media platform X to ask fans about the future of the studio behind Helldivers 2. In the post, Pilestedt also mentions that he is working on his own concept, and asks fans to speculate as well.With 10 minutes to 2025. What are your expectations and desires for what the next Arrowhead game will be? asked Pilestedt on X. I am working on the high concept, but I would love to hear your speculation.While far from an official announcement, this post would indicate that Arrowhead Games is already looking to figure out what its follow-up to Helldivers 2 would look like. Among the suggestions provided by fans are a Star Fox-inspired sci-fi game where players take on the role of the various EAGLE pilots in the Helldivers universe, and even a comedic idea of a game based on The Sims in the world of Helldivers.Helldivers 2 itself was an incredibly successful game for Arrowhead Games, with the PC version scoring a spot in the top 10 list of most-sold games on Steam. The title has also been seeing a steady stream of updates with new content, the most recent of which was a Killzone 2 crossover, which brought in new weapons and armours for players to try.For more details on Helldivers 2, check out our review.With 10 minutes to 2025. What are your expectations and desires for what the next Arrowhead game will be?I am working on the high concept, but I would love to hear your speculation. Pilestedt (@Pilestedt) December 31, 2024

As Nvidia gears up to unveil its next-generation line-up of graphics cards, leaks and rumours have been giving us plenty to chew on. The latest leak, as caught by Wccftech on the Chiphell forums, gives us a look at one of the higher-end GPUs in Nvidias upcoming lineup the GeForce RTX 5080.The leak involves the packaging for an MSI version of the RTX 5080, seemingly equipped with MSIs Tri Frozr cooling system, which can also be seen on current and previous graphics cards. The box has been labelled as being the GeForce RTX 5080 Gaming Trio OC Edition, which would also indicate some level of overclocking from the factory.The back of the box also gives us some more details about what we can expect from the upcoming graphics card, ranging from software features like DLSS 4 and support for Nvidias other RTX-centric features like Broadcast, as well as 16GB of GDDR7 memory and a 256-bit bus interface. In terms of outputs, the GPU seemingly comes equipped with 3 DisplayPorts and a single HDMI port.Nvidia is expected to unveil its new line-up of GeForce RTX 50-series graphics cards during the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show 2025, where we expect to officially see the RTX 5080, as well as potentially the RTX 5070. This new generation of cards will aim to occupy the same market spot of the previous generations 40-series cards.

Rare and Giant Stellers Sea Eagle Spotted Thousands of Miles From Home in Eastern Canada ParkThe bird, thought to be the only one of its kind in the Western Hemisphere, is presumed to be Stella, an out-of-place raptor spotted at sites across North America in recent years Steller's sea eagles are massive birds of prey typically found along the coasts of northeastern Asia. The one pictured above is not the bird spotted in Canada. Saschathegerman via Wikimedia Commons under CC BY-SA 2.0Stellers sea eagles are massive birds of prey, with wingspans stretching up to eight feet longbigger than the tallest NBA players. With their pronounced golden-yellow beaks and striking black and white plumage, these large raptors are easy to identify as they soar above the water in search of fish.The winged creatures are typically spotted along the coastlines of northeast Asia, including in Russia, Korea and Japan. But, this winter, birdwatchers say theyve spotted a Stellers sea eagle (Haliaeetus pelagicus) in Newfoundland, Canada, thousands of miles from its home.In mid-December, the interloper made an appearance at Terra Nova National Park, a large, protected wilderness area next to the Atlantic Ocean. Terra Nova is normally closed during the winter, but the Stellers sea eagle sighting prompted park officials to temporarily open one road so that birdwatchers and wildlife photographers had a chance to see the feathered visitor.With fewer than 5,000 of them in the world, this is the only one of its kind known to be in the Western Hemisphere, the park wrote on Facebook.When photographer Sandra Moss heard about the raptors appearance, she sprang into action and headed to the park with her husband. When she finally saw the winged behemoth perched at the top of a tree, she began snapping photosand ended up taking roughly 500 shots in about ten minutes.Shes accustomed to photographing bald eagles, which are large raptors in their own right. But no bald eagle comes close to the size of this bird, she tells the Canadian Press Sarah Smellie.I cant explain how exciting it is, she adds. Its an incredible feeling to know that that bird has chosen us. Thats what it feels like.The Stellers sea eagle hanging out at Terra Nova National Park is presumed to be the internet-famous bird nicknamed Stella, who has been flying around in North America for a few years. Birdwatchers have been following Stella since August 2020, when a photographer snapped a shot of the bird in Alaska, reported From there, Stella flew south to Texas, then north to Quebec and New Brunswick, Canada. The out-of-place sea eagle spent some time in Nova Scotia before detouring to Massachusetts and Maine.In the summers of 2022 and 2023, Stella was spotted in the town of Trinity, Newfoundland. There, the bird joined bald eagles on nearby rocky cliffs to feast on spawning capelin, a type of small, oily fish that lives in northern waters. Bird enthusiasts flocked to the small town, with local tour operator Trinity Eco-Tours ferrying visitors out to see the rare eagle.In June 2024, the bird was seen building a nest in Trinity, Newfoundland, according to Trinity Eco-Tours. But, if the lone Stellers sea eagle is looking for a mate, its unlikely to find one in North America, says Joseph Tobias, a biodiversity researcher at Imperial College London, to McClatchy News Brendan Rascius.The species often travels from breeding grounds in Russia to wintering grounds in Japan, and most likely this individual made a navigational error, Tobias adds. Sea-eagles often wander widely, and this individual must have crossed the Bering Strait by accident.Its not clear how or why the Stellers sea eagle ended up so far from home, a phenomenon scientists call vagrancy. But, whatever the reason, birdwatchers and ornithologists are delighted the raptor has decided to stick around.Its like an avian soap opera, Alexander Lees, a biodiversity researcher at Manchester Metropolitan University in England, told the New York Times Marion Renault in 2021. Were all rooting for it. Will it make it home? Or is it doomed to never see another species of its own in its lifetime?An estimated 3,600 to 4,670 mature Stellers sea eagles exist in the wild, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The species is considered vulnerable, as habitat loss, lead poisoning, climate change and brown bear predation have caused the population to decline.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Animals, Birds, Canada, National Parks, Nature, Outdoor Travel, Sea Birds, Travel, wildlife

Visionary Realms is an ambitious game studio that recently launched early access for Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen, a classic fantasy MMO.Read More

A screenshot that seems to suggest billionaire Elon Musk is cosplaying superfan Adrian Dittmann showing X account permissions beyond that of an ordinary user is almost certainly fake, a source at X tells The Verge.The source, who claims no knowledge of Dittmanns identity, says an image posted to 4chans /pol/ board doesnt reflect an actual interface available to people who work for X. The screenshot was posted by a user who identifies themselves as Adrian Dittmann, showing a post from Musks X page. In that screenshot, the X interface includes non-standard links to an Admin Portal and a Bans page, hinting that the user has special privileges on the site. But the source says neither of these options exist for X employees logged into their accounts. In fact, X employees would see the same interface as other users, with the potential exception of new features currently being trialed for wide release.This suggests that other elements of the screenshot, like an analytics link that only appears for the author of a post, were also deliberate fabrications, seeded as hints that Musk is secretly Dittmann. The hints were picked up overnight, where they spread on social media alongside other posts made by the 4chan user mostly ones lauding Musk and defending his X policies amid infighting with other conservatives over immigration.Its not clear who posted the screenshots. Adrian Dittmann is a longtime X user, and his Musk fandom and vocal similarities have led to long-standing rumors that hes secretly none other than Musk himself. (Musk has cosplayed his son on the site, so its not that far-fetched an assertion.) User Mags Taylor Lorenz has noted that Dittmann benefits tremendously from the speculation that theyre Musk, and its possible the doctored screenshots are Dittmann leaning into that. The 4chan posts could also be from an unrelated impersonator, though, playing up the idea of Musk as a desperate forum poster. (I guess we cant rule out that Musk, impersonating Dittmann, added fake elements to an actual screenshot of his X account? But Im ranking that theory low on the list.)None of this conclusively disproves a link between Musk and Dittmann, of course. But if Musk isnt spending his precious free hours on a sockpuppet account, that gives him more time for cozying up to President-elect Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago, attempting to swing Germanys upcoming election in favor of the far-right AfD party, and playing Diablo IV.