NewsAnimalsVelvet ants have the Swiss Army knife of venomsThe venom acts on distinct molecular targets in mammals and insects Velvet ants deliver a savagely painful sting, prompting their other, more colorful nickname: cow killers.Steve Heap/Getty ImagesBy Amanda Heidt11 seconds agoFew creatures can tangle with a velvet ant and walk away unscathed. These ground-dwelling insects are not ants, but parasitic wasps known for their excruciating stings. Now researchers have discovered that the wasps dont dole out pain the same way to all species. Different ingredients in their venom cocktail do the dirty work depending on whos at the business end of a wasps stinger, researchers report online January 6 in Current Biology.Velvet ants are among the most well-defended insects, wielding not just venom, but warning coloration and odor, an extremely tough exoskeleton and long stinger, and the ability to scream when provoked. In 2016, the entomologist Justin Schmidt wrote that getting stung by a velvet antfelt akin to hot oil from the deep fryer spilling over your entire hand. Scientists have found that other vertebrates react to the wasps sting too, including mammals, reptiles, amphibians and birds.

NewsPlanetary SciencePluto may have captured its moon Charon with a kissThe pair of Kuiper belt objects linked up in a kiss-and-capture collision The New Horizons spacecraft flyby in 2015 captured these images of Pluto (lower right) and its large moon Charon (upper left). While this is a composite, and not to scale, new simulations reveal the pairs close relationship.SwRI/JHUAPL/NASABy Lisa Grossman10 seconds agoPluto and Charons meet-cute may have started with a kiss. New computer simulations of the dwarf planet and its largest moon suggest that the pair got together in a kiss-and-capture collision, where the two bodies briefly joined up before settling into their current positions.Its a U-Haul situation, says planetary scientist Adeene Denton of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo., who reports the results January 6 in Nature Geoscience. They kiss and they say, Yeah, this is it. I want to build a system together with you. And then they do.

Nature, Published online: 06 January 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00011-8A trove of data is providing insights into the main reasons studies are pulled from the arXiv preprint platform.

Nature, Published online: 06 January 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00009-2NASAs Parker Solar Probe could solve the mysteries of the solar wind and test Einsteins theory of relativity.

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CES 2025 has kicked off, and amidst all of the new tech reveals, Hyperkin has unveiled a new Xbox and PC controller that appears to borrow heavily from the design of the PlayStation DualSense controller. Dubbed the Competitor, this is a wired controller that features some premium hardware inside of it, like Hall Effect analog sticks and triggers. Official pricing and a release date have yet to be revealed, but we'll update this post with preorder links as soon as Hyperkin makes those details public.Like the DualSense, the Competitor features a similar layout of face buttons, symmetrical analog sticks, and a familiar placement of face buttons (via IGN). The D-pad is also heavily influenced by the DualSense with its transparent buttons and placement, and for extras, two additional inputs on the gamepad's rear can be found. There'll be two variants available for purchase when it launches: a regular black Competitor controller and one with white face-plates to create a two-color tone. While the Competitor looks like a DualSense controller, it remains to be seen if it'll feel like one. The overall ergonomics look almost identical to its primary inspiration, but the DualSense does feature nuanced haptic feedback features that aren't present in an Xbox controller.Continue Reading at GameSpot

Earlier this month, NetEase Games teased the debut of the Fantastic Four, the first post-launch heroes for Marvel Rivals. Now, the trailer for Marvel Rivals Season 1 has arrived, and it reveals that Marvel's first family of superheroes are facing an unexpected battle with the Lord of the Vampires, Count Dracula. It also appears that the FF may be among the few heroes left who can oppose him. As seen in the trailer, Dracula has personally taken Dr. Strange out of the picture. More alarmingly, Avengers Tower has fallen, and the familiar A logo on the side of the building has been turned into a V. Each member of the Fantastic Four is also showcased as they push back against Dracula's influence, but the FF won't have to hold back the darkness alone.The story seems similar to Marvel's recently concluded Blood Hunt crossover, which also left the world enshrouded by darkness as vampires attempted to take over. In the game, Dracula and Doctor Doom achieved this result by disrupting the moon's orbit. New York City has already fallen, and the remaining heroes will stand "together in the epic battle to break the mystical darkness with science."Continue Reading at GameSpot

Today is a big day for the WWE, as Raw officially moves to Netflix with tonight's show from Los Angeles. It also marks an end of an era for WWE 2K23. As of now, 2K Games has taken down the game's servers permanently.2K Games said it was giving WWE 2K23 its "final takedown" last September. The game and its DLC was removed from PlayStation and Xbox's digital storefronts at the beginning of November. Now that the servers are also down, WWE 2K23 will no longer have any online functions, including player-to-player matches or even the Community Creations that allowed fan-made characters to be downloaded.However, WWE 2K23 will still be available to play offline for anyone who purchased it prior to its removal. This game's fate foreshadows what will eventually befall its successor, WWE 2K24. That game reintroduced the special referee mode and featured 40 Years of WrestleMania, which allowed players to recreate several famous matches from "the showcase of the immortals."Continue Reading at GameSpot

Releasing to Steam Early Access on January 14, Hyper Light Breaker is the long-awaited sequel to 2016's Hyper Light Drifter and transitions the series from its iconic 2D pixel art style to an equally vibrant 3D world. Hyper Light Breaker players take on the role of a Breaker, tasked with venturing into procedurally-generated biomes in order to defeat enemies and collect new gear on their way to confronting the Abyss King. The ambitious roguelike from developer Heart Machine has already showcased plenty of impressive-looking footage of alpha gameplay.

One Piece is a series that's famous for its well-written villains. Over the course of over 1100 chapters, there has been no shortage of antagonists that have served as major obstacles in the journey of the Straw Hats and other heroes, providing some of the best moments and confrontations in the entire anime industry. As such, many villains in the story are purposefully left vague, chief among them being the notorious Rocks D. Xebec.