An artist's concept of the Pandora mission, seen here without the thermal blanketing that will protect the spacecraft, observing a star and its transiting exoplanet. (Credit: NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center/Conceptual Image Lab)NewsletterSign up for our email newsletter for the latest science newsThe fictional Magic School Bus enables its passengers to explore scientific phenomena, such as dinosaurs. Now, a non-fictional Space Bus named Pandora is ready to investigate celestial mysteries, like exoplanets that orbit small stars.The team that conceived of and built Pandora consisting of scientists from institutions including NASA, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and the University of Arizona announced its completion at an American Astronomical Society press briefing in Maryland. The Pandora satellite will study at least 20 known planets orbiting distant stars. It will probe the makeup of their atmospheres especially looking for hazes, clouds and water.Learning About ExoplanetsPandora will begin its drive in the fall 2025, although there is not yet an official launch date. While naming the exploration vehicle a bus is standard practice when referring to any spacecraft body designed to carry scientific instrumentation, its use this time is especially apt. Pandora, like its cartoon counterpart, will be largely used by young scientists like graduate students and research fellows.Young Scientists at the WheelGiven that use, its appropriate that a young scientist conceived part of Pandoras capabilities to help solve a data collection issue experienced by the James Webb Space Telescope.Measuring the atmosphere of a planet passing its host star can be tricky. Instruments must capture the light spectrum both before and during the planets passage across the star, according to Daniel Apai, a University of Arizona researcher who helped design some of Pandoras instrumentation. If you do things well, the star can be cancelled out, says Apai. Only the spectral fingerprint of the planets atmosphere will remain.However, this calls for precision. Some host stars dont always cooperate. Spots or different patterns on some stars surfaces can contaminate measurements.Giving the Webb a Helping HandThe Webb telescope can only look at planets passing stars for a short period. Pandora is designed to take its time. Its instruments will focus on planets in transit around small stars for a longer period than the Webb can, and, in doing so, can help resolve any discrepancies with the Webb data. In 2018, Apais then graduate student Benjamin Rackham (now a researcher at MIT) proposed this approach.Pandora is flying to help clear up what part of the signal is coming from the host star and what part of the signal is coming from the planet, says Apai. Essentially, the Webb can take a snapshot of a planets passage, while Pandoras ability is more akin to filming a movie.Pandora is also noteworthy because it is one of the first projects to come out of the NASA Pioneers Program, which was created in 2020. Science moves so quickly that NASA wanted to have a path to respond to exciting science questions faster, Apai says. The new program funds smaller projects that are less costly than large ones. They may carry more risk, but the costs are relatively low especially in comparison to larger, more expensive projects like the Webb.University Mission ControlAnd, in keeping with the Magic Bus theme of encouraging younger people to take a larger role in science, Pandoras mission control will operate out of the University of Arizona where scientists will manage it there, rather than from at one of NASAs facilities. It's pretty exciting to bring mission operations so close and into a university campus, says Apai.Apai, other astrophysicists, and astronomy fans, can now begin the countdown to discovering more about exoplanets including potentially habitable ones in our solar system.Article SourcesOur writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:NASA. Astrophysics PioneersBefore joining Discover Magazine, Paul Smaglik spent over 20 years as a science journalist, specializing in U.S. life science policy and global scientific career issues. He began his career in newspapers, but switched to scientific magazines. His work has appeared in publications including Science News, Science, Nature, and Scientific American.

Teotihuacn is about 30 miles northeast of Mexico City and was a major economic powerhouse between 100 BCE and 650 CE. Deposit PhotosShareArcheologists are reconstructing the history of the ancient megacity of Teotihuacn using the nearly 2,000-year-old remains of hundreds of animals and some humans. Recent expeditions in Mexico have uncovered 12 sets of human remains, along with over 200 sacrificed animals33 of which were complete animal skeletons. The findings are detailed in a new book written by University of California, Riverside anthropologist Nawa Sugiyama. Get the Popular Science newsletter Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. By signing up you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.What was Teotihuacn?Teotihuacn was one of the first megacities in Western Hemisphere. It is located about 30 miles northeast of present day Mexico City and is a designated UNESCO World Heritage site. It dates back over 1,900 years and was an economic powerhouse between 100 BCE and 650 CE. Its believed that 100,000 people lived in Teotihuacn during its heyday, about 1,000 years before the Aztec civilization settled in the area.The remains of the large metropolis include multiple plazas, the Temple of Quetzalcoatl, and the Pyramids of the Sun and the Moon. According to UNESCO, it was one of the most powerful cultural centers in Mesoamerica and the city extended its cultural and artistic influence throughout the region.Animals were also revered in Teotihuacn, with evidence that they were given as gifts, sacrificed, or venerated. Many of the animals found in the burial sites were also apex predators at the top of the local food chaingolden eagles, Mexican gray wolves, hawks, owls, falcons, jaguars, pumas, wolves, and even rattlesnakes.Thats really interesting from the zooarchaeology standpoint because theres a fundamental shift in the ways we know Indigenous communities understood these potent apex predators as active agents and mediators of the sky realm, the earth, and the underworld, Sugiyama said in a statement. They were also in conversation with and interacting, sometimes in very dangerous ways, with the human communities that were trying to make connections toand have power overhese natural sources of power themselves.CREDIT: UC Riverside. Aztec-size sacrificesWithin four dedicated chambers, Sugiyama and her team found the bones of 200 animal species. The largest of the chambers included 12 human remains and 100 animals. This is believed to be one of the most abundant cases of mass animal sacrifices ever found in Teotihuacn. They are comparable to the animal sacrifices conducted by the Aztec empire a millennium later. The Aztecs conducted ritual sacrifices often, offering 400 different animal species to their gods.Sugiyama studied their bone chemistry, which revealed new details about their sex, diet, age, and whether they were sacrificed dead or alive. A family crop was found to be a common denominator. Their diet was primarily maizeor corna primary staple food for humans in Mesoamerica. Many civilizations believed human beings were created from maize and it was important religious and cultural practices.I dont think its a mere coincidence, they were part of that process of creating a new politics, a new landscape, in which animals and humans coordinated one of the most ambitious ceremonial landscape constructions in ancient Mesoamerica, Sugiyama said.The team believes that this dedicatory chamber must have once been a State spectacle, that was potentially witnessed by thousands of people. Sacrifices in Teotihuacn were government-sanctioned ritual performances put on at the heart of the Moon Pyramid.Golden eagles remain goldenOne animal of particular importance in ancient Teotihuacn was the golden eagle. The large birds of prey with a roughly six to seven foot wing span is still held in high regard in the area today and is featured in the center of Mexicos flag.Sugiyamas excavation has uncovered 18 golden eagles that are believed to represent the 18 months in Teotihuacns 365-day calendar. The eagles can help archeologists reimagine what the dedicatory ceremony may have looked like 2,000 years ago. Sugiyama believes that the birds were carried in by State officials on their forearm or shoulder through Teotihuacns main corridor leading down the Calzada de los Muertos (Avenue of the Dead) to the endpoint at the Moon Pyramid.We are able to see the matter in which ancient Teotihuacanos materialized, felt, heard, created space, and understood their cosmos directly through the messages that are provided to us archeologists through the material remains of the bones that are speaking to us 2,000 years later, Sugiyama said. Win the Holidays with PopSci's Gift GuidesShopping for, well, anyone? The PopSci teams holiday gift recommendations mean youll never need to buy another last-minute gift card.SEE GIFT GUIDES

Nature, Published online: 16 January 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00163-7Artificial intelligence-designed proteins could block the deadly effects of snake venom. Plus, who are sciences winners and losers under Trump 2.0?

Debris from the rocket's explosion was caught on camera by a family vacationing on Grand Turk island.

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About halfway into Act 3 of Path of Exile 2, you might come across some differently colored mushrooms as loot drops. These mushrooms are highlighted in green, so you know they're for some kind of quest, but the game doesn't explain in the slightest how to use them or where to bring them.Fortunately, the mushrooms do have a distinct purpose in Path of Exile 2. You also don't need to travel far to find what they're used for, which offers a sweet reward after everything is said and done. However, things aren't as simple as they seem, as you need to find more than just a single mushroom and they're not too common of a drop.How to get Mushrooms in Path of Exile 2Mushrooms come in three separate colors, and they're all different loot drops. The three colors of mushrooms are blue, green, and red. When they drop on the ground, you'll be able to see what color they are before adding them to your inventory. Don't worry, though, as once you collect one color of mushroom, it won't drop again, giving you a better chance to find the other colors you're missing.Continue Reading at GameSpot

The Legend of Zelda is one of the most beloved franchises in all of gaming history. As one of Nintendo's flagship titles for over thirty years, the franchise has seen a lot of releases, the vast majority of them well-received. The series has never been afraid to take risks and while its timeline might be confusing, gamers of multiple generations are invested in Link and Zelda's story as well as the fate of Hyrule.

Organizers of the 2025

Last week, we asked you to share moments from a new game you started in 2025 using#PSshare #PSBlog. Here are this weeks highlights:issinn_ shares a cream colored outfit from Infinity Nikki.Amianan_NiRaGuB shares a close up portrait from Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2.NeoGamer95 shares Geralt riding into a sunset in The Witcher 3.CarrotsCaptures shares Aloy framed by tree limbs in Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered.BBSnakeCorn shares a ghostly street view in Ghostwire: Tokyo.xenobitz shares dishes being delivered to characters in Wuthering Waves.Search #PSshare #PSBlog on Twitter or Instagram to see more entries to this weeks theme. Want to be featured in the next Share of the Week?THEME: Wuthering WavesSUBMIT BY: 11:59 PM PT on January 22, 2025Next week, were exploring the world of Wuthering Waves. Share adventurous moments meeting different Resonators using #PSshare #PSBlog for a chance to be featured.

Chants of Sennaar, the 2023 language puzzle game from Rundisc, uses fictional languages but was developed in French and English. Our choices of vocabulary, riddles, and puzzles were made from the outset to suit both languages, creative director Julien Moya told Polygon, referencing how players who speak these languages might approach the translation puzzles in the game. Yet plenty of other languages have different structures, which means localizing Chants of Sennaar required a careful process.I know that things were a lot trickier later with certain languages, such as Chinese, which have very different structures and principles and required a lot of adaptation, Moya said.This week on Polygon, were looking at how cultural differences affect media in a special issue were calling Culture Shock.Naturally, this became a challenge for translators dedicated to translating a game about translating different languages. While Rundisc handled English and French internally, it turned to narrative localization studio Riotloc for help expanding the games reach. Translators for the Russian, Portuguese, Japanese, and Spanish versions of the game spoke to Polygon via email about the process of translating the translators mindset, as Russian translator Anna Kiseleva put it, for Chants of Sennaar.This interview has been edited for length and clarity.Polygon: Whats it like to localize a game with an invented language? Im sure its both intriguing and challenging.Anna Kiseleva, Russian translator: Strictly speaking, in Chants of Sennaar, the source language is still English. There are four artificial hieroglyphic languages but the goal of the game is for the player to translate these vocabularies into their own language. This game is more about a translators mindset than about invented languages. The authors spoke English so they created the process of translating into English, and if your player speaks another language, you need to carefully adapt this process with this new language in mind. In my case, its Russian.Thankfully, we ourselves are translators, so we understand this process well, thats what we do for a living. First, you decode words. Then, you combine these words. And then, you try to make sense out of this combination. These three stages are implemented in the game itself: you see a sequence of hieroglyphs first, then you start to understand some of them and they are shown as words. And finally, when you have decoded all the words in a sentence, thats where things get even more interesting.This third stage making sense out of the words is the most difficult. So difficult that the developers needed to keep it relatively simple compared to the real thing, while making this part of [the] puzzle interesting. I think they did a wonderful job, found the ideal balance.For example, let me show you a line of hieroglyphs and its official English translation from the game:ME ME SEEK/WANT GO/PASS UP/GREAT means We want to go up.About the ME ME part: to make the player think, the developers included peculiarities into the invented languages. For example, the Devotees language creates plural words by repeating a singular symbol (WE = ME ME), while the Warriors etc. have a separate symbol that means plural.The Bards use you as a synonym of me and have an inverted word order:BROTHER PLURAL YOU PLURAL BE means Brothers, we are.To attract a bit more attention to this stage and to the fact that a translator needs to create a sentence out of the words, not just mix them up like ingredients in a salad, I went a tiny step further and made two translations for strings with peculiarities, showing both of them to the player after full decoding. It looks like this (all in Russian, of course):Stupid, Warriors are! [Warriors are stupid!]Seeking, Im not. [Im not seeking.]Camila Fernandes, Portuguese translator: It surely is! As the translation work took place, we didnt have access to all of the characters used in each language created for Chants of Sennaar, but we dealt with the concepts transcripted into English. So, for the Brazilian Portuguese localization team, it was a EN-PT translation. The main challenge was to understand the context and choose the right words in Portuguese in a way that no message would lose its meaning. Luckily, the clients team was available to provide all the information we asked for. Along the process, the story unraveled through words, sentences and half-sentences, making me eager to see the game being launched in my language so I could explore it as if I hadnt helped translate it (LOL).Iori Honda, Japanese translator: At the early stage of this project, I felt that this game might be difficult for general players. For Japanese players, learning English can be particularly challenging due to the significant differences in language structures. This concern applied to all the languages featured in CoS, making me worry that the game might not be suitable for Japanese players.Since not every player is adept at learning foreign languages, my translation approach focused on being easy for beginners and player-friendly.One of the most challenging aspects was a task where players act as interpreters between groups, creating sentences based on single pictures. The translation tone for this was intentionally neutral, using simple words that players could use to deduce the appropriate terms, while also considering the word order of each language. Anticipating that some players might forget the grammar rules by the end of the story, I included tips in the translations, offering grammatical and word hints whenever possible.To my surprise, many players enjoyed CoS after its release. They had fun guessing words and forming sentences, and some players and reviews even mentioned that the translations were well-done. I didnt expect such a positive reaction from the players and was pleasantly surprised by how much they enjoyed the language-learning aspect of the game.Fernando Moreiras, Spanish translator: Newly invented languages are really commonplace in cultural products. As a fan, I had some knowledge of languages like Quenya or Klingon, and had read about the processes the authors went through to create them. My first hard contact as a translator with invented languages was as a literary translator, when they commissioned me George Orwells 1984, featuring Newspeak. The use of Newspeak in English was perfectly documented by Orwell, so first I needed to adapt the rationales leading to changes in English to the needs of my target language, which was Galician. After establishing the Galician Newspeak grammar and neology, everything went actually pretty smooth.Are there different ways to translate these invented languages for different countries/markets?Kiseleva: In this particular case, the whole issue was just to show how you translate these hieroglyphs into Russian, using Russian words and grammar constructs. For example, Russian does not have modal verbs, so a construct like Seeking, you are is even less understandable for the Russian player because we never say you are seeking, we say you seek. Here, I used the same method as above, because for the Russian player, the Bardic and the English are equally foreign, so it made sense to handle them the same way.Moreiras: Personally, I think that the actual difference does not pivot on countries or languages, but on genres. Artificial languages for drama, like the ones I already mentioned, tend to have some strict rules that you need to follow, or at least mirror or adapt, in your target language. On the other hand, artificial languages for comedy (thinking of Smurf or Minion languages, or even some Fake Latin uses) dont really have any mandatory rules, there you just crack jokes that work for the target audience and get some laughs.What sort of expertise and research goes into your work on Chants of Sennaar?Kiseleva: In this particular case, we were to make our own work process public, so all it takes is to be a professional translator, I guess.Fernandes: In addition to knowledge of the source and target languages, it is necessary to always be on the lookout for ambiguous words taken out of context. But that goes for most game localization projects.Moreiras: Actually, knowing several grammatical systems pretty well and reading or watching works where artificial languages are featured. I already had that base covered since I was a teenager, not only for full languages like Quenya or Newspeak, but also for involutions or evolutions of languages like those appearing on films like Quest for Fire or A Clockwork Orange. Being a nerd prepares you for this kind of work.