Researchers attached QR codes to the backs of thousands of bees to track when and for how long they left their hives. Credit: Penn StateShareEntomologists are gluing tiny QR codes on honey bees to better track the pollinators travel habits and life cycles. In doing so, they hope to gain a more complete and accurate understanding of the environmentally crucial creatures, and what is needed to keep hives healthy and thriving. And now that their findings and methods are available in the open-source journal, HardwareX, the team hopes other conservationists can soon start on their own QR code-enabled insect observations.Back in 2010, the US Department of Agriculture proposed new requirements for designating bee products like honey as organic. In order to meet the regulatory benchmark, food and other items must be free of chemical treatments, herbicides, and pesticides. Not only that, but the environments around the source of these products must be similarly clean, as well. Honey bees are technically capable of flying as far as 10 km (6.1 mi), which factored heavily into the logistical needs for organic certification.While the USDA proposal ultimately failed, some researchers believed the 10 km zone may be an overestimation. But trying to get a better read on honey bee travel habits isnt easyoften, it involves studying their famous waggle dance. The term refers to a bees complex movements to physically communicate with their hivemates, often about potential food source locations. 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.The waggle dance is the best source of information that we have about bee foraging, but thats based on human observations, with maybe an hour of observations made once a day over two weeks, explained Margarita Lpez-Uribe, one of the studys co-authors and a Penn State associate professor of entomology, in a statement. In field biology, we usually just look at things with our eyes, but the number of observations we can make as humans will never scale up to what a machine can do.With that in mind, Lpez-Uribes team collaborated with Penn State electrical engineers to design a new, automated system that could record far more data over longer periods of time.The goal [was] to understand if that 10-kilometer estimation is biologically accurate, said Lpez-Uribe. Can we determine exactly how far honey bees travel from their hives?Researchers ultimately settled on a custom scanner system placed above apiary hives using low-cost, off-the-shelf components such as Raspberry Pi computers and cameras. They then used a natural shellac glue to attach paper QR code slips to each bees back. Like scanning an ID card when entering a building, the system automatically detected and logged each bees QR code as they flew to and from their home. In total, each setup cost approximately $1,500 per apiary.The team visited six apiaries every two weeks through the spring and summer, tagging around 600 foraging bees each time. By the end of their study, researchers had tagged more than 32,000 bees. To ensure both the safety of the beesand themselvesthe team focused on soft-bodied, younger bees that hadnt yet begun to sting. The scanner system then logged each time a bee left and returned to the hive, along with the time, date, and outside temperature. The results both confirmed some of the researchers theories, as well as surprised them.As they originally believed, most bee journeys outside their hive only lasted a few minutes. But for around 34 percent of pollinators, those flights can turn into two-hour trips. While some of that number may be attributed to bees that never returned home, or even re-entered a hive upside down, it still indicated that foraging distances were often dictated by flower availability and location. What the scientists didnt anticipate, however, was the implications their data had on honey bee lifespans.We also found that bees are foraging for a lot longer over their lifetimes than initially thought, said Robyn Underwood, a Penn State apiculture educator and study co-author. Although honey bees are generally believed to live only around 28 days, Underwood said they saw bees foraging for six weeks, and they dont start foraging until they are already about two weeks old, so they live a lot longer than we thought.Lpez-Uribe, Underwood, and their colleagues hope that their system will help further analysis, such as matching bee flight times to waggle dance movements in order to decode their messages. They also plan to host workshops to teach others how to build their own scanner setups.This technology is opening up opportunities for biologists to study systems in ways that werent previously possible, especially in relation to organic beekeeping, said Lpez-Uribe.

Astronomers have discovered two strange objects that could be young stars except they're completely surrounded by ice.

The first dinosaurs may have evolved near the equator, and not in the southwest of the supercontinent Gondwana, as researchers previously assumed due to an abundance of fossils in places like Argentina and Zimbabwe.

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Not every player can experience video games in the same way, especially if they have impairments. That's why Ubisoft is laying out the accessibility options that are included in Assassin's Creed Shadows, which may open some doors for players who might otherwise feel excluded. One of the key additions to Shadows is that the cinematics will have audio descriptions available, which will be a first for the series. According to UX Director Jonathan Bedard, that feature helped him realize that it could convey the depth and emotions of Shadows in an unexpected way."It... made me happy to see an initiative coming from the team's passion and making its way into the game," said Bedard. "This shows how far we've come along in the last few years, in terms of people being aware of and caring about accessibility at Ubisoft. I am proud to see this evolution, awareness, and care spreading and making our games more accessible every time."Continue Reading at GameSpot

Long before I was a Games Journalist and thus required to watch just about every video game showcase, conference, and direct for my job, I was an eager video game fan doing the exact same thing but without, you know, a professional obligation. Regardless of whether these events required me to rise well before the sun (looking at you, Nintendo), for well over a decade I've been there, buzzing with excitement and ready to preorder things I certainly did not need.Chances are that if you're reading this, you too enjoy watching these events. Though you'd be correct in calling what's shown at these conferences glorified commercials, I've often thought of it as us gamers getting our own little "Super Bowl commercial celebration" every month or so, which is pretty neat if you ask me.Over the years of partaking in these often-solo watch parties, I've come to associate and expect certain things from certain studios and publishers. Devolver will always offer up a somewhat convoluted but high-value production that leans into the absurd, while Wholesome Direct pairs pastels with short-and-sweet sizzle reels, giving each one of the many indie games it's highlighting a brief time to shine. Of the "big three" video game companies--PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo--Nintendo was the first, in my eyes, to really cultivate a strong, public facing identity. If it ever does away with its quirky voiceovers and charming segues, I'd be heartbroken, to say the least.Continue Reading at GameSpot

From the dawn of arcades through to the hyper-competitive tournaments today, fighting games have always been a mainstay in each console generation, with a broad range that varies from fantastical and cartoony slap-fests through to gritty, realistic duels. Most fighting games that involve martial arts tend to take many artistic liberties, turning the fighting into something a lot flashier and more stylized than the original inspiration.

Days Gone developer Bend Studio is now part of the continuously growing list of live-service Sony cancelations. The company's live-service aspirations haven't exactly gone according to plan. Now that the team responsible for Days Gone has had the plug pulled on its recent project, it's unclear what lies in the developer's future.

[Ed. note: This post contains spoilers through episode 2 of Severance season 2. Read on only if youre fine with one of your severed selves knowing that.]Headed into season 2, Severance is on a hot streak. Picking up right where the season 1 finale left off give or take a few months of outie time; Mark (Adam Scott) is informed its been about five months since the finale Severance season 2 kicks into gear almost right away. That gear is the one were familiar with for the show: methodical and full of clues. Episode 1 of season 2, Hello, Ms. Cobel, doesnt betray much, but it certainly gets everyone back to work, which gets us closer to figuring out any answers to the many lingering questions. Episode 2 certainly provides some more answers (and a clearer sense of the timeline) on the outside of Lumon, and yet still questions remain. To that end, weve compiled a working doc of all the lingering questions Severance is teeing up. Well be updating it as the series goes along, and will include everything from evidence presented on the show to wild conjecture. In the spirit of Dylan (Zach Cherry), lets wonder aloud a little.To that end: What is Lumon working on? Lumon is a deeply mysterious organization. When Helly (Britt Lower) asks in season 1 how many departments there are, the guesses from the MDR team skew wildly probably 30, around five, no one is quite sure are the stated answers and the group doesnt even know what it is theyre working on. Other departments dont know what the others do, and seem to have strange superstitions about the very humanity of their ostensible co-workers.From our glimpses of the outside, its clear Lumon exerts a lot of influence in the wider world. And as Cobel (Patricia Arquette) puts it when someone asks about what Lumon does: Whatever humans can imagine, they can usually create. But season 2 seems to nod to at least one way they make their money: In episode 2, when Helena is making a video covering up addressing Hellys OTC outburst, she says that she mixed alcohol with a non-Lumon medication. So Lumon is in some way part of Big Pharma (and definitely not the sort of drugs that would make you have a public outburst about how innies are being tortured; no siree Bob.) Adding to the general weirdness, theres the weird corporate legacy theyre all indoctrinated to: owned by the Egan company and founded by Kier Egan, who still looms over the company like a cult leader. His Core Principles and employee handbook are dense. They have their hands in a lot of pots, given their subterranean (or possibly just windowless, liminal) office includes goats, optics and design, art preservation, MDR, and more.So what are they up to, and what does the severed procedure actually net them? The answer, on paper, is in its use: No longer do people have to be aware they work, or undergo painful experiences like giving birth. Its not hard to see how that could have applications for soldiers (or even something more nefarious). But the larger goal tbd. Are they doing some kind of Get Out thing where the severance procedure is just a way to transfer consciousness, prolong life, and maybe even bring Kier Egan back to life? Maybe! Why else keep a mans house perfectly preserved in the office? And why else would Helenas Egan CEO dad say she would sit with him at his revolving?But these questions do bring us toWhat is the Macrodata Refinement department working on?Technically we dont know this, either! (Though we are pretty clear that they do not, as the rumors have suggested, each have a larval offspring that will jump off and attack when we get too close.)To us it looks like numbers moving around the screen. But to Mark and his co-workers, its work some of which is numbers that elicit a strange fear response (or even visions like the one Mark gets of Ms. Casey/his wife at the end of the season 2 premiere). And to the heads of Lumon, it seems pretty imperative, given the way theyre willing to bend to Marks demands in the opening of season 2. Episode 2 of the second season seems to back this thought up: Whatever MDR is doing and Innie-Mark specifically is so important that Helena is told she needs to go back in because he asked for it. Theres a popular fan theory that MDR is sensitive and high-level bit work that has something to do with refining/perfecting the severance procedure (or even perfecting one consciousness taking over another), and the numbers represent memories and personality that are getting swept away. One thing that seems important to note: There is a technique to it. When you see us, we really are refining numbers, Adam Scott, who plays Mark, told The Verge. There is actually a way to do it.What are they doing with Marks wife?When were introduced to Outie-Mark, he lives a barren, severed life because he lost his wife a few years prior to the series. In the season 1 finale, Innie-Mark discovers (and screams) that shes alive. So where did she go? Episode 1 doesnt give a lot of details: We know she takes the elevator that Outie-Irv (John Turturro) keeps painting, and we dont know where that goes, or why she got taken.In an interview around the season 1 finale, creator Dan Erickson only vaguely alluded to what might be going on: Theres a lot of questions. Most of which we had answered in our minds when we wrote it, but some of which we didnt. Like, some of which weve been subsequently discussing. But yeah, like, is she severed? Does she know is she in on it? Is she a victim? Is she kidnapped? How did she go from being in this loving marriage with Mark to being Ms. Casey down from the seventh floor? And so thats a big, big question mark at this point. [] Weve seen that theres some sort of experiment or something happening with [Mark] and his wife, and sort of observing them. What did Harmony Cobel want with Mark?Theres a lot of weirdness on Severance, but among the strangest (or at least the coldest) of it is Harmony Cobel infiltrating Marks life both in and outside of work hours. For as much as Milchick (Tramell Tillman) might write this off as some bizarre psychosexual throuple, her game seemed to be much more thought out than that.Its possible that shes keeping tabs on a larger project around the severed employees (in her own way). Cobel was more concerned than the board about Peteys severed memories being permeable; later she asked Marks sister if he ever thought he saw his wife around. She seemed to take a bit of glee in introducing Ms. Casey to the MDR room to watch Helly R., and when she found out that Ms. Casey was getting too chummy with Mark she sent her back down to the testing floor.But it does seem a little more personal than just observing lab rats. When Helena Egan thanks her for her loyalty in reporting the OTC measure, Harmony says it cost her dearly. She says this with a weird air of wistfulness, even her own brand of chilling affection. It could just be Arquettes performance, but its all very odd. Especially since she turns down the new position in the Severance Advisory Council. All in all this question is now compounded with a more pressing one: Where did she go?Whats the testing floor? Oh, great question; no clue, really. But its scary and ominous poor Ms. Casey has to walk down a long, dark hallway that leads to an elevator with just an imposing red down arrow and for some reason Irvs outie has been having visions of it and painting it, as we see in the season finale. Petey alluded to some level of the Lumon building as a place you dont get to leave, which certainly seems like it could be the testing floor.Theres some theories that this has to do with the deeper nature of Lumon, and might involve cloning (hence the goats). At the very least, that Irv and Ms. Casey seem to have some link to the floor would suggest that maybe both of them have undergone the same sort of testing. Particularly since Innie-Irv keeps having weird visions of black shadowy ooze. Why is Ms. Huang a child? Is it a paid internship? Is Lumon flouting child labor laws? Is she also part of the testing floor/Ms. Casey weirdness? So far Ms. Huang not a friend, it must be noted has been clear: Its because of when she was born. Hope that helps!What is the connection with Lumon and water? Lumons logo is a water drop. Theres a water tower in the parking lot (and that gets to be its own character in the Claymation introductory video the innies get shown in the season 2 premiere). Theres lot of names that link back to some sort of body of water MDR files, housing developments the characters live in, even technically the names of the refiners. Ms. Casey tells Innie-Irv that his outie values water. Theres a painting of Egan standing over lakes that are shaped like the Great Lakes.What does it all mean? Not clear yet, though some think that it nods to the alternate universe of Severance existing in a time where there is a war for water, and its considered a more precious (or endangered) resource.Who was the guy in the hallway?In the opening of season 2, Innie-Mark is running through the hallways desperately trying to find Ms. Caseys office. When he turns up short, behind him theres a guy? Just peeking out behind him in the doorframe.The only clue we have is that this man is credited as Man in Hallway, and played by Adam Jepsen. Hes listed as having a recurring role on the show. Seriously, what is the deal with the goats?Among the stranger things we saw in season 1: a herd of goats just being kept? inside the halls of Lumon Industries. All Mark and Helly really know is the caretaker didnt consider them ready yet. Like so much of life at Lumon, the goats both dont immediately make sense and also are openly perplexing as to what their possible use could be. The good news? It seems like by the end of season 2 we will have some sort of answer.