Editor's take: Action RPGs are a staple in my game collection. Surprisingly, I didn't become a fan of the genre until I played The Revenant, a 1999 ARPG released two years after Diablo. Since then, I've played every ARPG I could get my hands on, including the entire Diablo series. One of the best Diablo games if not one of the greatest ARPGs ever is Diablo 2. It nails many aspects, but progression stands out the most. The game walks a fine line between excessive grinding and leveling so fast that you max out a character in a day.Diablo creator David Brevik shared a similar sentiment in a recent interview with Video Gamer. He noted that Diablo 2 remains a "great" looter nearly 25 years later, largely because of its pacing."The pacing on Diablo 2, I think, is great," Brevik said.He believes many modern ARPGs prioritize rapid progression over natural pacing, a trend that has become common in the industry but ultimately devalues the experience."I think that RPGs, in general, have started to lean into this: kill swathes of enemies all over the place extremely quickly," said Brevik. "Your build is killing all sorts of stuff so you could get more drops, you can level up, and the screen is littered with stuff you don't care about."The approach that Brevik describes is a major feature in Diablo 3, and Diablo 4 doubles down on the concept. Blizzard intentionally designed both games to rush players toward Paragon levels, allowing characters to reach the maximum level in about a day. However, reaching levels beyond that requires fighting larger mobs, as Paragon leveling becomes a slog. This design pushes players to purchase the Battle Pass. While not Diablo 4's only flaw, it ranks high among the complaints from the franchise's creator. // Related Stories"I just don't find killing screen-fulls of things instantly and mowing stuff down and walking around the level and killing everything, very enticing. When you're shortening that journey and making it kind of ridiculous, you've cheapened the entire experience, in my opinion." Blevik opined. "I just don't feel like that is a cool experience. I find it kind of silly."He believes MMOs are just as guilty of this. There's heavy pressure to rush through the early levels, partly due to the rise of live service models. Games like Destiny 2 and Diablo 4 push players to blitz through the campaign to access seasonal content and the rewards it offers. There's no time to stop and enjoy the journey because the season "ends soon." This sense of urgency and rushed pace is exactly where publishers want players, as seasonal content fuels microtransactions.Blevik, who now heads up indie publisher Skystone Games, despises this design philosophy and steers clear of it. He favors game designs like Diablo 2, Torchlight, and The Witcher 3, which slow the pacing and allow players to savor the adventure."[The fun] actually isn't getting to the end; it's the journey," he said. "When you're shortening that journey and making it kind of ridiculous, you've cheapened the entire experience, in my opinion."I couldn't agree more. With the increasing emphasis on live service models and the flood of multiplayer games, finding an ARPG that nails the pacing is becoming more challenging. The single-player experience, however, remains the best for maintaining solid pacing.

As the Firefly Aerospace mission known as Blue Ghost makes it way to the moon, it is snapping some gorgeous images as it goes including striking images of Earth in its rearview mirror. Now, the company has released the most stunning image so far, showing the planet Earth and its reflection bouncing off the smooth surface of a solar panel on the spacecraft.Fireflys Blue Ghost lander captures image of Earth reflecting off the solar panel with the Moon on the horizon above Earth. Fireflys X-band antenna and NASAs LEXI payload are also shown on the top deck of the lander. Firefly AerospaceBlue Ghost was launched last month, and has been orbiting around Earth to adjust its trajectory before heading off toward the moon. This week, the spacecraft performed a maneuver called Trans Lunar Injection, in which it fires its engines to start heading away from Earth and toward the moon.Recommended VideosIt will take several days for the spacecraft to arrive at the moon, at which point it will fire its engines again to enter into a lunar orbit. From there, it will adjust its orbit over several weeks before coming in to land on the moons surface. The company is hoping to be just the second ever commercial entity to successfully perform a soft landing on the moon.Shortly after Trans Lunar Injection, Fireflys Blue Ghost lunar lander captured image of Earth with the Moon below in the distance. Firefly AerospaceAs well as the image showing our planet reflected in the spacecrafts solar panel, it also snapped this image of Earth as it recedes from view. With the journey to the moon well underway, the spacecraft is also sending back data from its various payloads, which include a variety of NASA experiments and technology tests.Please enable Javascript to view this contentNow four weeks into the mission, Blue Ghost has downlinked more than 15 GB of data, including NASA science data, from record-breaking GNSS signals to magnetic field measurements, that is already unlocking insights for the future of space exploration, Firefly Aerospace wrote in an update.The payloads carried on the spacecraft include an experimental method for collecting samples of the dusty material covering the surface of the moon, called regolith, by firing a jet of gas as the surface and collecting and photographing this material.There is also an experiment into using electrical fields to prevent dust from building up on surfaces, which can be a major problem for moon missions as the lack of atmosphere on the moon means that the dust there is very sharp and abrasive, and can quickly eat through materials like seals. The aim is to test out technologies which can be used for human exploration of the moon under NASAs Artemis program.Editors Recommendations

There are a lot of tips and tricks to learn about managing your growing civ in Civilization 7, but a key mechanic for long-term success is forming trade routes with the other Leaders. Even if you're aiming to dominate the world with a military victory, you will want to leverage the resources of other civs before you eventually go to war with them. Trade routes between cities have been in the series for years now, but they look a bit different in this version since it no longer hinges on diplomacy like before. There's no need to spend your Influence on us since we're more than happy to trade all the information you need about how to set up trade routes for free.Recommended VideosDifficultyModerateDuration1 hour 40 minutes2K GamesTrade routes can be formed between your cities and towns and any other Leader's properties. Doing so will allow you to gain access to all of the natural resources that specific location currently holds. This can give you access to a ton of buffs that might otherwise be inaccessible, but you do need to do a little work to set it up.Step 1: Start a game and find at least one other civ on the map.Step 2: While you're doing step 1, make sure you check the Civic Tree and work towards researching the Code of Laws.RelatedStep 3: Once you have finished researching the Code of Laws, you can build or buy a Merchant unit.Step 4: Select your Merchant and it will show you all the trade routes, both possible and not possible, as well as all the potential resources you will get in each.Trade routes may not be possible if your Merchant cannot physically reach that location or you have a bad relationship with that Leader.Step 5: Select one that is possible and the map will take you to that location.Step 6: Have your Merchant unit travel to that town.Step 7: Wait as many turns as it takes for them to navigate there.Step 8: Once the Merchant arrives, click the icon of two arrows pointing in either direction to establish a trade route. This will "consume" your Merchant.Editors Recommendations

The platform becomes second social-media company to settle with Trump after Jan. 6, 2021, riot triggered bans

A progressive polemicist relies on predictable tropes to castigate Israels conduct in its war in Gaza following the attacks of Oct. 7, 2023.

Titan disaster From 900 miles away, the US government recorded audio of the Titan sub implosion The implosion took milliseconds, but its echoes lasted far longer. Nate Anderson Feb 12, 2025 4:44 pm | 10 The Titan implosion, as recorded in underwater audio. The Titan implosion, as recorded in underwater audio. Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreThanks to being an incompressible medium, water transmits vibrations both farther and faster than the air. (Here's a good video explainer on the subject.) This fact helps to explain how a US government-owned "moored passive acoustic recorder" was able to hear and record the 2023 implosion of the doomed Titan submersibleeven though the recorder was 900 miles away from the dive site.That implosion, during an attempted dive to the wreckage of the Titanic, killed five people, including Stockton Rush, the CEO of the company that built and operated the Titan.The implosion audio was just released publicly by the US Coast Guard's Titan Marine Board of Investigation, which has been investigating the disaster in enormous detail. As part of that investigation, the Coast Guard obtained the audio from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), part of the US Department of Commerce.The audio isn't much to listen tojust some static followed by a staticky explosive noise that decays in swirling fashion for multiple seconds. The implosion itself, given the pressure the vehicle was under at the time, probably occurred in milliseconds, as you can learn from simulations of the event.But given that it marks the moment of five deaths, and that it was made from 900 miles away, the recording may be, at least for non-specialists, one of the more interesting bits of evidence to emerge from the investigation. (The investigation board has previously released video of a robotic vehicle recovering parts of the Titan from the sea floor, along with a simulation of the submersible's entire final dive.) The waveform of the recording. From SOSUS to wind farmsBack in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, this kind of sonic technology was deeply important to the military, which used the Sound Surveillance System (SOSUS) to track things like Soviet submarine movements. (Think of Hunt for Red October spy games here.) Using underwater beamforming and triangulation, the system could identify submarines many hundreds or even thousands of miles away. The SOSUS mission was declassified in 1991.Today, high-tech sonic buoys, gliders, tags, and towed arrays are also used widely in non-military research. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), in particular, runs a major system of oceanic sound acquisition devices that do everything from tracking animal migration patterns to identifying right whale calving season to monitoring offshore wind turbines and their effects on marine life.But NOAA also uses its network of devices to monitor non-animal noiseincluding earthquakes, boats, and oil-drilling seismic surveys. What's left of the Titan, scattered across the ocean floor. In June 2023, these devices picked up an audible anomaly located at the general time and place of the Titan implosion. The recording was turned over to the investigation board and has now been cleared for public release.The Titan is still the object of both investigations and lawsuits; critics have long argued that the submersible was not completely safe due to its building technique (carbon fiber versus the traditional titanium) and its wireless and touchscreen-based control systems (including a Logitech game controller)."At some point, safety just is pure waste," Rush once told a journalist. Unfortunately, it can be hard to know exactly where that point is. But it is now possible to hear what it sounds like when you're on the wrong side of itand far below the surface of the ocean.Nate AndersonDeputy EditorNate AndersonDeputy Editor Nate is the deputy editor at Ars Technica. His most recent book is In Emergency, Break Glass: What Nietzsche Can Teach Us About Joyful Living in a Tech-Saturated World, which is much funnier than it sounds. 10 Comments

DOGE days Largest data breach in US history: Three more lawsuits try to stop DOGE DOGE and Musk face three more lawsuits over "brazen ransacking" of private data. Jon Brodkin Feb 12, 2025 4:31 pm | 38 People hold signs at a Save the Civil Service rally hosted by the American Federation of Government Employees outside the US Capitol on February 11, 2025 in Washington, DC. Credit: Getty Images | Kent Nishimura People hold signs at a Save the Civil Service rally hosted by the American Federation of Government Employees outside the US Capitol on February 11, 2025 in Washington, DC. Credit: Getty Images | Kent Nishimura Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreThe US DOGE Service's access to the private data of ordinary Americans and federal employees is being challenged in several lawsuits filed this week.Three new complaints seek court orders that would stop the data access and require the deletion of unlawfully accessed data. Two of the complaints also seek financial damages for individuals whose data was accessed.The US DOGE Service, Elon Musk, the US Office of Personnel Management (OPM), and OPM Acting Director Charles Ezell were named as defendants in one suit filed yesterday in US District Court for the Southern District of New York."The Privacy Act [of 1974] makes it unlawful for OPM Defendants to hand over access to OPM's millions of personnel records to DOGE Defendants, who lack a lawful and legitimate need for such access," the lawsuit said. "No exception to the Privacy Act covers DOGE Defendants' access to records held by OPM. OPM Defendants' action granting DOGE Defendants full, continuing, and ongoing access to OPM's systems and files for an unspecified period means that tens of millions of federal-government employees, retirees, contractors, job applicants, and impacted family members and other third parties have no assurance that their information will receive the protection that federal law affords."The lawsuit names Musk as a defendant "in his capacity as director of the US Doge Temporary Service," which was created by President Trump and has a mandate lasting until July 4, 2026. The temporary organization is separate from the US DOGE Service, which used to be called the US Digital Service. DOGE, of course, is a reference to the popular meme involving a Shiba Inu and in the government context stands for the Department of Government Efficiency.Plaintiffs in the lawsuit include the American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO; the Association of Administrative Law Judges; and individuals who are current or former government workers. The legal team representing the plaintiffs includes lawyers from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the State Democracy Defenders Fund, and two law firms.Data access for Musk and a cadre of loyalistsAnother lawsuit filed Monday in US District Court for the District of Maryland said that DOGE gained access to records of both government employees and people outside of government:For example, Defendants Treasury Department and Secretary of the Treasury [Scott] Bessent have improperly disclosed to DOGE representatives the contents of the Federal Disbursement System, which is the government's mechanism for sending payments it owes to individual Americans (as well as other payees). That system contains records relating to every American who receives (among other things) a tax refund, social security benefit, veterans pay, or a federal salary. To facilitate these payments, the system maintains highly sensitive information about millions of Americans, including Social Security numbers, date of birth, bank account information, and home addresses.The lawsuit in Maryland was filed by the American Federation of Teachers, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association, the National Federation of Federal Employees, and six individuals. In addition to the Treasury Department and Bessent, defendants include OPM, Ezell, the Department of Education, and Acting Secretary of Education Denise Carter."Defendants are permitting Elon Musk and a cadre of loyalists imported from his private companies to help themselves to the personal information of millions of Americans, in violation of [the Privacy Act's] legal requirements," the lawsuit said.Yet another lawsuit was filed Monday in federal court in the Eastern District of Virginia by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) and one unnamed resident of the district ("Doe 1") who is a federal government employee. The EPIC lawsuit's defendants include OPM, Ezell, the US Treasury Department, Bessent, the US DOGE Service, and the US Doge Service Temporary Organization."This action arises from the largest and most consequential data breach in US history, currently ongoing at the US Department of the Treasury and US Office of Personnel Management. This unprecedented breach of privacy and security implicates the personal information of tens of millions of people, including nearly all federal employees and millions of members of the American public," the lawsuit said, alleging that defendants "have allowed the unlawful misuse of critical data systems housed in OPM and the Treasury Department, endangering plaintiffs and millions of other Americans."This includes tax return information, the lawsuit said. In late January, a longtime Treasury Department official announced his retirement shortly after a clash with DOGE over access to the Fiscal Service payment system that collects and disburses trillions of dollars.The EPIC lawsuit described this incident and alleged that "basic security failures have resulted in the unlawful disclosure of personal dataincluding Social Security numbers and tax informationbelonging to tens of millions of individuals stored in Bureau of Fiscal Service systems and the unlawful disclosure of personal data belonging to millions of federal employees stored in Enterprise Human Resources Integration."Musk may or may not be acting US DOGE administratorThe EFF and EPIC lawsuits both list the "Acting US DOGE Administrator" as a defendant, indicating that it is not clear who holds this position. But the EPIC lawsuit says that Musk "is either the Acting USDS Administrator or otherwise exercising substantial authority within USDS."We sent inquiries about the lawsuits to DOGE, the White House, OPM, Treasury Department, Education Department, and Department of Justice. OPM and the Education Department declined to comment. We will update this article if we get any comments about the lawsuits.This week's lawsuits add to the mounting litigation over DOGE and Musk's access to government records. Last week, a federal judge approved an order that temporarily blocks DOGE access to Treasury payment systems and records until there's a ruling on a motion for a preliminary injunction. The Department of Education was also sued Friday by a California student association over DOGE's access to student financial aid and loan data.EFF: Brazen ransacking of Americans dataThe EFF said on its website that the "brazen ransacking of Americans' sensitive data is unheard of in scale. With our co-counsel Lex Lumina, State Democracy Defenders Fund, and the Chandra Law Firm, we represent current and former federal employees whose privacy has been violated. We are asking the court for a temporary restraining order to immediately cease this dangerous and illegal intrusion. This massive trove of information includes private demographic data and work histories of essentially all current and former federal employees and contractors as well as federal job applicants."The EFF said the OPM database is one of the largest collections of employee data in the US, given that the federal government is the nation's largest employer."In addition to personally identifiable information such as names, Social Security numbers, and demographics, it includes work experience, union activities, salaries, performance, and demotions; health information like life insurance and health benefits; financial information like death benefit designations and savings programs; and classified information [in] nondisclosure agreements. It holds records for millions of federal workers and millions more Americans who have applied for federal jobs," the EFF said.The EFF said "DOGE's unchecked access puts the safety of all federal employees at risk of everything from privacy violations to political pressure to blackmail to targeted attacks," adding that Musk last year "publicly disclosed the names of specific government employees whose jobs he claimed he would cut before he had access to the system."A Washington Post report last week said that some federal "officials have raised concerns that DOGE associates appeared to violate security protocols by using private email addresses or not disclosing their identities on government calls."The individual plaintiffs in the EFF's lawsuit include federal employee Vanessa Barrow, a New York resident who works at the Brooklyn Veterans Affairs Medical Center. "As a federal employee since September 2008, Ms. Barrow's sensitive personal and employment information was included in the OPM records that Defendants disclosed and continue to disclose," the lawsuit said.Seeking financial damagesThe lawsuit has two other named plaintiffs who are former federal employees, and 100 Doe plaintiffs who are current and former employees or contractors of the US government. Plaintiffs, including members of the unions that are part of the lawsuit, are entitled to financial payments because they "have sustained and will continue to sustain actual damages and pecuniary losses directly traceable to Defendants' violations," the lawsuit said.The separate lawsuit filed by EPIC in Virginia said that case's single Doe plaintiff is entitled to statutory damages of $1,000 per each act of unauthorized inspection and disclosure, and punitive damages "because the Treasury Department and DOGE's unlawful disclosure of their confidential return information was either willful or a result of gross negligence.""Taxpayers have a private right of action to seek damages under 26 U.S.C. 7431 for the knowing or negligent unauthorized inspection or disclosure of returns or return information in violation of 26 U.S.C. 6103," the lawsuit said.The lawsuit filed in the District of Maryland by unions and several individuals said the "plaintiffs include veterans who receive benefit payments as provided by law, current and former federal employees whose confidential employment files reside in the Office of Personnel Management's system, and teachers, first responders, and health care workers whose pathway to careers in public service included relying on student loans to fund their own educations."All of these plaintiffs had personal data "improperly disclosed to DOGE representatives in a manner completely divorced from the legitimate purposes for which it was maintained and in violation of their privacy rights," the lawsuit said. The plaintiffs are said to be "concerned that the breach may well result in serious personal, social, and economic harm, from being targeted for harassment and threats to doxxing, swatting, and identity theft."Military veterans worried about data accessPlaintiff Donald Martinez of Colorado served in Iraq for the Army and now receives Social Security disability insurance and other government benefits. "Especially because of his previous military service in a geographically sensitive area and involvement in high-level negotiations because of which he received death threats from terrorists, Plaintiff Martinez is worried that unauthorized access and disclosure of his personal information held within the federal government will compromise his personal safety and security," the lawsuit said.Plaintiff Christopher Purdy of Georgia served in the Army National Guard and was deployed to Iraq and currently leads a nonprofit advocacy group. Purdy is "very worried that Musk and DOGE may use their unauthorized access to his personal information to stop his VA disability payments, a major source of income in his household," the lawsuit said.The Trump executive order establishing DOGE said its goal was "modernizing federal technology and software to maximize efficiency and productivity." It said that US agencies must give DOGE "full and prompt access to all unclassified agency records, software systems, and IT systems."An incident this week may add to concerns about Musk's understanding of government systems. On Monday, he criticized a user on X for stating that the US government uses SQL."This retard thinks the government uses SQL," Musk wrote. The federal government is in fact a heavy user of SQL in multiple forms, including Microsoft SQL server and MySQL Enterprise Edition for Governments.Musk's comment came in a discussion of another post in which Musk claimed without evidence that a lack of de-duplication in the Social Security database "enables MASSIVE FRAUD!!" because "you can have the same SSN many times over." The comment that earned Musk's rebuke was, "TIL Elon has never used SQL."Jon BrodkinSenior IT ReporterJon BrodkinSenior IT Reporter Jon is a Senior IT Reporter for Ars Technica. He covers the telecom industry, Federal Communications Commission rulemakings, broadband consumer affairs, court cases, and government regulation of the tech industry. 38 Comments

People report lower alcohol cravings when on semaglutideShutterstock/David MGSemaglutide really does seem to help people who are addicted to alcohol reduce their intake, according to the first randomised clinical trial of the drug for this purpose.Sold under brand names including Wegovy and Ozempic, semaglutide works by mimicking a gut hormone called glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), hence the technical term for it is a GLP-1 receptor agonist. The drug was first used to treat type 2 diabetes, but because it reduces appetite, Wegovy has now also been licensed for weight loss in eight countries. Semaglutide has also shown hints of helping an extraordinary number of medical conditions. AdvertisementWhen it comes to alcohol use, a 2024 study of 84,000 people linked injecting Ozempic or Wegovy with a lower risk of alcoholism. Promising as that result was, it showed correlation rather than causation.But now, Christian Hendershot at the University of Southern California and his colleagues have completed the first randomised clinical trial of semaglutides effect on alcohol use disorder, a type of study that can tease out causation.Their trial involved 48 people in the US who had been diagnosed with the condition, of whom 34 were women and 14 were men. Half received weekly low-dose injections of semaglutide for nine weeks and the rest had placebo injections. Get the most essential health and fitness news in your inbox every Saturday.Sign up to newsletterThose on semaglutide consumed fewer drinks per drinking session and had reduced weekly alcohol cravings compared with those on placebo.We didnt have any evidence of significant adverse effects or safety concerns with the medication in this population and we found overall that across several different drinking outcomes it reduced the quantity of alcohol that people consumed, says Hendershot.The results are promising, says Rong Xu at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Ohio. Despite the small sample size, this randomised clinical trial highlights the therapeutic potential of semaglutide in treating alcohol use disorder.Ziyad Al-Aly at Washington University in St Louis, Missouri, says the study adds yet another piece of evidence that GLP-1RAs [GLP-1 receptor agonists] may be helpful in addiction disorders.Larger studies are needed to corroborate the work, he says, and to answer questions about whether people increase their drinking if they come off semaglutide and what its longer-term effects might be, especially given concerns around loss of bone and muscle mass.The study should be treated as promising initial evidence, says Hendershot, but more research is needed. People shouldnt start taking semaglutide for alcohol problems, he says.This is the first study like this and people are excited about it, but we do have approved and effective medication for alcohol use disorder, so until more research has been done, people are advised to pursue existing medications that are out there and approved right now, says Hendershot.Journal reference:JAMA Psychiatry DOI: 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2024.4789 Topics:

Some turtles flap about when a magnetic field suggests they are about to be fedGoforth et al., Nature (2025)Baby loggerhead turtles dance when they are expecting food, a behaviour that researchers have used to investigate their navigation abilities. By learning to associate a magnetic field with a food, this cute display has helped indicate that the sea turtles have two distinct geomagnetic senses to help them navigate during their epic ocean journeys.The turtle dance is a strange pattern of behaviour that emerges quickly in young captive sea turtles when they figure out that food comes from above, says Ken Lohmann at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. They would get very excited and raise their heads up out of the water and come swimming over, and often if the food wasnt dropped in immediately, they would begin to flap their flippers and spin around. AdvertisementLohmann and his colleagues realised that there might be a way to use this behaviour to reveal how turtle navigation works. They put juvenile loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta) in tanks surrounded by coil systems that created magnetic fields in the water, replicating those in their natural habitats.The juveniles spent an equal amount of time in two magnetic fields, but were only fed in one of them. Soon, when they were in a magnetic field they associated with food, the turtles started to dance in anticipation, a learned behaviour reminiscent of Ivan Pavlovs famous dog experiment. We demonstrated that the turtles can learn to recognise magnetic fields, says team member Kayla Goforth at Texas A&M University. The latest science news delivered to your inbox, every day.Sign up to newsletterThe researchers then reproduced a magnetic field near the Cape Verde islands, an area where loggerheads tend to turn south-west when migrating. The team demonstrated that the juvenile turtles also did this. Then the researchers trained other turtles to associate the Cape Verde field with food.One of the ideas about how some animals sense magnetic fields is that there is a complex set of chemical reactions, possibly taking place in the eye, that are influenced by Earths magnetic field.To try to affect any such system, the team used an additional magnetic field that oscillates at a radio wave frequency, which should interfere with that cascade of chemical reactions.Regardless of whether the oscillating field was turned on, the turtles could detect the underlying Cape Verde magnetic signature and would dance, which suggests their map sense isnt dependent on this chemical reception mechanism. But the oscillating field did make them turn in random directions, rather than south-west.Scientists tested for this behaviour via a series of experiments in tanksGoforth et al., Nature (2025)This is good evidence that there are actually two different magnetic senses in the turtles: one that is used for the map sense, one that is used for the compass sense, says Lohmann. The simplest explanation would be that the magnetic map sense does not depend on this chemical magnetoreception process, but the magnetic compass sense does.The magnetic map sense is a positional sense, kind of like a GPS, and their compass sense tells them which way to go, says Goforth. This is probably how theyre getting back to important ecological locations such as feeding grounds and nesting areas.Its a new way of thinking about how turtles are using the magnetic field to navigate, says Katrina Phillips at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Whats really fascinating is we still dont understand how theyre even perceiving the magnetic field. So, this is getting at what is going on mechanistically.Journal reference:Nature DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-08554-yTopics:animal behaviour

General Mills and other brands are launching high-protein versions of their products.This trend mirrors past health fads like low-carb and low-fat diets, with new influences.Social media and health influencers are amplifying the protein craze and other diet trends.Protein is having a moment, and big packaged food brands like General Mills are keeping up.An article I read that fascinated me on New York Magazine's Grub Street looks at how big brands synonymous with carbs Wheaties and Cheerios, for example are trying to muscle their way into the latest craze for more protein.(Wheaties Protein Maple Almond offers 22 grams of protein, up from 3 grams in the classic Wheaties flavor. That's some swole flakes.)Big supermarket brands launching high-protein versions of their stapes (I await protein Oreos, personally) feels like the absolute peak of a food/health trend cycle. As Grub Street points out, this isn't so far off from the Atkins low-carb craze of the 2000s or the low-fat fad of the 1990s. (I will forever remember the taste and texture of the SnackWell low-fat brownie.)Underlining the trend, General Mills said in December, when it launched a high-protein version of Cheerios, that its research showed 71% of consumers were trying to get more protein in their diets, and their new products were looking to "meet people where they are."Of course, there are new factors at plan now, too, like patients on Ozempic whose doctors encourage them to eat diets high in protein to aim to prevent muscle loss, which can be a side effect of GLP-1 inhibitors.Health food fads come and go for example, gut health drinks seem to be the latest version of antioxidant-rich beverages. (Remember Pom Wonderful?) Olipop, a line of canned beverages marketed as a healthy version of soda, just raised $50 million in a funding round that valued it at $1.85 billion, Bloomberg reported.MAHA movement and others help push health trends on socialI have a theory that social media of this moment has supercharged protein mania.There seems to have been a vibe shift that exhibits itself in more nontraditional health crazes lately: Think the MAHA movement, raw milk influencer moms, the Liver King, and other carnivore diet enthusiasts. Then there's the popularity of pop science gurus like Andrew Huberman espousing diet and exercise ideas.This kind of stuff has always existed and I'm not a health expert, so some of these things might or might not be for you but I do know a lot about the culture of the moment, and it feels like these ideas about optimization and macros and an obsession with protein have gone forgive the obvious metaphor on steroids.There's real science behind how getting more protein in your diet is (probably) a good idea. I have even found myself influenced to try eating more protein (although with these egg prices, I'm not sure I can afford to).Still, maybe don't take things as far as Grub Street writer Chris Gayomali did, when he did this:I came across a category of people who drink chicken-breast smoothies. Rather than subjecting themselves to supplements or powders, they'll throw some shredded chicken breast into a blender with other smoothie ingredients.I was curious. Maybe this concoction could offer a perfect marriage of the unprocessed simplicity of chicken breast with the convenient efficiency of a protein bar. So after picking up a pack of chicken tenderloins at the store and boiling three (150 grams uncooked, about 48 grams of protein), I tore the chunks of flesh into the blender and added a splash of water plus everything I could find in my freezer: the crumbly end of a bag of raspberries, two bananas, some blueberries, a forgotten package of aai. The result looked like a normal berry smoothie and, on first sip, tasted like one. Then the back end arrived, coating my tongue in what I can only describe as a slick film with the viscosity and taste of a can of Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup.I don't think I'll ever recover from visualizing that, Chris!Read more: Big Food gets jacked how protein mania took over the American grocery store. (New York Magazine's Grub Street)