It's the same every year. Like clockwork, both social media and real media clamour to do what they do best: moan. Not about politics. Not about the trains. Not even about the weather. No, it's Glastonbury Festival time, which means it's time for the annual whinge-fest over how much it costs and how bad the line-up is. It's a tradition as sacred as Glastonbury itself. Within minutes of the headliners being announced, someone somewhere will tweet "WHO?" as if that settles the matter. The tickets, they declare, are extortionate. The food is overpriced. The toilets are... well, they're not wrong there, to be fair. And yet Glastonbury sells out. Every. Single. Time. In minutes. Not hours, not days, but minutes; just 35 of them, this time around. A digital stampede of fans crashes the ticketing servers, elbows each other out of the virtual queue, and desperately parts with £373.50 of their hard-earned cash. If people really thought it wasn't worth it, why would that happen? Deep down, Glastonbury fans know it is worth it. Not just for the vibes. Not just for the bragging rights. In terms of basic maths alone, it remains a much cheaper way to see all your favourite bands compared with buying tickets to individual gigs. Let's break it down. From this year's stacked, genre-hopping, generation-spanning line-up, these are my 10 ride-or-die bands, the ones I'm determined to see come hell or high water at this year's Glastonbury. And next to them is a reasonable estimate of how much it would cost to see them individually on tour. Alanis Morissette: £60-£135 Charli XCX: £85-£200+ English Teacher: £25-£35 Gracie Abrams: £100-£400+ John Fogerty: £35-£130+ Lola Young: £25-£40 Olivia Rodrigo: £120-£200+ Raye: £50-£100+ Wet Leg: £30-£40 Wolf Alice: £40-£60 You can quickly see how these individual tickets would add up, and that's before the beer-soaked chips and £17 parking surcharges at the O2. But at Glastonbury, they're all included, alongside more than two thousand other acts. Plus five nights of camping, firewood, circus performers, standup comedy, theatre performers, secret gigs, DnB raves, late-night poetry slams, kids' clubs, drone shows, the visionary chaos of Shangri-La, a bloke dressed as a badger doing tai chi at 4am, and the very real possibility of watching Chris Martin duet with a kestrel. All for less than the price of one premium Olivia Rodrigo ticket at the Birmingham NEC with a half-decent sightline. © Amy Fern © George Harrison © Amy Fern No one involved with the festival will ever say this out loud... but in truth, this is underpricing. Glastonbury doesn't cost too much; it's that it's charging less than it's worth. The organisers know it, the scalpers know it, and deep down, so do we. Why else would the event remain massively oversubscribed year after year? The lesson for freelancers Herein lies the lesson for anyone who's ever said yes to a freelance gig, then immediately regretted it because the fee barely covers your oat milk habit. Every time you flinch at raising our rates, worrying, "What if they say no?" you need to remember that people will always complain about the price. But then they pay it anyway, if what you're offering is good. Just like a Glastonbury ticket, your work has value that goes beyond the sum of its parts. Clients might baulk at a day rate, grumble at a quote, or attempt the classic "Can you do it for exposure?". But if they really want you, they'll find the budget. Sure, you could try to undercut your peers. Offer the cheapest design package. Throw in extra concepts for free. Discount your fee before they even ask. But all that gets you is the creative equivalent of being the sad burger stand next to the rave tent: underpaid, undervalued, and slightly sticky. Here's the uncomfortable truth: clients don't always know what things should cost. They base their expectations on their last hire, a Fiverr ad, or what their mate's cousin paid a graphic design student in 2017. © George Harrison © Yushy Pachnanda © JodyHartley But it's not your job to price yourself within their comfort zone. It's your job to price yourself according to your value. If clients can't afford you, that's not rejection; that's redirection. Someone else—someone better, someone ready—will always pay you what you're worth. Just like someone always buys the last Glastonbury ticket. So ignore the noise. Just like the festival, you're not for everyone, and that's fine. Your rates should make you feel slightly nervous, not make your client feel overly comfortable. That's how you grow. That's how you stay booked. That's how you avoid burnout and build a business rather than a bargain bin. In other words, next time you feel the urge to knock 20% off your quote "just to be safe", picture yourself standing in a Somerset field surrounded by 200,000 sweaty strangers who all agreed—despite the price, despite the moaning, despite the toilets—that it was absolutely worth it. And then charge accordingly.

If you’ve been waiting for the right moment to showcase your newest innovation to a massive AI community, this is it! You have until this Friday, May 23 at 11:59 p.m. PT, to secure one of the few remaining exhibit tables at TechCrunch Sessions: AI and position your brand at the center of the conversation shaping the future of the AI industry. TC Sessions: AI is bringing together the brightest builders, boldest thinkers, and sharpest investors to UC Berkeley’s Zellerbach Hall on June 5. At a venue nestled right in the heart of the AI community, your company will get the chance to rub elbows with a crowd of investors and innovators looking for the next standout partner, which could be you! Benefits of exhibiting Even if you’ve built something powerful, the market is noisy, and visibility is everything. Exhibiting gives you: Direct access to 1,000+ engaged AI decision-makers. Powerful positioning as a startup or company on the cutting edge. Face time with VCs, enterprise buyers, and press looking for what’s next. And beyond access to the Sessions: AI community, you get the following benefits: 6′ x 3′ exhibit space with a branded tabletop sign. 5 event passes for your team or guests. Company logo placement on the event website. Wi-Fi, chairs, and lead capture tools to keep networking friction-free. And much, much more. Deadline: Friday, May 23 at 11:59 p.m. PT Image Credits:Halo Creative Don’t miss your golden opportunity to make a brand impact This is your moment to go from being seen to being remembered. Exhibit at TC Sessions: AI and earn the attention your innovation deserves. Reserve your table now before the opportunity closes. Techcrunch event Join us at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot for our leading AI industry event with speakers from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Cohere. For a limited time, tickets are just $292 for an entire day of expert talks, workshops, and potent networking. Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you’ve built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Berkeley, CA | June 5 REGISTER NOW

Interviews A Minecraft Movie: Piotr Karwas (VFX Supervisor) & Elizabeth “Liz” Bernard (Animation Supervisor) – Digital Domain By Vincent Frei - 20/05/2025 With 20+ years in film and advertising, Piotr Karwas has supervised VFX for top directors including David Fincher and Tim Burton. His recent work includes The Electric State, Elevation, he’s here today to talk about the Digital Domain work on A Minecraft Movie. After discussing The Electric State with us a few months ago, Elizabeth ‘Liz’ Bernard is back—this time to talk about her work on A Minecraft Movie. How did you and Digital Domain get involved on this show? Piotr Karwas: We were approached by the Warner Bros. VFX team as they were looking to bring on an additional vendor to help complete the remaining visual effects work. It was also an opportunity to be the best dad ever, since both of my kids are huge Minecraft fans. How was the collaboration with Director Jared Hess and VFX Supervisor Dan Lemmon? Piotr Karwas: I’ve known Dan Lemmon since our time working together at Digital Domain. We collaborated on several projects in the early 2000s, so it was a great opportunity to team up again. As for Jared, I’ve been a fan of his work ever since his first feature, Napoleon Dynamite. Years ago, I also had the chance to briefly work on his film Gentlemen Broncos. The blend of Jared’s signature humor with the global phenomenon of Minecraft was simply too exciting to pass up. I knew I wanted to be involved. Although Digital Domain joined the project later in the production process, we quickly got up to speed and delivered our work on time, despite some challenges. What are the sequences made by Digital Domain? Piotr Karwas: Our primary focus was the final battle sequence, but we also contributed to several fully live-action shots featuring set extensions and some CG animation, primarily around the entrance to the mine. Could you walk us through the process of creating the 500+ Piglins and Iron Golems clashing in that 360° battlefield? What were some of the major technical challenges in making that sequence come to life? Piotr Karwas: One of the key creative challenges was striking the right balance between honoring the iconic look and feel of the game while delivering a cinematic, action-packed experience. The goal was to blend a sense of realism through the movement and design of characters and environments with the charm and style of the Minecraft universe. Under the guidance of Jared and Dan, and in close collaboration with the other vendors, we were able to craft something truly unique. The battle unfolds during the Piglin invasion, as the sunny atmosphere of the Overworld begins to transform into a darker, more menacing environment reminiscent of the Nether. The entire battlefield was designed to function seamlessly in both visual states, capturing the warmth and cheer of the original Overworld, while also supporting its dramatic shift into a hellish landscape filled with fire and gloom. Additionally, the stylized world of Minecraft presented some technical hurdles, especially in large scale crowd sequences. The characters’ unconventional anatomy, limited range of motion, and signature fighting styles added an extra layer of complexity but also pushed us to be creative and innovative. Liz Bernard: We started out with 10 piglins, each of which had 2-6 costumes, plus 8 weapons and 2 torches. We were able to get a lot of variety out of that for our piglin horde. The golem army was smaller and more uniform, and golems are too powerful to be messing around with weapons. Instead, they prefer to use their iron arms to smash through their opponents, so we didn’t have as many different iterations, costumes, and such for the iron golems. In Animation, we moved as fast as possible to clean up and modify a big pile of motion capture so that we could provide our Crowds team with over 300 unique animation cycles and clips. Those clips included everything from golems doing windmill arm attacks, to piglins hacking at golem legs with axes and swords, to baby piglins running around in circles, freaking out. Although we started with motion capture for most of the piglin actions, transferring those actions from a full sized human mocap actor onto 10 different blocky piglins with giant angular heads and different body proportions meant each mocap clip needed a lot of adjustment. For example, piglins cannot raise their square little arms very high because their shoulders will quickly crash into the head. Once we had ploughed through that chunk of work, our Crowds team strung those actions together in Autodesk’s Golaem software to create the crowds seen in the backgrounds of our shots. In the mid-ground, we animated a custom set of longer battle vignettes that we could reuse in a number of shots by reorienting them to camera and offsetting their timing. And of course, there was quite a lot of hero animation to fill in the foreground and tell the story of the ebb and flow of battle. Minecraft is known for its blocky aesthetic. How was the animation rigging approached to stay true to that while enhancing the characters’ performance for live action? Liz Bernard: The piglins, hoglins, and wolves were rigged as pretty standard fleshy characters. The wolves had blocky chests and hips, which our Rigging team kept relatively stiff to preserve the original block shape even when we posed the characters in action. Because we were in a hurry on this fast-paced show, we needed to get rigs into Animation’s hands as quickly as possible, so we ended up relying on our shot modeling/sculpting team to adjust some of the characters’ bodies after animation was approved. They paid special attention to the final look of their shoulders, elbows, and knees, to make sure that the bend at each joint stayed as blocky as possible. The iron golems were a lot trickier to get right because they were made of stiff blocks of metal, had no deforming parts, and their joints were extremely simple. We discovered right away that making an iron golem walk meant instant intersections where the legs attach to the hips and the arms attach to the shoulders. So, to solve that problem and get the golems engaged in the battle, we had to give the animators complete control over every body part. This is not something we typically do because it’s easy to go overboard and end up “off model,” but in this scenario, it was absolutely required. This level of control gave the animators the option to offset body parts to achieve the necessary range of movement without visible intersections on screen or gaps in silhouette. Houdini was used to procedurally generate environments for the film. What were some of the most challenging aspects of creating such vast, dynamic landscapes? Piotr Karwas: The environments posed a unique challenge, not just because of their blocky nature, but because it was essential to make the Overworld feel like a tangible, real place. Some design choices were influenced by physical sets that had been built, while others drew inspiration from the real world. We focused on introducing a sense of natural imperfection, subtle elements like slightly uneven lines, worn edges, scuff marks, scattered debris, dirt, and even touches of realistic vegetation. All of this had to be carefully integrated into the strict, grid-based aesthetic of the Minecraft universe. Our environment team rose to the challenge and delivered a highly detailed immersive location, while working under a demanding production schedule. What were the biggest challenges in adapting Minecraft’s creatures and characters into a live-action setting while retaining their iconic charm? Liz Bernard: Because we came onto the project towards the end of shot production, we were able to use other vendors’ work as a rough guide for how our characters should move and behave. The Iron Golems in particular were a fun challenge, and although Sony had a few shots that we could refer to for the overall movement, it was up to us to establish their combat style. We researched how the golems fight in the game, which, as it turns out, is quite simple. We stuck with the game’s stiff legged walk, simple straight arm swings and skyward scoops to match the game’s iron golem attack style as closely as we could. However, purely matching the game wasn’t going to look quite right in a live action environment with human actors. So, on top of the simple performance, we layered weight shifts to counterbalance the heavy arms. We also added some additional step patterns to get them into position to attack piglins so that they would appear clever and more agile without straying too far from the game aesthetic. We also improved the contacts between the golems’ arms and each piglin to really sell the sense of effort and weight in each attack and hit. The destruction of the Overworld Portal seems like a monumental task. How was such an epic scene created, and what role did the environment and FX teams play in bringing it to life? Piotr Karwas: One of the biggest challenges was figuring out the mechanics of how large-scale destruction would play out in the Minecraft world. We had to carefully determine which elements would follow real-world physics and which could behave in a more stylized, game inspired way. We also spent considerable time designing the post-collapse remains to ensure they were visually compelling and cohesive for the staging of the shots that followed. The portal destruction sequence, in particular, appeared in the two widest shots of the entire sequence. These moments required both armies to be on screen, complete with fallen Iron Golems, defeated or pork-chopped Piglins, and digital doubles for every actor. It was a massive technical, logistical, and creative undertaking. We worked on these shots all the way to the final hour. Can you describe the bespoke zombification transformation pipeline developed for the Piglins? How did this process differ from traditional character transformations? Piotr Karwas: By the time we joined the project, the zombification effect had already been largely developed by Weta FX. One of our main challenges was matching their established look while ensuring visual consistency across both their shots and ours. At the same time, we knew we had to push the effect further. After all, this was the grand finale, where the evil army was being defeated. We also wanted the transformation to feel distinct, especially when applied to large numbers of Piglins. To achieve that, we went as far as building complete skeletal systems that could be revealed during the transformation. How was lighting handled to simulate firelit nighttime chaos? What tools or techniques were critical in creating that atmosphere? Piotr Karwas: To achieve the most realistic look, we used actual fire simulations to drive the lighting on both the characters and the environment. We initially started with just a few fires, but Jared was drawn to the striking visual accents and the warm hues they cast on the characters. As a result, we ended up populating the scenes with hundreds of fires. The air was also filled with atmospheric elements like smoke, ash, and embers, all contributing to a richly textured, apocalyptic feel in every shot. To manage this across numerous shots, we developed semi-automated methods to batch simulate the effects efficiently. How was humor incorporated into the animation, especially with subtle gags like pork chops dropping onto the battlefield or background antics? What approach was used to time these moments? Liz Bernard: We had a good time adding easter eggs and gags into this epic battle scene! Piotr let me know early on that Jared would welcome goofy touches, especially on background characters, so I made sure to pass that information on to my team of animators. What did I get back? Nose picks, butt scratches, belly slaps, and all sorts of goofy behaviour in the background. We usually didn’t center those things in the action unless it was called for in the script (in fact, Jared and Dan had to pull us back a few times), but if you look carefully, you’ll find maximum silliness all over the place. And, of course, I have to mention the Great Hog here. He was probably our funniest character and the most challenging to animate. His style of movement was dictated by his unusual proportions, in particular, his itty-bitty legs and long chunky arms. Those stumpy legs meant his stride was super short unless he broke out into a full quadruped gallop, which our team animated with extra oomph and effort to get a good laugh. The Great Hog’s low rider pants took a dive after one particularly strenuous sprint across the battlefield to attack Natalie. When he rose up on hind legs in anticipation of smashing her with his giant blocky fists, Jared wanted to make sure that the audience could see clearly the gag that his butt crack was showing. In VFX, we traditionally call a gradient of options that we would pitch to the client a “wedge.” In this case, we needed to get a read on how low to go with the pants before we simulated them in CFX, so we sent over a “wedge” for the pants and butt crack for Jared to pick from. In this case, I guess it was actually…a wedgie. How was the visual humor seamlessly integrated into the more intense action sequences, and was there a particular moment that captured this balance perfectly? Liz Bernard: The visual humour was baked into the action from the get-go, from game to storyboards to previsualization. I mean, there’s something inherently funny about dozens of piglins in shorts getting smacked high up into the air and then poof! turning into porkchops. When I welcomed each animator to the show, I made a point of mentioning that they were a little more free to tell jokes with pantomime on this show than they might be used to on more realistic productions. Because we were always in a mindset to make each shot as funny as possible without distracting from the story points, the flavour in animation dailies was always funny. My team pitched piglins getting run over by the Great Hog by accident, baby piglins riding on an iron golem attempting to attack its head, some utterly hilarious slow-mo action with exaggerated overlap a la Baywatch, a hoglin and piglin rider mugging for the camera as they gallop by in the foreground, wolves clamped on by their teeth to the waistband of the Great Hog, and a whole lot of over-acted melodramatic writhing as the piglins zombified after the portal collapsed. You don’t have to tell animators twice to be silly. With such a large-scale project, how did the animation and VFX teams collaborate to maintain a cohesive style across both departments? Were there any specific moments where this collaboration stood out? Liz Bernard: This was a ripsnorter of a project timeline, so all departments were hitting the ground running and developing their parts of the project concurrently. That’s always challenging and requires a lot of communication to pull off. We had a bullpen of experienced folks in our show leadership, and knowing what each other’s departments could and couldn’t do saved us a lot of time as we ramped up. For example, we were able to establish a single groundplane early in our animation schedule, which helped us avoid having to adjust the character’s feet contacts to an evolving environment even as artists were still building the overworld battlefield. The Environments team did a great job set dressing the environment after we had placed our animation and crowds’ characters, so that we did not need to worry about running through plants, pebbles, fires, or corpses. The FX department established a workflow with the Crowds team to “porkchop” any crowds piglin that got smacked by crowds’ iron golems. Setting these rules and criteria helped each department streamline their processes. And, our production team did an absolutely incredible job making sure that every department stayed on target, communicated their roadblocks and breakthroughs effectively downstream (and sometimes upstream!), and adjusted the schedule to compensate. I think the moment where this collaboration really shone was when we saw all of the zombification shots at the end of the sequence starting to fall into place. One day, it felt like we had all of them left to tackle, and the next, we had our methodology kinks worked out and they all started to drop like dominoes. Piotr Karwas: As Liz mentioned, the schedule was extremely tight, especially for executing the film’s grand finale. We had to move quickly and strategically, knowing that things would evolve and change throughout production. I’m incredibly grateful to our amazing team at Digital Domain. Across all four locations, Los Angeles, Vancouver, Montreal, and Hyderabad, our artists worked around the clock to bring it all to life. Yes, there were long hours, high stress, and the usual frustrations with technology that doesn’t always behave but in the end, it was all absolutely worth it. Seeing kids enjoy the movie so much made everything worthwhile. Chicken Jockey! Looking back on the project, what aspects of the visual effects are you most proud of? Piotr Karwas: Without a doubt, the Great Hog’s butt crack was the highlight for me. Liz Bernard: Just the sheer scale of this thing is wild. This is one of those “more is more” kinds of projects that don’t come around so often in our world of photorealistic visual effects. Nothing was supposed to be “real” here, everything was exaggerated, every frame we produced was chock full of crazy action, over the top humor, and easter eggs. I’m very proud of our animation team for embracing this hilarious show in a more cartoony style that we don’t often have the opportunity to tackle. And, man, it tickles me that the fans got such a huge kick out of it all when the movie hit theatres. What else can you ask for? How long have you worked on this show? Piotr Karwas: About six months Liz Bernard: Just six months from start to finish. What’s the VFX shots count? Piotr Karwas: Digital Domain delivered 187 shots not including omits. What is your next project? Piotr Karwas: A Minecraft Movie I hope. Jokes aside, I’m looking at a whole slate of different projects. Liz Bernard: All I can say right now is that it’s a science fiction film that comes out in 2026. Stay tuned! A big thanks for your time. WANT TO KNOW MORE?Digital Domain: Dedicated page about A Minecraft Movie on Digital Domain website. © Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2025

MotoGP racing, the pinnacle of motorbike competition, requires precision and skill–and some scraped elbows and knees.   Image: Ducati/Lenovo Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. MotoGP is high-speed, high-tech motorcycle racing. The fastest riders in the world compete on specialized, purpose-built motorcycles from companies like Ducati, Honda, Yamaha on the world stage in this series, which is considered the most prestigious in the game. Riders reach incredible speeds on their machines up to 220 miles per hour, and races can go 350 turns with gravity-defying leaning that scrapes elbows and knees. This Grand Prix is for the toughest of the tough on the moto circuit.  Behind the riders and the machinery is a boatload of data and technology; we’re talking massive amounts of data in numbers that make your head spin. As tech company Lenovo puts it, when it comes to MotoGP–a sport in which every millisecond counts–data can mean the difference between a first and last place finish.  Lenovo and Italian motorbike manufacturer Ducati work hand in hand to create a champion racing team with information gathered by 50-plus sensors that track tire rotation, speed, grip, acceleration, and more. Motorcycle racing, at the highest echelon, has evolved way beyond just the machinery or even the skill of the rider. Without the technology, any team would be left in the dust.  The data journey In the past, the only way to evaluate the outer limits of what a motorbike could endure was to disassemble a crashed bike. Today, a multi-pronged approach to data collection takes that process up several notches. Every time a bike enters the pit garage, an in-person team and a crew from the Ducati Lenovo Remote Garage at Ducati’s headquarters in Bologna, Italy analyzes performance.   Via 50 sensors on each bike, Ducati engineers collect tons of data they can parse and assess. Image: Ducati/Lenovo No matter where the team is racing, data streams in from the motorbike sensors. Off-site engineers analyze information from the track, making tiny tweaks to the bike and its operation. That way, every qualifying lap may be reviewed and fine tuned for the best competitive outcomes.  “We debrief after each session, aligning with the rider on the sections and corners in which we think that he can improve his performance,” says David Attisano, the data and performance analysis manager for Ducati Racing. “We review with the rider his maneuvers and what we can expect to improve and how. For example, if the data shows that the rider can brake two meters later than he is, that’s a huge distance in this race.”  For the MotoGP series, Ducati has three different teams with a total of six riders. Each Ducati rider receives the data not just about his own ride but for all the other riders, so they can track what the other five are doing. That’s a giant amount of data. “We can push each other to the limit because we can see what the other riders are doing and comparing, then we can highlight and suggest some changes in their riding style,” Attisano explains.  Through its partnership with technology company Lenovo, Ducati collects and analyzes data to push its bikes to the limit and win races. Image: Lenovo/Ducati Per official MotoGP rules, the sensors can’t transmit the data while the bikes are in motion. As soon as the bike gets to the garage, the engineers download the data. From this point, the data analysis process begins. At this point, the partnership is especially critical as the servers are developed by Lenovo specifically for Ducati. On top of that, there are data signals created with a custom algorithm and simulating based on engineering knowledge about the bikes. The team can even create a detailed “digital twin” of the course that maps each twist and turn, using 200GB of data per circuit. “If the rider tells us that the traction control is not working properly, our electronics engineers can adjust the ECU,” says Attisano. “In our competition, the human factor is very important. We rely on the data and the humans do the last mile to gain the result and to achieve victory.”  Sure, data clearly plays a big part, but human interpretation is still a critical aspect to translate the results. Even those who know nothing of motorcycles can create algorithms or artificial intelligence to offer some hints or tips, but without input from the team, the data has no context. The technology, Attisano emphasizes, is intended to augment the capabilities of human beings, not to replace them.  Italian motorbike manufacturer Ducati makes high-speed, high-tech machines. Image: Ducati/Lenovo “The behavior of the bike is very complicated–it’s very difficult to understand if you have not studied it at university,” he says. “In our experience, the exchange of knowledge between engineers and data scientists is very important.”  Ducati’s data collection on the competitive side feeds into the safety and reliability for all riders, including those who like to take their motorbike for a spin on any given Sunday; not just competitive situations. Every time the bike emerges from the pit at a MotoGP race, the engineers strive to be sure it’s in good form and safe for the rider. Every improvement via the data collected from 50 tiny sensors on each factory-made racing bike leads to a better ride for casual street riders, too.

The Famous, Feathered Dinosaur Archaeopteryx Could Fly, Suggests New Study of a ‘Beautifully Preserved’ Fossil The Chicago Archaeopteryx features more soft tissue and delicate skeletal details than any known fossil of its kind, and paleontologists discovered it has a set of feathers key to flight in modern birds The Chicago Archaeopteryx, seen under UV light, shows soft tissues alongside the skeleton. Delaney Drummond Archaeopteryx—a small, feathered dinosaur that lived around 150 million years ago—changed how humans understand the world, “maybe more than any other fossil,” as Jingmai O’Connor, a paleontologist at Chicago’s Field Museum, tells the New York Times’ Asher Elbein. That’s because fossils of Archaeopteryx, which are considered by many to be the oldest known birds, “proved Darwin right” by confirming that all birds are dinosaurs, according to a Field Museum statement. Thanks to an exceptionally preserved and prepared fossil named the Chicago Archaeopteryx recently acquired by the Field Museum, O’Connor and her colleagues have revealed more crucial insight into the species—including that it likely could fly. They detailed their work in a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature. As the Field Museum’s preparators worked on the pigeon-sized Chicago Archaeopteryx, they realized that the fossil included more soft tissues and delicate skeletal details than any other known Archaeopteryx specimen. From previous fossils, they already knew the dinosaur had asymmetric feathers, which are vital to creating thrust in modern, flying birds. But the hard slab of limestone around this specimen had also preserved a key layer of feathers called tertials that had never been documented before in Archaeopteryx. “It’s important that this is the first time these feathers have been seen,” John Nudds, a paleontologist at the University of Manchester in England who didn’t participate in the study, tells the Guardian’s Hannah Devlin. “These new feathers seen in this beautifully preserved specimen—as well as the asymmetric feathers—confirms it could fly.” An illustration shows an Archaeopteryx with tertial feathers that might have helped it to fly. Michael Rothman In modern birds, tertial feathers are crucial to flight, because they cover the space between the bird’s body and its wings. Without them, wings can’t generate lift. In fact, flightless feathered dinosaurs closely related to birds, but not quite birds themselves, didn’t have tertial feathers, according to the statement. Their wing feathers ended at their elbows. While paleontologists don’t know exactly when feathered, landbound dinosaurs gained the ability to fly, most scholars agree that Archaeopteryx is the earliest known bird. “People hypothesized that [the animal] probably had tertials,” O’Connor tells Science News’ Carolyn Gramling. Not only does the Chicago Archaeopteryx finally confirm this hypothesis, but it also indicates that tertials could have played an important evolutionary role in the development of feathered flight, she adds. “Archaeopteryx isn’t the first dinosaur to have feathers, or the first dinosaur to have ‘wings.’ But we think it’s the earliest known dinosaur that was able to use its feathers to fly,” O’Connor says in the statement. That’s despite the fact that “by modern standards, it was a very poor flyer,” she adds to Science News. The Chicago Archaeopteryx is housed at the Field Museum. Delaney Drummond / Field Museum Other notable features the researchers documented include bones in the roof of the animal’s mouth, which provide insight into its skull; scales on the bottom of its toes, which suggest it still spent a lot of time on the ground; and soft tissue on its hands. This last feature indicates that “the third digit could move independently, supporting long abandoned claims from the ’90s that Archaeopteryx could use its hands to climb,” O’Connor explains to Gizmodo’s Isaac Schultz. The team was able to reveal so many telling details thanks to their meticulous fossil preparation, which they conducted with the help of CT scanning and ultraviolet light to make sure they didn’t mistake any part of the fossil for rock and accidentally remove it. A fossil collector discovered the Chicago Archaeopteryx sometime before 1990 in limestone deposits near Solnhofen, Germany, where all known Archaeopteryx fossils originate. It was privately owned until the Field Museum’s purchase. Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

Warning: this article contains full spoilers for Andor Season 2’s finale. If you haven’t already, be sure to check out IGN's review for Andor Season 2, Episodes 10-12. Andor Season 2 just wrapped on Disney+, capping off what is easily one of the best Star Wars projects to come out of the Disney era. In the process, the series leads directly into the events of 2016’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story bringing Diego Luna’s Cassian Andor full circle at last.We already know what happens next for Cassian and the Rebel Alliance. His tragic future is already set in stone. But despite that, there’s a lot to unpack in the dramatic finale of Andor, as the series reveals the fates of many major characters and drops a major twist with big ramifications for the Star Wars franchise. Let’s break down everything that happens and how the series paves the way for future Star Wars adventures.Every IGN Andor ReviewAndor Season 2’s Ending ExplainedAndor Season 2 has been busy chronicling the final four years in the life of Cassian Andor. Or, at least, the most pivotal moments in those four years. First, in 4 BBY, we saw Cassian’s mission to steal a prototype TIE Avenger and his temporary imprisonment on Yavin IV, destined to become the new operating base of the fledgling Rebel Alliance. Then, in 3 BBY, we saw the role Cassian and the Empire each played in propping up the resistance cell known as The Ghorman Front. Those actions then bore fruit in 2 BBY, as the Empire responded to its manufactured political crisis and instigated the Ghorman Massacre, galvanizing Genevieve O’Reilly’s Mon Mothma and the Rebels.The series now takes its final bow in 1 BBY, just days before the events of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Star Wars: A New Hope. As expected, Andor ends by showing us the final sequence of events leading up to the first major conflict between the Rebellion and the Empire on Scarif. It’s all catalyzed by Stellan Skarsgård’s Luthen Rael, who proves to be the Rebel agent who first uncovers evidence of the Death Star.These final three episodes follow what happens next, as Luthen sacrifices himself (with a little assistance from Elizabeth Dulau’s Kleya Marki) and Cassian and friends make a high-stakes trip to Coruscant to bring Kleya in. It’s a mission that would surely have ended in torture and death for all involved if not for the assistance of Alan Tudyk’s K-2SO. Rogue One emphasized the idea that the Rebellion’s victory at the Battle of Yavin was a miracle that was accomplished through many individual acts of heroism. At any point in the chain, something could have gone wrong that doomed the Rebellion to failure. Now we have a better appreciation for how far back that chain extends. If not for Luthen and Kleya’s bravery, the Rebels would have no idea of the danger looming over them. Hope persists in the darkest of times.The series ends with the Alliance High Command finally accepting the reality of what Cassian and Kleya are telling them. The Empire is building a super-weapon. They don’t yet know that it’s one with the power to destroy entire planets, but they do know it’s connected to the Empire’s supposed energy program, its kyber mining efforts on Jedha, and its actions on Ghorman. The pieces are falling into place, leaving Cassian free to meet his contact Tivik on the Ring of Kafrene. That encounter unfolds in one of the first scenes in Rogue One, where Cassian learns the full truth about the Death Star and the defection of Riz Ahmed’s Bodhi Rook.The series also shows us the fates of many of the other major players in this prequel series. Kleya seems ready to integrate with the Rebels, joining loyal soldiers like Faye Marsay’s Vel Sartha and Muhannad Bhaier’s Wilmon Paak. We also see one last glimpse of Forest Whitaker’s Saw Gerrera, who watches in paranoid agitation as an Imperial Star Destroyer looms above Jedha. On the Imperial side of things, Anton Lesser’s Major Partagaz is forced to pay the ultimate price for his failure to contain the Death Star leak, committing suicide rather than submitting to whatever other punishments the Emperor had in mind. Meanwhile, Dedra is seen languishing in an Imperial prison cell, ironically in the same facility on Narkina 5 where Cassian was imprisoned in Season 1.“Meanwhile, Dedra is seen languishing in an Imperial prison cell, ironically in the same facility on Narkina 5 where Cassian was imprisoned in Season 1. She’s clearly wracked by shame and guilt, contending with everything she sacrificed in the name of the Empire and the realization that none of it mattered in the end. The series has a lot to say about the perils of living under fascism. Dedra is proof that no amount of loyalty and sacrifice can change the fact that everyone serving the Empire is merely a pawn to be discarded when they outlive their usefulness. “I always think of it like Dedra is in a gang,” Gough told IGN in a recent roundtable interview. “These guys are in a tribe and Dedra is in a gang, and the gang just disperse at the first sign of trouble. They throw each other to the wolves. There's no loyalties. And so it was really clear to me that going through it, that when you commit your whole life and she's indoctrinated into the gang, so she can't see anything outside it. It's actually really tragic. She can't have intimacy or vulnerability or anything. And so it's a real kind of a foil to what the people in the Rebellion do have, which is loyalty, trust, love, intimacy, community, all of those things.”Episode 12 serves as a neat and tidy way to end the series, albeit somewhat bittersweet. We know that Cassian himself has only a few days left to live before he and the rest of the Rogue One team sacrifice their lives on Scarif. But there is one, final reveal saved for the very end. PlayRevealing Cassian Andor’s ChildThe final scene in Episode 12 reveals that Adria Arjona’s Bix Caleen has returned to Mina-Rau to live out her days in peace. Not only that, she’s raising a baby. As hinted at in Episode 9, Bix was pregnant when she left Cassian on Yavin IV. While she claimed to be leaving Cassian to ensure he would continue serving the Rebellion, it’s clear now that she also wanted to bring their unborn child somewhere he could grow up safe from the Empire.Cassian may be doomed to die fighting on Scarif, but his legacy lives on in a very tangible way. That’s probably the happiest ending fans could hope for from this generally very somber Star Wars series.“[Showrunner Tony Gilroy] really believes that information is power,” Arjona told IGN. “And he told me months before I read the scene where I sort of send Cassian off. He told me that that was going to happen. And so for months I was kind of lingering on that effect or that feeling before I ever read it. And when I read it, it shook me. I started crying immediately. And I love Rogue One, and I respect that movie so much. So to sort of send Cassian on this journey meant the world to me.”“For anyone who had doubts in [Episode] 9 about her motivation, it underlines it at the end. Absolutely,” Gilroy adds. “It makes his sacrifice even more powerful. So much stronger. I mean, you want hope at the end… It would be cruel and unnatural to put all these people through all this stuff and not have a candle in the window at the end.”Does Andor Season 2 Have a Post-Credits Scene?The Star Wars franchise isn’t as big about post-credits scenes and stingers as Marvel, but we have seen them in the past with some live-action Star Wars shows. That includes Andor Season 1, which ended with the reveal that the Narkina 5 prisoners were manufacturing equipment being used on the Death Star.Based on that, fans might be expecting Season 2 to also end with a post-credits scene of some sort. But not in this case. The series is done once the final credits start rolling. When Andor segues this neatly into the beginning of Rogue One, what’s the point of a post-credits scene? Besides, the final scene with Bix is all the series really needs in terms of setting the stage for future stories. There’s another Andor out there in the galaxy, and no doubt they have a grand destiny ahead of them, too. On that note…PlayHow Andor Sets Up Future Star Wars StoriesAs much as Andor serves as a direct prequel to Rogue One, the series does leave some loose ends open for future Star Wars projects to build upon. As mentioned, key characters like Will, Kleya, and Vel are still alive and active in the Rebellion. This leaves room for future Star Wars comics and novels to explore the ongoing role they play in the Galactic Civil War. Did they fight in the Battle of Scarif or other major conflicts like the Battle of Endor? Did they ever rub elbows with the likes of Han Solo and Luke Skywalker? Andor is so far removed from the Jedi business that usually dominates the franchise, so it might be fascinating to read a story that explores how these ordinary heroes react to fighting alongside a living legend like Luke.It’s also worth pointing out that, though Season 2 explores the last four years of Cassian’s life, it only focuses on very specific periods within those four years. Now that Andor has wrapped, there’s ample room for Lucasfilm to double back and commission new books that flesh out other conflicts during this era. How did the bond between Cassian and K-2SO form? What other high-stakes missions did Cassian undertake? Lucasfilm is dabbling in this area with the recently announced Reign of the Empire trilogy, but there’s room for plenty more stories spinning out of Andor. Then there’s poor Dedra. As much as the series delivers a poetic ending to her story, we can’t help but wonder if there’s more story to be told. What becomes of Dedra? Does she spend the remainder of the Galactic Civil War locked up on Narkina 5? What happens when the Empire is overthrown? How does she react to seeing her precious Empire fall? Is she freed? Is she put on trial for her role in orchestrating the Ghorman Massacre? We can’t help but feel there’s more to be explored there.No doubt the child will grow up hearing stories of Cassian’s heroism and bravery, inspiring them to follow in their father’s footsteps.“But above all, Andor leaves us to question what becomes of Bix and her child. No doubt the child will grow up hearing stories of Cassian’s heroism and bravery, inspiring them to follow in their father’s footsteps. Given the time period in which this series is set, there’s no way Cassian’s child could participate in the Rebel Alliance (unless they grow so desperate they start relying on child soldiers). But they would be the right age to take part in the war between the Resistance and the First Order. It would be a comforting thought to know that Leia’s forces have another tie to the classic Rebellion era in the form of Cassian Andor’s offspring. One intriguing possibility is that Cassian Jr. could wind up being a character in Shawn Levy’s Star Wars: Starfighter. We don’t know much about that film, other than that it’ll star Ryan Gosling and it’s set about five years after the events of The Rise of Skywalker. Cassian and Bix’s child would be in their 40s at that point, leaving them in a perfect position to take up arms in whatever conflict exists after the fall of Palpatine’s Final Order.Regardless of where and when it happens, we have to assume it’s only a matter of time before Cassian and Bix’s child makes their presence known in the Star Wars franchise. Cassian himself may be gone, but his sacrifice wasn’t in vain. The Rebellion survives, and so does his family. That’s everything Cassian was fighting for.For more on Andor, find out how the series created a major Star Wars plot hole (and why that doesn't matter), and see the cast react to Episode 9’s shocking death.Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket byfollowing @jschedeen on BlueSky.

U.S. President Donald Trump opened his four-day Middle East trip on Tuesday by paying a visit to Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, for talks on U.S. efforts to dismantle Iran’s nuclear program, end the war in Gaza, hold down oil prices and more.Prince Mohammed warmly greeted Trump as he stepped off Air Force One at King Khalid International Airport in the Saudi capital and kicked off his Middle East tour.The two leaders then retreated to a grand hall at the Riyadh airport, where Trump and his aides were served traditional Arabic coffee by waiting attendants wearing ceremonial gun-belts. Fighter jet escort The pomp began before Trump even landed. Royal Saudi Air Force F-15s provided an honorary escort for Air Force One as it approached the kingdom’s capital.Trump and Prince Mohammed also took part in a lunch at the Royal Court, gathering with guests and aides in an ornate room with blue accents and massive crystal chandeliers.As he greeted business titans with Trump by his side, Prince Mohammed was animated and smiling.It was a stark contrast to his awkward fist bump with then-President Joe Biden, who looked to avoid being seen on camera shaking hands with the prince during a 2022 visit to the kingdom.Biden had decided to pay a visit to Saudi Arabia as he looked to alleviate soaring prices at the pump for motorists at home and around the globe.At the time, Prince Mohammed’s reputation had been badly damaged by a U.S. intelligence determination that found he had ordered the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.But that dark moment appeared to be distant memory for the prince as he rubbed elbows with high-profile business executives — including Blackstone Group CEO Stephen Schwarzman, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink and Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk — in front of the cameras and with Trump by his side.Later, the crown prince will fete Trump with a formal dinner. Trump is also slated to take part Tuesday in a U.S.-Saudi investment conference.“When Saudis and Americans join forces, very good things happen — more often than not, great things happen,” Saudi Investment Minister Khalid al-Falih said. Oil production Saudi Arabia and fellow OPEC+ nations have already helped their cause with Trump early in his second term by stepping up oil production. Trump sees cheap energy as a key component to lowering costs and stemming inflation for Americans. The Republican president has also made the case that lower oil prices will hasten an end to the Russia-Ukraine war.But Saudi Arabia’s economy remains heavily dependent on oil, and the kingdom needs a fiscal break-even oil price of $96 to $98 a barrel to balance its budget. It’s questionable how long OPEC+, of which Saudi Arabia is the leading member, is willing to keep production elevated. The price of a barrel of Brent crude closed Monday at $64.77.“One of the challenges for the Gulf states of lower oil prices is it doesn’t necessarily imperil economic diversification programs, but it certainly makes them harder,” said Jon Alterman, a senior Middle East analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. Qatar and UAE next Trump picked the kingdom for his first stop, because it has pledged to make big investments in the U.S., but Trump ended up traveling to Italy last month for Pope Francis’ funeral. Riyadh was the first overseas stop of his first term.The three countries on the president’s itinerary — Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates — are all places where the Trump Organization, run by Trump’s two elder sons, is developing major real estate projects. They include a high-rise tower in Jeddah, a luxury hotel in Dubai and a golf course and villa complex in Qatar.Trump is trying to demonstrate that his transactional strategy for international politics is paying dividends as he faces criticism from Democrats who say his global tariff war and approach to Russia’s war on Ukraine are isolating the United States from allies.He’s expected to announce deals with the three wealthy countries that will touch on artificial intelligence, expanding energy cooperation and perhaps new arms sales to Saudi Arabia. The administration earlier this month announced initial approval to sell $3.5 billion worth of air-to-air missiles for Saudi Arabia’s fighter jets.But Trump arrived in the Middle East at a moment when his top regional allies, Israel and Saudi Arabia, are far from neatly aligned with his approach. Trump’s decision to skip Israel remarkable, expert says Before the trip, Trump announced that Washington was halting a nearly two-month U.S. airstrike campaign against Yemen’s Houthis, saying the Iran-backed rebels have pledged to stop attacking ships along a vital global trade route.The administration didn’t notify Israel — which the Houthis continue to target — of the agreement before Trump publicly announced it. It was the latest example of Trump leaving the Israelis in the dark about his administration’s negotiations with common adversaries.In March, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wasn’t notified by the administration until after talks began with Hamas about the war in Gaza. And Netanyahu found out about the ongoing U.S. nuclear talks with Iran only when Trump announced them during an Oval Office visit by the Israeli leader last month.“Israel will defend itself by itself,” Netanyahu said last week following Trump’s Houthi truce announcement. “If others join us — our American friends — all the better.”William Wechsler, senior director of the Rafik Hariri Center and Middle East Programs at the Atlantic Council, said Trump’s decision to skip Israel on his first Middle East visit is remarkable.“The main message coming out of this, at least as the itinerary stands today, is that the governments of the Gulf … are in fact stronger friends to President Trump than the current government of Israel at this moment,” Wechsler said. Restarting efforts to normalize Israel-Saudi ties Trump, meanwhile, hopes to restart his first-term effort to normalize relations between the Middle East’s major powers, Israel and Saudi Arabia. Trump’s Abraham Accords effort led to Sudan, the UAE, Bahrain and Morocco agreeing to normalize relations with Israel.But Riyadh has made clear that in exchange for normalization it wants U.S. security guarantees, assistance with the kingdom’s nuclear program and progress on a pathway to Palestinian statehood. There seems to be scant hope for making headway on a Palestinian state with the Israel-Hamas war raging and the Israelis threatening to flatten and occupy Gaza.Prince Mohammed last week notably hosted Palestinian Vice President Hussein Sheikh in Jeddah on the sheikh’s first foreign visit since assuming office in April.Hussain Abdul-Hussain, a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said the crown prince appeared to be subtly signaling to Trump that the kingdom needs to see progress on Palestinian statehood for the Saudis to begin seriously moving on a normalization deal with the Israelis.“Knowing how the Saudis telegraph their intentions, that’s a preemptive, ‘Don’t even think of asking us to show any goodwill toward normalization,'” Abdul-Hussain said. Madhani reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. —Zeke Miller, Aamer Madhani and Jon Gambrell, Associated Press