Mario Kart World – is it a backwards step? (Nintendo) The Friday letters page is surprised the Sony State of Play didn’t go down better with more people, as readers share images of the Switch 2 midnight launches. To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@metro.co.uk Initial experience I’ve spent a few hours playing Mario Kart World in single and multiplayer, and my first impression is that it’s a bit… boring.The free roam aspect of the game seemed like it had heaps of potential but, for the most part, it feels aimless. Sure, there are things to collect and discover, but in-between there’s just driving. Lots and lots of driving. It’s not exactly a world brimming with things to do in the same way as the sandbox areas in Super Mario Odyssey, for example. As for the races, in principle it makes sense that the tracks need to be wider to accommodate 24 racers. However, the races themselves don’t generally feel any busier because you’re still, generally, just competing against those closest to your level of ability. Consequently, I felt the game lacks the chaotic energy of jostling your rivals to get ahead because there’s so much space on the otherwise well-designed courses. I know it’s unfair to compare Mario Kart World to Mario Kart 8 at this point, given the latter spanned two consoles, with a plethora of content reflecting that. But it’s hard not to feel that while the free roam section is a solid demonstration of technical advancement (even if the inability to integrate it with Grand Prix mode seems like a missed opportunity), the core gameplay is consistent, at best. In some respects, I’d say it’s more of a step backwards, if anything. That being said, I don’t think this is the same version of Mario Kart World we’ll be playing five years from now. Free roam mode feels like a playground in which Nintendo can experiment, and I fully expect them to do so. There’ll undoubtedly be a slew of DLC and perhaps better integration of the various modes into one seamless experience. Expert, exclusive gaming analysis Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for a unique take on the week in gaming, alongside the latest reviews and more. Delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning. In the unlikely event that this is the final iteration of Mario Kart World, it’s currently a six or (generous) seven out of 10 and probably the least enthralled I’ve ever been with a new Mario Kart title. But I’ll give Nintendo the benefit of the doubt for now because this doesn’t feel like a game that’s even close to being finished.Needlemouse Just add SonyFirstly, I’m surprised by the relatively lukewarm response to the State of Play from some people; I thought it was one of the best in recent memory and there were only a few games that I personally had little interest in. The main reason for writing in is the recent addition of Destiny 2: The Final Shape to PS Plus subscription. In short, I played a lot of Destiny 2 back in the day but have subsequently not played any of the most recent DLCs/additions. Can The Final Shape be played as a standalone? (both logistically and in terms of the story)?John GC: We think people were upset that Sony themselves had nothing to show from their first parties, even though we agree it was overall a good show. As far as we understand, you don’t need any other expansions to play The Final Shape. Only one Just a quick heads up for anyone buying digital content on either a Switch or Switch 2 console, if you are Switch online subscriber you can purchase a voucher for £84 that lets you purchase any two titles from a list of games.This reduces each game to a reasonable £42 and the vouchers are valid for a year. I didn’t get an alert about this until after I’d purchased Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, which I paid £59.99 for. I did at least then go on to buy a voucher for £84 and redeemed each token for Super Mario Bros. Wonder and Super Mario 3D Land + Bowser’s Fury.Charlie H. GC: It’s important to note these can’t be used for Switch 2 exclusive games. Email your comments to: gamecentral@metro.co.uk Midnight gathering I’ve seen a lot of pictures from the Switch 2 launch, so I thought I’d send you a picture of the queue at Smyth’s in Dublin city centre, a couple of minutes after midnight.I think there were a couple of hundred people there when I arrived. if I’d known then that I wouldn’t get out of the store until 2:30am, I might have gone home and tried again in the morning. But in the end, I’m glad I waited. I’ve just been tinkering with it so far, hooked it up to the TV, and played a little bit of Mario Kart World and Cyberpunk 2077, so I can’t really give any conclusions. But when my (dedicated non-gamer) wife saw it, her reaction was, ‘Oh, it looks much better! Can I play it?’ So I think Nintendo are on to another winner.Mickah Night-time rendezvous (Mickah) American retail I was on my way down to Smyths Leeds to collect my Switch 2 Mario Kart bundle, that I had pre-ordered a month ago.I called in at Costco on the way and was surprised to find they had the Mario Kart bundle for £419.99, so I decided to get one from there. It was late afternoon Thursday and they looked to have plenty left. It is limited to one per customer. I will let my pre-order lapse so it will cancel in two days.Martin GC: We had no idea Costco existed in the UK. Maybe we’re not the only ones and that’s why they have so many left. C’mon DoreenSomebody (not me, don’t know how) should start a petition to get Squirrel Girl in that Marvel game for you guys. How good did it all look? How good was that showcase? What have Sony been up too? That’s what. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is already on my wishlist. That surfing sword game wasn’t bad either. With Nintendo too, great times ahead.Indiegaz (PSN ID) GC: At least she’s in Marvel Rivals. Autumnal purchase So I won’t be buying the Nintendo Switch 2 at launch. I’ll be instead visiting Tenerife in August. But I do hope the system reviews well and those who have purchased it are zooming around on Mario Kart World. I’ll be hopefully purchasing the device before autumn of this year. But you never know what could happen.So my sister paid for my ticket and it of course must be paid back. A debt is a debt. Which is quite fitting, since I just finished my playthrough of Red Dead Redemption and just as John Marston paid his debt to a life of crime and Edgar Ross paid his debt to a vengeful son. I’ll be hopefully paid up in less than three months, then I’ll be purchasing the Switch 2 and with more information on the games, reviews, and what’s to come for the future. For now however, I look towards a week spent in the beaches of Spain and my focus on the remainder of my maths course. Also, a playthrough of Resident Evil 3 remake. Only six hours long. Can’t complain.Shahzaib Sadiq Free for all Borderlands 2 and Hellslave are currently free on Steam on PC. Hellslave is available for free until Sunday, 15th June. Also, Deathloop is currently free on Epic Games Store.I hope everyone who gets a Switch 2 enjoys it. I will have to probably get one next year now, as I need to buy a new gaming computer because my current gaming PC will not upgrade to Windows 11, unfortunately.Andrew J. Old reliable Just writing this after a couple of hours with the Switch 2. I always end up with whatever Nintendo’s latest console is at some point in its lifetime (going back to the Game Boy Advance) but for the first time I decided to jump onboard day one.The price rises for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X have shown that the assumption consoles will get cheaper in the medium term isn’t a guarantee, and the feature list for the Switch 2 ticked pretty much every box I wanted from an upgrade to the original. Bump in specs, sturdier Joy-Con, and a new interface with the mouse controls. What I’ve not seen many people comment on yet is the set-up experience. It isn’t always a given with Nintendo that this is going to be smooth, but I found that the transfer from my original to Switch 2 was seamless. I had one error message in setting up GameChat, but restarting the process fixed that, and now I can settle into at least another few years of Nintendo gaming joy. As I approach the business end of 40 years old, it’s a comfort to know that the likes of Mario, Yoshi, and the other inhabitants of the Mushroom Kingdom are still karting away 30-odd years after the SNES original.Electric Crocosaurus GC: That’s a cool name. Inbox also-rans Yes! My Switch 2 has turned up and have the rest of the week off, and it’s Summer Game Fest on Friday night. Now that is what I call eating well for games fans!LemptonAs promised, here is the pic from the queue at Smyths toy store at midnight. Sorry I couldn’t get one from inside but they were only letting two at a time in. Not a bad turn out. I had about 20 people behind me too.woz_007 (NN ID) The way launches used to be (woz_007) Email your comments to: gamecentral@metro.co.uk More Trending The small printNew Inbox updates appear every weekday morning, with special Hot Topic Inboxes at the weekend. Readers’ letters are used on merit and may be edited for length and content. 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Launch week is finally here, and though I would love to be bringing you a proper review of the Nintendo Switch 2 right now, I still don’t have one at the time of writing. In its wisdom, Nintendo has decided not to send review units out until the day before release, so as you read this I will be standing impatiently by the door like a dog anxiously awaiting its owner.I have played the console, though, for a whole day at Nintendo’s offices, so I can give you some first impressions. Hardware-wise, it is the upgrade of my dreams: sturdier JoyCons, a beautiful screen, the graphical muscle to make games look as good as I want them to in 2025 (though still not comparable to the high-end PlayStation 5 Pro or a modern gaming PC). I like the understated pops of colour on the controllers, the refined menu with its soothing chimes and blips. Game sharing, online functionality and other basic stuff is frictionless now. I love that Nintendo Switch Online is so reasonably priced, at £18 a year, as opposed to about the same per month for comparable gaming services, and it gives me access to a treasure trove of Nintendo games from decades past.But here’s the key word in that paragraph: it’s an upgrade. After eight years, an upgrade feels rather belated. I was hoping for something actually new, and aside from the fact that you can now use those controllers as mice by turning them sideways and moving them around on a desk or on your lap, there isn’t much new in the Switch 2. Absorbed in Mario Kart World, the main launch title, it was easy to forget I was even playing a new console. I do wonder – as I did in January – whether many less gaming-literate families who own a Switch will see a reason to upgrade, given the £400 asking price.Brilliant … Mario Kart World. Photograph: NintendoSpeaking of Mario Kart World, though: it’s brilliant. Totally splendid. It will deservedly sell squillions. Alongside the classic competitive grand prix and time trial races, the headline feature is an open, driveable world that you can explore all you like, as any character, picking up characters and costumes and collectibles, and getting into elimination-style races that span the full continent. All the courses are part of one huge map, and they flow right into one another.Your kart transforms helpfully into a boat when you hit water, and I found an island with a really tricky challenge where I had to ride seaplanes up towards a skyscraper in the city, driving over their wings from one to the other. Anyone could lose hours driving aimlessly around the colourful collection of mountains, jungles and winding motorways here. There’s even a space-station themed course that cleverly echoes the original Donkey Kong arcade game, delivering a nostalgia hit as delightful as Super Mario Odyssey’s climactic New Donk City festival.Pushing Buttons correspondent Keith Stuart also had a great time with another launch game, Konami’s Survival Kids, which is a bit like Overcooked except all the players are working together to survive on a desert island. (Be reassured, if you generally find survival games hard work: it’s very much fun over peril.)However: I would steer clear of the Nintendo Switch Welcome Tour, an almost belligerently un-fun interactive tour of the console’s new features … that costs £7.99. Your tiny avatar walks around a gigantic recreation of a Switch 2 console, looking for invisible plaques that point out its different components. There are displays with uninteresting technical information about, say, the quality of the console’s HD rumble. One of the interactive museum displays shows a ball bounding across the screen and asks you to guess how many frames per second it is travelling at. As someone who aggressively does not care about fine technical detail, I was terrible at this. It’s like being on the least interesting school trip of your life.And it felt felt remarkably un-Nintendo, so dry and devoid of personality that it made me a little worried. Nintendo Labo, by contrast, was a super-fun and accessible way of showing off the original Switch’s technical features. I had assumed that Welcome Tour would be made by the same team, but evidently not.I couldn’t wait to get back to Mario Kart World, which, once again, is fantastic. I’m excited to spend the rest of the week playing it for a proper review. And if you’ve pre-ordered a Switch 2, you’ll have it in your hands in the next 24 hours. For those holding off: we’ll have plenty more Switch 2 info and opinions in the next few weeks to help you make a decision.What to playArms akimbo … to a T is funny and weird. Illustration: Annapurna interactive/SteamLast week I played through to a T, the beautifully strange, unexpectedly thoughtful new game from Katamari Damacy creator Keita Takahashi. It is about a young teenager who is forever stuck in a T-pose, arms akimbo. As you might imagine, this makes life rather difficult for them, and they must rely on their fluffy little dog to help them through life. It’s a kid-friendly game about accepting who you are – I played it with my sons – but it is also extremely funny and weird, and features a song about a giraffe who loves to make sandwiches. I love a game where you don’t know what to expect, and I bet that if I asked every single reader of this newsletter to guess how it ends, not one of you would be anywhere close.Available on: PS5, Xbox, PC Estimated playtime: What to readTake chances … Remy Siu (left) and Nhi Do accept the Peabody award for 1000xRESIST. Photograph: Charley Gallay/Getty images 1000xRESIST, last year’s critical darling sci-fi game about the immigrant experience and the cost of political resistance, won a Peabody award this week. From the creators’ acceptance speech: “I want to say to the games industry, resource those on the margins and seek difference. Take chances again and again. This art form is barely unearthed. It’s too early to define it. Fund the indescribable.” Keith Stuart wrote about the largely lost age of midnight launch parties – for the Switch 2 launch, only Smyths Toys is hosting midnight releases. Did you ever go to one of these events? Write in and tell me if so – I remember feeling intensely embarrassed queuing for a Wii on Edinburgh’s Princes Street as a teenager. The developers of OpenAI are very proud that their latest artificial “intelligence” model can play Pokémon Red. It’s terrible at it, and has so far taken more than 80 hours to obtain three gym badges. I’m trying not to think about the environmental cost of proving AI is terrible at video games. When Imran Khan had a stroke last year, he lost the ability to play games. I found this essay about the role that Kaizo Mario (super-difficult hacked Mario levels) played in his recovery extremely moving. skip past newsletter promotionSign up to Pushing ButtonsFree weekly newsletterKeza MacDonald's weekly look at the world of gamingPrivacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.after newsletter promotionWhat to clickQuestion BlockSoothing … Unpacking. Illustration: Humble Games/SteamReader Gemma asks:“At this moment I am cuddling my three-month-old as he naps on the sofa while I’m playing Blue Prince. It might be the best postnatal game: it has very little background sound or music; can be paused any time; is very chill with zero jeopardy; but also has a fascinating storyline and incredible puzzles. I also find myself narrating the letters and talking out loud for the maths puzzles. (Do three-month-olds understand algebra?) Your article [about Nintendo at naptime] made me feel less guilty, so thank you. Any other updated tips for similar games that you’ve discovered in the last eight years for postnatal gaming?”In the small-baby years I played two types of games: five-hour ones that I could complete in a couple of evenings, or endless Stardew Valley/Animal Crossing-type games where you could just drop in and zone out for as long as you needed, and it didn’t matter whether you were “achieving” anything. I couldn’t play anything with a linear plot because my brain was often mush and I’d simply forget what had happened an hour ago. It’s different for everyone, though – my friend Sarah was obsessed with Grand Theft Auto when her baby was wee.I became hooked on a couple of exploitative phone games that I won’t recommend – don’t go near those in a vulnerable brain-state, you’ll end up spending hours and £££ on virtual gems to buy dopamine with. Something like Unpacking or A Little to the Left might be soothing for a puzzle-brain like yours (and they’re short). I’ll throw this out there to other gamer mums: what did you play in the early months of parenthood?If you’ve got a question for Question Block – or anything else to say about the newsletter – email us on pushingbuttons@theguardian.com.

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.

A nearly year-old Facebook event for a "simple maths competition" has been one of the most viral posts on the platform for six months. The "event" racked up about 51 million views on Facebook during the first quarter of 2025, according to the company's latest report on "widely viewed content" on the platform. That would be an impressive stat for any single post, but it's the second quarter in a row in which the "maths competition" has nabbed the number two spot on Meta's list of widely viewed content. It also appeared on last quarter's report, during which time it received about 64.3 million views, according to an archived version of the report. So why is a random Facebook event that's not really an event getting more than 100 million views? It would seem to be a repackaging of an old engagement bait tactic. The header image for the event is an image of a piece of paper with the words "only for genius" followed by a seemingly simple equation. When shared as a Facebook post, the image is prominently displayed in a way that may look like a normal image post. The image also has some striking similarities to other seemingly simple math equations that have been going viral on Facebook for nearly 15 years. A look at the event page itself shows that hundreds of thousands of people have engaged with the event. More than 800,000 people responded to the supposed July 8, 2024 event. Even now, nearly a year later, the event is seeing regular comments from Facebook users — most of whom are intent on earnestly explaining how the equation should be solved (or arguing with others' interpretation). As Slate noted back in 2013, there's something irresistible about arguing basic arithmetic with strangers on the internet. What is a bit of a mystery is why this post has gone so viral months after it was originally posted. I reached out to the account behind the post, a Nigerian-based creator named Ebuka Peter Ibeh and didn't immediately hear back. The post seems to be far more successful than any other recent posts from Ibeh, who has about 25,000 Facebook followers. In any case, the post offers an interesting window into the kinds of bizarre content and questionable tactics that still regularly goes mega-viral on Facebook. Meta recently said it would crack down on creators sharing spammy posts on Facebook, though it's unclear if this type of engagement bait would fall under the category of content it's explicitly trying to discourage.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/a-fake-facebook-event-disguised-as-a-math-problem-has-been-one-of-its-top-posts-for-6-months-231852601.html?src=rss

The Book Club gives their verdict on Larry Niven’s RingworldEugene Powers/Alamy It was quite an experience, moving from the technicolour magical realism of Michel Nieva’s wild dystopia, Dengue Boy, to Larry Niven’s slice of classic science fiction, Ringworld, first published in 1970 and very much redolent of the sci-fi writing of that era. Not a wholly bad experience, mind, but quite a jolting change of pace for the New Scientist Book Club. I was a teenager when I last read Ringworld, and a hugely uncritical sort of teenager at that, so I was keen to return to a novel I remembered fondly and see how it stood up to the test of time – and my somewhat more critical eye. The first thing to say is that many of the things I loved about Ringworld were very much still there. This is, for me, a novel that inspires awe – with the vastness of its imagination, the size of its megastructures, the distance it travels in space. I was reminded of that awe early on, when our protagonist Louis Wu (more on him later) recalls standing at the edge of Mount Lookitthat on a distant planet. “The Long Fall River, on that world, ends in the tallest waterfall in known space. Louis’s eyes had followed it down as far as they could penetrate the void mist. The featureless white of the void itself had grasped at his mind, and Louis Wu, half hypnotized, had sworn to live forever. How else could he see all there was to see?” Advertisement That hugeness, that desire for exploration and knowledge and discovery, is one of the main reasons why I love science fiction. What else is out there, and what can we find out about it? From that field of murderous sunflowers on the Ringworld – what a scene! – to Niven’s image of our crew in space, looking at the bottom of the Ringworld and the huge bulge of a deep ocean protruding towards them, Ringworld has this in spades, and I lapped it up. “A man can lose his soul among the white stars… They call it the far look. It is dangerous.” I also very much enjoyed how Niven makes us pick up the breadcrumbs of where we are in time and in technological developments; at one point, Freeman Dyson, he of the Dyson spheres that inspired the Ringworld, is described as “one of the ancient natural philosophers, pre-Belt, almost pre-atomic”. I find that sort of thing delightful, and I was also (largely) amused by Niven’s aliens, from the cowering terror of the Puppeteers to the brilliantly named Speaker-To-Animals (we, the aliens, are the animals). I pictured Speaker as a huge version of our large ginger cat, and rather liked him. As I wrote earlier, though, this is a piece of writing that feels very much of its time, in terms of the somewhat plodding prose and sexist overtones, even if it succeeds (for me) in the wonderful, star-spanning maths and physics of it all. Niven’s characters are pretty one-dimensional. Louis Wu is quite annoying. There could be so much more to Teela, our token woman. And once the crew are on the Ringworld, it all feels a bit “then they went here, then they went there”, rather than being tightly plotted. Join us in reading and discussing the best new science and science fiction books Sign up to newsletter There has been some intense discussion about this novel on our Facebook page, and many of you felt similarly. “While I enjoyed it very much, I kept getting pulled out of the interesting scientific aspects of the story as well as the rollicking adventure by the sexist, boys club aspects. It’s a little sad that Larry Niven’s view of the distant future didn’t involve any advancement in men’s views of women,” said Jennifer Marano. “It reminds me of early spy movies. Beautiful woman who hasn’t sense enough to not be enamored by less than interesting or intelligent male with pretty huge ego,” said Eliza Rose. Alan Perrett was even less impressed with Louis Wu’s behaviour: “I have to admit to finding Louis Wu absolutely creepy. He treats the woman that he professes to love with contempt. He laughs finding out that she’s the result of a eugenics experiment and then, when looking at her, sees her dismay and then keeps laughing. I hope when I’m 200 years old I’ve learned a little more empathy than that.” Gosia Furmanik grew up reading science fiction from Niven’s era because that was what was available – but “eventually, the sexism and lack of female/diverse protagonists put me off sci-fi for a good 15 years”. She only got back into sci-fi when she discovered “that nowadays it’s easy to find books of this genre written by non-white non-men that don’t have this pitfall”. “Ringworld brought me back, not in a good way,” Gosia writes. “While not as blatant as in some of its contemporaries, cringy sexism nevertheless seeps out of this book.” It’s definitely true that Teela’s character arc was the biggest issue for most of us with this book. “I loathed the ending of Teela’s story and the explanation of how her luck led her to come on the mission. It seems a woman can’t have a meaningful existence without a man!” wrote Samatha Lane. Samantha also makes a great point about how “the male human is the most perceptive creature in the universe” created by Niven. “This arrogance about the sheer cleverness of humans stems from traditional humanism which puts humans at the centre of everything – as rational, special, superior beings. Combine that with the recent conquest of space (man landed on the moon the year before) and it’s like a bonfire of the collective ego,” she writes. New Scientist book club Love reading? Come and join our friendly group of fellow book lovers. Every six weeks, we delve into an exciting new title, with members given free access to extracts from our books, articles from our authors and video interviews. Sign up Onto the positives, however: Niall Leighton “enjoyed the sheer scale of the novel” and thinks it hasn’t “dated as badly as much science fiction of this era”, while for Andy Feest, “the science was probably the most interesting thing” (he found the characters “unenjoyable” and the chauvinism “a bit jarring”). Some readers approved of Niven’s heavy hand with the maths – it “definitely added to my enjoyment”, wrote Linda Jones, while Darren Rumbold “especially liked” the Klemperer rosettes. It didn’t work for all of you, though: Phil Gurski “was excited to read this classic sci-fi novel and really, really wanted to enjoy it but the technobabble kept getting in the way. I found it hard to keep up.” Overall, I think the book club found it an interesting exercise to dig into this science fiction classic and hold it up to the light of today. I think we’ll do another classic soon enough, and I’m listening to suggestions from readers who have tipped books by Ursula K. Le Guin, N. K. Jemisin and Joanna Russ as possible palate cleansers. Next up, though, is something a little more modern: Kaliane Bradley’s bestselling time travel novel, The Ministry of Time. Yes, it has a woman as its protagonist, and yes, it passes the Bechdel test. You can read a piece by Kaliane here in which she explains why (and how) she wrote a novel about time travel, and you can check out this fun opener to the book here. Come and read along with us and tell us what you think on our Facebook page. 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“Mathematically, what are we trying to optimise?”John MacLean/Millennium Images, UK Scheduling household chores is hard. Say you have three loads of washing: a regular load that will take 110 minutes to wash and 120 to dry; a heavily soiled load that needs an extra 30 minutes to wash; and a sensitive one that will take 130 minutes to wash and 160 to dry. In which order do you wash them? In the branch of applied maths known as operational research, this is called a two-machine problem. Lots of businesses have similar issues. One approach, to find the shortest overall…

Not providing enough practical experience in science classes will have a direct impact on whether children work in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) roles in the future, research suggests. EngineeringUK and The Royal Society’s Science education tracker asked hundreds of science teachers about delivering hands-on lessons and found there has been a decline in practical classes, with teachers highlighting many of the barriers standing in the way of being able to deliver this style of teaching. “We know the frequency of hands-on practical science has dropped,” said Becca Gooch, head of research at EngineeringUK. “Our Science Education Tracker research in partnership with the Royal Society highlighted this, as well as how critically vital practical science is as a motivating factor for learning science for years seven to nine. “Hands-on practicals help bring science to life for young people and boost interest in science, as well as developing important skills,” she added. “We need more young people, especially girls, choosing to continue with science and progress into engineering and technology careers. So, we need school students to have many more opportunities to get hands-on in their science lessons.” More than half of children in years seven to nine highlighted how important practical science lessons are for motivating them to learn more about the subject, especially for students who are less interested in the topic – if there are fewer practical science lessons, it actually serves to put people off of studying the subject later on in their education. With EngineeringUK and The Royal Society reporting that a diverse engineering and tech workforce in the future is directly linked to young people engaging in science and other STEM subjects, more needs to be done to maintain an interest in these subjects into further education and beyond. One of the reasons young people, and especially girls, don’t choose tech or other STEM careers is because they don’t fully understand what they involve or what the kinds of people working in those careers look like, so hands-on lessons can help in informing young people about what skills they may use in a future career. Female students are slightly more likely to engage with a subject when there is practical work involved than their male counterparts – practical elements of learning were a motivator for 54% of female students versus half of males – and having a good teacher is also more important to girls than boys. But hands-on science lessons have been on the decline over the past 10 years, with 44% of students across the UK taking part in practical work at least once every two weeks in 2016, dropping to 37% in 2019, and falling further to just over a quarter in 2023 – and now in many cases, practical demonstrations have been replaced with videos. Teachers pointed to a number of barriers in the way of delivering hands-on lessons, the biggest of which are what is required in the curriculum, and the time they have – with the amount of time it takes for teachers to develop practical sessions that relate directly to the learning goals laid out in the curriculum, teachers said in many cases they can’t feasibly work them into their teaching. Unfortunately, a child’s socio-economic background can stand between them and certain educational pathways, and the area a school is in can prevent access to certain funding and resources. What schools are able to provide can be varied depending on funding and area, and 26% of teachers said a lack of equipment stood in the way of offering more practical lessons. Some 27% said they don’t have the money to buy the equipment. Read more about STEM in schools Computer science has a persistent gender divide, but research by BCS has found more women are now being accepted on computing university courses. Speaking at the Bett Show this year, the UK’s education secretary outlined the ways in which teachers will be using technologies such as AI in the future, including planning lessons and marking work. Almost a quarter said they don’t have enough technicians with the skills available to facilitate hands-on science lessons, and almost 40% of teachers said vacancies in science departments have stopped students from receiving practical teaching. A small number of science teachers also expressed concerns about their ability to deliver practical sessions, with 3% saying they lack the training and 2% saying they lack the confidence to do so, a trend that has existed for some time. EngineeringUK and The Royal Society pointed out that practical science lessons are important for increasing student interest in STEM, fuelling the talent pipeline in the future, and gave a number of recommendations to help enable teachers to offer more hands-on lessons. The first was a call to government to take advantage of the current curriculum review to streamline it and allow science lessons to offer more practical lessons, as well as to make practical learning part of the curriculum to ensure all students are able to experience these kinds of lessons as part of their learning. Resources for schools was the third suggestion from EngineeringUK and The Royal Society. Going forward, schools need more investment to make sure they have the equipment, training and technical assistance needed to give students the opportunity for practical lessons.