evolution
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Scientists create chickens with dinosaur snouts to study evolution
How do scientists study the evolutionary transformation from snouts to beaks as those winged dinosaurs became birds? By putting dinosaur snouts on chickens, of course. A team of researchers at Yale were able to modify the chickens' genetic make up in a way that would make then grow a snout like their ancestors (similar to the Anchiornis model above) rather than the beaks we're all familiar with. The modification allows scientists to study the molecular foundations of the evolution. More specifically, they can examine the difference in bone structure and the genetic pattern birds exhibit that reptiles and mammals don't -- the one that causes a beak to form. Despite how awesome it would be, the research had nothing to do with building a real-life Jurrasic Park. [Image credit: Lou-Foto/Alamy]
Driveclub Japan update live now with 3.3GB of new tracks, fixes
Driveclub's Japan update – featuring a new online multiplayer mode, gameplay improvements and five new Japan tracks with 11 variants in all – is available now on PS4. The update, coming in at 3.33GB, is free and will automatically download when launching the game. All Driveclub updates so far total 5.87GB, Evolution Studios writes in a Facebook post. The new online mode is a multiplayer time trial, and the five new Japan tracks are as follows: Nakasendo (2 variants), Lake Shoji (2 variants), Asagiri Hills Racetrack (3 variants), Takahagi Hills (2 variants) and Goshodaira (2 variants). Gameplay updates include weather improvements, changes to AI drafting behavior, the option to race without crowds and other track infrastructure, and a number of bug fixes. A handful of add-ons are due out January 27 - 29, including the free Icona Vulcano download, the paid Apex Expansion Pack – five new cars, 11 new events and five trophies – the Sakura Tour Pack with 11 new events and five trophies, and two new livery packs. [Image: SCEA]
Sony 'embarrassed' by Driveclub's launch, UK boss says
Driveclub's launch has been rocky, pockmarked with severe server issues, a stream of patches and the delay of the game's free PS Plus version. With all of this in mind, Sony UK Managing Director Fergal Gara told IGN that he and the Driveclub team are "embarrassed" by the game's performance so far. "It's a disappointment," Gara said. "When you lay your soul out as being '4ThePlayers', then what you certainly don't want is games that are not fully ready. It certainly wasn't any ill-intention on behalf of the team. It's ambitious as a game; they're as embarrassed as we are and all you can do in those situations is say sorry. We apologize to any players affected and are doing our damndest to make things right. So that's what we've been doing and the game is pretty near-complete now. We don't want to introduce the PS Plus Edition until we're confident the servers can take the load." In our review, we noted that it was "an infuriating slog to race against" Driveclub's AI, and the game's true joy hinged on its online functionality: "To truly enjoy Driveclub and ignore the demands of its abusive AI, you have to form or join a racing club with friends online." Sony America President and CEO Shawn Layden previously said that Driveclub's issues stemmed from the developer's inability to fully test the game's online systems. "In a connected world, you can't effectively test in your house or in your beta group what it means to have 50,000, 100,000, 200,000 users hit your service," he said. "And the guys [at the studio] are struggling with that. It's throwing up things they had not anticipated." [Image: SCEA]
Artificial evolution is now possible in chemicals, but life remains elusive
We're still a very long way from creating an evolving lifeform from scratch in a lab. However, the University of Glasgow has managed to foster artificial evolution in chemicals. Their technique uses a 3D printing robot to both create oil droplets and choose the next generation based on desirable properties, like stability. No, the chemicals aren't evolving on their own, but the process works much like natural selection -- after 20 generations, the droplets were noticeably more stable. In the long run, the scientists hope to use this discovery both to study the beginnings of life and maybe, just maybe, create it.
Here's a GIF of the iPhone's evolution from 2G to 6 Plus
When you gaze upon the iPhone 6 the machine that lays in front of you barely resembles its great-great-great-great-great-grandfather, the 2G. That difference becomes readily apparent when you see this GIF showcasing the iPhone's evolution over the years. By animating the changes between generations, the GIF's creator made it easy to spot the sometimes subtle changes that occur with each new step. Enjoy.
Read the books that inspired Darwin's theory of evolution
Charles Darwin's Galapagos expedition is one of the most famous scientific voyages in history and now you can see how he fed his mind aboard the Beagle. Darwin Online, which houses the world's largest Darwin collection, has now published (in PDF format) what it believes to be all 404 books that Darwin had access to on the ship's library. They comprise some 195,000 pages with 5,000 corresponding illustrations in French, English and Spanish from encyclopedias, history books, literature and even a racy Spanish novel. Darwin called his years aboard the Beagle a crucial a period that helped him create his seminal theory of evolution, On the Origin of Species. Though you may not have as much time as Darwin did on the infamously long trip, it's worth a look just for the spectacular hand-drawn illustrations.
Video preview: Socialized racing in PS4's Driveclub
After deciding to go a few more laps to ensure its social features functioned as envisioned, Evolution Studios is ready to unleash its delayed PS4-exclusive racer Driveclub onto the world. Launching on October 7 in North America, the racing game finds its place between the hardcore simulation style of a Gran Turismo and the arcade action of a Need for Speed. In our video preview, we discuss the game's look and tactility, marvelous sound design, microtransaction concerns and where the game's PS Plus version fits into the mix.
Praying mantises get extra-tiny 3D glasses to test their vision
While 3D video may not be very popular these days, someone's still wearing 3D glasses -- or rather, something. Newcastle University scientists are outfitting praying mantises with very small 3D eyewear to test their depth perception, which is unique in the insect world; most species are limited to 2D. The researchers want to see if the bugs are fooled by the effects of a 3D movie like that you'd see in a theater. If they are, we'll know that they evolved 3D vision similar to that of humans and monkeys.
Scientists are studying evolutionary concepts with robot mice
Studying evolution is tricky -- it's a process that happens over countless generations and thousands of years, but the men tasked with studying it live less than a century. Researchers at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology have found one way around the problem: robots. OIST's Dr. Stefan Elfwing has been using small, rodent-like robots to study the long-term effects of disparate mating strategies, observing the evolution of the simulated species for over 1,000 generations. Two groups of robo-mice were programmed to forage for food (battery-powered recharge stations) and to find a mate (trade data through an embedded IR port), with each group following a different mating strategy. Robots dubbed "foragers" would focus on recharging, only mating if it didn't get in the way of feeding, while "trackers" would actively seek mates and go without charging if it increased their chances of linking up IR ports.
Dragon's Prophet patch adds arenas, evolution, and compendium
Three is a good number, especially when it comes to the number of big new features in a patch. If you want triple your patching value, then head over to Dragon's Prophet, where the team added three significant systems this past week. First on the docket for the patch are dragon arenas, where players can form a team of three dragons to fight others' teams. Next is the new evolution system, which allows for dragons to learn an additional skill. Finally, the compendium compiles all of the information and statistics related to dragons captured and those still untamed. The patch contains plenty of bug fixes and tweaks, so give the notes a read for the full scoop.
Recommended Reading: Spike Jonze predicts the future of UI, confronting tragedy through video games and more
Recommended Reading highlights the best long-form writing on technology in print and on the web. Some weeks, you'll also find short reviews of books dealing with the subject of technology that we think are worth your time. We hope you enjoy the read. Why Her Will Dominate UI Design Even More Than Minority Report (2,194 words) by Kyle Vanhemert, Wired Pocket!function(d,i){if(!d.getElementById(i)){var j=d.createElement("script");j.id=i;j.src="https://widgets.getpocket.com/v1/j/btn.js?v=1";var w=d.getElementById(i);d.body.appendChild(j);}}(document,"pocket-btn-js"); For the better part of the last decade, Minority Report has been the go-to reference for futuristic UI design. But, lets be serious, nobody is clamoring for more gadgets to control by waving their hands like a lunatic. More likely, the future will see technology seamlessly integrated into our lives, the way it is in Spike Jonze's latest film, Her. In this "slight future" everything around the protagonist Theo Twombly is subtly smart, responding to his movements, words and even moods. And there in lies the true potential of artificial intelligence. As Vanhemert asserts in his article, "it [AI] doesn't have one fixed personality. Instead, its ability to figure out what a person needs at a given moment emerges as the killer app."
The Soapbox: World of Warcraft isn't back, and that's fine
So. That Warlords of Draenor, huh? To take the narrative that a lot of people have constructed, World of Warcraft has been sort of floundering for the past few years. It released one expansion (Cataclysm) that consistently ranks as the worst expansion in the game's history, coming behind the launch game, The Burning Crusade, and Alganon. Then it released another one that turned out to actually be pretty good but with a premise that turned a lot of people off right out of the gate. Mists of Pandaria's quality doesn't matter in the face of the game losing five million subscriptions in three years. But then, Warlords of Draenor was announced, and suddenly hope returned to the faithful. There's this thought that the game has suddenly returned from the brink, that Blizzard hit the big red button labeled "Save World of Warcraft" and the game will be catapulted back into prominence once again. Except that I think that portion of the story isn't just premature -- it's making a stab in the dark about a game that isn't back and can't, in fact, be back.
Pokemon X/Y's Honedge already gets an evolved form in Doublade
Even though Pokemon X and Y don't arrive on 3DS until October 12, Nintendo has wasted no time in revealing a number of new creatures for the game. Among the new Pokemon coming this fall is Honedge, which will also have an evolved form called Doublade, Nintendo announced on its official Pokemon Facebook page today. The sharply named Doublade appears to be two of the sword-like Honedges joined together, similar to the evolved forms of other Pokemon from past games like Magneton. Doublade is a steel and ghost type, just like Honedge, and features a "No Guard" ability. The two creatures join a large cast of already-announced Pokemon, including two mega-evolved forms of the fan-favorite Mewtwo. Don't fret, Nintendo only has a few more weeks to spoil the rest of Pokemon X and Y.
Pokemon X/Y's mega evolutions, super training shown in mega video, mega screens
The Pokemon Company offered more information today on the Pokemon X and Y details announced yesterday in CoroCoro. Pokemon capable of mega-evolving, such as Mewtwo, will undergo the change during battle, and only see its effects last for the duration of the battle. Eligible Pokemon must hold a "mega stone" item, each one unique to a particular creature, in order to access its latent abilities. The latest Pokemon X and Y screens and trailer also show glimpses of a new method for boosting a Pokemon's skills. Known as "super training," players can increase an individual Pokemon's base stats by playing mini-games, one being a soccer-like activity. The games will also offer "core training" workouts, allowing Pokemon to slowly improve their stats on their own. Three new Pokemon, Dedenne, Bunnelby and Skiddo, as well as a gym leader, Korrina of Shalour City, were also announced for the games. The mega-evolved version of Blaziken will only be accessed through a special distribution event via Nintendo Network starting at the game's launch for a limited time, which will grant players a free Torchic holding the Blazikenite mega stone. Pokemon X an Y will arrive on October 12 for 3DS. %Gallery-195732% %Gallery-195738%
Report: Pokemon X and Y to include 'mega evolutions'
The next games in the Pokemon series, X and Y, will feature "mega evolutions," according to a translation of a recent CoroCoro Japanese magazine by Serebii. The translation lists a number of evolved Pokemon accessible in the upcoming games, along with their abilities: MegaBlaziken (Speed Boost), MegaAbsol (Magic Bounce), MegaMawile (Huge Power), MegaMewtwo (Insomnia), MegaLucario (Adaptability) and MegaAmpharos (Mold Breaker). Serebii notes that Mawile and its mega form are Steel and Fairy types as well. MegaMewtwo was first revealed for Pokemon X and Y in April, and a video later showed its evolution from Mewtwo itself. We're going to miss calling it Mewtwo With a Handle, honestly.
Know Your Lore, Tinfoil Hat Edition: The Curse of Flesh
The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how -- but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft. Abedneum: Accessing. In the early stages of its development cycle Azeroth suffered infection by parasitic, necrophotic symbiotes. Designation: Old Gods. Old Gods rendered all systems, including Earthen defenseless in order to facilitate assimilation. This matrix destabilization has been termed the Curse of Flesh. Effects of destabilization increased over time. Brann Bronzebeard yells: Old Gods eh? So they zapped the Earthen with this Curse of Flesh. And then what? Kaddrak: Accessing. Creators arrived to extirpate symbiotic infection. Assessment revealed that Old God infestation had grown malignant. Excising parasites would result in loss of host-- The early days of Azeroth's creation are a puzzle that has yet to be completely solved. The issue of Azeroth's creation lies in the order of events as they've been presented; we have two very different orders of events depending on where you're looking for reference. In one, the Titans arrived on Azeroth to find the Old Gods, put the world in order, then left for parts unknown. In another, it's implied that the Titans arrived, put the world to order, and left. At some point after this, the Old Gods arrived and wreaked havoc, prompting the return of the Titans and the imprisonment of the Old Gods. So ... which one is correct? Well, there's an interesting part in the middle of all of this that can be used to try and unravel that particular puzzle. It's called the Curse of Flesh, and its shaped far more of Azeroth as we know it today than you'd think. Today's Know Your Lore is a Tinfoil Hat edition, meaning the following is a look into what has gone before with pure speculation on what is to come as a result. These speculations are merely theories and shouldn't be taken as fact or official lore.
The Alien Hive team shares tips and concepts from the game's development
Alien Hive arrived on the App Store a little while ago, and I wrote it up as a Daily App a little bit after that. Since then, however, it's stuck in my brain, and I find myself coming back to it again and again. The developer is based overseas and named Appxplore -- they're also the team behind two games called Sporos and Lightopus, great-looking puzzle games with plenty of polish. But neither of those titles has caught my fancy the way Alien Hive has -- there's something about the game's relatively slow, thoughtful mix of match-three, tile-based gameplay that has me interested, and constantly trying to make more and better moves to keep from running out of energy before a new high score. After I asked the team about the game's development, they kindly sent us some exclusive concept art to share with you. As you can see above, the game's various alien tiles have changed quite a bit as development went along -- each stage from left to right above is how the tiles level up as you match them. The bottom row above is the art they finally used in the game, and while I don't know if it's completely perfect (the second stage of evolution looks more to me like a lightbulb than a hatching embryo), you can see how it does accomplish the balance of making this look like the same growing creature, while also keeping each tile separately identifiable. The robot art here is very interesting as well. Robots in this game are kind of like Triple Town's bears, in that they block your gameplay and reduce your options until you can match them off of the board. These robots aren't evolved -- they're basically just different takes on the model, and you can tell that the last, final version of the bots (the biggest one in the picture above), is a bit cuter and more identifable than some of their other options. Personally, I like the bots in the bottom far left, though those might be harder to see on the game's busy screen. Finally, Appxplore shared some tips with me about their various strategies behind playing the game. The core concept of the title is to match items on the board using as few moves as possible, and you learn there are ways to do that as you play through the game. But the biggest key is to slide the whole board around rather than just moving a few tiles. If there's a match you can make across the board in just one move, it's much better to choose that than trying to manipulate a match closer to the open space that requires more moves. I've also found, in general, that matching the lower-ranked items first is usually a good technique -- it allows you to create more of the higher-level items, which you can then match and clear off of the board for good. Power-ups are obviously important too -- you can use the "Blaster" power-up to clear one item off of the board, and you should always use that one when you can create a match, not just to clear an annoying bot out of the way. The game's "Magic Fruit" powerup will match any two items instead of three, so you should always use that one when you're sure a match of two will lead you to an even higher-quality match of three, says Appxplore. Alien Hive's a great game -- I'm still not a big fan of the boost system that they've implemented, and I still haven't unlocked many of the game's higher creatures, which means I'm pretty convinced by now that it's impossible to do so without spending money on the game's in-app purchases. But other than that small wrinkle, I'm enjoying pushing these tiles around, trying to find patterns in Appxplore's great little character art. Alien Hive is free on the App Store for download right now.
Daily iPhone App: Alien Hive might help evolve your brain
I am not sure whether I like Alien Hive or not, and I'll explain why in just a second. But last week at GDC, whenever I had a free moment to play games on my iPhone, I found myself pulling out Alien Hive and playing yet again. So I think that's more than enough reason to recommend it to you here. The game was described to me as a match-3, and I guess it kind of is, in only that you need to match three items of a certain type to earn points. But in practice, it's much more like Triple Town than Bejeweled. This is a slower-paced, thinking man's game, where you need to make your moves more carefully. You get a board with various tiles on it and one empty space, and you can slide tiles horizontally or vertically, trying to make a match to evolve your tiles up into the next type. Tiles fall into the categories of plants or aliens, and matching up plant tiles earns you more moves, which allows you to keep your gaming going along. I'm not sure I like Alien Hive yet because apparently I'm not very good at it. The aliens on the board start out as little eggs, and matching them together evolves them up into more and more complex creatures, with you eventually unlocking a full hatchery of different alien types. But despite all of my playtime, I haven't unlocked a single higher-level alien. I do feel like I'm progressing in terms of finding matches and lining them up, but apparently I haven't even really started up the game's progression curve. Part of the problem is probably that the game involves "boosts," where you can spend a certain amount of earned currency to give you items or abilities that help you move things along. But I hate boosts as a player, so I really haven't spent any money on them, and that could be what's holding me back. At any rate, despite my issues with boosts as a mechanic and despite my inability to actually evolve any aliens, I'm enjoying Alien Hive -- I like that the game requires some thought despite the relatively simple mechanics. Hopefully sooner or later here I'll figure out the trick to evolving my aliens (and hopefully it won't just be to spend more money on boosts). If you want to join me, Alien Hive is available for free.
Alt-week 10.13.12: is the Universe a simulation, cloning dinosaurs and singing mice
Alt-week peels back the covers on some of the more curious sci-tech stories from the last seven days. Are you reading this? Seriously, are you? Sure, we know you think you are, but what if you're just a sub-feature of a complex computer program. A sprite, nothing more than the creation of software. The problem with this question is, how would you ever know? You wouldn't, right? Well, not so fast there. Turns out, maybe there is a way to unravel the matrix (if there is one). It'll come as no surprise, that this is one of the topics in this week's collection of alternative stories. Think that's all we got? Not even close. We'll explore the truth behind cloning dinosaurs, as well a rare performance by singing mice -- all before dinner. Or is it really dinner? This is alt-week.
Elsword adopts cute, cuddly, ferocious pets
Pet lovers, rejoice: Elsword Online is adding a brand-new pet system to the game. Pet haters, rejoice: Elsword is allowing you to torment furry balls of cuteness in order to turn them into killing machines. Once players hit level 10, they can select a pet to help them in their journeys. Right now there are only two types of pets in the game -- Pocket Phoru and Ancient Phoru -- although Kill3rCombo promises that more are coming soon. A pet can be trained as it grows through multiple stages of life, changing based on how the player treats it. Pets aid their masters with different types of attacks and buffs. Kill3rCombo's Ben Colayco sees the pet system as keeping in line with the overall tone of the game: "Introducing pets to Elsword adds another dimension to the game and allows players to become fully immersed in the comic book style world. By echoing character evolution and growth within the pet system, we wanted to reinforce that Elsword offers a unique and dynamic environment to players, while at the same time maintaining the key differentiators that set us apart, such as maturation of characters." [Source: Kill3rCombo press release]
