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Among the many hot debates in paleontology is just how winged pterosaurs could fly. Some experts speculate that the largest among them may not have even been able to fly at all, similar to present day ostriches and similar dinosaurs.

Now, we are getting new clues into the different ways that pterosaurs got off the ground and into the sky, thanks to some well-preserved specimens. Two different large-bodied pterosaur species, including one that is new-to-science, indicate that some flew by flapping their wings, while others soared more like modern vultures. The findings are detailed in a study published September 6 in the peer-reviewed Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

[Related: We still don’t know how animals evolved to fly.]

“Pterosaurs were the earliest and largest vertebrates to evolve powered flight, but they are the only major volant group that has gone extinct,” study co-author and University of Michigan paleontologist Kierstin Rosenbach said in a statement. “Attempts to-date to understand their flight mechanics have relied on aerodynamic principles and analogy with extant birds and bats.”

The fossils were first uncovered in 2007 by study co-authors Jeff Wilson Mantilla of Michigan’s Museum of Paleontology and Iyad Zalmout from the Saudi Geological Survey. The “remarkable” specimens date back roughly 72 to 66 million years ago to the Late Cretaceous period. 

Over time, they were three-dimensionally preserved within two different sites of what was once the nearshore environment on the margin of Afro-Arabia. This ancient landmass that included both Africa and the Arabian Peninsula that broke apart about 30 to 35 million years ago. Using high-resolution computed tomography (CT) scans, the team analyzed the internal structure of the wing bones.

“Since pterosaur bones are hollow, they are very fragile and are more likely to be found flattened like a pancake, if they are preserved at all,” Rosenbach said. “With 3D preservation being so rare, we do not have a lot of information about what pterosaur bones look like on the inside, so I wanted to CT scan them.

According to Rosenbach, it was “entirely possible” that nothing was preserved inside the bones or that the scanners the team was using weren’t sensitive enough to differentiate fossil bone tissue from the other material that surrounded it. Fortunately, they were able to see the well-preserved internal wing structures. 

[Related: Dinosaur Cove reveals a petite pterosaur species.]

One of the collected specimens is of the giant pterosaur, Arambourgiania philadelphiae. The new analysis confirms its roughly 32-foot wingspan and gives the first details of its bone structure. The CT images showed that the interior of its humerus is hollow and has a series of ridges that spiral up and down the bone. This is similar to the interior wing bone of modern day vultures. Scientists believe that these spiral ridges resist the loads associated with soaring. When soaring, birds use sustained powered flight that requires launch and some maintenance flapping.

The other specimen was the newly discovered Inabtanin alarabia, with a roughly 6-foot wingspan. According to the team, Inabtanin is one of the most complete pterosaurs ever recovered from Afro-Arabia. 

The CT scans showed that its flight bones were built completely differently from that of Arambourgiania. The interior of Inabtanin’s flight bones were crisscrossed with struts that match those found in the wing bones of flapping birds alive today. This indicates that it was adapted to resist the bending loads in the bone associated with flapping flight. It was likely that Inabtanin flew this way, but may have also dabbled in other flight styles. 

“The struts found in Inabtanin were cool to see, though not unusual,” said Rosenbach. “The ridges in Arambourgiania were completely unexpected, we weren’t sure what we were seeing at first! “Being able to see the full 3D model of Arambourgiania’s humerus lined with helical ridges was just so exciting.”

The team called the discovery of diverse flight styles in differently-sized pterosaurs “exciting,” as it showcases how these animals might have lived. It also poses some questions, including how flight style is correlated with body size and which flight style is more common among pterosaurs.

“There is such limited information on the internal bone structure of pterosaurs across time, it is difficult to say with certainty which flight style came first,” said Rosenbach. 

[Related: We were very wrong about birds.]

In flying vertebrate groups, such as birds and bats, flapping is the most common flight behavior. Birds that soar or glide, also require some wing flapping to get airborne and maintain flight

“This leads me to believe that flapping flight is the default condition, and that the behavior of soaring would perhaps evolve later if it were advantageous for the pterosaur population in a specific environment; in this case the open ocean,” said Rosenbach.

In future studies, scientists could continue to investigate the correlation between a pterosaur’s internal bone structure, their flight capacity, and behavior.

The post ‘Remarkable’ fossils offer clues to perplexing pterosaur question appeared first on Popular Science.

Musicians have long criticized streaming services for their abysmal revenue sharing programs. In 2021, for example, as much as 97 percent of Spotify’s over 6 million listed artists earned less than $1,000. Last year, the company announced a new system offering fractions of a cent per track, all of which is now based on even more stringent rules. But there was apparently a way to earn some real dividends from those songs—provided you have access to thousands of bots, hundreds of thousands of AI-generated songs, and are willing to risk receiving a federal grand jury indictment for wire fraud and money laundering.

That’s what a man named Michael Smith in North Carolina is currently facing, according to a DOJ announcement on September 4. Unsealed filings from US prosecutors accuse Smith of scamming digital streaming platforms including Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and YouTube Music of over $10 million in royalty payouts between 2017 and 2024. To accomplish this, however, Smith purchased “hundreds of thousands of songs that were created by artificial intelligence” from an unnamed co-conspirator, uploaded them to the music services, then eventually tasked over 10,000 bot accounts to simultaneously boost streaming numbers for each track around the clock. Both streaming platforms and music distributions companies explicitly prohibit streaming fraud through artificially boosting play and follow counts, content promotion, or the use of automated bots and programs.

While the exact amounts vary across platforms and plans, the DOJ notes that it often amounts to “less than one cent per stream.” Because of this, it allegedly took Smith’s bot army to play the trove of AI songs “billions of times” over nearly 8 years to amass the payout.

[Related: Spotify considered axing white noise podcasts to save $38 million.]

Although the bots’ streaming protocols were largely automated, it reportedly is a “labor-intensive” project to get up and running. The DOJ charges that Smith enlisted help both domestically and abroad to manually sign up bots for streaming services, usually grouped under family plans due to discounted subscription fees and using vast numbers of debit cards through a service typically reserved for issuing corporate cards. Once the revenue started to roll in, Smith allegedly then used an estimated $1.3 million to continue funding the debit cards, thus creating a cyclical system.

As far back as 2017, Smith allegedly even emailed himself a financial breakdown illustrating how the whole scheme worked on any given day. For example, 1,040 bots spread over 52 VPN-shielded cloud service accounts streaming around 636 songs per day added up to an estimated 661,440 streams every 24 hours. Estimating that an average royalty was half-a-cent per stream, Smith purportedly tallied the whole enterprise out to $3,307.20 per day, $99,216 per month, and ultimately $1,207,128 per year.

Here’s where it got even craftier—any random song racking up a billion streams would likely flag a streaming platform’s monitoring systems. But if you spread those streams out across tens of thousands of songs, each garnering only a couple of plays, then you could likely fly under the radar. Hence the alleged need for a mountain of AI-generated tracks with titles like “Zygophyceae,” “Zygophyllaceae,” “Zygophyllum,” and “Zygopteraceae” from non-existent artists such as Calliope Bloom, Calliope Erratum, and Camel Edible. And although 2017-era songs generated by AI apparently weren’t the best quality, the landscape looked very different in just a few years’ time.

“Song quality is 10x-20x better now, and we also have vocal generation capabilities,” a third party allegedly wrote to Smith in 2020. “… Have a listen to the attached [song] for an idea of what I’m talking about.”

“Keep in mind what we’re doing musically here… this is not ‘music,’ it’s ‘instant music’” another participant reportedly messaged Smith during a separate conversation, along with a winking emoticon.

The conspiracy wasn’t entirely foolproof, however. Streaming platforms apparently contacted Smith as early as 2018 regarding songs that their systems thought were either artificial and/or receiving playcount boosts. “This is absolutely wrong and crazy!… There is absolutely no fraud going on whatsoever!” Smith allegedly responded at one point via email, adding “How can I appeal this?”

Despite these occasional issues, prosecutors say the plan continued until at least February 2024. By then, Smith reportedly told a partner they managed to generate over 4 billion streams raking in $12 million since 2019 alone.

“The defendant’s alleged scheme played upon the integrity of the music industry by a concerted attempt to circumvent the streaming platforms’ policies,” FBI Acting Assistant Director Christie M. Curtis said in Wednesday’s statement.

If convicted, Smith faces a maximum of 20 years in prison per charge of wire fraud conspiracy, wire fraud, and money laundering conspiracy. As for the millions of dollars in payouts, prosecutors maintain “those funds ultimately should have been paid to the Songwriters and Artists whose works were streamed legitimately by real consumers.”

The post Man with AI song catalog ‘defrauds’ streaming services of $10 million appeared first on Popular Science.

A new train in San Bernardino, California operates on a hybrid hydrogen fuel cell and battery system whose only byproduct is water vapor, reports Jules Feeney in The Guardian.

“The new technology will make Zemu the first hydrogen-powered, zero-emissions passenger train in North America to meet Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) requirements when it goes into service early next year,” Feeney explains.

The train is an experimental project, slated to run on a 9-mile route between San Bernardino and Redlands, two cities east of Los Angeles, and could pave the way for more widespread adoption of the hydrogen system. The region suffers from heavily polluted air due to its role as a major hub for distribution centers.

State transportation leaders are taking note: “After seeing the early success of the Zemu project last year, the state’s department of transportation – known as Caltrans – commissioned Stadler to build longer versions of the hydrogen-powered trains that will run between Merced and Sacramento in the Central Valley on a yet-to-be-built line. So far, Caltrans has ordered 10 units, with the option to buy 19 more under the terms of the $80m contract.”

Feeney notes that widespread use of hydrogen -powered trains will require heavy investment in infrastructure for building trains and producing hydrogen fuel, a process that requires energy itself.

• San Bernardino
• San Bernardino County Transportation Authority
• Hydrogen
• Clean Energy
• hydrogen train

An obscure affordable housing program could be in jeopardy if Congress doesn’t renew the Farm Bill, a federal bill that dictates agriculture and food policy and land use.

The mechanism in question is “a provision that allows federal officials to lease certain U.S. Forest Service land to local governments for the purpose of building housing. The measure applies only to administrative sites that typically already have some form of housing or storage infrastructure in place,” explains Robert Tann in The Aspen Times.

Tann adds, “In Colorado’s rural resort communities where land availability is scarce and median single-family home prices reach into the millions, officials see the leasing authority as a critical addition to their affordable housing strategies.” The program, and the lease agreements currently in the works, hinges on the Farm Bill’s renewal or extension.

The program is particularly important in Colorado’s rural communities, where, in some cases, up to 80 percent of land is federally owned. Some officials are calling for stand-alone legislation that would decouple the leasing authority from the Farm Bill and ensure its security for the future.

• Farm Bill
• Affordable Housing
• Federal Lands
• Public Lands
• Housing Supply
• Urban Planning

Today it’s dusty, crater-ridden and largely inert, but our moon has a fascinating geological history. The generally accepted theory is that it formed from a catastrophic impact between a protoplanet and the Earth, leaving it covered by an ocean of magma for millennia. That ocean eventually cooled into the lunar crust, but volcanic activity persisted for many millions of years.

Exactly how long volcanism persisted has been something of a mystery. However, a new paper published September 5 in Science suggests that it continued for much longer than previous evidence indicated. The study examined beads of volcanic glass collected by the Chang’e-5 mission, which landed on the moon in December 2020, and found that they formed around 120 million years ago. The study demonstrates how painstaking such research can be: it involved carrying out a series of tests on 3000 tiny beads of glass, looking for minute differences between them to identify which of them were created by volcanism.

[ Related: The moon was once covered in an ocean of magma: new data supports theory ]

Glass formation is a complex phenomenon, but the key mechanism in this context is that it is created when a material is heated past its melting point and then solidifies into an amorphous solid that lacks a regular atomic structure. Volcanic magma can certainly provide sufficient heat to melt the lunar regolith, so glass can be a telltale sign of volcanism. However, volcanism isn’t the only process that can generate such temperatures. Objects like meteorites colliding with the moon’s surface can also do so, so to derive any information about lunar volcanism from the glass beads in the Chang’e-5, researchers first had to identify which (if any) of these beads were created by volcanic heat.

The first step was examining the beads’ levels of magnesium oxide (MgO) and ratio of MgO to aluminum oxide (Al2O3). Examination of samples taken by the Apollo-16 mission established that volcanic glass has relatively high MgO levels and a relatively high ratio of MgO to Al2O3. Only 13 beads met these criteria.

However, the paper also notes that this method is not infallible: “[Around] 3% of … previously identified impact glasses in the Apollo samples also have ratios consistent with a volcanic origin.” The authors then moved onto examining the glass’s nickel (Ni) content: glass created by impacts has relatively high levels of Ni “owing to the incorporation of impactor materials,” while the level of Ni volcanic glass is correlated with the level of MgO.

Once the beads with excessive Ni levels were eliminated, the researchers carried out more tests, this time examining the composition of sulfur isotopes in the glass. When they were done, they were left with precisely three humble pieces of glass, each less than a millimeter in diameter, from an initial sample of around 3,000.

Nevertheless, these three beads may well upend our understanding of the moon’s history of volcanism. Researchers dated them via a process called uranium-lead dating and found that they were around 120 million years old, implying that volcanoes were active on the moon 120 million years ago. Considering that previous evidence—including other studies of material from Chang’e-5—have confirmed only that volcanism on the moon persisted until some 2 billion years ago, this result raises as many questions as it answers.

The paper theorizes that the volcanism that generated the glass beads could have been caused by “radiogenic heating, generating local thermal anomalies that trigger[ed] partial melting” of the lunar mantle. However, they conclude that it is ultimately “unclear how the Moon could have remained volcanically active at such a late stage”. It seems that our closest neighbor will hang onto some of its secrets for a while longer.

The post Volcanoes may have existed on the moon far more recently than we thought appeared first on Popular Science.

X-Ray specs and invisibility cloaks are the stuff of sci-fi and fantasy, but sometimes science is  just stranger than fiction. A food dye that helps give certain sodas and snacks their hallmark orange hue renders mouse skin almost completely see-through in a reversible, potentially non-toxic research method that could transform medical and scientific imaging. Because of a counterintuitive fundamental physics principle, Tartrazine, also known as Yellow 5, can temporarily turn biological tissue transparent to the naked eye, as described in a study published September 5 in the journal Science. 

So far, the scientists behind the new discovery have used the method to see the organs in a mouse’s intact abdomen, glimpse the pulsing vessels surrounding a rodent skull, and to get an exceptionally clear view of muscle tissue through a microscope. With further safety and efficacy research, the method may spur new scientific findings, boost microscopy advances, and improve medical diagnostic strategies and treatments. 

“I instantly looked at it and went, ‘my god, this is revolutionary,’” says Christopher Rowlands, a senior lecturer and biophotonics researcher at Imperial College London. Rowlands wasn’t involved in the study, but wrote an accompanying perspective article on it after he acted as a reviewer for the research. “In optics, we spend an awful lot of time trying to increase [how well we can see into tissue] by 20 percent or 50 percent. These guys come along and they annihilate the boundary by a factor of 10.” The most advanced current optical imaging (i.e. non-invasive, and not reliant on radiation) techniques might allow a scientist to see a couple of millimeters into live tissue, but the new method could make detail more than a centimeter deep visible to the naked eye, says Rowlands. “It’s not magic, but it’s still very powerful,” he adds. 

The method is simple. In short, massaging tartrazine solution into hairless mouse skin over the course of a few minutes or using microneedling achieves “complete optical transparency in the red region of the visible spectrum,” per the study. Wash the dye away, and the skin returns to its natural, opaque state. 

“Biological tissues, like skin, are usually not see-through because light gets scattered as it passes through them,” says Guosong Hong, co-senior study author and a bioengineer at Stanford University. Animal flesh is a matrix of different materials, mostly water and fats, and these two types of compounds refract light at different angles, he explains. A light particle, or photon, traveling through tissue under normal circumstances moves from water particle to lipid particle, being bounced around, taking a long, winding path, and oftentimes being absorbed by one of the many molecules it collides with along the way. 

But tartrazine dye, through its powerful absorption of blue wavelengths of light, changes the refractive index of water to be much closer to that of fat, Hong says. This happens through a basic physical principle called the Kramers-Kronig relations, which dictates that waves (like those of light–which is both a particle and a wave) are the result of predictable signals. As a result, a photon can pass through skin almost as if the tissue were homogenous. It takes a shorter path, avoiding all of the bouncing and angle changes that increase the likelihood of light absorption, ultimately illuminating the inside of a mouse.

The physics concepts involved in the process are so fundamental that, “I was kicking myself that I hadn’t thought of it,” Rowlands tells Popular Science. “It’s one of these moments where it’s blindingly obvious, but you need somebody else to tell you it first. It makes so much sense in retrospect.” It’s a “triumph of fundamental understanding,” he adds, which demonstrates what happens when a deep understanding of a theory comes together with real-world experimentation.

Hong and his colleagues came to their precise method through modeling how different dyes would shift the way light travels in tissue. They homed in on Yellow 5 and a handful of other pigments as candidates for improving transparency. Then, they tested it out in liquid mixed with silica particles, raw chicken breast, live mice, and other mouse tissue samples–measuring how quickly and deeply the dye dispersed. They further combined the dye with other optical microscopy techniques, showing that tartrazine can be used to improve existing tech. Finally, they conducted an initial toxicity analysis, looking for short and long term effects in their rodent test subjects and tracking how quickly the mice seemed to clear the dye from their systems via urine and feces. The scientists determined that Yellow 5 passes through the body within 24 hours, causes little inflammation or irritation, and shows “minimal systemic toxicity.”

However, the method isn’t yet perfect and can’t, for instance, make an entire living mouse invisible or immediately enable us to see the inner-workings of a human abdomen. For one, Yellow 5 can only penetrate so far into tissue, so it won’t be as useful for imaging through thicker, less permeable flesh (like that of a human) without a targeted delivery strategy and a fine-tuned understanding of what concentration works best. Plus, though the dye reduces photon scattering, it doesn’t entirely eliminate it, notes Rowlands. The thicker the tissue you use it on, the darker and less clear the resulting image will be. Finally, though initial toxicity assessments bode well, Rowlands isn’t so sure tartrazine will prove totally harmless in the long term, with additional tests. “I would suspect that dumping that amount of anything into a live organism is going to have some substantial effect,” he says. 

Hong, too, notes that more safety research is needed. “We strongly discourage attempting this on human skin, as the toxicology of dye molecules in humans, particularly when applied topically, has not been fully evaluated,” he tells Popular Science.

If Yellow 5 dye does prove safe in topical applications for humans, it might eventually be used for purposes as varied as early skin cancer detection, easing the process of routine blood draws for those with hard-to spot veins, speeding up laser tattoo removal, or supercharging photothermal cancer treatments, says Hong. Yet even if the snack-dye technique remains relegated to lab mice, it offers a better window into one of the most commonly used model organisms than we’ve ever had before. “In the short term, it’s a research tool,” says Rowlands, who envisions great strides coming from the finding soon: Optical imaging of a complete mouse brain, for instance. “If that’s not a paper [within a year], I’ll eat my hat.”

The post The dye in Doritos can make mice transparent appeared first on Popular Science.

In an article for Sightline, Catie Gould provides three examples of small towns that have eliminated parking minimums, noting that more small towns have done so than big cities. According to Gould, “While large cities like San Jose, California, and Austin, Texas, garner national press coverage for eliminating parking mandates, this policy reform is most commonly enacted in towns with fewer than 25,000 residents.”

For every U.S. city with populations of over 250,000 that has repealed parking requirements, two small towns (under 25,000) have done so. This is in part due to the fact that there are more small towns than big cities — “But small jurisdictions are also likely underrepresented in the Parking Reform Network data. With little to no media coverage of zoning changes in places like Gilman, Wisconsin, or Canandaigua, New York, those parking reforms are less likely to make it onto the map in the first place.” Gould also points out that many small and rural communities never enacted parking mandates in the first place.

Gould highlights Ecorse, Michigan, where deindustrialization and population loss left the town with ample underused parking and vacant buildings. Eliminating parking requirements has made it easier to redevelop properties, says town planner Nani Wolf.

• Parking
• Parking Requirements
• Parking Reform
• Zoning
• Urban Planning

An article in Pro Builder outlines ways that developers looking to convert commercial buildings to residential uses can do so safely and cost-effectively.

The article notes that “Building codes play an important role in the adaptive reuse of buildings by ensuring that existing structures remain safe as they serve their new purpose while also preserving the building’s original character and charm.” Cities around the country are passing adaptive reuse ordinances to encourage the redevelopment of underused properties that are already being served by municipal infrastructure.

Because building and zoning codes are key to ensuring the safety of adaptively reused buildings, “communities that adopt and enforce the latest building codes are more likely to receive federal infrastructure funding and additional post-disaster recovery assistance.”

The article goes on to explain the International Existing Building Code (IEBC), which guides safety measures for converting buildings. “The IEBC encourages the continued use and reuse of existing buildings, including historic buildings, by enabling changes in occupancy and use types, such as modifying an office building to be used as multifamily housing, through flexible options that aid design professionals.”

• Adaptive Reuse
• Urban Planning
• residential conversion
• Conversions
• International Existing Building Code
• Building Codes
• Building Safety

The Harris County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) is backpedaling on plans to add dedicated bus lanes as part of its Inner Katy Project, opting instead for high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes.

As Janet Miranda explains in the Houston Chronicle, “The new project tweaks the two elevated bus-only lanes to be built adjacent to the freeway into HOV lanes as part of the agency's push for "METRONow" initiatives. The change seems to prioritize car drivers first, leaving bus riders out of the equation, at least at first.” The project still includes high-speed bus stations along the HOV lanes.

The agency defended the decision by saying “It is our responsibility to the greater Houston area to focus on mobility solutions that prioritize ridership, provide services that are useful, and address community needs that exist now.” Although voters approved a plan called METRONext in 2019 that calls for 75 miles of BRT across the city, the agency is dubbing its new plan METRONow, saying it more closely aligns with current needs.

The city has been ‘quietly shelving’ multimodal projects including the University BRT line and bike lanes on McGowen, prompting an outcry from mobility and road safety advocates.

• Houston
• Urban Planning
• Mobility
• Houston METRO
• Bus Rapid Transit
• Bus Lanes
• Dedicated Bus Lanes
• High Occupancy Vehicle Lanes
• HOV Lanes

In a piece for Metropolis, Sam Lubell describes the latest ‘megaproject’ on Atlanta’s Beltline, a former rail corridor that Lubell calls “the most successful urban regenerator since New York’s High Line.”

The project, Fourth Ward, will be a mixed-use development with the now familiar mix of green spaces, community amenities, and a 2-acre lake and retention pond.

According to Lubell, “Fourth Ward’s biggest new addition is a 1.1 million-square-foot, 11-story commercial high rise designed by Seattle firm Olson Kundig. The sleek black, metal-edged edifice, containing retail at its base and several levels of sub-surface parking, is two bridged masses, separated by a wide swath of sloping greenery (a collaboration with Future Green.)” ​​The building, which is aiming for LEED Gold certification, includes “intensive thermal and solar modeling” designed to cut energy use.

“Up next for Fourth Ward, in addition to Olson Kundig’s addition, are a collection of multifamily housing buildings by German architects Barkow Liebinger, sited on the development’s lower level. Per local inclusionary zoning rules, each will contain 10 percent affordable units,” as calculated based on Area Median Income (AMI). 

• Atlanta
• Beltline
• Urban Planning
• Redevelopment
• LEED
• Sustainability
• fourth ward
• Megaprojects

Handheld gaming has been steadfastly popular since the original GameBoy was released in 1989, but a smartphone will better serve casual players than a single-use piece of hardware in 2024. Some of the most popular video games of all time, from Roblox to Minecraft, are available on iOS and Android. Still, while these titles (and many more) can be played using touch controls, the experience is suboptimal. For the best gaming experience possible, it’s essential to use a mobile game controller. These devices connect to your smartphone over a wired or Bluetooth connection and provide physical buttons and control sticks, making playing games a lot more natural. Don’t worry, you can also pair controllers from current-generation game systems to your device if you’d prefer to play that way. Regardless, the best mobile game controllers—like our best overall, the Backbone One—will help you cruise through re-releases of classic games and the latest premium smartphone titles without smudging your screen.

• Best overall: Backbone One
• Best splurge: Razer Kishi Ultimate
• Best Bluetooth: GameSir G8 Plus
• Best traditional: Nintendo Switch Pro Controller
• Best budget: GameSir Nova

Our mobile game controller recommendations are based on hands-on testing of various titles on an iPhone 15 Pro Max (though that doesn’t mean they are solely mobile game controllers for iPhone, so read up on compatibility). Games included Fantasian, a new mobile game developed specifically for the iPhone, and an assortment of classic titles available via emulation. Extended gameplay sessions were undertaken to determine how fatiguing it is to play games on such a large device.

Whether you’re interested in investing hours into a single-player RPG like Fantasian, Chrono Trigger, and Final Fantasy, or play twitch-happy games like Roblox or Call of Duty: Mobile, a mobile gaming controller will help you get the most out of the experience. The feeling of playing a game with proper controllers rather than touch buttons is remarkably better, especially if you’re using your smartphone on the go but are a traditional console gamer at home.

Specs

• Connectivity: USB-C
• Weight: .44 pounds
• Price: $99.99

Pros

• Responsive buttons
• Ultra lightweight
• Slim design

Cons

• Small, clicky buttons

Backbone’s One strikes the right balance between size, comfort, and cost. As far as setting the controller up is concerned, our iPhone immediately recognized the controller, and we could start playing games immediately. In our tests, the controller was responsive, and we especially appreciated the feel of its control sticks, which made playing platformers feel buttery smooth. The face and D-pad buttons were noticeably clicky, though, which may make you think twice about playing with the Backbone One in a quiet environment.

The face buttons—modeled after the PlayStation’s DualShock button layout—are also on the smaller side. Dedicate buttons along the bottom bring up functions like screenshotting or taking you directly into the Backbone mobile app, from which you can launch games from different services in one clean interface. This is helpful if you’re using the Backbone One with the remote play functions available on the PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series S/X. Thankfully, those buttons are tucked away along the bottom of the controller, so you can ignore them if those functions aren’t appealing to you.

Backbone is one of the original mobile controller makers, and the One’s compact design is appealing to folks who are interested in making the jump from touchscreen controls. The differences between the two styles are night and day, and this is a great place to start for anyone who’s curious about mobile controllers.

Specs

• Connectivity: USB-C
• Weight: 1.34 pounds
• Price: $149.99

Pros

• The true console-like experience for your phone
• Compatible with a wide range of devices
• Extremely comfortable to hold

Cons

• Price

Razer is relentless in its pursuit of making the best gaming accessories for all platforms, and in the case of the Kishi Ultra, they nailed it. This is the best-feeling, most responsive, fully-featured mobile game controller we’ve tested. Frankly, it rivals the ones that come with major game consoles. However, the quality comes with a cost, and the Kishi Ultra is $50 more expensive than our top pick and five times more expensive than our budget recommendation. That said, serious gamers should accept no substitute.

The Kishi Ultra’s build quality was immediately noticeable. Its curved handles felt perfect in the hand, its buttons were the right size, didn’t make too much noise, and responded the moment they were pushed. Razer used Hall Effect triggers and TPSiV (Thermoplastic Elastomers) analog sticks designed for longevity. This is an investment that you can use to play games for years, if not a decade. Through Razer’s Nexus mobile app, you can customize the Kishi Ultra’s button layout to suit the games you’re playing, which is especially helpful if you’re used to gaming on a PC. Light strips around the controller’s handles are a nice accent but are not distracting or garish like the ones you’ll see festooned on some gaming PCs. Android users can even map button controls to touchscreen-only games through a “Virtual Controller Mode” feature, opening up even more titles to controller compatibility.

This game controller is bundled with four sets of spacers designed to accommodate different devices. By default, the Kishi Ultra was outfitted in spacers designed for the iPhone, but we also tested the controller with an iPad Mini, which turned the pint-sized tablet into a serious gaming machine. The spacers should also allow for some future proofing as device sizes change. the Razer Kishi is a triumph in the world of mobile accessories—gaming or otherwise—and anyone who plays primarily on their smartphone or smaller tablet should take notice.

Specs

• Connectivity: Bluetooth
• Weight: 1.36 pounds
• Price: $79.99

Pros

• Easy setup for a Bluetooth peripheral
• Compatible with a wide range of devices
• Price

Cons

• Needs to be charged

GameSir’s G8 Plus is the platonic ideal of Bluetooth gaming controllers. It can connect to any device seamlessly regardless of its operating system and was designed to accommodate devices as large as the iPad Mini. Plus, it feels really good in the hand. It’s also the best value in the modern mobile game controller category. Although the GameSir G8 Plus connects to devices over Bluetooth, which introduces some latency, it wasn’t enough to impact our enjoyment of the games we played. Any lag won’t interfere with your gameplay if you play platformers, role-playing games, sports titles, or casual games. If you play first-person shooters or titles that rely on making split-second decisions with pinpoint precision, a Bluetooth gaming controller of any kind is likely not for you.

The G8 Plus worked with every game we tested, and we were pleased with the quality of its analog sticks, triggers, and buttons, which were comparable to the ones found on a mobile gaming controller. GameSir used Hall Effect Joysticks and triggers, which are designed to last a long time, too. The controller’s buttons felt a little mushier than the Razer Kishi Ultra’s, but this mobile game controller is roughly half its price. On the other hand, we could attach any device to this controller without worrying about spacers or whether its USB-C jack would fit into our iPhone’s charging port, potentially scratching its underside.

If you’re okay with charging another portable gadget and want a mobile game controller that can wirelessly connect to any device with ease, GameSire’s G8 Plus is the best choice.

Specs

• Connectivity: Bluetooth
• Weight: .55 pounds
• Price: $69.30

Pros

• Traditional button layout
• Feels comfortable in the hand
• Excellent battery life.

Cons

• Needs to be charged

If you want the experience of playing mobile games with a traditional game console controller, our favorite option is the Nintendo Switch Pro Controller. It’s the controller that feels most comfortable in the hand, with the right balance of weight, button size, and overall quality. That said, the controller’s analog sticks have been prone to “drift” wherein they become less responsive or receive phantom inputs over time. However, we’ve been using a Nintendo Switch Pro Controller purchased in 2017 and haven’t faced that issue.

The Nintendo Switch Pro Controller will feel immediately comfortable to anyone who’s played a home game console since the introduction of the Xbox 360 in 2005. That console solidified a standard for game controller design for nearly two decades, with Sony’s DualShock being the only notable exception. Using the Switch Pro Controller will also allow you to use one controller for both your home and mobile devices, provided you play games on the Switch. One of this controller’s notable features is its battery life. Nintendo says the Switch Pro Controller can get up to 40 hours of use before needing to be recharged. In our experience, this estimate is conservative, and we’ve gone weeks without having to plug it in.

We must admit that something feels especially right when playing video games using the Nintendo Switch Pro Controller. It made our iPhone 15 Pro Max feel like a standalone game console on par with the current systems from Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo. There was no learning curve to playing any title we enjoyed, with every movement and action recognized and executed immediately, with no perceptible latency. Playing Nintendo games on our iPhone using this controller felt especially nostalgic, especially when AirPlaying the gameplay to our TV using an Apple TV.

The bottom line is that Nintendo’s Switch Pro Controller is the best choice if you’d like the feeling of a console controller in your hands while playing games on your phone or tablet.

Specs

• Connectivity: Bluetooth
• Weight: .68 pounds
• Price: $29.99

Pros

• Easy to pair
• Hall Effect joysticks
• Price

Cons

• Needs to be charged

GameSir’s Nova is the least expensive mobile gaming controller we recommend, and you don’t sacrifice that much performance given its modest cost. It has the same button layout as the other mobile gaming controllers we’re recommending and comes in a cool, see-through shell reminiscent of the ’90s and early ’00s gaming accessories. The Nova’s face buttons and D-Pad feel a little mushier than the ones on Nintendo’s Switch Pro Controller, but this controller has Hall Effect analog sticks, which is a huge improvement.

This feature isn’t a given when considering the controller’s price tag. We’ll admit that the joysticks did make movement feel even smoother when playing games, and while that didn’t improve our performance, we couldn’t blame any blunders on the Nova as much as we’d have liked to. On the plus side, because this is a Bluetooth game controller, it’s compatible with PCs and even the Nintendo Switch, which further adds to its value. Don’t skip this one if you’re sick of playing mobile games using touch buttons but don’t play enough to justify a pricier mobile game controller.

There are many factors to consider when deciding which mobile video game controller is right for you. Below are the factors we considered most important when writing this guide.

Mobile gaming controllers can be categorized in one of two styles. The first is the traditional gaming controller, originally designed to work with current-generation consoles: Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series S/X, and PlayStation 5. These controllers can be paired to an iPhone or Android device over Bluetooth, like some of our favorite headphones and earbuds, and offer a console-like experience, albeit one that requires you to prop your smartphone up on a stand or use a phone case with a kickstand. The benefit of this style of mobile gaming controller is that you can also use it with your computer and tablet.

Modern gaming controllers are designed to fit around your smartphone, anchoring both sides of the device with an assortment of buttons, triggers, and control sticks. This controller style effectively turns your smartphone into a Nintendo Switch-like mobile gaming console and is helpful if you’d like the most compact gaming experience. Some of these controllers can be used with larger devices like tablets, but your experience will be inconsistent depending on their size. However, Bluetooth mobile gaming controllers can be paired with other devices.

A mobile gaming controller can be connected to your smartphone in one of two ways: wirelessly or by connecting directly to the charging port on your device. The benefits of a wired mobile controller are not having to remember to charge another accessory and zero latency (lag) when playing games. The benefits of using a wireless mobile controller are that it does not drain your smartphone’s battery and is also compatible with non-smartphone devices. Wireless mobile gaming controllers have some latency, but this won’t impact your gaming experience significantly unless you’re playing an online first-person shooter, where every frame counts.

Size should be a key concern when choosing a mobile game controller if you’re using a large iPhone or Android smartphone. Adding additional bulk to your device can make it feel unwieldy, especially if you plan to carry it in a backpack on a flight or for gaming on a bus, train, or subway.

Smartphones have become heavier over the years, and strapping on a mobile gaming controller will only add to the heft. If you’d like to avoid hand or arm fatigue, choose a lighter option. If you don’t mind the heft, a heavier mobile game controller will feel more substantial and is typically higher quality. Pairing a traditional game controller with your smartphone offers the best of both worlds.

Yes. You can pair a current-generation console controller to your smartphone.

Mobile games with controller support will list whether they support specific hardware on their app page within the iOS App Store or Google Play store. This information may also be available on a game developer’s website.

It depends. Some mobile gaming controllers allow you to remap buttons, but it’s not a feature available across the board. Some games also offer different button configurations in their settings menu, so be sure to check there, too.

Yes. Controllers make games that support them a lot easier to play by giving your physical controls that don’t obscure your phone’s screen as touch buttons do.

• Best overall: Backbone One
• Best splurge: Razer Kishi Ultimate
• Best Bluetooth: GameSir G8 Plus
• Best traditional: Nintendo Switch Pro Controller
• Best budget: GameSir Nova

Mobile gaming is projected to become a nearly $100 billion industry in 2024, so it makes sense that more and more titles are gaining controller support. This rise in popularity, coupled with mobile apps from Microsoft and Sony that allow you to play Xbox and PlayStation titles remotely, has incentivized accessory makers to create mobile game controllers that are qualitatively identical to the ones you’d get for a traditional gaming console. The fact that you can pair a traditional game controller to your smartphone without a lengthy configuration process shows how serious the gaming industry is about making the mobile gaming experience on par with playing on PC or console. If you’re a lapsed gamer with only a smartphone, there’s no reason to settle for a subpar experience when picking up an old pastime.

The post The best mobile game controllers for 2024, tested and reviewed appeared first on Popular Science.

At the South Pole, there’s a science experiment that makes the Burj Khalifa—the world’s tallest building—look small. It’s called IceCube, and it’s built 2,500 meters down into the Antarctic ice. Its job? Catching some of the hardest-to-pin-down particles from space: neutrinos.

Despite the fact that Antarctica is extraordinarily difficult to get to, astronomers love it. Not only is IceCube located down there, but they’ve also built a radio telescope and set up monitoring stations to count neutrons. What could possibly make such a remote location so desirable for space science that it’s worth all that trouble?

The poles are unique places on our planet—their nights can be much longer than us low-latitude folks are used to, and the aurorae shine most brightly there. (Not to mention the fact that they’re covered in ice and almost totally devoid of civilization.)

For astronomy, a lack of civilization is generally considered a plus. The further away you are from human settlement and electricity, the less light pollution you’ll encounter from nearby bright city lights. A lot of places on Earth meet that criterion: for example, the Atacama desert plateau in Chile, where many telescopes are located.

[ Related: Why astronomers keep staring at the same spot in the sky ]

But the South Pole is a hotspot for astronomers for different, weirder reasons—because there, you can see different, weirder particles from space: neutrons and neutrinos. Neutrons are the neutral counterpart to protons, one of the constituent parts of an atom. Neutrinos are an ultra-light kind of particle that barely interacts with anything. They’re so sneaky that 100 trillion of them pass through your body every second and you’ll never be able to tell. 

Both neutrons and neutrinos relate to cosmic rays, atomic nuclei that fly through space at the speed of light before they encounter Earth. “Cosmic rays in the universe carry about as much energy as starlight and so not understanding them is, in some sense, a problem of the same magnitude as not understanding starlight,” explains Nathan Whitehorn, astronomer at Michigan State University.

When cosmic rays hit our atmosphere, they interact with other atoms and create so-called “air showers” of other high-energy particles, including neutrons and neutrinos. The universe also makes some neutrinos out in deep space, known as astrophysical neutrinos to distinguish from atmospheric neutrinos created in air showers.

Things like supernova explosions and the solar wind can create cosmic rays with enough energy to make neutrons rain down on Earth. However, “at higher energies, where we are looking with neutrinos, we simply have no idea,” says Whitehorn. “Though it is most likely related to accretion onto supermassive black holes.” 

There is a reason why the South Pole is a key site for observing neutrons, and a totally different reason why it’s so good for neutrinos. For neutrons, “the polar regions are fantastic for basically the same reason that they are where you see auroras: the Earth’s magnetic field does not deflect cosmic rays the way it does at the equator because you are close to the magnetic poles,” explains Whitehorn. Essentially, you get a more direct view of cosmic rays at this special location in Earth’s magnetic field.

For neutrinos, on the other hand, you need a humongous area for your detector because neutrons are so slippery. The material also needs to be as transparent as possible so your detector can spot the tiny light given off when a neutrino does finally interact with something. 

If you had a detector the size of a person, you’d have to wait about 100 years to see one neutrino. But with a very large amount of material—say, 1 billion tons of ice—you’re in business to do some science. “The bottom of the polar icecap is, weirdly, rather a convenient place to find that,” says Whitehorn.

Neutron monitors are smaller, and some do actually exist at the North Pole. But the North Pole is simply too fickle to build a stable 1 billion ton vat of ice hooked up with high tech monitors. “The North Pole is more difficult because ice coverage there fluctuates,” explains Brandon Pries, astrophysicist at Georgia Tech. “There is a foundation of bedrock underneath Antarctica that serves as a solid base for the IceCube instruments.” This bedrock is also why Antarctica is home to the South Pole Telescope, a radio observatory that helped take the first ever photo of a black hole.

Now when you think of the South Pole, you’ll remember there’s more than penguins down there—there’s actually a one-of-its-kind neutrino hunting machine helping us study the cosmos.

The post Astronomers really like the South Pole, but why? appeared first on Popular Science.