Don't panic, Discord isn't losing GIFs as Google shuts down Tenor API I've said it many times here: I'm old. Recently, my little cousin mocked me for using a reaction GIF because "those are for old people." While he may not care for the animated images, if you've been on social media today, you'll have seen word that Google is shutting down Tenor's API, and you may be concerned that your...

Star Wars Galactic Racer is surprisingly deep and pod racing at its finest "I don't know why," Kieran Crimmins, Creative Director at Fuse Games, told me when I asked why he thinks no-one has made a Star Wars racing game in a long time. To me, it seems like an obvious win for a lot of studios, and having got an hour of hands-on time with Star Wars Galactic Racer at SGF, the developers behind...

Samsung Galaxy S26+ for free: How to qualify with T-Mobile FREE PHONE: As of June 30, get a free Samsung Galaxy S26+ from T-Mobile when you activate a new line or trade in an eligible phone on an Experience More or Experience Beyond plan. If you're in the market for a new smartphone, your best bet right now is T-Mobile. Whether you're...

Nvidia resurrects older graphics cards as RAM needs impact industry Nvidia has reintroduced some old hardware to the market, but not at an especially agreeable price.Tom's Hardware reported that Nvidia has quietly begun restocking the RTX 3060 graphics card series at some online retailers, such as Newegg. The 12GB card first launched...

Two lumps of potato discovered in a roughly 500-year-old Inca storage room in Peru are a rare find: freeze-dried potatoes predating the Spanish invasion, a new study finds. These freeze-dried potatoes, known as chuo, were once a backbone of the Inca Empire's food supply and a product so fragile that they almost never turn up at archaeological sites.The new discovery, made along Peru's arid south coast, is only the second time chuo has been recovered from an Inca site, researchers reported in the new study. It is concrete evidence that the empire directed one of its most important food sources hundreds of miles from the Andes, down to the Pacific Ocean. Chuo is made by repeatedly exposing potatoes to nighttime frost and daytime sun until nearly all their moisture has evaporated, leaving a lightweight, long-lasting vegetable that can be stored for decades. This technique works only at high elevations where hard frost occurs regularly, so chuo had to be produced in the mountains and then transported using llama caravans, often hundreds of kilometers, to feed people living elsewhere in the empire. The Inca used the same drying method to preserve meat, he said, producing a product called "charki" the source of the English word "jerky," study principal investigator Lidio Valdez, an adjunct professor in the Department of Anthropology and Archaeology at the University of Calgary, told Live Science in an email.In the new study, published May 1 in the Journal of Field Archaeology, Valdez and study co-author Katrina Bettcher, an independent archaeologist, reported that the chuo was found alongside an Inca pottery fragment and a broken spindle whorl, a tool used to spin fibers, such as raw wool, into yarn or thread.The discovery happened during the 2024 field season at Tambo Viejo, an Inca provincial center in the Acar Valley, where an archaeological team had worked for several years. Inside a small storage room, the team uncovered a clay pot sunk into the dirt floor, its top half long gone. As researchers scooped soil out of the broken pot, they reached its bottom. "Almost at the base of the vessel, the two samples of freeze-dried potatoes were found," Valdez said. "They showed me without knowing what they were, and right away I said: chuo!"Llamas were used across the Inca empire to transport food and other items. (Image credit: Photo by L.M. Valdez)Potatoes are roughly 80% water, and they typically rot within a week at lower, warmer elevations making them a poor food choice for long-distance storage. Valdez said freeze-drying was likely discovered long before the Inca rose to power in the 15th century, perhaps when potatoes that were accidentally exposed to frost at a high elevation became dried out and people realized the result was still edible. Because chuo can be made only above roughly 11,800 feet (3,600 meters), the samples at Tambo Viejo must have traveled down from the highlands, most likely via a llama caravan along the Inca road network, Valdez said."Chuo being a light product probably also made its transportation easier," he added.The two freeze-dried potatoes survived thanks to the Acar Valley's extremely dry conditions, which help preserve organic remains that would otherwise decay the same conditions that have previously yielded naturally mummified guinea pigs (Cavia porcellus) in Valdezs previous work at the site. RELATED STORIESThanks to natural selection, Indigenous Andeans may digest potatoes better than anyone else in the world, study findsRoman-era 'fast food' discovered in ancient trash heap on MallorcaHow popcorn was discovered nearly 7,000 years agoBeyond its archaeological importance, the ancient preservation method has lessons for today. "We still have so much to learn from the people of the past," Valdez said. "Food security is a main concern, even in our times; yet we waste food, perhaps more than at any time in human history."Relatively few Inca sites along Peru's coast have been systematically excavated, and Valdez expects more evidence of chuo and the long supply lines that carried it to surface as archaeologists keep digging. Do you know where pumpkins and blueberries come from? Find out with our fruits and vegetables quiz!

Trees in China that were planted as part of huge reforestation projects appear to grow faster than those in natural forests, a new study finds. This is possibly because the reforestation trees are responding more strongly to the rising atmospheric carbon dioxide, scientists say. China is quickly turning green. The country has planted 66 billion trees since 1978, with plans for 34 billion more by the middle of this century, as part of its "Great Green Wall" to slow the spread of the Gobi and Taklamakan deserts.These new forests absorb large amounts of CO2, but it is unclear exactly how they differ from natural ones, study first author Yuhang Luo, a landscape ecologist at Peking University in Shenzhen, China, told Live Science. Luo and his colleagues set out to study how differences between natural and planted forests, including species diversity, tree density and age, might affect how the forests respond to rising CO2 and climate change. "Planted forests are widely used in climate mitigation strategies, but most global ecosystem models do not distinguish between forest types or represent age-related dynamics adequately," Luo said. "So we felt it was important to clarify how these factors interact not just for scientific understanding, but also for improving the models and assumptions that underpin real-world forest policy and carbon accounting."Planted forests are those purposefully created by humans, such as those in the Great Green Wall. Natural forests, on the other hand, grow without human intervention. The researchers used satellite data to track leaf area index, a measure of canopy density and a key driver of carbon uptake, to determine how fast the different forest types grew, and found a striking difference: Planted forests increased their leaf area 66% faster than natural ones.Most of that difference was due to planted forests being, on average, much younger than the natural ones and young trees grow faster than old ones. But even when comparing forests of similar age and growing conditions, the planted ones still grew 4.6% faster, and the difference was even more pronounced in mixed and evergreen forests.A researcher working in the Great Green Wall in August 2025. So far, 66 million trees have been planted as part of the project. (Image credit: PEDRO PARDO via Getty Images)This is largely due to how planted forests are managed. They tend to feature fast-growing species like eucalyptus and poplar and are often actively managed, with people removing competing vegetation and even fertilizing them. These interventions reduce competition for light, water, and nutrients, amplifying the fertilization effect of rising atmospheric CO2.This discrepancy peaks in planted forests when trees are around 30 to 40 years old and then declines noticeably after age 40. In contrast, natural forests grow more slowly but steadily, so have an advantage over the long term."Planted forests can be a powerful short-term tool for carbon uptake, but this advantage is temporary," Luo said. "For long-term carbon storage and resilience, natural forests remain irreplaceable."Kevin Dsouza, who worked on reforestation models during his postdoctoral research at the University of Waterloo and was not involved in the new study, said the results make intuitive sense, as the sprawling leaves of young, fast-growing trees could lead to increased carbon take-up. But he is not sure that leaf area is the best measurement for tracking growth and carbon sequestration."It's not a bad proxy, but it doesn't give you the full picture," he said. "The canopy is just the top of the tree and the carbon is stored in all sorts of different places like wood, bark, roots and soil."Another study of Chinese forests found that natural forests actually accumulate more carbon above ground than planted ones in their early years, Dsouza pointed out, so these results should be considered carefully alongside other factors.Related storiesChina has planted so many trees it's changed the entire country's water distribution'River in the Sky': China's doomed plan to create a 'cloud seeding corridor' tells us how far the country will go to solve its climate crisisChina's Great Green Wall around the Taklamakan Desert has turned this 'biological void' into a carbon sinkLuo said the findings show that most global climate models are missing something when it comes to understanding how various forest types play a role in carbon sequestration and climate change."Land use management works in more subtle and specific ways than we had assumed," he said. "It is not just about planting more trees. It is also about when you plant them, what species you choose, and how you manage them over time."Luo hopes these findings will help guide reforestation efforts, to ensure we get the most benefit from planting new forests to help mitigate the effects of climate change."Our work offers a more practical guide for forest-based climate action: when to plant, what to plant, how long the benefits last, and what current models are getting wrong. We hope that helps people make better decisions," he said.

For the first time ever, one of the Vesuvius scrolls has been read from start to finish.

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