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I've fallen down the Anno 117: Pax Romana rabbit hole this year, despite the negative buzz around it. Steam reviews and the Reddit consensus hold that 117 is empty, dull, and generally just less than its predecessor, Anno 1800 . I can sort of see why. Quite a few elements seem like they're waiting for future add-ons to come alive and wake them up. But I've enjoyed myself thoroughly, so when I saw the "mostly negative" reviews for Anno 117 's first big DLC, Prophecies of Ash, I figured I'd give it a try, despite the haters. I'm glad I did. An inaugural bit of DLC can't fix every problem. But it solves some pretty big ones, and throws a welcome wrench into the usual flow of city building.

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London janglers the Tubs are about two months away from releasing their new album Hard Life . This is good news. Right now, the Tubs are among the most dependably tuneful bands on the indie rock landscape. Hopefully, you've already heard the very good lead single " Who's Gonna Love You Now ." Today, they follow it with "Stoop To Me," a new song that might be even better. It's basically muscular power-pop with Celtic folk instrumentation, and that combination turns out to be extremely cool. Here's what frontman Owen Williams says about it:

The post The Tubs – “Stoop To Me” appeared first on Stereogum .

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James Capon responds to an editorial on the health select committee’s call for radical action to regulate food markets

The MPs’ report mentioned in your editorial is welcome and overdue ( The Guardian view on obesity: put public health before food industry pressure, 15 July ). The health select committee is right to clarify that obesity is an engineered outcome, not a failure of willpower. But there’s a flaw running through decades of British food policy that risks being repeated: the “ high in fat, salt or sugar ” framework itself.

“High in fat, salt or sugar” combines three nutrients as though they carry equivalent blame. However, the evidence on weight gain and type 2 diabetes points to sugar and refined carbohydrates as the primary drivers, not fat. Salt matters, chiefly when combined with sugar, but the body needs salt to function. Fat matters because without it many fat-soluble vitamins will just pass through our bodies. We need no sugar at all.

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Astronauts have grown a common crystal in space — but this extraterrestrial version is exhibiting a very uncommon behavior. Under a microscope, the crystal looks more like a tiny futuristic sculpture than something that formed naturally. The pyramid-like assembly curls in on itself in stair-stepped layers, seeming almost too orderly to be real. But according to scientists, the striking shape is what happens when gravity stops calling the shots.

The image , shared on July 18 by NASA astronaut Don Pettit , and accompanying video were captured aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and show potassium chloride crystals growing in microgravity — the near-weightless environment experienced in orbit.

Microgravity isn't quite zero gravity; astronauts experience a gravitational pull roughly a million times weaker than on Earth's surface, Anne Wilson , a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at Butler University, told Live Science. That reduction in gravity's tug has profound impacts on the human body , and, as the new image shows, completely changes how liquids and crystals behave as well.

"[Other] forces start to become far more pronounced than gravity forces," Wilson said, pointing to molecular attraction and polarity as two influences that suddenly take over once gravity fades into the background.

Those conditions enable potassium chloride — a common salt used as a sodium substitute in foods and sports drinks — to crystallize in ways that are nearly impossible to reproduce in a terrestrial lab.

On Earth, growing crystals eventually get heavy enough to sag, break or settle at the bottom of their container. But in microgravity, they keep growing outward from wherever they started.

Potassium chloride naturally forms cube-shaped crystals, Wilson said. In microgravity, those crystals grow mainly from their edges and corners instead of across their faces, leaving the center hollow and creating the striking pyramid-like structures seen in the image.

In microgravity, crystals experience "hopper growth," where the outer edges and corners grow at faster rates than the flat faces, creating a step-like appearance. This timelapse records their growth inside a thin water film. Look closely, and you will see the patterns emerge! pic.twitter.com/iSlqJvke1G June 6, 2026

Scientists call this pattern hopper growth , and it isn't unique to potassium chloride (ordinary table salt forms the same way). As new corners emerge during growth, the crystal can change direction entirely, producing the elegant scrolling pattern visible in the new image.

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While the crystal is visually stunning, the science behind it could prove just as valuable. Materials grown without gravity's interference often form with fewer defects, giving researchers a rare look at what a truly "ideal" structure looks like. This insight could help refine manufacturing processes for semiconductors and other advanced materials back on Earth.

For Wilson, images like this serve another purpose: inspiring curiosity.

"I love seeing videos of how things behave in space," she said. "Who would think that something as simple as potassium chloride could still be super cool?"

ISS astronauts spend a significant amount of their time conducting science experiments that would be near-impossible on Earth. Recently, astronauts used the space station’s newly upgraded Cold Atom Laboratory to create and study an elusive fifth state of matter called the Bose-Einstein condensate. And last year, researchers demonstrated how moss spores exposed to space for nine months on the outside of the ISS continued to grow after being returned to Earth.

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The MobLand team is officially heading for the Scottish Highlands, and they're bringing Hercule Poirot with them. Paramount+ has snagged the new drama series Laird from the hit Tom Hardy crime drama's co-creator and showrunner, Jez Butterworth , alongside his The Agency co-creator John-Henry Butterworth and Georgia Lee . They once again have a buzzy lead to work with in Kenneth Branagh , who will also join the Butterworths as an executive producer on the project. BAFTA-winning director Joe Wright , known for directing Gary Oldman 's Oscar-winning performance in Darkest Hour , is also attached to helm the first episode and executive produce.