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Sonic Team lead Takashi Iizuka teases there's more to come within the series' many pillars, and that keeping the series' momentum is a challenge.

Sonic is simultaneously a yearly franchise and a franchise that feels like it's been missing. While 2026 is the first year without a new release for the series since 2018, it will feature a second season of DLC for Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds.

However, fans have been wondering when a proper follow-up to Sonic Frontiers will finally emerge – possibly compounded by general disappointment with 2023's Sonic Superstars, the latest mainline entry in the series.

Speaking to 80.lv , Iizuka explains he sees the different branches of the series as pillars – such as 2D games, 3D games, spinoffs, and collaborations. He explains, "Each of the different pillars contributes in meaningful ways to the Sonic franchise, and we're looking forward to what we have in store."

As for Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds, Iizuka says the second season of DLC for the acclaimed racing game – which features collabs with Godzilla and Neon Genesis Evangelion – "signals our long-term investment in the game," and while it seemingly underperformed , it looks like Sega is happy to keep trying until everyone realizes that it's actually pretty sick.

Iizuka adds, "While keeping momentum in such a competitive market is always a challenge, our team remains dedicated to delivering content that stays true to the Sonic universe."

Most recently, a collab game between Sonic and indie hit Pico Park was announced. A decade ago, Sega apparently had the character on the chopping block , but fortunately the blue blur is likely here to stay for now… I really want to hear about that Frontiers sequel though.

Sonic fans couldn't wait for Sega's new alternate-reality game – until they spotted the AI training agreement.

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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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One of the highest courts in Europe has described VPNs as "lawful technical tools which users may legitimately use" in a landmark case. The Court of Justice of the European Union made this remark as part of a larger judgement regarding the online publication of The Diary of Anne Frank.

The case in question is a complex legal dispute over copyright. As the July judgement explains , the Anne Frank Fund will hold the rights to parts of the historical manuscripts until at least 2037. However, in some EU member states, such as Belgium, these works are in the public domain. The dispute centres on a Dutch translation of the diaries which was offered free online to users living in member states where the manuscripts had already entered the public domain—though obviously, a VPN can get around location based restrictions (via Tech Radar ).

At the risk of oversimplifying, the EU court had to rule whether the online publisher and host of the Dutch translation was liable for copyright infringement when users hopped the online fence via a VPN. The court essentially ruled no, setting a legal precedent along with it.

By referring to VPNs as "lawful technical tools," this judgement pushes back against the idea that users would only leverage such tools for questionable ends. Additionally, the judgement also reads that, while geo-blocking measures can be circumvented by VPNs, "the possibility of such circumvention cannot [... ] be a decisive factor in finding those measures to be inadequate and, therefore, ineffective."

The ruling also places VPN providers in the clear as far as copyright infringement is concerned, too. The judgement reads that VPN providers are not the ones directly giving "end users access to a protected work" and that "even if the provider is aware of the consequence that its service may be used to access protected works without the consent of their authors, the provider is not itself intervening for the purposes of such access."

Furthermore, copyrighted communication is "attributable to the person who published the work on that site and not to the provider of the VPN or similar service who enabled its user to circumvent [an ineffective geo-blocking] measure.

VPNs have become a hot button issue in recent years. For instance, the UK introduced the Online Safety Act back in 2023, with mandated sites having to implement age checks to restrict children from viewing 'harmful' content. Besides creatively circumventing these checks , VPNs are another obvious option.

The UK government did briefly consider banning VPNs as a result, though has since ' decided not to limit ' the tools. As for the US, the state of Utah has been trying to float its own VPN ban , though Wisconsin has reversed its decision to ban the tools . The Electronic Frontier Foundation previously criticised State-level crackdowns like these for threatening to 'break VPN access for the entire internet . Perhaps the latest EU ruling will make some politicians think twice about proposing bans in the future.

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Arrakeen in Dune Awakening is famous for being the effective Imperium capital of the planet, but in the game it serves as a combat-free hub zone and essential location for meeting many of the game's key factions and trainers. Arrakeen can be accessed fairly early on if you know how, though you probably won't need to visit until the mid and late game. Still, whenever you want to get there, here's how to find Arrakeen and all the methods to get there in Dune Awakening.

How to travel to Arrakeen in Dune Awakening

(Image credit: Funcom) To get to Arrakeen in Dune Awakening, you have two options:

Use the Ornithopter Taxi service. This is accessible from any tradepost for 2,500 Solaris per outwards trip, including from the Dune Awakening Griffin's Reach Tradepost . Inside, talk to the NPC standing next to the hologram of the Ornithopter in the corner, and they'll offer to take you to certain hub zones and key areas. Pick Arrakeen, then pay the fee, and you'll fast travel to Arrakeen accordingly.

Fly your own Ornithopter. Once you've unlocked your own Ornithopter as part of the progression path of Dune Awakening Vehicles , simply fly it to the limit of the Hagga Basin map zone, and you'll be given the option to fly to Arrakeen for free.

Once at Arrakeen, you'll be able to either speak to the Taxi service or interact with your Ornithopter (both on the Eastern-most corner of the hub zone) to return to the main map. If you take the taxi service, returning back to the Hagga Basin does not cost you anything, it's only the journey out that has a price attached.

Arrakeen map

(Image credit: Funcom) Above is the full map of Arrakeen in Dune Awakening. It's not especially large - effectively being one decent-sized building - but it's a compact area with plenty of useful characters, including traders, faction representatives, and many of the Advanced Dune Awakening trainers .

If it's your first time in Arakeen, speak to the House Athar Majordomo on the upper level, and Dr. Shaffat in the South section. These both give you quests that can be fulfilled simply by running around Arrakeen and talking to the marked NPCs without ever having to leave, and both grant you enough Solaris to easily make up for the cost of travelling there.

Back in the deserts, for those thinking about creating a new character, find out if you picked the best class in Dune Awakening ! Or avoid the perils of Shai-Hulud and find out everything you need to know about the Dune Awakening Sandworms !

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