Month: September 2022

Enlarge / Get your premium currency ready. (credit: Blizzard)

A couple of weeks ago, Blizzard published a long-awaited update about its upcoming action role-playing game Diablo IV. The post shared some new information about how seasons will work and explained how the company plans to shake up the metagame by continuously releasing new content.

But after the contentious release of Diablo Immortal, a game packed to the gills with power-bestowing microtransactions, there was only one question on fans’ minds: How, exactly, would Diablo IV be monetized? These days, that’s not a strange question to ask about a full-priced title like Diablo IV.

There's good news, but I'm still worried about some of the game's proposed systems.

Enlarge / Certain species of beetle have evolved unusual "back pockets" to safely house symbiotic bacteria during metamorphosis—the only known instance of this among insects.

Certain species of beetle have evolved unusual "back pockets" to safely house symbiotic bacteria during metamorphosis—the only known instance of this among insects. It's part of a mutually beneficial arrangement, since the bacteria protect vulnerable larvae and pupae from fungi. Scientists have also determined that only adult females retain these symbiotic bacteria, shuffling the populations out of those back pockets via friction to the genital area as they emerge from their pupae, according to a new paper published in the journal Frontiers in Physiology.

“We show how an insect can maintain beneficial microbial partners despite the drastic rearrangements of body structures that occur during metamorphosis,” said co-author Laura V. Flórez of the University of Copenhagen. “By modifying unique ‘pockets’ on their backs, Lagria beetles manage to keep their protective symbionts and facilitate their relocation during pupation to newly developed adult organs.”

There are many examples of microbial symbionts in nature. For instance, the Hawaiian bobtail squid has a built-in flashlight to help the creature navigate those murky nighttime waters, hunt for prey, and hide from predators in turn. It's a special organ on the underside, a convenient little cavity that houses colonies of bacteria, Vibrio fischeri. Once that bacterial colony reaches a critical threshold, they all begin to glow, serving as a light source for the squid. Aphids, tubeworms, digger wasps, cereal weevils, and bean bugs have also evolved symbiotic relationships with microbes for various purposes.