Evolved

If you were a fan of X-Men: The Animated Series, there’s a lot to look forward to with the reboot, X-Men ’97. Is Charles Xavier truly dead? Will Cyclops ever find out that Cable is his son from the future? Will the show introduce any characters we’ve met over the past couple decades? Oddly enough, one lingering question involves Morph, a character most casual comics or MCU fans might not even know. Kevin Sydney, aka Morph, is the original X-Men animated team member that time forgot, a minor character seemingly killed…

Microscopic worms that live their lives in the highly radioactive environment of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone (CEZ) appear to do so completely free of radiation damage.Nematodes collected from the area have shown no sign of damage to their genomes, contrary to what might be expected for organisms living in such a dangerous place. The finding doesn't suggest the CEZ is safe, the researchers say, but rather the worms are resilient and able to adroitly adapt to conditions that might be inhospitable to other species.This,…

Dimetrodon, an early predatory synapsid from the early Permian (~298-272 Million years ago). (Display at the Royal Tyrell Museum, Canada). Credit: Suresh A. Singh.Researchers from the University of Bristol and the Open University propose that the evolutionary success of the earliest large land predators was fueled by their need to improve as killers.The forerunners of mammals ruled the Earth for about 60 million years, long before the origin of the first dinosaurs. They diversified as the top predators on land between 315…

New research reveals the adaptation of the H5N1 avian influenza virus to spread among birds and marine mammals, marking a significant threat to wildlife conservation and highlighting the virus’s ability to affect multiple species across South America. The research underscores the virus’s potential for human concern, driven by its rapid spread and high mortality rates among affected wildlife, including its deadly impact on marine mammals and birds across the continent.The findings have raised concerns regarding the…

Fasciation is a genetic mutation of a plant's growing tip, and it can affect the stem, flowers, or fruits.Sometimes, the results aren't very dramatic. For example, the growing shoots may end up flattened, splayed apart, or may seem to be made up of several stems fused into one.But other times, the effects are extremely eye-catching, such as grossly oversized flowers with a weirdly grotesque look — the closer to the ground that fasciation happens, the more exaggerated its effects tend to be.So since spring is just around…

People with ADHD-like traits may have an evolutionary advantage when it comes to finding food in the wild.In a new experiment, researchers found that individuals with distinguishing qualities of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, like difficulty regulating where they focus their attention, and restlessness, have better foraging strategies than those with more neurotypical traits.The findings have researchers speculating that ADHD evolved as an adaptive survival strategy - one that hinders resource exploitation in…

In a recent update, Google Maps for Android has leveled up the navigation and now it also shows real-time weather information. Just like its iOS counterpart, the Android app now has a discrete weather box in the top-left corner of the screen. With its help, users can quickly glance at temperature, air quality index (AQI), and upcoming weather conditions for regions they want to travel to. How Google Maps for Android shows temperature and AQI From the images shared by 9to5Google, the weather box shows up as a compact…

Tiny fossils that have spent nearly 2 billion years locked up in chunks of ancient rock are giving us the earliest evidence yet for photosynthesis on Earth.In the McDermott Formation in the desert of northern Australia, tiny structures called thylakoids have been discovered in what are thought to be fossilized cyanobacteria dating back to 1.75 billion years ago.These structures are found inside the cells of photosynthetic organisms today that contain the pigment chlorophyll, used to absorb the light for…

How whales got huge has long fascinated researchers, but a gap in their fossil record has left precious little evidence to settle on a definitive answer.Now a toothless whale fossil has been dated to around 19 million years old – a staggering 16 million years earlier than we realized these animals even existed.The remains, designated NMV P218462, belonged to a warm blooded creature up to 9 meters in length – about the same size as modern minke whales. The range for the age of the fossil is anywhere between 21.12 to 16.9…

The safety risks of generative AI and its potential uses are mainstream now in ways they weren’t in November 2022. Since OpenAI released ChatGPT on Nov. 30, 2022, the generative AI chatbot has helped make artificial intelligence a $207 billion industry. Two months after its launch, ChatGPT was recognized as the fastest-growing consumer application in history. Due to the quick and massive success of ChatGPT, generative AI has become a mainstream term and changed the way many enterprise decision-makers…