Have you ever wondered how the thumb, the most important finger in your hand, evolved? Scientists also wonder the same about the said finger, and they might finally have an answer to that question through this study modeling muscle in fossilized thumbs.

It’s a “thorough, robust analysis,” says Tracy Kivell, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Kent who was not involved with the work. But she and others caution that the research is too preliminary to provide a true smoking gun.

Figuring out how ancient thumbs worked isn’t easy. Fossils don’t preserve muscles, so most previous attempts to estimate ancient dexterity relied on how closely our ancient relatives’ hand bones resembled our own. Hand bones are also small and relatively rare in the fossil record. But resemblance can be deceiving: Depending on how the muscles are connected, some species with similar bone anatomy might have very different grip strengths, and vice versa.

Learn more about the study over at Science Magazine.

(Image Credit: geralt/ Pixabay)

January 28, 1986. It was the day when five NASA astronauts and two payload specialists lost their lives. It was the day that the Space Shuttle Challenger unexpectedly exploded after 73 seconds into its flight. It was a day worth learning from.

The shockwaves through NASA and its aerospace and defense partners were immense, and it took more than two years to resume flights after an external investigation, redesigns and other measures. The accident also caused a few program cancellations, such as an astronaut jetpack that flew spacewalkers on satellite rescue missions and a plan to launch space shuttles from California in addition to Florida.

NASA remembers and since then has learned from its mistakes that led to the tragedy 35 years ago.

More about this story over at Space.com.

(Image Credit: NASA/ Wikimedia Commons)

It seems that humans are not alone when it comes to having diverse languages and dialects. Mole rat colonies have those, too. And much like how we humans sometimes identify ourselves with those who have the same dialect as ours, mole rats also do the same.

Shared dialect [in mole rats] also strengthens cohesion within a colony, a team led by MDC researcher Gary Lewin reports in Science.

[...]

Lewin worked with Dr. Alison Barker from his own team and other researchers from the MDC and the University of Pretoria in South Africa—Professor Nigel Bennett and Dr. Daniel Hart—to more closely analyze the chirps that the naked mole-rats use to greet one another. "In so doing, we established that each colony has its own dialect," reports Barker, lead author of the study published in Science. "The development of a shared dialect strengthens cohesion and a sense of belonging among the naked mole-rats of a specific colony."

Foreigners are not welcome in an established naked mole rat colony. "You might even say that these animals are extreme xenophobes," says Lewin, who has been studying naked mole rats for around 20 years at the MDC.

Learn more details about this over at PHYS.org.

(Image Credit: Felix Petermann, MDC/ PHYS.org)

There are games that make players want to replay all over again because it’s just that good (for them). Besides personal preferences, games also incentivize its players to replay the game by adding benefits, new features, or new gameplay mechanics as the player starts all over again. From easing the difficulty of the game, to adding a new higher difficulty mode, to giving bonus levels or experience points, there are multiple ways to encourage players to replay their favorite games. Design Doc delves deeper into what criterias make a good new game plus. 

TOI-178 is a unique planetary system. The system is not just a group of heavenly bodies revolving around a star, no. The planets dance around their star in a rhythmic pattern, and astronomers can actually hear the beat to which the planets are dancing to. Strange, indeed! 

Image via Flipboard

Remember the viral Bernie meme from a few days ago? Well, a crochet doll version of the politician sitting during inauguration day sold for a whopping $20,000. Texas resident Tobey King turned the meme into a crochet doll for about seven hours of non-stop crocheting. The doll captured the exact look, including the mittens that stole the show during the inauguration. 

Image via The Guardian 

Ever wondered what the interior of a military submarine looks like? Well, wonder no more! The Royal Netherlands Navy (RNN) has provided a drone tour inside their Walrus-class diesel electric submarine. Walrus-class submarines are one of the most effective non-nuclear powered submarines used for intelligence collection : 

The drone video shows off a number of important spaces in the sub, starting with the torpedo room. Each submarine has four 533-millimeter torpedo tubes. A typical load of ammunition includes 20 torpedoes and missiles, including American-made Mk. 48 heavyweight general purpose torpedoes and Sub-Harpoon anti-ship missiles.

In this video, the weapon storage racks are empty, and the missiles and torpedoes have been offloaded while the boat is in port, but the drone does give a closeup of the hatches leading to the torpedo tubes themselves.

Image via Popular Mechanics

Penn Holderness (previously at Neatorama) sings a song about his Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) to the tune of "Under the Sea" from The Little Mermaid. It's the most cheerful description you'll ever hear. He has learned to channel his differences into creativity, which he refers to a "superpower." Holderness is lucky to have a supportive wife to keep him on track. -via Metafilter

The short answer is to turn them into foundations for new coral reefs! Take for example, the Platform Holly, a decommissioned oil rig. Standing 235ft (72m) above the waters of the Pacific Ocean, the abandoned oil rig is now home to colourful fish, crabs, starfish and mussels that congregate on the oil rig’s huge steel pylons. BBC has more details on how we can turn other oil rigs into new homes for creatures and coral reefs: 

But there is one way in which these old rigs can be remarkably useful: the subsurface rig provides the ideal skeleton for coral reefs. Teeming with fish and other wildlife, scientists say that offshore rigs like Platform Holly are in fact the most bountiful human-made marine habitats in the world.

The practice of transforming rigs into reefs in the United States dates back almost 40 years. In 1984, the US Congress signed the National Fishing Enhancement Act which recognised the benefits artificial reefs provided and encouraged states to draw up plans to turn defunct rigs into reefs. The five coastal states on the Gulf of Mexico – Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas – all have rigs-to-reefs programmes and have converted more than 500 oil and gas platforms into artificial reefs.

When oil companies cease drilling in these states, they decommission their platform by sealing the oil well. Then they can either choose to remove the entire platform or convert it into a reef by removing just the upper section of the structure.

Image via BBC 

The owner of most Ikea stores recently purchased a property in the state of Georgia to protect it from development. Ingka Group worked with nonprofit organization The Conservation Fund to save the 10, 840-acre land from destruction. This is not the first property that the company has bought, as it has over 613,000 acres of forest land across Europe and the U.S.: 

Ikea’s mission has long included looking out for the well-being of the environment, but buying land is still relatively new for the company. That investment will pay off in spades toward Ikea’s goal of becoming entirely carbon-neutral by 2030.

It’s easy to buy up carbon offsets on the internet — it’s another level of commitment entirely to buy full-on forests. And Ikea’s only getting started.

Ikea said this week that its 2020 operations used fewer fossil fuels than ever before and that it expects that trend to continue moving forward. Last year, the company sourced more than 98 percent of wood for its products from responsibly managed forests — and announced that, by 2030, at least a third of its wood will be recycled.

Ikea also made other big sustainability moves last year, like discontinuing the sale of non-rechargeable batteries, ending the print version of its catalog, and launching its own secondhand store.

What do you think about the company’s movements against deforestation? 

Image via Wikimedia Commons

Thanks to global warming, archaeologists were able to obtain hundreds of Viking artifacts from the ice. Well, at least the phenomenon brought something good for us, right? Archaeologists from the Secret of the Ice project discovered 68 arrows from an ancient Viking hunting ground. The Langfonne ice patch, where the arrows were found, was once part of a Viking trade route. Artnet lists the top six discoveries from ice patches in the recent years, and how the Vikings used them. Check the full list here. 

Image via Artnet 

The immortal and ever-relevant Shakespeare is annoyed by the people who compare his King Lear to mere cupcakes that were made in lockdown. Of course he has a valid reason to be annoyed. Why? Because he’s Shakespeare!

See his rant over at BBC on Facebook.

(Image Credit: BBC Two/ Facebook)

For years, desktop and laptop users have been stuck with displays that only run at 60 Hz, while smartphone users enjoy having displays which run at 120 Hz. But it seems that laptop and desktop displays will be catching up to the refresh rates of smartphone displays soon.

Samsung Display, a subsidiary of The Samsung Group, has announced that it will begin production of its new 14-inch OLED screen that runs at 90 Hz for laptops this spring. In their announcement on their blog, CEO Choi Choo-sun claimed that the screens will be in full production starting March 21 of this year.

[...]

In introducing the new screens, representatives for the company claimed that their goal was to introduce a major shift in the video screen market—toward higher refresh rates and a better viewing experience for consumers. They believe that consumers will warm to the new screens very quickly, making them willing to pay extra for the faster screens and souped-up graphics cards.

It is indeed something to look forward to this year.

(Image Credit: Samsung)

Surprisingly enough, these sculptures are very well-preserved. Intact prehistoric sculptures are a rare find, and these found in southwest France provide an insight into the lives and cultures of prehistoric humans. The clay bison sculptures date to about 13,000 BCE, and were among other artworks found by archaeologists, as My Modern Met details: 

Careful exploration of the caves turned up hundreds of examples of artwork by the Stone Age Magdalenian peoples. These ancient humans were known to hunt reindeer, horses, and other big game during the waning of the Ice Age. Their ancient living and ritual sites have been found in France and Spain and include cave art, engraved bones, and other artifacts. The findings at the three caves added to the repertoire of ancient art attributed to the culture. In the Enlène cave, bone and ivory fragments carved with animal depictions were discovered. The craftsman chose to depict a horse's head on a hyoid bone of a horse; a chamois (a goat-antelope creature native to the region) is also carved on the mandible bone of a bison.

The Enlène cave contained relatively few examples of wall art; however, the other two caves provide rich engraved and painted examples. At Tuc d'Audoubert cave, abstract club symbols (claviforms) shaped like the letter “P” were repeated frequently, particularly in a room which came to be known as the Gallery of the Claviforms. Throughout the cave, 103 animals are depicted on the walls and floors. These include horses, reindeer, and big cats. However, the bison seems to have been the most revered of these animals—composing a total of 40 percent of the animal depictions. In addition, 250 abstract signs and other mysterious figures have been documented by researchers returning to the cave over the decades since its discovery.

Image via My Modern Met 

People who have been fans of the Doraemon series for a long time have shed tears when they watched the 2014 film Stand By Me Doraemon, where Doraemon was supposed to leave Nobita (Noby in the English dub) after the robocat was able to correct his future. It seems that the sequel, Stand By Me Doraemon 2, will pick up where the previous film left off, which was on the night before Shizuka’s (Sue in the English dub) wedding to Nobita.

While in the manga we do see a glimpse of Nobita from the future wedded to Sizuka, it's not really a cause to celebrate because it's not the Nobita from our timeline.

So it was pretty natural for many to cry tears of joy when CBI Pictures released a poster of its upcoming world premiere of Stand by Me Doraemon 2.

The film was initially released in Japan in November 2020. It's now set to be released across the world by June 2021.

Fans are naturally thrilled.

Now that’s a film that I can’t wait to watch.

(Image Credit: Anamika/ Twitter)