Extra terrestrial life

By Elizabeth Pennisi Feb. 10, 2021 , 3:30 PM Almost 700 years ago, Jacob van Maerlant, a Dutch poet, envisioned a fish all set for life on land: It had sprouted arms to hoist itself ashore. Now, three genetic studies make his fantasy look remarkably prescient. Together, the studies suggest that in terms of genes, the aquatic precursors of four-limbed land animals, or tetrapods, were as well-prepared as the Dutch fantasy fish. They were pre-equipped with genes that could be turned to making limbs, efficient air-breathing lungs, and nervous systems tuned to the challenges of life on land. “All these studies tell us that the origin of tetrapods was something waiting to happen,” says Borja Esteve-Altava, an evolutionary biologist at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, Spain. Genetically, “Everything necessary was already there” before vertebrates came ashore, nearly 400 million years ago. Fossils reveal the outlines of the story. Fish with fleshy fins supported at their base … [Read more...] about Fish had the genes to adapt to life on land—while they were still swimming the seas

Your iPhone battery will last longer with iOS 9. At WWDC 2015, Apple senior vice president of software engineering Craig Federighi announced iOS 9 will extend battery life on iPhones by one hour. Another "Low Power Mode" will extend battery life up to three more hours on top of that. See also: 7 Ways to Preserve Your Battery Life on iOS 8 Low Power Mode is indicated by a yellow battery life icon. Android smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy phones have had special power-savings modes for a while. Federighi didn't specify what the extra three hours actually referred to. Three extra hours of talk time? On Wi-Fi? On a 4G LTE connection? We'll update as we find out. With iOS 8, the iPhone 6's battery lasts up to 14 hours on 3G for talk time, up to 10 hours of 3G and 4G LTE Internet use, up to 11 hours on Wi-Fi. It gets up to 11 hours for HD video playback and up to 50 hours for music playback. Update 6/9/15 10:27 a.m. ET: Low Power Mode limits network activity by … [Read more...] about iOS 9 will give your iPhone up to 3 extra hours of battery life

NordVPN tends to do things a bit differently when it comes up with promotions on its VPN service. Rather than just dish out a standard "get an extra xx months free" deal (oh, it does those from time-to-time, too), it likes to throw an element of chance in there. That's exactly what the provider is doing with its latest promo - a promo to celebrate its 9th birthday, no less! Subscribe to the already great value NordVPN plan now , and after payment you'll be given a lucky dip free gift. At random, Nord will lump an extra one month, one year or two years on to your service. So that means you have the opportunity to get 48 months of VPN use for the price of 24. But whichever way you look at it, there's a freebie for everybody - and of course the satisfaction and peace of mind that you'll have access to one of the planet's best VPNs. NordVPN's special birthday VPN deal NordVPN | 24 months | Extra one month, one year or two years FREE | $3.71/£2.74 per month It's … [Read more...] about NordVPN deal: VPN giant is giving you the chance to win an extra two years free

By Daniel Clery Feb. 12, 2021 , 11:50 AM For decades, nuclear physicists have blasted record-breaking superheavy elements into existence, extending the periodic table step by step beyond uranium, the heaviest natural element. Such heavyweights tend to be unstable, but theory predicts “magic numbers” of protons and neutrons that confer extra stability, and finding a long-lived superheavy has long been a holy grail for researchers. Element 114, known as flerovium and first created in 1998, was considered the best candidate for extra stability, as theorists believed 114 was a magic number of protons. But researchers now report that it is no more stable than the superheavy elements near it on the periodic table. Element “114 is apparently not magic, or at least not as magic as classical predictions suggest,” says study leader Dirk Rudolph of Lund University. The result focuses attention on the next candidate for a magic number of protons: element 120. Never before synthesized, … [Read more...] about Hopes evaporate for the superheavy element flerovium having a long life

We may earn a commission for purchases using our links. Learn more . Beautiful terrors With a Stadia Pro subscription you can now play the newly released Little Nightmares 2 at no extra charge. David Jagneaux 11 Feb 2021 0 Source: Google What you need to know Little Nightmares 2 just launched and is now included for free with a Stadia Pro subscription. Pikuniku is out now on Stadia at $10.39 for a limited time, typically will cost $12.99. Crayta is now free-to-play for everyone on Stadia. There's some good stuff in this week's Stadia Community blog . My favorite types of Stadia Pro games are the ones that no one expected to be free. This week, just before Little Nightmares 2 released, Google announced the anticipated stealth horror title would be included at no extra charge for all Stadia Pro subscribers. That's great news! In their Little Nightmares 2 review , our friends at Windows Central called it a "masterpiece." I … [Read more...] about Little Nightmares 2 now included with Stadia Pro for no extra cost, Pikuniku out now