2024-05-07 17:45:07
Scientists have created the largest evolutionary family tree of flowering plants to date.
A doubt haunted Charles Darwin, father of the Theory of Evolution, until his death: the sudden appearance and rapid diversification of plants that have flowers and fruits, the so-called angiosperms, which represent 90% of the plants on the planet. For him, it was an “abominable mystery” that numerous subsequent investigations have attempted to clarify.
Now, a study carried out by a team including Manuel de la Estrella, from the University of Córdoba (UCO) in Spain, and Alexandre R. Zuntini, from the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, Richmond, United Kingdom, provides a little more light on the mystery by generating a broad evolutionary family tree of angiosperms, after analyzing 9,500 species, 200 fossils and 1.8 billion “letters” of genetic code.
The study, led by the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, an institution that houses one of the largest collections of plants, involved 279 scientists from 139 organizations and 27 countries. This broad participation has facilitated access to collections from around the world to analyze DNA, compare different sequences and establish relationships between different plant species. Thus, the authors of the study have worked both with recently collected samples (with well-preserved DNA) and with samples preserved in herbaria, some of which are more than 200 years old and whose DNA was degraded.
Technological development is what has made it possible to analyze such a quantity of information and reconstruct the history of the evolution of flowering plants. Previous studies focused on obtaining genetic information from chloroplasts, a part of plant cells related to photosynthesis and which appear in high quantities in plant cells.
The problem is that they only offered information for a few genes.
Now, thanks to a molecular analysis tool (Angiosperms353), the team has been able to focus on revealing the information of the nuclear genome, another part of the cells that, unlike chloroplasts, is not numerous but unique, but which offers a greater amount of information. With this tool they have managed to sequence 353 genes from the DNA of each plant. This information, which is comparatively 15 times greater than in previous studies, has allowed us to develop the most extensive tree of life so far for angiosperms.
In addition, they have analyzed data from 200 plant fossils that have served to reconstruct the temporal range of evolutionary kinship relationships between species and verify that plants experienced very rapid diversification, giving rise to more than 80% of the main lineages. that exist today, shortly after their origin.
Manuel de la Estrella, researcher at the University of Córdoba, who participated in the study. (Photo: UCO)
UCO professor Manuel de la Estrella, who worked with a Marie Skłodowska-Curie scholarship at the Royal Botanic Gardens of Kew studying the Detarioideae, plants abundant in tropical Africa and belonging to the Leguminosae (pea family or the carob trees), maintains that the tree “will serve as a base from which many more subsequent studies can be built thanks to the large amount of information it offers.” Studies that can range from the classification and identification of plants to the discovery of new medicinal compounds, including bioengineering, genetic improvement or the conservation of plants in the face of global climate change and the loss of biodiversity.
The study is titled “Phylogenomics and the rise of the angiosperms.” And it has been published in the academic journal Nature. (Source: UCO)
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New iPad Pro and iPad Air Models Maintain 10 Hours of Battery Life, Despite Efficiency Upgrades
Breaking News: iPad Pro and iPad Air Models Offer Same Battery Life Despite New Chip Upgrade
Apple’s Newest iPad Models Retain 10 Hours of Battery Life
May 7, 2024
In a surprising turn of events, Apple’s latest iPad Pro and iPad Air models, unveiled today, are reported to maintain the same 10 hours of battery life as their predecessors, despite the introduction of upgraded and more efficient chips. Despite these technological advancements, the battery life of the new iPad models has not been significantly extended.
Improved Technology, Unchanged Battery Life
The newly introduced iPad Pro features the cutting-edge M4 chip, built on second-generation 3-nanometer technology, and is equipped with a more efficient OLED display. To the disappointment of some tech enthusiasts, neither the new chip nor the enhanced display has resulted in additional battery life.
The 11-inch iPad Pro now comes with a 31.29-watt-hour battery, a slight increase from the 28.65-watt-hour battery of the previous generation, while the 13-inch iPad Pro boasts a 38.99-watt-hour battery, marginally smaller than the prior 40.88-watt-hour battery.
Similarly, the 11-inch iPad Air has a slightly upgraded 28.93-watt-hour battery compared to the 28.6-watt-hour battery in the previous 10.9-inch version. The new 13-inch iPad Air is equipped with a 36.59-watt-hour battery.
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New iPad Pro and iPad Air Models Maintain 10 Hours of Battery Life, Despite Efficiency Upgrades
Windows 11 banned from installing on smartphones
Media journalists noticed that in the future Windows 11 24H2 update, a ban on installing the operating system on smartphones is expected. The authors explained that the update does not support older devices based on ARM processors, which include gadgets based on Windows Phone.
“Devices such as the Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL will no longer be able to work with new releases of Windows 11,” the journalists noted. According to them, Microsoft never adapted Windows 11 for smartphones on the Windows Phone platform, but enthusiasts could still install the system on devices. This loophole will be closed in update 24H2.
Experts said that older smartphones run on ARM 8.0. The future OS will only work with processors that support ARM 8.1 and higher. Also, 24H2 is not adapted to work with some ARM processors, that is, the system cannot be installed on some laptops.
Windows Phone, which was later renamed Windows 10 Mobile, was released on October 11, 2010. In January 2018, Mirosoft announced that they would not support the platform.
#Windows #banned #installing #smartphones
2024-05-07 22:21:39
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