Minecraft speedruns have always been a minor subject in the eSports world

It’s well known that all humans alive today can be traced back to a common ancestor but a study may have found where that ancestor originates. Researchers at the University of Oxford’s Big Data Institute mapped the entirety of genetic relationships among humans to create the largest human family tree ever. By combining modern and ancient human genomes data from eight different databases, the researchers were able to create a massive family tree. This allowed them to see how a person’s genetic sequence relates to another using the points of the genome. Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter “Essentially, we are reconstructing the genomes of our ancestors and using them to form a vast network of relationships,” Lead author Dr Anthony Wilder Wohns said. “We can then estimate when and where these ancestors lived.” Where they lived? Sudan, Africa. Dr Wohns told Reuters, "The very earliest ancestors we identify trace back in time to a geographic location that is in modern Sudan. “These ancestors lived up to and over 1 million years ago—which is much older than current estimates for the age of Homo sapiens—250,000 to 300,000 years ago. So bits of our genome have been inherited from individuals who we wouldn’t recognize as modern humans," Dr Wohns said. Researchers used 3,609 individual genome sequences from 215 populations and samples that ranged from 1,000s to over 100,000 years. By using a new method to compile the data, algorithms were able to predict where common ancestors were in evolutionary trees to explain some patterns of genetic variation. The results were a network of almost 27 million ancestors. “The power of our approach is that it makes very few assumptions about the underlying data and can also include both modern and ancient DNA samples,” Dr Wohns says. Not only does the data help us understand human geology better but the new method could help in other research, like medicine. “The underlying method could have widespread applications in medical research, for instance identifying genetic predictors of disease risk," Dr Wohns added. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Lyft Inc said on Tuesday it has named Erin Brewer as its chief financial officer. Brewer will replace

We don’t want to alarm anyone, but the sun is broken. A section of the sun has left the surface and begun circulating around the top of the star as if it were a huge polar vortex, and it’s not exactly clear why it’s happened. The observation was made possible thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope, and its no surprise that it piqued the interests of scientists everywhere. Tamitha Skov is a space weather physicist who regularly shares updates on social media, and she seemed incredibly excited about the latest developments. Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter “Talk about Polar Vortex! Material from a northern prominence just broke away from the main filament & is now circulating in a massive polar vortex around the north pole of our Star,” she wrote. “Implications for understanding the Sun's atmospheric dynamics above 55° here cannot be overstated!” Solar prominences consist of hydrogen and helium, and they extrude from the sun’s service releasing plasma. While there’s confusion around the cause of the phenomenon, it could be related to the reversal of the sun’s magnetic field, as well as the fact that something expected has been known to happen when the sun reaches a 55 degree latitude in every 11-year solar cycle. Solar physicist Scott McIntosh, who is the deputy director at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado told Space.com: "Once every solar cycle, it forms at the 55 degree latitude and it starts to march up to the solar poles. “It's very curious. There is a big 'why' question around it. Why does it only move toward the pole one time and then disappears and then comes back, magically, three or four years later in exactly the same region?" Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

First came the hottest June in recorded history. Now it’s the hottest-ever July. This year is already highly

Alphabet Inc.’s Google has cut jobs at mapping service Waze, the tech giant’s latest move to trim its

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 23, 2023--

A warning to readers who don’t have a fear of the deep ocean: this story might soon change that. Back in 2019, a group of researchers who wanted to stir excitement down in the murky recesses of the sea conducted a unique experiment. The team, from the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium (LUMCON), dropped three dead alligators 6,560 feet (2,000 metres) down into the Gulf of Mexico to see how deep-dwelling creatures would react to an uncommon food source. Initially, the scientists thought that the tough hide of the reptiles would put scavengers off, because it would make it hard for them to reach the more desirable soft flesh. However, this swiftly proved to be far from the case. Within a day, nine large isopods (Bathynomus giganteus) were observed feasting on the first carcass, eventually penetrating its hide and eating their meal from the inside out – imagine a crew of foot-long, pink woodlice crawling all over a gator and you get the picture. The second croc, dropped around 100km away, was almost totally devoured in just 51 days – leaving behind nothing more than its skull, spine, and the rope and weight that were used to anchor it to the sea floor. The scant leftovers became a source of great excitement to the researchers when they noticed it had been targeted by a brand new species of bone-eating worm. They concluded that it appeared to be a member of the Osedax family – commonly known as "zombie worms" because they suck away at, and live off, the bones of the dead – which had never been seen around Mexico before. Testing revealed that its nearest identifiable relatives are native to Antarctica and California, therefore making it an “undescribed species”. The investigators wrote in a paper about their discovery, which was published in the journal PLOS, that the creature “will be named in due course”. So, what happened to the third alligator? Well, that part is a mystery, because within eight days of its drop-off at its 1,996-metre-deep observation spot, it had disappeared. The researchers noted that although the body had vanished, the 20.4kg anchor, shackle and rope used to weigh the animal down were found 8.3 metres away – suggesting they had been “dragged” there. The experts concluded that a “large scavenger” had most likely snapped up the reptile. And given the depth at which it had been left, and the “implied body size necessary to both consume a moderately-sized alligator and move a large weight” it was probably a large shark. Clearly, whatever the beast was, it didn’t feel like sharing its dinner with a bunch of greedy worms. Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

After complaining last year about surging prices for lithium, a metal used in electric vehicle batteries, Elon Musk

France will target to double the pace at which it adds new solar and biogas production capacity for

FIFA 23 92+ TOTS or Shapeshifters Team 1 SBC is now live requiring two segments. Here's how to complete the SBC and if it's worth it.

(Reuters) -Target said on Tuesday it would hire nearly 100,000 employees for the holiday season, a number that has been