Category Archives: Evolution

Stormers continue thrilling evolution in strolling past clumsy Lions  News24

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Stormers continue thrilling evolution in strolling past clumsy Lions - News24

Adapting hotel design to meet the on-going hospitality industry evolution  ETHospitality

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Adapting hotel design to meet the on-going hospitality industry evolution - ETHospitality

The evolution of TMS: The next phase of logistics technology is defined by democratization  FreightWaves

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The evolution of TMS: The next phase of logistics technology is defined by democratization - FreightWaves

An analysis of DNA extracted from medieval victims and survivors of the Black Death shows that the monumental plague that ravaged Europe in the 14th century continues to impact our biology to this day.

Not just because the pathogen responsible is still active, but because the deadly, widespread pandemic triggered adaptations in our immune system that continued to evolve for hundreds of years.

The changes are not necessarily to our long-term benefit, either. Although the genes involved seem to have conferred increased resistance to the plague, scientists have found that those same genes today may be associated with increased susceptibility to autoimmune conditions, such as Crohn's disease and rheumatoid arthritis.

It's a finding that suggests pandemics may have unexpected, and sometimes deleterious, long-term effects that ripple down through the generations.

Peaking in the middle of the 1300s, the Black Death is widely regarded as one of the most devastating events in human history, claiming tens to hundreds of millions of lives across Europe, Asia, and Africa. It was caused by the Yersinia pestis bacterium and transmitted to humans via fleas to give rise to a disease that can be fatal within less than a day.

Such impactful infectious diseases represent one of the strongest pressures for natural selection, particularly for humans. Take sickle cell anemia for example, a genetic disorder that happens to also provide a degree of resistance against the more deadly malaria. Since someone with sickle cell is more likely to survive malaria, they'll have an opportunity to conceive more children who will also have sickle cell anemia. Over time, the incidence of sickle cell anemia rises within populations living in malaria-prone regions.

An international team of scientists led by geneticists Jennifer Klunk of McMaster University in Canada and Tauras Vilgalys of the University of Chicago wanted to see if they could ascertain how the Black Plague had altered the human genome.

"When a pandemic of this nature killing 30 to 50 per cent of the population occurs, there is bound to be selection for protective alleles in humans, which is to say people susceptible to the circulating pathogen will succumb," explains evolutionary geneticist Hendrik Poinar of McMaster University.

"Even a slight advantage means the difference between surviving or passing. Of course, those survivors who are of breeding age will pass on their genes."

Because the Black Plague was so widespread and the dead were buried in mass graves, there are a lot of bones for today's researchers to study. The scientists focused on a 100-year window before, during, and after the Black Plague. They obtained over 500 samples from individuals who died in London and Denmark, representing three groups: those who died before the plague (retrieved from a London mass grave), those who died during, and those who survived and died sometime later.

By comparing the genomes of these individuals, the researchers were able to identify four genes that were associated with the Black Death, selected for with a speed never seen either before or since in human history. Those genes produce proteins that help protect our bodies from invading pathogens, and individuals with one or more of these gene variants seemed to have been more likely to survive the plague.

To confirm what the ancient DNA seemed to imply, the researchers created cultures of human cells representing different genetic profiles and infected them with Yersinia pestis. Their results showed that the genes identified earlier in their study again appeared in the cultures most resistant against the bacterium.

In particular, individuals with two identical copies of a gene called ERAP2 were around 40 to 50 percent more likely to survive the plague than those with the opposite copies, which seem to have instead conferred increased susceptibility.

"The selective advantage associated with the selected loci are among the strongest ever reported in humans showing how a single pathogen can have such a strong impact on the evolution of the immune system," says geneticist Luis Barreiro of the University of Chicago.

As the centuries rolled on, the plague became less and less devastating, and humanity, largely, moved on. However, there was a big catch. Some of the gene variants identified by the researchers are today associated with an increased susceptibility to autoimmune diseases. Since the plague would have been the bigger evolutionary pressure back in the 1340s like malaria and sickle cell anemia this result was probably unavoidable.

This, the researchers say, provides empirical evidence for an association between autoimmune risk and adaptation to an infectious disease that spread centuries ago.

"Understanding the dynamics that have shaped the human immune system is key to understanding how past pandemics, like the plague, contribute to our susceptibility to disease in modern times," Poinar says.

The team's research has been published in Nature.

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The Black Death Shaped Human Evolution, And We're Still in Its Shadow - ScienceAlert

There seems to be no end to the fascinating truths that continue to emerge from the distinct ecosystem that exists in post-radiation-blast Chernobyl, and its black frogs are no exception.

In 1986, a massive and historic release of radioactive material was flung into the environment around Chernobyl. The impact was seen on every last bit of the surrounding area, living beings, plant life, you name it.

Three decades later, Chernobyl is a nature preserve unlike any other in the world and is home to a diverse range of endangered species.

Radiation can damage genetic material and generate odd mutations, but we have also learned that it can spur adaptations in some species that allow them to live with it. It can be a very strong selective factor, favoring organisms with mechanisms that increase their survival in exactly these kids of scenarios.

One of those organisms seems to be the Eastern tree frog. In 2016, researchers spotted several black-tinted specimens, when their skin would normally have a bright green dorsal coloration.

A cool fact about melanin which is a pigment responsible for the dark color of many organisms is that it can reduce the negative effects of ultravioletand ionizing radiation,

Its ability to absorb, dissipate, and neutralize ionized molecules can reduce the chances of cell damage and even an early death after radiation exposure.

Between 2017 and 2019, researchers observed the dorsal skin coloration of more than 200 male frogs found in different areas of northern Ukraine, all of which had varying levels of radiation exposure.

The results of those observations show that the frogs that live closer to Chernobyl have a much darker coloration than those from control areas further away. Some are actually pitch-black, though there is a range of colors and hues.

The darkest frogs were found in or near the most contaminated areas.

Researchers concluded that the frogs in Chernobyl at the time of the accident rapidly evolved in response to their massive exposure, with the darker colored frogs being selected due to their increased melanin.

More than 10 generations of frogs have been born since the accident but we rarely get to observe a natural selection event that happens so quickly.

Thats exactly what scientists believe is happening, though, due to the disproportionate number of dark-colored frogs in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.

This research will likely be used by scientists in other fields, such as nuclear waste management and even space exploration.

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What Chernobyl's Black Frogs Reveal About Evolution - Twisted Sifter

Bones that are separate in small jerboas are fully fused in large ones, but the bone structures that are best at dissipating the stresses of jumping are only partially fusedA bipedal jerboa, one of the rodent species included in a study of unpredictability in animal movements. Image credit: Talia Moore and Kim Cooper

Foot bones that are separate in small hopping rodents are fused in their larger cousins, and a team of researchers at the University of Michigan and University of California, San Diego, wanted to know why.

It appears that once evolution set jerboa bones on the path toward fusing together, they overshot the optimum amount of fusingthe structure that best dissipated stresses from jumping and landingto become fully bonded.

Study: Metatarsal fusion resisted bending as jerboas (Dipodidae) transitioned from quadrupedal to bipedal (DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2022.1322)

This finding could inform the design of future robotic legs capable of withstanding the higher forces associated with rapid bursts of agile locomotion.

Jerboas are desert rodents that hop erratically on two legs to avoid predators. Across the jerboa family tree, these two legs can look a lot different: there are species that weigh just three grams to those that weigh 400 grams, with heavier species sporting vastly different bones of the feet, or metatarsals. Lighter jerboas are like most other mammals, including humans: their metatarsal foot bones are separate from each other.

We wanted to explore why we are seeing these fused bones in only larger jerboas, said Carla Nathaly Villacs Nez, U-M doctoral candidate in mechanical engineering and first author of the study in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

We found that the fused bones showed lower stresses than unfused bones, thereby reinforcing against higher loads, she said. But we also discovered the partially fused bones had even lower stresses than the fully fused bones. One hypothesis is that fully fused jerboas have evolutionary overshoot.

To study the bone performance across species, the researchers performed micro-CT scans of museum specimens and built 3D models of the jerboa metatarsals in software, then scaled them to equal sizes and stress tested them as they hit, flexed and hopped off of a surface.

The smaller jerboas have three separate metatarsal bones, which are capable of supporting the rodents small stature even if used for high-impact jumping. The more recent, larger jerboa species have completely fused these three bones into one. The intermediate weight species have something in-between: a metatarsal with interior remnants of bone where it has partially fused together, like a bundle of sticks.

Our interdisciplinary team applied state-of-the-art engineering techniques to unravel an evolutionary puzzle, said Talia Moore, U-M assistant professor of robotics and senior author of the study.

Evolution hit an advantageous point of partially fused geometry, but then evolutionary momentum may have continued to completely fuse the metatarsals. Because the fully fused bones are still sufficient to keep from breaking, there was likely no evolutionary pressure to stop fusing.

The research team notes that similar analyses could help uncover other ways in which the skeleton changed shape to compensate as species evolved from quadrupedal, or walking on four feet, to bipedal locomotion.

While kangaroos, primates and other rodents converged on bipedalism, the dynamics of their locomotion and the anatomical changes associated with that shift are quite different in each case, said Andrew Ray, an undergraduate student studying materials science and engineering in Moores lab.

Through similar analysis, we could simulate how the foot bones of extinct human ancestors might have experienced stresses during walking, running or other locomotion.

An additional author is Kimberly Cooper, professor of developmental biology at the University of California, San Diego, who formulated the idea for the project with Moore during a separate study tracing the evolution and development of metatarsal fusion in jerboas. Coopers expertise was key to understanding the evolutionary implications of the findings.

The research was supported in part by a Harvard Chapman Memorial Fellowship, a David Rockefeller Center for Latin America Studies Collaborative Research grant, and the U-M Mechanical Engineering Research, Innovation, Service and Entrepreneurship program.

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How evolution overshot the optimum bone structure in hopping rodents - University of Michigan News

Researching the way other animals minds work can deepen our understanding of the human mind, especially when there are differences. For example, our new study has shown that bumblebees can forget basic information within minutes, though they can still make complicated decisions. But to understand how bees memories differ from ours, lets first talk about ice cream.

The other week, I visited a new ice cream shop and the sight of two flavours made my belly rumble: pistachio and chocolate brownie. Ive had both, but never side by side. It was a tough decision. To make this choice I had to access separate memories of the two flavours. Did I recall how rich the brownies had been? Or did I remember just that I liked pistachio more than the lemon flavour I had on that spring day earlier this year?

Whether it be two ice creams or two flowers, humans and bumblebees face similar decisions. Many people think of animals as creatures which run only on instinct. But my ice cream dilemma is an example of the decisions animals of all kinds make. My PhD project explores how bumblebees make decisions and if their tiny brains come up with similar solutions to problems as we do.

Humans use a combination of memories to solve problems. Some memories for absolute information (say, how sweet an ice cream is), and others for comparative knowledge (such as whether it was better or worse than another option).

We arent the only animals who do this. A study showed that starlings remember and use both absolute (how long it took to obtain a worm) and comparative insights (whether the waiting time was shorter or longer) when deciding between new combinations of food options. But our study showed this isnt the case for bumblebees.

Im fascinated by how bumblebees can solve complex tasks, like cross-modal recognition (learning an object using only touch or vision and then discriminating between objects using other sensory information) and negative patterning (learning that two stimuli are rewarding but a combination of the two is not).

My colleagues and I designed a series of experiments to see what bees remembered about flowers. We trained bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) to forage from flowers in the lab. By flowers, I mean little coloured plastic chips propped up on vials, on which we placed little droplets of sugar water.

In the first training session, bumblebees foraged on two different coloured flowers which offered nectar of two different sugar concentrations. They quickly learned the green flower was sweeter than the yellow flower.

They then went through a second training phase with two new flowers, orange and blue. It didnt take long for them to realise orange flowers were sweeter than blue flowers.

Finally, each bumblebee explored two flowers they hadnt experienced together, yellow and orange, and both without nectar. This time they had to rely on two separate memories. We watched which flower type the bees landed on the most to see which they thought was better.

After just a few minutes, the bees we studied lost all memory of absolute information. They couldnt remember anything about how sweet any of the flowers were. All they could remember is whether a flower had been better or worse.

Bees have minuscule brains with less than one million neurons, (similar in size and weight to a sesame seed) compared to our 1.3-kilogram brain with around 85 billion neurons. However, research shows tiny brained invertebrates and large brained animals arent that different in their brain structure. It might sound like bees have poor memories. But the way their brains evolved to store information is simply different to ours.

Diet offers one explanation. Just like humans, starlings eat a varied diet with many types of foods including fruits, worms and seeds. But adult bumblebees, like all bees, live on sugar water (and a bit of pollen) from flowers.

Perhaps the early ancestors of humans and birds, long after breaking away from the evolutionary branch bumblebees followed around 500 million years ago, needed to retain memories for absolute information to compare the varied foods they ate. But to succeed in their nectar world, bumblebees dont need to remember anything more than which flower was sweeter.

In the wild, bumblebees tend to forage only a short distance from their nest and search for the sweetest flowers around. We know bees quickly learn where to find food, which flowers are rewarding, and how to extract nectar and pollen from them. They remember these things for the rest of their lives.

Bumblebees tend to find one good flower source and stick to it. Think about it: if you planned to only live off a diet of salted caramel ice cream you wouldnt need comparative memories of food.

Investigating these questions in other animal species may help us learn about how important food is for memory development. For example, we could gain valuable insight if we looked at how the honey possum (a small cute mammal which drinks almost entirely nectar), and the paper wasp (a pollinating insect like bumblebees, but with a much more varied diet), remember options.

But for now, if you are ever in a predicament involving choices of ice cream flavours, my advice is: get both.

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How bumblebees can help us understand the evolution of human memories - The Conversation Indonesia

Although hair braiding is a hairstyle found throughout cultures, the practice holds a revered place in the Black community. As Black people have voluntarily and involuntarily moved throughout the world, the specific culture of hair braiding has transformed to reflect the impact of history and communal change. What began as an extension of ancestral customs has evolved into tools of survival, functionality, community and even artistic expression. Here, we look back on and celebrate the history of hair braiding as well as its future.

Beautification practices in Africa vary in meaning across countries, cultures, and tribes. In many cases, hair braiding was and continues to be used to express information about the wearer including marital status, age, spiritual connections, or tribe.

The nomadic Himba tribe in northern Namibia are known for their grooming practice of covering their skin and hair in a red, aromatic paste called Otjize that has cleansing, UV protective, and spiritual properties. The accompanying braiding traditions are nuanced, differing between clans and indicating highly specific information. Long, individual braids covered and sculpted by Otjize and topped with a headdress are common amongst women to mark fertility and marital status. Simpler braids are worn by children and become more elaborate with age.

Many braiding traditions, like those of the Himba tribe, thrive today while others have waned with time. Particularly, modern-day hair braiding in the United States is largely led by zeitgeist rather than cultural messaging. Still, braids have earned additional purpose throughout Black history maintaining a larger impact alongside a function of beauty.

Stories of enslaved Africans hiding rice, grain and other items within braids during the Middle Passage and when escaping demonstrate how braids became part of survival. Many oral history accounts claim certain braided styles served as wordless communication of who was ready to escape or mapped routes to safety. [Braids] signify our intergenerational ties. They signify the African-ness in us that would not die in the process of coming to this country, says interdisciplinary artist Shani Crowe who often uses large-scale, intricate hair braiding in her work to celebrate Black beauty. Braids have been used to preserve even the agricultural parts of our culture.

The power to facilitate connection is a characteristic of hair braiding thats held throughout Black history. Hair braiding has always been a social activity entrusted to family or skilled community members and ultimately deepened relationships. In my personal experience, I was definitely sitting on the floor, between somebodys knees getting my hair braided on the porch or in the kitchen, Crowe recalls. You spend a lot of time with someone when you braid hair so you develop relationships with people. The communal aspect of doing hair offered opportunities for Black people to build lives in America and resist oppression. Madame CJ Walker and other Black hair entrepreneurs created spaces where a lot of Black revolutionaries and leaders were able to gather, says Crowe. They got that space from the money they made beautifying other women.

Today, African hair braiding shops, particularly in New Yorks Brooklyn and Harlem boroughs, similarly sit at the intersection of community and beauty service. Theres just something about the salon atmosphere that makes you feel at home, says celebrity hair braider Helena Koudou whos worked alongside her family at Alima African Hair Braiding Salon in Brooklyn since she was 15. [My aunts salon] has been in the neighborhood for more than 20 years. She has known people from when they were young. She used to throw cookouts and would invite people to eat. So she made it a home for who comes in and out. I try to do the same with my clients.

Although racist policies and social norms placed premiums on straight hairstyles, natural hair returned en vogue during the 1960s and 70s. The Civil Rights and Black Power Movements encouraged natural hairstyling as a political statement braids included. Most notably, actor Cicely Tyson is regarded as the first Black celebrity to sport natural hair for mainstream television and cinema. Tyson wore a braided style reminiscent of the now popular Fulani braids on the March 1973 cover of Jet Magazine and again for various movie promotions and portraits. She received both praise and backlash but continued to subvert beauty expectations by regularly wearing her natural hair throughout her career.

Braids of choice during the 1980s reflected the high-impact vibrancy of the decade. Braided bobs replete with bangs and braids packed with colorful beads or other ornaments were popularized by musicians like Patrice Rushen and Rick James.

Black celebrities, musicians and iconic pop culture moments would continue to set off new braid trends. Janet Jacksons influential role in the 1990s drama Poetic Justice breathed new life into long, box braids and inadvertently renamed them. I remember people kept coming in and asking for Janet Jackson braids and my mom and aunt would look at me and be like, What is that?, says Koudou. These styles have always been around. They just have a new name.

The early 2000s saw the rise of various microbraid trends. The extremely skinny, individual braids are beloved for their versatility and resembling the look of naturally flowing hair. Actor and singer Brandy was known for wearing microbraids in her popular roles as Moesha and Cinderella. The characters deeply resonated with young Black viewers at a time when Black hairstyles were not widely accepted. Seeing [Brandy] in Cinderella with braids I wanted my hair just like that, says Danielle Washington, beauty brand consultant and former co-founder and chief marketing officer at plant-based hair extension brand Rebundle. Seeing braids in the media around that time, for me, was important.

Crowe, Koudou, and Washington agree that knotless braids are currently the most popular style. The specific braiding technique uniquely eliminates the need to secure extensions at the root with a visible knot. [Knotless] looks more natural, says Koudou. The styles went from oh she has extensions in her hair to I cant tell if thats her hair or not. Knotless braids seamless finish transformed braids from a functional decision for vacations or to protect damaged hair into a fashion-forward look. In my childhood, braids were often pitted against straight hair, says Washington. [Braids] definitely served that functional need but with the knotless aspect we remembered that, wow, this is sexy.

Recent shifts in societal perceptions of Black hair have made room to further embrace braided hairstyles. The passing of the Crown Act in 2020 officially made discrimination based on hair texture illegal, a move that largely protects Black people from workplace disenfranchisement. The type of braiding I was doing when I created the show BRAIDS I had to take all that stuff down after, says Crowe of her viral 2016 exhibition featuring avant-garde braided sculptures that caught the eye of Solange. The models had to go to work after. Now, braiders are noticing clients taking more risks with their hair. I have a few clients, not a lot, but a few clients who love to experiment with different hairstyles, says Koudou. One of these hairstyles takes inspiration from Cicely Tysons iconic braided crown pinning braids in circles at the forehead to resemble curled bangs with a tall, tight topknot. When [people] see somebody do that theyre like oh, thats fine. I want to do that too.

Similar to changing tides amidst braid trends, the braiding hair used to create these styles is experiencing an overhaul. Hair extensions have a reputation for harmful production methods. Synthetic hair is typically coated in skin-irritating, health-concerning chemicals while human hair harvesting can be exploitative of vulnerable donors. Personal care products marketed to Black and brown consumers are already more likely to contain potentially harmful ingredients, revealing blind spots in the beauty industry's growing clean initiative. The systemic nature of the hair extension industry is taught and passed down, says Washington. It does not start with Black people but it definitely ends with it.

The hair extensions industry is growing quickly and is expected to reach almost $5 billion by 2032, making manufacturers resistant to profit-threatening innovation. However, disruptive brands like Rebundle are forcing a change of guard. Rebundle is the first-ever producer of plant-based, recyclable hair extensions that are safe for both the wearers and the environment. They also offer a recycling program for consumers to mail back competitor extensions, placing additional pressure on the industry to catch up. Rebundle recently raised $1.3 million in growth funding, demonstrating a community and industry hunger for something better for Black beauty consumers.

Throughout history, braids have played a constantly evolving yet always critical role in the lives of Black people. The practice has preserved culture, built community, helped resist oppression and served as a medium of self-love. As the full breadth of braids becomes increasingly venerated, we can expect creativity to continue blossoming.

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The Evolution Of Braids Goes Beyond Hair - The Zoe Report

Fossil records of early animals from Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve in Canada. CREDIT Dr Emily. G. Mitchell University of Cambridge

Oxygen levels in the Earths atmosphere are likely to have fluctuated wildly one billion years ago, creating conditions that could have acceleratedthe development of early animal life, according to new research.

Scientists believe atmospheric oxygendeveloped in three stages, starting with what is known as the Great Oxidation Eventaround two billion years ago, when oxygen first appeared in theatmosphere. The third stage, around 400 million yearsago, saw atmospheric oxygen rise to levelsthat exist today.

What is uncertain is what happenedduring the second stage, in a time known as the Neoproterozoic Era, which started about one billion years ago and lasted for around 500 million years, during which time early forms of animal life emerged.

The question scientists have tried to answer is- was there anything extraordinary about the changes to oxygen levels in the Neoproterozoic Era thatmay have played a pivotal rolein the earlyevolution of animals did oxygen levels suddenly rise or was there a gradual increase?

Fossilised tracesof early animals-known as Ediacaran biota, multi-celled organisms that requiredoxygen- have been found in sedimentary rocks that are541 to 635 million years old.

To try and answer the question, a research team at the University of Leeds supported by the Universities of Lyon, Exeter and UCL, used measurements of thedifferent forms of carbon, or carbon isotopes, found in limestone rocks taken from shallow seas.Based on the isotope ratios of the different typesof carbonfound,the researchers were able to calculate photosynthesis levels that existed millions of years ago and infer atmospheric oxygen levels.

As a result of the calculations, they have been able to produce a record of oxygen levels in the atmosphereover the last 1.5 billion years, which tells us how much oxygen would have been diffusing into the ocean to support early marine life.

Dr Alex Krause, a biogeochemical modeller who completed his PhD in the School of Earth and Environment at Leedsand was the lead scientist on the project, said the findings give a new perspective on the way oxygen levels were changing on Earth.

He added: The early Earth, for the first two billion years of its existence, was anoxic, devoid of atmospheric oxygen. Then oxygen levels started to rise, which is known as the Great Oxidation Event.

Up until now, scientists had thoughtthat after the Great Oxidation Event, oxygen levels were either lowandthen shot upjust before we see the first animals evolve, or thatoxygen levels were high for many millions of years before the animals came along.

But our study shows oxygen levels were far more dynamic. There was an oscillation betweenhigh and low levels of oxygen for a long time before early forms of animal life emerged.We are seeing periods where the ocean environment, where early animals lived, would have had abundant oxygen and then periods where it does not.

Dr Benjamin Mills, who leads the Earth Evolution Modelling Group at Leeds and supervised the project, said: This periodic change in environmental conditions would have produced evolutionary pressures where some life forms may have become extinct and new ones could emerge.

Dr Mills said the oxygenated periods expanded what are known as habitable spaces parts of the ocean where oxygen levels would have beenhighenough to support early animal life forms.

He said: It has been proposed in ecological theory that when you have a habitable space that is expanding and contracting, this can support rapid changes to the diversity of biological life.

When oxygen levels decline,there is severe environmental pressure on some organisms which could drive extinctions.And when the oxygen-rich waters expand, the new space allows the survivors to riseto ecologicaldominance.

These expanded habitable spaces would have lasted for millions of years, giving plenty of time for ecosystems to develop.

Extreme variability in atmospheric oxygen levels in the late Precambrian, Science Advances

Astrobiology

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How Fluctuating Oxygen Levels May Have Accelerated Animal Evolution On Earth - Astrobiology - Astrobiology News

NEW YORK, Oct. 19, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- This month, the Arctic Monkeys sit down with SPIN Magazine for a cover story that ranges through the groups origins as a band of neighborhood teenagers in Sheffield, England to becoming a leading forcein a new wave of British rock and pop music.

While singer Alex Turner, drummer Matt Helders, guitarist Jamie Cook and bassist Nick OMalleymight be a solid fixture in the indie music scene today, their musical journey has been one of evolution and constant learning something the band covers in their talk with SPIN writer Steve Appleford.

One notable moment: the career-altering experience of driving to the edge of the Joshua Tree desert to record 2009s Humbug at the Rancho de la Luna recording studio with Queens of the Stone Age leaderJoshua Homme co-producing the project. The band credits Homme with opening their eyes to the freedom available to them as artists.

Had we not had that experience at that time, Id question whether we would still be going now, said Turner.

All roads (and the interview) lead toThe Car,the Arctic Monkeys new album, a record that deftly weaves together rock, funk, and even Sinatra-inspired arrangements. Its an album that Appleford writes is another step forward, unimaginable in their early days as a stripped down rock act.

We wouldnt have been able to do this 10 years ago, or 15 years ago, confirms Helders. Everyone sort of learned their instruments at the same time, at the same pace and got better. Weve got to a place where we can make music like this.

"I think everything happened at the right time.

Read the full interview here.

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/dc4aa276-a80d-4791-88b0-5076ed1fc51b

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Arctic Monkeys Talk the Band's Evolution, New Album in SPIN - GlobeNewswire