Category Archives: Evolution

Shark evolution has been in motion for hundreds of millions of years, with around 500 species now swimming the oceans. Although sharks are under more and more pressure, mainly from human activity such as hunting, their history shows they are able to adapt rapidly to environmental changes. This flexibility in shark evolution could be a benefit in the midst of climate change, which is already causing problems for many ocean dwellers who lack this adaptability.

Factoring just how long theyve been around, some people may wonder are sharks dinosaurs?

According to Live Science, sharks have hunted through the oceans for around 450 million years, while dinosaurs only arrived around 240 million years ago. Furthermore, dinosaurs mostly didnt survive the many extinction events that sharks survived (albeit in reduced numbers). Despite their primordial and sinister appearance (thanks Jaws!), theyre not even close relatives. A Harvard news article notes that chickens, ostriches and alligators still remain the closest relatives to Tyrannosaurus rex.

The Natural History Museum of London describes how the golden age for sharks arrived pre-dinosaur times, roughly 359 million years ago. At the time, sharks dominated the oceans following a mass extinction event that wiped out a lot of their competitors. CNN notes that these animals were actually the first vertebrate predators on the planet, firmly ahead of dinosaur activity.

Sharks are difficult to follow through the fossil record. Unlike dinosaurs, sharks have a cartilaginous skeleton rather than being made up of solid bone. Unfortunately, this structure doesnt fossilize well because it doesnt calcify. So, finding evidence of shark species throughout the ages is mostly limited to teeth and skin scales, which contain calcifying minerals such as calcium and bioapatite.

In fact, examining these denticle microfossils showed evidence of an extinction that wiped out around 90% of sharks 19 million years ago. Not only did open ocean populations of sharks disappear, but the species also became less diverse, according to a study published in Science.

Occasionally, an entire skeletal remnant is fossilized. On discovery, this can tell paleontologists a lot about ancient sharks. For example, a single fossilized vertebral column helped scientists determine the age and size at birth of the mighty Megalodon.

From the fossil evidence available, scientists have been able to piece together some of the phases of shark evolution and see how each phase has helped sharks remain a top predator.

For example, being cartilaginous makes sharks relatively lightweight, which helps them conserve energy while swimming long distances. Tapered bodies and well-placed fins coupled with dermal denticles and tail fins that are larger at the top make swimming itself much more efficient and powerful. This means that sharks can undertake long migrations and swim at speed. As a result, they have few natural predators apart from humans.

They are also generalists, able to occupy a variety of ocean niches, and their teeth have evolved to cope with a broad flexibility in diet. For example, fossil evidence shows that, during the early Jurassic period, sharks developed a flexible, protruding jaw. This helped them tackle larger prey and eat animals bigger than themselves.

Sharks are optimal hunters with a lateral line sensory system that senses vibration from prey in the water. They also have the ability to pick up on electromagnetic fields which helps not only with food location but also with navigation.

Sharks also survived the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, which saw a dramatic rise in both global carbon dioxide and temperature around 56 million years ago. Their continued survival can likely be credited to their ability to rapidly adapt to environmental change. For example, a rise in water temperature causes a rapid reduction in shark body size over the relatively short evolutionary period of 7,000 years. Certain shark species are also able to move between salt and fresh water with ease.

New shark species continue to be discovered, both ancient animals in the fossil record and contemporary sharks swimming the oceans today.

For example, closer examination of an encased plaster specimen held by the Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre in Manitoba introduced the world to Dave finally freed after 40 years in the archive. At around 15 feet in length, not only is Dave one of the largest fossilized shark specimens in the world, but he also might be a new species never seen before.

Closer examination of a 20-year-old fossil in storage has also revealed a new ancient shark species coming from the shallow primordial seas near the United Kingdom. SciTech Daily reports that the evidence comes from the teeth of this extremely rare shark skeleton fossil.

New species swimming around in todays oceans continue to be discovered, too. For example, Smithsonian Magazine describes a new glowing kitefin discovered in the ocean depths around New Zealand. Meanwhile, the number of sixgill saw shark species increased to three this January after two new species of this ancient lineage were discovered off eastern Africa, each showing the typical and rather odd arrangement that Pop Sci describes as long, flat snouts studded with teeth. Sawsharks use their chainsaw-like snouts to dice their prey into ribbons before dining, in case you were wondering the purpose of a nose studded with teeth.

Check out Northrop Grumman career opportunities to see how you can participate in this fascinating time of discovery in science, technology, and engineering.

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Shark Evolution Through the Millennia - Now. Powered by Northrop Grumman.

Changes in the size and organization of the brain distinguish the emergence of modern humans, but we know little about the genetic basis of these changes. Researchers in the Netherlands have now combined large-scale neuroimaging and genomics data to identify genetic variants associated with anatomy and development of the human brain.

One feature that distinguishes the human brain from those of monkeys and apes is its size. Each hemisphere of the human cerebral cortex has a surface area of approximately 1,840 cm2, compared to approximately 600 cm2 for the chimpanzee, our closest living relative. Analyses of endocasts suggest that the cortical surface of Homo sapiens is dramatically expanded, and is shaped differently, compared to extinct hominin species.

These changes were likely accompanied by alterations in white matter tracts, the brains long-range connections. Together, they may have contributed to the emergence of language and other complex cognitive skills.

Gkberk Alagz of the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen tried to confirm the results of a recent study that identified genetic variants associated with expansion of the human cerebral cortex, by examining brain scanning and genomics data from nearly 19,000 individuals, held at the UK Biobank.Their analyses failed to replicate the earlier findings. But the results suggest this may be because, while functions such as language usually depend on circuits that are localized within one brain hemisphere, the earlier study relied on measures that were averaged across both hemispheres.

With this in mind, Alagz and his colleagues examined neuroimaging and genetic datasets from more than 30,000 individuals, focusing on 33 measures of regional and global surface area, and looking at each hemisphere separately. They also looked at diffusion MRI data to examine 48 different white matter tracts.

This large-scale neuroimaging genomics approach enabled them to identify genetic variants associated with the surface area of multiple brain regions and with the long-range connections both within and between the left and right hemispheres of the brain.

Their analyses revealed that certain gene regulatory sequences associated with the surface area of left hemisphere speech and language regions are enriched in the developing human brain.They also discovered that genetic variants also found in Neanderthals made a far smaller contribution to connectivity of the left uncinate fasciculus, a white matter tract that connects the frontal lobe to the temporal lobe and is involved in language.

The findings, which are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggest that evolution of the human brain involved a gain of regulatory genetic elements in the genome. These enhancers become active in the fetal human brain and function to influence the activity of genes that contribute to the surface area of the cortex, one of these being ZIC4, which is implicated in neurogenesis, or the production of new brain cells.

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Genetics linked to evolution of bigger human brain size - Big Think

Social media is awash with disgusting medical-themed videos involving everything from doctors popping pimples to extracting ingrown hairs. But what can explain the popularity of these gut-churning clips and why do so many people love watching them so much?

These videos can rack up thousands, hundreds of thousands or even millions of views. One of the most well-known channels, Dr. Pimple Popper, has more than 15 million followers on TikTok, and over 2 billion views on YouTube.

One clip posted to TikTok in June, 2021, with the caption "Happy Sunday" shows a spot slowly being squeezed with an extractor tool. It has since been viewed almost 65 million times.

This kind of footage regularly provokes a feeling of disgust, which is generally thought to be a negative emotion. According to Daniel Kelly, a professor in the Department of Philosophy at Purdue University, and the author of Yuck!: The Nature and Moral Significance of Disgust, this emotion evolved to primarily protect us from two thingspotentially poisonous foods and contagious diseases.

"The emotion took on other functions on top of those as humans got more socially complex, and can be triggered by moral violations linked with 'purity' or by members of out-groups that are seen as far down the social hierarchy," Kelly told Newsweek.

The disgust that people feel after watching these kinds of videos is probably linked to the fact that the emotion evolved to help us avoid contracting a disease or becoming contaminated with an infection.

"It's a component of our pre-emptive behavioral immune system, as it were," Kelly said. "But since we can't directly perceive most of the things that make us sickbacteria, viruses, other kinds of microbeswe tend to be sensitive and alert to more easily perceivable indicators, especially signs that someone else is less than fully healthy, and so might transmit their unhealthiness to us if we get to close."

"The most common signs are other people who are obviously sick, sneezing, sweating, coughing, outbreaks of sores or other skin aberrations. So that's what disgust is on the 'look out' forit's those kinds of cues that it tends to be very sensitive to. Falling within this category are the kinds of cysts and pimples and other things that are center-stage in a lot of these videos."

The popping of cysts, pimples and other similar bodily abnormalities, are particular triggers of disgust because this act leads to the release of bodily fluids.

"Bodily fluids, especially bodily fluids that have left the bodyblood, spit, sexual fluids, waste products and other excretionsare some of the most universal and potent triggers of disgust there are," Kelly said. "Not coincidentally, they're also some of the most robust vectors of disease transmission."

"What happens to someone who is experiencing the emotion of disgust is multi-faceted," Kelly said, "You make that yuck face, you tend to think of the disgusting thing as contaminated and contaminating, polluted, you get that flash of nausea and emotional frissonbut you also tend to keep an eye on, keep track of, whatever it is that triggered your disgust."

So if watching gross medical videos disgusts us, why do so many people love watching them, while many others cannot bear the sight of such clips? According to Kelly, the answer is, again, multi-faceted.

"There's the general thrill of catharsis and living vicariously through someone else, of which this is just a specific instancewhatever is satisfying about these sorts of phenomena when they happen to us, we get a sort of paler shadow of the same satisfaction when we see it happening to someone else," he said.

Disgusting things are also very good at attracting and capturing our attention, perhaps not surprisingly given the evolutionary role of the emotion.

"It's just part of the way the psychological system works, how it's able to do its job well," Kelly said. "I think that adds to why these videos tend to get so many hitswatching triggers this psychological system, and not only do you get to live vicariously and what something that is intrinsically interesting, but you get a little charge of emotion, the experience itself has a little bit of voltage."

According to Kelly, the valence, or subjective value, of the disgusting event may be aversive, but only slightly. He compares watching these kinds of videos to the way that some people seek out feelings with negative valence in small doses, such as eating spicy foods, which can cause pain, or going for a run, which can produce a burning sensation in the muscles.

Another reason people may seek out these kinds of videos is that is a chance to have an interesting experience without actually being exposed to the risks and dangers that disgust evolved to protect us against.

"You're seeing the stuff through a screennot only can you turn it off whenever you want, or look away, but you're not at all at risk of being infected with anything," Kelly said. "There's a prophylactic effect, and I think that allows people to more safely indulge the experience. It's similar in a lot of ways to how people like to go on roller coasters or bungie jumpyou get the thrill, voltage, and experience of the feeling of hurling towards your death, but really you are quite safe.

"Likewise with, say, horror moviesyou get to experience intense fear, but you're not really about to be killed by a axe murderer or turned into a zombie. It's sort of an emotional freebieditto with the disgust people feel with these pimple videos."

Val Curtis, director of the Environmental Health Group at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said seeking out these kinds of experiences may have an evolutionary basis.

"If you're a small primate, it's really important to learn thingsto learn what's frightening, to learn what's disgusting," Curtis told the BBC. "We all seek out opportunities to learnand that's called play."

"It's similar to the fear response. We're attracted to roller coasters, for example, because it's really nasty and scary, but you learn what it is to be frightened. We all have a drive to play, and try out things safely. You're practising to see what happens."

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TikTok's Obsession with Pimple Popping Has Deep Roots in Evolution - Newsweek

The magical early hours of the October hunting and fishing day are cherished by any and all sportspersons and many other outdoor folks who enjoy a simple nature agenda. The sunrise is slow to rise and form shadows as the fog lifts from the silently traveled forest wildlife trails, where rabbits, raccoons, coyotes, deer and other critters traverse from their feeding areas to secret resting zones each day. This weeks rainfall along the waterways has turned the meandering main flows of Lake Erie tributary streams from babbling brooks to rambling creeks and rivers, with fresh runs of steelhead and brown trout. These fish have left the deep waters of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario far offshore. They now use their olfactory sense of smell to relocate to the waterways where they were born or stocked to reproduce and continue the cycle of life for these cold water species.

The full moon last week started the first cycle wave for many forms of fish and wildlife where the strong reproductive instincts of their species are initiated. If you are an angler not ready to hang up the rod and reel yet, this is one time of the season when the steelhead and brown trout are running upstream in all the Lake Erie tribs. In the Lake Ontario tribs, especially the more significant streams like the lower Niagara River, Oak Orchard Creek and farther east, the Salmon River, now is the time to cash in on the fun of big fish.

In big numbers, the giant King Salmon are running in the Salmon River near Altmar and Pulaski. Shore anglers wading the river in chest-high waders have a chance to catch fish that weigh 10 to 30 pounds and more. Last week, a local angler, Mathew Nardolillo, was fishing with friends while visiting Waters Edge Fish Camp Lodging near the river. Using his Lamiglass X-11 rod with Pfluger President XT reel, he was set up with 20-pound Berkley Big Game monofilament main line and Berkley 14-pound Vanish fluorocarbon leader. To the leader, he attached a size 6 hook with a Death Roe 8mm glass bead for bait. This team of friends scored big on King Salmon. Nardolillo shares humble secrets the group discovered. He says, We had never fished this river before and it was a learning process for us. We did not use any floats because it was too crowded with other anglers to do that, but we kept adjusting our drift to just tick along the bottom where the fish were. We would cast out to 10 oclock and have enough weight on to just tick the bottom at 12 oclock, then raise the rod to avoid snagging the bottom at 2 oclock and try it again. You needed to pick a section of the stream and do that and repeat. Thats fishing! At Waters Edge Lodging, this is their first year catering to anglers; call Polly Dieckman at 973-903-2344 for info.

With the NYS early big game archery season underway since Oct.1, whitetail deer hunters are well positioned to score on venison for table fare in the next several weeks. The incredibly well-developed olfactory sense of smell among the whitetail deer species allows bucks to locate does ready to breed as the ritual of reproduction begins at this time of year. This ridiculous deer sense of smell begets hunters to take note of the wind direction before heading out to their hunting area. Swirling wind patterns often trigger deer to sense man nearby, raise their awareness level of danger and turn to walk the other way, often frustrating hunters. The bright white deer hair of bucks and does is often the only thing a deer hunter will see when this happens. Hence, the reason these deer are called whitetail deer. For deer hunters with years of research and hunting experience, science has educated the group to understand that humans have a good sense of smell. Still, deer have an olfactory sense 300 times more sensitive than people. They can smell things that we cannot. Sometimes, this keen olfactory sense of the deer can lead them astray too. Savvy hunters in NYS are not allowed to bait deer with corn or apples on the ground, but hunters are allowed to use scent attraction formulas to raise the interest of deer to come and investigate. Deer are curious critters. A single apple cut in half and placed on a broken stick-out branch next to the hunter can act as a human cover scent, providing an attractive aroma for a favorite food for deer to locate and munch on. While deer in rut, in their breeding cycle, are usually not interested in eating at all, they are more interested in finding a mate, and right now. Immediacy is paramount for the bucks that sleep very little during the mating season. Understanding this part of the buck cycle, note that it is interesting that in NYS, it is legal to use bottled scents of does ready to breed and bucks looking for a doe. Each of these parts of the olfactory scent world of deer hunting allows the advantage to hunters, it seems. Yet when using these scents in the woods, it is surprising how often a hunter will see a deer coming toward him because of these triggers to follow scents.

The olfactory supremacy of the deer can also smell the hunters human scent and steers away. Advantage: deer. This is why many hunters set up their stand downwind of a deer trail, then drag an attractant scent on a dragline as they walk from the deer trail to their downwind stand placement. The deer will not smell the hunter whose scent is blowing away, while the nose of the deer is down to the ground following the fresh drag scent left by the hunter traveling to the stand with the string. Advantage: hunter. These are some things hunters do during this part of the hunting season. If you are a hunter, know that this is the fun part of the year and a time when using just arrows and strings, it is possible to attract a deer close enough for a harvest of organic, fat-free meat for the next several months. Wishing the best of luck to all archery hunters!

Wishing everyone healthy and safe fun at home and in the outdoors! God bless America.

Outdoors Calendar:

Oct. 1 Nov. 18: NYS Big Game Early Archery Season, hunting allowed 30 minutes before sunrise to 30 minutes after sunset.

Oct. 15-28 NYS autumn turkey hunting season, hunting allowed sunrise to sunset, fall season bag limit: 1 bird of either sex.

NOTE: Submit Calendar items to nugdor@yahoo.com at least 2-weeks in advance.

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Rod, Gun & Game: Season of evolution begins in the autumn outdoors - Springvillejournal

NEW YORK, N.Y. - Today Verizon announced the formation of a new, enterprise wide, shared services organization, advancing their strategy for 2023.

Chief Administrative Officer and General Counsel, Craig Silliman, will be taking on a new role leading the company's new central support services operations, as President, Verizon Global Services (VGS). Craig and VGS will be responsible for most shared services teams within Verizon including Real Estate, Sourcing, Supply Chain, Fleet, Finance Operations, Global Technology Solutions, Reporting and Insights, Learning and Development, Public Policy and Information Security. Craig and VGS also will be responsible for bringing a holistic approach to Verizons partner ecosystem, which consists of tens of thousands of vendors providing services to the company, to ensure seamless and efficient business processes.

In announcing these changes today, Verizon Chairman and CEO Hans Vestberg said, This is a logical evolution of our strategy. These moves will accelerate our efforts to drive efficiencies, enabling us to reinvest savings in network superiority and customer growth.

Verizon will discuss the economic benefits of establishing Verizon Global Services in its 3Q earnings communications on October 21.

Craig Silliman brings the experience of seeing the entire Verizon business from his current CAO role, as well as an increasingly critical role navigating the past few unprecedented years. Hans and the board have repeatedly called on Craig to tackle the companys most strategic and difficult challenges, from Work from Home mobilization to supply chain to spectrum and other acquisitions to various strategic negotiations.

Over the past 2 plus years, under unprecedented circumstances, weve learned a lot about how we deliver our services to customers. Vestberg added, It has given us new insight and unlocked a number of new opportunities. VGS will enable us to consolidate what weve learned and scale it for the entire organization.

As Craig steps into this new role, effective immediately, Vandana Venkatesh, will assume his responsibilities as Chief Legal Officer. In this new role, Vandana will report to Hans Vestberg and lead the company's legal, privacy, and corporate security functions. Vandana is currently SVP and General Counsel for the Verizon Consumer Group (VCG). She has led a variety of leadership roles in the company supporting Enterprise, Public Sector, Information Technology, and Sourcing business units.

"Vandana is a proven leader with extensive experience across a variety of legal functions and business units, said Vestberg, and will be a key member of our leadership team during this transformative time.

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Verizon announces organization evolution to accelerate efficiency and growth - Verizon

Calling all Kardashian-Jenner style watchers: something has shifted in Kendall Jenners workout wardrobe. The model has been wearing Adidass retro-tinged Samba trainers on and off all year, pairing them with maxi skirts and straight-leg jeans as well as her gym gear. But to join BFF Hailey Bieber for a Pilates class this week, Jenner chose another classic sneaker: the Nike Air VaporMax Plus.

Nike Air VaporMax Plus sneakers

Kendalls black trainers were first unveiled in 2017, at the time the latest iteration of the game-changing Air Max 1, which hit the market in 1987 and went on to rule the 90s and Noughties with every new release. Dropping 30 years after the birth of the Nike Air Max, the VaporMax was the first of the trainers to have an entirely air bubble sole. Jenners Nikes are nothing if not practical, but like her Sambas, theyre a sneakerhead-approved legacy shoea fact this style-conscious super will be only too aware of.

Getty Images

They werent the only retro touch to her post-workout look. That long-sleeved crop top pushed up to reveal a matching sports bra underneath is simultaneously evoking early Britney Spears, crop-top queen Jennifer Lopez in her On the 6 era, and Jessica Albas dance teacher wardrobe in the 2003 classic Honey.

The finishing touch that makes it quintessentially Kendall? The leather tote bag slung over her shoulder. When youre one of the most in-demand models on the circuitnot to mention a scion of the first family of reality televisionyou dont chuck your gym gear into any old polyester duffel bag. Kendall Jenner keeps her towel in the Park tote by The Rowyours for $1,790.

The Row Park 3 medium leather tote

Alo Yoga Airbrush leggings

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Kendall Jenners Chunky Trainers Are the Evolution of a Noughties Classic - Vogue

Over the last couple of months researchers tracking emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants have started noticing something strange. No one new variant has looked like taking over but instead a variety of different subvariants seemed to be accumulating the same mutations.

These mutations all seemed to be converging in a way to evade our pre-existing immunity, and a striking study recently appeared speculating the virus has the potential to completely escape our current immune responses. As many people around the world return to normality, deeming the pandemic over, these new evolutionary signals suggest we may be done with thinking about COVID but SARS-CoV-2 is most certainly not done with us

Twitter has been described by some as a town-square, analogous to a massive open space where anyone can offer their two cents on anything. But in practice its actually nothing like that. A more apt analogy would be Twitter resembles a massive apartment building filled with countless rooms devoted to conversations between people with shared interests or beliefs.

Inside one small room in the gargantuan Twitter high rise resides a diverse assortment of virologists, infectious disease researchers, epidemiologists, data visualization nerds, and ambitious armchair experts. They all focus on one particular subject tracking the genetic mutations of SARS-CoV-2.

Wading into the world of Variant Tracking Twitter can be dizzying for the uninitiated. A whirlwind of dense terminology accompany tweets filled with graphs tracking coded mutations and increasingly complicated variant names. Pango lineages, GISAID data, Nextstrain clades.

In September a word started popping up frequently amongst the coded conversations citing RBD mutations in K444T and N460K. That word was "convergence."

For the last two years the evolution of SARS-CoV-2 has been strange, to say the least. Across 2020 experts frequently warned of the potential for this novel coronavirus to mutate, but initially, it remained remarkably unchanged until a trio of variants emerged late in the year.

Alpha, Beta and Gamma all suddenly popped up. Three different lineages, in three different parts of the world. All with relatively similar mutations.

The changes had begun and in 2021 we saw a series of infection waves cross the world, each one driven by a new variant. Alpha leading to Delta leading to Omicron. What was particularly unusual about these successive waves was each subsequent variant was different from the one that preceded it. This wasnt the case of a single lineage slowly mutating and changing but big evolutionary leaps were taking place, with new lineages coming out of nowhere.

Since Omicron hit in late 2021 and early 2022 the path of the pandemic seems to have changed. Instead of big evolutionary leaps the Omicron lineage has splintered into scores of different subvariants.

Omicron first emerged with three relatively independent arms (BA.1, BA.2 and BA.3) but now the lineage features a head-spinning array of subtypes. And since the recent BA.5 wave no single subvariant seems to be dominating. Instead, researchers are watching all these different subvariants slowly start to take similar shape, with the same mutations appearing to be successful across multiple independent evolutionary pathways.

In the world of evolutionary biology the theory of convergent evolution explains how completely unrelated organisms can separately evolve incredibly similar traits. When faced with the same selection pressures distinctly different organisms can often end up with fascinating similarities.

One of the most commonly cited examples of convergent evolution is the striking similarity between shark and dolphin bodies. These two organisms share no common ancestor yet they evolved to look alike based on facing the same selection pressures.

In terms of SARS-CoV-2, many of us may be familiar with the hearing about the viruss unique spike protein. Its the highly identifiable protein that our successful vaccines use to generate protective immune responses. One part of the spike protein is known as the receptor binding domain (RBD). It sits at the top of the protein and helps the virus attach to certain receptors in human cells, a crucial process for infection and replication in our bodies.

Our original vaccines, using a version of the 2020 Wuhan coronavirus spike, are still incredibly effective against current Omicron variants with many mutations because until now there have been very few changes to the RBD.

A recent study, available as a preprint and yet to be peer-reviewed or published in a journal, presented a striking set of data suggesting a number of new Omicron subvariants are all appearing with similar mutations on the receptor binding domain. In an email to New Atlas, corresponding author on the paper Yunlong Cao explained the similar mutations across multiple independent variants indicates SARS-CoV-2 is successfully finding ways to evade our current immunity.

RBD convergent evolution, means that the RBD mutations evolved by the recently emerged SARS-CoV-2 Omicron lineages converge on the same sites (hotspots), including R346, K444, V445, G446, N450, L452, N460, F486, F490, and R493, Cao explained. Seeing this convergent evolution pattern would mean that SARS-CoV-2 would evolve immune-evasive mutations much more frequently than before, and the resulting new variants would be much more immune-evasive.

In mid-September the first draft of the study by Cao and his colleagues was published on a preprint server. At the same time, in a serendipitous case of research convergence, variant trackers on Twitter were simultaneously reporting similar findings.

One researcher dubbed it The Great Convergence, as variant trackers consistently reported finding similar mutations across drastically different subvariants. As an example of convergent evolution, it seemed SARS-CoV-2 was finding certain mutations universally successful.

Marc Johnson, a microbiologist from the University of Missouri, was among the first variant-tracking Twitter researchers to begin visually graphing these cases of convergent evolution. He is one of the few researchers to be completely unsurprised by the mutations starting to appear in subvariants around the world. In fact, he had seen exactly these same mutations over a year ago.

For the past 18 months Johnson has been obsessed with tracking what are called cryptic lineages. These are extremely rare, distinctive forms of SARS-CoV-2 with massive suites of mutations not seen in any circulating variant.

The work starts with wastewater, tracking traces of virus variants detected in sewage samples around the world. The current hypothesis Johnson is working with is these cryptic lineages are the result of long-term COVID infections, the virus primarily persisting in a persons gut.

What we think is happening is that there's these patients that can't clear the infection, Johnson explained in an interview with New Atlas. And the virus, because there's no bottlenecks from spreading from person to person, it just hits the evolutionary fast forward button. And it's evolving way faster than the circulating lineages.

Johnson is clear that he doesnt believe these cryptic lineages are anything to be concerned about from a circulation perspective. For the most part, the viral fragments he is picking up in wastewater are inactive. So it's unlikely these cryptic lineages will seed the next major variant.

Instead, these cryptic lineages offer a kind of perfect mutational laboratory, allowing Johnson insights into the potentialities of SARS-CoV-2. His obsessive characterizations of cryptic lineages over the past year and a half has resulted in him being completely unsurprised every time a novel mutation appears in a circulating variant.

Not only had he previously seen the mutations that appeared late last year in Omicron, but hed been waiting for these new convergent mutations currently discussed to finally appear in circulating variants.

When Omicron arrived, I'm like, check, check, check, check, check, check, check, Johnson said. All 11 of them were mutations I had seen before, but then some of the ones that I had seen a lot before that were not in Omicron were 452, 460, 346 the big ones now that it's finally picking up. So for about a year, I've been saying when is it going to pick up these other two mutations?

Around the same time Cao published his preprint study, Johnson posted a graph on Twitter trying to map out the most common convergent lineages. Within days a relatively simple visual depiction of convergent lineages had become a kaleidoscopic mess of connections. Resembling one of those pinboards you see amateur detectives in movies use to connect clues in a crime, the convergent lineages being followed by variant trackers on Twitter were moving fast. Every day new lines were being connected as different sub variants converged on the same mutations.

So its clear a number of different SARS-CoV-2 subvariants seem to be converging on the same mutations, but what does that mean? If these particular mutations are offering the virus growth advantages, helping it slip past our immune defenses, how is that happening?

This was the question Yunlong Cao and colleagues wanted to answer. In a preprint described as a tour-de-force set of deep mutational scanning experiments, the researchers probed thousands of antibodies isolated from vaccinated people who experienced breakthrough COVID infections.

The goal was to understand what kind of immunity exists in a person who had been vaccinated and subsequently infected with Omicron subvariants BA.2 or BA.5. The million-dollar-question: As the virus drifts away from its original 2020 form, are we concurrently developing immunity to its newer iterations?

Caos study discusses a 60-year-old theory known as original antigenic sin. Back in 1960 an epidemiologist named Thomas Francis was studying the historical ebbs and flows of influenza epidemics.

Francis suggested the bodys first exposure to a pathogen can leave a permanent immune imprint, or memory. This "original sin" can hinder our ability to fight that same pathogen if that pathogen begins to change its shape and become less recognizable.

Subsequent research since the 1960s has somewhat validated the idea of original antigenic sin. When we are young and our immune system faces a new pathogen for the first time our naive B cells learn to produce the right seek-and-destroy antibodies.

That initial encounter creates memory B cells. These immune cells can exist for decades, patrolling the body on the hunt for that same pathogen. This is how our immune system can quickly respond to future infections.

But the problem with this technique is that the immune system tends to lean on these memory B cells and not learn how to recognize newer versions of pathogens as they slowly evolve. For the immune system, near-enough is good-enough as long as the original imprint still somewhat recognizes newer shapes of pathogenic invaders.

One of the crucial findings in Caos study was that when a vaccinated person experiences a breakthrough Omicron infection they primarily recruit memory B cells to produce antibodies. In fact, according to the study, 80% of the B cell response to Omicron breakthrough infections are existing vaccine-induced memory cells.

Generally this is a good thing. It is why the original vaccine with the 2020 spike protein still offers good protection from Omicron. It's also why many vaccinated people who have experienced an Omicron breakthrough infection likely faced a relatively mild disease. But crucially it means our immune systems may not be learning how to recognize newer Omicron subvariants.

The advantage of this [memory B cell response], and the reason why our body evolved to behave like this, is that when infected with Omicron, our body could rapidly generate antibodies against the new antigen through memory B cell recall, not depending on eliciting antibodies through naive B cell maturation which is slow, Cao explained to New Atlas. However, the bad part is that infection with Omicron would not very effectively broaden the breadth of our neutralizing antibody repertoire since our immune system majorly reuses the memory B cells elicited by [original] vaccination.

The next part of Caos study has perhaps been the most contentious amongst COVID researchers, as more hyperbolically inclined commentators have inferred apocalyptic outcomes. Here, the scientists looked at the specific mutations that many subvariants seem to be converging upon right now. These mutation hotspots seem to be converging on the RBD of the coronavirus spike. And these are the spots our previous memory B cell antibodies were targeting to protect us from Omicron infections.

This is how the virus is mutating to evade our immune defenses.

So the scientists set out to model what future mutational pathways the virus could hypothetically take to evade our current antibodies. Adding just six specific mutations to BA.5 was found to be enough to evade most current RBD antibodies.

And most significantly, several subvariants have already been detected with some of these mutations. Subvariants BQ.1.1 and XBB in particular were found to be the most immune evasive, escaping even Omicron-specific antibodies.

What happens from here is decidedly unclear. Immunologist Menno van Zelm has studied ideas of immune memory and original antigenic sin. He said its still an open question whether immune imprinting is a lifelong thing or whether immune responses can evolve alongside a virus.

We've been very happy to show that immune memory after effects can last for a long time, explained van Helm. But it could bite us now that after years, you still have that memory and that memory could still outcompete any new responses. We honestly don't know. And it might be a balance, right? Because as soon as you don't have enough response anymore, it means that you generate completely new responses, and then your memory will not outcompete.

Van Helm is also clear to stress our immune responses are complex and multi-faceted. Caos research focuses solely on memory B cells and the antibody responses generated. These immune responses do govern basic levels of transmission and infection but plenty of other factors influence how severely sick we become from an infection.

We have our T cells, van Helm added, referring to the main immune cells that kill and clear most pathogens. Many people have, since they've been vaccinated, also been infected. So they have responses of T cells and B cells to other parts of the virus. So we're not completely naive, as we were back in 2020. And I think that is part of why the disease severity is much lower now.

Cao is a little more wary of the potential increase in disease severity from these new converging subvariants. He speculates it is possible T-cell responses are maintained in the face of these new RBD mutations, as those immune cells can target more conserved parts of the virus that have yet to shape-shift. But Cao also speculated there's potential for a future iteration of the virus that can completely evade antibody neutralization, cause high rates of infection, and generate severe disease in some people.

T-cell response could make some contribution to preventing severe symptoms and deaths, Cao said. However, they do not efficiently prevent infection and transmission; otherwise, there would not be the BA.5 wave after BA.2. [And] it is possible that [new variants] cause more severe symptoms, as vaccines and the previous infection would not provide humoral immunity protection, both from the memory B cell level and sera neutralization.

Both Cao and van Helm do agree that current variant-specific vaccines may not be the most optimal path forward but they are certainly the best solution we currently have. Despite evidence of original antigenic sin there is also strong evidence that boosters are beneficial in lowering risk of serious disease.

Nevertheless, the pandemic certainly isnt over and scientists are still racing to keep vaccines and therapeutics ahead of where the virus is going. One suggestion from van Helm to potentially bypass the problem of original antigenic sin is to create a new vaccine designed to evade current memory B cell responses and generate a whole new immune imprint.

It might be worth by taking only the parts of the protein that are new, and vaccinating only with that, so that you only generate a new response, van Helm speculated. And that will then be in addition to the original memory that you have towards the wild type virus.

And while those scientists work on the next generation of therapeutics, the variant trackers are still obsessively following the rapid viral mutations in granular detail.

In the past, new pandemic waves had been easy to identify. A single variant emerges and genomic testing around the globe quickly shows it growing in prevalence. But now, with the dramatic fragmentation of Omicron into dozens of subvariants, new trends are harder to detect.

A number of variant trackers have recently shifted their surveillance tactics to try and get a better grasp on emerging waves. Instead of setting their systems to follow specific variants some are now grouping together variants with convergent mutations. By rolling variants with shared mutations into similar buckets it quickly becomes evident that these new SARS-CoV-2 iterations are becoming prevalent.

Cornelius Roemer, a viral evolution researcher based in Europe, has been at the forefront of chronicling the global growth of these new convergent variants. His monitoring has shown the more key RBD mutations in a subvariant, the faster its growth.

Roemers tracking suggests subvariants with four key RBD mutations may account for more than 30% of new viral samples up to the end of September. But add another two to three key RBD mutations and you see some extraordinary new subvariants (XBB, BQ.1.1 or BA.2.3.20) emerging and growing at rapid rates.

Where this is all going is anyones guess. Will one of these subvariants ultimately dominate as in previous waves? Or will we face what some have referred to as a "variant soup," with several similar subvariants becoming prevalent in different parts of the world?

Marc Johnson describes the current emerging wave as more like a rising tide, and as all these subvariants converge on the same mutations we will see rising caseloads. And he says the rate of the virus mutating is ridiculously fast.

From his work with cryptic lineages Johnson suggests the virus still has a lot of room to move in terms of potential space to mutate. Whether that means it becomes more or less severe is unknown, but with such a massive volume of ongoing infections allowing new mutations to flourish Johnson expects to see plenty more novel lineages appearing in the future.

I mean, people say whens it going to reach the optimum, like it's a moving target. It depends what immunity its up against. It will just keep adapting to it. It might go full circle one day, who knows?

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As Omicron mutates wildly the virus shows first signs of convergent evolution - New Atlas

For nearly 15 years, Australian-born Cameron Mitchell has been in the thick of one of the most dynamic markets in the global cinema industry: the Middle East. As CEO of Majid Al Futtaims Vox Cinemas, Mitchell had a front-row seat to witnessnot to mention a hands-on role in shapinga market that in the last decade has seen explosive growth and the creation of some of the most luxurious cinemas in the world.

This year, Mitchell returned to Australiaa country with a deep love of cinema and a long, masterpiece-filled history of local filmsto serve as the executive director of the National Association of Cinema Operators (NACO), the trade body representing cinema owners in Australasia. Speaking to Mitchell from the other side of the world, Boxoffice Pro got his insights into these two geographically disparate markets.

In the early days of the pandemic, it seemed like Australia and New Zealand were doing pretty well in keeping things contained, compared to the rest of the world. But, of course, people cant go see movies if theres nothing to see. How have the last few years been for the cinema industry there?

Everyone, globally, really struggled during Covid. The Australian box office normally annualizes at around that AU$1.2 billion mark (AU$1 = US$0.6677). And New Zealand is about NZ$200 million. Thats 3.4, 3.5, 3.6 admits per capita. The market has always been incredibly strong. Cinema, in Australia, is an important part of our culture. Village Roadshow and Event Cinemas[known as] Greater Union back theninvented [the VIP concept] Gold Class. We had this massive boom of cinemas in the 80s and 90s. Weve always grown up with cinema.

Like all countries, we were decimated by Covid. [There were] a myriad of different factors: closures, capacity restrictions. On top of that, we had no content. There was some Australian content that was released, but everyone was so nervous about coming out [to the cinema]. The direction from the government was, Dont go out. Dont go to common spaces. What weve now seen globally is that cinema, because of the spacing and the air-conditioning and the investments that weve made, is one of the safer environments.

[In] 2021, we did basically half the numbers of 2019. Australia was about AU$600 million and New Zealand was about NZ$100 million. Fortunately, this year, as with many countries, weve seen this massive spike in return to cinemas. If you look at the comparative period in 2021, in Australia were roughly 80 percent ahead of 2021, as of the end of July. In New Zealand, about 50 percent up. Both countries, as of the end of July, are ahead of the full-year 2021 numbers, which is obviously really encouraging. Top Gun: Maverick, in Australia, has done almost AU$90 million. Youve got Minions, Thor, Batman, Doctor Strangeall these films that are now in the top 50 films of all time. Elviss gross in local currency is AU$32 million, which makes it the fourth highest-grossing Australian film of all time. Elvis was made partially in Australia and funded by many Australian government organizations, as well. Were really happy that cinemas are back. Were showing that, with the right content, people are racing back to the cinemas. So its a really positive time.

One of the common threads weve seen during the pandemic is local films helping to keep cinema markets afloat. You said people were worried to go out to anythingdid box office for local films pick up?

If you go back to 2015, we had a great year for [the local] Australian box office, which was about AU$80 million. 2021 was AU$71 million, so it was almost at that peak level. As a comparison, in 2019, the Australian box office was just under AU$23 million. In 2021, we were $71 and a half; three and a half times the 2020 results, and more than one and a half times the 2019 results. There was definitely a spike, and were so happy to see that Australian content on-screen.

Ive been based in the Middle East for the last 16 years, working in exhibition and distribution. Ive come back and joined NACO as executive director, and one of my early focuses is to work with all the different creatives in Australia. Weve got an amazing organization, Screen Australia, which is funded by the federal government. Screen Queensland, Screen Producers Australia. There are all these different organizations that are full of amazing Australian talent that are really focused on local production. Box office [for Australian films] in 2019 was about AU$20 million, from about AU$80 million in 2015, and AU$72 million last year. Theres a massive opportunity, I feel, for Australian productions. There are huge incentives for creatives to film content in Australia. The tax rebates are amazing. If you look at the talent thats come out of Australiaactors and actressesweve got amazing talent. I think weve got all the right ingredients for Australian box office to continue to boom, and I see it hitting that AU$100 million mark quickly. Everyones really focused on that healthy local Australian market. Not because of Covid. Just because we have a lot of talent and people love local stories.

On the exhibition side of the industry, whats the balance between independent/art house cinemas and larger chains in Australia and New Zealand? Were they affected differently during Covid?

The market here is very collaborative. In Australia and New Zealand, there are roughly 2,800 screens between the two countries: 2,300 in Australia and about 500 in New Zealand. Yes, there are major chains: Event [Cinemas], Hoyts [Cinemas], Village [Cinemas], Reading [Cinemas]. But theres a really strong independent market as well. From a box office perspective, it does vary in regard to market share, depending on the film. We have a lot of regional cities in Australia. And there are a lot of local [cinemas]. We always joke that the cinema manager is more popular than the mayor in each town, because he or she brings happiness to the town.

During Covid, the government was supportive in a few different ways. There was a job-keeper program where they gave, basically, subsidies based on wages paid by each company. The government went further than that and gave a contribution to independent cinemas only, to support them during those challenging times. The contributions didnt extend to the major chains, unfortunately. But the government was supportive. And we now have a new arts minister, who seems to be very focused on the arts scene and how we can support local content and the arts industry. From that perspective, I think the ecosystem is very healthy.

Whats the conversation around premiumization in Australia and New Zealand? Is there that same rush to invest in newer, bigger concepts like were seeing in the United States?

Gold Class, the premium VIP experience that now exists globally, was invented by an Australian cinema chain back in the late 80s, early 90s. Weve always been very focused on the experience of going to cinemas, and the standard of cinemas in Australia is exceptional. Theres always been a focus on premium large-format screens, on the VIP experience. Or, recently, on kids experiences and [immersive cinema] concepts.

Technology, from an ecommerce perspective, is now seamless. You easily book your ticket online. You can order food online. You get a follow-up email before you attend [and another] afterward to see how the experience was. There are massive loyalty programs embedded throughout most of the Australian chains. If theres an issue, you get the chance to give feedback, and they can fix it really quickly.

The Australian exhibitors have always been very innovative. I think, moving forward, that trend is going to continue. Dont get me wrong. The Australian industry, like all industries, has its challenges. Weve just had recent wage increases. High inflation. I think we have the lowest unemployment rate in 50 years. So theres a desperate need for more people in Australia, because we dont have as many international students and whatever else coming into the country anymore. We absolutely do have our challenges. But, again, we are focused on the experience of cinemagoing, and I think the numbers this yeartake your pick! Minions, Elvis, MaverickI think Mavericks now the number three or four film of all time in Australia. When we do have the right content, people are racing back. We have an Imax cinema in Melbourne, which is doing demonstrably better than the rest of the circuit. Its doing incredibly well.

Moving forward, you wont be able to do average. Youll need an exceptional experience. Otherwise, people will visit another venue. Perhaps some countries have been slow to adopt. Theyve had that old-style massive box with seats, a generic experience, no service and no food. We all now have really high expectations in regard to anything that we do. I used to joke about coffee; people used to put Nescaf in cinemas, and [theyd] say, Oh, people dont want coffee in cinemas. No, they dont want a Nescaf coffee. They want a barista-quality coffee.

As long as the experience matches or exceeds expectations, and as long as its as good as the best in class, [were doing well]. When were developing ecommerce platforms, we compare them to the best ecommerce platforms in the world, not to the best competitors ecommerce platform. I think thats really critical. Same with F&B. When our industry first [started to] focus on F&B, it would be a microwave pizza and maybe some french fries, if youre lucky, and a hot dog. Now the caliber of F&B in many of our VIP cinemas is as good as what you can get in restaurants. Thats what people expect. Charge me what you need to charge me to make that happen, but I want an exceptional experience. Thats the focus moving forward. Those that dont adopt and evolve and are happy with average, they wont be moving forward. I think market share will drive towards the better experience, the better premium large format, the better service, the better F&B.

Australia and New Zealand are both highly multicultural countries. How does that affect the programming ecosystem? What does the market look like in terms of non-Hollywood international imports?

Australia is less than 250 years old, as a country. If you go into any citydepending on which citythere is a massive mix of different nationalities, which is why our countrys so amazing.

The international content is important, but you see it in clusters. You might see, in parts of Sydney, more of a focus on Chinese content. Other parts might be focused more on Indian content. One thing that Australian chains do incredibly well is that theyve really committed to exceptional talent within the content and film-programming teams. The programming is not generic. Its intimate. Its down to a per-screen, per-location sort of focus. You look at two cinemas that might be five kilometers apart with similar screen counts, and the schedule is totally different based on what [the programming team] knows [about audience demand]. That reflects on the data that theyre gathering from loyalty programs to see whats popular and whats not. Theres no generic Well just play [a basic program], and hopefully people come along. Its really focused on whats going to be most successful. It does vary, and we are very focused on ensuring that you see great content in our cinemas. Weve done sports, weve done concerts, weve done opera, weve done all those different things. Its depending on the location as to how much of that comes back again.

Given your experience in the Middle East, Id be remiss not to ask you about your thoughts on that market. Its been growing so rapidlywhere do you think it will be in five years?

The Middle East is incredibly different from most international markets, in that you have a lot of natural advantages that suit cinema. First of all, for several months of the year, its really hot and you want to be indoors. You cant be outside playing sports. Theres a high disposable income in most of the Middle Eastern countries. [Theyre] very family-focused. Theres less focus on alcohol. From a cost-based perspective, labor costs are significantly lower.

And the experience is amazing. The look factor! Cinema in the Middle East is [about going to] the cinema more than the movie. In the U.S., you might go to watch Maverick. In the Middle East, people go to the cinema and look to see whats on. Theyll find the best available, and thats what theyll go and see. Many of those factors are never going to change. Its always going to be hot. And theres always going to be a huge focus on family. Because of heat and family, theres always this massive focus on shopping malls, and entertainment and food are really strong anchors for malls.

[There have been] massive investments in the experience within cinema. All of the different premium large formats. At Vox [Cinemas], we have a Michelin-starred chef basically catering to our VIP cinemas. We had massive Imax screens, we had 4DX, we had [kids concepts], we had business-class concepts. Its part of the habit. People are really desperate to be entertained. I see it continuing as it has. UAE [used to be] the biggest market; Saudi Arabia opened in 2018 and in the last few years has exceeded the UAE. Its been incredibly busy, and its growing. Saudi will become a billion-dollar market. It just depends on when.

The Middle East is quickly becoming a really critical territory in the global landscape. More than ever, with pressures in other territories and countries, we really do need other territories to step up to ensure that the global box office is still growing in a healthy way.

That habitual moviegoing is so important.

Its something Ive thought about a lot. We always talk in the industry about how whatever generations are not coming. Gen Alpha, Gen Z, millennials, whatever. I love seeing the different forms of content coming to cinema. Its not only about the food, the service, the technology, the seats, the screen, and all that stuff. Today, what happens in the cinema is not negotiable. It has to be amazing. But, in addition to film, youre seeing anime. Youre seeing concerts. Youre seeing sports.

[The cinema industry is] working really collaboratively with distribution. The sector is critical to the art and the culture of the country. I think were going to see that cinema is going to rebound and continue to see great numbers, subject to exhibitors investing in experiences [as they] have done in Australia and New Zealand. Its so mission critical. People wont go to an average experience. They really want to see something special.

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A Career that Spans Continents: Cameron Mitchell on the Evolution of Cinemas in Australasia and the Middle East - Boxoffice - Boxoffice Pro

Samsungs self-secured, integrated SmartThings and Bixby platform create a safe, simple and convenient smart home experience for multi-device households

Samsung Electronics held its annual Samsung Developer Conference (SDC) today in San Francisco, bringing together developers, creators and designers to explore seamless, connected experiences powered by Samsung.

During the event, Samsung shared more about its commitment to creating simplified, game-changing customer experiences, including the companys updated vision for SmartThings as it evolves from a connectivity platform to an enabler of smarter lifestyles. From deeper integration with Bixby to seamless connectivity with Matter-compatible devices, SmartThings is creating a richer, more open world that empowers all users to streamline their connections and their daily lives.

At Samsung, we continuously innovate our devices, platforms and services to be simpler and more convenient. I am proud to share the next generation of our work, like SmartThings, to further our collaboration with partners and developers, said Jong-Hee (JH) Han, Vice Chairman, CEO and Head of Device eXperience (DX) Division at Samsung Electronics. As technologies become more complex, we will always search for ways to make life easier, more connected, and more flexible, so our consumers can focus on what matters most.

Samsungs vision of seamless connectivity is inspired by the philosophy of Calm Technology where devices instantly work together, so consumers can save time on setup and get right into the experience. To realize this vision, Samsung reimagined SmartThings and its connected services and partnerships, including Samsungs Hub Everywhere, extending its capabilities to the entire smart home with audio and visual data as well as SmartThings Energy, SmartThings Pet and SmartThings Cooking. Samsung also partnered with Philips Hue to integrate Philips Hue Sync right into Galaxy devices so smart home lighting can match with music.

The seamless experience will extendbeyond SamsungsecosystemthroughSmartThings integration withMatterand Samsungs membership in theHome Connectivity Alliance. Google and Samsung have worked together to enable users to find and link their devices across platforms by building multi-admin feature on Matter devices. The collaboration will bring more devices and users into the connected home in the future.

Bixby has been integrated more deeply with SmartThings, a tool for developers to build more intelligent voice user interface experiences. As Samsungs representative voice assistant platform, Bixby has evolved to become the on-device AI solution able to control individual Galaxy devices, as well as the cross-device experience throughout the Samsung ecosystem. With the new Bixby Home Studio, developers can now build differentiated, customized experiences for the SmartThings platform. In addition, Bixby will be even more widely available to users with support for Latin American Spanish, starting in November.

As the smart home is becoming more advanced, Samsung is introducing a new security paradigm, enabling Samsung devices to protect each other. Samsung Knox Matrix1 is a private blockchain based platform that turns eligible Samsung devices into a shield to protect users entire device ecosystemfrom Galaxy devices to TVs and home appliances. Plus, users can customize personal privacy settings with the new Security and privacy dashboard, which scans for vulnerabilities, recommends security updates and gives users data management options to keep privacy and security top of mind.

In the past year, Samsung TV Plus Samsungs free, ad-supported streaming TV and video (FAST) platform available on Samsung Smart TVs2 and mobile devicesreached 100% growth in viewership,3and projects three billion hours streamed by the end of the year. To build on this momentum, Samsung TV Plus has expanded its offering by adding partnerships with Lionsgate and Vice Media, providing 8K video on demand. Samsung TV Plus has also gone through a redesign, to reflect its extraordinary variety of content with more than 1,600 channels across 24 countries. Samsung TV Plus is the premium choice for a seamless ad experience, where stream stitching makes ad playback simpler than ever.

After 10 years of service, Samsungs Tizen operating system (OS) continues to offer best-in-class user experiences. The Samsung Gaming Hub brings better, faster and more convenient access to gaming on Samsung Smart TVs, provided by industry-leading partners, such as Xbox, NVIDIA GeForce NOW, Utomik and Amazon Luna. Samsung Gaming Hub bridges expertise in hardware and software to integrate features like AI Upscaling and multitask functions to make gaming on Samsung Smart TVs an immersive, optimized experience.

Tizen OS is also expanding to offer NFTs support with partners like Art Token, laCollection and Nifty Gateway. For B2B customers and developers, Samsung is providing B2B APIs specific to industries and use cases like Syncplay, which allows content to be synchronized and played in multiple signages. Tizen is also introducing SALT, a new content conversion solution to display the highest-quality HDR10+ content on supported TVs.

By introducing the new One UI 5, Samsung has empowered users to easily customize their devices look and feel, while enhancing productivity and providing amazing experiences across devices and platforms. One UI 5 brings more personalized experiences with custom-built Modes and Routines, and a Dynamic Lock screen that displays multiple visuals on your phone, your Galaxy Watch and other One UI 5 devices. With the new Bixby Text Call feature, Bixby Voice will answer calls on your behalf and share typed messages with the caller, speaking aloud as if you had answered. One UI 5 also introduces new daily health solutions to help track health and wellness in one place. This includes the Samsung Privileged Health SDK, which enables developers to build apps that leverage the BioActive Sensor on the Galaxy Watch.4

Samsung Research is looking beyond todays horizon to innovate for a better tomorrow, full of relentless innovation and open collaboration. Samsung Research is making its robot arm manipulation code available on GitHub, enabling academics, researchers and developers to examine new ideas in robotic manipulation.

The team at Samsung Research was also inspired by the new wellness features Samsung has introduced, particularly on the Galaxy Watch5. To find new use-cases leveraging these features, Samsung Research is working with universities and healthcare institutions that will explore areas like heart health, stress, blood pressure, lung health and neuroscience. As a result, Samsung is offering a full stack SDK the Samsung Health Stack which will jumpstart research into important health fields and spark new development.

Samsung invites developers, creators, partners and more to join in on its commitment to open collaboration and seamless experiences. For more information about the Samsung Developer Conference (SDC) 2022, please visit developer.samsung.com.

1 Starting as early as late 2023, Samsung Knox Matrix will be initially available on selected Samsung devices. Support for other manufacturers products will follow later.

2 Samsung TV Plus is available for selected Samsung Smart TVs only.

3 Viewership from September 2021 to August 2022 compared to viewership from September 2020 to August 2021

4 Available on Galaxy Watch4 series and Galaxy Watch5 series.

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Samsung Showcases Evolution of SmartThings and Introduces New Device Experiences at SDC22 - Samsung

If youre in cybersecurity, you likely know that SIEM stands for Security Information and Event Management (SIEM), is pronounced sim (or seem if youre in Europe) and that SIEM systems help security teams detect and respond to threats, manage incident response, and stay compliant. Over the last 20+ years, the SIEM market has had quite an evolution and growth explosion.

Today, SIEM accounts for approximately $4 billion of total cybersecurity spend and is expected to increase to $6.24 billion by 2027. This is easy to understand as SIEM has evolved into the data store for cybersecurity data which has been exploding as the volume of data and number of alerts is growing exponentially.

According to Ponemon Institute, the average number of cybersecurity products a company uses is 45. Some vendors claim Fortune 2000 companies have upwards of 130 tools. Each of these is generating both log files as well as alerts. But before we go into where the SIEM market goes from here, lets first take a look back at how SIEM has evolved.

Phase 1: The first SIEMs took in data and served up alerts

In the early part of the century, the first wave of SIEM vendors were the likes of ArcSight (now owned by Micro Focus) and QRadar (now owned by IBM). These early SIEMs married both log files (raw data) and security alerts (summarised events). Back then, it was about ingesting data and kicking off alerts from all the cybersecurity products that were being used mostly host- and network-based intrusion detection devices (ISS et al), network tools and firewalls (Check Point, Cisco et al). Endpoint and anti-virus software would come a little later.

Most of what a SIEM could really do back then was get data in, aggregate it, and send alerts to security teams. They were also used for data retention and compliance.

The most prevalent first- and second-generation SIEMs also came with very basic correlation engines, the best they knew how to do at that time. They had the ability to build correlation rules and say, If I see X, Y and Z, then open a case in our ticketing system and send an alert to the security team.

But on-premises processing power against unstructured data was still quite slow, so it could take eons to query your essentially raw data and get any semblance of an answer about the root cause of an alert, security incident or otherwise.

Then the data got big

There still wasnt nearly as much data as there is today. What was being generated back then was easily parked in a database usually Oracle or DB2 and behind the scenes. With time though, enterprises continued their digital journey, and the data began to explode in volume but all of this data was still being forced inside rigid databases.

Eventually, structured databases could not keep up with the needs of IT or security teams. They couldnt keep up with the volume, variety or velocity of the data coming at them.

Early SIEM vendors also couldnt keep up as structured databases were clearly not able to adapt and writing new parsers to ingest new log sources took weeks or months.

Phase 2: Splunk entered the market, making search and access easy

Splunk was founded in 2003 as essentially the first-ever flexible and powerful store and search engine for big data. It introduced indexing which can search any kind of raw data from structured to unstructured and quickly transformed the data into searchable events.

The companys technology was a breakthrough because it made it so much easier for organisations to ingest, search, store, visualise and get insights from all of their growing data.

When they entered the SIEM market later, it changed the game for original SIEM vendors. Its first appearance as a Leader on the Gartner MQ for SIEM was in 2012. While the companys bread and butter was mostly IT operations use cases up until that point, once they introduced a SIEM, the indexing and schema at read capabilities allowed security teams to store, search and drill down into their data far more efficiently to get much faster SOC answers too.

Splunks architecture was far more effective than legacy vendors, and the company had somewhat of a market lead for many years.

Phase 3: SIEM met UEBA, aka anomaly detection

At this point, the world was beginning to see more zero-day attacks: computer software vulnerabilities previously unknown until adversaries find and take advantage of them. The SIEM industry had to keep up by trying to make even more sense of the data that was being stored. Eventually, User and Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA) was created to apply more cyber intelligence to this problem.

Most vendors were still trying to bolt some form of UEBA on top of their SIEM, but for UEBA to be at its best for anomaly detection, it needs to be able to pull data from all of the cyber data lakes that companies create.

Exabeam announced our UEBA product in 2014 in the partners pavilion at a Splunk .conf Users conference.

Around that time, most CISOs and security teams were drowning in a sea of data accompanied by too many security alerts, many of them not actionable. UEBA and alert triage tools have helped significantly, but this is still a problem today with legacy SIEMs.

Todays SIEMs cost too much

Fast forward to 2022, and what we have is a set of antiquated technology stacks that are either still on-premises or have moved to the cloud as lift and shifts, which are super expensive to maintain. Combined with the fact that cyber data is exploding, we end up with SIEMs that cost too much.

Its not uncommon to see large organisations spend upwards of $10m per year on legacy and next-gen log management and SIEM solutions.

Some early SIEM players still have nearly 50% of their customer install base running their SIEMs on-premises, which is far more costly than the cloud. But even as more customers move to the cloud, they have woken up to the fact that SIEM costs have gotten out of control.

So where does SIEM go from here?

Its time to bring the best of what cloud-native technology can do for SIEM. Cloud is super-fast, offers inexpensive storage, instantaneous search and can integrate a threat detection engine that can catch bad actors, including the majority who are now breaking in with valid credentials.

The SIEM industry has been ripe for forward evolution for some time, and we are committed to leading that evolution.

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Looking back at the evolution of SIEM - SecurityBrief Australia