Category Archives: Evolution

New York Times

Challenging Mainstream Thought About Beauty's Big Hand in Evolution New York Times Richard O. Prum, a Yale ornithologist and evolutionary biologist, offers a partial answer in a new book, The Evolution of Beauty: How Darwin's Forgotten Theory of Mate Choice Shapes the Animal World and Us. He writes about one kind of beauty ...

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Challenging Mainstream Thought About Beauty's Big Hand in Evolution - New York Times

WRBL

New book documents struggles teaching evolution in Alabama WRBL TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) A new book has been published about the challenges of teaching evolution in Alabama. The work by three University of Alabama professors and an associate is called Evolution Education in the American South: Culture, Politics, ... and more »

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New book documents struggles teaching evolution in Alabama - WRBL

May 29, 2017 by Stuart Roberts Credit: University of Cambridge

A study by scientists from the University of Cambridge has revealed how cooperative behaviour between insect family members changes how rapidly body size evolves with the speed of evolution increasing when individual animals help one another.

Cooperative behaviour is a key part of animal family life: parents help offspring by supplying them with food, and siblings can also work together to acquire food. The Cambridge study, published today in Nature Ecology and Evolution, looked at the burying beetle unusual in the insect world as the parents feed their offspring.

Larvae in small broods are well supplied with food by their parents and grow large. In the parents' absence, larvae can also help each other to forage for food. However, in the absence of their parents, small broods of larvae are less effective at helping each other and can never grow as big.

"For our study, we played the role of natural selection. In some experimental beetle populations, we chose only the largest beetles to breed at each generation and in some we chose only the smallest beetles," said Benjamin Jarrett from the Department of Zoology at the University of Cambridge, who led the study.

"Crucially, we also changed the social conditions within beetle families. In some populations, we allowed parents to help their offspring, but in other populations we removed the parents, and larvae had to help each other. We found that the social conditions made a big difference to how quickly beetle body size evolves over generations."

Beetles only evolved a larger body size when parents were present to help rear their young. In stark contrast, smaller body size only evolved when beetle parents were removed, and there were too few larvae to help each other.

The experiment helps explain how different species of burying beetle might have evolved their different body sizes. In general, larger species of beetle have more diligent parents than smaller species.

Burying beetles use the dead body of a small animal, like a mouse or bird, for reproduction. The parents shave and bury the carcass, to make it into an edible nest for their larvae. The larvae can feed themselves on the carrion, but the parent beetles also regurgitate partly digested food to them. The species used in this study has quite variable levels of parental care: occasionally larvae have to fend for themselves on the carcass because they have been abandoned by their parents.

"Previous work has focused on the puzzle of how cooperative behaviour evolves, because natural selection seems to favour animals that are selfish," said Professor Rebecca Kilner, who is senior author of this paper. "We have shown that what happens next, in evolutionary terms, is just as interesting. Once cooperation has evolved, it can change the way in which evolution then unfolds."

The researchers now hope to uses experimental evolution to understand what happens across many generations when changing the extent of parental care.

"We can remove parents from caring for their offspring in one generation, and we do this to their offspring too, and their grandoffspring, and so on," added Jarrett. "We currently have populations of beetles that have not had parents looking after them as they grow up for 25 generations.

"What this does is change what evolution is working on. Natural selection is usually acting on the combination of parents and offspring, and now, by removing parents, we have changed the traits on which evolution acts."

Explore further: Burying beetles: Could being a good father send you to an early grave?

More information: Cooperative interactions within the family enhance the capacity for evolutionary change in body size, Nature Ecology and Evolution, dx.doi.org/10.1038/241559-017-0178

New research shows beetles that received no care as larvae were less effective at raising a large brood as parents. Males paired with 'low quality' females - those that received no care as larvae - paid the price by dying ...

Young beetles pick up sensory signals from adult insects to increase their chances of being fed - and shorten the odds of being killed instead.

University of Georgia researchers have confirmed that becoming a parent brings about more than just the obvious offspringit also rewires the parents' brain.

Most parents would hotly deny favouring one child over another but new research suggests they may have little choice in the matter.

(Phys.org)A team of researchers with members from several institutions in Germany has found that the female burying beetle gives off a pheromone during parental care that causes male beetles to temper their sexual advances. ...

Insects that cannibalize often do so to boost their nutrition, but a new study of Colorado potato beetles suggests another reason for the behavior: to lay low from predators.

Princeton researchers have developed a way to place onto surfaces special coatings that chemically "communicate" with bacteria, telling them what to do. The coatings, which could be useful in inhibiting or promoting bacterial ...

A research group at the University of Helsinki discovered the fastest event of speciation in any marine vertebrate when studying flounders in an international research collaboration project. This finding has an important ...

(Phys.org)A team of researchers affiliated with several institutions in China has dated rice material excavated from a dig site in South China's Zhejiang province back to approximately 9,400 years ago. In their paper published ...

It has now been shown for the first time that non-avian reptiles are able to adjust their calls in relation to environmental noise as is known for the complex vocal communication systems of birds and mammals. In Tokays, night ...

Climate change is a threat to all species, but which species will be under the greatest threat?

A study by scientists from the University of Cambridge has revealed how cooperative behaviour between insect family members changes how rapidly body size evolves with the speed of evolution increasing when individual ...

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Pheromones effect more rapid evolution.

care to link some studies to support that one?

Cap'n, is this the first time you've encountered Bubba? He's a classic crackpot. Just read a few of his posts and discover his singular fixation.

methinks that once we start seeing source material and the choices made we can narrow down the person behind the sock

Ross Nicholson, though often writes under B. Nicholson. Unfortunately if you press him for evidence, he will link to his own material, including his own self-published book.

No one has ever asked for references. All species ever studied rely upon pheromones to ascertain their numbers, determine resources, and regulate their fertility, including human beings. Humans have the largest and most active scent glands of any species. (Montagna, Sakolov (sp?)) Scents are why pubic hair is curly. Human pheromones contain chemicals which mark us as human beings. Sebaleic acid is found nowhere else in nature. (Nicolaides, N. Science Jan 1974) Sapienic acid is almost as rare. Pheromones are species specific and components are synergistic, just like: fish oil. Only fools believe that human beings have some innate need for deep sea fish oil. I think human beings need to kiss each other to get almost exactly the same chemicals from human skin surfaces. Harpies have no chemistry, they're religious believers that "bad thinking causes disease" which is obviously impossible to disprove. There are thousands of annotated facts in my book. Study it.

a book is not a study

i am not asking for anecdote nor your personal belief because that means you're promoting a faith, not science

you are on a science site making blanket statements that i am saying are wrong - so prove your point with evidence

and by evidence i mean reputable peer reviewed journal studies that can be replicated and thus validated

.

otherwise you're no different than any other religious crank

.

.

.

and so far it's not helping that bubba thinks a book of anecdote is somehow equivalent to a journal study...

Principia was self published. There's no stigma. This format allows only 1000 characters to get the basics across. There are thousands of references, yes, Montagna and Parakal, 1984, discusses curly hair in scent dissemination. Yes, the upper and middle meati have erectile tissues that engorge during intercourse and deflate on intromission. The same erectile tissues block upper and middle meati (where most smell takes place) with anger (obviously to prevent auto reception of pheromone). The reference to the otolaryngologist who scoped his wife during intercourse and also when she got mad at him is included. I saw the same thing in my studies. Indeed, I discovered that upper & middle meati ALWAYS move air front to back, never in reverse except at high velocity: sneezes. I used plastic models made from cadavers, & no, I don't have a personality. Neither do you. A couple of you (children perhaps? Who knows who you are?) mock me from anonymity. Read the book 1st. Then mock.

Sorry, I don't know how to make links. A lot of people believing something does not make it true. For instance, today is not "Tuesday", that is merely a consensus of opinion. Actually, there's nothing Tuesday about today, is there? There is no such thing as a personality, there are no "psychological" states. There is no such thing as an ego. Self concepts do not exist. There is a lot of work involved in disabusing oneself of such religious notions. From my perusing this site, which is useful to me occasionally, very few have done the work of confirmation needed to differentiate what is known vs what is merely assumed from consensus. Socratic logic can be helpful, but even Socrates' axioms cannot stand against experimental evidence to the contrary, if valid.

you have yet to provide any reputable evidence other than "because you say so"

even the text would be usable to the most basic internet literate user as you can copy/paste it back to the browser

read all 16 boxes and consider it before replying with yet another pheromone claim, especially considering the above link i presented showing there is, and i quote:" there is no robust bioassay-led evidence for the widely published claims that four steroid molecules are human pheromones: androstenone, androstenol, androstadienone and estratetraenol."

.

so your continued posting of pheromone BS is called faith, or belief, not science

Admittedly, some things I accept as true may be mere consensus. No one disputes that the more social a species, the more pheromone components it exhibits, the larger & more active the scent glands, etc., even though this might be just an artifact of the consensus, people falling into line, like Dead Poets Society (a film I worked on in my youth). It's an observation of one of my professors at SUNY-ESF, Silverstein, upon finding 25 components in a single pheromone. I remember his name only because he objected with anti-semitic virulence at my "Jewish" pronunciation of his name as ein (one in German) instead of een , or vice versa, I forget.

3- science has the added restriction of peer review which, as proven, though it is not 100% effective all the time, it is the best method to limit pseudoscience exposure, as it will destroy a scientists reputation should they post a blatant lie (see: https://en.wikipe...akefield )

4- the information in a study or in science is able to be checked without padding your own personal pocket whereas a private personal book pads your pocket regardless of the contents - you have a no lose situation where you get financial compensation regardless of the content. you could be posting a list of phone numbers from 1620 for all we know [hyperbole intended]

get the point yet?

science isn't about consensus any more than space exploration is about lemon meringue

when you hear about consensus in any science topic it is usually because the overwhelming repeatedly validated evidence all points towards a single point: gravity, climate change, GR/SR, etc

see that link above? or here: http://rspb.royal...full.pdf

Yes, the cure for crime is 250mg of healthy adult male facial skin surface lipid pheromone, and yes it is literally on the end of your nose if you are man enough. If you mishandle it as you collect it, you may wander off searching for leprechauns, but it is there, "overlooked" literally by everyone here but me.

i am a retired soldier, firefighter, investigator. i've been insulted by the best and you are not it LOL

so you're just another jvk wanna-be crank with a "buy my book" message

thanks for validating that one for me

Come on. Take a stand. Have some balls.

Thank-you for the lesson. I watched the Ted talk of the fellow in question talking about the Monel Chemical Senses work. If you read my chapter on pheromone chemistry in the book I wrote, you will see that the oddities seen in pheromones of other species manifest themselves in the 735 chemicals in human face grease. For instance, it's a hard cold fact that methylation presents on every even carbon of the chemicals from the feet in humans, never odd carbons, always even. Chemical identification was robust in Nicolaides' day, once identified, never disputed, I accept that. We know from at least 3 experiments that human pheromone reception is insidious.

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Speed of animal evolution enhanced by cooperative behaviour - Phys.Org

Steve Nicol looks at the saga of Arsene Wenger's future, and his belief that he'll walk should he lose any personal power. Stevie Nicol believes Arsenal's FA Cup triumph over Chelsea will be enough to keep Arsene Wenger at the club. An Arsenal fan and a Chelsea fan document their journey to the FA Cup final, where only one can leave Wembley Stadium happy. Arsene Wenger reaffirms his loyalty to Arsenal after winning the FA Cup for the seventh time.

The warm afterglow of the FA Cup win will not last long for Arsenal with numerous problems to be addressed at the club, with or without coach Arsene Wenger.

The manager's future should be sorted out this week with a board meeting to discuss a new two-year contract taking place on Tuesday. He wants to stay at the Emirates and it is likely that he will be in charge when the new season starts. So much power has been concentrated in Wenger's hands that it would be unthinkable that he should leave now.

The board recognised during the course of the season that the situation is unhealthy: If the manager resigned suddenly, like Sir Alex Ferguson did at Man United, the vacuum left behind would be damaging. There is little framework in place that would adequately support a new man.

The most sensible course would be to create an infrastructure while Wenger is still in charge. Yet the problem there is that it would mean a diminution of the 67-year-old's control.

The board and manager have very different ideas about the direction of the club. Wenger has dismissed the possibility of working with a director of football and is skeptical about the increasing influence of statistical analysts. But Ivan Gazidis, the chief executive, has pledged that team's struggles this season would be "a catalyst for change." Arsenal need rebuilding, whether or not Wenger remains in place.

Arsenal's 2-1 victory over Chelsea in the FA Cup final brought glory but only adds to the sense of instability. There are some within the club who see the FA Cup as a consolation prize, an underwhelming bauble compared with the cash bonanza of claiming a Champions League place. By the standards Arsenal's hierarchy have come to expect, finishing outside the top four, and facing a season in the Europa League, is failure despite the addition of more silverware. For Wenger, winning the cup brought vindication, though the board might not see it that way.

It's hard to deny that Arsenal underachieved in the Premier League. The season should serve as a reality check for Wenger and his methods. Certainly, he needs to change the way he operates. Some element of compromise will be needed if the manager is going to continue in his role. That will be difficult for him to reconcile.

The squad also needs an overhaul. Alexis Sanchez, the team's most important player, is in demand and will consider the overtures of Manchester City and Chelsea before deciding whether or not to commit to a new contract in North London. Wenger has always played a dangerous game when letting players run their contracts down to the final year, something he's seemingly allowed Sanchez and Mesut Ozil to do.

Robin van Persie headed to Manchester United when Wenger insisted he was not for sale and into the final year of his deal. He famously insisted that Cesc Fabregas was staying even when the midfielder was negotiating with Barcelona. It was the same with Samir Nasri. Everyone accepted that Nasri was bound for City ... except his manager. And Bacary Sagna also moved to City when his deal expired.

At times he has appeared to be in denial about losing his top players.

If Sanchez departs -- at this point, Arsenal would have to restructure their pay scale to keep him with the player reportedly demanding 300,000-a-week -- Wenger will struggle to replace the Chile international with someone of similar ability without the lure of Champions League involvement.

Ozil is in a similar position. The German may not be quite in the same demand as Sanchez, but losing him would leave a hole in the side. Despite what Wenger says about making both men fulfill their contracts and leave for nothing next summer, he cannot allow that to happen. Stan Kroenke may be a largely silent owner, but he would quickly become vocal at the prospect of losing more than 120 million's worth of players for nothing.

Arsenal do not need to sell. They need to buy. Wenger has to find the elusive dominant midfielder that he has sought for so long and so fruitlessly. He needs a centre-back and a reliable goal scorer. He knows that for all the elation and emotion of Wembley, a poor start next season would see the mood turn toxic at the Emirates.

Yet Wenger was in a bullish mood after the FA Cup final. He will be combative when he meets the board. He believes his way of working is correct and that he has the record and experience to dictate the way the club should run. For Wenger, winning that trophy only adds to his authority.

Meanwhile, the board want change and need it. They cannot afford for it to happen too fast, though, as it's hard to imagine any manager filling the void Wenger would leave. It is in no one's interests to rip up the Arsenal template and start again. Evolution, not revolution, is what is necessary.

And so, the club face a difficult balancing act. They need Wenger to provide stability while Arsenal edge toward the future. Yet the Wembley win is likely to make Wenger less inclined to compromise. It might have been cleaner, easier and better for Arsenal in the long term had Chelsea beaten them at Wembley.

As one of the so-called "experts" shamed by Ozil for our cup final predictions, I thought that the German international's tweet showing the scorelines projected by myself and a number of fellow writers was very funny. There are times when you have to hold up your hands, admit you got it wrong and congratulate the team that made you look silly.

However, the most foolish prediction I made last season was in September and October, when I was telling anyone who would listen that Arsenal would win the Premier League. Santi Cazorla was marshaling the midfield, Sanchez was superb at No. 9 and Ozil was flourishing in the space behind him. The Gunners had the best shape of any team I saw in the first three months of the campaign.

Then it all went wrong. So thanks, Arsenal, for making me look doubly daft. That's Wenger's team for you: sometimes brilliant, frequently infuriating, but never, ever predictable.

Tony Evans has been a sports journalist for more than 20 years. He writes for ESPN FC on the Premier League. Twitter: @tonyevans92a.

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Arsenal need evolution, not revolution - ESPN FC (blog)

At some point, the bubble bursts. For some of us, this may prove more traumatizing than for others, as may be the case if you happen to have SCID Severe Combined Immunodeficiency once referred to as bubble boy disease. This seemingly cutesy appellation is due not to John Travolta and the 1976 Aaron Spelling-produced, made-for-TV movie The Boy in the Plastic Bubble, but the case of David Vetter, the real-life boy who lived for 12 years in a sterile plastic bubble before dying of cancer from a bone marrow transplant in 1984. I remember sporadically watching him on the nightly news, particularly his lugubrious eyes peering through the NASA-designed inflated plastic tubing as a newscaster talked about how his parents tried to provide a semblance of normal life for him. Needless to say, the bubble did not look fun.

The story of David Vetter, both his disease and his life as a science experiment, spawned a spate of bubble movies that are as much about extreme parental attachment as they are about the illusion that free will can be contained and controlled. Unlike, say, Carrie, a film about a domineering/abusive mother and what happens next if you attempt to obviate menstrual education, these films capture not only a universal feeling of isolation, but also an adolescent sense of rebellion the idea that the membrane is by nature porous rather than plexiglass. Whats more, the technology of the bubble might change, but the tender teenage heart beating inside remains the same.

Isolation and illness aside, nothing impedes a developing crush on your sexy next-door neighbor like living in a sterile bubble. Just ask Maddy Whittier (Amandla Stenberg), the cheerful, lovely bookworm of Nicola Yoons best-selling YA novel Everything, Everything, now a film directed by Stella Meghie. Hermetically sealed inside her tony Los Angeles home if you had the be confined to a bubble, this is definitely the one you would want Maddy is 18, but has experienced zero contact with the outside world since she was diagnosed with SCID as a baby. Trapped in such sleekly schmancy environs, her entire world consists of the internet, her mother (Anika Noni Rose) and her nurse (Ana de la Reguera). That is, until floppy-haired loner Olly Bright (Nick Robinson) moves next door and bursts that bubble, baby.

Teenagers are naturally philosophical and I love being a part of that conversation, Nicola Yoon tells me at a press junket for the movie. The way Maddy understands the world first is through her illustrations and her reviews. She brings the world in to where she is, but then she sees Olly as pure physicality where she feels trapped in her own. Your first romantic love opens you up to the world.

If youve read the book or seen the previews, you know Maddy and Olly eventually hightail it to Hawaii where they have sex and eat snacks. The outside world, though hazardous, is beautiful and romantic and full of affordable resort hotels. The Big Twist at the end maintains the notion of imminent free will. Just as doctors feared what would happen to Vetter when he eventually became a teenager though he appeared cheerful with his predicament on camera, he was often sullen and angry with his doctors Maddys freedom comes with a price. Will she ever have emotional freedom? Do we all live in a bubble? And, once it pops, will there always be residue?

Maddys a positive, happy person before she meets Olly, Yoon continues. Teenagers want independence and protection. They want to explore the world but from the safety of the parents house. You cant have both.

Or you can. That is, if you live in a bubble that has wi-fi and cell service. But not if its 1976 and youre Tod Lubitch (John Travolta) and in love with your horsey, long-haired next door neighbor Gina Biggs (Glynnis OConnor). While Tod gets to leave his bubble in a mini-bubble that his friends port to the beach and then later in a space suit he wears to high school theres even an amazing scene where he graduates in the space suit with the cap and gown over it its not until he realizes his love for Gina (and possibly her horse) that he crosses the threshold of his bubble and, unprotected, walks out of his parents house, hops into the saddle and rides off into the credits. Since were in Spell-o-vision, we dont see Tod become ill. Instead hes manumitted by a combo platter of teen love and Paul Williams ballads.

Ten years later, Crystal Heart, in some ways the platonic form of this oeuvre, raised the same ethical dilemmas as the movie asked the consequent question, what do you do when the boy in the bubble becomes the man in the bubble and the next-door neighbor isnt a next-door neighbor but rock star Tawny Kitaen. How do you have sex through a glass wall while your parents are awake and in the house? And wheres the Windex?

While Maddy is the ultimate heroine kind, smart, plucky Crystal Hearts Christopher Newley (Lee Curreri from Fame) is all dark side. Though all three bubbles share a certain fishbowl quality, Maddys feels overly regulated yet homey, Tods like a science experiment and Christophers like living inside an MTV video (not for nothing is Tawni Kitaen the writhing Whitesnake mascot). When Christopher breaks free, its violent; he throws a chair through the glass, shattering the crystal heart. Maddys escape involves credit cards and airplanes that magically dont need identification for boarding. At the end of Crystal Heart, Christopher and and Alley (Kitaen) have a love montage and then he falls ill on the beach, eats her tears and dies. Thus the horseback ride of The Boy in the Plastic Bubble becomes a message that death is the only antidote to the illusion of control.

Though ultimately bittersweet, Yoons interpretation asserts a different, gentler premise that human connection is stronger than any wall and love may (or may not) set us free. Both the book and the movie engender necessary hope without being saccharine or sappy. While its predecessors turned obsession into escape routes, Everything, Everything shows the importance of the interior journey as well as the genetic imperative of contact with the outside world. After all, the princess cant stay locked up in her tower forever.

The book is a fairytale, Yoon says. It was important that Maddy be happy in her home and in her situation. Her mother made her feel safe and I didnt want her to be in a prison as much as yearning for something more, something different. At first Olly thinks shes cute and loves her optimism because his situation in his house isnt so safe. The thing I say about love is that it changes everything.

Like Travoltas character in The Boy in the Plastic Bubble, David Vetter wore an actual space suit to leave his bubble (though his was more arduous to put on and had to remain attached via air-hose to the original parent bubble; apparently, Vetter wore the suit only seven times and then lost interest). When Vetter was 4 years old, he attacked the walls of the bubble, poking tiny holes in the plastic with a butterfly syringe someone had mistakenly left in one of the chambers. At that point, his treatment team decided it best to inform the boy of the invisible yet lethal dangers lurking in the outside world, where just a moment of contact might be the beginning or end of it all.

Read more:

Popping the bubble: The cinematic evolution of SCID in YA contemporary romance - Salon

The King of Clay over the years

A lot has changed since a 19-year-old Rafael Nadal became only the second man in history to win Roland Garros at the first attempt. The bulging biceps, long hair and headband remain, but the Spaniard's sense of style has certainly changed.

The King of Clay over the years

2005 Nadal went into his first French Open as an inexperienced 18-year-old and emerged a grand slam champion -- beating Roger Federer in the semifinals on his 19th birthday. The 2005 season was the birth of what would go on to be Nadal's classic look: sleeveless top and three-quarter length shorts.

The King of Clay over the years

2006 By the following year, Nadal had cemented his place among tennis' elite and was developing a fearsome reputation on clay. This time wearing a slightly less garish light blue, Nadal picked up his second consecutive French Open title by becoming the first man to beat Roger Federer in a grand slam final.

The King of Clay over the years

2007 In 2007, the then 20-year-old Nadal's status as the 'King of Clay' was sealed. Defeat to Federer at the Masters Series in Hamburg ended an 81-match unbeaten streak on clay, which remains a men's Open Era record today. At that year's French Open, Nadal opted for the reverse of 2006's top-bandana combo -- this time with matching trainers to boot.

The King of Clay over the years

2008 A year later, Nadal opted for a variation on his debut French Option look, this time sporting an all-green combo. Nadal reached world No. 1 for the first time in his career in 2008, helped by his fourth consecutive Roland Garros title -- matching Bjorn Borg's record of consecutive trophies, while also becoming only the seventh man to win a grand slam without dropping a set.

The King of Clay over the years

2009 Nadal's first dramatic transformation came in 2009. Gone were the sleeveless shirts and three-quarter lengths, in came the sleeves and fluorescent, clashing colors. Perhaps it was the sleeves restricting the powerful arms (or maybe a knee injury), but Nadal suffered the first of only two French Open defeats. Despite a shock fourth-round loss to Robin Soderling, Nadal set a record of 31 consecutive wins at Roland Garros.

The King of Clay over the years

2010 In 2010, Nadal bounced back from the 2009 disappointment with a daring multicolored number. He went on to exact revenge on Soderling, beating him in the final after the Swede had upset Federer in the quarterfinals. Federer's failure to reach the semis meant Nadal regained the world No. 1 spot, while it was also the second time he won the French Open without dropping a set.

The King of Clay over the years

2011 The following year, Nadal dialed down the brightness, instead choosing to return to one of his earliest Roland Garros styles. And it worked -- he maintained his No. 1 ranking throughout the clay court season and beat perennial rival Federer in the final.

The King of Clay over the years

2012 Perhaps in an attempt to gain the upper hand on opponents by blending into the clay, Nadal opted for an orange-ish-red look for the first time at the French Open. It appeared to work, as Nadal dropped just 30 games in the first five rounds, before beating Djokovic in four sets in the final to claim his seventh Roland Garros title and surpass Borg as the tournament's most successful player.

The King of Clay over the years

2013 The 2013 French Open was the debut of Nadal's latest wardrobe change: the short shorts. In an all-Spanish final, Nadal defeated David Ferrer in straight sets -- although bizarrely dropped from fourth in the world to fifth after his victory.

The King of Clay over the years

2014 Perhaps a sign of entering into his late 20s, Nadal's colors switched from fluorescent to more mellow tones. Despite being hampered by injuries and suffering surprise defeats early in the clay court season, Nadal grinded out arguably his most impressive Roland Garros victory. Another victory in the final against Djokovic took him to 14 grand slams (level with Pete Sampras) and it was his fifth straight French Open triumph.

The King of Clay over the years

2015 Nadal's struggle to find form continued into 2015's clay court season, dropping outside of the world's top five for the first time since 2005. Looking like an athletic version of the Cookie Monster, Nadal crashed out of the French Open in the quarterfinals to Djokovic. It ended his 39-match unbeaten run and marked just his second defeat on the Parisian clay.

The King of Clay over the years

The following year, the shorts got even shorter and the two-tone top returned as Nadal exited the French Open in the third round -- although this time it was a wrist injury that defeated him. Despite the disappointment, there was another milestone for Nadal as he became only the eighth man to reach 200 grand slam wins.

The King of Clay over the years

2017 Nadal debuted his strong blue look against Benoit Paire in this year's first round on Monday. Is your money on the King of Clay to complete 'La Decima?'

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French Open: Rafael Nadal's Roland Garros evolution - CNN International

Supporters of Iranian presidential candidate Ebrahim Raisi at a campaign rally in Tehran on May 16.

Maryam was 22 days old when Iranians dethroned their king in 1979. The Islamic regime that followedwith its black and brown robes, covered heads, and dour religiositywas just a fact of life, she says. We never thought about anything different, because we hadnt seen anything else. Thirty-eight years later, that acceptance is wearing thin.

The May 19 presidential voteand the jubilant street celebrations that followed the reelection of President Hassan Rouhani, the nearest thing to a liberal allowed onto the ballotshowed an Iranian society much changed since the days of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeinis Islamic revolution and unwilling to turn back. One of my teachers used to tell us that if any strand of your hair showed, you would be hung up by it, says Maryam, who like others interviewed for this article declined to give her last name for fear of retribution. Now you can drive around in a car with your boyfriend, and no one says anything.

Khomeinis successor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and the coterie of clerics and unelected officials who hold most power in Iran see elections as a means to preserve and legitimize the Islamic revolution; many voters view them as a means to force the liberalization of the regime. Although those propositions are at odds, the shared belief that the ballot box is an important instrument has been a source of stability in a region where several recent experiments in democracy have flamed out.

Nobody interviewed on May 20 at the Tehran street parties celebrating Rouhanis victory said they had the stomach for another revolution. Memories of the brutal crackdown that followed the birth of the Green Movement in 2009in which Iranians challenged Mahmoud Ahmadinejads victory in an election many believe was riggedand of the Middle East bursting into flames in the wake of the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings have damped Iranians appetite for revolt.

While Irans presidential elections offer a very limited form of democracy, the quadrennial ritual has been instrumental in moving the country in a more liberal direction. In every election aspirations and demands are expressed, and that gives them legitimacy. And what is ceded cant be taken back, says Saeed Laylaz, an Iranian economist who advised former President Mohammad Khatami.

Since a divide emerged between the regimes conservatives and reformists in the 1990s, a conservative candidate has claimed the presidency only twice: in 2005, when Ahmadinejad won amid record-low turnout, and in 2009, when he was returned to power in a poll marred by allegations of massive fraud.

Rouhanis 19-point victory margin, despite rising unemployment and stagnant living standards, underscores the widespread support that opening up the economy and expanding personal freedoms enjoy across generations of voters. Turnout reached 73 percent not because the incumbent is hugely popular, but because reform-minded Iranians worried that high levels of absenteeism would hand victory to a hard-liner, turning the clock back toward 1979. The conservative cleric Ebrahim Raisi, who was widely perceived to have Khameneis backing, drew just 38 percent of the vote.

Among those 16 million Raisi voters are many who support a more Islamicized country; many Rouhani voters also back the system. Mahdi, 28, voted for Raisi, and Iman, 25, for Rouhani, yet both regard the revolution as sacred. The young men, who are members of the Basij, a volunteer paramilitary group, view the Islamic Republic as having a unique form of religion-infused governance in which elections play a supporting role. There may be two candidates, but they are part of the system, Mahdi says. Neither is operating outside this framework.

If most Iranian youth are conservative by Western standards, their outlooks and lifestyles are also becoming more diverse. Hanging out at a Tehran skateboarding park in a baseball cap and T-shirt, Arshia, 19, says he listens to rap and trap, a subgenre of American hip-hop. At home, he watches The Walking Dead on satellite TV. We get our ideas from Instagram and social media, he says. If it wasnt for them, Id probably be like my grandfather and pray.

Arshia is unimpressed with Irans politicianstheyre all clericsbut he voted for Rouhani because he says life has improved under him. Skateboarding was frowned upon just a few years ago, when a policeman once stopped him riding home from school to ask if he thought he was living in America. Says Arshia: For me the revolution represents mass stupidity. Only people who are brainwashed talk about it.

Iman, a 33-year-old born at the height of the 1980s baby boom, which has contributed to a youth-unemployment rate that averaged 26 percent last year, voted for the first time on May 19. The owner of a music store in central Tehran that sells tars, setars, and other traditional Persian instruments says he feared that a Raisi win would bring back the bans on broadcasts of Western music and limits on live concerts that Ahmadinejad instituted during his eight-year rule. Conservatives hate music, Iman says, because if music becomes more popular, no one will listen to the imams.

Rouhanis strongest support came from the over-60s, according to a pre-election poll by the Washington-based Ippo Group. Already adults at the time of the revolution, they remember how things were before 1979, when they lived in an autocracy but had fewer religious and social restrictions. Farah, 55, who joined the post-election celebrations on Valiasr Street, the 12-mile artery that cuts through Tehran, along with her sisters, age 50 and 60, says she has no connection to the Islamic ideals of the regime.

All three took part in the demonstrations that set the stage for the Shahs overthrow, but they supported the secular government that initially took power. Khomeinis Islamists, who wrested control, cheated us, Farah says. We were looking for more political freedom, but instead we lost all our freedoms.

Maryam says her mother and five aunts were ardent, educated, young revolutionaries. I learned a lot from them, but I missed out on other things, she says. Like, I didnt know how to dance. I still dont. Nightclubs, like alcohol, are banned in Iran, yet private dance parties are now ubiquitous.

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The revolution was quickly followed by an eight-year war with Iraq, in which at least half a million Iranians died. It was a time of sacrifice and privation, Maryam recalls, in which the only clothes available for women were dark, full-length robes. Dissent was put on hold until the conflict ended, in 1988. We had to fight for everything, even things that todays children take for granted, like wearing colored clothes, she says. The 1997 election of Khatami, a reformist, ushered in what Maryam says was a golden age for personal freedoms. I saw the change in my aunts, she says. They used to be very strict, but they came to see it was a mistake.

Her own crisis of faith was triggered by the brutal crackdown on the Green Movement protests. An observant though not devout Muslim, Maryam says she gave up religion when security forces killed protesters in the streets on Ashura, the holiest day in the Shiite calendar.

Despite this history of repression, Maryam appreciates Khameneiwhos led Iran as president and then supreme leader for 36 yearsfor his ability to keep the country safe from the surrounding turmoil. It is not easy, she says, to run such a country, in such a region, with such a people.

The bottom line: Despite a paucity of reform-minded candidates, many Iranians are committed to voting: They see it as the best way to force change.

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Iran's Islamic Evolution - Bloomberg

The Transportation Security Administration introduced new screening protocols for carry-on bags at a number of airports across the nation on Wednesdayas the Department of Homeland Security considers expanding a ban on large electronics in the cabins of U.S.-bound flights.

The TSA selected about a dozen U.S. airports to begin testing the new security program, which could potentially expand to other airports nationwide. The program will require travelers to place any electronics larger than a cell phone in a separate bin for X-ray screening. According to the TSA, officials at the security checkpoints may also advise travelers to place other carry-on items in separate bins.

TSAs top priority is to protect the traveling public, and every policy and security procedure in place is designed to mitigate threats to passengers and the aviation sectorwhich we know our adversaries continue to target, a TSA official told Fox News.

U.S. transportation, specifically the aviation system, has been a top terrorist target since 9/11, and as part of the TSAs counterterrorism efforts, the agency adjusts security screening procedures to stay ahead of evolving threats.

TSA was created in 2002, after the September 11thattacks. Since then, U.S. homeland security officials have faced an ever-changing threat to the aviation system.

Before 9/11, baggage wasnt screened, so we really had a Herculean task, TSA Chief of Staff Chad Wolf told Fox News. Wolf began working with the TSA at the agencys inception, and stayed through 2005. After working in the private sector for 11 years, Wolf is back on the frontlines of aviation security.

9/11 was a game changer, Wolf said. Weve watched the threat evolve from there, so our measures of security has evolved and changed to anticipate and respond.

Here is a timeline of some of the most significant terror attempts targeting U.S. air travel since 9/11:

December 2001: Shoe Bomber

Plot: In December of 2001, months after the September 11thattacks on the World Trade Center, British citizen Richard Reid attempted to ignite a show bomb on a flight from Paris to Miami.

Response: TSA now requires at security checkpoints that passengers remove their shoes to go through X-ray screening.

August 2006: Liquid Bomb Plot

Plot:Abdulla Ahmed Ali, Tanvir Hussain, and Assad Sarwar, among others, plotted to place liquid explosives on 10 commercial airlines traveling from the United Kingdom to the U.S.

Response:TSA now has a 3-1-1 liquids rule: 3.4 ounces or less per container fit into one quart-sized clear plastic bag, and one bag per passenger.

James Norton, who was Deputy Assistant Secretary at the DHS during the time of the liquid plot, told Fox News the department took an all hazards approach after the plot. The terror attempt also inspired the Passenger Name Record (PNR) Agreement between the U.S. and the European Union, which made it possible to transfer passenger data so officials could identify passengers in the cabin before takeoff.

The 2006 plot was kept under wrapsit was essentially, a secret operation, Norton told Fox News. Even though we had the majority of the bad actors, DHS still went ahead and implemented the liquid ban to ensure safetyfor security folks, they always act on the side of caution.

December 2009: Underwear Bomb Plot

Plot:On Christmas Day, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian engineering student, flew from Amsterdam to Detroit and attempted to detonate a bomb hidden in his underwear as the plane began to land.

Response:TSA officials said they deployed Advanced Imaging Technology, including millimeter wave and general-use backscatter x-ray systems.

Others plots against U.S. aviation include:

A fuel bomb plot in June of 2007, when Russel Defeitas, Abdul Kadir, Kareem Ibrahim, and Abdel Nur plotted to blow up a jet fuel infrastructure near John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City.

An October 2010 plot inspired by Al Qaedas Anwar al-Awlakitwo packages of explosives were found on separate cargo planes heading from Yemen to the U.S.

A 2012 underwear bomber copycatwhen authorities in the Middle East seized an underwear bomb, catching a suspect who intended to attack a Western-bound aircraft.

Insider Threats

U.S. officials and lawmakers have become increasingly concerned with the prospect of insider threatsmeaning airport employees could pose a risk based on their ability to bypass traditional screening requirements that travelers undergo.

The House Subcommittee on Transportation and Protective Security, led by Rep. John Katko, R-N.Y., released areportin February outlining attempts by airport employees to detonate a bomb at an airport, as well as smuggling guns and drugs. Some employees even became involved in terrorist activities overseas.

The baggage handler, the mechanic- all of these workers behind the scenes, could post a threat, the committee aide told Fox News. We could have a problem on our hands.

But Wolf told Fox News the insider threat is always something the TSA is concerned about.

When you talk about an insider threat, we have a good visibility on aviation workers here domestically, so we do a number of things to vet those individuals, but internationally its different, Wolf said.

U.S. Travelers adapting to TSA security measures

According to Norton, informing the public is a crucial part in thwarting plots and disrupting threats.

This is part of the disruption process, and a way to let potential bad actors know that we are aware of this threat, Norton told Fox News.

In March, DHS implemented anelectronics banon flights to the U.S. from 13 international airports due to reports of increased terror threats that suggested Al Qaeda and other groups were still looking to smuggle explosive material onboard planes. DHS is currently considering expanding the ban to more international airports with U.S.-bound flights.

Wolf told Fox News that the TSA believes the traveling public certainly understands the threat, but also faces an inconvenience.

Our number one priority is to make travelers safe, and we are going to make sure we put in place all measures possible to do this, Wolf told Fox News. The public adapts, whether its taking off their shoes or restricting their liquids, they understand and the vast majority of them want TSA to take these measures.

Fox News' Jake Gibson contributed to this report.

Brooke Singman is a Reporter for Fox News. Follow her on Twitter at @brookefoxnews.

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Evolution of the aviation threat, TSA response - Fox News

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With the countdown to Game of Thrones' seventh season underway (check out the first full trailer here), we should probably all take a look back at the savage and arduous journeys that the show's main characters have been through since the show premiered back in 2011.

We've watched the mighty fall, the weak get powerful, and children literally grow up before our eyes. Sellswords have become knights, pimps have risen to Lordships, and honored daughters have become rogue assassins. The Game of Thrones gallery is rife with change and many of these characters have endured torture and harsh horrors that worked to shape and mold them through the series.

Below you'll find a slideshow of the series' remaining (still living) main characters, spotlighting their looks through the years and giving you a glimpse at how much they've changed while trying to play the Game of Thrones. Just click right through the images to see the differences, and obviously spoilers for all the past seasons follow!

Game of Thrones' Season 7 premieres July 16th on HBO.

Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN and a member of the Television Critics Association (TCA). Follow him on Twitter at@TheMattFowlerand Facebook atFacebook.com/MattBFowler.

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The Evolution of Game of Thrones Characters - IGN

Need a great book to read, album to listen to, or TV show to get hooked on? The Flavorwire team is here to help: in this weekly feature, our editorial staffers recommend the cultural object or experience theyve enjoyed most in the past seven days. Scroll through for our picks below.

The Evolution of the Arm

In the new season ofTwin Peaks, we spend a lot more time in the Black Lodge than ever before; the space with inexplicably terror inducing interior decorating now comes with a light remodeling: a brand new house plant. That house plant happens to be the evolution of the Arm aka the Man From Another Place, aka the character/metaphysical severed limb of the spirit MIKE.Thischaracter hasevolved from apparent arm to creamed corn-nibbling man to electric-tree-with-head-like-blob. The blob still talks kind of like the Man From Another Place, and in fact, little has changed, but for that now, as mentioned, hes an electric tree with a head-like blob. And I knowTwin Peaksis returning on a premium channel at peak weird TV or whatever, but nonetheless, Im still finding myself internally exclaiming, I cant believe this shit is on TV! every 10 or so minutes.

One of David Lynchs greatest strengths is hisability to imbue innocuous objects with a sense of indescribable meaning from those Twin Peaksrings to that blueMulholland Drivebox; this season ofTwin Peaksis even more stillness-oriented than the original, with shots lingering on empty hallways and cameras and glass boxes. And oddly, this moving, talking tree is one of the more vociferous, mobile nightmare inducers weve encountered. Who knew Id one day say, Im really glad the electric-tree-with-head-like-blob is there to ground the narrative? Moze Halperin, Senior Editor

I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House

Im shamefully late to the party on Osgood Perkins, the exciting new director of tone poem/horror films (and, yes, the son of horror icon Anthony Perkins, whom he dedicates this film to). I Am The Pretty Thing is his second movie, though released first, last fall on Netflix (his debut, the excellent Blackcoats Daughter, finally hit theaters earlier this year). Its an unhurried and unsettling creaky-old-house movie, working in a slow-burn retro style closer to Rosemarys Baby than Dont Breathe. In fact, its so light on traditional scares that its hard to pinpoint exactly whats so disturbing about it; the best Ive can do is attribute it to Perkinss distressing visual style, in which camera movements are frightening and even the compositions are slightly off, in a deliberate and upsetting way. I realize Im not exactly selling it, but what the hell, its a short movie and its on Netflix give it a chance. I think were witnessing the birth of a master stylist. Jason Bailey, Film Editor

The newTwin Peaks, generally

Moze has already discussed the evolution of the arm above, so Im going to say the newTwin Peaksin general. I recapped the first couple of episodes here and will probably do the next two tomorrow, so Ill keep my comments fairly non-specific: this feels like a distillation of everything Lynch has learned and created over the years, rendered in a way that is unabashedly and unrelentingly Lynchian. Anyone who thought he might tone down the weirdness for television like he did the first time around will be quickly disabused of such notions with a viewing of the first four episodes of the new Twin Peaks: the third episode, in particular, is weird as hell, makes pretty much no sense, and revels in both these things. The fourth episode is well, its pretty much the complete opposite. Its fascinating to see Lynchs work at its most unconstrained: not everything sticks, and Im sure people skeptical of his work in general willhate it, butLynch apparently couldnt care less. Good for him. Tom Hawking, Editor-in-Chief

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Staff Picks: The Evolution of the Arm, 'I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House,' More - Flavorwire