Category Archives: Evolution

Along with her sister Gigi, Bella Hadid has pretty much ruled the street style universe for the past few years. The two top models are snapped almost daily in eye-catching ensembles that not only push forward major trends, but also set them, too.

Most recently, Bella has favored a streetwise approach to dressing, combining her love for athleisure and sportswear with more fashion-forward collectiblesincluding square-toe boots, 90s shoulder bags, and vintage Jean Paul Gaultier. But that hasnt always been the case. Trace her street style back a few years to when she burst on the scene, and its apparent theres been a metamorphosis.

In her early days of modelingthink, 2015 and 2016the fledging supermodel had a familiar SoCal aesthetic. There was a clear love of denim, evident in lovingly broken-in blue jeans that were paired with chunky knits and simple white tank tops. In 2017, there was a notable shift: Bella began looking beyond the tried-and-true parameters in her wardrobe, towards sleeker, darker fashion territory. Perhaps her move to New York City ignited her obsession with tiny Matrix-style sunglasses, a look that quickly caught on with the rest of the world. It was on the streets of Manhattan, too, that Bella dared to experiment with risky fashion ideas, including trendy bike shorts and the tricky-to-pull-off paper-bag pants by Sankuanz, the Chinese menswear label out of Xiamen. In her hands, even the most everyday basics are transformed: Who else could make a preppy woolen cardigan look this fun or this sexy?

Those playful, no-holds-barred impulses are now finely tuned. With the help of stylists Elizabeth Sulcer and Mimi Cuttrell, Bella has truly hit her stride, though these days she styles herself. And now that designers across the globe are clamoring to dress her, she's often cherry-picking from the worlds most sought-after collections. Though that hasnt dampened her curiosity in the least; shes been known to flaunt emerging designers from far-flung corners of the globe on the street. In fact its partly thanks to her that labels such as Bessarion, from Georgia, and Ruslan Baginskiy, of Ukraine, are on our radar. And that makes her ongoing style evolution all the more thrilling to watch. See all of Bella Hadid's best outfits below.

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Bella Hadids Best Outfits Showcase Her Street Style Evolution Over the Years - Vogue

M@The Evolution Of The Postbox Click or tap for larger version

Welcome to your new hobby... postbox spotting.

A postbox is not just a postbox. Over the decades, hundreds of variations have been installed across Britain. It's a geeky joy to spot the different types and try to make sense of it all. And now we have a graphic to help.

The first postboxes were installed on the Channel Islands in 1852 under the direction of Anthony Trollope (the same one who would later become a famous novelist). They quickly spread to the mainland and the first reached London in 1855.

The earliest boxes were a bronze-green colour, to blend in with surroundings. This proved unhelpful as nobody could find them. In 1874, the familiar red colour began to appear. The change was not to everyone's tastes, with one columnist lamenting the "inflammatory hue", which he feared would scare horses.

As you can see from our diagram, postbox design had little standardisation in the early years. By 1879, though, a form not so different from modern boxes had emerged as the most common. Even so, the design has been tweaked many times over the decades. Our diagram captures the most common forms (along with some interesting novelties), but could never be comprehensive.

This article is part of the Trilogy of Street Furniture, along with our Family Tree of London Bollards, and Evolution of the Phone Kiosk.

To suggest additions or corrections, please email matt@londonist.com

Last Updated 21 February 2022

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The Evolution Of The Postbox - Londonist

By Lori Harwood, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences

Today

Since the late 1940s, watching TV has been a popular American pastime. Television entertains us, educates us and helps shape our views of the world.

It has also been "a primary source of America's racial education," according to University of Arizona scholar Stephanie Troutman Robbins.

Troutman Robbins is the co-editor, along with Daniel J. Leonard, of "Race in American Television: Voices and Visions that Shaped a Nation," published in 2021. Covering five decades, the two-volume encyclopedia explores representations of people of color in American television and examines ways in which television has been a site for both reproduction of stereotypes and resistance to them.

Troutman Robbins is head of the Department of Gender & Women's Studies and an associate professor of gender and women's studies and English in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences. She went to film school at the University of Central Florida before earning a dual doctorate in curriculum and instruction and women's studies from Pennsylvania State University, where she incorporated film and visual analysis and critical media literacy in her research. Much of her work examines race, gender and sexuality in relation to both popular culture and schooling.

During Black History Month, University of Arizona News spoke with Troutman Robbins about the evolution of how Black people are depicted on TV, how an influx of media platforms is leading to more diverse stories about the Black experience, and where there's room for improvement.

Q: What are the main ways that TV's depiction of Black people has changed over time?

A: Early television really reflected a very narrow representation of non-white characters. And a lot of the earlier characters were caricatures and racist depictions in many ways.

And then as time goes on, we start to see more Black folks and we start to see them move from peripheral or secondary characters into primary focus. But for a while in television, you had extremes. You had the Black criminal stereotype and all the negative tropes associated with Blackness on the one hand, and then you had good, assimilating, respectable Black characters on the other.

In the '80s, "The Cosby Show" depicted a Black affluent family who were different from the way that Blacks were mostly portrayed in mainstream TV at the time. But in the show, issues were not dealt with in a very racially specific way. The show "Black-ish" comes along, some 20 or 30 years later, and it more explicitly engages with what it means to be Black in the context of being an affluent or professionally successful family.

As you get more representation, the representation gets more varied, more complex.

Q: In "Race in American Television," you talk about the development of the racially diverse ensemble cast, where race is insignificant to the character or plot, as well as colorblind casting. What are your thoughts on that?

A: In the '80s and '90s, there were more shows that brought together multiracial casts. These shows tended to look at identities in an apolitical kind of way. And we still have that today. There are folks who have a simplified understanding of diversity and just want to make sure that you're not looking at a screen full of white people. But then there are shows that are more intentional about the integration.

Colorblind casting sometimes does not include a critical and authentic consideration of folks' experiences and identities. It matters because there are certain things that take on a very different meaning depending on who is in the role. Say I have this character who's an angry woman. It's really different if she's an angry white woman versus an angry Black woman because of the widely circulated, negative stereotype of the angry Black woman.

That being said, is it good for people to see shows with folks who are different co-existing and sharing spaces of work, community, family? It's not a bad thing. But if it's not deliberate and thoughtful, unfortunately it can perpetuate stereotypes even if that's not the goal.

Q: According to UCLA's 2021 Hollywood Diversity Report, the number of Black characters on TV now matches and in some cases exceeds their representation in the general population. However, Black people are still underrepresented among the people shaping the stories, including show creators, directors and writers. Why is this important?

A: First, I want to note that the institutions in our country function similarly, and television is an institution. We still see underrepresentation for Black faculty at universities, and in corporate settings and in other public spaces, sectors and professions. This is still true in television, as well but behind the scenes.

In TV, you've had BET (Black Entertainment Television) for a while producing Black shows. You have people like Ava DuVernay producing and writing "Queen Sugar" and, of course, one of the most successful TV producers and writers Shonda Rhimes, who writes in that multicultural space. But over the years, the writers' rooms for TV shows have been, and in many cases continue to be, notoriously white.

However, with the various new streaming services and production companies, we're starting to see more Black creatives get deals. And it matters. It's one thing to put someone on screen, in front of the camera. It's another thing to let someone a Black writer/actress like Michaela Coel, for example have creative control. Because something potentially different can happen when a Black woman writes a Black woman character, in terms of deciding on her thoughts and her feelings, her personality.

Q: What are some developments you've seen recently in Black representation on TV?

A: Mainstream networks, and certain boutique networks in the past, had very specific types of Blackness that they were interested in exploring and were somewhat rigid in how they were willing to depict Black characters and experiences.

Now, with the influx of cable networks and digital platforms such as Netflix, there are more opportunities for people to engage with different and more complex stories about the Black experience and for Black people to find a reflection of themselves and their communities on TV. We're seeing more of the very rich landscape of Blackness in the United States, including variations according to sexuality, socioeconomic status and geographical location shows like "The Chi," created by Lena Waithe, and "Insecure," created by Issa Rae, and even "Pose," where family is defined as "chosen" rather than purely biological, and particular Black communities, including the LGBTQ community, are centered. This variety also includes shows set on college campuses like "Dear White People," historical fiction shows like "Lovecraft Country," and the multicultural superhero drama "Watchmen."

Q. In addition to more Black representation behind the camera, are there other areas that need improving?

I think what we have for kids is lacking. Disney has tried to amp it up with "Coco" and "Moana" and now "Encanto." But we've yet to really see Blackness in that space. With the "Princess and the Frog," the Black princess is a frog for most of the movie! We've got the shows "Doc McStuffins" and "Gullah Gullah Island," but that is from way back (in 1994-1998).

As adults, we know that representation isn't enough; it has to be meaningful and intentional. But when you're little and before you're critically developed to that extent, just the representation alone is a big deal.

So, I think we need more representation for young people. And we still need more critical, deliberate and politically aware representations of Blackness for adults.

Link:

The evolution of Black representation on television - UANews

Scientists analyzing one of the largest genomic datasets of plants have discovered how the first plants on Earth evolved the mechanisms used to control water and breathe on land hundreds of millions of years ago.

The study by the University of Bristol and University of Essex, published in New Phytologist, has important implications in understanding how plant water transport systems have evolved and how these might adapt in the future in response to climate change.

Over the last 500 million years, the evolution of land plants has supported the diversity of life on an increasingly green planet. Throughout their evolution, plants have acquired adaptations such as leaves and roots, allowing them to control water and colonize land. Some of these tools evolved in early land plants and today are found in both tiny mosses and giant trees which form complex forest ecosystems.

Researchers from Essexs School of Life Sciences and Bristols Schools of Biological Sciences and Geographical Sciences first compared the genes of 532 plant species to investigate the role of new and old genes in the genesis of these adaptations. Of these, the team focused on 218 genes which were genes related to major innovations in land plant evolution such as roots and vascular tissues.They discovered that some early traits essential for land plants, like stomata (pores that plants use to breathe), are related to the origin of new genes. In contrast, later innovations (e.g. roots, the vascular system) recycle old genes that emerged in the ancestors of land plants and showed that different parts of plant anatomies (stomata, vascular tissue, roots) involved in the transport of water were linked to different methods of gene evolution.

Dr. Jordi Paps, joint lead author and Senior Lecturer from Bristols School of Biological Sciences, explained: Our analyses shed new light on the genetic basis of the greening of the planet, highlighting the different methods of gene evolution in the diversification of the plant kingdom. Historically it has not been clear if evolutionary innovations are driven by the emergence of new genes or by the repurposing of old ones. Our findings tell us how plants have evolved at distinct moments in their history and how different modes of evolution, the origin of new genes, and the recycling of older ones, contributed to the emergence of major innovations key to the greening of the planet.

Dr. Ulrike Bechtold, joint lead author and Senior Lecturer from Essexs School of Life Sciences explained that this study provides insights into the mechanistic changes underpinning water uptake and transport, which are important for plant health and productivity. It allows researchers to select and investigate the function of old, repurposed and new genes in the lab, with the aim to select genes that reduce water use and improve drought resilience in crop plants.

Dr. Alexander Bowles from Bristols School of Geographical Sciences, one of the studys co-authors, added: As well as helping us make sense of the past, this work is important for the future. By understanding how water transport systems have evolved, we can begin to understand the limiting factors for plant growth. This has particular importance when considering the growth of crops as well as their resilience to drought.

Reference: Water-related innovations in land plants evolved by different patterns of gene cooption and novelty by Alexander M. C. Bowles, Jordi Paps and Ulrike Bechtold, 20 January 2022, New Phytologist.DOI: 10.1111/nph.17981

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How Plants Evolved To Colonize Land Over 500 Million Years Ago - SciTechDaily

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The concept of a TV dad is among televisions most significant pieces of storytelling, whether it be a surrogate father (see James Avery as Uncle Phil in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air), a single dad ready to provide (see John Marshall Jones as Floyd Henderson in Smart Guy) or a father prepared to raise his children in affluence while also preparing them for life (see Anthony Anderson as Andre Johnson in black-ish), Black TV dads have often represented stand-ins or the epitome of what fatherhood should look like.

John Amos, who portrayed the hardworking James Evans on Good Times, is among the early benchmarks for the archetype along with Red Foxx, whose Fred Sanford character on Sanford and Son stands as one of the pioneers of comedic Black fathers who had warm hearts, and plenty of jokes for their adult son. Foxx and Amos brought different gravity levels to the TV dad as Amos urged hard work amongst his three children, even as he grew weary of son JJ (Jimmy Walker) s time as an artist. Ultimately, Amos took to heart his position on television and the lasting influence his character and the Evans family would have on television shows and actors who followed.

I was carrying the weight of being the first black father of a complete family, and I carried that responsibility seriously, Amos told Vulture in 2015. Maybe too much so. Norman [Lear] thought I was taking on too much of a burden with it. But it was my responsibility. I knew that millions of black people were watching. I knew that my own father was watching. My own children were watching. And I was not going to portray something that was less than redeeming.

Evans was fired from Good Times in 1976 and written off, but his energy centralized on giving love to all of his children, not only the emerging star of the show. The position would give way to several prime lead characters in shows throughout the late 70s, but it wasnt until Bill Cosbysportrayal as Cliff Huxtable in the eponymous The Cosby Show would the mantle Amos set with James Evans be taken to new heights.

The Cosby Show became a hit on NBC, and its spinoff, A Different World, gave way to father-like characters in dorm director Walker Oakes, played by comedian Sinbad, Vernon Gaines, played by Lou Meyers and Colonel Bradford Taylor, played by Glynn Thurman. Cliff Huxtable, the character, was viewed as Americas Dad, regardless of what Cosby did in his personal life. Huxtable was the patriarch of an upper-middle-class Black family, and even if he may not have been the best father, he was a present one, which was good enough for 1980s America on both sides of the racial coin.

As time progressed in the 90s, the crown for best Black TV Dad switched from Cosby to Avery. His Philip Banks may have been affluent and weary of his nephew, but when the time came down to it, Averys demeanor not only gave consciousness and power to the Banks clan but helped shape Will Smiths career as an actor.

He strove to present an Uncle Phil that everybody wishes was their uncle, Joseph Marcell, the actor who played Geoffrey, said following Averys death in 2013. [He] believed the show was important because the striving of the African-American ought to have been shown on television. What he has done for television, for African-Americans on television is unsurpassable.

Averys serious cool with Philip Banks didnt immediately translate to the next popular TV dad, John Witherspoon on The Wayans Bros. in the late 1990s and early 2000s but Witherspoons style aligned with Garrett Morrisuncle/fatherly portrayal of Uncle Junior King for The Jamie Foxx Show. The TV dad mantle didnt get reshaped again until the mid-2000s when Damon Wayans and Bernie Mac gave unique twists to the concept with My Wife and Kids and The Bernie Mac Show. In a 2020 article for Blavity, writer Amanda Monroe marked on the uniqueness of Mac blending his real life and comedy to craft The Bernie Mac Show and show how love and admiration as a father didnt have to arrive from biological parenting, in the same vein as Averys Uncle Phil.

[He] showcased The Bernie Mac Show as an unsung beacon of Black male fatherhood, Monroe wrote. Black fathers on TV have never been unusual but this brand of fatherhood, the image of a Black man raising children that werent biologically his, was actually groundbreaking.

Now, Black fatherhood on television has grown in various shapes and sizes. There were uncomfortable struggles with addiction and providing as seen on The Corner, the HBO series which was a precursor to the widely beloved The Wire and brief glimpses of how community plays a role in fatherhood on Lincoln Heights. In Andersons case for black-ish, there are elements of what Mac shared on his show which Dre Johnson has adopted and made work in his mold.

What Black fatherhood has looked like hasnt wholly needed to be biological. It has been adoptive, caring and nurturing and in some ways, from Snowfall to even P-Valley, unorthodox. Amos thoughts and beliefs on the weight of showcasing a good Black dad have flowed into nearly every character who has graced the screen and called themselves a father.

Currently, Adrian Holmes, who portrays Uncle Phil in the rebooted version of The Fresh Prince titled Bel-Air, considers his role a love letter to Avery.

You cant step into his shoes, he told TODAY earlier this month. Im just kind of creating my own. For me, its a tribute to him, a way of saying thank you to him and what he did for us.

The power of being a Black father on television comes with the eyes and inherited belief you represent Black dads across the globe. From generation to generation, each actor who assumed the role gave their energy towards it, highlighting a more significant representation for Black fathers everywhere.

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First announced by the World Health Organization on November 26, 2021, the SARS-CoV-2 omicron variant spread rapidly around the world, becoming the dominant variant in the U.S. and elsewhere. Now, researchers report in ACS Infectious Diseases and the Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling that omicron and other variants are evolving increased infectivity and antibody escape, according to an artificial intelligence (AI) model. Therefore, new vaccines and antibody therapies are desperately needed, the researchers say.

The team found that mutations to strengthen infectivity are the driving force for viral evolution, whereas in highly vaccinated populations, mutations that allow the virus to escape vaccines become dominant.

Understanding how SARS-CoV-2 evolves is essential to predicting vaccine breakthrough and designing mutation-proof vaccines and monoclonal antibody treatments. In a recent study in ACS Infectious Diseases, Guo-Wei Wei and colleagues analyzed almost 1.5 million SARS-CoV-2 genome sequences taken from people with COVID-19. They identified 683 unique mutations in the receptor binding domain (RBD), the region of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein that attaches to the human ACE2 receptor on the surface of human cells.

Then, they used an AI model to predict how these mutations affect binding strength of the RBD to ACE2 and to 130 antibody structures, including several monoclonal antibodies used as therapies. The team found that mutations to strengthen infectivity are the driving force for viral evolution, whereas in highly vaccinated populations, mutations that allow the virus to escape vaccines become dominant. The researchers also predicted that certain combinations of mutations have a high likelihood of massive spread.

In another study in the Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling, Wei and colleagues took a deep dive into the omicron variants infectivity, vaccine breakthrough and antibody resistance. They used their AI model to analyze how the variants unusually high number of mutations on the spike protein affect RBD binding to ACE2 and antibodies. Their results indicated that omicron is over 10 times more infectious than the original coronavirus and 2.8 times more infectious than the delta variant. In addition, omicron is 14 times more likely than delta to escape current vaccines, and it is predicted to compromise the efficacy of several monoclonal antibody therapies. Many of these predictions have been verified by emerging experimental results, stressing the importance of developing a new generation of vaccines and monoclonal antibodies that wont be easily affected by viral mutations, the researchers say.

References:

Emerging Vaccine-Breakthrough SARS-CoV-2 Variants by Rui Wang, Jiahui Chen, Yuta Hozumi, Changchuan Yin and Guo-Wei Wei, 8 February 2022, ACS Infectious Diseases.DOI: 10.1021/acsinfecdis.1c00557

Omicron Variant (B.1.1.529): Infectivity, Vaccine Breakthrough, and Antibody Resistance by Jiahui Chen, Rui Wang, Nancy Benovich Gilby and Guo-Wei Wei, 6 January 2022, Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling.DOI: 10.1021/acs.jcim.1c01451

The authors acknowledge funding from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, NASA, the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, the Michigan State University Foundation, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Pfizer.

Excerpt from:

Increased Infectivity Drives COVID Evolution Mutations That Allow the Virus To Escape Vaccines Become Dominant - SciTechDaily

George Russell thinks that in the battle for the World Championship it will be especially important for Mercedes to keep developing. For himself, his switch to the German racing team actually comes at a perfect time, because with the new regulations everything and everyone around him will also start from zero.

"Theres no importance to have a quick start to the season. Ultimately you win a championship over the course of 23 races," Russell said in conversation with GPblog and others. The Mercedes driver cites 2021 as an example."You only have to look at it last year at Mercedes and Lewis. Max and Red Bull were far superior and so much faster and everyone thought theyd run away, yet Mercedes turned it around and fought back.

The 24-year-old driver argues that continued development of the W13 is going to be the key to success in 2022. Of course it would be nice if the first two Grands Prix of the season are won, but the degree of evolution of the car is decisive. Everyone still knows relatively little about their own car with the new regulations and so there is still a lot of potential to unlock.

"By the end of the season, Mercedes had the fastest package. If you take an average over the year, it was pretty similar. I still think Red Bull had the upper hand but this year the development will be massive. Weve got to learn about the 18 inch tyres, ground effect and how the two interact with each other. Theyll be some interesting physiologisches when we arrive in Bahrain. But you have got to look further into the distance because things will change so fast," Russell says.

The Briton has spent the last three years with the Williams team and now has to get used to a new environment. Everyone is starting from scratch this year with the new rules and so Russell thinks the timing of his transfer is not bad at all.

"I dont think its a negative to change teams. You like to keep consistency across years, but this is the best year to change teams. Youre starting from scratch. Things are starting from zero. I wanted to get into that Mercedes seat as soon as possible but I think that was the perfect time."

Russell is one of only four drivers in total to race for a new team in 2022. Valtteri Bottas and Guanyu Zhou both join Alfa Romeo for the first time, while Alexander Albon was allocated the vacant Williams spot.

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Russell expects evolution of the W13: 'Things will change so fast' - GPblog

Everyones favorite Animal Crossing is a social simulator. Players get all the freedom in the world to just interact with other players. And whats more interactive and fun than sending letters to other villagers/players? With this in mind, different Animal Crossing titles have had a post office.

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Since its approximately 21 years old now, it has seen a fair share of changes. From changes in furniture, decoration, and even the mailman, the post office has been evolved quite a lot since its debut.

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Moreover, the post office is much more than just a mere building for Animal Crossing players. As it turns out, players just love to visit a post office to receive letters from other players as it serves as a center to communicate and just freely interact with other villagers and players without any issues.

Players can send letters to other villagers, players, or even themselves for that matter. Earlier, the post office used to be randomly located on the island. However, in New Leaf, the post office was moved to Main Street and has been there only since then.

WATCH THIS STORY: Toughest Video Game Bosses of all time

Well, as far as in-game conversation/interaction technique goes, this one surely tops the list. With this in mind, lets have a look at the major changes the post office has seen in the Animal Crossing universe.

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Speaking of Animal Crossing: New Horizons, the post office has mainly become a standalone mail kiosk after the 2.0 update. That means players wont be able to interact with Pelle as she doesnt work there anymore. Since its a kiosk, players can still save their letters using their own mailboxes, but the charm and popularity of the old post offices are unbeatable.

Well, it seems like the fan-favorite location has gone through quite a lot of changes since 2001. While some players are thrilled with the changes, the majority of the players really miss the pelicans: Phyllis, Pelly, and Pete. According to some players, their go-to favorite place has now lost its charm.

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Whats your take on this evolution? Also, whos your favorite character from the franchise? Let us know in the comment section below.

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Animal Crossing: Evolution of the Fan Favorite Post Office - EssentiallySports

Practically ubiquitous, and seen nearly every single day, denim has come a long way. From being part of work apparel in the 1700s to attaining iconic fashion-item status in modern times, no other piece of clothing has been worn as long as denim jeans. The humble jean, despite its diversity and longevity, is one of the most intricate but frequently worn pairs of clothing.

A good denim jean is more than just an article of clothing; it's often a comrade and a mood booster. Its so versatile that it adapts to the ever-changing fashion trends, and remains a wardrobe staple, even though a lot of these trends may come and go. Our treasured piece of simple denim has undergone multiple transformations over the past several years, sometimes seeing a spike in baggy jeans and other times seeing a surge in tight, low-rise, or mom and boyfriend styles.

Although jeans are often associated with North America, the material they are made from - denim - actually originates from the southern French city of Nimes. In the 18th and 19th Centuries, France was home to large textile factories producing many different fabrics and many of these fabrics were exported to North America, including serge de Nimes, which caught the eye of a businessman in the 1860s who used this new fabric, re-baptized as denim, to create what became known as blue jeans.

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Denim was first used by workers because of its high durability. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, miners, cowboys, and labourers wore jeans as workwear, particularly in the American West, but it wasn't until Hollywood's Western films brought the fad on the big screen that jeans became the it" piece of clothing. In the 1950s, jeans became a symbol of "hip" as they rattled the mainstream costumes seen worn in cinema. So it was only a matter of time before rebellious teenagers hopped onto this fashionable whim. Some schools retaliated by prohibiting the students from wearing them as they believed these pieces of couture to be "anti-establishment." The following decades, the 1960s saw a rise in bellbottoms with floral patterns and stayed popular all through the 70s. It was during this period that the OG founders of Denim, France reclaimed their ingenuity by offering iconic high-street denim brands such as Celio. The brand presented trendy and chic denim offerings that took the populace by storm, as their favourite piece of la mode clothing was now affordable too!

The evolution of denim underwent even further changes in the following years, with the 1980s showcasing the first designer denim wear, which became extremely renowned in pop culture. The 1990s saw the rise of straight-legged mom jeans, and high-waisted denim followed by the 2000s witnessing the popular ultra-low-rise jean, which was commercialized by fashion icons Destiny's Child, Britney Spears, and Christina Aguilera. As a result of advancements in denim stretch technology, skinny jeans became the most striking trend to emerge in the recent decade and became the go-to style to wear during the week, on the weekend, and even on a date night. The increasing usage eventually paved the wave to the present day comfort as the most sought-after style factor for purchasing jeans, be it high or low-waisted, straight or boot-cut fit. Understanding the needs of the consumers, the French menswear label Celio ensures to keep comfort at the heart of the design and drives innovative new styles such as the powerflex jeans, which brings cat-like agility to the table without any wear or tear, or soft touch denim, which is created with a unique combination of yarns, a specific weaving and the finishing, making it the softest denim on the market. Even the stay-dark jeans which dont give into fading upon being washed repeatedly, justifying its position as the French leader in mens jeans.

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Denim jeans upon becoming popular, served to blur societal inequalities by allowing everyone - from the suit-wearing affluent to the manual laborers - to own durable pairs of long-lasting denim pants. Denim, as we know and love today, is not only a chic and elegant piece of garment, but it is also a slice of history that continues to reign supreme in our closets. Today, over a century later, we may choose from a variety of styles, sizes, washes, and colours in our favourite denim, and find ourselves visiting stores and malls, going back for more!

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The World of Denim: (R)Evolution of jeans - Livemint

Photo: Hempnettle , by Ivar Leidus, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons.

Editors note: We are delighted to present a series by biologist Jonathan Wells on the top scientific problems with evolution. This is the seventh entry in the series, excerpted from the new bookThe Comprehensive Guide to Science and Faith: Exploring the Ultimate Questions About Life and the Cosmos.Find the full series so far here.

We know that speciation has occurred because many new species have appeared in the history of life. Evolutionary biologist Ernst Mayr wrote, Darwin called his great workOn the Origin of Species, for he was fully conscious of the fact that the change from one species into another was the most fundamental problem of evolution.1According to evolutionary biologist Douglas Futuyma, speciation is thesine qua nonof diversity required for evolution. Speciation stands at the border between microevolution the genetic changes within and among populations and macroevolution.2

Part of the problem is that the termspeciesis notoriously difficult to define. A definition applicable to plants and animals wont necessarily work for bacteria, and definitions applicable to living things wont necessarily work for fossils. As of 2004, several dozen definitions were in use among biologists and paleontologists.3The definition most often used by evolutionary biologists is the biological species concept, according to which species are groups of interbreeding natural populations that are reproductively isolated from other such groups.4

If species are defined this way, then in one sense speciation has been observed in the laboratory. Normally when two different species hybridize, either naturally or artificially, the hybrids are sterile because the maternal and paternal chromosomes are too dissimilar and cannot pair up in cell division. Occasionally, however, the hybrid undergoes chromosome doubling, orpolyploidy. With matching sets of chromosomes that can undergo cell division, the hybrid may then be fertile and constitute a new species under the biological species concept. In the first decades of the 20th century, Swedish scientist Arne Mntzing used two plant species to make a hybrid that underwent chromosome doubling to produce hempnettle, a member of the mint family that had already been found in nature.5

Speciation by polyploidy is calledsecondary speciationto distinguish it fromprimary speciation the splitting of one species into two. According to Douglas Futuyma, polyploidy does not confer major new morphological characteristics[and] does not cause the evolution of new genera or higher levels in the biological hierarchy.6So although secondary speciation by polyploidy has been observed in flowering plants, it is not the solution to Darwins problem. The solution would be primary speciation by variation and selection, which has not been observed.

In 1940, geneticist Richard Goldschmidt argued that the facts of microevolution do not suffice for an understanding of macroevolution. He concluded, Microevolution does not lead beyond the confines of the species, and the typical products of microevolution, the geographic races, are not incipient species.7

Darwin used the termincipient speciesto refer to a variety of one species he thought was in the process of becoming a new species: I believe a well-marked variety may be justly called an incipient species.8But how can we possibly know whether two varieties (or races) are in the process of becoming separate species? Saint Bernards and Chihuahuas are two varieties of the dog species (Canis lupis familiaris) that, for anatomical reasons, do not interbreed naturally. Are they on their way to becoming separate species? The Ainu people of northern Japan and the !Kung of southern Africa are members of the human species (Homo sapiens sapiens). Although people from both groups could undoubtedly interbreed, without modern technology, which affords mass movement of people around the globe, they would be (for all practical purposes) reproductively isolated geographically, linguistically, and culturally. Are they therefore incipient species? Clearly, Darwins termincipient speciesis a theoretical prediction, not evidence.

We sometime read in the news media that scientists have finally observed the origin of a new species. Such cases, however, are invariably either examples of incipient speciation, or cases in which scientists have inferred from already-existing species how they might have split in the past.9Observational evidence for primary speciation is still missing.

In 1992, evolutionary biologist Keith Stewart Thomson wrote, A matter of unfinished business for biologists is the identification of evolutions smoking gun, and the smoking gun of evolution is speciation, not local adaptation and differentiation of populations. Before Darwin, Thomson explained, the consensus was that species can vary only within certain limits; indeed, centuries of artificial selection had seemingly demonstrated such limits experimentally. Darwin had to show that the limits could be broken, wrote Thomson, and so do we.10

In 1996, biologists Scott Gilbert, John Opitz, and Rudolf Raff wrote:

Genetics might be adequate for explaining microevolution, but microevolutionary changes in gene frequency were not seen as able to turn a reptile into a mammal or to convert a fish into an amphibian. Microevolution looks at adaptations that concern the survival of the fittest, not the arrival of the fittest.

They concluded, The origin of species Darwins problem remains unsolved.11

English bacteriologist Alan Linton went looking for evidence of primary speciation and concluded in 2001:

None exists in the literature claiming that one species has been shown to evolve into another. Bacteria, the simplest form of independent life, are ideal for this kind of study, with generation times of twenty to thirty minutes, and populations achieved after eighteen hours. But throughout 150 years of the science of bacteriology, there is no evidence that one species of bacteria has changed into anotherSince there is no evidence for species changes between the simplest forms of unicellular life, it is not surprising that there is no evidence for evolution from prokaryotic [e.g., bacterial] to eukaryotic [e.g., plant and animal] cells, let alone throughout the whole array of higher multicellular organisms.12

In 2002, evolutionary biologists Lynn Margulis and Dorion Sagan wrote, Speciation, whether in the remote Galpagos, in the laboratory cages of the drosophilosophers [those who study fruit flies], or in the crowded sediments of the paleontologists, still has never been directly traced.13So evolutions smoking gun is still missing.

Next, the concluding entry in the series, Darwins One Wrong Argument.

Continued here:

Top Problems with Evolution: Speciation - Discovery Institute