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Any English-speaker who’s attempted to use an alphabetical keyboard will know just how accustomed we have become to the seemingly nonsensical QWERTY keyboard layout. But there’s still some debate as to why this design came into existence‚ and why‚ roughly 150 years after its inception‚ we have not adopted a more efficient alternative.The QWERTY (pronounced KWEHR-tee) layout’s name refers to the positioning of the first six letters on most Latin-based alphabet keyboards. The design was first patented in 1878 by Christopher Latham Sholes and is still considered the standard keyboard layout today.Although we are now all pretty familiar with the QWERTY layout‚ and would struggle to type without it‚ the letters don’t appear to follow any clear order. There is‚ however‚ some method to the madness.The history of QWERTYThe first practical typewriter was invented by Sholes in 1867 replacing the larger‚ more cumbersome Typographer. Beginning with the then-titled Type-Writer‚ Sholes and colleagues would go on to produce a number of keyboard formats starting with a 28-key‚ alphabetical iteration‚ eventually developing into the QWERTY format on the Sholes &; Glidden Type-Writer in 1874. The machine was then put into production through their partnership with gun manufacturer Remington.The original 1874 Sholes &; Glidden Type-Writers followed a similar design to Remington's sewing machines.Image credit: Dr. Bernd Gross via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)However‚ this wasn’t the final development of the format. In 1886‚ new company Wyckoff‚ Seamans &; Benedict (WS&;B) released the Remington Standard Type-Writer No. 2 which‚ to avoid Sholes’s patenting limitations‚ changed the design to feature M next to N and C exchanged for X. This is the QWERTY format keyboard we use today.With Remington becoming the sole producer of QWERTY format machines the layout was a resounding success‚ with more than 100‚000 QWERTY-based Remington typewriters in use across the US by 1890.In 1893‚ the Union Typewriter Company was formed by WS&;B and Charles Newell Fowler. The company was a shareholder in five of the leading typewriter companies and together formed the Typewriter Trust. With the five companies all adopting the QWERTY format‚ this layout became the standard.Theories around the function of QWERTYAs legend would have it‚ the reason QWERTY follows this precise order is to slow down the process of writing on a typewriter.Typewriters work by pressing a key which forces a steel type to hit a ribbon of ink before transferring that ink stamp onto the paper. The issue with this complex mechanism is that if more than one letter is hit in quick succession then the steel types get jammed.The supposed idea for the QWERTY layout was an attempt to prevent the keys from jamming by separating common letter pairings. On QWERTY keyboards‚ TH‚ ON‚ AN‚ CH‚ and IE all sit a good space apart‚ minimising the chances of the keys getting stuck by slowing down the typing process. There are‚ however‚ two keys that break this rule – E and R is the second most common character combination‚ and they’re famously right next to each other in the QWERTY layout.The slowing of the operator theory is‚ however‚ speculatory‚ and the true origins of the QWERTY keyboard are still debated. A 2011 paper aiming to disprove the use of the QWERTY format to slow down typing details the prehistory of the design.The paper claims the formatting of the keyboard was actually created accidentally while trying to make typing faster and more efficient for those translating from Morse code.“The code represents Z as ‘· · · ·’ which is often confused with the digram SE‚ more frequently-used than Z. Sometimes Morse receivers in United States cannot determine whether Z or SE is applicable‚ especially in the first letter(s) of a word‚ before they receive following letters. Thus S ought to be placed near by both Z and E on the keyboard for Morse receivers to type them quickly‚” the paper details.In direct opposition to the common belief‚ the Morse code idea suggests its function was to speed up typing by placing similar Morse-coded letters next to each other‚ increasing typing reaction time once the writer works out the Morse character. The Morse receiver needs to be as fast at typing as the Morse sender‚ so it would be counterintuitive to intentionally slow typing down.Another parallel theory surrounding the design suggests that it was Remington’s involvement with production that standardized the format. Remington worked as both a manufacturer of the QWERTY keyboard typewriters‚ as well as providing training courses on how to use them.The theory goes that by training typists on the QWERTY system‚ all companies that used typists trained by Remington would have to stock Remington brand typewriters‚ thus creating a self-sustaining system.Keyboard layout alternativesWhatever the events were that led to the conception of the QWERTY layout‚ the design is no longer optimized for modern-day typing habits. Even Sholes himself continued to propose more efficient alternative layouts for the rest of his life‚ filing his final patent in 1889‚ one year before he died.One of QWERTY’s most significant rivalries was with August Dvorak‚ a professor at the University of Minnesota‚ who proposed his own variation intent on increasing words per minute (WPM) titled the Dvorak keyboard.The layout of a Dvorak keyboard.Image credit: Unknown via Wikimedia Commons (public domain)Developed in the 1930’s and approved in 1982 by the American National Standards Institute‚ the Dvorak keyboard groups the most-used consonants on the right of the “home row” and the vowels on the left and is designed to be used in a back-and-forth motion between the left and right hands‚ evenly distributing the workload between hands.Additionally‚ Dvorak invented two more keyboards designed for those with just one hand (one keyboard for left and one for right). These reportedly allowed people to type efficiently with a single hand‚ up to speeds of 50 WPM.There is‚ however‚ still some debate surrounding the efficiency of the Dvorak keyboard‚ which is exacerbated by the fact that generally people become familiar with the QWERTY layout from a young age.In a 2019 piece by The Verge‚ writer Jon Porter details his experience using a Dvorak keyboard over a 10-year period. Porter states that to use the Dvorak keyboard‚ you are forced to learn how to touch type‚ which is of course more efficient than not touch typing on a QWERTY keyboard.Porter also points out the increased security of using a widely unfamiliar keyboard layout‚ as anyone watching your keystrokes would not instantly be able to work out what was written.Similarly‚ the more recent addition of the Colemak keyboard claims to have improved on both the QWERTY and the Dvorak system and is now the third most popular keyboard layout. But‚ overall‚ there isn’t any resounding evidence that suggests either the Dvorak or Colemak layout is significantly more efficient than QWERTY.The layout of a Colemak keyboard.Image credit: Unknown via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)However‚ now‚ in the age of touchscreens‚ a method was developed by researchers at the University of St Andrews in 2013 which is optimized to be used with the thumbs. Called KALQ (referring to the letters on the bottom right of the keyboard)‚ the layout splits the keys into 16 on the left and 12 on the right‚ with commonly used letters together and letter pairs on opposite sides.The researchers who devised the layout found that after training test participants for 10 hours‚ they were able to reach 37 WPM‚ whereas QWERTY users average around 20 WPM.While the system claims to allow tablet users to type 34 percent faster than QWERTY users‚ as it’s optimized for touchscreen use‚ it’s unlikely to replace the QWERTY system for physical computer keyboards.So‚ now‚ as the war of the keyboards takes a more futuristic turn‚ are we soon going to see the end of the legendary QWERTY‚ or are we all too set in our ways to bother?

Even science is prone to the occasional case of mistaken identity‚ particularly when it comes to figuring out what’s in a fossil. When Colombian priest Padre Gustavo Huertas found two small‚ round rocks with leaf-like patterns sometime between the 1950s and 70s‚ he classified them as fossilized plants. But on more recent examination‚ it was revealed the rocks weren’t the remains of ancient plant life after all – they were baby turtle shells.Huertas originally deemed the fossils to be specimens of the plant species Sphenophyllum colombianum. This was odd; the fossils dated to the Early Cretaceous‚ but other members of this plant’s genus were thought to have died out more than 100 million years before that time. Upon closer inspection of one of the fossils‚ researchers Fabiany Herrera and Héctor Palma-Castro noticed key plant features‚ such as its shape and veins‚ were missing. Instead‚ it looked more like bone. Palaeontologist Edwin-Alberto Cadena confirmed this was indeed the case – and that bone was the shell of a tiny turtle.“They sent me the photos‚ and I said‚ ‘This definitely looks like a carapace’ – the bony upper shell of a turtle‚” said Cadena. It also turned out that the visible part of the fossil was the underside of the turtle shell‚ which could explain why it was misidentified. What Huertas may have thought to be leaves and stems were instead the rib bones and vertebrae making up the shell. The more typically identifiable marks that could be used to compare to other turtles‚ both modern and fossilized‚ are found on the outside of the shell.The turtle fossil with rib and back bones superimposed.Image credit: Photo by Fabiany Herrera and Héctor Palma-Castro; drawing by Edwin-Alberto Cadena and Diego Cómbita-RomeroGiven the size of the turtles‚ this was something of a rare discovery. As Cadena explained‚ the bone in the shells of young turtles is very thin and so can be easily destroyed. As a result‚ there aren’t many fossils of turtle hatchlings around. The researchers determined that this particular turtle was somewhere between 0 and 1 year old when it died‚ with a slightly developed carapace. They also nicknamed it “Turtwig”‚ after the small‚ turtle-esque starter Pokémon that has a leafy twig on its head.As well as potentially providing insight into turtle development during the Cretaceous – some grew up to 4.5 meters (15 feet) – the researchers hope their discovery will have a wider impact on the field. “We resolved a small paleobotanical mystery‚ but more importantly‚ this study shows the need to re-study historical collections in Colombia‚” said Herrera.“Discoveries like these are truly special because they not only expand our knowledge about the past but also open a window to the diverse possibilities of what we can uncover‚” Palma-Castro added.The study is published in Palaeontologia Electronica.

Our hands and feet are pretty important. They help us to walk‚ to grip things‚ to make sense of our environment – and yet we know surprisingly little about how they develop. Or we didn’t until a new study came along‚ uncovering some of the mysteries of the earliest stages of human limb development for the very first time.To address the gap in our knowledge‚ researchers have created an atlas of cells involved in early human limb development‚ revealing how we get our fingers and toes. It forms part of the Human Cell Atlas – an international consortium that is creating comprehensive reference maps of every cell type in the human body – and made use of cutting-edge single-cell and spatial technologies to finally illuminate the intricacies of the perplexing process.In doing so‚ the team not only provide a never-before-seen characterization of human digit development‚ but also further our understanding of congenital limb syndromes‚ which may have implications for their diagnosis and treatment.“For the first time‚ we have been able to capture the remarkable process of limb development down to single cell resolution in space and time‚” Dr Sarah Teichmann‚ senior author and co-founder of the Human Cell Atlas‚ said in a statement. This‚ Teichmann added‚ has “many implications for research and healthcare.”“For instance‚ we discovered novel roles of key genes MSC and PITX1 that may regulate muscle stem cells. This could offer potential for treating muscle-related disorders or injuries.”Our limbs spring from bundles of cells on the sides of our bodies‚ which initially lack shape or function. But by eight weeks of development‚ they start to resemble arms and legs and are anatomically complex. What happens in the interim to get this point has been extensively studied in mice and chicks‚ but not so much in humans.“Decades of studying model organisms established the basis for our understanding of vertebrate limb development‚” senior author Professor Hongbo Zhang explained. “However‚ characterising this in humans has been elusive until now.”Zhang and co-authors turned to human tissues from between five and nine weeks of development to help investigate. Doing so enabled them to trace gene expression in the limb bud‚ providing a clearer picture of the genetic basis of limb formation.They also stained the tissues to find out how different populations of cells behave during this formative process.Their findings pinpoint particular genes that are involved‚ including some that‚ when disrupted‚ are associated with limb syndromes such as brachydactyly – short fingers and toes – and polysyndactyly – extra digits.They also‚ unexpectedly‚ demonstrate that our fingers and toes don’t actually grow outwards‚ but instead collapse in on themselves from a larger foundational bud.“What we reveal is a highly complex and precisely regulated process. It is like watching a sculptor at work‚ chiselling away at a block of marble to reveal a masterpiece. In this case‚ nature is the sculptor‚ and the result is the incredible complexity of our fingers and toes‚” Zhang added.In another of nature’s artistic triumphs‚ you can now see for yourself how hammerhead sharks get their distinctive hammers – another developmental feat that had never before been observed.The study is published in Nature.

The season of overindulgence is upon us. Christmas is just around the corner‚ a time when many of us will enjoy the finer and fattier things in life: roasted this‚ roasted that‚ meats wrapped in other meats stuffed into other forms of meat‚ etc. It can often be a bit much. However‚ you might be relieved to hear that some parts of the traditional Christmas meals do hold some solid health benefits (caveats and limits on eggnog intake apply). Many people are wary of cholesterol when eating large‚ rich meals. However‚ it’s important to distinguish between “good” and “bad” cholesterol.Cholesterol is a waxy‚ fat-like substance that's found in most body tissues. Having high levels of fats in the blood can lead to serious health problems‚ most notably heart disease and strokes. Simultaneously‚ your body needs some of this fatty stuff to be healthy as it’s used to build cells and produce certain hormones.“Many people still think of all cholesterol as harmful. However‚ it’s only LDL (low-density lipoprotein) cholesterol‚ often known as 'bad' cholesterol‚ that does the damage. LDL transports cholesterol to your arteries. It can lead to a build-up of plaque‚ resulting in poor blood flow. In general‚ the higher your LDL cholesterol levels‚ the higher your risk for coronary heart disease‚” Dr Avinash Hari Narayanan‚ Clinical Lead at London Medical Laboratory‚ said in a statement sent to IFLScience.“On the other hand‚ high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol can be called ‘good’ cholesterol.  Think of HDL as a vacuum cleaner for cholesterol. When HDL is at healthy levels in your blood it removes extra cholesterol and plaque build-up in your arteries and then sends it to your liver. Your liver then expels it from your body. This helps reduce your risk of heart disease‚ heart attack‚ and stroke‚” he added. The good news is that some components of the traditional Christmas dinner – turkey‚ salmon‚ chicken breast‚ brussels sprouts‚ and red cabbage – can be relatively good for your cholesterol if eaten in moderation.“There are plenty of foods popular during the festive season that can help lower your LDL levels‚ which improves your HDL to LDL ratio. The great news is that this includes that perennial Christmas favourite‚ turkey‚ along with several other festive meats such as chicken breast‚” Dr Narayanan explained.“That’s because research shows that fatty fish‚ chicken breast‚ and turkey are good natural sources of niacin. Niacin is also known as vitamin B3. It can help lower cholesterol and other fats in your blood. Niacin helps raise HDL good cholesterol‚ lower LDL cholesterol‚ and also lowers another type of fat in your body called 'triglycerides'‚” he continued. Even roasted potatoes can have their benefits‚ as long as they are cooked with caution.“To be sure‚ roasting isn’t the healthiest way to prepare potatoes‚ especially if you are using lard or goose fat. However‚ using unsaturated cooking oils such as olive oil is more heart-healthy. So too are low-fat sunflower cooking sprays and rapeseed oil. Rapeseed oil is particularly high in sterols. Sterols and stanols are plant chemicals of a similar size and shape to cholesterol. They are absorbed into the bloodstream and actually stop some cholesterol from being absorbed‚ lowering the cholesterol in your blood‚” added Dr Narayanan. It isn’t all good news though. Other parts of Christmas dinners are simply not so good for you‚ no matter how delicious they may be. This especially applies to desserts like mince pies‚ yule logs‚ and rich cream.If you want to pick a healthier dessert option‚ you should consider things like baked apples or pears‚ which help lower overall cholesterol levels‚ or berries‚ which are high in antioxidants.At the risk of sounding like the Grinch‚ you might want to keep an eye on portion size too. One survey has suggested that the average person consumes a belly-busting 5‚373 calories on Christmas day – that's twice the recommended daily average for men and triple for women. This is not good by any stretch of the imagination. Likewise‚ the festive period also sees a fair amount of excess drinking. A survey by DrinkAware found that almost two-thirds of drinkers over-indulge with alcohol over the festive season‚ with the average man drinking the equivalent of six glasses of wine on Christmas Day‚ which is way more than any health expert would recommend.Then again‚ Christmas only comes once a year. As long as you maintain an active lifestyle and a healthy diet for most of the year‚ a single day of overindulgence isn’t going to do too much harm. You should enjoy everything in life with moderation – including moderation.The content of this article is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice‚ diagnosis‚ or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions. 

When you're strolling through the forest‚ you may have occasionally come across a tree or groups of trees with strange markings on them. They can be anything from orange lines on top of each other‚ to ominous red crosses and enigmatic Roman numerals. These aren't the work of woodland creatures‚ but are used for a number of reasons in forestry management‚ as well as logging. So what do they mean?While there is no standardized meaning for the symbols used across the world‚ different organizations of course use and understand them when they do so. In the USA‚ the most common markings you'll see are orange stripes. These marks are placed on trees that are due to be harvested‚ and have been marked for use in timber‚ while blue markings indicate the edge of a boundary. As well as a visual aid for loggers and tree surgeons to identify trees to be used for timber‚ they help forest managers keep an eye on logging activity."Stump paint is used to help foresters confirm that trees were properly harvested. Stumps without paint raise a red flag‚ especially if there are too many‚" Michigan State University Extension Forestry explains. "Sometimes‚ an adjacent unmarked tree needs to be cut in order to get at a marked tree. Foresters take this into account when marking a stand‚ but sometimes leave access a bit tough for a logger."     Alternatively‚ when a large area of forest is to be cut down‚ trees that are to be left alone may be marked‚ sometimes in a blue-green color‚ or a boundary may be marked in yellow.Roman numerals are used in the UK on trees which have been measured for their height."These are called volume sample trees‚" Forestry England explains. "These trees are important for estimating the total volume‚ and are marked using Roman numerals to identify them."Other trees may be marked with letters like "PL" to indicate that they are near a power line‚ which will need to be shut off before the tree is felled‚ while red crosses are another way of indicating that a tree is to be cut down. Trees that are not for timber but are diseased may be marked in the same way.

When the unusually alcoholic comet 46P/Wirtanen approached the Sun in 1974‚ it left a trail of dust behind. Five astronomers have calculated the path of this debris and predict the Earth should hit it on December 12 this year‚ and possibly on the same date in future years‚ creating a new regular meteor shower.At certain times each year‚ the number of meteors lighting up the skies picks up – at least away from city lights. As well as the random assortment of bright flashes one sees coming from all directions‚ there’s an extra show all appearing to emerge from the same point (or at least patch) in the sky‚ known as a radiant. These are known as meteor showers. While most involve so few meteors they are hard to detect above the ordinary background‚ a few are utterly spectacular‚ with fortunate observers seeing hundreds of “shooting stars” an hour.With one exception‚ all known meteor showers are composed of material left behind during a comet’s passage. Since comets are “dirty snowballs”‚ when their ice melts the dirt is left behind‚ unbound to float in space on an orbit similar to the former comet. When Earth passes through the cloud of particles – which usually occurs on the same day each year – those that hit the atmosphere at great speed burn up‚ bringing a touch of magic to all that see them.If a paper submitted to Astronomy and Astrophysics‚ but yet to pass peer review‚ is correct‚ December 12 could soon be added to the list. The low speed of impact (10.2 km/s‚ or 23‚000 mph‚ is close to the bottom of meteor speeds) suggests they will not be particularly bright. The compensating advantage of slower meteorites is if you do see one‚ you get to watch it cross the sky and even alert friends‚ and there could be a lot of them.The paper’s authors focused on the question of when the shower should peak‚ rather than worrying about just how impressive it will be. Nevertheless‚ they point to some evidence‚ including how explosive this comet is‚ that implies the number of meteors could be unusually high‚ even for a shower.They used several different models to try to answer the timing question‚ and all provide a result of between 8:00 and 12:30 UT (also known as Greenwich Mean Time) on December 12. By coincidence‚ that’s 7-11 hours after parts of the world will be seeing the asteroid Leona block out Betelgeuse‚ making this potentially one of the great nights of history for amateur astronomers.That timing means the shower will occur in daylight for Europe and Africa‚ although parts of the Americas might catch a glimpse before dawn. On the other hand‚ it’ll be evening in Australia and East Asia.The paper predicts the shower’s radiant will be in Vela or Puppis‚ somewhere between 38 and 44 degrees south. That will put most of the meteors below the horizon from Japan or northern China‚ but they should be visible from much of South-East Asia and almost overhead in Australia. This would be sweet revenge for southern hemisphere skywatchers‚ long annoyed by the fact that most of the best meteor showers favor the north.Meteor showers are not the same each year – gradually‚ the Earth sweeps up so much dust that over time there is less left behind‚ and showers fade away. Moreover‚ pressure from the solar wind or gravitational tugs on the dust particles can move them around so that some years we miss the main belt‚ passing through an outlying region instead. The Leonids are the most famous example of this; in most years an unremarkable shower with few meteors‚ but occasionally so spectacular as to provide memories that last a lifetime.Forecasting the good years has advanced dramatically since the start of the century‚ but still involves a degree of uncertainty‚ with some hopeful calls failing to materialize. Predicting a new shower is harder still‚ particularly when the parental comet regularly passes close enough to Jupiter to be affected by its gravity.If the forecast comes true‚ however‚ future occurrences of this shower – which should all happen close to the same date – should be easier to predict.The preprint is available on ArXiv.org

Archaeologists in northern Spain have uncovered what they describe as one of the “best conserved Paleolithic dwellings in the world”. Dated to 16‚800 years ago‚ the living space in the La Garma cave in Cantabria appears almost as it did when its ancient inhabitants abandoned the site‚ with tools and other artifacts strewn across the floor.Originally discovered in 1995‚ La Garma was inhabited by humans throughout the Upper Paleolithic and contains one of the most complete collections of rock art in Europe‚ spanning the Old Stone Age all the way up to the site’s desertion in the Magdalenian period. It was at this time – around 17‚000 years ago – that a rockfall blocked the entrance to the cave‚ sealing its contents like a prehistoric time capsule.However‚ while the main chamber may have been inaccessible for millennia‚ humans continued to occupy the surrounding caverns‚ as evidenced by the presence of kitchen middens from the Middle Stone Age‚ Copper and Bronze Age graves‚ and Iron Age fort and tombs from both the Visigothic era and Middle Ages. Despite the site’s long history of use‚ though‚ the ancient cave dwelling remained undiscovered until now. According to the University of Cantabria‚ the oval-shaped space measures around 5 meters squared (54 square feet) and is delineated by a series of stone blocks and stalagmites‚ “which fixed to the ground a structure made of sticks and hides supported by a nearby ledge in the cave wall.” In the center of the living space is a hearth‚ surrounded by a multitude of items that would have been used in everyday life by the cave’s ancient inhabitants.These include tools used to produce stone‚ antler and bone artifacts‚ as well as those utilized during the butchering of animals and the working of hides. Among the 4‚614 items retrieved so far‚ researchers also found spears‚ needles‚ and a “proto harpoon”.In addition to these utilitarian objects‚ the cave was found to contain a number of artistic pieces‚ including an aurochs bone engraved with the image of both an aurochs and a human face. According to the researchers‚ this is the only artifact of its kind ever discovered from Paleolithic Europe.Pendants that would have been worn by the cave’s inhabitants were also retrieved‚ with the majority of items being made of deer‚ horse‚ and bison bones.Researchers are currently continuing their excavations and analyses‚ using a series of non-invasive techniques in order to learn more about La Garma while at the same time ensuring its continued preservation. Further details about their discoveries are due to be announced at a press conference at the National Archaeology Museum in February 2024.

Sometimes‚ the simplest things can bring the greatest joy. And a video of Reeses‚ a Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever‚ encountering a lemon slice‚ is the perfect example of this. This charming scene unfolds as Reeses‚ with his bright eyes and keen nose‚ approaches the lemon‚ unaware of the zesty surprise awaiting him. As Reeses... The post Curious dog melts hearts with adorable ‘overreaction’ to lemon slice appeared first on Animal Channel.