Monthly Archives: March 2020

Editors note: As an alternative to what you are getting pretty much everywhere else in the media at the moment, Evolution News is proud to offer inspiration, pointing to purpose and meaning in life. The profoundest mystery and thus the deepest inspiration is life itself. Discovery Institute Press has just published a greatly expanded edition of the 1984 classic of intelligent design science literature, The Mystery of Lifes Origin. Below is the original Foreword to the book by San Francisco State University biologist Dean Kenyon.

The Mystery of Lifes Origin presents an extraordinary new analysis of an age-old question: How did life start on Earth? The authors deal forthrightly and brilliantly with the major problems confronting scientists today in their search for lifes origins. They understand the impasse in current laboratory and theoretical research and suggest a way around it. Their arguments are cogent, original, and compelling. This book is sure to stimulate much animated discussion among scientists and laymen. It is very likely that research on lifes origins will move in somewhat different directions once the professionals have read this important work.

The modern experimental study of the origin of the first life on Earth is now entering its fourth decade, if we date the inception of this field of research to Stanley Millers pioneering work in the early 1950s. Since Millers identification of several (racemic) protein-forming amino acids in his electric discharge apparatus, numerous follow-up studies have been conducted. Conforming in varying degrees to the requirements of the so-called simulation paradigm, these experiments have yielded detectable amounts of most of the major kinds of biochemical substance as well as a variety of organic microscopic structures suggested to be similar to the historical precursors of the first living cells.

This program of research can be regarded as a natural extension of Darwins evolutionary views of the last century. The goal of the work is to find plausible uniformitarian mechanisms for the gradual spontaneous generation of living matter from relatively simple molecules thought to have been abundant on the surface of the primitive Earth.

The experimental results to date have apparently convinced many scientists that a naturalistic explanation for the origin of life will be found, but there are significant reasons for doubt. In the years since the publication of Biochemical Predestination I have been increasingly struck by a peculiar feature of many of the published experiments in the field. I am not referring to those studies conducted more or less along the lines of Millers original work, although there are firm grounds for criticizing those studies as well. I am referring to those experiments designed to elucidate possible pathways of prebiotic synthesis of certain organic substances of biologic interest, such as purines and pyrimidines, or polypeptides.

In most cases the experimental conditions in such studies have been so artificially simplified as to have virtually no bearing on any actual processes that might have taken place on the primitive Earth. For example, if one wishes to find a possible prebiotic mechanism of condensation of free amino acids to polypeptides, it is not likely that sugars or aldehydes would be added to the reaction mixture. And yet, how likely is it that amino acids (or any other presumed precursor substance) occurred anywhere on the primitive Earth free from contamination substances, either in solution or the solid state? The difficulty is that if sugars or aldehydes were also present polypeptides would not form. Instead an interfering cross-reaction would occur between amino acids and sugars to give complex, insoluble polymeric material of very dubious relevance to chemical evolution. This problem of potentially interfering cross-reactions has been largely neglected in much of the published work on the chemical origins of life. The possible implications of such an omission merit careful study.

Other aspects of origin-of-life research have contributed to my growing uneasiness about the theory of chemical evolution. One of these is the enormous gap between the most complex protocell model systems produced in the laboratory and the simplest living cells. Anyone familiar with the ultrastructural and biochemical complexity of the genus Mycoplasma, for example, should have serious doubts about the relevance of any of the various laboratory protocols to the actual historical origin of cells. In my view, the possibility of closing this gap by laboratory simulation of chemical events likely to have occurred on the primitive Earth is extremely remote.

Another intractable problem concerns the spontaneous origin of the optical isomer preferences found universally in living matter (e.g., L- rather than D-amino acids in proteins, D- rather than L-sugars in nucleic acids). After all the prodigious effort that has gone into attempts to solve this great question over the years, we are really no nearer to a solution today than we were thirty years ago.

Finally, in this brief summary of the reasons for my growing doubts that life on Earth could have begun spontaneously by purely chemical and physical means, there is the problem of the origin of genetic, i.e., biologically relevant, information in biopolymers. No experimental system yet devised has provided the slightest clue as to how biologically meaningful sequences of subunits might have originated in prebiotic polynucleotides or polypeptides. Evidence for some degree of spontaneous sequence ordering has been published, but there is no indication whatsoever that the non-randomness is biologically significant. Until such evidence is forthcoming one certainly cannot claim that the possibility of a naturalistic origin of life has been demonstrated.

In view of these and other vexing problems in origin-of-life research, there has been a need for some years now for a detailed, systematic analysis of all major aspects of the field. It is time to re-examine the foundations of this research in such a way that all the salient lines of criticism are simultaneously kept in view. The Mystery of Lifes Origin admirably fills this need. The authors have addressed nearly all the problems enumerated above and several other important ones as well. They believe, and I now concur, that there is a fundamental flaw in all current theories of the chemical origins of life. Although the tone of the book is critical, the authors have written it in the positive hope that their analysis will help us find a better theory of origins. Such an approach is, of course, entirely consistent with the manner in which scientific advances have occurred in the past.

One of the uniquely valuable features of the book is its discussion (Chap. 6) of the relative geochemical plausibilities of the various types of simulation experiments reported in the literature. To my knowledge this is the first systematic attempt to devise formal criteria for acceptable degrees of interference by the investigator in such experiments. Another especially helpful feature is the detailed discussion of the implications of thermodynamics (Chaps. 7, 8, and 9) for the origin-of-life problem. This important topic is either omitted entirely or is treated superficially in most other books on the chemical origins of life. The authors might have included a more detailed discussion of the problem of optical isomer preferences, but this deficiency detracts in only a minor way from the overall strength of their argument.

If the authors criticisms are valid, one might ask, why have they not been recognized or stressed by workers in the field? I suspect that part of the answer is that many scientists would hesitate to accept the authors conclusion that it is fundamentally implausible that unassisted matter and energy organized themselves into living systems. Perhaps these scientists fear that acceptance of this conclusion would open the door to the possibility (or the necessity) of a supernatural origin of life. Faced with this prospect many investigators would prefer to continue in their search for a naturalistic explanation of the origin of life along the lines marked out over the last few decades, in spite of the many serious difficulties of which we are now aware. Perhaps the fallacy of scientism is more wide- spread than we like to think.

Ones presuppositions about the origin of life, and especially the assumption that this problem will ultimately yield to a persistent application of current methodology, can certainly influence which lines of evidence and argument one chooses to stress, and which are played down or avoided altogether. What the authors have done is to place before us essentially all the pertinent lines of criticism in one continuous statement and to invite us to face them squarely.

All scientists interested in the origin-of-life problem would do well to study this book carefully and to evaluate their own work in the light of its arguments.

Read the rest of The Mystery of Lifes Origin: The Continuing Controversy, from Discovery Institute Press.

Photo: Dean H. Kenyon, in On the Origin of Life: An Interview with Dr. Dean Kenyon, via Access Research Network (screenshot).

Continued here:

What Scientists Fear: Foreword to The Mystery of Life's Origin - Discovery Institute

The coronavirus pandemics global spread has caused concern regarding the development of the situation.

The most up-to-date online platform for the monitoring, analysis and mapping of the geographical distribution and evolution of the virus has been created by the GeoCHOROS research team of the National Geographic and Space Research Laboratory of the National Technical University of Athens.

Unlike other platforms, it is the only one that gives a true picture of the size and magnitude of the problem, in each country and worldwide, and makes it easier for the visitor to make comparisons, even estimates of evolution, the research team said.

What makes the platform particularly unique is the way in which it allows users to see the data in a visual form.In addition to the number of cases, deaths, and recoveries, the rate of disease progression for different time periods can be visualised; overall, on the last day, the last week, or the last two weeks, the incidence and death rates can be calculated on population or relative to the population density of each country.

Professor George Fotios, professor of Geography and Regional Planning at the School of Rural and Surveying Engineering of the National Technical University of Athens told the Athens Macedonian News Agency that the platform was created so that people could see a break-up of cases in terms of population while also viewing the development of coronavirus in terms of specific groups.

READ MORE:Australian states closing their borders in response to coronavirus epidemic

The reason we developed this platform is because this is a phenomenon that people evaluate based on three to four key facts how many cases there are, how many deaths and how many have recovered. But these numbers need to be weighted according to the country they refer to, Professor Fotios said.

It allows you to compare how this pandemic evolves by country. That is, one can see what the number and spread of the disease is in each country, he said, adding that it is a tool both for the ordinary citizen and people who want to deepen their knowledge of the issue.

READ MORE:Flexible visa terms on the way during coronavirus crisis

The creation of the platform, according to the research team, makes use of state-of-the-art technologies and has focused on user-friendliness, which provides maps, graphs, and tables that answer questions.

Visit the platform at http://geochoros.survey.ntua.gr/coronavirus/?fbclid=IwAR3bWOdskdtMh2znadEJPg-rTqWHNnkbhRzvoi_GCk24jzVToz6t7yOI4Bs

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University of Athens coronavirus platform shows the geographical distribution and evolution - Neos Kosmos

IN NANDITA Dass film, Manto, the great story writer, who loved Bombay beyond distraction, finds himself under pressure from family, in the midst of the post-partition carnage, to leave for Lahore. Shyam, film star and friend remarks you are not such a Muslim that you have to leave for Pakistan.

Enough of a Muslim to be killed, in a riot, retorts Manto. The irony is that Manto was an atheist. Circumstances had imposed on his name an identity he was otherwise not comfortable with.

Havent some of us experienced this identity superimposition on the basis of our names? A few days ago a former foreign secretary took my breath away: he addressed me in tones that would have flattered the Sheikh of a Muslim seminary. In such extreme circumstances would you blame me if I am tempted to reintroduce myself. Look that is not me at all. In fact, what I wrote after the Moradabad riots of 1982, is what I am, give or take an inflection or two. Prior to that date, no journalist had ever taken that approach to the theme. Pardon me for repeating what I wrote 38 years ago. It may help to beat the current amnesia.

Whenever events like Moradabad take place some of my friends turn to me with sympathy which generally leaves me cold because I guess I am a minority in my own community for reasons more than one.

My credentials as a good Muslim are quite as suspect as Ghalibs were. I am half a Muslim, he said when, in the course of a litigation, a magistrate asked him to declare his religion. I drink but I do not eat pork.

However, my children generally describe themselves as Muslims while filling up school admission forms, although I wonder why such questions should ever be asked. Before you hastily trace my attitude to my anglicised education let me dispel the notion straightaway. Yes, I did have my schooling in an Anglo-Indian institution of sorts in Lucknow, but the home in which I grew up was a deeply religious one even though the likes of the Imam currently in the news would not have been allowed within miles of it.

My grandfather, like Dryden, always maintained that Priests of all religious are the same, but some he respected, even befriended for their scholarship and conversation. I remember sitting through many a theological discourse, with Maulana Nasir-ul-Millat holding court; among the participants was one Gurtu, a Kashmiri Pandit.

A moulvi of little distinction was hired ostensibly to brush up my arithmetic but actually to put me through my first paces in namaz. His efforts at proselytization were supplemented by my mothers; she augmented our meagre library with biographies of the prophets and the great Imams.

There was a quaint little mosque in the compound of our house in the village, Mustafabad, near Rae Bareli. Since we visited the village only during school holidays, marriages, deaths and births, it was not difficult to maintain a certain discipline and be seen in the mosque, at reasonable frequency, often only to please grandfather.

We were groomed into believing that Islam was the most dynamic of religions but we found it equally easy to accept that it was Islams interaction with a greater civilisation that resulted in Dara Shikoh, Rahim, Kabir, Amir Khusro, Raskhan, Nazir Akbarabadi, Ghalib, and Anis. Nowhere in the Muslim world is there a monument, like the Taj or Fatehpur Sikri.

Folks these days are ignorant of the 18th century poet Nazir Akbarabadis poem kya kya likhoon main Krishna Kanhaiya Ka baal pan (How should I write about the beautiful childhood of Lord Krishna) or Mohsin Kakorvis Samte Kashi se chala janibe Mathura badal jab talak Brij mein Kanhaiya hai yeh Khulne ka nahin (The clouds are moving ecstatically from Kashi to Mathura and the sky will remain covered with the beautiful clouds as long as there is Krishna in Braj). These lines were written by the Muslim poet to celebrate the birthday of Prophet Mohammad?

In the region I was raised in, Sohar was a song sung during a womans confinement. My mothers favourite sohar was Allah Mian, hamre bhaiya ka diyo Nandlal (Oh my Allah, give my brother a son like Lord Krishna).

What does all this nostalgia has to do with contemporary realities, a friend asks.

Well, I guess I am no pandit but I do know a bit about contemporary realities. I know how partition ruptured the fabric, bits of which I still keep with me. I also know about the status reversal experienced by the Muslims in independent India, particularly with the decline of the feudal order. It was the self-confident Muslim elite which found it easy to extend patronage to the beautiful aspects of Hindu culture: after all, Krishna Leela was preserved in its entirely in the Kathak style evolved in the Muslim courts.

With the decay of the feudal order, the lower middle class, always given to religiosity gained upward mobility. It is upon this class that the clergy dominated parties feed and which forms the central nervous system of the sort of fundamentalism on show. I also know of a certain pan-Islamic sentiment among the Muslims and I guess that the RSS does not like it. All this and more I have been aware of for quite some time.

It must, therefore, be a considerable intellectual failure on my part that in spite of all this I am unable to disengage myself from the folks who moulded me in my formative years. The credo they lived by is no longer part of the contemporary ethos.

Call it private grief, call it indifference, or both, but I find it, increasingly difficult to have a readymade response to Moradabad, Jamshedpur or Aligarh. And when friends turn to me with sympathy when such madness erupts, I feel a sort of numbness and have a strange feeling that they are addressing the wrong person.

Saeed Naqvi is a senior Indian journalist, television commentator, interviewer, and distinguished fellow at the Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi.

Read more here:

Evolution from a good Muslim to a bad one: really? - newagebd.net

A fossil fish that lived almost 400 million years ago in a shallow primordial sea had both fin rays and finger bones in its pectoral fins, an international team of paleontologists revealed on Wednesday.

Will Israel's cyber spies let Bibi use coronavirus to kill democracy?Haaretz

These strange fish, discovered in Miguasha, Quebec, in 2010 and analyzed in the new paper in Nature, may be the missing link between fish and tetrapods early four-legged animals that ventured beyond the seas onto the land and became the ancestors of all legged and winged vertebrates.

The Quebecois Elpistostege watsoni specimen wasnt only complete, it was huge: 1.57 meters (5 feet, 2 inches) long, which is helpful to analyzing its morphology. Scanning the long-deceased predatory piscine with high-energy computed tomography, Richard Cloutier and the team found the skeleton of the pectoral fin included not only fishy fin rays but also bones homologous to our upper arm, forearm, wrist and fingers.

It was the most tetrapod-like arrangement of bones found in a pectoral fin to date, say the paleontologists fromFlinders Universityin Australia and the University of Quebec at Rimouski.

The pectoral fins are the ones nearest the fishs head.

Until now, fossil evidence of the elpistostegalians has been sparse and fragmented: a famous one in piscine paleontological circles is Tiktaalik, found in todays Arctic Canada, which is known only from incomplete specimens. The new complete fossil provides evidence that the digits of four-legged animals evolved in fish before they left the water which is earlier than previously thought.

In other words, the hands and feet of land-dwellers apparently evolved from the skeletal pattern buried within the fairly typical aquatic pectoral fin of elpistostegalians, the team says.

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The Miguasha specimen reveals extraordinary new information about the evolution of the vertebrate hand, said John Long, strategic professor in paleontologyat Flinders University in Adelaide. This is the first time that we have unequivocally discovered fingers locked in a fin with fin-rays in any known fish. The articulating digits in the fin are like the finger bones found in the hands of most animals.

Elpistostege, are you my mother?

Elpistostegalian and tetrapod fossils are known from the Late Devonian period, around 390 to 360 million years ago. But fossil trackways indicate that early tetrapods left the waters earlier, probably looking for food in shallow water and on land, the team explains.

Evolving to survive out of the water requires not only feet homologues but the ability to breathe air, and adaptation of auditory and feeding structures as well. As for the feet: The origin of digits relates to developing the capability for the fish to support its weight in shallow water or for short trips out on land, the scientists explain. The more small bones in the fin it evolved, the more flexibility it had to spread out its weight through the fins.

One thought. This was a monster fish with impressive fangs and seems to have been the alpha predator in the shallow sea habitat that was Quebec around 380 million years ago. Yet the transition from sea to land is presumed to have been evolutionarily driven by a search for new sources of food. Elpistostege watsoni was clearly just one member of a long line of distinguished tetrapod-like fish.

Nor is there any particular reason to think it was our mother, ancestral to the terrestrial vertebrate line; some other transitional tetrafish may have been. But even if Elpistostege is not necessarily our mother, its the closest we know to the missing link fishes and four-legged beings that led to us.

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Fossil fish fingers shed new light on the evolution of the human hand - Haaretz

The Camon series is one of TECNO Mobiles best smartphone series. The series focuses on equipping a smartphone with the best camera technology possible. And in todays phone market, the camera is an essential feature of a smartphone. They say Moments dont last forever, so make it memorable, one of the many ways to make it memorable is by capturing the moment. Taking photos and videos of our precious lifes moment with the help of our smartphones front-facing camera. The TECNO Camon smartphones usually have the very best of camera technology in the Africa market.

The TECNO Camon Camera Evolution

Over the years, we have witnessed the evolution of TECNOs Camon camera. The latest being the TECNO Camon 12, which was released in September 2019. The first Camon smartphone was launched back in 2015 the TECNO Camon C8. The selfie camera of the Camon C8 features a 5MP sensor, which was quite good at the time.

Then in 2016, we had the second generation of the Camon series the Camon C9. The device features a 13MP front-facing camera, which is more than twice what is available on the C8.

March 2017 saw the birth of the third Camon device the Camon CX, which features a 16MP selfie camera alongside a quad-LED flash to help brighten photos in low-light conditions. The evolution will then take a step backwards in January 2018, as the then-new Camon CM comes with a 13MP front-facing camera. Dont know if you know this quote minor setback for a major comeback?

Just before the end of 2018, TECNO Mobile bounced back with the release of the Camon X and Camon X Pro. The Camon X packs a large 20MP selfie shooter while the Camon X Pro comes with an even larger 24MP selfie shooter.

From 2018 ending to 2019, the company launched the Camon 11 followed by the Camon 12 with dual and triple cameras at the back. It is sufficing to say that we are now in the ERA of Multi-Smartphone cameras.

TECNO Next Generation Camon Smartphone

TECNO Mobile is yet to announce any information regarding the next Camon smartphone. The naming of the Camon series is something that has not been in an orderly manner since inception. So who knows what the next Camon will be, 13? 14? Or 15?

It is only right to assume the next Camon smartphone will feature a vastly improved AI camera. The upcoming phone will definitely come with a larger megapixel than what we have on previous devices.

Let us know what you think will be the name of the next TECNO Camon smartphone in the comment section below and what megapixel camera it will feature.

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Infographic: The TECNO Camon Camera Evolution - TechCabal

In our fast-paced industry, keeping up with the ever-changing platforms, the features and updates consistently and then keeping track of new changes in order to implement or even consider them in your next campaign which goes live next week.... is probably one of the toughest asks for any social media manager.

A survey among The Drum's readers tells us that 44% are being kept awake at night by the need to keep-up-to-date with changing channels?

Weve rounded up some key updates from the world of social media in the last few weeks with an aim to keep both marketers and brands up-to-date with socials ever-changing landscape.

Facebook temporarily bans ads for medical face masks

Facebook is temporarily banning ads and commerce listings for medical face masks amid growing concern over coronavirus-related exploitation.

Coronavirus-themed social groups and pages also will be blocked from its algorithm, accoeidng to Facebook. The rules apply to Instagram as well. Supplies are short, prices are up, and were against people exploiting this public health emergency, tweeted Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram.

Twitter launches its own take on Stories with 'Fleets'

We all knew it was only a matter of time before Twitter got its own version of disappearing content.

Twitter has announced its own variation of Stories, known as Fleets - which makes sense, given the rising popularity of Stories.

As Facebook has repeatedly mentioned, Stories are on track to overtake the newsfeed as the primary social sharing surface.

Users with Fleets available will see a new, rounded profile icon at the top of their Twitter feed. If your connections have posted Fleets, they'll appear in their own round bubbles, which is obviously very similar to the common Stories format on Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat and others.

At present, Fleets are being rolled out only in Brazil, where Twitter will conduct its initial testing.

Instagram prototypes IGTV monetization

As anticipated, Instagram may finally make use of its latest inventory and let IGTV video makers monetise 18 months after launching the longer-form content hub. Instagram has confirmed to TechCrunch that it has internally prototyped an Instagram Partner Program that would let creators earn money by showing advertisements alongside their videos.

The program could potentially work similarly to how monetisation on Facebook works, where video producers earn a 55% cut of revenue from ad breaks inserted in their video content.

The murky plight of social media regulation

Last week, Ofcom announced that it would be granted new powers to regulate advertising on social media. Considering the first Facebook ad went out in 2005, this has been a very long time coming. The government is planning to set the directions of the regulations and will allow Ofcom to adapt and draw up the details.

While this teething period may take time, its definitely a welcome change that these regulations around social advertising arent just being explored, but are on the road to being enforced. This will only mean that content creators and brands are going to be forced to be more mindful of the content theyre putting out and the negative impacts this content could have.

TikTok adds parental controls to monitor kid activity

TikTok has introduced a new set of parental controls, called Family Safety Mode, designed to let parents set limits on their teenage childrens use of the TikTok mobile app.

The suite of features includes screen-time management controls, limits on direct messages and a restricted mode that limits the appearance of inappropriate content. According to TikTok, parents who want to enable Family Safety Mode must first create their own account on the app, which is then linked to the teens account. Once enabled, parents will be able to control how long their teen can spend on the app every day; as well as turn off or limit who the teen can direct message; and choose to turn on TikToks restricted mode that will limit inappropriate content.

The new parental controls are available first in the U.K, but theyll be rolled out in other markets in the weeks ahead.

Facebook is giving free ads to the World Health Organization

Facebook is providing the World Health Organization (WHO) with free ad space in response to COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

Chief executive officer, Mark Zuckerberg announced that the social network is providing WHO with as many free ads as they need for outreach related to the outbreak. Its also providing ad credits to other organizations and is working closely with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), UNICEF, and national ministries of health.

Snapchat introduces swipe-up to call ad format in the US

After launching its new 'Swipe Up to Call' ad option in the Middle East last year, Snap has announced that it will now offer the same to US advertisers.

While phone calls are not a huge priority for modern phone users, we think driving direct calls could have specific benefits in certain sectors.

As per Snap's announcement, "This new ad product will allow automotive businesses to scale test drives and feed their leads funnel. Real estate companies will have another strong tool to increase the reach and prospect volume by getting consumers to immediately call their sales representative to book an apartment showing. Restaurants will be able to use Swipe Up to Call to drive reservations and food orders."

To use the 'Swipe Up to Call' prompt in your Snap ads, you'll soon be able to choose Calls & Texts as your advertising objective in Snapchat's Ads Manager.

Owais Tambe, paid media lead at Wilderness.

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The evolution of social media platforms: early bird gets... everything, really! - The Drum

Queen Rania, with Senator Jesse Helms in Washington DC on June 7, 2000, wears a simple black suit with a blue blouse, a style format she stuck to in the early 2000s. Getty Images

Queen Rania of Jordan, pictured in Amman in November 2000, sports a beige two-piece with a contrasting teal shirt. Getty Images

Queen Rania, pictured with a newborn Princess Salma as well as Princess Iman and Crown Prince Hussein, wears a maroon turtleneck in November 2000. Getty Images

Queen Rania, pictured in Amman on December 17, 2000, has long highlighted traditional Jordanian craftsmanship through her wardrobe choices. Getty Images

The royal experimented with a fringe and layered haircut in April, 2001. Getty Images

Queen Rania, here photographed on June 6, 2001, was an early proponent of the power suit. Getty Images

Queen Rania, pictured in Rome on October 12, 2001, also dabbled with lighter locks in the past. Getty Images

For a visit to London in November 2001, Queen Rania, pictured with Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh, chose elegant navy separates, for a finish that still looks contemporary. Getty Images

While in London in November 2001, the royal, pictured with Cherie Blair, began to show her appreciation for architectural cuts. Getty Images

Queen Rania, photographed with artist Hind Nasser on November 29, 2001, made a lesser-seen dabble with pastel tones in this co-ordinating lavender suit. Getty Images

Queen Rania, pictured arriving at King Abdullah's birthday party on January 29, 2002, wears a dramatic full-length coat over a classic shirt-and-trousers combo. Getty Images

The royal, pictured on June 10, 2002 in Amman, didn't escape the sunglasses trends and the pinstriped blazers of the early 2000s. Getty Images

Queen Rania, pictured with Baroness Symons and Maria Shammas on June 17, 2002, has long favourite monochrome ensembles with clean lines, as per this asymmetric coat and trousers look. Getty Images

The royal wears peachy chiffon embellished with sequins for a gala dinner in France on September 30, 2002. Getty Images

Queen Rania wears a bolero jacket over a velvet evening gown at Bellevue Palace in October 22, 2002 in Berlin, Germany. Getty Images

Queen Rania first started embracing the pussybow blouse, a style she still favours to this day, in October 2002 in Berlin, Germany. Getty Images

The royal looked to a Rennaissance-worthy velvet gown on December 2, 2002 in Versailles, France. Getty Images

The royal, pictured with Queen Sofia of Spain on September 30, 2003, wears knee-high boots with a chic sleeveless dress. Getty Images

Queen Rania champions the skirt suit on March 8, 2004 in Beirut. Getty Images

Queen Rania looks red carpet ready in cream satin for a gala dinner at El Pardo Royal Palace on May 21, 2004 in Madrid, Spain. Getty Images

For the wedding of Spanish Crown Prince Felipe de Bourbon and former journalist Letizia Ortiz on May 22, 2004, Queen Rania donned a simple white shirt, dressed up by a lilac and lace maxi. Getty Images

Queen Rania, while visiting British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his wife Cherie, dressed for the UK's wintry climes in a knitted tunic layered over trousers on November 6, 2006. Getty Images

Queen Rania dresses up an emerald gown with a sleek black stole at the Foreign Press Association awards on November 23, 2004 in London. Getty Images

Queen Rania, then pregnant with Prince Hashem, wears a textured coat on November 29, 2004 in Amman. Getty Images

Queen Rania, pictured with Renee Zellweger, wears a long navy dress on June 11, 2006 for an event on the Jordanian shore of the Dead Sea. Getty Images

The royal, pictured in Cape Town on April 3, 2006, dressed up a simple shirt with layered necklaces. Getty Images

Queen Rania wrapped. atrench coat over a printed tea dress at the Royal Military Academy in Sandhurst, UK, on August 11, 2006. Getty Images

Queen Rania experimented with velvet for daywear in this blazer on October 30, 2006 in The Hague, Netherlands. Getty Images

This royal blue gown was offset by a woven belt on October 31, 2006 in Scheveningen, Netherlands. Getty Images

Queen Rania donned a classic LBD for a Unesco Goodwill Ambassadors meeting on April 3, 2007 in Paris, France. Getty Images

Queen Rania demonstrates why she reigns at tailored separates on October 31, 2007, in Amman. Getty Images

Queen Rania is the picture of elegance in pale dove grey Elie Saab at the Bambi Awards on November 29, 2007 in Germany. Getty Images

Queen Rania, pictured with Queen Sofia of Spain on October 18, 2008, dips a toe into the then-emerging lace trend. Getty Images

Queen Rania keeps it elegant in a tonal autumnal look on October 18, 2008 in Madrid, Spain. Getty Images

Queen Rania, pictured with King Constantin of Greece, wore an artfully draped purple gown to the wedding banquet for Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden on June 19, 2010 in Stockholm, Sweden. Getty Images

Queen Rania turns to a scalloped coral silk dress on October 30, 2008 in Paris, France. Getty Images

Queen Rania amps up the drama with an oversized applique bloom at Windsor Castle on May 18, 2012 in London. Getty Images

The royal steps out in a blue dress with flattering white panels while with Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall on March 12, 2013, in Amman. Getty Images

Queen Rania embraces a fringe of feathers with this long-sleeved top and draped skirt at the Women in the World summit on October 8, 2015 in London, England. Getty Images

Queen Rania, pictured with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and German politician Christian Lindner on September 17, 2015 , wears a belted skirt with a subtly embellished blouse. Getty Images

The royal, pictured with Queen Letizia of Spain, wrapped up in a fashion-forward tweed jacket to arrive in Madrid on November 19, 2015. Getty Images

Queen Rania, photographed with Queen Letizia of Spain on November 20, 2015, has long championed the midi skirt, but this pleated black and white number might be her best one yet. Getty Images

Queen Rania debuted a cutaway coat layered over a hot-pink pencil dress on January 8, 2016 in London. Getty Images

Queen Rania looks regal in a flowing teal gown, and complementing golden headband, at the Royal Hashemite Court on June 2, 2016. Getty Images

Queen Rania, with Crown Prince Hussein, embraces Hama Fashion's traditional prints in a modern silhouette for Jordan's 70th Independence Day on May 25, 2016. Getty Images

Queen Rania made a rare appearance in eclectic Valentino prints at the Ein Herz Fuer Kinder Gala on December 3, 2016 in Berlin, Germany. Getty Images

Queen Rania wrapped up in a statement red Givenchy coat and matching heels at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst on August 11, 2017 in Camberley, England. Getty Images

The royal kept it simple yet super contemporary in a white Givenchy shirt dress at Fashion for Relief on May 21, 2017 in Cannes, France. Getty Images

Queen Rania wears an embellished pencil skirt with a light knit on November 30, 2017 in Oxfordshire, England. Getty Images

Queen Rania wore a dusky blue, high-necked dress for Princess Salma's graduation ceremony on May 22, 2018. Getty Images

Queen Rania turned to a fuchsia midi and heels by Amina Muaddi for a meeting with Queen Elizabeth II and King Abdullah II on January 1, 2019. Getty Images

The royal wears relaxed trousers and a loose scarlet Antonio Berardi jacket to tour the Jabal Al-Luweibdeh neighbourhood on April 17, 2019, in Amman. Getty Images

Queen Rania wore relaxed, safari-inspired Michael Kors suiting for a visit to Al Maghtas, where Jesus is believed by Christians to have been baptised, in March 2020. AFP

Queen Rania, pictured with Queen Sonia and King Harald V of Norway in Amman, on March 2, 2020, chose a clean yet ultra modern Izeta coat for the royals' visit to Jordan. EPA.

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A royal flush: 54 photos that chart the style evolution of Jordan's Queen Rania - The National

DOOM Eternalis finally out, granting everyone a way to kick back and enjoy some high-octane shooter gameplay. And whileDOOM Eternalreviews have been strong, it's easy to forget just how far the franchise has come since its debut all the way back in 1993.

Since it first released,DOOMhas defined the shooter genre, evolving and changing as the industry has. It laid the foundation for a lot of what gamers know and love today, and easily stands as one of the most popular games of all time. However, an often overlooked aspect of the franchise is its protagonist,the Doom Slayer. And while the character does lack a fair bit of depth, watching him evolve has been impressive.

RELATED:Doom Eternal Features Terminator Easter Egg

The Doom Slayer's background is largely a mystery. WhileDOOM 2016andDOOM Eternaldive a little bit deeper into the character's lore, there still isn't a lot fans know about him as a person, besides being a large, hard to kill murder machine sent to Earth with the intention of turning all manner of demons into ground beef. He is the clearest example of an unstoppable force within video games, more so than almost any other character out there.

One of the few things confirmed about the character is his lineage. Tom Hall and John Romero, two developers instrumental in the creation of the originalDOOM,have confirmed thatthe Doom Slayer is a descendant of B.J. Blascowicz, the main protagonist of theWolfensteinfranchise. It's an interesting connection, though one that doesn't have all that much of an effect on gameplay. WithWolfenstein: Youngbloodgiving BJ Blascowicz twin daughters, the family tree is slightly different than originally thought, so that also might skewer things a bit.

In terms of actual character development,DOOM Eternaldoes show fans that the Doom Slayer will do whatever it takes to protect humanity, even if that means ignoring the orders of The Night Sentinels, an order the Doom Slayer is a part of. Still silent and stoic, battling against seemingly impossible odds, it's one of the few things fans know about the character as a person, and has remained persistent throughout the series.

In many ways, the Doom Slayer's evolution is tied to the evolution of the series itself. The Doom Slayer only evolves as the game mechanics do. As the series has gone on, the Doom Slayer has gotten faster, a broader arsenal of weapons, and more aggressive with the likes of viciously-brutal glory kills. Against Master Chief, another popular FPS character, the Doom Slayer does lack depth, as a Master Chief has seen a deeper, more emotional side portrayed in recent entries. He's become less of an alien killing machine, and more of a jaded soldier that has suffered major losses throughout his career.

The very nature ofDOOM Eternal,and the franchise as a whole,makes it more difficult to grow a character in the same way.DOOMis about constant, non-stop action, with most of the narrative relegated to brief cutscenes and codex entries throughout most of the game. That isn't such a bad thing, as most players came for the action in the first place, though It does leave players looking for a deeper story stuck searching elsewhere.

TheDoom Slayer's evolution, intrinsically linked with the game's mechanics, is a key part of keeping the franchise relevant. As it's iterated upon, one can only assume that the Doom Slayer is getting more advanced and skilled, even if that's simply because he's platforming more. That does go a little way to give the character more depth, even if that depth isn't what one would traditionally think of when imaging how a character has grown.

Even if the Demon Slayer really hasn't changed that much in the decades since his debut, there's still quite a bit that he's done to inspire other characters out there. The Doom Slayer is the base for any number of shooter protagonists out there from Master Chief to Marcus Phoenix and any other number of heroes.

The Doom Slayer has continued to be a blank slate, and that has managed to keep nearly him as relevant as Mario throughout the years. Of course,DOOMdoesn't have the same family-friendly nature of Mario, but its fair to say thatDOOMhas been one of the most impactful video game franchises of all time, thanks to, in large part, the Doom Slayer. That makes him a fair bit like Mario, at least in terms of impact.

RELATED:Doom Eternal Secretly Contains Two Classic Games

The question now is how much longer the Doom Slayer's legacy will last. The character has a long, storied history in the video game world, and with the success of the rebooted franchise so far, it seems likely that the legacy will continue well into the future. Of course, it's hard to say whether or not that will mean the Doom Slayer is explored even more. The character has had a massive impact on the games industry, that much is true, but it would be interesting to see the character himself explored a little bit more, if anything to learn even more aboutDOOM'slore.

On the other hand, at this point, theDoom Slayer being a mostly silent, hyper-violent character is sort of his thing,and it doesn't seem like id Software would want to throw that away. How the future of the character translates to consoles will remain a pretty major mystery, but it will certainly be interesting to see where he'll end up, and what iteration onDOOM'smechanics it will take to get him there.

If anything, Doom Slayer will likely stand as a testament toDOOM'soriginal development team, and the lasting impact their work has had on the games industry as a whole. That legacy is sure to be more impressive than the character himself will ever be, and that's something not many developers can claim to have accomplished.

DOOM Eternalis available now for PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One. A Switch release is planned for the future.

MORE:Twitch Streamer is Playing Doom and Animal Crossing with One Controller

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Cameron has been holding a controller for about as long as he can remember. He has a deep passion for the games industry as a whole, but a particular love for RPGs and tabletop games. You can follow him on Twitter @ArtisanDread.

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Doom Eternal: The Evolution of the Doom Slayer | Game Rant - GameRant