A new version of Apple’s experimental Safari Technology Preview browser has been released. The browser, which was first released in 2016, allows users to test features that will be included in later Safari editions. Version 222 of the Apple Safari browser update brings a number of compatibility and performance enhancements. Notably, improvements focus on topics including the Web API, accessibility, CSS, media, rendering, and scrolling. The purpose of these modifications is to increase browser dependability and get features ready for future mainstream Safari releases.
At the moment, macOS Sequoia and macOS Tahoe are compatible with Safari Technology Preview 222. These are the most recent macOS versions from Apple, which should be released later this year. As a result, the upgraded experimental browser is immediately useful for those using more recent versions of macOS.
The Apple Safari browser update can be found under Software Update in System Preferences or System Settings. The updated version will only be visible to people who have already downloaded the browser from Apple’s website. Apple has posted release notes on its Safari Technology Preview website with all the information.
Despite being designed for developers, this version can be used without an Apple developer account. Furthermore, there are no system problems when using the preview version in conjunction with the standard Safari browser. With this release, Apple keeps gathering user and developer input to improve Safari’s essential functionalities.
SpaceX launched its 500th Falcon 9 rocket on early this morning (July 2) and broke its own reuse record in the process.
The milestone mission lifted off with 27 Starlink satellites at 2:28 a.m. EDT (0628 GMT) on Wednesday from Space Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The rocket entered space about nine minutes after leaving the ground and deployed the new units for SpaceX’s broadband internet network 55 minutes later.
SpaceX’s 500th Falcon 9 launch included another milestone: the 29th reuse of the rocket’s first stage, four more than any other booster in the fleet, on Wednesday, July 2, 2025. (Image credit: SpaceX)
On the way to orbit, the Falcon 9’s most-flown first stage, Booster 1067, separated from its upper stage and flew back to a landing on the drone ship “A Shortfall of Gravitas” in the Atlantic Ocean. It was the 29th successful recovery for this stage, three more than any other in SpaceX’s fleet.
It was 472nd Falcon 9 first stage landing since December 2015, and the 439th reuse of of a SpaceX rocket.
The 27 satellites (Group 10-25) added to the more than 7,900 active Starlink relays in low Earth orbit. The megaconstellation — the largest in history — provides broadband internet access and limited direct to cell service in remote areas around the world.
SpaceX launched its first Falcon 9 rocket on June 4, 2010. Since then it has gone through five major revisions, leading to the current Block 5 model that is used to launch satellites, robotic planetary missions and astronauts. The most launched U.S. rocket in history, of its 500th missions, all but five were successful.
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Company Allvar working with NASA on NTE space telescope optics; other applications are possible.
A new material that shrinks when it is heated and expands when it is cooled could help enable the ultra-stable space telescopes that future NASA missions require to search for habitable worlds; planets beyond our solar system (exoplanets) that could support life. Over the past two decades, scientists have developed ways to detect atmospheres on exoplanets by closely observing stars through advanced telescopes. As light passes through a planet’s atmosphere or is reflected or emitted from a planet’s surface, telescopes can measure the intensity and spectra of the light, and can detect various shifts in the light caused by gases in the planetary atmosphere.
To successfully detect habitable exoplanets, NASA’s future Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) will need a contrast ratio of one to one billion. This in turn will require a telescope that is 1,000 times more stable than state-of-the-art space-based observatories like NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and its forthcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. New sensors, system architectures, and materials must be integrated and work in concert for future mission success.
A team from Allvar Alloys, College Station, TX, and Syracuse, NY, is collaborating with NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to demonstrate how integration of a new material with “unique negative thermal expansion characteristics” can help enable ultra-stable telescope structures.
The materials currently used for telescope mirrors and struts have drastically improved the dimensional stability of the great observatories like Webb and Roman, but as indicated in the Decadal Survey on Astronomy and Astrophysics 2020 developed by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, they still fall short of the 10 picometer level stability over several hours that will be required for the HWO.
Funding from NASA and other sources has enabled this material to transition from the laboratory to the commercial scale. Allvar received NASA Small Business Innovative Research funding to scale and integrate a new alloy material into telescope structure demonstrations for potential use on future NASA missions like the Habitable Worlds Observatory.
This alloy shrinks when heated and expands when cooled – a property known as negative thermal expansion. For example, Allvar’s Alloy 30 exhibits a -30 ppm/°C coefficient of thermal expansion at room temperature. This means that a 1-meter long piece of this NTE alloy will shrink 0.003 mm for every 1 °C increase in temperature. In contrast, aluminum expands at +23 ppm/°C.
Because it shrinks when other materials expand, Allvar Alloy 30 can be used to strategically compensate for the expansion and contraction of other materials. The alloy’s unique NTE property and lack of moisture expansion could enable optic designers to address the stability needs of future telescope structures.
Thermal stability ‘improved up to 200 times’
Calculations have indicated that integrating Alloy 30 into certain telescope designs could improve thermal stability up to 200 times compared to only using traditional materials like aluminum, titanium, carbon fiber reinforced polymers, and the nickel–iron alloy, Invar.
To demonstrate that negative thermal expansion alloys can enable ultra-stable structures, the Allvar team developed a hexapod structure to separate two mirrors made of a commercially-available glass ceramic material with ultra-low thermal expansion properties. Invar was bonded to the mirrors and flexures made of Ti6Al4V—a titanium alloy commonly used in aerospace applications—were attached to the Invar.
To compensate for the positive CTEs of the Invar and Ti6Al4V components, an NTE Allvar Alloy 30 tube was used between the Ti6Al4V flexures to create the struts separating the two mirrors. The natural positive thermal expansion of the Invar and Ti6Al4V components is offset by the negative thermal expansion of the NTE alloy struts, resulting in a structure with an effective zero thermal expansion.
The stability of the structure was evaluated at the University of Florida Institute for High Energy Physics and Astrophysics. The hexapod structure exhibited stability well below the 100 pm/√Hz target and achieved 11 pm/√Hz. This first iteration is close to the 10 pm stability required for the HWO. A paper and presentation made at the August 2021 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers conference provides details about this analysis.
Furthermore, a series of tests run by NASA Marshall showed that the ultra-stable struts were able to achieve a near-zero thermal expansion that matched the mirrors in the above analysis. This result translates into less than a 5 nm root mean square change in the mirror’s shape across a 28K temperature change.
Beyond ultra-stable structures, the NTE alloy technology has enabled enhanced passive thermal switch performance and has been used to remove the detrimental effects of temperature changes on bolted joints and infrared optics. These applications could impact technologies used in other NASA missions. For example, these new alloys have been integrated into the cryogenic sub-assembly of Roman’s coronagraph technology demonstration.
Millions of children in more than 150 countries have watched a 7-year-old Latina with her trademark purple backpack take friends on fun television adventures.
Now, Nickelodeon’s animated series “Dora the Explorer” is celebrating its 25th anniversary with a live-action movie, premiering on Nickelodeon and Paramount+ on Wednesday, ahead of the July 4 holiday weekend.
“Dora and the Search for Sol Dorado” tells the story of 16-year-old Dora (played by Samantha Lorraine) who is budding into a skilled treasure hunter.
The movie follows Dora and her friend Diego (Jacob Rodriguez) as they trek through a jungle to find an ancient treasure that could grant a magical wish.
This teenage version of Dora, Mexican director Alberto Belli says, is like Indiana Jones and Lara Croft, but with a spunky “lo hicimos” (“We did it”) attitude that makes her uniquely Latina.
Dora played by Samantha Lorainne and Diego played by Jacob Rodriguez in “Dora and the Search for Sol Dorado.”Pablo Arellano Spataro / Nickelodeon/Paramount+
But according to Belli, Dora is more interested in the adventure because it can help her figure out who she is and what other people are like.
Developing this larger sense of finding her place became a guiding theme for the movie.
“When you’re taking a cartoon character into a live action, you need to go a little bit deeper. So we tried to create some more problems,” Belli said in an interview, accompanied by actress Samantha Lorraine. “She (Dora) loses her bag, which is a spoiler, but it’s also in the trailer. So now she needs to find who she really is. And I think right now, more than ever, people feel a little lost.”
Dora’s backpack typically contains specific items, including a map, which she will need on her adventures. And Belli says that when “you don’t know exactly where you need to go,” you have to look inside yourself to figure it out.
Lorraine says that “Sol Dorado” (“Golden Sun”) is more about finding an internal space — “who you are as a person.”
“When she (Dora) finds Sol Dorado, to me, it was this full circle moment that we had finally finished this character arc,” the young actress said.
Many iconic action-adventure characters “usually go and explore someone else’s culture. They never explore their own culture,” Belli said. “What’s really exciting about Dora is she loves history. She’s exploring her own culture.”
Dora played by Samantha Lorraine and Boots voiced by Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias in “Dora and the Search for Sol Dorado.”Pablo Arellano Spataro / Nickelodeon/Paramount+
The movie incorporates Indigenous Latino traditions that influence Dora’s identity.
One such tradition was based on “ayllu,” which is the Andean way of organizing communities to support each other through shared land, resources and responsibilities.
“When it comes to ayllu, friendship and connection is so important, and I think Dora is the epitome of that. She’s the connection through most cultures of the world,” Lorraine said, adding that “Dora the Explorer” has been translated into more than 30 languages.
Belli said that they had an expert on set to guide them through different Indigenous traditions, including quipus, which are knotted cords that were used by the Incas to record information.
They also had two consultants to work on pronunciation for when Dora had to speak in Quechua, which is an Indigenous language spoken by people in parts of Perú, Bolivia and Ecuador.
Lorraine, who identifies as Cuban American, says that playing Dora was a privilege because she offers many Latino children visibility.
“I kept thinking to myself, what do I want my little cousins to see when they watch this movie?,” she said.
Lorraine wants “Dora and the Search for Sol Dorado” to help viewers — regardless of their age — keep their sense of adventure and curiosity alive.
Dora has “always been part of pop culture,” Belli said, adding that he has a 5-year-old who’s a big fan.
“When I got the job, he got more excited than I did,” the director said with a laugh. “What I love about Dora is she’s a positive influence in people; she teaches you how to be positive, energetic and adventurous — and at the same time she teaches Spanish in a fun way, which I think is very cool.”
Digiarty has officially launched Macxvideo AI V3.5, which brings powerful new features—including AI-powered noise suppression and 4K/60fps screen recording.
CHENGDU, SICHUAN, CHINA, July 2, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ — Digiarty Software, a leading innovator in AI-powered multimedia solutions, today announced the release of Macxvideo AI V3.5, marking the first major update since its groundbreaking May 2025 launch. Building on the success of its initial release, this update introduces transformative AI Audio Suppression for pristine audio clarity, advanced 4K 60fps screen recording capabilities, and key performance enhancements, positioning Macxvideo AI as an all-in-one powerhouse for creators, educators, and professionals.
For more details, please visit: https://www.macxdvd.com/macxvideo-ai/free-update.htm?ttref=2507-wbd-mxv-bl-enpr
In today’s digital-first world, users increasingly demand studio-quality audio and smooth, high-resolution screen captures — capabilities previously out of reach for many without complex tools or high-end systems. Version 3.5 directly addresses the long-standing pain points in content production —strategically front-loaded with its two most impactful upgrades — AI Noise Suppression and 4K 60fps screen recording. This approach not only highlights the agility and responsiveness of Macxvideo AI to market demands and user needs but also sets high expectations for the product’s future trajectory. Below are the new features and key enhancements.
Key Upgrades in Version 3.5 Include: 1. Introducing AI-Powered Noise Suppression (New): Macxvideo AI V3.5 takes a major leap forward in audio quality with the introduction of AI Noise Suppression, a brand new feature powered by a real-time deep learning architecture. Unlike traditional noise gates dependent on static frequency filters, the system’s neural network models—trained on over millions of audio samples—analyze real-time waveforms to eliminate distractions, from the persistent hums and hisses to keyboard clicks and ambient chatter. It is a game-changer for creators and professionals alike-delivering studio-grade clarity for podcasts, gameplay, online lectures, meetings, and more.
2. Professional 4K/60fps Screen Recording (Improved): Macxvideo AI V3.5 significantly elevates its screen recording capabilities, building upon its robust foundation that already allows users to capture screen, webcam, audio, and even create picture-in-picture videos for diverse scenarios like professional tutorials, immersive gameplay, and seamless online meetings. The new update now introduces robust support for crystal-clear 4K (3840×2160) resolution screen recording, ensuring every pixel is captured with stunning clarity. Complementing this high-resolution capture, the software now supports screen recording at up to 60 frames per second (fps). This makes it perfect for fast-paced content such as gaming walkthroughs, software demos, or action-packed tutorials.
3. Other Enhancements in Macxvideo AI V3.5: • Optimized facial restoration algorithm: The facial restoration algorithm has been further optimized, leading to even more natural and accurate enhancements for faces in low-res or old images. • Fixed memory leak issue: Resolved a memory leak issue found in the video editing toolbox effects. This critical fix dramatically improves the software’s stability and performance, especially during extended editing sessions. • Enabled ARM64 of Python: Macxvideo AI now fully supports the ARM64 version of Python. This enhancement provides superior compatibility and optimized performance specifically for users operating on modern Apple Silicon Macs. By natively leveraging the power of M-series chips, the app delivers faster AI processing and improved overall responsiveness.
Building on a Strong Foundation- A Comprehensive Media Suite This 3.5 release expands the capabilities introduced in May’s groundbreaking launch, which established Macxvideo AI as a full-featured, AI-powered, and hardware-accelerated toolkit for video and audio processing on macOS. Key features include: • AI Video Enhancer – Elevate old and low-quality video, remove noise, blur, and compression artifacts, restore clarity, and generate realistic details using advanced AI. • AI Image Enhancer – Upscale blurry photos and AI-generated images to 4K/8K/10K, enhance sharpness, restore facial features, and colorize black-and-white images. • Versatile Video Converter – Support 420+ audio and video formats for effortless media conversion across devices and platforms. • High-Efficiency Compressor – Reduces file sizes by up to 90% while preserving visual quality, ideal for storage, uploading, and sharing. • Built-in Video Editor – Offer precise tools for cutting, trimming, merging, splitting, rotating, applying visual effects, and more. These core features make Macxvideo AI an all-in-one creative solution tailored to the needs of modern Mac users.
“V3.5 marks a major milestone in our journey,” said Jack Han, CEO of Digiarty Software. “It builds on our strong foundation of AI-powered enhancement with targeted upgrades that solve real problems — from eliminating background noise to delivering smooth 4K screen captures — all while staying fast, smart, and Mac-native.”
Pricing and Availability Macxvideo AI V3.5 is available now for download on the official website https://www.macxdvd.com/macxvideo-ai/?ttref=2507-wbd-mxv-bl-enpr. Despite the major upgrade, pricing remains unchanged: $25.95/year, or $45.95 for the lifetime plan which includes lifetime free updates and access to the latest AI features. Purchase options are available at: https://www.macxdvd.com/macxvideo-ai/buy.htm?ttref=2507-wbd-mxv-bl-enpr
About MacXDVD Founded in 2010, MacXDVD Software is a leading provider of multimedia software. With a focus on innovation and user satisfaction, MacXDVD has developed a comprehensive suite of high-quality tools for DVD ripping, video enhancing, conversion, media management, and more—designed specifically for the macOS platform.
About Digiarty Software Digiarty Software, the developer of MacXDVD, WinXDVD, VideoProc, and Aiarty, is a leading provider of multimedia software solutions for over 19 years. Renowned for their unwavering commitment to quality, performance, and customer satisfaction, Digiarty boasts a diverse software suite encompassing DVD backup, iPhone management, video transcoding, editing, and more. The comprehensive offering has garnered over 256 million software installations across 180 countries. To get more info about the company, please visit its official web page: https://www.macxdvd.com/.
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It’s easy to think, given the current geopolitical state of the world, that we’re living through an especially terrible time. Add to that the possibility that Earth may be undergoing its sixth mass extinction and it’s perhaps justified to conclude that the 21st century is the worst time period ever.
While this may be the case by some definitions, there’s no escaping the fact that we, as a species, have it better than our ancestors and those that came before them ever did. For the majority of Earth’s history, life has simply been a matter of survival. Let’s take a look at some times when staying alive was particularly difficult…
10 terrible times to be alive
The time the ocean lost almost all its oxygen
The Middle Cretaceous may have been a particularly prosperous time for life on land, but under the waves a geochemical storm was slowly brewing – one that would eventually rob the oceans of oxygen and cause the extinction of more than 25% of marine invertebrates, as well as one of the most iconic marine reptiles of the Mesozoic Era, ichthyosaurs.
This calamitous event is known as the Cenomanian-Turonian boundary event and it’s widely considered to be the most recent, truly global oceanic anoxia event in Earth’s history. It happened roughly 94 million years ago following the eruption of a series of underwater volcanoes in the newly formed Atlantic Ocean.
These eruptions released nearly 4 million cubic kilometres of lava (enough to fill the Mediterranean Sea) and enough CO₂ to raise global temperatures by more than 5°C. At the equator during this time, water temperatures exceeded 42°C, which is warmer than those typically experienced in a hot tub! Even water temperatures at the poles were a balmy 20°C.
This period also witnessed massive plankton blooms – caused by an increase in dissolved nutrients as a result of increased rock weathering. When this plankton died it was eaten by bacteria, which consumed lots of dissolved oxygen from the water column.
For more than half-a-million-years, the deeper levels of the world’s oceans were devoid of oxygen, making them inhospitable to almost all forms of life.
The time a tsunami (may have) submerged part of Europe
Doggerland: Credit Caroline May
Not too long ago (around 10,000 years), a land bridge known as Doggerland connected the east coast of the UK to the Netherlands, northwest Germany, and the Danish peninsula of Jutland.
This lowland area was once inhabited by mammoths, cave lions, sabretooth tigers, and several other iconic ice age animals. It was also home to roaming bands of hunter gatherers, as evidenced by the discovery of several artifacts dredged up during trawling missions in the North Sea – the most famous being a 20cm-long harpoon carved from a deer’s antler.
For our ancestors, Doggerland provided some of the continent’s richest hunting grounds, not to mention a bountiful supply of freshwater. However, by 8,000 years ago it had completely disappeared beneath the waves.
What happened to Doggerland is controversial. Some claim it was suddenly submerged by a tsunami triggered by an underwater landslide just off the coast of Norway 8,200 years ago, while others think it was slowly consumed by rising sea levels.
In reality, it was likely a combination of both. A 2020 study put forward evidence to suggest that Doggerland had already reduced dramatically in size (as a result of rising sea levels) by the time the tsunami hit. Regardless, anyone who lived in Doggerland 8,200 years ago would have probably given everything they had to be anywhere else.
The time when insects were massive
If insects make your skin crawl, then the Carboniferous Period (359 to 299 million years ago) would probably be your idea of hell on Earth. This is a period often referred to as the ‘Age of Giant Insects’, and for good reason – during the Carboniferous, Earth was ruled by bugs many times bigger than any alive today.
The 2m-long, double-duvet sized Arthropleura was the largest of the Carboniferous’ giant bugs. It’s distantly related to today’s millipedes and like its living relatives it also subsisted on a diet of decaying plants and animals. There was also a dragonfly-like insect known as Meganeura that, with a 75cm-wide wingspan, was roughly the same size as a sparrowhawk.
It’s often said that bugs achieved gigantism during the Carboniferous as a result of increased levels of oxygen in the atmosphere, and while this may be true to some degree it’s more likely they grew so large in response to a lack of competition from vertebrates. At this time, vertebrates were still relatively small and largely confined to environments close to water.
As a group, vertebrates were dwarfed and outnumbered by bugs during the Carboniferous, but fast forward a few million years to the Permian Period (299 to 252 million years ago) and they soon emerged as the most dominant forms of life on land. The Permian was a period of great diversification for vertebrates. However, while it may have been evolutionary prosperous for some groups, it ended in disaster for others – but more on that later.
The time fungi towered over everything else
The first kind of life to really gain a foothold on land wasn’t plants, but fungi. The first fungi were relatively small, but they soon paved the way for giants such as Prototaxites. This tree-like organism lived roughly 400 million years ago and formed huge spires that measured up to 1m in diameter and reached heights of more than 8m.
It’s unclear exactly what Prototaxites was; it may have been a fungus, or it may belong to a long-lost group of lichens. Whatever its affinities, Prototaxites was by far the largest land-dwelling organism of its time and towered over everything that attempted to grow in its shadows.
Prototaxites, along with many other early types of fungi, are thought to have been saprotrophic. This is a process whereby fungi release digestive enzymes that break down organic matter, allowing them to extract nutrients from the material they’re growing on. These enzymes are so powerful that, over time, they can break down rock and form fertile soils. It’s this process that researchers think prepared Earth’s surface for the vascular plants that emerged during Prototaxites’ reign
So, why was this a particularly terrible time to be alive? Well, without large networks of plants producing oxygen, levels of it in the atmosphere were a lot lower than they are today. There was also very little to eat, especially if you weren’t a fan of mushrooms.
The time a pandemic lasted 18 million years
From the Early Oligocene (33 million years ago) to the Early Miocene (15 million years ago), an ancient virus known as ERV-Fc plagued dozens of different species of mammals, from dolphins to great apes. The inactive fragments of this virus still live on in many mammals today, including us, and it’s the study of these fragments that have allowed scientists to learn more about it.
ERV-Fc is what’s known as an endogenous retrovirus – a type of virus that infects cells and inserts itself into its host’s DNA. When this happens in reproductive cells, the viral sequence can be passed from parent to offspring. ERVs are very common in the genomes of vertebrates and are estimated to make up nearly 8% of our own genome.
A 2016 study revealed that ERV-Fc independently infected many different groups of mammals, rather than a single shared ancestor. This study also found evidence to suggest that the virus jumped species more than 20 times over the course of an 18-million-year-long pandemic that spread across all continents besides Australia and Antarctica.
It’s unclear exactly how deadly ERV-Fc was, but based on its structure it’s understood to be part of a group of viruses known as gammaretroviruses. Today, this group includes the murine leukemia virus (MuLV) in mice and feline leukemia virus in cats (FeLV), both of which are known to cause cancer.
The time when Earth was ruled by giants
The blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) may be the largest animal to have ever lived, but on average animals alive today are a lot smaller than those that lived during parts of prehistory.
The Late Jurassic (162 to 143 million years ago) is a period that’s particularly renowned for its giants. It’s often referred to as the ‘Golden Age’ of not only dinosaurs, but pterosaurs and marine reptiles too – wherever you lived during the Late Jurassic, be it on land, in the sky, or in the oceans, a giant, hungry reptile was never too far away.
Some of the largest dinosaurs of the time lived in North America and are known from fossils uncovered from the world famous Morrison Formation. This expansive, dinosaur-bearing rock formation has yielded more than 10 different meat-eating theropods, all of them large enough to hunt human-sized animals.
The king amongst these theropods wasn’t T.rex (that particular species appeared in the Late Cretaceous around 70 million years later), rather Allosaurus – a smaller but arguably more belligerent predator that’s thought to have hunted in packs and been capable of bringing down giant, long-necked dinosaurs known as sauropods. These plant-eating sauropods would have been deadly too, crushing anything unlucky enough to get caught under their feet.
The Late Jurassic may have been a great time to be a giant, but for any animal smaller than a Volkswagen Beetle it would have been particularly terrible.
The time it rained for 2 million years
The Triassic (252 to 201 million years ago) is widely regarded as one of the hottest and driest periods in Earth’s history. However, during this 51-million-year-long period, there was a 2-million-year-long episode when it rained pretty much non-stop.
This is known as the Carnian Pluvial Episode (CPE) and it started roughly 234 million years ago. It’s evidenced by thick layers of river rocks, sediments from giant lakes, and evidence of coal swamps sandwiched in between layers of drier rocks more traditionally associated with the Triassic, such as red sandstones. These peculiar layers are signs of increased rainfall and they’re found all over the world, hinting at a global climate shift.
Some estimates suggest that rainfall quadrupled over this period and as much as 1,400mm of rain was dumped every year – that’s how much a temperate rainforest gets today, but this would have fallen across the entire supercontinent of Pangea!
This massive amount of rain had a profound impact on the animals that lived during the Middle Triassic, particularly the dinosaurs. In rocks dated to the start of the CPE, dinosaurs make up just 5% of the fossils of terrestrial vertebrates. In rocks dated to the end of this episode, they comprise more than 90%.
The dinosaurs’ distant relatives, the crocodile-line archosaurs, didn’t relish the rain quite as much, which is ironic considering the watery habitats their descendants live in today. They experienced huge losses at this time and never again reached the diversity they had during the Early Triassic.
The time an asteroid destroyed a dynasty overnight
Since the emergence of animals some 800 million years ago, Earth has witnessed five major mass extinctions – together these are known as the ‘Big Five’.
The event that wiped out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago wasn’t the most destructive of the five – that title goes to an event discussed later – but it is the one that wiped out entire families of animals and plants in a matter of days, rather than over the course of millennia.
This event, known as the K-Pg mass extinction, was caused by the impact of a giant, 15km-wide asteroid that made landfall in what is now the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico. Based on fish bones found in the impact’s ejecta layer, it’s thought the impact may have taken place during spring.
The effects of the impact were catastrophic; any animals (or plants) standing within 1,500km at the time of the impact would have been instantly vaporised. Those standing further away weren’t exactly safe and would have arguably faced an even more painful death, being melted by firestorms, catapulted by hurricane-force winds, crushed by blazing debris, or simply suffocated by the poisonous air.
It’s estimated that the energy released during the impact was equivalent to 10 billion Hiroshima bombs.
There were some plucky animals that survived this ‘worst day ever’, including our mammalian ancestors, but when the fires finally burnt themselves out and the dust clouds settled, as many as 75% of species on Earth had disappeared.
The time when humans were prey
We may be firmly at the top of the food chain today, but for the majority of our existence we were prey for many larger, toothier predators.
While they’re not considered a member of our genus (Homo), australopithecines are often referred to as ‘humans’, or at least incredibly close relatives. Later undisputed human species include Homo erectus, Homo neanderthalensis, and – of course – Homo sapiens. These early humans lived alongside some of prehistory’s most terrifying animals, including sabretooth tigers, giant short-faced bears, and baby-eating eagles.
There’s lots of evidence to suggest that early humans were prey for such animals. The most famous example is the 2.8-million-year-old Taung Child – a fossilised skull of a young Australopithecus africanus that bears a puncture wound in each of its eye sockets. These wounds match those made by the talons of a crowned eagle, suggesting the child was killed and carried off by an airborne predator.
There’s gruesome evidence of our distant relatives being hunted by big cats too – the remains of a female Paranthropus robustus found in a cave in South Africa show signs of having been bitten and gnawed on by a leopard.
As humans got larger and, crucially, smarter, it’s likely that more and more predators stopped viewing them as prey. That said, we shouldn’t get too complacent; even today there are animals that, if hungry enough, will target humans, such as tigers, polar bears, and crocodiles.
The time nearly everything died
Known fittingly as the ‘Great Dying’, the End-Permian mass extinction is the third of Earth’s ‘Big Five’ and – in terms of how many species were wiped out as a result – the most destructive. This era-defining event almost ended life on Earth entirely and by some estimations may have consigned as many as 90% of species to extinction!
The impacts of this event were destructive on land, but they were truly cataclysmic in the oceans where entire ecosystems collapsed, never to be seen again. Some of the most diverse groups in preceding periods, such as eurypterids, trilobites, and blastoids, were completely eradicated during this event. Others lost more than 95% of their species (e.g. brachiopods, crinoids, and ammonites) and only narrowly made it through to the following period, the Triassic.
The ‘Great Dying’ is widely considered to have been caused by the eruption of a huge volcanic system that lay under what is now Siberia, Russia. This eruption released huge amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, which elevated global temperatures and acidified the planet’s oceans. This injection of greenhouse gases raised levels of CO₂ in the atmosphere from 400 ppm to 2,500 ppm. To put that into perspective, current CO₂ levels measure ~430 ppm.
The ‘Great Dying’ didn’t happen overnight like the extinction event that claimed the lives of the dinosaurs; instead it lasted for nearly 50,000 years and may have taken place in several distinct pulses. Staying alive during this time would have been particularly difficult, though it wasn’t impossible and our existence today is proof that some resilient animals made it through.
BARCELONA, Spain — A relentless European heat wave helped fuel a deadly wildfire in Spain while the European Union presented plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions under scorching temperatures on Wednesday.
The blaze that broke out late on Tuesday created an enormous thick plume of ash and smoke that reached 14,000 meters (45,000 feet) of altitude, making it the largest registered by firefighters in Catalonia, a northeastern region of Spain.
Two farmers were killed while apparently trying to flee in a vehicle, local authorities said Wednesday.
Firefighters said that the fire spread at 28 kph (17 mph) at one point as it consumed 6,500 hectares (16,000 acres) mostly of grain fields, making it one of the fastest fires registered in Europe.
“Wildfires today are not like they were before,” Salvador Illa, the regional president of Catalonia, said. “These are extremely dangerous. From the very first moment, it was considered to be beyond the capacity of extinction. I mean that not even with two or three times the number of firefighters, they have told me, it would have been possible to put out.”
Firefighters credited a rainstorm later on Tuesday for having “quickly changed the situation and helped speed up getting the fire stabilized.”
Two of the 500 firefighters who deployed needed treatment at a local hospital for their injuries. Some 14,000 residents were ordered to stay indoors for several hours on Tuesday night.
More hot weather is expected on Wednesday with temperatures in the Lleida region forecast to reach a high of 39 C (102 F).
The European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts said that it was closely monitoring the abnormally hot temperatures. Weather experts link the heat wave to climate change.
As much of Europe was scorched by torrid weather, the European Commission unveiled proposals to reduce emissions by 90% by 2040 as the 27-nation bloc aims to be fully carbon-neutral by 2050.
“We are finally here on a very hot day, and some would call that very timely,” Climate Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra told reporters in Brussels.
The proposals include allowing businesses to use international carbon credits to offset their emissions. Under the plan, international carbon credits could be used — starting in 2036 and limited to 3% of benchmark 1990 EU emissions — to reach the 2040 emission reduction target.
The proposals have to be approved by the EU’s 27 member states.
More than two-thirds of the severest heat waves in Europe registered since 1950 have occurred since 2000, the World Meteorological Organization says.
After Spain already set a record for June air temperatures, Spanish port authorities recorded the hottest ever water temperature readings for June in both the Mediterranean and the part of the Atlantic nearest to France.
Experts say higher surface temperatures are bad for sea life and make for warmer nights on shore.
“A much warmer sea around us contributes to the nights not cooling down, which is detrimental to people’s rest,” Manuel Vargas, researcher at the Oceanographic Center of Malaga, told The Associated Press.
Also in Spain’s southern city of Malaga, the international Red Cross set up an air-conditioned “climate refuge” to help residents. The Spanish Red Cross was itself providing an “assisted bathing service” to help people with reduced mobility to cool down in waters at the beach.
Heat alerts were issued for 17 Italian cities Wednesday. The corresponding surge in air conditioning was straining the electric grid and causing periodic blackouts. On Tuesday, parts of Florence’s historic center had a blackout following a surge in electricity use, energy company Enel said.
Italy’s labor ministry, meanwhile, summoned union representatives to a meeting Wednesday to finalize a protocol on protecting farm, construction and other workers who labor outdoors from heat exposure. This came after a construction worker died in Bologna this week.
On Tuesday, Catholic bishops from Asia, Africa and Latin America met in the Vatican to demand climate justice for the parts of the world most affected by rising temperatures.
France’s national weather agency kept four departments under red alert on Wednesday after temperatures exceeded 40 C (104 F) in many towns.
The summit of Paris’ iconic Eiffel Tower remained closed until Thursday for “everyone’s comfort and safety.”
In Switzerland, one of the two reactors at the Beznau nuclear power plant was shut down as part of efforts to prevent excessive warming of the Aare River, so as not to further burden wildlife and the overall ecosystem in already hot weather, operator Axpo said.
Hundreds of people in the central town of Soest cooled down on a baking-hot Tuesday night by taking on the local fire brigade in a water fight. Townsfolk were armed with water guns, the first responders with fire hoses.
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Michael Corder in The Hague, Samuel Petrequin in Paris, Geir Moulson in Berlin, Jamey Keaten in Geneva, Nicole Winfield in Rome and Teresa Medrano in Madrid contributed.
Squid Game director Hwang Dong Hyuk recently revealed that the globally streamed Netflix drama originally had a different finale.
In an interview with Joongang Ilbo, he said the first version of the script ended on a more hopeful note, with protagonist Seong Gi Hun meeting Hwang Jun Ho and travelling to the US to see his daughter.
Hwang said he changed course after reflecting on present-day global crises. “I personally started to feel that surviving in this world was becoming increasingly difficult. Inequality is deepening, the threat of war is growing, and yet no one is taking responsibility,” he explained.
The director added that stories of extreme wealth, including Jeff Bezos’s reported $51.7 million wedding, helped solidify his decision to rework the ending.
“I felt that now is the time for older generations to let go a bit of their growth, development, and desires,” Hwang said, noting that this inspired him to include a child in the final storyline to symbolise future generations.
The newly shared version of events has reignited discussion about the show’s conclusion and the societal critique embedded within. Hwang’s comments offer deeper insight into the intentions behind the darker direction, even if it diverged from what many expected.
