Scientists already know that the relationship between the length of a person’s index and ring fingers, known as the 2D:4D ratio is correlated with performance in distance running, age at heart attack and severity of Covid-19.

Now Swansea University digit ratio expert Professor John Manning has been working with colleagues to look more closely at the subject.

Their findings have just been published by the American Journal of Human Biology.

The research analysed 133 professional football players as they underwent a series of body measurements which included measuring digit lengths from hand scans. They also completed an incremental cardiopulmonary test to exhaustion on a treadmill.

Professor Manning, of the Applied Sports, Technology, Exercise and Medicine (A-STEM) research team, said: “With our partners from the Cyprus campus of the University of Central Lancashire, we have clarified the relationship between 2D:4D and oxygen metabolism in a sample of well-trained athletes.

“The players with long ring digits (4D) relative to their index digits (2D) have efficient oxygen metabolism such that they reach very high maximal oxygen consumption in an incremental cardiopulmonary test to exhaustion on a treadmill.”

Long ring digits relative to index digits are thought to be a marker of high testosterone levels in the womb. Testosterone has effects on oxygen metabolism through its influence on the energy producers (mitochondria) within cells.

He added: “Our findings are consistent with those from distance running, where long 4D is related to high performance, and heart disease and Covid-19 where long 4D is linked to low severity of disease.

“Overall, our study illustrates the value of using healthy well-trained athletes to clarify metabolic processes that are important in disease outcomes.”

The team say further work is now necessary to quantify these associations in women.

Professor Manning’s previous research has examined how the difference in finger length between a person’s left and right hand may provide vital information concerning outcomes from contracting Covid-19.

Known as ‘serious games’, these games are designed for more than just entertainment. Ranging from digital applications to physical board games, they are developed for learning, problem solving, raising awareness, research, and stakeholder engagement — with potential in both schools and workplaces. A key application will be for educating people on sustainable development and climate change.

Experts leading in the field at the Universities of Warwick, Cardiff, York, and Sussex, have teamed up for this project, known as GamEngage, to help implement gaming across many sectors. They are bringing together serious game researchers, developers, and practitioners to explore new opportunities in using serious games.

The academics have put together a ‘Serious Games Cookbook’, which aims to support beginners in using and designing serious games by presenting a resource full of detailed guidance. The cookbook will support beginners who are new to the idea of serious games, especially those with specialist knowledge, who want to explore how to apply that knowledge within games. The Cookbook addresses key considerations in using serious games, including establishing play goals, selecting the most suitable game for these goals, and facilitating gameplay within a session. It also discusses crucial aspects of serious game design, covering content and themes, mechanics, player engagement, and strategies for influencing attitudes.

Associate Professor of Global Sustainable Development, Dr Feng Mao, University of Warwick, said: “The cookbook offers a practical guide to help beginners designing serious games, as an emerging and promising tool for learning, engagement, and research, especially in the context of sustainable development and climate change — though we hope it will also be applied more broadly too. We hope to inspire and empower the Cookbook’s readers to meaningfully engage with serious games.”

Dr Katarzyna Stawarz, co-author of the Serious Games Cookbook and Senior Lecturer in Human-Computer Interaction at Cardiff University, added: “The Cookbook and its parts can also be used as a research tool, for example as part of co-design workshops as it would help to engage general public with serious topics through the medium of game design: rather than playing games designed by others, they could explore topics important to them that could be introduced in future games or even inform other types of projects. We are hoping to encourage and help readers to explore the different ways in which games and game design could be used.”

A link to the Cookbook is available here: https://publishing.warwick.ac.uk/index.php/uwp/catalog/book/31

In an increasingly fragmented world, the scientific community stands as an example of successful international collaboration and diplomacy. Science is based in a long-standing tradition of knowledge exchange that often transcends political boundaries for the benefit of all humanity. Cost-effective, commercial space technologies can enable novel research or reduce the cost of investigations opening new possibilities for the scientific community. At the same time, international partnerships can further broaden engagement, diversity, and collaboration in science and space exploration. While this might seem like a “win-win” scenario, the interest of the scientific community is to openly share data and analysis. Differing principles and ideals present potential areas of conflict. As governments and private entities fund bold, new projects, leaders, academics, and legal experts are contemplating both the larger consequences, as well as potential prospects.

High stakes leadership and landing on Mars

“When every mission is a first for humanity, the stakes are very high,” says Thomas Zurbuchen who led 54 missions as NASA’s longest serving Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate. “When the clock is ticking, and the world is watching, a leader’s most powerful asset is a highly diverse team,” he says. Within this context, diversity can emerge from international and commercial partnerships, and can give rise to new missions. In fact, an estimated two-thirds of science missions have international partnerships.

Now, as the Director for ETH Zurich Space, in Switzerland, Zurbuchen reflects on the value of partnerships as a leadership tool. He uses examples from recent international missions, such as Mars InSight, to discuss how diversity creates opportunities for new and different ideas to come forward — even if some ideas pose an element of risk. He also addresses some of the challenges arising from partnerships. For example, some companies and countries prefer not to share their science data gathered in space, making reproducibility challenging for scientific analysis.

Cross-border diffusion — learning from lightning on Venus

“Scientific ideas move like space plasmas,” says David Malaspina, a space plasma physicist at University of Colorado, Boulder. “When they encounter a border, they find a way across.” Malaspina describes international academic collaborations as vital engines of discovery and attributes the language of science for fostering a sense of awe and wonder for the universe that transcends cultures. In science, and in plasmas, the most interesting physics happens at the boundaries.

Malaspina engages in international and generationally diverse research teams, including a team building a sounding rocket to explore the interface between Earth and space. He is also a member of a team that uses data from the Parker Solar Probe mission to explore Venus, seeking to understand the importance of a planetary magnetic field for habitability of Earth-like planets. He discusses how teams that foster inclusion of diverse perspectives create new opportunities for scientific progress.

Why protect bootprints on the Moon?

Unlike ancient footprints, cave drawings, and stone-age tools found here on Earth, the first traces of human activity on the Moon, including Neil Armstrong’s bootprint, are not protected under any existing laws or regulations. Michelle Hanlon, space lawyer and Executive Director of the Center for Air and Space Law at the University of Mississippi School of Law, thinks this is a travesty.

Hanlon explains why protecting historic sites on the Moon and elsewhere in space not only preserves the past, but also provides a vital foundation for the future. Hanlon explores the gaps in space law and, in particular, she asks, “What are the differing obligations space law imposes on scientific and commercial activities, as well as governmental and private actors.” Hanlon anticipates that space law, ethics, policy, and treaties will take on an increasingly higher strategic priority as nations seek to avoid potential conflicts.