An $8.5mn Spider-Man watch, photos of the Middle East from space, the first animal to exist on Earth, and more!

Buckle up, there's a lot to go through this week, from an exclusive CEO interview, photos from space, the origins of animal life on Earth, huge news in gaming, and a Spider-Man watch worth $8.5 million!

Is nothing sacred? WhatsApp messages can be edited now

Meta introduced an edit feature to WhatsApp , so you can edit a sent message up until 15 minutes after it was sent. There will be no record of the original message, but it will be marked as "edited". Personally, I think this could be a useful tool, but in the wrong hands could yield pretty nasty results. It's particularly important because WhatsApp is a daily communication tool for millions of people, both personally and professionally, and is already a known source of misinformation.

Middle East x Space

We've had a few space-related stories this week, from the Saudi astronauts who made history as the first from the Kingdom to board the International Space Station, to the historical influence that the region has had on astronomy, to the unbelievable mass of space trash orbiting the Earth, all the way to unbelievable images of the Middle East taken from space.

Rayyanah Barnawi, a stem cell researcher, has become the first woman from Saudi Arabia to venture into space, accompanied by Ali al-Qarni, a fighter pilot from the Royal Saudi Air Force.?

But the region's influence on astronomy goes much further back. In our Spring edition of the magazine, Rujuta Vaidya delved into the role that the astrolabe played in taking astronomy to new heights, and how early findings from this handheld gadget continue to impact modern astronomy.

Astronomy has the impact to change the way we view the world, as evidenced in a stunning series of photos of the Middle East, captured by NASA’s satellite,?Terra , and the International Space Station.

LinkedIn 's article editor is not great with photo galleries (please fix this, LinkedIn!), so I haven't posted all of the photos here. You can click below to see them all.

Now that we've looked at the beauty of the Earth from space, let's look at the nasty reality. There are approximately 29,000 pieces of junk orbiting our Earth – we're very good at polluting our planet, why not expand our horizons? Entire scientific communities are coming together to propose realistic solutions to the growing problem of space trash, Karine Monié reports in this article.

Who protects the protectors?

Imagine being a content moderator on a popular social media platform. Your daily routine involves scanning through thousands of posts, including gore, hate speech, violence, illegal activities, inappropriate images, and disturbing videos. It is traumatic. As Misbaah Mansuri writes in the article, "each person has a story to tell about that one image they just can’t scrub from their mind." So why aren't they treated well, compensating fairly, and provided with mental health support?

Telecom companies will "orchestrate" the metaverse

e& Group CEO Hatem Dowidar answered my questions about the company's plans to evolve from telco to tech co, including how its $400 million investment in Careem 's super app figured into their plans (a super app merger could be on the horizon!).

But he also told me about the role that telecom companies should play in the metaverse, which will require robust connectivity. That need could place telecoms front-and-center, facilitating relationships between key players in the metaverse.

The Earth's first animal was probably a relative of the jellyfish

The comb jelly was likely the first animal to exist on Earth, according to scientists from the 美国加州大学伯克利分校 . In a study published on Nature, scientists said that the comb jelly could have existed some 700 million years ago. To simplify the study in my own words, the scientists looked at the genes of the comb jelly, and compared it to non-animal species. Because some of the gene-chromosomes matched with non-animal species, the comb jelly was most likely the first stepping stone to animal life on Earth as we know it.

Metal Gear Solid 3 gets a long-awaited remake

Kept you waiting, huh?

Fans of the acclaimed video game series Metal Gear Solid celebrated this week, as Konami Digital Entertainment officially announced that it was working on a remake for the popular Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, which is coming to PS5, XBOX Series X|S, and Steam. It will feature the original voice actors, and will likely be developed without the original creator of the series, hideo kojima , though there's no official confirmation about his involvement, or lack thereof. The first three games in the series will also come to modern platforms, although they will not be remade.

For those confused, they've started by remaking the third game in the series because it is a prequel to the rest of the series.

Your friendly, neighborhood super-watch

I had the pleasure of meeting Audemars Piguet 's Head of Complications Anne-Ga?lle Quinet this week to talk about the Royal Oak Concept Tourbillon "Spider-Man", the second timepiece in their collaboration with Marvel Entertainment . Having seen it in person, photos do not do it justice – you can basically see through most of the watch, because of the sophisticated openwork which makes Spider-Man appear truly 3-dimesional. You can actually see his feet from the back of the watch.

The Spider-Man concept is a limited series of 250, which comes with a unique piece that was auctioned off for charity, netting $8.5 million for the two non-profit organizations that Audemars Piguet supports. Below is a photo of the unique piece, featuring Spider-Man in his black Symbiote suit, a nod to the 1984 issue #252, followed by a link to the full article.

That's all this week, thanks for reading! What's on your radar? Comment and let me know.