November 2015

Roma Eterna by Robert Silverberg

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The novel “Roma Eterna” by Robert Silverberg was published for the first time in 2003. It consists of 10 short stories previously published separately between 1989 and 2003.

In the year 1282 A.U.C. the Western Roman Empire is going through a period of crisis between external threats and tensions with the Eastern Empire. The Empire manages to survive offering Rome the hope of a new period of glory but also the problem of maintaining a sufficiently strong imperial power.

The Roman Empire faces a future of tensions between the sovereign of the West and the one of the East alternating periods of expansion to others of weaknesses. Among renaissances and decays, Rome keeps on maintaining its power becoming over the centuries a major world power.

Simulation of the structure and motion of a phosphoglycerate kinase protein (Image courtesy Thomas Splettstoesser; http://www.scistyle.com all rights reserved)

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An article published in the journal “Nature Physics” describes the results obtained with a series of simulations conducted using supercomputers at the Department of Energy of the USA’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). The object of these sophisticated simulations were proteins to understand their motion, a key element in the functional, structural and regulatory roles they have in living organisms.

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In recent days the controversies have become strong against Dell after it was discovered that some of its laptop models came with a root Certificate Authority (CA) called eDellRoot preinstalled that can be easily compromised. The company quickly took steps to make available a program to correct the vulnerability but news came of another probleme similar on Dell PCs.

Made of Steel by Terrance Dicks

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The novella “Made of Steel” by Terrance Dicks was published for the first time in 2007.

The Tenth Doctor brought Martha Jones to the Cretaceous to watch dinosaurs but a T.rex approached a bit too much for their tastes and especially for their safety so they got back in the present. When the Doctor brings Martha back to the Royal Hope Hospital to greet her old colleagues, two Cybermen try to capture them.

The Doctor looks for information about abnormal events to understand something more about the Cybermen activities and discovers that they’re stealing very sophisticated devices. During his investigation, he gets found and arrested by military intelligence to force him to defeat the threat.

The Affirmation by Christopher Priest

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The novel “The Affirmation” by Christopher Priest was published for the first time in 1981. It won the Ditmar Award. It belongs to the Dream Archipelago series.

Peter Sinclair is in a very bad moment of his life when in a short time he loses his job and comes out of a very complicated love story. He needs to find himself and agrees to do some maintenance work at the cottage of an acquaintance to be able to isolate himself. He starts to write an autobiography but his mind begins to get lost in another world where he lives another life.

Peter Sinclair has won the lottery and the prize is a treatment that will ensure his potential immortality. However, he’ll have to start his life again because the treatment involves the loss of memory. He must write his memoirs to get them back but his identity begins to mix with that of the other Peter Sinclair.