October 2016

Artistic concept of Vegavis iaai in its habitat with its syrinx highlighted (Image courtesy Nicole Fuller/Sayo Art for UT Austin)

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An article published in the journal “Nature” describes a research on the vocal organs of Vegavis iaai, a bird that lived over 66 million years ago, at the end of the dinosaurs era. The analysis of the fossils discovered in 1992 Antarctica’s Vega Island showed that they include the syrinx, the anatomic structure that allows birds to sing or chirp. This demonstrates for the first time that even such ancient birds had such capabilities.

The Remaking of Sigmund Freud by Barry N. Malzberg (Italian edition)

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The novel “The Remaking of Sigmund Freud” by Barry N. Malzberg was published for the first time in 1985.

Deep space missions require special attention to the crew’s psychological needs. For this reason it was decided to create simulacra that faithfully reproduce artists such as Mark Twain or Emily Dickinson but also Sigmund Freud, to be able to offer help to those who suffer from some neuroses or other psychological problems.

Sigmund Freud’s replicant reproduces the original man’s personality traits and has all his memories. This means that he has his original’s skills but also that for him the situations during space missions are something completely different from what he remembers. On Venus or on a spaceship, helping the staff can be really hard.

Reconstruction of Rativates evadens (Image courtesy Andrey Atuchin)

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An article published in the “Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology” describes a research on a theropod dinosaur that lived in the late Cretaceous period, about 76 million years ago, which was called Rativates evadens. A team of paleontologists led by Bradley McFeeters of Carleton University reexamined a partial skeleton that was attributed to the species Struthiomimus altus concluding that its characteristics are quite different to actually be a different genus.

Tschai tetralogy aka Planet of Adventure by Jack Vance (Italian Edition)

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The novel “City of the Chasch”, also known as “The Chasch”, by Jack Vance was published for the first time in 1968. It is the first novel in the Tschai tetralogy, also known with the global title “Planet of Adventure”.

An Earth starship reaches the Carina 4269 system, from where 200 years earlier a signal was sent. A scout-boat is sent to investigate a planet that seems habitable but soon after its launch the starship is destroyed by a missile launched from the surface. The scout-boat escapes destruction and can land but the two crew members are attacked by what appear to be humans.

Paul Waunder gets killed while Adam Reith manages to hide and sees other human groups who come to check the situation with some individuals belonging to species Reith doesn’t know. Eventually, the survivor gets captured by a local tribe and is forced to quickly understand the situation in which he ended up to avoid big trouble.

Schematic of a transistor made of carbon nanotubes and molybdenum disulfide (Image courtesy Sujay Desai/UC Berkeley)

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An article published in the journal “Science” describes the creation of a new type of transistor with a working gate of one nanometer, a billionth of a meter, the smallest ever made. A team led by Ali Javey of the USA’s Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) used carbon nanotubes and molybdenum disulfide as materials to create this transistor instead of silicon.