October 2023

Upgrade by Blake Crouch

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The novel “Upgrade” by Blake Crouch was published for the first time in 2022.

Logan Ramsay is an agent of the Gene Protection Agency (GPA) and is also the son of Miriam Ramsay, the scientist who attempted to use genetic engineering to improve crops but ended up causing the worst famine in the history of humanity. His job is to enforce the very strict laws against genetic engineering and he’s working on a case of geneticists who are working secretly.

When Logan Ramsay and his partner Nadine Nettmann arrest a suspect, he seems ready to cooperate by revealing the location of what is supposed to be an underground laboratory. Actually, it’s a trap and Logan becomes infected with a virus that starts modifying his DNA.

One of two flakes_or hand tools_ seen from three different angles_discovered in the Jordan Rift Valley

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An article published in the journal “Science Advances” reports a study that offers evidence that groups of Homo sapiens migrated from Africa using the Levant as a passageway to western Asia and northern Arabia. A team of researchers conducted a digging campaign in Jordan looking for traces of ancient human passages in what is now a desert but tens of thousands of years ago was an area covered by savannah and grasslands. The discovery of sediments dating back about 84,000 years containing tools created with the so-called Levallois technique in that area confirms that the Levant was part of at least one of the human migration routes from Africa.

Pacific Edge by Kim Stanley Robinson

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The novel “Pacific Edge” by Kim Stanley Robinson was published for the first time in 1990. It’s the third book in the trilogy of the Three Californias. It won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award.

Kevin Clayborne was elected to the city council of El Modena, a town in Orange County. A member of the Green Party, he finds himself on the opposite side of the New Federal mayor Alfredo Blair regarding the project to open up the last hill in the city still remaining in a completely natural state to possible commercial exploitation.

The situation for Kevin is made more complicated by the relationship he’s trying to build with Ramona Alvarez, who has just ended a relationship with Alfredo. Kevin must juggle his personal and political situation in what is supposed to be a utopia of 2065 California.