February 2013

Wizard by John Varley (Italian Edition)

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The novel “Wizard” by John Varley was published for the first time in 1980. It is the second novel in the Gaea trilogy and is the sequel of “Titan”. Seventy-five years after the arrival on the Gaea habitat along with her crew, Cirocco Jones is an alcoholic because she can’t bear the responsibility resulting from her deal with Gaea. Gaby Plauget carries out most of the work on behalf of Gaea, who through her ambassadors on Earth selects people who come to her habitat to perform heroic deeds in exchange for healing incurable diseases.

Composite colour image of the Herschel PACS 70, 100, 160 micron-wavelength images of the star Betelgeuse and the environment around it (Image ESA/Herschel/PACS/L. Decin et al)

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A couple of years ago, the star Betelgeuse rose to the spotlight in connection with some pseudo-Mayan prophecies about the end of the world. Now at last we can talk about this star for purely scientific reasons as ESA’s Herschel space observatory allowed to obtain an image that shows how it’s approaching a wall of interstellar dust.

Doctor Who - Revelation of the Daleks

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“Revelation of the Daleks” is the last adventure of the twentysecond season of “Doctor Who” classic series which aired in 1985 featuring the Sixth Doctor and Peri. It follows “Timelash” and it’s a two parts adventure written by Eric Saward and directed by Graeme Harper.