September 2014

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About a year after the announcement of the production of a spinoff for “The Walking Dead”, the AMC television channel, which broadcasts the show, has ordered the production of a pilot episode. Robert Kirkman (photo ©Gage Skidmore), the creator of “The Walking Dead” comic books from which TV show was adapted, will be the spinoff’s executive produces along with Gale Anne Hurd and Dave Alpert. Dave Erickson, already in the production team of shows such as “Sons of Anarchy” was chosen as the showrunner.

Two views of the Laniakea supercluster. The outer surface shows the region dominated by Laniakea's gravity (Image SDvision interactive visualization software by DP at CEA/Saclay, France. All rights reserved)

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An international team of astronomers led by R. Brent Tully of the University of Hawaii determined the boundaries of a galactic supercluster that includes the Milky Way. In the article in the journal “Nature” that illustrates this research it’s explained how the astronomers defined the contours of this supercluster they called Laniakea, a word in the Hawaiian language which means “immense heaven”.

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It’s been almost exactly a year since Google’s co-founder and CEO Larry Page announced the launch of Calico (California Life Company), a company that aims to fight aging and disease to associated with it. Calico has now announced a new partnership with pharmaceutical corporation AbbVie for the creation of a research center focused on age-related diseases, including neurodegenerative ones and cancer.

Redshirts by John Scalzi

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The novel “Redshirts” by John Scalzi was published for the first time in 2012. It won the Hugo and Locus awards as the best science fiction novel of the year.

Ensign Andrew Dahl has been assigned to the Intrepid, the Universal Union flagship. Initially he’s happy for the prestigious position but soon discovers that the away missions seem incredibly dangerous. Senior officers always manage to survive, some lieutenant get wounded but ensigns tend to be killed.

Intrepid’s low-rank officers have become very superstitious and do everything to stay on the ship and avoid being sent on away missions. Andrew Dahl, along with some fellow ensigns, tries to understand the reasons for that very unusual situation but the explanation seems really crazy and the solution to the problem even crazier.

The comet comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko with the 5 Philae candidate landing sites (Image ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA)

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The Rosetta space probe reached the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko almost a month ago but remained at a distance from it of not less than 52 kilometers (about 32 miles). ESA’s scientists spent the last few weeks studying the comet, also to determine the route to follow for the probe and the Philae lander. Today, Rosetta is scheduled to start the series of maneuvers that in a few days will bring it at a distance of approximately 29 km (about 18 miles) from the comet to arrive later about 10 km (a bit more than 6 miles) from it.