Sunday, August 28, 2016 the Hi-SEAS (Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation) IV mission ended. It’s a simulation of a Mars mission conducted on the slopes of the volcano Mauna Loa. Six people spent a year in conditions similar to those the astronauts would face on Mars with a dome-shaped habitat as their home.
The novel “The Sunless Countries” by Karl Schroeder was published for the first time in 2009. It’s the fourth novel in the series of Virga.
Leal Hieronyma Maspeth works as a tutor at the University of the City of Sere, where the only light is generated by lamps. Leal has many dreams but her position at the university remains rather precarious. Things get worse when the ruling party starts enacting laws that make studying unnecessary because reality will be decided through the democratic vote.
When some ships vanish into thin air, stories of monsters start spreading. The arrival of Hayden Griffin, the sun lighter who’s cheered as a hero, gives hope to Sere but the situation is more complex than city authorities think. The unlikely collaboration between Leal and Hayden allow to discover that the dangers come from far away.
An article published in the journal “Nature” describes the creation of an Octobot, a robot with the appearance of an octopus produced using soft materials. A Harvard University team put together various disciplines combining mechanical engineering and microfluidics to create with a 3D printer and other production methods a small prototype equipped with an autonomous programming.
An article published in “Journal of Quaternary Science” describes a research on the cave bear (Ursus spelaeus) (photo ©Ra’ike). An international team of paleontologists led by Professor Hervé Bocherens of the Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment (HEP) at the University of Tübingen studied the bones of these ancient animals and concluded that their diet was vegan. They also propose the hypothesis that their diet was wat led to the extinction of these bears about 25,000 years ago.
“Colony in Space” is an adventure of the eigth season of “Doctor Who” classic series, which aired in 1971. It follows “The Claws of Axos” and it’s a six parts adventure written by Malcolm Hulke and directed by Michael Briant.
The story
Three Time Lords meet to discuss the theft of confidential files about a very powerful weapon. They’re forced to admit that the only person capable of handling such a situation is the Doctor but the mission requires a trip in space and in another time so they have to temporarily suspend his exile to Earth.
The Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee) is working on the Tardis when it actives and dematerializes carrying the Doctor and Jo Grant (Katy Manning), who had entered it, on the planet Uxarieus in the 25th century. The Doctor realizes that the Time Lord controlled the Tardis remotely and must understand why they sent him to what looks like a small human colony.
