2016

John Barrowman in 2014

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On October 22, 2006 the TV show “Torchwood” made its debut. It’s a “Doctor Who” spin-off.

The producer Russell T Davies started developing an idea concerning a science fiction TV show before he even started working on the new “Doctor Who” series. The term “Torchwood” was originally used for “Doctor Who” – of which is an anagram – during the filming of the first episodes to avoid unwanted attention. When Russell T Davies started thinking about his idea again, he decided to make it a “Doctor Who” spin-off and to use “Torchwood” as its title.

The new show was developed with the idea that it was aimed at a more adult audience than its mother show but several connections were built to give an idea of the Torchwood Institute functions. In the episode “Tooth and Claw” its origin is explained, decided by Queen Victoria after she met the Doctor and discovered the existence of alien threats.

Daniel Fisher with his team and the mastodon skull (Photo courtesy Levi Stroud, Michigan News. All rights reserved)

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An American mastodon (Mammut americanum) skeleton considered the most complete among those found since the 1940s was discovered in the region called the Thumb in Michigan, USA. A four-day excavation at the Fowler Center for Outdoor Learning, near the city of Mayville, conducted by a team led by the University of Michigan with a number of volunteers made it possible to dig up about 75% of the specimen’s complete or nearly complete bones.

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The novel “Servants of the Wankh”, also known as “The Wannek” by Jack Vance was published for the first time in 1969. It’s the second novel in the Tschai tetralogy, also known with the global title “Planet of Adventure”, and follows “City of the Chasch”.

Adam Reith continues his attempts to find a spaceship to return to Earth and to leave the planet Tschai is also willing to try to build one. However, it’s difficult to gain access to local technologies and above all very expensive. One option could come from the family of Ylin-Ylang, a woman Reith saved, who is very rich.

Bringing Ylin-Ylang back to her native Cath sounds a good idea but the relationship between the two of them, which at one point was of great passion, freezes down. The woman is linked to the customs of her people and social status is extremely important but her current situation is a source of shame.

Evolution in yeast species (grey and red) with mass spectrometry in green (Image courtesy Villen Lab/University of Washington)

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An article published in the journal “Science” describes a research that states the importance of the mechanism called post-translational modification (PTM) in evolution. An international team led by Pedro Beltrao of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) and by Professor Judit Villen of the University of Washington investigated in particular phosphorylation obtaining information also useful in medical research such as that on cancer.

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.