An article published in the journal “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences” describes the discovery of an arthropod that lived about 430 million years ago. It was named Aquilonifer spinosus, where the genus name means “kite”, a name inspired by the movie “The Kite Runner” because it was carrying its juveniles attached to its body as if they were tiny kites.
A manuscript by Isaac Newton came to light after having been part of a private collection for decades. This year it was purchased by the “Chemical Heritage Foundation” and will be made available online in a partnership with Indiana University and in particular its project “The Chymistry of Isaac Newton”. This manuscript is someway special because it’s about alchemy, a subject Newton was very interested about in the course of his life.
An article published in the journal “Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences” describes the discovery of a fossil of a arachnid dating back some 305 million years ago. Named Idmonarachne brasieri, it shows similarities with modern spiders and its exam could provide a lot of information on the evolution of these animals, known to a limited extent because of the scarcity of fossils of their ancestors.
On april 3 the sixth season of the show “The Walking Dead” ended.
The sixth season was produced and broadcast with the format has become usual: 16 episodes of which 8 were broadcast in October / November 2015 and the other 8 in February / March / April 2016. Meanwhile the first season of the spinoff titled “Fear the Walking Dead” aired but it arrived in Italy late so I’m still watching it.
The fifth season of “The Walking Dead” ended in the city of Alexandria, where Rick’s group established, and with Morgan’s arrival. The sixth season begins with a plan to get rid of a huge herd of walkers set up by the newcomers.
The novel “Sky Coyote” by Kage Baker was published for the first time in 1999. It’s the second novel in the Company series and follows “In the Garden of Iden”.
Joseph, one of the immortal cyborgs of Dr. Zeus, Inc., also known simply as the Company, was tasked with a new mission in California at the end of the 17th century. Europeans are invading North America and the Chumash native tribe is about to be wiped out.
A Company group has the task of saving the Chumash transporting them to a new environment created specifically for them. Joseph will have to impersonate the Sky Coyote, one of their gods, to convince them of the impending disaster. In the group there’s also Mendoza, a botanist he had “recruited” long before and with whom his relationship is complicated.
