April 2017

George Takei in 2015

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George Hosato Takei was born on April 20, 1937 in Los Angeles, California, USA. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, his family was sent to an internment camp for Japanese-Americans and until the end of World War II they lived in some of them.

In 1966, George Takei started playing the role he’s famous for, Hikaru Sulu in “Star Trek”. He also played an important role in the 1968 movie “The Green Berets” but this prevented him from being a regular presence in “Star Trek”. His role at the Enterprise helm was taken by Pavel Chekov, played by Walter Koenig. The two actors ended up having to share one dressing room but this led them to become friends.

Teleocrater rhadinus reconstruction (Image by Gabriel Lio, and courtesy of Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales "Bernardino Rivadavia" in Buenos Aires)

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An article published in the journal “Nature” describes a research about Teleocrater rhadinus, a carnivorous reptile that lived in the Triassic period, about 245 million years ago. A team led by Sterling Nesbitt of Virginia Tech studied specimens of this ancient cousin of the dinosaurs found in 2015 noting its similarities to crocodiles. However, this species and its other close relatives are the oldest of the group that originated dinosaurs and birds and this could greatly change the ideas about the early stages of their evolution.

Slow Decay by Andy Lane

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The novel “Slow Decay” by Andy Lane was published for the first time in 2007.

An investigation about an energy spike takes the Torchwood team at a nightclub where a brawl ended with the death of some boys. An alien device that has a strong influence on human emotions seems to have made the hostility between boys groups more intense. Gwen Cooper takes the device home to try to intensify the emotions existing between her and Rhys, lately a bit too weak but the results are not what she wanted.

While Captain Jack Harkness’ team tries to figure out who could kill a Weevil literally eating its face, Gwen and Rhys are trying to make their relationship work. Rhys discovers a new weight loss treatment and decids to try it hoping to be more attractive to Gwen after losing weight.

A Klosneuvirus seen with an electronic microscope (Image courtesy Schulz et al.)

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An article published in the journal “Science” describes the identification of a new group of giant viruses that were called Klosneuviruses. A team of researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (DOE JGI) and the University of Vienna believe that they evolved from normal-sized viruses acquiring genes from their host organisms growing abnormally for viruses.

Mertensia ovum, a species of ctenophores (Photo courtesy Arctic Exploration 2002, Kevin Raskoff, MBARI, NOAA/OER)

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An article published in the journal “Nature Ecology & Evolution” offers an answer to the arguments about the most ancient group of animals appeared on Earth. According to a team of evolutionary biologists at Vanderbilt University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison ctenophores were the first animals and not sponges, as many believe. This conclusion was reached by comparing a set of genes of 18 branches of the living beings’ family tree using 6 of animals, plants and fungi as a control branches.