2017

Wooden Heart by Martin Day

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The novel “Wooden Heart” by Martin Day was published for the first time in 2007.

The Tardis brings the Tenth Doctor and Martha Jones to the starship Castor, which apparently is deserted. Exploring it, they realize that this is an old prison ship that now seems out of use and is drifting into space. Despite that, following what appears to be a normal corridor at one point they find themselves in a forest.

Trying to figure out where they ended up, the Doctor and Martha discover that there’s a village in the area inhabited by people who have no idea of the Castor’s existence. On the other hand, in the village the children started disappearing and some prophecies promise destruction.

Sarek (James Frain) and Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) in Battle at the Binary Stars (Image courtesy CBS / Netflix)

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“Battle at the Binary Stars” is the second episode of the TV show “Star Trek: Discovery” and follows “The Vulcan Hello”.

Note. This article contains several spoilers on “Battle at the Binary Stars”.

The episode is the direct continuation of the previous one, with the situation that quickly rushes between the Klingon and the Federation ships arrived after the alarm launched by USS Shenzhou Captain Philippa Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh).

Ashes of Candesce by Karl Schroeder

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The novel “Ashes of Candesce” by Karl Schroeder was published for the first time in 2012. It’s the fifth novel of the Virga series and follows “The Sunless Countries”.

Leal Hieronyma Maspeth, along with other people who came from Virga, ended up on Aethyr, a sphere attached to Virga, and going back is vital to save not only themselves. On Aethyr they meet Keir Chen, a post-human who has no plans of destruction and decides to join humans in defending their artificial hollow planet.

To deal with the threat, Leal, Keir, Antaea Argyre and Hayden Griffin can only turn to Venera and Chaison Fanning but even on Virga there are different factions and the outer enemies have found allies in some of them. The situation becomes more and more complex and in the final clash it becomes difficult to figure out who are the allies and who are the enemies.

Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) in The Vulcan Hello (Image courtesy CBS / Netflix)

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“The Vulcan Hello” is the pilot episode of the TV show “Star Trek: Discovery”, which marks the return of Star Trek’s historical saga on the small screen, though updated as it’s available in the USA on the CBS All Access Streaming Platform and in many other nations on Netflix.

In “The Vulcan Hello”, the crew of the starship USS Shenzhou discover an unidentified object during a mission that’s supposed to be about repairing an interstella communications relay and First Officer Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) has to investigate.

They suspect that someone voluntarily damaged the communications relay, in fact Burnham finds a klingon who attacks her and she’s forced to kill him. In dealing with the consequences of that discovery, the First Officer finds herself in disagreement with Captain Philippa Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh).

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An article published in the journal “Nature” describes a research on the human Microbiome, the whole group of microorganisms that live in the human body, sometimes in symbiosis with it but sometimes as parasites. A team of researchers from various American institutions analyzed a lot of microbes discovering millions of genes so far unknown. This will allow to take a leap forward in understanding their role in human’s health and in diseases.