August 2018

A proposal for a new taxonomic classification of bacteria based on their genetic characteristics

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An article published in the journal “Nature Biotechnology” describes the proposal of a new taxonomic classification for bacteria based on their phylogenetic similarities. A team of researchers led by Philip Hugenholtz of the Australian Center for Ecogenomics (ACE) used metagenomics to analyze known bacteria and subsequently group them according to their genetic similarities and differences in 99 phyla. The results of this research are available in the Genome Taxonomy Database (GTDB).

Xiyunykus pengi fossil (Image courtesy James Clark)

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An article published in the journal “Current Biology” describes the discovery of two species of dinosaurs belonging to the Alvarezsauria group, which shares many characteristics with modern birds, in north-western China. A team of researchers studied the fossils of the species that were named Xiyunykus pengi and Bannykus wulatensis recognizing some characteristics intermediate between the oldest species of that group and others that lived several million years later, showing for example how the morphology of their arms evolved slowly.

Spin by Robert Charles Wilson

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The novel “Spin” by Robert Charles Wilson was published for the first time in 2005. It’s the first book of the Spin trilogy. It won the Hugo Award as the best novel of the year, the Israeli Geffen Award, the German Kurd-Laßwitz-Preis, the French Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire and the Japanese Seiun Award.

Tyler Dupree is a young boy who’s spending the evening with his friends Jason and Diane Lawton when they realize that in the sky the stars have disappeared. After the initial amazement, he seeks news on television and discovers that something has happened all over the world and telecommunications are having big problems.

Soon the news arrives that the whole Earth got enveloped by an artificial membrane of unknown origin. After some time, attempts to probe it show that it slows down time so for every year that passes on Earth about 100 million years pass outside it. The membrane also filters electromagnetic radiation by hiding the stars and simulating day-night cycles.

Tim Burton in 2012

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Timothy Walter Burton was born on August 25, 1958 in Burbank, California, USA.

Tim Burton developed a passion for cinema since his childhood and started experimenting with animations and with an 8 mm camera. To learn the secrets of directing he watched many movies of various genres but in particular he watched horror movies such as those of Hammer and adaptations of the stories by Edgar Allan Poe, an author he liked very much, played by Vincent Price.

Tim Burton is a director with a unique style with fantasy stories that have typically misfit and eccentric protagonists, often between life and death told by really special perspectives.

Views of the Denisova 11 bone (Image courtesy Thomas Higham, University of Oxford)

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An article published in the journal “Nature” describes the results of the analysis of DNA extracted from a piece of bone discovered in 2012 and cataloged as Denisova 11. A team from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (MPI-EVA) in Leipzig, Germany, recovered DNA from that bone and its sequencing revealed that the mother was a Neanderthal while the father was a Denisovan and therefore belonged to another species of hominin. This is yet another proof of the fact that populations of different hominins interbred leading to the birth of hybrids, the reason why the DNA of most Homo sapiens contains Neanderthal or Denisovan genes.