March 2019

Fossil fish from the Tanis site (Foto courtesy Robert DePalma)

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An article to be published in the journal “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences” reports the discovery of a fossil deposit in North Dakota, USA, which contains the remains of animals and plants that died as a direct consequence of the impact of a large meteorite that about 66 million years ago it caused the mass extinction that wiped out dinosaurs. A team of researchers led by Robert DePalma of the University of Kansas examined the site, which was named Tanis, finding what they consider evidence of the direct connection to the impact, the extremely strong earthquake that followed it with tsunamis and a debris rain.

Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount), Spock (Ethan Peck) and Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) in Perpetual Infinity (Image courtesy CBS / Netflix. All rights reserved)

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“Perpetual Infinity” is the 11th episode of the 2nd season of the TV show “Star Trek: Discovery” and follows “The Red Angel”.

The discovery of the Red Angel’s identity and the reasons behind its actions represents a big step forward but still leaves a series of unanswered questions. Above all, they need to protect the data collected by the USS Discovery to prevent Control from obtaining them.

Medusavirus is a giant virus with strange characteristics even for that type of organism

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An article published in the “Journal of Virology” reports the discovery of a new giant virus that was called Medusavirus. A team of researchers discovered it in northern Japan’s hot springs, where it reproduces by infecting amoebae of the species Acanthamoeba castellanii. The peculiarity of Medusavirus is that it results in the formation of cysts in the infected amoebae, which leads to the growth of a protective covering.

Through the Eye of a Needle by Hal Clement (Italian edition)

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The novel “Through the Eye of a Needle” by Hal Clement was published for the first time in 1978. It’s the sequel of “Needle”.

The Hunter remained on Earth due to the impossibility of getting in touch with his people, who are knows how many light years away. As a result, he kept on living in symbiosis with Bob Kinnaird but after seven years the boy’s body is undergoing a degeneration that the Hunter doesn’t know how to stop and has already become a risk to his health.

Back to his home island, Bob consults with Dr. Seever, one of the very few people who knows about the Hunter’s existence. It’s an unprecedented situation and the only hope is to find someone of the Hunter’s species with enough biological knowledge to restore Bob’s health before it’s too late.

A new, extraordinarily conserved half-billion-year-old fossil deposit, was discovered in China

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An article published in the journal “Science” reports the discovery of a fossil deposit dating back to about 518 million years ago in the southern China’s Hubei province. A team of researchers already led the excavation of 4,351 separate fossils representing 101 species of which 53 are new. The characteristics of the deposit are similar to those of the famous Burgess Shale in Canada and the Chengjiang deposit in China, where fossil conservation is of high quality. These organisms of what has been called Qingjiang biota date back to the period known as the Cambrian explosion and will help to better understand that diversification. Allison Daley of the University of Lausanne published in “Science” a second article concerning the work of the researchers in China.