January 2020

An Asgard archaeon could provide the key to understanding the birth of the eukaryotic cell

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An article published in the journal “Nature” reports a study on an archaeon called Candidatus Prometheoarchaeum syntrophicum, part of the proposed phylum Lokiarchaeota. A team of researchers took samples from the bottom of the Pacific Ocean near the Japanese coasts, managing to cultivate these Archaea contained in a special laboratory environment specifically created. Years of studies made it possible to separate various strains and to discover that some have long and branched protrusions, a feature that led the researchers to suggest that in the past a bacterium became entangled in similar protrusions becoming an organelle of what became over time a eukaryotic cell.

Take Back the Sky by Greg Bear

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The novel “Take Back the Sky” by Greg Bear was published for the first time in 2016. It’s the third book in the War Dogs trilogy and follows “Killing Titan”.

Master Sergeant Michael Venn and a group of Skyrines – Sky + marines – discovered at least some truths about the aliens known as Gurus and the support they’re providing to humans in the war against the Antag (Antagonist) aliens. The consequence is that they risk having to fight other humans who are convinced that they’re traitors.

For Michael Venn’s group, the only hope of achieving peace in the solar system is to continue their journey to the Kuiper Belt and the mysterious Planet X. New fragments of information that include those about the solar system’s remote past are always likely to cause greater alienation. Only direct contacts with the Antags can bring crucial pieces of a puzzle that will determine the future of various species.

Parioscorpio venator is the oldest known scorpion and could show the transition between aquatic and land life

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An article published in the journal “Scientific Reports” illustrates the identification of the oldest known scorpion species, which lived about 437 million years ago, in the Silurian period. A team of researchers named it Parioscorpio venator after examining fossils discovered in a quarry in Wisconsin in 1985. This species had some anatomical features that are practically identical to those of modern scorpions but the most interesting discovery is in the respiratory structures that indicate that it could live on the mainland. This is the oldest evidence that an animal could survive out of the sea and indicates that at the time at least a part of arachnids had already colonized the mainland.

Prisoner of the Daleks by Trevor Baxendale

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The novel “Prisoner of the Daleks” by Trevor Baxendale was published for the first time in 2009.

The Tenth Doctor arrives on the planet Hurala in an area that seems completely deserted. When he finds a computer room, he gets trapped in it and has to wait some days, when a group of bounty hunters arrive in search of fule for their spaceship and free him. There’s very little time for pleasantries because a Dalek patrol soon arrives and the Doctor is forced to abandon the Tardis to flee aboard the bounty hunters spaceship.

One of the Daleks manages to penetrate the spaceship before it takes off and kills the youngest of the bounty hunters before being immobilized by the Doctor. From the bounty hunters’ tales, he realizes that he ended up in a time when the Daleks are engaged in a war against the first Earth empire so there are strong chances of stumbling upon more Daleks.

A spectacled cobra (Photo Saleem Hameed)

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An article published in the journal “Nature Genetics” reports the DNA sequencing of the spectacled cobra, one of the so-called “Big Four”, the four most venomous and dangerous snakes in India. A team of researchers employed a number of genetic techniques that led to the identification of 23,248 genes that encode proteins, including 12,346 genes that regulate its venom glands. The knowledge of this snake’s genome will help develop better antidotes for its deadly venom and the proteins contained in that venom could also be useful for developing various types of drugs.