March 2020

Soji (Isa Briones) and Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) in Broken Pieces (Image courtesy CBS All Access / Amazon Prime Video)

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“Broken Pieces” is the eighth episode of the TV show “Star Trek: Picard” and follows “Nepenthe”. It’s available in the USA on the CBS All Access streaming platform and in many other countries on Amazon Prime Video.

On the Borg cube, Elnor (Evan Evagora) needs help to avoid Narissa (Peyton List). Dr. Agnes Jurati (Alison Pill) faces the consequences of her actions. Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and Soji (Isa Briones) arrive on the starship La Sirena, and Captain Rios (Santiago Cabrera) has an unexpected reaction.

Specimens of Himalayan red panda (Ailurus fulgens) and Chinese red panda (Ailurus styani)

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An article published in the journal “Science Advances” reports genetic evidence that there are two distinct species of red panda, or lesser panda, (Ailurus fulgens) and not two subspecies, as per taxonomic classification that existed for over a century and based on morphological differences. A team of researchers carried out genomic research which led to the conclusion that there’s a substantial genetic divergence that adds to the differences found with the classic methods. Consequently, a new classification was proposed with the species Himalayan red panda (Ailurus fulgens) and Chinese red panda (Ailurus styani) instead of the two subspecies. If confirmed, this result poses new problems in saving red pandas from extinction.

Al Clark by Jonathan G. Meyer

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The novel “Al Clark” by Jonathan G. Meyer was published for the first time in 2014. It’s the first book in the Al Clark series.

Al Clark wakes up with no memory, to the point that he reads his name when he looks around to try to understand his situation. Exploring the pod in which he was in suspended animation, he meets a boy who has already been awake for a while and discovers he’s on a spaceship traveling to a planet to be colonized. Together, they start awakening other people, including the captain.

With at least a part of the crew awakened, it becomes possible to start seriously assessing the situation of their mission. The aspiring colonists realize that their journey has ended and the spaceship is orbiting Avalon, the planet that’s supposed to become their new home. Their problems, however, are not over because the planet is inhabited, and the investigation into the reasons why the crew wasn’t awakened in the scheduled way indicates that there was a sabotage.

Entrance of the Chagyrskaya Cave (Photo courtesy K. Kolobova/Institute of Archeology and Ethnography of the Siberian Branch of the RAS)

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An article published in the journal “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences” reports a study on Neanderthal migrations to Siberia. A team of researchers excavated the Chagyrskaya Cave in the Altai Mountains in Siberia, finding 90,000 artifacts and 74 Neanderthal fossils along with bone tools, animal and plants remains in deposits dated between 49,000 and 59,000 years ago. The tools have distinctive characteristics remarkably similar to those of Neanderthal artifacts from Eastern Europe, while nothing like this has been found at other sites in the Altai Mountains occupied by Neanderthals. Such archaeological evidence, combined with genetic studies on well-preserved Neanderthal fossils, indicate that there were at least two migrations of these hominins to Siberia, the first one over 100,000 years ago.

Soji (Isa Briones) and Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) in Nepenthe (Image courtesy CBS All Access / Amazon Prime Video)

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“Nepenthe” is the seventh episode of the TV show “Star Trek: Picard” and follows “The Impossible Box”. It’s available in the USA on the CBS All Access streaming platform and in many other countries on Amazon Prime Video.

On the Borg cube it’s time for the showdown with Narissa (Peyton List) who has no restraint in acting to find Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and especially Soji (Isa Briones). The two of them teleported to the planet Nepenthe, where they find William Riker (Jonathan Frakes) and Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis), who live there together with their daughter Kestra (Lulu Wilson).