April 2020

Magmatic rock samples containing air bubbles

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An article published in the journal “Nature Communications” reports evidence of an abundance of carbon dioxide in basaltic rocks dating back to the end of the Triassic period, just over 200 million years ago, of what is called the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province (CAMP). A team of researchers discovered carbon dioxide bubbles still imprisoned in those ancient volcanic rocks, evidence that supports the theory that volcanic activity contributed to the climate changes that caused the mass extinction. That type of emissions has similarities with what we’re seeing today, so the study of very ancient events can give us an idea of ​​what could happen in the near future.

The Forgotten Army by Brian Minchin

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The novel “The Forgotten Army” by Brian Minchin was published for the first time in 2010.

The Eleventh Doctor takes Amy Pond to New York just when a Polar Woolly Mammoth found perfectly preserved is about to be presented in a museum. In front of a crowd, what’s supposed to be an animal that’s been dead for several millennia suddenly comes to life and begins to cause panic inside the Natural History Museum.

The Doctor manages to jump on the mammoth and control its movements as if it were a horse, temporarily taking it to a zoo. It seems that some American authorities are the biggest problem for the Doctor, but the situation changes when the mammoth’s true nature is revealed and together with it the real danger.

Acceptance by Jeff VanderMeer

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The novel “Acceptance” by Jeff VanderMeer was published for the first time in 2014. It’s the third book of the Southern Reach trilogy and follows “Authority”.

Area X is expanding transforming other portions of territory into somewhat alien places. The Southern Reach is in chaos and Control attempts another expedition with Ghost Bird. Together, the two of them go into Area X until they reach the lighthouse that seems essential to get answers, but will they be enough?

Many years earlier, the lighthouse was a normal place and Saul Evans had become its guardian. A former preacher, he’s looking for a serenity he’s missing following traumatic events. The new beginning is also marked by his friendship with Gloria, a little girl who lives nearby. Complications of various kinds threaten to wreak havoc in Saul’s life again.

Massospondylus carinatus skeleton reconstruction

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An article published in the “Scientific Reports” journal reports a 3D reconstruction of some of the oldest known dinosaur embryos, which belong to the species Massospondylus carinatus. Kimberley “Kimi” Chapelle, Vincent Fernandez, and Jonah Choiniere subjected the fossils to a very special CT-scan, an exam that was conducted at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) in Grenoble, France, using an 844-meter-long particle accelerator. The result is that the eggs containing those embryos fossilized when they were at about 60% of their development, which is similar to that of some of the closest relatives of the dinosaurs existing today: crocodiles, chickens, turtles and lizards.

Diving into The Wreck by Kristine Kathryn Rusch (Italian edition)

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The novella “Diving into The Wreck” by Kristine Kathryn Rusch was published for the first time in 2009. It’s part of the Diving Universe.

Boss hired a team to explore the wreckage of a spaceship she found drifting in space. Potentially, it’s a treasure because the artifacts she could recover can be worth a lot of money and ancient lost technologies can be worth a real fortune. The recovery operations are always dangerous because it’s impossible to know what you can find in a wreck, especially when it seems to date back to millennia before and it’s in a place in space very far from those that such ancient spaceships could reach.