November 2021

A reconstruction of Leti's skull in Professor Berger's hand

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Two articles published in the journal “PaleoAnthropology” report as many studies connected to Homo naledi, the species of hominins whose fossils were discovered in the cave called Rising Star about 50 km northwest of Johannesburg, South Africa. One of the two articles reports the study of a partial skull with some teeth belonging to an individual who was still in the growth phase, possibly a child. The other article reports the results of the exploration of the subsystem of the cave called Dinaledi. These studies offer new insights into what Professor Lee Berger, who led the team that conducted the first studies on Homo naledi, called an enigmatic species.

Manseed by Jack Williamson

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The novel “Manseed” by Jack Williamson was published for the first time in 1982.

The Defender wakes up confused and doesn’t even recognize his own body, which looks quite human but without genitals. He has various memories of different people that don’t help him understand what’s happening to him and around him. He hears a voice that seems familiar to him since it belongs to Megan Drake but it quickly becomes clear that it’s a reproduction.

The voice that communicates with the Defender is that of a spaceship that was damaged by a meteorite. The Defender must assess the damage and try to repair it in order to resume the mission of finding a habitable planet where humans based on samples chosen on Earth many millennia earlier can be born and grow up.

The Bodo 1 skull (Image courtesy Jeffrey H. Schwartz / Roksandic et al.)

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An article published in the journal “Evolutionary Anthropology” reports a research on hominins of the Middle Pleistocene period that proposes the species Homo bodoensis as a classification for a series of hominin fossils discovered in Africa and some discovered in some areas of Europe. A team of researchers led by paleoanthropologist Mirjana Roksandic of the University of Winnipeg, Canada, reached this conclusion after reassessing fossils discovered over the years in Africa and Eurasia. A consequence of this proposal is the elimination of the species Homo heidelbergensis and Homo rhodesiensis with their often inconsistent definitions. A series of fossils attributed to the species Homo heidelbergensis would be Neanderthals.

Salvation by Peter F. Hamilton

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The novel “Salvation” by Peter F. Hamilton was published for the first time in 2018. It’s the first novel in the Salvation Sequence.

In 2204 humanity is expanding among the stars using portals based on quantum entanglement. On a recently discovered planet about 89 light-years from Earth, the wreck of an alien spaceship is discovered, and inside it, there are 17 humans. A very special team is sent to investigate but one of the members is an alien.

Centuries later, humans are on the run from aliens who want to wipe them out. The only hope is to raise soldiers trained specifically to fight the aliens. That’s because it’s impossible to escape from the enemies forever, so the only solution is to prepare for the fight.