June 2023

The KNM-ER 741 tibia with the cuts in the magnified area (Photo courtesy Jennifer Clark)

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An article published in the journal “Scientific Reports” offers evidence that hominins who lived at least 1.45 million years ago killed each other and possibly practiced cannibalism. Paleoanthropologist Briana Pobiner of the National Museum of Natural History led the study of the markings found on a fossil tibia discovered in northern Kenya. The examination of 3D models of the surface of this tibia indicates that 11 of those marks were left by stone tools and that their characteristics likely indicate butcher work much like that seen on fossil animal bones slaughtered by hominins for consumption.

To Your Scattered Bodies Go by Philip J. Farmer

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The novel “To Your Scattered Bodies Go” by Philip J. Farmer was published for the first time between 1965 and 1966 in the magazine “Worlds of Tomorrow” and in 1971 as a book. It won the Hugo Award for Best Novel of the Year. It’s the first book in the Riverworld series.

Sir Richard Francis Burton dies in 1890 but wakes up in an unknown place where he finds himself surrounded by other people who, just like him, are naked and totally hairless but he seems to be the only one awake. He’s trying to figure out what’s going on when everyone is thrown into a valley next to a river.

The people in the valley include an alien from the Tau Ceti system who arrived on Earth in the early 21st century and a Neanderthal. Everyone says they died and found themselves there. On the riverside, there seem to be people everywhere, who could have created such an environment and resurrected all the sentient beings that ever existed on Earth?

Runtime by S.B. Divya

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The novella “Runtime” by S.B. Divya was published for the first time in 2016.

Marmeg Guinto’s dream is to win the Minerva Sierra Challenge, an endurance competition for cyborgs. Her implants are makeshift, sometimes literally scavenged in the trash, but she sees them as the only hope for a better life for herself and for her siblings. Facing competitors with new and more advanced systems is only one of the difficulties in a race full of unexpected events.

A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine

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The novel “A Memory Called Empire” by Arkady Martine was published for the first time in 2019. It won the Hugo Award as the Best Novel of the Year. It’s the first book in the Teixcalaan series.

Mahit Dzmare is sent as the new ambassador of Lsel Station to the Teixcalaani Empire, which rules over most of humanity. Upon her arrival in the imperial capital, she discovers that her predecessor Yskandr Aghavn died, officially of accidental causes.

The reluctance that everyone seems to show about what happened to Yskandr Aghavn leads Mahit Dzmare to suspect that he was killed but why? The new ambassador suddenly finds herself in a stranger land enmeshed in intrigues of which she knows nothing.

Lsel Station’s embassy has no other staff and the people who are supposed to assist it were assigned by the local authorities. Her only help should come from Yskandr Aghavn’s imago, a reproduction of his consciousness and memories, but the discovery of his death seems to have caused it to malfunction.

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“Downtime” is a 1995 direct-to-video film linked to the “Doctor Who” saga.

When her father’s will is delivered to her, Victoria Waterfield (Deborah Watling) gets convinced she can find him again in Det-Sen Monastery in Tibet. However, she only finds the Great Intelligence there and she loses consciousness. When she awakens, she finds that an explosion has destroyed the monastery. Back in London, she’s contacted by Professor Edward Travers (Jack Watling), who offers her a purpose in developing the New World University.

After 15 years of work, New World University seems to have achieved its goals but Victoria Waterfield needs another item and she hires Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen) to find it. Meanwhile, Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart (Nicholas Courtney) wakes up from a strange three-day sleep and the situation becomes even stranger when he’s contacted by Daniel Hinton (Mark Trotman), a former student of the school where he taught, who tells a strange story. The key may be in the hands of his daughter Kate (Beverley Cressman).