The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells (Italian edition)

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The novella “All Systems Red” by Martha Wells was published for the first time in 2017. It won the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus Awards as the best novella of the year. It’s the first work of “The Murderbot Diaries” series.

Murderbot is the self-given name of the SecUnit that managed to hack its own control program which normally keeps it under the command of human beings. It would rather watch soap operas than protect the clients it’s assigned but what is supposed to be a scientific expedition requires its intervention.

When Murderbot must rescue a member of the scientific exploration team, it discovers that parts of the available maps have been erased. Faults and problems pile up in an increasingly suspicious manner and Murderbot independently decides to protect its clients.

Forelimb bones of one of the Bustingorrytitan shiva specimens discovered.

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An article published in the journal “Acta Palaeontologica Polonica” reports the identification of a species of titanosaur that lived about 95 million years ago, in the Cretaceous period, in today’s Argentina and was named Bustingorrytitan shiva. María Edith Simón and Leonardo Salgado examined the partial skeletons of four specimens discovered in the village of Villa El Chocón, in the Neuquén province of Patagonia. This area of Argentina was home to various species of titanosaurs, the largest animals to have lived on land.

Contact by D. Rebbitt

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The novel “Contact” by D. Rebbitt was published for the first time in 2017. It’s the second book in The Globur Incursion series and is a prequel to “Fulcrum”.

Captain Blount is about to go on leave and so are many of his crew when he’s urgently summoned and given command of a mission to the X5682 system. A team of scientists exploring that system activated a protocol connected to the possible discovery of alien traces.

A small fleet commanded by Captain Blount is sent to the X5682 system with a team of Marines. The alleged alien traces don’t seem convincing and in the past, such discoveries proved to be of natural origin. However, when one of the Marines ventures into a cave and finds something that is certainly not natural, the situation changes radically.

Zona II: Sabertooth Uprising by Fred G. Baker

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The novel “Zona II: Sabertooth Uprising” by Fred G. Baker was published for the first time in 2023. It’s the second book in the Zona series and follows “Zona: The Forbidden Land”.

Grant Taylor and his group of explorers camp in the core of the crater called Zona with the idea of spending the winter there. They formed an alliance with the giant dire wolves that live in the Zona but discover that the sabertooth lions have warlike intentions.

Max Volkov managed to return to St. Petersburg, where he joins Boris Ustinov to set up a new expedition to Zona that brings supplies to the group that stayed there there. This takes time, also because it’s necessary to maintain the secret of the location of the crater and what Max and his traveling companions found there.

Fruit of Arabica coffee

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An article published in the journal “Nature Communications” reports the results of a new DNA sequencing of Arabica coffee (Coffea arabica) which allowed the identification of various aberrations and genetic diversity. A team of researchers from the University of Udine and the Institute of Applied Genomics (istituto di Genomica applicata, Iga) also in Udine, Italy, used the most advanced genetic techniques to obtain details superior to those of the analyzes conducted in previous years. There’s a commercial purpose because this genetic study was conducted in collaboration with two big Italian producers – Illycaffè and Lavazza – but it’s important to know in depth the DNA of Arabica coffee and also to face the dangers deriving from diseases and climate change.