Atari ST Vertical Flying Shooters Part 4 1990 and 91 The history of  Atari ST Vertical Shooters  Part 4 1990 and 1991: The Post Arcade Era In part 4‚ we take a look at all of the best vertical flying shooters to arrive on the Atari ST in 1990 and 1991. I’m calling this the post arcade era because the games being produced were no longer rushed arcade clones. There are a couple arcade ports on this list‚ but they are higher quality than most in the previous years. The quality of the remaining games varies from shoot’em up construction kit public domain to a couple of the best shooters you will find on this line of home computers. SHUMPS! In early 2023 I started looking at the history of Atari ST vertical shooters or SHMUPS by examining an article in the first issue of Atari ST action magazine.  The article  gave a brief look at 9 vertical and 1 horizontal shooters that had been released for Atari’s 16 bit multi-purpose home computer from 1985 through early 1988. That resulted in the first video in this series.  This got me started down a rabbit hole and I did following deep dives into the rest of 1988 and all of 1989 in separate videos.  I held off on finishing this planned 6-part series until I had a chance to dig deeper into ST library and in the last year have done a number of videos on other ST game genres and a few deep dives into individual game developers and companies. I am now prepared to finish this series with  the next three videos‚ including this one covering the years 1990 and 1991. I’m calling this the post arcade era because the games being produced were no longer rushed arcade clones. There are a couple arcade ports on this list‚ but they are higher quality than most in the previous years. The quality of the remaining games varies from shoot’em up construction kit public domain to a couple of the best shooters you will find on this line of home computers.  Also‚ while the overall quality of the budget and homebrew scene on the ST was improving at this time‚  the flood of releases seen in the years priors had slowed down considerably We are going to start with some od the best  Shoot Em Up Construction Kit games‚ then look at most of the rest in alphabetical order except for my two favorites which I will hold until the end of the video.  Die Alien Blob  is a 1990 SEUCK‚ short for Shoot em up construction kit” Public Domain release by Faz Farrel. For me this is probably the best game I have played made with the ST version of this game development kit.    One thing is certain about well designed SEUCK games‚ they have ZARJAZ‚ by which I mean they can have a lot of cool explosions and fun blasting in the right hands . The program lets budding game developers create relatively simple vertical and static screen shooters of the golden age arcade type with relative ease. This is one of the best ones.  This is the only game that Faz made with the Shoot em up construction kit for the ST‚ at least that I could find. I wish he’d put his talents into a couple more gems like this.  Voyager II‚ another 1990  SEUCK game‚ this time  from French developer Jean Claude Masset‚ also deserves a mention as it’s fun and has a unique visual design.  One thing about almost all SEUCK games is that they are  very difficult to play. This is  because the engine allows for the developer to cram a lot of enemy and enemy fire on the screen at one time‚ and SEUCK developers made heavy use of this feature.  ZOG  is a Chris Lloyd 1990 SEUCK release  that I find to be the top of the class of games made with this tool.  Zog is the epitome of the best SEUCK has to offer  with some pleasant graphics‚ fun level design‚ and hard as nails‚ but it has what it takes to keep you blasting.  What the construction set has is a very nice engine that moves the screen and spirits very well. It’s designed to optimize 8 foreground and 8 background colors using the bit planes of the ST the best way possible. This allows the budding game developer to start off with a nice engine but it takes some skill to make it fun. Air Supply was released in 1991 by  Magic Bytes‚ the first German game company to have a multi-platform international hit with the game Mission Elevator‚ which was also available on the ST.Besides shooting small but numerous nicely colored enemies over a shaded backdrops ‚ the player has to drop supply units on especially marked places‚ land and stock up on supplies‚ destroy the enemy fortification and if you can get that far‚ also play through a roironal scrolling level‚ which I could not find.  This game looks great‚ moves fast‚and sounds pretty damn good for an ST game‚ but it is OVERLY complicated with far too many keyboard keys to use in conjunction with the joystick. Plus TOO many cheap deaths.  I had to play with a super shield cheat to get anywhere in it‚  and have time to press enter and drop the supplies. The power ups‚ especially the 1943-like spread shott  are pretty nice too and much needed! The attempt to add more than just shooting to  what it basically a Gold Runner clone must have had audience some place‚ and I would probably have loved it if the controls were not so complicatedI really did appreciate  the invaders game that you can play while loading too.German ASM Magazine gave both the ST and Amiga ports of the game 67%‚ saying roughly translated “Air Supply is technically perfected. The controls work perfectly‚ the scrolling is almost gaseous instead of liquid” I’m not sure about the last part‚ but it’s funny nonetheless.  Frenetic‚ released by Core Design in  1991 is a quality mindless blaster with well crafted  graphics‚ scrolling‚ and game play.. It has both music and FX at the same time‚ but I find the tune a little annoying after a while. Still‚ it’s quite good and fun to play.   Like some of the other games on this list‚ 2-player simultaneous action is available for those who have a friend and an extra joystick nearby.  Frenetic might have received  poor reviews because shooters really had to be something extra special in 1991 as reviewers had pretty much seen everything by then and  unapologetically looked past these types of games for more involved and engrossing experiences. I evaluate all games based on how they utilize the hardware and how they are compared to the rest of the library‚ not through the eyes of the reviewers jaded by the stack of games they had to review that month. That being said‚ the only really poor review was from ST Format with a 51%‚ while ST Action‚ the One and Games-X all giving it between 71 and 80%. Kamikaze from CodeMasters‚ released in 1990‚  is a pretty good Flying Shark or 1943 clone with a lot of power ups but I find it much more difficult than those arcade titles.  Your job is to Fight through each level collecting POWER UPS left behind from enemy debris.  Let’s address the huge elephant in the room right now‚ yes the cover art is culturally insensitive by even 80’s standards‚ and I doubt it could be released today with this art in place. At the end of each level the message “KAMIKAZE” will appear. At this point‚ holding fire will cause your plane to go into a NOSE DIVE towards the enemy INSTALLATION. A successful hit will mean a brand new exciting mission! The only review I could find for the game on either 16 bit platform was Amiga Power in 1991. They said that it was perfectly competent and fine to play if you don’t already own a flying shark- which pretty much sums it all up much nicer than I could have on my own. Kamikaze adds  two players to simultaneous action‚ smart bombs by holding down the button not with the space bar and more. It has learned from the sins of the past‚ but the gameplay‚ difficulty  and sounds leaves a little to be desired.   Scramble Spirits ‚ a Sega arcade port‚  released by Grand Slam 1990 was developed by Teque Software Development. Teque was responsible for quite a few very nice ST arcade conversions for Domark  and I plan to research their rabbit hole in the future. Scramble spirits is actually closer to a really difficult Xevious than 1942‚ You fire and bomb at the same time and I found no power ups‚ while that doesn’t mean there aren’t any‚ they certainly were not in abundance.   The game has a nice zoomed in challenging stage at the end of each sequence where you try to destroy planes on the deck of an aircraft carrier‚ and possibly more but I couldn’t not get  that far.  The graphics are a decent copy of the arcade with some large pretty colorful sprites‚ while the sound is pretty ST standard fare  and the gameplay  not well optimized.  The screen slows down is very noticeable‚ and hampers control enough to make it much less playbale than it could be.   The Games Machine UK magazine liked it‚ giving it 75%‚ saying it was like the Amiga version just with poorer sound‚ CV&;G Magazine basically said the same thing with“Apart from a drop in sound quality‚ there are no differences between this and the Amiga version. The same bland‚ tiresome game rears its unattractive head.”and t they only gave it 51%If you play it with MegaSTE  settings‚ as seen here now‚ with the Cache‚ and at 16MHZ‚ it smooths out the gameplay immensely but  the difficulty remains pretty much the same. If you have the option to play this way‚ I recommend it.  Sky High Stuntman is a 1991 Codemasters release code by Charlie Skilbeck  who also did Violator‚ a game we’ll take a look at in a few minutes.   The game play conceit is that you are a stuntman for the next big blockbuster film and must fly a helicopter‚ balloon‚ jet fighter and a bi-plane help film four big action scenes. The Difficulty is as  high as the scarcity of power ups are‚ making for my least favorite deadly game stopping joystick throwing combination.  I recommend you  use the 8bitchip cheat for unlimited smart bombs as I did to help see more of the game.  I could not find any ST reviews or even an instruction sheet for the ST or Amiga versions. The reviews across the Amiga and C64 versions were mediocre and the Atarimania.com users rated it as a 6/10. Not unlike most other games on this list‚ I find it to be competently codde with optimization in mind‚ and reasonably fun. The various vehicles set apart from the crowd somewhat‚ but the sound is very lacking..  SWIV‚ released in 1991 by STORM and Sales Curve‚ takes the military based flight and ground shooting of past classics and amps it up to 11.  Supposedly‚ SWIV stands for Silk Worm in Vertical and rather than being an arcade port‚ it does just that‚ flips Silkworm to an overhead vertical setting then amps up the blasting‚ and visuals.  Also like Silkworm‚ two people get to blast at the same time‚ one in the air and one on the ground.   According to the strategy guide I found on LemonAmiga‚ the only power ups in SWIV are by way of destroying a giant mech like goose copter.  Ironically you might need them to actually destroy said copter  and you’ll die trying!Actually‚ unlike some of the games on this list‚ the difficulty is not set too high‚ making this one of the better Helicopters shooters even if the sounds and music are a bit unrealized.Note: The manual says that SWIV stands for Special Weapons Intercept vehicle‚ but I still like the lore behind it bening and unofficial sequel to SilkwormSWIV averaged about an 80% score in ST Action‚ ST Format‚ Games-X and ST User all  from the then arcade-jaded gaming press. The ST Format review probably adheres to the common thoughts of the day the best with “while SWIV isn’t the state-of-the-art in computer gaming‚ fans of the quick blast are going to have heaps of fun. It’s even better when there are two of you”As seen here now‚ playing on the ground with a jeep‚ though obviously not fitting in the definition Flying Vertical Shooter‚ is pretty damn fun. Atarimania fans seem to rate it much higher than the old magazines with an average score of 8.9/10‚ which puts it in the class with the other top shooters on the ST.  Development house Random Access did this conversion to the ST and they have 4 or 5 more  all out classics that I will cover in a future deep dive. They also did a great job imitating the Amiga version of the ST down to the scrolling that never stops to load and just missed the sound quality by a bit as the Amiga’s meatier samples make it slightly more pleasing.  Violator‚ released by  Code Masters in 1991  is the second Charlie Skilbeck game on this list.    It’s A fun‚ fast‚ shooter with a lot of power-ups you obtain quickly‚ and fun things  to blast are in abundance. The sounds are good‚ not great‚ but good. What more could you want from a budget shooter in ‘91? While Violator only has a 6.5 rating on Atarimania‚ only a couple people rated it before voting was shut off a few years ago. That’s hardly enough for a consensus.   Reviews were certainly mixed across the ST and Amiga versions of this game. The One gave both versions 40% saying that it was technically excellent but didn’t like the game-play‚ they also called it a poor man’s SWIV without the Jeep‚ which is possibly the most accurate thing they could say about a budget vertical scrolling heli-shooter. They admit that people will buy it because this type of game is fun to play despite poor reviews.Games-X and Amiga power both liked it more but complained about the difficulty‚ which certainly I agree with and I think a trainer is needed to see most of the pretty but simple back drops that were crafted by  Philip Ruston‚ I have to admit that this is the helicopter shooter that I had the most fun with while doing this video. The graphics and sounds are decidedly 8bit plus‚ but the fun is where it counts and this is one that I will keep going back to over and over.  Eutanasia by Sweden’s Xitec Software is an honorable mention here as it is unfinished but showed incredible promise.  On the title screen‚ developer Martin Liesen says that this should work on plain 520 ST. It’s a sight to behold with giant sprites and huge weapons all moving smoothly over a parallax alien environment. Since it doesn’t have any sound‚ I have added a Tony Longwoth soundtrack  under it to check out what might have been.  In 1990‚ Thalion released Wings of Death‚ developed by a superb demo coding team Care Bears among others  showed just exactly what an ST and STE upgraded game  were capable of in this genre.   This is SHMUP action on a 16-but computer at it’s finest with all manner of enemy and ordinance flying by‚ power ups to blast them‚ music and sound fx at the same time and even one of those dreaded power down icons that I detest so much.  Here we see the STE upgraded version but the ST version plays almost as well because this team knows how to squeeze power off of the machine with 25+ on screen colors in game play and over 100 in the title sequences.  While looking at it now‚ I can definitely say that it’s one of the best crafted action games on the ST series of computers. I’m afraid the jaded time it was released came back to haunt it in some of the reviews.  ST Format Magazine‚ in November of 1990‚ summed up the state of ST game reviews and shooters in general with their review‚ giving it high praise for being smooth an technically outstanding‚ but also giving it only 81%‚ which I feel would have been 10 points higher if the game was release just 1 year earlier. Page 6 / Atari User‚ the decidedly 8bit Atari magazine went out of their way to call it one of the best games of the year though‚  possibly because they were not as jaded as the ST dedicated magazines.France’s Joystick Magazine also gave it 81%‚ ST Action on the other-hand did not have as much good to say and gave it a lower than others 70%. Their reasoning being that it was an enjoyable and well optimized game‚ but too easy to complete. Fair enough ST Action‚ Fair enough.  We just looked at the STE version. Now let’s take a quick look at the plain ST version for a short bit.   The game is very well optimized in both version. I see a slight color difference and the title music is full Stereo in the STE version Both have the same fast fun game play with nice graphics‚ a lot of sprites and music as well as FX at the same time. Well done‚ well done. Now‚ that’s how you make a post Xenon 2 ST shooter! Finally‚ we get to 1991’s Lethal Xcessor Wings of Death II which was was developed by the same team as Wings but this time released not by Thalion‚ but by Eclipse. This is another masterfully optimized ST shooter with STE enhancements that I find some ST enthusiasts do not like as much as its predecessor.Magazines on the other-hand were very impressed with the added STE optimization and France’s Joystick particularly impressed‚ giving it 95%‚ with the also French ST Magazine giving it 80%. Saying  it was a great achievement though not truly exceptional but fun enough to want to see all the levels  ST User also gave it 83%‚ so while it seems some ST game players don’t quite think it lived up to Wings of Death‚ the reviews were actually  better overall for Lethal Xcess. The main complaint on Atarimania.com is that the gameplay is a notch lower while the technical chops a bit higher. This‚ I can agree with. We just looked at the STE version. Now let’s take a look at the plain ST version for a minute or so.  As with Wings of Death The game is very well optimized for version. The only difference I can really detect is in the stereo title music in the STE version‚ but you’d be hard pressed to find any other released STFM shooter that looks‚ sounds and plays this well.  Interview I translated an interview in the French ST Magazine with Demo coder ME‚ responsible for the BIG Demo‚ who  was part of the team responsible for both  Lethal Xcess and Wings of death.  He had this to say about which of the 16 bit machines he preferred to work on“I know the PC Amiga and ST. I prefer the ST User Interface. It’s also the most reliable machine of the three when programming. I don’t like the PC’s Microprocessor . As for the Amiga conversion of Dragon Flight I did it on the ST with an interface that I developed myself.  Insert don’t be a dick video We’ve heard things like this from a few developers in the past and will continue to find these nuggets where we can‚ The reason being that revisionist history seems to have virtually erased the Atari ST from existence and if you were actually there back in the day‚ it was just as important as  the PC  or the Amiga‚ and maybe even more important as development machine than it has been given any credit for. We love all  the machines‚ but feel that Atari hate is so pervasive because of bad reporting‚ short memories‚ or just ignorance across ALL platforms that we need to be sure to right that any place we can That’s all for these two years‚ part 5 will cover all of the games from 1992 until present day and then in the final episode‚ I will present the top 25 based on Atarimania.. Magazine scores and my own evaluations If you want to vote for your favorites please list them below.  Until then‚ have fun playing your favorite vertical flying shooter in the Vertical Blank.  . 

JPMorgan Chase‚ BlackRock‚ and State Street Global Advisors have announced their withdrawal or reduction of involvement in the United Nations climate alliance known as Climate Action 100+. JPMorgan Chase cited the expansion […]

by Greg Hunter‚ USA Watchdog: Nobody in the Lying Legacy Media (LLM) is talking about America’s 2 million terrorists that have crossed the US boarder according to a source at National Sherriff’s Association.  It is reported that military age men sometimes found with weapons and explosives have been caught or spotted.  One Ohio Sheriff‚ Richard […]

by Frank Bergman‚ SlayNews: The Chinese Communist Party has reportedly linked its radical social credit score system to the state’s central bank digital currency (CBDC). Citizens have begun raising the alarm over the situation to warn the West about the dangers of “cashless societies.” One Chinese social media user has gone viral for detailing how […]

Hawkwind‚ Van der Graaf Generator and even Pink Floyd – they’ve all had ex-Sex Pistols singer John Lydon’s stamp of approval

161 years ago today‚ the businessman and activist Henry Dunant‚ a Swiss public health society commissioner Théodore Maunoir‚ lawyer and civic leader Gustave Moynier‚ field surgeon Louis Appia‚ and Swiss General Guillaume-Henri Dufour‚ came together in Geneva to form an “International Committee for Relief of Wounded in the event of War.” That year they organized the […] The post Good News in History‚ February 17 appeared first on Good News Network.

Hundreds of chemicals stream from our bodies into the air every second. These chemicals release into the air easily as they have high vapour pressures‚ meaning they boil and turn into gases at room temperature. They give clues about who we are‚ and how healthy we are.Since ancient Greek times‚ we’ve known that we smell differently when we are unwell. While we rely on blood analysis today‚ ancient Greek physicians used smell to diagnose maladies. If they took a whiff of your breath and described it as fetor hepaticus (meaning bad liver)‚ it meant you could be headed for liver failure.If a person’s whiff was sweet or fruity‚ physicians thought this meant that sugars in the digestive system were not being broken down‚ and that person had probably diabetes. Science has since shown the ancient Greeks were right – liver failure and diabetes and many other diseases including infectious diseases give your breath a distinctive smell.In 1971‚ Nobel Laureate chemist Linus Pauling counted 250 different gaseous chemicals in breath. These gaseous chemicals are called volatile organic compounds or VOCs.  Since Pauling’s discovery‚ other scientists have discovered hundreds more VOCs in our breath. We have learned that many of these VOCs have distinctive odours‚ but some have no odour that our noses can perceive.Scientists believe that whether a VOC has an odour that our noses can detect or not‚ they can reveal information about how healthy someone is.A Scottish man’s Parkinson’s disease onset was identified by his wife‚ retired nurse Joy Milner‚ after she was convinced the way he smelled had changed‚ years before he was diagnosed in 2005. This discovery has led to research programmes involving Joy Milner to identify the precise smell of this disease.Dogs can sniff out more diseases than humans because of their more sophisticated olfactory talents. But technological techniques‚ like analytical tool mass spectrometry‚ picks up even more subtle changes in VOC profiles that are being linked to gut‚ skin and respiratory diseases as well as neurological diseases like Parkinson’s. Researchers believe that one day some diseases will be diagnosed simply by breathing into a device.  Where do VOCs come from?Breath is not the only source of VOCs in the body. They are also emitted from skin‚ urine and faeces.VOCs from skin are the result of millions of skin glands removing metabolic waste from the body‚ as well as waste generated by bacteria and other microbes that live on our skin. Sweating produces extra nutrients for these bacteria to metabolise which can result in particularly odorous VOCs. Odour from sweat only makes up a fraction of the scents from VOCs though.Our skin and also our gut microbiomes are made up from a delicate balance of these microbes. Scientists think they influence our health‚ but we don’t yet understand a lot about how this relationship works.Unlike the gut‚ the skin is relatively easy to study – you can collect skin samples from living humans without having to go deep into the body. Scientists think skin VOCs can offer insights into how the microbiome’s bacteria and the human body work together to maintain our health and protect us from disease.In my team’s laboratory‚ we are investigating whether the skin VOC signature can reveal different attributes of the person it belongs to. These signals in skin VOC signatures are probably how dogs distinguish between people by smell.We are at a relatively early stage in this research area but we have shown that you can tell males from females based on how acidic the VOCs from skin are. We use mass spectrometry to see this as the average human nose is not sophisticated enough to detect these VOCs.We can also predict a person’s age with reasonable accuracy to within a few years from their skin VOC profile. This is not surprising considering that oxidative stress in our bodies increases as we age.Oxidative stress happens when your antioxidant levels are low and causes irreversible damage to our cells and organs. Our recent research found by-products of this oxidative damage in skin VOC profiles.Not only are these VOCs responsible for personal scent – they are used by plants‚ insects and animals as a communication channel. Plants are in a constant VOC dialogue with other organisms including pollinators‚ herbivores‚ other plants and their natural enemies such as harmful bacteria and insects. VOCs used for this back and forth dialogue are known as pheromones.What has science shown about love pheromones?In the animal kingdom‚ there is good evidence VOCs can act as aphrodisiacs. Mice for example have microbes which contribute to a particularly smelly compound called trimethylamine‚ which allows mice to verify the species of a potential mate. Pigs and elephants have sex pheromones too.It is possible that humans also produce VOCs for attracting the perfect mate. Scientists have yet to fully decode skin – or other VOCs that are released from our bodies. But evidence for human love pheromones so far is controversial at best. One theory suggests that they were lost about 23 million years ago when primates developed full colour vision and started relying on their enhanced vision to choose a mate.However‚ we believe that whether human pheromones exist or not‚ skin VOCs can reveal who and how we are‚ in terms of things like ageing‚ nutrition and fitness‚ fertility and even stress levels. This signature probably contains markers we can use to monitor our health and diagnose disease.Aoife Morrin‚ Associate Professor of Analytical Chemistry‚ Dublin City UniversityThis article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

The typical vision of Neanderthals has not been particularly flattering‚ often featuring a giant club and spear and unfortunate sartorial choices. For years‚ researchers have worked to overturn this view‚ albeit with limited evidence.But new research‚ published today in Nature‚ provides some of the first nuanced‚ detailed insights into the everyday lives of Neanderthal.By sequencing the ancient DNA within preserved dental plaque (calculus) we uncovered specific information about Neanderthal diet and health as well as further insights into their interactions‚ behaviour‚ culture and knowledge.Dental calculus preserves ancient DNA from microorganisms‚ viruses‚ food and other biological material that pass through an individual’s mouth. This leaves a source of information for ancient DNA scientists to discover thousands of years later.The Neanderthal diet and lifestyleWe examined two Neanderthals from El Sidron cave‚ Spain‚ and a Neanderthal from Spy cave in Belgium. We found drastic differences in their diet that correlated with changes in their microbiomes.The Spy Neanderthal fit the stereotype of a carnivorous‚ big game hunter‚ with DNA from woolly rhinoceros and wild mouflon sheep‚ as well as native mushrooms still eaten in Europe today.This is the first time specific species have been identified in the Neanderthal diet‚ and match previous archaeological studies of this individual.In stark contrast‚ the two El Sidron Neanderthals showed no evidence of meat in their diet. They were consuming pine nuts‚ moss‚ tree bark‚ diverse mushrooms and other (likely mouldy) herbaceous material.These truly were paleo diets‚ consuming what could be foraged and identified in their local environment. For example‚ Spy cave in Belgium was on the edge of a steppe-like environment of grassy hills and plains‚ populated with megafauna such as woolly rhinos. In contrast‚ the El Sidron Neanderthals lived in a dense mountain forest‚ where pine nuts and mushrooms would have been a major food source.Neanderthal food as medicineThe skeleton of one young male Spanish Neanderthal displayed a nasty dental abscess. His dental calculus also contained DNA from a serious gastrointestinal parasite (Microsporidia). As a result‚ it is likely that he was chronically ill.Surprisingly‚ our dietary analysis revealed that this Neanderthal was likely treating his illnesses with natural remedies. He had DNA from poplar‚ (whose buds and bark are a natural source of aspirin) and‚ surprisingly‚ the mould Penicillium‚ the source of the world’s first antibiotic‚ penicillin.While Penicillium mould is common in the environment‚ he had clearly been eating rotting vegetation containing several other moulds. We did not see this in the other Neanderthals‚ raising the question of whether Neanderthals were using antibiotics.This research suggests that Neanderthals maintained an extensive knowledge of treatments for ailments‚ and as such significantly changes our view of their culture and behaviour.It also shows how the ancient bacteria on teeth now provide us with a completely new window into the behaviour of ancient hominids‚ and the origin of our own microbiomes.Interbreeding encounters with humansIn recent years‚ the biggest insight gained into Neanderthal lifestyles has come from studies of the Neanderthal genome. These have revealed that small parts of it survive in all non-African human populations.This has finally confirmed that humans and Neanderthals did interbreed.But the specific interaction between humans and Neanderthals has remained unknown‚ along with the implications for how or whether this might have involved transmitting diseases.We have been able to investigate these interactions using the microorganisms preserved in the ancient Neanderthal dental calculus. We were able to sequence a 48‚000 year old bacterial genome‚ the oldest yet‚ and show that the Neanderthal and human forms separated around 120‚000 years ago.This is long after humans and Neanderthals are thought to have diverged‚ around 450‚000 to 700‚000 years ago.In modern humans‚ oral bacteria are typically swapped through direct food sharing or intimate contact‚ so this suggests at least some very close interactions between the two species long after they diverged.Swapping saliva might have also resulted in the transfer of a wide range of healthy‚ beneficial microorganisms‚ or even nasty pathogens.While we know that humans obtained several key immune genes from Neanderthals‚ it is also possible that humans obtained a wide range of healthy‚ protective microorganisms‚ providing ancient humans an advantage as they moved into the Neanderthal settled lands in Europe.We know that these beneficial microorganisms are critical for human health. Changes to our diverse microbial communities can result in a wide range of diseases‚ including obesity‚ diabetes‚ heart disease‚ cancer‚ autoimmune disorders‚ etc.Although we don’t know how these interactions might have altered the health of Neanderthals or modern humans‚ our study reveals a new means to investigate this‚ and better understand the origins of our own microbiomes.Alan Cooper‚ Director‚ Australian Centre for Ancient DNA‚ University of Adelaide and Laura S. Weyrich‚ ARC Postdoctoral Research Associate‚ University of AdelaideThis article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

A long time ago‚ in a galaxy far‚ far away – well‚ actually it was pretty close by in galactic terms – George Lucas came up with the idea of an epic space-age weapon. He dubbed it the “lightsaber”‚ and bestowed it upon only his noblest heroes – or his most fearsome villains.Thirty years later‚ we had conclusive proof that lightsabers were really out there in the cosmos. How did we know? Because we put it there during a mission back in 2007.“I think it’s a neat link because it combines two space themes all at one time‚” said Jim Reilly‚ a now-retired NASA astronaut and veteran of three missions and eight spacewalks‚ at the time. “There’s a kind of a fine line between science fiction and reality as far as what we do‚” he said‚ “and it’s only just time really because a lot of what we’re doing right now was science fiction when I was growing up.”It was far from the first time astronauts had smuggled novelty or contraband items off-world with them. Way back in 1969‚ mere months after the first moon landings‚ American sculptor Forrest Myers teamed up with a handful of contemporary artists to create the Moon Museum‚ a tiny and vaguely obscene collection of scribblings that was secretly attached to the Apollo 12 spacecraft and – we can only assume – still sits on the lunar surface today. Eight years after that‚ Voyager 1 and 2 launched with their Golden Records on board – two 30-centimeter (12-inch) golden disks‚ containing 115 images‚ 90 minutes of music‚ greetings in 55 languages‚ and a selection of “sounds of Earth”.    In fact‚ it’s not even the first time something Star Wars-related has made it into space. Many astronauts have snuck “toy mementos‚ things like a Star Wars toy that might have meant something in their life” on board various spacecraft over the decades‚ Reilly admitted‚ “so there are any number of things that might be just a little out of the ordinary.”As for the lightsaber‚ the now-famous weapon – originally one of many‚ cobbled together from knickknacks found in the prop department and a whole lot of superglue – spent a total of 14 days in orbit‚ onboard mission STS-120. Leaving Earth on October 23‚ 2007‚ it spent the trip safely packed in foam inside an inaccessible compartment in the Discovery Space Shuttle‚ which‚ we’ve gotta say‚ is probably the least Star Wars-y way to launch a lightsaber into space.The lightsaber was successfully returned to George Lucas after the mission ended‚ safe and sound and unused against any Sith Lords. We only pity the poor pizza delivery guy who has to deliver to Darth Vader… 

Space is a harsh place‚ with freezing temperatures‚ harmful radiation and a near-vacuum. So‚ what would happen to the body of an astronaut that was exposed to space's elements?