Science and Space (Progress, Decline and Hope)
March 18th, 2011: NASA's MESSENGER probe arrives at its intended destination, Mercury.
May 5th, 2012: The name Livermorium is approved by IUPAC with the symbol Lv, but the name Flerovium is dismissed as ineligible because Nobelum was associated with this name for some time. The Dubna Institue proposes Becquerelium immediately, which can then be approved at the same session.
March 23rd, 2013: Geneticists working with the National Museum of Health and Medicine announce the results of testing of DNA samples taken from blood found on the cuffs of Abraham Lincoln he wore the night he was killed. It is discovered that the great 16th President did not have Marfan's Syndrome but did possess the genes for Ataxia 5, a neurological disorder. The main bombshell from the announcement regarded President Lincoln's paternal ancestry. His Y-DNA haplogroup inherited from his father was Q1a3a…making him the first Native American president of the United States.
June 7th, 2013: Scientists at the GSI in Darmstadt publish their results concerning the discovery of 296-Uue, 298-Uue and 299-Uue. The experiments were done in 2010-11.
June 30th, 2013: The first Petabyte hard drive shows up, but as of yet costs 2000€. As most cannot yet use so much space, so demand remains slim. Toshiba continues development.
September 1st, 2013: Virgin Galactic launches it's first major Space Tourism rocket. Among the passengers are Richard Branson himself, Vice President Bobby Jindal, and several other businessmen and entrepreneurs from around the world.
September 8th, 2013: JVC is bought by Samsung and the brand discontinued.
October 21, 2013: Further fossils of Bruhathkayosaurus matleyi are unearthed in India and Sri Lanka. They confirm the massive weight estimates and yield the size to be underestimated. The new Data makes 48-54 m more realistic, comparing to Argentinosaurus.
August 18th, 2014: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory announce the discovery of Ubq and it's alpha decay daughter product Ubb and Ubn.
January 31st, 2015: While in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico on business, wealthy German tool producer, Guenter Schabacker is trapped in a small cantina while government forces attack drug cartel thugs. Thinking he is going to die, the young German offers a barmaid $1000 American dollars to have sex with him. The barmaid, Maria de la Cruz, a sufferer of a disease of the kidneys called interstitial nephritis, is desperate for cash.
Her husband, Jose Manuel de la Cruz, an alcoholic and diabetic desperately in need of treatment is dying in their small shack in a rough barrio of Monterrey. Maria de la Cruz agrees to Schabacker’s terms and uses the cash to move her husband back to their hometown of Galeana, in southern Nuevo Leon. She soon realizes she is pregnant but does not tell Manuel the truth about how she got the money. He believes he is the father of the baby and she obtained the money legitimately. They move into a small house next to a small Pentecostal Church. A few months after the birth of her son, Alejandro, Maria succumbs to the effects of kidney disease, dying in her husband‘s arms. In his grief, Manuel de la Cruz begins attending the Pentecostal Church next door and soon becomes a devout adherent and stops drinking alcohol. Although in poor health, he miraculously lives long enough to see Alejandro reach his 18th birthday on October 27th, 2033 but dies the next day of complications of severe diabetes.
While working as a waiter in La Florida Hotel in Galeana early the next year, Alejandro meets an American genealogical researcher who is conducting DNA research on the de la Cruz family of Galeana. Along with several collateral male relatives on his father’s side, Alejandro agrees to participate in the DNA testing. When the results come back, he is stunned to find out the man he thought was his father was not. After the researcher entered his Y-DNA into a database with the Sorensen Molecular Genealogy Foundation, he is put in touch with a man with an exact match…Guenter Schabacker. The childless Guenter Schabacker is dying of cirrhosis of the liver. Young Alejandro de la Cruz flies to Duesseldorf where he finds out the circumstances of his birth. Guenter Schabacker dies within days but not before changing his will leaving his enormous fortune to the poor Mexican boy. This bequest will result in several important discoveries which will transform medicine and change the lives of millions for the better.
February 21, 2015: Archaeologists working at the Templo Mayor pyramid base near the National Palace in Mexico City confirm the discovery of the burial chambers of Aztec rulers, Huitzilihuiltl, Moctezuma I, Axayacatl, and Moctezuma II. The first three rulers cremains are recovered as is the intact skeleton of Moctezuma II. Forensic scientists confirm historical accounts that he was severely injured by having stones hurled at him with fractures to the skull and left femur. However, the cause of death for the unfortunate Aztec emperor was a cut throat, probably by Spaniards.
May 17, 2015: Fossils of Amphicoelias fragillimus are once again unearthed in the Morrison Formation. They do confirm a vast length, but the estimate has to be reduced to 47-51 m and 88-104 metric tons.
July 14th, 2015: New Horizons begin it's flyby of Pluto.
July 2015: The existence of Pseudonovibos spiralis is proven. Naturally, “snake-eating cow” is a false designation, it is rather similar to the Gaur and Kouprey.
October 17th, 2015: The IUPAC approves Uut and Uup to be discovered, both by Dubna JINR. This Institute puts forward Sacharowium for Uut and, surprisingly Putinium for Uup.
October 19th-25th, 2015: Sacharowium is generally accepted, but there are worldwide rallies against calling Element 115 Putinium. However, the team responsible for the element's discovery won't cede the name.
November 12th, 2015: The governing Business Council of the ten-thousand-strong Northern Arapaho Nation of Fremont County, Wyoming receives an anonymous proposal signed Amicus Arapahoviae. The proposal suggests a new way of determining tribal membership based on DNA testing rather than the traditional blood quantum system.
The elders of the tribe are intrigued and authorize funds from casino profits for a tribal project to identify Y lineages, mtdna lineages and distinctive autosomal lineages matched to thoroughly researched paper genealogies. When the project is finished three years later using the services of Houston-based DNA testing company Family Tree DNA, it is determined the entire tribe descends from 38 Native men (five of which were Athabaskan in origin), and 143 women. There are twelve European-derived Y lineages and four African Y lineages. As the families with these lineages had been members of the tribe for over a century, no move was made to unenroll them and their lineages were adopted as official lineages along with the actual Native lineages.
May 3rd, 2016: The IUPAC, as a chemical organisation, finds Putinium (and Sacharowium) eligible and approves Sacharowium as Sw, and Putinium as Pn.
April 15th, 2017: As part of the United States' pentannual Farm Bill, President Gillibrand signs into law the AIDS Funding Research Reauthorization Act, which increases government spending on HIV/AIDS research to $7 billion, up from $3 billion 10 years earlier.
June 1, 2017: Test results are released on the Y-DNA and mitochondrial DNA of the Emperor Moctezuma II. They are discovered to be from distinct subclades of haplogroups Q1a3a1 and A2 respectively.
January 18th, 2019: IUPAC approve discovery of Uue, Ubn, Ubb and Ubq. Uue is named Heisenbergium (Hb), Ubn will be Daltonium (Da), Ubb is Chadwickium (Cw) and Ubq is Kennedium (Ky) - named after John F. Kennedy.
April 25th, 2019: Guinea worm is officially declared extinct in the wild by the United Nations Health Office, becoming the first human parasite driven out of existence by our efforts. The last known case was in 2015 in South Sudan, and the worms have a lifespan of only 1 year. Former US president Jimmy Carter, who passed away in 2012, had dedicated much of his life to eradicating the pestilence.
April 29th, 2019: Jason Carson founds his own hydrogen fuel station, known as Carson Fuel Incorporated, in Los Angeles, California as the first fuel cell cars begin to show up on the roads.
October 1, 2019: A femur bone 2.98 m long is found in China (Inner Mongolia). Out of patriotism, the species is called Maozedongosaurus. The length and mass estimates are even vaster than for Bruhathkayosaurus: 58-65 m in length and 190-240 tons in weight.
December 31st, 2019: Artificial eyes become an expensive option for those stricken by vision problems.
February 3rd, 2020: The first budget of President Gillibrand's second term expands funding for NASA's New Frontiers program, which seeks to robotically explore the Solar System. $25 billion is allocated over fifteen years to fund the New Frontiers missions.
May 8th, 2020: Lawrence Livermore discovers the isotopes 311-Ky and 312-Ky, which are noticed to be unusually stable. 311-Ky has a half-life of 87,4 days and 312-Ky of 20,9 days. This is the longest known half-life of an isotope since Fermium-257 (100,5 days). It is not 310-Ky because of relativistic/quantum effects. The decay product of 312-Ky, 308-Cw, is also quite stable with 2,9 days. This is hailed as proof of the existence of an “island of stability”, proposed since the 1990s.
June 17, 2020: A even larger species of the Turiasaurus genus is found in Italy, and it is called Turiasaurus montiensis.
June 20, 2020: A message on Twitter is discovered that one of the scientists, Emanuele Pirlo, wanted to use the epithet berlusconiensis and that a, supposedly “heated” argument broke out over the species epithel. The scientists could then agree on montiensis after Berlusconi's successor
July 29th, 2020: The results of a South African HIV/AIDS study are published, sparking intense interest in the global health community. A followup to a 2009 Thai study which used a vaccine to reduce AIDS infections by 30%, the international study finds that a new vaccine can reduce infections by approximately 55%, a large improvement. However, the treatment is very expensive and finicky, and team leader Francois Venter says, “a 45% infection rate is 45 times worse than what we were hoping for.”
November 3, 2020: Wealthy retired PEMEX executive Jose Sebastiano Romo de Vivar Cano founds the Fundacion Tlatoani Moctezuma para la Filantropia, an organization dedicated to helping the poor in Mexico. Membership is limited to those who can prove by DNA testing that they share the same Y-DNA or mtdna as the Emperor Moctezuma II Xocoyotzin. Thousands across Mexico and in other countries discover they share the royal DNA. Over the next decades, the Fundacion Tlatoani Moctezuma builds a series of free hospitals and clinics which greatly improves health care provided to the poor all across Mexico. The Fundacion Tlatoani Moctezuma is the first major organization of many founded during the Twenty-First Century whose eligibility for membership is DNA based. December 24th, 2020: The World Health Organization announces that for the first time since the the 1990s, the total number of people dying from HIV/AIDS-related illnesses each year has dropped to under a million, due to developments in antiretroviral drugs. The advance in AIDS treatment has, however, resulted in a slight increase in the number of people who live with AIDS, as they have much longer life expectancies than in previous years, and the rate of infection has not dropped considerably.
June 9th, 2021: NASA announces that it will begin active work on two new exploration missions, funded by a twenty-five billion dollar budget expansion over the next fifteen years. The long-dormant Venus In-Situ Explorer is revived, and is tentatively scheduled for launch in 2027. Meanwhile, a interstellar robotic solar sail project begins development and is scheduled for launch in 2031.
September 2, 2021: Dinosaur DNA is extracted from Giraffatitan brancai fossils in Tanzania. Paralititan stromeri DNA surfaces soon after in Egypt. Hopes (and fears) of an actual “Jurassic Park” rise.
September 4th, 2021: Researchers at the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center announce a major step forward in the development of AIDS management drugs. They have developed a new type of antiretroviral drug known as Anti-Viral Hyper-Activation Limiting Therapeutics (AV-HALT drugs). The new drug, known as Erinle (after the Yoruba god of health) will hopefully prevent patients infected with HIV from ever developing AIDS. As yet, however, Erinle will be expensive to produce and outside the range of economic feasibility to “cure” AIDS. Additionally, of course, Erinle does nothing to prevent people from being infected with HIV. Dr. Nghiem, the head researcher at the Diamond Center, says that Erinle “is a good first step on a long road.”
May 7th, 2022: Korean geneticist Jeun Chul shocks the world by revealing a 2-year old clone of himself, named Bae.
December 12th, 2022: Japan launches Jisei 1, its first manned space mission.
July 10th, 2023: After a decade of work, the first successful modeling of a long-chain protein ab initio is published. This represents a major breakthrough for computer simulations for biomedical research. However, there are decades of work remaining in order to achieve extensive genetic engineering, if it is even feasible.
July 18th, 2023: The World Health Organization reports that in 2022, less than 1 million people were newly infected with HIV, the lowest number in more than 30 years. Condom use campaigns have been relatively successful in Africa and Southeast Asia. In particular, the Catholic Church has been distributing condoms in those countries since 2017, and the church's organizational structure has allowed far more efficient distribution than other aid organizations.
October 9th, 2023: Robotic limbs, which have become a staple for prosthetics in the past 10 years, begin to be modified to be controlled by thought alone. There are several issues, but by 2028, most stable prosthetics companies have a fully working version.
April 7th, 2024: The American Food and Drug Administration approves Erinle, the AV-HALT AIDS drug, for use. Erinle was developed in 2021 and has had a 99.99% success rate in preventing those infected with HIV from developing AIDS. However, it does not stop HIV infections, nor does it help cure those who already have AIDS. Erinle has, however, been further refined, and the price for a year's treatment with the drug is now only $1280
April 27th, 2024: The World Bank grants a $2.1 billion loan to twelve African countries to subsidize their purchase of Erinle, the new anti-AIDS drug. These countries are buying huge stockpiles of the drug in an effort to make them affordable to most Africans, who often cannot afford the $1280 yearly price tag.
May 7, 2025: The EFSA approves meat grown from stem cells for sale. It must be explicitly declared (“Steak aus Stammzellen”)
July 10th, 2025: Researchers at the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center announce a major step forward in their development of Erinle, the AV-HALT anti-AIDS drug. Previously, Erinle had only been effective at stopping HIV from causing AIDS, and had done nothing to treat those patients who already had AIDS. Now, however, researchers say they are confident that Erinle can also lower the mortality rate of AIDS to under 2%. The Erinle team is led by Xuan Nghiem and Emilia Ascrobar, a Harvard-educated young couple.
August 3rd, 2025: William G. Realdon and his team of engineers reveal their first fully functioning human-form robot. It is one of the first with flexibility and dynamic movement, and can walk reliably over uneven surfaces.
January 1st, 2026: Carson Fuel Incorporated has by this point become the main hydrogen fuel station in California as demand continues to rise. By buying up most of private competition, the company has begun to form a monopoly. The company has also diversified into fuel cell maintenance, providing fuel to public transportation using fuel cells, and electric car charging.
February 23rd, 2026: In the wake of the development in Human Cloning, the United Nations, in cooperation with other international organizations, creates the International Organization for the Regulation of Human Cloning, or I.O.R.H.C. for short. Although the new organization doesn't condemn the practice of cloning humans, it promises to “keep a close eye on the development of this new science.”
April 1st, 2026: German, French and Belgian researchers, led by German Tom Schneider, announce that they are capable of “curing” AIDS using advanced stem stell transfusion technology. The treatment, first anticipated in 2007 and developed throughout the 2010s, is a full cure, but very inaccessible. It costs over $120,000 per patient, and requires the medical team to find a very difficult donor match each time. For most AIDS patients worldwide, who are generally poor, a better hope is drugs like Erinle, which do not cure AIDS, but mitigate its symptoms. Nevertheless, the discovery is hailed as a major step forward in AIDS research. Schneider's team followed up on his 2012 work in stem cells and AIDS.
May 30th, 2026: President Castro of the United States signs the AIDS Recovery and Purchase Act into law, granting USAID the power to use $1.1 billion to buy Erinle and distribute it throughout the world. Erinle, sometimes called the “miracle” drug, was first developed in 2021 and is over 98% effective both at stopping AIDS developing from HIV and at stopping AIDS symptoms from killing patients. However, the drug is still expensive, costing close to a thousand dollars per year.
May 2nd, 2027: At Cape Canaveral, Florida, the Venus In-Situ Explorer (VISE) is launched. First conceived in in 2003, and dormant until 2021, VISE will arrive in orbit around Venus in September, after a 32 million mile journey. The prope consists of three parts - the Venus Orbital Observation and Coordination Platform (VOOCOP), the Atmospheric Exploration Vehicle and Transporter (AEVET), and the Surface Crater Laboratory (SCL). The Surface Crater Laboratory is designed to be able to survive motionless on Venus' surface for up to two weeks, while the Atmospheric Exploration Vehicle is expected to be able to float, controlled remotely, for up to a year. VOOCOOP is scheduled to remain in orbit until at least 2032 at a distance of 720 km from the surface.
June 15th, 2027: Meet the Press (NBC) hosts a controversial interview with French geneticist Francois Bertrand, who talks about an emerging “child architect” industry in parts of the EU, where a formal ban on the ban doesn't exist.
September 18th, 2027: The Venus In-Situ Explorer (VISA) arrives in orbit around Venus. The first major mission to Venus since the orbital Magellan probe of the 1990s, VISA consists of orbital, atmospheric, and surface components, named VOOCOP, AEVET, and SCL respectively.
September 20th, 2027: The Atmospheric Exploration Vehicle and Transporter and the Surface Crater Laboratory detach from VISA and enter Venus' atmosphere. Successful disengagement is reported, and the Surface Laboratory touches down without damage in late afternoon Houston time.
October 1st, 2027: An analysis of a rock on Venus sent back by the Surface Crater Laboratory of NASA's VISA mission reveals a surprising fact - the rock is chemically identical to those of Earth! After further analysis, scientists realize that the rock is a meteorite from Earth which has landed on Venus. They believe it was ejected from Earth in the K-T impact event 65 million years previously. This is the first known example of an Earthly meteorite found on another body in the Solar System.
October 9th, 2027: NASA stops receiving signals from the Surface Crater Explorer on Venus, which survived for 20 days on the planet's surface - far longer than any other probe before. Its destruction is believed to be caused by an acid rain event observed by the Atmospheric Exploration Vehicle and Transporter (AEVET).
November 27th, 2027: At a Cloning Facility in Paris, France, a bomb goes off, killing no one, but a few scientists are injured, and much damage occurs throughout the building as fires spread. This marks the first time a cloning facility has been specifically targeted for an attack. The perpetrator is later arrested and sentenced to prison.
December 8th, 2027: A worrying report is released by the UN Health Office. The report finds that treatment-resistant AIDS has doubled in prevalence over the last 10 years, as misapplied retroviral drugs cause the virus to mutuate into a stronger form. While the global AIDS picture is generally becoming brighter, health experts warn that the 2.1 million people with treatment-resistant HIV could become a much larger issue in coming years.
December 11th, 2027: Dr. James Omar reveals what would later be labeled 'the precursor to artificial intelligence', the Artificial Analytical Unit - nicknamed “Anna” by her designers. It can recognize most words of seven languages, and use memory of past encounters to create reasoned and 'normal' responses. Engineers and scientists around the world speculate that it's technology could be used in the military or diplomatic field if used in a human-form robot.
February 29th, 2028: An international team of Indian, American, East African, and South African researchers declares that they have found the “holy grail” of modern medicine - an AIDS vaccine. Based on a three-year study they conducted in East Africa, the vaccine they developed prevented 99.35% of patients from contracting HIV, even after repeated contact with infected patients. Between the new vaccine, AV-HALT drugs like Erinle which stop AIDS deaths, and stem stell transfusion treatments, experts are optimistically predicting that the global AIDS pandemic will end within 10 years. The team, led by Francois Venter and Rajiv Koronake, are awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine for 2030.
March 5th, 2028: On Venus, the Atmospheric Exploration Vehicle and Transporter (AEVET) observes a volcanic eruption by a volcano named Satan's Fountain by NASA scientists. The eruption of Satan's Fountain is extensively observed by AEVET, and provides valuable information about extraterrestrial volcanism. AEVET also takes a famous photograph of the eruption (estimated to have been seen by two billion people by 2030) which becomes nearly as well known as Apollo's “Blue Marble” photograph.
December 28th, 2028: On Venus, the Atmospheric Exploration Vehicle and Transporter (AEVET) sends data back to Earth indicating that there are amino acids in the upper atmosphere of Venus. The discovery of Earth-like amino acids is a landmark event in astrobiology, and spurs greater interest in missions to potential life-sources like Europa.
March 5th, 2029: The United Nations General Assembly sets up a temporary body to oversee what Secretary-General Miranda Hernandez calls “the largest joint effort in the history of humankind.” The new AIDS Vaccine Distribution Project will begin on January 1st, 2030, and involves over 600,000 health workers from 139 different countries. They aim to inoculate over 30% of the world's population with the AIDS vaccine by 2031, and over 50% of the world's nine billion people by 2034. Meanwhile, production of the vaccine has been ramped up to meet the huge demand which will begin on January 1st, 2030. Funding will be provided by the UN itself, helped by special donations from a number of countries. In India, a .1% national sales tax increase will go towards the project, known as the “AIDS tax”. Similar revenue measures have been passed in a number of countries.
April 13th, 2029: Apophis makes a near-earth encounter, but contrary to predictions of a 2036 collision, the asteroid is sent into the outer solar system.
May 16th, 2029: The world is shocked when a Black Market organization known as New Worlds Salesmen is uncovered by the media. The group runs throughout the United States, as well as other countries where cloning remains illegal. The group is known for both cloning humans and selling them to those who can afford them, as well as cloning humans for the sole purpose of later harvesting them for their organs. In response to the discovery, US President Marco Rubio and his administration promise a “severe crackdown” on all such illegal operations.
November 24, 2029: The FDA approves meat grown from stem cells, requiring it be explicitly declared. This follows 5 years after the EU did the same.
January 1st, 2030: In one of the most remarkable sights of the 21st century, the AIDS Vaccine Distribution Project begins. Across the world, 629,374 health workers from 139 countries begin giving shots of the AIDS vaccine, which has been under intensive production for nearly a year. In every American city, African town, Indian village, Chinese hamlet, and European borough, people line up to get their shots. By the end of the day, an estimated 76 million people have been inoculated at over 30,000 locations worldwide. The Project, as it is known, will run for at least another 4 years, and aims to give the vaccine to over 2 billion people by the year's end.
May 5th, 2030: HydroFuel Solutions is formed as a holding company for the majority stake the Carson family has in Carson Fuel Incorporated and soon also holds major stakes in a few other small time fuel cell station companies. HydroFuel Solutions begins to develop a monopoly on fuel cell stations in the United States.
September 2nd, 2030: Following years of preparation and hard work, America launches the Apollo Regenesis into space and lands it safely on the Moon, marking the first time an American has walked on the Moon in 55 years. Millions in America and around the world watch as astronaut Jake Sky sets foot on the Moon, saying famously, “Well, here we go again…”. The same day, President Marco Rubio gives a speech in which he says,“Today's achievements remind us that despite our ever changing world, in America, anything is still possible.” Soon after, talks begin of America developing a permanent base on the Moon, though China already has a head start on the matter. China, in response to the days events, promises that they will be the first nation to reach Mars, marking the growing tension in the second space race. In addition to America and China, India, Japan, Russia and Europe all announce ambitions to go to the Moon and onto Mars.
January 1st, 2031: After one year of work, the AIDS Vaccine Distribution Project has inoculated over 2 billion people, an average of over 5 million a day. There are over 350,000 health workers worldwide working full time on the Project, and have set up over 10,000 permanent locations worldwide. Another 6,000 mobile inoculation centers have been moving through rural areas and smaller towns to give shots there.
March 9th, 2031: JINR's move to Semipalatinsk in the Union State is completed and the JINR particle accelerator can go into operation again.
April 7th, 2031: NASA unveils Phase 2 of Project Apollo, the establishment of a permanent facility on the lunar surface, to the American public. The plan calls for the lunar base to be completed by 2037, and will be the jump-off point for the ambitious endeavor to place an American on Mars by 2040.
April 27, 2032: Fears and hopes of Jurassic Park increase even more as DNA of Spinosaurus aegyptiacus and, for the first time outside of Africa, Oxalaia quilombensis, shows as First carnivore DNA.
September 3rd, 2032: Edward Xifeng of Chicago becomes the first person to have a full spine and spinal-cord transplant.
May 10th, 2033: Reports indicate increasing numbers of American couples traveling to countries in Europe and Southeast Asia seeking designer children. The babies of the child architect industry are referred to as “scions”, portrayed as the advent of a “perfect” human race, in the U.S. and Europe.
September 21st, 2033: Apothis is found to be in a distant orbit around Jupiter. It will slowly work it's way towards the gas giant until colliding with the planet some time in the 22nd Century.
October 15th, 2033: NASA unveils Project Hermes, a plan to send a probe to the Jovian moon of Europa and drill through its icy surface to explore the anticipated water ocean in search of possible extraterrestrial life. The probe is expected to be launched in 2038 and reach Europa by 2042.
November 11th, 2033: Elements 130 and 131 are discovered at the new JINR Semipalantinsk facility in the Union State.
July 1st, 2034: All Nippon Spacecraft (ANS)'s ANS-1 completes its first manned space mission to the moon.
May 9, 2034: DNA of the first egg-eating dinosaur, Oviraptor philoceratops, is found in Mongolia
September 2, 2034: DNA of Tyrannosaurus rex is found in Western Idaho. This find is widely publicized and overshadows the simultaneous one of Triceratops horridus. Both increase the hopes and fears of “Cretaceous Park” and “Jurassic Park” becoming reality.
July 1st, 2035: All Nippon Spacecraft's moon tours begin. Japanese former prime minister Seiji Maehara becomes ANS's first customer.
September 15th, 2035: The European Space Agency launches JSE (Jovian System Explorer), a Jovian explorer probe that will pave the way for a later Europa lander.
September 21st, 2036: IUPAC confirms both JINR discoveries. Due to the first element being discovered on Kazakhstani territory, the JINR team proposes the name Kazakhium (Kz). For Number 131, Nasarbajewium (Nj) is easily accepted. News that the Symbol Kz is proposed quickly spread to Germany and to Isaac Mandelbaum, chief of the Jewish Central Union (Zentralverband der Juden). Jews all over the world, particularly in Germany and Israel, and many non-Jewish Germans stage massive public outrage because of alleged 'indignifying the victims of the holocaust'.
November 23rd, 2036: IUPAC bows to international pressure (many famous scientists were Jews, after all), and changes the symbol of Kazakhium from Kz to Ks (as in German Kasachium).
June 26th, 2037: NASA unveils its permanent lunar facility, called Luna, as part of Project Apollo's goal of a manned mission to Mars by 2040.
August 16th, 2037: Stratos, a collection of exotic resorts around the world owned by a UK-based company, unveils the orbiting Helios resort. It is the most expensive hotel in the world, though is slammed as “nothing more than a glorified turn-of-the-century space station,” as quoted in a NYTimes.com article.
January 1st, 2038: By this point, HydroFuel Solutions controls 61% of all hydrogen fuel stations in the country.
June 3rd, 2038: NASA's Jovian Moon Explorer is launched, bound for Europa in search of potential extraterrestrial life under the moon's subterranean ocean.
October 21st, 2038: The docking port and refueling station for lunar shuttles is completed at NASA's Luna moon base.
January 1st, 2039: After eight years, the AIDS Vaccine Distribution Project is partially shut down by the United Nations. It will be replaced by national programs, and will only continue operations in countries which cannot effectively organize their own distribution operations. The Project has given the AIDS vaccine to 8 billion people, nearly the entire human population. Essentially every baby born in the world since 2033 has been inoculated. In 2038, only 819 new cases of HIV infection were reported, thanks to the vaccine, and less than 1000 deaths, thanks to the drug Erinle.
August 3rd, 2039: NASA's long awaited mission, the Ares Prima spacecraft, lifts off from Cape Carnaveral for a short hop to Luna. On board the craft are a team of five led by lunar astronaut Marc Syter, bound for a two year round-trip endeavor to the red planet.
January 19th, 2040: Jeun Bae, the Korean clone baby, now 18, has shown no signs of health problems or abnormalities in puberty. In the last decade, very few clones other than Bae have been known to exist. Human cloning is still widely illegal.
March 26th, 2040: All Nippon Spacecraft (ANS) announces that space tours to Mars would begin before 2050.
May 19th, 2040: After a nearly seven month trip from Earth, Ares Prima lands on the surface of Mars, marking the first visit by humans to another planet. Astronaut Marc Syter takes the first step on the red planet, famously declaring “humanity's first steps into into the universe.” Norwegian astronaut Col. Marius Borg Høiby, (born 13 January 1997); the son of Queen Mette-Marit and stepson of King Haakon VIII of Norway becomes the second man to step on the surface of Mars becoming a Norwegian national hero.
June 25th, 2040: In United States vs. HydroFuel Solutions, the Supreme Court of the United States rules 6-3 against HydroFuel Solutions. However, the SCotUS justifies the ruling on the grounds of the Public Utility Holding Company Act, that HydroFuel Solutions, as a provider of electricity, a dealer with many public transport groups, and a part of the transport infrastructure, is to be broken up into regional affiliates due to HydroFuel's status as a holding company of public utilities in the Court's ruling.
January 1st, 2041: The beginning of the Halcyon Age, a time of relative peace and significant scientific and technological advancements in the developed world, at the same time “scions” begin emerging in society. Typically viewed as 2041-2057.
January 17th, 2041: The ESA pushes back it's Europa lander plans indefinitely, due to financial constraints. The ASF considers designing a similar craft, but will be unable to do so for several years, and labels it “a venture for a future generation”.
March 22nd, 2041: Element 137 is discovered and immediately, without all the approval processes, named Feynmanium (Fy), after the famed quantum physicist Richard Feynman.
May 15th, 2042: With funding from the Gates Foundation, the National Science Foundation, and the Department of Energy, the Eden National Fusion Laboratory is founded in Eden, Wyoming. The lab is run by a young husband-and-wife couple, James and Victoria Upendowema. The two were both educated at Harvey Mudd and RPI, and are immigrants from the East African Federation. The goal of the laboratory is to develop affordable nuclear fusion technology within twenty years.
June 19th, 2042: NASA's Jovian Moon Explorer reaches Europa and descends miles below the icy surface in its search for the theoretical ocean beneath. The ocean is discovered, and the probe releases a submarine robot that discovers both unicellular life and multicellular life beneath the surface of Europa. Simple chemotrophic “bacteria” exist in the water as scarce tufts and mats. Tiny “animals” much like filter-feeding worms line the bottom of the ice, straining the water of free-floating chemotrophs and other animals. The discovery of extraterrestrial life is regarded as one of the single-most important discoveries of all time.
September 17th, 2042: After a two year journey to Mars, Ares Prima returns to NASA's lunar base, and the crew is shuttled back to Earth shortly after.
October 5th, 2042: Dr. James Kirkland and his associates reveal what is dubbed by the media as “the first robotic soldier”, which can independently analyse a battlefield and fire weaponry. In practice, however, the US military will only contemplate using it as a recon unit and as a self contained heavy weapons support unit under the close supervision of a human operator. The unit relies on adjustable all terrain tracks, with a reliable bipedal unit rigorous enough for battlefield use still being a way off.
January 14th, 2044: NASA releases information regarding terrestrial samples of the Martian surface brought back from the Ares Prima mission, suggesting that life may have existed on Mars in the past, as microbe-like structures were discovered in rocks and contained organic molecules.
August 14th, 2045: German scientists come agonizingly close to achieving practical nuclear fusion on a small scale. Experts predict that it will be a matter of time until the goal is fulfilled.
August 16th, 2045: Just two days after the German team, the Eden National Fusion Laboratory in Wyoming, the United States also comes frustratingly close to achieving controlled fusion. At a joint press-conference, James and Victoria Upendowema, the laboratory heads, say that “nuclear fusion is within our grasp. We need only the will to reach out; and good luck for a few years.”
April 29th, 2046: The ASF launches it's first Martian orbiter.
September 1st, 2046: By this time, virtually all vehicles in the United States are free of gasoline engines, with nearly 75% being fully electric. In much of Europe, especially the Federated European States, hydrogen fuel cell technology is becoming a reality as hydrogen fuel stations are being constructed en mass.
May 1st, 2047: Space Secretary Jake Sky announces the Titan Lunar Explorer project, which aims to place an unmanned probe on Saturn's largest moon. The probe will attempt to dive beneath the surface of the hydrocarbon “oceans” that dot Titan's landscape, in the hope of discovering extraterrestrial life like the ones on Europa and the fossils on Mars.
June 15th, 2048: Alejandro de la Cruz graduates from the Stanford University School of Medicine with a Ph.D in Genetics. Although offered several prestigious residencies in California and on the East Coast, the independently wealthy young man returns to his native Nuevo Leon where he purchases a ranch on the pine covered slopes beneath Cerro del Potosi west of Galeana which he calls Los Pinos. Dr. De la Cruz establishes the Los Pinos Institute for Genetic Research there and builds a state-of-the-art research laboratory. He then hires some of the greatest genetic researchers of the day including Doctors Olaf and Trygve Magnusson of Norway and Dr. Joaquim Mulémbwè of Mozambique.
July 1st, 2048: All Nippon Spacecraft (ANS)'s S Maehara-1 completes its first manned space mission to Mars.
September 10th, 2048: At the Eden National Fusion Laboratory in Wyoming, the chief scientist, Victoria Upendowema, and 18 other researchers are killed in a massive non-nuclear explosion. The later investigation established that explosives used to set off attempted fusion reactions were overpressured and detonated prematurely. Early in the day, Upendowema had called her husband James and told him that she knew how to control a fusion reaction, and that she would attempt to do so. James, in Washington to secure funding, says, “I will attempt to carry on my wife's work for as long as I still breath. Her ideas will be realized.”
July 21st, 2049: The Titan Lunar Explorer is launched from NASA's lunar base for a five year journey to Saturn, with the mission of exploring the largest moon Titan's hydrocarbon seas.
October 7th, 2049: German scientists achieve the first short-term control of a nuclear fusion reaction, yielding large amounts of energy from helium. The reaction is only able to be controlled for several minutes before termination.
February 2nd, 2050: Following President Kirkpatrick's speech, ground is broken on the second Eden National Fusion Laboratory in Wyoming. Led by James Upendowema, and dedicated to his wife's memory, the laboratory begins research in July.
April 27th, 2050: Dr. Alejandro de la Cruz and his associates from the newly-formed Los Pinos Institute of Genetic Research arrive in Cuzco, Peru after being invited by the team of the Prince of Wales to analyze the DNA of the recently discovered mummy of Inca Emperor Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui, the ninth Sapa Inca (b. 1438).
While in graduate school, Dr. De la Cruz was intrigued by the fact that many of the local people in Galeana including his own mother’s family had autosomal DNA with more affinities with the Athabaskan Indians of Northern Canada and Quechua and Aymara peoples of South America than with other Mexican native populations. His colleagues Doctors Olaf and Trygve Magnusson begin taking extensive DNA samples from Quechua and Aymara tribes people which confirms an ancient link with the Athabaskans and the mountain people of Galeana, Nuevo Leon. The Inca Emperor is discovered to carry a classic Athabaskan Y-DNA C3b lineage.
July 1st, 2050: All Nippon Spacecraft's Mars tours begin.
September 26th, 2050: Various American firms file a lawsuit in the European Court against All Nippon Spacecraft on the grounds of monopoly and unfair competition.
February 8th, 2051: Edward, Prince of Wales discretely approaches Dr. Alejandro de la Cruz of the Los Pinos Institute of Genetic Research about a matter of the utmost sensitivity. The British Embassy has been approached by a Quechua woman accusing the prince of fathering her child. He admits that there have been several Peruvian women with the potential to make this claim but he has never heard of this accuser.
Dr. De la Cruz agrees to see what he can do for his friend the prince. Members of his team actually steal a dirty diaper from the garbage at the home of the woman and are able to extract DNA from the contents and prove without a doubt this baby was not fathered by Edward, Prince of Wales. Dr. De la Cruz keeps the prince’s genome on file just in case of a repeat accusation.
May 9th, 2051: For the first time since the 1970s, there are no new reported cases of HIV infection anywhere in the world. The disease has been nearly wiped out since the 2030s, when a massive inoculation project gave an AIDS vaccine to over 90% of the people in the world.
May 20th, 2052: According to a report by the World Health Organization, the number of people living with HIV/AIDS has dropped to below 1 million people worldwide, from a peak of over 40 million in 2003. The number is expected to drop to less than 100,000 by 2060, as AIDS patients reach the end of their life and are not replaced.
April 18th, 2053: Scion and micro-geneticist Geoffrey Purdue engineers the first customized virus that is designed to rewrite the genetic codes of infected specimens. Purdue's work is closely eyed by the U.S. military, whose research in the Ivanovski Project has taken place for over a decade despite international law against the use of bio-weaponry.
June 19th, 2053: The DFL rules that scions are not eligible to play in the Bundesliga, 2. Bundesliga, and 3. Liga, because they would be advantaged over “normal” footballers.
December 15th, 2053: Classical violinist Jeun Bae, one of four known living clones, quietly donates his father/clone Jeun Chul’s research notes to Dr. Alejandro de la Cruz of Los Pinos Institute for Genetic Research. Jeun Chul had passed away on June 1, 2043 in Shanghai, China.
March 5th, 2054: Scientists at the Eden National Fusion Laboratory in Wyoming announce that they have achieved a controllable fusion reaction, producing far more energy than needed to create it. The scientist in charge of the laboratory, James Upendowema, flies to the Netherlands two days later and commits physician-assisted suicide, saying in a press release that “I now want only to rejoin my wife in Heaven.” His wife, a leading nuclear scientist, had been killed in an explosion six years earlier.
October 12th, 2054: The Titan Lunar Explorer arrives at its destination after a five year trip, and once situating itself in orbit around the moon, sends down its surface probe to explore the moon's oceans in search of extraterrestrial life.
April 8th, 2055: After months of exploring the depths of the hydrocarbon seas, the Titan Lunar Explorer mission concludes that no life exists on the Saturnian moon, much to the disappointment of scientists and enthusiasts. However, NASA does release information hinting at the existence of organic molecules in the oceans, suggesting that life has the potential to develop.
March 2nd, 2056: After funding had been decreased and many had given up on finding new elements, scientists at the ULHC (successor of the LHC) in Geneva announce the discovery of Elements 138 and 140. Feynman's theses have, by that, proven wrong and 138 is namend Zeusium (Zs) and Element 140 Poseidonium (Ps).
August 24th, 2057: At a reception given by President Arteaga, recent Nobel Prize winner Dr. Alejandro de la Cruz meets Professor Porfiria Sepulveda de Villalobos of the Universidad Nacional Autonimo de México. The daughter of Mexico City Mayor Nezahualcóyotl “Neza” Sepúlveda, Dr. Sepulveda is the author of a recently published scholarly biography of the Emperor Maximilian of Mexico (1832-1867). Two interesting events came from the conversation at the reception between Dr. De la Cruz and Dr. Sepulveda, her father the Mayor of Mexico City, Neza Sepulveda, and the Russian Ambassador to Mexico, Vladimir P. Chernomyrdin.
The four discussed the mystery of whether Tsar Paul Romanov (1754 – 1801)was the true son of Tsar Peter III (1728 – 1762) or, as his mother Catherine the Great heavily implied, her lover Sergei Saltykov (1726 – 1765) . “Easily solved,” stated Alejandro de la Cruz confidently and described the techniques he would use to accomplish it. A year and half later, Dr. De la Cruz and his team from LPIGR are invited to Russia by the brother-in-law of the Russian Ambassador, Prime Minister Igor Danilov himself. Permission is granted to exhume the bones of Tsars Paul and Peter III and Sergei Saltykov. Dr. Alejandro de la Cruz soon announces that without doubt, Tsar Peter III was the actual father of Tsar Paul and that Catherine the Great lied about her marriage never having been consummated.
A second historic occurrence resulted from the conversation of the four guests at President Arteaga’s party. The subject of cloning came up and Dr. Sepulveda wistfully described her difficulty conceiving children. She and her husband had rejected using a sperm donor or adopting. They had also considered cloning. The Russian ambassador made the observation that cloning some living person was all well and good but wouldn’t it be something if someone could clone a famous dead historic personage. “Someone like Maximilian von Habsburg!” exclaimed Porfiria Sepulveda. “I would love to be the mother of the clone of the man I have studied and written about for so many years!”
After the party was over, Alejandro de la Cruz was thoughtful as his private jet cruised through the warm Mexican night, its destination Saltillo. By the time the plane had landed and he began the long drive southeast of the city toward Galeana, he had formulated a theory. The next week, after consulting his colleagues, Dr. De la Cruz discreetly contacted Neza Sepulveda and his daughter. A few days later, a package arrives at Los Pinos which contains the bloody shirt that the Emperor Maximilian wore when he was shot dead on June 19, 1867.
Over the next few months, using techniques first developed by Korean geneticist Jeun Chul, Alejandro de la Cruz’s team expands them and extracts viable DNA from the 190 year old shirt. Using one of Porfiria Sepulveda’s own eggs with the DNA of the emperor Maximilian inserted, the author and professor of history becomes pregnant with the first clone of a historic personage. The circumstances of the conception of her son remains a closely guarded secret.
October 8th, 2057: Nobel Prize in Medicine awarded to Dr. Alejandro de la Cruz for discovering a method to speedily grow cloned organs.
October 10, 2057: Upon his arrival in London as he returned home to Mexico from Scandinavia after receiving the Nobel Prize in Medicine, Dr. Alejandro de la Cruz receives an unexpected invitation to tea from King William V. Planning to overnight in London anyway, the surprised geneticist nervously accepts the king‘s invitation.
Arriving at Buckingham Palace later that afternoon, the king expertly makes him feel comfortable and at ease. After congratulating the Nobel prize winner, the British Monarch mysteriously closes the door to the room where they are seated and they are alone. Thanking Dr. Cruz for his discretion, the king reveals that his son had told him the entire business about the woman in Peru who claimed the prince had fathered her child. Since the geneticist had proven himself discreet, the king asks if he could enlist his help with another matter that is not only sensitive but dangerous and demands absolute discretion.
When Dr. Cruz assures him that he would help in any way he could, King William divulges the complete story regarding his daughter’s ordeal in the Congo including the existence of his three grandsons who had been separated from their mother the princess in the fighting.
“My daughter is desperate for the return of her children,” exclaims the king. “There is barely a moment that goes by that she doesn’t think of them. I can’t bear to see her so upset all the time. And I also can’t bear the fact that I have three grandsons who are probably living in dangerous and unbelievably squalid conditions when in fact their grandfather is yours truly. Our agents have searched for them all across the Congo with no success. Of course, you understand the Congo is a war-torn mess at the moment.”
The king sipped his tea.
“I thought of you,” he continued, “when I read in the Times that your associate, Dr. Joaquim Mulémbwè of Mozambique was heading up a new DNA project. Something about the Bantu diaspora or some such? When I saw that he intended to go to the refugee camps and take thousands of samples of the kind of DNA which passes, I understand, through the female line, I instantly thought that perhaps my grandsons could be found in this manner. Since you already have my son‘s DNA on file perhaps your associate could keep an eye out for it? Something tells me there won‘t be many African refugee children with Kate Middleton‘s DNA,” he laughed.
January 22nd, 2058: NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Indian Space Research Organization announce a joint manned mission to Venus. The planned mission, named Parvati-V, will not actually land an astronaut upon Venus' surface, except perhaps for a few seconds. Instead, it will set up a floating base in Venus' atmosphere upon which the astronauts will be able to survive for a month before returning. From there, they would be able to launch exploratory missions in balloon and floatplane across the Venerian surface. The floating platform would not be able to survive after the astronauts leave, however.
May 8th, 2058: A Nigerian physicist publishes a paper in the African Journal of Physics which contains a Theory of Everything. The Theory of Everything, a target of scientific research for the last eighty years, is a sought-after theory which could link general relativity and quantum physics. The scientist, a young Muslim man named Muhammad Adefope Eda, calls his theory H-causal theory, but it is quickly named “Reconstruction Theory” by the press for his method of building from the Big Bang and “reconstructing” the Universe. To verify the theory, a massive Hadron collider needs to be built, but physicists worldwide say that reconstruction theory is correct.
September 21st, 2058: Professor Porfiria Sepulveda de Villalobos of the Universidad Nacional Autonimo de México gives birth to a son whom she and her husband name Alejandro Maximiliano Villalobos Sepulveda.
November 30, 2059: Dr. Joaquim Mulémbwè of Mozambique discovers two of the king’s grandsons by DNA testing in a refugee camp in Kigoma near Lake Tanganyika in the East African Federation where they had lived for many years. They have no idea that less than five miles away from the camp lives Prince Nikolai of Denmark, their distant cousin, who, acting on the request of his cousin the King of Great Britain, escorts the two bewildered eleven-year-olds to their royal mother, whom they barely remember.
January 1st, 2060: The Rawlins Nuclear Fusion Plant, the first commercial fusion plant in the world, comes online in Rawlins, Wyoming. It supplies power to much of the middle West, including Denver and the small town of Eden, Wyoming, where the first sustainable controlled reaction took place three years earlier.
February 23, 2061: The FES Parliament ends the “Scion Crisis” (which had led to significant schisms in several branches, especially sports) once and for all with adding to the constitutional Article 3 the words “Discrimination is forbidden on the base of race, religion,… or genetic makeup”.
March 22nd, 2061: Israeli archaeologists release the complete report on the Ayesha cavern discovery to the public. The cavern, whose entrance collapsed circa 1500 BC contains the skeletons of six closely related men and women, all of whom died in advanced old age. DNA testing reveals the three male skeletons to carry the common Middle Eastern Y-DNA haplogroup J2 and are those of a father, a son and a grandson. The oldest female skeleton is the mother of the son but appears to be also a half sister to the father. Autosomal DNA testing confirms that all three women share extensive chromosomal similarities indicating a close relationship. The remains of the grandson appear to have been mummified using pre-18th dynasty Egyptian mummification methods. No identifying artifacts are found in the cave but immediately the skeletons are identified in the press as those of Biblical patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and their wives Sarah, Rebekah, and Leah. The cave becomes known as the “true Machpelah.” The world is stunned by the discovery.
October 1st, 2061: Discovery of Element 142 takes place in China. Due to this being the first element discovered in China, and because two other countries had an element named after a politician, the team (on July 9, 2064 after approval of discovery), proposes Maozedongium (Mz) as name. This again causes international outrage, but IUPAC feels that they are not bound to political feuds and approves the name.
March 8th, 2063: Parvati-V launches from the Guiana Space Centre, carrying nine astronauts. Three are from NASA, three are from the ESA, two are from the IRSO, and one is from the Islamic Space Front, which joined the project in 2060. Parvati-V is humanity's first manned mission to Venus, and is the first major joint project for many of the world's space agencies. Parvati-V will set up a floating base in Venus' atmosphere, survivable for up to two months (although the plan calls for the nine to stay for only a month), from which they will launch exploratory missions by balloon and floatplane. Their ship, Arrow of Eros, will arrive at Venus in early May.
May 11th, 2063: For the first time, Dr. Trygve Magnusson of the Los Pinos Institute for Genetic Research successfully transplants a cloned pancreas into Woteenox Friday, a young American Indian athlete from Wyoming with severe diabetes. Within the year, successful transplants of cloned kidneys, livers, and lungs are also performed at Los Pinos.
May 15th, 2063: The Arrow of Eros arrives at Venus, carrying nine astronauts on the Parvati-V mission by NASA, the ESA, the IRSO, and the ISF. The ship goes into orbit around Venus at a radius of only 180 km, in order to facilitate descent and return. Slovenian Alojz Ipavec and American Mary Horvath will remain on Eros for the duration of the monthlong stay. From there, they will carry out robotic surveys of Venus' ozone layer, magnetic field, and the quasi-orbital asteroid 2002 VE68. The seven astronauts who will descend into the Venusian atmosphere and live there for a month on Base-1 are: Americans Jonathan Harting (team leader) and Susana Rivas; Europeans Jean Cruveilhier and Rasmus Bartholin; Indians Asima Chatterjee and Tej P. Singh; and Turk Neyzen Tevfik.
May 18th, 2063: In orbit around Venus, Base-1 detaches from the interplanetary ship Arrow of Eros and lowers itself into the Cytherean atmosphere. It settles safely at a height of 12,000 meters, floating in Venus' wind banks and stabilized by a number of propellors, jets, and fans. The base is powered by a small nuclear core designed to provide enough energy to allow the 7-person crew (two women and five men) to survive comfortably for a month.
May 19, 2063: Dr. Joaquim Mulémbwè of Mozambique, an associate of Dr. Alejandro de la Cruz of the Los Pinos Institute for Genetic Research sequences the complete genome of the 900,000 year old Homo Ergaster skeleton known as Kilimanjaro Man found in a cave in the East African Federation in 2040. This discovery shocked the scientific community because it proved that Homo Ergaster had survived in Africa far longer than had been previously thought.
May 22nd, 2063: On Venus, astronauts on Base-1 use several robotic samplers to obtain over two hundred pounds of soil samples from Venus, from several different locations. They will be returned to Earth for study and investigation.
May 28th, 2063: Indian astronaut Asima Chatterjee becomes the first person to land on Venus, as she descended from Base-1 at 12,000 meters over two hours in a protective suit weighing over three hundred pounds. She is quickly followed by American Susana Rivas. The pair stay on the surface for less than twenty minutes before being hoisted back into the atmosphere.
June 2nd, 2063: On Venus, a survey glider piloted by Turkish astronaut Neyzen Tevfik returns several samples of the Venusian atmosphere to return to Earth. Preliminary analysis of the samples by American team leader Joshua Harting finds that they contain simple quasi-bacterial life. It's based around a DNA equivalent that uses two different nucleobases in replacement of guanine and thymine. They report their findings back to Earth, where the news causes widespread celebration.
June 3rd-8th, 2063: A debate ensues on Earth about whether or not to return Venusian bacterial samples to earth. Two prominent scientists initially expressed concerns about possible contamination and epidemic, before withdrawing their concerns following widespread consternation and further information from Arrow of Eros and Base-1. Nevertheless, a significant popular faction quickly coalesces to oppose the return of Venusian life to Earth. After discussions, the leaders of the US, India, and Europe jointly decide to set up a specially funded laboratory to contain, secure, and study the samples which will return from Venus. Public opposition (at around 35% in polls) is thought to be a factor in Democratic congressional losses in the 2064 elections.
June 17th, 2063: On Venus, Base-1 is abandoned by its seven crew members as they use a specially-designed one-way shuttle to return to their ship, Arrow of Eros, which has been manned for the past month by Slovenian Alojz Ipavec and American Mary Horvath.
June 19th, 2063: Arrow of Eros departs Venus for the return trip to Earth. It is scheduled to arrive in early August.
August 10th, 2063: Arrow of Eros arrives in Earth orbit after a six-month trip to Venus and back. The ship will remain in Earth orbit as a space station for the foreseeable future, as it contains facilities for docking smaller ships and could potentially be used again for future trips. The nine crew members return to earth aboard a small capsule, which splashes down in the Indian Ocean off the coast of the Maldives. Their scientific samples, including two hundred pounds of soil samples and examples of Cytherean life, arrive in a separate capsule in the North Atlantic, where they are transported to a laboratory specially built near Chicago, Illinois. Researchers are optimistic about the potential for life elsewhere in the Universe, as it seems to have developed independently three times in the Solar System alone. “It's almost guaranteed that ET is out there on one of the millions of extrasolar planets we've found,” says public intellectual Dala O'Hannigan.
August 13th, 2063: Base-1, the abandoned atmospheric platform on Venus, loses its nuclear power and crashes into the planet's surface. Although it was always planned for it to do so, scientists had been trying to keep it afloat as long as possible so that more radar studies could be carried out.
March 18th, 2064: Using methods developed at the Los Pinos Institute for Genetic Research, doctors at the Queen Elizabeth II hospital in Edinburgh perform surgery on 79-year-old Prince Andrea of Monaco (b. 8 June 1984). The lifetime smoker receives newly cloned lungs to replace his original emphysema and cancer-ridden originals. The surgery is a complete success. Prince Andrea finally quits smoking.
May 1st, 2065: The massive African supercollider GART-C is completed in Kebila, Mali. Costing $57 billion over six years, the massive machine is powered by a dedicated fusion plant, which also provides power to much of southern Mali. Built to test the “reunification theory” of Nigerian physicist Muhammad Eda, the supercollider first operates on May 20th.
September 1st, 2065: The GART-C supercollider in southern Mali provides proof of reunification theory, first proposed by Nigerian Muhammad Eda. The theory is hailed as the biggest breakthrough in physics in the history of mankind. Space enthusiasts are particularly excited by one of the precepts, which allows for near-infinite creation of energy out of tiny amounts of matter. This possibility would allow for much easier space travel within the Solar System, but would not solve the distance and speed problems associated with interstellar travel.
October 5, 2065: After collecting thousands of DNA samples across Africa, Dr. Joaquim Mulémbwè of Mozambique stuns the scientific community with the announcement that on average, approximately one percent of the genomes of Pygmys, the Khoi-San peoples and other Southern Africans who speak click languages such as the Khosa originates from an ancient hominid known as Homo Ergaster. This proves that Homo Sapiens and Homo Ergaster not only coexisted in Pleistocene times but interbred.
April 18th, 2066: Element 147 is discovered, for the first time in history on African soil (in this case in the East African Federation). IUPAC will later accept the name Africium (Af), analogous to Europium and Americium.
June 4th, 2066: A military research facility at Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota experiences a state of emergency when research on customizable viruses loses control and viral agents are released. The virus in question, AB5.11n, was designed to target blood vessels in the brain and constrict them, cutting off the flow of oxygen. Over fifty military personnel are killed in the outbreak, including several civilians who lived within close proximity to the base. In the aftermath, Geoffrey Purdue, the researcher who discovered the method to design customizable viruses, speaks out against the military applications of his work.
July 11th, 2066: The massive GART-C supercollider is completed in the town of Bamako, Mali. Financed by the African “Big Three”, the USA, and the FES, GART-C is designed to provide proof for Muhammed Eda's “reconstruction theory”. The supercollider will undergo initial testing, and begin work in 2068.
May 2nd, 2068: Physicists at the GART-C supercollider in Mali announce that they have proved “reconstruction theory”. This stunning success for the first time provides a single theory which can explain every physical event observed by humanity. Muhammed Eda, the physicist who provided the basis for “reconstruction theory”, and the team at GART-C are named “People of the Year” by Time magazine.
January 1st, 2070: The World Health Organization declares that HIV/AIDS is extinct in the wild, making it the fifth disease to be so wiped out. The global AIDS pandemic ended in the 2030s after a massive vaccination campaign, but scattered cases continued to appear until 2062. The last person known to die from AIDS, 22-year old South Sudanese man Taban Gai, passed away in 2064, marking the end of an era.
July 12th, 2070: A young baby by the name of Sidharta Richard Singh is born in Uganda. He is born to a former Catholic nun and Priest, missionaries both hailing from India. They resigned from chastity to be married, though both were happy as clergy, and their story will forever have an imprint on the heart and decisions of their new baby boy.
Scientists at a Harvard Research Facility successfully re-animate a human frozen in cryonic suspension. This brings a mixed response from the worlds people, with many religions condemning the “outright disrespect for human life.” While this will prompt the basis for long-term space voyages in the future, the controversy resulting from cryonic suspension will continue long into the future.
December 12, 2070: Twenty-two year old University of California/Berkeley pre-med student Josiah Washington is accidentally shot in the abdomen during a drive-by shooting in an Oakland, California convenience store by members of the ICP gang. His liver is determined to be damaged beyond repair but the surgeons think it can be replaced with a cloned organ using techniques developed by Dr. Alejandro de la Cruz and his team at the Los Pinos Institute for Genetic Research. The DNA of the Cal/Berkeley pre-med student is tested in order to begin the cloning process, but unbeknownst to the hospital staff, an automatic alert email is sent to Dr. Cruz by the decoding software developed at his genetic research organization and used worldwide. Dr. Cruz immediately flies to California.
Although honored by the famous geneticist’s interest, the hospital staff are puzzled by the Nobel Laureate’s sudden interest in their patient. They are not told that their patient carries mitochondrial DNA identical to several members of the British Royal Family. Interestingly, he does not carry the same Y-DNA as Princess Elizabeth’s other sons. After interviewing him, Dr. Cruz discovers that Josiah Washington was adopted as a small boy from a Kinshasa orphanage by a childless interracial couple in San Diego, California. The boy’s obvious biracial physical phenotype interested the couple and he was brought to the United States. His childhood was uneventful as he grew up the son of a successful San Diego dentist. His parents didn’t try to hide his adoption but they knew nothing of his blood parentage.
The young man is stunned to hear he is likely to be the long-lost son of Princess Elizabeth of Great Britain, who had revealed the details of her jungle ordeal in the best-selling book entitled Humbled Woman, Proud Healer.
January 1, 2073: In his last New Year’s Honours List prepared days before his death, in appreciation for services rendered to the Crown, King William V of Great Britain makes Dr. Alejandro de la Cruz of the Los Pinos Institute for Genetic Research an honorary Knight Commander of the Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George.
April 15, 2075: While in the tiny West African country of Guinea-Bissau collecting DNA samples for his ongoing African DNA research, Dr. Joaquim Mulémbwè of the Los Pinos Institute of Genetic Research is kidnapped by thugs. Controlled by President-for-Life Mario Mohamed Djalo these thugs move the genetic researcher incommunicado to the dictator’s private estate on a small island in the Arquipelago dos Bijados off the coast of Guinea-Bissau. Dr. Mulémbwè is led to a state-of-the-art laboratory and is told in no uncertain terms that if he wishes to live, he must clone the dinosaur known as Oxalaia quilombensis, a five ton giant carnivore whose genome had been sequenced in 2032. Since Dr. Mulémbwè had closely worked with Dr. Alejandro de la Cruz during the cloning of the Emperor Maximilian, he knew as much as his colleague about the process.
October 27th, 2075: Dr. Olaf Magnusson saves the life of Dr. Alejandro de la Cruz by replacing his diseased nephritic kidneys with new cloned ones. The surgery is a complete success.
September 21, 2079: Publication of Maxed Out: An Author’s Obsession by New York Times reporter Allyn Folsom which reveals all the circumstances of the cloning of the Emperor Maximilian twenty-one years before as told to him by disgruntled former Los Pinos Institute for Genetic Research employee Neftali Lopez Charles.
September 25, 2079: The publication of Maxed Out causes a firestorm of controversy. Dr. Alejandro de la Cruz issues a statement confirming the details of the book but states firmly that he had not nor would likely ever again clone another complete dead individual because of ethical qualms he confessed he had not thought through when he originally cloned the deceased Mexican emperor. He also firmly refused to publish any of his research or methods that led to the emperor’s cloning.
September 29, 2079: In a press conference in Boston, Massachusetts, 21-year-old Harvard College junior Alejandro M. Villalobos, with his parents at his side tells his story. He had a wonderful childhood with parents who deeply loved him. They had revealed the truth about his cloning when he was twelve when he began asking questions because the tall, blue-eyed boy did not remotely resemble his Mestizo parents physically. Although he confessed to being “creeped out” by the fact that his DNA came from blood off a shirt, he knew that he was not the actual Maximilian von Hapburg but his identical twin. He described many differences in personality and lifestyle and had no desire to be emperor of anything. He was fascinated by birds and desired a career as an ornithologist. He wouldn’t mind meeting his Hapsburg blood relations someday but didn’t want to be a bother. “I’m just an ordinary Mexican kid without anything terribly earthshaking to share with the world…unless you’re interested in birds. I hope you’ll leave me alone and respect my privacy,” he asked.
November 5th, 2079: Dr. Alejandro de la Cruz changes his mind about cloning ancient DNA after receiving a letter from his godson, Alejandro M. Villalobos. The young ornithology student tells him he understands that he doesn’t want his technology used to clone another Hitler but pleads with him to consider reviving several extinct species such as the passenger pigeon and the woolly mammoth. After smiling at the irony of a clone pleading for more cloning, the geneticist makes some calls. By the end of the week, he has obtained DNA samples from seven ancient woolly mammoths frozen in the permafrost of Siberia. By the end of the month, he has procured three female African elephants from a bankrupt Bulgarian circus and has them shipped to Galeana, Nuevo Leon. By the end of the year, all three are pregnant.
September 24, 2081: President-for-Life Mario Mohamed Djalo is overthrown by Africanist revolutionary forces led by Manuel Duarte Nhamadjo. The dictator flees to his private island in the Bijados Archipelago where he finds his secluded compound ruined and burned out by unknown forces. Unnerved by reported sightings of monsters, his few loyal soldiers desert him as Africanist forces land on the island to apprehend him. Fleeing into the jungle, the dictator is tracked running erratically into the interior by Africanist intelligence operatives via the GPS on his cell phone. Trackers realize later that he no longer had his cell phone after they find his head and other body parts strewn across a clearing only a mile from his ruined compound. The dictator’s greatest secret is soon revealed when the Africanist troops are attacked by several Oxalaia quilombensis dinosaurs. Later, one of them is brought down and the dictator’s torso and cell phone are found in its stomach.
The body of Dr. Joaquim Mulémbwè is found amidst the ashes of the compound but none of his notes or cloning methodology records are recovered.
The world acknowledges Dr. Joaquim Mulémbwè’s great achievement when photographs of the living dinosaurs are released to the press shortly after the announcement by Dr. Alejandro de la Cruz of his cloning of wooly mammoths. The new government declares Djalo’s island an off-limits game preserve and the dinosaurs there thrive. Dr. Alejandro de la Cruz deeply mourns the death of his colleague and close friend.
September 26th-29th, 2081: Three cloned woolly mammoths are born on the grounds of the Los Pinos Institute of Genetic Research. The world looks on in wonder at photos of living creatures the likes of which had not been seen on the earth for 10,000 years.