Month: October 2018

Enlarge / No, not that kind of tissue (though this is "healthy usage of tissue" in a vacuum). (credit: George Marks/Retrofile/Getty Images)

We know that mutations in DNA occur in all of our cells as they divide over the course of our lives. Some of these mutations cause cancers though most do not. But we don’t really know exactly what distinguishes the former from the latter—what makes some mutations drivers of tumorigenesis while others are tolerated as part of healthy tissue?

Sometimes the difference is the particular gene that is mutated; sometimes it is the tissue or cell type in which the mutation occurs, or the time of life, or the presence of other mutations in the same cell. Part of the reason we can’t tease out these disparate effects is because we don’t have that much information about the accrual of mutations in normal, healthy cells over the course of life. A new analysis in last week's Science looks at precisely that issue, but it only muddies the picture further.

Surveying the mutant landscape

The researchers examined cells lining the esophagus of nine deceased organ donors ranging in age from 20 to 75. Four of them had been smokers, but none of them had any chronic diseases or were on prescription meds. These cells have a high rate of proliferation, as they are constantly being sloughed off and replaced.

Enlarge (credit: Valentina Palladino)

Lenovo is making some changes to its premium lineup—though only diehard fans (and a tech reporter) may notice. Instead of the "Yoga" moniker denoting only convertibles and flexible PCs, Lenovo will now use the name on all of its premium consumer devices. Yes, we'll start to see Yoga laptops in addition to Yoga 2-in-1s and experimental devices, but today we're taking a look at Lenovo's answer to the Dell XPS 13 convertible and the HP Spectre x360 13: the Yoga C930 2-in-1.

The new C930 convertible replaces last year's C920 and attempts to fix its problems, mostly surrounding speaker and stylus placement. It's also one of the first Yogas to leave Lenovo's signature watchband hinge behind, instead opting for a solid metal hinge that doubles as a sound bar. It's likely to be one of the most traditionally Yoga-like devices in the new premium lineup, and its small yet crucial upgrades make it much better than its predecessor.

Look and feel

The Yoga C930's chassis and lid resembles that of the C920—all metal rectangles wearing a satin finish, the lid's top-left corner stamped with a shiny Yoga label. Sadly, the lid holds onto fingerprints and smudges more than the chassis does, but the uninterrupted metal look is nonetheless sleek and professional. Weighing 3.04 pounds, it's as heavy as other ultrabooks in its size and price range. Its powerful internals prevent it from being the thinnest or the lightest, but it strikes a good balance of style, lightness, and performance.

Enlarge

satyan@redmond:~/src$ git checkout -b microsoft-acquisitions
Switched to a new branch 'microsoft-acquisitions'

satyan@redmond:~/src$ scp satyan@github.com:/github .

satyan@redmond:~/src$ git add github

satyan@redmond:~/src$ git commit -m "Microsoft announced in June that it
> was buying the Git repository and collaboration platform GitHub for 
> $7.5 billion in stock. That acquisition has received all the necessary 
> regulatory approvals, and has now completed. Nat Friedman, formerly of
> Xamarin, will take the role as GitHub CEO on Monday.
>
> The news of the acquisition sent ripples around the open source world,
> as GitHub has become the home for a significant number of open source
> projects. We argued at the time that the sale was likely one of
> necessity, and that of all the possible suitors, Microsoft was the best
> one, due to common goals and shared interests. Friedman at the time
> sought to reassure concerned open source developers that the intent was
> to make GitHub even better at being GitHub, and that he would work to
> earn the trust of the GitHub community. Those views were reiterated
> today.
>
> Since then, Microsoft has joined the Open Invention Network, a patent
> cross-licensing group that promises royalty free licenses for any patents
> that apply to the Linux kernel or other essential open source packages.
> This was a bold move that largely precludes Redmond from asserting its
> patents against Android, and should mean that the company will no longer
> receive royalties from smartphone manufacturers.
>
> Sources close to the matter tell us that Microsoft's decision to join
> OIN was driven in no small part by the GitHub acquisition. GitHub is
> already a member of OIN, which left Microsoft with only a few options:
> withdraw GitHub from OIN, a move that would inevitably upset the open
> source world; acquire GitHub as some kind of arm's length subsidiary
> such that GitHub's OIN obligations could not possibly apply to
> Microsoft; or join OIN too, as the most straightforward approach that
> also bolstered the company's open source reputation. Microsoft took
> the third option."
[microsoft-acquisitions baadf00d] Microsoft announced...
1 file changed, billions of insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)

satyan@redmond:~/src$ git checkout microsoft-corp
Switched to branch 'microsoft-corp'

satyan@redmond:~/src$ git merge microsoft-acquisitions
Updating cafef00d..baadf00d
Fast-forward
 billions-of-files | billions ++++++++++++

satyan@redmond:~/src$ git branch -d microsoft-acquisitions

Enlarge

satyan@redmond:~/src$ git checkout -b microsoft-acquisitions
Switched to a new branch 'microsoft-acquisitions'

satyan@redmond:~/src$ scp satyan@github.com:/github .

satyan@redmond:~/src$ git add github

satyan@redmond:~/src$ git commit -m "Microsoft announced in June that it
> was buying the Git repository and collaboration platform GitHub for 
> $7.5 billion in stock. That acquisition has received all the necessary 
> regulatory approvals, and has now completed. Nat Friedman, formerly of
> Xamarin, will take the role as GitHub CEO on Monday.
>
> The news of the acquisition sent ripples around the open source world,
> as GitHub has become the home for a significant number of open source
> projects. We argued at the time that the sale was likely one of
> necessity, and that of all the possible suitors, Microsoft was the best
> one, due to common goals and shared interests. Friedman at the time
> sought to reassure concerned open source developers that the intent was
> to make GitHub even better at being GitHub, and that he would work to
> earn the trust of the GitHub community. Those views were reiterated
> today.
>
> Since then, Microsoft has joined the Open Invention Network, a patent
> cross-licensing group that promises royalty free licenses for any patents
> that apply to the Linux kernel or other essential open source packages.
> This was a bold move that largely precludes Redmond from asserting its
> patents against Android, and should mean that the company will no longer
> receive royalties from smartphone manufacturers.
>
> Sources close to the matter tell us that Microsoft's decision to join
> OIN was driven in no small part by the GitHub acquisition. GitHub is
> already a member of OIN, which left Microsoft with only a few options:
> withdraw GitHub from OIN, a move that would inevitably upset the open
> source world; acquire GitHub as some kind of arm's length subsidiary
> such that GitHub's OIN obligations could not possibly apply to
> Microsoft; or join OIN too, as the most straightforward approach that
> also bolstered the company's open source reputation. Microsoft took
> the third option."
[microsoft-acquisitions baadf00d] Microsoft announced...
1 file changed, billions of insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)

satyan@redmond:~/src$ git checkout microsoft-corp
Switched to branch 'microsoft-corp'

satyan@redmond:~/src$ git merge microsoft-acquisitions
Updating cafef00d..baadf00d
Fast-forward
 billions-of-files | billions ++++++++++++

satyan@redmond:~/src$ git branch -d microsoft-acquisitions

Earlier this week, we brought you our War Stories interview with Star Control & Star Control 2 creators Fred Ford and Paul Reiche III, wherein the two designers discussed issues that almost derailed the games during their development. But our talk with the Two Guys from Frungytown spanned several hours—and gave us plenty of fuel for at least two more videos.

As our conversation with Paul and Fred went on, they kept name-dropping the most amazing folks who contributed to SC2—people like Starflight's Greg Johnson, Dungeons and Dragons artist Erol Otis, and Star Wars concept designer Iain McCaig. It became obvious that much like Alejandro Jodorowski's aborted fever-dream Dune project, SC2's development was built upon the work of a tremendous collection of absurdly talented people. Those folks have dispersed throughout the gaming industry and done fantastic work, acting like leavening in bread. (A big difference between SC2 and Jodorowski's Dune, of course, is that SC2 actually made it out of production.)

The video we've made out of this set of anecdotes is titled "Six Degrees of StarCon." We've pulled out a few of the most influential names involved in SC2 and looked at where they came from, what they contributed, and what else they worked on. There's a lot of fascinating history in here—and, as it turns out, Star Control 2 might just be the closest gaming analog to Kevin Bacon. Or at least to Paul Erdős.

Enlarge / It's never a good day to be a lab mouse. (credit: Getty | Portland Press Herald )

The communities of bacteria that live in most mammals’ guts are mostly passed down from mothers to their offspring, rather than traded among neighbors or picked up from the environment, suggests a new study in mice. But a few exceptions may suggest something interesting about the evolution of some human pathogens.

Inherited microbes

Bacteria living on and in your body outnumber your actual human cells several many times over. In your digestive tract, those invisible ecosystems play important roles not only in digestion but also in the immune system and the endocrine system, influencing the hormones that help regulate bodily functions. Those bacteria have to come from somewhere, whether they’re inherited in a process called vertical transmission in the womb or during childbirth or whether we pick them up from the environment or through contact with other people.

Fortunately for science, other animal species also carry whole ecosystems around in their digestive tracts, and mice reproduce much faster than humans (and are much more amenable to being kept in a carefully controlled laboratory environment for several generations). University of California Berkeley biologist Andrew Moeller and his colleagues spent three years breeding 17 separate lineages of mice in their laboratory (think of each lineage as a family tree with no branches). Some descended from mice caught in Arizona, while others traced their roots back to Alberta, Canada.