Month: December 2020

Animated by Hannah Folz. Click here for transcript. (video link)

We’re kicking off a new video series focusing on science, and we’re starting with the science of cancer treatment. There are a lot more options for cancer treatment than there used to be, but new treatments are often more effective because they only work in specific situations. Matching up patients with the treatments that fit them best is one of the things being unlocked by advances in biomarker testing.

Biomarkers are genetic variations, proteins, or chemicals produced by cells that can tell you about the internal workings of a cancer or how the body is responding to it. By measuring these things in cancer tissue samples or even in blood or urine, it’s possible to detect or identify cancers, generate a prognosis, and determine which treatment has the highest chance of success.

Enlarge / Operation Warp Speed hits a speed bump. (credit: Aurich Lawson / Getty Images)

As we're waiting for word on the authorization of a second vaccine for use in the US, glitches have been striking the distribution of the first through the federal government's "Operation Warp Speed." This week, the US saw the first use of the vaccine developed by a Pfizer/BioNTech collaboration. But immediately afterward, many states started saying that orders for shipments in the ensuing weeks were being cut. After some in the federal government had indicated that the problem might be in production, Pfizer issued a statement indicating that it had doses in its warehouse ready to ship out but no indication of where to ship them to.

All in all, it's about what you'd expect in the first weeks of a massive undertaking like this.

State of denial

One of the first states to report problems was Illinois, where its governor, J.B. Pritzker, said that it had indications it would only be receiving half the expected doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine next week. Since then, over a dozen states have indicated that they'll be receiving fewer doses than planned in the second week (this article seems to have a fairly comprehensive list).

Enlarge / Blood from other zombies' faces, making it slippery to reload during a terrifying moment in Back 4 Blood's solid closed alpha test. (credit: Turtle Rock Studios)

The face of co-op gaming was changed forever by Valve's Left 4 Dead in 2008 at a time when playing games with online friends usually meant killing each other or killing other teams of real players. Left 4 Dead had a different idea: take the fun of a solidly scripted single-player battle against AI zombies, then make it crazier with squadmates and randomness.

In every mission, your team of four had to traverse a linear, apocalyptic series of levels, pre-constructed with paths and cinematic events but remixed for each playthrough with new enemy and item configurations. Your crew could memorize some of the challenges, but an AI system would always watch for slip-ups—then pounce with dangerous, AI-controlled enemies for your foursome to contend with.

Entire co-op subgenres have emerged in the 12 years since L4D's launch, but few have aped its exact structure (with the obvious exception of 2009's Left 4 Dead 2). Hence, the most obvious selling point for this week's gameplay reveal of co-op shooter Back 4 Blood, slated to launch June 2021, is simple: the L4D formula is back, and it's coming from a team that co-created the original. But is that good enough?