Month: January 2022

Enlarge / The remains of an individual buried in an Augustinian friary, excavated in 2016 on the University of Cambridge's New Museums site.

There's rarely time to write about every cool science-y story that comes our way. So this year, we're once again running a special Twelve Days of Christmas series of posts, highlighting one science story that fell through the cracks in 2020, each day from December 25 through January 5. Our final post in the 2021 series: Skeletal remains excavated from medieval sites in Cambridge reveal occupational and social disparities in the population.

A working class woman who suffered from domestic violence. A friar who may have been the victim of a horse-and-cart hit-and-run. Those are just two examples of the remains of 314 people excavated from three very different medieval burial sites in Cambridge, England. The evidence of skeletal trauma on many of those remains sheds light on what medieval Cantabrigian lives were like, in terms of occupation, living conditions, and social status, according to a paper published last January in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology.

The research stems from the After the Plague project at Cambridge University's Department of Archaeology, which explores how historical conditions influence health and how health, in turn, shapes history. The project particularly focuses on the Black Death period (1347-1350 CE) in later medieval England, which wiped out between a third and a half of Europe's population.

Enlarge / CDC Director Rochelle Walensky testifies during a Senate committee hearing in July 2021. (credit: Stefani Reynolds-Pool/Getty Images)

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday offered mixed messages on the use of at-home rapid tests as the agency continued to defend its controversial recommendation that people with COVID-19 can leave isolation early without testing.

The CDC updated its guidance on isolation and quarantine periods last week. It shortened isolation periods for infected people from 10 days down to only five if their symptoms have cleared or are resolving by then and if they wear a mask for five days afterward. Notably, the agency did not hinge the recommendation on people getting tested after five days and only ending their isolation early if they receive a negative result.

The omission drew swift criticism from experts who argue that testing is vital to shortening isolation periods safely. Harvard epidemiologist and rapid-test advocate Dr. Michael Mina called the move "reckless," and virology expert Angela Rasmussen called the agency's reasoning "bullshit."

Enlarge / Lenovo ThinkPad Z13 in "vegan leather" with a bronze colored "Communications Bar" up top. (credit: Lenovo)

It's a new year, which means it's time for laptop refreshes. If 2022 is anything like 2021, many premium and business users will find themselves juggling work and home life, potentially both in an office and at home. Lenovo's next pile of laptops aimed at these power users comes with a slew of features that it claims will help you show your best side when you're collaborating, even if it requires a chunkier notch for your display's top bezel.

The new ThinkPads’ Communications Bar

All of Lenovo's new ThinkPads have what Lenovo is calling a Communications Bar, which is really just a chunky notch on the screen's top border. In the three upcoming ThinkPad X1 laptops announced today, the notch allows for four microphones, plus a powerful webcam packing a larger-than-average camera sensor for a laptop at 1.4 µm. In the case of the two ThinkPad Z-series laptops announced Tuesday, there are only two microphones.

The ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 10's thicker top bezel helps Lenovo fit four mics and a bigger camera sensor.

The new ThinkPad X1s can go up to a 1080p IR MIPI camera with a physical shutter and computer vision, which uses a neural processing unit to tell if you're sitting in front of the PC. That way, the laptop knows if it should wake up or go dim when you look away, which saves battery and protects privacy. Lenovo even claims you can wear a face mask and use the feature.

Enlarge / The Oculus Quest 2, Meta's most popular VR headset today. (credit: Sam Machkovech)

Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook, has pulled the plug on its current efforts to develop an operating system for AR and VR devices, The Information reported today.

Citing "two people familiar with the decision," the article claims that Meta will return to the status quo of running Oculus devices—and perhaps future mixed reality devices—on a modified version of Google’s Android operating system for mobile phones.

The project, which was internally called XROS, had reportedly been underway for years and "involved hundreds of employees." Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg was talking up its potential only a few short months ago. The reasons for Meta's decision to pull the plug are not publicly known at this time.

Enlarge (credit: Eric Lagace / Flickr)

Android's January security patch is out, and it's addressing one of the nastiest Android bugs to come up in some time: certain apps can stop you from contacting 911 or other worldwide emergency services numbers.

In early December, a harrowing tale popped up in the GooglePixel subreddit from a user whose Pixel 3 crashed when they needed it most: while dialing 911 for their grandmother who "appeared to be having a stroke." The whole phone subsystem seemed to immediately crash upon calling emergency services, with user "KitchenPicture5849" saying they couldn't get the call to connect or hang up to try the call again. Luckily, a nearby landline was available after their Android phone let them down, and emergency services was able to be contacted.

After the crisis was over, the user gave calling 911 from their smartphone another shot, and Android crashed again, indicating it wasn't a one-off bug. A check of their phone bill also revealed that KitchenPicture5849 never actually connected to 911. They say they also got a few other DMs from users reporting that they were experiencing the same bug.