Big Changes Coming to Microsoft

Microsoft has been through some tough times lately, from the botched release of Windows 8 to falling behind in the console wars to Sony’s PlayStation 4. It turns out that Microsoft is finally trying to turn things around, according many reports. The company has started a promotion for users to trade their PlayStation 3 in for a USD100 rebate towards an Xbox One. This strategy isn’t going to work very well, as the rebate makes the Xbox One’s price the same as the PlayStation 4’s – USD399.

Steve Ballmer’s coming departure has been widely covered by the media, but Microsoft was crusading for a successor. A new report from Bloomberg claims that Satya Nadella, current executive vice president of Microsoft’s Cloud and Enterprise group, will become the next CEO of Microsoft. Another structural change could also occur, with the company considering to replace Bill Gates as the company’s chairman.

One of the more minor, but symbolic, changes comes in the future Windows 8.1 update. While 8.1 enabled users to disable the Metro start interface on start, the new update will disable it by default. Microsoft has finally realized that the vast majority of PC users still rely on the keyboard-and-mouse setup. Other minor changes include the addition of shut down and search buttons on the Metro screen.

Microsoft is also planning several big revisions to the Xbox One this year, starting with a new software update in March. The update will focus on fixing issues with the Xbox Live service on the console, alongside other system fixes. Party-chat problems and issues with the usability and placement of social features of Xbox Live will be improved with the update. The company is also planning to release a white and 1TB version of its console, and has been testing versions without a disc drive.

Microsoft has been lagging behind the rest of the technology world for years, but it looks like they may finally turn their situation around. The updates and structural changes will end up improving Microsoft’s products, leading to renaissance for the company and its consumers’ satisfaction.

Scientists Turn Adult Cells Back Into Embryonic Stem Cells

Creating stem cells has just been made easier by a research team from the United States and Japan. A new technique was discovered that allows adult stem cells to be turned into embryonic ones by applying stress to the cell. Embryonic stem cells are useful because of their pliable flexibility – they can be repurposed to perform any cell function – however have been controversial since they previously only came from aborted children. This new discovery also helps researchers understand how cells work.

The results of this endeavor came from the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, United States, and the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology in Wakō, Japan, and are being published in the latest issue of Nature. Although the testing was only performed on mice, researchers are confident that the procedure can be optimized for small mammals and eventually humans.

They dubbed the new procedure as “stimulus-triggered acquisition of pluripotency” (STAP). STAP is done by applying some type of trauma to adult stem cells, such as limiting oxygen or applying acid, until they reach near-death. The few remaining cells are reverted to an embryonic-like state after a few days of recovery.

The conventional thought was that once a cell matures, it stays the same even with encountering chemicals. Charles Vacanti, who is the main author of the study, thought different.

Our findings suggest that somehow, through part of a natural repair process, mature cells turn off some of the epigenetic controls that inhibit expression of certain nuclear genes that result in differentiation.

STAP has the potential to become the easiest way to acquire stem cells. This could allow doctors to cure injury and disease in patients by introducing a blood sample’s stem cells to stress, which would change the medical industry and our daily lives.