HackerNews Summary (2023-05-15 03PM)

Source: Speaking of Illusions: Sirtuins and Longevity

Summary
The supposed link between the activation of sirtuins and longevity was overblown, as the main effect of the gene on longevity is just to allow old yeast cells to continue for longer. The idea that sirtuins are a panacea for ageing was never really backed up by the evidence.

Fact

🍷 Sirtuins are a family of deacetylases that act on acetylated lysine residues on various proteins.

🧫 SIR2’s main effects on longevity is to allow “old mothers” (yeast cells that have budded many times) to do so for slightly longer than they would otherwise.

👴 If you just look at overall lifespan (chronological aging versus replicative aging), SIR2 is actually associated with shorter lifespans under conditions of caloric restriction.

💰 The entire $700 million investment in the company formed around the original discoveries of Sirtuins was incinerated, as the assay results used to evaluate the sirtuin activator compounds turned out to be fluorescent artifacts.

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Source: Assemblers

Summary
This article discusses popular assemblers, including GCC, GNU Assembler, LLVM Integrated Assembler, and MASM. The article also explains the syntax differences between Intel and AT&T syntax for x86 architecture and discusses ambiguity and disambiguation of symbol references.

Fact

💻 GCC generates assembly code and invokes GNU Assembler (also known as “gas”), which is part of GNU Binutils, to convert the assembly code into machine code.

💻 The LLVM integrated assembler is a library that is linked by Clang, llvm-mc, and lld to generate machine code.

💻 The Microsoft Macro Assembler (MASM) is widely used on the Windows platform.

💻 NASM is another popular assembler for x86 architecture.

💻 Intel and AT&T syntax have differences in operand order, addressing modes, and mnemonics.

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Source: Early Computer Art in the 50’s & 60’s — Amy Goodchild

Summary
MusiColor was a highly advanced mechanical and electronic system designed to respond to musicians’ input via microphone by controlling lights and patterns. It was designed to entrain performers and generate visual variety.

Fact

🎛️ MusiColor analysed frequency, attack, and rhythm of sound input from musicians’ instruments.

👥 Performers could adjust their playing to respond to the visual output and train the machine to produce preferred patterns.

🚫 Technical issues plagued MusiColor, making it difficult or impossible to make genuine use of the system.

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