Question: When I am running my 10x pipelines I see references in my logs to something called "Martian" - what is this?
Answer: Martian is a language and framework for developing and executing complex computational pipelines. Martian was created at 10x Genomics, where it serves as a core part of the software engineering toolchain. Martian came to life in April of 2014. It was built to address a number of looming challenges in complexity management, and to satisfy a specific set of design objectives which were not met by any framework that existed at the time.
It is not necessary to understand the details of Martian to run 10x pipelines. However, if you are interested in learning more, please consult the Martian Documentation.