We are injecting radioactive material into live rhino horns so that we stop consuming them

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Maybe you didn’t know it, but to protect ourselves from human nature itself, which is capable of generating the most absolute chaos, most of the main airports and ports, including those in South Africa, already have the necessary infrastructure to detect radioactive material. So that? To detect nuclear weapons. Thus, in theory, we avoid smuggling between countries. In a twist, science has just found in this infrastructure a solution for stop poaching. Radioactive horns. The news is as surprising as it is true: a group of South African scientists has been injecting radioactive material directly into live rhino horns for some time. The idea: make them easier to detect at border posts. Behind the project is the Radiation and Health Physics Unit (RHPU) of Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg. Why the horns. Of course, the enclave where it is happening is not trivial. South Africa is home to most rhinos on the planet and, as such, it is a hotspot for poaching driven by, and here comes the key, demand from Asia. Yes, there the horns are used in traditional medicine for its supposed therapeutic effect (not proven). As Professor James Larkin, who directs the project, explained, “every 20 hours in South Africa a rhino dies for its horn.” In fact, before this surprising twist in the script, an attempt had been made to save the rhino with another unexpected move: investing in bonds. Not only that. Researchers indicate that the smuggling of these horns has now made them “the most valuable counterfeit product on the black market, with a value even greater than that of gold, platinum, diamonds and cocaine. These poached horns are trafficked around the world and used for traditional medicines or as status symbols,” they assure. Radioactivity injection process. under the name Rhisotope Projectresearchers are drilling low doses of radioisotopes into the horns of 20 sedated rhinos whose health will be monitored for the next six months. We are talking about two small radioactive chips in the area of ​​the horns that are then “finished off” by spraying 11,000 microdots in the area. Long term. If successful, the program could be expanded in the long term to include elephants and pangolins, as well as other plants and animals, according to the university. The material, in principle, would last five years on the horn, which “was cheaper than removing it every 18 months.” “Each insertion was closely supervised by expert veterinarians and great care was taken to avoid any harm to the animals,” Larkin explains.. “Through months of research and testing, we have also ensured that the inserted radioisotopes do not pose any health or other risks to the animals or those who care for them.” Poison to humans. In essence, once the dose of radioactivity is inserted, the consumption by any means of products made from the horns will make them “essentially poisonous for human consumption,” they say in the work. Be that as it may, the main objective is none other than to identify smuggling attempts, if possible, before they leave the country. How the alarm goes off. Apparently, this infrastructure found in many airports works more or less simply. Anyone trying to get past the radioactive horns would set off alarms and trigger a police response. By the way, scientists remember that the process is not harmful to animals, since the dose of radioactive material is so low that it does not affect the health of the animal or the environment in any way. Figures that have led to the situation. Last year, the country’s Environment Ministry said that, despite the government’s efforts to combat illicit trade, 499 of these giant mammals died in 2023most in state parks. In figures, it represents an increase of 11 percent compared to 2022. To give us an idea of this sad realitywe are talking about figures of up to $60,000 per kilo, which explains why rhino horn is still one of the most lucrative illegal markets. Image | Witts University, Martin Pettitt In Xataka | For centuries, British sailors devoured green turtles until they were almost extinct: today we have recovered them In Xataka | We have a serious problem with the extinction of bees. The United Kingdom wants to solve it with bricks *An earlier version of this article was published in June 2025

Microsoft just turned an $11 billion startup into a Word feature. It’s more than a legal Copilot

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Brad Smith is more than the vice chairman of the board and president of Microsoft: Smith is also a lawyer and as he himself tellsat the beginning of his career he asked his company for a computer because he firmly believed that computing could change the way lawyers work. In fact, his Wikipedia biography gives more detail: it was the requirement that the Washington, DC law firm Covington & Burling set to join. Said and done: in 1986 he was the first person in the firm to have one, which ran the legendary Word 1.0 processor. Seen in perspective it sounds like marketing, but a tremendous omen: Microsoft just announced Legal Agent for Wordan AI agent designed for legal work. What’s new from Microsoft is not a legal Copilot. Legal Agent is an agent designed to understand and operate within a legal document as a lawyer would: it analyzes risks, compares clauses against the organization’s internal rules, has tracking for the changes it generates, differentiates previous reviews of new proposals and detects potentially problematic provisions. Everything happens within the .docx itself, without leaving Word. What distinguishes it technically is its architecture. The agent does not ask the LLM to generate each edit directly, but instead combines that semantic understanding layer with a deterministic layer that applies the changes in a controlled way. This allows you to insert clauses, delete paragraphs, or add comments while preserving the original formatting of the document, including tables, lists, and change history. The result is a more reliable and predictable system than a chatbot, with fewer hallucinations and with the consistency that legal work demands. Brad Smith’s tweet includes a video that lasts almost a minute and a half where it can be seen in action: Tap to go to the post Why is it important. The key is not so much the technology, which already existed, but rather the distribution: Word is the program par excellence for drafting, reviewing and negotiating contracts around the world. Integrating there means being in the right place at the right time, without friction: it eliminates the need for another service, creating an account and logging in, the learning curve, the workflow between two different apps, data migrations and security. All in one, all easy. The definitive boost is the price. While subscribing to specialty products like Harvey they hover the 1,000 – 1,200 dollars per lawyer per base month, according to market estimates collected by Sacrathe Legal Agent arrives integrated into theCopilot Enterprise subscription of 30 dollars a month that surely many spiteful people already pay per se. The difference in magnitude and the product placement anticipate a voracious entry into this market niche. Context. A troubled river, fishermen’s profit: Microsoft did not start from scratch for this project. At the beginning of the year contract to more than 18 engineers from Robin AI, the legal AI startup that collapsed after failing to close its $50 million round. Probably if Robin AI had not fallen, Microsoft would not have been able to create such a product so quickly. We were talking about other specialized products but the name on the horizon was one: Harveythe sector’s benchmark. Founded by Winston Weinberg and former Google DeepMind Gabe Pereyraoperates with more than 100,000 law professionals in more than 1,300 organizations and is valued at 11 billion dollars. Your latest financing round It was 200 millionclosed in March 2026 and co-led by GIC and Sequoia. It is true that its proposal goes beyond the review of contracts: it has more than 25,000 personalized agents operating on its platform with deep integrations into the document management systems used by large law firms, such as iManage and NetDocuments. Bottom line: It’s not a $30 a month feature. Yes, but. In any case, for now the product is still in early access, only in Word for Windows, with configuration restrictions and some complaints from those who have already tried it. Furthermore, it remains to be seen whether lawyers will trust into a mainstream tool for highly complex cases where a minimal error can be costly. The battle of price and distribution is won, confidence and technical depth is another story. Saying that Microsoft is going to kill Harvey it’s an exaggeration: The Legal Agent is more focused on volume work, that more mundane work of routine reviews, standard contracts, NDAs… that takes legal professionals hours every day. Harvey is strong in more complex and/or high-risk tasks: a multinational with a serious litigation advised by an elite law firm is hardly going to entrust the matter to an agent included in an Office subscription. What the Robin AI story does make clear is that having a good product and customers does not guarantee survival: the group of organizations willing to pay is smaller than the investment rounds anticipated. In Xataka | The relationship between Microsoft and OpenAI is no longer exclusive. It took someone 48 hours to fish in a troubled river: Amazon In Xataka | The results of the technology companies are very clear: the business of AI is not AI, it is renting its infrastructure Cover | Brad Smith on Twitter

A Falcon 9 has been roaming through space for more than a year. An astronomer believes it will crash into the Moon in summer

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An upper stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 has been orbiting uncontrollably for more than a year and astronomers indicate that it will end up crashing on the Moon next August. Although at first it may seem serious, the truth is that it does not represent any danger to us. However, that does not mean that the event has once again revived the debate on the space junk and what may happen in the future if the Moon ends up being inhabited. What is going to happen and when. On August 5, at 8:44 a.m. (Spanish peninsular time), an upper stage of a Falcon 9 rocket will collide with the lunar surface at approximately 8,700 km/h, which is equivalent to about seven times the speed of sound. The prediction It was published by Bill Grayprofessional astronomer and developer of Project Pluto software, a widely used tool for tracking near-Earth objects. According to Gray, the impact will occur in the surroundings of Einstein crater, on the edge of the visible side of the Moon from Earth. Where does this piece of rocket come from? The stage in question, cataloged as 2025-010D, is the upper part of the Falcon 9 that launched two private lunar landers on January 15, 2025: the Blue Ghost from Firefly Aerospace and the Hakuto-R from the Japanese company ispace. The first achieved the first completely successful commercial lunar landing in history, touching down at Mare Crisium on March 2, 2025. The second lost contact with Earth during the descent maneuver and crashed. Meanwhile, the rocket’s upper stage continued to orbit. With more than 1,000 observations accumulated since launch, Gray assures There is no doubt: it is this piece of the Falcon 9. Why can’t it be seen from Earth. Although the Moon will be visible to much of the Western Hemisphere at the time of impact, Gray warns that the flash will almost certainly be too faint to detect with ground-based telescopes. The researcher himself remembers what happened with the LCROSS mission from NASA in 2009, when a Centaur stage deliberately impacted the lunar south pole to study the ground and yet no flash could be observed from Earth. The scientific value, if any, will come from further study of the fresh crater left by the impact. No danger, but with a warning. The stage measures 13.8 meters long and 3.7 meters in diameter. Since the Moon does not have an atmosphere, the device will reach the surface intact. There is no risk to lunar infrastructure, rovers or ships in orbit. Still, Gray account which “does highlight a certain lack of care in the way in which remnants of space hardware are disposed of,” he writes in his report. There is a relatively simple technical solution, and that is that with a little more planning and some extra fuel, companies that launch rockets could send these stages to heliocentric orbits (around the Sun), where they would pose no threat to either the Earth or the Moon. Now it matters more. Both the US and China plan to multiply the pace of their lunar missions during the second half of this decade, with the aim of installing semi-permanent bases near the south pole of the Moon. The United States aims for annual missions with Artemis IV and V from 2028; China wants have your own taikonauts stepping on lunar soil before 2030. More missions means more rockets, more unreused upper stages, and therefore more space junk orbiting near the Moon. If there were people or infrastructure on the surface then, things would get serious. It’s not the first time it happens. Gray stumbled upon another rocket stage a few years ago. In 2022, he predicted that a piece of rocket would hit the Moon on March 4 of that year, getting the time right within seconds and the location within just a few kilometers. Gray had initially identified the object as another stage from a Falcon 9, but it turned out to be a booster from the Chinese Chang’e 5-T1 rocket. This time, however, continuous monitoring since launch rules out any doubts. Cover image | SpaceX and NASA In Xataka | We have found something that astronomers have been searching for decades: the precise edge of the Milky Way

Foxconn is the latest to join

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Nvidia is the sweetest customer right now. It is the glue of artificial intelligence, invests millions in AI startups and, although Big Tech They try to be the new Nvidiathe truth is that they are currently the only ones with the necessary hardware to meet the hyperscalers’ objectives. His real achievement is to make the entire conversation revolve around him and make everyone have to work for you. And Foxconn is the last to tie itself to Nvidia’s future. In short. Nvidia is currently preparing the launch of Vera Rubin. It is a training and inference platform that is bringing together the latest generation of c hardware.ocompanies like Samsung either TSMC. However, Jensen Huang already commented that he would need all available hands this year to meet his goals, and that’s where Foxconn comes in. The great (and controversial) Taiwanese company has been chosen by Nvidia as the exclusive supply chain provider of the equipment necessary to Groq 3 LPX. The two companies were already working together, but the agreement implies a tenfold increase in the planned delivery volume and, furthermore, sooner than expected: for the third quarter of 2026. Transformation. This agreement puts Nvidia’s intentions on the table. If until recently we were talking about GPUs like the H200, which were those desired by the Chinese Big Technow it’s time to talk about the aforementioned Vera Rubin. It is a platform that will be able to do both training and inference work, something increasingly important in the era of Agentic AI. According to Nvidia, the Groq 3 LPX rack has 35 times better performance in inference for billion-parameter AI models compared to the previous generation Blackwell. Not for nothing Intel is turning its business to Xeons for data centers and ARM stock hit highs after unveiling its AI CPU. Foxconn will concentrate its resources on that LPX i platformpowered by Groq to accelerate the entire critical decoding phase of agentic AI models. And, aside from Groq 3 LPX, the Taiwanese company itself is one of the main suppliers of Vera Rubin NVL72 cabinets. In short: Foxconn is, right now, playing in the Champions League. According to the sources industry, shipments of the LP30 and LP35 chips that will use these LPX cabinets will be 1.5 million by 2026 and 2.5 million by 2027. In total, 6,000 racks for this year and 10,000 for the one that comes only with those chips. The fat customer. And here there are two sides of the coin. On the one hand, that of Nvidia, the company that has found a vein in AI so large as to abandon those who were their main clients not so long ago. Working for Nvidia is to ensure profits as long as its hegemony lasts in the age of AI. An example is Samsungwho made all the haste in the world to win the HBM4 memory race because it knew that if they complied, they would overtake their main customers in the race to become Nvidia’s supplier. Another example is TSMC itself. The largest foundry in the world had had Apple as its main customer for years. That ensured that if there was any crisis in the supply chain, Apple knew it would have its chips because TSMC’s future was tied to its own. But now things have changed and The one who has guaranteed wafers is Nvidia. Accumulating big contracts. The other side of the coin is that Foxconn, which is not in the daily conversation as one of the engines of AI, is winning big, juicy contracts. One is the one mentioned exclusively with Nvidia, but they are also suppliers of chips to other giants such as Google with its TPUsMicrosoft and Amazon AWM. Of Google, for example, it has 15% of the market share. And the company’s CEO, Liu Yangwei, sticks out his chest in this situation pointing that they can produce more than 1,000 complete cabinets per week and are working to double that capacity before the end of the year. Oh, and in case you’re wondering if this will have any impact on the price of RAMKeep in mind that each of these thousands of racks that Foxconn manufactures will have 256 chips with 128 GB of SRAM and 12 TB of DDR5 memory. It also helps understand why the memory majors are stopping making DDR4 memory to focus on DDR5. And why prices will remain as they are now for quite a few months. Image | Hillel Steinberg In Xataka | That Qualcomm prepares its own AI chips is good news. Whether it has an opportunity in the market is a very different thing.

Colombia was considering sacrificing Pablo Escobar’s 80 hippos. An Indian billionaire has said he takes them

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There is a story that seems taken from a García Márquez novel but is completely real: in Colombia they live, free and in the middle of nature, more than 160 hippos. It’s not that evolution brought them to that corner of the world. In fact, they shouldn’t even be there, but they have been one of the largest for decades. environmental headaches of the country. The origin of everything is in the exotic whim of drug trafficker Pablo Escobar. The sacrifice. What began as a millionaire’s extravagance has become a serious problem since it is an invasive species weighing 4,500 kilos and without local predators. Colombia has not found a solution for the new river “squatters” for years, but has decided take drastic measures against the uncontrolled growth of hippos thousands of kilometers from their place of origin: sacrifice half the population current hippopotamus. However, just when the government was about to implement its plan, another millionaire has taken matters into his own hands and offered to take 80 of these animals to a sanctuary in India. What is a hippopotamus doing in Colombia? In the 1980s, the leader of the Medellín cartel, Pablo Escobar, bought four hippos (one male and three females) from a US zoo to incorporate them into the private zoo that was being set up at Hacienda Nápoles, his immense estate in Colombia. After the drug kingpin’s death in 1993, no one knew what to do with them. Moving animals that do not have a reputation for being very sociable and weighing up to 4,500 kilos each, was not a simple task. Given the apathy of the local authorities and the abandonment of the drug lord’s residence, the four animals escaped and entered in the Magdalena River basinwhere they found their new home in freedom. In fact, they acclimatized so well that today, almost 40 years after their arrival in Colombia, they still they coexist without control with endemic species that are not prepared for their presence. A population that does not stop growing. The problem with having adapted so well to life in the wild is that what started with just four hippos has gotten out of control. Without natural predators, their reproduction has skyrocketed. According to a published study In the Magazine of the Colombian Academy of Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences in 2024, the population grows at a rate of between 8% and 9% annually. Today it is estimated that there is a population of between 169 and 181 hippos distributed in up to seven groups in Colombia and is calculated that, without human intervention, by 2040 they could exceed 1,500 specimens if no measures are taken. They have found paradise for hippos. Colombia offers hippos something that is scarce in Africa: stability in the levels of its river channels. In the Magdalena River basin there is enough water even in times of drought, so the plump animals can do what they like most all year round: spend about 20 hours a day submerged. In addition, the river banks provide them with up to 35 kilos of grass daily. It is the closest to paradise this species has found. But it’s not his place. An ecological problem of the first magnitude. What worries authorities and conservationists the most is not only the growing number of hippos in the waters of the Magdalena, but the impact that this invasive species is generating in that ecosystem and in the native species. Colombia is home to practically 10% of the planet’s biodiversity and, according to a study from the University of California at San Diego (UCSD) published in the scientific journal Ecologyhippos are endangering the survival of manatees, otters, capybaras and fish endemic to the Magdalena. Given the weight, volume and appetite of these animals, the structure of the land is being altered and their feces in the water trigger a eutrophication process which favors the proliferation of algae harmful to river fauna. Colombia declared them officially invasive species in 2022, with all the attempts to control its population through chemical sterilization and castration. Desperate not to find a solution to the largest invasive species on the planet, in April 2026, the government announced that it would include the sacrifice of specimens among its measures, generating an intense international ethical debate. Anant Ambani’s offer. That’s where Anant Ambani, son of Mukesh Ambani, the richest man in Asia, also known for celebrate a wedding in 2024 which cost around 600 million dollars. Ambani is also an activist for animal protection and founded Vantaraa sanctuary in Gujarat (India) that houses hundreds of rescued species from around the world. Upon hearing the news of the fatal fate of those known as “cocaine hippos“has contacted the Colombian authorities to offer asylum in Vantara to 80 of the hippos destined for sacrifice. The Colombian government has not yet made an official statement, but it is not expected to reject the millionaire’s offer in order to resolve part of its problem with Pablo Escobar’s “pets.” In Xataka | Japan sent the wrong creature to eradicate snakes from an island. The disaster was so big that it took half a century to solve it Image | Unsplash (Sachin Mittal), Wikimedia Commons (National Registry of Colombia)

The best technology offers from the MediaMarkt Renove Plan, today May 2

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MediaMarkt opens a month of May full of offers through its new campaign Renew Plan. Are you looking for a television, a surveillance camera or the Nintendo Switch 2 itself? Well, be careful with what the store has to offer for a few days, since the campaign ends on May 10. Samsung Galaxy Watch7 by 151.05 euros When you log in to the store, a great watch to measure physical activity or carry on a daily basis. Samsung TQ65QN1EFAUXXC by 599 eurosa good TV to enjoy the World Cup in style. nintendo switch 2 by 479 eurosa new pack that once again includes a video game and a keychain. Marshall Acton III by 199 eurosthe perfect speaker to take your favorite music anywhere this summer. TP-Link Tapo TC71 by 20.99 eurosa good camera with night vision to have your home a little more protected. Nintendo Switch 2 + Super Mario Bros. Wonder + keychain The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Samsung Galaxy Watch7 It may not be the most recent model, but for what it costs Samsung Galaxy Watch7 Yes, it is one of the most attractive: by logging into MediaMarkt you will be 151.05 euros (before 179 euros). We are talking about an excellent watch that comes with WearOS as an operating systemwhich means there is a wide variety of apps to download. It includes sensors such as optical or electrical cardiac biosignal and its design is ideal if you are looking to use it for sports and also for everyday use. Samsung Galaxy Watch7 (BT, 40mm) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Samsung TQ65QN1EFAUXXC If for the next World Cup you have thought about giving a radical change to your living room by changing the TV, be careful about the price of the TV. Samsung TQ65QN1EFAUXXC because it stays in 599 euros (before 859 euros). It is a TV with a Neo QLED panel and a 65-inch screen. Its refresh rate of up to 144 Hz is ideal for video games and sports, it is compatible with HDR10+ and works with both Alexa and Google Assistant. Samsung TQ65QN1EFAUXXC (65 inches) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links nintendo switch 2 New month, new pack. MediaMarkt has set up another combo of the nintendo switch 2 and this time it comes with the video game ‘Super Mario Bros. Wonder‘ and a ‘Mario Kart World’ keychain (the same one included in the previous packs). The good thing is that if you buy this pack it costs you 479 euros10 euros more than if you buy only the console. This way, you get a video game to use on the Switch 2 as soon as it arrives home. Nintendo Switch 2 + Super Mario Bros. Wonder + keychain The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Marshall Acton III Now that the weather is nice, we are starting to look forward to the “swimming pool” season. If facing summer you are already thinking about the music that you are going to take with you anywhere, you cannot miss a good Bluetooth speaker like the Marshall Acton IIIwhich is also now on sale for 199 euros (before 229 euros). It is quite powerful thanks to its 30W speakers, it includes a generous button panel to control many audio parameters and its design… there is little to say about it except that it maintains the particular design of the brand that makes it so attractive. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links TP-Link Tapo TC71 On the other hand, if you want to have the house a little more monitored and are looking for a good, pretty and cheap camera, MediaMarkt has the TP-Link Tapo TC71 for alone 20.99 euros. It has a format that allows the camera to be rotated 360º, offers a maximum resolution of 2K, has night vision, has motion detection and sending of notifications, incorporates a light and sound alarm and also comes with two-way audio. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Some of the links in this article are affiliated and may provide a benefit to Xataka. In case of non-availability, offers may vary. Image | MediaMarkt and Compradicción (header), Samsung, Nintendo, Marshall, TP-Link In Xataka | Best smartwatch in quality price. Which one to buy based on use and seven recommended models In Xataka | Best Bluetooth speakers in quality price. Which one to buy based on use and six recommended models

the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, illustrated in fascinating cartographies of the disaster

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On April 26, 1986, reactor number 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, in the former Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, exploded during a low-power safety test. The accident released an estimated amount of radioactive material of 400 times greater than that of the Hiroshima atomic bomb, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency. The RBMK-1000 reactor involved had no containment structure, so radioisotopes such as iodine-131, cesium-137 or strontium-90 were freely dispersed into the atmosphere for ten days in a row, until they extinguished the graphite fire on May 5. The management of the accident could clearly be improved: the authorities ordered the evacuation of the nearby city of Pripyat 36 hours later and the world found out when Sweden detected radiation at its Forsmark plant on April 28. Ten years later, independent Ukraine published the Atlas of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zonea set of large-format graphic resources prepared by the state cartographic agency. As explains data journalist Attila Bátorfywas the first serious attempt to map the radioactive impact of the disaster on the soil, air and ecosystems and a large number of scientific professionals from entities such as the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences or other research institutes dependent on the Ministry of Ukraine for the Protection of the Population from the Consequences of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Accident participated in its preparation. Now it is available to anyone thanks to the digitized version available on Ecogisstorage. The atlas contains different cartographic blocks. One of the first and essential to understand evolution are the weather maps of europe the days during the active phase of the accident and show what the atmospheric situation was like afterwards, with isobars, atmospheric fronts or wind direction for each day. This is the basis of everything because without reconstructing how the air circulated those subsequent days it is not possible to interpret other pollution maps. The radioactive cloud followed erratic trajectories conditioned by the weather fronts, which explains why countries such as Sweden, Poland or Austria received significant deposits while closer areas were relatively less affected. Daily synoptic weather maps of Europe during the active phase of the Chernobyl accident To analyze the meteorological influence on dispersion in Ukraine, different graph formats are used, such as bars, wind speed and direction diagrams, or this one that goes under these lines: the radiological wind rose, which shows the amount of material released in each direction of the mean wind in the atmospheric boundary layer. Each line on the diagram represents the mean wind direction in the atmospheric boundary layer at a given time, with its date noted, the length indicating the magnitude of the radioactivity released. At first glance something can be seen: The dispersion was neither uniform nor radial.but tremendously asymmetrical. Thus, some fronts dragged pollution northwestward, towards Belarus and Scandinavia, while others diverted it to the south and west of Ukraine. Vector diagram of radioactivity emissions (in Bq) constructed for the average wind direction in the atmospheric boundary layer. The effects of the Chernobyl disaster, on maps Under these lines This is the most important map by far: that of Cesium – 137. Why is it important? Because due to its characteristics, Cs-137 is the radiological tracer par excellence, which allows directly showing the permanent chemical trace of the accident on the territory. Retrospective estimation map of soil contamination with cesium-137. At a scale of 1:200,000, it shows the deposition density of Cesium – 137 in the soil on May 10, 1986, reconstructed in retrospect. The pollution isolines draw a tremendously asymmetrical patch, with an absolute maximum concentrated in the north and northwest. There is also a second important spot in the south, following the course of the Pripyat River. The rest show decreasing levels with distance in a radial manner. Groundwater transport route map The previous one may be the most striking and without a doubt it is the one that has been most widely disseminated, but the most disturbing in the long term is the map of transport routes in groundwater because it quantifies the long-term risk of water pollution. Cs-137 is easily seen and measured, but strontium-90 moving silently through the aquifers toward the Dnieper, which supplies water to millions of people, is an invisible problem. This 1:200,000 scale map is the only one in the atlas that attempts to quantify this risk with real flow velocities, showing the probable migration trajectories of radionuclides through the aquifers. The arrows point predominantly to the south and southeast, in the direction of the Dnieper. Gamma dose map The map you see just above also has a scale of 1:200,000 and shows the gamma radiation dose power in μR/h (microroentgen per hour), measured 1 meter from the ground. Yes, the above maps are important to describe the severity of the problem, but the gamma dose rate map is essential for decision making: who can enter the area, for how long and what routes are passable. It was the work tool to access the area because it is the map for evaluate exposure dose of the population and the personnel who worked in the area. In Xataka | When Chernobyl exploded in 1986, Spain was freed from the radioactive cloud. AEMET has now discovered that it did it for very little In Xataka | We believed that the “elephant’s foot” was the most radioactive point in Chernobyl reactor 4. we were wrong Cover | Atlas of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, Ecogisstorage

In the middle of the RAM crisis, your cheapest computer was a bargain too good to last

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If there is a product in Apple’s portfolio that was a real candy, it was the Mac Mini. This has been a reality for years, but in these times that are even more so: the Mac Mini M4 It came to the market with the power of the M4 chip, 16 GB of base RAM, a 256 GB SSD (the most stingy, Apple style) and a RRP of 719 euros, which in practice was much less. I bought it myself for less than 600 euros. Well, that bargain has come to an end: in the context of current shortages, the 256GB Mac Mini is no longer an option. We had already seen it with its models with more RAMbut this decision is dramatic for the general public. Goodbye to the 256 GB Mac Mini. Apple has made a decision that directly affects the pockets of those who want to buy the Mac mini in its most basic version. Since yesterday, May 1, 2026, Cupertino has removed that entry model from its catalog, as Joe Rossignol advances for MacRumors. It is not that it appears out of stock, it is that it has directly disappeared, as can be seen on the Spanish website. Of course, there is still stock and offers of the old base model in stores like amazon, at Media Markt either in El Corte Inglés. The entry price of the Apple desktop computer starts at 969 euros and corresponds to the version with M4 chip, 16 GB of RAM and 512GB SSD. In the United States the jump has been from 599 dollars to 799 dollars, in Spain it has gone from 719 euros to 969 euros. The versions with the M4 Pro processor remain as they are. This decision is framed within a structural RAM supply crisis and whose main culprit is the voracity of the AI ​​infrastructure. Prices and delivery for the Mac Mini. Apple Why is it important. Raising the entry price of one of its star products by almost 35% (in the United States it is 33) more is an aggressive move that has implications for both the individual consumer and the technology market in general. It is true that technically speaking Apple has not raised its prices, it has simply eliminated the lower step, leaving orphans those people who considered that base version sufficient, which are quite a few: it is my main computer for mixed tasks, basic editing, office automation and the Internet and the performance is more than good. In short: for many users, students or professionals, with tight budgets, this increase of more than 200 euros is a real chore. The problem is not just the price: the impact is worsened by delivery times. I have tried different Apple Stores and shipping is delayed until the end of May or beginning of June. Context. Tim Cook gave an explanation during the conference results for April 30, 2026 recognizing that the supply of Mac mini and Mac Studio is severely restricted and that normalization could take months. The reason given by the still CEO of Apple is that both devices have become popular platforms for artificial intelligence and agentic tools, which has triggered demand above forecasts. And he anticipated something: Apple will face significantly higher memory costs in the current quarter, according to MacRumors. This places the Mac Mini in a paradox: that the configuration of this compact desktop computer makes it ideal for working with AI locally and that precisely this reality is what has exhausted the stock, forcing Apple to cut its catalog. The AMR crisis continues to claim victims. In March of this year Apple already removed the 512 GB RAM option from the Mac Studio and in April several models of the Mac mini and Mac Studio they directly stopped being able to order in the Apple Store in the United States, with delays of up to five months for versions with more RAM. The memory chip supply crisis is not something exclusive to Apple, but a trend that crosses the entire sector and caused by the demand of the hyperscalers. Apple needs to ensure that every machine sold is capable of fluidly running its new digital agents and AI tools, making lower memory and storage configurations no longer viable or cost-effective under the company’s current standards. The particular thing about Apple’s decision is the timing: just when it launches its best chips for local AI processing, the global RAM market is strained to unsuspected limits precisely because of that fever. The result is paid by the final consumer. In Xataka | Not even Apple is free from the new reality of the technology industry: RAM goes first for hyperscalers In Xataka | The RAM crisis was supposed to make computers and smartphones very expensive. Apple has another opinion Cover | Apple and Alberto García

not one, not two, but six centuries-old shipwrecks

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In 1628, the Swedish warship Vasa It sank on its maiden voyage after just a few minutes of sailing and remained underwater for more than three centuries, until it was rescued in the 20th century in a surprising state of conservation. The discovery made it clear that, under certain conditions, the seabed can act as a time capsule capable of preserving entire fragments of the past for generations. An unexpected meeting under a construction site. What began as an infrastructure project off the coast of Sweden has ended up revealing a scene hard to imagine: In the year 2025 and under the layout of a railway tunnel in Varberg, workers did not come across isolated remains, but rather an accumulation of vessels buried for centuries. The surprise was not finding a shipwreck, something relatively common in old port areas, but discovering even six different structuressuperimposed in time, which turn the place into a kind of maritime archive hidden under the current city. Six ships, several centuries of history. The researchers counted after the fortuitous discovery that the remains located span from the Middle Ages until the 17th centuryreflecting different stages of navigation and trade in northern Europe. Four of the vessels belong to the medieval period, one is located in the midst of the Swedish maritime expansion of the 17th century and another has not been able to be dated precisely, which adds even more unknowns to the set. In fact, this temporal range allows us to reconstruct how the routes evolved trade, the types of ships and the strategic importance of the area, which was once a coastline and port hub. Naval technology buried in the mud. Among the finds, one of the best preserved ships stands out, built in the 1530s with local oak wood and following the overlapping plank technique typical of northern Europe. Not only that. Other remains show variations in constructionsuch as flat-bottomed boats used in medieval trade or a boat with more advanced assembly techniques, linked to Dutch traditions. According to the researchersthis contrast allows us to observe, almost as in a frozen sequence, the transition between different ways of building and operating at sea. Fire trails, commerce and everyday use. But there is much more. The work of archaeologists has confirmed some details that add a component even more intriguinglike the fire marks detected in parts of one of the hulls, which suggest that the boat may have been damaged or even burned before sinking. Other remains, in this case less complete, point to ships that operated regularly in the Baltic, transporting goods between nearby cities. Even the oldest vessels, with their flat design, offer clues to the medieval commercial dynamics and the way they adapted to shallow waters. When the past emerges with each work. The study He also recalled that the discovery is not an isolated case, but part of a trend increasingly frequent in our times: as large urban projects in coastal areas advance, vestiges appear of old ports that today form part of the urban interior. In this way, what was once a sea or dock is now covered by land and buildings, preserving structures under layers of sediment that have survived for centuries. If you will also and in that sense, each excavation that is carried out not only transforms the present, but also aims to reopen complete fragments of the past, demonstrating that, in certain places, history has not gone away, it is simply waiting to be unearthed. Image | Arkeologerna In Xataka | “Codex H” was one of the last missing links of the New Testament: now we have found 42 new pages In Xataka | What we see in Petra is a city “carved in stone”: what it really hides is an amazing water system

the eventful journey of the rover that seeks to make history in 2028

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Rosalind Franklin made one of the most important scientific discoveries of the 20th century. Her colleagues took ownership of her work and received the Nobel Prize and she didn’t even live to see it. When the European Space Agency (ESA) decided to name the ExoMars mission rover with its name, it was not thought that the robot could also drag down the bad luck of his namesake. Unfortunately, it has been dragging on for years with incidents that have delayed its launch. Of course, it seems that at least the Martian Rosalind has finally had a stroke of luck. Everything is ready again for its launch in 2028. There is still time, but there is a lot to do. NASA enters the scene. This April NASA has announced the signing of the Rosalind Franklin Support and Augmentation (ROSA) project, with which it is committed to supporting ESA during the ExoMars mission. Specifically, the US space agency will provide hardware and services for the mission, including launch service, brake motors for the rover’s landing platform and radioisotope heating units for the robot’s internal systems. The launch system chosen will be through a SpaceX Falcon Heavy, which will depart from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. An unprecedented mission. The ExoMars mission It is made up of two pieces. On the one hand, the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO), which yes it could be launched successfully and has been in Martian orbit since 2016. On the other hand, the Rosalind Franklin rover; which, if all goes well, will be launched at the end of 2028. The orbiter is responsible for studying the Martian atmosphere, while the rover will land on the red planet to search for signs of present or past life under its surface. It will be the first rover with the ability to drill into the ground. Something similar was done with NASA’s Insight missionbut in this case the instrument used was a lander. It couldn’t move around like rovers, so it couldn’t study the planet as thoroughly as Rosalind Franklin will. Many incidents, but there is hope again. The launch of Rosalind Franklin has gone through many incidents. First, there were technical problems and the COVID-19 pandemic that forced the mission to be postponed to 2022. Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, was going to be in charge of the launch service. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, all commercial relations between ESA and Roscosmos were severed, so the mission had to be postponed. There was no longer any rocket available to travel to Mars and, in addition, some instruments of Russian origin had to be replaced. It has been many years of waiting, but it finally seems that the agreement with NASA has opened the way to continue with the preparations. Donald Trump’s Government was about to ruin the agreementbut finally the support of Congress was stronger. There is much left to do. Before its launch was postponed, the rover underwent multiple tests to verify that it can withstand Martian conditions. For example, In 2018 it was tested in the Tabernas desert, in Almería. This place was chosen among several terrestrial Martian analogues, among other reasons because it contains a mineral called jarosite that has also been found on Mars. Later in 2020, The rover was tested in a laboratory in Toulousein which Martian environmental conditions were emulated. If it worked well then, it should do so now as well. However, the rover may have to undergo new tests to demonstrate that it is still ready to undertake this journey for which it has waited so long. Surely in these two years Rosalind Franklin finally gives us many things to tell. Image | THAT In Xataka | We have been measuring earthquakes on Mars for years to realize something: its core is not like ours

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