A macro study confirms that early menopause increases the risk of heart attack and stroke

by

When we think of the menopausesocial and medical conversation is usually limited to obvious and short-term symptoms, such as hot flashes, mood swings, insomnia or the closure of the fertile period. However, this phase in the life of any woman has implications that go much further in terms of health as it involves a great metabolic and, above all, vascular change. A new vision. Now, the largest international study carried out to date has confirmed a reality by pointing out that when menopause comes early, the risk of suffering a myocardial infarction or stroke increases drastically, remaining stable independent of other traditional risk factors. The magnitude of the study. The research, to reach these conclusions with practically unwavering solidity, has resorted to the PURE-based macro-study, closely following a massive cohort of 111,619 women from 26 different countries, recording their clinical evolution for an average of 14.6 years. And the experts already point out that we are facing a methodological turning point in female cardiology. In figures. The findings evident in this study clearly segment the risk based on the age at which the end of menstruation occurs: When menopause occurs before the age of 40, it is called ‘premature menopause’ and carries between 27% and 30% greater risk of suffering major cardiovascular events such as heart attacks. In the case of a menopause between 40 and 45 years of age, it is called ‘early’ and registers a 14% higher risk of presenting cardiac complications. It is a risk factor. The most robust and worrying data provided by the research is that this increase in cardiovascular risk persists practically unchanged even after the researchers statistically adjusted the models to isolate some classic variables such as high blood pressure, diabetes, smoking or a sedentary lifestyle. This means that early loss of ovarian function is an independent risk factor in itself for these serious problems to occur. Because? The medical explanation behind this phenomenon lies in the abrupt loss of what cardiologists call the “estrogen shield.” It must be kept in mind that during the fertile age, estrogenic hormones exert a fundamental protective role in the circulatory system through various mechanisms, such as keeping cholesterol and triglyceride levels at bay. But estrogens also keep veins and arteries in good condition, promoting vascular relaxation and inhibiting the accumulation of body fat in arterial walls. Additionally, when estrogen levels fall prematurely, the process of forming lipid deposits in the arteries progresses at a much faster rate. The economic gap. One of the most innovative and alarming points of the PURE study is how the geographical context radically alters the impact of early menopause. And its conclusions show how the impact on cardiovascular health is almost double in low-resource countries compared to rich nations. For example, in countries such as Pakistan, Tanzania, Bangladesh, India and Zimbabwe, an overwhelming 43% of postmenopausal women had experienced early menopause. But in rich nations like Canada or Sweden the figure drops to 23%. A nuance. The authors introduce an important warning, since in countries with very precarious economies, chronic malnutrition usually causes what is known as hypothalamic amenorrhea, since the body prioritizes living over maintaining other functions such as reproductive functions. And although this confusion could partially inflate the statistical gap between rich and poor countries, the study clarifies that it does not in any way invalidate the main conclusion of the study: on a global level, without estrogen, the heart suffers. Images | Molly Wichman In Xataka | Nuria Marín, menopause expert: “Women continue to look for answers outside the health system”

Between burpees and burpees, some kids have just found a luxurious mansion from the Roman Empire under their gym

by

In all the institutes in the world there is gossip, but while in most of them they talk about flirting, at the Liceo Scientifico Cavour in Rome the real talk was archaeology. More specifically, the rumor that had been heard for years The thing is that under the gymnasium there were Roman ruins. When the teachers notified the authorities and they began preparing for the excavations, they found a vein that is just 100 meters from the mythical Roman Colosseum. The discovery. Just by starting to remove rubble, the archeology team of the Special Superintendence of Rome has discovered the remains of a spectacular Roman domus in an exceptional state of conservation. This large luxury house dates back to the 2nd century AD and is still mostly underground, but intact wall paintings and decorative stuccoes have already been seen that have stood on its vaults practically at their original height, which the archaeologists themselves describe as spectacular. Finding walls and floors is relatively common, but finding legible decoration not so much. The size of the domus and the quantity and quality of decorations discovered indicate that we are facing a residence of high-ranking people of the time. Why is it important. The Liceo Scientifico Cavour is located in the Rione Monti, in the area between the Carinae and the Esquilino, one of the most relevant neighborhoods of ancient Rome. Figures such as Cicero, Pompey and Octavian lived there. Despite this, modern constructions have seriously damaged its archaeological record, according to the Special Superintendence of Rome. As part of this domus already appeared in the 19th century along with a lead pipe with the names of the owners, it is potentially possible to link the material remains with their possible owners. Context. More specifically, it was in 1895, with the opening of Via degli Annibaldi, when a aquarian fistula revealed the name of the owners: the Umbria family. That was the usual Roman method to identify ownership of the water supply. The building where the institute is today was built at the end of the 19th century as the headquarters of a Catholic missionary congregation. Paradoxically, it was this modern construction that served to seal and preserve the Roman remains. Yes, but. At the moment, the discovery already has a provisional name: “Domus del Liceo Cavour” and although there are several hypotheses about the size of the house and its owners, nothing is confirmed until the excavations are completed and the remains found are analyzed in their entirety. And it won’t be easy: digging under a functioning institute makes work slow, so the results can take years. In Xataka | The Romans found a macabre and sophisticated way to use perfume: breaking pigeons’ necks (made of glass) In Xataka | Almost 2,000 years ago a Celtiberian soldier visited the most remote frontier of the Roman Empire. Then he returned to Soria with a souvenir Cover | Jorgen Hendriksen and Cantieri Narranti

A submarine has descended to 7,000 meters in the Indian Ocean and has found something unprecedented: a whale graveyard

by

The deep ocean remains the great unexplored archive of our planet, and each descent into the abyssal zone has the potential to reveal something unusual that we were not aware of before. This is what has happened to the expedition of the Fendouzhe submersible which has been found in the Diamond Zone, southeast of the Indian Ocean, a large cemetery. What they have seen. After 32 dives to suffocating depths of between 4,616 and 7,001 meters, researchers have mapped an unfathomable megasite with a 1,200-kilometer-long strip strewn with fossils and skeletons. It is, by far, the largest cetacean necropolis ever documented. This discovery has been captured in an article published in Nature where the discovery is described as a “whale necropolis”. However, we are not talking about a single mass burial as a result of a catastrophic event, but rather about a historical sinkhole where the corpses of dying whales have been accumulating for millions of years. The identification. The team identified 476 fossil cetaceans and five active biological communities from recent carcasses in a minimal sampling area. Extrapolating from these figures, scientists at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) estimate that there could be about 750 fossils per square kilometer. In the words of an expert like Stephen Godfrey, according to statements collected by LiveScience: “It’s as if each of these whale falls were a new little restaurant opening along a 1,200-kilometer shopping center.”. A trip through time. The importance of the discovery lies not only in the astonishing quantity of the remains of these whales, but also in their age. Using strontium isotope dating, researchers have been able confirm that some of these fossils are at least 5.3 million years old, dating to the Early Pliocene. Among the recovered bones, which are mainly upper jaws, five species of beaked whales and one species of baleen whale have been identified. But the paleobiological star of the discovery is a extinct speciesnamed as Pterocetus diamantina. Life in death. At 7,000 meters deep there is much more life than we think, but in the form of bacteria. The problem is that the energy that comes from the surface is not in the form of light, but literally whale carcasses that fall under their own weight and feed a large ecosystem. We know that specialized bacteria thrive in the dark by breaking down the oils inside bones and releasing hydrogen sulfide. This chemical energy serves as the basis for a food web that attracts insane densities of organisms that number up to 2,840. individuals per square meter. These include, for example, bone-eating worms or bivalve mollusks. Its importance. According to published notes, the importance of the Diamond Zone is twofold. On the one hand, it vividly documents how a concentrated resource such as a giant corpse can sustain diversity under overwhelming pressures. On the other hand, preserving fossils from the late Miocene and Pliocene provides a large “library” of how whales adapted, grew, and colonized the oceans. Images | Jonathan Hsu In Xataka | Jordi Martí, architect: “A green awning on the terrace is like having a radiator over the window”

The secret weapon to cool cities is exactly the one that Spain uses the least: trees

by

Madrid is not only one of the five cities with the most trees and green areas in Europe according to the European Environment Agency, but the FAO has been doing it for six years recognizing it as “Tree City of the World”. And yet, it is at the bottom of the continent in ‘useful cup’ (with only 9.4%). It has many trees, but they are useless. And that, far from being a Madrid curiosity, is the best possible summary of the great Spanish problem with urban trees. What happens to the trees? The short explanation is that they are the cheapest cooling tool available. It’s not a secret. However, the lesson we need to learn is not a crude “we need more trees.” That is what explains the ‘contradiction’ of Madrid. We need more trees, yes. But we need trees of the right species, covering the right layers, planted where they are needed and provide more, and well watered. That is, we need a comprehensive plan that stops seeing trees as inconveniences and begins to see them as opportunities. How do we know all this? The work of Mohammad A. Rahman, Senior Lecturer in Urban Horticulture at the University of Melbourne It is very useful to study how they really work the trees. The results are contradictory, but very interesting. According to their work, for example, the trees in Melbourne (a city with a temperate climate) reduce the radiant heat absorbed by pedestrians by up to 18 degrees compared to an open street with the same characteristics. In the cold climate of Munich, layered vegetation (the combination of trees, shrubs and ground cover) reduces heat stress in summer by up to 8 degrees. In Hong Kong, on the other hand, where the climate is subtropical and humid, dense vegetation increases the humidity of the environment and limits cooling. That is why researchers are beginning to agree that, even maximizing the use of trees, it is difficult for trees cut more than 20% of future urban warming. But be careful, 20% is a lot. Above all, because Spain has a lot to do. According to ISGlobalthe Spanish cities are at the bottom in canopy coverage on urban land: 5.5% in Seville, 8.4% in Barcelona or 9.4% in Madrid compared to 33.3% in Berlin or 23.3% in Frankfurt. To give us an idea, the average of the 93 cities was 11% and only Athens (with 3%) was below Seville. We need to take this seriously. Historically, Spain has bad care of its urban trees. And that “evil” can be summarized in very few words (“few resources, bad management and political decisions isolated from any current technical knowledge”), but it has a very difficult solution. Fundamentally because all this evidence translates into “planting more trees is cheap and saves lives”; but its implementation systematically fails. Image | Ch Photography In Xataka | In Spain, cutting down urban trees seems like a national sport. These Swiss have just proven it wrong

There is more human junk on the Moon than there are cars in a local junkyard. And no one really knows what to do with it.

by

There is a lot of talk about space debris in orbitespecially in low Earth orbit. However, debris resulting from human activity in space is not just floating beyond our planet. Some are found abandoned on the surface of planets, satellites or asteroids. The two largest cemeteries in the solar system are the Moon, where more than 70 objects have passed “on to a better life,” or Mars, where there are 17 landers, rovers and some helicopter destroyed or out of service. These space scrapyards will likely increase over the years. There may come a time when it will be necessary to recycle these materials to continue advancing in space. There are already some projects, but also a lot of legislation that can stop them. The largest cemetery in the Solar System. The Moon houses more than 70 space objects that have landed there in 4 different ways: a deliberate impact, an accidental collision, a controlled deorbitation or a soft and safe landing. Logically, this includes only ships or rovers. They do not count, for example golf balls nor the flags. If we count that, the figure would rise a lot. Some examples. In the group of deliberate collisions we find Moon 2a Soviet ship that hit our satellite on September 13, 1959. It had two objectives. On the one hand, demonstrate that you can reach the Moon. On the other hand, analyze its magnetic fields and radiation. He did this just before impact, while displaying a flag of the Soviet Union. Regarding accidental collisions, we have the Surveyor 2from NASA, which on September 23, 1966 lost control after one of its 3 thrusters did not ignite when it should. In the third group is Lunar Orbiter 1. It was sent by NASA to take photographs and search for sites for the Surveyor and Apollo missions. However, on October 29, 1966, after verifying that it was no longer working properly, the project engineers decided to deorbit it and land it on the Moon. For the last group we have many examples; but, speaking of the most pioneering, on February 3, 1966, the Moon 9 of the USSR made the first soft landing in history. And there it remains, like all of them. viking 1 A scrapyard on Mars. There are many fewer objects on Mars than on the Moon, but little by little there will be more. Currently there are landers from missions that have failed, like Mars 2which crashed in 1971, or who after carrying out their mission successfully have remained there to spend their retirement. This is the case of Viking 1whose lander was in operation from 1976 to 1982. There are also rovers in operation, such as Perseveranceor out of order, as Spirit, Opportunity either Zhurong. There are even some helicopters retired from their duties, such as Ingenuity. In the future there may be more of these objects. For example, NASA recently declared the MAVEN probe lost, which after 11 years It has moved to another orbit from which it can no longer be controlled. It is estimated that the Martian atmosphere will slow it down little by little and that it will end up landing on the red planet within 50 to 100 years. Space recycling is the future. Every extra gram brought aboard a spacecraft counts. Although no permanent base has yet been installed on the Moon, much less on Mars, there are already many scientists exploring ways to exploit its resources. and those around them. Thus, so many materials would not have to be carried from Earth. Therefore, it is not unusual that there are also projects in which recycling is explored of the ships of these space cemeteries. There are even plans to take space debris that is still in orbit and take it to the lunar surface to recycle the materials. Be careful with the legislation. The problem is that, perhaps, one country could not recycle the materials of another. For example, Russia (in the absence of the USSR) could recycle the remains of Luna 2, but not those of Surveyor 2. On the contrary, exactly the same thing would happen. This is due to the United Nations treaty which establishes that “the State in whose registry an object launched into outer space is transported shall maintain jurisdiction and control over said object, and over any person found on it, while it is in outer space.” This would leave some countries at a great disadvantage. For example, while China is advancing at a good pace on its path to the Moon, the reality is that it only has 4 spacecraft in the lunar graveyard, compared to the United States’ 8. Perhaps in the future, when the need arises, certain agreements can be reached, but today that is the legislation. We will have to see how it evolves. Images | Magnific/Unsplash | POT In Xataka | Ingenuity helicopter breaks down on Mars after 72 flights. A photo reveals the damage to one of its blades

The teacher from Cartagena who asked the Beatles to print their lyrics and changed how we listen to music

by

In 1966, Juan Carrión traveled from Cartagena to Almería with a notebook full of gaps. They were not incomplete notes: they were very specific gaps, the fragments of Beatles lyrics that I had not been able to decipher listening to them on the radio and on their records. He went to ask John Lennon to help him complete them. A request that would result in an editorial decision that the recording industry would retain for decades. Who is Juan? Juan Carrión Gañán was born in Madrid in 1924. He became a senior official in the Ministry of Agriculture before resigning to go to London as a Spanish teacher at the Language Center associated with the British Embassy. When he returned to Spain, he settled in Cartagena, where he was offered a position at the Tentegorra military base, and set up his own academy. At that time, no one followed this system of teaching English with song lyrics, but it was a tricky job: I transcribed them in real time while listening to them on the radio, leaving blank the fragments that he could not decipher. A pioneer. Let’s remember that in 1966 there was no convenient way to access the lyrics of a song. Singles occasionally included it on their back cover, and LPs rarely did. The fact is that Carrión’s pedagogical method was effective and pioneering, according to describes the writer Javier Adolfo Iglesiasauthor of the book ‘Juan and John, the professor and Lennon in Almería forever’. Carrión was a “pioneer in the use of multimedia resources, cinema, BBC news and Beatles songs” to teach English. But still, there were fragments that escaped him. To the meeting. When Carrión found out that John Lennon was coming to Spain in October 1966 to film ‘How I Won the War!’ Under the orders of Richard Lester, he took the bus to Almería. He stayed there for a week even though he didn’t have much money: first he made friends with Les Anthony, his driver and bodyguard, and through him he sent him the notebooks. They finally met in person. He had a very specific request: that the Beatles include printed lyrics on their albums to make his job easier. Apparently, Lennon promised him that it would be done on the next album. Curiously, Lennon’s relationship with his colleagues was not going through the best moment, and he was considering leaving the Beatles. In those same days in Almería he would compose ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’, a song that the Beatles would record at the end of 1966 and publish as a single in February 1967. Against Sgt. Pepper’s. The LP that the Beatles released after the meeting was ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’, in 1967. And according to it is saidwas the first rock LP to include all lyrics printed on its back cover. Curiously, many sources specialized in the history of the Beatles document the fact, but Carrión is never mentioned. And yet, the importance of the Beatles’ decision was very significant: what the band did on ‘Sgt. Pepper’s’ became standard practice in the industry. To the cinema. In 2013, director David Trueba adapted Carrión’s story in ‘Living is easy with your eyes closed’, with Javier Cámara in the role of the professor. At the 2014 Goya Awards, the film won six awards, including Best Film, Best Director and Best Leading Actor. It was the Spanish candidacy for the Oscars that year. Carrión died on August 30, 2017 in Cartagena and Trueba lament having “met very late in life, especially in his.” In Xataka | The shock of an era: this was the murky breakup of the Beatles seen 50 years later

They have found a way to green the Sahara and it is not by planting trees: by releasing 500 turtles

by

The Sahel is the strip of land that separates the Sahara and the African savannahs, but it is increasingly more desert than anything else. The United Nations UNCCD has already warned that the Sahel is one of the regions of Africa most vulnerable to desertification and what it entails: soils so hardened that they prevent water penetration and plants no longer take root. If planting is not possible and conditions become harsh, desertification leads to forced migration of those who live there. The classic response to try to stop desertification has been to plant trees, but it is an expensive method and does not always work, so someone has proposed a different experiment: it is not introducing vegetation but rather returning an animal whose behavior is capable of changing the structure of the soil. Turtles for frenew the desert. In 2021 a research team he blurted out 500 african spurred tortoises precisely on the southern border of the Sahara. They didn’t do anything special, just let them do their thing. Five years later, satellite images they have confirmed that where before there was only sand, now there are green patches of vegetation. And what do African turtles do? Well dig. This species, whose natural habitat is precisely the Sahelbuilds burrows up to 15 meters in length to instinctively protect themselves from heat and cold. This construction work breaks up the crust of the soil, allowing water to pass through and ultimately creating more favorable conditions for seeds to germinate. Why is it important. Because the African spurred tortoise is a ecosystem engineer: a species that benefits other species with its modification of the environment. Like the UNCCD has already pointed outland restoration is one of the best solutions to desertification and the turtle does it alone, without the need for machinery. For local communities, digging in semi-desert areas to have holes that retain water is an arduous task that the turtle does natively throughout its life. Paradoxically, the African spurred tortoise is native there, but it is increasingly difficult to find because it is threatened. That this turtle disappears from the Sahel is bad news for biodiversity, but also for the soil: without its valuable excavation work, the surface hardens, the water drains away and, ultimately, the seeds do not hold. Context. The soil of the Sahel has been so degraded in recent decades that as early as 1977 was organized in NairobiKenya, the first United Nations Conference on Desertification. Although it is one of the most vulnerable areas, it is one of the great structural problems of Africa: two thirds of the continent is classified as deserts or arid lands and it is estimated that two thirds of African land is already degraded to some degree. But for the African spurred tortoise it has not been a bed of roses either: it has been under the magnifying glass of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora since 2000, with restrictions to protect it and reintroduction in the north and west of Ferlo and Senegal: in 2017 the African Chelonian Institute already made a documented release of 20 individuals. There are also captive colonies in several countries in Africa and outside of it. However, the according to the IUCN Red List The species’ population continues to decline due to habitat loss, exploitation for eggs and meat, the pet trade, and the effects of climate change such as desertification. In detail. The ecological mechanism consists in which the turtle’s digging breaks up the hardened crust of the soil and its tunnels allow rainwater to penetrate deeper layers, instead of evaporating quickly. As a result, porosity improves, surface temperature decreases and nutrient availability is enhanced. As a consequence, the soil gains water retention capacity and humidity is maintained longer. Seeds that could not germinate before find the minimum conditions to develop. In addition, insects and microorganisms colonize these excavated spaces, which activates the ecological chain and ends up attracting birds and small vertebrates. It is not a lush jungle, but it has enough green shoots to stop desertification and recover biodiversity. Yes, but. The reintroduction of turtles does not work miracles: it is just the starting point. For the process to progress on the right track, other requirements are necessary, such as availability of rain and a sustainable and stable management policy. There is little point in introducing them if they are later hunted, something not unreasonable given that the species is already threatened. On the other hand, we know that digging improves the soil, but I could be doing something else: disperse seeds throughout the Sahel, so that part of those new green shoots are also their work without us yet knowing it. In Xataka | The rain has transformed the driest desert on the planet into a sea of ​​flowers. It’s a sight to behold and a problem for experts In Xataka | 4,000 years ago the Sahara was not yet a desert. We have found the new evidence in a cave in Sudan Cover | Wikimedia and Ash Hayes

We believed that açaí was pure Instagram posturing. Science has just confirmed that it is a nutritional beast

by

In the era of well-being, we have become accustomed to seeing how our social networks are flooded with exotic and aesthetic foods. We have shied away from a sedentary lifestyle and have embraced trends that a few years ago seemed impossible to find. It happened with matcha tea, with coconut milk and, in recent years, the undisputed king of healthy “posturing” has been açaí, omnipresent in bowls colorful ones promoted by nutrition gurus. However, what seemed to be simply another fad imported from the United States has just made the definitive leap to mass consumption in Spain. Mercadona has joined this fever by launching an açaí sorbet with guarana flavor for this summer. The democratization of this product raises an inevitable question: behind this commercial and aesthetic maelstrom, are there real benefits or is it just smoke? The medical evidence is resounding: we are facing a superfood that literally crushes historical competitors such as blueberries. The true story of açaí. To understand the phenomenon, we must first clarify what exactly we are eating. The açaí (Euterpe oleracea) It’s not technically a berry.but a drupe (a fruit with a large central stone that occupies up to 80% of its volume). It grows high on palm trees in the rainforests of the central and South American Amazon, where it has been a staple food for indigenous communities for centuries. Why don’t we see it fresh in our neighborhood fruit shop? The answer is logistics. The fresh açaí It has a very short useful life and it spoils in just 24 hours after harvesting. Therefore, the only way to export it is through frozen pulp or freeze-dried powder. A true antioxidant bomb. The aesthetics of Instagram initially overshadowed what the medical community has long studied in amazement. “It is fashionable, yes, but it also has more antioxidants than blueberries,” says Dr. Sara Marín Berbell forcefully. in Women’s Health. The key to its power lies in anthocyanins, the plant pigment that gives it its characteristic dark purple color and that protects our cells against oxidative damage responsible for premature aging. Its nutritional profile is a rarity in the world of fruit. As health portals such as Healthlineaçaí is unusually high in healthy fats and very low in sugar (it barely contains about 2 grams per 100 naturally). Additionally, registered dietitian Julia Zumpano explains in Cleveland Clinic that açaí is rich in phytosterols, plant compounds that block the absorption of cholesterol into the bloodstream, protecting our cardiovascular health. Its impact goes further. It is an exceptional ally for blood sugar control; Its glycemic index is only 24, well below the 72 for watermelon or the 75 for white bread. And if that were not enough, its polyphenols act as a powerful prebiotic. By reaching the colon almost intact, they serve as a banquet for our microbiota, strengthening the intestinal barrier. On a neurological level, the antioxidants in açaí help protect brain cells from oxidative stress that leads to cognitive decline. The supermarket trap. With such an impeccable medical resume, it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that any product with the word “açaí” on its label is healthy. And this is where experts issue a serious warning about its arrival in supermarkets and cafes. Mercadona’s recent sorbet has set off alarms among nutritionists. Dietitian Miguel Ángel Ruiz remove your labela: “If we look at the nutritional value we see that for every 100 grams it contains 11 grams of sugar (…) Natural fruit has around 2 or 3 grams.” Although the first ingredient is açaí pulp (55%), sugar comes in third place. For his part, nutritionist Carlos Ríos add in The Mail that the product includes problematic emulsifiers, such as carboxymethyl, which is inflammatory and alters the microbiota. It spreads in cafes. Dietitian Julie Harrington warns in EatingWell that the famous açaí bowls They can quickly become high-calorie bombs if they are not prepared carefully, especially when locals use sugary bases or abuse syrups and toppings. The solution? Go to supermarkets that offer real and pure alternatives, such as the 100% frozen açaí tablets with no added sugar sold by Alcampo, allowing the consumer to prepare their own truly healthy version at home. Purple gold at the crossroads. The impact of açaí has ​​transcended our diets to become a matter of State and ecological survival. The figures it moves (it is estimated that it generates more than a billion dollars annually worldwide) have attracted the attention of large corporations. According to reports France 24earlier this year Brazil declared açaí its “national fruit” in a desperate attempt to shield itself from international biopiracy. The danger is real since in 2003, a Japanese company registered the “açaí” trademark, and it took years of litigation to regain control of the name. But the secret of açaí does not lie only in the palm tree, but in those who take care of it. Research from the scientific journal Springer has revealed that the true heroines Behind this superfood are the native stingless bees (meliponines) of the Amazon. These insects are responsible for 60% of fruit pollination. This ecosystem has created a fascinating bioeconomy. How it documents Mongabay, Amazonian families are abandoning livestock farming and deforestation to dedicate themselves to the sustainable cultivation of açaí and the breeding of these bees. The propolis generated by these insects, enhanced by the pollen of the açaí palm tree, has been shown in clinical trials to have healing and anti-inflammatory properties comparable to commercial medications, opening a new economic avenue through natural cosmetics that protects, instead of destroying, the jungle. A superfood, not a miracle. In short, science has confirmed that açaí is, deservedly, a “purple gold.” Its cardiovascular, neurological and antioxidant benefits are not a mirage created by social networks. However, rigor requires caution. The expert Julia Zumpano He is categorical when it comes to rejecting the famous “detox diets” based exclusively on taking açaí supplements, warning that they lack scientific evidence and can be dangerous. As Dr. Marín … Read more

College students are rapidly losing a critical skill: reading.

by

My students can’t read. It is the title of the opinion column in which Tyler Jagtuniversity literature professor, narrates the situation currently found in his classrooms. Many students are not able to read or maintain the plot of a 20-page text. He believes that AI and mobile phones are to blame. 20 pages is too much. This teacher says that he has been assigning the same task to his rhetoric and writing students for five years: reading a 20-page article. However, this year none of his students finished the work and they were not repeaters, but rather university students who had passed the entrance exams. One of them was honest and admitted that the text was too long and “constantly missed the point of the article.” Jagt acknowledges that the complaint that students do not know how to read is common among teachers, but according to him this time things are serious and there is data that corroborates it. The tests. According to the results of the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), students in grade 12 (equivalent to a 2nd year of Baccalaureate in Spain) obtained the lowest score on the reading test since the assessment began in 1992. A third of the participants reached the basic level, which means that they are likely not able to “draw general conclusions based on concepts explicitly presented in a text.” Younger students are even worse off. According to a study by the Annie E. Casey Foundation70% of fourth grade students (like fourth grade) are not able to read fluently. That is in the United States, but in Spain the situation is not ideal either. According to the OECDat least a third of the Spanish population has level 1 reading comprehension, which means that “they can only understand very short texts with a minimum of distracting information.” A report from the BBVA Foundation and the Valencian Institute of Economic Research (Ivie)Spaniards between 25 and 34 years old, who have studied more than their parents, advance much more slowly in basic skills. It’s technology’s fault. Or at least that is what the author maintains, specifically the emergence of smartphones and, more recently, AI. The idea that technology makes us stupid has been accompanying us for decades and with the emergence of AI, technological panic has intensified. That students are using AI to do their jobs is something we already knew. What is still not clear is what consequences it can have on a cognitive level. There is no evidence that technology produces cognitive damage (yes changes), but it is also true that until now we have not had a technology capable of doing everything that AI does. Debt and cognitive surrender. They are two concepts that emerged from recent studies. The first, cognitive debtcomes from a MIT research titled “Your brain on ChatGPT”. Participants who used ChatGPT had the worst brain performance when completing a task that involved writing essays. The researchers conclude that using AI as a complete substitute for mental effort can weaken our neural connections. The idea of cognitive surrender is mentioned in a recent study from the University of Pennsylvania. According to researchers, cognitive surrender arises when we delegate our thinking to AI and accept its answers too confidently. Another study from the University of Oxford saw how If we use AI and then it is taken away from us, our performance worsens. not so fast. There is an important nuance and that is that the concept of “using AI” is very varied. We can use it without checking the answers and accepting everything it tells us or we can use it as a tool in our creative process. In fact, in several of these studies, participants who used AI as support obtained scores very similar to those of the group that did not use AI. Therefore it is not whether we use it or not, it is how we use it. However, the arguments in favor of using AI in educational environments are becoming fewer and fewer. There was a study that said using chatbots like ChatGPT had a positive impact on learning, but was recently withdrawn due to “concerns regarding discrepancies”. Come on, the biggest argument of the defenders of educational AI went down the drain. The other culprit. As we said, this professor also points to smartphones as responsible for this situation. Appointment a 2017 study in which they verified how the simple presence of the mobile phone reduced the “available cognitive capacity”. He also cites another 2022 study in which they saw that reading on a smartphone was associated with prefrontal overload and decreased concentration. Tiktokize the school. The problem is not cell phones, but social networks and doomscrolling that hijacks our attention. We have become accustomed to consuming pills of information in the form of tweets, posts, reels and tiktoks. In this context, a 20-page text is much, much. Tyler Jagt is adapting to this reality by dividing work into two, so they have to read less, and assigning specific tasks so they don’t lose track as much. Image | Siora Photography in Unsplash In Xataka | “I can’t stop”: the addiction to talking to AI is already here and there are even support groups to quit it

BYD wants to dethrone Toyota in five years. The problem is that first he has to fix what is happening in China

by

Wang Chuanfu, president of BYD, has full confidence that the next few years are going to be big for the company. However, the price of its shares is not following to the company’s exploits, and for that reason it has sent a message that is intended, above all, for its investors: the promise of becoming the world’s leading manufacturer in terms of scale. Wang spoke about the issue at the Chinese company’s annual shareholders meeting, held in Shenzhen on June 9. His words come at a delicate moment, since BYD’s actions have fallen more than 45% from its highs in Hong Kong in the last year, and 33% on the Shenzhen stock market. In fact, his promise failed to convince, as the next day, shares fell another 4.3% in Hong Kong and 1.6% in Shenzhen. This is how things are at BYD. Target: Toyota. BYD is already the largest electric car manufacturer in the world by sales, having surpassed Tesla last year. But Wang’s objective goes further, as he wants BYD become number one global in total vehicle volume, ahead of Toyota. And precisely, to achieve this, it would have to sell more than double what it is selling now. In 2025, Toyota sold 11.3 million vehicles; BYD, 4.8 million. The distance is enormous. Technology. At the meeting, Wang assured that the second generation Blade battery was the main growth bottleneck this year and has pledged to accelerate its production. He also highlighted the advances in ultra-fast charging, since this week BYD announced an investment of about 2,000 million euros in Europe to develop its Flash Charge infrastructure, with 1,500 kW of power and that would allow its cars to be charged from 10% to 70% in just 5 minutes. The firm showed it to us last April, when we were able to attend the official presentation of the Denza Z9GT. Along with this, the president of the company claimed that BYD has 3.15 million vehicles with intelligent driving already in circulation, accumulating 200 million kilometers of data per day, and that L3 and L4 level autonomous driving will arrive “sooner than expected.” “As soon as the regulation is ready, BYD will take off quickly,” Wang said. A domestic problem. The great tension of the moment is precisely at home. And the Chinese market, where BYD does most of its business, has become fiercely competitive. The price war between local manufacturers has pressured margins and hampered sales. Between January and May of this year, total deliveries fell more than 20% compared to the same period of the previous year, according to account Reuters. This internal bleeding is what worries investors, and no promises about Toyota have covered it up for now. Your business away from home. Exports are the other side of the coin, and there the panorama is different. In the first five months of the year, international sales grew 65% year-on-yearwith Brazil, the United Kingdom and Australia as the main destinations. In May alone, BYD sold more than 160,000 vehicles outside China, 80% more than in the same month of 2025. The goal for 2026 is to exceed one and a half million units exported, which would represent an increase of more than 40% over the 1.05 million last year. According to share According to CarNewsChina, Wang admitted at the meeting that the current trend aims to exceed even the initial goal of 1.6 million. Europe, opportunity and problems. The firm knows that to achieve its objectives, Europe is key to its expansion. Stella Li, chief international officer of BYD, confirmed to Reuters that the hungary plant will begin assembling cars in the fourth quarter of this year. Manufacturing locally is essential if you want to avoid the tariffs that the European Union has imposed on Chinese electric companies. However, the Hungarian factory is attracting some controversy, since organizations such as China Labor Watch have reported alleged violations of European labor legislation, and local authorities have sanctioned three companies linked to its construction for dumping excavation soils on surrounding agricultural land. The matter remains open. The shadow of the Pentagon. As if the problems in the stock market and the pressure in its domestic market were not enough, this week the United States Department of Defense added BYD to its list of “Chinese military companies”considering it a risk to national security. Beijing responded by calling the decision without a factual basis. BYD does not operate in the US market due to existing tariffsbut the label complicates its image and its possible future movements in that market. In Xataka | A German driver set out to discover how much he could stretch the tank of his old diesel car. And he has done 2,400 kilometers

Log In

Forgot password?

Forgot password?

Enter your account data and we will send you a link to reset your password.

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

Log in

Privacy Policy

Add to Collection

No Collections

Here you'll find all collections you've created before.