usatoday24

The mission is to teach them to work in real life

May 18, 2026 by usatoday24

For a long time, the big conversation about artificial intelligence has revolved around models capable of summarizing, programming or generating images. But when we take that ambition to the physical world, everything changes. A robot does not learn to work just by reading instructions: it needs to observe, repeat, fail and accumulate data on real movements. That is why the next frontier of robotics is not only in manufacturing more agile bodies or more precise hands, but in building the entire system necessary to teach them to act outside the laboratory. This system is beginning to take shape in Fujian, where the province’s first large data collection factory has been launched in a test phase. According to CCTVthe facility is located in Area D of Fuzhou Software Park and has been created by Fujian Jufu Technology. There, almost 30 robots follow the instructions of different operators, described by Chinese sources as “teachers”, to practice tasks such as cleaning tables, sorting fruits and vegetables or disposing of parcel boxes. The mechanics of that “school” are relatively easy to imagine, but very demanding underneath. Operators wear virtual reality devices and operate controls to guide the robot during each exercise. When the operator raises his arm, the machine reproduces the gesture and, for example, grab a paper cup to place it on top of another. The important thing is not only that it completes the action, but that each movement, joint angle and clamp pressure is recorded by cameras and sensors. The school where robots learn with real data One of the least showy parts is also one of the most decisive. The tasks we see in the video, such as cleaning a table or picking up a glass, seem simple because we do them almost without thinking. For a humanoid, on the other hand, each gesture requires a specific sequence of physical decisions. Data collection engineer Jiao Shiwei explained to Fuzhou News that even the smallest movements need to be learned through data, and that each action must be designed according to the characteristics of the robot itself to find the most suitable trajectory. The key word here is “generalization.” That is, the ability to apply what has been learned when the environment is no longer identical to the training environment. Shiwei summed it up with two very basic actions: pick up a glass and clean a table. If the object, surface and stain do not change, the robot has it relatively easy. But in a house, a factory or a service space, almost nothing is repeated the same. Hence, data collection workers introduce variations in glasses, tablecloths and tables to expand the scope for learning. The bottom line is that robots are also entering their own race for data. In other areas of AI, much of the progress was based on digital material already available. In robotics, on the other hand, many of the examples must be generated from scratch, with real machines, real objects and movements repeated over and over again. Xinhua puts the problem in these terms: the bottleneck of humanoids is no longer concentrated only in the hardware, but in how to continue perfecting their “brain” through training in application scenarios. The industrial reading of the project helps to understand why these small tasks can end up becoming infrastructure. Chen Yishi, CEO of Jufu Technology, told Fuzhou News that these types of factories provide support for end-to-end models and implementation in vertical scenarios. The idea is that an AI robot does not function as a traditional machine limited to a fixed sequence, but as a guided system capable of make decisions on the body from real training. The company is also recent. Jufu Technology was founded in September 2025 and presents its activity as a combination of data factory and self-development. Its objective is not limited to accumulating examples of movement, but to create around that base a local ecosystem of algorithmic talent, data and collaboration with the industrial chain. Yishi, for his part, pointed out that its future products aim at industrial manufacturing, safety inspection, research and education, although sources present it as a roadmap, not as an already consolidated deployment. Images | Jufu Technology | Xinhua In Xataka | The ‘Chinese Netflix’ has designed a plan for AI to generate the majority of its content within five years. It sounds risky

have measured for the first time how its disappearance makes us poorer and malnourished

May 17, 2026 by usatoday24

We have been hearing warnings for years about the global collapse of populations of bees, butterflies and other pollinators. Until now, the debate had often focused on the loss of biodiversity and ecosystems, but now a new and pioneering study has just shown that this ecological crisis goes much further by pointing out that the decline of insects It is already directly affecting human nutritionbecoming a very important food safety issue. It is being analyzed. Although some people may wish that these insects would end up disappearing because they disgust them, the reality is that it is not the best of ideas. Here the key piece of this new alert is a study published in Nature that quantified the real and tangible impact that the lack of pollinators has on the environment. What has been seen? The team here analyzed the daily life of 10 agricultural villages in Nepal for a year and cross-referenced data on the abundance and diversity of pollinating insects in the area, the exact yields of their crops and, most importantly, the nutritional status of the inhabitants. Once all this information was cross-referenced, the results indicated that pollinators are directly responsible for approximately 44% of the agricultural income of these communities. But the most critical data is in the diet, since insects guarantee more than 20% of the intake of vitamin A, E and folate. And, by decreasing pollination, Harvests of fruits, vegetables and seeds rich in these micronutrients fall drastically, leaving communities exposed to nutritional deficiencies. A great crisis. To understand the magnitude of this finding, we must look at the global trend, often dubbed in the scientific community and in the media as the “insect apocalypse.” In this case, in 2019 a study set off alarm bells by estimating that 40% of species of insects worldwide is in decline. And the data pointed to massive drops in the number of flying insects in parts of Germany and also in the forest of Puerto Rico. And logically, this global disappearance has consequences, since insects are the basis of countless food webs and essential for nutrient recycling and pollination. Globally, it is estimated that approximately three-quarters of the world’s food crops depend to some extent on animal pollination. Why do they disappear? science is clear that intensive land use and climate change are very important factors when it comes to explaining why these insects are declining. And the regions that suffer the worst declines in insect abundance and diversity are, paradoxically, those with intensive agriculture and little remaining natural habitat, aggravated by rising temperatures. In the end, we are facing a true vicious circle, since the habitat of insects is destroyed and pesticides are also used massively to produce more food, but in doing so we annihilate the very pollinators on which the profitability and quality of those same crops depends. Is there a solution? Here the escape route specified by the research points to the need to plant strips of native flowers around the crops to ensure constant food for pollinators. Furthermore, transitioning towards agricultural models that do not indiscriminately poison our allies is also essential. Images | wirestock at Magnific In Xataka | We have a serious problem with the extinction of bees. The United Kingdom wants to solve it with bricks

we have turned the ocean into an acoustic hell

May 17, 2026 by usatoday24

The ocean is no longer the silent paradise it used to be, as beneath the surface a constant cacophony of engines, propellers and giant ship hulls has created an “acoustic fog” that is suffocating marine life. and this It is creating a very serious problemespecially with the whales that are trying to raise their voices to be heard over the noise of the ships, but physically they can no longer scream. We have it close. To understand the magnitude of the problem, one does not have to go far, since in the Strait of Gibraltar itselfone of the busiest maritime highways on the planet, cetaceans are living on the edge. And here science is seeing that the pilot whales of the strait are “screaming” to communicate with their groups. However, the effort is in vain, since the data reveals that, no matter how much these whales try to raise their vocalizations, they barely manage to reach half the noise level generated by maritime traffic continuous. Simply put, the noise of merchant ships and ferries silences them and does not cut their communication links with others of their species. Why not stronger? It would be the most logical question that could come to mind, but the reality is that science points to the existence of an unbreakable physiological limit in their larynxes that makes it impossible for them to raise their ‘voice’ any higher. It must be taken into account that the vocal anatomy of these whales is perfectly adapted for the depths, but becomes ineffective to compete with the frequencies and volume of merchant ships that travel on the surface. In fact, below 100 meters of depth, their ability to compensate for environmental noise hits a biological wall, since maritime noise is masked in such a way that their vocalizations are completely disrupted. The danger of your instinct. Added to this physical limit is a behavioral problem, since evolution has prepared whales to deal with the natural noise of the ocean, but human noise is completely foreign to them. Studies here showed that while these animals know how to react to natural threats by adjusting their singing patterns, they do not have the instinct necessary to evade anthropogenic noise. They simply don’t process the sound of a freighter as a threat they must flee from or adapt to until it’s too late and the end is quite catastrophic. Its impact. It is not limited to the fact that they cannot “talk” to each other, but this sound masking forces the animals to abandon rich feeding areas for more impoverished but quiet areas. Furthermore, since males and females cannot communicate from kilometers away, the rates of encounters to reproduce fall. In the end, we are facing a problem that is serious, which has led institutions such as the Ministry for the Ecological Transition to monitor these hot spots of noise in the Mediterranean that are altering the behavior of fauna. And all because the whales here cannot adapt to the rhythm of our noise, so the solution is to make our boats ‘quiet’ so that they do not have a great impact on the fauna. Images | rawpixel.com on Magnific In Xataka | He dug a 60 cm pond in the garden and in a few weeks clutches of frog eggs appeared: from useless grass to nursery

Eat breakfast as soon as you wake up or wait a couple of hours? This is what science says about perfect timing

May 17, 2026 by usatoday24

For decades we have heard the incomprehensible mantra that “breakfast is the most important meal of the day”, however, nutrition has been advancing to put the focus now when we eat and not what it is eaten. But here chrononutrition studies how the timing of our food affects our metabolism; has a lot to say about it. A schedule. If you are one of those who jump out of bed straight to the toaster or, on the contrary, one of those who need a couple of hours to pass for their stomach to “open”, you have probably asked yourself: what is the ideal time to have breakfast? And to answer this question, we have to turn to science. The biological clock. Something very important here is that our body does not process food the same at eight in the morning than at eight in the afternoon, all because our circadian clock and insulin sensitivity fluctuate throughout the day. According to classic reviews in this field, aligning the onset of feeding with the active phase of our circadian rhythm improves glucose homeostasis, lipid control, and thermogenesis. The bottom line here is that our body is better prepared to manage energy in the morning. The studies. Here, a large review published in 2023 followed more than 100,000 people and its results were conclusive in pointing out that eating breakfast after 9:00 in the morning increases the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. 59% compared to doing it before 8:00. But constantly delaying the first meal of the day and shifting caloric intake towards the evening is associated with a higher cardiovascular risk and worse metabolic markers at the population level. Therefore, the premise we have on the table right now is that eating breakfast early offers a great advantage. But with nuances. Having breakfast early is good, but… Does it have to be as soon as you open your eyes? There is no clinical trial here that dictates that you should eat food at minute zero after waking up, and in fact, waiting a little can bring benefits metabolic under certain situations. One of them, which came from a trial published in 2025compared people who ate breakfast early, at 8:30, with another group of people who ate breakfast mid-morning, at 10:30. Here, surprisingly, mid-morning breakfast reduced the glycemic response of the following meal to make it more efficient. This indicates that the time interval between breakfast and lunch influences how our body processes sugar hours later. More cases. In the case of being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, a trial observed that delaying breakfast until mid-morning or even at noon managed to reduce the blood glucose that occurred after eating. What needs to be done. For most adults, science suggests that it is best to eat breakfast within the first hour or two of waking up, so there is no need to get out of bed and start eating because it seems to be the most efficient. But if we want to be precise, the limit may be nine in the morning, since delaying the first time we drink something too much in the day until noon and having dinner late is the perfect recipe for metabolic imbalance. In short, there is no need to force yourself to swallow toast with your eyes still glued to sleep. Letting your body wake up, doing your morning routines, and eating breakfast an hour after waking up not only respects your natural rhythms if you’re not immediately hungry, but it has solid clinical support. Images | freepik In Xataka | We’ve been telling ourselves for 100 years that breakfast is the “most important meal of the day.” The problem is that it is not true

AI is ruining the plant world

May 17, 2026 by usatoday24

AI is infiltrating everything, even the most specific and least technological niches. Crochet fans They know it very well, but they are not the only ones, the community of plant enthusiasts is also living (many times, rather suffering) the effects of AI. Impossible plants, meaningless care advice and entire unions against it. Welcome to another new episode of AI ruining things. Fake plant scams We already talked about the hobby of collecting rare plants. The ones that tend to succeed the most are variegated plants, which means that their leaves have patterns with spots of different colors, and also hybrids between different varieties. In this context, AI arrives and, as it could not be otherwise, a whole wave of advertisements appear selling rare plants. Too rare. In the cover image you can see some examples of this type of ads. Plants with butterfly-shaped leaves and fluorescent color, purple, blue or pink leaves, alocasias of monstrous size… The amount of AI-generated plant photo scams are overwhelming and we have found them all on Etsy, although there are also on other platforms such as Facebook Marketplace or eBay. We already talked about how Etsy had been filled with AI-generated images posing as real illustrations. With plants we have confirmed what we already saw: Etsy is a market of AI scams without any type of control. What you ask for vs what you get. Image: Etsy Searching for “rare plant” numerous accounts appear that sell seeds and bulbs of plants that do not exist, all generated with AI and also in a very noticeable way, without any disguise. Since what they send are the seeds, if someone complains they can always use the excuse of “wait for it to grow”, but many users already realize that Those seeds do not correspond to the advertised plant. Some positive comments from various accounts. We have also found numerous positive comments on some of these stores, but they were as fake as plants. The first is because of the language and the use of emojis, very typical of texts generated with AI, but also because none of these accounts were normal users. One of them was another AI plant shop and the other three were newly created accounts, which only followed AI plant shops. Seeing this I immediately thought of the theory of the dead internet. I have reported one of these stores to Etsy and it has caught my attention that they only allow it to be noted that the items are not handmade or that it is adult content not labeled as such, no scams or AI content. I will update the article if I receive a response. To avoid being scammed with one of these impossible plants, it is best to look for information about that variety of plant specifically. There are plants with leaves that may look fake or painted, such as Begonia Ferox, Caladiums or some Calatheas. If it exists, you will find information online. AI as a plant “doctor” There is another aspect in which AI is very present in the world of plants and that is care. Many hobbyists turn to ChatGPT and other chatbots to ask what’s wrong with your plantshow much they should water them or if they should transplant them. In addition to the chatbots themselves, there are a lot of apps to take care of our plants which have built-in AI functions. We have already seen that AI tends to be complacent and agree with usregardless of whether your answer is wrong and with the advice on plants it was not going to be different. Hallucinations also happen in the plant universe. To no one’s surprise, many times the advice is anything but reliablefrom recommending home remedies that have no scientific basis (such as watering plants with milk), to explaining in detail how to propagate a plant from the tip of a leaf (spoiler, you can’t). To a user on Reddit recommended using thrips as a natural predator to control pests, the problem is that thrips are a pest. The ‘PlantMom’ experiment. Image: Liam Kloppers Another striking case was the experiment carried out by Liam Kloppers which he called ‘PlantMom’in which he set up an AI system based on Google’s Gemma 3 model and put it to take care of a chili plant. The system included light, temperature and soil humidity sensors, along with a grow light and water pump. The result was that the AI misinterpreted the sensor data, turned off the grow light and watered when it was not needed, causing the plant to almost drown. Another use of AI in this world has to do with plant identification. There are specific apps for this and we can also upload an image to a chatbot and have it do the identification. Of course, we must keep in mind that AI always prioritizes giving a response, so If you don’t know a plant you won’t admit itbut will identify it with another different species. At least in this the consequences do not necessarily imply the death of the plant. Cover image | Etsy In Xataka | Asking Claude for advice on your love problems sounds great. Until he gives it to you

Europe throws away 16 billion a year in electronic waste. Spain has just turned on the first oven in Europe to recover them

May 17, 2026 by usatoday24

Those cell phones, computers and small devices that are gathering dust in a drawer and ending up in a landfill contain valuable minerals such as copper, silver and platinum inside, which also end up there. Every year in the Spanish state almost 930,000 tons of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) are thrown away, which makes Spain the sixth state on the continent in generation of this type of waste. according to data from the UN E-waste Monitor by 2024. Of these, less than half is documented and recycled waste. In a context in which rare earths and critical minerals are a strategic resource of which Europe wants to achieve sovereignty, Spain has taken a step forward with a CSIC pilot plant pioneer in the old continent: a furnace capable of melting that electronic waste to extract valuable metals from it. The pioneer oven. A few days ago the National Center for Metallurgical Research of the CSIC inaugurated in Madrid the first European pilot plant capable of recovering critical metals from electronic waste using a submerged lance furnace, which exceeds 1,200 °C to melt electronic waste. The milestone was formalized with the first experimental casting of metals obtained directly from electronic waste and obtained materials such as copper, gold, silver and platinum in a clean and efficient way. In conventional furnaces, the heat comes from the outside, but in this case a metal lance is introduced that injects oxygen and fuel directly into the molten bath, which generates intense turbulence that mixes and homogenizes the material, accelerates chemical reactions and improves energy efficiency. Why is it important. Because every year Europe generates millions of tons of electronic waste containing copper, gold, silver, platinum and strategic minerals necessary for the energy transition and digitalization. A part of them is not recovered: it is lost or used outside the continent. The facility in question is an advance in advanced pyrometallurgy and the management of waste from electrical and electronic equipment that shows that it is possible to treat this waste in Europe, thus preventing the associated economic value from leaving the continent, which allows the raw materials to be reincorporated into the European production chain itself. In addition, it connects directly with the Critical Raw Materials Law of the European Union, which fixed that at least 25% of the critical raw materials consumed by the EU by 2030 must come from recycling. The EU is currently heavily dependent on imports of critical raw materials, often from a single supplier, which poses a serious geopolitical risk in the form of dependence on strategic sectors such as renewable energy, digitalisation and defence. Context. The generation of WEEE is out of control and breaking records. According to the UN international waste observatoryin 2022 the world generated 62 million tons, 82% more than in 2010, but less than in 2030, when the estimated figure is 82 million tons. Europe takes the cake: in 2022 it was the region with the highest volume of WEEE per inhabitant with 17.6 kg per person, of which only 7.3 kg were recovered. But that garbage is money: the UN E-Waste quantifies the economic value of those 62 million tons at 91 billion dollars a year. If of this global total of WEEE, 13 million tons of garbage per year They belong to Europe. Calculated proportionally, it would be equivalent to losing about 19,000 million dollars annually due to poorly managing these materials (about 16,340 million euros at the exchange rate). While we search for deposits and accelerate their exploitation in a sector dominated by China, we have a deposit pending to be exploited: the “urban” mine with WEEE recycling. The situation regarding WEEE in Europe in 2022. UN E-Waste 2024 How it works. He submerged lance furnace is based on the ISASMELT processso that the raw materials only need to be pre-mixed, there is no need for fine grinding or drying, which simplifies the feeding with materials as heterogeneous as WEEE. The separation of materials is based on the difference in densities: once the waste is melted, copper and precious metals such as gold or silver tend to sink to the bottom of the reactor due to their greater density, while the slag (which is non-metallic) floats on the surface, which makes extraction simple. The project has been possible thanks to a public-private collaboration between CENIM-CSIC and two companies, the European copper smelting giant Atlantic Copper and the metallurgical company Glencore Technology. Yes, but. The CENIM facility is a pilot plant, not an industrial plant, and this leap in pyrometallurgy is not exactly small: engineering issues must be resolved such as the management of the gases emitted in the process or the useful life of the furnace’s refractory materials, among others. And this project may find its political framework in the Critical Raw Materials Act, but this It’s more of a statement of intent. than anything else: it does not have a roadmap nor has it made available new funds to accelerate these initiatives. However, the biggest problem is not in the oven, but in recycling or the absence of this: 46% of WEEE and the critical materials it contains are lost before reaching any recycling facility, simply because collection is poor. There is little point in developing highly efficient recovery technology if electronic waste ends up mixed with organic waste in the brown container. Or if it is exported outside of Europe. The real bottleneck remains collection. In Xataka | Mortadelo and Filemón work for the CSIC: TIA agents explain the history of science to us with their comics In Xataka | The CSIC wants to create quantum solar energy capable of self-regulating its temperature. His inspiration: painting Cover | yasin hemmati and Nathan Cima

What I would have liked to know sooner about adaptive 120 Hz

May 17, 2026 by usatoday24

A few years ago, we lived so happily with 60 Hz refresh screens. Everything seemed fluid, fast and more than enough to us. Although this changed with the arrival of the 120 Hz panels and, once you try them, there is no turning back. Personally I have the iPhone 15 Proone of whose main virtues is its ProMotion display at 120Hz. With the use I give it, I want to answer the question with which I titled this post and know if 120 Hz is really worth it or if this figure is just marketing. The truth is that, a priori, the answer is clear: once you try a screen of this type, if you pick up an old phone, it will seem slow. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links What happens when you launch a mobile phone with 120 Hz? In the case of my iPhone 15 Pro (or any other mobile phone that has a 120 Hz refresh rate screen), the truth is that the best way to explain it to you what does it feel like with this figure It is not looking at the screen of this mobile phone, but any other screen that has a lower refresh rate. When you use your phone for the first time, you will notice a certain elasticity and that everything floats on the mobile and the animations on iOS will seem liquid to you. Although the clicking will come when you pick up a standard iPhone 15 or another mobile with 60 Hz. Suddenly, you will have the feeling that everything is jerking and there is a kind of delay on the screen and that it does not respond. Although, in reality, it’s not that that phone is slow, it’s that your brain has already become accustomed to the fluidity of twice as many images per second. Although another key concept that should be taken into account is the touch sampling. We often confuse fluency with response, but they are not the same. 120 Hz is responsible for visual latency (making movement look smooth), although touch sampling (240 Hz or more) is also important, since it is the speed at which the mobile screen reacts to your fingers. If the sampling is high, the time from when you touch the button until the action is completed on the mobile panel is drastically reduced. Here, it’s important to know that you can have a screen that looks cinematic (120 Hz), but if the sampling is low, you will notice that the control is heavy or slow. The fear I had was the battery consumption I have always thought that having such a fast screen was going to eat up my battery, but this is not the case. The secret to my iPhone 15 Pro (and any modern LTPO panel) is that its refresh rate is adaptive. This means that the phone manages intelligently, using the necessary refresh rate depending on what you are doing with the phone, so the battery does not drain faster thanks to this management. But, What does LTPO mean? These are the acronyms for Low Temperature Polycrystalline Oxide (in Spanish, Low Temperature Polycrystalline Oxide) and are responsible for making the screen “smart.” This is the technology that allows the screen to be dynamic and without it, the panel could not go down to 1 Hz when the image is fixed (something that saves battery drastically). Although the important thing is that the LTPO does not jump from minimum to maximum; It works like a ladder with many rungs. Depending on whether you watch a movie (24 or 48 Hz), scroll (80 Hz) or play a game (120 Hz), the panel chooses the exact step. Of course, this is a quality standard that we no longer see only in Apple, but also in the high-end from Samsung or Googleallowing the screens to always be on (Always-on Display) without sacrificing autonomy. The two scenarios in which I have noticed the 120 Hz refresh rate on my mobile It’s not that I’m a mobile gamer or that I make excessive use of photo and video editing, but that I use my iPhone for daily tasks such as see social networkscheck email, send messages WhatsApptake photos and also for some photo retouching. Looking at my use, there are two main advantages that I see to the ProMotion screen and they are these: Scrolling in social networks and web browsing: You will see that the screen flies at 120 Hz and even the text is readable while moving. On the other hand, if you have a mobile phone with a 60 Hz screen, you will see that the scroll On the screen it is slower, not exasperating, but noticeably the mobile screen goes much slower. Series and movies: Watching movies or series on your mobile is another scenario in which ProMotion screen makes the difference. Although on Android, the screen usually translates the fps into Hz (the figure being the same), on iOS it is different, since the LTPO screen of the iPhone 15 Pro adapts its refresh rate to multiples of the framerate. That is, on iPhone, the screen flashes 48 times to show 24 photos. Everything fits perfectly and looks stable. Although yes, sometimes you can notice micro jerks, but this is something unrelated to the screen, since it has to do with apps like YouTube or Netflix, which sometimes do not know how to “talk” well with the iPhone system and send photos at the wrong time. Is it worth investing in a smartphone with an adaptive refresh rate? If you come from a basic mobile phone and make the jump (like me) to an iPhone Pro or any other mobile phone with adaptive hertz, the investment is justified. It is true that It’s a silent improvement.but once your eyes get used to this type of screen, going back will be difficult and when you have a mobile phone with 60 Hz in … Read more

Human beings evolved to breed in tribes and sleep in sections. We have tried to do exactly the opposite and it is costing us our health.

May 17, 2026 by usatoday24

It’s three in the morning, the light of a state-of-the-art baby monitor flickers in the darkness and an exhausted mother tries by all means to get her son to fall asleep again to finally achieve those long-awaited eight hours of sleep in one go. The room is full of amenities, but she feels a knot in her stomach. She is surrounded by technology, but feels more alone than ever. If you ask in your group of friends or on any internet forum how exhausting parenting is today, the answer is unanimous: “It is extremely exhausting and constant.” However, science and history tell us that our ancestors probably did not suffer from this level of sleep deprivation, much less this suffocating loneliness. And here comes the great paradox of our era. We might think that the problem is a lack of male involvement, but the data show a different picture. As we recently explained in Xatakaparents millennials Today they spend approximately four times more time caring for their children than parents of the generation of the baby boom. In countries like Spain, policies have taken a historic leap by equating paternity and maternity leave to 19 weeks. The father, culturally and legally, is at home. So why are parents still on the brink of collapse? The answer lies not in a lack of will, but in our biology: we are fighting a losing battle against millions of years of evolution. Human beings evolved to breed in tribes and sleep in sections. Our modern society demands exactly the opposite from us, and it is costing us our health. The end of the tribe and the ancestral dream To understand what has happened to us, we must look to the past. As he explains to the BBC evolutionary anthropologist Sarah Blaffer Hrdy, the human species would never have survived if mothers had not had “alloparents”—grandmothers, uncles, older brothers, and other members of the community—to care for babies who were born extremely immature. Studies in traditional populations they confirm it: In hunter-gatherer groups such as those in the Congo Basin, babies spend much of the day in arms, with alternative caregivers to the mother providing up to 43% of the baby’s direct care. But not only the tribe has vanished; We have also altered our natural way of resting. In fact, the idea that we should have an uninterrupted eight hours of sleep It is a “modern invention”since before the Industrial Revolution and the arrival of artificial light, the biological pattern of humanity was the biphasic sleep or segmented: people slept for the first part at dusk, woke up in the early morning for a couple of hours (which they took advantage of to chat, pray or take care of the fire), and went back to sleep until dawn. In today’s industrial societies, waking up at three in the morning is diagnosed as insomnia and generates deep anxiety. However, when researchers examine current hunter-gatherer tribes — whose sleep patterns last between 5.7 and 7.1 hours and are full of microawakenings — discover something fascinating: They don’t consider it a problem. The loneliness epidemic and mental burden This break with our evolutionary past is having devastating consequences. In different investigations they talk that we are facing a true epidemic of isolation: today, 65% of parents feel lonelys, a figure that shoots up to 77% in the case of single-parent families. This “clinical loneliness” is not just a passing sadness. It is triggering Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders (known in English as PMADs), which according to medical research affect up to 17.7% of mothers worldwide. Lack of support and isolation increase the risk of depression and cardiovascular problems. In its most extreme cases, psychiatric causes (including suicides and overdoses) have become one of the main causes of maternal mortality. A slab that disproportionately crushes single-parent families, racialized people or those at risk of exclusion and with financial stress, who lack the economic resources to outsource this care. And behind closed doors, the mirage of equality in the couple continues to take its toll. Although the modern father “helps” more than ever, the “mental load”—the planning, conception, and anticipation of family needs— continues to fall overwhelmingly on women. Researcher Eve Rodsky defines it perfectly: today’s mothers act as “project managers” where their partners are often “kind subordinates” waiting for instructions. The result is a burnout (professional burnout syndrome) applied to parenting. Curiously, this parental hyperpresence, born of anxiety, is also harming the little ones. The so-called “helicopter parents”, who fly over their children’s every movement to avoid frustration, are impeding the neurological development of their prefrontal cortex (in charge of solving problems). As studies warnthis has caused psychiatric admissions of adolescents for anxiety and depression disorders to skyrocket at an alarming rate. The verdict of science If we look for culprits for this epidemic of fatigue, science gives us a key clue. In modern societies, between 10% and 30% of people live with chronic insomnia. But if we look at current hunter-gatherer communities (such as the Hadza, the San or the Tsimane), this problem is practically a myth: it barely touches 2%. University of California (UCLA) researcher Jerome Siegel summed it up very well in the pages of Scientific American: The problem is that we have erased the natural regulators of sleep from the map. By living locked up, we no longer let our body feel the nighttime drop in temperature, an essential biological brake for rest. For his part, David Samson, evolutionary anthropologist interviewed by the BBCargues that it is our rigid expectation of perfect sleep that fatigues us. Samson lived with the Hadza tribe in Tanzania and found that its members consider their sleep “good” despite waking up frequently. Instead of getting up, turning on lights, and looking at the clock, they simply accept waking up as natural. This vision links with the proposal of James McKenna and Lee Gettler, anthropologists at the University of Notre Dame. As they explain in their own studyhave … Read more

We are misdiagnosing PCOS. Therefore, these scientists have proposed changing its name

May 17, 2026 by usatoday24

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) affects approximately 13% of women. women of childbearing age. However, it is estimated that there are approximately 70% of cases undiagnosed. Many patients are not aware of having this syndrome until they they try to have children and they see that it costs them a lot of work. Others never receive a diagnosis. For whatever reason, this is quite common in diseases that only affect women. All you have to do is see the endometriosis figures. Now, an international team of scientists has been exploring one of the reasons they believe there may be behind this underdiagnosis and have even proposed a curious solution: changing the name of the disease. Polyendrocrine metabolic syndrome of the ovary (SOM). These scientists they have spoken with experts and have surveyed more than 14,000 patients and healthcare professionals from around the world with different specialties. This has led them to realize that there is great discomfort with the name of the condition revolving around polycystic ovaries. It is true that this is a diagnostic criterion, but not all people with this syndrome develop this condition. Therefore, if the name revolves solely around that, there may be fewer diagnoses or even stigma towards those who insist that something is wrong with them, without having been able to put a name to their condition. After observing this data, they have chosen to propose a new name: ovarian polyendocrine metabolic syndrome. This refers to the factors that are common in all patients. An affectation of your hormones, which has effects on the ovaries and can also affect metabolism. It all starts with androgens. Generally, PCOS (or SOM, whatever we want to call it), is characterized due to excessive synthesis of androgens in the ovaries. These are what are colloquially known as male hormones, although they are also produced in the ovaries. However, its levels in the female body are usually much lower. When they rise, they affect the ability of the ovaries to ovulate correctly and, in addition, they affect the levels of other hormones linked to the menstrual cycle, such as LH and FSH. FSH usually tends to decrease, while LH increases. This hormone has many functions, among which is promote the synthesis of more androgens. Therefore, even more male hormones continue to be generated. It’s a vicious circle. The symptoms. People with this syndrome usually have symptoms such as absent or altered menstrual cycle, anovulation, facial hair growth, acne, hair loss or ovarian cysts. We should not confuse polycystic ovary syndrome with polycystic ovaries. The latter is a phenomenon that can be seen on ultrasound and does not necessarily mean the presence of the syndrome. For this reason it has been proposed to change the name. Continuing with the symptoms, PCOS is also usually accompanied by insulin resistance. That is the reason why it is also considered a metabolic syndrome. Other conditions, such as type 2 diabetes or obesity, can sometimes occur as a result. 2 of 3. PCOS is diagnosed when 2 of 3 diagnostic criteria are met. These are excess androgens, irregular or absent menstrual periods and polycystic ovaries. Cysts occur because, as ovulation cannot occur properly, the follicles in which the eggs mature remain. stuck in their immature state and accumulate. The egg is not released and the cyst occurs. However, is calculated that 30% of people with PCOS do not have these cysts. In fact, the percentage could be even higher. What happens is that, perhaps because of that inappropriate name, attention is not being paid to these cases. It is not definitive. The new name for PCOS is a proposal. Now, the competent health authorities, as well as other independent scientists, must evaluate it. In England, the NHS has already assured who will evaluate the proposal carefully. It’s certainly a start. Now we just need to pay much more attention to the suffering of women. Cover | Magnificent | Sydney Fought In Xataka | ‘Children of Men’ is ceasing to be a dystopia: the global sperm count has been sinking for years

While the international pork sector collapses, Spain breaks records

May 17, 2026 by usatoday24

The Spanish pig industry closed 2025 with a historical record and, a priori, that cannot be. Because, finally, we are talking about 5.27 million tons of meat just when the European pig has been in recession for four years. 6% year-on-year growth just as African swine fever reappears after 31 years of absence. To give us an idea: Spain already invoices 24.2% of all pork in the EU and is the third world producer behind the US and China. How is it possible? The question is timely. After all, the sector is growing against the tide. Not only because of the plague, nor because of the conflicts between Europe and China; but because the collapse in prices and the general retreat would have advised taking a more conservative line. However, the explanation is simpler than it seems: what is sold as an industrial success hides a history of extreme foreign dependence, health fragility and an environmental problem that the country refuses to solve. But let’s go in parts. December 16, 2025, China increased its final tariffs on European pork from 4.9% to 19.8% for five years. It is true that Iberian ham and sausages were left out and that for many Spanish companies the average tariff was 9.8%, but the blow was forceful. Above all, because (although apparently all this was part of the electric car wars) the problem is structural: China imports less and less because it produces more and more. To this we must add that a little earlier, on November 28, 2025, the Ministry of Agriculture had confirmed the first two positives for African swine fever in wild boars, unleashing a problem that made headlines for weeks (and has still not been resolved). And from this storm that threatened to break everything, the only thing that has reached the consumer is that pork is the animal protein that has become the least expensive during 2025. Because? Well, because the crisis has been metabolized, driving the concentration of the sector: today, the ten largest companies market today 65% of national meat (compared to 52% ten years ago). We have lost 32% of small farms; but the big ones have more and more power. Something that also explains why the country is about to a very serious European sanction for not complying with the nitrates directive. In the end the question is not “how is it possible that the most efficient and best armored sector in Europe is simultaneously on the verge of a collapse of margins and with major water pollution problems?”; The point is that Spain produces more pigs than ever precisely for those reasons. Image | Amber Kipp In Xataka | The gap between what pork costs on farms and in supermarkets does not stop growing. The ranchers have said enough

Log In

Sign In

Forgot password?

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

Log in

Privacy Policy

Add to Collection

No Collections