Netflix users love to watch the first season of a series. Then they love to stop seeing it completely

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What tremendous hype when Netflix has a new series and promotes it even in the soup: you swallow the trailer, the premiere promises infinite and then, you finally see the first episode and devour the entire season. And after? If I have seen you, I don’t remember: literal and figuratively, because Netflix series lose audience drastically from one season to the next, according to data from Netflix itself collected by Bloomberg. Millionaire investments, Hollywood marketing and a journey that deflates like a soda bottle. what’s happening. The network’s flagships deflate after the first season. One Piece lost more than 30% of its audience in the second season,’Row‘ fell more than 70%, ‘The Night Agent’ lost half of its audience in the second (and another 35% in the third) and ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender‘ plummeted more than 60% in its last installment, based on Netflix data for the first four weeks of the premiere of each series. And Netflix does not have a clear contingency plan on how to deal with the problem: some have been canceled (The Night Agent), others have been renewed (Running Point, The Four Seasons) despite the losses. The company would be analyzing its data to find out why, according to close sources. Why is it important. Historically, Netflix series have obtained their highest ratings in their debut season, a phenomenon that is exactly the opposite of what happened with traditional TV, where word of mouth used to cause series to improve their numbers over time. In a phrase: retention is lacking. Bloomberg echoes of the company’s concern regarding this reality, as well as that of investors regarding its ability to retain user loyalty. And the time that its clients have dedicated to watching said streaming platform this year has increased less than 2%. Because Netflix is ​​the absolute leader in streaming, but the advantage is blurring. Context. This last year Netflix shares are in decline since he presented an offer for Warner Bros. Discovery that did not come to fruition. At that time, Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters they claimed his interest in the rival entertainment company because it was a unique opportunity to acquire a valuable asset. Although there is another potential reading: that Netflix is ​​running out of ideas. After years of betting on developing mainly with its own content, it is now looking forward to growing through acquisitions. In detail. Obviously, Netflix does not put all its eggs in a single basket, in this case, a single series: the company launches a large catalog of new releases every quarter with the expectation of achieving new successes with these premieres. However, in the first five months of 2026 it only had two great successes: ‘His and Hers’ and the fourth season of ‘The Bridgertons’, precisely one of the honorable exceptions to that rule. Yes, but. Despite these warning signs, Netflix remains the undisputed leader: it has half of the most watched programs in streaming and has plenty of experience to recover after bad streaks. In fact, the platform has already added new programming formats, such as the commitment to live sports. Furthermore, and although more modest, its viewing share is still in the green in a more mature, expensive and competitive market. In Xataka | Netflix has achieved what seemed crazy at first: that we pay in exchange for watching ads In Xataka | Of course you don’t remember anything that happened in the last season of your favorite series. It’s deliberate Cover | Gemini

The residents of this Soria town are going to host tourists in their own homes for the August eclipse

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The entire strip of solar eclipse what will be seen in Spain this August 12, 2026 has fallen into a curious area. Many of the best-positioned towns belong to emptied Spain, a region to which, possibly, people who would never have considered including them in their vacations will travel. These people will be lucky enough to discover very charming places and, why not? a different way of tourism. Eclipses are spectacular phenomena, with very good press, that attract people from all over the world; but, in reality, astronomical tourism is a reality that more and more travelers joinregardless of whether there are extreme events on the calendar. And the truth is that within the totality strip there are towns that have been exploiting this form of tourism for a long time. This is, for example, the case of Borobia. This Soria town of 218 inhabitants It has an astronomical observatory in which informative activities have been carried out for 24 years. I have been able to speak with Azahara Rojas Ronceroastrophysicist and astronomer at said observatory, to tell me what plans they have for the solar eclipse. The reality is that, despite the small size of the town, they tend to always have a lot of people in their astronomical tourism activities. However, like many other towns, this phenomenon will allow them to have their fill. Never better said. Borobia, an ideal place to see the solar eclipse Borobia, like most of the province of Soria, has the Starlight seal. That means that They have skies with very little light pollution, ideal for observing the firmament. Many of the points that are within the band of totality of the solar eclipse this August have this certificate. However, Borobia has added advantages. On this occasion, the eclipse will occur at a time very close to sunset, so we will have to look to the west to see it. There, according to Rojas Roncero, lies Borobia’s great advantage. “In Borobia we have the hills right on the other side, on the east side, and the flatter area faces us to the west area,” he explains. “Therefore, the observation point is perfect, because we have a very open horizon and right on the other side we have a high area where we can see it.” For her, it has been a kind of gift from heaven for having been looking at it for 24 years. The ideal date This solar eclipse will be located in a perfect area, with wonderful skies to see it. But it will also take place at a unique moment, coinciding with the peak of the perseids. During the two minutes of totality you will be able to see some of the brightest stars in the sky, but hardly a Perseid. For that we need more time in the dark, eyes well adapted to it and a little luck. However, those who have taken advantage of the solar eclipse to start astrotourism have an appointment with the sky once the Sun has completely left. Borobia Observatory In fact, Borobia is an ideal site for these observations. Not just because of everything we have already seen. Also because in their Observatory they carry out activities such as March of the Perseidsin which visitors will take a night walk, while listening to legends of mythology and looking at the sky in search of a Perseid. In addition, at the end of the route there are telescopes ready for observation. Other activities Both on the day of the solar eclipse and the days before and after it, a multitude of activities will be carried out in Borobia, including night and day observations of the sky, walks through the Perseids, workshops and presentations by experts from the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands and the Astronomy Classroom of Armilla (Granada). There will even be concerts and food trucks. a whole festival to enjoy the sky of Soria in such a special event. What about accommodations? Borobia is a very small municipality, with very few accommodations; that, the same as in Puertomingalvo and many other towns in the totality strip, have been full for more than a year. For this reason, the town has used its imagination to be able to serve all the tourists who will travel there for the solar eclipse. To begin, Rojas Roncero says that camping areas have been set upwith access to bathrooms and showers. But this is not enough if the thousands of people who are believed to be able to travel there arrive. That’s why, An appeal has been made to the residents of Borobia themselveslooking for some who are willing to rent rooms in their houses. The request has been well received and several have agreed to accommodate tourists who come there on the occasion of the solar eclipse. What else can you see in Borobia? We have seen that Borobia is an ideal place for astronomical tourism. But the good thing about this tourism is that it goes very well with other ways of visiting new places. It is often a magnificent occasion to enjoy a perfect blend of heritage and nature. In the case of this town in Soria, those who travel there you will be able to enjoy of monuments such as the Church of Our Lady of the Assumption and the Medieval Castle. In addition, they will enjoy natural sites such as the Gandalia lagoon, the Hermitage of Nuestra Señora de los Santos and the Sabinar de Ciria y Borobia. All of these enclaves are perfect for hiking, with routes such as the Vuelta al Moncayo and the Yeseras. Hermitage of Our Lady of Saints In short, Borobia is an ideal place to enjoy the solar eclipse while discovering those hidden treasures of emptied Spain. For those responsible for the observatory, this eclipse will be a gift from heaven, but surely its visitors will not be left indifferent either. Image | Diego Delso | Borobia Observatory In Xataka | Leo … Read more

There is something in which Uruguay is a true and overwhelming world power: generating elite footballers

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Unless you are a real data and statistics machine, when asked about Which country produces the most elite footballers? Surely most of us would answer that Brazil, a country that has had five World Cups and is also a true exporter of talent with the ball at its feet. But not. Although the answer differs depending on the time frame you choose, there is one place in the world that has taken the world by storm in the last century: Uruguay. Uruguay has barely 3.5 million inhabitants, a figure similar to that of Madrid or Berlin, and despite being a small country, it has two World Cups, two Olympic medals and 15 Copa América to its credit. And an incredible reality: Uruguay is, per capita, the country that has produced the most famous soccer players in the entire history of soccer. Below these lines we attach a screenshot of the data project “The Atlas“, an interactive visualization that calculates, for each country, how many top (male) soccer players in the world by historical popularity there are per million inhabitants. We highly recommend playing around, since you can sift through countries, regions, number of soccer players and years. It doesn’t matter what you choose because Uruguay almost always wins. The data is devastating: Uruguay produces 11.3 elite football figures per million inhabitantsa very long way from the second, Croatia, which has 4.81. Third and fourth are the Netherlands (4.58 figures per million inhabitants) and Argentina (3.82). If you move the time bar to the year 1999, Spain takes over the gold in a timely manner. Uruguay produces more famous footballers per capita than any country in the world. The Atlas This interactive graph is the work of Argentine economist Daniel Schteingart and for its preparation he used two sources: on the one hand Pantheon from the MIT Media Lab, which measures the historical fame of each footballer according to their presence on Wikipedia and on the other, population data from Our World in Data, which allows us to calculate how many famous figures each country produces per inhabitant. However, the fact that Uruguay is an absolute winner is something that has also been documented The Observer with data from the CIES Football Observatory and RT. Three different analyzes with different methodologies and the same result: Uruguay wins by a landslide. The country that produces the most famous soccer players in the world is not Brazil or France The question is clear: what Uruguay that does not have the rest. According to ESPN Deportesthe key is in training: Uruguay has 28 professional clubs that train young people. For Argentina or Brazil to have that same proportion per inhabitant, they would need 336 and 1,624 clubs respectively, well above what they currently have, 103 and 168, respectively. This exhaustive commitment to young talent allows the Latin American country to detect and exploit that potential that would perhaps go unnoticed in other larger countries. The author of the chart explains There is also another reality that gives South American countries an advantage: “there is almost no competition from other sports for young talent. Here everyone wants to be a soccer player, while in Europe and the United States talent is distributed among several disciplines.” Of course, regarding the future he has a warning: “The technicalization and globalization of football may favor rich countries, but as long as South American footballers continue to return to their national teams, the tradition will continue.” The limitations of the graph are those of its bases: the graph indicator measures fame on Wikipedia, which does not necessarily imply measuring football quality objectively, which favors more recent players or those who are very popular and plays to the detriment of veteran stars, with a smaller footprint on the internet. In Xataka | We still don’t know who will win the 2026 World Cup, but we do know who is left without sleep: the devastating graphic of FIFA schedules In Xataka | 24 years ago Oliver Kahn sued EA and won. Then a new goalkeeper appeared in football games: Jens Mustermann

The plan to stop the melting of the Arctic is so simple that it sounds crazy: freeze it again

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Global warming does not affect everyone the same way. Without going any further, Europe is the continent that most is warming according to the World Meteorological Organizationbut there is another place where the heat has turned the turbo: the Arctic. The North Pole heats up four times faster than the global average. Additionally, sea ice is at historic lows since records began 125 years ago. Faced with this climate emergency, a research team has come up with something so logical that it is surprising for its apparent simplicity: is there a lack of ice? Well, we manufacture more artificially. So they have left the laboratory and gone to the field to see if it is possible. The idea. The company Real Ice, in collaboration with the University of Cambridge, drills into sea ice in the dead of winter and pumps seawater onto its frozen surface. The water, when exposed to that extreme cold, freezes immediately and adds an extra layer of ice. Now that they have the base mechanism, Real Ice is adapting pumps used on skating rinks or oil platforms to power them with renewable energy. According to The GuardianIn a recent test, the team pumped 50,000 tons of water onto 1.5-meter-thick ice at -40ºC and managed to increase its thickness by 0.50 meters. Why is it important. Although emissions reduction is the only long-term sustainable solution, while it arrives it is necessary to explore techniques to save time because the Arctic melting is a problem with chain consequences that affect different scales: At the local level it poses a threat to Inuit ways of life and fauna such as the polar bear or the walrus, in addition to destabilizing the ecosystem. At a global level, it can alter weather patterns. Sea ice is a kind of planetary air conditioner: its white surface reflects solar radiation, something that the dark ocean does not do (albedo feedback). That extra warming of the Arctic is also related to a wavier, slower jet stream which can lengthen and promote heat waves or floods. Furthermore, the thaw goes hand in hand with the thaw of the permafrostwhich releases methane and further accelerates warming. Context. This project is part of the program RASI (Re-thickening Arctic Sea Ice), a public – private initiative in which the University of Cambridge and two private companies, Real Ice and Arctic Reflections, carry out research that combines rigorous scientific models with real experimentation in the Arctic. As a curiosity, it is not the only proposal: there are others more controversial that propose dispersing sulfate aerosols in the stratosphere to reflect sunlight. In detail. The first study in the last 2024/2025 campaign has confirmed that the test areas ended the winter up to 32 centimeters thicker than the control areas. According to the study, this difference is similar to what the Arctic has lost in the last 50 years. Furthermore, at the end of the winter campaign they observed that this new ice remained whiter and brighter during the melting season, so it seemed to melt more slowly, improving the albedo. Yes, but. On paper it looks very good, but the scientific community has its doubts. An analysis of several of these proposals published in the journal Frontiers in Science concluded that they did not successfully overcome the criteria of feasibility, cost, governance and environmental risk. The underlying criticism is that it could give the false sensation that there is a technical shortcut that relaxes the pressure to reduce emissions. On the other hand, a test in a specific area is one thing and the price of scaling this technique to the entire Arctic is another. In Xataka | Living 1,300 kilometers from the North Pole: a Catalan tells of his experience in the northernmost city in the world In Xataka | There is a corner of Spain where global warming is wreaking havoc: the Pyrenees are becoming “Mediterraneanized” Cover | Annie Spratt and Jan Antonin Kolar

the most effective trick has nothing to do with that

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You come back from vacation, open the door, and suddenly you’re greeted with a strong sewer smell that certainly wasn’t there when you left. The Internet has been filled with advice to avoid this problem: from carrying a cup of orange peels to throwing away half a kilo of coffee grounds. The only problem is that, as I’m sure you’ve noticed, each one is more surreal than the last. What can we do so that our house does not smell like lightning? The first thing is to understand that this fashion that runs rampant on the Internet is not a meaningless article industry. Nameless experts, tricks that “come straight from Central Europe” and slightly eccentric ideas: what we usually find are creative and ineffective solutions, to be honest. The example of orange peels is perfect to understand it. “Throw orange peels down the toilet once a week“, say some advice. And the truth is that the peels are scented: they release essential oils (limonene), but their concentration is very low and, of course, not enough to degrease or unclog the pipes. In fact, if we go to the fine print, we see that the ‘trick’ does not even recommend ‘flushing’ them down the toilet; Just put them in the water in the cup for twenty or thirty minutes. That is to say (and in short) it is nothing that really helps… …but at least it’s not the coffee trick. That’s true. Coffee grounds are much worse.: above all, because they cake and settle in elbows and siphons. With repeated use, in fact, they end up reducing the flow rate of the pipes as if it were cholesterol. It is not something that happens suddenly (pouring a spoonful of coffee into the water is not going to flood your house), but it does not seem like the most reasonable practice (cost-benefit). And they are not the only tricks. In fact, the problem of using the toilet as a trash can is enormous in our country. Only Isabel II Canalin the Community of Madrid, removed around 33,000 tons of solid waste from its treatment plants in 2024. About four kilos per person. In the end, according to the urban water association (DAQUAS)these wastes make water purification more expensive by around 10 and 15%. And, perhaps that is why, all the management companies repeat the same thing: only pee, excrement and paper go down the toilet. And then how do we solve the problem? For them, you have to understand a little how modern bathrooms work. For practical purposes, under every sink, sink and shower (also inside the toilet) there is a trap. It’s that ‘u’ shaped curve that holds a plug of water and blocks odor. What usually happens in summer is that these siphons dry out and stop working. In this way, odors rise to the rooms. So what is usually recommended is to let the water run well so that the siphons are full and, if necessary, add a little food oil (which makes a film on the water and makes it difficult to evaporate). If this doesn’t work, there may be a blockage or a ventilation problem, but it certainly won’t be solved by filling the toilet bowl with lemons. Image | Amit Lahav In Xataka | Every time you go to the bathroom you are expelling one of the most used pesticides on the planet. And that’s a problem

Mass tourism has found a new vein in the most unexpected place, the favelas

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When you think of Rio de Janeiro, one of the first images that comes to mind is Christ the Redeemer, the 30-meter-high statue that stands at the top of Corcovado Hill. For some time now, however, there has been another Rio icon. much more visited by foreign tourists: Vidigal and Rocinhatwo areas of the city known for their favelas. Between them there are tens of thousands of visitors. Nothing surprising if we take into account that the favelas are increasingly present in the itinerary with which tourists arrive in Brazil. There they look for authenticity… and good selfies. Touring the favelas? Exact. The history of the Rio favelas is ancient. It usually dates back to late 19th centurywith the closing of the settlement of Providenceand since then the word has been linked to a series of ideas: substandard housing, poverty, crime. Nothing that a priori one wants to experience during an idyllic vacation in a beach destination and postcard landscapes. Over time however that has changed. As international tourism grows in Brazil More people look to Rio’s favelas in search of something difficult to find in the most ‘touristized’ places: authenticity. This has made it no longer strange to meet tours, guides and groups of foreigners in some settlements. Even new ones emerge viral trendslike climbing to the top of a rooftop in Rocinha to record a video with help from a drone. Are there figures to prove it? Yes. He Carioca Tourism Yearbook 2024a report that collects trends in the sector in the Brazilian metropolis, shows that that year there were areas known for their favelas that made it into the TOP 20 of the most visited icons in Rio de Janeiro. Not only that. They even surpassed other symbols, such as Christ the Redeemer wave Selarón Staircasetwo of the places that have spent decades starring in Rio’s tourist postcards. To be more precise, in 2024 the Municipal Tourism Secretariat registered 81,600 visitors foreigners in Vidigal and 45,600 in Rocinha. It is far from the 925,400 of Copacabana beach or 554,400 of Ipanema, but it still stands out among the busiest in the region. If we add the flow of tourists arriving from other parts of Brazil itself. That balance shoots up considerably. And in recent years? Interest in favelas does not seem to have waned. For reference, last January (high season in Rio de Janeiro) Rocinha received 41,852 visitors37% more than last year. Around those same dates Or Globeone of the most influential newspapers in Brazil, published a chronicle in which he confirmed the rise of favela tourism and the challenges that this entails. The growing ‘pull’ of the favelas can also be followed through the international press. In recent months the average reach of Associated Press (AP), D.W., Guardian either the BBC network have dedicated articles to the phenomenon, delving into the challenges, opportunities and moral dilemmas it generates. As a background, a fact that they stick out their chest the Rio authorities: in 2025 Rio received some 12.5 million of visitors, significantly above the 11.4 in 2024. Of them, 2.1 million came from other countries. They may represent a small proportion, but in just one year their influx shot up almost 45%. How do you explain your success? That there are more and more tourists who include favelas in their Rio tours is no coincidence. There are several factors that explain it. The first is that the authorities have done an effort to ‘pacify’ themsomething that dates back to the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games. Over the years, a network of services, local businesses and guides has also been created that make the experience much more accessible for foreigners. The clearest example is the Na Favelaan app created precisely to facilitate the organization and management of activities with guides. Those responsible offer “authentic experiences” that, they say, boost the local economy. Does it generate wealth? There are testimonies that suggest this. A few months ago AP interviewed to Vitor, a local guide who works with visitors who are curious about the settlements. He previously worked as a taxi driver in Rocinha, but upon noticing that foreign visitors were increasing, he began offering tours and now basically lives off of tourists. In another interview He recognized that, after a life marked by drugs and violence, tourism offered him an opportunity. “I never imagined it. I didn’t finish school or manage to learn another language.” “If you come to Rio and only visit Copacabana Beach, the statue of Christ the Redeemer and the Sugarloaf Mountain, you are not really visiting Rio. You are visiting a luxurious and expensive part of Rio,” claims. “The essence comes from the favelas.” He is not the only one who slips that message. In May the BBC chatted with an expert in tourism that assures that the violence in the favelas of the South Zone has subsided, something that it attributes in part to the sector. He also assures that, although the area may pose a risk to residents, the cartels do not target tourists. @thefavelaunitedtour When global icons choose authenticity 🇧🇷✨ An unforgettable day showing the real Rio to Rosalía. Culture, stories, people and soul — this is not just a tour, it’s a life experience. Book your tour and discover the real Brazil with us. #RealRio #FavelaExperience #CulturalTour ♬ Cycle Syncing Frequency – Still Haven Is it all good news? No. Although it is no longer strange to meet foreign tourists in certain areas of some favelas, the reality is that they are still not the safest destinations in Brazil. It became clear only a few weeks ago, when dozens of visitors They were trapped in a viewpoint during a police operation against drug traffickers. Months before, in April, more than 200 tourists They had also been stranded for several hours in Morro Dois Irmãos in a similar episode. An operation against drug trafficking caught them in the middle of their tour. The touristification of favelas not … Read more

The Don Quixote that Orson Welles never finished will finally take shape. Four film libraries have had to agree to achieve this

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It took Welles almost thirty years to finish Don Quixote. It took Terry Gilliam another thirty and he got it, but the process was a nightmare that deserved its own documentary. Adapting Don Quixote has given us several minor classics and some other milestones (the historic Spanish animated series, without going any further) and now, four European film libraries are about to demonstrate that there is a third way, through the recovery and restoration of one of the most famous non-films in history. International collaboration. Four film institutions have decided to finish, to the extent that something like that can be finished, the work that Orson Welles left unfinished after his death. During the Cinema Ritrovato festival in Bologna, the Spanish Film Archive, the Cinémathèque Française, the Italian Cineteca Nazionale and the Filmmuseum in Munich They confirmed the beginning of the reconstruction of their ‘Don Quixote’. The project is coordinated by Esteve Riambau, historian, filmmaker and former director of the Filmoteca de Catalunya. The objective, as explained by Riambau himselfis to have the reconstruction ready in 2028. An infinite shoot. In 1957, Welles’ friend Frank Sinatra invested $25,000 in the project. The original idea It was to function as a complement to the singer’s own television show, in the form of a short special for CBS. At that time it was scheduled to star Charlton Heston, but it couldn’t be due to scheduling issues. Filming took place in Mexico, Spain and Italy and lasted, with interruptions and returns, over almost three decades. The agreement with CBS ended up falling apart and Welles decided to turn the television special into the feature film that would never be finished and that would evolve bathed in pure chaos: in Mexico, for example, Welles worked without a finished script, filming improvised sequences in the street, and he himself was in charge of keeping track of the filming with obsessive detail. Neither the death in 1969 of the actor who played Don Quixote, Francisco Reiguera, nor that of the actor who played Sancho Panza, Akim Tamiroff, in 1972, stopped Welles, who also continued filming in color. In 1982, three years before he died, he was still making changes to a film he affectionately called My baby. A curse that spreads. Don Quixote has a reputation for devouring races. Terry Gilliam needed eight failed filming attempts and a lawsuit from his own producer to carry out ‘The Man Who Killed Don Quixote’, a project that started in 1998 and finally premiered in 2018. The disaster of the first attempt, in 2000, with Jean Rochefort and Johnny Depp, was portrayed in the documentary ‘Lost in La Mancha’. Before them, Peter O’Toole, John Lithgow and Rafael Rivelles had already given life to the gentleman in much more conventional versions. What material do we have? A huge and dispersed amount. The Cinémathèque Française preserves about 80 minutes in 35 mm positives that were exhibited at the 1986 Cannes Festival. The Spanish Film Archive bought 16 and 35 mm rolls in 1991, totaling 50,000 meters of film, in addition to the cultural exploitation rights, and is the researcher of the entire legacy. The partially unpublished block is in Rome: between 40,000 and 50,000 meters of negatives that the editor Mauro Bonanni kept in Cinecittà and that Oja Kodar, Welles’s last collaborator, recovered in 2017 after settling a dispute with the editor. What’s coming Riambau affirms that all these materials “no one has seen yet.” Added to that are more than 2,000 pages of script that Welles wrote over decades, although some of the material has been lost. Riambau will order a script that does not yet have a clear structure and in 2027 it will be compared with the images to census all the available material. There may be surprises on the thousands of meters coming from Cinecittà: this Quixote can still cause more headaches. In Xataka | 124 years later, the Lumière brothers’ 1896 classic is scaled to 4K 60fps using artificial intelligence

Poor metabolic health ages your brain in a completely independent way

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We have almost always assumed that the decline of our mental abilities is an almost inevitable toll of the passage of time, since turning years old ages the brain, and that is a fact. However, science has been warning us for years that our lifestyle has a lot to say in this process, and that is why we have the power to delay brain aging. It is studied. An ambitious study has managed to draw an unprecedented map of exactly how different factors such as age and poor metabolic health act that ‘attack’ our brain. The point here is that they do it through totally different ‘paths’, meaning that, regardless of the age you put on your ID, the state of your metabolism is sculpting the health of your brain. Two axles. The main novelty comes from the hand of a recent published research in the prestigious magazine PLOS Biology where it is proposed to unravel how exactly natural aging and metabolic syndrome interact in our own brain. To achieve this, the researchers thoroughly analyzed more than 3,000 brain scans and what they found was that the brain does not suffer from an all-encompassing “wear and tear”, but rather responds to two completely independent axes of deterioration. The two ways. On the one hand, the usual chronological aging pathway was seen and, on the other hand, there is a specific deterioration network linked to poor metabolic health. The study says that metabolic problems, such as insulin resistance, hypertension or excess abdominal fat, impact the brain through metabolic pathways separate from those of pure cellular aging. This “metabolic axis” directly alters the amount of blood that reaches the brain to nourish it and is closely associated with a loss of cognitive flexibility, that is, our ability to adapt our thinking to new or unexpected situations. A puzzle. In addition to this study, already in 2024, a great analysis among the population of the United Kingdom demonstrated the consequences of suffering from a metabolic disease such as diabetes. What they determined was that, by observing people no dementia But with poor metabolic health, the researchers detected a lower total brain and gray matter volume, as well as the appearance of small brain lesions. This is what ultimately produces worse memory and less mental processing speed. And no, this is not a problem exclusive to the elderly, since when analyzing young and middle-aged adults, it was seen that the combination of obesity and poor metabolic health already showed direct associations with signs of brain aging in MRIs and worse cognitive function long before reaching old age. It can be modified. Unlike our date of birth, which logically cannot be modified, we can shape metabolic health little by little through diet, exercise and regular medical control to be able to find any problem that arises in our body in time. Images | cottonbro studio In Xataka | We’ve been trying to figure out why we gain weight for decades. Science is becoming clearer

don’t make important decisions in a heat wave

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Ted Mosby from ‘How I Met Your Mother’ said that nothing good happens after 2 in the morning and it makes sense because tiredness and sleep are not good advisors. And if you are out and have had a drink, even more so: it is better not to send messages that you will later regret. Well, there is another time when it is better not to make important decisions: when it is very hot. I’m not saying it, science says it. Given how hot it is being this summer that has just begun, it is better to take it easy. Take it easy. In a study carried out by a research team from Monash Business School, they analyzed how temperature affects the ability to make rational decisions. The most striking fact is that it is not the hot days that affect the most, but the nights. More specifically, those with temperatures above 25°C. As we are suffering in our flesh these days, those torrid nights worsen the quality of sleep and the deprivation of rest takes its toll on cognitive performance the next day, especially affecting mathematical tasks necessary to evaluate economic risks. This relationship between sleep and cognition is not new: sleep deprivation impairs executive function, working memory, and impulse control. Why it is important. First, because throughout the day we make many decisions (most of them small) that, accumulated over time, can generate lasting consequences over time. An example: a compulsive purchase instead of saving it. Furthermore, the study shows that this effect distinguishes between social classes: it hits households with lower incomes hardest, where air conditioning (having it or turning it on) is a luxury. Thermal discomfort is not something specific: it is a reality that summers are getting hotter and the heat waves follow one another with greater intensity and they arrive more frequently. Context. For the study they used the Indonesian Family Life Survey, which uses data from thousands of families in the Asian country over years, along with temperature data from NASA satellites. This way they were able to discern daytime temperatures from nighttime temperatures. The work is part of research on climate and economic behavior: there is already evidence that heat lowers our productivity, but aggressiveness and risk behavior also increase. In detail. The mechanism that explains these bad decisions is lack of sleep and/or low-quality sleep. That deprivation It disproportionately affects numerical and calculation skills, more than other cognitive abilities. These mathematical skills are precisely those that support decisions about risk or that have their consequences in different time frames. Yes, but. The study focuses on a single country, with a particular climate and socioeconomic conditions, so extrapolation to other places requires some caution. In addition, there are other factors like pollution, the right hand of heatwhich also affect cognitive performance In Xataka | Your body suppresses your hunger at more than 40 degrees for a reason of pure survival: to prevent you from being “cooked” inside. In Xataka | The silent effect of the extreme heat wave: your usual drugs turn against you Cover | Vladislav Babienko and Immo Wegmann

Two scientists will board a suborbital flight in 2027 to do the first real study of menstruation in microgravity

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If all goes well, in 2027 Virgin Galactic will launch Operation Period-01, a suborbital mission aimed at studying something that has never been done before: the effects of microgravity on menstruation. The first woman to travel to space was Valentina Tereshkova. He did it in 1963. Since then, around 100 women have traveled beyond Earth. However, in all this time it has not been studied how microgravity influences something that happens to the vast majority of adult women a few days a month for several decades of their lives. For whatever. Now, two engineers and astronauts in training want to solve the problem and both the Redshift laboratory and Virgin Galactic have made available the means to study menstruation in space, specifically in a suborbital flight. A study to close a gap that should never have been opened. Since space travel began, has been studied how microgravity affects bone density, muscle atrophy, sleep, cardiovascular function or mental health, among other issues. No trace of something that affects 50% of the population. For this reason, the two scientists who direct this project, Manju Bangalore and Priya Abiram, consider that there is a gap when it comes to studying the health of astronauts, which must be closed. What is known. In reality, there have already been women who have menstruated in space without posing operational difficulties. That is to say, beyond the generation of waste, they have not had the slightest problem in carrying out their functions within the mission. Therefore, we know that, in principle, menstruation symptoms do not worsen in space. However, as these scientists remember, everything that is known is due to historical records, not to well-designed research. Since there have been few cases of women menstruating in space, there is not enough information to draw solid conclusions. It is well known that microgravity affects fluid dynamics. This has a lot to do with menstruation. Therefore, it is logical that it should be studied further. For now, Bangalore and Abiram have done it in their laboratory, as part of the studies carried out by the organization Operation Period. Until next year they will not be able to do it in a real microgravity environment. History teaches us that it is necessary. In 1982, Sally Ride became the first American woman to travel to space. The second in the world to do so, after Tereshkova. According to her own account, when supplies for the ship were being prepared, she was asked if 100 tampons would be enough. 100 tampons for a mission that would last a week. With this it is clear that the people in charge of preparing these supplies do not have much idea about menstruation. Although they also offered her a makeup kit that she rejected. It seems like they had no idea about many things. On the other hand, it is known that in the 70s there were doctors who feared that women would travel to space, for fear of the effects of microgravity on menstruation. They thought that remnants of the endometrium could move into the abdomen and cause something similar to endometriosis. Today we know that, in principle, this does not happen, because it has not happened to any of the women who have menstruated during their missions. However, despite their “concern,” it never occurred to any doctor or scientist to conduct studies on the development of menstruation in space. Sally Ride was offered to bring 100 tampons for a week Most prefer not to have menstruation in space. There are female astronauts who have spoken openly about their management of menstruation in space. This is the case of the Italian Samantha Cristoforetti, who in 2022 he made statements about her personal case and that of some colleagues. She explained that they have a large arsenal of pads and tampons and that the management of menstruation in space is similar to what is done on Earth. However, the systems that process and recycle urine are not as good with menstrual blood. Extra filters are needed and can be tedious. For all this, many astronauts choose to suppress their period through the consumption of contraceptives. The freedom to decide. With their study, those responsible for Operation Period-01 hope that future astronauts will be able to make more informed decisions about the management of menstruation in space. If they finally want to take contraceptives, no problem. The bad thing is that, nowadays, since they have not studied in depth how microgravity affects menstruation, they prefer to avoid it directly. If suitable filters have already been found for urine recycling systems, that should not be a problem. Applications here on Earth. These scientists believe that, by studying menstruation in extreme conditions, their development could be much better understood and that knowledge applied here on Earth. For example, it would be useful in the study of reproductive medicine, as well as underdiagnosed diseases that affect menstrual health, including endometriosis and PCOS, which, by the way, recently a new name has been proposed. Breaking records. Manju Bangalore and Priya Abiram will carry out experiments that have never been done in space. It is not outer space, but it is a suborbital flight with real microgravity. That said, it should be noted that this is not the only thing in which they hope to overcome barriers; Well, if everything goes according to plan, they would become two of the youngest South Asian women to travel to space. It is clear that they are two women who want to break molds. It is great news that there are scientists like them. Image | Magnific/NASA In Xataka | Period pain in adolescence is not “normal”: massive study links it to increased risk of chronic pain in adulthood

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