Month: December 2025

five essential LEGO sets to give as gifts on Three Wise Men

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One of the most magical nights of the year is approaching. If you want to surprise a geek of some of the most famous sagas and franchises of all time (such as Harry Potter, Star Wars, Marvel and more), you can do so by giving them a LEGO set. These are some of the best options that you can consider. LEGO 76450 Harry Potter Book Corner: Hogwarts Express As a die-hard Harry Potter fan that I am, this LEGO Harry Potter Book Corner: Hogwarts Express set It is one of the ones that has caught my attention the most in a while. Above all, I like it because it looks great on a shelf, since it works as a bookend. This set from the legendary building brick firm recreates the scene in which Harry Potter and the Weasly family cross platform 9 3/4 at King’s Cross train station. It is a set of 832 pieces and it comes with minifigures harry potterRon and his two pets: Hedwig the owl and Scabbers the rat. LEGO Harry Potter Book Corner: Hogwarts Express The price could vary. We earn commission from these links LEGO 72037 Mario Kart If there is a well-known game on the console nintendo switchthat is, without a doubt, ‘Mario Kart‘. Now, thanks to this set LEGO 72037 Mario Kart You will be able to have the famous plumber in his car at home, like in the legendary video game. To have this set assembled at home you will need some space, since it is a large set (measures 22 x 32 x 19 cm) and is made up of 1,972 pieces. The figure of Mario has joints in arms and it is a perfect LEGO set to display in a gaming room. LEGO Mario Kart: Mario and Standard Kart The price could vary. We earn commission from these links LEGO 76313 Marvel Logo If you are planning to give something to a marve fanl in Three Wise Men, this is the LEGO set that you will surely love. It is about the LEGO set 76313 Marvel: Logowhich is perfect for displaying on any shelf. Recommended for ages 12 and up, this LEGO set (931 pieces) comes with mini figures of some protagonists of the saga Marvel. Among them, you can find Iron Man, The Avengers, Hulk, Thor, Black Life and Captain America. LEGO Marvel: MARVEL Logo and Minifigures The price could vary. We earn commission from these links LEGO 75375 Star Wars: Millennium Falcon Star Wars is one of the most successful film franchises in the history of cinema. If you want to give something to a fan of hers, this LEGO set 75375 Star Wars: Millennium Falcon It is perfect to surprise. This LEGO set of Star Wars includes a total of 921 pieces and it comes full of details. Unlike other constructions from the firm, this one has a compact size, with a height of 13 cm, 24 cm in length and 19 cm in width. It also includes an identification plate, support and a commemorative token for the 25th anniversary of the collaboration between LEGO and Star Wars. LEGO Star Wars 75375 Millennium Falcon The price could vary. We earn commission from these links LEGO One Piece Set 75639 – Going Merry Pirate Ship He LEGO set 75639 One Piece-Going Merry Boat It is a set from the famous building block brand with which you can build the iconic Straw Hats ship. It is composed of 1,376 pieces and recommended for ages 10 and up. Its dimensions are 34 cm high, 39 cm long and 20 cm wide. It presents an incredible level of detail and comes with five minifigures (Zoro, Naomi, Usopp, Luffy and Sanji). Additionally, it includes four “Wanted” posters, although these are random. LEGO 75639 One Piece Going Merry Pirate Ship Toy The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Some of the links in this article are affiliated and may provide a benefit to Xataka. In case of non-availability, offers may vary. Images | LEGO In Xataka | Your favorite series, comics and movies also in LEGO: 15 construction kits ideal to assemble yourself or give as a gift In Xataka | LEGO constructions on another level: the Technic Series has the models that any collector would dream of

Apple, Google and Samsung promised them happily with 5,000mAh batteries. Until China came to rub their hands on their faces

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The person writing these lines has an American mobile phone—made in China—with a little more 5,000mAh. A figure in which giants like Apple, Samsung or Google have been comfortably installed for years. Meanwhile, in China, Honor has just made official a phone with a 10,000 mAh battery. The launch is not surprising just because it has managed to literally introduce a powerbank inside a smartphone. It is surprising because it breaks a barrier that until now no one had dared to cross. Not due to lack of possibilities, but due to industrial inertia. The aforementioned. Honor has made the Honor Win and Honor Win RT. Two phones that, in addition to having the best Qualcomm processorshave a 10,000mAh battery made of silicon-carbon technology. The message is clear: this is not a typical high-end, it is proof that China is the leading benchmark in batteries for smartphones. thickness. For years there has been an unwritten but unquestionable rule: more battery means more thickness. The 10,000 mAh were reserved for rugged, bulky mobile phones designed for very specific uses. These Honor Win break that logic. They are thinner than a iPhone 17 Pro Maxbut with double the energy capacity. There are no gimmicks, fine print or marketing exercises: it’s a real leap in energy density. How did they achieve it?. Honor has not specified how they have managed to take the capacity to such an extreme but the person responsible is clear: silicon-carbon. This technology has been demonstrating for years that it is possible to introduce much denser batteries in the sizes in which lithium has already reached its ceiling. Chinese mobile phones have been standardizing for more than a year batteries over 7,000mAhand Honor’s move to reach five figures marks what aspires to be a new standard. The cons. Silicon-carbon poses certain challenges, and the first is degradation. These batteries, especially in their first generations, They seemed not to be at the same level as classic lithium batteries. Over time, the promised charge cycles are virtually identical to those of traditional lithium batteries (more than 1,500). The second is the cost: producing this type of cells is more expensivewhich partially explains why, for the moment, these figures reach China first and not global markets. In fact, a common practice is to find models whose Chinese version has more battery than the global version, reserved for the rest of the markets. A third key point is related to security and regulation. Denser batteries require stricter controls, and Western regulatory frameworks are not always prepared to adopt these types of advances so quickly. None of this invalidates progress. It simply explains why Apple, Samsung or Google have not yet made the leap. It’s not that they can’t: it’s that they haven’t wanted to take the risk… yet. China is going to force a move. The 10,000mAh batteries are, without much room for doubt, one of the biggest technological leaps in the world of smartphones after the arrival of AI. A figure that will allow us to normalize the three days of average use without going through the charger. The leap is so relevant that, whether they like it or not, “traditional” manufacturers will have to start making a move, as they had to start doing with fast charging systems. Samsung has already started implementing the 7,000mAh in phones like the Galaxy M51but its high-end is still at the 5,000mAh barrier. Google also moves in the 5,200mAh and Apple… is Apple. With a greater or lesser pace of implementation, these manufacturers are forced to keep pace with China in these advances. And that translates into admitting that we were wrong about lithium. Image | Honor In Xataka | The Android phones with the best battery of 2025: which one to buy and recommended models

Snow is one of the few things that can delay the Shinkansen in Japan. To combat it there is a solution as simple as it is effective.

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Japanese bullet trains are known for their extreme punctuality. However, when the snow appears, neither the most cutting-edge railway system of the world is saved. And to combat it, the country’s railway institutions developed a solution as simple as it was ingenious: sprinklers installed along the tracks that spray water during snowfall. This is done to prevent snow from accumulating and wreaking havoc on the trains. We explain in detail how these systems work. Why is it important. Snow not only causes the system to stop being as punctual as usual, but it can also cause serious damage to high-speed trains. And at speeds above 200 km/h, the snow on the ground rises due to the air current generated by the train, which can cause it to compact under the cars forming ice balls that, upon impact with the ground, throw gravel into the air. This can end up breaking windows and damaging train components if left untreated. Japan has spent decades perfecting systems to eliminate this problem without sacrificing speed or punctuality. The origin of the problem. When the Shinkansen began regular operations in 1964, according to explains JR Tokai (the operating company of the Tokaido Shinkansen), construction was carried out in a hurry and “there was not enough time to consider” alternative routes that would avoid areas of heavy snowfall. In January 1965, just three months after launch, snowfall in the Sekigahara region caused serious incidentsincluding broken windows and shattered water tanks. The investigation revealed that the real culprit was speed, since the wind generated raised the snow, which ended up turning into ice projectiles under the carriages. The solution: sprinklers. To prevent the snow from rising and forming those dangerous ice balls, it was installed a sprinkler system along the tracks that sprays water during snowfall. There are currently sprinklers deployed in a stretch of more than 70 kilometers, covering the lines most affected by the snow. In 2009, the nozzles were improved so that the water reached areas that were not reached before, melting the snow more effectively. The system does not completely remove snow, but changes its consistency to prevent it from compacting and flying, thus reducing the risk of damage. It is not the only solution. The water system is complemented by other resources. During non-service hours, snow plows work at dawn to remove accumulated snow. Since 2003, rotary snow plows have been used that use rotating brushes capable of cleaning up to five centimeters below the surface of the rails. In addition, since 2013, devices with optical sensors have been used to monitor weather conditions, and there are cameras installed under the carriages to detect snow accumulations. When a snow-covered train arrives at stations like Nagoya or Osaka, there are also specialized teams waiting under the platforms with high-pressure washers to quickly remove stuck-on snow. The results speak. All of this operation has radically transformed the Shinkansen’s defenses when the snow arrives. According to JR Tokaiin 1976 there were 635 train cancellations due to snow, a figure that has been reduced to zero since 1994. The average delay due to snowfall has also improved dramatically, dropping to just a few minutes. Beyond the trains. In the northern regions of Japan, where snowfall can exceed three meters, many roads have sprinklers integrated into the asphalt. The system, known as ‘shosetsu’ (disappearing snow) or ‘yuusetsu’ (melting snow), was developed in 1961 in the city of Nagaoka by Yosaburo Imai, founder of a century-old confectionery. Imai was inspired by observing that snow did not accumulate where thermal water gushed from underground. Since then, underground pipes transport geothermal water (at about 13-14°C) to pavement sprinklers that melt snow during winter storms, avoiding the use of salt or snow blowers. Cover image | KUA YUE In Xataka | The straightest road in Spain is located in a place whose name I don’t want to remember: between El Provencio and La Roda

There are already autonomous robots smaller than a grain of salt

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Robotics has been pursuing the same obsession for decades: reducing the size of machines without emptying them of intelligence. Until now, that goal had a physical limit that was difficult to cross. Above a certain threshold, making a smaller robot meant making several compromises. That just changed. A team of researchers has shown that It is possible to build an autonomous robot so tiny that it can barely be seen, but still capable of perceiving its environment, processing information, and responding without outside intervention. The development comes from researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Michigan, who have built what the team describes as the autonomous programmable robot smallest achieved so far. The device is designed to operate submerged in a fluid, and in that environment it can move and operate. The scientific article describes a body measuring approximately 210 by 340 micrometers and 50 micrometers thick. Its scale is so small that it can rest on the ridge of a fingerprint and is almost invisible to the naked eye. A complete robot on a microscopic scale. The difference compared to previous attempts is not only in the miniaturization, but in what this device theoretically manages to integrate. According to the researchers, the microrobot incorporates computing, memory, sensors, communication and locomotion systems within a single autonomous platform. Until now, these systems often relied on external equipment to process information or make decisions. In this case, the robot can execute digitally defined algorithms and modify its behavior based on what is happening around it. The main obstacle to getting here has not been conceptual, but physical. At micrometer scales, the rules change: gravity and inertia lose weight, and forces such as viscosity and drag dominate. In that environment, moving through a fluid is more like moving through thick material than swimming in water. Added to this difficulty is an even more severe restriction, energy. With power budgets around 100 nanowatts, integrating propulsion and computing at the same time had been, until now, an almost impossible compromise. Electronics designed to survive on almost no power. The solution involved rethinking the robot’s electronic architecture from scratch. The team worked with a 55 nanometer CMOS process and used subthreshold digital logic to keep consumption within a budget close to 100 nanowatts. In that space they managed to integrate photovoltaic cells for power, temperature sensors, control circuits for the actuators, an optical receiver for programming and communication, as well as a processor with memory. Locomotion is one of the most unique aspects of design. Instead of motors or appendages, the microrobot uses electric fields to induce currents in the fluid around it, moving without moving parts that could break. Its creators describe it as a system in which the robot generates its own “river” to move forward. That same minimalist logic extends to communication. The measurements you make, such as temperature, are encoded into motion sequences, a simple but effective method at this scale. Tiny robots that act together. Beyond individual behavior, the team has shown that these microrobots can synchronize and operate in groups. According to the researchers, several devices are capable of coordinating their movements and forming collective patterns comparable to schools of fish. This approach opens the door to distributed tasks, in which each unit contributes local information or action. In theory, these groups could continue to operate autonomously for months if kept charged with LED light on their solar cells, although available memory limits the complexity of programmable behaviors for now. With this platform, researchers propose a path toward more general-purpose microrobots, capable of executing tasks in difficult environments without constant supervision. On the horizon are applications that today are closer to the laboratory than to the real world, for example in biomedicine, where devices of this type could operate on body fluids. The team itself insists that this is just a first step. The advance opens a technical base, but the jump to practical uses will depend on increasing performance. Images | University of Pennsylvania and the University of Michigan In Xataka | We still don’t know if humanoid robots will be the next great technological revolution. Yes we know that China will lead it

South Korea just turned on AX K1. “An AI for everyone” that puts the country in the race between China and the US

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The race for artificial intelligence It is the new diamond of the economy of many countries. one to whom they are throwing money as if the world were going to end and that it is having serious implications on issues that affect citizens such as energyhe employment and with one last controversy: the exorbitant price of RAM. The great powers they want to be sovereign in this field, and South Korea has just light his first hyperscale artificial intelligence model. His name could be some son of Elon Musk: AX K1. In short. Developed by the giant SK Telecom, AX K1 is a model that has 519 billion total parameters, although during inference, which is the practical use case, it “only” activates about 33 billion. It’s still accurate (as accurate as an AI can be) but consumes far fewer resources. That 519B – A33B mode is based on the ‘architecture’mixture of experts‘ that selects in real time and dynamically the optimal parameter subsets for each task. These parameters are like the neural connections that allow the model to “learn” during training, and the fact that South Korea already has a hyperscale model is a huge leap in the country’s position within the global picture of AI. Master Model. The design of this model allows stable performance in tasks such as advanced reasoning, mathematics and multilingual comprehension, but there is also an interesting concept: it works as a “Master Model”. These models are the ones that transfer knowledge to smaller models. While the master knows everything, the lighter model is specialized in a specific task. And, although the large model consumes an enormous amount of resources, the “student” that inherits complex capabilities without having to manage so many parameters can run on devices and environments with more limited resources. For example, the AX K1 with those 512B can “transfer its knowledge” to those below the 70B scale, much more specialized and cheaper. “As Korea’s leading AI company, we will continue to push forward our efforts to deliver AI for everyone” – Tae Yoon Kim “AI for everyone”. In less words: the master model allows the expansion of AI to be accelerated because the hyperscale is used for research, but the lower scale is used for more everyday products. And, precisely, that is what SK Telecom seeks: for its IOA to be the basis on which the country operates. In collaboration with different universities, associations and thanks to the memory manufacturer SK Hynix –one of the giants of the sector and part of SK Telecom-, the company hopes it will be the foundation of an “AI for all.” This implies that they will deploy it in their services and, as it is open source, its API can be the basis of other models in university, business and even national ecosystems. In fact, there is already talk of very specific solutions, such as access to AI through text messages and even phone calls, but also multilingual search services and even a boost for AI in video games. And, of course, for humanoid robotics either for education. The great advantage that the consortium that owns AX K1 has is that it is one of the largest groups in the world, with a presence in the semiconductor, telephone, transportation, construction, energy and video game industries. Therefore, you can easily scale this technology. Third in contention. SK Telecom has confirmed that it plans to continue expanding its model with agent-based execution and those 519Bs allow Korea to become “one of the top three artificial intelligence nations in the world,” in the words of Tae Yoon Kimone of those responsible for the model. The group’s intention is to help “consolidate South Korea as one of the world’s top three artificial intelligence nations,” a race that is taking place resources difficult to contextualize in both the United States and China and which is crushing markets like RAM for consumers. Image | SK Telecom In Xataka | The exorbitant deployment of data centers for AI has a new problem: salt caverns

Civilian ships that can be converted into missile launchers

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For decades, large freighters have been the most recognizable symbol of globalization, platforms designed to move goods and not much else. In recent years, however, some images are beginning to suggest that this separation between civil transport and military capacity is no longer as clear as it seemed. Photographs are circulating of a merchant ship modified in an unusual way, with containers that do not seem intended for consumer goods. Images come from Weibothe equivalent of X in China. They show a medium-sized freighter that does not respond to a standard configuration, with containers placed in an unusual way and equipment visible on deck. There is no official confirmation about the vessel or the exact time the photographs were taken. The entire analysis is based, therefore, on what can be directly observed in these images. Sensors and defense on deck. On the freighter you can see containers used as supports to install equipment, As Newsweek points out. On the front there is a rotating phased-array radar placed on three containers, and on the opposite side there is a second installation covered by a dome, attributable to communications or another sensor. Also noteworthy is the presence of visible self-defense elements in the bow, such as a point defense system and decoy launchers, which reinforces the idea of ​​a setup designed to operate exposed. Beyond the sensors, the element that completely redefines the ship is the presence of vertical launchers integrated into containers. There are several modules installed in a regular arrangement, five wide by three deep, and each with four launch tubes. On paper, that adds up to a total of 60 vertical cells. How far does what we know go? Beyond what is visible, the practical scope of this configuration is unknown. The robustness of the mounts, the possible coverage limitations due to the ship’s own superstructure and the absence of information on an integrated combat system limit any conclusion. Just because something can be physically installed does not mean that it can be used effectively in an operational environment. Click to see the original publication in X A sign within a broader modernization. These images fit with a context in which China has been expanding and diversifying its military capabilities in multiple ways. In aviation, it has officially incorporated the J-20Sthe two-seat variant of the J-20 with drone control capabilities, and prototypes attributed to the programs have appeared J-36 and J-50. In the naval field, the commission of the Fujian aircraft carrier (Type 003)the advance of the Type 055 destroyers and the appearance of new amphibious classes such as the Type 076 They draw a coherent background. None of this makes the freighter a definitive test of strategy, but it helps to understand why such a solution is not foreign to the general direction that Beijing follows. The unknowns surrounding this freighter remain open and will probably not be resolved in the short term. Regardless of whether it is an experiment, a model or something more advanced, these images put a concrete possibility on the table: that civil platforms can be adapted to concentrate launch capacity and operate with their own sensors. Images | Screenshot Weibo and X In Xataka | Satellite images have revealed that China has gathered its most important aircraft carriers. And that can only mean one thing

AI fever

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Something is changing in the bitcoin business, and it doesn’t just have to do with the price of the cryptocurrency. As mining becomes more demanding and less profitable, artificial intelligence is triggering a race for electricity and computing power. The result is a striking paradox: companies that see their historical activity losing traction possess exactly what is now scarce. Infrastructure, land and electrical contracts that, suddenly, have become worth much more than expected. This combination of factors is beginning to reorder the map of crypto mining. The sector is transforming. Beyond the currencies, the true value of many miners lies in access to electricity and the infrastructure already deployed. For years, these companies ensured stable supply, built industrial warehouses with refrigeration and signed energy contracts that are difficult to obtain today. The Wall Street Journal points out that this set of assets fits precisely with the current needs of the technology sector, which seeks immediate capacity to deploy large-scale computing. Now, going from traditional mining to supporting advanced loads is not a simple change of machines. Bitcoin-oriented centers are designed for a very specific type of work, while intensive computing demands more sophisticated infrastructure and much lower tolerances for failures or latencies. This requires updating internal electrical systems, cooling and networks, in addition to completely replacing the equipment. The process can be profitable, but it is not trivial, and it marks a clear border between companies capable of assuming that effort and those that are not. The infrastructure hosting model. Instead of competing for the purchase of chips and assuming their rapid obsolescence, some miners have chosen to rent what they already control. In this model, they cede buildings, electrical power and cooling capacity to hyperscalers and large technology companies that install their own hardware. In exchange, they sign long-term contracts with more predictable income and counterparties with great financial capacity. The logic is clear: less exposure to the volatility of the crypto market and a more stable use of assets that were already on balance, even if some traditional mining continues to operate. One of the most illustrative cases is that of Core Scientific, whose data centers began to adapt for artificial intelligence loads long before July 2025. its acquisition by CoreWeave will be announced. The company has been modifying facilities designed for bitcoin mining with the aim of hosting AI-oriented GPUs, replacing environments based on ASIC for more advanced infrastructure. This previous work explains why these assets have gained strategic value, regardless of the final outcome of the corporate operation. Flexibility as an advantage over the network. CleanSpark proposes a different path, based on combining bitcoin mining and infrastructure aimed at other uses. Its central argument is not only economic, but also operational: mining companies can provide flexibility to the electrical grid. By being able to disconnect part of their consumption in times of overload or instability, they offer an adjustment capacity that data centers dedicated to AI do not have. According to its management, this capacity has become increasingly in demand by electricity companies, which are looking for large consumers capable of adapting in real time without compromising the stability of the system. The market has reacted quickly to this change in narrative. The shares of several companies linked to mining have registered strong increases even in a context in which bitcoin has shown a decline. The most visible case is that of CoinShares Bitcoin Mining ETFwhich has accumulated a revaluation of close to 90% in the year, driven by companies that have announced long-term agreements linked to infrastructure and data centers. For investors, the appeal is not so much in the cryptocurrency as in the possibility of transforming a volatile business into one with more predictable income. A turn that is not without risks. Strong appetite for AI infrastructure has reignited the debate about a possible bubblefueled by demanding valuations and highly capital-intensive investment plans. For mining companies, the leap requires significant disbursements and impeccable execution, with the risk of being left halfway if demand cools. Additionally, shifting focus toward AI-oriented data centers could reduce mining capacity in the United States, pushing some bitcoin production to other countries and altering the geographic balance of the sector. Everything seems to indicate that we are not facing a simple technical change, but rather a more profound reconfiguration. Some miners are no longer thinking of themselves as actors linked exclusively to bitcoin to become owners and operators of infrastructure, while others use AI as a hedge against an increasingly demanding business. The AI ​​fever has not saved mining, but it has opened a new vein. In Xataka | Erling Løken Andersen | Amjith S | Igor Omilaev In Xataka | Something is going wrong with AI. The US is turning to energy solutions that it thought were buried to power data centers

a sports nutritionist helps us understand what’s behind it

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We eat every day and, even so, many doubts continue to arise around food. How many eggs are too manyif coconut oil deserves its fame, if sweeteners are a safe alternative or if training on an empty stomach really helps you burn more fat. These are questions that are repeated in conversations, social networks and headlines, often accompanied by forceful answers that do not always leave room for nuances. In the last episode of the first season of ‘Science and apart‘, which you can see on our YouTube channel and listen also on Spotify and iVooxÁngela Blanco chats with Maria Blancosports nutritionist, to calmly and contextually address some of the most widespread ideas about nutrition, habits and performance. Food, habits and many certainties that are not so certain The conversation starts with a question that forces us to go beyond personal tastes. If you had to choose a single food that is complete from a nutritional point of view, the specialist does not hesitate to point out a very specific one: “The egg is a very complete food. It has almost all the vitamins, it has minerals, it has a complete aminogram, that is, the protein we need, it has all the amino acids, and if it were missing something it would be vitamin C, it would lack fiber, it would lack other things… but well, the egg is the most complete food that I would choose.” After valuing the egg as food, the conversation enters one of the most repeated doubts. Is there really a clear limit to its consumption? María Blanco’s response is based on scientific evidence and avoids alarmism: “In scientific evidence, the daily egg, one to three eggs, is totally healthy. Because then we could restrict or avoid other types of foods that can harm us much more than the egg.” The episode also focuses on how certain reputations are built around what we eat. When asked by our colleague about foods with a reputation for being healthy, María Blanco points directly to one of the most popular in recent years: “Coconut oil. Because we have a very rich oil, which is olive oil. and that we have a very good origin because we are here and it is first-hand. And it (coconut oil) is like with a lot of propaganda.” The conversation also stops at one of the most used sugar substitutes. When talking about saccharin, María Blanco avoids simplifications and focuses attention on another less visible aspect: “There may be changes when using not only saccharin, but also sweeteners, in the microbiota that we have inside our intestine, and that can affect other areas.” To understand why this possible impact matters, the interviewee stops to explain what we are talking about when we mention the microbiota: “The microbiota or the microbiome is the set of bacteria that are living with us in our intestine.” And it adds a key nuance about internal balance: when these bacteria are no longer in a situation of eubiosis and dysbiosis occurs, effects that go beyond the digestive system can appear. The conversation ends by delving into some of the most discussed habits. From the appeal of ultra-processed foods to the debate on fasting and exercising on an empty stomach, María Blanco insists that the body does not work with instantaneous mechanisms: “There is no turn onthere is no switch, which is directly ‘well now I change this liver thing and start burning the fat from the adipocytes.’” We address all of this in more depth in ‘Science and Apart’, which closes its first season with a very interesting episode. A conversation designed to better understand how we eat and to put context to doubts that have been on the table for some time, with the help of our interviewee. Images | Xataka In Xataka | The Earth is not calm, it just seems that way: a geologist explains why natural disasters continue to surprise us

Neuroscience explains why the brain takes much longer to mature than we thought

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The idea we have about adolescence right now it ends at 25 years old, this being the age at which supposedly the brain has just been ‘cooked’ forever to give way to a functional adult. But the reality is very different as the new studies point out, since we would continue to mature the brain until at least 32 years old. Where did the current idea come from? To understand why scientists pointed to 25 years as the age at which brain maturity ends, we must go back to studies of the past. Specifically to Resonance studies from the 90s and early 2000s like the classic Nitin Gogtay who mapped brain development and discovered that the cortex matures from “back to front.” This means that the sensory and motor areas are consolidated soon, but the prefrontal cortex which is in charge of executive functions, impulse control and planning is last in line. The problem is that many of those studies stopped following the subjects when you reach 20 or 21 years oldsince seeing that the curve continued to rise, it was assumed that the “peak” of maturity would arrive shortly after, around the mid-20s. But we had no idea what happened after this. Just assumptions. A new frontier. In order to solve this ‘blindness’ of neuroscience used the analysis of more than 4,000 brains using connectivity neuroimaging techniques at the University of Cambridge. What they saw was clearly five ‘epochs’ or milestones in brain wiring throughout life. Different turning points. And as if our life were a game, in the brain we have like five different screens that begin at a specific age that acts as a turning point. These ages are: 9, 32, 66 and 83 years. What interests us in this case is the period between 9 and 32 years, since the brain is characterized by a continuous increase in the efficiency and integration of neural networks. It is what the authors describe as an ‘extended adolescence’. It’s not that at 30 you think the same as a 15-year-old, but that the architecture of connections has not yet reached its final ‘adult’ form. Something that occurs at age 32 and remains stable until age 66, when brain activity begins to decline. To understand it better. Researchers wanted to use a simile to illustrate this new paradigm. To do this, they ask us to think of our brain as the union of several “functional neighborhoods” that specialize in specific tasks such as vision, language or logic. All of these are integrated with each other through different highways that are high-speed connections. Well then, between 20 and 32 years old The brain is balancing these two processes, so that the connections between different areas of the brain are well connected and organized. And it is precisely this typical pattern of the adult network, where the brain is capable of integrating complex information fluidly, which does not appear until after the age of thirty. Teenager at 30? This is where the important nuance comes in. Just because the brain continues to mature structurally does not mean that we should redefine adolescence in legal or clinical terms. All this because maturation is a gradient, not a switch of ‘now I’m a teenager and now I’m not’. To understand this, you have to know that the different elements of the brain and executive functions have a very different development curve. In this way, saying that the brain matures at 32 is a simplification that is as useful (or as erroneous) as saying that it matures at 25. What science really tells us is that there is no sudden development “blackout”; We remain biologically plastic and dynamic much longer than we thought. An opportunity for habits. This prolonged maturation is good news for all of us, since if the brain continues to actively ‘wire’ itself throughout our 20s, it means that structural plasticity is especially dynamic at this stage. In this way, science is quite clear: aerobic exercise, learning new languages ​​or facing cognitively demanding tasks during this “third decade” of life helps to improve the volume and organization of the brain’s white matter. On the contrary, factors such as chronic stress can affect the integrity of those connections. In short, a brain at 28 years old is not a finished product, but rather a work in progress that is finishing paving its best highways. The next time someone tells you that you should have your life figured out now because “you’re an adult,” you can tell them that, according to the University of Cambridge, your brain still has a couple of years of baking left. Images | Hal Gatewood Robina Weermeijer In Xataka | From 27 to 36 years old the brain reaches its peak concentration. And from there, bad news

2,000 years ago, Seneca said that “it is not that we have little time to live, but that we keep wasting it.” Science agrees

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20 centuries ago, a man from Cordoba who had been quaestor, praetor, senator and consul of Rome and tutor to Emperors sat down to write a small treatise on the brevity of life. That was where he wrote that “it is not that we have little time to live, but that we waste a lot.” That phrase has spanned decades and decades, sticking in the minds of thousands of people and illuminating their lives. Or, simply, filling out internet pages that we have learned to consume as if it were any other entertainment product. A very popular one, by the way. In recent months, the Internet has been filled with Seneca quotes. The head of this report is one of them, but not the only one (“If you want to find true happiness, do not look for it in the great or the new, but in the serenity that simplicity brings.“, “there is no favorable wind for those who do not know where they are going“, “It is not that we have little time to live, but that we waste a lot“, etc, etc. ). And it’s curious… Does it make sense to go back to types from 2,000 years ago to solve our modern-day problems? And surprisingly it may be so. That’s what Philosophy professor Christopher Gill asked himself a few years ago.What if all that philosophical gossip goes further? “To what extent can we moderns recognize in these essays a plausible response to mental illness?” he asked. His answer, after studying Stoics and Aristotelians, is that Seneca’s texts; but, in general, these “philosophical essays were designed to function as a psychological analogue of the ancient medical regime.” What we would call today “lifestyle management” or “preventive medicine.” And, therefore, beyond the ‘pop philosophy’ of recent years, it is possible to find something of value in all those classic texts. Some of value, but not everything. In 1965, when she entered the Chinese Academy of Traditional Medicine, chemist Tu Youyou entered into a very long race to analyze each and every one of the remedies that the ancient Chinese civilization had been selecting. Most of them were pure pseudoscience, of course. A mixture of superstition, credulity and placebo. However, hidden among the trickery, there were real gems. The best example is the artemisinina revolutionary treatment against malaria. A treatment that earned him the Nobel Prize in 2015. It was sold like a Nobel Prize for traditional medicine, yes; but in reality, it was a Nobel for the slow work of screening, testing and discarding by the Ningbo scientist. That is what should be done with the practical philosophy of the Greeks and Romans. And, in this case, it seems that Seneca was right. First of all, because we have systematic biases that they push us to postpone and waste time. Secondly, because much of the “lost time” is not even conscious: it is pure “cognitive friction” (interruptions, multitasking, attention waste, etc.). And finally, because, according to available evidencewhen we reduce the lack of time, well-being increases. That is to say, it is not so much that we lack time as that we do not have a “well-lived” life. How do we fit all this together? Well, very good. Because “all this”, moreover, fits into the general idea not only of Seneca’s pamphlet in which it appears; but in the general outline of Stoic philosophy. And it is worth remembering that under all the naturalistic scaffolding of the philosophy of the old Stoics there was, above all, an ethical question: an imperative to live in accordance with nature (a, by the way, very rationalist vision of nature). In this sense, the Stoics they used to pay attention to what the human being could or could not do: since you have limited control over the length of your life, you must focus on how you live it; They told us while they invited us to order our behavior through moral criteria by dint of attention and peace of mind. Image | Fabio Comperelli | Prado Museum In Xataka | What is Stoicism, the Greek philosophy from 2,000 years ago that has become fashionable again today

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