Month: March 2026

An 18-year-old girl has a filter that eliminates 96% of them

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Little by little, microplastics are surrounding us as they are present in the drinking waterin the meal and even inside our body. This poses a great environmental and public health challenge, and until now the solutions that were proposed used to be quite expensive with special filters to be able to trap these particlesbut a teenager has changed this idea. A new filter. It was Mia Heller, an 18 year old studentwhich has managed to develop a prototype water filter that has a low cost and has managed to eliminate all microplastics. The most characteristic thing is that the ‘core’ of this invention is not a microscopic network, but a material known as ferrofluid. How it works. The truth is that we are talking about a prodigy of applied physics and chemistry, since the ferrofluidwhen introduced into a volume of contaminated water, causes all the microplastics present to adhere to the material naturally. Subsequently, once the plastic is ‘impregnated’ with this magnetic liquid, the water passes through a magnetic separation system. Here the only thing we must have are powerful magnets that attract the ferrofluid, dragging the microplastics with it, and letting the clean water pass through so that it continues its course. The results. Here we are talking about a simple small-scale prototype, but the truth is that metrics have shown that the invention achieves a rate of 95.52% microplastic removal. But the innovation stops there, since the system is capable of recovering and recycling approximately 87% of the ferrofluid used, which greatly reduces operating costs and makes the system sustainable. Your progress. The development of this filter has not remained a simple school experiment. In this case, Mia Heller presented her creation at the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair 2025, which is one of the pre-university scientific competitions most prestigious in the worldwhere he competed against some 1,700 students from 62 countries and 49 North American states. The jury and the scientific community have praised the young woman’s approach, since, by avoiding the use of traditional membrane filters, Heller’s prototype overcomes the problem of clogging due to the accumulation of waste, guaranteeing a constant water flow and requiring minimal maintenance. A revolution. The most promising thing about this development is its economic viability. Being a low-cost filter and made from accessible materials, it has enormous potential to be deployed in vulnerable communities or developing areas with considerable difficulty in accessing advanced water purification systems. The next step here is to scale the technology to integrate into municipal water treatment plant systems or even home filter systems. What is clear is that science knows no age, and anyone with a good idea can make a great revolution. Images | Naja Bertolt Jensen In Xataka | Someone has declared war on microplastics: their plan is to “wash” the semen and rejuvenate from the testicles

Moving ‘Guernica’ requires a complex and dangerous operation for the painting. Now the Basque Government wants to do it

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‘Guernica’ is an unusual painting in many aspects. Its history is. It is he tour that took him to several continents during his first decades. And so is its size, much (very) larger than the vast majority of paintings that hang in museums. This sum of factors explains why it is now at the center of a bitter controversy. The Basque Country wants to temporarily take it from Madrid to Bilbao to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the bombing which inspired Picasso, but its current custodian, the Reina Sofía, believes it is a bad idea. The debate is served. What has happened? That the Basque Government wants ‘Guernica’, probably Pablo Picasso’s most famous work, finally exposed in Euskadi. A few days ago, during a meeting with the Minister of Culture, the vice lehendakari Ibone Bengoetxea requested the Government to temporarily transfer the painting to the Guggenheim in Bilbao. She wasn’t the only one. The same request Lehendakari Imanol Pradales has transferred it to the President of the Government. The idea is that ‘Guernica’ ends up in Basque lands nine monthsfrom October 2026 to June 2027. After that period, he would return to what has been his home since the beginning of the 1990s, the Reino Sofía Museum in Madrid, where he acts as the main attraction, capturing tens of thousands of visitors. Click on the image to go to the tweet. Why is it important? Because of its symbolic load. ‘Guernica’ is not just any painting. Picasso painted it between May and June 1937 in his workshop on Rue des Grands-Augustins, Paris, commissioned by the Government of the Republic. The work is also inspired by one of the most disastrous episodes of the Civil War: the bombing of the town of Guernica (Vizcaya) at the end of April 1937 by the Condor Legion and the Italian Legionary Aviation. Although during its first decades it was the protagonist of an intense journey that took it through a good part of Europe, North America and South America, the work did not land in Spain until September 1981. Some historians like The Barroquistahave interpreted his arrival as “the symbolic return of the last exile.” And why is it news? That Euskadi wants it to be exhibited in Bilbao right now, between October 2026 and June 2027, is no coincidence. It would coincide with the 90th anniversary of the constitution of the first regional Executive and the bombing of Guernica. Hence Bengoetxea has insisted in the “deep historical, symbolic and emotional meaning” that the transfer would have for the Basque people. Will it be possible? Of course it won’t be easy. Just one day after the meeting between Bengoetxea and the Minister of Culture, the Reina Sofía Museum published a report of 16 pages in which he “strongly advises against” the transfer of the painting from Madrid to the Basque Country. The reason: the process could damage it. “The work is kept in stable conditions thanks to rigorous control of the environmental conditions. However, in view of a possible transfer, its format, nature of the elements that compose it and state of conservation, together with the numerous damages suffered over time, make it especially sensitive to all types of vibrations that are inevitable in transporting works of art.” Does it say anything else? Yes. In case there are any doubts, underlines: “Such vibrations could generate new cracks, lifting and loss of the pictorial layer, as well as tears in the support.” The opinion of the Reina Sofía of course has not pleased the Basque Government, dissatisfied with both the substance and the form. “It would be serious for a formal request from a government to be responded to without a serious and in-depth analysis. The order must be an analysis of the needs so that the painting can be in Euskadi temporarily,” claims Bengoetxea. The regional Executive emphasizes that this is not a simple technical issue. In the background, they insist, there are much deeper readings that affect “memory” and “repair.” The vice lehendakari first complaint and that at the moment it has not received “any official response” from Moncloa. Is it that surprising? Yes. And no. Everything that revolves around ‘Guernica’ arouses expectation, something understandable if one takes into account that the artistic value of the work is added to its historical and symbolic relevance. However, Reina Sofía herself has been responsible for highlighting that his position is not new. In fact, it has been closing the door to organizations that request a loan for the work for several decades. In 1997 he already said ‘no’ to a request for the painting to be included in the inauguration from the Guggenheim in Bilbao, and that it arrived backed by a report in which “the technical conditions” of the transfer were detailed. Click on the image to go to the tweet. Have there been more cases? In 2000 ddenied a request of MoMA, in 2006 he did the same with the Royal Ontario Museum and in 2007 he rejected another request from the Basque Government. Two years later he again said ‘no’ to the Fuji Group, interested in including the piece in the “50th Anniversary Fuji TV” exhibition, held in Tokyo, and in 2012 he also rejected the request presented by a Korean museum. The painting’s last trips date back a few decades: in 1981 it was packed up at the MoMA for transfer to Spain, where it was first exhibited at the Casón del Buen Retiro and later (from 1992) at the Reina Sofía. There alone the exhibition “Piety and Terror in Picasso”, organized during the 80th anniversary of the work, attracted more than 625,000 visitors. And that in less than half a year. Is it so problematic to move it? The report published by the Reina Sofía Museum not only advises against the transfer of ‘Guernica’. Before reaching that conclusion, he offers a detailed analysis of the current state of the painting, in which he notes “alterations such as cracks, cracks … Read more

The biggest find in twelve years of GTA archeology came from an Edinburgh flea market and a used Xbox 360

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It’s fascinating when we discover details years (even decades) after a game’s release that hadn’t come to light before. Secret levels in classics that everyone had examined from cover to cover, unrevealed meanings, unsolved puzzles… and sometimes, versions of the games that should never have seen the light of day and that give clues about the ideas that were considered in the development process. The latest case in that sense: ‘GTA IV’. What has happened? Last weekend, a user of GTAForums known as janmatant He paid £5 at a flea market in Edinburgh for an Xbox 360 in not very good condition. At home he discovered that the console was running Xshell, the operating system for Microsoft development kits. The 120 GB hard drive contained a single game: a beta version of ‘Grand Theft Auto IV’ dated November 2007, several months before its commercial release. The treasures he found were poured into the thread GTA IV Beta Huntwho has been tracking unreleased content from the game since 2014 (and which has generated 14 new pages of comments since posting janmatant). GTA IV on the trail. That the discovery occurred in Edinburgh is not at all coincidental. Rockstar North has been based in the capital since it was DMA Design, in 1987, and that is why the console ended up in the hands of a scrap dealer, a process that clearly should not have happened. Development kits are proprietary hardware that Microsoft distributes exclusively to studios (and in those days also to the press) to run games in conditions close to the final hardware. In theory, at the end of a project cycle, those units are returned or destroyed, but this was not the case. 118 gigabytes of Liberty City. After confirming by the serial number that the devkit was authentic, janmatant uploaded the content to the Internet Archive under the title “Great Stealing of Vehicles four XDK”. The 118 GB file is it executable on a real Xbox 360 with debugging tools, although a fully playable version is not yet ready. The most immediate find was the Liberty City ferries. The barges appear in the game’s first trailer and in some cutscenes, but in the final game they are just a set piece. The realistic ‘GTA IV’ opted for a world focused on cars and taxis and in its day, Obbe Vermeij, former technical director of Rockstar North, counted that the shuttles were removed late in development, with models already finished. Zombie mode. There had always been rumors about a zombie mode for which we had never had solid evidence. Herein build We find hospital beds with direct references to zombies, early models of infected characters and several animations associated with this variant. The Cutting Room Floorthe wiki dedicated to documenting cut content in video games, had already listed the project as “Z: Resurrection” based on code fragments found in the final version, but without visual material to support it. A former Rockstar developer It has taken away some of the epicness of the matter: According to him, zombie mode was simply an “experiment” that artists and programmers played to develop in parallel, not a formal production line. That doesn’t mean the discovery is minor, but rather that the creative leeway within Rockstar North in 2007 allowed a team to test out survival horror mechanics during development. Other divergences. The build includes other substantial differences from the final game. The silenced pistol is in this version’s arsenal, along with other unfinished weapons and a notable number of incomplete animations and unreplaced audio markers, as is the case with any half-developed game. The models of some NPCs are different from the final ones, and the character of Michelle, the FIB informant who appears as Niko Bellic’s early romantic interest, has a look here that forum users describe as strangely disturbing. What may be most surprising to any fan of the game is that about half of the radio stations sound completely different. ‘GTA IV’ has one of the most elaborate soundtracks in the saga, with dozens of real music licenses distributed on thematic stations. That half of that content changed between November 2007 and the April 2008 release says a lot about the licensing negotiation process in the final phases of development. What does Rockstar do? After everything that happened, Rockstar Games and Take-Two have not issued public statements. Although companies have a reputation for relentlessly pursuing leaks, the author of this leak purchased the console legally. In any case, he has put the devkit up for sale on eBay for £800. It’s not too much for material of such magnitude, but the truth is that, once on the Internet, access to these secrets is universal. In Xataka | The best video games of 2026 and the most interesting ones to come

more job offers but it is more difficult to find work

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The technology sector has never had so many open vacancies and yet finding a job there has become a task harder than ever. This apparent contradiction is not just a feeling: the data confirms it, and it has everything to do with how AI is redrawing the map of who has a place and who does not in technology companies. A detailed analysis by Lenny Rachitsky, expert in the technological labor market and host of the popular Lenny’s Podcastoffers an image that invites reflection. The figures are the most optimistic that has been recorded in its four editions of the report on the state of employment in the technological product sector, but the reality of many professionals who looking for a new job contradicts that optimism on paper. Numbers are deceiving (or at least, they don’t tell everything). According to the collected data by Rachitsky through TrueUp, a platform that tracks job offers in more than 9,000 technology companies in the world, there are more than 7,300 vacancies open for profiles Product Manager At a global level, 75% above that recorded at the beginning of 2023 and almost 20% more than at the beginning of this same year. In engineering, the figure is even more striking, with more than 67,000 active offers worldwide and 26,000 in the US alone. However, more vacancies do not automatically equal easier finding a job. Rachitsky himself acknowledges in his report that there are many people having a hard time searching, and that this does not change because the overall numbers are good. He labor market growsYes, but it doesn’t do it at the same rate for everyone. not even for all profiles. The boom in roles linked to AI. The great catalyst for this growth is AI. Jobs related to its development and implementation are skyrocketing compared to other technology roles, something Rachitsky describes as a hockey stick-shaped growth curve. This profile demand of software engineering reaches both native AI companies (such as OpenAI, Anthropic or Cursor) and non-technology companies, which looking for product managers specialized in integrating these technologies into their processes. a report of the London School of Economics confirms that more than 76% of product managers expect to expand their investment in AI in 2026, which has triggered demand for managers capable of translating the capabilities of AI models into concrete products. The profile that companies are looking for, however, is very specific and not just any candidate with AI on the resume is worth it, but experienced professionals in implementation and with the ability to make decisions in environments where AI is already part of the development process. Side B: junior profiles are left out. This is where the other side of the paradox comes in. The report by Anthropic ‘Labor market impacts of AI: A new measure and early evidence’reveals that overall unemployment among workers most exposed to AI has not increased significantly since the arrival of ChatGPT, but there is a worrying sign in the data from hiring the youngest. Specifically, the study detects that, since 2024, workers between 22 and 25 years old have increasingly less likely to be hired in jobs most exposed to automation. The incorporation rate for these positions has fallen approximately half a percentage point, reducing by up to 14% the probability that a young man finds a job in those occupations, relative to levels prior to the launch of ChatGPT. For workers over 25 years of age, however, that same drop is not observed. Design, the great forgotten of the recovery. There is another profile that the recovery of employment in the technological labor market seems to have left aside: the design one. While product and engineering roles have been growing for two years, vacancies for designers have practically stagnated since the beginning of 2023, with around 5,700 global offers compared to more than 7,300 for product. The analysis firm Humbl Design confirms in its January 2026 report that design roles oriented toward routine execution will barely grow between 2% and 3% until 2034, while profiles specialized in strategy and problem solving project an increase of 16% in the same period. AI has a lot to do with this stagnation. Its ability to accelerate the work of engineers has reduced dependence on traditional design processes, especially in the prototyping and generation of visual variants phases. That is, AI has assumed that role and is now executed from the development departments, so companies They don’t need so many designers anymore.. In Xataka | “The world is in danger”: Anthropic’s security manager leaves the company to write poetry Image | Unsplash (Mimi Thian)

we will not have to resort to our feces to grow plants

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In The Martianthe character played by Matt Damon was forced to use his own feces to grow potatoes in the inhospitable Martian soil. The dust lacking nutrients prevents any plant from growing on it. That’s why he had to desperately obtain nutrients. In the future the story could try to replicate itself, but a team of German scientists has found a somewhat more elegant way to grow crops in the soil of Mars: using cyanobacteria as fertilizer. A lifeless soil. The dust that covers the Martian soil, known as regolith, it is rich in mineralsbut it lacks the organic nutrients necessary for plants to grow on it. Therefore, if in the future an attempt was made to grow plants on Mars, it would be impossible. The rest of the planet doesn’t help either.. Soil is not the only limiting factor for growing plants on Mars. The extreme temperatures, which can reach 60ºC, and the atmosphere composed mainly of carbon dioxide are not great incentives either. On the other hand, there is the lack of liquid water and cosmic radiation seriously endangers any known form of life. The win win of agriculture. Growing food on Mars would be very advantageous for obvious reasons, such as feeding astronauts, but also because plants generate oxygen through photosynthesis. Considering how unbreathable the Martian atmosphere is, this would be very advantageous. The problem is that, to do so, it is not enough to use feces in the purest style of The Martian. The enemy is on the ground. Martian regolith is known to be covered in perchloratestoxic salts that hinder plant growth at many levels. For example, they prevent germination and alter the metabolism of plants. Fortunately, it has been detected that there are specific points on the planet where the wind has caused the accumulation of gypsum, displacing perchlorates. Since there are plants that benefit from gypsum as a substrate, you could try growing them in those spots. The problem is that this solution greatly reduces the growing locations and plants that can be chosen. A peculiar pantry. Many scientists have been researching for years ways to improve the diet of future space colonizers. If it cannot be grown directly in the ground, it will have to be done in the warehouses themselves. For example, already in 2015 lettuce was grown on the International Space Station. Much more recent is the cultivation of tomatoes on the Chinese space station Tiangong. In this case, has been achieved done in the air thanks to a technology that sprays water and nutrients in the form of mist to directly feed the roots of the plants. And if it’s complicated with plants, you can always resort to crickets. It is one of the bets for the future of the European Space Agency. Cyanobacteria to the rescue. Cyanobacteria are capable of using the carbon dioxide so abundant in the Martian atmosphere to generate oxygen in a process in which nutrients can also be extracted from the mineral-rich dust of the Martian soil. For this reason, a team of scientists from the University of Bremen has tried using them as fertilizer. To do this, once the cyanobacteria have been cultured, have resorted to anaerobic fermentation. This is carried out by inoculating bacteria that metabolize cyanobacterial biomass in the absence of oxygen. They are capable of growing in high concentrations of perchlorates and in the fermentation process they release very beneficial nutrients for plants, such as ammonium. In laboratory tests, in which this fertilizer was used to grow lentils, 27 grams of lentils were obtained from a single gram of cyanobacteria processed through fermentation. By the way, a little fuel. In the fermentation process, methane is also released, which can be used as fuel. These are all advantages for a future colonization of Mars. It’s not over yet. With this type of fertilizers, some of the barriers that prevent farming on Mars would fall. However, it should be noted that the study was carried out with a simulator of the Martian regolith, but without simulating the external conditions of the red planet. That is, neither extreme temperatures, low gravity nor cosmic radiation were taken into account. In the future it is hoped to test these cyanobacterial fertilizers again in a much better simulated environment. It is a necessary step so that there will truly come a day when food can be grown on Mars. Image | The Martian In Xataka |Interview with the author of The Martian: a story more of science than fiction

The US has invested 16 years and 8 billion dollars in renewing the software of its GPS network. Result: a failure of epic proportions

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The Next-Generation Operational Control System project (OCX) was going to modernize the constellation of the United States’ more than 30 GPS satellites. The company RTX Corporation (previously known as Raytheon) managed to win the project in 2010 with a budget of 3.7 billion dollars. The project was supposed to be completed in 2016, but in reality the US has spent $8 billion and 16 years later has an absolute disaster on its hands. 16 years of broken promises. In 2010 the iPad had just appeared on the scene and cloud computing was a somewhat diffuse concept. The project of the US Government was reasonable, and proposed that the OCX system be operational by the time Lockheed Martin’s new GPS III satellites debuted. The development became a chaos of bugs and requirements changes, and to this day it is unclear when, if ever, it will be completed. In Xataka 90% of Iran’s oil industry depends on a tiny island. One that is already on the radar of the US and Israel A fortune invested. The financial management of the project is the first big disaster. The initial budget was estimated at 1.5 billion dollars, but since the award until today that figure has risen to reach almost 7.7 billion of current dollars, to which another 400 million are added to support an improved version of the satellites, the GPS IIIF. This increase is not due in large part to the project suddenly being much more ambitious or more capable, but rather to the costs of having been fixing everything that has gone wrong since they started working on it. Software costs more than satellites. Every time software fails an integration test, the bill runs into tens or hundreds of millions of dollars. That has made the OCX system one of the most expensive and least efficient software projects in recent US military history. In fact, it far exceeds the cost of the satellites themselves that it had to control: the 22 GPS III satellites of the contract signed in 2018 have a budget of 7.2 billion dollars. Satellites of the future controlled by a fairground shotgun. Currently the United States has a fleet of GPS III satellites in orbit capable of emitting much more powerful “M-code” signals and interference resistantsomething that among other things allocates them especially for military applications. The problem is that since the OCX software not workingthey are managing them with control systems inherited from the 90s. It is as if we had a VHS video connected to watch movies on an 8K Smart TV: the potential is there, but one of the components is an absolute bottleneck. {“videoId”:”x8wlh9q”,”autoplay”:false,”title”:”United States vs. China: The CHIPS WAR”, “tag”:”webedia-prod”, “duration”:”1611″} The cybersecurity nightmare. One of the big problems of this project has been the cybersecurity requirements. OCX was designed to resist cyberattacks from powers such as Russia or China, but that requirement has become a spectacular technical burden. Pentagon standards have evolved so quickly that they have not been able to be adapted to an architecture that begins to become obsoleteand covering successive patches is locking the system in a complex vicious circle: the software is never finished because more and more vulnerabilities appear. Failed tests. The latest report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has been the final straw. During the tests the system again showed once again instabilitywhich has forced the final delivery to be delayed to the end of 2026 or even 2027. Frank Calvelli, of the Air Force, has expressed his dissatisfaction with that unacceptable management of private industry: the strategic advantage that this project should offer at a time like this is inaccessible due to the disastrous progress of the project. It’s not that difficult. for a long time the excuse for justify the delays was that OCX was “the most complex software ever created for space,” but other players in the sector have shown that achieving these types of technical milestones is possible. SpaceX has demonstrated this with technical “miracles” like its reusable Falcon 9 or with the development of Starship, for example, so those arguments are falling on deaf ears now. Waiting for a better GPS. These problems also affect us end users, who will not be able to enjoy the L5 signals for now. This much more robust frequency will significantly improve accuracy in urban centers with many tall buildings. The irony is tragic: we cannot use extraordinary space infrastructure because the base stations cannot cope with it. While waiting for the problems to be resolved, the learning is clear: the software cannot be a monster that takes 16 years to build In Xataka The GPS in the Baltic has been experiencing interference for months and the culprit is becoming increasingly clear: Russia And while as always, China. While the US crashes against its project to renew the GPS constellation, China has once again managed to “become independent” from Western technology. Your satellite navigation system Beidouit does not replace GPS, true, but It already complements it in 140 countries. Once again China’s long-term view has its obvious result: it has taken 20 years in deploying its constellation, but they already surpass the GPS system in metrics such as signal availability or integrated messaging services. Europe, by the way, also has its own alternative. In Xataka |GPS “dead zones” are spreading around the world: jammers are to blame for confusing drones (function() { window._JS_MODULES = window._JS_MODULES || {}; var headElement = document.getElementsByTagName(‘head’)(0); if (_JS_MODULES.instagram) { var instagramScript = document.createElement(‘script’); instagramScript.src=”https://platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js”; instagramScript.async = true; instagramScript.defer = true; headElement.appendChild(instagramScript); – The news The US has invested 16 years and 8 billion dollars in renewing the software of its GPS network. Result: a failure of epic proportions was originally published in Xataka by Javier Pastor .

The world trembles over Hormuz oil while ignoring what feeds 50% of the planet

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Geopolitics has a curious tendency to make us focus our attention on a specific point and not look at everything around us. With the scale of the tension in the Strait of Hormuzall eyes were on crude oil and the price of gasoline; However, experts warn that fertilizers are also in the spotlight. And the reality is that its collapse can cause a lack of food in our crops, since the vast majority depend on it. An invisible engine. Although the world seems to have forgotten about the fertilizers that arrive through the Strait of Hormuz, the reality is that we can affirm that humanity cannot exist without organic chemistry. And it is no wonder, because more than half of the food produced worldwide is available thanks to mineral fertilizers, as the IFDC points out. If we go further, the studies point out that nitrogen fertilizers Synthetics sustain the diet of almost half of the world’s population. And the worst of all is that, without this mineral contribution, global harvests will be directly reduced by half, so we are not talking about a product that improves performance marginally, but rather we are talking about the pillar of a food system that supports 8 billion people. A bottleneck. In this context of absolute dependence, the media focus is paradoxical. International attention and logistical surveillance focus almost exclusively on fossil fuels, ignoring the fact that fertilizers are a highly concentrated industry and closely linked to natural gas. But organizations like UNCTAD and media like EFE they have put figures to disaster by estimating that a third of global maritime fertilizer trade passes through the Strait of Hormuz. This means that logistical interruptions in the Persian Gulf directly affect millions of tons of agricultural inputs, which for the UN It is undoubtedly a major impact on global food security. There are no reservations. In recent weeks we have seen how different governments have announced with great fanfare the release of thousands of barrels of oil in national reserves. A strategy that has been built in recent years to be able to cushion this type of geopolitical shocks, but with fertilizers there is no such thing. It has consequences. The analyzes of the experts point out in this case that the interruption of the fertilizer chain has a full impact on the field, since any interruption has a full impact on the bank. Here both the FAO and the World Bank They have been warning for months that the suspension of shipments from the Gulf can skyrocket food prices almost instantly, severely affecting countries that depend on food imports. But the problem is that right now there is a significant lack of infrastructure, since we are seeing that the sector is dominated by a few players such as Russia, China, India and the United States. This, added to the shortage of long-term storage networks, makes us think that the price of food may suffer a large increase in the coming weeks, as well as have a bad harvest of 2026. Measures to alleviate it. The Government of Spain recently approved a new text that, in addition to lower energy-related taxesalso opted to inject money into the primary sector. In this case, direct aid was offered to partially compensate for this increase in fertilizers with the aim of ensuring that the increase was not transferred entirely to the shopping basket. Images | James Baltz Jonathan Cooper In Xataka | You’ve probably never heard of urea. The missiles in Iran are destroying their production, and that will affect your food

Whoop is already worth 10 billion and wants to be your doctor

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Whoop just closed one $575 million Series G which values ​​it at 10,000 million. Among its new investors there are profiles that contextualize this company well: the Mayo Clinic, the sovereign fund of Qatar, LeBron James and Cristiano Ronaldo. Capital, health and sports. Quite a declaration of intent about what market Whoop is serious about. Between the lines. The market for elite athletes has never been worth $10 billion. Whoop knows this and that’s why it has been transforming for years: hired its first medical director in 2022obtained authorization from the US FDA to record electrocardiograms, integrated blood test analysis (forgive the redundancy) into its platform and has gone from selling bracelets to selling subscriptions of between $149 and $359 a year that combine hardware with health services. The bracelet is the hook. The personal health platform is the business. And it’s getting clearer. The money trail. With 2.5 million active subscribers and reserves that exceeded $1 billion in 2025, doubling those of the previous year, Whoop was not in any financial emergency, it did not need this money to survive. It needs it to scale: the 575 million will finance an international expansion throughout Europe, Latin America, Asia and the Persian Gulf, and will almost double its current workforce of 800 people with 600 new hires. The logic is that of any subscription company that has found a fit between its product and the market: grow before someone else does. Yes, but. The road is full of corpses. In recent years we have seen the birth, growth and fall of Pebbleto Jawboneto fitbitalso to other examples of independent hardware beyond health, such as Human AI either Magic Leap: The consumer hardware sector has destroyed capital with remarkable efficiency. And Whoop doesn’t play in a quiet niche: the Apple Watch is the wearables best seller in the world and includes increasingly advanced health functions, Xiaomi and Huawei are breathing down your neck, and Google still has Fitbit although Your future only passes through the Pixel Watch. Additionally, Whoop cannot yet compete with the sports market that requires a screen to view exercise tracking (Garmin, Suunto, Coros, etc). Competing against companies with ecosystems of billions of users and enormous balance sheets is a peculiar gamble for a Boston startup, no matter how well funded it is. But no one can take away from him what he has achieved so far, which is a lot. The big question. Whoop’s answer to that problem is the same as any company that can’t win on generic hardware: specialize until comparison is impossible. His recent integration with Soaak Technologieswhich uses the bracelet’s real-time physiological data to adjust sound frequency compositions to the user’s state, points in that direction: building a third-party ecosystem that makes switching platforms increasingly expensive. The goal is not to be the best-selling bracelet, that is a lost war. It is being the health platform to which the most things are connected. Go deeper. An IPO is on the table. In November, its founder, Will Ahmed, spoke about the possibility of this operation over a two-year horizon. With 575 million fresh in, Whoop can afford to wait for the right time, wait for a quieter time than this warlike spring of 2026, and show up when it has more users, more recurring revenue, and a fuller story to tell. The question is not whether it will go public. It will come out. It’s whether the market will continue to believe in those 10 billion when that time comes. In Xataka | The Nike Mind 001 are the strangest shoes I have ever tried. And that is precisely why they are being sold Featured image | Whoop

How the TUR rate continues to be the great refuge for consumers

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In a macroeconomic context where the word “inflation” continues to make headlines and the Third Gulf War threatens energy stability, Spanish households receive an unexpected respite. Starting this Wednesday, April 1, 2026, the Last Resort Rate (TUR) for natural gas will experience a drastic reduction that will lower the bill for more than three million families. The long-awaited descent. The individual rate without taxes will decrease on average by 16.6% regarding prices set last January 1. This fall consolidates the regulated tariff not only as the most economical option on the market, but as the great protective shield against the energy crisis for domestic economies. The good news isn’t just for individual households, however. Homeowner communities and energy service companies will also notice the relief. The neighborhood TUR will register cuts in its variable term that will range between 10.8% and 16.7%, depending on the consumption segment. All this is supported by the Official State Gazette (BOE). In its resolution of March 27, 2026, the General Directorate of Energy Policy and Mines certifies the new prices. Thus, the monthly fixed term is 3.93 euros for TUR 1 (only cooking and hot water) and 8.11 euros for TUR 2 (which includes heating), with variable terms of 3.82 and 3.61 cents per kilowatt hour, respectively. So how does it affect my pocketbook? To translate it into real euros, we have the analysis of expert platforms that have analyzed the official data. According to Sergio Soto, energy expert Roamsfor an average home in Spain with gas heating (the usual TUR 2) and a consumption of about 660 kWh per month, the approximate cost will plummet to 37 euros per month. “The new revision represents a saving of about 7.16 euros per month for an average household,” explains Soto. To put it in perspective, this same receipt was around 46 euros at the end of 2025 and 44 euros in the first quarter of 2026. For their part, the simulations developed by the experts of Papernest They allow us to see the impact depending on the type of family: Households with low consumption (up to 3,000 kWh/year): They will go from paying about 18.23 euros in January to 15.11 euros in April (a saving of more than 3 euros per month). Households with average consumption (about 9,000 kWh/year): They will see their bill fall from 48.32 euros to 39.54 euros per month (almost 9 euros in savings). Households with high consumption (about 20,000 kWh/year): The drop is notable, going from 101.40 euros to 82.43 euros (almost 19 euros of monthly respite). The small print. That gas fell by 16% while the price of a barrel of Brent has risen by 4% and the euro has appreciated slightly against the dollar seems like a magic trick, but it responds to three very specific technical and political factors: The “lag effect” of the market: Sergio Soto details that the regulated rate is reviewed quarterly and is based on an average of the gas costs in the wholesale markets of the previous months. In other words, the TUR does not reflect today’s volatility, but yesterday’s calm. This system acts as a buffer, allowing consumers to now benefit from gas that was purchased at a good price before the war. The end of winter: The TUR’s own methodology has an ace up its sleeve in April since the seasonal gas component disappears. During the winter, the calculation includes a surcharge because demand skyrockets. When spring arrives, that factor is eliminated, and the price begins to depend exclusively on the “base gas.” This simple mathematical adjustment makes the raw material cheaper by 16%. The real hero. As the study of Papernesta household can save almost more due to tax decisions than by lowering the gas itself. Royal Decree-Law 7/2026 extends extraordinary conditions fundamentals: VAT at 10%: It will be valid until June 30, 2026. This means that if we had the usual VAT of 21%, the reduction for an average customer would not be 16.2%, but a discreet 7.8%. (Or as they calculate in Roamsthe average bill would not be 37 euros, but 40.50 euros). Hydrocarbon tax: It remains at the legal minimum allowed (€0.00108/kWh). The zero-cost canon: The BOE expressly collects that a storage fee of zero euros is applied for reservations that exceed 20 days of consumption. This fee at zero cost will be subsidized by the state with 45 million euros, directly impacting downwards the variable term that we all pay. A real descent, but with spring nuances. The data is resounding, the official documents support them and the analysts agree: the regulated gas rate has suffered a spectacular drop. However, you have to apply a dose of realism when looking at the mailbox at the end of the month. As they conclude from Papernestthis reduction comes into effect on April 1, just when the Spanish begin to turn off their radiators. This means that the gas drop comes when it is least consumed. In the short term, the real day-to-day savings will be less noticeable because, simply, we will use many fewer kilowatts than in January or February. However, the medium-term impact is undeniable. Understanding our rate, monitoring our consumption and being attentive to the expiration dates of tax reductions (like that June 30 for VAT) is vital for the financial health of the household. Although the international context continues to hang in the balance, the conclusion is unanimous: today, the regulated market (TUR) continues to be the safest and most profitable refuge to light the stove and heat the water in Spain. Image | Photo by Henry Kobutra on Unsplash Xataka | Until now, every bus in Spain belonged to its father and mother: the Government wants them to be more like the AVE

A Huawei router was not supposed to need a whopping 12,000mAh. It was supposed

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Earlier this month, Huawei held its HarmonyOS Smart Home event in China. An event in which, mainly, it presented to the world some of the home devices that it is preparing to continue advancing as a brand (mainly in China) during 2026. Among the devices presented, one of the most curious (and most covered) was the Huawei WiFi Xa very curious portable router with a gigantic 12,000mAh battery. What is. With its unusual X shape, the Huawei WiFi X is a portable, foldable router with an arrangement of 16 antennas that, according to the company, improves reception by 13% compared to conventional ones. It allows 5G connection and has been developed jointly by Huawei and China Mobile, supporting speeds of up to 5.3 Gbps download and 1 Gb upload. what else. Another of the key points of this router is its 1.8-inch screen, with OLED technology. This shows real-time information related to the battery level, number of connected devices, and is complemented and connected with the Huawei home app to be able to check this data from the phone. The Powerbank. This device has a gigantic 12,000mAh battery with 66W fast charging. Figures that are more reminiscent of a PowerBank than a wireless router. According to Huawei, it can transmit uninterruptedly for 20 hours, and with just 10 minutes of charging, for nine. Why is it important. Beyond the curiosity of the X design and the huge battery, Huawei boasts of being a benchmark in the WiFi 6 router industry. It has a system of four receiving antennas and four sending antennas (4×4 MIMO), low latency, and direct association with China Mobile, key in its native country. It also has interoperability with HarmonyOS. Huawei long ago left its system behind as a mobile-only solution, to create a complete software ecosystem that even powers routers. This is a device, in principle, aimed at China. However, the company has previously brought to Spain quite peculiar routers such as the Mesh X3 Pro system, a WiFi 7 with a theoretical speed of 3,570 Mbps and a 2×2 MIMO system. In Xataka | After six years of silent planning, Huawei is ready with its big move: dethroning NVIDIA

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