Month: April 2026

It is one of the best offers that MediaMarkt has launched to date

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Since its launch, we have seen numerous offers on the Google Pixel 10. Some have been better and others worse, but what is undeniable is that, in general, it is almost always discounted. MediaMarkt has launched many offers so far, and although it is not the best, right now it has one of the best: you can buy it for 584.10 euros. As? Through these discounts: Direct discount: goes from 749 euros to 649 euros. Discount from the app: if you use the MediaMarkt application to buy it you get an additional discount, so it goes from 649 euros to 584.10 euros. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links It is close to its historical minimum He Google Pixel 10 It is usually on sale at MediaMarkt, so it is not surprising that from time to time we find it very cheap. Right now it costs 584.10 euros when purchasing it from the app, and It is not far from its historical minimum pricewhich so far is 561.17 euros. We are talking about a high-end mobile that has a very good construction. It is also a mobile phone considered “compact”, since it has a 6.3 inch diagonal. Its panel is OLED and also offers a brightness of 3,000 nits to see it well in broad daylight and a refresh rate of up to 120 Hz so that the screen looks very fluid. On the other hand, the Google Pixel 10 supports both fast charging and wireless charging. It will receive software updates for many years, comes with 12 GB of RAM and incorporates a exquisite camera set to take very good photographs. ⚡ IN SUMMARY: Google Pixel 10 offer today ✅ THE BEST Your screenSince it is compact, it offers a good level of brightness and a high refresh rate. The cameraswhich for this price we do not find too many alternatives in other phones. ❌ THE WORST 30W fast chargingis a very low figure for what we see in the competition, whose cheaper mobile phones are offering much higher figures (even double). 128 GB of storagea very small figure that will fall short in a short time. 💡 BUY IT IF… You want a high-end mobile phone at a very reasonable price, especially if you are also looking for a model that takes good photos, has good software and also stands out on its screen. ⛔ DON’T BUY IT IF… You usually take a lot of photos and videos or download a lot of apps, since it only has 128 GB of storage. You may also be interested Google Pixel Watch 4 (41 mm) – Android Smartwatch with Fitness Tracking and Gemini Help – Polished Silver Aluminum Case – Porcelain Sports Band – Wi-Fi The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Google Pixel Buds 2a – Wireless earbuds with Active Noise Cancellation – Light and comfortable – Water resistant – Bluetooth compatible – Moss Green 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 | Pepu RiccaGoogle In Xataka | The best mobile phones, we have tested them and here are their analyzes In Xataka | Best wireless headphones. Which one to buy and 21 models from 15 euros to 470 euros

shoot down missiles for less than a million dollars

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A single advanced interceptor missile can cost more than dozens of drones of combined attack, and in Ukraine and Iran several have been launched to neutralize a single threat. This imbalance has led to situations where protecting a target becomes too much more expensive than attacking it. Therefore, in modern warfare, the key is no longer just who has the best weapons, but who can sustain their use without going bankrupt. The paradigm shift. For decades, intercepting a ballistic missile has been one of the most expensive operations in modern warfare, with systems like the patriot forcing the firing of two or three interceptors worth several million dollars each to ensure a kill. This model has worked in limited conflicts, but recent wars have shown its limits when the volume of threats grows massively. So much in Ukraine as in the Middle Eastair defense has become a cost battle where the attacker launches cheaply and the defender responds expensively. In that context, the idea of ​​shooting down missiles for less than a million dollars is not an incremental improvement, but a radical change in the rules of the game. Ukraine and logic. Since the 2022 invasion, Ukraine has developed a military industry based on economic efficiency, producing drones and missiles at a fraction of the cost of traditional Western systems. Companies like Fire Point They have transferred that philosophy to air defense, proposing a system capable of intercepting ballistic missiles at a much lower cost than the current one. The objective is quite clear: break the bottleneck of extremely expensive operators and systems, and allow a scalable defense in volume. This logic, moreover, comes directly from the battlefield, where survival depends on both effectiveness and cost per unit. The goal: below one million. The goal of intercepting a missile below the million dollar threshold It means attacking the core of the current strategic problem, where each defense costs more than the attack it tries to neutralize. Yes Ukraine achieve this milestone in 2027as indicated this week, would change the economic equation of air warfare, making it viable to respond to massive attacks without quickly depleting resources. Not only that. Even with somewhat lower success rates than systems like the Patriot, simply being able to launch more interceptors at a lower cost could make up that difference. In practice, it would mean that defense would cease to be a scarce resource and become something replicable on a large scale. The context: saturation and scarcity. Let us think that the war in Ukraine and the Iranian attacks in the Gulf have shown a common problem: the shortage of advanced systems and the impossibility of maintaining the rate of consumption. Patriot missiles They are limited, expensive and slow to produce, while threats (whether drones, missiles or swarms) can be manufactured and launched in large quantities. This imbalance has put powers with enormous military budgets in check, forcing them to prioritize objectives and accept vulnerabilities. In that scenario, a cheaper solution is not only desirable, but necessary to sustain any prolonged defense. The global implications. Here may be the real one crux of that announced advance. If Ukraine manages to develop this system, the impact would go far beyond the current front, generating a global demand between countries that cannot afford multi-billion dollar defense systems. This, a priori, would democratize access to air defense, allowing more actors to protect their space without depending exclusively on the United States or limited systems such as the European SAMP/T. Furthermore, it would alter the strategic balance, since it would reduce the effectiveness of attacks based on saturation and volume. In other words, it would make it much harder to win a war simply by launching more missiles. The new balance. Therefore, the real change is not only in the price, but in reversing the economic logic of the conflict, which indicates that defending is no longer more expensive than attacking. If that point is reach next yearmany current strategies would lose meaning, from the massive use of drones to saturation bombings. From that perspective, Ukraine would be on the verge of achieving something truly unprecedented in modern military history, redefining the relationship between cost and power in the war. And that, more than any specific weapon, aims to mark the future of conflicts. Image | Fire Point In Xataka | Ukraine is close to achieving a milestone that no one has achieved: building the largest drone industry without China’s help In Xataka | Thousands of cigarette butts are crossing into Russia without Ukraine being able to do anything. Their goal: to become missiles

Telecinco is so desperate for you to show ‘The Island of Temptations’ that it is generating brainrot-style AI promos

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In its desperate search for a minimum audience that will lift its trembling numbers, Telecinco has launched an unexpected promotion on social networks: anthropomorphic fruits having fun, getting jealous and declaring their love like the contestants of ‘The Island of Temptations’. Behind it is not only a late recovery of the brainrot aesthetic, but something else: riding one of TikTok’s latest viral hits. Fake strawberries. On April 8, 2026, the official Telecinco account on X published a promotional video for the tenth edition of ‘Temptation Island’. The piece was generated with artificial intelligence and caused some perplexity among followers of the series. The reason: it is a piece that accumulates the worst vices of what has come to be known as AI Slop: rigid and not very expressive animations, inconsistencies between different versions of the same character (the strawberry with different skin and features, the banana with variations in the head) and a very poorly worked finish. Hearing problems. Why has Mediaset made this decision? The chain closed 2024 with a 9.8% screen sharethe worst annual mark in its history since it began broadcasting in 1990 and the first time it fell below the 10% threshold. From the departure of CEO Paolo Vasile in 2022when the chain averaged 12.3%, the accumulated loss is close to 20% of audience. ‘Survivors 2026’, which started in March, is not harvesting the expected data and ‘Temptation Island’ is practically the only format that works consistently. The ninth edition reached 17% on its best night and averaged 11.5% in access deliveries. As soon as that edition finished, Mediaset announced the tenth and advanced its production to January 2026, breaking the tradition of summer recordings. It will hit the screens very soon: on April 13, with a triple weekly broadcast and five new couples as protagonists. Only three months have passed since the previous edition. That is why Telecinco has launched itself into AI aesthetics: the always coveted young audience is the one that has been consuming brainrot at industrial speed on TikTok for months. The island of Frutitentaciones. In March of this year, the AI ​​Cinema TikTok account posted the first episodes of ‘Fruit Love Island‘, a reality dating show in which the contestants are anthropomorphic fruits generated by AI. In nine days The account experienced an absolutely excessive speed of growth, with episodes with an average of 15 million views, although the profile has currently disappeared and has been dispersed into parallel accounts. The format directly parodies ‘Love Island’, and by extension its adaptations such as ‘Temptation Island’. Soon imitations were born as The Island of Fruitsexplicit parody of the Telecinco program. The AI ​​slop aesthetic. This is clearly what this Mediaset piece alludes to: low-quality digital content that is consumed compulsively, and that is intuitively associated with cognitive deterioration due to overexposure to social networks. AI Slop has been defined as unconvincing, repetitive images and videos designed to generate immediate reactions, and to be produced as quickly and at the lowest possible cost. The most paradigmatic case of AI Slop is italian brainrotwhich was born in 2023, plaguing the internet with absurd characters generated by AI and accompanied by meaningless Italian phrases. Tralalero Tralala went from being a niche meme to accumulating billions of views on videos with no clear origin and that repeated the same mechanisms over and over again: visual absurdity, squeaky sound and minimal or directly abstract narrative. Children love it and Mediaset wants to lower the age of its audience, no matter how counterproductive it may seem to bring a product like ‘Temptation Island’ to them. In Xataka | The latest edition of ‘The Island of Temptations’ has not only been a viral phenomenon: it has saved the month of Telecinco

10,000 tons of almonds have disappeared in Granada in a single night. It is a warning of what is about to happen.

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On the night of March 30, 2026, about 30 million euros they vanished. The figures They are from COAGbut (taking into account the precedents from the beginning of the decade and the growth of almond cultivation) they sound plausible: the region that concentrates the largest almond production in the country, lost around 10,000 tons due to a late frost. And it’s not even the most interesting thing. What the hell is up with almonds? With 70,000 hectares dedicated to almonds, the Granada Altiplano has become the national epicenter of the production of this fruit. Paradoxically, we might add. Because it is something very rare: there are not many more cases of crops that do not stop growing on the surface while their vulnerability increases to levels never seen before. A vulnerability that, of course, is not limited to March 30. Because that would be the easy thing to do: blame everything on cold air intrusion from the north that knocked down the thermometers of the Altiplano (-5 in Galera and Baza, -4 in Puebla de Don Fabrique or -3 in Castril) just at the moment of greatest sensitivity of the almond tree. However, that is only part of the story. Of course, frost during flowering and fruit setting is a problem. But in the last five years, the region has suffered 3 frosts of this type and the area of ​​almond trees does not stop growing. That is to say, the vulnerability is deeper and exceeds the climate risks: we are talking about the advance of the almond wasp, insufficient agricultural insurance, the tariff asymmetry with our main competitor (California) and, of course, the enormous pressure that international prices exert on farmers. And what happened to the harvest? According to COAGpreliminary estimates draw a very complicated scenario: between 8,000 and 12,000 tons lost, an economic impact of between 25 and 40 million euros and the complete loss of all production in the most affected areas. The assessment of the Junta de Andalucía and the Ministry is missing, but the figures serve to measure the destruction. Hunger with the desire to eat. Spanish almond production It was already affected by the drought and none of the explanations are surprising (late rains, winds that make pollination difficult, hailstorms in April and fungi derived from humidity). However, in 2025, things seemed to turn around and the campaign was positive. But it was a statistical artifact: production grew by 5%but the productive surface had increased by 10. That is to say, the situation was still complicated. And the data does not stop changing. It is enough to keep in mind that 15% of all the almond trees planted in Spain are not yet productive to understand that the crop has been experiencing a boom for years that does not end (and that may end by give us some displeasure). What does the almond tree need to avoid becoming the new lemon? That is, so that we are not forced to have to start ripping them out in a few years. And the answer is also simple: what you need is a better safety net, a better way of looking to the future, a better way of moving in the market. I have said it many times: In agriculture, Spain is a giant with feet of clay. And the almond tree is the best example that this is still the case and we have enormous difficulties to change it. Image | Marcia Cripps In Xataka | Spain is the second largest almond producer in the world. Tariffs or not, farmers are already in trouble

the day ships stop arriving from the Middle East

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There is a date marked in red on logistics calendars across the continent: tomorrow, April 10. According to the projections of the analysis firm Argus Mediaaround this day the last shipments of aviation fuel (jet fuel) that managed to cross the Strait of Hormuz before its closure will dock in European ports. From that date onwards, entry volumes will plummet. The impact is no longer a theoretical threat. According to TVP Worldthe shortage is already palpable in Italy: the airports of Bologna, Milan Linate, Treviso and Venice have issued notices warning of possible restrictions on refueling due to the limited availability of fuel from their supplier, Air BP Italia. It is the first major warning of a domino effect that threatens to paralyze the European skies. The perfect storm in the Gulf. Since the start of the Third Gulf War on February 28 more than 20% has been canceled of the world’s seaborne jet fuel supply, and no less than 42% of seaborne imports from the European Union and the United Kingdom. The recent news of a “two-week truce” announced by US President Donald Trump has been received as a mirage in the industry. According to Politicalthe ceasefire will not solve the shortage in the short term. Willie Walsh, director general of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), warned that rebuild damaged refining capacity in the Middle East will take months. Among the infrastructures hit is the Al-Zour refinery in Kuwait, responsible for providing approximately 10% of Europe’s jet fuel imports, as pointed out BBC. Furthermore, maritime logistics is unforgiving. In the most idealized scenario where Hormuz is completely reopened today, ships would take 25 days to reach Europe sailing through a Red Sea where the Houthis remain a threat, or up to six weeks if they are forced to go around the Cape of Good Hope. Prices are skyrocketing. The price of aviation fuel in Europe reached last week an all-time high of $1,838 per ton, compared to 831 dollars before the start of the war. This increase translates into an immediate logistical problem on the landing strips. Anita Mendiratta, special advisor to the Secretary-General of UN Tourism, explains to Euronews a crucial technical detail: airports cannot store aviation fuel in large quantities. The entire system is designed to rely on continuous deliveries through refineries and pipelines. Any slightest interruption breaks the chain. The consequences are already visible on the exit panels. Just two weeks ago, we reported in Xataka that more than 25,000 flights canceled over the Middle East, while European airlines such as Scandinavian SAS have canceled at least 1,000 flights in April alone. For their part, giants like Delta Air Lines plan to absorb $2 billion in extra costs during the second quarter alone due to fuel, according to Reuters. How does it affect the passenger? Analysts of Barclays, in statements collected by Politicalthey end the era of “super normal” prices and cheap tickets. Airlines will also have to make drastic decisions about their fleets: Willie Walsh, in an interview with Bloomberganticipates that companies will be forced to evaluate the accelerated retirement of high-consumption aircraft, such as the gigantic A380. United States to the rescue (at the price of gold). In this survival scenario, Europe has found a lifeline on the other side of the Atlantic, although at a very high price. According to Financial TimesAmerican fuel already accounts for half of British imports (compared to the usual 7%). However, Europe is waging a fierce bidding war with Asia over shipments that, as it warns, Argus Media in the British environment, they will barely cover half of the gap left by the Middle East. Internally, the resistance goes in other directions. While countries with their own refining such as Poland are more protected, the calculations of Argus Media collected by Euronews They estimate that, without new shipments, commercial reserves will be exhausted in three months in the United Kingdom, in four in Portugal and in seven in Spain, Italy or Germany. Faced with this fragmented map, the EU is in tow: its spokesperson, Anna-Kaisa Itkonen, has acknowledged to the same medium that Brussels still lacks a “complete image” of national reserves to be able to organize a solidarity plan. The lessons of a dependent industry. Beyond the April emergency, the crisis has uncovered deep structural flaws in global aviation. According to Aviation WeekMarie Owens Thomsen, IATA’s chief economist, was astonished at the world’s complacency in living “under the domination of this monopolistic industry that is oil.” Thomsen denounced the very serious lack of investment in Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF), pointing out that capital is overwhelmingly directed to sectors such as artificial intelligence. For his part, Willie Walsh launched a direct criticism of governments: while States maintain immense strategic reserves of crude oil to cushion global crises, “it does not seem that we have any strategic reserves of jet fuel,” collects Aviation Week. The underlying fear is not just a difficult summer, but a permanent paradigm shift. According to a European executive in the energy sector to Politicalthe “worst case scenario” is that the Strait of Hormuz is reopened, but under new rules: with Iran applying permanent restrictions or charging tolls that alter global energy dynamics forever. A summer on the wire The high summer season is just around the corner and the market is walking on the wire. A firm analyst Vortexa warns in the BBC that, if these interruptions persist, maintaining the current level of flights will be logistically unsustainable without drastic route cuts and massive fare increases. Starting tomorrow, when the last ships that managed to escape the blockade unload their precious fuel in the continent’s ports, European aviation will begin to fly with the reserve light on. The era of absolute vulnerability of the European sky has just taken off. Image | Unsplash Xataka | The canary in the mine of the new oil crisis are the airlines: they are already canceling flights due to lack of fuel

There is a spontaneous competition to design the “Flag of Humanity.” And the best design is an engraving of Voyager

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It is more than seen and proven that borders and flags sometimes become the focus of conflicts and enmities. The fact of seeing our own planet from the outsidethrough the images taken by Artemis II, helps us understand that, deep down, we are all part of the same whole. A whole that still does not have its own flag. Therefore, for many years now and then someone has proposed a single flag for all of humanity. Now, with everything related to the trip to the Moon, the proposals are once again reaching social networks. The first proposal. In 1970, an Illinois farmer named James Cadle, inspired by the landing of humans on the Moon on Apollo 11, decided to create a flag that represented our entire planet. The result was a simple flag, easy to reproduce, in which the Earth is seen as a blue marble, accompanied by a smaller white one, representing the Moon. The background was yellow and black, in honor of the Sun and the blackness of space. The flag was first raised on a rural power pole that Cadle himself climbed, but has since been part of several space projects. More minimalist concepts. Continuing with the minimalist and, above all, unifying concepts, in 2000 the Danish designer Anne Kirstine Rønhede designed a new flag of Earth. This time there was also a light blue marble, surrounded by a white border representing its atmosphere and a darker blue background representing the cosmos. A symbol of unity. In 2015, Swedish designer Oskar Pernefeldt created another flag of Earth. Seven linked circles are represented, one for each continent. It is hoped that it can be used as a symbol of Earth on future missions to Mars. Science enters the scene. The arrival on the Moon of Artemis II has inspired more people to look for a flag that represents us as a planet. And since it was science that got us there, the most recent proposals focus precisely on it. The pioneers in this type of messages were Frank Drake and Carl Saganwho in the 70s decided to compose messages that combined the scientific knowledge of humanity to launch them into space in search of possible intelligent life. This is how the Pioneer Plaque emerged, a physical gold-anodized aluminum plate that was attached to the Pioneer 10 and 11 probes, in case an alien civilization intercepted the ship. To cover more space, they also designed a radio message, which was named the Arecibo message. It was a signal transmitted through the Arecibo radio telescope, hence its name. A flag based on the Pioneer Plaque. Recently, 2D and 3D designer braingrub has proposed in your X account an Earth flag based on one of the components of the Pioneer Plaque. This is the pulsar map, a diagram that indicates our exact location in the Milky Way. Pulsars are a type of star that is used to map space, because they emit radio rays at very regular and specific periods. Like a unique lighthouse. On the map there are 14 lines that indicate different pulsars located around the Earth. Each line also contains symbols that indicate, in binary, the exact pulse of each of these pulsars. Thus, through its unique pulse, you can find those headlights and, through the relative distance represented in the lines, find the Sun, which is the point at which all of them converge. From the Sun to the Earth, everything would be simpler for an intelligent civilization. An ideal moment. It is not surprising that this is one of the most interesting Earth flag proposals that we can find on the Internet. Without a doubt, the concept is very suggestive, especially in a time when we increasingly see how much we lack unity as humanity. Images | NASA | James Cadle | Anne Kirstine Rønhede | Oskar Pernefeldt |braingrub In Xataka | Artemis II has five different hot sauces on board: the reason is a radical change in what we consider “space food”

This is how the device that has triggered fines in France works

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If at any time we come across a metallic, angular and almost futuristic-looking trailer on the road, it is easy for us to think of anything but a speed camera. However, that design that vaguely resembles a vehicle like the Tesla Cybertruck It has a much more specific function: controlling speed and automatically penalizing those who exceed it. What we have seen in other countries already has a presence in Spain, and everything indicates that its impact is not going unnoticed. the real name. Although the name “Cybertruck radar” It has become popular for its appearancewhat we have before us is a system with first and last name: Poliscan Enforcement Trailermanufactured by the German company Vitronic. Its approach is different from other radars that we already know. Here we are talking about a speedometer installed on a trailer that can be easily moved and that is designed to operate autonomously, without the constant presence of operators. How it works. We have already seen that it does not need constant supervision, but its operation goes one step further. This towed radar can operate for long periods thanks to high-performance batteries, which allows it to be deployed in points where there is no electrical connection or fixed infrastructure. Once installed, it controls speed precisely in several lanes and can manage violations without the need for police presence at the time. In addition, it incorporates protection measures against sabotage, from sensors that detect movements to elements designed to make any tampering attempt difficult, and can be connected to process disciplinary proceedings. Where is it in Spain. If we now look at the Spanish case, the starting point is clear: Catalonia was the first community to incorporate this type of towed radars. Here, yes, the sources do not completely agree on the figures and dates.Infotrànsit, in a post dated March 2, 2026states that the Servei Català de Trànsit incorporated them into the road network in 2023 and raises the number to ten operational tow radars. The direction seems clear: expand the fleet during 2026 and concentrate it on sections with higher accident rates, with the AP-7 as one of the corridors where this type of control fits most clearly. The French mirror. A precedent that explains its impact. To understand why this type of radar is gaining prominence, it is worth looking at France, where they have been deployed for years and with measurable results. According to data collected by Motorpasiónin 2022 there were about 340 devices of this type, which represented approximately 7.5% of the country’s total radars. However, their weight in the sanctions was much greater: they accounted for more than a quarter of the 25.5 million fines registered. That is to say, its presence was relatively limited, but the data points to a capacity to detect infractions much greater than its weight within the system. Beyond its design or its impact on the figures, what is drawn with this type of device is a change in the way of controlling speed on the road. Both the Servei Català de Trànsit and the DGT have focused on sections where the risk is greater, from roads with high accident rates to construction areas where signage changes and drivers do not always adjust their gear. In this context, towed radars fit as a flexible tool, capable of adapting to different situations. Images | Vitronic | Catalan Transit Service In Xataka | Denza Z9GT and D9: BYD’s luxury brand lands in Europe with a coupé with more than 1,000 HP and a seven-seater minivan

This planet is too big for its star. When we tried to find out the reason, we found something even more disconcerting.

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The universe is so immense that it should not surprise us that it is full of exceptions. But even so, there is still such disconcerting findings that obsess astronomers. This is, for example, the case of TOI-5205 b, an exoplanet that attracts attention due to its size, too large for its star. That alone would be truly exceptional, but a new study has found that, if that were not enough, it also has a very unusual atmosphere. Too big for a red dwarf. TOI-5205 b is a gas giant, slightly larger than Jupiter. But only a little. While Jupiter orbits the Sun, this exoplanet orbits a red dwarf. That is, a relatively cold and very small star, with a mass ranging from 7.5% to 50% of the mass of our Sun. Typically, stars are MUCH larger than the planets that orbit them. However, the radius of this red dwarf is only four times that of TOI-5205 b. To continue with the comparisons, our Sun has a radius approximately 10 times larger than that of Jupiter. And it’s not just a radio issue. The mass of this exoplanet is also striking, as it is equivalent to 0.3% of the mass of the red dwarf. Jupiter’s mass is approximately 0.095% of the Sun’s mass. All this tells us that TOI-5205 b is too big for its star. An even more disconcerting clue. Recently, a team of scientists from NASA and the Carnegie Science Institute decided to study the composition of the atmosphere of TOI-5205 blooking for clues about its origin that explain why it is so big. However, what they discovered was even more disconcerting. They carried out the analysis of the atmosphere studying the transit of the planet. That is, analyzing the changes in the light of its star when the planet passes in front of it. When light interacts with the planet’s atmosphere, it interacts with the molecules found in it. Each element reflects light in different bands of the electromagnetic spectrum, so, with the help of a spectrograph, you can know which elements the light has interacted with and, consequently, what the composition of the atmosphere is. Astronomical metals. For astronomers, any element other than hydrogen or helium is considered a metal. Just for them, chemists don’t like this. The point is that this decision the concept of metallicity arises. It refers to the proportion of metals that a planet or star has in its atmosphere. When a star forms, it is assumed to take most of the hydrogen and helium present in the stellar nursery with it. Therefore, when a planet later forms around it, it is normal for its atmosphere to have a higher proportion of metals. For this reason, it is said that the metallicity of the planets is higher than that of their stars. But with TOI-5205 b that does not happen. According to analyzes of its transit, its metallicity is lower than that of the red dwarf. hidden metals. To verify what this phenomenon is due to, the authors of the study that was recently published carried out a series of mathematical models. With them, they wanted to check how the atmosphere of this exoplanet could have evolved under different scenarios. This allowed them to verify that the current situation is consistent with their metals having been buried inside the planet. It is true that when it was formed absorbed a greater amount of metals, since the star had taken more helium and hydrogen. However, these metals did not remain in the atmosphere, but were they saved inside TOI-5205 b. In the atmosphere, however, there is some helium and hydrogen, but also other compounds, such as methane and hydrogen sulfide. What this exception teaches us. As explained in a statement One of the authors of the study, Anjali Piette, “these findings have implications for our understanding of the process of giant planet formation that occurs early in the life of a star.” Sometimes, it is the exception to the rule the one that can provide us with the most data. There’s nothing like thinking outside the box. Image | Katherine Cain (Carnegie Science) In Xataka | Since we were children we have been told that Jupiter is enormous, colossal, exaggeratedly large. It is 8 km smaller and that changes everything

To survive the end of oil, China has resurrected an old German technology from World War II: turning coal into plastic

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While the world assumes that China’s energy transition is based exclusively on solar panels and electric vehicles — and, in part, it is, consolidating as the first great ‘electrostate’—, reality hides a much darker side. Faced with the outbreak of the Third Gulf War, Beijing has not even flinched. Beyond its immense strategic oil reserves, the secret of its resistance lies in an even more daring maneuver: the resurrection of German technology from World War II. An old German technology. Faced with the instability of oil imports, China has perfected the use of coal to produce petrochemical products. This synthesis technology (historically known as the process of fischer–Tropsch) was originally developed by Germany to sustain its military economy during World War II. Although it is widely known in the chemical industry, its main defect has always been the enormous pollution it generated. China has improved it. Far from settling for an outdated process, Chinese researchers have radically improved it. According to the state agency Xinhuaa team from Peking University has achieved a historic breakthrough by adding a minimal amount of methyl bromide (five parts per million) to the catalytic process. This surgically “turns off” the pathway that forms carbon dioxide as a byproduct, reducing these emissions from 30% to less than 1% and opening the door to near-green manufacturing to convert coal-derived synthesis gas (syngas) into olefins, the building blocks of plastics. At an industrial level, expansion is already a fact. As detailed South China Morning Postin Turpan prefecture (Xinjiang), construction has just begun on the world’s largest coal-to-ethylene glycol (a toxic compound used for plastics and antifreeze) project, with an astonishing capacity of 2.4 million tons per year. Even, as the magazine highlighted ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineeringresearch is being carried out on how to integrate this process (called PFTO) to chemically recycle tons of plastic waste, converting it into syngas and then back into light olefins. Did you see it coming? It is not the first time that China decides to take sides and prevent rather than cure. The Asian giant has decided to completely decouple its industry from maritime vulnerabilities and Western influence. “This is not China’s war, but Beijing began preparing for it years ago,” points out The New York Times. Everything accelerated during Donald Trump’s first term, prompting President Xi Jinping to demand complete “self-sufficiency” that would insulate China from any disruption to foreign supply chains. Time has proven them right. The war in Iran has brutally increased the price of crude oil, suffocating international petrochemical competitors that depend on black gold. In contrast, local Chinese coal has only gotten cheaper. According to Reutersthis has been a financial triumph: shares of companies such as Ningxia Baofeng Energy, which produces millions of tons of chemicals from coal, have risen 30% since the start of the conflict, while traditional Asian refiners such as Rongsheng Petrochemical have lost up to 27% of their stock market value. Furthermore, the Chinese media analyzed by Carbon Brief They insist on a unanimous nationalist message: in the face of a real emergency, coal is the only resource that the nation truly controls, acting as the great “ballast” guarantor of its national security. A change to other sectors. The change is undeniable. As revealed Bloombergthe country’s main coal miner, China Shenhua Energy, has cut its overall budget by 16%, but has almost doubled its investment in coal-to-chemical conversion, from 2.5 billion to 4.1 billion yuan by 2026. But at a devouring pace, as The New York Times provides information that measures the phenomenon: in 2020, China used 155 million tons of coal to manufacture chemicals; by 2024, the figure jumped to 276 million, and in 2025 it grew another 15%, single-handedly exceeding the total annual coal consumption of the entire United States. The research center CREATE confirms this trend in its reportconfirming that the use of coal in the chemical industry grew by 20% year-on-year only in the first half of 2025. Added to this is that, as the American media explains80% of Chinese nitrogen fertilizer (a third of the world’s supply) is already made with coal rather than oil or gas, allowing Beijing to keep its product at less than half the global market price. Behind it there is a very high cost. All this bold industrial maneuver has a severe climate cost that is already setting off international alarms. China’s draft 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030) has set extremely cautious climate goals. As the experts explain CREATE and collect Financial Timesthe set goal of reducing carbon intensity by only 17% is “disappointing” and leaves room for the country’s emissions to continue growing between 3% and 6% in real terms over the next five years. This new government plan de facto reverses the international promise to “phase down” coal consumption, replacing it with a consumption “plateau” and explicitly protecting the large-scale expansion of the coal-based petrochemical industry. Only chemical projects already planned to be built between now and 2029 could increase China’s annual carbon dioxide emissions by an additional 2%. The forecasts are resounding. According to Bloomberg, By 2030, China’s chemical roadmap will massively stop using oil as a primary fuel (thanks to the adoption of its electric vehicles) and will take advantage of its modernized facilities to seek 85% self-sufficiency in all advanced materials and chemicals, displacing traditional giants. A feared crisis of overcapacity. The European ideas laboratory MERICS warns of collateral consequences: The Chinese domestic economy, with consumer confidence stagnant since the pandemic, has no way to absorb all this gigantic new production of materials and plastics. As a direct result, Chinese factories are forced to export their immense surpluses to the rest of the world at fire sale prices. This aggressive price war propelled China’s trade surplus to a stratospheric record of $1.2 trillion in 2025. According to the complaint MERICSthese massive exports are cannibalizing the industrial base of other nations; In the European Union alone, up to 500 manufacturing jobs are being lost daily due to the total … Read more

We thought that the superpower of whales was their size. It’s actually the complex chemistry of your feces.

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When we think about the baleen whaleswe usually imagine giant animals that sail the seas and feed on huge schools of fish, without much relevance to us as humans. However, they have been more important than we can think, being crucial when it comes to talking about the survival of our marine ecosystems. And all thanks to their excrement. What we knew. For years science has known that whale feces acted as a natural fertilizer top level. Now, a new study has brought to light the sophisticated chemical mechanism behind this ‘floating gold’. To understand its great importance, we must look at the base of the marine food chain that is in the phytoplankton. These are nothing more than microscopic algae that have the function of being the lungs of the ocean and the basis of marine life. The ‘problem’ is that to thrive they need iron, since without this mineral these algae cannot grow and could spell the end of all marine life. The feces. This is where enter the classic and revealing study led by Stephen Nicol in 2010, where something astonishing was quantified: the fecal iron measured in the whales was about ten million times higher than that of the Antarctic water that surrounded them. This was important because the whales functioned as a “biological bomb,” recycling and releasing about 50 tons of iron a year into surface waters before industrial hunting depleted their populations. But we were seeing that adding iron to the sea was not enough, since it tends to sink or become inaccessible quickly. So we were asking ourselves a logical question: how is this whale fertilizer made so effective? We already know it. The answer has recently come thanks to research published in Nature which shows how a team analyzed five fecal samples from baleen whales. Here they were able to discover that the secret of being such a good marine ‘fertilizer’ is not in the amount of metals they excrete, but in how they package it, since the feces contain high concentrations of what are known in chemistry as organic ligands. Its function. We can find that it is twofold, the first being the enhancement of the bioavailability of iron. This means it acts like molecular ‘tweezers’ that trap dissolved iron, preventing it from precipitating to the sea floor and keeping it in a format that phytoplankton can easily absorb. But in addition to this, it neutralizes the copper that is present in the ocean and that in high concentrations is lethal for this phytoplankton. In this way, the ligands present in whale feces bind to copper, drastically reducing its toxicity and creating a safe environment for algae growth. Its importance. In addition to being a very curious fact, the reality is that this discovery has changed our understanding of the biogeochemistry of the ocean. And, although we think that whales are not only consumers at the top of the food chain, the reality is that they are gardeners of the sea, since they fertilize the surface waters and protect the phytoplankton that is essential for the rest of the animals that live in the ocean. But these blooms not only feed the entire marine ecosystem, they also capture millions of tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, helping to mitigate climate change. In this way, whale feces help their environment, but also us indirectly. Images | Todd Cravens Annie Spratt In Xataka | China is making an “invisible ocean” of the planet: when it’s done, it will steal the last advantage the US had left

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