Month: April 2026

video store management and video game repair simulators

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Micro-niches are one of the most fascinating phenomena on Steam: coming from no one knows where, putting developers thousands of kilometers apart from each other, thanks to them a handful of games come together that share thematic, aesthetic or mechanical features (what is known in the indie scene as multiple discovery). Now, surfing the wave of the nostalgia millennialseveral games from a new micro-niche coincide: management and work with retro overtones. Long live plastic. Long live the video store. In March 2026, two games about 90s video stores were released on Steam by two development teams who didn’t know each other within six days of each other. Neither knew of the other’s work, but both succeeded: they climbed the Valve store’s sales rankings and accumulated thousands of positive reviews. And the whole phenomenon says a lot about the cultural moment we are in. Retro Rewind. With the subtitle ‘Video Store Simulator‘, this game arrived on Steam on March 17, 2026. It was developed by Blood Pact Studios, a two-person team in Canada, and sold more than 100,000 copies in its first four days. The reviews, in the “Overwhelmingly Positive” category. Its mechanics are deliberately simple: you open a video store in the early 90s, order tapes from a catalogue, fill shelves by genre, charge fines for late returns and serve the customer who wants ‘Terminator 2’, of which there are no copies left. There’s even an adult section hidden in a corner and a pirate tape dealer that appears twice a week in an alley. Rewind 99. Six days before,’Rewind 99‘ entered Early Access with an almost identical premise but a different tone. Developed by Gunmetal Games, the game places the player in charge of the last video store in the city in 1999, fighting against the expansion of a streaming service called RentNet. ‘Retro Rewind’ is committed to pure single-player management, but ‘Rewind 99’ it is more complex: RPG-like progression, open world, side missions and online cooperative mode. Reviews within the framework of “Very Positive” and complete exit from Early Access in 2028. ReStory: Chill Electronics Repairs. Let’s go to another somewhat more cozy aspect of nostalgia millennial. ‘ReStory: Chill Electronics Repairs‘, developed by Mandragora and published by tinyBuild, is not about renting retro technology, but about manipulating it. Disassembling, cleaning, soldering and rebuilding cartridges in a Tokyo repair shop in the early 2000s is the central task of the game, which also not short of iconic ambitionas it includes officially licensed Atari consoles such as the 2600 and Jaguar, as well as mobile phones, cameras, digital pets and music players. The player’s work also affects the customers and the destiny of the store. There is a demo in limited playtest on Steam and the launch is scheduled for this year. Stores for millennials. This coincidence is explained by two phenomena that collide and whose fruits sprout here: on the one hand, the store simulator subgenre, which has been established on Steam for years thanks to titles such as ‘Supermarket Simulator’ or ‘Gas Station Simulator’, with thematic inventory management and customer service (with countless variants, from dating games to visual novels) as central mechanics. And on the other hand, nostalgia millennial which is now beginning to miss the latest developments in physical formats, such as cartridges, VHS or DVDs. Result of the pairing: the most endearingly turbocapitalist indie games of the moment. In Xataka | The internet has decided that 2016 was great and worth remembering. But there’s a problem: it wasn’t at all.

humans born there will cease to be Homo sapiens

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with the mission Artemis II operational around the Moon, humanity has Mars among its colonizing desires. Past and present missions, such as NASA’s Curiosity rover, aim to analyze its surface for clues to past habitability. And although we have found them, leave a lot of unknowns. We haven’t set foot on Mars yet and we already have in mind how we will build the houses there (spoiler: with bricks and urine). And that if one day a human being is born in a possible human colony on Mars, it will not be homo sapiens on the anthropological level. Because in short, if we get to Mars and start being born there, we will no longer be the same species: Scott Solomon, an evolutionary biologist at Rice University, has been studying this question for years and has reached that conclusion, which he recently published in his work “Becoming Martian“. If you are born on Mars, you are not homo sapiens. Solomon differentiates between those who arrive from Earth to Mars and survive there, those colonists who arrive at the red planet with a body molded by millions of years of evolution here. But their creatures and their creatures will not have the same luck. In short, it will be the beginning of the end for homo sapiens. Mars has 38% of Earth’s gravity, radiation two or three times higherthere is no protective magnetic field nor the microbial biosphere with which our immune system It was evolving. All of the above constitutes an engine of biological change and evolution that has marked our anatomy and its absence, too. Why is it important. Evolutionary biology has a name for what will happen: allopatric speciation. That is, when a population is isolated and develops in a new environment, natural selection and genetic drift continue their course within the adaptation to the environment with respect to the original population (in this case, those who remain on Earth). The passage of time can cause the two groups to become so different that they are another species, a new human species. And something paradoxical would happen: by looking for planets other than Earth as an alternative to continue preserving the species, we would stop being the same. Context. You don’t have to go to future generations to see the consequences of space life. There is evidence of astronauts on the ISS who have suffered accelerated loss of bone mass, muscle atrophy, cardiovascular problems, vision problems and stress. Until your blood is mutating. The creatures born there will develop their skeleton and nervous system directly under these conditions. Salomon offers concrete changes: denser and shorter bones, greater eumelanin production (a type of melamine responsible for the dark coloration) as protection against radiation, an immune system calibrated for the closed environment of the colony and potentially vulnerable to diseases common on Earth. However, the most sensitive point is reproduction: we do not know for sure whether humans will be able to conceive, gestate and give birth successfully on Mars. Experiments with mammals in microgravity are worrying. The biologist also anticipates that childbirth on Mars would inevitably be surgical: the lower bone density and muscle atrophy make it an even more risky activity. What will happen next. For Solomon there are two possibilities: Let natural selection take its course and shape future generations. The second is to resort to genetic engineering: get ahead of the problem before sending them there. In any case, the macro result is the same: two branches of humanity evolving on separate paths, in different conditions and in different worlds. A dystopian future of genetics and ethics. It should be noted that thousands of generations are needed for speciation to occur, which gives sufficient time for humanity to take measures, such as frequent travel or assisted reproduction with transferred genetic material. Or that genetic engineering steps on the accelerator so much that natural selection takes a backseat. Ethics also comes in here: if a boy or girl is born on Mars and cannot return to Earth because their body cannot resist it, humanity will have made an irreversible decision without their consent. Solomon warns also of that gap in humanity in terms of identity and rights. These are questions that we cannot answer now, but that should be clear before the existence of a colony on Mars is seriously considered. In Xataka | Europe has thought of throwing three robots into a volcanic lava tube and now colonizing the Moon or Mars is closer In Xataka | If the question is “how are we going to build houses on Mars” the answer today is “with bricks made of urine” Cover | Photo of Dmitry Grachyov in Unsplash

resort to the waves of the sea

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If we take a look at the weight of renewable energies in energy generation (for example, in Europe), we are going to find that some, such as wind and solar, are the ones that call the shots while others have a testimonial contribution: this is the case of wave drivebetter known as wave energy. Yes, the resource is there to take advantage of (and in some places like the Cantabrian coast to give and give away), but it is one thing to surf and another to obtain energy. Because the waves that reach the buoy this morning have nothing to do with those that do so in the afternoon: another height, another rhythm, another direction… it is part of the charm of surfing but it is also a nightmare to get electricity. The wave works, but it is unpredictable and not constant, which reduces efficiency. So Takahito Iida, a researcher at the Department of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering at Osaka University, has come up with a solution to that problem that he has published in the Journal of Fluid Mechanics: a rotating steering wheel. The invention. The device is called GWEC (Gyroscopic Wave Energy Converter). The idea in essence is a rotating flywheel inside a floating buoy that allows you to extract maximum energy from the waves regardless of their frequency. It does not follow the movement of the waves, but rather converts it into a perpendicular rotation that drives a generator. The trick is to adjust the rotation speed of the steering wheel in real time: this way the system adapts to the sea instead of waiting for the sea to adapt to the ideal conditions of the device. Why is it important. Because wave energy continues to be the eternal promise of energy and the oceans They cover 71% of the Earthaccumulating a large amount of energy. All previous systems failed in something: they are optimized for the resonant frequency, a single and specific one. At that moment it reaches its maximum efficiency of 50%, the maximum that physics allows. Iida’s GWEC is capable of maintaining it across the entire frequency band. Context. The time to publish the paper could not be better: the price of oil exceeds 100 dollars the barrel and Japan 95% matters its own in the Middle East, so the search for alternatives is urgent. The basic idea is not new, the novelty is knowing how to control it so that it performs at its maximum regardless of the sea. In fact, the concept was patented in 1981 by engineers Laithwaite and Salter and prototypes have been tested since then in Japan, Spain and Italy. What no one had done until now is a complete theoretical analysis that explains how to “tune” the system in any wave condition. How do you do it. Iida develops for the first time the complete equations of the entire system, including the waves, the platform and the gyroscope, and also identifies the optimal control parameters (the stiffness of the generator, its damping and the speed of the flywheel). Likewise, it shows that with the system well adjusted, the system can reach the theoretical physical limit of energy absorption: exactly half of the energy carried by each wave. Why half? A wave arriving at a symmetrical body is divided equally between symmetrical and asymmetrical components. A device with only one type of movement can only capture the asymmetric component. Be careful, it’s not that more can’t be absorbed, but it would be necessary to have asymmetric geometries (such as the salter duck) or more complex systems. Yes, but. Iida has tested his device and equations on a laboratory scale, where practice has been adjusted to theory, but it is still a device under controlled conditions. The declared next step is tests with a physical model in the wave channel of Osaka University Additionally, there are other limitations such as it only works with small waves (if the waves grow, the physics is no longer linear), which reduces its efficiency. The author is clear: the valid range of the amplitude is too small for real use. Similarly, mechanical losses have not yet been quantified. In Xataka | Something is happening in the oceans for which we have no convincing explanation: the waves are disappearing In Xataka | When an earthquake hit Kamchatka, tens of thousands of people in Japan did the same: climb onto the roofs Cover | Jeremy Bishop and David Edelstein

We have a surprising new “secret weapon” against climate change: beavers

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When we think about ways to capture carbon from the atmosphere, we often imagine huge, expensive technology installations; However, nature has its own systems to be able to clean the environment. One of these systems, as a new study has shown, is that beavers are true carbon sequestration machines thanks to the dams and canal systems that these rodents build. A Swiss experiment. Until now, we knew that humid ecosystems were important, but precise data was lacking to understand why. Now we know that the key was precisely in these animals, as a study has shown published in Nature. Here the researchers analyzed in detail an 800-meter stretch of a stream in northern Switzerland that had been modified by a beaver colony. What they saw was that the river corridor, after transforming it, acted as a net sink that could retain around 100 tons of carbon per year. In perspective. These figures are equivalent to trapping 26% of all the carbon inputs that enter that system, so over 13 years the wetland created by the beavers has reached store a whopping 1,194 tons of carbon. In short, this means that the area stores up to 10 times more carbon than similar river stretches where these rodents do not live, with a sequestration rate of approximately 10.1 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per hectare per year. How they do it. One might think that carbon is stored in accumulated wood or swamp plants, but the reality is much more complex. The study attributes that more than half of the carbon that has been removed from the environment is trapped below the surface, in the subsoil of the wetland. Added to this is the burial of organic carbon in the form of particles in the sediments. By flooding the area and slowing the flow, the beavers created the perfect conditions for carbon to settle and be locked underground for the long term. The methane problem. When we talk about creating new wetlands, any climate expert might raise an eyebrow, since these areas of stagnant water are known to be large emitters of methane, which is one of the gases involved in the greenhouse effect. On top of that, much more powerful than CO₂. However, the authors of the study also measured this factor and were pleasantly surprised: methane emissions in this system were surprisingly low, representing less than 1% of the total balance. But in addition, the carbon dioxide emissions that came from the sediments were also much lower than the carbon that the system managed to sequester. In this way, it can be concluded that the beaver wetland is a sink, not a source of emissions. Meeting objectives. The data collected in this Swiss stream opens an exciting door for climate migration policies, as encouraging the return of beavers can dramatically increase the resilience of our riverbanks. In fact, calculations suggest that the recolonization of floodplains by beavers could offset between 1.2% and 1.8% of Switzerland’s annual carbon emissions. Images | Francesco Ungaro In Xataka | Franco introduced an exotic sheep to Teide to please the hunters. Now it is destroying its ecosystem

the shipwreck from 2,000 years ago that reveals the “luxuries” of the Roman legions in Switzerland

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Few products of Mediterranean gastronomy are as iconic as wine or olive oil. In fact, if we take a look at current exports of the Spanish statewe will check that both are still at the top. This is not something new: two millennia ago, the Roman Empire had already converted the Iberian Peninsula into one of its great strategic pantries. One of the most compelling evidence is It is Monte Testaccioa 50-meter-high artificial hill in the center of Rome made from the remains of ceramic amphorae, 80% of which came from Baetica (today, Andalusia) and brought olive oil. It wasn’t just trade: it was logistics on an imperial scale, organized and sustained for centuries. That this network reached very far is something that the archaeological record continues to confirm: one of the latest and most impressive finds is in the depths of the Swiss lake of Neuchâtel. The discovery. In the Swiss lake of Neuchâtel they have found the cargo of “the wreck of the Eagles”, a ship sunk between the years 17 and 50 AD, in the middle of the Roman Empire. From 2024 to the present the Octopus Foundation has recovered approximately 600 pieces: hundreds of almost intact plates, platters, bowls and glasses, two large fragments of amphorae for oil or wine, a wicker basket preserved in the lime of the lake with the crew’s kitchen utensils, metal tools, harness and shooting equipment, four cart wheels, legionary weapons, among other elements. Why is it important. The most interesting thing about this discovery is that the Roman Empire had a primitive globalization insofar as they were able to distribute their lands throughout the length and breadth, which was not small: It covered three continents: from Great Britain to the Carpathians in Europe, North Africa and Asia Minor. The Roman soldiers in Switzerland did not only eat local products, but also had access to the flavors of their land. On the other hand, it is worth highlighting the exceptional conservation, something that has been helped by the cold waters and the lack of oxygen at the bottom. Furthermore, the archaeological context is intact, allowing the reconstruction of its organization on board and the combination of evidence of civil tableware, land transport equipment and military weapons. Context. The hypothesis The one on which the research team is working points to the Legio A constant supply was needed to maintain a legion of about 6,000 men. Thus, the cargo would have traveled by cart to the Roman port of Yverdon, south of the lake and from there it would have crossed it to the north. As the cause of the sinking, the team points to a gust of wind when approaching the Thielle channel. That there are swords suggests that it was not a military ship but a merchant ship under armed escort. Be careful, no structural traces of the boat have been found, only its cargo, hence the team does not rule out that the boat did not sink at all or that it did so in another place. The only thing we are clear about that was lost at the bottom of the lake was the cargo. Octopus Foundation Oil or wine? At the moment the Octopus Foundation describe the amphorae only as containers intended for the transport of oil or wine, without further precision, which is why further analysis is pending to clear up doubts. Today olive oil and wine may be associated with more select consumer products, but in ancient Rome they were essential items: liquid gold was used for almost everythingfrom cooking to lighting with lamps through personal hygiene and even for sports, medicine and rituals. And the wine, even if it was diluted with water, formed part of the daily diet of all social classesincluding troops. Octopus Foundation How it is being excavated. The detection of the cargo was aerial, using a drone in winter, when the visibility of the lake is greater. Thanks to 3D photogrammetry they were able to generate maps of the site, which they then divided into grids to determine the exact position of the objects found. They then photographed each piece and recorded it in situ before being extracted individually. The site was kept secret during the year between the two campaigns and was monitored with underwater cameras developed expressly for the project. The urgency to act came from a real threat: the sediments that had protected the cargo for centuries had eroded as a consequence of the hydraulic corrections of the Jura in the 19th and 20th centuries, leaving the pieces exposed to currents, anchoring of recreational boats and looting. What’s coming now. The extracted pieces are being analyzed in the Laténium laboratory with the aim of identifying pottery workshops, determining the content of the amphorae using residual organic chemistry and reconstructing trade routes. Once these doubts have been unraveled, its final destination is a public exhibition at the Neuchâtel archeology museum. In Xataka | The Romans were thirsty for oil and we have just found in Tunisia the second largest press of the Empire In Xataka | The most polarizing and divisive scientific debate of the moment has to do with wine. With one 1,700 years old Cover | Octopus Foundation and Rahime Gül

a million Spaniards continue to watch it every year

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Each Easter weekWithout fail, something happens that defies any logic of the audiovisual market: millions of Spaniards sit down to watch a film that they have already seen, which lasts almost four hours, which was filmed 65 years ago in Rome and which is not recommended by any algorithm. A chariot race that, for some reason, continues to draw viewers as if it were a recent release. The figures. Since 2008, the film ‘Ben-Hur’ has been broadcast on Spanish channels (free and pay) a total of 85 times over 17 Holy Weeks. That is equivalent to an average of five passes per holiday period, according to data from the consulting firm Barlovento Comunicación. has provided ‘El País’. No other religious-themed title has accumulated so many broadcasts in that interval. It is followed by ‘Quo Vadis?’, with 73 appearances on the grid, and ‘The Ten Commandments’, with 61. Completing the usual group are films such as ‘Barabbas’, ‘Spartacus’ or ‘The Greatest Story Ever Told’, almost all of them produced between the 1950s and 1960s. It doesn’t sound familiar to me. Well, they are all titles from a time in which Hollywood turned the biblical epic into an industrial venture, with million-dollar budgets and excessive technical ambition. ‘Ben-Hur’ cost $15 million in 1959 (the largest budget of any film up to that time) and grossed approximately $80 million worldwide. It won eleven Oscars from twelve nominations, a record that only ‘Titanic’ (1997) and ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King’ (2003) have equaled. Why do they still work? ‘Ben-Hur’ has an advantage: Jesus appears in it as a peripheral figure, with his back turned or in the distance, which turns the film into an epic adventure production with a Christian subtext, rather than a typical religious film. The chariot race, filmed in five weeks with 15,000 extras and on a gigantic set in Cinecittà, works as a hook regardless of the viewer’s beliefs. ‘Quo Vadis?’ places Saint Peter fleeing Rome during Nero’s persecutions, but a vision of Christ appears to him asking where he is going, and Peter turns around and returns to the city to remain with the martyrs. It is the only scene in which Jesus has a direct presence, since he always appears mediated by his apostles, or with the conversion process of the Roman commander Marcus Vinicius. But the spectacle that the film sustains for the non-believing public is another: the burning of Rome, the circus with the lions, the megalomania of Nero… The hearings. Since 2021 La 1 has programmed ‘Ben-Hur’ every year on the after-dinner meal on Thursday or Good Friday. The results: screen shares of 11.4%, 10.7%, 12.5%, 11.3% and 11.1%, with figures around one million viewers in the three and a half hours that the film lasts. Today few programs achieve those numbers on a regular basis. The record remains the Holy Thursday screening of 2012, when more than two million people watched it on the night of La 1. For this year, RTVE has confirmed that La 1 will broadcast ‘Ben-Hur’ and ‘Pompeya’ on the afternoon of Good Friday, and ‘The Ten Commandments’ during the weekend. La 2 will offer ‘The Sacred Robe’ on Holy Thursday at 10:00 p.m. The private ones, less pious. Since 2018, La 1 has broadcast a total of 45 films with religious themes or those linked to Holy Week. Antena 3 barely reached seven. Telecinco, four. Atresmedia and Mediaset are betting on other types of programming on these dates, leaving the religious field almost exclusively to RTVE… …and the autonomous ones. These have turned this niche into their own asset. Between 2018 and 2025, Telemadrid programmed 99 films with religious themes, Canal Sur 82 and CMM (Castilla-La Mancha Media) 72. These are figures that reflect both the cultural harmony of these stations with their territories and a very economically efficient programming strategy: the rights to these classic titles are considerably cheaper than those of recent productions. And Channel 13. This is what takes logic to its ultimate consequences. The Episcopal Conference network has broadcast almost 300 religious films during Holy Week over 17 years. In 2025 alone, it programmed 19 different titles in that week, with more than 50 hours of special content that included broadcasts of processions, connections with the Vatican and film series ranging from Cecil B. DeMille classics to premieres such as ‘His Only Son’ (2023). Thirteen seems like a television built specifically for these dates. Last stop: ‘The Life of Brian’. There is a case that deserves separate analysis: ‘The Life of Brian’, the 1979 Monty Python film, has been broadcast at Easter on Spanish channels on 22 occasions over 17 years. In most cases it was on thematic channels, and La 2 only dared to program it in 2020 and 2021. The results were clear: a 7.4% share in full confinement and 5.5% in 2021, figures well above the channel’s usual average. Neox issued it the last two Good Fridays with equally notable results for its usual figures: 2.6% and 3.4%. The data is revealing because it makes it clear that the viewer of Holy Week is not necessarily looking for devotion, but rather cultural markers of the period. ‘Life of Brian’ fits that way just like ‘Ben-Hur’, albeit from the opposite end of the spectrum. In Xataka | We believed that Generation Z was returning en masse to the Church. An error in a survey is to blame for the mirage

Real Madrid-Mallorca, FA Cup and for dessert, a couple of Oscar movies. Everything in Movistar Plus+

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Easter and good weather, a strange combination that does not occur almost any year. They have been (and are) great days to enjoy outside, but from time to time, it is also time to rest and disconnect at home. That’s exactly what I plan to do tomorrow, Saturday, especially since we like football here at home. The best? Everything is concentrated in Movistar Plus+platform that costs 9.99 euros per month. Monthly subscription to Movistar Plus+ The price could vary. We earn commission from these links First a little football, then movies We already told you the other day that Movistar Plus+ has an active Free Planbut this only allows you to watch original programs and the first episode of their series. If, like me, you are looking to watch movies and football, then it’s time to subscribe. The good thing is that it has no permanenceso you can stay for one or as many months as you want and, when it doesn’t convince you or you don’t want to see more of its content, unsubscribe. I’ll tell you a little about my Saturday menu. The FA Cup starts at 1:35 p.m., a competition that this platform offers exclusively, with a Manchester City-Liverpool. It practically overlaps with Real Madrid’s match against Mallorca (starts at 4pm), so I’ll have to decide. Then, starting at 6 p.m., Chelsea will play first and then Arsenal will play their match in this competition. When we have satisfied our desire for football, time to go to the movies. We’ll have to decide as a family here at home, but we’ll probably see’Sentimental Value‘ either ‘Maspalomas‘, two movies that we have on our to-do list and we haven’t seen yet. And there is much more to choose from, but what we don’t know is if it will give us the day for more. 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 | Movistar Plus+ In Xataka | Movistar Plus+ activates its Free Plan with complete programs and a lot of content, regardless of which operator you are In Xataka | All football from zero euros and without cuts: these are the places to watch it online

It turns out that there is a Soviet submarine at the bottom of the Norwegian Sea releasing radiation for 40 years

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On April 7, 1989, the Soviet nuclear submarine K-278 Komsomolets sank in the Norwegian Sea after an uncontrolled fire fruit probably short circuit in the electrical panels of compartment 7, which led to a massive and uncontrollable deflagration because the atmosphere was critically enriched with oxygen due to failures in the air regeneration system. Of the 69 people on board, only 27 survived. It wasn’t just any submarine: it had a double titanium helmet that allowed him descend to unreachable depths for his rivals of the time. Its cutting-edge technology hid a dangerous core: a nuclear reactor and two plutonium warheads that have since lain at the bottom of the sea, 180 kilometers southwest of Bear Island, in the Svalbard archipelago. And according to the most complete study carried out to date, published a few days ago in the scientific journal PNASthe Komsomolets remains an active source of radioactive contamination in the Arctic. The discovery. In 2019, a Norwegian research team went down with the Ægir 6000 underwater robot to thoroughly inspect the submarine using cutting-edge technology. As they approached the ventilation tube they found a visibly distorted column of water, as if it were smoke, as you can see in the video immediately after this block. It is a leak with intermittent behavior. They took samples and the results were overwhelming: concentrations of Cesium-137 800,000 times the normal radiation of seawater in the area and Strontium-90 400,000 times. Both isotopes are direct products of nuclear reactor fission. The analysis shows that the radiation comes from the propulsion system (the nuclear reactor) and that the reactor fuel is in the process of corrosion with the environment. Why is it important. The good news is that this radioactive leak does not come from the nuclear warheads: two torpedoes with atomic warheads. For now, that threat is under control: the Soviets sealed the torpedo compartment with titanium plates in the early 1990s and judging by analysis, the sealing continues to work because they have not detected weapons-grade plutonium in the marine environment. The bad news is the reactor. It does not explode or disappear, but simply the zirconium cylinders that protect the uranium and plutonium are corroding, leaking these isotopes into the sea in a slow and invisible leak that is diluted in the ocean. Fortunately, samples taken in relatively close areas show that dilution is rapid, as they return values ​​close to normal. In fact, the hull is full of sponges, corals and anemones and its samples contain low traces of cesium-137, but without detectable damage. Context. Man-made radioactivity in the oceans has three main sources according to the International Atomic Energy Agency: the atmospheric nuclear tests of the 60s and 70s, the Chernobyl accident and the authorized discharges from the Sellafield and La Hague reprocessing plants, in the United Kingdom and France respectively. The sunken nuclear submarines, where the Komsomolets would enter, have a marginal contribution. Their importance is more qualitative than quantitative: they are point sources, localized and that tend to worsen over time. After the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, the Soviet Union came under great international pressure. When the Komsomolets sank three years later, Moscow organized inspection missions with MIR submersibles. When he confirmed that the warheads had been in contact with sea water, he acted: in 1994, with the economy in free fall and western funds involvedRussian technicians they sealed the cracks of the torpedo compartment with titanium plates. Since 2007, Norway has undertaken regular monitoring of the wreck as part of its nuclear safety responsibilities in the Arctic. Current risk status. For now the nuclear warheads are contained, their sealing works and there are no signs of weapons-grade plutonium in the water. The reactor is the active problem now: the fuel is corroding, the emissions are real, and the research team does not understand why they are intermittent or what the rate is. Any attempt to recover or physically manipulate the submarine would probably be more dangerous than leaving it where it is, since if the radioactive materials reached the atmosphere, the contamination could reach land with worse consequences than today. . A nuclear laboratory under the sea. The research team has two goals ahead: to understand why the leak is intermittent and whether that corrosion rate is accelerating over time. Inadvertently, the Komsomolets is now a natural laboratory to study what happens to submerged nuclear reactors in the long term. Information that is not trivial, given the number of nuclear devices that sleep on the seabed. In Xataka | Russia’s most advanced nuclear submarine was a secret. Until Ukraine has revealed everything, including its failures In Xataka | The Soviet Union needed to save millions of people from hunger so something was invented: the art of making sausages Cover | Karina Victoria

A study believes that kinesiology is only a placebo

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When you have a muscle problem such as tendonitis or overuse, it is likely that the physiotherapist has placed the famous adhesive strips cotton with very bright colors stuck to the skin. This is known as kinesiotaping or neuromuscular taping, and has been sold as an effective pain relief treatment. Although science has been closing the gap on their true usefulness for years, now pointing to them being irrelevant. A massive study. Just like has collected El País, a recent article published in the BMJ magazine has given the necessary numbers to affirm that placing these strips on muscle injuries is not recommended. And it’s not that they looked at a handful of patients, but that they analyzed 128 published systematic reviews, which is equivalent to a whopping 310 randomized clinical trials with a total of 15,812 participants, covering 29 different musculoskeletal disorders. What has been seen? Proponents of this technique often argue that the tape microscopically lifts the skin, improving blood and lymph flow, which instantly relieves pain. The problem is that new evidence suggests that kinesiotaping offers, at best, a one-point reduction in pain on a scale of 1 to 10. This is negligible in the medical field, since it does not make a big change in the patient’s quality of life. But the few benefits observed, which are slight improvements in mobility or reduction in initial pain, are completely temporary. As has become clear in the patients analyzed, these symptoms disappear in a matter of days or a few weeks. But in the long term whether to wear the strip or not doesn’t exactly matter. What was known before. Obviously, if this is something so widespread that we even see it in elite athletes, something had to have been investigated. Here the researchers point out that in the previous literature there are serious inconsistencies in the methodology that open the door to a high risk of bias. In this way, they suggest that much of the initial improvement reported by patients could be explained by the placebo effect. They warned us. Although this macro study is very recent, it is not the first to burst the bubble of the use of these tapes. If we dive through all the available bibliography, we can find an analysis done in 2021 where it was pointed out that, although the reduction in pain was evident, it only served as a temporary “adjunctive supplement”, not as the solution. The verdict. The conclusion of science is clear: colored strips do not have biomechanical superpowers, and their success has been based on a mix of brilliant marketing, mass adoption by famous athletes and the undeniable power of the placebo effect. Although it is true that initially it is likely to reduce pain. Images | Flickr Edward Muntinga In Xataka | Postural tricks and objects to avoid back pain: what is true and what is myth

This is the nitrogen plant that will shield electric mobility

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Extremadura is ceasing to be solely a heritage and agricultural reference to consolidating itself as a new strategic pole on the map of the international energy industry. The latest confirmation of this metamorphosis comes from China: the multinational Jinhong Gas. This Chinese giant has chosen the regional capital to take the leap and install its first factory in all of Europe. In short. As stated in a resolution of the Official Gazette of Extremadura (DOE)the Government of Extremadura has been released to public information the request for Unified Environmental Authorization (AAU) for this project. With this movement, a legal period of 20 business days is opened so that any person or entity can consult the technical file and present the pertinent allegations before its final approval. More in depth. In fact, to protect this operation, the Asian corporation has already formally established in the city the commercial company ‘Jinhong Gas (Spain) SL’, injecting an initial share capital of 100,000 euros. In economic and logistical terms, the main objective of this nitrogen plant is to directly supply the future gigafactory of materials for cathodes for electric vehicle batteries promoted by its compatriot, the Chinese company Hunan Yuneng, and which plans to mobilize 800 million euros and create around 500 direct jobs. The basis of the project. The DOE provides a technical x-ray exhaustive. The factory will be built on plot I-18 of the Expacio Mérida business park, occupying an area of ​​12,000 square meters. Its forecasts are massive: operating about 8,000 hours per year, the facility will have the capacity to produce up to 100 million cubic meters of nitrogen per year (17,000 Nm3/h). The industrial process, according to the official documentwill use cryogenic air separation technology. This means subjecting the air to a complex circuit that includes compression using 1,250 kW turbines, purifying drying to eliminate CO2 and humidity, and extreme cooling using pumps that operate at -196 ºC. All this happens in a “Cold Box” where the air is distilled to obtain nitrogen with a purity greater than 99%. At a logistical level, the production will be sent in gaseous format through direct pipelines to the final consumer (like neighbor Hunan Yuneng). The rest will be stored in a liquid state in two monumental vertical cryogenic tanks, 4 meters in diameter and 250 cubic meters in capacity each, for sale to third parties. To maintain this production rate, the project estimates an annual consumption of 36.8 GW of electrical energy and 96,000 cubic meters of water. The thirst for megawatts. Like the Extremaduran gigafactories, the technological giants that land in the country share the same need: an inexhaustible thirst for stable and cheap energy. And this is where Spain has the resources to lead the continent. Thanks to an unprecedented photovoltaic and wind deployment, the country has earned the right to dream of being the great “Europe battery”. This immense renewable potential is the perfect magnet for the new electro-intensive industry and is what drives us in the race to be the great hub of data centers in southern Europe. To pave the way, the Government is already making moves to shield these macroprojects from electrical costseliminating anachronistic barriers such as the obligation to consume at night (the old off-peak hours), a requirement that does not make sense when our solar energy overflows the meters at noon. Kilometer zero of the new industry. With earthworks already started in ExpacioMérida and environmental procedures in their public exhibition phase, Extremadura takes an irreversible step. The ancient Roman capital embraces the 21st century, assuming a leading role. It is no longer just about attracting Asian multinationals, but about demonstrating that Spain can combine reindustrialization with clean energy, establishing itself as the perfect ecosystem for the mobility and technology of the future. Image | jh-gas Xataka | The war with Iran has made energy a problem. The United Kingdom believes it has a solution: solar panels

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