Month: May 2026

A medieval poet and some buried trees have just revealed something very strange to us about the 13th century Sun

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At the beginning of the 13th century, the Sun was passing through a solar cycle much shorter than those that exist today, but extremely intense. Having such specific details is complicated for such a distant time, when scientists did not have instruments to measure this type of activity. However, there is something that today’s scientists do have and that has helped them detect this event: a book of poetry and many trees. Art and science. A team of scientists from Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology has described this event using two types of data. On the one hand, a poem written in 1204 by the Japanese writer Fujiwara no Teika. On the other hand, the observation of the rings of buried tree trunks in northern Japan. The conclusion is clear. While today solar cycles are usually around 11 years, back then there were some 6 or 7 years, but the activity was high enough to lead to the formation of auroras in Japan. A proton explosion. When solar activity is very intense, phenomena such as solar flares or the coronal mass ejections. The first is a sudden release of electromagnetic radiation from the solar surface, while the second consists of the expulsion of matter, normally charged plasma particles, from the Sun’s corona. Associated with these phenomena, proton explosions occur, in which these charged particles move at high speed. rare isotopes. Normally, a good part of these charged particles and cosmic rays fail to pass through the Earth’s magnetic field. However, when they are very intense they can reach our atmosphere in greater quantities and interact with the gases in it. In this reaction, isotopes such as beryllium-10 or carbon-14 can be formed. These are beryllium or carbon atoms with a different number of neutrons in their nuclei than the beryllium and carbon that are most abundant on Earth. Knowing this process is useful, because it can give us clues on two levels. On the one hand, beryllium-10 is deposited in ice sheets, while carbon-14 It oxidizes, transforming into carbon dioxide and becoming part of the carbon cycle. In this cycle, living beings incorporate it into their cells in different ways. For example, plants do this through photosynthesis. And this is where what has been so useful to these scientists begins. Solar dating and meteorology. Carbon-14 is often used to date fossils, since they come from living beings that once incorporated that isotope into their tissues. The moment a living being dies it stops incorporating carbon-14. From that moment on, it begins to disintegrate at a known rate, so it can be estimated approximately when it died. The point is that, beyond that, if carbon-14 levels are unusually high, it can also be determined if there was an extreme solar event. The poem describes a dawn The poem. in his diary Meigetsukithe poet Fujiwara no Teika described the observation of “red lights in the sky over northern Kyoto.” This city is at a latitude too far south for auroras to form, but that is clearly what it describes. The auroras They are the result of a type of interaction between the gases in the atmosphere and the charged particles of the Sun that causes the emission of visible light. They are normally formed at the poles, as they are the points on the Earth where the magnetic field is most vertical, so that it acts as a funnel, so that these particles can pass through it. When they occur far from the poles it is because solar activity has been very intense and the resistance normally opposed by the magnetic field has been exceeded. What the trees tell. The rings of tree trunks are a kind of natural calendar. They are formed from the inside out, so we can count them and calculate how the years have passed. For this reason, the authors of the study that has just been published They wanted to analyze the equivalent buried tree rings at the beginning of the 13th century. In the rings from the period from winter 1200 to spring 1201 they found an increase in carbon-14 levels. This also agrees with the levels of beryllium-10 found in ice deposits from that same period. Everything agrees. Also in China. There are historical records from the time when Chinese astronomers also described red lights in the sky. Therefore, it seems clear that there were auroras at unusual latitudes. A very rare case. The most curious thing about all this is that this phenomenon did not occur at the peak of the solar cycle. It possibly took place around its periodic minimum. If there was less activity, why so much aurora and carbon-14? This is something that, at the moment, scientists have not been able to explain. Perhaps there were also many auroras at the peak, but no poet stopped to write about them. Tree rings would have to be analyzed to see what carbon-14 tells us. What is clear is that the Sun was burning in those medieval times. Image | Masaaki Komori (Unsplash)/Wikimedia Commons | Kush Dwivedi (Unsplash) In Xataka | A sunspot 17 times larger than Earth caused red auroras across half the world. It is a very rare event

A simple router is a machine capable of identifying humans with almost 100% accuracy. Or so these researchers say

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Using WiFi networks as a technology to track people is a twist in the script that not all of us saw coming. He Karlsruher Institute for Technologyone of the strongest research institutions in Germany, assures close to 100% accuracy when recognizing people without any type of camera and using it. What exactly happened. The KIT (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology) team published a paper with a promising headline: “Ordinary WiFi can identify people with almost perfect accuracy”. And this is achieved thanks to something that routers have been doing for recent years: beamforming feedback information. How the hell does this work?. To understand what it is about beamforming You must first understand how the devices emit signals. routers. In their first generations, routers emitted in all directions, just like a light bulb emits light in that way. With the most modern versions of WiFi, the way the signal is transmitted has improved. Routers began to concentrate the signal towards where the receiving device is, like a flashlight instead of a light bulb. Beanformig. That is called beamformingto form a concentrated beam and received by another device. But to aim well, the router needs to know where to point, and it is the connected devices themselves—your cell phone, your laptop—that send that information to the router continuously. Basically, they are constantly telling the router “hey, I’m here.” That message is the BFI, beamforming feedback information. And what is this for?. Now you know that your router sends information to your gadgets and that your gadgets send information to the router. When the devices send information to the router, they describe how the signal arrives, and interference along the way is recorded. Among them, human beings. Our body partially absorbs WiFi waves, reflects them, deflects them and alters how they reach the mobile phone or router. The researchers used that signal data to train models of artificial intelligencein order to detect patterns that would allow humans to be detected. They fed the system with thousands of examples associated with different people until the model learned to detect those wave changes associated with human presence. The system is not capable of visually recognizing anything in the environment, but it manages to have information about when a human is present in the environment. The caution. According to the researchers, “this technology turns each router into a potential means of surveillance.” “If you regularly pass by a café that operates a WiFi network, you could be identified there without realizing it and be recognized later, for example, by public authorities or companies.” The reality? It would be necessary for cybercriminals to develop a system identical or similar to that of the KIT to achieve a human video surveillance system through WiFi signals. The nuance. Under laboratory conditions, with 197 participants and in controlled environments, the system was close to 100% accuracy. But in the real world, it would be necessary to train a new model with data from hundreds of people in different spaces. The model is not a ready-to-deploy technology or a real threat – nor is it intended to be applied – but the research reveals how simple a priori data sets can be trained as a surveillance tool. In Xataka | There is a booming job in the era of artificial intelligence: cybersecurity expert

We have been looking to replace the key ingredient in cement for years. We have found the Holy Grail: basalt

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In the midst of the era of decarbonizationthe first thing that comes to mind when we think about ways to emit less CO₂ into the atmosphere is the transition to renewable energy or electric vehicles. However, we can often overlook something that sends as many CO₂ emissions into the atmosphere each year as all the cars in the world: the cement. This material is essential and, although We have been looking for a replacement for yearsa team from the University of California believes they have found the key to creating greener cement. A cement without limestone that relies on silicates. Portland cement. It is the basic material that ‘links’ our reality. This paste resulting from the mixture of water, sand and stones is very resistant and, as we say, although we have been looking for a substitute for some time, the truth is that we have not found the key. It is still a structural part of buildings, bridges, dams or tunnels and the problem is that the cement industry is estimated to represent around 4.4% of global greenhouse gas emissions. And one of the problems with this cement is limestone. It is a simple rock to refine, but it requires a lot of energy. It is not that limestone pollutes by itself, but because of the process that must be followed to process it and make it a good ingredient in cement. This limestone must be heated to more than 1,500 degrees Celsius to produce the calcium oxide necessary for the mixture and it is estimated that half of all CO₂ emissions linked to cement production are related solely to that process with limestone. Focus shift. With that in mind, Jeff Prancevic (a geologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara) and Cody Finke (of Brimstone Energy) set out to replace the elephant in the room. If Portland cement is the most used and the limestone refining process is what pollutes the most in the process, the rock had to be removed from the equation. The key? Find other rocks rich in calcium, but that are easier to refine. Basalt to the rescue. And in the study published in Nature They detail how basalt is that rock that meets what they are looking for. After carrying out different analyses, they came to the conclusion that, in theory, manufacturing cement from these calcium-rich silicates can require less than 60% of the energy needed by limestone, reducing CO₂ emissions by 80% in the process. In numbers. It is estimated that, in the refining of limestone, 600 kg per metric ton of cement of CO₂ are sent into the atmosphere, but if we use other silicates, the authors calculate that these emissions could be around 50 kg per ton. In the least conservative calculations, the proposed solution would still cut more than 25% CO₂ compared to the standard process with limestone. Another interesting point is that the processing of these other rocks has the potential to give us valuable byproducts with high iron and aluminum content that could benefit other industries. That is, the material would be used more while contaminating less. The pasta question. The problem is… the same as always. When we talk about a new lbrick from recycled plasticsof sugar bricks or of others in the shape of a ‘staple’ that do not need cement to join together, the bottom line is that the construction industry should make a radical change in its processes. It is a huge liner that cannot be swerved overnight, no matter how many benefits these new materials have. And the same thing happens here. Although it is not about creating an alternative to cement, but rather using other rocks to extract the calcium that the mixture needs, the money comes into play in two ways. The first for the basalt deposits. If the cement industry has been organized around enormous limestone deposits to optimize processes, switching to basalt would imply relocating plants or creating new supply chains that would increase both time and costs. If something works… On the other hand, the margins of the cement industry, which has been shown to be extremely conservative throughout history. There is a product that works and changing something in the chain would involve carrying out a reorganization that they may not want to undertake. There is also the fact that yes, basalt has iron and aluminum as a byproduct, but the plants would have to be conditioned to be able to treat it properly, which would mean a huge initial investment. The authors of the study themselves indicate that it is difficult for an industry that for a century has been organized around Portland cement changed its way of acting one bit, but they also point out that, precisely for this reason, they have focused on finding materials such as basalt that are abundant, with reserves to maintain the current pace of construction for thousands of years and that emit less into the atmosphere. It is obtaining calcium from a different rock and its authors call on the industry, and other researchers, to experiment with new technologies that help accelerate the decarbonization of cement. The problem is that, as we say, there are too many drawbacks that the industry itself probably does not want to take on. Image | Cemco In Xataka | Coal is back in fashion in many countries. The problem is that it is clouding the sky from the solar panels

What until recently were small incursions of spring heat have turned Europe into hell

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London at 35 degrees in the month of May. We are talking about a record that would be exceptional in the middle of summer. France (“a country where much of its territory is low, soft terrain of little relief”) dangerously close to 40 and discovering how all those cities in the valleys They become “pans like Seville or Córdoba”. Central Europe, the Alps, the former Yugoslavia seeing how the thermometers have gone completely crazy. “Literally hundreds of May records have already been beaten“and the worst thing is that no symptoms are seen weakening on the horizon. The relevant question today may be why. What is happening? “It will never cease to surprise me to see a number (…) so extreme for the time and covering such a large record area,” said González Alemán a few hours ago. And no wonder: each of the little pink dots in the image below are historical heat records for May. This week, Europe has become hell and, despite years of warnings, no one really expected it. How is it possible? The explanation is simple. A powerful subtropical anticyclone has spread over Western Europe and is generating what It is often referred to as a “heat dome”. That is, a situation in which the air on the surface is not renewed, does not move and, as a consequence, warms up little by little. The following two maps show perfectly what this “heat dome” is and where it is affecting most intensely. What do they mean? The first image shows the size and extent of the anticyclone. Right now, much of Europe is cloudless. The second shows the intensity of the phenomenon. As Jeff Berardelli explainsany red dot represents a new record for May (and we are taking the record since 1950 as a reference). This has many names… “atmospheric blocks”, quasi-resonant amplification of planetary waves either persistence of “double jet” configurations about Eurasia. But the result is the same: the problem has stopped being the heat and is starting to be that today’s climatic extremes continue for days and days. “This is perhaps the most obvious sign of the new climate that has nothing to do with that of a few decades ago”. And what can we do? That’s a great question, because these heat waves (if, as they seem, they persist) will have a very clear consequence: Europe will have to change its real estate stock from “houses designed to keep the heat out” to “houses designed to keep it out.” We are facing one of the Image | Tropical TidBits In Xataka | The Gulf Stream is dying. Someone’s idea to solve it dates back to the 1950s: closing the Bering Strait

leave the dog on the terrace

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The Animal Welfare Law (LBA) was approved in March 2023 and came into force ago almost three yearsbut even so there are still details of the rule that remain unclear among dog and cat owners. Specifically there is a doubt that has circulated in recent weeks, coinciding with the arrival of good weather: Can I leave my dog ​​on the terrace or balcony? If I have a yard, does the law allow the dog to spend there every day and night? The LAB is clear about this. One fact: 6.9 million. If you go to a park in your city (it doesn’t matter which one) and sit on a bench to observe, you are more likely to encounter more dogs than children. I’m not saying it. They say it the statistics. In 2025, the INE had around 1.7 million of people under five years of age. The data does not attract attention only because of how it has been reducing over the years (in 2015 there were 1.9 million), it also does so because it confirms that in Spanish homes there are many more pets than babies. According to the estimates According to ANFAAC, the industry dedicated to producing pet food, in Spain there are almost seven million dogs and 5.9 million cats registered. The ‘photography’ offered by the Spanish Network for the Identification of Pet Animals (REIAC) is somewhat different, but just as forceful: in our country there are between 9.2 and 10.1 million dogs, between 968,000 and 1.2 million cats and thousands of ferrets, just over 50,000. How should we treat them? Taking these figures into account, it is better understood that the guidelines on how to treat and care for them have become a priority. Not only for the safety of the animal. Contravene the rules contained in the Animal Welfare Law (LBA), the rule that has regulated the care of pets since 2023, can also lead to significant sanctions. As a reference, the text contemplates three types of infractions, according to their relevance: minor ones can lead to a simple warning or fines of between 500 and 10,000 euros, serious ones extend that range up to 50,000 and the most serious ones carry sanctions of between 51,000 and 200,000 euros. Pets and terraces. With the arrival of good weather there is a question about pet care that has begun to circulate on the Internet: Can a dog live on a terrace or balcony? Can we put a shed there and make it your permanent ‘home’? And in a patio, in case we have one? Can our pet stay there all the time? The truth is that the LBA is clear on this issue. In your article 27 (section ‘e’), in which it lists the “specific prohibitions” on pets, cites as a prohibited practice “habitually keeping dogs and cats on terraces, balconies, rooftops, storage rooms, basements, patios and similar or vehicles.” And in case it is not clear, later, in article 74, it states that installing an animal “permanently” in any of these spaces will be considered a serious infraction, just like stealing. Does it say anything else? Yes. That is not the only indication that the LBA gives about how and where our pets should live. The LBA expressly prohibits and categorically “intentionally abandon them in closed or open spaces” and remember that the owners must “keep them integrated into the family nucleus, whenever possible due to their species.” When this is not possible due to the type of pet or its size, the animal must have “adequate accommodation, with rooms in accordance with its dimensions and that protect it from inclement weather.” Again, and in case there were any doubts, the LBA insist in which pets that live outdoors must have a prepared place to hide. The other warning. With the summer holidays (almost) knocking at the door there is another guideline of the LBA that should be kept in mind: if you have dogs or cats, the law does not allow you to go on vacation for days and days and ignore the animals. It is not enough to leave the water bowls full and the feeders overflowing. In article 25, the same one in which it talks about terraces, the law prohibits “leaving any pet animal unsupervised for more than three consecutive days.” What’s more, if we talk about dogs, that period cannot exceed 24 hours. Much more than a law. That the LBA goes into such detail and regulates such basic issues may seem exaggerated, but the reality is that today they can still be found. without much effort news about dogs that their owners confine on terraces, sometimes no food or wateror even in window sills. Veterinarians also warn often of the serious risks involved in leaving animals exposed to the hot sun. Above all if we talk about closed and small spaces, like cars. Images | Jakub Flis (Unsplash) and Beth Macdonald (Unsplash) In Xataka | In Alicante, the Animal Welfare Law has put associations on a war footing over an issue: feline colonies

The breakfast that ruins your energy in the office is the same one that saves a cyclist: the paradox of "empty calories"

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The busy and stressed life that a good part of society leads can mean that in the mornings the lack of time means that breakfast is quickly resolved with a coffee accompanied by a few cookies or a bun. Something that is known by many that is not healthy, but the clock pressing from behind makes it difficult to find time to make some toast with something healthy on top. However, with this quick breakfast there is a problem: energy ends up falling in a few hours. The empty calories. a term which is increasingly heard to refer to those more processed foods such as pastries, cookies or any sweet that we eat. And here is the great debate, and it raises many questions about its usefulness and if we really eat foods that serve no purpose in the short term beyond making us fat. In Xataka Nutrition science is becoming clearer: it is not that important "that" We have breakfast but at what time do we do it? A roller coaster. To understand what happens in our body at 8:00 in the morning when we eat a coffee and four cookies, we must look at the biochemistry of digestion. And it is that industrial pastries o cookies are mainly composed of refined flours and free sugars. This is a problem because, lacking fiber, protein or quality healthy fats, the body You don’t have to make a great effort to digest them. That is, they are broken down at a high speed in the intestinal tract and enter the blood in the form of glucose almost suddenly. In energy terms, it is the equivalent of trying to heat a house by lighting a fire with sheets of newspaper: it burns very quickly, generates an intense flare, but goes out after a few minutes. {“videoId”:”x7zo910″,”autoplay”:true,”title”:”Added sugars: How to avoid them and improve your diet?”, “tag”:”sugar”, “duration”:”220″} There is no need to demonize to glucose because it is essential as fuel for our body and especially for the brain. However, this sugar peak which is produced by the consumption of these products or others that represent a large release of glucose in the blood, forces the pancreas to secrete a large amount of insulin at once to remove excess blood sugar towards the muscle or adipose tissue. The result here is a drastic drop in glucose just a couple of hours after eating these foods, which causes ravenous hunger or fatigue that makes us need to eat again to have sugar in our body. A continuum of sugar. If you have a slower breakfast with much more varied, healthy and fiber-rich foods, this does not happen. When there is a good amount of fiber, the digestive system has to spend more time processing food and, therefore, the transfer of glucose to the bloodstream is slower and more sustained over time. This gives you a ‘more sustained’ energy throughout the morning without feeling the classic mid-morning ‘slump’. In Xataka We’ve been believing oatmeal is the perfect breakfast for years, but science has a warning: there’s a limit It’s not always bad. Although on many occasions these empty calories are demonized for not having quality nutrients, sometimes it is necessary to have extra quick energy. without thinking about fiber or vitamins that may be presented. This is something we see in the world of sports, where a hyper-sugar chocolate or a cookie can work a miracle when you are at kilometer 80 of a stage, climbing a hill or when the dreaded ‘bird’ is lurking. In this context of high sports performance, fiber or fat would be a hindrance, since they would slow down gastric emptying, stealing blood from the legs to send it to the stomach and causing heaviness or gastrointestinal problems. That glucose spike that in an office causes lethargy after two hours, on the bicycle is immediately burned in the muscle as high-octane fuel, allowing the intensity to be maintained. Images | Bayu Syaits In Xataka | To the question of whether “eating breakfast as soon as you wake up is good for your body”, science offers a clear answer (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 breakfast that ruins your energy in the office is the same one that saves a cyclist: the paradox of “empty calories” was originally published in Xataka by José A. Lizana .

It is 1,000 times faster than current semiconductors and does not heat up

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A research team at the University of Tokyo (Japan) has reached an impressive milestone in the field of semiconductors. And, as he has collected Nikkeihas developed a device capable of processing information 1,000 times faster than the current most advanced CPU. It seems like science fiction, it’s true, but it’s not. It’s just science. Of course, this is frontier science. And the non-volatile quantum switching device that these scientists have developed uses quantum physics to carry out its purpose. Most strikingly, this device represents bits using the magnetic properties of electrons rather than the flow of electricity itself, which is what the integrated circuits we are familiar with do. In fact, its capabilities lie precisely in this strategy. Current semiconductor technology It takes about a nanosecond to register a single bit before overheating becomes a critical issue. However, this innovative device processes one bit of information in just 40 picoseconds. In practice this means that you invest one thousandth of the time in this process that conventional methods require. Interestingly, it combines tantalum and manganin to convert electrical signals into magnetic information, so its composition is very different from that of the silicon chips that reside inside our electronic devices. Heat is no longer a problem Laboratory tests carried out by researchers at the University of Tokyo have yielded surprising results. In their ingenious device, an electrical signal passes through the tantalum layer, so that the device registers that signal in the manganin in the form of the direction of a tiny magnetic force. Precisely this address represents a single bit without depending on the continuous flow of electric current. Its performance improves as components become physically smaller During the first tests, this device has worked completely stable even after processing information more than 100,000 million times. However, these Japanese researchers have verified that their performance improves as components become physically smaller. For this reason, if this technology finally makes it out of the laboratory, it could reduce energy consumption when processing information to just one hundredth of current levels. Here’s another impressive fact: this device has processed information 100,000 million times without making a mistake. However, a current CPU or GPU would have overheated after just 10 million clock cycles if it had run at a similar speed. There is no doubt that it is a notable achievement. Be that as it may, we cannot ignore that moving this technology from the laboratory to a chip factory is a real challenge in the field of engineering. The physics works, as these Japanese scientists have shown, but large-scale manufacturing poses challenges that are not present in a single device produced in a university laboratory. Even so, Disruptive technologies are usually born this wayso although the future of this innovation is uncertain, there is a possibility that it will manage to leave the laboratory and reach the chip manufacturing plants. The prototype is planned for 2030. Fingers crossed. Image | Satoru Nakatsuji (University of Tokyo) More information | Nikkei In Xataka | China has reached one of the holy grails of quantum physics. So says Peter Zoller, father of quantum computers

Five years ago, they said that Volkswagen was “the new Nokia.” Today it is the leader in electric vehicles in Europe while Tesla stagnates

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The era of traditional car manufacturers is over. We have to avoid being a new Nokia It was January 2020 and we were not very aware of what was coming our way when Herbert Diess, then CEO of the Volkswagen Group, pointed to another apocalypse. Specifically, that of traditional manufacturers in the face of the emergence of the electric car. Tesla was the reference when the top leader of the German firm spoke about his own company as if it were about to fall into ostracism. Today, six years later, the Volkswagen Group sells one in four electric cars in Europe. Two other companies have already passed Tesla. And a China looms on the horizon. How we have changed. IF you want to understand how much and how the electric car has grown in Europe you just have to take a look at how was the market five years ago. In 2020the best-selling electric car was the Renault Zoe, which reached close to 100,000 units on the market. It was followed by the Tesla Model 3, which was close to 88,000 units and already had a 6% market share. By then, the Tesla Model Y, which would soon become the best-selling electric car in Europe and the world (even including combustion ones), had not yet arrived. Of the 10 best-selling electric vehicles, the Volkswagen Group had three classifieds that barely added up 9% market share. In those days, Tesla seemed like the benchmark. A brand with a single model had managed to sneak into the top 10 best-selling electric cars. The first large mass electric SUV had not arrived. And even the leaders of Volkswagen feared for the future of their own company. The new Nokia. “The era of the classic car manufacturers is over. This is probably the most difficult challenge that Volkswagen has ever faced,” said Herbert Diess in January 2020 in statements reported by Reuters. And he put the finishing touch, if Volkswagen did not advance quickly it would become “the new Nokia.” The company embarked on a launch plan to put electric cars on the market at full speed. Along the way he started a questionable plan in which it was reached develop a single platform for two cars that arrived with enormous delay. And Cariad, which should have been a company of key software development for the brand, was unable to give them software up to par. In the years to come, Tesla ate up much of the European market although its relevance plummeted since last year. In 2022 Its market share among electric vehicles remained at 13%. In 2023 shot up to 18% and in 2024 it remained at 17%. The big fall came with 2025 in which it remained at just 8%. And things aren’t looking better this year. Overcome. In the first quarter of 2026, Tesla appears to have remained somewhat stagnant as more and more companies begin to add electric vehicles to the market. The Tesla Model Y continues to lead sales and the Tesla Model 3 is the third best-selling electric car in Europe. But electric sales have skyrocketed in Europe and Elon Musk’s people are not taking full advantage. In the first quarter of the year, have been sold in the European Union 546,937 electric cars, 32% more than in the same period in 2025. And the market share now almost reaches 20%, some four points above the figures from twelve months ago. In that period, Tesla has increased its overall market share from 1.3% to 2.0% and among electrics it has risen to just above 10%. However, traditional companies are pushing hard. The Volkswagen Group, which has added the arrival of more affordable cars like the Skoda Elroq (among the three best sellers in Europe) and has renewed a large part of the fleet it already had under its own brand sales have skyrocketed. And Stellantis or Hyundai/Kia threaten to overtake Tesla. BYD is also among the best sellers in Europe. Carefully. When taking European sales data, some care must be taken and it is preferable to make readings by quarter. And Tesla continues to have an enormous dependence on registrations in the last month of each quarter. The transition from March to April is a good example of this. And, as we said, in March Tesla marked a 10% market share among electric vehicles but in April there are already records (in the absence of those from ACEA) that lThey leave you at 8.9%. These fluctuations are more than common but they show that Tesla continues to be irregular in its month-to-month growth. The same as almost always. Despite the fluctuations, the truth is that Tesla has not managed to capitalize on the increase in electric sales as expected. Elon Musk himself anticipated global sales of 20 million units impossible things that seem very difficult to achieve, if not impossible. The company has been working to put smaller and more accessible models of the Model Y and Model 3 on the market with which to face the arrival of new launches from traditional brands. That has not happened and along the way they are being eaten up by those companies that were said to be “the new Nokia.” Furthermore, they have to face the arrival of a BYD that has burst in force. The Chinese company is already among the 10 manufacturers that sell the most electric vehicles in Europe and its deployment is in full takeoff ramp. Additionally, their success with plug-in hybrids is helping them raise awareness of the brand. For example (and although their plug-in hybrids are taken into account here), in the first quarter they sold 50,646 units in Europe, compared to 18,782 units in the same period of 2025. Photo | Carter Baran and Aidan Hancock In Xataka | Tesla wanted to make 20 million cars in 2030. The reality in 2025 is that Tesla has crashed and BYD is already leading

ideal for the terrace or car

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Lidl is like a box of surprises: you go in to do your weekly shopping and you can even take an electric guitar, a sound bar or a projector. The supermarket has a fairly extensive product catalog and it is renewed very frequently. This same Friday, May 28, a Kärcher KHD 3 that beyond standing out for how useful it can be, it does so above all for its price: Lidl will bring it on sale for 79.99 euros instead of 129.95 euros. If you prefer, Amazon currently has a similar one available in two versions: Kärcher K 2 Premium without home kit by 119.95 euros. Kärcher K 2 Premium with home kit by 149.95 euros. In this case it includes a surface cleaner and “Patio & Deck” detergent. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links A pressure washer to clean the terrace, garden and car Lidl pressure washer. The Kärcher KHD 3 that we can find at Lidl (the one on Amazon is very similar) is a pressure washer that includes a high pressure gun that allows you to clean from the terrace to the car or certain garden furniture. And the good thing is that it includes a good assortment of accessories. First of all, one of the most useful is the rotating nozzlewhich allows you to adjust the water pressure to adapt it to the surface we want to clean. It also comes with a high-pressure hose that is four meters long for convenient cleaning. On the other hand, it is worth mentioning that the Kärcher KHD 3 offers a power of 1.6 kW and is aimed, above all, at eliminating certain stains that are difficult to remove. It is more for occasional use and not so much for regular use.. In addition, it is also important to note that the pressure washer comes with wheels to be able to transport it more comfortably. ⚡ IN SUMMARY: pressure washer offer ✅ THE BEST The price: Pressure washers usually have much higher prices, so it is appreciated to have much cheaper models. Its rotating nozzlewhich allows you to adjust the water jet to clean different surfaces. ❌ THE WORST Yesin availability online: While it is already available in different physical stores, it is not yet available in the Lidl online store. 💡 BUY IT IF… You want to have a pressure washer to remove stubborn stains from the car, but especially from the garden or terrace, which tend to accumulate more frequently. ⛔ DON’T BUY IT IF… You do not have a garden or terrace and you cannot use the pressure washer with the car, since you will not use it. You may also be interested Kärcher Universal Detergent RM 555, multi-purpose cleaning detergent for Kärcher pressure washers, 5 L The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Kärcher K 5 Power Control pressure washer, pressure: 145 Bar, flow rate: 500 l/h, Performance: 40 m²/h, Weight: 13 kg, Hose and High pressure gun included 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 | Lidl and Compradicción (header), Kärcher In Xataka | Safety, organization and entertainment gadgets and accessories for cars on long trips In Xataka | The best mobile phones, we have tested them and here are their analyzes

Tenerife was known for the sun and its beaches. It will soon house one of the five most powerful supercomputers in Spain

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Tenerife will have a new supercomputer. I already had two with the names of Teide and of Anagaand they will now be joined by a new and promising project called the Atlantic Supercomputing Center. With it, it is hoped to turn the Canary Islands into a new nerve center for retaining and attracting talent in the technological field. Up to 10 million euros of investment. This new project It is a collaboration of the Cabildo of Tenerife and the Institute of Technology and Renewable Energies (ITER) with the German technology giant Bechtle. It will have an initial investment of 5.5 million euros, which could rise to 10 million as its four phases are deployed (two for storage, two for computing) oriented by the demand for the center and its resources. The expansion is flexible and Bechtle will supply the latest technology available at the time of project execution to avoid the use of obsolete components. The fifth supercomputer by power in Spain. By integrating with the existing nodes, the Atlantic Supercomputing Center will achieve a combined power that will place it as the fifth most powerful supercomputer in the entire national territory. It is also expected to enter the prestigious TOP500 list which brings together the most powerful supercomputers from around the world. Hybrid architecture. The rise of AI has meant that the project has an architecture that will allow working with both more conventional workloads and those intended for projects in the field of artificial intelligence. Thus, its architecture will be hybrid: CPU: although it has not been specified which processors it will use, it has been indicated that the supercomputer will have 13 nodes with 288 cores each, which will allow for more than 3,000 process cores to execute scientific tasks, for example. GPU: there will also be four specialized nodes with a total of 32 Nvidia H200 NVL cards, which will allow training of large language models and the development of AI projects. Performance: this expansion is expected to provide between 1.3 and 1.4 PFLOPS of global computing power (close to 300 TFLOPS in CPU and almost one PFLOP in GPU), indicated those responsible for the Cabildo de Tenerife and ITER. Hours instead of months. The president of the Cabildo, Rosa Dávila, stood out that local laboratories, the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and the University of La Laguna among others will be able to access these resources to be able to compute in hours what previously could take months. Juan José Martínez, from ITER, recalled how during the pandemic the Teide-HPC supercomputer It was one of the five centers in all of Spain who sequenced and monitored the biological variants of COVID-19. From the audiovisual sector to the aerospace sector. Among the sectors that will benefit from this computing capacity will be those associated with the audiovisual industry. The Teide-HPC infrastructure was for example used to render scenes from the film ‘Tadeo Jones 2: The Secret of King Midas‘. It will also be the core of the project management of canary satellite constellation. Attracting talent. This facility also wants to become an element that reinforces the role of the Canary Islands as a technological hub. Having a supercomputing infrastructure like this wants to help attract technology companies that promote highly qualified young employment and therefore retain and attract new talent in this sector. Efficiency. Although the power of Teide HPC will greatly benefit from these new resources, advances in photolithography will mean that the new supercomputer will occupy only a quarter of the previous physical space. Its environmental impact will also be zero: the infrastructure will be located in ITER’s own facilities, and will be powered entirely with clean energy from its wind farms and photovoltaic plants. Image | POT | ITER In Xataka | The muscle of many supercomputers depended on GPUs: China is trying another way to surpass the best in the US

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