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49% of Americans already use AI frequently. Only 16% believe that it brings something good

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People are using AI non-stop, but they are afraid of it. It is the great conclusion of a recent study from Pew Research Center in which a unique dilemma is posed. Adoption is skyrocketing, but so is pessimism and distrust regarding AI. A survey with contradictory results. The well-known Pew Research Center published its macro survey “Americans and AI 2026” these days, and the results give a very contradictory picture. On the one hand, generative AI tools are increasingly used and are already part of many people’s daily lives. On the other hand, this success in popularity coexists with the concern that these same users have regarding this technology. ChatGPT is king. The report shows how using generative AI models is already very normal among the North American public. 49% of American adults say they use chatbots like ChatGPT, Gemini or Copilot, up from 33% in 2024. ChatGPT’s market share is by far the most notable: of all those who use these platforms, 44% (almost half) use ChatGPT over other alternatives. Gemini is in second position with a 25% share, and behind it are Copilot and Meta AI. The use is also anecdotal: 12% confess to using AI several times a day, and for 4% the use is “almost constant.” Goodbye search engine, hello AI. The practical use of AI also allows us to understand the change that is taking place. In the survey, participants indicated that the two areas in which AI is most used are the search for information (40%) and the automation of work tasks (38% of active workers). Not only that: the AI ​​Overviews of the Google search engine are an absolute success: 60% of users take advantage of these summaries, which reveals a total transformation of the way we consume content and, in this case, searches. It is striking that AI is being used more and more, but at the same time users have an increasingly negative perception as well. Fear of AI (especially among young people). One of the most surprising conclusions of the study debunks the idea that new generations embrace AI with much more optimism than previous generations. It is true that those under 30 years of age double the AI ​​use rate of those over 50 (57% compared to 28%). However, it is precisely these young people who show a more hostile profile towards the impact of this technology. These young people, those most impacted by recommendation algorithms, are the same ones who overwhelmingly believe that AI will end up having a negative impact on both their personal lives and society in the next 20 years. Less data security. The main reason for this negative perception of AI seems to be data security. For 71% of respondents, the use of AI will make their data less secure. It is a striking discovery that reveals a real problem: the conversations we have with AI are not private, because when asking something to ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini, for example, the data is sent to the clouds of OpenAI, Anthropic or Google (respectively) to be read and processed. This data can theoretically be collected, stored and consulted by personnel from these companies, and encryption practically does not exist. Only solutions like Apple’s Private Cloud Compute They propose a real solution to the privacy and confidentiality of conversations with AI models. Google, by the way, has launched its own alternative, Private AI Compute. A problem in the making according to US users. The growing use of AI seems positive because it shows that users are indeed finding ways to take advantage of it, but the fact that this increased use does not contribute to a positive perception is especially worrying. Here it is evident that the current rejection of data centers in the USA or fear of the impact that AI will have on work They do not help to improve that perception, and the uncertainty in both senses is high. There is more concern about AI in Western countries: curiously in Asia, optimism exceeds the concern generated by this technology. And in Spain, what? In our country the survey “AI Monitor 2026” carried out by Ipsos reveals varied data for various countries, including Spain. According to this survey, 47% of the Spanish population is enthusiastic about the use of AI (8 points above the European average), although there is also concern regarding this technology: 52% of those surveyed showed concern about its impact on society. Image | Solen Feyissa In Xataka | Spain has just put numbers to the impact of AI on the labor market: 2.3 million jobs will change forever

The best MediaMarkt offers in technology, today June 28

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After a Prime Day full of offers, what do we have left? Well, MediaMarkt right now has a wide assortment of discounted devicesespecially from Apple. Are you looking for a good MacBook, Airpods or a sound bar? Well, pay attention to these offers. MacBook Air M5 by 1,099 eurosa good price considering that Apple’s official price has risen (and not a little). LG S80TY by 399 eurosa very complete sound bar that includes a wireless subwoofer. iPhone 17e by 599 eurosthe most economical mobile phone of Apple’s current generation with a more reasonable price. Dyson Cool AM07 by 249 eurosa bladeless fan that has a 28% discount. AirPods 4 (ANC) by 133 eurosone of the best prices we’ve seen on Apple headphones. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links MacBook Air M5 He MacBook Air M5 It is one of those affected by Apple’s price increase, but… you can still buy it at MediaMarkt for 1,099 euros (before 1,429 euros). It is a good laptop, especially because of the power that the M5 chipbecause of how little it weighs (1.24 kg) and how long its battery lasts. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links LG S80TY If your television lacks extra power (and quality) of sound, MediaMarkt has the offer LG S80TYa sound bar that, for 399 euros (previously 799 euros), comes with its own wireless subwoofer. It offers a power of 480W at 3.1.3 channels, is compatible with Dolby Atmos and it also has a five-year warranty. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links iPhone 17e He iPhone 17e You haven’t missed the MediaMarkt offers, and the store has it on sale for 599 euros (before 689 euros). It is the perfect mobile to give you the Apple mobile ecosystem without spending a lot of money. It is also quite compact with a 6.1 inch screen size and power is not lacking thanks to the A19 chip. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Dyson Cool AM07 Now that it’s quite hot, we should consider buying a fan if we don’t already have one. and the Dyson Cool AM07which has dropped in price to 249 euros (before 349 euros), it is ideal for homes with children and pets. Because? Basically because it doesn’t have blades. It is safe and easy to clean, includes a remote control and has an oscillation of up to 90º. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links AirPods 4 (ANC) Finally, MediaMarkt also has on offer the AirPods 4 in its version with active noise cancellation (ANC). Its price is 133 euros (before 169 euros) and stand out above all for having noise cancellationas this was a key feature of the Pro model. They also have a good battery and their audio quality is quite good. 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 | MediaMarkt and Compradicción (header), Apple, LG, Dyson In Xataka | Best iPhones. Which one to buy in 2026 and recommended models based on budget, tastes and quality-price In Xataka | Best connected fans (2026). Which one to buy and five recommended models

“3D prefabricated houses can help alleviate the housing crisis, but they are not a structural solution”

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When the mayor of Madrid, José Luís Martínez-Almeida, presented his first promotion Built “in wood with prefabricated 3D modules” it defined its objective in a simple way: to make housing cheaper by “reducing deadlines.” The Municipal Housing and Land Company (EMVS) stated that they would promote the “construction of 800 homes developed with this system” in the community. The question is obvious: is this system really scalable and a solution to the housing crisis that Spain is experiencing? Tenders for multi-family buildings like the one in Madrid with industrialized systems are beginning to become common. “There are similar cases in Andalusia and the Valencian Community, with different industrialization systems, both in 2D and 3D, with wood, concrete or steel,” says Gerardo del Río, civil engineer, commercial director at the Guerola construction company, which has a 3D industrialized building factory. For Margarita de Luxán García de Diego, architect and emeritus professor of Graphic Expression at the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM), this technique “is practically in an experimental phase.” still must move forward to improve and avoid limitations that condition it and “rigidize its use,” he clarifies. While industrial warehouses and single-family homes have been built with industrial systems for many years, high-rise construction such as hotels and educational centers is more recent, clarifies Gerardo del Río At the level of Spain there are very few buildings built and completed completely, with the enclosure and partitions with “3D printers in situ”. So far it has been done comprehensively in buildings up to two stories high. It also requires particular conditions so that the 3D printers can be placed and maneuvered. Regarding whether printed buildings can lower the final price, the architect points out that it is possible if the client is the developer, which is unusual. On the other hand, whether a builder or a real estate company sells them depends on the final price they want to set. Of course, they shorten construction times “as long as the project is very well resolved and decided in all its parts, including details and installations.” The challenge of making cheaper Carmen Díaz López, architect, doctor in Civil Engineering and professor and researcher at the Higher Technical School of Architecture of the University of Málaga, has the same opinion: “Industrialization makes processes cheaper, reduces uncertainty and improves efficiency, but that does not always automatically translate into a drop in the final price for those who buy or rent. The savings are clearer in time, management and cost control than in market price, unless there are measures that guide these solutions towards affordable housing.” In a town in Soria They have carried out a pilot construction test of seven industrialized homes. According to the mayor of Langa de Duero, “the homes are divided into modules, which means they can be practically assembled in three days.” Of course, the final shots would still be missing. While the Madrid project used wood, here the prefabricated elements are made of concrete. “They are different systems. The first consists of a multi-family building intended for an urban environment and the second is single-family homes for a rural environment,” explains Gerardo del Río. “It seems to me to be a good initiative in the face of the housing crisis, especially in areas as depopulated as Soria, and even more so being from Soria,” he adds. “These projects can help alleviate the housing crisis because they allow us to build faster and with greater cost control, something very relevant in a context of lack of supply,” highlights Carmen Díaz López. But the expert warns that “they are not a structural solution on their own: the housing crisis also has to do with land, regulation, financing and the functioning of the market. They are a useful tool, but they must be part of a broader housing policy.” “The ideal is for the initiative to be taken by the public sector, making land available to the private sector to build or construct housing directly, which can subsequently be managed by the administration itself or by the private sector through concession contracts,” says del Río. Margarita de Luxán highlights that industrialized homes They are not a panacea either. to housing prices and the lack of houses to live in. “The housing crisis and its solutions depend on many and very complex things, not only on construction techniques or materials,” he explains. For her, printed buildings are “a small part of the many approaches that must continue to advance.” In the current circumstances “they are marginal to define them as a generalized solution given their scale and conditions.” Render of the Loreto development, in Barajas, prefabricated in 3D. To address rural depopulation, projects like the one in Soria have, for Díaz López, potential if they are integrated into a territorial strategy. “Their main advantage is that they allow housing to be activated in places where today it is barely built, which can facilitate the arrival of new profiles: from young people to people who telework. But housing, by itself, does not fix the population: for there to be a real impact, services, connectivity, employment and a certain demographic stability are needed,” he highlights. “Its impact will depend on how it is scaled and, above all, if it is linked to a public strategy capable of converting that construction speed into truly accessible housing,” he adds. From the point of view of sustainability, the industrialization of housing has clear advantages for the professor at the University of Malaga: less waste, greater energy efficiency, better quality control and more precise execution. But the underlying debate is not only technical. “Industrialization can change how we build, but it does not solve on its own why housing remains inaccessible. The challenge is no longer so much technological as it is one of scale, governance and access model,” he concludes. In Xataka | Luxury homes in the US are selling like hotcakes and experts think they know why: AI In Xataka | In Vancouver they are building a … Read more

This is how the map of comings and goings has changed

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The photography of migration in Spain has taken a turn in less than four decades: it has gone from being a state that exports people to becoming one of the main migratory destinations on the continent. Thus, in the Spanish state in 1990, more Spaniards lived outside (1.4 million) than inside. In 2024, that proportion has reversed: 8.9 million people born outside the state’s borders reside in Spain, while there are 1.6 million Spanish people in diaspora. A brutal structural change that has its explanation in economic, demographic and geopolitical transformations. This trend was reversed approximately in 1995 (1.3 million immigrants vs. 1.2 million emigrants), it has been growing and does not seem to be stopping. The Spanish state is one of those places doomed to severe demographic contraction because its replacement rate is in the red. According to the INEfertility in Spain is 1.12 children per woman, well below the established threshold of 2.1 by the OECD at Society at a Glance 2024. Migration is essential to maintain the welfare state. The graph you see below these lines is an interactive tool called “Where do migrants live, and where were they born?” which allows us to see, for any state in the world, where the people who live there without being born there come from and where the people born there who live outside go. Both flows are concentrated in a graph where it is possible to filter by sex and move in time from 1990 to 2024. An important detail: the map does not show how many people arrived in a specific year, but rather how much is there in total accumulated. That is to say, if in 2024 there are 1.1 million people of Moroccan origin in the Spanish state, that is the sum of decades of arrivals, not the arrival of a million people at once. Where immigrants in Spain were born, and where their emigrants lived in 2024. Our World In data This Sankey diagram interactive is the work of Our World in Data, a non-profit organization linked to the University of Oxford that is responsible for publishing data visually. The information on which these graphs of bilateral flows between states are based comes from the UN DESA International Migrant Stock 2024which publishes an exhaustive and rigorous count of people living outside their country of birth for 233 countries. For those countries where censuses have not been done recently, the numbers are an estimate and not a direct measurement. 35 years of migration, in a very complete graph Debates about migration are often full of wrong perceptions and even selective amnesia: Without going any further, many people in Spain forget that the Spanish state has historically been a land of emigration and, in fact, has been recently. This Harvard study shows that people in rich countries overestimate how many immigrants there are and the resources they consume, so having access to this information in such a clear and intuitive way is essential to change that perception, or at least, to combat it with data. But this visualization is also relevant because it helps to see Spain’s connection with other countries and why: People do not migrate at random, but follow already established networks. Where immigrants in Malaysia were born, and where their emigrants lived in 1990. Our World in data It was difficult for Spain to become a destinationbut when it did it came dizzyingly quickly: the economic growth of the 1990s and 2000s required a lot of labor that the state did not have. Thus, it has been one of the most rapid demographic changes of Europe in peacetime: according to the INE Migration Statisticsin 2023 the migration balance was more than 642,000 people, one of the highest in the last twenty years. In that time, Spain has faced the challenge of managing its borders, a bureaucracy that the graph does not show, just as it does not visualize another structural problem: integration and the real conditions in which these people live once inside. From 1990 to 2024 the graph has changed a lot. Almost 40 years ago there were more Spaniards abroad than foreigners inside and the few people who went to Spain to stay came mainly from France, Morocco and Germany. Spanish people in diaspora lived mainly in France and Argentina, a legacy of Francoism and exile. Between 1990 and 2005 the number of immigrants quintupled and countries such as Ecuador, Colombia and Romania emerged strongly as countries of origin. In 2024 the number of immigrants is 9 million people, with Morocco first, Colombia second and copper going to Venezuela, an origin that barely existed in the 90s. Where immigrants in Spain were born, and where their emigrants lived in 2005. Our World in data Although these interactive graphics allow us to know at a glance origins, destinations and accumulated quantities, they are insufficient to understand migration phenomena in depth. They do not distinguish between radically different profiles: a person refugee, a student, a temporary worker or an expat with an international contract they count equally in the stock, when their conditions, rights and vulnerabilities are incomparable. Nor do they include irregular migration, a particularly significant phenomenon in the Spanish state. And, above all, they reduce people to numbers, showing the result but not the causes. It is also worth remembering that this flow is not just about people: the remittances that they send to their countries of origin represent one of the largest movements of capital towards the global south, in many cases exceeding official development aid. In Xataka | The great Iberian divide: the map that divides Spain in two through its two large hydrographic basins In Xataka | The two types of countries in the world, on a map: those that are becoming demographically extinct and those that are not Cover | Our World in Data

We have been growing lettuce in space for years. Now we have discovered that they are more likely to make us sick

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Bad news for astronauts who usually eat healthy. That is, for all astronauts. It has been almost ten years since the crew of the International Space Station consume vegetables they grow themselves in microgravity: lettuce, peppers, radishes. Some hot chili. More recently, the astronauts of the chinese space stationwhich already has lettuce, cherry tomatoes and chiveseven though it hasn’t been in orbit that long. The problem is that space salads They are not as safe for consumption as we thought.. A team of researchers from the University of Delaware has discovered that lettuce and other vegetables grown in microgravity are more prone to contamination by bacteria such as Salmonella. Until now, we thought that under microgravity conditions, plants tend to open their stomata (the small pores in their leaves and stems) more instead of closing them to prevent the invasion of pathogens. However, a recent job from the same laboratory has discovered that at the entrance of Salmonella enterica in the tissue was independent of stomatal density, and that the factor that best predicts it is the variety (cultivar) of lettuce together with the microgravity itself. Friendly bacteria also lose their protective effect In previous studies, researchers explored the use of a friendly bacteria, B. subtilis, as a solution to the problem. However, the bacteria, which on Earth help plants fight pathogens, failed to protect them in it simulated microgravity environmentsuggesting that space significantly changes the interaction between plants and microbes. The finding is important. Not only because it calls into question whether salads on the International Space Station are completely safe, but also because it helps understand the challenges of agriculture in future space colonies. Now, anyway, we have another solution: use red lettuce. Probably, the higher content of phenols and antioxidants protects them from salmonella and the data suggests that selecting varieties with these traits could improve the food security of space crops. With population growth on Earth and the loss of agricultural land, space is an increasingly realistic option for growing food. But if they want prevent a salmonellosis outbreakfuture space farmers better wash their hands thoroughly with soap and water. A previous version of this article was published in February 2024 Image | NASA/Cory Huston In Xataka | NASA astronauts will eat their first lettuce from a garden in space today

China is diverting its largest rivers thousands of kilometers away. The price to pay is a huge environmental mystery

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Water in China has a basic geographical problem, since the south of the country floods very frequently while the north is in a drought situation. To solve it, the Asian giant has spent decades running which is probably the most ambitious hydraulic engineering project in the history of humanity, since they are literally moving nature. Making history. If there is a country capable of altering the face of the Earth to guarantee its economic and demographic survival, it is China. The premise is as simple to understand as it is pharaonic to execute, since what they are doing is transferring water from the rich Yangtze River basin in the south to the arid plains in the north, where a large part of the country’s population, agriculture and industry is concentrated, but barely 20% of its water resources. The result of this It is the ‘South-North Water Transfer Project’ that has a colossal network of canals, pipelines and pumping stations that are defying geography. The figures of a titanic work. To estimate the size of this project, it is enough to go to official sources, since, according to the latest updates from China’s Ministry of Water Resources, the infrastructure is unparalleled in the world. Specifically, to date, the system has managed to transfer more than 70,000 million cubic meters of water through its central and eastern route. From a hydrological perspective, as detailed in CEDEX technical schemes on platforms such as Hispagua, this is equivalent to moving entire rivers artificially. The beneficiaries There have been 150 million people who have seen how this water injection It has even allowed an “ecological replenishment”, recovering the water table in northern areas that had been depleted for decades. But massive intervention on the ground always has a “B side.” The rivers. As China redraws its water map, an alarming fact emerged, as official censuses revealed that tens of thousands of rivers appeared to have disappeared in the country in just a few decades. Here the specialist media have raised great global concern about this phenomenon, since it is not known if this transfer was drying out the country at an unprecedented rate. The answer. It was given to us by an article published in 2019 that pointed out that the massive “disappearance” of the channels was not due to the fact that they had evaporated overnight due to dams or climate change, but rather to a problem of cartographic methodology. That is, historically, censuses included what scientists call ‘pseudo-rivers’ and used counting criteria that were not supported. Now that they have applied a much better and more consolidated hydraulic classification, the number of these “lost” rivers has been drastically reduced. The ecological cost. The fact that rivers are not disappearing en masse from the maps does not mean that the megaproject is free, since modifying the flow of some of the most important basins on the planet entails risks that scientific literature has been monitoring for years. Already in 2009, a classic review published in Wiley by researcher Zhang Quanfa warned of the profound Yoenvironmental implications of the transfer. Here he proposes that extracting such massive volumes from the south irreparably alters the Yangtze basin, causing an alteration of the southern aquatic ecosystem, or it has even been seen that as less fresh water reaches the mouth of the Yangtze, sea water penetrates inland, threatening the local supply and agriculture of the delta. The demographic cost. Added to these environmental warnings is the institutional analysis of experts such as Mark Wang and Chen Li who point out the governance challenges and the enormous political and social friction generated. Here different critical organizations point out that the authorities have forced the resettlement of hundreds of thousands of people and have required multimillion-dollar investments in treatment plants to prevent contaminated water from the south from ruining the reserves in the north. Images | ダモリ In Xataka | A small river lost between Russia and North Korea is testing something much bigger: China’s patience with both.

Fed up with AI, a programmer created a chat where 16,000 people pretend to be ChatGPT so they don’t have to use it

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I don’t need to tell you that the old internet is long dead: first, centralized in social networks and their respective algorithms. Then, with artificial intelligence: There is already more content generated by artificial intelligence than by humans. In fact, even the omnipresent Google search engine gives you the answer in its AI mode whenever it can. What times were those when the best of human wisdom was condensed in a forum thread in a disinterested way and how authentic content created by humans is missing in an internet increasingly dominated by material made by machines but, yesIf you can’t beat him, join himso if the AI ​​is stealing your work, why not become a ChatGPT with legs and steal it from it? This ChatGPT is very human. Is called “Your AI Slop Bores Me” (your AI garbage bores me) and it is a real call to quality, intention and human effort: a chat interface in Comic Sans, a box where you can ask your question or draw for the AI ​​and a “model” behind it that has the mission of answering you in less than 60 seconds. Except for one small detail: behind it there is a person who has decided to adopt that role because this is a parody of the many chatbots with AI that exist and we often use. Although hey, since you part with a couple of credits to ask and they run out quickly, sooner rather than later you will have to turn the tables and become a fast, responsive AI (Larp mode). Be careful, the answers receive evaluation. It’s a kind of reverse Touring test. This web game created by Mihir Maroju became a phenomenon: it was launched in March of this year and in its first week there were already 16,000 concurrent users in real time, like pick up Fast Company. In fact, its dev explains that the success was such that he had to update servers. The only thing missing is that you need your own data center. Your AI Slope Bores me interface Why is it important. Because if the internet brought us the word spam, AI has done the same with “slop”: that filth vomited without care. And boy do we complain: according to an analysis by TRG Datacentersmentions of the term ‘AI slop’ on networks grew to reach 2.4 million this year. The Merriam-Webster he chose it Word of the Year 2025. But this experiment is proof that the old internet is still alive: people who don’t gain followers, likes, or money for helping and still continue to respond. It is, in a way, a way to recover the dynamics of internet forums before the attention economy of networks: places where help was not measured by engagement. Context. The game has more to it than it seems because it gamifies a real problem on today’s internet. At the beginning of the year, Neal Mohan, CEO of YouTube, declared that reducing slop and detecting deepfakes were absolute priorities for the platform. And it is no wonder: a recent investigation by New York Times has uncovered that after watching popular children’s content on YouTube, 40% of the videos recommended below were AI slop. Low-quality content generated by artificial intelligence is already a reality that floods everything and not even the academic world is spared. Now, in AI mode. Your AI Slope Bores Me In detail. The tutorial on how to play It is a veiled criticism of AI and its ways of writing. Thus, he recommends starting the texts with the now mythical “As an AI language model”, the use of excessively polite phrases or directly hallucinating. The game turns the systemic flaws of LLMs into playable mechanics. The design of the website is deliberately minimalist and tacky, it does not require a download, it works on any browser and device and works in real time and multiplayer. But there is a phenomenon under this game that was unexpected and yet it is happening: that chat format and anonymity, because there is no need to create an account and there is no history, encourages people to ask more personal questions and on the other side there are people willing to answer just because, altruistically. Yes, but. The game has certain limitations: that credit mechanic creates some friction and imbalance, because if there are too many people running in AI mode and not enough people sending questions, you can be left fallow for a long time. On the other hand, and although it is done with humor, today it is increasingly difficult to distinguish what an AI has written and what not: looking for the tickling of the models is increasingly complicated due to their training and debugging. Finally, the experience is somewhat marred by ads. In Xataka | Sam Altman laments that the internet is full of AI and bots: the irony is that he is one of the most responsible In Xataka | 20 years later, if you want to find something on the Internet you search for it on Reddit Cover | Your AI Slop Bores me with Gemini

Why are there only women?

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A little over a decade ago in a cave in South Africa we discover to a distant relative of homo sapiens: the Homo naledione of the most enigmatic hominids in evolution. Its body had a curious shape from the point of view of paleontology: the head and shoulders were similar to Australopithecusbut hands, feet and face gave an air of the genre Homo. His brain was also about a third of ours. Something that caught our attention from the beginning was how homogeneous the skeletons found in the Rising Star cave system were with each other. Perhaps, too much so. So they assumed the usual: that there were males and females and that the largest skeletons corresponded to the males. They were wrong. The discovery. This assumption was never verified on a molecular scale, something that has now been done: for the first time a team has analyzed his teeth. More specifically, the enamel of 23 teeth from at least 20 specimens. What they were interested in was looking for the Amelogenin-Y protein, which only exists in males since it is encoded in the Y chromosome. They did not find it. What does that mean? That all the specimens analyzed were biologically female. Why is it important. Because this analysis is the largest scale carried out on an extinct hominid population and suggests that Rising Star is the first exclusively female burial site created by a species that was not Homo sapiens. In other words, hundreds of thousands of years before we thought, funerary rituals already existed. And it also solves one of the enigmas of the homo naledi: why they are so similar to each other on a morphological level. Well, because what seemed like a biological characteristic of the species is simply the result of all known individuals belonging to a single sex. Context. He naledi has been a controversial species for paleontology from the beginning. When was discovered in 2015the researchers already pointed out that it was the ancient hominid species with the smallest difference in size between its adult individuals ever found. Now we know why. Tooth enamel is the hardest tissue in the body, so much so that it protects proteins from environmental degradation for an eternity. For this reason, the technique has been used on remains that are up to two million years old: the fossils of H. naledi They are “only” between 241,000 and 335,000 years old, so they are within that analysable range. In detail. To validate the results and rule out internal errors, the analysis was carried out in two laboratories independently and the team from the University of York also analyzed the amino acids to rule out that the proteins were a product of contamination. Lee Berger, one of the authors of the study, holds That if the adults lived separately by sex, we would expect to find at least male babies in the cave, but this was not the case. More than a coincidence, it suggests that this segregation was a mortuary practice. The paper also explains that the Homo naledi has a unique amino acid never seen in other hominids and that shares a characteristic in a bone protein with the Paranthropus robustuswhich helps contextualize both species in the tree of evolution. Yes, but. The study includes a possibility to take into account: that the absence of a male marker is due to a mutation or disappearance of the gene throughout evolution, which would make biological males indistinguishable from females with this technique. Elizabeth Sawchuk, curator of human evolution at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History and outside the study, sums it up: “it is a strange result in a species that was already strange.” The most spectacular interpretation, which H. naledi buried their dead separated by sex, is also the most difficult to prove. In Xataka | A remote cave in Africa has revealed something about humans from 200,000 years ago: they already changed the clothes on their beds In Xataka | 77 skeletons, a single head: the mystery of the Slovak mass grave that torments archaeologists Cover | Rising Star Program (Hawks et al., eLife (2017))

We have searched for the formula for the definitive pre-workout breakfast. The answer from science is much simpler

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Everyone who gets up early to go to the gym has wondered on some occasion whether it is better to go to the gym without having any breakfast, just have a coffee to get energy, or prepare a large, very satiating breakfast. In this case, the quick information that we find on the Internet can lead to confusion, since depending on what you look at it will show very different advice, and that is why you have to focus. what the experts point out. The body’s gasoline. If you are going to do a high-intensity workout that is not limited to simply taking a morning walk, logically you have to offer some fuel to the body in the form of carbohydrates. These are the undisputed kings to have quick and efficient energy when, for example, starting to lift a lot of weight on a bench. Here the different guides agree that consuming carbohydrates before exercise helps maintain blood glucose levels and preserves glycogen reserves in the muscles, which are our most immediate fuel. That is, they prevent you from running out of “battery” in the middle of the session and end up giving the dreaded ‘bird’ when training. And this is what the famous ‘pre-workouts’ rely on in the form of quick doses of carbohydrates that are absorbed very quickly. The protein. In addition to fuel, it is also noted that adding a moderate amount of protein in the morning is appropriate. This is based on the need to prevent muscle damage and promote recovery, especially if the routine includes strength training. When to take it. The biggest mistake before training is not always ‘what’ you eat, but ‘when’. Here the evidence establishes an optimal window of 1 to 4 hours before exercise to make a solid intake rich in carbohydrates. However, in the real world, few get up at four in the morning to eat breakfast before hitting the gym at seven in the morning. The strategy. If the time frame is short, the strategy must change drastically, since organizations such as the United States Anti-Doping Agency they point Because there are several digestive enemies in pre-workout: Fiber should be avoided since it slows down gastric emptying and can cause serious intestinal discomfort with great effort. You should avoid fats due to heavy and energetically costly digestion, making foods that are easier to digest ideal before training. Just before starting training, it is not best to take protein, since it will not be digested and will not arrive in time to be useful in training, meaning it should be taken an hour before training or after it. There is no definitive breakfast. If someone offers a series of preparations without distinguishing the audience for which they are intended, the truth is that they are lying. The most important point here is that nutrition should always be individualized for the needs of each person, because breakfast for someone who is going to make a great effort is not the same as breakfast for another person who will limit themselves to taking a brisk walk. The time between breakfast and the start of exercise is also important, since the tighter it is, the more priority must be given to light foods that are absorbed quickly. All this means that it is not easy advice and should not be limited to a generic recipe book. Images | Anastase Maragos In Xataka | Walking does not count as “exercising”: for the 10,000 steps a day to be effective, the x3 rule must be applied

We believed that loneliness was just an emotional problem. Science points out that it is a risk factor for dozens of diseases.

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Loneliness is undoubtedly a scourge that is integrated into our society and that on many occasions goes unnoticed, especially affecting older people who are practically confined to being at home and with little social contact. And although this is something that a priori can remain in the psychological fieldthe reality is that loneliness emerges as a major public health threat as it is related to very serious diseases. A big risk. When we talk about risk factors in the field of medicine, we immediately think about nutrition or lack of exercise that are related to very serious diseases. But loneliness must also be added to this entire list, since numerous studies have found a direct association with cardiovascular, neurological and metabolic pathologies, although unraveling the exact cause continues to be one of the great challenges of current medical literature. The problem. In 2023, the United States Surgeon General public a devastating report pointing out that we were facing an “epidemic of loneliness and isolation.” And it was not a mere poetic metaphor, since the WHO has been warning that social disconnection not only affects us emotionally, but also alters our body to the point of increasing the risk of heart disease, stroke, depression, dementia and premature death. A measurable impact. When we talk about disease risk, cardiovascular health is the first to suffer. Here, a scientific statement from the American Heart Association, published in it Journal of the American Heart Associationconcluded bluntly that loneliness and social isolation are independent risk factors for poorer heart and brain health. And the percentages are not anecdotal, since a meta-analysis pointed out that loneliness or social isolation is associated with a 29% increase in the risk of suffering from coronary heart disease and a 32% increase in the risk of stroke. It goes further. A massive analysis led by the Autonomous University of Madrid in 2026, after following more than 400,000 peopleconfirmed a strong association between isolation and multimorbidity, highlighting that physical social isolation is a relevant risk factor even if the person does not subjectively perceive that loneliness. The case of dementia. Among dementias, the most important disease is undoubtedly Alzheimer’s and the data are clear in pointing out that unwanted loneliness is an important risk factor for all dementias. Among the reasons that exist, the Alzheimer Center of Barcelona points out in a recent note as follows: “The relationship between isolation and cognitive decline is supported by research showing how a lack of social interaction impoverishes vocabulary, reduces cognitive flexibility, and accelerates brain decline.” Here the advice given to be less likely to suffer from this disease when you reach a risk age is to participate in group activities, take advantage of technology to maintain contact or create a social routine. In mental health. In addition to the organic section, if we move on to mental illnesses, the fact that there is no adequate social support network also leads to an increase in the probability of illnesses as important as depression or even the schizophrenia. Many causes can influence here, such as genetic factors, but in the end a cluster of situations can generate the final trigger for the disease. The great nuance. The question we must ask ourselves here is the following: do we get sick because of the biological impact of disconnection, or because loneliness is accompanied by other conditions? And here the science suggests that isolated people tend to do less physical activity, have poorer diets and have a greater propensity for smoking or alcoholism. Factors that can trigger a whole battery of serious diseases. Even with these factors in the equation, loneliness demonstrates surprising predictive strength. For example, recent research in patients with diabetes revealed that loneliness was associated with a greater probability of suffering from coronary heart disease, even outweighing several classic risk factors. Images | Anthony Tran In Xataka | Generation Z is both the most connected and the loneliest in history. And there is nothing casual about it

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