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Japanese scientists have discovered what the clouds of Venus have to do with your kitchen sink

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In 2016, the Japanese Akatsuki mission detected a massive disturbance on Venus which left scientists baffled. For a long time, its origin has been a mystery. However, now a team of researchers from the University of Tokyo has found the answer. An answer that, curiously, has a lot to do with your kitchen sink. Simulations. Through atmospheric simulations and fluid dynamics models, scientists at the University of Tokyo have discovered that a phenomenon takes place in the atmosphere of Venus, called hydraulic jump, which also happens in your sink every time you turn on the tap. You have surely noticed that, right at the point where the water hits the sink, it moves quickly and in a very thin layer. However, a circle is formed whose outer layers are thicker and move much more slowly. In other words, rapidly flowing liquid abruptly slows down and increases in height. The reasons. Initially, when water falls into the sink, its speed is greater than the local speed of the waves that are generated. However, friction with the sink surface slows down the waterso just the opposite happens. As a result, water begins to accumulate, forming a deeper layer that also moves more unstablely. What was seen on Venus. In 2016, a massive disturbance was detected moving 6,000 kilometers wide around the equator of Venus. This, in addition, was moving through the clouds, leaving behind a dark patch of denser clouds. These images taken on August 18 (left) and August 27 (right), 2016, by the near-infrared camera of Japan’s Akatsuki Venus probe, show the clear line of denser (darker) clouds moving across the planet. Special clouds. The clouds of Venuscomposed mostly of sulfuric acid, are an interesting mystery. They are known to rotate very quickly, with a speed 60 times greater than the planet’s own rotation. This, as explained in Universe Todaywould be more or less equivalent to a Formula 1 car circling a bicycle. They are made up of 3 layers, of which only the outermost one is well known. The two innermost ones harbor many mysteries, which is why these scientists have searched there. An unstable wave. In one of these internal layers, something known as a Kelvin wave is formed. It moves east very quickly, but there comes a time when it becomes periodically unstable. At that point, the wind speed slows down, like tap water, and the atmosphere builds up into a thicker layer, like water over a sink. This drastic change causes a powerful upward current of air, which pushes sulfuric acid vapor into the atmosphere, where it condenses and forms that broad wall of clouds that was detected in 2016. other planets. This is the largest hydraulic jump that has been detected in the solar system. However, these scientists believe that, using similar models, perhaps something similar could be detected on other planets. For example, they believe that Mars is a good candidate to host this phenomenon. It would be interesting to check, since Venus is too inhospitable a planet to colonize, but science Yes, he has his sights set on colonizing Mars in the future. Knowing perfectly the mysteries that its sky houses is necessary for the success of this type of missions. Image | MIT/Zeimusu | T. Imamura, Y. Maejima, K. Sugiyama et al., 2026 In Xataka | A green beam illuminated Venus in the night sky. It is not an unknown phenomenon, but it is very difficult to see

The Strait of Hormuz has become a death trap. The Arab Emirates’ solution is a pharaonic oil “bypass” through the desert

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The new energy order is not debated in suit and tie summits, but is rising against the clock under the scorching sun of the Arabian Peninsula. Suffocated by the Third Gulf War, the United Arab Emirates has hit the table: it refuses to leave the survival of its trade routes in the hands of chance, war or its neighbors. The strategy is clear: if the strait is a minefield, they will build a rear exit. The news that has shaken the foundations of oil logistics came to light through official channels. According to a statement from the company itself ADNOC (the Emirati state oil company), His Highness Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed has chaired a key meeting in which he has ordered an urgent directive: to accelerate the construction of the new “West-East Pipeline” project. But what infrastructure are we talking about exactly? As energy analyst Javier Blas points outthe key to this movement is that the Emirates is laying out a second oil pipeline expressly designed to turn its back on the Strait of Hormuz. The date marked on the calendar is 2027. When they open the tap, this new infrastructure will double the volume of crude oil that the country takes out to the world through the port of Fujairah (in the Gulf of Oman). In practical figures, this represents a gigantic leap: they will go from the 1.5 million barrels a day that they move right now, to injecting between 3 and 3.5 million. It is not a project improvised in the last week. As analyst Bachar El-Halabi points outwork on this project began quietly in early 2024, long before the war in Iran paralyzed the region. However, the conflict has acted as the definitive “catalyst.” The war did not inspire the pipeline, but it has injected it with urgency. The logistical “antidote” As was discussed in the middle Amwaj Mediathe Iran war has starkly exhibited the tremendous vulnerability of maritime bottlenecks (chokepoints). The near-total shutdown of Hormuz has caused the worst supply disruption in history, removing 12% of the world’s oil from the market. In this context, the West-East pipeline stands as a lifeline. This Emirati infrastructure, added to the gigantic oil pipeline East-West (or Petroline) of 1,200 kilometers that Saudi Arabia has reactivated towards the Red Sea, form a true logistical “antidote.” They are escape routes that neutralize Tehran’s blackmail, allowing crude oil to go out into the world without entering the range of missiles and blockades in the Persian Gulf. They are, in the words of experts, “buying invaluable time” for the West. To understand the privilege of having this infrastructure, just look at the neighboring country: the situation in Iraq exposes the other side of the coin. Lacking alternative outlets to the sea and completely dependent on Hormuz, Iraq has been left without physical space to store its own oil. As a result, Baghdad has been forced to shut down 70% of production in its prolific southern fields and beg the Kurdistan region to let them use an old, patched-up pipeline to Turkey that barely manages to export 250,000 barrels a day. Iraq is a hostage to its own geography; The Emirates, on the other hand, are buying their freedom with steel and engineering. A free (and flooded) market by 2027 All this new logistical muscle takes on its true meaning when it intersects with another historic decision: the Emirates’ slamming of the door on OPEC+. Emirates has formally left the organizationarguing the defense of their “national interest.” After almost six decades, the country has decided that its national interests no longer fit into the cartel’s quotas. The UAE had been accumulating commercial frustration for years because OPEC forced them to limit their pumping to 3.2 million barrels per day, despite the fact that the country has invested aggressively to reach a production capacity of 5 million barrels by 2027, the same year in which its new megagas pipeline to Fujairah will be ready. But as various international media explain, this divorce is not just about money. Abu Dhabi feels betrayed. The Emirates have had to absorb much of the impact of Iranian missiles and drones alone, feeling that their Arab “brothers” and the Gulf Cooperation Council were turning their backs on them. Therefore, the consequences of this schism will be tectonic. The cartel has seen its global market share plummet to 26%. When the Strait of Hormuz reopens and the West-East pipeline operates at full capacity, the Emirates will flood the market under its own rules, leaving a lone Saudi Arabia to bear the brutal cost of trying to stabilize prices in a world of extreme volatility. The cold war for the future The Emirati order, in fact, is directly addressed to Riyadh. In the silent cold war it is waging with Saudi Arabia for regional hegemony, the Emirates refuses to be a supporting actor in the face of Prince Mohamed bin Salman’s monolithic “Vision 2030.” As explained Middle East Economythe UAE can afford to leave OPEC and endure a downward pulse in prices because its break-even Fiscal is around a comfortable $45 per barrel, compared to the much greater needs of its neighbors. Thanks to diversification, the Emirates today generates 25% of its electricity with the Barakah nuclear power plant and has immense solar parks, allowing itself to use today’s petrodollars to finance hydrogen and the technology of tomorrow. However, this apparent invulnerability has a terrifying blind spot. Military analysts warn that, in the era of hybrid warfare, a steel pipe is of little use if a $500 drone can paralyze the region. The Third Gulf War already demonstrated this fragility when a drone reached the gigantic Emirati Ruwais refinery. Added to this is the panic unleashed when pro-Iranian militias explicitly threatened vital infrastructure such as the Barakah nuclear power plant. The Emirates is building its financial and logistical freedom, yes, but it is doing so through a minefield. The new West-East pipeline is ultimately much more than a … Read more

Hormuz blockade is about to cause serious problems for Samsung and TSMC

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The closing of Strait of Hormuz because of the conflict with Iran has turned the entire technology industry upside down and energy, beyond all the geopolitical tension that has been dragging on. It is an earthquake that runs through the entire semiconductor supply chainincluding key components that we do not have in mind a priori, but that are essential for the production of all types of microchips. From the most specialized gases to solvents, minerals and, essentially, all critical raw materials that are now much more complicated and expensive to obtain. Raw material. Apart from silicon, there are other essential raw materials for chip manufacturing that have recently been very difficult to obtain. Just like they count From Bloomberg, the production of these chips requires dozens of materials as specific as ultrapure gases, acids, solvents, resins… Many of which come from a very specific geographic region: the Middle East. The blockade of the Strait of Hormuz has suddenly cut off the supply of a good part of them, and although large manufacturers such as TSMC and Samsung have some accumulated inventory, the margin is narrowing with each passing week. Helium has no substitute. Helium is perhaps the most critical material of everyone. It is used to cool wafers during circuit etching, in EUV lithography processes, and to maintain the thermal stability of silicon. It has no substitute. Qatar produced about a third of the world’s supply, but Iranian attacks on its energy facilities in Ras Laffan and Mesaieed have paralyzed virtually all of its production. According to Bloomberga complete restoration could take up to five years. South Korea imported around 65% of its helium from Qatar, making Samsung and SK Hynix the most vulnerable manufacturers. Memory chips require much more helium than logic chips. bblunt, sulfuric acid and solvents. Beyond helium, the blockade is also affecting other equally critical materials. High-purity hydrogen bromide gas, essential for etching processes, is in short supply. High-purity sulfuric acid, used to clean wafers and remove photoresists once the circuits are printed, also is facing restrictions. Just like they explain In The Guardian, the Gulf exports about 45% of the world’s sulfur, the raw material from which it is obtained. And then there are solvents for photoresists, such as PGMEA, which is obtained from naphtha, a crude oil derivative that previously came largely from Iran. Inventories. The large manufacturers have come out to say that, for the moment, they have enough reserves to last several months. The South Korean government confirmed in April that bromine and helium inventories covered several months of production. TSMC, for its part, said it does not expect an immediate impact, although it warned that the prices of certain gases and chemicals will likely rise. The problem is that many of these materials have a limited useful life, since they cannot be stored indefinitely. Liquid helium evaporates during transport (especially now that ships must go around Africa), and photoresist solvents expire once opened. Jonathan Colehower, general manager of UST’s Global Operations and Supply Chain department, counted to PC Gamer that companies like Samsung “were operating with very tight inventories” following the just-in-time model, and that “this was not on their radar.” cgeographical concentration. One of the hardest lessons of this crisis is that the technology supply chain has very specific choke points. And it is not just about the Gulf producing oil; the thing is produces very specific materials in very specific installations that have no easy equivalent elsewhere. Jenna Ingram, Director of Proactive Intelligence at Exiger, counted told PC Gamer that manufacturers that previously bought helium from the Gulf are now competing for the same limited volume produced by Canada and the United States, which already had their own customers. It should be added that China has just restricted its exports of sulfuric acid and that Russia has imposed temporary controls on helium exports, making the picture even more complicated. Who will endure and who will not. In this scenario, size matters a lot. The big ones (TSMC, Samsung, SK Hynix) have enough purchasing power to sneak to the front of the queue when there is a shortage, pay premiums for high purity materials and draw on strategic relationships if necessary. The smallest ones, no. According to GartnerIf the situation continues, it could also affect the AI ​​industry. For consumers, the forecast is not at all hopeful. Supply priorities will most likely favor AI infrastructure over consumer electronics. How long will this last? “I think at best we are looking at another 12 or 18 months of difficulties. I don’t think this will reset overnight,” explained to the media Derek Lemke, Senior Vice President of Product Intelligence at Exiger. Colehower, for his part, explains that “a good part of the damage is not only an interruption of supply, but damaged infrastructure” that must be rebuilt. And, above all, he emphasizes that “prices are sticky. They go up, but they rarely go down.” Cover image | Harrison Broadbent In Xataka | China takes off in quantum computers: it already has the first dual-core and 200 qubits on the planet ready

The history of writing seemed untouchable. Until researchers discovered a tablet on Easter Island

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Easter Island is known above all for the moaienormous head-shaped sculptures that natives carved from volcanic tuff and have fascinated scientists for decades. On the Polynesian island there is, however, another archaeological enigma that is much less visible but equally (or even more) important for humanity: the rongo rongothe pictographic writing system used by the Rapa Nui people. Linguists have not yet been able to decipher its signs, but above all they are concerned about one question: When was it invented? It may seem anecdotal, but the answer would be a milestone that would transcend Polynesia and help us better understand how humanity gave birth to one of the inventions that has most influenced history: writing. One word: rongo rongo. It is not nearly as well known as the moai, but the rongo rongo is one of the most fascinating treasures that we owe to the Rapa Nuithe Polynesian natives of Easter Island. It basically consists of a writing system based on pictograms that is preserved in a series of tablets spread around the world. Experts estimate that it is made up of 400 charactersalthough its meaning and logic remains surrounded by unknowns. The experts they have not been able to decipher it Still, something understandable if two pieces of information are taken into account. First, although rongo rongo has centuries of history, Europeans were not interested in it until the 19th. We owe much of the credit to the French missionary Eugene Eyraudwho shortly before dying described the symbols that covered wooden tablets and staffs located on the Polynesian island. The second fact is that we keep a fairly limited number of engraved boards, pieces that are also distributed in places like Rome, Honolulu or New York. The great mystery. A few years ago Silvia Ferrara, professor at the Department of Classical Philology and Italian Studies at the University of Bologna, explained to the BBC why the challenge is so complicated: “No one has reconstructed the systematic correspondence between each sign and the sounds it registers.” At first glance, the glyphs seem to represent silhouettes of animals, plants, people, artifacts and geometric designs, but understanding them requires clarifying such basic questions as whether two signs similar to each other, with slight variations, represent the same sound. The curious thing is that, as complex as this challenge is, it is not what experts are most fascinated by. There is another question that worries them even more: When and how was the rongo rongo created? Was it something that the natives of Easter Island came up with or did it develop after the arrival of the first European navigators, to beginning of the 17th century? The key is no longer so much to understand what the pictograms say as to clarify who, when, how and under what influence created the system. Is it so important? Yes. And the reason is very simple. There are many languages ​​(very many), but writing systems developed from scratch, independently, there are very few (very few). “For many, writing represents an essential quality of civilization. There are four cases and places in human history where writing was invented from scratch without any prior knowledge,” explained in 2010 Christopher Woods, of the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures at the University of Chicago. This ‘miracle’ basically occurred in Mesopotamia, Egypt, China and Mesoamerica. “It is likely that all other writing systems evolved from the four systems,” detailed the expert If rongo rongo developed on Easter Island basically after the arrival of Europeans, in the 17th century, that ‘photo’ would not change. It would be a valuable creation, although not ‘independent’. Its origin would be explained by external influences. But… What if it was the Rapa Nui who devised the system completely autonomously? After all, it is known that, despite being a remote island in the middle of Polynesia, the natives arrived there several centuries before than the Dutch sailors. Solving the unknown. Convinced that this is the great enigma of Easter Island (with the permission of the majority), a few years ago Ferrara tried to clarify the chronology of the rongo rongo writing. The study, carried out together with other colleagues and whose conclusions were collected in Scientific Reportsfocused on four engraved tablets preserved in Rome. To find out what era they were from, the researchers subjected them to radiocarbon dating and asked a botanist to analyze their materials. What did they find out? That three of the tablets appear to have been used in the 19th century, after the arrival of Europeans to the island. The fourth, however, reserved a surprise: it points to a period between between 1493 and 1509. “It stands out as an anomaly in our chronological model, since it shows an antiquity before the arrival of the Europeans,” reveals Professor Sahra Talamo, also from the University of Bologna. This discovery opens a fascinating horizon that contradicts the version that the rongo rongo flourished under the influence of Western navigators. “The common narrative has always been one in which the local population was exposed to writing when Europeans arrived on the island starting in 1722 and this was what drove the creation of writing, as a kind of result of a transmission, of exposure to a pre-existing writing system,” comment Ferrara to the BBC. His work opens another door: he suggests that rongo rongo was an “original invention, an innovation that happened because the brains of local people took them in that direction.” Way to go. Although Ferrara and Talamo’s research is fascinating and sheds light on the origins of Rapa Nui writing, the truth is that it does not settle the debate. Not at least definitively. Radiocarbon analysis concluded that a tablet can be dated between late 15th century and early 16th centurybut that, admits the teacher herself, does not necessarily mean that the engraving it contains is from the same period. That is, the inscription may also have been made in the 19th century, except that its author decided … Read more

NASA has an appointment with Mars today (although its ship already has its eyes set elsewhere)

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The Psyche spaceship, launched by NASA in 2023 to study the asteroid with the same name, it will reach its destination in 2029. However, today it will make its first stop along the way. If we stop at gas stations and roadside bars to stretch our legs and have a coffee, Psyche will approach Mars at almost 20,000 kilometers per hour, to tune some of its instruments while taking photographs worthy of the best wallpaper. In fact, we can already see some of them. Too close for space. Psyche won’t stop at the gas station like we did, but she will make a great approach. At 3:28 PM EDT (9:28 p.m., Spanish peninsular time), will be located 4,500 kilometers from the red planet. That, in spatial terms, is very little. Gravity assist. At this stop along the way, Psyche will take the opportunity to take some photographs and adjust her instruments, but she will also use Mars as a springboard to reach her destination faster. When a ship approaches a moving planet, it is attracted by its gravitational field. It does not touch the planet, but that interaction changes its trajectory and helps it gain speed with less propellant expenditure. We can imagine it as a ball being thrown towards a moving vehicle. This changes its trajectory and also gives it speed on the return trip. Psyche uses solar-electric propulsion, with xenon gas as fuel. Thanks to that push, known as gravitational assist, you can save quite a bit of propellant. A whole entourage. The result of this interaction will be studied by the two NASA rovers that are currently on Mars, Curiosity and Perseveranceas well as by American and European orbiters that are carrying out their respective missions. Not only photographs will be taken. Possible changes to the Martian surface and atmosphere will also be detected. first photos. Psyche has already taken a very interesting photoin which the night side of Mars is seen as the spacecraft approaches it. The result is something similar to a half moon, although logically it has nothing to do with it. The real goal. Thanks to Martian gravitational assistance, Psyche will reach the asteroid with the same name in 2029. This is located in the asteroid beltbetween Mars and Jupiter. Shaped like a potato and 278 km long and 232 km wide, it is a metallic asteroid, one of the least abundant types in that location. That’s why it’s so interesting to explore. In fact, it is believed that it is actually the iron-nickel core of a planet in formation that could not complete the process because it was destroyed by cosmic collisions. For all this, Psyche (the ship and the asteroid) has a lot to teach us about the birth of a planet and, possibly, about the dawn of the solar system. As we often say, to know where we are going, it is also important to know where we come from. That is what makes this type of research so important. Image | POT In Xataka | NASA has sent its spacecraft to observe a dead robot on Mars. The reason: seeing how it accumulates dust

Now it’s worth more than a Ferrari

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While Formula 1 rests between races, Fernando Alonso continues to make people talk. This time not from the cockpit of his Aston Martin or showing off his exclusive Pagani Zonda Green Diamond of 10 million eurosbut from the streets of Monaco at the wheel of an Italian compact from the 90s that many believed forgotten. As and how did he count Motorpassionthe Asturian pilot has been seen circulating with a Lancia Delta HF Integrale Evoluzione Martini 6and the scene has generated both admiration and nostalgia among motor fans. If you were a teenager in the 90s and you liked cars, your room was surely decorated with a poster of this car. Although it has not been officially confirmed that the car is owned by Alonso, there is a detail that suggests that the legendary limited edition Delta Integrale is already part of the two-time champion’s garage: it is the license plate that the car sports. in the videos that have gone viral on social networks: he wears the number 14, Alonso’s fetish number. An icon of the rally with 310 units in the world The Lancia Delta HF Integrale Evoluzione Martini 6 is not just any nostalgic whim. This version was launched in 1992 to commemorate the sixth consecutive constructors’ title that Lancia achieved in the World Rally Championshipa feat that no other brand has matched in the WRC. Only 310 units were manufactured of this Lancia Delta between the end of 1992 and 1993, which explains both its sentimental value and its current price on the collectors market. RM Sotheby’s (Motorcar Studios) The Martini 6 edition is instantly identified by its line with blue and red stripes on white bodywork, inherited from the team’s official sponsor, Martini Racing. Inside, Recaro seats in blue with red stitching, a carbon fiber shift knob and a numbered plate that indicates which of the 310 units manufactured the car belongs to. Under the bulging hood to make room for the engine that characterized the entire Delta Integrale family, there is a 2-liter four-cylinder, 16-valve turbocharged engine with 210 HP distributed among the four wheels, which allowed the vehicle to go from 0 to 100 km/h in 5.7 seconds. To put it in perspective it was the same time a Ferrari Testarossa of the time, and could reach a maximum speed of 220 km/h. A real wolf disguised as an elegant Italian utility vehicle from the 90s. RM Sotheby’s (Motorcar Studios) From the original 40,000 euros to 350,000 in the current market When it was released, the special edition Martini 6 It cost about 40,000 euros in exchange, a considerable figure that, at that time, was more typical of a Porsche 911 than an Italian compact. Three decades later, and as has happened with many other models from the 90s, the collector market has multiplied that value spectacularly. In 2023, the Lancia Delta HF Integrale Evoluzione Martini 6 with the 272 frame went up for auction at RM Sotheby’s. The bidding hammer fell when it reached $117,600. The best preserved specimens and with about 20,000 kilometers they can already reach 300,000 euros, and those who have traveled less than 5,000 kilometers are close to 350,000 euros. The Lancia is not the only classic with which Alonso has been seen in Monaco during the season break. In recent weeks too has circulated with a Ferrari F40, a Mercedes CLK GTR, a Lamborghini Sián and an exclusive Pagani Zonda Diamante Verde. What differentiates this Lancia from the rest of the cars in Alonso’s garage is precisely its character. The Delta is neither a luxury supercar with stratospheric figures nor a work of art with hand-made body. It’s a 90s compact with racing pedigree. He last bastion of authenticity for the petrolhead. The memory of when mechanics and pilot were connected at a level that no current electronic control unit could match. In Xataka | Porsche has discovered that making expensive supercars is no longer so profitable: now the money is in making each car unique Image | RM Sotheby’s (Motorcar Studios), Fernando Alonso

What is CADR and why is it the only data I would look at when choosing an allergy device?

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Spring brings out many things and some are not pleasant at all. Allergies to pollen and many other particles attack us and can give us a hard time. Of everything we can buy to combat them at home, the most effective and useful is, without a doubt, purchasing a air purifier. But, How to choose the most suitable one for your home? That is the question I have been asking myself in recent days, since all the purifiers I have seen have a gibberish of figures and data that, paradoxically, can confuse more than help us choose. After doing a little research, it is clear to me that, if I have to focus on something, it would be in the CADR. I’ll explain why. Philips 2200 Series Air Purifier, HEPA NanoProtect + Active Carbon Filter, CADR 400m³/h for 104m², Allergy Friendly, Ultra Quiet, Smart and Durable Filter (AC2210/10) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links What is CADR and why does it matter so much? If we enter a store like Amazon and look for any air purifier (like this one from Philipsfor example), right from the start we are going to be inundated with a lot of information. Perhaps what may catch our attention most at first is that it is capable of eliminating 99.97% of the particles in the air, a very high figure. What’s happening? We will find this in most purifiers and it is not the most important thing. That’s where the CADR comes in. The CADR (clean Air Delivery Rate or Clean Air Delivery Rate in Spanish) is a unit of measurement that tells us, in a few words, the amount of filtered air that a purifier can deliver. A purifier that has the best filter on the market is fine, but is it any good if it is not capable of moving air and filtering it fast enough? Because if you don’t, the pollen or dust particles will end up settling on the furniture and will not be filtered. The CADR has a numerical value that is calculated with two aspects: how many particles the filter is capable of trapping and how much air the purifier is able to move through said filter. No matter how good the filter is, it is equally important that the purifier is able to move through it, since otherwise it will not trap dust or pollen particles well and they will continue to swarm around our room. Bad thing for our allergies. Small note that must be taken into account. The CADR is not just a single value, but there are three. This happens because purifiers have a CADR for pollen, but also for dust and smoke. This is important, since what we should focus on is pollen. The others are more secondary. Falling short of CADR is always a bad idea If we go back to the Philips purifier above, we can see how it is, in theory, ideal for rooms up to 44 square meters in less than 17 minutes. Now, you have to read the fine print on the device’s own page on Amazon: It is a theoretical one-time cleaning time calculated by dividing your CADR of 170 cubic meters/hour by the room size of 48 square meters (assuming the room is 20 meters in area and 2.4 meters in height). Why do I say this? Because although the description of a purifier indicates that it is optimal for a room of a certain size, they are always references taken under certain conditions. that may not fit with our home. The ideal is to take the CADR of the purifier and make a simple calculation that will not lead to errors. This calculation is done in three phases that I summarize below: First, we need to know the cubic meters that has the room where you are going to use the purifier. It is calculated by multiplying length, width and height. Second, we need to know how many times you want the purifier to clean the air. The AHAM (Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers) recommends between 5 and 8 per hour. To finish, we multiply the volume of the room in cubic meters and the air changes per hour that we want. Quick example. If you have a room with a volume of 25 cubic meters (because it is 4 meters long, 2.5 meters wide and 2.5 meters high) and you want the purifier to renew the air 5 times per hour, the ideal is that you look for an air purifier with a CADR of at least 125 cubic meters/hour. Be careful here, because many purifiers give you this information in cubic feet per minute (CFM), which is the original AHAM standard. Now, does it make sense to buy a purifier with a much higher CADR than what you need? If you opt for this scenario, you will have a device that filters the air in your room faster and even without the motor running at full speed all the time (which means less consumption and less noise). The issue here is that a higher CADR also usually means, in the vast majority of cases, paying more for the air purifier. The choice here is up to each user, but with one thing clear: never fall short of CADR. The good and the bad of both options, face to face low or medium frame tall frame THE GOOD 🟢 Cheaper and enough for small rooms like a bedroom Ideal for large rooms and for air to filter faster THE BAD 🔴 It may fall short if you move it to a larger location at some point. They are more expensive and it may not be worth spending a lot if your room is small. Ideal for: Tight budgets and small rooms Rooms like a living room or if you are looking for a purifier that does not always work at full capacity In summary: 👉 Choose a low or medium … Read more

ships that turn off their location and sail “like the Vikings”

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In 2017, several merchant ships sailing near the Black Sea they began to detect something impossible on their screens: dozens of ships appeared sailing over a Russian airport located inland. For days, captains and maritime analysts tried to understand what was happening until a suspicion arose: someone was deliberately manipulating GPS signals on one of the busiest shipping routes on the planet. The ghost fleet of oil. we have been counting for months. Western sanctions against Russia, Iran and Venezuela have ended up creating something that just a few years ago seemed like something out of maritime espionage novels: a gigantic “ghost fleet” of aging tankers crossing entire oceans hiding your positionfalsifying documents and surfing foutside normal systems of control. It is estimated that more than a thousand vessels already participate in this opaque trade in sanctioned crude oil, a global network where ships constantly change flag, owner and operating company as they transport millions of barrels away from Western surveillance. The result is a parallel maritime world made up of rusty oil tankers, shell companies, cryptocurrency payments and crews recruited almost blindly to work on increasingly dangerous routes. The Financial Times said The most striking thing is that the business has forced the recovery of navigation practices that seemed buried by modern technology: there are ships that deliberately turn off their location systems and cross entire areas practically “in the dark”, guiding themselves with radar and manual calculations as if they had gone back centuries in time. Sail like ghosts. One of the most surprising details of this clandestine business is the way in which many oil tankers voluntarily disappear from the map. To avoid being tracked, ships they disconnect their transponders AIS, the system that automatically reports your position to other ships and maritime authorities. some even they falsify coordinates to appear browsing in completely different places. Crew members of these tankers they explain that it is common to see “ghost” ships on screens… vessels that apparently are there, but that in reality do not exist where their signs indicate. Others disappear completely for days on end while loading oil at Iranian terminals or carrying out secret crude oil transfers on the high seas. In some cases, GPS interference near Iran literally force sailors to navigate “like the Vikings”, using radar, experience and basic calculations to move authentic floating cities hundreds of meters in length with hardly any reliable references. The Bella 1 and the Atlantic chase. The history of Bella 1 It perfectly sums up how far this parallel world has come. The enormous supertanker, old, rusty and managed by practically invisible companies, ended up becoming the protagonist of a transatlantic chase with the US Coast Guard. The crew had been recruited through normal maritime employment advertisements and many they didn’t even know that the ship was linked to sanctions related to Iran. The situation exploded when they discovered that the real destination was not the Dutch Caribbean, but Venezuelaand that the ship planned to change flag in the middle of the trip to protect itself under the Russian flag. From there it began a surreal escape across the North Atlantic as the Bella 1 tried to escape from US authorities, with the crew trapped in the middle of an international operation that seemed like a mix of a geopolitical thriller and a military video game. A business built on old boats. A large part of this clandestine fleet is made up of oil tankers that should be on their way to scrapping. Many far exceed the twenty years of service recommended for this type of boats and present extremely precarious conditions. The sailors describe corroded decks, dilapidated cabins, broken systems and equipment that works thanks to improvised repairs made during the voyage. However, it is precisely these old ships that end up fueling sanctioned trade because They are cheap to buy and easy to hide behind networks of shell companies. The problem is that deterioration greatly increases the risk of accidents, fires, groundings and spills, especially when these vessels sail without recognized insurance and constantly operate at the limit to maximize profits. The war has reached the sea. The pressure on the ghost fleet has grown brutally since the outbreak of the Ukrainian war and the escalation with Iran. The United States has gone beyond simply imposing sanctions to directly intercept suspicious oil tankers even on the high seas. Europe start doing the same with ships linked to Russian oil. At the same time, Ukraine has taken the maritime war a step further using naval drones to attack oil tankers linked to Moscow’s energy revenues. The iimages of burning ships off Turkey, Malta or Novorossiysk are increasingly frequent. The sea has become another front of the global economic conflict: it is no longer just about blocking exports, but about physically pursuing the ships that keep this clandestine trade alive. Sailors trapped in the gray zone. The most striking thing is that many crew members are not spies or criminals, but ordinary sailors trapped inside a sgigantic and opaque system. He explained in his report on the FT that most accept these jobs looking for quick promotions or better job opportunities, without really knowing who controls the ship or what cargo they will end up transporting. some discover too late who are working for networks linked to sanctioned oil, Iranian militias or companies indirectly associated with Russia. And when things go wrong, they are the ones caught between governments, intelligence services and special forces. The Times remembered that the final scene of Bella 1 sums up perfectly that reality: American commandos boarding the oil tanker in the middle of the North Atlantic while the sailors, locked up under armed guard, played cards and watched movies with American soldiers in a situation as absurd as it was revealing. Ocean increasingly opaque. The situation reflects a much deeper change in maritime trade global. Massive sanctions have created enormous incentives to build parallel networks of transportation outside the traditional … Read more

It is a project that has been lying fallow for more than 30 years.

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Bilbao has been promising for a long time a subfluvial tunnel that runs under the Nervión, connecting both banks to be able to cross it in a few minutes. This would alleviate one of the biggest bottlenecks in Euskadi. The good news is that The works will start this summer. A problem that has been unsolved for decades. The Rontegi bridge supports nearly 175,000 vehicles a day and has become the main road bottleneck in Bizkaia. Crossing from one bank to the other of the Nervión estuary without passing through that point requires a detour of more than 13 kilometers. This causes chronic traffic jams, a considerable loss of time and ends up generating more emissions. The solution that had been on the table for decades (and that is now finally beginning to materialize) is a subfluvial tunnel that pierces the bed of the Nervión and directly connects the Right Bank with the Left Bank. What exactly is going to be built. The subfluvial will be 3.2 kilometers long and will be made up of two independent tubes (one in each direction of travel), each with two lanes and safety shoulders. It will link the Artaza roundabout, between Leioa and Getxo, with Ballonti, between Portugalete and Sestao. Just like they count from El Correo, the project will also include connections with La Avanzada, the Uribe Kosta corridor and the Getxo neighborhood of Zugazarte. The intention with the project is that in a journey that today can exceed fifteen minutes during rush houris reduced to just four. The effective distance will go from about 13 kilometers surrounding the estuary to just four. Heavy vehicles must pay a toll to use it, as occurs on other roads in Bizkaia. A technical challenge. The most demanding section will require drilling up to 45 meters below the river bed, crossing quite geologically sensitive materials. The Lamiako area, with its sandy terrain, is one of the most delicate points of the entire route. The project will use the cut and cover technique, which involves excavating from the surface, installing side retaining walls and then covering the infrastructure to generate a false underground tunnel. According to The Mailthe works will begin in Artaza, the access on the Right Bank and also the most delicate environment of the project, as it is made up of areas with a high residential density, and a school and institute nearby. More than 80 controlled microblasts will be used and it is expected that the Artaza park will be partially emptied. To minimize the impact and disturb neighbors as little as possible, open-air work will be limited to daytime and working hours. Of course, within the galleries, drilling will be done in continuous shifts, 24 hours a day. Figures. The work has quite an important magnitude, to be honest. According to data from the Provincial Council of Bizkaia, the execution of the subfluvial will involve excavating 1.8 million cubic meters of earth and use more than 21,000 tons of steel. About 170 trucks will circulate every day to remove the extracted material (90 through the mouth of Artaza and 80 through Ballonti), whose destination will be the facilities of the Port of Bilbao, where the earth will be used to fill dikes. How the project is progressing and how much it will cost. The Provincial Council has already awarded two of the four major contracts into which the work is divided. As shared by El Correo, the Artaza junction will be executed by the UTE formed by Ferrovial, Construcciones Mariezcurrena and Cycasa, while the section to the Lamiako plain will be assumed by Nortúnel, Geotunel and Tunelan. Both contracts total 277 million euros (without VAT) and have an expected duration of 60 months. The Left Bank contracts (Ballonti access and riverbed drilling) will be awarded later. The total investment in the project is expected to be around 540 million euros, with a view to completing the work by 2032. Emissions and neighborhood controversy. The Provincial Council defends that the subfluvial will reduce polluting emissions thanks to shorter and more fluid routes, with an estimated annual saving of 6,000 tons of CO₂ and two million liters of fuel. However, the project It has generated quite a bit of discussion among the neighbors.. And various neighborhood and environmental platforms criticize the prioritization of road traffic in the midst of the climate transition. They also remember that the initial project contemplated a rail connection with Bilbao Metro stations such as Areeta and Sestao, something that ended up disappearing in the final project. This train was, precisely, one of the City Council’s main arguments in terms of sustainability. Artaza residents also express concern about noise, vibrations from blasting and truck traffic during years of construction. The Provincial Council has promised permanent controls, prior technical inspections in nearby buildings and a citizen service office throughout the execution. Cover image | Minube and Bizkaia.eus In Xataka | The most ambitious megastructure in Madrid is one beam closer to becoming a reality: the Ventas elevated park

Ozempic’s great challenge is the rebound effect. Science already has two promising solutions to avoid it

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The rise of medications such as Ozempic, wegovy o Mounjaru has completely transformed the clinical and social landscape of the weight lossmaking many people do not hesitate to ask their family doctor to prescribe it in order to lose weight and also regulate blood sugar. The results during treatment are undeniable, but the big question it raises about medical consultations is what exactly happens when the medication is stopped. What we know. One of the most feared points of this type of treatment is the ‘rebound effect’ which causes that, at the time of stopping the treatment and if eating habits have not been adjusted, a large weight gain will be seen. This is something that causes many people to see that this treatment only gives a few months of ‘thinness’, but science is now trying to avoid this effect. The rebound. An exhaustive analysis published in The BMJ finally put exact figures on this phenomenon so that you can speak appropriately to patients. And what has been seen after analyzing 9,300 participants is that patients recover an average of 0.4 kilos per month after stopping treatment. At this rate, the return to the initial weight before starting therapy occurs in just 1.7 years. But this is also accompanied by a loss of cardiovascular shield at 1.4 years. The solution. one of them it involves taking a pill daily known as orforglipronwhich is nothing more than a non-peptide GLP-1 receptor agonistwhich means that it can be taken orally and not through subcutaneous injections. The idea here is to use the injectable treatment, which is more powerful, for the first few weeks and then transition to this daily pill to consolidate the results without the rebound effect. This not only greatly improves patient comfort, but facilitates mass production by not relying on problematic ‘pens’ containing semaglutide, and helps maintain satiety signaling at the brain level without the invasive impact of the needle. A bacteria. The second line of research points to the intestinal microbiome, by analyzing supplementation with the bacteria Akkermansia muciniphila MucT pasteurized as a tool to avoid the rebound effect after a low-calorie diet. A bacteria that is long known in the field of nutrition for its role in the integrity of the intestinal barrier. After doing the analysisit was seen that the group of patients who received the bacterial supplement recorded a weight recovery of only 13.6%, compared to 32.9% in the control group. But beyond the scale, it has been seen that this bacteria shows a notable preservation of insulin sensitivity, a crucial factor to avoid the development of type 2 diabetes and keep lipid metabolism under control. The future. We are undoubtedly at the beginning of a paradigm shift, since the medical narrative is moving from the short-term “war against kilos” to chronic and sustainable management. But logically, for this to reach the market, we must wait (and not a little) for better results and above all for it to be tested in humans. Images | stefamerpik in Magnific In Xataka | We thought Ozempic was only for weight loss. Science is seeing that it can end alcoholism

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