Mobile Tech & Gadgets

United can kick you off the flight for doing so

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You’re so calm in your seat, and suddenly, you start to hear something nearby. It’s a TikTok video or a WhatsApp voice message that someone is playing at full volume. Because? Who knows. Maybe because that person wants everyone to enjoy that audio. Or maybe because he just doesn’t care. This habit of using your cell phone on speakerphone even when there are people around and you can be annoying is spreading like wildfire, but United Airlines has said enough is enough. If you want to use your cell phone, put on headphones. Until now it was a simple rule of elementary education, but at United Airlines they have turned it into a legal clause with drastic consequences. The American airline has updated their terms of service to make it clear that the use of headphones with a mobile phone, tablet or laptop in the cabin is no longer an option, but a safety requirement. Either you use them, or we kick you off the plane. The measure is not a suggestion from the company, but rather a novelty in its terms, according to which United Airlines reserves the right to deny transportation of a passenger, to expel them from the plane and even to permanently ban any passenger who refuses to use headphones while consuming audio or multimedia content. Now generating annoying noises is placed on the same level as serious infractions such as tobacco consumption. More and more connected in flight. United confirmed that update to its terms in a email to USA Todayand added that the inclusion of Wi-Fi connectivity on its flights already recommended the use of headphones. Now being connected to the internet on flights is more common, which means that passengers can consume content on streaming platforms or social networks, or use messaging apps normally. The key: Starlink. But now they are also beginning to offer additional connectivity through the Starlink satellite network. The more bandwidth, the greater the risk that the plane cabin will become chaos with WhatsApp audio or YouTube videos at full volume that can disturb the rest of the passengers. In fact, they explain in United: “With the expansion of Starlink, it seemed like a good time to make it even clearer by adding it to the transportation contract.” Legal support. On CBS Travel expert Scott Keyes indicated that he was not aware of other airlines having adopted this rule, but he saw it as reasonable. The update is specifically included under the “Security” section of your contract of carriage. By categorizing it this way, the company obtains solid legal support to act if this problem arises. Shapes matter. The rise of mobility and social networks has meant that little by little we have seen how in many spaces people use their mobile phones with speakers without worrying about whether or not they are disturbing other people around them. That’s common on public transportation like trains, subways and buses, and United Airlines’ move could set an interesting precedent for re-educating users and reminding them that, as Keyes says, “This is in line with the way the vast majority of travelers behave and the way they would like others to behave.” If you don’t have helmets, they give you some. At United Airlines they understand that some users may not have their own headphones, and in those cases they offer a simple solution: offer free ones that, although of low quality, will at least avoid inconvenience to the rest of the passengers and allow the affected person to comply with the regulations. We will see, of course, what types of headphones they provide, because nowadays mobile phones rarely include 3.5 mm connectors. No video calls. At United they already had rules in this regard: in their terms of use as well make it clear that it is prohibited for passengers to make video calls after the cabin doors are closed. With Starlink, these types of calls via WhatsApp or FaceTime, for example, are technically possible, but United prefers to “protect the silence.” Noise as a logistical challenge. This movement, we insist, could mark a before and after for the rest of the air transport industry, and perhaps also for other means of transport. Airlines know that entertainment screens can end up losing a lot of meaning if users can have an internet connection on their devices. That becomes quite a challenge, which makes a regulation so that we don’t bother each other seems reasonable. In Xataka | Ryanair has left Seville without many flights. In exchange he has given him 500 million euros to repair engines

Sweden was on the verge of eliminating banknotes as a payment system. Now it asks its citizens to save cash just in case

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Few countries in the world have turned their backs on cash with so much conviction as Sweden did in its day. For years it was the great global laboratory of digital money and a place where, paying in cash, It was almost a strange gesture. In the Nordic country, it is common to find businesses where “card only” signs are read without anyone protesting. Its financial system seemed to have resolved the future of payments once and for all. Now, that same country has just taken a turn that no one expected: recommending that its citizens save a certain amount of cash in case all their digital payments system collapses. From inventing banknotes to almost eliminating them. Sweden has a unique history with paper money. In 1661 it was the first country in Europe in introducing billsand it was also where the Riksbank, the central bank, was born oldest in the world. That pioneering vocation led her, centuries later, to lead the race towards a completely cashless economy. The numbers reflected it clearly: if in 2010 39% of Swedes said they had paid their last purchase in cash, in 2020 that percentage had fallen up to 9%. According to the Riksbank itself, currently only one in ten Purchases in Swedish stores are made with physical money. Anders Ohlsson, CEO of Deutsche Bank Corporate Bank, summed it up like this: “I don’t think right now people in Sweden know what the different currencies are like.” A central bank that asks you to keep banknotes at home. The Riksbank published some recommendations which were surprising coming from one of the most digitalized financial systems on the planet. The Swedish central bank asked all households in the country to keep at least 1,000 Swedish crowns in cash for each adult (just over 90 euros at the exchange rate), as a cash reserve for possible emergencies. “This amount should be considered as a reference and is intended to cover one week of essential purchases. Households may need more or less cash on hand, depending on the number of people in the household or their specific needs. Whenever possible, households are recommended to keep cash in various denominations,” the Swedish banking entity says in its statement. Too digital to be invulnerable. The underlying reason for making this peculiar call is not nostalgic but strategic. An economy that depends almost entirely on digital payments is also an economy exposed to power outages, cyberattacks or geopolitical tensions. The Visa and Mastercard networks, on which a large part of the Swedish payment system is based, are of American origin, which adds an extra layer of vulnerability in an increasingly uncertain international context. The Riksbank itself puts it bluntly in its statement: “Access to different payment methods improves people’s ability to make payments in the event of temporary disruptions, crises and, in the worst case, war.” It is not an unfounded threat. In recent months, several European countries have reviewed the resilience of your critical infrastructures before him security deterioration and the increase in uncertainty on the continent. Diversify so as not to depend on a single system. Beyond cash, the Riksbank’s warning to citizens is committed to a more diversified payment strategy. He recommends having access to at least two cards from different networks (a Visa and a Mastercard, for example) so that, if the systems of one of them fail, payments can be made with the other. It also advises having access to mobile payment services like swishthe popular Swedish application that operates on a different infrastructure than traditional bank cards. For whom use Apple Pay either Google Paythe Swedish central bank reminds that it is advisable to always have the physical card on hand and know the PIN, since the physical chip allows payments to be made even without an internet connection. All of this advice will be developed in more detail in the Riksbank’s 2026 Payments Report, due on March 12. Sweden, which for years led the way to paperless money, is now a reminder that no system is foolproof. In Xataka | If we want to know what the end of cash will be like, we only have to look at a country that is experiencing it: China Image | Unsplash (Tobias Flyckt, Emil Kalibradov)

the Quarterhorse is emerging as one of its great bets

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For decades, talking about extremely fast airplanes meant talking about the same name: the SR-71 Blackbird. This American reconnaissance plane, capable of flying at more than Mach 3, established in 1976 the absolute speed record for a manned aircraft with air-breathing engines. Since then, that bar has barely moved. However, in recent years, projects have begun to appear that seek to reactivate this race for speed, and one of the most visible is the one promoted by the American company Hermeus. The program does not seek to build a single revolutionary aircraft from the beginning. Its approach is different: develop a series of prototypes that solve, step by step, the challenges of very high-speed flight. In this context appears the quarterhorse Mk 2.1, an unmanned aircraft that has already begun flight testing and is part of a broader roadmap aimed at bringing the United States closer to new supersonic and, later, hypersonic flight capabilities. The prototype with which Hermeus wants to accelerate high-speed flight To put this flight in context you have to look at the Quarterhorse program as a whole. Hermeus presents this project as a prototype chain designed to address different aspects of high-speed flight. Each device is built with a specific technical objective and the results obtained are used to adjust the next step of the program. The company defends that this rapid and iterative development model, based on multiple prototypes, allows progress to be made with greater agility than the traditional cycles of experimental aviation. The flight carried out from Spaceport America, in New Mexico, is precisely part of that process. The test was carried out in the White Sands Missile Range airspace and the device was controlled from a flight station located on the ground. According to official information, the mission focused on checking the operation of different systems and starting a test campaign that will gradually expand the flight profile of the prototype. Beyond that context, Quarterhorse Mk 2.1 introduces important changes to the program’s architecture. The plane has dimensions comparable to those of an F-16 fighter and uses a delta wing configuration optimized for high-speed flight. The device also incorporates a variable air intake and is powered by a Pratt & Whitney F100 engine, a turbofan widely used in military aircraft such as the F-16 itself. The prototype is conceived as a remotely piloted unmanned aircraft. During the tests, the device is controlled from a flight station on the ground, from which operators monitor the systems and behavior of the vehicle in real time. According to Hermeus, this type of architecture makes it possible to carry out tests progressively and collect detailed data on aerodynamics, control and operation of the systems before expanding the flight profile of the device. The first flight of the device It is part of a larger test campaign aimed at checking how the aircraft performs in real conditions. In addition, the mission was designed to validate different systems of the device, evaluate its stability in flight and confirm that operating procedures are working as planned. During the test, the plane was controlled from a flight station on the ground while operating in the airspace of White Sands Missile Range, in New Mexico. This type of campaign is developed gradually. On the first sorties, engineering teams usually focus on verifying the general operation of the device and collecting data on its aerodynamic behavior and control in flight. With this information, the aircraft’s parameters are adjusted and new tests are planned that allow the flight envelope to be progressively expanded before attempting to reach higher speeds. Within the program’s roadmap, Mk 2.1 is not the last planned step. Hermeus places this device within a series of aircraft that are part of the Mk 2 phase, whose objective is move towards supersonic flight. Following initial testing, the company hopes to progressively expand the prototype’s flight conditions and use the data obtained to prepare the next vehicle in the program, the Quarterhorse Mk 2.2. Therefore, this future model will be in charge of trying to overcome the sound barrier. The strategy consists of distributing the technical challenges between different prototypes, which allows risks to be reduced as new capabilities are incorporated at each stage of the program. Reaching these levels means facing very complex aerodynamic forces and extremely high temperatures in the air. airframe. For this reason, the development of this type of aircraft is usually carried out gradually, expanding the flight profile step by step to prevent an experimental prototype from becoming a costly failure during testing. The development of aircraft capable of flying at very high speeds also responds to broader strategic interests. Some of the technologies being tested in the Quarterhorse program could be used in the future for missions such as rapid cargo transportation or reconnaissance tasks. It is important to note that the program is still in an early phase of development. The recent flight marks the beginning of a test campaign that will have to be progressively expanded before the project can demonstrate more ambitious capabilities. For now, The prototype has begun its tests and that the program continues to advance within the established roadmap. The next steps will allow us to verify to what extent this plan can materialize. Images | quarterhorse In Xataka | In 1988 Spain and the US signed an agreement. Thanks to him, today Spain can refuse to use its bases to attack Iran

We thought that human beings began to walk in Africa. This 7.2 million-year-old fossil says otherwise

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The scientific consensus has been telling us for decades that the cradle of humanity and the origin of our ancestors who began to walk on two legs was in Africa. However, a new paleontological discovery in the Balkans just launched an order to this official story. More specifically, a fossilized femur that suggests our earliest ancestors may have started walking on two legs in Europe. A bone. The centerpiece of this discovery is a femur cataloged as FM3549AZM6 and found at the Azmaka site, in Bulgaria. From this, the research team began to analyze the bone down to the millimeter, highlighting above all the anatomy it had. Researchers here have identified key biomechanical traits that point to partial bipedal locomotion, meaning that our ancestor could walk on two legs. Specifically, they have seen that the neck of the femur is unusually long and it has specific muscle insertion points that strictly arboreal primates do not have. These characteristics suggest that Graecopithecus He spent considerable time walking upright on the ground. A new hypothesis. This finding does not come out of nowhere, since in 2017 this same team of researchers already raised eyebrows in the scientific community by suggesting that the evolutionary divergence between humans and chimpanzees could have occurred in the eastern Mediterranean, and not in Africa. That hypothesis was based on analysis of a jaw found in Greece and a tooth from Bulgaria attributed to Graecopithecus freybergi. Now it comes to light again. At that time, definitive proof of locomotion was missing, but Azmaka’s femur fills that gap that we needed to begin to reach clear conclusions. Why did they stand up? Evolution rarely occurs without a strong environmental push, and the Europe of 7 million years ago looked nothing like it does today. Here investigations at Bulgarian sites, such as the Struma Valley, show that the landscape was dominated by a savanna environment very similar to the African one, caused by a global confrontation and severe droughts in the Mediterranean. This loss of dense forests would have forced the region’s primates to come down from the trees and adapt their movement to travel long distances in open fields in search of food. In this way, it was geography and not the continent that forced bipedalism. The debate. The new Bulgarian femur revives one of the hottest debates in paleontology, since until now, the title of the oldest bipedal hominin was held by Sahelanthropus tchadensisabout 7 million years old and found in Africa. But now, if this team’s dating and analysis are accurate, Graecopithecus would not only equal, but slightly surpass in seniority Sahelanthropusmoving the “kilometer zero” of bipedalism to the Balkans. But at the moment it is too early for the textbooks to change definitively, since, as with previous discoveries, the scientific community will demand more independent analyzes and will seek to debate every notch of the femur. What is undeniable is that the African monopoly on the origin of our lineage now has a serious European competitor. In Xataka | Humans are evolving live on the Tibetan plateau. And understanding what happens there will be essential in space

a clash of moons 100 million ago wants to solve it

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Few planets in the Solar system are as recognizable as Saturn and its characteristic rings. They may not be as visible to the naked eye, but around them there are also an impressive 274 moons. Well, according to a recent study from the SETI Instituterings and moons could be linked by the same event: a colossal collision 100 million years ago that left Saturn’s environment as we know it. Context. The first time we approached Saturn was in 1979 with NASA’s Pioneer 11. A few years later, Voyagers 1 and 2 flew over it. It was the probe cassini on a 13-year mission that shed some light on this planet, its rings and its moons. Cassini discovered three anomalies that did not fit the models proposed by astronomy: The rings are about 100 million years old, much younger than the billions they expected (friendly reminder: The solar system is 4.6 billion years old) Several moons had strange, asymmetrical and unbalanced orbits. Saturn’s internal mass is more concentrated in the center than predicted. The previous hypothesis. In 2022 a team of astronomy professionals established a hypothesis to explain these anomalies: the explanation could be that Saturn had lost a moon about 100 million years ago, precisely the date on which the youngest rings were formed. The discovery. Based on the previous hypothesis and after several simulations, they arrived at the explanation that where Titan orbits today there were two moons: a Proto-Titan and a smaller Proto-Hypérion. At some point they collided and the Proto-Titan absorbed the other. What was not integrated was regrouped forming the current deformed and asymmetrical Hipérion. This process explains why Titan does not have craters on its surface and its eccentric orbit, inherited from the perturbations prior to the impact. Because of this irregular orbit, Titan destabilizes Saturn’s inner moons, throwing them outward and thus causing cascading collisions between them. In short: Saturn’s rings would be the scar of this process, not the original characteristic of the planet, but the result of a chain reaction of destruction caused by the collision between two primitive moons. Diagram of Saturn’s rings from NASA Why it is important. Because Saturn’s rings are no longer seen as an aesthetic curiosity and become what they truly are: fossils of cosmic events. Furthermore, it requires reviewing the models proposed by the scientific community until now to expand knowledge about planetary formation in general. Without going any further, it provides more information about similar systems, such as that of the Earth and the Moon, whose origin is also attributed to a primordial collision. On the other hand, Titan has a strategic importance in humanity’s space plans: it is one of the most interesting candidates in the search for life thanks to characteristics such as its dense atmosphere or its methane oceans. Knowing its origin is not only a historical question: it is understanding what conditions made it possible and whether something similar could be repeated in other worlds. How they did it. Starting with the 2022 hypothesis, they applied computer simulations to check whether an additional moon could get close enough to Saturn to form rings. The goal was to recreate the solar system over thousands of iterations until the results matched the Saturn environment we know. The SETI Institute team, led by Matija Ćuk, got here after introducing an additional unstable moon that always ended the same way: with Hyperion disappearing again and again. It was the sign that a premise was incorrect, so they proposed something new: and what were there were two extra moons? Yes, but. Although this study offers a plausible explanation of the current Saturn environment, it is still based on simulations. There is no direct physical data from Titan. In fact, the team itself recognizes that they need more data. That’s where the mission comes in. NASA Dragonflywhich could provide more essential data to understand why the rings formed. This drone from the North American space agency will land on Titan in 2034 to analyze the chemical composition of its surface, which could reveal traces of the primordial impact and confirm (or not) that Titan is really the result of a merger. In Xataka | We have been deceived by the distances of the Solar System: the closest neighbor to Neptune is Mercury In Xataka | A new “solar system” has just been discovered. There’s just one problem: it shouldn’t exist. Cover | NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, M. Tiscareno (SETI Institute), M. Hedman (University of Idaho), M. El Moutamid (Cornell University), M. Showalter (SETI Institute), L. Fletcher (University of Leicester), H. Hammel (AURA); image processing by J. DePasquale

a widespread error reveals that the coasts are much more exposed

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One of the great ‘fears’ we have regarding global warming is the rise in sea level and the risk of floods in coastal locations in much of the world due to the melting of the poles. But now we have bad news: the vast majority of scientific studies on the risk of coastal flooding have started from the wrong premise. And it is not a miscalculation in the thaw or in the CO₂ emissionsbut we have been measuring wrongly where the ‘zero’ is. They have realized. This is what has been revealed by a new study published this month March in Nature that has shaken the foundations of coastal climate projections. Here the research has pointed out that the sea level on the coasts is, on average, about 30 centimeters higher than what the risk models assumed. And in some areas of the planet, the difference exceeds one meter. How is it possible? To understand where the problem is, you have to look at how a flood risk map is created. When researchers calculate which areas will be underwater if sea levels rise, they need a starting point like a baseline, and the problem is that this starting point was very wrong. The problem. To reach this conclusion, the researchers reviewed 385 peer studies published between 2009 and 2025 and discovered a pattern: more than 90% of these investigations used “theoretical geoids” to mark this baseline. The problem is that a geoid is an idealized gravitational model of the Earth that assumes an ocean at perfect rest. However, the real ocean is far from being completely at rest, since there are different factors, such as prevailing winds, ocean currents, water temperature and salinity, that cause water to accumulate more on some coasts than on others. That is why when the researchers compared these theoretical models with the real measurements obtained through satellite altimetry and tide gauges, the discrepancy was evident. They change the world. At a global level, if this correction is adjusted to real factors, the underestimation of coastal sea level is between 24 and 30 centimeters. And although it may seem like a manageable figure, in coastal topography 30 centimeters makes the difference between a dry promenade and a flooded city. The most worrying thing is the geographical inequality of this error, since, while in some areas of the global north the deviation is smaller, in the South the effective sea level becomes one meter or more higher than what had been projected. But there are even exceptional areas where extreme figures of up to 5.5 or 7.6 meters are reached. Greater risk. By applying these new models of the seas, the Wageningen researchers discovered that, given a projected 1 meter rise in sea level, the coastal area at risk of flooding is 37% greater than previously thought, which puts an additional 132 million people in the danger zone. The rhythm does not change. Although this may seem like we are experiencing an increase in the speed of sea level rise, the truth is that everything remains at the same point, and with a speed that remains the same as that at which it had been previously measured. What changes in this case is the starting point, since by starting from a base that was too low we were experiencing a false sense of security. This means that we are now closer to the critical flood thresholds than we thought, so the time margin we thought we had to build dams, relocate populations or adapt infrastructure in megacities in Asia or on Pacific islands has just been drastically reduced. The next step. To solve this historical “blind spot”, the research team has not limited itself to pointing out the error that has been made, but has processed the corrected data using supercomputers and published it openly. The goal here is for governments and climatologists to be able to recalculate their coastal risk maps using the actual sea surface and not a theoretical globe. In Xataka | Someone has created a simulator where you can see if sea level rise is going to reach your house or not. Image | Adam Dillon

There is a luxury development in Madrid that has been “hidden” for years and is stealing the spotlight from La Finca and La Moraleja

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If we think about luxury developments in Madrid, names like La Finca or La Moraleja probably come to mind. However, there is a new player on the Madrid luxury real estate board, one that has gone unnoticed for decades and has recently become fashionable among the richest. Low profile. Álamos de Bularas is an urbanization that has been standing since the 1980s, but has gone unnoticed in the shadow of more high-profile names such as its neighbor La Finca. Its strong point is precisely that: combining luxury and exclusivity with a lower profile and less media noise than other areas. But just because it is not the most famous urbanization does not mean that it does not offer high-level luxury; a search on housing portals most popular returns us a few properties that border and even exceed 4 million euros. Tranquility is what is most sought after. Like other luxury developments such as La Finca, Somosaguas or Monte Alina, our protagonist is located in Pozuelo de Alarcón (which by the way is the richest municipality in all of Spain) specifically in the northwest area. Álamos de Bulara is a fairly small urbanization, located next to Monte del Pilar, a forested area of ​​about 800 hectares. Access is closed and has private security. The location factor. In statements to the AD Magazinethe head of the Ketier real estate agency highlights that location is a key factor for more and more buyers to look at Álamos de Bularas. The urbanization is very well connected, with access to both the M40 and the A6, allowing its residents to be in the center of Madrid in less than half an hour and in the center of Pozuelo in just 10 minutes. In addition, it is very close to some prestigious private schools and sports clubs. The new refuge for VIPs. The housing crisis is also impacting how and where the wealthiest shop. We were recently talking about luxury apartments in Madrid were so expensivewhich urbanizations like La Moraleja or La Finca were becoming more “affordable” options“for the great fortunes. According to a Colliers report A year ago, the square meter in neighborhoods such as Salamanca or Chamberí reached peaks that exceeded 27,000 euros per square meter. This has caused many buyers to seek residence in peripheral areas, where demand has increased. In Xataka | The rich neighborhoods of Madrid and Barcelona have changed their accent: millionaires from the US and Mexico invest their fortunes in Spain Image | Max Vakhtbovych, Pexels

We have not understood for decades why chronic pain punishes women more. Finally we have the answer

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Historically, medicine has grappled with an undeniable gender gap in which women Women suffer chronic pain more frequently than men, and on top of that their pain flares for much longer. This is something that many doctors have considered ‘normal’ and has been dismissed with psychological biases. But now science has seen that an explanation should not be sought in the mind, but in the immune system. Against pain. This is the objective that medicine has right now, since it is undoubtedly a situation that for many people can be unbearable. That is why the magazine Science Immunology publish now a new study that offers a paradigm shift in our understanding of the biology of pain. The result of this is that he has managed to find the key to some types of white blood cells called monocytes and in its direct relationship with testosterone. What’s happening? When an injury is suffered, such as a blow, the body tries to defend itself with an inflammatory response. One of its components is pain, which is a necessary alarm signal to warn that something is wrong, but once the tissue begins to heal, it is logical that this alarm goes off. But this is where the body’s defense cells come in, monocytes, which act as ‘firefighters’ by releasing proteins called interleukin-10. Here the research team has been able to see that this interleukin-10, abbreviated as IL-10, acts directly on sensory neurons to “turn off” hypersensitivity and therefore pain. The problem, and here lies the importance between sexes, is that men resolve this inflammatory pain much faster because they produce a greater amount of this protein. The reason. Testosterone. This male sex hormone stimulates monocytes to produce higher levels of IL-10 after injury, and therefore pain can be better reduced. But in women this level of testosterone is much lower, and therefore the production of this natural ‘painkiller’ is lower, which causes the sensory neurons to take much longer to stop giving the signal that generates pain. Your demonstration. Beyond doing so in animal models, the research team has been able to validate the experiments with human data from the AURORA studiowhich is a project that evaluates patients who have suffered traffic accidents and severe trauma. Here the clinical data confirmed the laboratory’s suspicions, since they saw that the elimination or reduction of IL-10 activity in monocytes significantly delays the resolution of pain in both sexes, validating that this hormone-mediated immunological difference is exactly the same in humans. In the future. This discovery is not just another biological curiosity to close a historical debate, but it has important therapeutic implications. And right now the severe pain crisis has to be treated with opiates on many occasions, which have a long list of side effects. But upon discovering this cellular mechanism, the researchers tried administering Resolvin D1a compound that promotes the resolution of inflammation. Here it was clearly seen how pain was reduced equally in both sexes. This is why we are at the gateway to a new generation of non-opioid therapies that specifically modulate the immune system. But what is most important about this study is that it highlights the need to leave behind the “one size fits all” model in medicine to move towards more personalized medicine. Images | Redd Francisco In Xataka | Medicine has been using opioids to relieve pain for centuries. Science finally has an alternative

It is capable of compressing space and time

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15 meters deep, in a basement of Zhejiang University, China has installed a machine the size of a building capable of doing something hitherto impossible for a laboratory: reproducing in hours what nature takes centuries to build. Or destroy. Its name is CHIEF1900 and it can rotate at extreme speeds or generate a gravitational force a thousand times greater than that of the Earth, which for example serves to simulate an earthquake and its effects. Context. For a geology professional, analyzing a portion of land means deciphering the history of the planet in layers: each stratum is a record of millions of years. The problem is that nature writes it slowly. Reproducing this phenomenon in a laboratory has been one of the great challenges of experimental physics for decades. Hypergravity centrifuges are the tool that comes closest to that goal. These machines are capable of rotating at extreme speeds, generating forces hundreds or thousands of times greater than Earth’s gravity. When rotating, the arms generate outward pressure on everything inside the machine. The faster it is, the greater the force. The result is a controlled hypergravity field that compresses time and distance. What China has achieved. Zhejiang University (Hangzhou) has completed the construction of the most powerful hypergravity centrifuge in the world: it will have a total capacity of 1,900g·ton, that is, it can apply 1,900G to a one-tonne sample. The CHIEF1900 will surpass the record that China had established a few months before (September 2025), with the CHIEF1300. This power makes it possible to replicate land deformations on a kilometer scale, simulate the transport of pollutants over millennia, evaluate the resistance of a dam to an earthquake or generate thousands of new material samples. As a reference, with the CHIEF1300 they have already been able to reproduce the pressure of the seabed at a depth of 2,000 meters to evaluate the extraction of methane hydrates, or simulate how a 20-meter tsunami affects the seabed. Why is it important. To natural disasters such as earthquakes or tsunamis we have to add other consequences of human activity such as the breaking of dams, contamination of aquifers or deformation of the soil under high-speed infrastructure or the melting of glaciers. Predicting how these phenomena will behave requires information that is not available since obtaining them in real conditions is either impossible or would take decades. Dan Wilson, deputy director of the Center for Geotechnical Modeling at the University of California, explains for Popular Mechanics that this will be one of the four largest dynamic centrifuges in the world, that is, it can simulate active earthquakes using hypergravity. Chen Yunmin, chief scientist of the project, sums it up accurately: It aims to create experimental environments spanning from milliseconds to tens of thousands of years, and from the atomic to the kilometer scale. How they have done it. To build a machine with such performance, Zhejiang University brought together a multidisciplinary team that brings together personnel specialized in civil engineering, thermodynamics or automation. Among the technical challenges they faced was heat: at high rotation speeds, the centrifuge reaches such temperatures that the stability of the system is compromised. The solution was a cooling system that combines vacuum, forced ventilation and glacial coolant. The fact that the installation is buried has an explanation: it minimizes external vibrations, which could contaminate the experiments to be carried out. Pending subjects. Although the installation dates back to the end of 2025 and Popular Mechanics mentions which is already operational, no scientific results from CHIEF1900 are yet available. At an operational level, these scale models reproduce the loads well but not always all the size effects: certain material behaviors do not scale linearly under hypergravity, which requires caution in the interpretation of results. To minimize this risk, it is common for the data obtained to be compared with that of other similar facilities around the world. In Xataka | China has taken a silent step in the new space race: the world’s first system to measure time on the Moon In Xataka | It’s not a telescope, it’s a time machine: what James Webb reveals to us about “deep space” Cover | Peter Herrmann and Arthur Wang Xinhua

why the United States needs the old continent more than it admits

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That the United States is the absolute reference of the West is a reality that we have been seeing all our lives: American Way of Life from the 1950s to the hackneyed phrase “without us, you would all be speaking German” that Trump took it upon himself to remember in Davos and that we have seen countless times in war films. Spain has its own version of that story with Welcome, Mister Marshall. But Trump returned to the White House willing to fulfill his promise to “Make American Great Again” at any price: immigration management with ICE as the executing arm about their citizenship, threats to Greenland or tariffs as a tool of permanent pressure. His ways are more reminiscent of a school bully than of a leader running one of the most powerful countries on the planet. And Europe? Well, between caution, diplomacy and even turning the other cheek. The million-dollar question is whether Europe has as little room for maneuver as it appears. The answer, according to a recent analysis from the German institute Dezernat Zukunft, no. United States > Europe. In case it was necessary to remember the power of the United States in general, it has the largest GDP in the world according to the IMFit is also the country with more military spendingthe dollar It is the world reserve currency par excellence since 1945. Furthermore, leads in digital infrastructure and semiconductors (in design and sales), almost half the world share. In fact, as Dezernat Zukunft points outnot even the 10 largest European countries combined compete with those key indicators of material power. But power is not negotiating ability. The United States is the strongest in the yard, but Europe has the leverage. And here the game board changes. A close example: the gas key. Russia’s GDP It is less than the ninth part of the EUbut Russia has something that Europe needs: the gas required to heat in winter. Changing suppliers overnight was unfeasible. Europe is a succulent client. The magnificent seven (Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet, Nvidia, Tesla, Meta) have an important part of their market in Europe. According to estimates by Dezernat Zukunftthese big tech companies generate more than $500 billion annually in Europe alone. If the old continent closes the market or fines them, their stock market shares would suffer a severe blow. And this point is not only important for companies. The magnificent seven They represent a third of the entire S&P 500the index in which the pension plans of millions of Americans are invested. If these big tech companies lose Europe, North American seniors earn less when they retire and that can be dramatic on a social and political level. Europe controls nuclear fuel. On Donald Trump’s roadmap Nuclear power plants are being built everywhere, but the United States does not have enough enriched uranium to supply itself in the short or medium term. Europe, through companies such as Urenco and Orano, is the main supplier of enriched uranium to the US, according to data from the Energy Information Agency. If the EU turns off the tap by prioritizing its own supply, the United States would have a problem meeting its nuclear needs, a key element for powering AI data centers. Because in the artificial intelligence race, The US desperately needs energy. Europe manufactures the turbines. To achieve enough electricity to meet the demand of data centers for AI, a specific type of gas turbines (40 – 60 MW) is also needed and here a European company is the queen: Siemens Energy. Siemens Energy’s SGT-800 has delivery times of one to three years, in a market where general deadlines have skyrocketed to seven years due to the demand for data centers, according to Utility Dive. Europe does not even need to turn its back on the United States, prioritizing its own orders would be enough for US artificial intelligence projects to suffer a few valuable years of delay. And time is money: the cost for large US technology operators could exceed 50 billion euros, according to Dezernat Zukunft estimates. American debt is fragile. The US dollar accounts for 58% of world reserves, but its weight as a reserve currency has been declining for two decades. USA accumulate a deficit of 1.8 trillion dollars annually that is financed by issuing debt and needs buyers. The problem is that central banks have stopped buying that debt: now it is speculative investment funds based in London that support the market. For the German institute, Europe has regulatory tools to discourage the purchase of American debt and favor European debt. If American bond rates rise, mortgages, credit and public spending in the US become more expensive. And we have seen it recently: when 30-year bonds exceeded 5%, Trump backed down in their tariffs. Europe is the best customer for gas. USA is the main supplier of LNG to the EU. However, if war conflicts allow it, starting in 2027 The International Energy Agency plans a gas surplus that will change the balance: sellers will need buyers and not the other way around. Dezernat Zukunft explains that due to geographical proximity, Europe is the best customer for the US, so if the United States tried to use gas as a weapon, it would be making a fatal mistake: it would sink the profits of its gas industry and Europe could buy gas from other countries. In fact, the EU is already working on it. Who needs who more. Although from an objective and abstract point of view parameters such as the largest army or the most powerful economy make Europe look weaker compared to the United States, Dezernat Zukunft highlights one power: that of necessity. And on some issues, the US needs Europe as much or more than Europe needs the US. It is not that Europe does not have cards to play, it is that it is difficult for it to agree to play them. In Xataka | Europe has realized that it cannot … Read more

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