Mobile Tech & Gadgets

How your city parks have become the best therapy for modern anxiety

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A morning walk through almost any urban park reveals an increasingly common scene: calisthenics bars, wooden benches and grass esplanades have ceased to be simple elements of the landscape and have become the new fashionable gym. Accustomed to the monotony of traditional indoor gyms, with their relentless fluorescent lights and repetitive music on loop, going out to exercise in the park offers a radical and revitalizing change of scenery. As Nikki Fraser explains to the The New York Timesexercise physiologist, we tend to take training in our adulthood too seriously, seeing it as a strict “obligation” (something we have to do) rather than an “opportunity”, but by looking at a park, we regain the wonderful possibility of “playing”. The rise of the street as a training area. What has happened is that strength routines have left the basements and pavilions to conquer the streets. To perform a full-body workout, it is no longer essential to have complex machinery; All you need is a park bench and a piece of grass to perform routines that include climbing steps (step-ups) and push-ups, to lunges, squats and triceps dips. In addition, nature itself provides an extra physical challenge: unlike the repetitive monotony of a treadmill, the outdoor environment forces our muscles to constantly adapt to uneven terrain, which promotes balance, improves agility and burns calories dynamically. “The great moderation.” Behind this movement towards asphalt and grass is a profound generational and economic change. Young people are changing the classic bars for sports when it comes to socializing, a phenomenon that economists, as Joe Wadfordthey have already baptized as “the great moderation.” Instead of allocating a large portion of their monthly budget to going out at night and having to deal with an inevitable hangover the next day, many young people They prefer to invest their money and time in ways that are more rewarding for your health. In fact, as we already analyzed When explaining why the gym is the new bar to combat the loneliness epidemic, the data supports than 39% more young people Generation Z, compared to Generation fitness to meet new people who share your same interests. And there is science behind this. A systematic review long-term clinical trials that compared outdoor exercise versus indoor exercise revealed a revealing fact: of the 99 comparisons analyzed, the 25 that showed statistically significant results favored, in all cases, outdoor exercise. This natural environment encourages higher levels of positive emotions, tranquility and motivation. If that were not enough, simple exposure to sunlight provides a natural boost of vitamin D and works as a powerful antidote to reduce stress, anxiety and depression. Beyond the muscle. The true impact of this trend transcends body aesthetics and economic savings; It has a profoundly transformative and therapeutic power on a social level. The BBC reported the case of Raymond Goodfield, a 53-year-old man who, due to depression and his dependence on alcohol, had ended up living on the streets. After joining free weekly outdoor gym sessions in his local park, his life took a radical turn: he stopped drinking, lost his shyness and found a supportive community. To make these urban spaces truly inclusive and not just a haven for elite athletes, researchers at Loughborough University have worked closely with the community in the design of new park equipment. This machinery is designed to improve balance and postural control, which makes it suitable for a very wide range of users, including those who are undergoing physical rehabilitation processes. A paradigm shift. All this establishes a strong contrast with the wellness trends that prevail in exclusive areas of cities. In the era of “cuqui fitness”where sport has disguised itself as therapy to charge you more money, we have seen how the industry commodifies calm. People pay large sums for low-impact disciplines or “somatic” classes, which consist of making tiny movements to try to relax the exhausted nervous system, turning well-being into a luxury item. The park, however, offers the rebellion of simplicity: an alternative where reconnecting with nature and forming a community act as that same escape valve against modern pressure, but completely free of charge. The triumph of simplicity. In short, using calisthenics bars, grass and benches as training tools is much more than a clever trick to avoid paying a sports club fee. It is the reflection of a society that seeks to heal. Going out to exercise outdoors represents an instinctive response to an excessively digitalized and isolated world. At the end of the day, the park gym reminds us that the goal is no longer just to sculpt the body, but to build real bonds, nourish ourselves with vitamin D and claim our most basic right: to go out and play again. Image | Magnificent Xataka | The big lie of “cuqui fitness”: sport has been disguised as therapy to charge you more money

China has discovered a new mineral on the Moon. It’s so fluorescent it could change the way we make LED light bulbs

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So far, 11 unique minerals have been discovered on the Moon. The last of them has just been revealed by a team of Chinese scientists after analyzing a lunar meteorite. It is an interesting finding, because it gives us useful information about the geology of our satellite. But also because it could have very interesting applications here on Earth. From the Moon to your light bulbs. The material just described It is cerium-magnesium changesite. It is characterized by its glassy, ​​transparent and brittle appearance. The thickness of its granules ranges from 3 to 25 micrometers, less than that of a human hair. Still, it is extremely useful due to its pronounced fluorescence, which could be very useful in improving terrestrial LED technology. A necessary color change. Unlike traditional incandescent bulbs, LED bulbs do not use heat to produce light. They make the most of electricity thanks to a semiconductor material, which allows the flow of electrons from a layer with an excess charge to another with a lack of it. That second layer has what are known as voids. That is, atoms that have lost electrons, leaving something like a free hole. The moment an electron encounters one of these holes, falls inside, in a process in which energy is released in the form of light. The light obtained in this process is blue, but we have all seen that, in general, the light from LEDs is white. The color change is achieved thanks to the coating the bluish chip in which the process occurs with a fluorescent material. This absorbs some of the blue light and, in turn, emits yellow light. Both are what are known as complementary colors of light. Therefore, when you mix them you obtain white light. The more fluorescence, the better. The fluorescence of this lunar mineral is so powerful that it would be a wonderful complement to LED bulbs. White light would be obtained in a much more efficient way, resulting in even greater energy savings. More achievements for China. The Asian country has become an expert in lunar geology, thanks to the Chang’e missions. In fact, the Changesite-(Y) phosphate was already discovered on Chang’e-5, directly related to this other mineral that a meteorite brought to Earth. For now, we can only dream. Logically, going to the Moon to excavate minerals is not very viable. And if it were, it would be good to think twice before jumping in headfirst. We also don’t know if there would be enough on the Moon. It would be necessary to explore it further to know. Therefore, the applications of lunar minerals in terrestrial technology are nothing more than hypotheses. It is interesting, but it does not have a close application in time. What these minerals do teach us. Analysis of lunar geology It can teach us many things. If we find mostly minerals that also exist here on Earth, we can understand that, at some point, similar conditions existed on Earth and the Moon. On the other hand, if many unknown minerals are found on Earth, as is already happening, it is understood that there were conditions on our satellite that have not occurred on our planet. All this serves to understand very well where we are and where we come from. Let’s stay with that instead of thinking about mining our satellite and leaving it without resources as we are already beginning to do on Earth. Image | freepik In Xataka | We have not yet colonized the Moon and we have already filled it with garbage: there are even abandoned golf balls

The problem that we read less and less is not a lack of time or discipline: it is that we do not do ‘habit-stacking’

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We all know the scene: a pile of books gathering dust on the nightstand and a silent promise that, this weekend, we will finally get around to reading. However, Sunday night arrives and we have barely turned a couple of pages, so our relationship with reading has become in an “aspirational disenchantment”. We want to read, we long to get into the habit, but in the event of any temporary unforeseen event, the book is the first thing we discard. We usually punish ourselves by thinking that we lack willpower or that we don’t have enough free time. We wait for the holidays to devour novels, believing that reading requires large blocks of uninterrupted time. But behavioral science has bad news for our ego and great news for our routine: it’s not a discipline problem, it’s a design problem. The solution is not in motivation, but in a neurological “hack” known as habit-stacking or habit stacking. The motivation trap. When we don’t achieve our wellness or intellectual goals, “it’s not because we don’t care enough or aren’t disciplined,” explains Dr. Eve Glazier. to Washington Post. Failure comes because we rely too much on ephemeral motivation and lack a realistic implementation plan. This is where the habit-stacking. Popularized by behavioral experts such as BJ Fogg (creator of the method Tiny Habits at Stanford University) and James Clear (author of the best-selling Atomic Habits), this technique consists of linking a new habit that we want to incorporate to a habit that we already do automatically every day. As James Clear detailsthe formula is astonishingly simple: “After a ‘current habit,’ I will make a ‘new habit.’” Applied to our problem, the goal is to stop saying “I’m going to read more”—an abstract and overwhelming goal—and use everyday anchors. For example: “After I turn on the coffee maker in the morning, I’ll read a page,” or “After I brush my teeth at night, I’ll pick up my book.” In Xataka They are not your imagination: the best-selling books are increasingly simpler and contain less elaborate sentences The biological “hack”. As James Clear explains Based on neurobiology, our brain experiences a phenomenon called “synaptic pruning.” As we age, the brain eliminates the neural connections we don’t use and strengthens the ones we repeat daily (like showering or making morning coffee). By “stacking” reading on top of an already strong and established neural pathway, the new habit travels first class. The brain uses signal-based learning (cue-based learning), dramatically reducing friction and decision fatigue. You simply no longer have to remember to read; your coffee maker reminds you. And achieving it has an impact that goes far beyond general culture. As we analyzed recently in Xatakaa 12-year study with more than 3,600 participants showed that reading books reduces the risk of mortality by 20%. Readers have a 23-month survival advantage over non-readers, thanks to the fact that deep reading improves cognitive reserve. And no, you don’t have to read for hours: the study suggests that 30 minutes a day are enough to obtain these benefits. The voice of the experts: start in miniature. If the theory is so good, how do we apply it without failing in the attempt? The experts consulted by the main media agree on several golden rules to design our habit-stacking: It starts ridiculously small: Psychologist Beena Persaud, cited in Washington Postwarns against drastic changes. Don’t aim to “read a whole chapter”, aim to “open the book and read a paragraph”. Make the tiny habit guarantees that you comply even on your worst days. The anchor must be unbreakable: Psychologist Melissa Ming Foynes explains to Real Simple that the anchor must be bulletproof. If you want to read at night but your children constantly interrupt your sleep routine, using the night as an anchor is a mistake. Find something you do “rain or shine.” Forget the 21 day myth: As stated Dr. Axscience has shown that forming a habit takes between 18 and 254 days (with an average of 66 days). Patience is vital. Use the “Principle of “Premack”: Dr. Lauren Alexander recommends applying immediate rewards. When you achieve your micro-reading habit, give yourself a small reward so that your brain releases dopamine and closes the positive reinforcement cycle. Beware of mirages. However, before starting to pile up habits, it is important to understand our context. In Spain, 65.5% of citizens claims to read for leisure (an all-time high), but this figure may be inflated by “social bias”: we like to brag that we read because it gives us prestige. Furthermore, reports of The Economist they point out that the best-sellers current ones have a readability equivalent to that of a 16-year-old teenager. We read less deeply than we think. Added to this is the danger of misunderstanding the habit-stacking. How to warn Guardian, Now there is a viral trend on social networks known as bedtime stacking. It consists of going to bed at 8:30 p.m. but taking an arsenal of tasks: the laptop, the iPad, the skincarea snack and the gratitude journal. Far from being a productive habit stack, it’s a disaster for sleep hygiene and destroys our circadian rhythm. {“videoId”:”x7zmsee”,”autoplay”:false,”title”:”11 WEBSITES to DOWNLOAD FREE EBOOKS for your KINDLE Xataka TV”, “tag”:”Kindle”, “duration”:”321″} Consistency vs. intensity. At the end of the day, in behavioral psychology “consistency always trumps intensity”. Great personal transformations are not born from marathon reading weekends, but from ridiculously small daily actions repeated over months. We are not bad readers nor do we lack discipline. We have simply been using the wrong tools to fight a hyperconnected life. By chaining reading to our toothbrush or our coffee, we stop depending on capricious inspiration to finally put our own biology to work in our favor. Image | Photo by Matias North on Unsplash Xataka | Science has calculated the real impact of reading books on your brain. And it has a very simple recipe: 30 minutes a day (function() { window._JS_MODULES = window._JS_MODULES || {}; var headElement = document.getElementsByTagName(‘head’)(0); … Read more

There have never been more salmon in the world. It’s time we declare them a threatened species

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Last year, global production of farmed Atlantic salmon amounted to 3.12 million tonnes. That amount is 8,000 times the catch of wild salmon and it is logical: to the extent that aquaculture has become the “pretty girl” of the fishing industry, these are not good times for wild salmon. And no, it is not something that only affects the cold waters of the Norwegian fjords. In Spain, in 2024, only 130 copies were sealed. He all-time low since control of the Asturian rivers began in 1949. And lthe situation is going to get worse. Why is it going to get worse? The reason it’s not obvious. When we talk about this problem, the first intuition is to think that it is a simple question of ‘attention’. Before we needed to take care of wild salmon habitats to ensure we could catch them. Now that aquaculture has made the wild supply dispensable, the incentives to maintain it have disappeared. But, in reality, it is worse. Because the truth is that the dynamics of aquaculture are actively working on the collapse of the wild population. We have well located the three big problems: 1) the hybrid salmon escapes (who have better farm fitness, but worse ocean survival) than They mix with wild animals and produce genetic problems.2) the spread of sea ​​louse because the concentration of fish in cages amplifies the parasite load and, finally, 3) the need for forage fish to feed the farms removes resources for other fish. And the consequences are visible to all. In Asturias it is not only that the season has started two weeks later than usual, it is that the first salmon (campanu) the latest day in history has arrived. But that’s only part of the story. In Norway, for example, only 323,000 wild salmon were observed in 2024. The previous year, the figures They amounted to 481,463 copies. In fact, last year fishing was prohibited in 42 rivers and three fjords. In Scotland, another of the great salmon-growing countries, the population of wild specimens has fallen by 80% since the 1970s. Is it only a problem related to aquaculture? No, it would be unfair to say this. The decline is global and has a lot to do with climate and food chain problems. But the evidence tells us that not even repopulating is of any use: we have been taking counterproductive initiatives for decades that reduce genetic diversity and make the species increasingly fragile. Image | Bruce Warrington In Xataka | We are drugging the salmon with cocaine and anxiolytics. And that’s causing them to behave strangely.

GitHub Copilot and Claude are putting more and more fees and costs

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As end users, pay a monthly fee to use a AI model It is the norm to access more complete and powerful models. However, developers who rely on an AI model to power their tool or application pay based on the tokens of input and output that are consumed (the minimum unit of text that a model processes when we use it, so that we understand each other). Which has announced GitHub Copilot has more to it than it seems, as it will now begin charging end users through a monthly plan based on the number of tokens. And this has set off alarm bells in the sector, because it could be a move that any other company could easily end up imitating. And all in a context in which Chinese startups prices continue to drop sharply in their models. Copilot can no longer maintain its business model. GitHub has announced that starting June 1 it will stop accepting requests for its current premium plans and will begin billing for AI credits instead. Each monthly plan will include a number of credits equivalent to the price of the subscription: anyone who pays $10 per month for Copilot Pro will receive $10 in credits. From there, consumption is measured in tokens, including input, output, and cache tokens. It is a play similar to when we use a image generation model either video: a use that depends on credits and that we recharge depending on the use. The reason for the change, according to the companyis that until now a quick consultation and an autonomous programming session of several hours cost the user the same. GitHub claims to have long absorbed that cost difference, but acknowledges that the model is no longer viable. QWhat exactly changes. The base prices of the plans are not touched: Copilot Pro is still at $10. Business in 19. Enterprise in 39. But: what you buy with them is no longer the same. Previously, the limit was a number of requests. Now, each interaction with the model consumes credits at a rate that depends on the chosen model and the volume of tokens. According to the rates published by the company itself, the most advanced OpenAI models can cost up to $30 per million output tokens. On the other hand, an agentic session, where the assistant executes tasks autonomously, can easily multiply the expense of a week of normal consultations. Ed Zitron, well-known critic and technology expert, counted that, according to internal documents to which he had access, Copilot’s weekly costs had almost doubled since January, coinciding with the boom in agentic assistants. Nor is it just Copilot. According to account The Information, Anthropic has begun charging its large enterprise customers the actual cost of computing Claudeabandoning any discount. Anthropic itself briefly tested the elimination of Claude Code of its $20 per month Pro plan. Large AI companies have been taking losses on their subscription models to attract users for some time, and are now trying to pass on the real costs to those who consume the most. China does the opposite. While the West adjusts prices upwards, several of the main Chinese technology companies have adopted a completely different strategy: turning tokens into a cheap commodity, almost like a telecom distributing mobile data. DeepSeek announced this week a 90% reduction in the price of cached accesses to its API (when the model reuses already processed context), bringing the minimum entry cost to about $0.14 per million tokens. For your most advanced model, DeepSeek-V4-Prothe figure becomes 32 times cheaper per conversation than the equivalent in GPT-5.5 from OpenAI, according to company data. Alibaba, for its part, has just separated its AI business and renamed it Token Hub Business Group, making clear what its strategic commitment is. According to share According to Reuters, Chinese models cost on average one-sixth the price per token of those from OpenAI, Anthropic, and the like. Why it can work, and why it has a limit. China’s advantage in inference (the moment at which a model responds to a request) rests on cheaper electricity, software efficiency that it has had no choice but to forcefully develop by chip restrictions from Washington, and a super competitive domestic race that forces prices to constantly drop. Token consumption in China has gone from 100 billion a day at the end of 2025 to 140 billion in March 2026, according to estimates collected by Reuters. However, as the media points out, this strategy has an underlying problem: the tokens are not interchangeable. One million tokens from Anthropic’s most advanced system are worth much more than the same volume processed by an inferior model. Companies that delegate complex tasks to AI agents will end up paying for quality, not just volume. And there, the Chinese models continue to lag behind the most advanced Western ones. Cover image | Alexander Mils and Roman Synkevych In Xataka | Anthropic decided to resist pressure from the Pentagon. Since then all other technologies have folded

features, price and technical sheet

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If what we are looking for is a phone that takes up less space in our pocket, but that when opened behaves like a large cell phone, a foldable clamshell phone may be a good option. The idea is quickly understood, but other things such as specifications and, above all, how much it costs also matter. with the new razr 70, razr 70 Plus and razr 70 Ultrawhat we have seen is a family that aims precisely at that need: very similar on the outside, but much more separated when we start to look inside. The range is organized into three fairly clear steps. The Motorola razr 70 is the gateway, with the lowest price of the family and some visible concessions in external screen, processor and charging. The razr 70 Plus occupies the middle ground, already with a 4-inch external screen, a Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 and a more balanced card. The razr 70 Ultra is reserved for those looking for the most ambitious: better processor, more memory, larger capacity battery, faster charging and a more complete camera system. Technical data sheet of the Motorola razr 70, razr 70 Plus and razr 70 Ultra MOTOROLA RAZR 70 MOTOROLA RAZR 70 Plus MOTOROLA RAZR 70 Ultra dimensions and weight Folded: 88.08 x 73.99 x 15.85 mm Unfolded: 171.30 x 73.99 x 7.25 mm Weight: 188 grams Folded: 88.09 × 73.99 × 15.32 mm Unfolded: 171.42 × 73.99 × 7.09 mm Weight: 189 grams Folded: 88.12 × 73.99 × 15.69 mm Unfolded: 171.48 × 73.99 × 7.19 mm Weight: 199 grams internal screen 6.9 inch LTPO AMOLED Resolution 1080 x 2640 22:9 format 10-bit color Refresh rate: up to 120 Hz Peak brightness: 3,000 nits Dolby Vision 6.9 inch LTPO AMOLED Resolution 1080 x 2620 22:9 format 10-bit color Refresh rate: up to 165 Hz Peak brightness: 3,000 nits Dolby Vision 6.96 inch LTPO AMOLED Resolution 1224 x 2992 22:9 format 10-bit color Refresh rate: up to 165 Hz Peak brightness: 5,000 nits Dolby Vision external screen 3.63 inch OLED 10-bit color Refresh rate: up to 90 Hz Peak brightness: 1,700 nits Gorilla Glass Victus 4 inch OLED 10-bit color Refresh rate: up to 165 Hz Peak brightness: 2,400 nits Gorilla Glass Victus 4 inch OLED 10-bit color Refresh rate: up to 165 Hz Peak brightness: 3,000 nits Gorilla Glass Ceramic processor MediaTek Dimensity 7450X Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 Mobile Platform Snapdragon 8 Elite Mobile Platform ram memory 8GB LPDDR5X 12GB LPDDR5X 16GB LPDDR5X internal storage 256GB 256GB 512GB 512GB rear camera 50 MP (main) 1.6um Quad Pixel f/1.7 Dolby Vision 50 MP (ultra wide angle) 1.28um Quad Pixel 122° f/2.0 Macro 50 MP (main) 1.6um Quad Pixel f/1.8 Dolby Vision 50 MP (ultra wide angle) 1.28um Quad Pixel 122° f/2.0 Macro 50 MP (main) 2.0um Quad Pixel f/1.8 Dolby Vision 50 MP (ultra wide angle) 1.2um Quad Pixel 122° f/2.0 Macro front camera 32MP 1.28um Quad Pixel f/2.4 32MP 1.28um Quad Pixel f/2.4 50MP 1.28um Quad Pixel f/2.0 battery 4,800 mAh 30W fast charging Wireless charging 15W 4,500 mAh 45W fast charging Wireless charging 15W Reverse charging 5W 5,000 mAh Fast charging 68W Wireless charging 30W Reverse charging 5W operating system Android 16 Android 16 Android 16 connectivity 5G Wi-Fi GPS USB type C NFC 5G Wi-Fi GPS USB type C NFC 5G Wi-Fi GPS USB type C NFC others Side fingerprint reader Motorcycle AI Stereo speakers Dolby Atmos 3x microphones IP48 resistance Side fingerprint reader Motorcycle AI Stereo speakers Dolby Atmos 3x microphones IP48 resistance Side fingerprint reader Motorcycle AI Stereo speakers Dolby Atmos 3x microphones IP48 resistance price From 869 euros From 1,049 euros From 1,399 euros Motorola has made three razr 70, not three copies of the same mobile Motorola’s first big message is not in the processor or the camera, but in the design. The company relies again on Pantone to give personality to each model, but it does not do it in the same way throughout the range. The razr 70 is the most varied in colors, with Hematite, Violet Ice, Sporting Green and Bright White. The Plus stays in a single Pantone Mountain View, while the Ultra looks for a more sophisticated point with Orient Blue in Alcantara and Cocoa with a wood finish. From left to right: Motorola razr 70, razr 70 Plus and razr 70 Ultra As we say, the separation that is easiest to see in everyday life begins on screens. The razr 70 has a 3.63-inch external screen that, according to the firm, is enough to run complete applications, check notifications or respond to messages without opening the phone. In the razr 70 Plus and the razr 70 Ultra the jump is in the outer 4 inches, with a refresh rate of up to 165 Hz. In addition, the external panel of the Plus reaches 2,400 nits of maximum brightness, while that of the Ultra goes up to 3,000 nits. The internal screen maintains a common base in all three models, but not all of them play the same. The Razr 70 opts for a 6.90-inch panel with 120 Hz, the Razr 70 Plus remains on that same diagonal but goes up to 165 Hz, and the Razr 70 Ultra takes a small leap up to 6.96 inches, also with 165 Hz. Beyond the size, the real difference is in the refresh rate: the higher the number, the greater the fluidity, something that is especially noticeable in games and when navigating the interface. Part of that difference is explained with LTPO. This type of panel allows you to vary the refresh rate in real time, reducing it when it is not necessary or increasing it when we are looking for maximum response. This, as you can imagine, has a direct impact on autonomy: by not always maintaining the highest rate, consumption is better adjusted to real use and the battery should stretch more on a day-to-day basis. In the case of the Razr 70 Ultra, in addition, the peak … Read more

We have been blaming hygiene for our allergies for almost 40 years. Ancestral DNA has just shown that the problem is more complex

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Every time a child develops a asthmarhinitis or eczema, one of the questions we ask ourselves is why it happens, and one of the ‘culprits’ we point to is excess cleaning. Right now it is a reality that we live in environments that are too neat, using disinfectant gel all the time and not letting the little ones play in the mud because logically they can get stained. However, science here has ‘traveled’ to the past to find out the origin of allergies. What have they done? Here two new and massive studies based on the analysis of prehistoric DNA are putting the famous “hygiene hypothesis“And the paradigm we face now is that the evolutionary adaptations that our immune system has developed over the last 10,000 years to survive pandemics, curiously, are designed to protect you from allergies, not to cause them. A return to the past. To understand the plot twist, we must go back to 1989 where epidemiologist David Strachan proposed the hygiene hypothesis. Here it was proposed that the lack of exposure to microbes during childhood in most modern societies deregulated the immune system, since it literally did not grow with good training under its belt. In this way, it was proposed that, by not having real pathogens to fight against, the body created an imbalance that caused the immune system itself to attack substances that are not actually a threat, such as pollen or mites. And it seemed to make sense. A genetic journey. The first blow to this hypothesis has been dealt by a great published research in Nature this same month of April. Here the researchers analyzed almost 16,000 ancient genomes from individuals who lived thousands of years ago. What they discovered here is that the transition to agriculture in the Neolithic changed everything, since human societies became dense, we began to coexist closely with animals and, with this, large-scale infectious diseases arrived. But these pathogens that we began to face, despite the many deaths they generated, also favored hundreds of immune variants to ensure our own survival. But there is more. This is where parallel research that is revolutionizing our understanding of asthma and autoimmunity comes into play. Here is an article preprint has crossed ancient DNA with the modern complete genome with the aim of looking for differences between our DNA and that of our ancestors. Logic dictated that a system “revolutionized” by evolution to fight bacterial and viral infections of the past would be the cause of today’s allergies. But the data show exactly the opposite, as the study reveals that genetic variants that were positively selected in recent millennia have strengthened defenses in “barrier tissues” such as the intestine, against pathogens, but at the same time reduce allergic inflammation. The variants. Among these defense genes We have, for example, LYZ, which codes for lysozine, a fundamental antimicrobial enzyme in our secretions that destroys part of the bacteria. We also have FUT6, which is involved in protein fucosylation, a process vital to the interaction between our mucosal immune system and the gut microbiome. Why are we allergic, then? If our genetics have been evolving for 10,000 years to protect us from allergies in the lungs and intestines, the question is inevitable: why do cases continue to increase? Here science suggests that the problem is not simply an excess of cleaning in the present, but a profound imbalance. In this way, we do not need to catch diseases or live surrounded by human society, but the problem is that our immune system, genetically adapted to the strong pathogenic pressures of the first agricultural societies, expects to encounter a series of commensal microbes in the environment. The ‘problem’ is that these microbes are no longer present in modern cities and that is why the genes we have with a protective function cannot do their job correctly. Images | Drazen Zigic on Freepik In Xataka | The allergy season in Spain has been extended by 25 days since the 90s. And 2026 brings very bad news about it

DeepSeek V4 is here. It’s good news for efficiency and bad news for the myth

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DeepSeek has published its V4 model under MIT license, with notable improvements in code and architecture designed for Chinese chips. It has also admitted, in its own technical report, that it is three to six months behind leading Western models. For a laboratory that A little over a year ago the global narrative of AI changedthat is much more than a nuance. Why is it important. DeepSeek became a symbol in January 2025. Its moment shook the markets, questioned the logic of the American technology stock market and convinced half the world that China could compete head-to-head on the frontier of AI, at a fraction of the cost. It’s not that V4 destroys that story, but it does complicate it a bit. China’s most important laboratory in AI arrives with a model that its own engineers describe as a step, not a leap. The context. V4 has taken longer than expected to arrive. According to sector sources collected for 36KrDeepSeek suffered a serious training failure in mid-2025 while trying to migrate its infrastructure from NVIDIA to Huawei’s Ascend chips. Internal opinions on technical direction were not aligned, and the founder, Liang Wenfengimposed conditions that were difficult to execute. The result: months of delay and a model that, furthermore, is still not multimodal, postponed due to lack of computing capacity and cash. Between the lines. The most interesting thing about V4 is in its architecture. The model introduces TileLang, a domain-specific language that allows low-level code to be decoupled from CUDA (the NVIDIA standard) and compile it for different chips. It also incorporates MegaMoE, a kernel designed to reduce latency in expert parallelism that already runs on Ascend hardware. But V4 training has continued using NVIDIA GPUs. Independence is, for the moment, more of an aspiration than an accomplished fact. turning point. While DeepSeek looked inward, the Chinese market has been reorganizing itself without it: Doubaofrom ByteDance, has become the most downloaded chatbot in China. MiniMax and Z.ai They have gone public. Alibaba has achieved great adoption thanks to vertical applications. DeepSeek never wanted to build a consumer product, and the market hasn’t waited for it. The internal bill has also arrived: the laboratory has lost key talent to Tencent, ByteDance and Xiaomi in practically all areas. Liang Wenfeng refused to give up 20% to an unidentified large investor. And now, for the first time, DeepSeek opens an external funding round. Main loser? The narrative of open source Chinese as a real alternative to the Western closed model has taken a hit. A Qwen employee has told 36Kr that “the golden age of nonprofit AI development is over.” The big question. It’s whether DeepSeek can regain lost ground. That depends largely on Huawei, whose Ascend 950 promises to scale well with V4, but 750,000 units are equivalent, adjusted for quality, to a week of American production. The gap is not closed with ingenious architectures. It is closed with silicon. In Xataka | Companies around the world face an irresolvable dilemma: either they are with China or with the US, with both it is no longer possible Featured image | Solen Feyissa

The age verification thing is nothing. Greece wants to completely eliminate anonymity on the internet

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Greece will hold elections in early 2027 and its rulers have had a unique idea to avoid (or mitigate) deepfakesthe disinformation and the toxic speechesespecially in relation to that electoral process, but also in other scenarios. What they want is nothing less than eradicate anonymity of the internet and that you have to reveal your identity on platforms to be able to use them. Remembering democracy. Dimirtis Papastergiou, minister of digital governance in Greece, remembered in Euractiv how democracy was born in his country with a clear objective. “In ancient Greece, everyone could express their opinion openly and by name. They raised their hands and shared their perspective. This should inspire us as we seek to shape a new digital democracy.” Goodbye to anonymity on networks. That reflection is the argument behind a controversial measure: Greece has a plan to try to prohibit anonymity on social networks. This will make it possible to minimize the growing toxicity in these networks, says the minister, who is promoting an idea that is already being debated in the presidential office of Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the Greek prime minister. Pseudonyms yes, but always associated with your real identity. The measure does not seek to prohibit the avatars and pseudonyms that users use in their profiles. Instead what you want is to guarantee that the system knows exactly which citizen is behind that label. As the ministry states, any opinion is valid as long as the person expressing it can be traced by the authorities in the event of a legal infraction. Against harassment and defamation. Papastergiou highlights how anonymity has become the perfect shield to attack reputations or harass in a coordinated way. These situations have attempted to be investigated by the Greek police without success due to the opacity of the platforms. If age verification is required link an account with a personthe government may apply measures so that the social cost of defamation is the same in real life as on the screen. The 2027 elections as a catalyst for the decision. Greece’s political calendar has caused this regulatory urgency, because the Greek country will hold general elections early next year. According to the prime minister’s cabinet, the national political debate has become a chaos of fake news and threats orchestrated by both anonymous users and coordinated bot attacks. The electoral campaign has already begun unofficially, and this ban on anonymity is presented as a “hygienic” measure to avoid or at least mitigate disinformation and hate speech that, according to the government, contaminate the coexistence of Greek society. Bad business for Facebook, X or TikTok. Prohibiting anonymity would have a clear impact on the platforms, which since their inception have built their user base assuming that a large portion of them used an anonymous profile. This has favored an extraordinary growth in the number of users, although it is clear that some of them are duplicates or are bots. Papastergiou accuses companies of maintaining this business model for pure economic benefit, prioritizing that over toxicity problems, for example. The confrontation is served: on the one hand, the state demands the ability to identify its citizens, and on the other, companies protect anonymity because that favors the advertising business model. Also in digital press. Pavlos Marinakis, vice president of the government, has gone further and points out that this measure may not be limited to social networks. Their idea is to demand that all articles and comments in digital press are signed by real people, thus eliminating pseudonyms and spaces for collective opinion. This has set off even more alarms, this time among those who defend digital rights, who see here a potential tool to silence criticism and complaints that are made with anonymity as the only shield against retaliation. A European precedent. Greece is the most vocal country in proposing this measure and activating it unilaterally if the European Union does not move. Greece already has been added to this trend of imposing age verification to prohibit the use of social networks by those under 15 years of age. A piecemeal approach poses problems and is even questionable under the DSA framework. In fact, it is to be expected that the EU will rule on the matter, and the approval of such a measure at a pan-European level faces extraordinary obstacles. In Spain has also been considered that possibility, but It’s much easier said than done.. Very dangerous. Dismantling anonymity on the internet undoubtedly has its advantages when it comes to mitigating all the toxic, hateful and misinformation speeches that abound on the internet, but the disadvantages are even greater. The Greek plan assumes that the State will always be a benevolent actor and that this user identification will only be used to prosecute real crimes. However, we are in an era of extreme polarization and such a measure would allow, among other things, to create a gigantic database in which each real DNI would be associated—among other things—with a political opinion. It is the seed of a massive surveillance system that could be more toxic than what it precisely wants to combat. Image | Chaozzy Lin | dole777 In Xataka | You’ve been ‘user84721’ for years. A study just showed that AI can know who you are in minutes

There are thousands of scientific articles that ask you to pay to read them. Sci-Bot has arrived to access them for free

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Scientific knowledge is supposedly something that nourishes all human beings to continue advancing, but the problem is that in many cases the articles that contain this knowledge are in tools that require a subscription to read them. This limitation in access to universal knowledge has led to the emergence of different platforms that bring together all these articles, such as Sci-Hubwhich now improves with his AI called Sci-Bot which promises to put an end to ChatGPT’s “hallucinations” in the scientific field. How it started. At the end of this same month of April, a message on networks published by Mushtaq Bilal began to go viral, and no wonder, since it gave a notice in which, ironically, it invited us to use a new Sci-Hub tool that allowed access to scientific advances for free. Something they do through the back door and that already it almost cost them closure forced by the famous ‘Pirate Bay’ But logically this publication had the opposite effect, going viral, and also revived the eternal debate about the paywalls in science they can block access to this knowledge. But now Sci-Hub’s new tool has arrived to change this (partly). A great library. To understand the magnitude of Sci-Bot, you must first look at the size of its brain, since since Elbakyan founded the web in 2011, Sci-Bot has become in a headache for scientific dissemination giants such as Elsevier or Springer, which are behind the publication of thousands of top-level articles. Here, according to the official data of the platform itselfSci-Hub hosts 88,343,822 research documents and books, so we are talking about 100 TB of human knowledge covering more than 95% of the publications of the main scientific publishers. And with free access and without going through the checkout, as happens on the websites of some of these publishers. The jewel in the crown. As Sci-Hub’s own page reveals, Sci-Bot is an AI that is designed to be able to search within the titanic database to select the most relevant studies and compose articulated responses. Its main attraction is that compared to generalist AIs like ChatGPT or Claude there are hardly any hallucinations, such as its creators pointed out in a scientific article in which tests were carried out in this sense. And this is something very important because I have been able to experience with my own eyes how AI invents bibliographical references or assigns research to authors who have nothing to do with it. But Sci-Bot, being anchored to a real database from which it draws the information, means that there are direct references to the original papers, allowing users to jump over the hated paywalls to access scientific evidence. Still needs improvement. At the moment it is starting in its alpha phase and that is why it has different limitations, such as that it can only answer one question at a time and does not maintain the thread of chained queries, even if they are on the same topic. But the truth is that it is quite promising to have access to the vast majority of human knowledge. They put obstacles in his way. Here, logically, the magazines have a lot to say, since they do not like having the articles freely available when they request a subscription to access them. This means that right now Sci-Bot has the most recent scientific articles as its blind spot, since due to the new and aggressive security measures implemented by large publishers in recent years to avoid scrapingthe database has some gaps in articles published in the most recent months. This makes the AI ​​unable to respond regarding the most recent evidence. But without a doubt we are facing an advance that began with the arrival of Sci-Hub with the promise of democratizing science, although through the back door by freely publishing articles that are actually ‘private’. And the only thing this will do is create a new front between open access and large publishers seeking financial returns. In Xataka | More and more media outlets are going over the paywall in Spain, the big question is whether there will be subscribers for everyone

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