Mobile Tech & Gadgets

Iceland was one of the last places on the planet that mosquitoes had not reached. That’s now history

by

For centuries, Iceland has held the ‘privilege’ of being one of the few habitable places on Earth where mosquitoes did not exist, something that can be a source of envy for many, especially with the arrival of summer. All thanks to its particular climate, with constant cycles of freezing and thawing that prevented the larvae from maturing, it acted as an insurmountable biological shield. However, climate change and human action have just broken down this barrier and this Icelandic ‘exceptionality’ has ended. The discovery. The history of this biological invasion starts in October 2025where Björn Hjaltason, a resident of the Kjós region noticed the presence of some unusual insects in his garden. From there he wanted to see them closer, and to capture them he used a fairly rudimentary method based on some ropes soaked in red wine. With this trap he obtained three specimens that were immediately sent to the Icelandic Institute of Natural Sciences, where the entomologist Matthías Alfreðsson confirmed the unthinkable: they were two females and a male. Culiseta annulataa species of mosquito common in Europe, but which had never managed to establish itself on the island of ice and fire. How have they arrived? Their disembarkation in the country may have been conditioned to different situations, such as travel aboard ships that came from Europe or even in the landing gear of commercial airplanes. All this, added to increasingly higher temperatures in Iceland, means that we are facing a major ecosystem problem. A hot Arctic. This very rudimentary discovery has served as a substrate for a profound analysis that has been published in the magazine Science, where it is noted that the appearance of mosquitoes in Iceland is only the symptom of a radical transformation throughout the Arctic. And global warming is affecting this region at breakneck speed, since the Arctic is warming four times faster than the world average. This thermal increase is not only allowing invasive species to survive the Icelandic winters, but is causing a serious biological imbalance throughout the boreal region. A domino effect. The arrival of mosquitoes and the alteration of the populations of native arthropods is not only a problem of annoying bites for its inhabitants or tourists, but it is a threat for birds. Here the early thaw is causing the peak of insect abundance to no longer coincide with the breeding season of waders, leaving them without their main source of food when they need it most. Furthermore, the large swarms of mosquitoes in arctic areas are already affecting the behavior of reindeer, which spend vital energy fleeing from the swarms instead of feeding, compromising their winter survival. That is why experts point to the need to control the arthropods that arrive in the region and, above all, a tracking system for these ecological changes that are so relevant. Images | Andreas M In Xataka | Mosquitoes attack me in summer and I tried these TikTok tricks to get rid of them

Turning plastic into fuel profitably was a pipe dream. A new process just made it possible

by

A team from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, in the United States, has achieved convert plastic bags and kitchen boards into gasoline and diesel without having to resort to high temperatures or expensive materials. The discovery, published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, has raised some eyebrows and below we tell you all the details. The problem they are trying to solve. The plastic is one of the most difficult materials to recycle profitably. Specifically, polyethylene (the polymer that makes up supermarket bags, white plastic containers or kitchen cutting boards) accumulates millions of tons in landfills each year. Until now, the only technically viable way to turn it into fuel was through a process called pyrolysis, which requires heating the material to temperatures between 450 and 500 degrees Celsius. An expensive, energy inefficient process that is difficult to scale to an industrial level. What does the new method consist of?. Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) have opted for a different path: introduce the plastic into a mixture of molten salts with aluminum chloride, which acts both as a solvent and as a catalyst. These salts are inorganic compounds that remain stable even under demanding reaction conditions. The key is that the aluminum atoms in the mixture bind to the polymer and generate areas of high acidity that break the long molecular chains of the plastic into smaller fragments, which are transformed into molecules typical of gasoline or diesel. And all this at less than 200 degrees Celsius, a temperature comparable to that of a conventional domestic oven. Why it represents a relevant technical leap. Beyond the reduction in temperature, the process dispenses with three elements that make traditional methods more expensive and complicated: noble metal catalysts (such as platinum), organic solvents and external contribution of hydrogen. According to Zhenzhen Yanga scientist at ORNL and one of the lead authors of the study, “this is the first time that molten salts have been used as a means to produce high value-added chemicals from waste without any catalytic initiators or solvents, and at a temperature below 200 degrees Celsius.” Gasoline efficiency reaches approximately 60% in moderate conditions, a result that the researchers themselves describe as promising for its future industrial application. As they verified that worked. To understand exactly what happens during the reaction, the team used a combination of advanced analysis techniques, including soft X-ray spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance, neutron scattering, and gas chromatography. Thanks to isotopic labeling, they were able to track how carbon behaves during the process and confirm that the simplest polymer chains produce gasoline-like fuel, while the more complex ones derive into diesel molecules. By having this level of detail, the process could be optimized depending on the type of fuel you want to obtain. What remains to be resolved. The system is not ready to scale immediately. The main obstacle is that the aluminum salts used are hygroscopic, that is, they absorb moisture from the environment, which compromises their long-term stability. The team working now on ways to confine or protect these saltspossibly using halides or carbon materials, to make them more durable under real industrial conditions. Mbeyond the laboratory. If the process manages to scale successfully, the implications are considerable. Polyethylene is the most produced plastic in the world, abundant and cheap to obtain as a raw material. Aluminum salts, for their part, are low-cost commercial materials. According to Liqi Qiua postdoctoral researcher at the University of Tennessee, “the starting material is abundant in consumer waste, and our catalyst system, molten aluminum salts, is very cheap.” The result could be a cost-effective route to converting plastic waste into high-quality transportation and industrial fuels, while also clearing up our landfills. At the moment the patent is pending, so we will have to wait to find out if this remedy ends up coming to fruition. Cover image | Elbert Lora and Marek Studzinski In Xataka | An 11,000 km ring around the Moon: Japan’s incredible plan to light up the Earth

24 years later they have found it

by

There are stories in the world of motorsport that seem straight out of a mystery novel. In 1995, when Bugatti Automobili SpA and its owner Romano Artioli declared bankruptcy, one of their last newly completed EB110 Super Sport disappeared without a trace. When the banks began to gather the company’s assets to pay off outstanding debts, that vehicle, identified as chassis number 021 painted in the iconic Blu Bugatti color, did not appear in any registry. One of the most exuberant supercars from that time had vanished…until now. A project broken before its time The Bugatti EB110 was born from one of the most ambitious bets in the automobile industry at the beginning of the nineties. Romano Artioli bought the rights to the Bugatti brand and built a factory from scratch in Campogalliano, in the Italian Motor Valley, near Modena. A total of 139 units of the EB110 were manufactured there, among which were 30 examples of its limited edition Super Sport, the most extreme in the range. Among its most famous owners are names such as Michael Schumacher, who celebrated his first Formula 1 Championship by purchasing a bright yellow EB110 Super Sport in 1994. Precisely, the Kaiser’s F1 car was chassis number 020, the car that was manufactured just before the unit in question: Super Sport number 021. As has happened so many times in the automobile industry, manufacturing one of the most desired supercars in the 90s is not easy. guarantee of financial viabilityso the Bugatti brand did not resist the economic recession of the first half of the nineties. The company declared bankruptcy in 1995 and the administrative chaos that followed meant that chassis 021 was left out of official records. Having been sent to a supplier for homologation, and not yet having completed its certification process, the car disappeared from the inventory and, with it, from the brand’s official history. It was as if unit 021 of the EB110 Super Sport had never been built. But it did exist. The reunion with a time capsule The EB110 Super Sport chassis 021 reappeared in 2019 in Munich (Germany), with just 674 kilometers on the odometer. After an exhaustive review by a team of specialists in Italy, the Bugatti was once again on public display, now as part of the personal collection of the American collector JR Amantea. The license plate with which he arrived in the country left no doubt about his history: “LOSTEBSS”, in direct reference to his long period of unknown whereabouts. After its rediscovery, the EB110 Super Sport no longer remained in storage. Unlike its previous owner, Amantea took it to the most exclusive motorsport events in the world: the The Quailheld during the 2022 Monterey Car Week; and the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance 2023. In both it won the award for the best in its category, consolidating its reputation as one of the most extraordinary pieces in automotive collecting. The car retains its original Blu Bugatti paint and original Grigio Scuro interior, as well as including the Bugatti Certificate of Conformity, original manuals and tools. It also bears the Romano Artioli signature next to the side air intakes. That a supercar with these characteristics would reach the year 2025 with less than 700 kilometers traveled and in practically factory condition does not have many precedents in the collecting market. It’s like I’ve been in a time capsule. The EB110 Super Sport is considered one of the most technologically advanced supercars of its time. With the 3.5 liter V12 engine, prior to the arrival of the W16 developed by express wish by Ferdinand Piech and four turbos, all-wheel drive and a carbon fiber monocoque chassis, represented an enormous technical leap by the standards of the early 1990s. Recently, the Bugatti vehicle has taken a new turn in its eventful history, becoming part of a lot that is put up for auction by the Mecum house in Indianapolis. The auction house has confirmed that the lot will come out without a reserve price, which means that it will be the collectors interested in this gem who will really decide its final price. As and how to collect RobbReportalthough Mecum declines to offer an official estimate, recent sales of equivalent supercars suggest that its price could be between $2.5 million and $3.5 million. In Xataka | For years no one knew who had bought the most expensive Bugatti in the world: until it became part of an inheritance Image | Mecum Auctions

Tim Cook will step down as CEO and John Ternus will be the new leader

by

Apple management is preparing for a replacement that marks a turning point in the company: Tim Cook will step down as CEO and John Ternus will be his successor. As reported by Apple, confirming the rumorsthe change is part of a pre-planned transition process supported by the board of directors. The appointment will be effective as of September 1, the date on which Ternus will assume the position after years at the head of hardware engineering. John Ternus, current Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering, and future CEO of Apple Tim Cook will continue to lead Apple over the coming months while working directly with John Ternus on the transfer of responsibilities. Once the replacement is effective, he will assume the position of executive president of the board of directors, a role from which he will continue to be involved in the company’s strategy and its relationship with governments and regulators. The change redefines his role, but keeps him linked to the company’s strategy and certain institutional functions.

We thought that Voyager 1 had already given everything it could. NASA continues to turn off parts to keep it alive

by

to some 25,000 million kilometers from Earth, Voyager 1 continues to send us data from interstellar space, Farther than any other ship built by humanity. The probe was launched in 1977 and, almost half a century later, it remains operational with an increasingly delicate condition: to keep it alive, the mission team is shutting down parts of the ship itself. That is exactly what has just happened with one of its scientific instruments, in a maneuver that reveals the delicate moment the mission is going through. The maneuver. On April 17, engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California they sent the order to turn off the experiment Low-energy Charged Particlesbetter known as LECP. It is an instrument dedicated to measuring low-energy charged particles, including ions, electrons and cosmic rays from both our solar system and the galaxy. The decision was not improvised. According to NASA, this instrument was next in the order agreed upon years ago by the scientific and engineering teams to cut consumption without terminating the mission. There are no solar panels. To understand why NASA has reached this point, we have to look at how Voyager 1 is powered. The probe does not work with solar panels, but with a radioisotope thermoelectric generator that converts the heat generated by the decay of plutonium into electricity. This system has allowed the mission to be sustained for decades, but its capacity is not infinite. According to NASA, both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 They lose about 4 watts of power per yeara small loss on paper, but decisive when you have been managing each watt with extreme care for almost half a century. The scare that accelerated the decision. Although the shutdown of the LECP was part of a previously defined roadmap, there was a recent episode that forced the team to move more carefully. During a routine turn maneuver on February 27, Voyager 1’s power levels dropped unexpectedly. The US agency explains that any additional descent could activate the ship’s undervoltage protection system, designed to disconnect components on its own and protect it. A calculated “pruning”. The shutdown sequence was decided a long time ago, in joint conversations between those who design the scientific part of the mission and those who technically keep it alive. Of the 10 instruments each Voyager had, seven have already been turned off. In addition, the LECP will not be completely disconnected: the small motor that allows the sensor to rotate to scan in all directions will remain on, because it barely consumes 0.5 watts and keeps a remote option open to reactivate it later. The plan that comes now. With this shutdown, NASA does not consider the issue closed, but rather gains time to attempt a deeper intervention. According to the agency, switching off the LECP should give Voyager 1 about a year of respite. During that time, engineers want to complete a more ambitious energy adjustment for the two probes, dubbed “big Bang“The idea is to change several energy-consuming devices at once, turning off some and replacing others with lower consumption alternatives, to conserve the necessary heat and continue operating scientific instruments for as long as possible. When will the maneuver be attempted?. NASA will first test this setting on Voyager 2, which is closer to Earth and has slightly more power. The tests are planned for May and June 2026 and, if they go well, the team will try to apply the same maneuver on Voyager 1 no earlier than July. Images | POT In Xataka | The paradox of artificial gravity: Einstein told us how to do it, engineering tells us it is almost impossible

Samsung has shown a new device with AI. It is not what we imagined and is reminiscent of an Apple idea

by

When they tell us about a new device with artificial intelligencethe normal thing is that we think of a mobile phone, a laptop or, at most, the disappointing Rabbit R1 either Humane AI Pin. That’s why it’s interesting to stop when a company like Samsung teaches something that doesn’t quite fit into any of those boxes. What we have seen this time is not a common gadget, but a rather revealing clue as to how the South Korean giant could imagine a possible home interface of the future. What Samsung has shown in Milan is called Project Luna and, at least for now, it moves in the field of concepts. It is a desktop device with a mobile circular screen that acts as a head and can rotate to face the user. The company’s materials also show that this head not only rotates, but also changes orientation depending on the angle it needs. With that combination, Samsung draws a home device that wants to look less like a conventional speaker and more like an object designed to interact with the user. A concept that points further than a speaker One of the scenes that Samsung has used to show Luna places it on a kitchen table, connected to the user’s smartphone, playing music with an interface reminiscent of a record player and answering questions both by voice and on screen. In that same demonstration he also appears controlling the lighting in the room and suggesting food options for the day. Additionally, there are projectors scattered around the kitchen that display data such as the calories in the recipe or a calendar notice for a dinner party. And that’s where Luna begins to tell us something more interesting than her own design. In an interview with Fast CompanyMauro Porcini, Samsung’s chief design officer, explained that this concept represents more of “a vibe, a feeling of the type of design language we want to use.” The phrase matters because it lowers any immediate commercial reading and forces us to look at it differently. Rather than anticipating a launch, the firm seems to use this project to teach the type of language and relationship with the user that it wants to explore in future AI devices. And at that point it is difficult not to remember Apple. In August 2024, Mark Gurman told Bloomberg that the company was moving forward with the development of a home desktop device that would combine an iPad-like screen with a robotic arm. The proposal, according to that informationwas conceived as a home control center, a tool for video calls and a remote surveillance system, with a screen capable of tilting and rotating 360 degrees using actuators. It has not materialized as a product, but there is some underlying parallel with what Samsung is now teaching. The most interesting reading may not be in looking for an exact equivalence between what Samsung has taught and the rumors about Apple, but in stopping at the underlying trend. What we’ve seen suggests that home AI could end up taking a much more tangible form than the assistants or screens we already know. We are not yet talking about a consolidated category, far from it. But it does provide a fairly serious clue as to where the industry could move in the coming years. At this point, the temptation is to think: okay, that sounds good, but where exactly does something like this fit into our daily lives. Because we can imagine it on the kitchen counter, recommending a mealanswering a quick question or accompanying us while music plays, and the scene is even convincing. The problem is that that same house is already full of devices that already cover a good part of all that. Images | Samsung In Xataka | Meta spent 2 billion on a Chinese AI startup. China is clear that it was a conspiracy

Xiaomi, NIO and Xpeng welcome families as if they were museums

by

In China they are genuinely proud of what they are achieving with their automobile industry. Beyond its domestic market we have been living for years how they are transforming the sector with their new energy cars. So much so, that their factories even They have become a popular destination of school excursions. And just as share Since Baiguan, it is increasingly common for families to get up early, get in the car and drive dozens of kilometers to one of their manufacturing plants. The phenomenon has turned Xiaomi, NIO or Xpeng factories into aspirational destinations, with long waiting lists and even people reselling their place as if it were a concert. TOeducational entity with its own name. In China there is a popular term to describe the culture of how the middle class raises their children: ‘jī wá’, which can be loosely translated as “inflating the child.” This word sums up the collective pressure that many parents feel to turn every free hour into a useful, stimulating experience and, if possible, with a certificate at the end. Camps, piano lessons, private tutoring… and, for a few years now, visits to electric car assembly lines. As revealed a report by Yan Caijing signed by Mo Nai, this trend has ceased to be a curiosity and has become a mass phenomenon that combines education, marketing and some social theater. The new trendy school trip. Xiaomi was the first to understand it at scale. Since its founder Lei Jun announced in January 2024 that the Yizhuang plant in Beijing would open its doors to the public through a lottery, demand has not stopped growing. Just like account The medium, at one point, the acceptance rate fell to 0.4% per session, with barely 20 places available compared to thousands of applications. The resale of places did not take long to appear: according to account In the middle, on second-hand platforms up to 1,000 yuan were requested for a free place (about 124.62 euros at the exchange rate), without discounts or negotiation. According to published data, only in 2025 the Yizhuang factory received 130,000 visitors. NIO and Xpeng have also opened their facilities, with similar dynamics. And international brands such as BMW or Volkswagen have joined the trend from their plants in China. What the family sees when they enter. The standard tour follows a fairly established script: showroom with the latest models, walk through the production line, test drive and some manual activity, such as assembling a miniature model or building a small souvenir. Some factories even open their restaurant for visitors to eat there. In fact, the detail of eating there is an experience that can commonly be seen on the country’s social networks. Marketing. Although it may seem like a gesture of transparency or social responsibility on the part of the brands, there is a very intelligent marketing maneuver behind it, since it is an experience that costs them very little and they end up getting a lot of impact for it. That it has reached our ears and that we have written about it is the greatest proof of this. Additionally, seeing a car assembled piece by piece live creates an emotional connection that no television advertisement can match. According to they shared From Baiguan, some users on social networks acknowledged that the visit to the factory directly influenced their purchase decision. Other parents commented that they hope their children end up working in these types of companies. The visit can not only end up selling a car: it sows a brand identity that can take decades to mature. Visits to car factories are not new either. Many Spaniards have visited the SEAT in Martorell, to give an example that catches us more closely. In fact, as the media recalls, it was Citroën who, after the First World War, opened the doors of its factory to the public in France for the first time, turning the assembly line into a spectacle for the most curious. Its founder André Citroën understood before anyone else that showing how things are done is, in itself, an act of commercial seduction. What Xiaomi or NIO have done now is, in essence, the same idea applied with data, raffle algorithms and virality on social networks. And the State also plays. The phenomenon also has a political dimension. And just as share In the middle, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has promoted the creation of industrial tourism routes that integrate smart factories and industrial heritage into the country’s tourist circuits. In global terms, industrial tourism represents between 10 and 15% of total tourist income; in China, according to sector figures, it is still below 5%. Electric car factories, with their shiny aesthetics and robotic arms, are the perfect showcase for a narrative of technological modernity that the government is as interested in as the brands themselves. Cover image | Xiaomi and Xinhua In Xataka | It took Shenzhen 20 years to have a metro and another 20 to have the best in the world: China’s work that leaves the West behind

This week, the new ‘Stranger Things’, a rare British series and the return of Charlize Theron

by

The week of April 20 to 26 comes full of news to Netflix. The most media premiere and expected by long-time fans of the platform is the first spin-off of ‘Stranger Things‘, an animated series subtitled ‘Stories of 85’ and which takes place between seasons 2 and 3 of the original series. But it’s not the only thing we have this week: there is the British thriller ‘The Not Chosen’ and a fast-paced thriller starring the platform’s very regular Charlize Theron, who will put her most extreme survival skills into play. Series Stranger Things: Stories from ’85 First animated spin-off of ‘Stranger Things’, which allows us to recover the characters loved by fans with the ages of the first seasons (specifically, between the second and third), avoiding that annoying mania of the actors to grow and mature. Winter 1985 in Hawkins: The tranquility after the explosive end of the second year is shattered when a new threat emerges from The Other Side. The Duffer brothers serve as executive producers of this proposal seeking to recreate the aesthetics of Saturday morning cartoons from the eighties. The animation by the Australian studio Flying Bark Productions mixes modern techniques with retro sensibility but, yes, the original actors of the series do not participate in the dubbing. The unelected British psychological thriller that at some point is reminiscent of the memorable ‘The Leftovers’ and follows a young mother who lives with her husband and daughter within a hermetic Christian community. The appearance of an escaped prisoner reveals the reality and restrictions of that closed world, raising doubts about whether the community really looks out for Rosie’s best interests. Asa Butterfield, who plays the husband, was the protagonist of ‘Sex Education’ and among the supporting cast we have none other than the former Doctor Who Christopher Eccleston. Other series Funny AF with Kevin Hart – April 20 Here we talk about orchards – April 22 Santita – April 22 Hulk Hogan: Real American – April 22 A love that never ends – April 22 He teacher – April 23 ORna new move (T2) – April 23 The Trials of Winnie Mandela – April 23 If the wishes they will kill – April 24 Movies Dominant predator Poxo sexy (although literal) Spanish translation of the much more suggestive original ‘Apex’, a survival thriller with which Charlize Theron returns to Netflix after the sequel to ‘The Old Guard’, which went somewhat unnoticed. Here she plays a grieving woman who ventures alone into the outback Australian and ends up trapped in a deadly game of cat and mouse with a psychopath played by Taron Egerton. Directed by Icelandic Baltasar Kormákur, accustomed to dangerous environments like those of ‘Everest’ or ‘Drifting’. The best: Theron performed much of her own action scenes, as usual, and trained with professional climber Beth Rodden, so we will have a good physical display of the actress, who usually gives herself to the maximum in the genre. Usual Suspects One of the undisputed classics of the wave of thrillers that devastated the screens in the nineties with a cast that still impresses today: Kevin Spacey, Chazz Palminteri, Gabriel Byrne and Benicio del Toro. A customs agent investigates a fire with 27 victims on a ship in the port of Los Angeles. Through the story of a conman who survived the massacre, the film reconstructs how five criminals met in a police lineup and ended up entangled in an operation orchestrated by Keyser Söze, a legendary and feared crime lord. Director Bryan Singer and Kevin Spacey gained international recognition with this film written by Christopher McQuarrie, who would later direct the most spectacular installments of ‘Mission Impossible’, here in an early work for which he conceived one of the most memorable and influential final twists in history. Other movies Lainey Wilson: Country is still playing – April 22 Yiya Murano: Death at tea time – April 23 All sides of the bed – April 24 In Xataka | Netflix is ​​desperate to find the next franchise that will make it gold. The problem is that he can’t find it.

Europe is taking its technological independence so seriously that it is aiming for the most ambitious goal: NVIDIA

by

Europe cannot continue to be the technological vassal of the United States. With that powerful message, the CEO of Mistral presented a few days ago a roadmap with which he considers that Europe can take the pulse in the technological race of artificial intelligence. The warning came just when several companies are defining the future of European technological sovereigntyand one of those companies is Euclyd. It is seeking 100 million euros, is backed by one of the ASML bosses and has a clear objective: to stop depending on NVIDIA. And it’s not the only one. Euclyd. We have already talked at length about ASML. Although when we talk about the technology industry we have names like Intel, TSMC, NVIDIA or Qualcomm more present, ASML is the Dutch company that manufactures the most advanced machines for manufacturing semiconductors. Without it, the technology industry would not be what it is to the point that China is investing everything in having its own ASML. Well, Bernardo Kastrup is the former director of ASML and, in 2024, he founded Euclyd. This startup is backed by former ASML CEO Peter Wennink, and, according to CNBCis looking for financing to raise the necessary capital to start mass manufacturing chips. 100 times more efficient than NVIDIA. In this new round of financing, Euclyd is seeking $100 million and the goal is to create inference chips for AI. These chips are designed so that the models use what they learned in the training phase and are optimized for high speed, low latency and, above all, much lower energy consumption than the training ones. And that is where the ambitions are maximum. Euclyd, based in Eindhoven, claims that its ‘Craftwerk’ chip system is 100 times more energy efficient for AI inference than NVIDIA’s Vera Rubin chips. This is very good, but the comparison is a bit bulky because Vera Rubin, which is the new generation from NVIDIA, is not a pure training or inference platform: it is optimized to do both. European movement. But hey, Euclyd is currently raising the money with an eye toward delivering inference chips to its first two customers by 2027. And it’s not the only one. There are others such as the British Olix, Optalysys and Tactile, the French Lago or the Dutch Axelera that have raised more than 800 million euros to date. That is from the private sphere, since Europe has the FAMES pilot program which has 830 million euros to finance this type of projects. It is an extremely modest amount if we take into account what is moving on the other side of the pond, but between financing chip companies, renewables and European data centersis a sign that the feeling that Europe must fend for itself is there. world movement. The interesting thing is that this does not respond only to Europe’s feeling of technological sovereignty. It goes further, pointing to the great whale of AI: NVIDIA. Whatever company we think of, surely part of its hardware – or all – belongs to NVIDIA. own Mistral reached a very juicy agreement with the company led by Jensen Huang to be able to acquire thousands of GPUs, but the industry is already seeing what happens when all the eggs are in the same basket. That is why NVIDIA has its potential greatest rivals among its clients. Goal, tesla either amazon They buy from NVIDIA, but at the same time they are developing their own chips. The Chinese giants want NVIDIA chips, but they also develop their alternatives with local companies. All of this is creating more shadowy companies such as Texas Instruments, Marvell or Broadcom to do business, since they are the ones those who turn to They do not want to depend so much on NVIDIA. Google. In fact, just as startups developing AI chips are appearing in Europe, in the United States an ecosystem of companies is developing that are raising billions of dollars. Two examples They are Cerebras Systems, which is valued at 23 billion or MatXfounded by former engineers from Google’s TPU development team. Google itself, whose TPUs are manufactured by Broadcomthis searching an agreement with Marvell to diversify its inference chip business. NVIDIA responds. There is a phrase that has always made me laugh, that of “you think the police are stupid”, and applies perfectly here. NVIDIA has also been realizing for some time that it must diversify and has stopped injecting obscene amounts of money to only a few companies to go on to support other smaller onesbut promising. This way you get clients in the curious circular AI financingas well as continuing to be the one who leads the segment. But in addition to investing in others, she invests in herself. In March, he invested 4 billion a photonics company to make optical interconnection systems for next-generation data centers. They are also investing more than 18,000 million in R&D and winning juicy contracts with both TSMC as with Samsungwho make the chips for the company’s AI platforms. In the end, if all markets have something in common, it is unbridled spending. Europe, China and the United States have embarked on a race in which there is no end in sight and that will perhaps have its greatest test when Anthropic and OpenAI go public this year. In Xataka | Europe thinks that it is the one who wants to become independent from US technology companies. It’s actually the other way around.

We always believed that the Mediterranean was “closed” with an apocalyptic waterfall in Gibraltar. 50 years have qualified it

by

If we travel to the past and stand in the Strait of Gibraltar 5.96 million years ago, we would see how it was closed and not open as is the case right now. This is something that left a Mediterranean isolated from the Atlantic, causing its water to begin to evaporate and leaving only a kilometer of salt on the bottom in an event known as the ‘Messinian salinity crisis‘. But now, the method by which it was ‘opened’ to give rise to the Mediterranean that we know today has undergone different nuances. What we knew. Until now it was thought that hundreds of thousands of years after this closure of the strait, a tectonic collapse occurred that reopened the passage, causing what is known as ‘Zanclian Megaflood‘. This was nothing more than a large waterfall in Gibraltar which supposedly filled the entire sea in a matter of months or a few years. In anyone’s mind this may be something great and like a real Hollywood movie, but the reality is that science is beginning to show many doubts that this exists. The origin of the myth. This mental image of the Strait of Gibraltar did not come out of nowhere, but in 2009 the magazine Nature public a study that modeled how the Atlantic would have breached the Gibraltar barrier, carving a deep canyon and pouring water at great speed. Without a doubt this was the perfect scenario to explain the erosive scars on the seabed. Although he was not alone, since later studies were added to this that, although they clarified how the salinity was stabilized after the event, they continued to find clear evidence in the geology that pointed to yes there were flooding episodes very abrupt and a violent flow of water that would make sense with this large waterfall. The problem is that this great phenomenon was oversimplified when complexity is its great characteristic. There are changes. Fifty years after the first hypotheses were raised, a large study published in 2025 pointed out that the connection between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean could have continued to exist for much of this period of time. But this is something that makes us raise another question: how is it possible then that kilometers of salt accumulated on the bottom if the sea did not dry completely? This is where the ‘‘paradox of the Mediterranean’ which suggests that changes in precipitation and the immense contribution of fresh water and sediment from European and African rivers allowed certain water levels to be maintained. That is why that scene of a completely dry Mediterranean is not so true, since only a little water was lost and it effectively made the water very salty. And more tests. Besides, studies on the Arch of Gibraltar demonstrate that the reduction in connectivity was due to a constant tectonic tug-of-war. That is why the pass never became a hermetic wall of solid rock that would break overnight, but rather a system of thresholds that allowed continuous leaks. The reality. After all, the question we must ask ourselves is whether there really was a flood or not, and here science suggests that the truth is somewhere in the middle. The latest evidence tells us that the total disconnection was real, but very brief in geological terms, since when the Atlantic finally regained definitive control over the Mediterranean basin, the filling was undoubtedly rapid and spectacularly rapid, although not necessarily through a single and apocalyptic cataract in Gibraltar. A scene that in the end can be much more boring for many. Images | wirestock In Xataka | 4.5 billion years at a glance: the amazing map of the moon that translates every impact and volcano into fascinating code

Log In

Forgot password?

Forgot password?

Enter your account data and we will send you a link to reset your password.

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

Log in

Privacy Policy

Add to Collection

No Collections

Here you'll find all collections you've created before.