Mobile Tech & Gadgets

In the search for a supersonic train, China tests a Maglev that will reach 4,000 km/h. The problem will be maintaining it

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China’s conquest of the high-speed train field is impressive. In the 2008 Beijing Olympicsthe country had just 120 kilometers of high speed between Beijing and Tianjin. 17 years latermanage more high-speed kilometers than any other countrya very long distance from Spain or Japan. They are not only building kilometers to unite the entire country: they are developing technologies so that the plane is no longer necessary. As? With Maglev trains at speeds of 1,000 km/h. And a specific model, the T-Flight, which dreams of 4,000 km/h. Maglev + Hyperloop. China is one of the countries, along with Japan, that is investing a lot of money in the development of the magnetic levitation trainsor Maglev. This technology allows trains not to rest their wheels on the rails, but rather to float thanks to a series of powerful magnets and an electromagnetic field. This allows us to exceed the 250 km/h that has been set as a standard for high speed and, for example, China has the fastest Maglev in the worldone that reaches 431 km/h. It is already operational between Beijing and Shanghai, but in Japan is testing one that will exceed 600 km/h. It’s a speed that will seem slow compared to what CASIC is preparing. It stands for “China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation,” a state-owned tactical missile company that announced the T-Flight project in August 2017. The idea? Combine magnetic levitation trains with Hyperloop-style vacuum tubes. T-Flight. In short, it is putting a Maglev in a vacuum tube, eliminating air pressure and resistance as much as possible, but there is much more. For example, the idea of CASIC is that magnetic levitation is enhanced thanks to superconductors that will raise the train up to 100 mm above the rail. Conventional Maglevs are raised by about 10 mm, and the idea is that the higher the train is, the more stability it will have at extreme speeds. On the other hand, the tube itself, with a system that extracts air from it to create a low pressure environment, reducing aerodynamic resistance to the maximum. This partial vacuum and levitation that eliminates the physical resistance of the wheel and track is what will allow unprecedented speeds to be achieved. Achievements. In 2024 they already achieved one first validated test as a world record by reaching 623 km/h, but in the summer of this year, in a low pressure environment, The train reached 650 km/h in seven seconds in its laboratory. They were strange tests, since the track was a kilometer long when the usual thing is much longer, but that also gives us a clue of what brutal which is both the acceleration and braking of the train. That is, think that, in seven seconds and in just one kilometer, the train accelerated to 650 km/h and stopped. The team’s idea is to reach 800 km/h as the top speed this year, but the ambition goes much further. Ambition. Currently, the team is in Phase 1, which is the one that aims aim that speed of 1,000 km/h. To do this, and to validate the speed in real conditions, they want to extend the test track to 60 kilometers. However, the thing does not stop there and, when the project was born, it was already said that Phase 2 and Phase 3 would have as aim 2,000 km/h (almost double the cruising speed of a traditional commercial airplane) and 4,000 km/hsupersonic speeds that would compete with the fastest planes in the world. This would allow large urban centers in China to be linked in a few minutes, leaving aside the need to take planes to cover long distances. In fact, this high speed is already showing in Europe that short flights do not make sense if we combine the waiting time at the airport with the flight itself and compare it with the comfort of access to the train. A major challenge. Now, the goal will not be easy. Maglev technology works and is proven, but what they want to achieve with this T-Flight not only complicates things because, in addition to a track, a tube must be built. And, of course, maintain it. Extending this partial vacuum over hundreds of kilometers of tube represents an enormous technical challenge because it implies that the joints must be perfectly sealed, without the cold and heat dilating them so that there are no leaks. It is estimated that a 600 km pipe requires an expansion joint every 100 meters, and each one of them represents a potential point of failure. Furthermore, at 300 km/h appreciate vibrations in the seats. Air system to reduce pressure inside the tubes Furthermore, any decompression would be catastrophic and perhaps most importantly: there is no certification standard or safety protocols for something like this. In any case, T-Flight continues to take steps at a good pace and, although it seems difficult to see it working in the short term, if a country can achieve it right now… it is China. Images | Geely In Xataka | After 20 years, the definitive one arrives: Brazil prepares the first high-speed train in South America

be earning an indecent amount of money

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The transformation from Rheinmetall from just another contractor in the European military ecosystem to an industrial superpower with margins greater than 20% reflects the new reality of a continent that has gone from defensive austerity to massive reactivation from its military base. And here a problem has arisen for the company: winning too much money. A driven giant. While Germany commits to rebuild the largest army conventional Europe, the company has multiplied its weight thanks to almost total vertical integration: it manufactures complete ammunition, from the case to the propellant, and can produce at a rate that leaves its competitors behind. This scale has allowed it to go from margins of 5% in the previous decade to figures close to 19%with the declared objective of reaching 30% in its ammunition business by 2030. The paradox is evident: the more it produces to reinforce European security, the closer it approaches profitability levels that they can be uncomfortable for governments that finance these purchases with public money. So profitable that it threatens to become unsustainable. The paradox explained this week Bloomberg. The risk for Rheinmetall is not an eventual peace in Ukraine, but earn too much. The plan to quintuple income up to 50,000 million of euros at the end of the decade, together with a potential operating profit of 10 billion annually, raises fundamental questions: how will taxpayers react when a private arms company obtains profits comparable to those of a technological giant? Rivals like BAE are expanding their factorieswhich could balance the market and put pressure on prices. And in parallel, economists and analysts remember that defense industries have an “acceptable threshold” of profit before proposals for extraordinary taxes or regulatory controls arise. Unlike other partly state-owned European players, Rheinmetall is entirely in private hands, meaning that the impressive revaluation 1,400% since 2022 it has barely benefited German citizens. The commitment to automation. He runaway growth is supported by a wave of investments: more than 8 billion for new ammunition and gunpowder factories in Eastern Europe, automated lines capable of producing 350,000 projectiles a year with just 120 workers and a strategic expansion into the naval field after acquiring Lürssen. Rheinmetall aims to become the main supplier of NATO weapons in Europe (up to 25% of allied spending) and seeks to replicate its industrial model in traditionally less profitable sectors, like the naval. However, this intensive robotization raises another political contradiction: the huge defense budget boom does not translate into the increase in employment that many governments had promised. Unpredictable future. The key question for analysts is how long Rheinmetall can sustain a growth and margins that far exceed those of any other Western weapons manufacturer without awakening a counterattack political, fiscal or competitive. If the company continues to rack up record profits as it climbs to dominance European industryStates could demand lower prices, impose new rules or force greater public participation in the sector. In the new European war economywhere safety and profitability coexist, Rheinmetall has become a symbol of a bigger dilemma: the increasingly fine line between the urgent need to rearm and the discomfort of financing extraordinary private benefits with state funds. Image | włodi In Xataka | The “rearmament” of Europe has begun at a Volkswagen factory in Germany: instead of cars they will produce tanks In Xataka | In Europe rearmament prices are rising and cars are falling. And a Basque components factory wants to take advantage of it

The Virgin appeared inside a volcano in La Garrotxa. So they built one of the most special hermitages in the world

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I confess that one of the buildings that fascinates me the most is that of the hermitage. There are some as spectacular as the one in Virgin of the Castle in Chillónbut others are four almost dilapidated walls in remote places (or locked in a Madrid roundabout). They are scattered throughout our geography, sometimes extremely hidden, to the point that there is one that crowns a spectacular landscape. It is the hermitage of Santa Margarida de Sacot, in the Garrotxa. And it is in the center of the crater of a volcano. Santa Margarida volcano. Of all the volcanic areas of the Iberian Peninsula, Garrotxa is one of the most spectacular. As in other volcanic areas, we can perfectly see the cones of the volcanoes that erupted thousands of years ago. But, unlike places like Campo de Calatrava, the Garrotxa It is dyed green thanks to its vegetation. It is estimated that the volcanic activity in the Garrotxa Volcanic Zone Natural Park It expanded from 700,000 years ago to 8,300 years ago, with the Santa Margarida volcano being one of the youngest of the 40 cones that make up the area. From a drone view, the volcano is imposing, but it is striking that the interior of the crater is a treeless meadow and has a building right in the center. A hermitage would be good. Places of worship are not usually planted in a random place and, as tradition says, the hermitage that shares its name with the volcano was built when someone discovered something miraculous: an image of the virgin carved in alabaster inside the crater. It was clear: a building had to be built to honor such a miracle. Although the first documented reference to the hermitage is from 1403, when money was allocated to maintain the chapel, it is estimated that this Romanesque building would have been built at some point. moment from the 13th century. The picture is impressive The church is ruined. The miracle of the virgin could not be repeated to save the hermitage from the effects of earthquakes that shook the area in 1428. Known as “Terratrèmol de la Candelera”, a series of tremors with an estimated magnitude of between 6.5 and 7.3 knocked down several buildings, the hermitage of Santa Margarida one of those who ended up badly off. Something was saved: the image of the virgin carved in alabaster, which is currently kept in the Diocesan Museum of Girona. In 1865 decided that something had to be done with the place and they rebuilt the hermitage. They did so by building a single-nave structure that preserves something of the original: the semicircular apse and the porch, and inside it, a replica of the alabaster carving. deep symbolism. Since then, and as it has been doing for 400 years, the hermitage of Santa Margarida governs the center of the homonymous volcano and is part of the Natural Park. If you feel up to it, you can visit it, but you will have to do some hiking. The car is left on the edge of the volcano and it is necessary to continue on foot along a well-marked path until reaching 766 meters of altitude. That is the perimeter of the crater, 2,000 metersand to reach the hermitage, we have to descend a little to 682 meters, where we finally have the place of worship surrounded by a green meadow. For many, it is surely simply another fascinating place in our geography, but for many others it is possible that stopping in that place awakens the feelings that led those who built the hermitage in the Middle Ages: a deep connection with the divine. What is evident is that, whether we have that connection or not, the landscape is impressive and seeing a construction in the center of a volcanic crater is a powerful image. And if there is not much tourism, a moment of retreat and disconnection from everyday life. Images | Jordiferrer, Carquinyol from Badalona In Xataka | The largest underground labyrinth in Spain is in a town in Guadalajara: the fascinating network of “Arab caves”

Mercedes has the engine that wants to revolutionize electric cars

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Developing an engine, founding a startup and being bought by a company like Mercedes must be the dream come true of any engineer. Precisely, this is what happened when British manufacturer YASA. In 2009, members of the University of Oxford founded the company with one goal in mind: to create axial flux electric motors. After gaining clients like Ferrari, Mercedes saw potential and bought the company in 2021. Now they have created a “tiny” engine capable of delivering 1,000 HP. In this type of motor, a magnetic field and the force that rotates the rotor occur in a system parallel to the axis of rotation. Parts such as the rotor or stator are arranged in the form of flat, facing discs. In a traditional radial engine we have the classic cylinder with the stator outside, the rotor rotating inside and the magnetic field goes from the center to the outside. A axial flux electric motor It is a type of motor in which the magnetic field and the force that rotates the rotor run parallel to the axis of rotation. In a radial one, that happens from the center outwards. The radial is the one worn by the current hybrids and electricsbut the axial flow one arrives as a contender to revolutionize the interior of new energy cars thanks to a key advantage: space. The axial ones are smaller because all the elements are plates on top of each other, which allows them to be much flatter and lighter, as well as capable of developing a lot of power. By polishing its design process, YASA affirms who have achieved a latest generation engine capable of achieving 1,000 HP. The 1,000 HP engine to revolutionize electric vehicles It was a few months ago when the Mercedes-Benz subsidiary announced a prototype of an axial engine thatwith just 12.7 kg of weight, is capable of delivering a peak power of 750 kW. That translates into the aforementioned 1,000 HP and the power ratio is 59 kW/kg. The equipment surpasses the record they also held, that of the density of 42 kW/kg with a total of 55 kW which, in addition, weighed a few grams more, reaching 13.1 kg. Of course, that is the peak power, since YASA itself assures that the objective is for this new engine to be able to offer continuous power between 350-400 kW (about 530 HP). According to the team, they have achieved this increase in power thanks to improvements in both design and thermal dissipation, making the motor more efficient and constant and without using “exotic materials” to achieve those improvements in dissipation and performance. Tim Woolmer, CEO and founder of YASA, claims that his creation “will change the game in the high-performance automotive sector.” Because… yes, this engine is not focused on the electric street car at the moment. It is in the world of high performance where an engine this compact and powerful makes perfect sense. The less it weighs and takes up less space, the more the mass and volume are reduced. of the propulsion system, allowing more efficient chassis and larger batteries that improve final autonomy. Examples of cars that already have YASA engines? He Ferrari SF90 Stradale with three YASA engines that add up to 217 HP and serve as support for the thermal V8 to achieve 987 total HP, the Ferrari 296 GTB with a 165 HP YASA engine on the rear axle, the Koeningsegg Regera with three YASA engines that provide 700 HP or the Lamborghini Revuelto two YASA on the front axle. Mercedes-AMG itself also takes advantage of its technology in the GT four-door coupe. Now, the interest that this has for the average user is that these innovations They have the potential to end up reaching utility vehicles. At the moment, we drive cars with legacy technologies both competition and supercars, and scalable engines that are easy to mass produce and have a good relationship between weight, the power they deploy and the space they occupy is something attractive for the automotive industry. The problem? Precisely, the great virtue of this engine: that it represents a paradigm shift. The build platforms have been optimized for radial motor manufacturing processes and changing everything to accommodate an axial flux motor would involve a considerable investment. For the world of high performance, these engines are already a reality, but for the everyday car they still feel a bit far away. Images | YASA In Xataka | While Europe is thinking about what to do with the electric car, China already knows how to remain a leader in 2040. This is its plan

an atlas that reveals what we have not seen before

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For some time now, thinking about searching for a building inevitably led us to the coverage from Maps/Earth on Google. And the truth is that it works very well showing images (where they exist) and in the quality that exists, which meant that there are very detailed areas and others that are rather poor. That’s why, the new map of the planet’s architecture is more accurate: with consistent 3D data throughout the world, including rural places, countries with poor cartography or regions ignored on other maps. The planet building by building. He GlobalBuildingAtlascreated by a team at the Technical University of Munich (also for download on Github), represents a historic leap in the way of representing the human presence on Earth: a 3D map of the 2.75 billion buildings generated from satellite images since 2019, with a resolution about thirty times greater than any previous database and a coverage that for the first time homogeneously integrates traditionally invisible regions for global cartography, from rural areas of Africa to small isolated centers in Asia or South America. This scale allows us to observe how humanity is physically distributed: heights, volumes, densities, occupation patterns and spatial relationships between buildings, all reconstructed with a precision that turns the map into a three-dimensional x-ray of global urbanism. The crux. Beyond its visual spectacularity, the project pursue a purpose deeper: measure the footprint of urbanization, analyze structural poverty through indicators such as the volume built per capita and correct decades of cartographic biases that concentrated information in rich cities and left large regions without reliable data. To achieve this, the team has counted which applied filtering strategies that homogenize the variable quality of satellite images and built models that capture not only the presence of a building, but its mass, its height and its position relative, an essential set of data to understand how life is organized on the surface of the planet. Visual comparison of existing building height databases in test cities in North America, South America, Europe, Oceania and Asia Analysis instrument. One of the most surprising things about the project is the massive incorporation of rural buildings and countries with limited mapping infrastructure, which opens the door to research that before they were impossible: comparative studies of territorial inequality, fine analyzes on the intensity of urbanization, evaluation of demographic loads or detection of areas where the volume built per person reveals housing deficits, overcrowding or extreme dispersion. The indicator of building volume per capitaincluding in the databaseallows us to directly locate socioeconomic gaps, correlate built densities with income levels and observe patterns that until now could only be inferred with indirect approaches. Building volume per capita and harmonized correlation coefficients for the 27 EU Member States and the EU as a whole A warning map. In fact and how they detail researchers, such a tool not only illuminates the distribution of well-being, but also helps identify where collapse infrastructurewhere public investment is lacking or which regions accumulate historical vulnerabilities invisible to international planning. Organizations such as the German Aerospace Center already have shown interest in using the atlas to evaluate risks in the face of natural or human disasters, taking advantage of its ability to model how settlements, relief and exposure to danger interact at each point on the planet. Zoom in London A new scientific layer. Plus: the value from the GlobalBuildingAtlas It is also climatic. The location, shape and volume of buildings determine energy demand, urban heat generation and emissions associated with human activity. The team details Knowing exactly where the population is concentrated and what its structures are like allows us to improve consumption projections, model mitigation scenarios and adapt public policies to contexts where energy efficiency depends on very specific spatial patterns. The atlas offers the “first truly uniform global basis” to feed climate models that integrate human presence in detail, and makes something that until now it was diffuse: the global geometry of human habitat, a crucial element to anticipate how pressure on ecosystems will evolve and which regions will need urgent interventions in infrastructure, housing or climate resilience. Added to this is its usefulness for planners and governments who, even in countries with limited resources, will be able to use this open data to prioritize investments with reasoned criteria and not with intuitions or fragmentary statistics. Data enables more accurate models for urbanization, infrastructure and disaster management Expose the most remote. Unlike other commercial mapsthis atlas it’s opendownloadable and measurable, and allows the user to explore any point in the world with new fidelity. Areas that appear dark or empty when viewed from a distance reveal, when approachinga handful of isolated homes or small settlements that until now were completely outside of any global representation. This ability to show both megacities and the last inhabited corners turns the tool into a kind of digital mirror of the planet where the human footprint has left an architectural mark, however minuscule. In other words, the user can enter any address, view the position and elevation of a building, modify layers and filters or download the code to work with data without restrictions, something unprecedented in this type of cartography that has traditionally been left in the hands of governments or large technological platforms. Extra ball. If you are wondering how far it is capable of going, its authors assure that even in most remote places (from rural villages in South Korea, to Amazonian valleys or African deserts) the atlas detects and models buildings that previous cartography ignored, offering a new, fairer and more complete image of human space. Redefine “seeing the world.” In short, the initiative of GlobalBuildingAtlas it is not only a technical achievement: It is a new way of interpreting the Earth. By continually showing the physical footprint of humanity, it dismantles the idea that urbanization is limited to large cities and reveals a dense and discontinuous network of occupation that illuminates historical trajectories, structural inequalities and expansion dynamics that were previously submerged in statistics. … Read more

wells, drought and the hidden side of the avocado

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Avocado is undoubtedly a very delicious food and also in high demand for its good macros, which has led to an increase in its production. This proliferation in its cultivation seems to bring good news for our land (especially because it sells well), but on the Costa del Sol and the Tropical Coast of Malaga and Granada the great environmental impacts are already seen which is generating such as the plowing of the slopes and a large water consumption that aggravates the drought already typical of southern Spain. A great consumption. To put figures, More than 20,000 hectares are now dedicated to avocados in these provinceswith some 5,000 hectares converted from dry land to irrigated land, with dubious legality behind it, which has also caused the appearance up to 250 illegal wells in 2023. This expansion, which represents 30% of the Andalusian avocado area (about 9,400 hectares in total), has replaced traditional crops with hypertensive tropical crops despite the climate crisis. All to opt for a crop that can undoubtedly give a great economic return. Environmentalism. A recent complaint made through Along with this complaint, which points to the serious environmental problems that are being experienced, different images are shown that undoubtedly speak for themselves to understand how this crop is affecting the geography. Publication in X by Santiago M. Barajas | Via X What we are seeing is not just agriculture; It is an industrial transformation of the landscape that is pushing the water and geological resources of Malaga and Granada to the limit. This is how avocado and mango have gone from being “green gold” to becoming an environmental time bomb. Destruction engineering. Traditionally, agriculture in these areas was adapted to the natural orography of the land. But now, the model that has been imposed, driven by the very high profitability of the tropical fruit, does the opposite: adapt the orography to the crop by force. According to Ecologists in Action and confirm various edaphic studiesthe implementation of these crops requires heavy machinery to break slopes. The process eliminates the original vegetation cover to create artificial terraces. The result? A severe degradation of the soil in its surface horizons. A problem with storms. With this degradation, what is caused is the elimination of natural vegetation, which produces a “sealing” of the soil and consequently the appearance of cracks that nullify its biological functions. The problem arises when torrential rains appear (increasingly more frequent in the Mediterranean), which causes the water to not filter and run away, dragging nutrients and causing massive erosion. This is something that translates into the use of more fertilizers by farmers, which end up contaminating the subsoil. In short, we are facing a vicious cycle of chemical and physical degradation. An infinite thirst. The avocado is a fruit that fits perfectly in the rainforest, but has now been transplanted in an area with a semi-arid Mediterranean climate. An ideal place for traditional dryland crops such as olive or almond trees that can survive on what falls from the sky. But avocado or mango in a hypertensive model demand about 7,500 cubic meters of water per hectare per year. These demands Added to the large number of plantations that exist, as we have commented previously, it leads to great water tension that we have seen reflected in the La Viñuela reservoir, which has reached only 7% of its capacity in 2023, and which has reached La Axarquía in Malaga. to a critical situation. And this deficit is not solved with rain, but with drilling machines that open wells in the area. In this way, the direct consequence is clear: overexploitation of aquifers and their salinization due to marine intrusion. An escalated problem. This avocado bubble does not stop increasing in our country. Given the collapse that has been experienced in Malagathe model has been replicated in Cádiz, Hueva or Murcia, which in the end are regions that already suffer their own water stress due to not receiving much rainfall throughout the year. But not only has he been emigrating from the provinces, but he has also escalated to the judicial field, where the prosecution points it is already being investigated a possible environmental crime with damage to the public water domain valued at 10 million euros and the illegal theft of up to 26 cubic hectometers of water. And in many of these regions citizens have had to suffer supply cuts due to this shortage, while this agricultural model continued to demand A solution. What is proposed In this case it is the ordered de-escalation of these crops. To achieve this, the goal is to stop new irrigation talks and close illegal wells. The problem is that it faces a very important leg of the economy of some of these provinces, against the change in the landscapes of the region. In Xataka | Andalusia has become a hostile land for the avocado. So an unexpected region is taking over: Galicia

one creates cement, the other protects it

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Mars has become an obsession. Missions like those led by SpaceX demonstrate this and the truth is that going is the “simple” part. The really difficult thing is terraforming the planet to be able to carry out long-term missions in the field. In the movie ‘The Martian‘We already saw how an astronaut survived on Mars based on field-grown potatoes and, although it may seem like science fiction, we are already making progress on it. But we also need to build, and it is best to use Martian dust to create bricks. As? With the help of two bacteria. Biofoundation. Both the Moon and Mars are covered in dust. This mantle is made up of a series of elements that we can use to our advantage to create construction materials. It is much easier to figure out how to transform these materials into something useful than to carry kilos and kilos of materials from Earth, and in a study published in Frontiers in Microbiology addresses that problem. In it, researchers from the ‘Giulio Natta’ Department of Chemistry, Materials and Chemical Engineering of the Polytechnic of Milan describe the process of transforming Martian regolith into a concrete-like material through a process called biocementation. And the proposal is to use a duo of bacteria capable of carrying out this transformation. ‘Mason’ bacteria. The protagonists are the Sporosarcina pasteurii and the Choococcidiopsis and the key process of the technology is ‘Microbially Induced Calcium Carbonate Precipitation: a process by which microorganisms generate calcium carbonate at room temperature. In the case of the Sporosarcina pasteuriithe process is based on ureolysis. Thus, the bacteria produces the enzyme ureasewhich hydrolyzes urea into ammonia and carbonic acid. When released, it raises the pH of the environment, while carbonic acid dissociates into carbonate ions. When they combine with calcium ions present in the medium, they precipitate as calcium carbonate crystals on the bacterial cell walls and on soil particles. A confusing and technical explanation to say that they generate a waste that acts as a natural cement that joins the regolith particles Martian, transforming naturally loose dust into a compact material with compressive strengths similar to those of some concrete mixtures. BIOMEX. On the other hand, there is the Choococcidiopsis. It is one of the most resistant organisms we know – like the friendly tardigrades -. They are capable of surviving in conditions that simulate the Martian environment and, in fact, a few years ago the mission BIOMEX of the European Space Agency demonstrated that strains of this bacteria exposed without any shield for 18 months to both the vacuum of space and solar radiation were intact. Once they were rehydrated, they resumed their metabolic activities. This is important because we have already “proven” the Choococcidiopsis in space, and its role in this story is not because of its ability to convert regolith into concrete, the other one takes care of that, but because of its extreme resistance. What the researchers propose is an association between the two bacteria. Through photosynthesis, the Choococcidiopsis releases oxygen that creates a favorable microenvironment for the Sporosarcina pasteurii Do your job while, in turn, providing favorable conditions for your companion’s survival in the hostile Martian environment. Defensive arsenal. That is, while one works, the other provides food and defense. And, really, the defensive arsenal of the Choococcidiopsis It is imposing. As if it were the armor of a state-of-the-art tank, it has three lines of defense: The first is formed by extracellular polymeric substances that form a thick layer that filters almost 70% of UVA radiation, almost 70% of UVM radiation and almost 90% of UVC. The second line consists of antioxidants that bind to the outer membrane to act as a photoprotector, neutralizing the reactive oxygen species generated by radiation. And the third defense includes UV filters. As if that were not enough, Choococcidiopsis can self-repair its DNA if it is damaged by radiation. Beyond construction. It is resistant and resilient, but before launching flying bells and bacteria to Mars, the team itself details that you have to go step by step. Although different agencies want to build the first human habitat on Mars in the 2040s, it is no longer just that building on the planet is a problem: the question of how these pioneers will return must be answered with guarantees. There are plenty of projects underway to learn how to build and farm on Mars by imitating the planet’s characteristics. At the moment, they are demonstrating that Martian material can be converted into construction material, but there is still a long way to go, such as replicating Martian conditions on Earth to optimize these construction processes. And discoveries such as the work of these bacteria together can lead not only to novelties in terms of construction, but also to potential uses of the capabilities of some of them to produce oxygen on Mars or even use the by-products they discard as an element for crops in space. Ammonia, for example, which could be used as fertilizer for crops. Images | T. Darienko, Interstellar Lab In Xataka | All the resources we can potentially extract from the Moon, illustrated in this revealing graphic

a suitcase with wheels at 30 km/h

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Just a few days ago, Pere Navarro, director of the DGT, said that “The only way to access the cities will be by public transport“. These are words that a good part of the media has used to advance supposed prohibitions about which nothing has really been said. But they do reflect another battle: the battle for space. For years, European cities they have put up a battle with the cars and they are redistributing space. The large pedestrian areas such as those in Barcelona, ​​the mandatory ZBEs in Spain or the commitment to cycling in Paris are good examples. But it is a movement that has been brewing for decades. What happened to the Scalextric de Atocha? Did you know that Amsterdam was once part of the car paradise? These same debates were already taking place in Japan more than 30 years ago. And when one lives in overcrowded populations and with very high population densities, having or not having a car is no longer a question of purchasing power, it is a question of how that can impact our own environment. These questions of how many cars there should be in a city and what implications they have is what led Japan to implement the Shako Shomeishothe regulations that prevent you from buying a car if you do not have a secured parking space. At least in the busiest cities. In that same context were born the kei carespecially narrow and small cars with specific regulations to avoid being subject to taxes and that Shako Shomeisho that limits the purchase of vehicles. The concept wants to repeat in Europe although if it has triumphed in Japan it is because it is deeply rational, something that does not always go well with the European idea of ​​the automobile. And since in Japan the radically rational triumphs and they are decades ahead when it comes to space management, already in the 80s and 90s they were wondering what mobility solutions They could arrive in the future to move us around in a motorized vehicle, taking up as little space as possible. With those, Mazda pulled an ace up its sleeve. One in suitcase format. The Mazda Suitcase Car or the “suitcase car” The 90s had just begun and Mazda wanted to look for original mobility solutions. Playing the typical Futurology game that It is made in design centersthe Japanese company opened an internal competition to receive proposals for a groundbreaking vehicle. It is very likely that the executives who received Yoshimi Kanemoto were already expecting that the designer who led the Mazda Suitcase Car project would arrive with the proposal in a suitcase. We imagine, of course, that not in the way they expected. Because that suitcase did not hide sketches, design games or feasibility studies. What he was hiding was the very vehicle that had been requested. With the help of Kanemoto, a group of engineers gave life to the Mazda Suitcase Cara small three-wheeled vehicle that moved thanks to a two-stroke engine. The chassis? The suitcase itself, of course. And it is in the same suitcase where the humble apparatus of the vehicle is stored in which the… driver sits? Or pilot, rather. In this video You can see how it has just enough space to store the engine, the tank and the three wheels. Once assembled, it is as simple as getting on and starting to roll, driving this kind of three-wheeled kart with a handlebar that includes a handle to give gas, like on a motorcycle. The prototype, obviously, did not reach production but it was an example of how far technology could go to miniaturize the components necessary to make a vehicle roll. The company itself explains that the prototype was born as an idea to anticipate what vehicles would be like in the year 2020. For its Japanese designer, we would move in a 57×75 cm Samsonite suitcase in which a small kart with the capacity to reach 30 km/h would be hidden. It’s no small thing. The idea, however, was presented outside Japan. In 1992, Associated Press photographed to one of the company’s executives riding the device in the middle of Times Square, in the days before a New York Auto Show. Obviously, the proposal went nowhere but we would have to ask Kanemoto what he thinks of those who cross half the world today to get on a kart, dress up as Mario Bross and ride through Tokyo traffic as if they were experiencing a Mario Kart race. Photos | Mazda In Xataka | Aboard the Mazda MX-5: It’s uncomfortable, it’s small, it’s loud, it’s charming, it’s unique, it’s cool

We Spaniards are stopping having Christmas trees because they don’t fit in our house. So there are already companies renting them

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The year or the city doesn’t matter. At least in Spain, Christmas usually comes accompanied by a series of images that are repeated December after December, invariably: streets full of colored ledsbalconies in which they begin to appear papanoels and other Christmas decorations, shop windows in which gold, silver and reddish colors suddenly predominate… and living rooms in which trees full of tinsel and garlands sprout overnight. Year after year the same questions are also repeated: better natural or artificial tree? And above all… What the hell do we do with it after Epiphany, when it’s time to pick up the decorations? Where do we store it, if we already have the storage room all the way up? There are those who have seen In those doubts a promising business. Tree Earrings. There is no Christmas without decorations. And there is no Christmas decoration worth its salt without a good tree. It’s been like this all our lives, but just in case there were any doubts, cities like Vigo, Barcelona, Badalona either Madriddetermined to build gigantic trees in the heart of the urban area. Something similar happens in businesses, offices and homes. People demand trees (both artificial and natural), something that is felt in the nurseries and the big chains of decoration. As a reference, the National Christmas Tree Association (NCTA) estimates that each year they are sold in the US between 25 and 30 million of natural Christmas trees, which requires a huge plantation with hundreds of millions of copies distributed throughout the country. The dilemma, whether you choose real or fake fir trees, is… What to do with them later? A question, a business. There are those who have seen that question and the demand for Christmas trees as a business. After all… Why rack your brains choosing decorations, assembling them, disassembling them and then looking for a place to store them for months if we can pay a company to take care of everything? Or better yet, what if instead of buying the tree we rented it? Leasing trees may sound strange, but there comes a quick search on Google to find a few companies that operate in Spain and they dedicate precisely to that: to temporarily give up trees full of lights in exchange for a fee. The offer is wide and includes everything from small specimens to others of large size and size, for both indoor and outdoor spaces. But is it a business? Yes. The holidays may only last a few weeks, but if companies like Ximenezthe Córdoba company that has been in charge of setting up decorations in Vigo, Madrid, Barcelona or Milan, is that Christmas decorations can become a million dollar business. After all, it is not only families who demand decoration. Governments and companies of all kinds also do it, from businesses that do not have space to store decorations the rest of the year to hotels that need trees for their living rooms and hallways. In a warehouse in Madrid… One of the most popular Christmas tree rental companies in Spain is B&M, a family business with twenty years of experience that works from a warehouse in Tetuán, Madrid. Recently those responsible they explained to The Spanish Newspaper Every campaign, about 200 trees come out of there ready to decorate and that the company itself is in charge of collecting once the holidays are over. Their work involves several challenges, such as matching the taste of their clients and coordinating the logistics that require dismantling and removing 200 trees during the second week of January. “The pickup is intense because on the 9th everyone wants you to pick it up.” “Three, four hours at least”. The company also makes it clear that although it may seem like a simple task, preparing the ideal tree requires work. First they convey a proposal to the clients. Then they shape it. “A four or five meter tree is a job for five or six people, who have to spend at least three or four hours on it,” clarifies the signaturewhich explains, for example, that there are businesses that want trees with their corporate colors. How much do these services cost? In your website There are rates (with delivery and collection service included) ranging from 265 to 2,800 euros, without VAT. It all depends on the tree you want. They range from 1.5 to five meters. Are there more options? Yes. The demand for Christmas decoration is intense enough that it has encouraged other businesses, such as those that are committed to sustainability and offer a rent in pot. Your proposal? Instead of buying a plastic tree or taking a felled fir, rent one that you can place in your house alive, with its pot. Once in your living room you can decorate and take care of it and after Christmas the company will collect it to take it to a forest or to its nursery of origin. Images | Arun Kuchibhotla (Unsplash) and Jared Lind (Unsplash) In Xataka | Without knowing it, we all honor Thor during Christmas thanks to a pagan ritual: the Christmas tree

How to make a Christmas greeting by creating a family or group photo from separate photographs

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Let’s tell you how to create Christmas greetings by generating a group image from separate photos. For this we are going to use artificial intelligencespecifically Gemini with its Nano Banana, being possibly the best free alternative to do this. Here, the secret is again to use an appropriate prompt in which you describe exactly what you want. We are going to tell you everything you should take into account and the prompt you should use later to create the image. You will see that it is quite simple. Group Christmas greeting with Gemini Before you start, you first have to Carefully select the photos you want to use. Try to have similar lighting, or that the same part of everyone’s body can be seen. Gemini is going to try to cut and paste all the photos together making as little modifications as possible, so keep that in mind. They should be photos that look similar. Of course, you should also know that you will be able to change their clothes to the people in the photos. Therefore, and although the ideal is for everyone to be dressed similarly, it is not essential, because then you can have Gemini put the clothes you want on them. Once you have everything, start a conversation with Gemini. Inside, first upload the photos you are going to use. Afterwards, you can copy and paste the following prompt and send it along with the photos: I want you to create a Christmas card with a family photo. I’m going to give you separate photos of people, and I want you to create a family photo where they all appear together. Under the photo you have to say “Merry Christmas”. Make the background with Christmas motifs. In this prompt you can make changes or more details. You can describe the background to be used, and also the font and text. Don’t be afraid to try, experiment and try again if the first result doesn’t work out for you. After doing so, as we have told you before, you can ask Gemini to change their clothes. This way, if people’s clothes are different in the photos, you can unify the result a little. In fact, if you have a group photo you can also simply ask them to change their outfits. Another option is to upload the group photo and then an individual photo of another person who is not there and ask Gemini to add this person. And do you remember when we told you how to turn your photos into video game scenarios either in a character from Stranger Things? Well, you can also use these tricks here to make the greeting as original and personalized as possible. In Xataka Basics | Gemini Image Editor: 16 Ways and Tricks to Squeeze Nano-banana with Google’s AI

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