The rain in Seville is wonderful and now it is also converted into energy with the new CSIC solar panels

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If there is a renewable energy that has emerged in recent years, it is solar, as can be seen in this graph of the International Energy Agency. However, solar energy still has its limitations: it requires space (hence there are projects in lakes and in the open sea) and of course, it depends on whether there is sun. Yes, putting batteries can cushion that irregular supply (here Spain is a powerhouse), but a research team from the University of Seville with the CSIC has given a twist to classic photovoltaic panels and now can generate electricity with rain. Context. Solar panels lose effectiveness when full sun does not fall on them, either because there are clouds or it rains. Therefore, the ideal scenario is midday on a sunny day, but spoiler: this happens less times than you need to plug something in. Not to mention devices that need continuous and autonomous energy supply, no matter what happens in the electrical grid. The battery option allows us to satisfy the supply on demand and although now They are at their minimum pricestill involves purchasing another component, considering its useful life and its management as waste. The invention. As explains the CSIChave developed a hybrid device that allows capturing energy from both the sun and rain, and also doing so at the same time. As? With a sheet thinner than a human hair (100 nanometers) superimposed on the solar cells. It works on two fronts at the same time: on the one hand as a protective encapsulant for perovskite solar cells, improving their durability in adverse conditions. On the other hand, as a triboelectric nanogenerator: it converts the impact of raindrops into electricity due to friction. Thus, it is capable of producing up to 110 volts, enough to light LEDs or power sensors. Why is it important. Because if this technology is commercialized, it will open the doors for completely autonomous electronic devices to function without batteries or plugs. This is the case of the implementation of IoT outdoors or in remote areas without access to the electrical grid. It serves as an example of use in applications in rural infrastructure or agriculture, such as environmental sensors, weather stations, urban signage or auxiliary lighting. The innovation is not only generating energy from rain, but integrating it all into a single thin layer that solves the main Achilles heel of perovskite: its environmental degradation. In fact, science had already proven with taurine from octopuses. How have they done it. To carry out this device, they used plasma technology to deposit plasma technology in a similar way to that implemented in mobile screens. For the base, perovskite cells, a material with better efficiency and lower cost than traditional silicon, but fragile under conditions such as humidity. The use of triboelectric materials is not new: a research team from the University of Hong Kong a few years ago something similar occurred to him: the generation of electricity by the simple friction of droplets upon impact, such as static electricity generated by rubbing a balloon. Yes, but. Although technically speaking they have generated electricity, the reality is that it is high voltage but low intensity, which in practice is not even useful for charging a mobile phone. And although the perovskite is reinforced with this sheet, in the long term it is still less durable than silicon, so it still has pending issues. Likewise, there remains the great challenge of leaving the laboratory and validating these experiments in real environments. If production can be scaled to an industrial level, another challenge would arise: keeping costs low. In Xataka | Europe produces more clean electricity than fossil electricity for the first time. The hard part starts now In Xataka | Solar panels have an invisible and very brief moment in which they do not work. And solving it is key to your future Cover | Lara John

If we want to increase human fertility, mice have something to tell us: fecal transplants

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We knew that the bacteria that live in our intestine They are really positive and offer us extra protection against numerous threats from outside or even against Alzheimer’s. Now they have just added a new star function: they can help us improve our reproductive health. And all this with a simple fecal microbiota transplant. New evidence. This same month of March the magazine Nature has published an article that breaks with several scientific paradigms and demonstrates a bidirectional communication between the microbiome and women’s ovaries. The study here wanted to demonstrate that fecal microbiota transplant can completely remodel the behavior of the ovaries, reducing inflammation and even increasing reproductive success. But the most amazing thing about the experiment is not the ‘what’, but the ‘how’, since it has quite surprised the experimenters that the result has gone against what they expected. How is it possible? To understand this finding, we must first know the concept of ‘strobolome‘ which will give a lot to talk about in the coming years. In a simple way, it is a set of intestinal bacteria that are capable of metabolizing and modulating the level of estrogen, which is one of the main female sex hormones and closely related to reproduction. Until now, we knew that the microbiota played a role in almost every part of our body, ranging from digestion to our own mental health. But they wanted to go further, and in the past it was noted that they had already begun to explore how to transfer faeces from young mice to old ones, which would improve their ovarian reserve. But the best thing is that doing the opposite could accelerate the aging of the ovaries. The new study. Knowing this, this research team designed an experiment in which healthy adult mice were taken and given antibiotics to cleanse their intestinal flora. From here, they underwent a fecal microbiota transplant from mice in the ‘estropausal’ phase, which is like human menopause. What the researchers here were expecting is that if they were introduced to the microbiota of aged rats in reproductive decline, their ovaries would suffer damage. But the truth is that they were wrong. Results. The results here showed that adult females who received the “estropausal” microbiota not only did not worsen, but rather improved ovarian function and an increase in their fertility. Because? By thoroughly analyzing the organism of these ringworms, using sequencing of the genetic material of the ovaries, it was seen that the transplant had caused a massive remodeling of the ovarian transcriptome. That is, the way in which the genes in the ovaries were expressed had completely changed towards a “younger” profile. In addition, the analyzes revealed a drastic drop in the expression of genes linked to inflammation. The explanation that scientists are considering points directly to the strobolome, since it is possible that the microbiota of the stropausal mice, in its attempt to survive the natural drop in hormones of its original host, has developed brutal compensatory mechanisms. By transplanting these “surviving, super-optimized bacteria” into a young environment, they boosted the health of the recipient ovary. The future. Although in this case this effect has been seen in mouse animal modelsthe implications of this study may allow us to continue advancing treatments that can improve human reproductive health. The goal here is to be able to isolate what exactly are the specific microbial candidates or metabolites responsible for this improvement and in the future we could be talking about probiotic treatments or microbiome-based therapies to prolong fertility. Images | Kelly Sikkema CDC In Xataka | Drinking coffee in the morning has very positive consequences for someone unexpected in your body: the microbiota

Science already knows what is the best “gasoline” to create new neurons: physical exercise

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We have always known that playing sports is good for the heart and also the muscles, but neuroscience is showing us that running shoes are, literally, the best tool to sculpt our brain. This is how I put it on the table the neuroscientist José Luis Trejowhich pointed out that physical exercise acts as a true “gasoline” for neurogenesis in the hippocampus adult to make us more ‘smart’ and also tend less towards depression. Neuron factory. Until a few decades ago, it was believed that you were born with a certain number of neurons and that, from there, they could only be lost. But today we know that this is completely false, since the generation of new neurons has already been demonstrated, and it occurs mainly in a region of the brain that is key to learning, memory and emotions, such as the hippocampus. The exercise. Here the different studies were focused on how this generation of neurons can be enhanced, and moderate aerobic exercise is the main switch to turn on the neuronal factory. How it works. The specific exercise and also extended over time, it raises the BDNF segregationwhich is the brain-derived neurotrophic factor, and also the VEGFwhich is vascular endothelial growth factor. Two proteins that act as ‘fertilizer’ in the brain to promote neuronal plasticity and the formation of new blood vessels to nourish all these new cells that appear in the brain. There are results. Studies done in humans themselves measured cerebral blood volume using functional magnetic resonance imaging, and here they could see that there is a real increase in the volume of the hippocampus and there are also improvements in spatial memory and cognition, which is essential from certain ages onwards. And it is no wonder, because there are studies that suggest that constant exercise increases total hippocampal volume, being a first-level strategy against cognitive declineand therefore acts as a shield against Alzheimer’s. Antidepressant. In addition to being a shield against Alzheimer’s, it can also reduce the symptoms of anxiety and depression, overcoming the effects of antidepressants in some patients. However, we must have common sense with the ‘dose’ of exercise we do. And a perpetual sedentary lifestyle is toxic, since sitting atrophies all brain capacities, but excess is destructive because extreme intensity training without rest generates a peak of stress in the body that completely cancels out the neurogenic benefits. That is, doing a lot of exercise at maximum capacity can block the creation of new neurons. It is hereditary. But if making new neurons is not enough to join the gym, science suggests that it can be transmitted to children thanks to epigenetics. In 2019, a study published in PNAS demonstrated that paternal exercise increases neurogenesis and mitochondrial activity in offspring, even if the latter are sedentary. But in 2024 went furtherseeing that these neuroplastic effects can be inherited up to two generations later. The dose. In summary, neuroscience suggests that doing 45-60 minutes a day of moderate aerobic activity can bring us great benefits over spending uninterrupted hours in the chair. Without a doubt, memory, mood and hippocampal volume will be truly grateful. Images | Chander R Bhautik Patel In Xataka | Scientists have connected 200,000 human neurons to a chip. And he made them play ‘Doom’

What happens in some houses so that the power goes out and the leads do not jump?

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It is a classic scene that has happened to almost all of us at some point, you are at home preparing dinner, you take the opportunity to put on a washing machine and, suddenly, the house goes completely dark. You go to the electrical panel expecting to find the classic switch down, but to your surprise, they are all perfectly up. This is a more common situation than it seems and one that generates deep confusion in homes. Far from being a paranormal phenomenon or a serious breakdown, the answer to this modern enigma is hidden in the technology of our meters. The answer to this everyday mystery has been popularized by Juanjo, an electrician known on the social network TikTok as @juanjo_grounding. According to this professional, when the power goes out but no protection on the house panel goes off, “it is because the meter’s ICP has gone off.” The reason is as simple as it is direct: you have exceeded the power you have contracted for your home. The technology behind the “jump”. To understand it, we must first clarify that electrical power It is measured in kilowatts (kW) and corresponds to the energy that is being demanded at a specific moment. The Power Control Switch (ICP) works as a security mechanism It is fundamental that it cuts off the electricity supply if the power consumed exceeds that power that you have contracted. The key detail is that, since 2009 and with the gradual arrival of smart digital meters, many homes They no longer have a physical ICP (a switch) in your electrical wall panel, but this control function is integrated directly into the digital counter itself. Therefore, when you connect too many powerful devices at the same time, the remotely managed meter detects the excess and cuts off the electricity to avoid overloading the installation. In fact, if you look at your meter at that moment, it is very likely that you will see a solid red light, which indicates that the contracted power has been exceeded and the ICP has intervened. So what needs to be done to get the light back? Recovering power is a very quick process what you can do yourself. First, you should unplug some of the high-consuming devices you had on to reduce power demand. Then, go to your main box, lower the main circuit breaker, wait a few seconds (between 5 and 10) and raise it again. With this simple gesture, the internal ICP of the meter is reset and will close automatically, returning the light to you. To prevent this from constantly happening again, you have two alternatives: The free solution (change of habits): Carry out conscious management of your consumption. It is simply based on not connecting all your high-consumption appliances at the same time. The payment solution (increase the power): If the outages are very frequent despite normal and rational use, it is advisable to contact the electricity company and request an increase in the contracted power. You must bear in mind that increasing the power implies paying the connection, extension and access rights, which has an approximate cost of €50 for each kW you increase. The savings angle. This is where your pocketbook comes into play. In Spain, the average electrical power of homes is between 3.45 kW and 4.6 kW. Often, the fear of “leads jumping” leads us to make the mistake of hiring above our needs, paying every month for power that we are not really using. Keep in mind that each kilowatt you contract represents a fixed cost of about €60 per year on your electricity bill. Jorge Morales de Labra, expert in the energy sector, issues a very revealing warning in the magazine The Furniture: “If you haven’t blown your leads twice in a year, you have more power than you need.” A report from the National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) supports this ideapointing out that if you avoid turning on all the devices at the same time and adjust your contract, you can save between €190 and €260 annually. If you have questions about whether you can lower your power, the answer is in your receipts. Marketing companies have the legal obligation to include on the invoice the maximum powers that you have demanded during the last year. The power of information. In short, that sudden blackout in which the electrical panel seems to mock you with all its switches on high is not a phantom failure, but rather your smart meter protecting your home. Understanding how the ICP works and auditing our consumption habits gives us control over our bill. In the end, understanding the electricity in our home is the first step to stop giving away money at the end of the month and turn on the savings light. Image | freepik Xataka | If Spain believed it had overcome the trauma of inflation, Qatar has just made a decision in the opposite direction

Europe has reached the end of winter with depleted gas reserves. A country has a model to save it: Spain

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This winter, which is coming to an end, is being colder than expected, something that as we have seen has caused havoc. Without going any further, there have been planes that have not been able to fly due to lack of antifreeze. If we talk about gas for heating, storage has also reached red numbers: the Netherlands has a reserve of approximately 12%, Germany and France are around 21%, according to AGSI data. In this low-minimum scenario, there are two countries that deviate from the norm: Spain and Portugal, with reserves of 56.87% and 76.7%, respectively. Of course, the difference in capacity is abysmal: 3.57 TWh for the first and 35.9 TWh for the second. It is not a coincidence: it is that the Spanish state has a particular infrastructure that has led it to this point. The context. The conflict between Ukraine and Russia that began in 2022 accelerated the independence of the old continent from Russian gas. Among the measures from Brussels, an emergency rule by which all EU member states had to start the winter with their gas reserves at 90% to ensure supply. However, in 2025 the EU decided to maintain that 90% target. but relaxing the norm to optimize costs. This greater flexibility together with a harsher than expected winter has brought an end to winter with reserves that are at their lowest in the last five years. The harsh European winter. In mid-January, deposits fell below 50%. If the winter ends with a capacity of 30%, Europe will have to inject 60 billion cubic meters of gas. To get an idea, approximately the annual gas consumption of all of Germany. In short, Europe has to refill its tanks in the summer and it will need a lot of imported gas to do so, which means go out into the market and face other competitors and the logistics of bringing it here in an increasingly complicated geopolitical scenario. The Spanish strategy. The Spanish gas storage system is based on two pillars: underground storage and LNG regasification. The second leg is providential, insofar as it is where Spain makes the difference and, furthermore, It is a powerhouse. In fact, Spain owns 35% of all LNG storage capacity in the EU, how Sedigas collects. Its enormous regasification capacity enables diversification of origin, with USA as first supplier with 44.4% of the total gas and another 15 different countries later, according to Enagás data. Spain has an infrastructure of seven plants that makes it possible to receive LNG ships from different sources, thus ensuring supply in case any mishap (technical problems, conflicts, political decisions) fails. Spain started the winter making decisions. Although the previous strategy gives it an advantage over other member states, Spain adopted a conservative strategy When facing this winter 25/26, adjusting to concentrate reserves in January and February, the coldest and with the most demand. A management decision to not waste that cushion prematurely. He was absolutely right: in January gas consumption rose 10.2% compared to the previous year, with a 30% increase in that destined to generate electricity because renewables contributed less than expected. Spain plays in another league. Thanks to its infrastructure, Spain no longer only consumes gas: it re-exports it. It has become a hub for redistributing gas to Europe as a kind of energy logistics platform, providing geopolitical and economic value to a state that, due to its geographical location, is isolated (which, for example, in the electrical field plays tricks on him) Is there real risk? While it is true that widespread shortages are not expected, there are localized risks in Europe. As summarizes El Economista, Spain has precedents of similar levels, such as 2016, 2017, 2019, 2022, where supply was not compromised. Of course, we will have to see what happens with the demand for LNG in summer globally, because it could make European replenishment significantly more expensive. In any case, Spain will get to that moment better than most. The scenario is not very rosy at the moment, precisely, with the Strait of Hormuz closed and the diplomatic crisis between Spain and the US, its main supplier. In Xataka | Europe believed it had won the gas war against Russia. Now it faces a much more uncomfortable reality: its dependence on the United States. In Xataka | The gas market becomes unpredictable: we have tanks full and ships on the way, but the price remains an enigma Cover | Pronor

when they arrive they find a field

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The Basque Country has encountered a problem curious: urban planners who move to the countryside attracted by its lifestyle and end up desperate because of that, because of how people live in the countryside. It sounds like gibberish, but it is a reality so present in the community that the regional government has come to denounce it. “People come to towns thinking that they are a haven of peace where you can only hear birds and everything is green, they come with the wrong idea,” warns Iker Aguitrre, from the Union of Farmers and Ranchers of Álava (UAGA). The problem is that these clashes add (even) more pressure to rural areas. What has happened? That Euskadi is proving to what extent it is difficult to repopulate rural areas with people from the cities. Does a few daysduring a parliamentary intervention, counselor Amaia Barredo acknowledged her concern about how the arrival of urban populations seeking bucolic environments, havens of peace and silence are affecting some rural areas, and in reality they find something different: farms with tractors, cattle ranchers and cattle. “Agrarian activity has become residual in many rural areas, even annoying, and we are beginning to have other problems derived from the expectations of the urban population that is looking in the countryside for other externalities of the landscape, of air quality, which are seriously altering the future of rural areas,” lament the regional leader in statements collected by the SER network. Click on the image to go to the tweet. What is it referring to? Barredo has not limited himself to pointing out the problem. Also has gone into detailsciting cases in which the false expectations of people who arrive in the field collide with the realities found there. “We will have to focus on why a livestock farm or poultry activity bothers a town or why sheep pass through the town and stain, we already have a council to talk about it,” lamented the Basque councilor. “It’s funny, but that’s how it is.” Curiously, and despite the concern that the matter arouses in the Government, the issue is not included in the Rural Development Strategy of Euskadi, which just presented Barredo herself. The document outlines a series of measures (12 lines of action and 38 specific actions) to transform the Basque countryside in the remainder of the decade, focusing on issues such as housing, mobility or health. Is she the only one to report it? No. Barredo’s words have had repercussions due to her position, but she has not been the only one to publicly warn of how the arrival of city residents can “seriously alter the future of rural areas.” Iker Aguirre, director of UAGA, launched a similar message these days: “People come thinking that this is a haven of peace where only the birds can be heard. They come with the wrong idea of ​​what the countryside is.” Although “the majority” of people who arrive from urban areas end up “integrating”, the problem comes from those neighbors who move with a wrong image of what life is like in rural areas. “Here you get up early, the tractors go from one place to another, there are smells, noises…”. And in case there were any doubts about the importance of integrating, Aguirre give an example in the opposite direction: “I may feel uncomfortable in the center of Vitoria because of the traffic, and those who come from the city have assimilated those noises; but those from the countryside saturate them.” Are they specific frictions? It doesn’t seem like it. And not only because the issue is serious enough for the industry advisor to recognize it. In an interview With the SER, Aguirre explains that complaints have reached the UAGA and does not rule out that there are “many more” of which the association is not aware. The reason for the lawsuits? The leader speaks of clashes caused by issues such as loose dogs that scare cattle or complaints caused by the presence of livestock excrement on rural roads or even the noise made by cowbells. “We all try to adapt, but there are limits,” he says. Is it a problem? Yes. And not only because of the discomfort it generates or the extra pressure it adds to agricultural operations. Frictions can also complicate the transfer of population from cities to rural areas, one of the lifelines of ’emptied Spain’. It is not a minor issue if we remember that in the country there are more than 1,200 locations that risk “disappearing” from the map, with just over a hundred residents registered, a reality to which the Basque Country is not foreign. Precisely the strategic plan that the Basque Country has just launched seeks that settling and working in rural areas “continues to be a real and attractive option.” In statements to The Country Aguirre warns that friction between farms and newly arrived rural residents has already translated into real problems for some Spanish ranchers. “There have been towns where years ago there was an influx of many people from outside and the sheep farms had a lot of problems because the sheep shit on the roads,” he recalls. “It has to be protected and perhaps we have to educate that the countryside is not idyllic.” Does it only happen in the Basque Country? No. A few years ago a town in León it was news because it was proposed that ranchers had to collect the dung from their cows. The proposal generated such controversy that the authorities backed down, but at its core there was the same problem: the tensions between livestock activity and other uses of the territory, such as residential or even tourism. It is something they know well in France, where they have even promoted a specific law to protect the countryside from urbanites. A similar idea was raised a few months ago in Asturias: approve a standard that safeguards the rural environment and its traditional activities (including issues such as the mooing … Read more

The US has been looking from space for years at a huge brown ribbon in the Atlantic that goes from Mexico to Africa that should not be there

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The blue planet looks very different from space. We have internalized things like that the Chinese Wall is seen and it is not true: what is appreciated They are the greenhouses of Almería. Or a great old man desknown as the Great Dam of Zimbabwe. And for a few years now, NASA satellites they have been registering the presence of a brown stripe that extends across the Atlantic Ocean. It’s not a big brown island or a continent, but it looks like it. What is that “brown continent”. It is a mass of brown algae that, according to research from the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute and Florida Atlantic University in whose last record It weighed 37.5 million tons and surpasses the 8,000 kilometers in length, more than from New York to Madrid. And it has a name: the Great Sargassum Belt. Context. He pelagic sargassum It is a seaweed that historically has always lived confined to the Sargasso Sea. However, since 2011 NASA has been documenting its expansion into the open sea until what it is now: a brown strip that by the end of 2024 left the Gulf of Mexico and spread until it reached the coasts of West Africa. This phenomenon is actually a huge accumulation of algae that reappears almost every year with one exception: 2013. The Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt is bigger than ever: evolution documented by NASA Why is it important. Because this stratospheric mass of algae is not only spectacular from a visual point of view: it has repercussions on the marine ecosystem, destroys beaches and even contributes to accelerating climate change. It is also an ecological alarm signal for the Atlantic. According to Dr. Brian Lapointelead author of the review of changes in pelagic sargassum and professor at FAU Harbor Branch, explains that it even caused the emergency shutdown of a Florida nuclear power plant in 1991. Why are they growing like foam?. Lapointe and his team have been investigating the evolution since the 1980s and have found that the nitrogen content in brown algae has increased by 55% between 1980 and 2020; the nitrogen/phosphorus ratio also increased by 50%. This change has occurred because brown algae no longer only feed on natural nutrients from the ocean, but also receive nitrogen and phosphorus from land thanks to human activity, such as agricultural runoff or wastewater discharge. The result is uncontrolled growth. Sargassum is transported by ocean currents, especially in floods from the Amazon, towards the Atlantic. There it thrives thanks to that extra supply of nutrients. An unaesthetic and harmful stain. Brown algae per se are not harmful and in fact, they serve as habitat for different species. However, its enormous presence has altered the ecosystem. Upon reaching the coasts, they begin to decompose, thus releasing hydrogen sulfide, a toxic gas that damages coral reefs, reduces the oxygen present and emits greenhouse gases. What can we do. In short: stop feeding them. After this exhaustive monitoring, the research team warns that humans should reduce nutrient runoff from the coast since, if this continues, more Great Sargassum Belts could appear throughout the ocean. In Xataka | The brutal floods facing Portugal and western Spain, seen from space In Xataka | A 2.5 billion-year-old geological wonder: Zimbabwe’s Great Dam seen by NASA from space Cover | POT

Its shares have fallen 99% and threaten to sink it

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As I write these lines, X (the artist formerly known as Twitter) is full of memes and jokes about Fernando Alonso and the vibrations of the AMR26. I don’t know what happened to him in qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix. I don’t even know if, given what I’ve seen, He will at least be able to run on Sunday. The only thing that is clear is that Aston Martin is a meme factory. They have kept Fernando Alonso, capable of selling us the impossible. They have signed Adrian Newey, one of the most successful people in the history of Formula 1. And the preseason is summarized in that, in a year that Honda powers the team, Fernando Alonso has been seen walking with a Toyota Yaris through Monaco. Did you think it couldn’t be worse? Well, tell that to those who bought Aston Martin shares in 2018. Today they have depreciated 99%. The company’s fate hangs by a thread, mired in debts that seem like a slab that is impossible to lift. No clear candidates for purchase. With Lawrence Stroll, owner of the Formula 1 team and endorsement for his son to drive one of the cars, buying the company’s image to be able to use its name, colors and logo in the future. You can do it no matter what. And that’s not good at all. A life on the brink of bankruptcy The story of Aston Martin is a story of survival. Actually, few luxury companies can say that they have not encountered serious viability problems throughout their history. Ferrari, who sees the world burning around him and who seems untouchable on his throne, It was saved by Fiat in 1969. Lamborghini did not find stability until it was bought by the Volkswagen Group. Bugatti, which is also inside, it’s a money losing machine. And if we look at the British, Jaguar is in a process of reinvention. Lotus was bought by the Chinese conglomerate Geely and today little remains of what it was. McLaren is not much better than Aston Martin. As Raymond Blancafort explains in The Vanguardbarely 10 years had passed when Aston Martin encountered its first bankruptcy. After a first adventure focused on the world of competition, it was in the 1930s when the management at that time began to focus the company on street sports cars. Things would not improve later and David Brown, a businessman, would be the one to buy the company after World War II, assume the accumulated debts and pay his own tribute. And since then, Aston Martin sports cars have the letters DB associated with them. As the decades passed, the brand maintained two things: fame and debt. While James Bond rode around in his sports cars, the company’s buying and selling games marked the future. To the point that the company came to form Premier Groupthe umbrella under which Ford held Jaguar, Land Rover, Volvo… and Aston Martin. Things would not end well (Ford announced historic losses) and In 2007 it changed hands again to go to David Richards, who already controlled the future of the competing company, with the support of an American banker and two Kuwaiti groups. In 2013, Mercedes joined the company with a small participation and the objective of sharing knowledge and developments. In 2020 Lawrence Stroll arrived. A more than complicated crisis We have stopped along the way because the arrival of Lawrence Stroll marked a before and after. In 2018, this Canadian businessman creates the Racing Point group and buys the Force India Formula 1 team. The following year, he formed a team with the Mexican driver Sergio Pérez and a debutant: his son Lance Stroll. It would not be until 2021 when Racing Point became the Aston Martin Formula 1 teamwhich remains in a completely separate structure from the car manufacturer. But how do you get to this point? At the same time that Lawrence Stroll was taking his first steps in Formula 1, the Canadian acquired 16.7% of the vehicle manufacturer. The agreement included that the Formula 1 team would inherit its name. For this, Stroll paid almost 240 million dollars and a rights issue of 417.5 million dollars was carried out, which already anticipated that his weight in the company would continue to increase. The promise was to get Aston Martin out of a complicated situation. With less than 6,000 cars sold, the company announced losses of more than 120 million euros, 89% more than the previous year. Stroll arrived with the intention of turning the Aston Martin DBX, its future SUV, into a luxury product. Yes to Porsche had rescued him with the Cayenneif Lamborghini was producing the Urus, Aston Martin would regain momentum with the DBX. The truth is that the car is being a failure. The British SUV has never had enough traction and nor did it have the advantage of the Cayenne or the Urus, which share a platform and development with other Volkswagen Group cars, which helps reduce the risks. The projections of selling 5,000 cars annually have remained at 1,000 units placed on the market each year. With the Aston Martin DBX in free fall, the next ones to jump off the cliff were investors. Since going public in 2018, the shares have fallen 99% and The company now costs just over 400 million euros. last summer Liverpool invested more money in signings than what the entire company costs. Although the SUV has not found its place in the market, the DBX has not been the only thing that has failed. In 2017 the development of the Rapide Ewhich was supposed to be a rival to the Tesla Model S. The project ended up being canceled for a very simple reason that was pointed out by Tom Stacey, a senior lecturer at Anglia Ruskin University who worked for the company at BBC: In all parameters, the Aston Martin was a worse car than the Tesla. Not only that. Time has shown … Read more

the new newsletter from Xataka Xtra about the trends that are changing the present and will define the future

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‘Proxima X’ is one of the newsletters exclusives included in Xtrathe Xataka subscription plan. It is biweekly (we send it every other Thursday) and is part of a benefits plan that includes access to other newsletters, a consultation with editors and raffles and discounts exclusive for subscribers. The first draw, a 75″ TV. For years, one of the last questions that every Xataka editor has asked his interviewees has been “If we were having this conversation In five or ten years, what would we be talking about??”. Next X is our commitment to doing exactly that every two weeks: talking, analyzing and thinking about the things that will be central a decade from now. And yes, we know it is a risky job. But who was going to tell that group of bloggers that They launched Xataka in November 2004 that 20 years later that passion for gadgets, online services and digital culture was going to be fundamental to understanding the contemporary world? The lesson is clear: we have to live passionately in the present, to understand what will define the future. We will talk about AI, quantum computing, biotechnology and space exploration, yes. But we will talk about many more things, because what defines this newsletter is not a list of topics, it is a question: what’s next? And “up next” this week has been the profound effect that technology has on human societies. One in particular: boredom. Is it possible that one of the most unexpected (and important) consequences of all the technological development of recent decades is boredom? Well yes and, as I say, It is much more important than it seems. Other Xataka Xtra newsletters Chip War (weekly, every Monday): The semiconductor industry is the technological, economic and geopolitical battlefield of our time. Every week we analyze what is happening in the race for chips: from the tensions between the United States and China to the decisions of TSMC, Intel, SK Hynix or Samsung that will determine who leads the next decade. B-sides (weekly, every Saturday): Five curious and fascinating readings every week. Strange, counterintuitive or unexpected stories that we find on the Internet and that deserve your attention. From industrial accidents that changed the world to surprising scientific research or absurdities of late capitalism. More information | Xataka Xtra

The best applications to have local artificial intelligence on your mobile or PC, without needing a connection and with greater privacy

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Let’s tell you the best programs to install a local AI on your mobile or your computer. In this way, you can have the artificial intelligence directly on the installed device, without requiring an Internet connection and keeping your private data within the mobile phone or PC itself. The programs will allow you to install language models LLM open source, being alternatives to ChatGPT and company, and even being able to choose how distillates you want them. However, some of the desktop applications will also allow you to connect to cloud business models such as ChatGPT, Gemini either Claudealthough sacrificing privacy. In the end, the goal of this is have your own private ChatGPT and without the restrictions of online models, to be able to make all the questions you want. They will be less powerful and with fewer capabilities, since there would not be enough space on your mobile or PC to install complete models like the commercial ones, but good tools for quick questions and functions. Apps to have local AI on your mobile Let’s start with a small compilation of the best applications with which you can have artificial intelligence models installed on your mobile. Remember that models can take up a lot of space, so be careful and check your device’s memory. PocketPal AI This is the go-to mobile app if you want to install a local AI on your device. It is open source and freeand is available for both Android and iOS. It stands out above all for its ease of use, and for the many models available. PocketPal AI Integrates directly with Hugging Facewhich is the world’s leading repository for uploading AI models. Since it is integrated, you can download any model directly without leaving the application and without complicating things. MNN Chat This is an exclusive application for Android, and stands out for being one of the fastest applications for this operating system. But its biggest differentiator is your complete multimodal supportbeing able to write your prompts adding text, images or audio. You will find all kinds of models, from those for generating images to others for making responses with text. Has an integrated model catalogso downloading and installing them is a very easy task. It is a free and open source application. Private LLM If you are looking for a premium app for iOSthis is one of the best alternatives. Of course, it has a price of about $5 with a one-time payment. It includes more than 60 curated models, and uses advanced quantization to improve its performance. It also integrates with Siri and Apple Shortcuts, and in addition to your iPhone it will also work for your Mac or iPad. It also has customizable interactions and support for Family Sharing to share the purchase with your family. Google AI Edge Gallery Google AI Edge Gallery is a Google application for Android with which you can install different artificial intelligence models on your mobile. The app allows many uses, from image consultation to audio transcription or chats with AI, all locally. It is an open source project, and against it it must be said that It is a tool in developmentwhich means that there may still be quite a few bugs that will be corrected. Locally AI Another application for the Apple ecosystem, and optimized for Apple Silicon processors. Stands out for having a beautiful and careful interfaceadapted to Apple’s language, and for supporting the main open source models. What this app seeks is to offer you the experience of an app like ChatGPT but with free and offline languages, all local. Has local voice modelanguage and vision models, customizable prompt system, and both integration with Siri and Apple shortcuts. AnythingLLM An exclusive application for Android, although the model’s aspiration is to have a version for iOS. It has support for several small, fast and powerful models. They do not seek to offer a giant catalog, but rather have hand picked those they consider best and most optimized for mobile. This app also offers a default agent modeso you can use it with its models to search websites, read pages, interact with other applications or use your location. And if you’re looking for power, you can sacrifice privacy by connecting to one of the cloud models it offers. SmolChat We finish with another app to download and run popular AI models on Android, locally and offline. All this with an interface adapted to Android, and many customization settings. You can also pin your favorite chats on the home screen with shortcuts. Apps to have local AI on your computer We now continue with another small collection of applications with which you can download artificial intelligence language models directly on your computerwhether Windows, GNU/Linux or Mac. Ollama Ollama is possibly one of the most popular applications you can find to download AI models to your computer. The best of all is that it is multi-system, and you can install it in Windows, macOS and GNU/Linux. It is also open source and completely free, and has a clean and minimalist interface. Its interface is chat, just like any commercial model, and you have a history of conversations. There is also support for dragging files, such as PDFs or images. You have a search engine for AI models to find the one you want with several versions. Jan With over five million downloads, this is an amazing tool. You can add open source models or connect private ones like ChatGPT, Claude and company. This gives you the versatility to become an excellent all-in-one, available for Windows, macOS and GNU/Linux. But there’s more, because Jan also offers the possibility of using connectorsso you can work with your AI in Gmail, Amazon, Google, YouTube, Google Drive and more. They are also working on a memory system, all storing data locally. LM Studio An open source application with a unified graphical interface, since you will be able to Search and download AI models within the program … Read more

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