We are misdiagnosing PCOS. Therefore, these scientists have proposed changing its name

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Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) affects approximately 13% of women. women of childbearing age. However, it is estimated that there are approximately 70% of cases undiagnosed. Many patients are not aware of having this syndrome until they they try to have children and they see that it costs them a lot of work. Others never receive a diagnosis. For whatever reason, this is quite common in diseases that only affect women. All you have to do is see the endometriosis figures. Now, an international team of scientists has been exploring one of the reasons they believe there may be behind this underdiagnosis and have even proposed a curious solution: changing the name of the disease. Polyendrocrine metabolic syndrome of the ovary (SOM). These scientists they have spoken with experts and have surveyed more than 14,000 patients and healthcare professionals from around the world with different specialties. This has led them to realize that there is great discomfort with the name of the condition revolving around polycystic ovaries. It is true that this is a diagnostic criterion, but not all people with this syndrome develop this condition. Therefore, if the name revolves solely around that, there may be fewer diagnoses or even stigma towards those who insist that something is wrong with them, without having been able to put a name to their condition. After observing this data, they have chosen to propose a new name: ovarian polyendocrine metabolic syndrome. This refers to the factors that are common in all patients. An affectation of your hormones, which has effects on the ovaries and can also affect metabolism. It all starts with androgens. Generally, PCOS (or SOM, whatever we want to call it), is characterized due to excessive synthesis of androgens in the ovaries. These are what are colloquially known as male hormones, although they are also produced in the ovaries. However, its levels in the female body are usually much lower. When they rise, they affect the ability of the ovaries to ovulate correctly and, in addition, they affect the levels of other hormones linked to the menstrual cycle, such as LH and FSH. FSH usually tends to decrease, while LH increases. This hormone has many functions, among which is promote the synthesis of more androgens. Therefore, even more male hormones continue to be generated. It’s a vicious circle. The symptoms. People with this syndrome usually have symptoms such as absent or altered menstrual cycle, anovulation, facial hair growth, acne, hair loss or ovarian cysts. We should not confuse polycystic ovary syndrome with polycystic ovaries. The latter is a phenomenon that can be seen on ultrasound and does not necessarily mean the presence of the syndrome. For this reason it has been proposed to change the name. Continuing with the symptoms, PCOS is also usually accompanied by insulin resistance. That is the reason why it is also considered a metabolic syndrome. Other conditions, such as type 2 diabetes or obesity, can sometimes occur as a result. 2 of 3. PCOS is diagnosed when 2 of 3 diagnostic criteria are met. These are excess androgens, irregular or absent menstrual periods and polycystic ovaries. Cysts occur because, as ovulation cannot occur properly, the follicles in which the eggs mature remain. stuck in their immature state and accumulate. The egg is not released and the cyst occurs. However, is calculated that 30% of people with PCOS do not have these cysts. In fact, the percentage could be even higher. What happens is that, perhaps because of that inappropriate name, attention is not being paid to these cases. It is not definitive. The new name for PCOS is a proposal. Now, the competent health authorities, as well as other independent scientists, must evaluate it. In England, the NHS has already assured who will evaluate the proposal carefully. It’s certainly a start. Now we just need to pay much more attention to the suffering of women. Cover | Magnificent | Sydney Fought In Xataka | ‘Children of Men’ is ceasing to be a dystopia: the global sperm count has been sinking for years

While the international pork sector collapses, Spain breaks records

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The Spanish pig industry closed 2025 with a historical record and, a priori, that cannot be. Because, finally, we are talking about 5.27 million tons of meat just when the European pig has been in recession for four years. 6% year-on-year growth just as African swine fever reappears after 31 years of absence. To give us an idea: Spain already invoices 24.2% of all pork in the EU and is the third world producer behind the US and China. How is it possible? The question is timely. After all, the sector is growing against the tide. Not only because of the plague, nor because of the conflicts between Europe and China; but because the collapse in prices and the general retreat would have advised taking a more conservative line. However, the explanation is simpler than it seems: what is sold as an industrial success hides a history of extreme foreign dependence, health fragility and an environmental problem that the country refuses to solve. But let’s go in parts. December 16, 2025, China increased its final tariffs on European pork from 4.9% to 19.8% for five years. It is true that Iberian ham and sausages were left out and that for many Spanish companies the average tariff was 9.8%, but the blow was forceful. Above all, because (although apparently all this was part of the electric car wars) the problem is structural: China imports less and less because it produces more and more. To this we must add that a little earlier, on November 28, 2025, the Ministry of Agriculture had confirmed the first two positives for African swine fever in wild boars, unleashing a problem that made headlines for weeks (and has still not been resolved). And from this storm that threatened to break everything, the only thing that has reached the consumer is that pork is the animal protein that has become the least expensive during 2025. Because? Well, because the crisis has been metabolized, driving the concentration of the sector: today, the ten largest companies market today 65% of national meat (compared to 52% ten years ago). We have lost 32% of small farms; but the big ones have more and more power. Something that also explains why the country is about to a very serious European sanction for not complying with the nitrates directive. In the end the question is not “how is it possible that the most efficient and best armored sector in Europe is simultaneously on the verge of a collapse of margins and with major water pollution problems?”; The point is that Spain produces more pigs than ever precisely for those reasons. Image | Amber Kipp In Xataka | The gap between what pork costs on farms and in supermarkets does not stop growing. The ranchers have said enough

a “biocable” for the brain

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Every day that passes we are closer to understand better our own brain, but also something almost more exciting: being able to fix it. The neuroscience It is a very important field because it connects biology, health and behavior to better understand human beings and in recent years we have been developing tools that allow us to go where we could not before. Neuralink or the chinese alternatives are an example, but now researchers at Duke University have gone another route: that of rewiring brain circuits. And the key is a biological “wire.” In short. A few days ago, the researchers from the Faculty of Medicine of the American university published a study in Nature in which they presented LinCx. It is the abbreviation for ‘Long-term integration of Circuits using connexins’ and, under that complicated name, what is really hidden is something that acts as a biological bypass to repair damaged neuronal pathways. Until now, there were some drugs that allowed acting on cell populations, as well as electrical stimulation and optogenetic techniques, but what the researchers propose with LinCx is a way to create artificial electrical synapses in a very precise way and without any type of external stimulation. In this way, instead of affecting large populations of cells, the authors can take a closer look and decide which connections are made based on the needs of each person. How it works. The basis of LinCx is a fish, white perch or American Moronespecifically. The team built it from connexin proteins found naturally in this fish, where it naturally uses electrical synapses for rapid communication between cells. From them, the team designed two molecules and each of them couples only with its partner and not with natural brain proteins. This is the reason why they can fine-tune the cells to which they connect, avoiding those unwanted connections and forming that “cable” (in many quotes) that allows the synapse to be made. Researchers define it as “precise electrical connections at the cellular level.” The tests. At the moment, they have not tested it in humans, but they have tested it in both mice and nematode worms. In the worms, the installation of these connectors altered the temperature-seeking behavior with which they are regulated. In mice, the researchers focused on reorganizing specific circuits to measure both social interaction and stress response. There is still. As we said, it is a great advance in the field of neuroscience because, unlike drugs, this LinCx only connects the neurons that want to connect. It’s like precision aiming instead of shooting with a shotgun. Now, although the results are promising, the tests have been very limited to animals and the next step is to establish whether LinCx can be the answer to reversing synaptic deficits in disorders of genetic origin. It is the next step of research and, if the results are positive, it is what could bring this technology closer to use in humans. Without a doubt, this is something promising because it is the first time that there is a tool to precisely control communication between very specific cells, but there is still some way to go. In Xataka | Human beings are stopping having children on Earth. China is looking for the solution in space

start sleeping 8 hours every day

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Almost all of us know that sleeping poorly takes its toll on us the next day, where thinking becomes a task that it’s not easy at allin addition to having fewer reflexes or simply being much more tired. However, what happens inside the body when we alter our hours of sleep goes far beyond simple fatigue and contributes (a lot) to our aging. This is what a monumental study has pointed out, putting figures on this phenomenon. The essay. A recent investigation published in the prestigious magazine Nature has analyzed approximately 500,000 adults to find out how sleep duration affects our “biological age.” And the verdict, after measuring the state of almost all our systems, draws a very clear U-shaped curve: the sweet spot is between 6 and 8 hours a day. The biological clock. What makes this study a milestone is not only its gigantic sample size, which gives it enviable statistical power, but its approach. And normally aging studies are based on very general blood markers, but now science has opted to cross-reference data from genomics, proteomics, metabolomics and medical images. With all this information, what they have done is nothing more than create 23 different “aging clocks” that represent the state of 17 organs of the human body. This has allowed them to map in a coordinated way the relationship between the brain, which is affected by this lack of sleep, and the rest of the body. A curve. The main finding of this article focuses on the fact that the relationship between sleep and the level of aging does not follow a straight line, but rather has a ‘U’ shape. This means that people who systematically sleep between 6 and 8 hours have a lower “biological age” compared to their chronological age, in addition to having better general health. But at the extremes, both sleeping less than six hours and sleeping more than eight hours are associated with accelerated aging in most of the organs that have been analyzed. Because? There are reasons for both excess sleep and not enough sleep that justify this accelerated aging. If we focus on people who sleep little, we must take into account that during sleep the brain expands its channels to “clean” the accumulated metabolic waste, which interrupting it can cause accelerated brain aging. But in addition, lack of sleep increases the levels of pro-inflammatory molecules and we already know that inflammation sustained over time can cause irreversible damage to organs. Also in excess. We may think that sleeping a lot is the best thing there is, but the reality is quite different, as this study points out. The reasons for this are that spending 10 hours in bed does not mean sleeping well for 10 hours, since people who sleep ‘a lot’ tend to have fragmented, superficial sleep with micro-awakenings. This means that they spend more time in light phases and less in the restorative sleep that we value so much. But we must also keep in mind that sleeping for a long time can be a symptom of an underlying disease such as depressionsleep apnea or chronic inflammation that is not the cause of aging as such, but does cause great damage to the body. There are nuances. Although the data on the table are quite robust, the study itself points out a crucial limitation that is often the Achilles heel of epidemiology: the association does not prove chance. This means that we don’t know if we age faster because we sleep too little or if we sleep too little because our body is aging due to an underlying disease. As epidemiologists who have reviewed this type of literature point out, forcing a person to sleep 7 hours does not guarantee that their biological clock will suddenly turn back. Furthermore, the researchers themselves clarify that the interval of 6 to 8 hours is a population association. That is, it is what works on average for the human species, but it does not imply that this range is the strict and optimal dogma for the biological needs of each individual. Images | gpointstudio in Magnific In Xataka | We have become obsessed with “natural” sleeping pills. The problem is that we are not solving much

15 billion minutes watched, modest budget and no stars in the cast

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No Hollywood stars in the cast. No epic battles or expanded universes. With a budget that, by current industry standards, can be described as modest. ‘The Pitt‘has just become the most watched series on global streaming. A production about hospital emergencies in Pittsburgh that does not fit into any of the models that the industry has been perfecting for a decade. And that surprise factor may be one of the reasons for its success. The figures. The second season closed its broadcast very recently with more than 15 billion minutes watchedaccording to Nielsen metrics. On April 16, its season finale attracted 9.7 million viewers in its opening weekend alone, the best result in the series’ two-year life. According to Warner, the season averaged 15.4 million viewers per episode50% more than the first. We can compare with other successful series: in the week of March 30 to April 5, ‘The Pitt’ topped the Nielsen ranking with 1.16 billion minutes, becoming the only one of the top ten to surpass the billion barrier. ‘The Boys’, which concludes its run on Prime Video this year, came second with 889 million. ‘Grey’s Anatomy’, with decades of accumulated catalog and also a medical theme, appeared fourth in the general ranking. The secret of his success. The series was created by R. Scott Gemmill, with Noah Wyle and John Wells as executive producers: the same team that gave us ‘ER’ on NBC for years. And they have learned a lot from that experience: ‘The Pitt’ follows the 15-hour shift in the Emergency Department in real time, with one episode per hour on call. There are no time jumps, multiple scenarios, or subplots that drag on for seasons without resolving. And while other HBO productions like ‘The Last of Us‘ either ‘The House of the Dragon‘ show budgets of between 15 and 20 million dollars per episode, ‘The Pitt’ is pulling with just over 4 million per chapter. The cast’s salary model reflects that same economic philosophy: the nine main actors with a permanent contract earn between $35,000 and $50,000 per episode, amounts in the low-mid range of the sector that, however, represented attractive treatment for unknown actors at a time of contraction in the television market. The awards. In 2025, the series won five Emmy Awards, including Best Drama, becoming the first medical series to win. since ‘Emergency’ won it in 1996. Wyle won for leading actor and Katherine LaNasa won for supporting actress, in a ceremony in which the series defeated ‘Severance’, despite the fact that it had a bag of 27 nominations. How it looks. Another point that distinguishes the series from its competitors and that has done a lot for its success is its programming strategy: fifteen episodes per season, weekly broadcast and annual return every January. The first season premiered in January 2025, the second in January 2026. The third will try to reach January 2027. HBO CEO Casey Bloys has already spoken of ‘The Pitt’ as the equivalent of ‘Grey’s Anatomy’, a procedural that may be active for decades. It seems too ambitious, but everything points in that direction: the weekly rhythm has allowed both to build fan loyalty and facilitate late additions of audiences with the season started, something that the TV series binge-watching Netflix type they don’t get. The dramatic structure also moves in that direction: the series has no problems incorporating and eliminating characters, even of great importance (as happens in a real ER) so that the cast and conflicts do not stagnate. ‘The Pitt’ doesn’t invent anything. And maybe that’s the mother of the lamb. Its cadence of weekly cases is typical of 1990s television and its cast is full of very little-known faces, so that nothing distracts us from the plots, which pile up in each episode at a frenetic pace. It is impossible to know if we are witnessing a broader trend, the return of a way of making television that was thought to be forgotten, or whether ‘The Pitt’ is going to be an isolated triumph. In any case, it is a refreshing slap in the face to series that mechanically stretch out for ten episodes what should be solved in one of fifty minutes. In Xataka | The big problem with the ‘Harry Potter’ series for HBO is also its main hook: it is identical to the movies

This is how Spain plans to conquer the ocean renewable industry

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The race for clean energy dominance in Europe has a new battlefield: the sea. And Spain has just put on the table a million-dollar declaration of intentions so as not to be left behind. As announced by the Institute for Energy Diversification and Saving (IDAE)the Government has allocated a provisional injection of 212 million euros from European NextGenEU funds to six state ports. The objective of all this is to adapt its logistical infrastructure for the imminent deployment of offshore wind. In this cast, there is a great winner who monopolizes the spotlight. The group formed by the Galician ports of A Coruña and Ferrol-San Cibrao has taken most of the pie of the PORT-EOLMAR programwith a proposed award that is close to 100 million euros (97.4 million for the joint project and an additional 2.5 million for Ferrol). A figure that supports the strategic nature of the region and that promises to transform its coast into the industrial epicenter of ocean renewables. The historical qualitative leap. Until now, Spain’s role was mainly limited to the manufacturing of different components and their storage. However, the objective of this new aid is make a historical qualitative leap: provide ports with the real capacity to build the immense platforms on which the wind turbines sit and, later, launch them into the sea as if they were frigates. Here the great geographical challenge of our coasts comes into play: unlike what happens in the North Sea – where the bottom is shallower and allows structures to be nailed (offshore fixed)—, the great depth of the Spanish and Galician coastline forces us to opt for floating technology. And floating wind requires colossal space. Carla Chawla Fidalgo, director of the Navantia Fene shipyard, sums it up perfectly in statements to The Opinion of A Coruña: “If we want to be able to assemble several units at the same time, we need enormous surfaces.” Since it is impossible to transport platforms the size of a football field by land, shipyards and ports with deep drafts become the “natural allies” and obligatory of this industry. The five titans. The rain of millions will result in an unprecedented physical transformation. At Punta Langosteira (the outer port of A Coruña), the aid will be used to condition some 100 hectares of surface in the southern area and create a new dock that may reach 450 meters in length. This joint candidacy obtained an almost perfect score, exceeding 90 points out of 100. But the bases of the IDAE They demanded an indispensable condition: Public money had to be backed by private industrial projects of comparable investment. And Galicia has responded. As it breaks down The Voice of Galiciathe port of A Coruña already has five firm projects, bank guarantees included, from true giants of the sector: Navantia: The main Galician naval engine is already a benchmark in building foundations (jackets) in Ferrol, but desperately needs land. Its landing in Langosteira is not a move, but a vital expansion to take on the assembly of large floating structures. WindWaves: The former Nervión Naval Offshore (belonging to the Amper Group) is Navantia’s strategic partner. The firm seeks to complement the facilities it already plans in Ferrol and As Somozas with this new space in the outer port. Acciona: The seventh world operator in wind energy, allied with giants such as Orsted and SSE Renewables, requested space to manufacture, assemble and maintain offshore wind installations. Esteyco: This engineering company already knows what it is like to operate in Langosteira, from where it moved 400-ton pieces for a prototype in the Canary Islands. Saitec: The Basque group promoting floating technology SATH is looking for land to manufacture and assemble its own platforms, with a view to expanding its prototypes before the end of the decade. Beyond the docks. The impact of this deployment transcends the simple civil works of a port. If we add public funds to the commitment of these five colossi, we are talking about a formidable financial muscle: the committed private investment is estimated at 180 million euros, which would raise the total impact of the Galician polo to around 280 million euros. At a professional level, the potential is undeniable. leaning in data from the metal employers’ association (Asime)the marine mill industry already generates about 5,000 direct and indirect jobs in Galicia. A figure that could skyrocket with the consolidation of this macroport. This entire movement is, furthermore, a geopolitical race against time. These investments are the necessary ammunition so that A Coruña and Ferrol can compete head to head with neighboring countries that are stepping on the accelerator, such as France, Italy or Portugal. In fact, times are pressing: the Port will close the adaptation project before August, and the aid stipulates a period of execution of the works of 48 months. The green horizon of Spain. The roadmap is drawn. How the IDAE documentation concludesSpain not only has high civil engineering capabilities and a powerful naval sector, but also optimal weather conditions. The ultimate objective is to take advantage of this competitive advantage to turn the country into a “European and global reference center” in the marine energy supply chain. But this massive industrialization does not want to turn its back on the environment. As a finishing touch to this ambitious plan, all this infrastructure is framed under the umbrella of the strategy ‘A Coruña Green Port’. An initiative that seeks to convert the Punta Langosteira dock into the first to achieve energy self-sufficiency from 100% renewable sources. Definitive proof that Spain is not content with manufacturing the wind giants of the future, but rather aspires for the port where they are born to be as green as the energy they will generate. Image | Unsplash Xataka | Japan has realized that it cannot depend on gas, so it is going to set up a mega wind farm on the coast of Tokyo

We thought platypuses were strange animals. We just discovered that they are even rarer

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The platypus has been a box of surprises since we formally “discovered” it almost 230 years ago, when the first stuffed specimen arrived in Europe and the naturalist George Shaw thought which was a hoax sewn up by some Chinese taxidermist. And let’s see, the platypus is truly unique in its species: it is a mammal that lays eggs, detects electric fields with its beak and glows under ultraviolet light. As if the above were not enough, a research team just found a surprising explanation for the color of his coat. What’s new about the platypus. The research, led by biologist Jessica Leigh Dobson from Ghent University, has identified that the platypus has melanosomes holes in their fur. What is this exactly? The organelles responsible for giving us color in our skin, hair or eyes. Until now, science assumed that hollow melanosomes existed only in birds and that those of mammals were always solid. Curiously, in birds those melanosomes are the ones that produce iridescent colors, but the platypus is dark brown, without flashes or shine. Furthermore, their melanosomes are mostly spherical, a morphology that in other animals is associated with red or orange tones, but not brown. The reason is a mystery. Why it is important. Melamine is the standard for vertebrates to provide color and protect from the sun, but what is truly key is its packaging. For decades the shape of melanosomes has served as an evolutionary fingerprint to differentiate the branches of birds and mammals. The platypus just killed it, but of course, it is so disconcerting from the beginning that it took researchers 80 years to agree on what it was, as its scientific name summarizes. The most reasonable hypothesis What this research team proposes is that the hollow melanosomes could have been an adaptation to the aquatic lifestyle of the platypus, a kind of thermal insulation mechanism in the fur for life in cold waters. But of course, if this is the case, why doesn’t the same happen with other semi-aquatic mammals? If confirmed, it would imply that this condition of hollow melanosomes evolved independently in birds and only in this mammal. The platypus continues to go on its own. Context. The platypus deserves a separate chapter in biology books: it is one of only five species of mammals that lay eggs, the monotremes. And what can we say about its appearance: it has the beak of a duck and the tail of a beaver. Although it seems harmless, it is not: it has venom like snakes and the males also have poisonous spurs on their hind legs capable of causing intense pain in humans. The icing on the cake is that the animal is capable of detecting the electric fields generated by the muscles of its prey underwater. But the platypus is different outside and inside: He is a genetic rebel. While humans have only two sex chromosomes (XX or XY), he has ten. This complexity makes their system for determining sex totally different from that of other mammals. It is, literally, one of the few animals that forces science to consider pre-established laws. How they discovered it. The discovery was almost a coincidence: Jessica Dobson was building a database of melanosomes from different mammal species when her thesis supervisor detected this platypus anomaly. The scientist passed the samples through a high-resolution microscope to examine the melanosomes inside the hairs of 12 platypus specimens taken from different parts of the body. He then extended the comparison to echidnas, marsupials such as wombats and opossums, and a hundred more mammals. No trace of hollow melanosomes, and for example their cousins, the echidnas, also lay eggs. In Xataka | The “Spanish platypus” exists and is on the verge of extinction: the very rare animal that only lives on the peninsula In Xataka | A 24-year-old platypus challenges what we knew about the longevity of the strangest mammals Cover | Dr Philip Bethge

SpaceX tests Starship V3 with improvements that will change the lunar race

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SpaceX is about to make a very important flight to complete its path to the Moon. Next May 19 (although it will already be May 20 in Spanish peninsular time), Starship flight 12 will take place. In it will try version 3both from the Super Heavy rocket and from the Starship itself. This third version includes new improvements, which will be vital for many of the future projects of Elon Musk’s company, but above all to become the main private partner that will take the next batch of astronauts to land on the Moon. Write down the date. On May 19, at 6:30 p.m. EDT, (12:30 a.m., Spanish peninsular time), will be launched Starship version 3. This ship is one of the two candidates to dock with the Orion capsule of the Artemis mission and facilitate the landing of two astronauts on the Moon. At the moment it competes with Blue Origin, whose candidate ship is advancing at a very good paceso it is very important that this mission be completed successfully. The improvements. Starship version 3 includes many improvements. For starters, the first phase of it, the Super Heavy rocket, will be a little higher. In its last flight it measured 71 meters, while now it will reach 72.3 meters. It will also carry 250 more tons of propellant, reaching a total of 3,650 tons of methane and liquid oxygen. Continuing with the fuels, its innovative internal conduction system has been redesigned to ignite the 33 engines at the same time and maneuver better. Finally, it should be noted that it includes 3 large aerodynamic control grilles, instead of 4 smaller ones, and that it has a hot separation structure that facilitates the recovery of the rocket. More about engines. The 33 Raptor 3 engines will replace the 33 Raptor 2 engines, resulting in a thrust of 280 tons each. In version 2 it was only 230 tons. The result will be a total rocket thrust of 9,240 tons.. On the other hand, they are lighter engines, so, despite incorporating improvements in their thermal protection shield and fire suppression system, the set is less heavy. Ship improvements. In addition to the improvements on the Super Heavy, the Starship will also include major technological advances. For example, its new orbital maneuvering engines will allow the approach and docking maneuvers in orbit that will be so necessary with Artemis to be carried out. It can remain in orbit for up to 48 hours without solar panels and carry a load of 100 tons to it. Version 2 could only carry 35 tons. This time, the Raptor engines are much more powerful Journey to quasi-orbit. Like the rest of Starship’s flights, this one will take the ship to something known as quasi-orbit. It means that, although it will be a suborbital flight, energetically it will remain very close to the real orbit. In simpler terms, the ship is ready to go into orbit. However, these tests are aimed at analyzing its reliability. Until this is confirmed, SpaceX does not want to risk leaving a 135-ton object wandering in low orbit. Guardian Starlinks. One of Starship’s missions in the future will be to continue contributing to increasing the Starlink satellite fleet. Therefore, on test flight 12 will fly with 22 models of these satellites. He will not take them with the rest, but will release them on a trial basis. Although two of these will also have an important mission, since they will be in charge of analyzing the behavior of the thermal study and taking photographs. This system has a series of dark tiles, which must be kept in place for its proper functioning. Therefore, to ensure that satellites are capable of detecting errors, some tiles have been painted whiteas if they weren’t there. It is a fictitious test error. If they do not locate it, modifications will have to be made. The end of a short but intense journey. Since it is the first test of this new version, there will not be a recovery on Earthbut the two phases will land for later collection. If all goes well, a landing could be tried on the next flight. Step by step. There are many new things to try. Images | SpaceX In Xataka | The launch pads are saturated for all space companies. For all but one: SpaceX

If you’re wondering where all those shared scooters went, this study gives you the answer

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You probably remember it if you have lived in a Spanish city in the last ten years. Overnight, your city was filled with electric scooters and shared bikes. Everywhere. Everywhere. Some well parked, others that made you feel like a 3,000 meter steeplechase athlete. As the last decade nears its end, Spain joined the wave of shared micromobility. Our streets were filled with operators who put on the streets, under the pay-per-use formula, electric scooters, bicycles and cars that promised to revolutionize the way we move. The formula coincided with another movement: low emission zones. At the end of 2018, Madrid launched Madrid Central. With this project he intended to reduce the volume of cars on the street in its central almond. In 2019, Barcelona began to apply similar measures in a much larger area, in this case it extended to the entire metropolitan area of ​​the city. The general feeling is that we were facing a model that had come to stay. The message was that the volume of cars in city centers had to be reduced and that young people, increasingly less interested in their own car, would combine public transport with scooters and electric bicycles for shared use. A new, more efficient door-to-door mobility. Today, almost nothing remains of that. The new and shared mobility that disappeared To understand what happened with that movement, Andrés Camacho Donezar, Professor of Business Strategy and business models, Universidad Pontificia Comillas, and Carmen Valor Martínez, teacher and researcher at the Faculty of Economics and Business Sciences (ICADE), Department of Marketing, Universidad Pontificia Comillas, have carried out a study in which the evolution of 10 operators that were or are part of micromobility services in our country has been studied. The conclusions have presented them in The Conversation which explains the problems that these companies had to face and how what seemed like a perfect business, with clear benefits for citizens, ended up being diluted over the years. The study indicates that shared micromobility has three obvious benefits: it is affordable for the vast majority of citizens, it is good for society as a whole because it facilitates access to mobility for all types of incomes and, in addition, it is environmentally beneficial since it should reduce traffic and polluting emissions. These promises laid a rug for all types of companies put their vehicles on the street. The most paradigmatic case was that of Madrid, which had up to 18 companies fighting for users and a regulation that allowed having on the street up to 10,000 electric scooters. After various regulatory attempts and closing the concession to three companies, in 2024 it ended up banning them completely. The process was similar to that of Barcelona, Saragossa either Sevilleto give a few examples. In all these cities, the private companies They tried to do business by attracting new users, the neighbors were divided between those who enjoyed them and those who suffered from them. Until, finally, the City Councils ended up banning them. The reasons have almost always been the same. The study details the problems that operators have had to make the service profitable. From an expansive phase to cover the maximum possible territory, we have moved on to atomization, closing the circle. Vandalism, high collection costs and repairs they began to complicate the business from a purely commercial point of view. To this we must add the neighborhood complaints that led to greater pressure from the City Councils towards the companies. Already in 2018, articles began to proliferate that echoed a problem: the streets were invaded by shared electric scooters. Due to a lack of civility and clearly insufficient control by companies, pedestrians began to encounter new obstacles. After many complaints, also in European cities with Paris in the leadthe City Councils began to put their restrictions. In Madrid, for example, it happened from “door to door” to virtual stations. Users could only pick up or park an electric scooter in limited and geolocated spaces. It was a mortal wound for a service that promised to save the last mile. To this we must add that these same town councils saw another business opportunity: controlling micromobility services themselves. And in most of the large Spanish cities public bicycle sharing services have been launched. With limited spaces to collect and release bicycles and a maintenance service that is not pressured by extraordinarily narrow profit margins. The result is that these shared electric scooter companies, the few that remain, have mostly pivoted to offer themselves as a solution to tour operators that offer rides or tourist visits using this means of transport or supply vehicles to the town councils themselves, like Lime in Getafe (Madrid). With mandatory restrictions (geolocation systems, limited parking spaces…) and some citizens who have rejected the use of electric scooters, shared mobility with these vehicles It has been impossible to make profitable. And public bikes have killed the possibility of the business pivoting to this vehicle. The result is a micromobility service that seemed perfect on paper but failed in practice. Photo | Jonas Jacobsson In Xataka | Madrid bans electric scooters on public transport: the latest explosion has broken the camel’s back

two HDMI functions on your TV that should be known and activated to make the most of it

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The ports HDMI from your television are the great standard for connecting devices such as consoles, Blu-ray players or multimedia centers. However, not all connectors are the sameand some of them may hide advanced features that significantly improve your experience. Therefore, today we are going to talk to you about two types of HDMI port that incorporate a series of additional features that you should know. Thus, depending on these characteristics you can decide what you connect to each of the ports. HDMI eARC for audio Nowadays, almost every modern TV you can buy includes at least one HDMI port that supports the eARC standard. This is the improved version of HDMI ARC, whose acronym means something like “Enhanced Audio Return Channel.” What this technology does is allow you send TV audio to an external sound systemsuch as an AV player or a sound bar. Come on, you can send the audio using the HDMI cable instead of needing to use specific cables for audio. The difference between the eARC that we find in HDMI 2.1 ports onwards and the old ARC of HDMI 1.4 or 2.0 is that while the old ARC only allows transmitting basic formats such as PCM, Dolby Digital or DTS, the eARC can send high quality audio such as Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD Master Audio, Dolby Atmos or DTS:X. Therefore, Your TV’s HDMI eARC allows you to stream high-fidelity audioand is appropriate for connecting your sound bar or speakers to the television. Always keep this in mind so as not to have it busy with other devices. HDMI-CEC The other connector that is worth knowing is the HDMI CECwhose acronym stands for “Consumer Electronic Control.” What this port does is facilitate the management of devices connected to the television. You can operate several of them with a single remote control. This will allow you to use a single remote control, like the one on a TV, to control a sound system, a Blu-ray player, a game console, or other devices you have connected. And when controlled with a single command, it allows all devices turn on or off at the same timeor that you can control everyone’s volume with that single control. The negative part of this function is that each manufacturer gives it a name commercial, so it can be a little confusing to find out if your TV has it or not. Here is a list of trade names by manufacturer, and remember that they all refer to the same technology: Samsung: Anynet+ Sony: BRAVIA Sync LG: Simplink Panasonic: VIERA Link Phillips: EasyLink Toshiba: CE-Link or Regza Link Here, one last thing you should keep in mind is that the brand of the connected devices does not mattersince regardless of the name, they are all usually compatible with each other. Other things to look out for To take advantage of these improvements, the most important thing is to make sure that Your television has HDMI 2.1 ports or higher, since it is the standard that allows you to use all these functions. In addition, not all HDMI connectors on your television will have the same standard or support the same technologies, you will have to pay close attention to each one. And in addition to the eARC and CEC functions, these ports may also have others focused on those who play on console or PC. For example, there is the VRR, which synchronizes the refresh rate of the television with that of the GPU to avoid interruptions in the image. There’s also ALLM, which automatically activates low latency mode when it detects that a game is running. In Xataka Basics | HDMI ports on your TV: how to distinguish them, differences and how to know which one to use

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