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In 1808, a Canarian engineer had to flee Spain and go into exile in Russia. And thus shaped modern St. Petersburg

May 16, 2026 by usatoday24

Between the winters of his native Puerto de la Cruz and those of Saint Petersburg there are a few degrees of difference; but neither that, nor the change in culture, language or landscapes turned back Agustín de Betancourt when in 1808 he decided to pack his bags and move to the Russia of the tsars. He had fallen into disgrace in the eyes of the almighty GodoyIn Spain he had nothing left but family and memories, he had been in Paris for some time and had influential friends, so… What could he lose? Nothing. And so it was. His steppe adventure would bring him significant profits; but above all to Russia itself. So much so that if you walk around Saint Petersburg you will find several statues in his memory. The country of the tsars, that of the Alexanders and Nicolaseswhich today we associate with pageantry and alambic constructions, would probably have been somewhat less brilliant if it had not been for the genius of Agustín de Betancourt, the inventor who during the early part of the 19th century gave shape to his particular “Russia made in the Canary Islands”. Especially in the capital, Saint Petersburg. From Augustine to Agustinovich The one of Agustín de Betancourt y Molina (1758-1824) is one more name in the long list of national geniuses from whom Spain—before and after him, for one reason or another—did not know how to take full advantage. It happened to Isaac Peral, Monica Sanchez, Angela Ruiz, Emilio Herrera…and Betancourt. In his case, yes, in a peculiar way. At the beginning of the 19th century, the situation of the Canarian engineer in Spain was enviable in its own way. He came from a good birth, he had made a career between Madrid, Paris and London, earning the trust of the counts of Floridablanca either Aranda and enjoyed a well-established prestige with his work on steam engines or the optical telegraph that I had designed with Claude Chappe. As, in addition to being a man of action, he was also a man of letters, Betancourt had also encouraged the creation of the School of Roads and Canals, inspired by the École des Ponts et Chaussées in Paris. Despite all this prestige and status, their situation at the dawn of the 19th century was not what one would call comfortable. In 1805 a report with his seal on the Genil River had earned him the distrust of none other than Manuel Godoy himselfstrong man in the kingdom of Charles IV. That circumstance and the scenario that was emerging internationally encouraged Betancourt to liquidate his properties in Spain and move first to Paris —where Napoleon came to tempt him—and then to Russia. There, in Saint Petersburg, he knew how to gain the favor of the best godfather imaginable: Tsar Alexander Iwho probably saw in the canary a more than valid genius for the development of his country. What Spain had missed would be used in the Russian empire. If the future was not tempting for Agustín in Madrid, perhaps it would be in Madrid. 3,000 kilometers from there. So he collected his belongings, settled his pending matters in France and embarked for Saint Petersburg. There they waited with open arms for Agustín “Agustinovich” Betancour. Persuaded perhaps by his prestige or the interviews with Agustín himself, the tsar He soon showed his confidence in the canary. One of his first orders was the modernization of the Tula cannon factory, a strategic cog in the military apparatus of the Russian Empire. Betancourt was not new to the task and he knew how to take advantage of his knowledge of the double-acting steam engine and the operation of the Yndrid factory to give a twist to the ancient Russian system. Happy The result must have convinced the tsar. Only in this way can we understand that throughout the following years Augustine was in charge of tasks of capital importance for Russia and accumulated greater and greater prestige. In a matter of a few years, the formerly feuding engineer Godoy He became a lieutenant general in the Russian army and general director of Communications. In Moscow he took on the task of building a new Equestrian Exercise Room and around the same time he was in charge of what may have been his greatest contribution—and the most profound—to Russian urban planning: projecting a new commercial precinct able to take over the fair that since the 16th century It was celebrated near the Makaevsky Monastery. Its old center had burned in 1816 and the Russian Government wanted to recover it… but with greater packaging and in a better place, more accessible and capable of achieving greater projection. The responsibility of deciding where and how and coming up with the overall design fell on the canary’s shoulders. The venue opened its doors in July 1822 with a huge fair that brought together more than 200,000 merchants and helped for years development of the Volga region and the wealth of the empire. That Betancourt did not do badly in his endeavor is demonstrated by the fact that upon his death the Russian merchants installed a plaque of gratitude on his grave. Two hundred years later the footprint of the Tenerife native in Nizhny Novgorod still deep. Although the Nizhni Novgorod complex is perhaps its greatest urban heritage, the city in which it was used most thoroughly and in which it left the greatest impact is Saint Petersburg. There, in the capital of the empire, he showed his talent in at least half a dozen capital works for the metropolis: the new paper currency factory, the dredging of the port, several bridges and St. Isaac’s Cathedral. As the Orotava Foundation remindsBetancourt assumed in March 1816 the task of setting up a new money paper factory in Goznak, on the banks of the Fontanka canal, and for two years he was in charge of supervising the works. His involvement was not limited to the building: he organized its areas and machinery, … Read more

Mozilla just revealed how many times Firefox was chosen

May 16, 2026 by usatoday24

For years, choosing a browser has been one of those decisions that seemed to be in our hands, but in practice were quite conditioned by the device we took out of the box. On the iPhone there was Safari. On many Android phones, Chrome. And although we have always been able to install alternatives, the truth is that changing a hidden setting is not the same as receiving a clear question at the right time. That is precisely the crack that Digital Markets Act (DMA) has tried to open in Europe: to turn a theoretical choice into a visible decision. The data that puts figures. Mozilla assures thatsince the DMA obligations began to apply in March 2024, Firefox has accumulated more than six million selections through browser selection screens. According to the organization that develops the browser, that equates to one election every 10 seconds. The movement does not stop at downloading or installing: it also states that retention is five times higher when users reach Firefox that way. The difference. The jump, however, has not been the same on all devices. Mozilla cites academic analysis which compares daily active users of Firefox in the EU with 43 non-EU countries and places the impact on iOS well above that of Android: 113% more than would be expected without the DMA compared to 12%. One thing to keep in mind: on iPhone and iPad the screen appears when you open Safari for the first time, while on Android it appears when you start a new device or after resetting it from the factory. Mozilla adds that, on Android, Firefox started from a higher usage base and that the deployment has been more uneven. A real victory? In its post, Mozilla insists that the DMA is bearing fruit in some areas, but “not everywhere, not perfectly, and not without effective enforcement.” That nuance matters because choice displays alone don’t eliminate years of vertical integration, default settings, and usage habits. TechCrunch pointed out in 2024 such as Aloha, Brave, Opera and Vivaldi, also recorded significant increases in the first days and weeks after the application of the European standard. The mobile moves, the desktop not so much. For Mozilla, the advance in mobile phones leaves one question pending: what happens with computers. The organization maintains that the desktop remains “largely intact” and estimates that some 310 million desktops and laptops in the EU do not have an equivalent selection screen. Their criticism is especially directed at Windows, where, according to Mozilla, users are exposed to deceptive design tactics and are not given an active choice. Beyond the numbers. What Mozilla announced leaves us with invaluable information: when the choice appears before the user, inertia stops being so automatic. It doesn’t mean that everyone will abandon Chrome or Safari, nor that selection screens alone will solve digital competency problems. But it does point to something measurable: if the alternative is clearly shown, there are users who choose it. Images | Xataka with Nano Banana In Xataka | Europe changes the standards for mobile batteries in 2027. The striking thing is that no manufacturer has complained

memory no longer wants to live in each machine

May 16, 2026 by usatoday24

For many of us, memory shortage It may first sound like a problem close to domestic consumption: RAM modules, components and devices conditioned by an increasingly stressed demand. But the phenomenon that The Next Platform describes also points to the other end of the chain. It reaches the large technology companies that train, deploy and offer artificial intelligence models in data centers. The cloud is not an abstraction, and its appetite for memory is forcing us to think about something that until recently seemed unintuitive: perhaps each machine should not depend only on the RAM it has inside. Memory changes places. The underlying idea is to transfer to memory a logic that is already familiar to us with storage. Today, data can live on the computer itself, on another machine on the network, or on a shared system accessed by several servers. The next generation of servers could treat RAM in a similar way: keep a portion local to each machine, but bring a much larger portion to large external systems capable of distributing capacity according to the need of the moment. From there comes what some call “memory godbox”: a large box or cluster of memory that is no longer tied to a single machine. The CXL moment. For years, Compute Express Link has advanced slowly, almost as a promise for more flexible architectures. The technology was introduced several years ago, but current memory pressures are giving it a much more favorable context. CXL provides a coherent interface to communicate processors, memory, accelerators and other peripherals, relying on PCIe. The final idea is simple to tell, although complex to execute: separating resources without breaking the feeling that they work together. CXL didn’t arrive all at once. It was first used to expand the memory of a server using modules connected to compatible PCIe slots. Then, with CXL 2.0, pooling appearedthat is, the possibility of pooling memory in a common pool and assigning it to different machines as needed. The limit was that that memory could be reallocated, but not truly shared between two systems working on the same data. CXL 3.0 It is the point at which that frontier begins to move, because it introduces broader topologies and shared memory between machines, although with certain technical limitations. The underlying problem. According to The Next Platform, AI does not fall short only because of a lack of calculation, but also because of a lack of memory. The HBM that accompanies the GPUs is very fast and is designed to power these chips at high speed, but its capacity is limited and its cost is high. In training, the big challenge is usually processing enormous amounts of data to build the model. In inference, however, we talk about something else: using that already trained model to respond to a request. The memory of the conversation. Each response from a language model is built little by little, token by token. In order not to recalculate everything above at each step, the systems save a type of working memory called KV cache. The Next Platform explains that previous attention vectors are preserved there, which help the model to continue taking into account the context while generating the response. The problem is that in services with many users, this cache can grow to occupy enormous amounts of memory, even more than the model itself. It’s not just theory anymore. This idea no longer lives only in technical documents or architectural promises. The Register mentions Panmnesia, Liqid and UnifabriX as companies working on systems to take memory off the server and make it available to multiple machines. Some do it with CXL switches, others with large reserves of DDR5 that can be distributed among different hosts. The Next Platform adds the case of Enfabrica and its Emfasys system, designed for inference and capable, according to the media, of reaching 18 TB of DDR5 per memory server and 144 TB in a full rack. The conclusion is simple: the industry is not only looking for more memory, it is looking to place it in another way so that AI can take better advantage of it. Images | Xataka with Nano Banana In Xataka | The ‘Chinese Netflix’ has designed a plan for AI to generate the majority of its content within five years. It sounds risky

The next treatment for depression could be in the eyes. They have already successfully tested smart contact lenses on mice

May 16, 2026 by usatoday24

Drug-resistant depression is one of the greatest challenges of today’s medicinesince when antidepressants they don’t workpsychiatry and neurology have to resort to therapies such as electroconvulsion. Now, a team of researchers has given this issue a radical turn by developing smart contact lenses capable of treating depression by stimulating the brain through the retina. a study published in the magazine cell shows very good results in mouse models with the use of these contact lenses which have made it possible to reverse the depressive phenotype with a capacity comparable to that of the antidepressant fluoxetine, or better known as Prozac. It is not invasive. To understand the milestone that this study represents, we must first look at the current therapies that involve using what is known as Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation to be able to do non-invasive neuromodulation for patients with drug-resistant depression. The possibility of transcranial electrical stimulation by direct current is also being studied. But the problem with these therapies, which are at the bottom of psychiatry, is that reaching the deep regions of the brain without resorting to surgery is extremely difficult. And one of the risks of applying a strong electric field from the outside to reach the depths of the brain can end up damaging part of the brain. The solution. This physical inconvenience is where temporal interference technology comes in. As detailed a review done in 2025this stimulation is a great strategy, since it consists of applying two high-frequency electrical currents that do not affect the superficial brain tissue. In this way, when crossing in the deep areas of the brain, the frequency difference creates a new low-frequency wave that does stimulate the target neurons. It is a functional concept that was demonstrated for the first time in mice and that allows access to the depths of our anatomy without a scalpel. Some contact lenses. Under this principle is where we are now looking for a way to apply it in a way that is comfortable for the patient and is where the use of contact lenses equipped with electrodes made with gallium and platinum oxide comes into play. Here the direct anatomical connection that exists between the eye and the brain through the optic nerve is used to transmit this stimulation through the retina which allows temporary interference signals to be sent to the neural networks involved in depression. The application. In the research, this stimulation was simply applied for 30 minutes a day for three weeks in the rodents. What was achieved here is a restoration of healthy brain oscillations and a behavioral improvement that, according to the researchers, is comparable to that obtained by administering fluoxetine in these same animal models. Caution. Here we must keep in mind that this is the first time that contact lenses have been used to treat a brain disorder, and although the design of the device is a display of engineering, we must be cautious. As is often the case with these advances, the transition from the laboratory to the patient is very slow due to the need for numerous trials to assess the effect and safety in humans. But the idea is already on the table right now and we just have to wait for science to continue advancing. Images | rawpixel.com on Magnific In Xataka | We say we are “depressed” beyond our means: where does the illness end and where does the illness begin?

Japanese scientists have discovered what the clouds of Venus have to do with your kitchen sink

May 15, 2026 by usatoday24

In 2016, the Japanese Akatsuki mission detected a massive disturbance on Venus which left scientists baffled. For a long time, its origin has been a mystery. However, now a team of researchers from the University of Tokyo has found the answer. An answer that, curiously, has a lot to do with your kitchen sink. Simulations. Through atmospheric simulations and fluid dynamics models, scientists at the University of Tokyo have discovered that a phenomenon takes place in the atmosphere of Venus, called hydraulic jump, which also happens in your sink every time you turn on the tap. You have surely noticed that, right at the point where the water hits the sink, it moves quickly and in a very thin layer. However, a circle is formed whose outer layers are thicker and move much more slowly. In other words, rapidly flowing liquid abruptly slows down and increases in height. The reasons. Initially, when water falls into the sink, its speed is greater than the local speed of the waves that are generated. However, friction with the sink surface slows down the waterso just the opposite happens. As a result, water begins to accumulate, forming a deeper layer that also moves more unstablely. What was seen on Venus. In 2016, a massive disturbance was detected moving 6,000 kilometers wide around the equator of Venus. This, in addition, was moving through the clouds, leaving behind a dark patch of denser clouds. These images taken on August 18 (left) and August 27 (right), 2016, by the near-infrared camera of Japan’s Akatsuki Venus probe, show the clear line of denser (darker) clouds moving across the planet. Special clouds. The clouds of Venuscomposed mostly of sulfuric acid, are an interesting mystery. They are known to rotate very quickly, with a speed 60 times greater than the planet’s own rotation. This, as explained in Universe Todaywould be more or less equivalent to a Formula 1 car circling a bicycle. They are made up of 3 layers, of which only the outermost one is well known. The two innermost ones harbor many mysteries, which is why these scientists have searched there. An unstable wave. In one of these internal layers, something known as a Kelvin wave is formed. It moves east very quickly, but there comes a time when it becomes periodically unstable. At that point, the wind speed slows down, like tap water, and the atmosphere builds up into a thicker layer, like water over a sink. This drastic change causes a powerful upward current of air, which pushes sulfuric acid vapor into the atmosphere, where it condenses and forms that broad wall of clouds that was detected in 2016. other planets. This is the largest hydraulic jump that has been detected in the solar system. However, these scientists believe that, using similar models, perhaps something similar could be detected on other planets. For example, they believe that Mars is a good candidate to host this phenomenon. It would be interesting to check, since Venus is too inhospitable a planet to colonize, but science Yes, he has his sights set on colonizing Mars in the future. Knowing perfectly the mysteries that its sky houses is necessary for the success of this type of missions. Image | MIT/Zeimusu | T. Imamura, Y. Maejima, K. Sugiyama et al., 2026 In Xataka | A green beam illuminated Venus in the night sky. It is not an unknown phenomenon, but it is very difficult to see

The Strait of Hormuz has become a death trap. The Arab Emirates’ solution is a pharaonic oil “bypass” through the desert

May 15, 2026 by usatoday24

The new energy order is not debated in suit and tie summits, but is rising against the clock under the scorching sun of the Arabian Peninsula. Suffocated by the Third Gulf War, the United Arab Emirates has hit the table: it refuses to leave the survival of its trade routes in the hands of chance, war or its neighbors. The strategy is clear: if the strait is a minefield, they will build a rear exit. The news that has shaken the foundations of oil logistics came to light through official channels. According to a statement from the company itself ADNOC (the Emirati state oil company), His Highness Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed has chaired a key meeting in which he has ordered an urgent directive: to accelerate the construction of the new “West-East Pipeline” project. But what infrastructure are we talking about exactly? As energy analyst Javier Blas points outthe key to this movement is that the Emirates is laying out a second oil pipeline expressly designed to turn its back on the Strait of Hormuz. The date marked on the calendar is 2027. When they open the tap, this new infrastructure will double the volume of crude oil that the country takes out to the world through the port of Fujairah (in the Gulf of Oman). In practical figures, this represents a gigantic leap: they will go from the 1.5 million barrels a day that they move right now, to injecting between 3 and 3.5 million. It is not a project improvised in the last week. As analyst Bachar El-Halabi points outwork on this project began quietly in early 2024, long before the war in Iran paralyzed the region. However, the conflict has acted as the definitive “catalyst.” The war did not inspire the pipeline, but it has injected it with urgency. The logistical “antidote” As was discussed in the middle Amwaj Mediathe Iran war has starkly exhibited the tremendous vulnerability of maritime bottlenecks (chokepoints). The near-total shutdown of Hormuz has caused the worst supply disruption in history, removing 12% of the world’s oil from the market. In this context, the West-East pipeline stands as a lifeline. This Emirati infrastructure, added to the gigantic oil pipeline East-West (or Petroline) of 1,200 kilometers that Saudi Arabia has reactivated towards the Red Sea, form a true logistical “antidote.” They are escape routes that neutralize Tehran’s blackmail, allowing crude oil to go out into the world without entering the range of missiles and blockades in the Persian Gulf. They are, in the words of experts, “buying invaluable time” for the West. To understand the privilege of having this infrastructure, just look at the neighboring country: the situation in Iraq exposes the other side of the coin. Lacking alternative outlets to the sea and completely dependent on Hormuz, Iraq has been left without physical space to store its own oil. As a result, Baghdad has been forced to shut down 70% of production in its prolific southern fields and beg the Kurdistan region to let them use an old, patched-up pipeline to Turkey that barely manages to export 250,000 barrels a day. Iraq is a hostage to its own geography; The Emirates, on the other hand, are buying their freedom with steel and engineering. A free (and flooded) market by 2027 All this new logistical muscle takes on its true meaning when it intersects with another historic decision: the Emirates’ slamming of the door on OPEC+. Emirates has formally left the organizationarguing the defense of their “national interest.” After almost six decades, the country has decided that its national interests no longer fit into the cartel’s quotas. The UAE had been accumulating commercial frustration for years because OPEC forced them to limit their pumping to 3.2 million barrels per day, despite the fact that the country has invested aggressively to reach a production capacity of 5 million barrels by 2027, the same year in which its new megagas pipeline to Fujairah will be ready. But as various international media explain, this divorce is not just about money. Abu Dhabi feels betrayed. The Emirates have had to absorb much of the impact of Iranian missiles and drones alone, feeling that their Arab “brothers” and the Gulf Cooperation Council were turning their backs on them. Therefore, the consequences of this schism will be tectonic. The cartel has seen its global market share plummet to 26%. When the Strait of Hormuz reopens and the West-East pipeline operates at full capacity, the Emirates will flood the market under its own rules, leaving a lone Saudi Arabia to bear the brutal cost of trying to stabilize prices in a world of extreme volatility. The cold war for the future The Emirati order, in fact, is directly addressed to Riyadh. In the silent cold war it is waging with Saudi Arabia for regional hegemony, the Emirates refuses to be a supporting actor in the face of Prince Mohamed bin Salman’s monolithic “Vision 2030.” As explained Middle East Economythe UAE can afford to leave OPEC and endure a downward pulse in prices because its break-even Fiscal is around a comfortable $45 per barrel, compared to the much greater needs of its neighbors. Thanks to diversification, the Emirates today generates 25% of its electricity with the Barakah nuclear power plant and has immense solar parks, allowing itself to use today’s petrodollars to finance hydrogen and the technology of tomorrow. However, this apparent invulnerability has a terrifying blind spot. Military analysts warn that, in the era of hybrid warfare, a steel pipe is of little use if a $500 drone can paralyze the region. The Third Gulf War already demonstrated this fragility when a drone reached the gigantic Emirati Ruwais refinery. Added to this is the panic unleashed when pro-Iranian militias explicitly threatened vital infrastructure such as the Barakah nuclear power plant. The Emirates is building its financial and logistical freedom, yes, but it is doing so through a minefield. The new West-East pipeline is ultimately much more than a … Read more

Hormuz blockade is about to cause serious problems for Samsung and TSMC

May 15, 2026 by usatoday24

The closing of Strait of Hormuz because of the conflict with Iran has turned the entire technology industry upside down and energy, beyond all the geopolitical tension that has been dragging on. It is an earthquake that runs through the entire semiconductor supply chainincluding key components that we do not have in mind a priori, but that are essential for the production of all types of microchips. From the most specialized gases to solvents, minerals and, essentially, all critical raw materials that are now much more complicated and expensive to obtain. Raw material. Apart from silicon, there are other essential raw materials for chip manufacturing that have recently been very difficult to obtain. Just like they count From Bloomberg, the production of these chips requires dozens of materials as specific as ultrapure gases, acids, solvents, resins… Many of which come from a very specific geographic region: the Middle East. The blockade of the Strait of Hormuz has suddenly cut off the supply of a good part of them, and although large manufacturers such as TSMC and Samsung have some accumulated inventory, the margin is narrowing with each passing week. Helium has no substitute. Helium is perhaps the most critical material of everyone. It is used to cool wafers during circuit etching, in EUV lithography processes, and to maintain the thermal stability of silicon. It has no substitute. Qatar produced about a third of the world’s supply, but Iranian attacks on its energy facilities in Ras Laffan and Mesaieed have paralyzed virtually all of its production. According to Bloomberga complete restoration could take up to five years. South Korea imported around 65% of its helium from Qatar, making Samsung and SK Hynix the most vulnerable manufacturers. Memory chips require much more helium than logic chips. bblunt, sulfuric acid and solvents. Beyond helium, the blockade is also affecting other equally critical materials. High-purity hydrogen bromide gas, essential for etching processes, is in short supply. High-purity sulfuric acid, used to clean wafers and remove photoresists once the circuits are printed, also is facing restrictions. Just like they explain In The Guardian, the Gulf exports about 45% of the world’s sulfur, the raw material from which it is obtained. And then there are solvents for photoresists, such as PGMEA, which is obtained from naphtha, a crude oil derivative that previously came largely from Iran. Inventories. The large manufacturers have come out to say that, for the moment, they have enough reserves to last several months. The South Korean government confirmed in April that bromine and helium inventories covered several months of production. TSMC, for its part, said it does not expect an immediate impact, although it warned that the prices of certain gases and chemicals will likely rise. The problem is that many of these materials have a limited useful life, since they cannot be stored indefinitely. Liquid helium evaporates during transport (especially now that ships must go around Africa), and photoresist solvents expire once opened. Jonathan Colehower, general manager of UST’s Global Operations and Supply Chain department, counted to PC Gamer that companies like Samsung “were operating with very tight inventories” following the just-in-time model, and that “this was not on their radar.” cgeographical concentration. One of the hardest lessons of this crisis is that the technology supply chain has very specific choke points. And it is not just about the Gulf producing oil; the thing is produces very specific materials in very specific installations that have no easy equivalent elsewhere. Jenna Ingram, Director of Proactive Intelligence at Exiger, counted told PC Gamer that manufacturers that previously bought helium from the Gulf are now competing for the same limited volume produced by Canada and the United States, which already had their own customers. It should be added that China has just restricted its exports of sulfuric acid and that Russia has imposed temporary controls on helium exports, making the picture even more complicated. Who will endure and who will not. In this scenario, size matters a lot. The big ones (TSMC, Samsung, SK Hynix) have enough purchasing power to sneak to the front of the queue when there is a shortage, pay premiums for high purity materials and draw on strategic relationships if necessary. The smallest ones, no. According to GartnerIf the situation continues, it could also affect the AI industry. For consumers, the forecast is not at all hopeful. Supply priorities will most likely favor AI infrastructure over consumer electronics. How long will this last? “I think at best we are looking at another 12 or 18 months of difficulties. I don’t think this will reset overnight,” explained to the media Derek Lemke, Senior Vice President of Product Intelligence at Exiger. Colehower, for his part, explains that “a good part of the damage is not only an interruption of supply, but damaged infrastructure” that must be rebuilt. And, above all, he emphasizes that “prices are sticky. They go up, but they rarely go down.” Cover image | Harrison Broadbent In Xataka | China takes off in quantum computers: it already has the first dual-core and 200 qubits on the planet ready

The history of writing seemed untouchable. Until researchers discovered a tablet on Easter Island

May 15, 2026 by usatoday24

Easter Island is known above all for the moaienormous head-shaped sculptures that natives carved from volcanic tuff and have fascinated scientists for decades. On the Polynesian island there is, however, another archaeological enigma that is much less visible but equally (or even more) important for humanity: the rongo rongothe pictographic writing system used by the Rapa Nui people. Linguists have not yet been able to decipher its signs, but above all they are concerned about one question: When was it invented? It may seem anecdotal, but the answer would be a milestone that would transcend Polynesia and help us better understand how humanity gave birth to one of the inventions that has most influenced history: writing. One word: rongo rongo. It is not nearly as well known as the moai, but the rongo rongo is one of the most fascinating treasures that we owe to the Rapa Nuithe Polynesian natives of Easter Island. It basically consists of a writing system based on pictograms that is preserved in a series of tablets spread around the world. Experts estimate that it is made up of 400 charactersalthough its meaning and logic remains surrounded by unknowns. The experts they have not been able to decipher it Still, something understandable if two pieces of information are taken into account. First, although rongo rongo has centuries of history, Europeans were not interested in it until the 19th. We owe much of the credit to the French missionary Eugene Eyraudwho shortly before dying described the symbols that covered wooden tablets and staffs located on the Polynesian island. The second fact is that we keep a fairly limited number of engraved boards, pieces that are also distributed in places like Rome, Honolulu or New York. The great mystery. A few years ago Silvia Ferrara, professor at the Department of Classical Philology and Italian Studies at the University of Bologna, explained to the BBC why the challenge is so complicated: “No one has reconstructed the systematic correspondence between each sign and the sounds it registers.” At first glance, the glyphs seem to represent silhouettes of animals, plants, people, artifacts and geometric designs, but understanding them requires clarifying such basic questions as whether two signs similar to each other, with slight variations, represent the same sound. The curious thing is that, as complex as this challenge is, it is not what experts are most fascinated by. There is another question that worries them even more: When and how was the rongo rongo created? Was it something that the natives of Easter Island came up with or did it develop after the arrival of the first European navigators, to beginning of the 17th century? The key is no longer so much to understand what the pictograms say as to clarify who, when, how and under what influence created the system. Is it so important? Yes. And the reason is very simple. There are many languages (very many), but writing systems developed from scratch, independently, there are very few (very few). “For many, writing represents an essential quality of civilization. There are four cases and places in human history where writing was invented from scratch without any prior knowledge,” explained in 2010 Christopher Woods, of the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures at the University of Chicago. This ‘miracle’ basically occurred in Mesopotamia, Egypt, China and Mesoamerica. “It is likely that all other writing systems evolved from the four systems,” detailed the expert If rongo rongo developed on Easter Island basically after the arrival of Europeans, in the 17th century, that ‘photo’ would not change. It would be a valuable creation, although not ‘independent’. Its origin would be explained by external influences. But… What if it was the Rapa Nui who devised the system completely autonomously? After all, it is known that, despite being a remote island in the middle of Polynesia, the natives arrived there several centuries before than the Dutch sailors. Solving the unknown. Convinced that this is the great enigma of Easter Island (with the permission of the majority), a few years ago Ferrara tried to clarify the chronology of the rongo rongo writing. The study, carried out together with other colleagues and whose conclusions were collected in Scientific Reportsfocused on four engraved tablets preserved in Rome. To find out what era they were from, the researchers subjected them to radiocarbon dating and asked a botanist to analyze their materials. What did they find out? That three of the tablets appear to have been used in the 19th century, after the arrival of Europeans to the island. The fourth, however, reserved a surprise: it points to a period between between 1493 and 1509. “It stands out as an anomaly in our chronological model, since it shows an antiquity before the arrival of the Europeans,” reveals Professor Sahra Talamo, also from the University of Bologna. This discovery opens a fascinating horizon that contradicts the version that the rongo rongo flourished under the influence of Western navigators. “The common narrative has always been one in which the local population was exposed to writing when Europeans arrived on the island starting in 1722 and this was what drove the creation of writing, as a kind of result of a transmission, of exposure to a pre-existing writing system,” comment Ferrara to the BBC. His work opens another door: he suggests that rongo rongo was an “original invention, an innovation that happened because the brains of local people took them in that direction.” Way to go. Although Ferrara and Talamo’s research is fascinating and sheds light on the origins of Rapa Nui writing, the truth is that it does not settle the debate. Not at least definitively. Radiocarbon analysis concluded that a tablet can be dated between late 15th century and early 16th centurybut that, admits the teacher herself, does not necessarily mean that the engraving it contains is from the same period. That is, the inscription may also have been made in the 19th century, except that its author decided … Read more

NASA has an appointment with Mars today (although its ship already has its eyes set elsewhere)

May 15, 2026 by usatoday24

The Psyche spaceship, launched by NASA in 2023 to study the asteroid with the same name, it will reach its destination in 2029. However, today it will make its first stop along the way. If we stop at gas stations and roadside bars to stretch our legs and have a coffee, Psyche will approach Mars at almost 20,000 kilometers per hour, to tune some of its instruments while taking photographs worthy of the best wallpaper. In fact, we can already see some of them. Too close for space. Psyche won’t stop at the gas station like we did, but she will make a great approach. At 3:28 PM EDT (9:28 p.m., Spanish peninsular time), will be located 4,500 kilometers from the red planet. That, in spatial terms, is very little. Gravity assist. At this stop along the way, Psyche will take the opportunity to take some photographs and adjust her instruments, but she will also use Mars as a springboard to reach her destination faster. When a ship approaches a moving planet, it is attracted by its gravitational field. It does not touch the planet, but that interaction changes its trajectory and helps it gain speed with less propellant expenditure. We can imagine it as a ball being thrown towards a moving vehicle. This changes its trajectory and also gives it speed on the return trip. Psyche uses solar-electric propulsion, with xenon gas as fuel. Thanks to that push, known as gravitational assist, you can save quite a bit of propellant. A whole entourage. The result of this interaction will be studied by the two NASA rovers that are currently on Mars, Curiosity and Perseveranceas well as by American and European orbiters that are carrying out their respective missions. Not only photographs will be taken. Possible changes to the Martian surface and atmosphere will also be detected. first photos. Psyche has already taken a very interesting photoin which the night side of Mars is seen as the spacecraft approaches it. The result is something similar to a half moon, although logically it has nothing to do with it. The real goal. Thanks to Martian gravitational assistance, Psyche will reach the asteroid with the same name in 2029. This is located in the asteroid beltbetween Mars and Jupiter. Shaped like a potato and 278 km long and 232 km wide, it is a metallic asteroid, one of the least abundant types in that location. That’s why it’s so interesting to explore. In fact, it is believed that it is actually the iron-nickel core of a planet in formation that could not complete the process because it was destroyed by cosmic collisions. For all this, Psyche (the ship and the asteroid) has a lot to teach us about the birth of a planet and, possibly, about the dawn of the solar system. As we often say, to know where we are going, it is also important to know where we come from. That is what makes this type of research so important. Image | POT In Xataka | NASA has sent its spacecraft to observe a dead robot on Mars. The reason: seeing how it accumulates dust

Now it’s worth more than a Ferrari

May 15, 2026 by usatoday24

While Formula 1 rests between races, Fernando Alonso continues to make people talk. This time not from the cockpit of his Aston Martin or showing off his exclusive Pagani Zonda Green Diamond of 10 million eurosbut from the streets of Monaco at the wheel of an Italian compact from the 90s that many believed forgotten. As and how did he count Motorpassionthe Asturian pilot has been seen circulating with a Lancia Delta HF Integrale Evoluzione Martini 6and the scene has generated both admiration and nostalgia among motor fans. If you were a teenager in the 90s and you liked cars, your room was surely decorated with a poster of this car. Although it has not been officially confirmed that the car is owned by Alonso, there is a detail that suggests that the legendary limited edition Delta Integrale is already part of the two-time champion’s garage: it is the license plate that the car sports. in the videos that have gone viral on social networks: he wears the number 14, Alonso’s fetish number. An icon of the rally with 310 units in the world The Lancia Delta HF Integrale Evoluzione Martini 6 is not just any nostalgic whim. This version was launched in 1992 to commemorate the sixth consecutive constructors’ title that Lancia achieved in the World Rally Championshipa feat that no other brand has matched in the WRC. Only 310 units were manufactured of this Lancia Delta between the end of 1992 and 1993, which explains both its sentimental value and its current price on the collectors market. RM Sotheby’s (Motorcar Studios) The Martini 6 edition is instantly identified by its line with blue and red stripes on white bodywork, inherited from the team’s official sponsor, Martini Racing. Inside, Recaro seats in blue with red stitching, a carbon fiber shift knob and a numbered plate that indicates which of the 310 units manufactured the car belongs to. Under the bulging hood to make room for the engine that characterized the entire Delta Integrale family, there is a 2-liter four-cylinder, 16-valve turbocharged engine with 210 HP distributed among the four wheels, which allowed the vehicle to go from 0 to 100 km/h in 5.7 seconds. To put it in perspective it was the same time a Ferrari Testarossa of the time, and could reach a maximum speed of 220 km/h. A real wolf disguised as an elegant Italian utility vehicle from the 90s. RM Sotheby’s (Motorcar Studios) From the original 40,000 euros to 350,000 in the current market When it was released, the special edition Martini 6 It cost about 40,000 euros in exchange, a considerable figure that, at that time, was more typical of a Porsche 911 than an Italian compact. Three decades later, and as has happened with many other models from the 90s, the collector market has multiplied that value spectacularly. In 2023, the Lancia Delta HF Integrale Evoluzione Martini 6 with the 272 frame went up for auction at RM Sotheby’s. The bidding hammer fell when it reached $117,600. The best preserved specimens and with about 20,000 kilometers they can already reach 300,000 euros, and those who have traveled less than 5,000 kilometers are close to 350,000 euros. The Lancia is not the only classic with which Alonso has been seen in Monaco during the season break. In recent weeks too has circulated with a Ferrari F40, a Mercedes CLK GTR, a Lamborghini Sián and an exclusive Pagani Zonda Diamante Verde. What differentiates this Lancia from the rest of the cars in Alonso’s garage is precisely its character. The Delta is neither a luxury supercar with stratospheric figures nor a work of art with hand-made body. It’s a 90s compact with racing pedigree. He last bastion of authenticity for the petrolhead. The memory of when mechanics and pilot were connected at a level that no current electronic control unit could match. In Xataka | Porsche has discovered that making expensive supercars is no longer so profitable: now the money is in making each car unique Image | RM Sotheby’s (Motorcar Studios), Fernando Alonso

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