accident

The question after the Adamuz accident is whether he is investing in maintaining them

by

On May 7, 2021, rail transport in Spain entered a new dimension. For the first time, a train that was not owned by Renfe stepped on our lines to operate between Madrid and Barcelona. It was the maiden voyage of Ouigoowned by the French SNCF in Spain. Objective: to offer a cheap alternative to the most famous high-speed service in our country. Shortly after, Renfe itself launched a new service to safeguard their backs. The first service AVLO (High Speed ​​Low Cost) arrived on Spanish roads a month later. In November 2022, Iryo It kicked off its operations with a Madrid-Valencia trip as its inaugural trip. In a year and a half, Spanish roads had gone from supporting the weight of Renfe to that of three companies (Renfe, Ouigo and Iryo) and four services (Renfe splits into AVE and AVLO). Over time, operations have increased and the competition that had been initially restricted to Madrid-Barcelona has also reached Levante and the Andalusian corridors. The plans go through continue expanding competition to the Galician corridor and the branches to Asturias and Cantabria, as well as the Madrid-Cádiz/Huelva. To have a clear picture of the increase in traffic volume in the Andalusian corridor, Óscar Puente, Minister of Transport, pointed out last summer that “in the 90s six trains circulated a day between Madrid and Seville (…) today 289 trains circulate”, referring to the drop in Renfe’s punctuality but the increase in complexity in traffic management. However, Renfe has been receiving numerous reviews for their lack of punctuality and their cancellations. But it is not the only company that has suffered significant inconveniences. In May, a cable theft and a coupling of an Iryo train with a catenary caused the collapse in the Andalusian corridor with more than 10,000 affected. Weeks later, a concatenation of incidents originated by an Ouigo train ended up causing a fire on a Renfe train and hundreds of lost passengers for more than 13 hours in the middle of the line spending the night outdoors. Facts that have been accumulating, that have been used as a political weapon (such as Renfe compensation in case of delays) but above all, they have put a recurring question on the table: what happens with investments? Investments in high speed To keep the roads and infrastructure in good condition, Adif (the company in charge of this) receives funds from the State and the European Unioncharge some fees to operators who use their channels to do business and issues bonds. However, the bulk of the money for road maintenance and future investments continues to come from the State. Whether these investments are sufficient or not is something that has been questioned for some time. Operators have long pointed out investments in the roads as insufficient. Ouigo did it when the July case left the Andalusian corridor paralyzed. Since July, Renfe, Adif and Talgo have been living a kind of triangle of love and hate in which they blame each other for the cracks caused in AVRIL trains that covered Madrid-Barcelona, leaving Renfe without this service in the corridor and with trains running at a lower speed as expected as a temporary patch at that time. In an article published in The World Last November it was pointed out that high speed in Spain has experienced three clear phases since the first Madrid-Seville was covered in 1992. The first points to the first years, with sustained investments between 1992 and 2005. The last refers to the liberalization of roads, active since 2021 in practice. Spain has gone from investing 6,558 million euros in the railway sector in 2009 to 2,318 million in 2018 but the figure hides the real maintenance In the middle, an explosion and a stagnation that marks our daily life. Between 2005 and the crisis of 2008 and the years to come, investment in Renfe and Adif skyrocketed. And it is in those years when high speed is extended to Córdoba and Málaga, to Valladolid after passing through Segovia and to the Levante area. High-speed investments in Extremadura or the Galician corridor and expansions to the north of Catalonia are also underway. But the years of crisis hit hard and investment falls. Once the budgets that have been approved in the years before the crash have been concluded, between 2014 and 2020 investments plummet. According to the Railway Observatory In its 2023 edition (last available), the real brutal investment fell from 6,558 million in 2009 to 2,312 million in 2018. Since then, it has grown and in 2023 it touched 4,000 million euros. But those numbers hide another perspective. If railway investments in Spain were reduced by a third in less than a decade, it is also a consequence of a stoppage in the construction of infrastructure. And, as we have seen, the years before the crisis saw a boom in the opening of high-speed stations and new corridors. Since then, expansions have been minimal. Source AIReF The Independent Authority for Fiscal Responsibility (AIReF) shows how the opening of new lines has a direct impact when preparing budget plans. Thus, 88.6% of investments in high-speed railways between 1987 and 2018 were taken by the allocation dedicated to the construction of new lines. The rebound in investments that we have experienced since 2020 is closely linked to this way of acting. In recent years Full high speed has arrived in the Galician corridorwhich includes new gauge trains variable, the AVRILs, and great progress has been made in the Asturian and Cantabrian high speed. Óscar Puente visits the Hitachi Rail factory in Pistoia (Italy) Those numbers are skyrocketing again but they will do so in a different way. Although in 2024 The Government has allocated 4.5 billion euros to the trainof which 2,500 million euros were made in high speed and that the investment in Adif AV (high speed) should reach 12,000 million euros between 2022 and 2026, the announcement for the future is somewhat different. Because in its future investments the … Read more

More than a century ago they took the Mona Lisa in an accident

by

He Louvre Museumthe most visited in the world, was robbery victim in which thieves, in just seven minutes, made off with eight pieces of the imperial collection described as “priceless”. However, it is not the first time it has happened. The Louvre has been a victim of audacious robberies and controversial since the beginning of the last century, which puts on the table, above all, a question that goes beyond some missing jewels: is the security of one of the most important museums deficient? What happened. A group of between three and four hooded individuals, presumably dressed as workers, took advantage of the rehabilitation works on the façade of the museum that overlooks the Seine River. Using a forklift they directly accessed a first floor window. Once in the Apollo Gallery, where the Crown Jewels are displayed, they used heavy tools, such as a chainsaw or a radial saw, to destroy two high-security display cases. Among the eight pieces that were stolen were tiaras, necklaces and brooches of Empress Eugenia de Montijo and Queen María Amelia, as well as other historical pieces of the French Crown. The assailants fled quickly on large motorcycles. One of the pieces, the empress’s crown, was found damaged near the museum, lost in the frantic flight. The robbery, with visitors in the room, generated panic, since the thieves used the same radios to threaten the security guards. Among other measures that failed are those of the alarms that “were not heard by the agents or did not sound in the Gallery“. Previous robberies: La Gioconda (1911). As we say, this is not the first time something like this has happened at the Louvre. The most notorious robbery occurred on August 21, 1911, with ‘The Mona Lisa‘ by Leonardo Da Vinci. This incident did not involve spectacular devicesMission: Impossible‘, but the simple negligence of the security system of the time. The author was Vincenzo Peruggia, an Italian worker who had been an employee of the Louvre and had participated in the construction of the painting’s glass display case. Peruggia hid in a closet on Sunday night (partial closure of the museum), came out on Monday morning, took down the portrait from the Salon Carré, and left with the work under his work coat. He said his motivation was patriotic, seeking to return Leonardo da Vinci’s work to Italy, as he mistakenly believed it had been stolen by Napoleon. Security at the Louvre was weak in 1911: the museum, with more than a thousand rooms, was protected by fewer than 150 guards for more than 250,000 objects, which meant that statues and paintings were often damaged without being immediately detected. It was 26 hours before anyone noticed the painting was missing. The news caused a media frenzy, and even the poet Guillaume Apollinaire and Pablo Picasso were briefly arrested as suspects. The painting was recovered two years later, in 1913, when Peruggia tried to sell it to an antique dealer in Florence. Heists previous: Burgundy breastplate and helmet (1983). On May 1, 1983 this took place another robbery: The pieces were a valuable cuirass and a burgundy-type helmet from the 16th century, both with gold and silver inlays. The pieces had been donated to the museum in 1922 by Baroness Salomon Rothschild, and the display case containing the pieces appeared vandalized: the fact that historical military pieces could be stolen from a display case in what was presumed to be a guarded environment revealed that the vulnerabilities went beyond the paintings. The pieces did not reappear for almost forty years, and all thanks to an investigation initiated by an expert in military antiquities in the 2020s, who detected them in a private collection in Bordeaux. Heists previous: Streak of quick robberies in 1995. That year a series of thefts and acts of vandalism revealed the vulnerability of the Louvre. In January, a visitor used a box cutter to cut and damage a painting by Lancelot Théodore Turpin de Crissé, ‘Deer in a Landscape’. Just a week later, a 17-kilogram battle ax belonging to a monument sculpted by Martin Desjardins was stolen. In July, a valuable painting made with Robert de Nanteuil’s pastel technique finally disappeared. This series of incidents made it clear that, although security had been reinforced around the most iconic works, the pieces displayed in large and less traveled areas became easy targets. A vulnerable building. The recent robbery has revealed a series of tactics that reveal different vulnerabilities: taking advantage of areas on site (that is, a blind spot or one with less surveillance), entering the building using a forklift, carrying it out in broad daylight and with visitors inside, and the use of heavy tools without an immediate and effective security response. Although the 1911 robbery already demonstrated that personnel are key to preventing these robberies, in June 2025 there were workers protests over the lack of troops to control the large numbers of visitors. This theft has made it evident that there is a clear vulnerability in the museum, and this has been noted by those responsible for security: the Minister of Culture, Rachida Dati, has declared that “The issue of the vulnerability of our museums is not new. It has been 40 years since we took care of their security.” The minister has also said that two years ago the then president of the Louvre had asked the Prefect of Police to review and carry out an audit on security. Dati has also commented that “museums must be adapted to the new forms of crime, which are organized, they are professionals who enter calmly, in four minutes take the loot and leave without any violence.” Photo of Thomas Eidsvold in Unsplash In Xataka | We have visited the first Video Game Museum in Madrid: between the tourist attraction and the archaeological spectacle

dangerous curves and a fatal accident

by

Curves surrounded by concrete walls. Some accompanied by exits to different parts of the city and others with important slopes. The Madrid entrance by the A-5 has not only become a nightmare of traffic jams and an ordeal for neighbors. Now, driving for her has become dangerous. What had they told us. When the Madrid City Council presented the project to underground entrance to Madrid On the A-5 road he mentioned that the works would be compatible with the traffic circulation. The idea is that one of the two sides (the entrance) becomes underground to, in a second phase, the vehicles will circulate underground and begin the underground of the other sense of the circulation. Then it was sold (and so it happened at first) that all the traffic would move first to one side of the road and then pass the other. That is, we would have entrance and exit lanes but there should not be many more inconvenience than those of finding a greater volume of withholdings. Section with curves and flush changes where the death of a motorist has been recorded Curves come. What they did not explain at the Madrid City Council is how it was going to happen at the entrance to the capital from the left side (the usual direction of departure) to the neighborhoods of Aluche or Lucero (which fall to the right of the road). Nor, on the contrary, these neighborhoods would be passed in the direction of the road. The solution has been to divert the road into specific points. For this, a succession of curves has been created that usually involves two S. From the left side in the capital, there is first a right-left succession and, subsequently, left-right. In the middle an exit to the surrounding neighborhood is generated. As you can see in the image that heads this article. Dangerous. The curves are closed, they use narrower lanes than usual To gain space in both sensesthey are delimited by concrete walls and in some cases there are grounding changes to go over the underground work. There are with a crosswalk included. And we even have a very dangerous exit of the gas station that you see in the image, right next to the output of the Boadilla road. If you have recently circulated through those sections, it is very likely that you have felt true (and logical) danger. I will tell you more, you are not alone. Collect in Telemadrid That the complaints have multiplied and the Madrid City Council is valuing to suppress these curves to facilitate the journeys and improve security. At 20 km/h. The solution that has occurred so far is to limit the circulation in some sections to 20 or 30 km/h. It is a measure that goes beyond caution, circulating above that speed is to play it against the wall and have a good scare. At the beginning of September, A motorist died after it was overwhelmed by a tourism. The camp area, where the accident happened, is especially dangerous because there is a double curve in S, there is an elevation of the land and, in addition, the exit to the Boadilla road in the offense is next to the exit of the gas station that accompanies this article and the poster is barely displayed. Better signaling. It is another complaints of the drivers of which they echo Telemadrid. The signaling of the outputs is clearly small and insufficient. In each output, the signal is arranged in the vertex of the same but there are no previous notices. In addition, the size is small, the usual for this type of outputs but without, as we say, the previous signage. That generates greater risks and unforeseen since the layout can change slightly every night as the works advance. And it is especially complicated for those who circulate once or twice a week along this road and, therefore, are more sensitive to changes. More and more inconvenience. The underground of the A-5 is also affecting the day-to-day life of the neighbors. Yesterday, September 22, a problem during the work of the operators has left a large part of the adjacent homes and businesses. In addition, the increase in requests in the coverage of the mobile network caused the collapse for some companies or the impossibility of using services such as Bicimad, as we could verify. It is just one more chapter in works that are causing serious inconvenience to the residents of the area by The noise and transfer of trucks or excavators. But also with Internet, Light and Water that since the works begin, they are leaving the residents without basic supplies without prior notice. Photos | Xataka In Xataka | The icing on the cake to the works of Madrid: the city has become a gymkana of reforms, cuts and discomfort

An accident that hits its ambitions

by

The flying car advances between factory promises and delivery deadlines, but each trial remembers that security remains in the foreground. In the preparations of the Changchun Air Hallin the northeast of China, two evtol of Xpeng Aero made contact in the air and one ended up on fire when touching earth. Images and videos circulate on the Weibo social network They show the smoke rising on the track. What happened. As Sina collectsthe accident occurred on September 16 at the end of an essay. The devices that practiced a training maneuver collided by not maintaining the right distance. One unit descended safely, while the other was damaged and burned in landing. The company reported that all staff came out unharmed and that emergency teams acted there. Official research has not yet yielded conclusions. Click to see the original publication in Weibo The vehicle and the concept. Xpeng Aeroht has become one of the referents of the so -called low altitude economy. Your most advanced product is the “Land Carrier”a decoupled design car in which the land vehicle and the air module are integrated and separate by an automatic system. The six -wheel car works as a support base, while the aircraft takes off and lands vertically with a six folding arms design. Separations and avoidance. Air operations rely on the premise of maintaining clear distances between aircraft. The vertical, horizontal and temporal intervals are adjusted based on altitude and speed, with generous margins between one flight and another. In the case of Xpeng Aeroht, the company has emphasized sensors and avoidance algorithms, although it is not yet known what role these systems had in this incident. The company itself, According to Sina and Bloomberghe stressed that the definitive cause of the accident cannot be established. It is not clear if the lack of separation was due to a problem of height, to an insufficient longitudinal interval or an operation error. Nor is the influence of weather conditions rule out. 36kr points that witnesses mentioned strong wind in the area. Rapid growth In a short time, Xpeng Aeroht has managed to accumulate a volume of orders around 5,000 units. The industrial project includes A construction factory with capacity for 10,000 flying cars a year, whose development began in October 2024 and that is raised as a large -scale assembly line. The company, integrated into the Xpeng Motors ecosystem, that has just landed in Austriaclaims to have a workforce of more than 1,400 people and a proportion of specialists in engineering and development greater than 80%. Goals and challenges. The accident arrives at a delicate time for Xpeng Aeroht, immersed in an expansion phase and with an eye on mass production from 2026. The incident adds uncertainty about the ability to fulfill that calendar and reinforces the debate on the safety of Evtol. Although the market has shown interest with thousands of reserves, public perception has become more demanding: before thinking about commercial flights, manufacturers must convince that technology is reliable. Images | Weibo | Xpeng Aeroht In Xataka | Madrid had one of the underground labyrinths without more complex GPS. Google and Waze have tamed it with 1,600 Bluetooth beacons

We had been asking us for years why Chernobyl wild boar were so radioactive. The answer was not in the accident

by

Almost four decades after the accident of the nuclear power plant located in Prypiat, Chernobil animals They continue generating fascination. These survivors in one of the most polluted regions in Europe They surprise us In many ways, but there is an enigmatic species in this place is that of wild boar. One of the most radioactive species of Chernobil. Solving the mystery. Have A new trackrevealed by a team of researchers, about these animals: we finally know why their radioactivity is greater than that of other species. The answer does not have so much to do with the nuclear accident in itself but with something that happened quite before. More radioactive? It is very little that we still know about Chernobil animals. One of the most curious enigmas was that of wild boars. To understand why we have to talk about one of the most polluting radioactive isotopes, the Cesio 137 (CS137). The semi -dear period of this isotope (the time in which half of the atoms we have of the material will have disintegrated) is just over 30 years. The concentration of cesium in the trophic chain should in principle even reduce to a greater extent since atoms tend to leak on the ground or be dragged by the water to the rivers. Going down. That is why the level of radioactivity in animals such as deer or roams has descended significantly in the area. Not only this situation has not occurred in the towns of Jabalís: its radiation levels have remained almost constant, that is, the descent is not even in line with which the semi -detail of the CS137 would imply. Is the “wild boar paradox” Nuclear tests and radioactive truffles. The response starts from Cesium 135. The team that resolved this mystery managed to focus not on radiation levels but in its origin. They found that it was this other Isotope of Cesium who was behind this phenomenon. The CS135 has a much longer half -grooming period, which explains why the reduction had been lower. This also makes it harder to detect the presence of CS135. As Explain the responsible team From the study, each type of nuclear incident has its own “signature”. It is estimated that 90% of CS137 present in Europe was released by the Chernobil accident, but this is not the case of CS135. The origin of this is 68% in the nuclear tests developed in the context of the Fíra war. The fair depth. The feeding of wild boars has also been one of the key factors when it comes to understanding the reason for their radiation levels. These animals feed on a type of truffle (Elaphomyces) that grows in the subsoil, at depths of between 20 and 40 centimeters. As we indicated before, part of the Radioactive Cesium He leaked year after year on the floor of the area. At the rate of a few millimeters a year, the Cesium (both the one from the nuclear tests and the accident) has been advancing towards these depths, contaminating these fungi, food source of the wild boars. From Chernobil to Bavaria. The study that clarified this mystery was carried out by analyzing a population of 48 wild boar in the state of Bavariasouth of Germany. The Analysis details They were published in the magazine Environmental Science & Technology. In the long term. The study results invite us to think that the situation will not change in the short term. That is, it is unlikely that the levels of radioactivity of wild boars begin to descend in the coming years until they are equal to those presented by other similar animals such as deer or roeans. The greatest radiation present in these animals has made the hunters resist their capture. This implies that the populations of these wild boars will go increasing. Perhaps their expansion through central Europe makes the radiation levels of these animals decline generation after generation but, from what we have seen, this process could still be extended for decades. In Xataka | Birds, wild boars and even a prehistoric clam: these are some of the species that returned from extinction In Xataka | Some Spanish scientists are recreating the cranobil accident in Seville. Objective: See how it affects biodiversity Image | Joachim Reddemann / Кирил урин *An earlier version of this article was published in July 2024

An old island has been discovered by accident under the sea full of rare land. The problem is that it has no owner

by

We are approaching a point where to say that rare earth moves the world in general, no Only the technological oneno longer sounds so hyperbolic. It happens that a single nation has most of the cake right now. We already said it, China has built The most elegant economic power lever in modern history with those desired minerals. Hence, the rest of the nations strive to find the new “gold” where there is a track, however small. An underwater island has emerged as possibility, the problem is for whom. An accidental finding. The story began when an international team of scientists discovered that a part of the known underwater highlands Like Rio Grande Riselocated about 1,200 kilometers from the coast of Brazil, it was actually A tropical island Tens of millions of years ago. Although training was already known by the scientific community as a chain of volcanic mountains submerged from The late cretaceousthe New research revealed that their western part was once above sea levelforming a terrestrial ecosystem that gradually disappeared under the waters due to tectonic activity and the weight of the accumulated volcanic rock. Revelation not only transforms the understanding of the paleoclimatic geography of the region, but also opens the door to a possible International dispute for its valuable mineral resources. The keys of the past. The discovery began in 2018 when British and Brazilian scientists noticed that certain rocks in the marine bed of the Rio Grande Rise They showed an unusual composition, more similar to lava deposits and terrestrial red clay than to marine formations. Published subsequent studies in Scientific Reports They confirmed that this clay (rich in kaolinite, hematite and goetite, typical tropical soil minerals) was not only a rarity in the oceanic background, but an unequivocal evidence that this segment of the high plateau was emerged between 44 and 47 million years agoduring The Eocene. With a very high chemical alteration index (93), these clays reveal an intense subaéreal weathering and a warm and humid climate, with implications that go beyond geology: the island could have been a stop point For migratory birds Between South America and Africa, offering one more piece in the puzzle of the biological exchanges of the past. A mineral treasure. But there is more, of course. Beyond its scientific value, the Rio Grande Rise houses an invaluable economic wealth. Their Ferromanganese scabs contain high levels of Essential metals As cobalt, nickel and lithium, all fundamental for the global energy transition, from batteries for electric vehicles to wind and solar energy storage. However, what attracts the most attention is your rare earth concentrationespecially the ititrium, a whitish and soft metal used in strategic technologies: aerospace alloys, superconductors, industrial lasers, LEDs and precision lenses. In a context where China overwhelmingly dominates the extraction, refined and manufacture of these materials (with Up to 90 % of world production), any new source acquires critical geopolitical importance. It is no accident that the Brazilian interest in this area has intensified after Beijing’s decision to restrict export. The dilemma of sovereignty. And here lies the big problem. The Brazilian government He has shown A clear intention to claim the Rio Grande Rise as part of its continental platform, based on the argument that training He was united to the continent in the past. However, the highlands is 652 nautical miles from the coast, very outside the limit of The 200 established by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea to delimit exclusive economic zones. This raises a challenge legal and diplomatic Complex, in which Brazil will seek to strengthen its exploration rights without violating international agreements. At the same time, warnings arise on the impact that an eventual mining exploitation could have little studied in depth ecosystems. Thus, the tension between the economic use of these resources and the need to preserve marine biodiversity appears as unresolved background dilemma. Global competition. In this way, the ancient island of Rio Grande Risetoday hidden under kilometers of water and centuries of geological oblivion, has reappeared as a Unexpected actor in the race for the strategic resources of the 21st century. Fosilized red soils, formed under disappeared tropical jungles, now lie next to metal scabs coveted by industries around the world. If you want, the finding not only highlights the scientific value of oceanic missions, it also exposes the growing global competition for those critical minerals in so many areas. In that new power map, where the control of raw materials marks the border between technological independence and structural dependence, even a sunk island millions of years ago can tip the balance of the future. Or at least that Think Brazil. Image | Pexels In Xataka | What are the rare earths, the elements that move the technological world and separate China from the West In Xataka | The great promise of Deng Xiaoping: China has waited more than 30 years to control the world economy with rare earths

Cyclist accident in Spain

by

Once again the imprudence of drivers in the world causes accidents. This Tuesday it was known that Germany’s selection was embedded by a car while doing its workouts. “Seven members of the German track cycling team were injured on Monday, six of which were transferred to the hospital, after being hit by a car in Palma de Mallorca, according to the Spanish Civil Guard,” said the AFP agency. And he added: “Some of the hospitalized victims have fractures, but no one has serious injuries”an AFP source indicated. The agency said the accident occurred in Palma, the main city of the Spanish archipelago of the Balearic Islands, when “for reasons we do not know,” an 89 -year -old driver left the road, “added the source. The group “started from its hotel in Palma for a training session and was hit by a car at 2.7 kilometers,” said the German Cycling Federation in a statement. Six cyclists -Benjamin Boos, Tobias Buck-Gramcko, Bruno Kessler, Moritz Amarenstein, Louis Gentzik and Max-David Briese- “suffered serious falls and had to be transferred to the hospital to receive medical treatment,” added the Federation, specified that no one suffered lesions that put their lives in danger. “To the place they have moved sanitary from Samu 061, who have served the injured, all with polytontusions. Four of them have been evacuated to the Rotger Clinic and the remaining two have been transferred to the Palmaplanas Clinic, ”said the newspaper AS. In recent years there have been numerous traffic accidents out of competition in which professional cyclists have been affected. In the most recent until Monday, the Italian promise of cycling Sara Piffer died on Friday, at age 19, after being hit by a car while training, AFP sentenced. Continue reading: 19 -year -old Italian cyclist Sara Piffer dies when she is run overRohan Dennis, double world cycling champion, declares himself guilty of his wife’s murderArgentine cyclist dies after being hit by a car (tagstotranslate) cycling

Chernobyl is full of radioactive dogs. It has nothing to do with the nuclear accident, according to a study

by

Behind him Chernobyl nuclear plant accidentthe areas close to the plant continue to be dangerous for humans. He reactor number four The Vladimir Ilyich Lenin plant exploded on April 26, 1986, releasing 500 times more radioactive material in northern Ukraine than was used in the Hiroshima bomb. It was a natural disaster that, little by little, became a paradise full of radioactive animals and plants. And it is because, beyond the few humans who work in maintenance tasks, the visits and those who installed the New Safe Sarcophagusthe animals roam freely. Among them, there are dogs, so many that they were baptized as “the Chernobyl puppies”. When the accident occurred, the dogs were abandoned, but in recent years, the population has skyrocketed and it is estimated that there are around a thousand dogs roaming freely. Petting one of these adorable little dogs is not a good idea due to their radioactive load, but a new study points out that the genetic differences of these dogs have nothing to do with a radiation-induced mutation. The radioactive dogs of Chernobyl Watching the video above, it seems impossible to resist the temptation of petting these puppies. The problem is that they have radioactive particles in their fur, but the incredible thing about this story is that they simply exist so close to the accident zone. The ionizing radiation It interacts in a curious way with the tissues of living beings: it breaks chemical bonds and modifies the structure of the chains of atoms. It is what causes animals to develop tumors, something that The plants adapted much better due to its particularities. Of that thousand of dogs wandering around Chernobyl302 have been under study for some time by the University of South Carolina or the National Human Genome Research Institute with the purpose of characterizing their genetic structure. The animals belong to three different populations that have lived inside the plant and at distances of between 10 and 15 kilometers from ‘ground zero’. Their research aims to help answer questions about how humans and other species can adapt to survive in such aggressive environments, and researchers are already getting some answers. The first thing is that it seems that these dogs are evolving at a different rate than dogs from neighboring areas. They have some distinctive genetic traits in their DNA that they have developed over the years and a few months ago they already they dropped that the radiation could have nothing to do with them. Now it is North Carolina State University and the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University who have shared a study in which they claim that they have been working with two populations of dogs, separated only by about 16 kilometershave different genetic traits. “We are trying to determine whether exposure to low levels of environmental toxins, such as radiation, lead, etc., over many years could explain some of these differences,” says Matthew Breen, one of the authors. What they did was start looking for differences at the chromosomal level, later in small intervals of the genome and, finally, differences in nucleotides. Reactor number 4 with its current sarcophagus The goal was to find abnormalities and evidence of DNA mutations in reproductive cells, which are passed from generation to generation. “It’s like using the zoom function on your phone’s camera to get more details: We start with a wide view of the subject and then zoom in,” says Breen. And the result is interesting, since it seems that radiation does not have much to do with the changes found: “We know that, for example, exposure to high doses of radiation can introduce instability from the chromosomal level down. Although this dog population is 30 or more generations removed from those present during the 1986 disaster, the mutations would likely still be detectable if they offered a survival advantage to those original dogs. But we found no evidence of that in these dogs.” The work follows its coursesince with what they have found, the researchers cannot rule out the role of selective pressure in explaining the differences between the two populations of dogs. “In human terms, this is like studying a population that is centuries away from the one that was present at the time of the disaster. It is possible that the dogs that survived long enough to reproduce already had genetic traits that increased their ability to survive and, perhaps, what there was was extreme ‘natural selection’ at the beginning,” says another of the authors, Megan Dillon. The researcher points out that it may be that, after this extreme pressure, the nuclear plant dogs were simply kept separate from the city’s population. “Investigating this path is a next step that we are working on,” he comments. Unavoidable disasters Another of the authors is Norman Kleiman, of the Columbia University School of Public Health. Keiman comments that “most people think of the Chernobyl nuclear accident as a radiological disaster in an abandoned corner of Ukraine, but the potential adverse health implications are much broader,” and this is due to many other toxins, such as heavy metals, lead dust, pesticides and asbestos. The curious thing is that most of these toxins were released into the environment during the decades of cleanup that followed and this is something that may also have had an influence on the living beings in the area. “Studying companion animals, like these dogs, gives us a window into the types of health risks that people may face.” “The importance of continuing to study the environmental health aspects of large-scale disasters like this cannot be overstated. It is certain that, given the increasingly technological and industrial nature of our societies, there will inevitably be other similar disasters in the future, and we need to understand the possible health risks and how to better protect people,” the researcher emphasizes. Thus, understanding these genetic variations in dogs is not only the answer to a scientific curiosity, but also something practical in order to better … Read more

American Marine died in an accident at a skiing station in Colorado

by

Authorities reported that A 24 -year -old sergeant died after being injured in a ski accident in a popular tourist center of Coloradowhile visiting his family during the holidays. Jessie Mello, 24, was skiing in Powderhorn Mountain on December 24 when he suffered a serious head injury and bone fractures, confirmed the forensic table county and the complex to Fox News Digital. The authorities said The young woman was on an intermediate level path when the accident occurred on Christmas Eve. His father, Eric Mello, told The Colorado Sun that the eye witnesses reported that the woman crashed into an ice plate and a tree. He wore a helmet at the time of the accident. After the accident, the skiing patrol responded and transferred it by plane to the St. Mary’s hospital in Grand Junction, Colorado, about 40 miles from the complex, where they placed it in intensive care. The table of table county said that Mello remained hospitalized for several days, but died on January 5 for head injuries. “My girl fell in peace in Jesus’ arms tonight,” his father, Eric, wrote in a Facebook publication. Mello’s funeral was held at the Lutheran Church Messiah on January 10. He remembered as a “woman of incredible talent, character and love.” Continue reading: –18 -year -old dies in a ski accident in popular Tahoe area, Nevada–An skier died and another was injured in a large avalanche west of Wyoming–12 -year -old boy dies in a ski accident in a New Hampshire mountain (Tagstotranslate) Colorado

Log In

Forgot password?

Forgot password?

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

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

Log in

Privacy Policy

Add to Collection

No Collections

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