aims

Chips connected by laser instead of cable. It seems like science fiction, but it aims to revolutionize data centers

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If you have ever mounted a PCSurely one of the points on which you have had to pay the most attention is the connections. Because understanding the power of the processor, the GPU or the speed of the RAM is “easy”, but the motherboard is what allows us to interconnect all these components with ‘highways’ in which the data speed can be maximum. In the data centers and serversthis is the same: the better the connections between chips and equipment, the lower latency, higher bandwidth and better performance. These connections are made physically, but there is a French startup that wants to change the rules of the game with NVIDIA. As? Connecting the chips by laser. Chips connected by laser and NVIDIA taking out the wallet Improving interconnection speed is no small feat or a whim. NVIDIA has begun manufacturing its next generation platform, the one named Vera Rubin. It is a system that can be combined with others to multiply benefits. That union, as we say, is physical, but there comes a point at which physics is no longer enough. When that arrives, NVIDIA wants to be ready and, a few days ago, Reuters reported on a $4 billion investment by NVIDIA in two companies that are aggressively researching new technologies to help increase that interconnection speed: Lumentum and Coherent. This is a rack and the nightmare of those of us who hate cables. Specifically, that of the Wikimedia Foundation. Well, imagine that a large part of those cables go outside because the systems are connected by electricity Another of the companies in which they have invested is Scintil Photonics. It is a French startup that this in the testing phase of a technology that, if the industry adopts it, will mark a before and after in this connection on a team scale. The LEAF Light Evaluation Kit is, as detailed, the first dense wavelength division multiplexing single chip to go from theory to practice. It’s like another language, I know, but it’s basically what we were talking about: an optical chip interconnection system instead of copper. And that is the main advantage. With copper reaching physical limits of speed and density, optics are emerging as a solution when connecting clusters of thousands of processors. Each chip has an optical system that is responsible for emitting and receiving light, and in that light goes the data that is currently traveling through cables. The one from the French company it is not the first chip based on photonic communication, but they claim that their technology reduces the energy necessary for them to work by 50%, as well as latency. Results? Well we’ll see. The startup’s CEO, Matt Crowley, has commented that he has “six or seven companies interested in implementing the technology by 2028,” but that due to confidentiality agreements, he cannot name names. The Scintil Photonics prototype The complication in this will be that they get supply of the photonics systems, since the data center racks are built with the idea that they are scalables. That is, it is no longer just power, but how many tens of thousands of units you can interconnect, and a bottleneck in the manufacturing of any of the parties involved in optics would be equivalent to a lack of supply for their customers. At the moment, some prototypes have already been served to select companies for testing, but certainly, using light pulses instead of electrical signals is something that is very interesting in superclusters focused on huge data centers that can scale without the limitations of the physical connection. Images | Victorgrigas, M.I.T., GlobeNewswire In Xataka | Huawei no longer competes: it is building its own parallel reality

France leaves Zoom and Teams behind in its administration and aims for something greater

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For years, digital services from American companies have enjoyed a clearly dominant position in Europe. A mix of consolidated trust and lack of regional alternatives competitive on many fronts, it has been constantly expanding its user base, both individuals and companies, while fueling a shower of million-dollar contracts also coming from governments and public administrations. The footprint of large American technology companies in the Old Continent is impossible to ignore. Gmail, Instagram, Spotify and YouTube are part of the daily lives of millions of Europeans. Likewise, it is common to find public organization computers running Windows, Office or Microsoft 365, a scene so normalized that it is rarely questioned. To this visible layer is added another much less obvious, but perhaps even more strategic: cloud computing. Providers such as Microsoft’s Azure, Amazon’s AWS, or Google Cloud host everything from everyday services to critical infrastructure. In parallel, in the field of cybersecurity, platforms such as CrowdStrike Falcon They are integrated into the core of sensitive systems used by airports, airlines or financial entities. When technological dependence becomes a strategic risk However, this balance is beginning to show cracks. The question is no longer just who provides the service, but what would happen if that partner considered reliable suddenly stopped being so. How would Europe respond to such a scenario? And, above all, are you preparing to face it? For some this is an extreme hypothesis; for others, a risk that can no longer be ruled out. The truth is that the debate is no longer marginal and has reached the offices of Brussels and several European capitals. As The Wall Street Journal reports, Since the re-election of Donald Trump, those responsible for strategic sectors in Europe are putting pressure on the large American cloud service providers to facilitate quick exit mechanisms. The objective is clear: to be able to transfer systems and data to local centers or to European suppliers if necessary. And what is considered an emergency situation? The possibility, remote but not impossible, that the United States limits or even suspends access to services and data centers operated by its own companies. It would be an unprecedented move, with profound consequences for the European economy and public services. Finding an argument to justify it is as difficult as it is simple: everything can end up revolving around a concept that is increasingly present these days: “national security.” Despite the existing tensions between Europe and Washington, everything indicates that such a scenario remains unlikely in the short term. Even so, there is one incontestable fact: The concern is real. In Brussels and in several European capitals, discrete but constant steps are already being taken to reduce dependencies and gain room for maneuver. Visio, the alternative to Zoom and Teams promoted by France France has become one of the most illustrative cases. The Government is promoting the progressive withdrawal of extra-European videoconferencing solutions in the public sector to replace them with Visioa “sovereign” and open source alternative. The State’s own digital strategy portal admits that, until now, the different departments have operated with a mosaic of tools and expressly mentions Microsoft Teams, Zoom and Webex. According to the official statement, this fragmentation “weakens data security, creates strategic dependencies of external infrastructures, generates additional financial costs and makes cooperation between ministries difficult.” The answer lies in a unified solution, developed by the Interministerial Directorate for Digital, under government control and based on French technology. Visio already has about 40,000 regular users and its deployment is planned to reach 200,000 public employees. Among the first organizations to adopt it widely during the first quarter of 2026 are the CNRS, the National Health Insurance Fund, the General Directorate of Public Finances and the Ministry of the Armed Forces. Zoom, the video conferencing platform that became popular during the pandemic The scope of the movement is better understood with a specific piece of information: the CNRS will replace your Zoom licenses with Visio at the end of March for its 34,000 employees and the 120,000 researchers associated with its research units. American solutions are thus beginning to lose ground in France, as has already happened in other countries. Denmark moves towards LibreOffice and Munich opted for Linux for years, although in this last case the path was not linear and ended with a partial return to Microsoft due to compatibility problems. These types of strategies, extrapolated to other attempts to promote sovereign alternatives, are not without obstacles either. It is worth remembering that open source does not automatically guarantee quality or pace of evolution. When maintenance, auditing, and development fall to a limited number of actors, product progress can slow down. Pointing out these tensions does not invalidate the approach, but it does help to understand its real complexity. Furthermore, the debate is not limited to public services. In a hypothetical decoupling of American platforms, ordinary users could also be affected. Some people, like our colleague Jose Garcíahave chosen to start a process of technological emancipation with respect to the United Statesa path that is not without friction. After years of moving in an ecosystem dominated by North American Big Tech, getting out of it requires time, sacrifices and assuming new limitations. Images | Government of France | Mika Baumeister | Yoyus sugiharto In Xataka | France and Germany have created a “European Notion” with a very simple objective: depend less on the United States

The future of energy lies in fusion, and China aims to light the first light bulb with the power of the Sun in 2030

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When we think of the future energyit is easy for us to think about renewables. Much of Europe has a while running with renewables, China is an expanding power and even some states in the United States They are seeing its benefits. However, the future lies in nuclear power. But not because of fission, but for the fusion. And China has just taken a giant step in the forecasts of its BEST program with a single objective. Replicate the process that powers the Sun. China and the ultimate energy. Fusion and fission are nuclear reactions that release energy from the nucleus of the atom, and That’s where their similarities end.. Briefly, fission consists of breaking the nuclei of heavy atoms such as uranium to release energy. It is the process that we use in current nuclear power plantsand decades ago we managed to make it something stable. Fusion is the reverse process: it joins light atoms to generate energy. It is tremendously unstable and the heat generated is enormous, but the process generates a much higher amount of energy. Imitate that star power It is extremely complex, but we have been trying to replicate it for years for a very simple reason: it is estimated that it will offer almost unlimited energy and long-lasting waste-freesomething against which nuclear fission can’t compete. China is one of the countries that is pushing the development of nuclear fusion plants the most, so much so that it intends to put the first plant into operation a decade before its competitors. EAST. It stands for ‘Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak’, an experimental program that China has been developing since 2006 to test the viability of commercial fusion energy. After setting some records for temperature and operating time, in 2021 achieved continuous plasma operation for 17 minutes in which the core operated at 70 million degrees Celsius. They are five times the sun temperature and, although temperatures of up to 160 million degrees were previously achieved for 20 seconds, the ideal is to maintain a very high temperature for as long as possible. Steps have continued to be taken and researchers recently discovered that the reactor could work at 165% of its maximum theoretical capacity without suffering disruptions. To contextualize, it is as if we have an engine designed to go at 200 km/h, but we discover that we can drive at 330 km/h constantly without it overheating. In short: China is taking steps to control the enormous challenge represented by the magnetic confinement of plasma. BEST. The ‘Burning Plasma Experimental Superconducting Tokamak’, for its part, is the spearhead of its nuclear fusion program. If EAST is the proof of concept, BEST is the demonstration of feasibility. The EAST steps are those that will be replicated in BEST, a reactor built on a larger scale that will operate for a shorter period of time in a sustained manner, but under conditions of greater energy gain. Goal: 2030. China began construction of the BEST in 2023 and hopes to complete it by 2027 to begin testing with plasma. If it goes well, the CFETR reactor will be the one that pours fusion energy into the grid. In a statement published by the state media Xinhuawe see that the intention is to generate electricity by 2030 and start do it commercially by 2035. If the goal is reached, China will be the first country that will be able to commercially emulate the power of the Sun to light the “first nuclear fusion light bulb” in history. Although, of course, the United States and Massachusetts They also say that they will be the first. They are not the only ones. If they reach the goal, it will be a fundamental step in achieving new generation energy, and they want to reach that future a decade before the rest of the countries, or so China suggests. In this race for nuclear fusion, the BEST is expected to begin operating commercially between 2030 and 2035. Meanwhile, in France there is the ITER. With 24,000 million euros in budgetis the most expensive international program in history, only surpassed by the Apollo Programthe International Space Stationhe Manhattan Project or the GPS system. It aims to be very powerful, but has constant delaysa budget that has overflowed and an operational date that has not been fulfilled. In the United States, a private startup is building SPARCmuch smaller than ITER, but more profitable. United Kingdom has the STEPJapan JT-60SA and Russia the T-15MD Hybrid. Talking about dates is complicated, since there were tests that were expected to be obtained in 2025 and were not achieved… and there is talk of between 2040 and 2060 for the commercial viability of this energy “from the stars”, although the calendars have been readjusted. China has turned new generation energy in a matter of stateand we will see if they meet their goal of starting production in 2030. And, although it seems that we have to put the artificial intelligence even in the soup, the enormous energy needs of this technology are encouraging advances in nuclear fusion. The joke that nuclear fusion energy always has 30 years to go may have come to an end. Images | Oak Ridge National LaboratoryNASA In Xataka | Europe is looking for where to put its first nuclear fusion reactor. And Spain is one of the best candidates

Google has decided to touch the heart of Gmail. Gemini aims to transform the inbox into something completely new

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Email has been there for decades, functioning almost silently, as a basic piece of digital life that we rarely question. We use it for studies, work, registering for services, coordinating our personal life and resolving procedures that continue to pass, to a large extent, through the inbox. Precisely for this reason, the changes in this section are usually minimal and prudent. Gmail has been a good example of that stability for years. Now, Google has decided intervene in a more profound way and do so relying on artificial intelligence. From the Mountain View company, the argument is clear: the problem is no longer just receiving emails, but managing the volume and context that accumulate in the inbox. Gmail was born in 2004 in a very different scenario, and today it coexists with endless threads, cross conversations and an information load that never stops growing. In this framework, the company presents the so-called “Gemini era” as a logical step, a way to turn the inbox into something more than a chronological file and begin to treat it as an active system to understand, prioritize and act on information. Google links a good part of these changes to Gemini 3the model that claims to be behind the new capabilities. Search less, ask more. The traditional logic of email has always been the same: search, filter and read. AI Overviews breaks that sequence by introducing a layer of automatic synthesis. When a thread gets longer, Gmail can generate a summary with the important points, avoiding having to go through message by message. And when what is needed is specific information, the proposal is even more direct: ask the inbox. Gemini interprets the query, reviews the relevant emails and returns a summarized response. Google separates the scope of these features: automatic thread summaries gradually roll out to everyone, while the option to ask inbox questions with AI Overviews is tied to Google AI Pro and Ultra subscriptions. Write with help and understand what goes into each plan. Beyond reading email better, Google also wants to make writing it take less effort. Help me write is free and allows you to both polish existing messages and write them from scratch based on a brief indication. Added to that are the new Suggested Replies, which evolve the classic quick replies by taking into account the full context of the thread and the user’s own style. The most advanced layer, Proofread, adds grammar, tone, and style checking, but is reserved for those who subscribe to Google AI Pro and Ultra. According to Google, the rollout begins today in the United States and starts in English, with the promise of expanding languages ​​and regions in the coming months. The new inbox. AI Inbox is the most ambitious bet of this change. Gmail introduces an alternative view that transforms the inbox into a combination of task list and summary of active topics. Artificial intelligence promises to detect pending commitments, payments, appointments or responses and present them as suggested actions, while grouping long conversations together for easy catch-up. The idea is not to replace email, but to reinterpret it, making what is important emerge without the need to manually scroll through messages that, although relevant, are buried by the volume. At the moment, AI Inbox does not come as a function open to everyone. Google is testing it with “trusted testers” in the United States and only through the browser, with priority for personal Gmail accounts and not for Workspace accounts. Furthermore, the proposal still has visible shortcomings: there is no system to mark suggested actions as completed, which limits its usefulness as a task manager. Control in the hands of the user. New features powered by Gemini can be turned on or off, and the classic inbox is still available. However, that control is not completely granular: turning off AI also means you lose other smart features that many users already took for granted. Regarding privacy, Google states that it does not use Gmail emails to train its artificial intelligence models, a key guarantee so that this new layer does not generate distrust in such a sensitive space. This movement makes it clear that Google has decided not to stand still in a field that had been operating for years without profound changes. If this new way of understanding email proves to be useful on a daily basis, it is reasonable to think that other providers will end up following a similar path. In technological careers, not moving or reacting late usually has a cost. But email is also governed by a very different logic: if something works, touching it involves risks. Gmail now enters a real testing phase, where it will be necessary to see if this bet manages to simplify the experience or adds unnecessary complexity. Images | Google In Xataka | Alphabet has just overtaken Apple in the ranking of the most valuable companies in the world. The reason is in AI

a storm that aims to leave Twelfth Night under snow

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The weather models are slowly beginning to give us a vision of what is going to happen in these first days of January, and the reality is that we are already looking forward to a Three Kings’ night. with really low temperatures and even snow cover. Something that responds to the arrival of the storm Francisan anticyclonic block at high latitudes and an outbreak of continental polar air. The clash of masses. For a heavy snowfall to occur on the Iberian Peninsula, it is not enough for it to be cold, but humidity is also needed. That is why the scenario they propose GFS models and ECMWF for this January 2026 it is, technically, textbook. All this because an anticyclone has been installed in northern Europe and arctic areas, which forces very cold air to move south, directly towards Spain. While this cold settles on the peninsula, we must not forget about the storm Francis that enters from the southwest loaded with humidity. And when Francis’ humidity collides with the “wall” of frigid air already over the peninsula, a so-called “mass clash” occurs. This is where it turns into snow generally at very low levels. The AEMET. In his special prediction For these important dates, the meteorology agency indicates that this Friday the 2nd the rains will reach the Canary Islands and to the west of the peninsula. But it will be on January 3 when rainfall will be very abundant in western Andalusia, with snowfall at low levels in the north. But the truly interesting thing is between Sunday, January 4 and Tuesday, January 6, Three Kings’ Day, where heavy and persistent rains are expected in the south and east of the Peninsula. The highlight may be the snowfall in the eastern and central part of the peninsula, which the AEMET points out that can be important with a large drop in temperatures. Arrival of unusual snowfall. The “postcard” of Three Kings with snow is plausible in a good part of the country, although highly conditioned by the orography and some details of Francis’ career. In the south, for example, AEMET and local media report a drop in the snow level of up to 400 m in provinces like Granada either Malagawith minimums below 5 °C in capitals and negative values ​​in the interior, which opens the door to snowfall in areas where they are uncommon. In the center and east of the peninsula, the coldest scenarios place the level around 400–500 meters during January 4 and 5 and snow at medium or low levels in the southeastern quadrant, eastern Iberia, the east of the southern plateau or the Baetics; In the north and northwest, the posterior maritime polar mass keeps the snow in the mountains and could leave significant accumulations in systems such as the Montes de León. The American GFS model has come to propose for the Three Kings Day environment snow accumulations of more than 30 cm in the province of Toledo and greater than 40 cm in areas of Teruel, in a scenario of very extensive snowfall that inevitably reminds us of Filomena. A new Philomena? It’s an almost obligatory question. with the arrival of this storm, and although there are voices that affirm that we are going to face that, experts ask for caution to see how the predictions develop as the days go by. And the difference between a historic snowfall and an episode of cold rain depends on just a few kilometers in Francis’ trajectory. In this way, if the storm drops in latitude, cold air will dominate and snow could cover Madrid, the center of the peninsula or Granada. But if the storm moves north, the warm mass would win the battles and the snow would be restricted to mountain areas and medium elevations. Everything will depend on how the prediction develops in the coming days. The danger for horseback riding. With this forecast that we have on the table right now, the truth is that the cavalcades may have problems making their usual routes. Although it must be taken into account that these forecasts may change, not being truly 100% reliable until a few days before these dates arrive. After Three Kings Day. Once these dates pass, temperatures will begin to increase substantially. This way, starting January 6th Precipitation is expected to begin to lose intensity and extent in the southern areas, although it could still be locally strong in the Strait, while snowfall remains in the more mountainous areas. Images | AEMET In Xataka | La Niña is going to be meteorologically “less intense” than we expected. And that actually hides a problem.

a maneuver that aims to cut ground on Google’s Gemini 3

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In the race to lead the development of artificial intelligence, the pace has become a succession of linked movements. GPT-5.1 arrived on November 12an update aimed at polishing the experience and keeping users satisfied. Just a few days later, on November 18, Google responded with Gemini 3an evolution of its star model that left very good feelings among those who began to try it. As a result of that launch, rumors began to circulate: the startup led by Sam Altman had activated a supposed “code red” when seeing how its direct rival was taking advantage. And this seems to be the first result of that internal movement. Not even a month has passed since the previous update of its flagship model and GPT-5.2 is here. The promise here is to solve some known problems, decrease latency and gain reasoning. An evolution within the 5 series. GPT-5.2 appears as a version designed to boost knowledge work, with advances in coding, vision, document analysis and multi-step projects. OpenAI incorporates it as the direct evolution of GPT-5.1, not as a generational leap. According to the company, the update improves the management of long contexts, reduces errors and increases the ability to coordinate tools. More differentiated layers of use. In GPT-5.2, the three usual variants are somewhat more differentiated in their use, not because of new functions, but because of the way in which they integrate the improvements announced by OpenAI. Thinking absorbs much of the progress in reasoning, handling large documents, and coordinating tools. Pro raises the bar in specialized tasks, especially in code and technical calculations. Instant, for its part, benefits from more stable explanations and a reduction in errors. The result is a clearer separation between everyday tasks, complex jobs and expert needs. A visible improvement in multiple evaluations. OpenAI presents figures that show GPT-5.2 ahead of GPT-5.1 in very different areas, from scientific reasoning to programming and knowledge tasks. In GDPvalthe assessment that measures well-specified jobs in 44 occupations, the model achieves 70.9% wins or draws against human professionals. In GPQA Diamond It rises to 92.4% and in AIME 2025 it achieves 100%. The trend is repeated in technical tests such as FrontierMath either ARC-AGIwhere performance is also increased compared to the previous version. The improvements are seen when moving from figures to day-to-day tasks. In internal evaluations of financial analysts’ own work, such as three-state modeling or leveraged buyout simulations, Thinking raises its average score from 59.1% to 68.4%. The company also promises advances in generating spreadsheets and presentations with a clearer structure. In addition, companies such as Notion, Box, Shopify or Harvey, according to OpenAI, have observed improvements in long-range reasoning and in the use of tools in their own workflows. If these results are consolidated in real environments, they could reduce manual work in processes that require precision and consistency. A more stable environment for developers. GPT-5.2 Thinking, they say, achieves higher performance in demanding software tests, especially those that evaluate the ability to apply complete and consistent changes in real projects. The company indicates that the model better coordinates sequences of steps, something that is reflected in internal evaluations and feedback from platforms such as Windsurf or Charlie Labs. Fewer errors in sight. OpenAI claims that GPT-5.2 Thinking reduces the frequency of responses with errors by around 30% relative to GPT-5.1. This is an improvement that they associate with more stable reasoning and a greater ability to detect errors before generating the final response. The company also points out advances in the management of sensitive situations, such as conversations linked to emotional distress or mental health. Although he remembers that the model is still imperfect, he maintains that these adjustments contribute to a more reliable experience in everyday use. Where you can use GPT-5.2 today. OpenAI indicates that GPT-5.2 will begin rolling out to ChatGPT for paid plans, including PlusPro, Go, Business and Enterprise. In the API, GPT-5.2 Thinking is available as gpt-5.2 and the Instant version appears as gpt-5.2-chat-latest. The company has also promised to keep GPT-5.1 for three months on ChatGPT before removing it from paid plans. In terms of pricing, GPT-5.2 stands at $1.75 per million input tokens and $14 per million output tokens, more expensive than GPT-5.1, although OpenAI maintains that its greater efficiency reduces the final cost in demanding tasks. Images | OpenAI In Xataka | OpenAI knows that it needs to continue generating memes and virals. That’s why she’s willing to pay Disney a lot of money for her content.

China aims to break records with the largest ice park in the world. And he has already begun to lift it block by block

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At the end of November, in Harbin, the image is repeated every winter, with a scale that has not stopped growing in recent editions: cranes, machinery and workers begin to raise structures on a surface that weeks later will become walls, towers and slides made of ice. According to official dataconstruction is advanced this year thanks to the ice stored during the previous season and preserved for more than ten months. This material allows work to begin even before the river freezes completely again, with the aim of preparing an area that this winter will have 1.2 million square meters. Harbin Ice-Snow World It has grown from a local celebration to a seasonal theme park that rises again each winter. It functions as an enclosure with defined entrances, circulation areas, walkable structures and spaces to stay for hours, especially when it gets dark and the lighting changes the perception of the place. It is not just a setting for photographs, but a park designed to be walked, used and visited for a few weeks, while weather conditions allow it. When ice stops being landscape and becomes infrastructure Upon entering the venue, the experience is more similar to that of a theme park than a temporary exhibition. You can walk between buildings, climb platforms, slide down ramps or access areas prepared for snow activities. The architectural elements are not presented as immobile pieces, but as part of the route. For this edition, those responsible have announced spaces intended for ice fishing, cross-country skiing and collective snow gamesas well as an additional stage that will complement the cultural activities of the already usual Dream Stage. The proposal does not focus solely on showing structures, but on facilitating their use within a planned and temporary environment. Before erecting ice structures, Harbin already celebrated winter through local practices. Hand-carved ice lanterns began to be used in the city in the middle of the last century and gave rise to the first Harbin Ice and Snow Festival, held on January 5, 1985. indicate official pages. The jump to the current format came in 1999, when Harbin Ice-Snow World was created as an independent venue, with specific access and design. Since then, the evolution has been constant: more surface area, greater volume of materials, presence of machinery and planned construction processes. The park, under construction in November 2025 Harbin has turned winter into a source of economic activity. According to data released by Xinhuathe city received 90.36 million visitors during the last season, with estimated income of 137.22 billion yuan (almost 17 million euros), an increase of 16.6% compared to the previous year. Ice-Snow World does not explain these figures on its own, but it acts as one of the main focuses of attraction and as an element that concentrates tourist services, accommodation, restaurants and transportation during the weeks in which it remains open. The construction mobilizes technical profiles, operators and specialists in structure and lighting, while the opening requires personnel for visitor service, security, maintenance and tourist support. Many of these roles are temporary, but require prior coordination and planning. When comparing Harbin to other major winter events, such as the Sapporo Snow Festival in Japan or Quebec Winter Carnival in Canadathe difference is not only in size, but in structure. Sapporo distributes its sculptures in various urban spaces and Quebec combines culture, parades and outdoor activities, but neither of them functions as a theme park concentrated in a single venue, as occurs in Harbin. Harbin uses hundreds of thousands of cubic meters of ice and snow, according to official data, and builds walkable structures that are part of the route and not just the landscape. It is not so much a festival as a temporary recreational facility. Harbin Ice-Snow World has been integrated into the city’s tourism calendar as a seasonal facility. It is built every year, it opens for a few weeks and It is dismantled when temperatures no longer guarantee stability. This temporary nature does not prevent its planning: the prior storage of ice, the mobilization of workers and the associated services indicate that it is an organized activity and not simply a one-off event. The park functions as a generator of temporary employment, concentrates the winter tourism offer and channels activities that are subsequently complemented by the interior ice and snow enclosure, designed to operate all year round as an extension of the exterior park. There is no pretension of permanence, but of repetition adjusted to the climatic conditions. This repetition has allowed the consolidation of technical, logistical and tourist processes linked to winter as a seasonal economic resource. Images | The Harbin International Ice and Snow festival | Harbin Government In Xataka | Someone wants to build a 144 meter high skyscraper in the middle of the port of Malaga. The reason: luxury tourism

Spain, France and Germany could not depend on the “button” of the F-35. So the future European fighter aims for something else

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In the month of September the future European fighter in which Spain participates began to disfigure publicly. Germany threatened to open FCAS to new partners if there was no agreement with France, while Spain joined Berlin with Indra and, on the opposite sidewalk, a continental bet appeared, the Global Combat Air Program (GCAP) that brought together Italy, the United Kingdom and Japan around a different philosophy. Now, in a new twist of the script, the European fighter is aiming for something else. An overflowing program. He Future Combat Air System (FCAS), conceived in 2017 as Europe’s great bet to build the combat air ecosystem of the second half of the 21st century and put aside the american dependencyis going through its crisis deeper. Germany and France, political and industrial drivers of the project, they study abandoning the most symbolic piece (the new generation fighter) to take refuge in its only still viable element: the combat clouda command and control network based on artificial intelligence capable of integrating manned aircraft, swarms of drones, radars, sensors and naval and land systems in the same operational environment. The shift does not seem like a simple technical reorientation, but rather a tacit recognition that the differences between Airbus and Dassault Aviation They have reached a point of no return. At a time when Europe wants to demonstrate strategic autonomy after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the largest military program of the continent is at risk of fracturing due to the inability of its two main contractors to share responsibilities, cede control and coordinate incompatible industrial visions. The Airbus-Dassault divorce. The conflict between Dassault and Airbus it’s not recentbut it has now reached an intensity that makes advancing the fighter impossible. Dassault, creator of the Rafale and a family-owned company, demands total authority on the design of the aircraft and selection of suppliers. For its part, Airbus (which represents Germany and part of Spain) considers that a European project of this magnitude should be governed by a balanced distribution of work. Negotiations have been stalled for years, with each party accusing the other of breaking agreements. While Dassault threatens to continue alone because “it has all the necessary experience”, the temptation to replace France grows in Berlin through the United Kingdom or Swedentwo partners who already participate in the rival Tempest program. The result is a vicious circle: without trust, there is no cooperation, without cooperation, there is no plane, and without plane, the FCAS becomes an empty shell supported only by the idea. from combat cloud. FCAS The German temptation and the French dilemma. The pressure is not symmetrical. Germany, which has relaxed its spending limit to rearm on a large scaledoes not want to be held hostage by a French company that is blocking progress. According to the Financial Timesin the environment of Chancellor Friedrich Merz an increasingly clear message is heard: if collaboration does not work, Berlin has the resources to continue without Paris. France, for its part, shows caution: its nuclear deterrent It depends on the replacement of the Rafale starting in the next decade, and an abrupt divorce could delay a key system for its strategic security. Although Macron hoped to rebuild trust after years of disagreements, even French voices admit that the project is “immobilized and almost dead,” and that the only real way out is through direct intervention by the president on Éric Trappier, the powerful CEO of Dassault. Combat Cloud The combat cloud as a strategic refuge. Just because the plane stalls doesn’t mean FCAS is meaningless. The most transformative piece of the program is not the fighter, but the AI-based distributed command and control system: a combat cloud european that allows any platform (Rafale, Eurofighter, long-range drones, naval sensors or ground radars) to share data in real time. This system, developed by Airbus (Germany), Thales (France) and Indra (Spain), is the only thing that everyone agrees on: Europe can (co)live with several planes, but not with incompatible networks that depend entirely on the American technological umbrella as was the case with the F-35. That is why it is proposed to accelerate the entry into service from the cloud to 2030a decade ahead of schedule, and armor it as a common pillar even if the joint fighter disappears. For many European countries, having their own cloud is the only way to guarantee that, if Washington one day looks the other way, the continent’s armies can operate in a cohesive and autonomous manner. Failure with implications. If he FCAS collapsesit will not just be an industrial setback, but a devastating geopolitical message. Europe has been proclaiming its desire for military autonomy for years, but every time it tries to create its own capabilities it runs into problems. same obstacles: competition between nations, political misgivings, absence of common governance and divergent priorities. This crisis also comes at a critical moment, when the war in Ukraine has demonstrated that technological superiority it is played onlinethat reaction time is vital and that Western systems must interoperate seamlessly. That the largest European defense project could collapse for corporate disputes shows the extent to which the dream of an integrated defense continues to depend on fragile foundations. What is played in a few weeks. The Financial Times recalled that the calendar is tight. Paris, Berlin and Madrid must decide before the end of the year whether to finance the airplane demonstration, an investment of several billion that no one wants to approve while the project remains blocked. The meetings between the French minister Catherine Vautrin, her German counterpart Boris Pistorius, Merz and Macron will be decisive: or the FCAS is redefined around to combat cloud or formally disintegrates. Everyone repeats that the Franco-German bilateral relationship should not be damaged, but the reality is that companies have carried out the program to the limit. The FCAS was born to symbolize defense Europe, but today only the combat cloud keeps that symbol alive as the last possible bridge between two industries that no longer … Read more

The rarest element on Earth aims to cure cancer. And Europe is already accelerating its production

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In the fight against cancer there are many ‘weapons’ that we have at our disposalsuch as chemotherapy or radiotherapy. The problem is that these are assimilated like bombing a city to destroy a single house: it is achieved, but with a lot of collateral damage. But this can be solved if We attack only what interests usin this case a tumor cell, and science points to one of the rarest elements on the planet as a candidate to achieve this. Where are we now. The goal of science is to find the most specific therapies possible so that they attack a tumor cell and not a healthy cell with the aim of reducing the adverse effects of the treatment and also being more effective. For this there are different options such as immunotherapy or the use of very specific antibodies, but there is still a long way to go. A particle. He astatinewhose name comes from the Greek astats (“unstable”), lives up to its name. It is the rarest natural element on Earth and disappears almost as soon as it is formed and that is very interesting to us. Especially a ‘version’ of this element which is At-211 which has a half-life of only 7.2 hours. But this instability is part of its magic. At-211 is what Texas A&M scientists call a “Goldilocks” isotope: perfect for the job. Its advantages. Currently, heto traditional radiation used in cancer treatments have a great impact on the body when traveling over long distances. But At-211 emits alpha particles, which is a heavy, slow-moving helium nucleus, which when emitted releases an enormous amount of energy, but can only travel a tiny distance, just the thickness of a few cells. This is crucial. Targeted Alpha Therapy involves “gluing” an atom of At-211 to a molecule (such as an antibody) designed to specifically seek out and bind to cancer cells. At-211 travels through the body, ignoring healthy cells, and when it finds its target, it anchors to the tumor and releases its alpha particle. The result is a localized and devastating explosion of energy, which irreversibly destroys the DNA of the cancer cell. But since the particle cannot travel any further, the healthy cell next to it will not be affected, making this an almost perfect killer. Your problem. At first glance everything seems great, but… Why don’t we use it? The answer lies in its availability, since it is impossible to mine astatine, since with a life of 7.2 hours the clock is running against it. The only way to obtain it is to create it artificially in a cyclotron, a particle accelerator. The process basically involves firing a beam of alpha particles at a Bismuth-209 target. Now the advance that has been achieved is to create a fully automated system to produce and ship the AT-211 as quickly as possible so that it can be used. In Europe. With this advance, which has been made in Texas, processing time is reduced and the safety of technicians who do not have to handle this substance increases. And while Texas A&M resolves supply in the US, Europe is making a move. The project Accelerate.EUfunded by the European Union, was launched at the end of 2024 with a clear objective: to create a robust and sustainable manufacturing and treatment infrastructure for At-211 throughout Europe. The project focuses on especially difficult-to-treat cancers, such as pancreas, breast and brain tumors (glioblastomas), demonstrating that this therapy is a global strategic priority. The future therefore lies in the possibility of using one isotope to illuminate the tumor and then using another to kill it, inaugurating authentic personalized nuclear medicine. Images | freepik In Xataka | The most unexpected treatment against cancer is LED light, and it is giving good results

Apple has a plan to fix Siri. One that aims to make Google even richer, according to Bloomberg

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Apple Intelligence was introduced in 2024 with great promises. The main one, a Siri completely renewedmuch more capable and versatile. As it turned out, what they showed was a fictitious demo and the new Siri was delayed until 2026. Apple has lost the AI ​​raceat least in the first round, but they already have a plan to recover. One that involves delivering 1 billion a year to Google, all while they continue developing their own model. The agreement. Account Mark Gurman at Bloomberg that Apple is about to close a deal with Google worth $1 billion a year. This will allow them to use Gemini’s AI model to power their Siri assistant, especially in the planning and summary functions, which are what allow the assistant to execute more complex tasks. Apple has been evaluating other competitors such as OpenAI and Anthropic, but has finally settled on Google’s Gemini. The new Siri is expected to arrive in spring of next yearalthough nothing is confirmed. Conditions. The agreement does not involve integrating Gemini as an assistant in iPhones, but rather it will be integrated into Siri and will also do so from Apple’s private servers. This will separate user data from Google’s infrastructure. Furthermore, Gurman says that they are not going to publicize the agreement as they did when Google became Safari’s default search engine; in this case it will be a “behind the scenes” agreement. Temporary solution. Apple does not plan to use Google’s model forever as they are developing their own language model in parallel. We don’t know much about what it will be like, just that it will have 1 billion parameters and they hope to have it ready next year. Apple sources believe that it will have a level of quality similar to that of the Gemini, but for now there is nothing to prove it. Taking into account Apple’s AI stumbles We would not be surprised if the promise of its own model ends up being diluted. Additionally, the company has lost at least three key AI executives because Zuckerberg signed them for his superintelligence team. China. The agreement has a problem and that is that Google services are banned in China, so the new Siri would arrive with modifications to comply with this restriction. It is said that heThe Chinese version could have its own models and a local filter developed by Alibaba. China is a key market for Apple and the latest results do not leave them in a good place. That the new Siri arrives “captured” in China could have more negative consequences. Images | Wikipedia In Xataka | Apple has lost the throne it held for a decade. And the Chinese brands no longer even let it be second

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