alive

It is alive, it grows and repairs itself

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There are many reasons to look for a cement substitute, but one of the most important is that your industry is responsible. 7% of global CO2 emissions. Thus, we have already seen moderately viable solutions with ecological mortar and even with shellsbut the Federal Polytechnic School of Zurich has been looking for its replacement in nature for some time. Better said, in living materials such as bacteria, algae and fungi. And he has found it precisely in cyanobacteria. It sounds strange, but it has more advantages than it seems. The challenge of replacing concrete. In an industry that revolves around classic materials such as steel, concrete or cement (which, after all, is part of the cement recipe), the search for a replacement entails great implications in terms of infrastructure and costs. Assuming that the minimum expected is that it has similar mechanical characteristics, the search for an alternative involves a material that is better, since the manufacture of traditional concrete consumes a large amount of resources, the pollution is very high and it also degrades over time. This concrete is alive. Literally. The research team has managed to stably incorporate cyanobacteria into a printable gel to develop a living photosynthetic material that nourishes, grows and removes carbon dioxide from the air in the process, as detailed. in Nature magazine. This material can be molded with 3D printing and requires sunlight, nutrients from artificial seawater, and carbon dioxide to grow. The matrix is ​​a water-rich hydrogel composed of cross-linked polymers with a geometry such that it facilitates the transport of light, carbon dioxide, nutrients and water. That is, so that cyanobacteria live longer and better. 3D printed structure. ETH Zurich From passive material to carbon sink. Concrete is also a passive material, that is, once fixed in the structures it stays there, degrading over time. So ETH Zurich has proposed a paradigm shift in which buildings go from being an inevitable source of emissions to becoming an active organism that can clean the atmosphere, something like a plant. Thus, the biotechnological system is made up of cyanobacteria integrated into the matrix of the material, so that its structure protects them while they perform their function. On the one hand, by minimizing the use of cement, you reduce process emissions. On the other hand, it not only stops emissions: this system sequesters atmospheric carbon permanently in its structure. And it is no small thing: according to Yifan Cui, one of the two main authors of the study, “the material can store carbon not only in the form of biomass, but also in the form of minerals, a special property of these cyanobacteria.” However, cyanobacteria are one of the oldest forms of life on the planet and are extremely efficient at photosynthesis. Mineralized carbon dioxide in the structure. ETH Zurich The “magic” equation of photosynthesis. When microorganisms absorb carbon dioxide with sunlight, a biomineralization process is carried out by which this dioxide turns into calcium carbonate, reinforcing the structure of the material with this mineral, which also has the ability to store carbon dioxide in a more stable way. In its laboratory tests, in 400 days the material was able to store 26 mg of CO₂ per gram of material, notably more than the 7 mg of CO₂ per gram of recycled concrete. A concrete that “heals” itself. This generated mineral becomes a glue that holds everything together, improving its structural integrity over time. Something that is inevitable about concrete is that it cracks, but in this case, when microcracks appear, the entry of moisture and oxygen reacts to the bacteria, which secrete this mineral to seal it. In short, it heals itself. This healing capacity is an asset in terms of maintenance costs, minimizing corrosion of reinforcing steel in hybrid structures. There is already cyanobacteria concrete. Moving from the laboratory to the real world is a critical process that this project has already successfully overcome: in the Venice Architecture Biennale Several large blocks can be found (the largest is three meters high) in the exhibition. Be careful because, as they detail, each of these blocks is capable of storing up to 18 kilograms of carbon dioxide per year, rivaling with an adult tree. And now what? As explains Mark Tibbit, Professor of Macromolecular Engineering at ETH Zurich, Mark Tibbitt, in the future want to study “how it can be used as a façade cladding to capture CO₂ throughout the entire life cycle of a building.” For it to go from being a laboratory project with samples in exhibitions to reality, challenges such as scalability and costs, as well as mechanical properties and the survival of the bacteria, will have to be faced. In Xataka | We had been looking for an alternative to cement for decades. We just found it in seashells In Xataka | In our battle against plastic, we have centrifuged bacteria. And its cellulose is postulated as the ideal substitute Cover | ETH Zurich

Microsoft continues to confuse the world with its obsession with Copilot. Almost no one is very clear if Office is alive or not

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“But then, does Office exist or not?” It is a question that seems trivial, but it is not so, and with good reason: the constant name and brand changes have meant that the Microsoft office suite is being the latest victim of his obsession with AI and with its avalanche of products with the Copilot surname. The usual Office is no longer what it was. The evolution of Office was relatively stable until 2020. The office suite, officially launched in 1990, made it possible to bring together all the office applications that Microsoft already had and that it would later expand. This is how we soon saw an Office that consisted of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook and even Access and other tools. Changes and more changes. Since then the suite has been undergoing paradigm shifts… and name changes: 2010: The Office 365 brand is introduced as a cloud version of the traditional office suite. The goal: compete with Google Docs 2013: After the launch of Office 2013, Microsoft begins to promote the Office 365 service as the main alternative to access office tools 2017: Microsoft presents a second evolution of these services, which this time were aimed at companies and which it named Microsoft 365. This platform combined Office 365 with volume licenses for Windows 10 Enterprise, as well as some additional solutions. 2020: Office 365 change your name to Microsoft 365 2022: Microsoft announces that the branding “Microsoft Office” would be abandoned in favor of the “Microsoft 365” brand. Even so, Microsoft continues to sell perpetual Microsoft Office licenses for local installations. The latest version Today it is Microsoft Office 2024. 2025:Microsoft rename the Microsoft 365 app to Microsoft 365 Copilot, referring to the “Office/Microsoft 365 Hub.” This application is actually like an aggregator of the different Microsoft office tools (Word, Excel, etc.). And Perplexity adds fuel to the fire. A few days ago those responsible for Perplexity published a tweet in which they seemed to indicate that Microsoft had changed the name from “Office” to “Microsoft 365 Copilot app.” In reality, what had been renamed, as they point out in Windows Latestis the “Office/Microsoft 365 Hub”, but this name change had already been announced a year ago, in January 2025, as we indicated. Perplexity also added that this decision had caused “400 million users to become “AI users” overnight.” Both the tweet and that statement were somewhat exaggerated, and did not help clarify a situation that is already confusing. Microsoft clarifies it. Microsoft officials have indicated in The Verge and other means that: “We have not made any recent changes to the names of our Office applications. Word, Excel and PowerPoint, the Office applications included in the Microsoft 365 productivity suite, remain unchanged In November 2022, we just renamed the Office hub app for web and mobile to the Microsoft 365 app. In January 2025, we updated it to the Microsoft 365 Copilot app to reflect its role in bringing the Copilot and Microsoft 365 productivity experiences together in one place.” More trouble with the Office.com website. Although Microsoft hasn’t just “killed” the Office brand, it doesn’t seem to want it to be used much either. In fact, if one goes to the office.com website What you see as soon as you load it is a message that says “We welcome you to the Microsoft 365 Copilot application”, or in other words, that “hub” or aggregator from which you can launch the different office tools in the Microsoft suite. It doesn’t seem like a lucky decision. like others in this line in recent times. How to destroy a recognizable and recognized brand. The truth is that Office was a brand recognized by users, but for years Microsoft has wanted to transform it into part of something bigger. The intention, we believe, was to try to make it clear that Microsoft 365 was more than traditional office tools, but the only thing that has been achieved With these changes it is adding more and more confusion. Office is still alive as a product and as a brand, but it has ended up being absorbed by these new brands and, of course, because of Microsoft’s obsession with AI and with Copilot. In Xataka | Thanks again, Microsoft, for letting us buy Office 2024 instead of putting up with another subscription

the projects that still keep the free and free web alive just as we dream of it

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The Internet has never had so many users or so much content, and yet it increasingly looks like a handful of repeated screens. Much of what we read, watch or search for goes through the algorithms of a few large platformswho compete for our attention and they convert many of our clicks into measurable data. In the midst of this standardized landscape, projects survive that operate with a different logic, such as Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap or the Internet Archivewhich are not financed by ads, do not sell detailed profiles of their users and continue to support a simple and demanding idea at the same time: that information and knowledge should be a shared good. The web did not begin as a showcase for large platforms, but rather a dispersed and almost artisanal laboratory. In the early nineties, those who published on the web They did it from university serversinstitutional or domestic, using open standards such as HTML, HTTP and URIs. They were fundamental pieces of a network designed so that information could circulate without depending on technological owners or closed systems. This technical architecture fueled the idea that the Internet could be an open and accessible space. The Internet was not born to sell data: the market found how to do it That enthusiasm, however, lived with obvious limits. As we say, participation was concentrated in universities, research centers and a minority of enthusiasts with technical knowledge and resources. The figures of the time show that just one minimum fraction of the world’s population had access to the Internet, which means that this supposed openness was real in technological terms, but not socially widespread. Starting in the mid-nineties, and especially at the end of that decade, the Internet began to receive more attention. Companies saw economic potential in a network that connected millions of people and allowed information and services to be distributed on a global scale. Commercial providers, popular browsers and the first portals emerged, and with them came the logic of the market: there was traffic, there were users and, therefore, there were business opportunities. Access to the web stopped being an experiment and began to become a massive, measurable and profitable activity. This change promoted a model that would quickly consolidate: segmented advertising. It was not just about showing ads, but about analyzing user behavior and obtain data about your interestshabits and preferences. It was the moment when human attention began to acquire a concrete economic value. Clicks, dwell time and browsing patterns ceased to be technical traces and became raw material for a new digital market. In this increasingly commercialized context, some projects maintained another way of understanding the Internet. They were not born to attract traffic or to compete for attention, but to build public information infrastructures. Wikipedia was launched in 2001 with a goal that seemed unrealistic at the time: to create a free, collectively written encyclopedia available to anyone with an Internet connection. OpenStreetMap began its journey in 2004 with a similar idea, but applied to the territory, collaboratively documenting the streets, roads and places of the world. Since 1996, the Internet Archive had been preserving pages, documents, audio and video so that they would not disappear over time. Two decades later, these projects are not only still active, but are central pieces of the current web. Millions of people consult Wikipedia every day to check a fact, understand a context or learn something new. OpenStreetMap maps power everything from mobile applications to public services and humanitarian projects. And the Internet Archive has become a long-term digital memory, a place where the web is not deleted, but preserved. They are initiatives collectively built that have achieved global impact without adopting the dominant business model. Wikipedia is supported by millions of small donors, most of them are readers who contribute small amounts, usually around ten euros a year. The Wikimedia Foundation manages these resources and maintains the technical infrastructure, including servers, software development and security systems. He also manages the Wikimedia Endowmentan independent fund created in 2016 to ensure that the project can continue operating even if revenue drops one year. Since 2021, there is also Wikimedia Enterprisea way for organizations that intensively reuse content, such as search engines or artificial intelligence companies, to access structured and stable versions of the data. Financed on the backs of the people OpenStreetMap has a different and much more decentralized structure. The OpenStreetMap Foundation is responsible for servers and general coordination, but much of the work comes from local communities organizing events, training and collaborative mapping tasks. The financing comes in the form of voluntary duestechnical sponsorships and support from organizations that use the data in logistical, humanitarian or educational projects. In the case of Internet Archive, the costs fall on an infrastructure that stores millions of pages, documents and files, financed through individual donations, grants from foundations and public organizations, and archiving and digitization services for institutions. When we talk about open projects, we can confuse openness with absence of organization. However, its operation is based on explicit rules and distributed structures. Wikipedia exemplifies this better than anyone. Editorial decisions are not made by a small group, but by thousands of people who apply public standards such as neutral point of view or verifiable content. The profile of the person contributing does not matter, but rather whether their contribution meets those criteria. Administrators can intervene to protect pages or resolve disputes, but their role is primarily technical and maintenance, with no hierarchical editorial authority over content. OpenStreetMap works with a similar logic, but on geographic data: the information is built from the local and is review collectively to ensure consistency. There are regional communities They coordinate tasks, organize meetings and define practices, but the base remains open. In the case of Internet Archive, the process is not so much editing as cataloging and preservation, and external collaboration focuses on improving the quality of records and avoiding the loss of digital documents. Living with the technological giants … Read more

30 years later it is the glue that keeps the internet alive

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Three decades ago, a joint release from Netscape and Sun Microsystems introduced the world to JavaScript, a scripting language designed for creating interactive web applications. Behind that press release A story of technological survival was hidden: said language had been born months before, the result of a frenetic ten-day sprint led by engineer Brendan Eich. What began as a hurried prototype to give life to the netscape browserhas today become the infrastructure that supports a huge percentage of the visible web. The myth of ten days. The legend tells that Eich wrote the core JavaScript in just over a week. And it is true, but the result was a hybrid of influences. Pressured by Netscape management to make the language more like Java, Eich adopted a syntax of curly braces and semicolons. However, under the hood, it injected the functional elegance of Scheme and Self’s prototype-based object model. This mix, born out of haste, left a legacy of technical inconsistencies that developers still suffer from (and love) today. From Mocha to confusion. You may not know that the language was not always called that. It was born as Mocha, became LiveScript and was finally named JavaScript in a marketing maneuver to take advantage of the popularity of Java. What’s more, the confusion over names continues to this day among less knowledgeable users: but Java and JavaScript have the same thing to do with each other. car (car) and carpet (rug), as is usually answered when someone asks about their differences. The strategy worked, but angered rivals like Microsoft. His response was to create his own version called JScript, something that caused notable fragmentation that made Bill Gates himself complain about Netscape’s constant changes. To bring order to the chaos, the language ended up being established in 1997 under the name ECMAScript. Image by Claudio Schwarz on Unsplash Ajax and the conquest of the server. For years, JavaScript was seen as a toy for doing simple validations, but that all changed in 2005 with the arrival of AJAX. This technology It allowed websites like Gmail or Maps to update data without reloading the page: the step was taken from static websites to dynamic apps. The second leap occurred in 2009 with Node.js, which took JavaScript out of the browser and onto the server. Key for developers to use a single language for the entire stack and which now involves between two and three million packages in the npm registry. Absolute domain. Despite the emergence of modern rivals, the hegemony of JavaScript is indisputable. According to the 2025 Stack Overflow surveycontinues to be the language most used by 62% of developers, something that puts them ahead of others such as Python or SQL. Its ubiquity is such that it has transcended the web: it powers desktop apps using Electron, mobile development with React Native and even AI tools. It is the default language for learning to program and chosen by 60% of students. This mass success has brought with it a complexity in the JavaScript ecosystem: Frameworks like React, Angular and Vue dominate the market (used by 40% of web developers). The weight of libraries is beginning to take its toll on the performance of the web. Therefore, predictions for 2026 point to a resurgence of pure JavaScript either Vanilla JavaScript. Forced maturity. Despite its birth defects, JavaScript was able to evolve. In 2015, the ES6 update radically transformed the syntax, but the real paradigm shift came from Microsoft: with the TypeScript creationa layer of security and types was added that solved much of the original chaos, something that allowed it to become the almost mandatory standard for professional development. JavaScript is still the engine, but TypeScript is the precision flywheel. A legal problem called Oracle. The paradox of JavaScript is that, despite being an open standard, its name is proprietary. Oracle inherited the “JavaScript” trademark after purchasing Sun Microsystems, although it has never released a product with that name. Recently, key figures such as Brendan Eich himself and the creator of Node.js have signed a request so that the US patent office can cancel the trademark due to abandonment. The legacy of a hack. It is ironic that the companies that sponsored his birth have disappeared or been absorbed, while his creation remains more alive than ever. Authoritative voices like Douglas Crockford (creator of JSON) have come to suggest they should “retire” it for its basic design flaws, but the reality is that the modern web would not exist without it. JavaScript is not just code; is the lingua franca of the internet, the invisible glue that turns static documents into digital experiences. Without its existence, the network would only be a collection of texts and images without movement, something similar to a PDF newspaper that we see on our screen. In Xataka | There is a shadow giant pulling all the technological strings that connect TikTok with AI: Oracle

Six dissident countries want to keep the combustion car alive in Europe. And they have the opposition of Spain ahead of them

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The European Commission will speak and everything indicates that it will back down on its decision to ban the sale of cars with combustion engines from 2035. To what extent remains to be known and has yet to be revealed. What is certain is that Europe is divided between those who want to go back and those who prefer to move forward. These are the six dissident countries. The six of combustion. “We can and must pursue our climate goal effectively, without killing our competitiveness.” These are some of the words of the letter that six countries have sent to Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, according to Bloomberg. Why does an electric car have less autonomy than advertised? The letter, which is reported by the media but has also been ratified by Automotive News either Reutersis led by Italy and signed by six countries in total that disagree with the decision that is still in force right now and that points to the impossibility of selling combustion engines that generate carbon emissions from 2035. These countries are: Italy, Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Bulgaria and Poland. They are not doing the work. In the statements they have been making these days (reported in media such as Diariomotor) its leaders there is a common axis around which everything revolves: competitiveness. These countries believe that the ban on combustion engines makes it difficult for traditional European manufacturers to exist. These leaders consider that Europeans have a lot to lose if they jump to electric cars as the only solution and that Chinese manufacturers benefit the most. This position, held for months by countries such as Italy or Poland including your express support for tariffs to the Chinese electric car, has even made some Chinese manufacturers stop your investments in these dissident countries. It is believed that by orders of the Chinese State itself. And Germany? Its absence is almost surprising considering that it is the company that has championed the fight against the 2035 ban. Not signing this letter shows that the German country is advancing on its own and that it seems to have other objectives, although with subtle differences, in mind. Friedrich Merz, German chancellor, has long been lobbying for combustion engines to remain in force. In fact, he confronted Italy until he achieved the door was opened to synthetic fuels. The big question is how far they want to stretch their position. Small nuances. Manfred Weber, president of the European People’s Party and German politician, leaked a few days ago that the intention of the European Commission was to allow the sale of cars with combustion engines as long as the average CO2 emissions were reduced by 90%, taking the 2021 objectives as a reference. The change is important because achieving that goal is only possible if the bulk of the cars sold by a brand are electric cars. Even with current approvals for plug-in hybrids it would be impossible to achieve consumption that falls within the regulations. That is, Germany is looking for a huge fleet of electric cars on the streets with certain wide sleeve for luxury manufacturers of putting cars with combustion engines on the street at very high prices. Spain and the pro-electric front. Faced with the six dissident countries and Germany, Spain seems to have confronted France so that the current ban is maintained under the terms that had already been agreed. That is, it is prohibited to sell combustion engines that produce carbon emissions. Both countries are interested in the future of the vehicle fleet going through the electric car. French manufacturers have made enormous efforts to jump to the electric car, with renault and Peugeot as champions of these investments. Multi-energy platforms Stellantis STLA and STLA Small They are good examples. And precisely part of the future of the Spanish industry starts from the latter. Our country assembles the Stellantis small electric cars and that is why now it has on the horizon a battery factory next to CATL. Martorell, from Seat, is being renovated to give way to the small electric cars from the Volkswagen Group and the investment in Sagunto for the battery factory is part of the plan. These are just some of the projects already active as Spain continues to position itself to host more of the electric car industry in the coming years, including investments already approved for the conversion of factories. Photo | Rafael Garcin and mercedes In Xataka | In 2035 only 10% of combustion cars will comply with Euro 7. So the industry is pushing to skip it

A new and “extraordinary” 3I/ATLAS anomaly keeps controversy alive as the comet approaches Earth

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Avi Loeb is back at it. While NASA deploys an unprecedented fleet of cameras and telescopes to observe the third interstellar visitor in history, the Harvard physicist points out an orbital coincidence with Jupiter so precise that, in the absence of explanation, it defies chance. A little context. The solar system has a new guest object and, as it happened with its only two known predecessors‘Oumuamua and 2I/Borisov, has not arrived without controversy. The interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, discovered in July 2025, is on track to make its closest approach to Earth. For NASA, it is a golden opportunity to study the chemistry of another solar system. For the controversial astrophysicist Avi Loeb, director of the Galileo Project, the orbital data has just revealed an “extraordinary anomaly” that, for the umpteenth timehas been associated with a possible artificial origin. A chance of 1 in 26,000. According to the latest trajectory data from NASA’s JPL, 3I/ATLAS will pass the closest point of its trajectory to Jupiter on March 16, 2026. But what’s surprising is not the approach itself, Loeb says, but the exact distance at which it will occur. If a mother ship wanted to “seed devices” on Jupiter or take advantage of its Lagrangian points to park with a minimum expenditure of fuel, it would have to arrive right at the edge of the so-called Hill Radius, which delimits the sphere of gravitational influence of the gas giant. By the date of the encounter, Jupiter’s Hill Radius will be 53.502 million kilometers. The fact that has raised Loeb’s eyebrows? The minimum approach distance of 3I/ATLAS is 53.445 million kilometers. According to the cosmologistthe probability of an interstellar rock randomly passing with this precision by the edge of Jupiter’s Hill Radius is about 1 in 26,000. Engines or degassing? NASA had already ruled out that the “non-gravitational acceleration” observed in 3I/ATLAS came from artificial engines. 3I/ATLAS It is an active comet. As such, as it approaches the Sun, the heat sublimates the ice in its body, creating jets of gas that act as natural propellants, pushing the rock and altering its orbit. However, Loeb argues that this observed acceleration during perihelion (the closest point to the Sun) was of the exact magnitude needed to correct course toward that precise intersection with Jupiter’s Hill sphere. If it were a technological spacecraft, Loeb argues, those observed “jets” might not be ice sublimating, but thrusters performing a gravity-assist maneuver. We will clear up doubts. The outcome of this story will come in the coming months. On December 19 we will have the comet’s closest approach to Earth, an ideal time for detailed spectroscopic observations. A spectroscopic measurement of the speed and composition of the jets will reveal whether they come from the sublimation of ice packs or from technological propellants. If in March 2026, after passing by Jupiter, we detect new objects orbiting the gas giant that we did not send, the history of humanity could change. If not, we will have had the unique opportunity to closely study a fragment of an alien world, which, as NASA tries to argue, is already extraordinary in its own right. Image | POT In Xataka | NASA has been accused of “kidnapping” the 3I/ATLAS photos for a month and a half: it has had no choice but to publish them

We have left Moss out for nine months in space at the mercy of vacuum and radiation. He’s back alive and breaking records

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Life is much more tenacious than we usually think, even when we take it out of its cradle and expose it to the most hostile environment we know: the emptiness of the outer space. And to carry out this test, a team of scientists has decided to take a moss and expose it to conditions outside of Earth, giving a result that opens a path for us on how to create new ecosystems on other planets. The protagonist of this story is Physcomitrium patensor better known as primitive moss. And there were a series of Japanese researchers those who wanted to check What would happen if this little primitive moss was left outside the International Space Station. The logical a priori thing would have been that he would have died instantly, since he did not have oxygen, the environment was really aggressive, with a lot of direct radiation as he did not have the protection of our ozone layer and logically he was not in his natural habitat. But the reality is that he has managed to endure the absolute emptiness and the cosmic radiation for 283 days. But not only has it survived these conditions, but upon returning to Earth it has been planted and germinated. Without a doubt a great surprise in the face of the resistance that these organisms have. A round trip. The research, led by biologist Tomomichi Fujita of Hokkaidō University and published in iScience, started from a premise that seemed like science fiction: can a primitive land plant withstand prolonged exposure to cosmic elements without protection? To find out, in March 2022 they launched hundreds of samples aboard the ship Cygnus NG-17. Once on the ISS, the astronauts attached these samples to the outside of the station, orbiting at about 400 km altitude from the Earth’s surface. There they stayed for nine months, exposed to constant cycles of light and shadow, extreme cold, and relentless ultraviolet radiation. In January 2023, the samples returned in a SpaceX capsule (mission CRS-16) and when analyzed in the laboratory, the results perplexed the researchers. More than 80% of the spores had survived and were able to germinate. Not everything is the same. Just as two humans may not be equally resistant, something similar happens with mosses. In this research, we tried to verify the resistance of three types of fabric, but the winner was undoubtedly the sporophytewas the hardest fabric. Something that was already suspected, but the litmus test that this was was missing. In terrestrial laboratories, stress is usually tested separately. That is, in a season an organism is exposed to heat, or cold, or high radiation. But in this case everything happens at the same time, and that is why it was expected that his survival would be null with this combination of factors. But the reality is that the spores protected within the sporangium endured. And although the scientists noted a degradation of one type of chlorophyll due to visible light, the structural and genetic integrity of the plant remained intact enough to be “resurrected” upon returning home. Its importance. Growing a moss on the surface of the ISS seems insignificant and a silly waste of money. But the reality is that this finding has two very important readings. The first looks towards the stars and the terraforming process. It must be taken into account that mosses were the first plants to colonize land on our planet 500 million years ago. It can be said that they are natural pioneers thanks to the fact that they can settle on bare stones and then when they die, they generate soil where more complex plants later emerge. In this way, if they can survive space travel and withstand extreme conditions, they could theoretically be the biological vanguard. in lunar or martian bases to help modify its atmosphere and ecosystem. Something more urgent. Right now, our goal has to be to create crops that are more resistant to the extreme weather conditions we face on our planet. And the solution may lie in these spores and their genetics. Understanding the mechanism that gives them this great resistance is vital so that we can modify seeds of other crops with the aim of conferring the same resistance. A vital step to face everything that may be yet to come to our planet. Images | Mike Frandson POT In Xataka | Fungal spores and other microorganisms are candidates for surviving on the surface of Mars, according to NASA

There is a whale that has been alive for more than two centuries. And it has things to teach us

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Stopping aging is one of the objectives that a field of science has right now that is very focused, above all, on preventing diseases as serious as cancer that can be associated with being older. Now the secret does not seem to be in a hidden book, but on a bowhead whale what is one of the oldest known mammals with a life expectancy that exceeds 200 years. A headache. This combination of size and longevity has been a problem for biologists for decades. Precisely, more cells (due to their size) and more time (due to their longevity), the greater the probability that one of those cells will accumulate mutations and turn into cancer, as happens in humans. However, this does not seem to affect the bowhead whale: it is not particularly prone to cancer. This apparent contradiction is known like Peto’s paradox. And now, a team of scientists from the University of Rochester believes he has found the key to this resistance. The importance. With the passage of time, humans accumulate different mutations in our cells that a priori They couldn’t be more important. The change of one nucleotide for another in a very complex sequence of a protein may not alter the resulting amino acid, and it is very common, since our ‘genetic photocopiers’ such as DNA polymerases they are not perfect and they make mistakes in their work when it comes to replicating DNA. And it is precisely in these errors that the probability of suffering from a major disease such as cancer increases. Above all, it is worrying when these errors accumulate throughout life. This makes finding ‘the secret of eternal youth’ crucial for humans and the control of devastating diseases. When we think about anti-aging we automatically imagine wrinkle-free skin, but beyond aesthetics, science is interested in how young the cells are. And this is where the question is that now focuses on the genome of these whales that seem to hold the key to understanding how to reverse our molecular aging. The hypotheses. Why a whale has such a high life expectancy despite its size has led to different scenarios being considered. The first of them is that the whale can have extra defenses, as happens in elephants that have evolved to have extra copies of tumor suppressor genes, such as the TP53. Basically, they have more “police” monitoring the genome so that, the moment there is a cancer cell, it is eliminated by apoptosis. But when researchers tested the whale’s cells, they got a major surprise. Unexpectedly, bowhead whale fibroblasts required fewer oncogenic “hits” (what we can say are mutations) to undergo malignant transformation than human fibroblasts. That is, they are more likely to develop cancer compared to humans. So how come they don’t develop cancer in the wild? If your cells are, in theory, more vulnerable, where’s the catch? The repair. And the trick is not in have many police officers monitoring our cells to ‘kill’ those that get out of controlbut it is about having a big toolbox to fix everything that is not normal. It is something that the team led by Professor Vera Gorbunova discovered in the cells of the bowhead whale. In this case, instead of eliminating damaged cells in a process called apoptosis, the whale had perfected the art of repairing them. Their cells showed an “enhanced” ability and fidelity to repair DNA double-strand breaks, which are the most dangerous type of genomic damage. This results in lower mutation rates than present in other mammalian cells. A protein. The person responsible for this super repair is a protein called CIRBP (cold-inducible RNA binding protein). And the name is no coincidence. These types of animals spend their entire lives in the icy waters of the Arctic, and it seems essential to activate this repair system that is present 100 times more frequent in these animals than in humans. And CIRBP seems a real swiss army knife of repair for everything it can do within the whale’s body. Something that can be summarized in the following points: It protects DNA from degradation so that it ‘holds up’ to being repaired. Reduces the formation of ‘micronuclei’, a clear sign of genomic instability and chromosomal damage. It increases the precision of DNA repair so that the genetic material ends up well assembled and without any type of error. In short, we are talking about a conservative strategy of nature: instead of discarding cells that may still be useful, the whale invests in meticulously repairing them. This not only prevents cancer, but also contributes to its exceptional longevity, as it keeps tissues functional for longer. In humans. The question in this case is whether we can take advantage of this great repair capacity within our body. To do this, the research team introduced the whale protein CIRBP into human cells and the result was a success: the protein improved the efficiency of DNA repair in our own cells. But the star experiment was done with fruit flies. In this case, the researchers engineered the flies to overexpress the CIRBP protein (both the human and whale versions) and the results showed a much longer lifespan and greater resistance to the ionizing radiation that destroys our DNA. The next step is now to breed mice with enhanced levels of CIRBP to see if it also makes them live longer, and who knows if it finally somehow becomes a drug that could be very useful especially for those people who are more likely to suffer from cancer. Cover | Wikipedia In Xataka | “Guided missiles” are revolutionizing cancer treatment. And they are already giving results

He was “condemned” at 40 and is still alive at 76

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When Doug Whitney turned 50, his wife and children began to discreetly monitor the first signs of an illness that seemed inevitable. Her mother, her older brother, and nine of her thirteen siblings had died young, devoured by a genetic mutation that condemned its carriers to develop early Alzheimer’s. Yet today, at age 76, Doug is still here. Cheating death. I remembered Whitney’s story a few days ago the new york times in a report. The man continues to live a normal life, lucid, driving and remembering names. Of course, from time to time he goes to Washington University, where since fourteen years ago Scientists are trying to figure out how the hell he managed to escape his biological destiny. His case (that of a man who should have gotten sick twenty-five years ago and did not) is a unprecedented rarity in medical history: an open window towards what could be the key to stopping, treating or even curing one of the diseases most devastating of the world. A lineage marked by loss. Apparently, the Whitney family carries a mutation in the gene Presenilin 2one of three known to cause early-onset hereditary Alzheimer’s. Its origins go back to German settlers settled along the Volga River in the 18th century and, in recent generations, to the Oklahoma countryside. Symptoms usually appear between the ages of 44 and 53, followed by rapid deterioration. When Doug passed that age without signs of the disease, he didn’t even believed it possible. By participating in a genetic studydiscovered that he was a carrier of the mutation, but his brain remained unscathed. Since then, scientists consider it an “Alzheimer’s escapee”: a subject that defies the laws of genetics and offers a unique opportunity to understand what mechanisms can stop the progression of the disease. Contradicting science. The analyzes have revealed a disconcerting find. Whitney’s brain is saturated with plaques of amyloid, the protein that accumulates decades before symptoms, but hardly shows traces of tauthe protein that causes cognitive decline. In other words: your brain shows the trace of the disease, but not its effects. Something (perhaps a combination of genes, molecules or environmental factors) has broken the chain between both phases. Among the possible causes, researchers they point out a less inflammatory immune system than their affected relatives and an unusually high concentration high protein thermal shock, responsible for preventing other proteins from folding incorrectly. Paradoxically, his past in the Navyworking for years in engine rooms at more than 40 degrees, could have stimulated that protective biological response. New sentinels of mystery. The family enigma continues in the next generation. His son Brian, 53, inherited the mutationbut for now he is still healthy. Participate in clinical trials on anti-amyloid drugs and undergoes regular tests to measure his cognition. No one knows if his protection comes from genetics or medicine, but his case suggests that the combination Both pathways (her father’s natural factors and experimental therapies) could offer a roadmap toward prevention. His teenage daughter, aware of the family history, has already expressed her willingness to undergo testing genetics upon reaching the age of majority. The Whitney family, which for generations suffered in silence, has thus become an essential piece of the global scientific puzzle. Beyond chance. Be that as it may, the case of Doug Whitney has revived a profound debate about the limits of the genetic determinism. Until now, Alzheimer’s seemed an unavoidable destiny for those who inherited mutations like theirs. However, his resistance (and that of two other cases documented in Colombia) demonstrates that there are natural mechanisms capable of stopping the disease even when biological markers are present. Grasp how it is produced This dissociation could open the door to therapies that act not by eliminating amyloid, but by preventing it from triggering the destructive tau cascade. As summarized in the Times neurologist Randall Bateman, leader of the study, “we have not yet found the needle in the haystack, but we know that it is there, and that its value is incalculable.” Doug Whitney, the man who should have forgotten his name decades ago, has unwittingly become the living memory of a scientific hope. Image | Pexels, Jason Drees/ASU In Xataka | The new strategy against Alzheimer’s is not to attack, but to ‘reprogram’ the brain to clean itself In Xataka | The relationship between sleep and Alzheimer’s, in a “simple” action: our brain also has to clean

Tablets are still more alive than ever. Samsung has presented the new Galaxy Tab S10 Fe to prove it

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Samsung has just announced by surprise its two new tablets to compete in the mid-high range. The small sisters of the Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra and Galaxy Tab S10+ They are the new Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Fe and Galaxy Tab S10 Fe+, two models that cut in some of their technical specifications to adjust the price as much as possible. Technical sheet of the Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Fe and Galaxy Tab S10 Fe+ Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Fe (10.9 ”) Galaxy Tab S10 Fe+ (13,1 ”) Dimensions and weight 254.3 x 165.8 x 6.0 mm, 497 g (Wi-Fi), 500 g (5g) 300.6 x 194.7 x 6.0 mm, 664 g (Wi-Fi), 668 g (5g) SCREEN 10.9 inches LCD 90 Hz 13.1 inches LCD 90 Hz PROCESSOR Exynos 1580 Exynos 1580 Memoirs 8 GB + 128 GB 12 GB + 256 GB MicroSD to 2TB 8 GB + 128 GB 12 GB + 256 GB MicroSD to 2TB BATTERY 8,000mah 45w 10.090MAH 45w Rear cameras 13 MP 13 MP Front camera 12 MP ultra wide angle 12 MP ultra wide angle Operating system Android 15 One UI 7 Android 15 One UI 7 Connectivity 5g Wifi 6 Wi -Fi Direct Bluetooth 5.3 5g Wifi 6 Wi -Fi Direct Bluetooth 5.3 PRICE Not available Not available The screens. Both tablets share technology, betting on a humble LCD instead of AMOLED technology. The panel update frequency is 90Hz, and visibility is complemented with 800 nits. The only difference between both tablets is the size: the Tab S10 Fe galaxy has 10.9 inches and the Plus model rises to 13.1. Performance and battery. These two almost twin sisters arrive with the processor Exynos 1580accompanied by 8 + 128 GB base and expandable memories up to 12 + 256 GB, a higher range configuration. This processor is oriented to mid -range devices, it is composed of an eight -core architecture (1 Cortex A720 + 3 Cortex A720 + 4 Cortex A520) with a maximum frequency of 2.9 GHz. It should perform more than left over for the day to day. The battery is another big difference between both models, with 8,000mAh for the Galaxy Tab S10 Fe and 10.090MAH for the Plus variant. Both share a fast charge of 45W. Software. Both tablets land with Android 15 and the latest version of One UI. As it is already a classic in Samsung, these tablets will have functions such as Circle to Search, draft objects, a new better face oriented function oriented to group photos, and some of the functions of the views in models of the Galaxy A family and Galaxy S. They have not transcended details about how many years of support these tablets will have. The cameras. The tablets are tablets, and mobile phones are almost pocket cameras, so do not expect the configuration of a Galaxy S. Without too many surprises, we find a 12 megapixel rear camera, next to a great angle sensor of 13 megapixels for the front camera. The extras. Both models land with IP68 resistance to water and dust, the possibility of incorporating Dual SIM (through a physical sim and an ESIM, there is no double physical tray), it is compatible with Samsung accessories including the S-PEN, and they are 5G Sub-6 tablets, so we will have full spectrum connectivity. Versions and price of LAs Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Fe and Galaxy Tab S10 Fe+ Samsung’s new tablets will be put up for sale tomorrow, April 3, and will be sold in gray, silver and blue colors. There is no price announced for the moment Image | Samsung In Xataka | Best tablets (2025). Which to buy and 9 recommended models for all pockets and needs

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