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Switzerland thought that putting 5,000 solar panels at 2,500 meters above sea level was crazy. He had an unexpected ally: the snow

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The logic of the solar sector tells us that the panels should go down, where it is hot and the roads reach without problem. It shouldn’t be a good idea to put them on top of a mountain, but a project in the Swiss Alps it has surprised us with extraordinary performance. The curious thing is that what drives his performance is exactly what many assumed would make him fail. A solar farm in an unexpected place. The installation is called AlpinSolar and is located on the dam of Lake Muttsee, in the Swiss canton of Glarus, one hour from Zurich. This construction is located at 2,500 meters above sea level and is the highest dam in Europe, as well as the longest in Switzerland. Panels everywhere. Some 5,000 bifacial solar panels, manufactured by the Swiss company Megasol, cover more than a kilometer of the dam wall, facing south to capture sun from morning to night. Being an inclined surface, the snow slides alone without the need for manual cleaning. A complex installation. The dam is inaccessible by land, so every panel, every piece and every tool had to be transport by helicopter. For example, the crane that helped install the panels, and whose components were moved there to then be assembled and ready to operate. Megavarious out of nowhere. The plant, operational from 2022, has an installed power of 2.2 MW and generates about 3.3 million kWh per year, enough to supply between 700 and 750 homes according to various sources. damn fog. The Alpine country generates plenty of electricity in summer, but the same does not happen in winter, which is exactly when it needs it most. That deficit could worsen significantly if Switzerland starts to close its nuclear power plants, and alternatives such as wind energy, have had difficulties developing there. Traditional solar doesn’t help much either: a panel in the valley only generates a quarter of its normal output in winter, in part because fog can sit in low-lying areas for weeks. Better up than down. The curious thing is that the idea of ​​installing the solar farm at high altitude turned the situation around. The plant is above the fog line, and the thin, clean air lets in more sunlight. The cold, far from reducing performance, helps: solar panels work more efficiently when they are not overheated. And the snow acts like a giant mirror, reflecting additional light onto the panels from below (albedo effect), which can boost production. Surprise. AlpinSolar generates about half of its entire annual production during the winter, exactly the season in which the country needed it most. In fact, it produces up to three times more than a similar plant in low altitude areas during the months of February and March. That was enough argument for the Denner supermarket chain to sign an agreement 20-year energy purchase agreement with the project in an alliance with Axpo and IWB, builders and developers of the project. To copy the project. The result has also ended up convincing the Swiss government, which approved a fast-track law dubbed “Solar Express” to facilitate the development of new projects that effectively leave AlpinSolar behind. Among them stands out an alpine park near Sedrun in which up to 4,200 solar projects are planned to be built in lowland and mountain areas of the country. Austria, Italy and other countries are following the experiment closely. That and othersby the way. Image | Axpo In Xataka | The wind industry has been dreaming for years of a turbine that can be assembled without concrete or machinery. France has said ‘hold my tank’“

Alcohol has found an old ally among Generation Z, social pressure

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Do the young people of 2026 drink? Yes. But in a different way than those of two, three or four decades ago. falls usual consumption and the majority (57.9%) of people between 15 and 29 years old claim that they only try alcohol very sporadically or have directly banished it from their lives. However, that does not take away the other side of the coin: a considerable percentage of young people maintains the more or less frequent habit of raising a glass to their lips and, above all, remains social pressure that continues to associate partying and drunkenness. That’s at least what the latest studies reveal. Of young people and bottles. Generation Z is changing the way they relate to alcohol. The trend is not new (in Xataka we have talked other times of her), but that does not mean that it is easy to keep track of it: the change is so multifaceted, has so many chiaroscuros and above all has given rise to so many statistics, that it is difficult to summarize it with clear concepts. What is indisputable is that, beyond its socio-health dimension, the phenomenon is already influencing the way to relate of Generation Z and the alcohol industry, which faces what is likely to be your biggest challenge: how the hell to attract an audience that is increasingly less interested in the bottle. A percentage: 57.9%. The first touch that helps to understand the trend was provided a few days ago by FAD Juventud in a report about the matter. Among the many data in the document, there is one eloquent one: the majority of its interviewees were between 15 and 29 years old (57.9%) claim that they do not consume alcohol on a regular basis. In fact, the percentage is the sum of those who drink only a few times a year (22.7%), those who almost never do so (12.7%), those who have given up drinking (8.1%) and those who have never touched it (14.4%). When asking their respondents how often they try beer, wine, cocktails or any other alcoholic product, FAD researchers have also found that only 13.2% admit to doing so with a “high frequency”, which is equivalent to drinking every or almost every day. less and less present. It’s not just that most young people drink very occasionally, it’s that their relationship with the bottle is cooling. That’s what at least one other recent study on the subject suggests: the ‘Spanish Health Survey’released by Health and which, although it includes indicators for 2023, has just been published now. When analyzing the adolescent population cohort, its authors have had a surprise: a collapse in alcohol intake. If in 2006 the prevalence of habitual consumption among people aged 15 to 24 was 43.8%, in 2023 this figure had dropped to 17.9%. That is, the indicator decreased by 60% in less than 20 years. “It is the largest drop observed among all age groups,” confirm the Ministry of Health, which recalls that, in general, the prevalence during that period went from 48.8% to 31.1%. The other data: 35.6%. Fad provides a third interesting indicator. According to your latest surveyfocused on young people between 15 and 29 years old residing in Spain, 35.6% say they have reduced their alcohol consumption and 17.3% have directly decided to give up drinking permanently. It is not at all surprising if we take into account that 51.9% considers that alcohol is harmful to health and most adolescents know well what getting drunk entails. When Fad asked the young people what made them give up alcohol, 33.5% explained that “under its influence you do things that you shouldn’t” and 30.4% acknowledged that when drunk “you are more exposed to something happening to you.” Not only that. The majority of those interviewed (67.6%) boast a “fairly or very healthy” lifestyle, which among other things includes going to the gym (23.1%) or playing sports (21.6%). These are interesting percentages because, as Fad recalls, they exceed those associated with alcohol-based activities. Everything perfect, right? No. And here the nuances begin. Over the last few decades, Spain has been “significantly” changing its way of consuming alcohol. And that transformation is being especially clear among young people. That’s something that recognize even the Ministry of Health. However, it is one thing to drink less or differently and another to turn your back on drinks. In the same report in which he confirms the collapse in consumption, Fad issues a warning to sailors: “Despite this trend, alcohol is still very present in the lives of youth: six out of ten young people between 15 and 29 years old consume frequently or occasionally.” The agency has also detected another worrying trend: 20% of those who use alcohol and energy drinks acknowledge that they mix them frequently, and they know their effects on the body. Social pressure, untouchable. Curiously, despite all the changes registered in recent decades, there is something that persists: social pressure around alcohol. More than half of young people have internalized that drinking is harmful to their body, but that does not mean that the consumption of beer, wine and other spirits continues to be normalized at night. What’s more, Fad has detected “a general pressure to drink,” especially at parties. “It exists in leisure and party contexts and is related to the need to ‘be normal’, fit in, integrate into the peer group and belong to something, and has intensified at an early age,” warns the organization, which adds: “Those who do not drink say that they often have to explain themselves, justify their position. Furthermore, in some contexts it is assumed that those who do not drink ‘cut the bulls’.” “So that they leave you alone”. The Fad Juventud report is not based only on polls or statistics. Its authors have relied on discussion groups with 32 young people between 18 and 28 years old residing in Madrid. And their conclusion is clear: as paradoxical as it may sound, they drink less … Read more

Russia is the great missing person in the AI ​​race. He has neither chips nor talent, and his great ally only gives him the leftovers

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What’s happening with AI in Russia? The artificial intelligence race has as absolute protagonists to the US and China, and it’s surprising that a power like Russia does not seem to be advancing in this type of field. The truth is that he is doing it, but his situation in this area is worrying. Russia does have AI models. Although they are hardly talked about, there are several AI models that are developed by Russian companies and that, above all, are totally oriented towards their citizens. The country does not have access to Western models such as ChatGPT or Claude, but it does have access to these alternatives: GigaChat: is probably the most advanced Russian model. It is developed by the financial institution Sberbank, and It is available via web although to use it it is necessary to have an account in said entity. Yandex Alice: the company that has already offered a search engine in the image and likeness of Google for years also has its own artificial intelligence model, called Alice AI. It is possible to use from its official website in both English and Russian (Spanish is not supported) like a traditional chatbot. MTS AI – one of the largest telecom operators in Russia also has its own model, MTS AImore aimed at companies and developers with its Cotype models that recently support the ability to create agents for enterprise applications. behind. The veto of chips and advanced technology from the US has been one of the factors that has caused these models to be clearly behind the latest frontier models from companies such as OpenAI or Anthropic. He proves it launched three months ago from GigaChat-3.1-Ultra-702B, an open weights model derived from DeepSeek 702B A36B. In the published benchmarks, the performance of this model is at the level of DeepSeek v3 (launched in December 2024) or Qwen3-235B (launched in April 2025). This model is for example available at Hugging Face. China is your natural ally. China and Russia have long maintained a geopolitical alliance that has an impact in various areas. The curious thing is that in this case that impact is being felt less than one would expect. Russian AI models are based on Chinese open models, but at the moment it seems that These are somewhat old versions which they later adapt to Russian. And as happens with Chinese models, which censor certain topics, Russian models apply that same filtering to avoid sensitive issues. Without chips there is no AI. The big problem Russia faces is the same one China faces, but amplified. They don’t have access to advanced Nvidia chips to train their models, so they have looked Shortcuts to bypass trade restrictions and be able to develop those models. Russia, get in line. Sberbank, for example, is trying to get access to Chinese AI chips like the Huawei Ascend 950 for your projects, but there are two problems here. The first is that these chips are aimed at model inference, not their training. The second, that at the moment those who have priority access to these chips are the Chinese companies themselves, which are reserving large quantities for their future projects. ByteDance, Tencent or Alibaba have placed important orders that leave Russia in a complicated situation. Russian chips in the (distant) future. These problems of access to specialized chips could be solved if Russia manages to boost its semiconductor industry. Baikal Electronics has been working on alternatives to x86 chips from Intel and AMD for some time, but also promise develop AI chips in 2029 or 2030. Once again, commercial and technological vetoes mean that in both scenarios the company’s proposals cannot compete with the latest advances of its Western competitors, at least for now. Industrial and military use. Russian LLM developments not only try to present an option for Russian citizens, but also for military applications. The war with Ukraine has actually revealed how Russia is using the well-known AI miniPCs Nvidia Jetson for its Shahed missiles. Russia has it very difficult. The current situation in Russia makes it difficult for the country to present notable alternatives to the most advanced AI models of the US or China (or even Europe). The war with Ukraine also caused an exodus of talent and Russian engineers, although companies like Sber have tried to boost campaigns to attract talent in the university environment. All of this adds to Russia’s difficult access to the most advanced hardware and software and its dependence on an ally like China that is prioritizing its own AI companies. In Xataka | Russia already has its own multi-core CPUs for AI. What it doesn’t have yet is the most important thing: its GPU

As Silicon Valley perpetuates its workday, the four-day work week has found an unexpected ally: OpenAI

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While in the mecca of the technology industry celebrates the “996” model (from nine in the morning to nine at night, six days a week) as a mantra to not to be left behind In the AI ​​race, the creator of ChatGPT stands out by proposing just the opposite: reducing working hours with a four day work week. OpenAI just published your report ‘Industrial Policy for the Intelligence Age: Ideas to Keep People First‘. In it, the company suggests that AI can be the perfect excuse for us to work fewer hours a week without losing a cent of our salary. The idea is not just an academic conjecture, but proposes a package of labor policies designed for the age of AI. Four-day days without touching the salary. One of the most surprising sections of the report refers to “efficiency dividends.” With them, OpenAI proposes that governments, companies and unions promote pilot tests of 32-hour days or four days of work per week without salary reduction, as has been established tested successfully in different countries around the world. The stated objective is to maintain the same levels of production and service, taking advantage of the automation options provided by AI and then making the leap to a model of permanent reduced working hours or cumulative vacation days for employees. The striking thing about the proposal is not its content itself, something that has already been implemented with success in some companiesthe key is who proposes the change. Instead of a union or a workplace welfare study, the idea comes from the company itself that is accelerating the transformation of the labor market around the world. Not just reduction in working hours: better pensions and care. OpenAI presents this measure as a way to redistribute part of the productivity benefits extra generated by AI, so that profits are not concentrated only in the shareholders or in the big technology companies, but that the entire population participates in this advance. The four-day week is just one of the most striking measures, but the report goes much further. OpenAI suggests that companies that profit from AI also increase their contributions to their employees’ pension plans (not just those of their managers as a bonus), and that they cover more of their employees’ healthcare expenses. He also proposes what he calls “benefit bonuses“, direct bonuses linked to improved productivity and subsidies for the care of minors and the elderly. If robots work, let them quote. The document recognizes that AI automation can lead to the massive displacement of jobs and further concentrate wealth in a very small number of large companies. That is why it calls for more robust social protection networks. Curiously, OpenAI’s postulate coincides with the statements made a few weeks ago did Bill Gatesarguing that if AI was to reduce dependence on human labor, taxation should shift from wages and contributions to capital gains and corporate profits. The document introduces the idea of ​​”taxes on automated work”, linked to jobs previously done by people who would be replaced by robots. In Xataka | The war in Iran has achieved something that no government has achieved: giving reasons to bring back teleworking Image | Unsplash (Nathan Kuczmarski)

Your main competitor in chip manufacturing is your greatest ally

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Approximately 30% of Intel chips It is manufactured outside of its semiconductor plants. And most of these ICs are produced by TSMC. This Taiwanese company is the largest chip manufacturer on the planetand therefore it is also Intel’s main competitor in the market for custom semiconductor manufacturing for third parties. Despite this, Intel is deeply dependent on TSMC. Currently, the latter company manufactures Intel’s most advanced integrated circuits in those nodes where the company led by Lip-Bu Tan has not yet reached optimal wafer performance. The CEO of Intel has confirmed recently that his company is also outsourcing the production of those chips that have frequent demand peaks, and which, therefore, is not able to manufacture in sufficient quantities to satisfy the needs of its customers. TSMC is producing Intel’s entire Lunar Lake line, and most of Arrow Lake as well. In addition, Intel is one of the first clients of this Taiwanese company with access to 2nm node latest generation. In fact, TSMC has already started production testing of the compute tile of Nova Lake at its Hsinchu plant, and large-scale manufacturing should begin before the end of 2026. During Intel’s latest financial results presentation, Tan confirmed something indisputable: TSMC is an essential partner of your company. TSMC also depends on Intel Intel’s current dependence on TSMC is a consequence of the delay accumulated for years in the development of its manufacturing nodes, before the arrival of Lip-Bu Tan. In fact, the delays in the jump to 10 nmand later the 7nmcontributed to TSMC overtaking Intel from a technological point of view. In addition, dependence on Intel is also based on the need to cover short-term demand. The dependence on Intel is based on the need to cover short-term demand This scenario clearly reflects that Intel and TSMC are competitors. But they are also partners. In fact, few people know that Intel sells chip manufacturing equipment to TSMC. Pat Gelsinger confirmed itthe former CEO of Intel, at the end of 2024 during a meeting with his investors: “TSMC is an impressive company. They serve their customers well, and they serve us well. Lunar Lake would not exist without TSMC (…) But we also supply them with some of our advanced equipment. “It is a complex relationship that is important for Intel, for TSMC and for the entire industry,” Gelsinger explained. It is clear that the former CEO of Intel wanted to convey positivity with this statement, and, to the extent possible, defend his management. We all know how it ended. Be that as it may, there is no doubt about one thing: Intel’s dependence on TSMC is not temporary; It is structural. It is the result of years of technological delays, is maintained by TSMC’s superiority in mature advanced nodes and has been consolidated as part of a strategy that prioritizes flexibility over in-house production. Image | Xataka In Xataka | Bad news for Intel and Europe: construction of Germany chip factory will be delayed until 2029 or 2030 In Xataka | TSMC promised them very happy with their new factory in Arizona. I wasn’t aware of the nightmare I was facing.

To achieve the milestone of building the largest drone industry without China, Ukraine has found an explosive ally: Taiwan

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In the midst of the Cold War, several Western engineers they were surprised upon discovering that some of the most reliable small electronic components on the world market came from an island that barely made the big geopolitical headlines. Decades later, that silent specialization in manufacturing tiny and apparently invisible parts would end up becoming one of the industrial capabilities most coveted on the planet. The war that changed an industry. For decades, Taiwan was known primarily for making chipselectronic components and invisible parts that ended up inside telephones, computers or servers spread all over the planet, but modern wars are beginning to push that industrial capacity towards another, much more explosive terrain. The Guardian said that what is happening between Ukraine and Taiwan reflects a quiet change that barely existed a few years ago: the creation of a new technological alliance born directly from drone warfrom Chinese pressure and the desperate need to produce millions of cheap, autonomous and combat-ready systems. Ukraine wants to break its dependence on China. The war forced Ukraine to build at full speed a gigantic industry of drones capable of feeding a front that consumes absurd quantities of devices every month. The problem is that much of the global supply chain remains dominated by China: Motors, batteries, navigation systems, electronic components and rare earths continue to depend heavily on Chinese manufacturers. As we said, kyiv began to consider this dependence as a strategic risk When suspicions grew about indirect support from Beijing to Russia and fears grew of possible export restrictions. There Taiwan began to appear as an alternative unexpectedly important. His huge experience in semiconductors, microelectronics, electronic integration and advanced technological production made it one of the few places capable of supplying critical parts without being completely dependent on the West or trapped under direct Chinese control. For Ukraine, finding industrial partners outside of China stopped being a commercial issue and became literally a matter of survival. And Taiwan found Ukraine. While Ukraine seeks to produce millions of drones, gradually moving away from China, Taiwan observes the conflict with another concern: the possibility of one day confronting Beijing on its own territory. That coincidence of threats is creating a relationship ever deeper between both worlds. In fact, The New York Times said what Taiwanese engineers They send drones to Ukraine to be tested directly in combat, American companies transfer designs born on the Ukrainian front to Taiwanese production and former Taiwanese soldiers who today fight in Ukraine return home telling how modern war really works. Many Taiwanese militaries are beginning to discover that traditional doctrines are completely outweighed by swarms of FPV drones, unmanned maritime systems or cheap ground robots capable of destroying multimillion-dollar vehicles. Ukraine is thus becoming a kind of university improvised military for Taiwan, one where the lessons do not come from simulations but from a real front where every mistake costs lives. The new military industry no longer resembles the old one. One of the most profound changes of this war is that military production no longer depends solely on gigantic state factories or large traditional contractors. Ukraine has developed more than one hundreds of local manufacturers of components while constantly adapting its systems to specific front-line needs. Ukrainian companies modify drones, software and guidance systems at a much higher speed to the Western classical industry. Taiwan fits perfectly in that transformation because it has exactly what Ukraine needs to accelerate that production: advanced electronics, specialized chips and flexible industrial capacity. Several Taiwanese companies already operate from Poland or Lithuania to indirectly supply kyiv, while Taiwanese drone exports to Europe have skyrocketed massively. In parallel, American companies are using Ukraine and Taiwan like two extremes of the same industrial chain: Ukraine provides combat experience and accelerated development, and Taiwan provides technological capacity and scalable manufacturing. The obsession with building drones outside of China. Both Ukraine and Taiwan share another priority that is becoming almost an industrial doctrine: building supply chains at the expense of Beijing. The problem is much more complicated than it seems because even many components manufactured outside China still use materials, batteries or magnets that depend from Chinese suppliers. Even so, both territories try gradually reduce that exhibition. Taiwan wants to build a drone industry completely disengaged from China by 2027 and increase its own production of rare earth magnets, while Ukraine continues to shift production within its borders. There is no doubt, the challenge is gigantic because Chinese products continue to be much cheaper and more abundant, but strategic logic is beginning to outweigh the economic cost. In the middle of a war, the priority shifts from buying the cheapest to ensuring the supply chain continues to function when the next crisis hits. Building something bigger than drones. If you also want, the most important thing in this relationship may not only be the production of drones, but the emergence of a new technological and military axis informal between two territories that live under permanent threat from much larger neighbors. Ukraine contributes real experience of war, proven tactics and a brutal speed of innovation under extreme pressure. Taiwan contributes industrial capacitysemiconductors and access to critical technologies that the West does not produce quickly enough. The result is beginning to look like something much more ambitious: an entire international network of distributed military production where private companies, engineers, volunteers and manufacturers work beyond official diplomatic limitations. Even the Ukrainian government recognize as drone factories based on Ukrainian designs are popping up outside its borders, including one in Taiwan. One more thing. Ultimately, what the war is accelerating is an idea that a few years ago would have seemed improbable: that to build the largest drone industry on the planet outside chinaUkraine has ended up finding one of its most valuable and strategic allies in Taiwan. Image | x, Trydence In Xataka | Today in “the war in Ukraine beyond all comprehension”: drone pilots are training with ‘Grand Theft Auto’ In Xataka | Ukraine has barely … Read more

In its efforts to once again conquer the Peninsula, the brown bear has just found its main ally against the ranchers: tourism

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In the late 80s and 90s, the brown bear was on the verge of total extinction in Spain. There were just a few dozen spread across remote areas of the Cantabrian Mountains and the Pyrenees. Today there are more than 400 And although we have been recovering the species for almost 40 years, the truth is that it has not stopped being controversial for a single moment in all that time. A controversy that, little by little, spreads throughout the country. An absence of 150 years. In the regions of La Cabrera, Sanabria or Carballeda and even in areas bordering Ourense, it had been more than a century and a half since anyone had seen a brown bear. However, a new study They have documented up to 85 tests that he has returned to the region. They are direct observations, verified footprints, damage to hives, phototraps and testimonies. It doesn’t matter, despite the size of these bugs, identifying them is difficult. The interesting thing is that, as another study pointed out, the bear has expanded to 17,000 km2. But… how did we do it? There are three key pieces to the system: great efforts were made to prevent poaching, their natural habitat was protected, and Slovenian bears were reintroduced to replenish populations. In the Pyrenees, in fact, the native line ended up disappearing (although, in 2025, it was recorded the first native bear cub born in the mountain range in more than 50 years). An even more important question: why are we doing it? That is, what purpose does a brown bear serve and why do we want to reintroduce it. Well, according to experts, the brown bear has several important functions in the maintenance of its ecosystems. To begin with, they are dispersers of seeds of fleshy fruits (something very beneficial for the forest mass), they control the populations of herbivores, they clean the forest of bodies as scavengers and it is a bioindicator of the quality of the ecosystem. The bear is at the top of the food chain: its presence improves ecosystems, manages them, maintains them. But, it creates problems… doesn’t it? That’s what the livestock industry says. According to data from the Aragonese Pyrenees, in 2024 there were 33 confirmed attacks (29 in Ansó and 4 in Hecho). The result was 44 dead sheep and 2 goats. The dispute is that, according to the ranchers, the compensation (22,431 euros in 2024) is insufficient. For them, not only deaths must be counted, but also stress abortions, disappearances and a drop in production. That is, what they defend is that part of the costs of the reintroduction of the bear are being paid by them. The issue, as its presence is consolidated, the interests of the ranchers are no longer the only ones. Little by little, the bone regions are attracting wildlife tourism which also generates money. A lot. In the Val d’Aran, there is even talk of overcrowding. In the end, the problem is always the same: Are we willing to pay the cost of living with the nature that we say we want to save? Whether we like it or not, the accidents on the farms in the Pyrenees and the massive replantings (up to 150,000 trees) in the Cantabrian Mountains are two sides of the same coin. It is not enough to throw it in the air and wait to see what happens. Image | Karl Paul Baldacchino In Xataka | Faced with the largest flood of wild bears in memory, Japan has taken a measure: emergency hunts

The computers of the future have found an unexpected ally to store information: fungi

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Bioelectronics has been studying for some time the possibility of taking advantage of living organisms in order to produce electrical activity and, in some way, take advantage of it to make our machines work. Although at first glance it could be a topic worthy of the Matrix script, the truth is that there is a whole fascinating world in that of the memristors based on organic elements. Some researchers have found the key to demonstrate how the mycelium of mushrooms such as shiitake can function as a memristor, an electrical component with the ability to ‘remember’ past states. This discovery could be the key to a new generation of sustainable and biodegradable electronic devices. What is a memristor and why does it matter? A memristor is an electronic component that combines the functions of memory and resistance, capable of “remembering” previous electrical states. They are currently manufactured with materials such as titanium dioxide between two metal electrodes, but their production requires scarce minerals and polluting and high-cost industrial processes. Hence the importance of looking for more sustainable alternatives through organic materials. How mycelium works as memory. John LaRocco’s team at Ohio State University grew shiitake mushrooms in Petri dishes until complete development. They then dehydrated them in the sun, turning them into rigid disc-shaped structures that can be rehydrated when necessary. By connecting electrodes to these samples and applying different voltages, discovered that the mycelium presents conductive structures similar to conventional ‘memristors’. According to LaRocco, “if we could develop a microchip that mimicked real neural activity, we could dramatically reduce the amount of energy consumed when the machine is not in use.” The results of the experiment. After two months of testing, the shiitake-based memristor demonstrated the ability to change electrical state up to 5,850 times per second with an accuracy close to 90%. When they applied a specific sine wave, the characteristic figure-eight curve of an ideal memristor appeared, confirming that the mycelium indeed remembers electrical flow. Although performance eventually decreased at higher frequencies, connecting multiple samples improved stability, something the researchers compared to the network effect of neural connections in the brain. Vadvantages over traditional semiconductors. The main attraction of these biological memristors is its sustainability. Mushrooms are developed from organic biomass, they are biodegradable and their environmental impact is minimal. Furthermore, growing them is economical and their production can be easily scalable, from small laboratory experiments to industrial manufacturing. Additionally, fungi have exceptional radiation resistance, which could also make them especially valuable for aerospace applications. Potential applications and pending challenges. The flexibility and scalability of these components opens up possibilities in fields from extreme environment computing and space exploration to autonomous systems and wearable devices. However, significant obstacles remain. And just as they count from Wired, current samples are too large and need to be miniaturized to compete with existing microchips. Furthermore, the electrical properties of mycelium vary between samples even grown in the same medium, which makes its stable industrial manufacture difficult. Next steps in the investigation. The team plans to develop techniques to grow mycelium and give it an ideal shape using 3D printing and methods for incorporating electrical contacts during cultivation. They are also exploring the optimal way to preserve it long-term, combining techniques such as freeze-drying and special coatings. “Society is increasingly aware of the need to protect our environment and preserve it for future generations, and that could be one of the driving factors for new biocompatible ideas like these,” pointed out Qudsia Tahmina, co-author of the study. Beyond mushrooms. This is not the only organic material that has demonstrated ‘memristive’ properties. Researchers from other universities They have experimented with honey and human bloodexploring their possibilities as biodegradable electronic components. Honey, for example, can change resistance in just 500 nanoseconds and is completely biodegradable. In the case of blood, scientists in India discovered in 2011 that it could function as a memristor by applying different voltages, keeping the resistance stable for at least 30 minutes. Cover image | Yuval Zukerman In Xataka | In the midst of the RAM memory crisis, Samsung takes a leap with its HBM4 memory. It does not imply good news for the pocket

“Why the ‘rebound effect’ has become the surgeon’s best ally against Ozempic

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In the last two years, the GLP-1 receptor agonists like for example Ozempic either wegovy have gone from being drugs for diabetes to becoming the cultural and medical phenomenon of the decade for fight obesity. And such was its impact, that it was thought that surgery for obesity had come to an end, but the reality has been very different. The premise. The idea is quite clear: if I can take medication twice a month to lose weight… Why would I go into an operating room? A logical idea, especially given the risks that one always has when entering surgery, no matter how well controlled they are. But this enthusiasm of abandon the scalpel It is slowly being diluted, since according to the latest research, bariatric surgery is still superior to GLP-1 agonists and achieves much better results. The devastating fact. The study that has shaken the board comes from NYU Langone where researchers compared patients undergoing interventions such as gastric bypass with those who had taken Ozempic. The result was quite clear. Those who had undergone surgery managed to lose between 24 and 26% of their body weight, while patients on drugs lost an average between 5 and 6%. A result that does not agree with what was expected by pharmaceutical companies with their clinical trials in hand. But the problem is that the variable adherence to treatment It is once again a big problem in medicine. More data. The University Clinic of Navarra He also wanted to investigate in this field, doing a large study with 20,000 patients, concluding exactly the same thing: bariatric surgery surpasses GLP-1 agonists in total weight loss, reduction in BMI and body composition. The human factor. The great failure of a pharmacological treatment is undoubtedly the humans who are going to take it. And it is quite common in medicine for patients to forget to take a dose of their medication or even abandon treatment halfway through without any type of control. But luckily, the big difference between a pill (or injection) and surgery is that the second cannot be “forgotten.” The studies are clear in this sense: between 60% and 70% of patients They abandon GLP-1 treatment before the first year. Something that causes a great rebound effect which makes a patient return to their original weight, especially if they return to the same eating habits as before starting treatment with Ozempic or others. The difference. The reasons for reaching this point in treatment are varied: from persistent gastrointestinal side effects to the high monthly cost of treatment or the shortage. But the thing is that while stopping pricking yourself causes a rebound effect, bariatric surgery, although invasive, offers much more stable long-term results. Although logically he has many other problems behind him. Beyond the scale. The superiority of surgery is not measured only in waist centimeters. Science points through a systematic review published in JAMA Network Open This 2025 suggests that surgery is associated with lower overall mortality and a more drastic reduction in major cardiovascular events compared to drugs. And although GLP-1 has shown great benefits, the truth is that science indicates that surgery is still better in remission of type 2 diabetes with a minimal risk of mortality. Furthermore, despite the initial cost of the operation, in the long term surgery is cheaper for health systems than chronic drug treatment that costs hundreds of euros per month for life. A combined therapy. Despite all this, we are not in a war of one against the other, but the future points to an integration of both elements. In this way, strategies are already being explored where GLP-1 is used before surgery to reduce surgical risk in patients with extreme obesity, or after surgery as a rescue tool if the patient begins to regain weight years later. Even the WHO has begun to include these drugs in its comprehensive treatment guidelines, but emphasizing that they are one more piece of the puzzle, not a universal substitute. Images | David Trinks In Xataka | We have more and more research on the effects of Ozempic. And the problem is that we have more and more doubts

A cheese giant is slowly taking shape in Spain thanks to a key ally: Mercadona

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The long list of Spanish companies that grow in the heat of Mercadona adds a new name: Entrepinaresa company dedicated to the production of cheeses and dairy products that started 40 years ago in Valladolid and today manages centers spread throughout Galicia, Castilla and Madrid, in addition to generating employment for something more than 1,500 people. Although the signature presume to be “the largest cheese manufacturer”since more than 20 years has a key alliance with Mercadona. And that is helping it expand. Why is it news? Because their 2024 accounts have just been released, a year during which Entrepinares managed to skyrocket both its turnover and its profits. The first section rose to the 665 million euros8% more than in 2023. As for the second, EBIDTA (earnings before taxes) reached 64 million, which represents an increase of 16%. Both indicators are partly explained by an increase in production: in 2024, 100 million kilos of cheese came out of the Entrepinares factories (8.3% more than in 2023) and around 35 million kilos of dairy products. In addition to being the main supplier of Mercadona cheeses, the company saw how it was reinforced its foreign activity, with exports to more than 50 countries. Is there more data? Yes. We know that the company dedicated 41 million to investments in search of greater efficiency, which raises the mobilization of resources for that purpose above the 140 million in the last four years. Thanks to this commitment, it has managed to gain a prominent place in the sector at a national level. In fact it leads the sectoral ranking of cheese manufacturers (at least based on turnover volume) prepared by elEconomista. Regarding staff and internal resources, the firm has more than 1,500 workers, collaborates stably with more than 700 farms and a large score of cooperatives and manages four production centers spread across Valladolid, Fuenlabrada, Villalba and Los Yébenes. Added to these are a logistics and packaging center in Valladolid and two other plants specialized in whey treatment located in Castrogonzalo (Zamora) and Vilalba (Lugo). Why is it important? Because of the data itself and its context. Entrepinares is not the only Mercadona supplier that has grown in recent years coinciding with the expansion of the Valencian chain, which has managed to strengthen its position in the market with a business share that It is already on its way to 30%. One of the clearest examples is that of the group Martinez Familywhich integrates several business lines and operates as a strategic supplier to Mercadona. It was recently revealed that the company will invest around 150 million euros between this and the next year to reinforce its Traditional Dishes facilities and keep up with Mercadona. Months before it had emerged that last year its billing increased by about 8% and its net profit 16%. Are there more cases? Yes. Another Mercadona supplier that has managed to grow is Ozturk Quebapa firm based in Toleado specialized in the production of kebabs and meat products that has been supplying the Juan Roig chain for years. Last year it invoiced around 63.8 million euros and this year it hopes to exceed 75. For now, in the first semester it reached 37.8 million. Its expansion is prior to the agreement with Juan Roig’s company and the firm exports to other nations, but Ozturk recognizes that “with Mercadona everything changes.” Mercadona’s leverage is also serving Sefood Group. Its subsidiary Leroy Processing Spain hoped in the spring to close this year with a turnover of 160 million euros30% more than last year. The company has been dedicated to the production of Japanese food for a few years and has managed to make Mercadona one of its main clients. The Roig chain also has among its suppliers: Profand and Panamar, Tarradellas House and Summer. Images | Entrepinares e iStock In Xataka | Mercadona has found a vein to grow beyond its white label and prepared food: tourism

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