animal

In Alicante, the Animal Welfare Law is causing demonstrations for a very specific thing: feline colonies

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Despite the rain and the cold and the fact that the call was made Sunday at noona few weeks ago around 200 people They went out on the street in Alicante, with banners and a megaphoneto demand, among other things, the resignation of the city’s mayor. They did not mobilize the housing, the increase in price from the shopping cart, unemployment, immigrationcorruption or any of the other issues that according to the CIS It keeps the Spaniards awake at night. What led them to complain are the feline colonies from Alicante. Or rather, how the City Council is managing them despite the fact that since 2023 the Animal Welfare Law (and the autonomous) clearly states what your responsibilities are. What has happened? April 12 around 200 people They met on the Explanada de España, on the seafront of Alicante, to demand that the City Council change its management policy for feline colonies. Between messages such as “cats are unprotected” or “not looking is abandoning,” the protesters denounced what they consider a passive attitude on the part of the City Council, responsible for the street colonies. “He has done absolutely nothing,” regretted in statements to the newspaper Information Antonio Ripoll, president of the Felinos Lo Morant association. The group assures that, despite their insistence on the situation of the colonies, from the Consistory they have only received “excuses” and answers that they interpret as “a way of delaying things.” One of the triggers for the April 12 demonstration came to early marchwhen the Colonias Felinas Alicante (Acofal) association denounced that the municipal cleaning services had removed the cat houses installed in the Parque de la Ereta, which left their colony without shelter or food. “Scattered and disoriented”. What happened in Ereta even led PACMA to launch a statement in which it denounces “the repeated withdrawal” of food, water and shelters in the area, which affects “more than one hundred cats registered”, and warns the City Council of “a possible violation of regional and state animal protection legislation.” “It is impossible to move the cats from the Ereta Park, which occupies the entire slope of the mountain that surrounds the Santa Bárbara Castle,” underlines the collective: “The withdrawal of food, water and shelter leaves the animals unprotected, dispersed and disoriented, especially in episodes of rain.” What does the LBA have to do with it? Both in the messages of the animal associations and in that of PACMA it is repeated a fundamental idea: If the focus is on the City Council it is because for a few years the Animal Welfare Law (LBA) clearly states that local administration plays a key role in the management and care of feline colonies. In fact, PACMA warns that what happened in Ereta could “constitute a violation” of state regulations, the Law 7/2023but also the autonomous range, the 2/2023. “They oblige public administrations to guarantee the correct management and protection of feline colonies,” argues the animalist party. The message is very similar to the one sent from the associative world. Ripoll, for example, matches in which the City Council “is systematically failing to comply with the animal welfare law.” Even they point out that colonies often depend on caregivers who manage them by investing their own resources and time, something they attribute to the lack of “budget and adequate technical personnel” in the animal protection office. Chapter VI. Article 39. The truth is that the legislation is very clear on this matter. The state law 7/2023 of protection of the rights and well-being of animals details in its chapter IV, article 38, the role of city councils: “In the absence of other provisions in regional legislation and respecting the scope of competence established by current legislation, it is up to local entities to manage community cats, for which purposes they must develop Feline Colony Management Programs.” Even precise What minimum requirements should these management plans cover: encourage citizen collaboration, launch training and information campaigns, and establish population control plans. Also the care of animals. In fact, the rule makes it clear that it must be the local entity that assumes “responsibility for health care”, using registered veterinarians to do so, and also establishes protocols for treating cat colonies. Does the law say more? Yes. It puts a few homework extra to city councils (for example, including sterilizations in population control plans), specifies the roles of regional administrations and citizens and finally highlights certain actions that are categorically “prohibited” in the colonies. These include sacrificing cats with very specific exceptions, taking specimens from colonies (and therefore not used to being among humans and confined) to “animal protection centers” and exchanging animals from one colony to another. The law too precise that cats can only be removed from their communities in certain cases. In case there were any doubts Valencian law It also emphasizes that the town councils, hand in hand with animal associations and veterinarians, “will carry out comprehensive management” of the colonies in their municipalities. And that includes CER (Capture, Sterilization and Recovery) programs, feeding, shelter, supervision and health treatment for the felines. “Community cats will be identified with a microchip under the ownership of the local administration.” Beyond Alicante. Alicante is not the only municipality in which the application of the LBA and its obligations has generated friction with the town councils. In Torres Torres (Valencian Community) the volunteers who take care of the feline colonies recently threatened also with going to the Ombudsman in the face of what they consider the “inaction of the city council” and at the end of 2025 PACMA denounced that the Donostia City Council was violating Law 7/2023 in a neighborhood of the city. Similar situations have been experienced in Sangunt (Valencian Community) or Saint Joseph (Ibiza). “Volunteer veterinarians”. Two years ago, shortly after the approval of the LBA, the Alicante College of Veterinarians even released a statement to remember two key ideas about caring for cat colonies. The first is that “population and health control” depends on … Read more

The animal testing of the elixir for future warfare has been a success. Now the most difficult thing remains: making it work in humans

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In 1667, the French doctor Jean-Baptiste Denis performed one of the first transfusions of history using lamb’s blood on a human patient, convinced that it could calm his behavior and save his life. The experiment generated such controversy that ended up being banned in several countries for decades, leaving a lesson that has accompanied medicine since then: when it comes to replacing blood, each advance opens a door… and also a risk that is difficult to foresee. An experiment that redefines war medicine. A lot has happened since that test by Denis, but now it is making strong noises again with the development of a powdered blood substituteone that marks one of the most ambitious advances in military preparation for future conflicts, where conditions no longer guarantee rapid evacuations or immediate access to hospitals. In this context, the idea of ​​transforming blood into a portable and stable resource ceases to be science fiction and becomes a solution, or perhaps an operational necessity. They counted on Insider that, for the Pentagon, what is at stake is not only improving logistics, but changing the way soldiers’ lives are saved in environments where every minute counts and medical infrastructure may not exist. The “elixir” that seeks to change war. The program powered by DARPA has managed to turn a complex concept into a potentially revolutionary solution: a powdered blood substitute that can be stored, transported and activated in a matter of seconds. This system is presented as an alternative to the current model, where fresh blood is limited, perishable and difficult to move in combat zones. The key, they say, is in its operational simplicity: mix the contents with sterile water and have a vital resource at the exact moment it is needed. Success in the laboratory. The initial results have been promising enough to generate expectations within the military and scientific field. After demonstrating its viability in controlled environments and later in animal models, the project has overcome one of the most complex phases of biomedical development. In other words, the advance suggests that the concept works in biological termsopening the door to real applications in scenarios where conventional transfusions are not possible. The great challenge. There is no doubt, despite of the advancesthe final jump remains the most difficult of all. The next step is to overcome the regulatory processes and demonstrate that the system is safe and effective in humansa long path that involves clinical trials, medical validation and approval from regulatory bodies. In fact, this is where many promising developments stall, not because of a lack of technology, but because of the complexity of ensuring that they work in real conditions without unexpected risks. A necessity. They counted in their report in Insider that interest in this type of solutions does not arise in a vacuum, but as a response to a profound change in the nature of conflicts. Conflicts have shown that air superiority no longer guarantees rapid evacuations, and the wounded can be trapped for hours without access to advanced medical care. In these contexts, the immediate availability of blood becomes a critical factor that can make the difference between life and death. Limitations of the current system. In the absence of alternatives, the armed forces have resorted to methods such as emergency transfusions among soldiers, known as “living blood banks.” Although effective in specific situations, these solutions depend on the availability of donors and cannot scale in scenarios with multiple casualties. Again, this highlights the need for a more robust solution, capable of responding to high-intensity situations without relying on improvised resources. Beyond science. The future of this technology announced by DARPA depends not only on its medical effectiveness, but also on its economic viability. The production, distribution and adoption of synthetic blood require significant investments in a sector where margins are traditionally low. Without a sustainable model that incentivizes companies and hospitals, even the most promising advances can remain in the experimental phase, never reaching the battlefield. Be that as it may, the objective set is more than ambitious: to turn development into an operational tool before end of the decade. To achieve this, almost nothing: coordinate science, regulation and industry in an accelerated process that avoids the usual blockages in such complex projects. But if successful, this sort of modern “elixir” could redefine war medicine, bringing the ability to save lives directly to where it is needed most. Image | DARPA In Xataka | Four years later, the Ukrainian war is the first war in history where humans are spectators In Xataka | In 1914, submachine guns forever changed the way war was waged. In 2026, it’s algorithms’ turn

The complex science behind nose-to-nose contact in the animal kingdom

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The kiss for humans is undoubtedly a summit of human romanticism or the closeness between two people, and when we focus on the animal world and see them doing our ‘Eskimo kiss’ by bringing their noses together, we believe that they also they are romanizing. But the reality is that touching noses mutually is not just a sign of affection, but a high-speed data transfer. What has been seen. A new scientific review published in 2026 in Evolution and Human Behavior has brought order to decades of scattered observations of this type of communication. Their conclusion is quite clear: from bats to pigs and rats, nose-to-nose contact is one of nature’s most sophisticated communication tools. And yes, our human kiss could simply be a version 2.0 of this ancient biological mechanism. The second olfactory system. To understand why animals rub their noses, you first have to understand that most mammals smell the world in stereo, but with two different systems. The first of these is the main olfactory system that detects volatile odors such as the smell of rain. But the second goes much further, since is centered on the vomeronasal system (VMO)which is a structure specialized in detect pheromones and non-volatile substances. Its importance. This second olfactory system is the one that interests us in this case, since the signals captured by this organ do not pass through the usual filters of rational thought; They rapidly project to the amygdala and hypothalamus, the command centers for emotion, aggression, and sexual behavior. This way, when two beavers they bump their noses, they are not “greeting” each other politely; you are injecting pure chemical information about your hormonal status and health directly into your limbic system. The language of noses. The touch of two noses has many more functions than a simple sign of affection, and depending on the species, a touch of the nose can be a sentence of submission or a medical check-up. In the case of rats, nose-to-nose contact is a political tool. The queen uses intense nudging and nose contact not to demonstrate love, but to exert dominance and reproductive suppression. It’s their way of chemically reminding subordinates who’s boss and inhibiting their ability to reproduce. The success of the pigs. In livestock farming and applied ethology, nasal contact between piglets is a performance metric. The studies cited by Rasmussen show a direct correlation: a greater frequency of nasal contacts is associated with greater weight gain and survival. This makes contact function as a social cohesion mechanism that reduces stress and improves the well-being of the group. The hedgehog accident. Although we may think that all contacts are social, in solitary animals such as the European hedgehog it has been documented that many of these encounters are accidental collisions. Basically, since they have very poor vision, they approach each other olfactorily until they collide. What is interesting is what happens next in cats and other small mammals: sudden immobility. The animal “hangs” momentarily processing the chemical sensory overload it has just received. The modern kiss. Although we do something similar with kisses, even with Eskimo kisses, the truth is that we have lost a large part of the functionality of the vomeronasal organ. But it is true that we maintain the behavior. A study carried out in 2023 published in Science dismantled the myth that the kiss is a recent invention, since it was already seen in Mesopotamia and Egypt that The lip-to-lip kiss existed 4,500 years ago. Its meaning. Anthropologists suggest that behaviors such as hongi Maori, the honi Hawaiian or the misnamed “Eskimo kiss” (kunik) of the Inuit are the missing links. In these practices, the goal is not the touch of lips, but rather the sharing of breath and smell in intimate proximity. The human kiss, with all its cultural load, could be an evolutionary remnant of that biological need to get close enough so that our brains could chemically “read” each other. What for a bat is an identity recognition, For us it has become a sign of intimacy, but the underlying hardware has a common origin: the need to communicate what cannot be said with words (or with grunts). Images | Simon Hurry In Xataka | It seemed like a hidden risk for celiac sufferers, but post-pizza kisses do not worry science

The problem with animal experimentation is not a lack of ethics, it is that science still does not have a plan B

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Scientific research is very necessary for a society to advance with new treatments to alleviate diseases, for example. But there is a big problem behind it that still lingers and that for many people may be incomprehensible: the use of laboratory animals to test these new advances before doing them in humans. And, as recognized by the Spanish scientific community: “we would use alternative methods if we could.” A paradox. Although we live in a time in which artificial intelligence and bioengineering dominate the current paradigm of society, we continue to depend on a frame designed in 1959 to validate whether a drug is safe or not. This happens for the use of animal experimentationwhich has been a major ethical conflict within science for years. The problem is that despite all the advances that exist, the use, for example, of a laboratory mouse cannot be replaced due to the lack of an alternative that is as complete as this one. The problem. The regulatory framework that is currently on the table focuses on the 3R principle proposed by Russell and Burch more than 60 years ago: Replacement, Reduction and Refinement. A theory that a priori seems quite noble, since In a few words it can be summarized in: if you can not use animals, don’t use them; If you have to use them, use as few as possible; and if you use them, do them as little damage as possible. However, as science itself has analyzed, this framework has become ‘procedural’. That is to say, it has become a list of bureaucratic tasks that legitimizes the use of animals under the pretext that it is a necessary evil that we must assume to continue advancing as a society. The ethics. The bioethical analyzes carried out on this matter focus on the type of studies that are approved to use animals. And it is not analyzed at this point whether it will contribute much or little to scientific knowledge, but rather how the proposed experiment is designed. This way, if an experiment is well designed, it is approved to use animals. All this despite the fact that their contribution to knowledge is marginal or insignificant. Something that creates an “ethical hole”: we continue to assume certain animal harm in exchange for an uncertain or diffuse human benefit. The great promise. If ethics pushes us to change, technology should give us the tool to do so. This is where NAMs (New Approach Methods) come into play, which focus on AI simulations of organisms, organs on a chip or organoids. In this way, we can understand this advance as the cultivation of mini-brains or human kidneys in the laboratory to work with them. Something that on paper seems like a great idea, since we would be testing drugs with human cells directly, eliminating the problem of testing on a different species. The problem. When we go down to the technical detail, we find a large wall in front of us. As the experts explainthese technologies cover specific niches, such as the damage that a drug can do to the liver, but they cannot replicate the entire film. Because an organism is not only the effect on an organ, but how all the systems that we have interconnected influence. The problems encountered They can mainly be summarized in several points: There is no possibility of creating a blood system that cleans the tissue and nourishes it as occurs in the real organism. There is no immune or nervous system that can react to the drug or generate pain in an organ. In a chip with an ‘organ’ inside, the effect of the drug cannot be simulated several years from now. Prohibited areas. With all these points, there are fields as important as autoimmune diseases (when the body attacks its own cells) where These models are irreplaceable. All this because it is necessary to see the simultaneous interaction of all the organs in a living being. Regulation. Currently there are different organizations that try to prevent a drug from killing a person, such as the FDA in the United States and the EMA in Europe. Both agencies to approve a trial of a drug in humans demand massive security data that are taken from the animals themselves. In this way, the alternatives are not used massively because they are not validated by these organizations that require the use of animal models in their standards. An attitude that perpetuates the system, which for many is truly crazy, since science depends on animals if it wants to continue developing drugs that improve the lives of citizens. All this because no committee places more value on the life of a mouse than that of a human. The future. In the short term we will not see a big change in this aspect. Organoids and AI It does not seem that they are going to suddenly replace animal modelsbut will act as complementary systems to reduce the number used in laboratories. Images | Matthew Mejia In Xataka | Researchers removed Instagram and TikTok from 300 young people to see if their anxiety decreased. The results speak for themselves

The most farmed animal on the planet is not chickens, pigs, cows or fish: it is prawns.

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Christmas is a time of carols, millions of led lightsnougats, empachos and a particular culinary ‘lore’ in which prawns and prawns are not usually missing. If tomorrow you have the opportunity to taste them during New Year’s Eve dinner, think about the following: what you have before you, on the plate, They are unique animals for humanity. And they are for a very simple reason. There is no other species that we raise more massively, not even chickens. There are those who estimate that approximately 51% of all animals What we have on ‘farms’ are precisely decapods, especially prawns. Prawns galore. If these days (lucky you) you have the opportunity to enjoy a good tray of prawns you should know a couple of things. The first one there are two typesdepending on their origin: there are wild prawns, caught in the ocean and the coasts; and those from aquaculture, which come from specialized farms and play a crucial role to supply the market. These fish farms are also interesting for another reason: they represent the largest farms in the world, at least if we are based on the number of living animals they contain. There are many (many) more breeding animals in them than in farms specializing in chickens, pigs, cows or even insects and fish. Click on the image to go to the tweet. But are there so many? This is what he suggests a study from 2023 that a few months ago rescued in Asterisk Magazine Andrés Jiménez Zorrilla, former investment expert and co-founder of Shrimp Welfare Project (SWP), an organization dedicated precisely to promoting more ethical decapod breeding practices. The report estimates that the planet’s fish farms usually host around 230 billion of these creatures at any given time. To be more precise, between 150,000 and 370,000 million, which exceeds any other known farm animal estimate. Even, the authors clarify, insects. “440 billion (300-620 billion) farmed shrimp are slaughtered each year, far exceeding the number of the most numerous farmed vertebrates used for food production, such as fish and chickens,” specify the articlesigned by Daniela R. Waldhorn and Elisa Autric and published in August 2023 by Rethink Priorites. The photo is completed with the specimens that arrive our months from fishing at sea. Are there more figures? Yes. And they are striking. Although both authors acknowledge that today there is only “partial data”, there are studies that indicate that every year hundreds of thousands of decapods are grown in fish farms on the planet, especially prawns and shrimp, which represent more than 80% of the total. In their report (in English) Waldhorn and Autric generally speak of “shrimp”but when delving into the problems surrounding the aquaculture of these species, both authors provide some extra detail. For example, when listing the species with the highest number of deaths, they specifically cite the P. vannamei and P. monodon. The most correct In Spanish it is to speak of “prawns”, rather than “prawns”. A percentage: 51%. The figures for the aquaculture industry are overwhelming, but they are better understood when compared to those of other sectors dedicated to raising animals in captivity for consumption. Jiménez Zorrilla points out that, in generalregardless of the moment, prawns represent 51% of the total number of animals raised on farms. They are followed at a considerable distance by fish (23%), insects (19%), chickens (7%) and pigs and other livestock (< 1%). Translated into figures, this means that compared to the 230 billion shrimp and prawns that (on average) live in fish farms, there are ‘only’ 779 million pigs and 1.55 billion cattle, 33 billion chickens and 125 billion farmed fish. In case the data were not clear in itself, the activist points out that every year 440,000 million of these decapods are slaughtered for consumption, “more than four times the number of humans who have walked the Earth.” Why is it important? Because Jiménez Zorrilla, like Wadhorn and Austric in their day, do not limit themselves to probing the size of the industry. Its objective is not so much to answer the question of how many shrimp live in the world’s farmers as to draw attention to the conditions in which they develop. “The problem is larger in scale than that of insect farming, fishing or any vertebrate for human consumption,” researchers warn. “If these animals are sentient, current commercial practices pose serious welfare risks during cultivation, handling, sale and slaughter.” Image| Kawê Rodrigues (Unsplash) Via | DAP In Xataka | Prawns, prawns, shrimp, prawns and carabineros: how they differ and which ones are better

Ultra-rich tourism has found an oasis in Kenya. A Safari at $3,500 a night that blocks animal migration

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For some time now, conflicts between large tourism projects and fragile ecosystems have multiplied: from the megaresorts built next to mangroves in the Caribbean that destroy natural barriers, even the hotels built in areas turtle nesting or unregulated cabins that have degraded reserves in Nepal and Sri Lanka. Each case shows the same pattern: the promise of immediate economic development versus the risk of damaging landscapes that cannot be recovered. The last one: a safari that short the wings of many animals. A camp in the worst place. The story was told these days the new york times. The opening of Ritz-Carlton Masai Mara Safari Campwith its $3,500-a-night suites, private plunge pool and privileged views of the Sand River, has ignited a controversy that goes far beyond elite tourism: for Maasai leaders, local guides and ecologists, the resort has been built on one of the last areas free of construction and in the middle of the corridor through which millions of wildebeest, zebras and gazelles move every year between the Serengeti and the Mara. What Marriott presented as a “historic” raid in the high-end safari, many perceive it as the most serious threat to a natural corridor that supports one of the most important ecological spectacles on the planet. The complaint filed by the Maasai scholar Meitamei Olol Dapash It maintains precisely that: that it has been built in a critical space where decades of monitoring data confirm a continuous and irreplaceable migratory flow. Overwhelmed tourism. The Ritz-Carlton is not an isolated casebut the most recent symbol of a growth that has become explosive: from 95 camps in 2012 to 175 in 2024an increase that experts consider incompatible with the ecological capacity of the Mara. The rise of tourism has multiplied the number of vehicles that chase animals off-road, deteriorate vegetation and corner predators, as in the viral video of 2023 in which dozens of cars closed a circle around two cheetahs while they hunted. Added to this are the discharged wastewater to the rivers, the light pollution of the camps and the noise that alters the nocturnal routes of the fauna. Various species have already disappeared from the Mara (such as the african wild dog or the oryx) in a process that researchers describe as an inversely proportional relationship: when the tourism industry grows exponentially, fauna decreases in the same way. Ritz-Carlton An exceptional permit. Outrage grew when it was learned that the construction of the Ritz-Carlton was authorized despite the moratorium of 2023 that prohibited building new lodges within the reserve. The approval was based on a “one-time exemption” signed by President William Ruto’s leadership, a gesture that activists they interpret as the porch for an avalanche of uncontrolled luxury projects. Even more disconcerting, according to the Timesis the controversy over the supposed community consultation: signatures of Maasai who claim not to have participated in any meeting, questioned documents and a climate of vulnerability that makes many think that the most powerful took it for granted that no one would protest. For the inhabitants of the Mara, the feeling is that the process is deliberately jumped essential steps of environmental assessment and local participation. Ritz-Carlton A wall to block animals. The camp, it seems, is surrounded by an improvised wall of earth and grass that prevents seeing the interior and that, according to local guidesalready shows marks of animals trying to cross or climb it. It is, if you still stand still, an uncomfortable symbol: a luxurious refuge shielded from the rest of the environment and the communities that live a few meters away. For many Maasai guides, the barrier embodies a dangerous idea: that visitors can enjoy the ecosystem without having to face its real problems, isolated from the pressure that the camps exert on the territory. African conservationists have been calling for years for accommodation models with a minimal footprint (fewer rooms, removable structures, reversible impact) and a transition towards smaller, more sustainable conservancies, but the presence of large chains threatens to reverse that trend. The line that should not be crossed. The paradox is profound: the Maasai communities know that tourism is their main source of income and they don’t want to stop it. Hospitals, schools and scholarships exist thanks to visitors. What they demand is a model that does not destroy that which gives them life. For many, the problem is not Marriott itself, but its exact location: placing a permanent complex in a migration corridor sets a dangerous precedent that could open the door to future construction in equally sensitive areas. Young activists like Emmanuel Sananka they insist in which the fight is not against tourism, but against a model that ignores the local voice and prioritizes profitability over conservation. Faced with this, Marriott He defends that his camp generates employment (90% of the staff is Kenyan, and 40% local) and that it complies with environmental regulations, but mistrust persists. Ecosystem to the limit. In short, the conflict reveals a clash between two visions of the Mara: that of global luxury that sees it as an exclusive setting and that of the communities and scientists who consider it a living and fragile system where every square meter matters. The Ritz-Carlton embodies that stress point: a project that is too big, too fixed and located in the worst possible place. The court decision What is done will not only determine whether the camp remains or is removed, but also the direction of the entire Masai Mara tourism model in the next decade. It depends on what is decided the Great Migration It continues to flow as it has for millions of years… or it begins to fragment due to the same human pressure that claims to come to admire it. Image | Vencha, Ritzcarlton In Xataka | Someone wants to build a 144 meter high skyscraper in the middle of the port of Malaga. The reason: luxury tourism In Xataka | A robot called “Sardinator” circulated through the streets of Malaga promoting a … Read more

the animal ‘technology’ that is surpassing laboratories

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The story of Mwajuma Abdalla Ngema is that of thousands of people. He went to a clinic in Dar es Sallam (Tanzania) with a persistent cough and the first thing they did was to tuberculosis test which tested negative. After being discharged and a few days had passed, he received a call: the test was positive for tuberculosis, and the result did not come from a laboratory machine, but from the sense of smell of a giant African rat. The method. This scenario, which seems straight out of a science fiction movie, is the core of an innovative program led by the non-profit organization APOPO. In this case, using giant spider rats (Cricetomys ansorgei) have managed to create a tuberculosis detection system that is not only faster and cheaper, but in many cases is proving to be more effective than conventional methods. Tuberculosis. It remains one of the deadliest infectious diseases in the world, causing 1.25 million deaths in 2023. One of the biggest challenges is detection, especially in those countries that have very limited resources to purchase reagents or appropriate machinery. And even if these possibilities are available, sputum analysis has limited sensitivity and some cases with a low bacterial load may occur. This is where the rats come in. APOPO, which initially began training them to detect landmines, discovered that their extremely acute sense of smell could be redirected to identify the specific volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that emits the bacteria Mycobacterium tuberculosis in sputum samples. And the results speak for themselves. Scientific support. A published study in BMC Infectious Diseases reveals the incredible effectiveness of this method. During 2022, the program analyzed 35,766 samples in patients in Tanzania. Of these, local clinics gave a negative result to 33,866 of these samples through classical microscopy or Xpert tests. And this is where the rats came in to re-evaluate the results, offering a shocking fact: the rodents identified 2,029 additional cases of tuberculosis that would otherwise have been missed. This means that rats contributed to 52% of the total tuberculosis cases identified in the program, saving thousands of people from going undiagnosed and untreated. Speed ​​is also a key advantage: a rat can analyze 100 samples in less than 20 minutes, a task that would take a lab technician days. More effective. The true superpower of these “HeroRats,” as APOPO calls them, lies in their ability to detect the undetectable. The study showed that rats are six times more likely to detect tuberculosis in patients with a low bacterial load (“poor” or “1+” categories) compared to standard microscopy in clinics. This sensitivity is especially crucial for children, whose diagnosis of tuberculosis is notoriously difficult due to the low concentration of bacteria and the difficulty in obtaining quality sputum samples. But this is not a problem for rats, which are twice as likely to identify a case of TB in a child than in an adult. The training. Behind each correct diagnosis is a rigorous training process that lasts between nine months and a year at the APOPO center in Morogoro. Trainers socialize the pups from four weeks old to create a trusting rat-researcher bond. Although coexistence is not easy, according to the APOPO coordinator himself, he states that “at first there are trust problems (…) The rat has to trust that I am not a threat, and I have to be sure that it will not bite me.” Once the bond has been created, training is based on positive reinforcement. The rats are presented with several samples and are rewarded with food when they correctly identify a sample that is positive. And logically, before becoming a ‘diagnostic system’ they must have a score of 10/10 by correctly identifying positive samples. Economy. In addition to being effective, it is also a very economical solution. The cost of analyzing a sample with a rat is about 2,600 Tanzanian shillings (about 0.90 euros), while a smear scan costs between 4,700 and 7,000 shillings. And if we talk about a molecular test like PCR, we are going up to 42,000 shillings. This means that after a useful life of seven years, the rats “retire” having saved a lot of money, saving lives and ending his days in the center of Morogoro. Hundreds of thousands of lives. Since its inception, APOPO has analyzed more than 900,000 different samples and detected more than 30,000 cases of tuberculosis that health systems had missed. This is something that has prevented approximately 300,000 new contagion infections, because an untreated person can infect between 10 and 15 people a year. The success in Tanzania and Ethiopia has prompted APOPO to plan to open more laboratories in northern Tanzania and even to transfer the idea to neighboring countries that also have a very high prevalence of this disease. Images | National Institute of Allergy In Xataka | A silent epidemic is killing more and more humans around the planet: fungal infections

Pleasure, homosexuality and STDs in the animal kingdom. A specialist dismantles myths on how sex works outside our species

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Forget about the idea that animals only have sex to reproduce. Dolphins, bats, rams, bonobos or lions show that homosexual pleasure and behaviors are also part of nature. And not only that: there are species that change sex, that transmit diseases such as chlamydia or that transform their body to imitate genitals. All this composes a panorama as unexpected as fascinating. Science and apartthe Xataka section that was born to look at science with magnifying glass and do it in the company of experts, Return with a new episode in Our YouTube channelalso available on Spotify and Ivoox. On this occasion, Ángela Blanco interviews Ricardo MoureBiologist and Doctor in Biotechnology, with a very clear purpose: to explore what biology has discovered about sex in animals and leave aside the myths that we still drag. One of the points of the conversation is homosexuality in the animal kingdom. Moure clarifies from the beginning: “To be correct at a technical level, in animals we cannot talk about homosexual individuals or homosexual animals. We talk about homosexual behaviors“And add concrete examples:” Among the rams, one in five has sex with both males and females, and one in 10 only with other males. “ Another of the issues raised by the interview is that of pleasure in animal sex. Moure recognizes the difficulty of measuring it: “In the case of whether animals feel some kind of sexual pleasure, this is complicated because, of course, we cannot get into the mind of an animal and know its subjective perception, but it is true that it has been investigated if there are species in which there is sexual pleasure.” The clearest examples appear in social species, from primates to cetaceans, where relationships do not always seek offspring. Among the most graphic examples mentioned by Moure is the relationship between sexual behavior and the size of the testicles. “The size of the testicles depends a little on this,” he says. The contrast is striking: “Gorillas can reach 200 kg, they have testicles that are like two olives (…) but instead bonobos (…) They have very large testicles”The key is in sperm competition, which favors species where females maintain relations with several males. It also stops in the biological mechanisms that allow some species to change sex. “When a male clown fish is widowed, it changes sex and becomes the female,” Moure details, remembering that all these fish are born males and that their role depends on the structure of the group. But there are more factors that alter the proportion of sexes: “humans also greatly affect the distribution of sexes because of climate change,” he says. The interview also addresses a less known aspect: sexually transmitted diseases in animals. “A case that draws a lot of attention is that of the Koalas. The Koalas in Australia have a CLAMIDIA EPIDEMIA that the species is being loaded, ”says Moure. The problem is serious because it causes infertility and is very difficult to treat. What we have advanced here is just a fragment of an episode loaded with data, anecdotes and explanations that show this aspect in the animal kingdom. In Science and apartRicardo Moure provides keys that invite you to think otherwise the relationship between biology and sex. The chapter is now available. Choose the platform you want to enjoy it. Images | Xataka In Xataka | Zoophilia is the last great sexual taboo of our societies. And there are voices that want to discuss it

This genius has programmed animal crossing characters to play alone. The first thing they have done is rebel against the landlord

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The use of AI opens new exploration (and exploitation) routes for the Modders that manipulate the code of games so that they run into new expressive routes. The last test: Thanks to an advanced memory hacking technique and artificial language models, the residents of ‘Crossing animal‘They comment today, conspire against Tom Nook and explore new dialogue styles, in which there are no lack of social criticism. What have you done to you, animal crossing. The josh fonseca hacker used the Dolphin and Scripts emulator in Python to replace the text messages saved in the RAM of the Gamecube and that function as dialogues during the games (and it was documenting on YouTube). Since the game uses its own text coding system, it developed decoding tools that allowed information to an understandable format for a couple of extensive models of GEMINI -based language (one to write the dialogues themselves, another to give them intention, emphasis and “direct” the charts of the characters) that began to generate new dialogues. In order for the dialogues to be consistent with the game, the model was trained with specific examples and the animal crossing wiki was consulted to create character sheets of a certain complexity. It is an experiment that made, at a minor scale, in ‘Stardew Valley‘. And what happened. In a few moments, the villagers did what they usually do in the game: conversing with naturalness and humor, but without registered in the real world. The thing changed when a Feed RSS, which allowed them to discuss political and current issues. Soon they started talking about Trump very positively, comically positive in fact. The reason: the feed that Fonseca used was of Fox News, simply because he was the one who had the most at hand. This behavior of the characters makes sense: if the knowledge they acquire includes those that belong to the real world, the machine has no way to distinguish them from their fiction. But the next step was even more unexpected. To the barricades. Fonseca also installed a shared memory space thanks to which the characters could gossip. That is, remember the other characters, what they had said and what they felt for them. They began to plant rumors and criticism against Tom Nook, the iconic and discussed Magnate Tanuki of the game. The seed of the rebellion was soon planted: the characters realized that one of the key elements of the game, the high prices imposed by Nook, are an economic spring that forces them to work and trade continuously to pay debts. Suddenly, ‘Animal Crossing’ became a spontaneous reflection on undeniable traps (because if they end, there is no game) of capitalism. It is not the same, but it is the same. In one Interview with 404MediaFonseca seems to recognize that the experiment can alter the original spirit of the Nintendo game, but considers that its experiment is a powerful exercise inspired by hauntology (philosophical current that studies the possible future that never came to complicate). In addition, it states to be convinced that well used is a tool that can enhance art and creativity, as long as human screenwriters continue in the center of the process. The power of the past. Fonseca thinks that there is nothing like the games of yesteryear (something that is perceived on his YouTube channel, overflowing with nostalgic videos): “As a child I thought: ‘Video games will improve every year’. But after twenty years playing, I have become a little skeptical and think: ‘In reality there has not been so much innovation. Technologies of the future that interest me. Header | Josh Fonseca In Xataka | Someone has cut in half a playstation to create a portable version. The result is fantastic

A sliding butterfly has become the animal with the highest number of chromosomes than we have news: 229 pairs

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It is likely that at school they will teach us that the human being has, as a general rule, 23 pairs of chromosomes. We know that there are complex organisms, such as animals, that survive with Just a couple of chromosomeslike species ants Myrmecia Pilosula. The question is then what are the species with the highest number of chromosomes. A new record. A recent study has pointed out To a kind of butterfly, the so -called Atlas girl (Atlantic polyommatus), As the animal with the greatest number of chromosomes known: 229 pairs. The number is even more striking if we consider that many of the species closest to this in the taxonomic tree have 23 or 24 pairs. The Atlas girl. The Atlas girl is an elusive butterfly that inhabits the Northwest Cordillera of Africa, extending their habitat in parts of Morocco and Algeria. We had knew That this animal had a high number of chromosomes, but the new study of the animal’s genome opens the doors to have a precise measure of the number, at the same time that also allows us to know more about why this surprising figure. “I have been investigating this butterfly for many years and I am one of the few people who have been able to observe it in nature. Unfortunately, P. Atlantic is seriously threatened by the destruction of their habitat. Explain to Sinc Roger Vila, co -author of the study. Investigating the chromosome. The strange future of this butterfly genome began about three million years ago, Explain the responsible team of sequencing this genome. And everything would have begun with 24 chromosomes, a number similar to that of other species in his family. The analysis allowed to discover that the chromosomes of the Atlas girl had been fragmenting in the areas where DNA accumulated with less density. This, the equipment adds, implies that, despite the growth of the number of chromosomes, the genetic information contained in them did not grow proportionally. Three million years of fragmentation. The team observed that all chromosomes except sexual experienced this fragmentation, carrying the total number of cormosomes from 24 to 229 throughout the last three million years. A “relatively short” interval of time in evolutionary terms, highlights the team responsible for the study. The details of the study have been published In an article In the magazine Current Biology. Evolutionary advantage? The study raises new unknowns, admits the team. An example is to know to what extent the fragmentation of chromosomes or having an abundant number of these, can help or harm the species that travel this evolutionary path. More than counting chromosomes. Beyond establishing this “new record”, the study can help us better understand the evolutionary and genetic history of this and other species. Knowing this evolutionary past can also give us clues about the future of this evolution, the team maintains. We could, for example, better understand how species can respond to changes in their environment, such as the increase in the temperature we are observing in some regions of the globe. Chromosomatic changes also occur at the non-evolutive level, for example in some cancer cells. That is why knowing the fragmentation mechanisms of chromosomes It can help us to investigate the changes when they happen in medical contexts. In Xataka | The case of the wounded fox who returns to his caregivers is not so strange: how closely we are domesticating the fox? Image | Roger Vila

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