believed

We believed that loneliness was just an emotional problem. Science points out that it is a risk factor for dozens of diseases.

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Loneliness is undoubtedly a scourge that is integrated into our society and that on many occasions goes unnoticed, especially affecting older people who are practically confined to being at home and with little social contact. And although this is something that a priori can remain in the psychological fieldthe reality is that loneliness emerges as a major public health threat as it is related to very serious diseases. A big risk. When we talk about risk factors in the field of medicine, we immediately think about nutrition or lack of exercise that are related to very serious diseases. But loneliness must also be added to this entire list, since numerous studies have found a direct association with cardiovascular, neurological and metabolic pathologies, although unraveling the exact cause continues to be one of the great challenges of current medical literature. The problem. In 2023, the United States Surgeon General public a devastating report pointing out that we were facing an “epidemic of loneliness and isolation.” And it was not a mere poetic metaphor, since the WHO has been warning that social disconnection not only affects us emotionally, but also alters our body to the point of increasing the risk of heart disease, stroke, depression, dementia and premature death. A measurable impact. When we talk about disease risk, cardiovascular health is the first to suffer. Here, a scientific statement from the American Heart Association, published in it Journal of the American Heart Associationconcluded bluntly that loneliness and social isolation are independent risk factors for poorer heart and brain health. And the percentages are not anecdotal, since a meta-analysis pointed out that loneliness or social isolation is associated with a 29% increase in the risk of suffering from coronary heart disease and a 32% increase in the risk of stroke. It goes further. A massive analysis led by the Autonomous University of Madrid in 2026, after following more than 400,000 peopleconfirmed a strong association between isolation and multimorbidity, highlighting that physical social isolation is a relevant risk factor even if the person does not subjectively perceive that loneliness. The case of dementia. Among dementias, the most important disease is undoubtedly Alzheimer’s and the data are clear in pointing out that unwanted loneliness is an important risk factor for all dementias. Among the reasons that exist, the Alzheimer Center of Barcelona points out in a recent note as follows: “The relationship between isolation and cognitive decline is supported by research showing how a lack of social interaction impoverishes vocabulary, reduces cognitive flexibility, and accelerates brain decline.” Here the advice given to be less likely to suffer from this disease when you reach a risk age is to participate in group activities, take advantage of technology to maintain contact or create a social routine. In mental health. In addition to the organic section, if we move on to mental illnesses, the fact that there is no adequate social support network also leads to an increase in the probability of illnesses as important as depression or even the schizophrenia. Many causes can influence here, such as genetic factors, but in the end a cluster of situations can generate the final trigger for the disease. The great nuance. The question we must ask ourselves here is the following: do we get sick because of the biological impact of disconnection, or because loneliness is accompanied by other conditions? And here the science suggests that isolated people tend to do less physical activity, have poorer diets and have a greater propensity for smoking or alcoholism. Factors that can trigger a whole battery of serious diseases. Even with these factors in the equation, loneliness demonstrates surprising predictive strength. For example, recent research in patients with diabetes revealed that loneliness was associated with a greater probability of suffering from coronary heart disease, even outweighing several classic risk factors. Images | Anthony Tran In Xataka | Generation Z is both the most connected and the loneliest in history. And there is nothing casual about it

We believed that air conditioning was the only way to beat the heat. A Mexican architect has been cooling houses with paint for decades

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In 1973, during the oil crisismany countries suddenly discovered that cooling buildings had become an energetic luxury. Bioclimatic architecture then returned to the center of the debate and many looked to old solutions: patios, thick walls, shade and cross ventilation. Curiously, decades before, an architect had already built houses following that logic, obsessed with something that today sounds strangely modern: that a home should offer serenity and refuge from the aggressiveness of the outside. Heat also enters through the eyes. For decades we have assumed that fighting the heat at home involves a almost automatic gesture: lower blinds and turn on the air conditioning. It is a mechanical, direct and, above all, solution. face. Long before that became the norm, the architect Luis Barragan Another idea was already working in Mexico City: that the temperature of a house does not depend only on its degrees, but on how the body perceives it. Its architecture, built between pink, yellow, blue walls and dense shadows, had spent decades exploring something that neuroarchitecture is beginning to support today: color, light and matter. alter physical sensation of space. They don’t cool the air, but they can cool the experience. House-Workshop of Luis Barragán Barragán understood the importance of color. In the Barragán’s workcolor was never decoration. Studies on his architecture show that he treated it the same as a wall or a window: as a structural tool of perception. Its pink, ocher or blue surfaces were designed to react to changing light of the day, transforming the depth, closeness and visual temperature of the space. A pink wall under the intense Mexican sun seems to radiate heat, while a deep blue patio prolongs the feeling of sky and distance. That rrelationship between color and light It was a central part of his work. The architecture moved with the sun, and with it the sensation of the inhabitant also changed. House-Workshop of Luis Barragán The house as a sensory laboratory. His best example remains the Luis Barragán Studio Housebuilt in 1948 and today protected by UNESCO. There everything is designed to modulate the bodily experience: thick walls, closed patios, interior gardens, water, darkness and color. UNESCO stands out precisely that deep dialogue between light, space and matter as one of the great contributions of the 20th century. The house is almost a manifesto of how a home can appeal to all the senses at the same time. Barragán saw it as a living organism, constantly evolving, and in that organism comfort did not depend on technology, but on balance. nterior of the Gilardi House, in Mexico City The half light as a refuge. Barragan distrusted of modern glass architecture and total transparency. While much of the 20th century celebrated large windows and abundant light, he argued for the opposite: the “half light”. He believed that human beings need spaces with shade and darkness to rest, think and concentrate. He said that too much light generates anxiety. In their houses, the windows are reduced, hidden or filtered with colored glass. The light never enters all at once; is dosed. This decision not only changes the emotional atmosphere, it also reduces the thermal load and softens the visual harshness of summer. It is an old and simple solution, almost forgotten in many contemporary homes. Patio of Barragan’s studio house The colors of the weather. The famous Barragán palette It did not come from an abstract theory. Its colors were born of the Mexican landscape. The pink of the bougainvillea, the red of the tabachin, the violet of the jacarandas, the ocher of the earth and the blue of the sky. Everything was part of a natural continuity between architecture and environment. In fact, the call “Mexican pink”developed together with the artist Jesús Reyes, became one of his most recognizable signatures. That color, present at the entrance to his studio or in patios like those of the Gilardi Housegenerates a feeling of calm and depth that continues to surprise those who visit it. Its architecture demonstrates that color can be an emotional regulator of space. Eduardo Prieto Lopez House Tradition already knew this trick. In reality, Barragán did not invent all this from scratch. Much of his work includes centuries of vernacular architecture in Latin America. Painted stucco houses, interior patios, thick walls and breathable materials were part of a climatic logic before electricity. Stucco, for example, allowed the walls they will breathe better in hot climates. Painting them prevented the glare of the white surfaces under the harsh sun. In many places, color not only gave identity, it also helped to better inhabit the heat. Barragán took that tradition and brought it to modern language. San Cristobal block Science explains it. Yes, because recent studies about emotional architecture and embodied perception help put words to what Barragán intuited. Today we know that light regulates circadian rhythms, affects mood and modifies thermal perception. We also know that certain colors can make a room feel cooler or warmer without changing its real temperature. The body first processes a sensory impression and then translates it into comfort or discomfort. Barragán worked precisely on that point. He designed spaces where perception and physiology intersected. An old idea for a new problem. Thus, in the era of air conditioning and skyrocketing thermometers, when cities overheat and energy consumption skyrockets every summer, Barragán’s architecture returns to read with other eyes. Their houses remind us that cooling does not always mean cooling the air. Sometimes means control the light, tame the shadow, reduce glass, use appropriate materials and choose a color well. Are slow solutionssilent and long before modern domestic technology. In that sense, his work seems less like an aesthetic relic and more like an open conversation with the present. Image | Anna BerthoFrancesco Bandarin, Ulysses00, Ymblanter, Steve Silverman, Sarunas Burdulis In Xataka | In 2020, a Chinese billionaire bought the most expensive and luxurious home in London. Then his nightmare began. In Xataka | In 1972 Italy wanted to put an … Read more

We believed that Meta would have learned his lesson after his privacy scandals. We were totally wrong

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The internal environment in Meta is not at its best. Workers who do not have been fired were relocated to a new AI department described as “the gulag”. Additionally, the company recently installed software on workers’ computers that recorded everything they did. Well, they had to pause it because there was a leak that left the data exposed. what has happened. They tell it in Wired. Meta has had to pause its employee tracking program due to an internal leak. The program, called Model Capability Initiative or MCI, was launched in April and was installed on all company computers. This software recorded screen content, keystrokes and clicks. It was not to control employees (or not only for that), but to train AI agents who, presumably, will one day replace them. As expected, employees were not amused, nor were they amused that a security issue left their data exposed to other workers. The reaction. The notice came from an employee who detected that he could access the MCI data of other employees. According to Meta, the bug was solved in four hours, although the first solution was not permanent and they had to reinforce the data access block. During those hours, employees, who had already expressed their discontent with this program, filled the internal forums with criticism and Meta finally suspended the program. But be careful because it is not goodbye, but see you later. Speaking to Wired, AI research vice president Stephan Kasriel said that “we will reactivate MCI when we are confident in the effectiveness of our data protection controls.” And now they go… The case adds to Meta’s long history with leaks and privacy issues. The clearest and most resounding was the Cambridge Analytica scandal in 2018, but there have been many morelike the massive data theft which affected a whopping 533 million users in 2021 or the use of facial recognition without permission in 2024. We recently learned that Meta’s glasses record even when we take them offmeaning contractors in Kenya have seen users having sex, going to the bathroom or accessing their bank accounts. This questionable way of treating its users’ data and repeated scandals have earned the company a reputation for being unreliable when it comes to privacy. We now know that even employees themselves are vulnerable to this. Fed up employees. As we said, to the employees They were not happy that the company installed this software on their computers. In fact, at least 1,600 employees had signed a petition in which, in addition to describing the program as invasive, they warned that it posed a risk from a security point of view. All this was happening at a time when Meta had announced layoffs, but had not yet communicated who those affected were. For a month, the staff worked without knowing if they were going to be fired, but the anguish did not end with the “execution.” Meta laid off more than 8,000 employees and relocated another 7,000, who now work in the Applied AI department. Many high-level engineers have ended up here and describe the work as mechanical and uncreative. Now, in addition, they leak their private data from the program they were using to control them. It is not surprising that the internal environment is going through its lowest hours. Image | Xataka with ChatGPT In Xataka | Soon you won’t need to remember anyone’s name. Meta’s glasses will do it for you

We believed that Adobe was threatened with death by AI. It turns out that it is one of the few companies that is making money from it

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In the last year Adobe has lost almost half of its value. Twelve months ago it was trading at $382. Today your actions They are listed at $197.. Wall Street has clearly punished a company that certainly seemed to be threatened with death by new generative AI models. The surprise is that Adobe is not only not doing badly with AI, but it is doing really well. Wall Street says one thing, the data another. In the second fiscal quarter of 2026, the company achieved some historical results with record revenues of $6.62 billion (up 13% year over year). Earnings per share (EPS) have shot up 18% to $5.96, and although the NASDAQ charts say otherwise, Adobe is not only not suffering, but appears to be stronger than ever. A money making machine. Adobe is in fact behaving like a true software empire. In 2025, it managed to have free cash flow of $9.85 billion on revenue of $23.8 billion. Its operating margins are also the envy of the sector: they stand at 37% (47% in terms non-GAAP). Its subscription business is absolutely exceptional, with annual recurring revenue (ARR) already reaching $27.1 billion. Others burn money with AI: ADobe earns it. While most companies do not stop investing money in the hope that the bet will pay off very profitable in the future, Adobe is ensuring that its generative AI tools are already having a positive impact on its results sheet. Income ARR Dependents on “AI First” solutions have tripled in just one year, and the big driver here is Firefly, Adobe’s generative AI platform. She alone has exceeded $250 million in ARR and continues to grow. Companies trust Adobe. We users may love using Gemini or ChatGPT to create AI images, but companies that relied on Adobe products for their creative workflows continue to do so. 75% of Fortune 500 companies already use Firefly, but the company has also trained more than 2,500 custom AI models for large corporate accounts. Users do not stop growing. Another advantage that AI has brought is that the technical barrier to using Photoshop or Premiere is lowered because the integrated AI assistants help users create what they wanted. There are also simplified tools like Adobe Express (70 million active users per month), and the freemium approach has been another reason for the number of users to grow: in just 12 months Adobe has gone from having 700 to 850 million users. The vast majority are still users of the free features, but Adobe it is enough to convert 2% to paying users to ensure that all these efforts are profitable. But the competition is tight. Although things seem to be going very well, Adobe now faces a fragmented ecosystem with a lot of competition. These new rivals also take advantage of AI to “attack” very specific use cases. It happens with Canva, for examplewhich has become a real threat and already has a turnover of 4,000 million dollars. Midjourney, Runway and even the Spanish Magnific are platforms that have fully embraced the AI ​​revolution to offer services to both individuals and companies. Be careful with subscriptions. Adobe is not immune to market fluctuations. The company stands out for maintaining extraordinary profitability in a very specialized niche, but it has taken questionable business decisions recently. The notable price increase of your subscriptions last year and its limits to generative credits have been decisions highly criticized. This has caused users to flee to cheap or even free alternatives such as Affinity or DaVinci Resolve. Uncertainty. There is another striking detail that can critically influence the future of the company. Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen advertisement who was leaving the company after 18 years at the helm. There is no designated successor and this comes in the middle of that transition to a world full of generative AI solutions. The risk is therefore notable, and whoever takes the reins of the business will have to make very important decisions to not jeopardize the future of an already legendary technology company. In Xataka | Adobe was not born with Photoshop. It started by solving a huge and inconspicuous problem: printing well

We believed that pets were replacing children. One study suggests just the opposite

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The first time I saw a dog in a stroller It was in a shopping center. It passed me like any child’s stroller: wheels, hood, a small package inside. I looked twice because it seemed too small for a baby, and it wasn’t. Inside there was a dog. I remember well that he was a french bulldog and her name was Chanel. Over time, the scene stopped seeming exceptional to me. I started seeing dog strollers in downtown neighborhoods, parks or even on public transportation. An image that has become a symbol of something deeper: the feeling that, in aging societies, pets are occupying a place that children once had. But what if that reading was incomplete, or outright wrong? What if, far from replacing children, pets were playing another role in family life? An academic study questioned a widely held belief a few months ago. To begin with, the numbers help to understand why suspicion has established itself in the public debate. In Spain, according to the Spanish Network for the Identification of Pet Animals (REIAC)in 2023 there were more than ten million dogs registered compared to less than two million children between 0 and 4 years old. A difference so wide that it invites, almost automatically, to think about a change within homes. The scenes that come from outside reinforce that impression. South Korea has crossed a symbolic threshold: More strollers are sold for dogs than for babies. It is not an exaggeration, it is the statistical reflection of a country in demographic emergency. The trend has caught on so much that even faith has adapted. In Japanese temples such as Ichigaya Kamegaoka, the ancient ritual of Shichi-Go-San —previously exclusive for children— has filled with snouts and straps. In the absence of infants, sanctuaries bless pets to prevent their liturgies from being left without protagonists. Against this backdrop, political and moral interpretations have proliferated. In 2022, Pope Francis described as “selfish” to those who prefer to have animals rather than children. In South Korea, then Labor Minister Kim Moon-soo He even stated that young people They “love their dogs” instead of starting families. A resounding diagnosis that, until now, had relied more on cultural symbols and perceptions than on contrasted data. Disassembling the narratio But the idea that pets replace children received a serious corrective from academic research. The study Cats, Dogs, and Babiesled by researchers Kuan-Ming Chen and Ming-Jen Lin from National Taiwan University, analyzed for more than a decade the behavior of millions of homes. The research concluded that people who adopt a dog are up to 33% more likely to have a child later than those who do not. Far from displacing paternity, the animal seems to act as a preliminary step. This is what the authors call the “practice child effect”. As Chen and Lin explainmany couples use the experience of caring for a dog to evaluate their willingness to take on responsibilities: routines, expenses, and emotional bonds. If the experience is positive, it increases confidence to take the next step towards human parenthood. However, there is no change in sight. Neither the Taiwanese study nor the experts who analyze the demographic winter maintain that the increase in pets will translate, by itself, into a rebound in birth rates. The academic work itself warns that this is a country-specific analysis and that patterns may vary depending on the cultural, economic and social context. Furthermore, it is not yet a peer-reviewed article to verify the data either. The cart as a metaphor The study does not propose pets as response to demographic declinebut as a clue about how care decisions are postponed today in a context of economic and vital uncertainty. This reading fits with what sociologists and demographers point out in Spain. As reflected in the analysis of my colleague in Xatakathe drop in the birth rate responds to widely documented structural factors: job insecurity, rising housing costs, difficulties in conciliation, delay in emancipation and increasingly later motherhood. In this scenario, pets do not displace children; They occupy the space left by a postponed vital project. For this reason, the image of the dog in a stroller summarizes this ambiguity well. As Dr. Jerry Klein explainschief veterinarian of the American Kennel Club, these strollers can have a practical function in certain cases: “They offer elderly dogs, dogs with arthritis or mobility problems a way to enjoy the outdoors without straining themselves.” Veterinary platforms such as Dialvet either ToeGrips They agree that they can help protect paws from hot asphalt or help small dogs who cannot keep up with long walks. However, other experts urge caution. Carlos Carrasco, from DOS Training, warns in La Voz de Galicia that “a dog is not a child with hair” and that carrying a healthy animal in a stroller can be a “humiliation” that denaturalizes it. Along the same lines, ethologist Isabel Jiménez, director of La Manada de Iris, points out in IM Veterinaria that excessive humanization “nullifies the dog as a species and makes it emotionally ill.” a study published in Animals (MDPI) reinforces this idea, warning that anthropomorphism can generate anxiety and stress in the animal by not respecting its basic biological needs, such as smelling and walking. Finally, the rise of pets does not alone explain the demographic winter, but it does reveal how forms of affection and responsibility are reconfigured in societies where having children has become more complex. The Taiwanese study does not offer miracle solutionsbut there is a clear warning: facing pets and children as if they were exclusive options oversimplifies a much more nuanced reality. Perhaps, when we see a dog in a stroller, we are not looking at the symbol of renunciation, but rather at the reflection of a generation that postpones irreversible decisions while looking for possible forms of care. Before blaming the puppies, it might be worth looking at the system surrounding those who are hesitant to become parents. Image | Unsplash Xataka | As Japan runs out … Read more

We believed that cities were a desert for bees, but 5.5 million live under this cemetery in New York

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Although cities have their own fauna, the reality is that one could reasonably think that for animals of all kinds the urban environment is far behind the countryside in diversity and quality of life: there is a lot of asphalt, noise, pollutants… well yes, but no, because there is a place where bees have found a true residential paradise: a cemetery in IthacaNew York. Where you see a cemetery, the bees see paradise. It turns out that a laboratory technique called Rachel Fordyce had a trick to get to your work at Cornell University without paying for parking: park on the other side and take a walk through the East Lawn Cemetery. In spring 2022 he arrived at his post with a jar full of bees that he had found along the way: that was the beginning of it all. The bees inside were Andrena regularis, known as the “common mining bee,” a wild, solitary species that nests underground. That is, it does not have a queen and it does not build hives either. Each female digs her own tunnel, lays her eggs, supplies them with food, and seals them. And under the ground of the Ithaca cemetery there are millions, more specifically 5.56 million in just over 6,000 square meterswhich come out every spring to pollinate the surrounding apple trees. Why is it important. Because it is the largest population of wild bees with a nest in the ground ever documented and very far of the secondof 1.6 million individuals of a different species in Arizona. And their work is essential: pollinators in general are responsible for the production of approximately 75% of the world’s food crops. according to the FAO. As explains Bryan Danforthprofessor of entomology at Cornell University, they must be protected: “If we don’t preserve nesting sites and someone paves them, we could instantly lose 5.5 million bees that are important pollinators.” The most striking thing of all is that this enormous population was there, in the midst of civilization and next to one of the most prestigious universities in the world. Context. Contrary to popular belief, the most common way of life for bees is solitary and with a nest on the ground: approximately 75% of the bees on the planet live like this. Those bees that produce honey and live in hives may be the most famous, but they are an absolute minority. Solitary wild bees are not as well known, but their pollination work is key in nature and in food. Thus, this enormous population lives independently but concentrated in that place because the substrate conditions are optimal. The bad news is that pollinators are in decline: according to the report of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Servicesmore than 40% of pollinating insect species are threatened. In this scenario, finding such a large population in a city shows that there are more refuges for biodiversity than we thought and we must find them before they disappear (and if possible, avoid it). In detail. We knew about the presence of Andrena regularis in that cemetery since 1935, but it was not until 2021 when the scientific community began to intuit what was underground. To estimate the population, the team installed mesh traps at 10 points in the cemetery between March 30 and May 16, 2023. The result was extraordinary: as explains the press release from the New York university, is the equivalent of 200 honey bee hives on just 0.6 hectares of land and more than triple the population of Manhattan. Yes, but. The study has important limitations, such as that the population data is from a single spring (2023) and that the figure is a statistical estimate and not a real inventory, so we do not know if the population is rising, falling, remaining stable or how climate change affects it, which is advancing the flowering of apple trees and therefore altering the life calendar of the bees. And although it is the largest aggregation of wild nesting bees documented to date, its presence in a cemetery suggests that there may be others whose existence we are unaware of. In Xataka | We have a serious problem with the extinction of bees. The United Kingdom wants to solve it with bricks In Xataka | If the question is how to protect bees and other insects, in Peru they are clear: recognizing their legal rights Cover | Marisol Benitez, Chad Madden and Damien TUPINIER

We believed that no Chinese AI model would soon come close to Fable 5 or GPT-5.5. Then GLM-5.2 arrived

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A few days ago, the Chinese startup Zhipu AI (Z.ai) announced the launch of its new open AI model, GLM-5.2. It did so boasting amazing features that brought it very close to the best closed models from OpenAI and Anthropic, something that seemed impossible. Well, the more analysis is carried out on the model, the better off it is. We may be at the beginning of something very important. A change of trend. GLM 5.2. The Chinese startup Z.ai has been releasing different versions of its GLM AI model for a long time, but the latest one is undoubtedly the most surprising because its performance is especially promising. It has 744,000 million parameters (744B), of which 40,000 are those that remain active. We are looking at a model with a context window of one million tokens and a new architecture called IndexShare/IndexCache. Better than GPT-5.5, very close to Opus 4.8. The startup showed how the performance of GLM-5.2 is extraordinary in programming tasks. In the FrontierSWE test, the most demanding of those currently available, GLM-5.2 outperformed GPT-5.5 and only Opus 4.8 was superior by a very small margin. The same happened with other tests such as PostTrainBench or SWE-Marathon, which, for example, evaluates the behavior of the model in very long autonomous programming sessions. Source: Z.ai. In many other tests the photo was identical: the model has made a spectacular leap since version 5.1, and is in many tests almost as good (or better) than the best from OpenAI, Anthropic or Google. But it’s not just them who say it.. Artificial Analysis, a reputable independent firm that maintains an updated ranking of the performance of the new AI models that are arriving on the market, confirms the data of Z.ai itself. In his tests he indicates how the “intelligence index” of GLM-5.2 is now 51 points. It is only surpassed by GPT-5.5 (55), Claude Opus 4.8 (56) and Claude Fable 5 (60). Source: Artificial Analysis. This Chinese open model leaves behind the new Gemini 3.5 Flash, but also Chinese competitors such as Qwen 3.7 Max, MiniMax-M3 or DeepSeek V4, among others. The jump in quality from GLM-5.1 is, we insist, outstanding, much greater than what, at least according to this index, was seen from Opus 4.8 to Fable 5. The jump in performance is spectacular, although it is true that the comparative price to solve the tasks proposed in the benchmark rises significantly. Source: Artificial Analysis. But it’s not perfect. The Artificial Analysis report, however, shows that although GLM-5.2 is very strong in areas such as programming, it is weak in others. For example, it is far from being as reliable as Fable 5, GPT-5.5, Claude 4.8 or Gemini 3.1 Pro in terms of correct answers, which is also lower in proportion to that of its competitors. However, his hallucinations have significantly reduced. And it’s much (much) cheaper. But in addition to being fantastic in many areas, it is much cheaper than its competitors. Maintains the price per million input/output tokens of its predecessor ($1.4/4.4), while that of GPT-5.5 It’s 5/30 dollars and that of Opus 4.8 10/50 dollars. It is true that it consumes many more tokens than GPT-5.5 (very efficient) or Claude Opus 4.8, but even with that its final cost is much lower. My tests with GLM-5.2 programming. I’ve been a Z.ai subscriber for months now because they offered an annual subscription at the end of 2025 at a really low price. This has allowed me to test GLM-5.2 for a few hours and although I cannot draw definitive conclusions, it does seem clear that there is a leap in quality in terms of its ability to program. I asked him to review a personal code project and he identified several security flaws and possible improvements in great detail. Chatting with GLM5-2. In conversational mode the behavior is much more difficult to evaluate: I have been interacting with the model and asking it questions, and although it is better than GLM 5.1 many times, other times it is not so much and I would say that in terms of creativity to write the frontier models of Google, OpenAI and especially Anthropic they are still quite superior. You can try it on their websiteand there you will see something else: it takes significantly longer to respond than other chatbots, because its reasoning phase is longer. Take more time to answer questions. Benchmarks are one thing, experience is another.. In the absence of testing it (much) more, of course the impression is that the model has improved significantly compared to a GLM-5.1 that had lagged behind its Chinese competitors (not to mention the current Claude Opus 4.8 or GPT-5.5). On platforms like Reddit opinions are dividedbut many consider it a fantastic option to run locally… if you have a very, very powerful machine with at least 256 GB of unified memory (Mac Studio). And one thing seems clear: when using it as an AI model for programming, comes surprisingly close to Claude Opus 4.8. In Xataka | Chinese technology companies entered the AI ​​race with cheaper models than the rest. That’s starting to end

Mercedes believed that the new electric motor in its AMG GT was “barely feasible.” Now it aims to be the future of all electric vehicles

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A few days ago, Mercedes finally announced the start of serial production of your axial flux motor at the historic Berlin-Marienfelde plant. This has serious implications for the future of electric cars, as the technology that powers this engine promises to redefine what a high-performance electric vehicle can do. That is why under these lines we are going to tell you all the details. What exactly happened. On June 9, Mercedes confirmed the start of serial production of this new engine in Berlin-Marienfelde, the historic factory founded in 1902 that has now been converted into the center par excellence for the brand’s high-performance electric motors. The first production model to debut is the new Mercedes-AMG GT 4 Door Coupea car that has also been left in the background in the conversations of recent weeks due to Ferrari and its first electric, Luce. However, this new vehicle will be the very first host of Mercedes’ new axial flow engine, which enters large-scale industrial manufacturing in a 30,000 square meter plant, three pavilions and seven production lines. Why is this engine different?. The vast majority of current electric cars use radial flux motors. In these, the magnetic field goes from the center outward, like the spokes of a bicycle wheel. In an axial flux motor, this field runs parallel to the axis of rotation, which allows the internal components (rotor, stator, etc.) to be coupled in flat layers facing each other, something like a sandwich. This arrangement makes the engine much more compact and lighter for the power it is capable of generating. Where does this technology come from?. The story begins in 2009, when engineers from the University of Oxford They founded the British company YASA with the aim of developing axial flux electric motors. Before arriving at Mercedes, YASA already supplied its engines to manufacturers such as Ferrari, Koenigsegg and Lamborghini. In 2021, Mercedes acquired the company seeing the potential these engines could have in their future AMG models. From there, the challenge was to transfer this technology from the laboratory to the mass production chain, something that, according to the company itself“for a long time it was considered barely feasible due to its complexity.” Figures. In its development phase, YASA presented an engine weighing just 13.1 kilos capable of generating 550 kW, which is equivalent to 738 HP, with a power density of about 42 kW per kilogram. It is no small feat, since if we compare these figures to those of the best radial engines, it practically doubles them. In more recent iterations, that same concept, weighing only 12.7 kilos, reached 750 kW of peak power, close to 1,000 HP. What comes out of those production lines. The AMG GT 4 Door Coupé mounts three axial flux motors grouped in modules called High Performance Electric Drive Units, which integrate motor and reducer in the same housing. One is on the front axle, less than 9 centimeters wide, and two on the rear axle, just 8 centimeters wide. Despite these dimensions, in its most powerful version (the AMG GT 63) the set adds 1,169 HP and 2,000 Nm of torque, with acceleration from 0 to 100 km/h in 2.1 seconds and a maximum speed of 300 km/h with the specific high-performance package. The challenge of manufacturing it. Making this engine in series has required processes that did not exist before. And just as account Mercedes in its official publication, of the 98 stages that make up manufacturing, 65 are used for the first time within the Mercedes group and 35 are completely unprecedented worldwide, generating more than 30 patent applications. According to the brand, one of the most technically demanding steps is what the factory calls “the wedding”, the moment in which the stator is placed between the two magnetic rotors. The magnetic forces are equivalent to about 900 kilos, and the margin of error allowed is less than a tenth of a millimeter. To do this, a control algorithm sends adjustments in the last 0.5 seconds of the process to ensure alignment. Mbeyond the AMG GT. The axial flux engine has not arrived in Berlin just to power an electric supercar. From Autoblog they point out that, given its compact and modular design, the technology is easy to adapt to different platforms. The usual industry logic also applies here, as when production volumes increase, costs fall. So there is hope that these types of engines will end up reaching more accessible models in the future. We will have to wait to find out if it really ends up being like this. For now, ArenaEV point to the CLA as a possible future candidate. It should be noted that Mercedes is not the only one working on axial flux engines, but it is the first to bring them to mass production in a series vehicle. Manufacturers such as Ferrari, BMW, Koenigsegg or Alpine are already investigating this technology. After all, electric cars are heavy by nature, so a lighter and more compact engine helps offset that burden without sacrificing performance. Tim Woolmer, CEO and founder of YASA, affirms that this technology “will change the game in the high-performance automotive sector.” We’ll see if it ends up being that way. Cover image | Mercedes-Benz In Xataka | Michael Leiters, CEO of Porsche: “We rushed with the Taycan, a 911 will never be an electric car”

We believed that açaí was pure Instagram posturing. Science has just confirmed that it is a nutritional beast

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In the era of well-being, we have become accustomed to seeing how our social networks are flooded with exotic and aesthetic foods. We have shied away from a sedentary lifestyle and have embraced trends that a few years ago seemed impossible to find. It happened with matcha tea, with coconut milk and, in recent years, the undisputed king of healthy “posturing” has been açaí, omnipresent in bowls colorful ones promoted by nutrition gurus. However, what seemed to be simply another fad imported from the United States has just made the definitive leap to mass consumption in Spain. Mercadona has joined this fever by launching an açaí sorbet with guarana flavor for this summer. The democratization of this product raises an inevitable question: behind this commercial and aesthetic maelstrom, are there real benefits or is it just smoke? The medical evidence is resounding: we are facing a superfood that literally crushes historical competitors such as blueberries. The true story of açaí. To understand the phenomenon, we must first clarify what exactly we are eating. The açaí (Euterpe oleracea) It’s not technically a berry.but a drupe (a fruit with a large central stone that occupies up to 80% of its volume). It grows high on palm trees in the rainforests of the central and South American Amazon, where it has been a staple food for indigenous communities for centuries. Why don’t we see it fresh in our neighborhood fruit shop? The answer is logistics. The fresh açaí It has a very short useful life and it spoils in just 24 hours after harvesting. Therefore, the only way to export it is through frozen pulp or freeze-dried powder. A true antioxidant bomb. The aesthetics of Instagram initially overshadowed what the medical community has long studied in amazement. “It is fashionable, yes, but it also has more antioxidants than blueberries,” says Dr. Sara Marín Berbell forcefully. in Women’s Health. The key to its power lies in anthocyanins, the plant pigment that gives it its characteristic dark purple color and that protects our cells against oxidative damage responsible for premature aging. Its nutritional profile is a rarity in the world of fruit. As health portals such as Healthlineaçaí is unusually high in healthy fats and very low in sugar (it barely contains about 2 grams per 100 naturally). Additionally, registered dietitian Julia Zumpano explains in Cleveland Clinic that açaí is rich in phytosterols, plant compounds that block the absorption of cholesterol into the bloodstream, protecting our cardiovascular health. Its impact goes further. It is an exceptional ally for blood sugar control; Its glycemic index is only 24, well below the 72 for watermelon or the 75 for white bread. And if that were not enough, its polyphenols act as a powerful prebiotic. By reaching the colon almost intact, they serve as a banquet for our microbiota, strengthening the intestinal barrier. On a neurological level, the antioxidants in açaí help protect brain cells from oxidative stress that leads to cognitive decline. The supermarket trap. With such an impeccable medical resume, it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that any product with the word “açaí” on its label is healthy. And this is where experts issue a serious warning about its arrival in supermarkets and cafes. Mercadona’s recent sorbet has set off alarms among nutritionists. Dietitian Miguel Ángel Ruiz remove your labela: “If we look at the nutritional value we see that for every 100 grams it contains 11 grams of sugar (…) Natural fruit has around 2 or 3 grams.” Although the first ingredient is açaí pulp (55%), sugar comes in third place. For his part, nutritionist Carlos Ríos add in The Mail that the product includes problematic emulsifiers, such as carboxymethyl, which is inflammatory and alters the microbiota. It spreads in cafes. Dietitian Julie Harrington warns in EatingWell that the famous açaí bowls They can quickly become high-calorie bombs if they are not prepared carefully, especially when locals use sugary bases or abuse syrups and toppings. The solution? Go to supermarkets that offer real and pure alternatives, such as the 100% frozen açaí tablets with no added sugar sold by Alcampo, allowing the consumer to prepare their own truly healthy version at home. Purple gold at the crossroads. The impact of açaí has ​​transcended our diets to become a matter of State and ecological survival. The figures it moves (it is estimated that it generates more than a billion dollars annually worldwide) have attracted the attention of large corporations. According to reports France 24earlier this year Brazil declared açaí its “national fruit” in a desperate attempt to shield itself from international biopiracy. The danger is real since in 2003, a Japanese company registered the “açaí” trademark, and it took years of litigation to regain control of the name. But the secret of açaí does not lie only in the palm tree, but in those who take care of it. Research from the scientific journal Springer has revealed that the true heroines Behind this superfood are the native stingless bees (meliponines) of the Amazon. These insects are responsible for 60% of fruit pollination. This ecosystem has created a fascinating bioeconomy. How it documents Mongabay, Amazonian families are abandoning livestock farming and deforestation to dedicate themselves to the sustainable cultivation of açaí and the breeding of these bees. The propolis generated by these insects, enhanced by the pollen of the açaí palm tree, has been shown in clinical trials to have healing and anti-inflammatory properties comparable to commercial medications, opening a new economic avenue through natural cosmetics that protects, instead of destroying, the jungle. A superfood, not a miracle. In short, science has confirmed that açaí is, deservedly, a “purple gold.” Its cardiovascular, neurological and antioxidant benefits are not a mirage created by social networks. However, rigor requires caution. The expert Julia Zumpano He is categorical when it comes to rejecting the famous “detox diets” based exclusively on taking açaí supplements, warning that they lack scientific evidence and can be dangerous. As Dr. Marín … Read more

We believed that a master’s degree was a guarantee of finding a job. It’s starting to be of exactly no use.

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When you have higher education and can’t find a job or want to advance, historically a good idea has always been to go back to school. Getting a master’s degree was an almost safe investment in the face of uncertainty because it allowed you to specialize and find a better job. However, if we talk about master’s degrees, that reality is no longer true. More specifically, general master’s degrees. Because while doctorates or qualifying master’s degrees do work, general master’s degrees suffer an alarming devaluation in the market: according to a study by the Burning Glass Institute with data from the Bureau of Employment Statistics (BLS) of which echoesThe Wall Street Journalthe unemployment rate in the United States among those under 35 years of age with a master’s degree is at one of its highest levels in the last 20 years. Master’s degrees are worth less and less. What the Burning Glass analysis says is that those who have a master’s degree under 35 years of age are in the 77th percentile of unemployment when the normal is the 50th percentile. In fact, they are behind those with less education. Of course, we are talking about general master’s degrees, not qualifying ones. Furthermore, this phenomenon does not occur among those who have a doctorate. Gad Levanon, chief economist at the Burning Glass Institute, sums it up appealing to the law of supply and demand: “there are more titles competing for fewer positions than those titles were designed to unlock.” In short: once a master’s degree was a sign of distinction, but when everyone has it, it no longer makes a difference. Why is it important. Beyond statistical curiosity, it is a question of time, money and expectations. Making an effort to pay for a master’s degree thinking that it is an investment with a quick return and when it is not is frustrating. Plus, a 2025 Indeed survey collect that more than a third of graduates consider that their university degree was a waste of money or time and that they could do the same without it. In the case of generation Z, the percentage rises to 51%. The boom in master’s degrees has also reached human resources departments: the Society for Human Resource Management warns that more and more companies are replacing degree requirements with practical skills criteria. This represents a gap between young people who accumulate theoretical degrees and human resources offices, which are looking for talent prioritizing, not the paper that proves that you studied it. Context. The market for people with a master’s degree is saturated simply because there are too many master’s degrees: hyper-specific, online and blended, express… because non-qualifying higher education is a most lucrative business. In the United States between 2005 and 2021, the master’s degree offer grew by 69% to exceed 33,500 according to the Postsecondary Education and Economics Research Center. In Spain, more of the same: “The Spanish university in figures” collect that the offer of master’s degrees in Spain has skyrocketed by 54% since the implementation of the Bologna Plan, going from 2,626 to more than 4,000 official degrees. This boom has been driven exponentially by private universities, with enrollment growth of 250% more. Meanwhile, two things happened that helped this perfect storm: according to Lightcast data analyzed by the Wall Street Journal, the percentage of job offers that require a university degree fell to 17.8% in 2024 compared to 20.4% five years ago, a trend that already affects 87% of sectors. The second big problem of young graduates is called AI: while HR looks for decisive people, companies are betting on artificial intelligence for those junior positions essential to gain experience. In Spain they work, but with small print. The CYD 2024 report points out that in 2023 Spain reached the highest overqualification rate in the entire European Union: 35.8% of higher graduates between 20 and 64 years old work in low-skilled positions, compared to the 21.9% average in the EU. That is to say, it is not that these master’s degrees do not help you find a job, it is that they help you find a job below what they promise. Yes, but. Practical skills may be emerging as an important requirement for employability, but theory is one thing and practice another: although 85% of companies say they hire based on skills, when it comes down to it, only 1 in every 700 actual hires meets that criterion. according to a report joint Burning Glass Institute and Harvard Business School. On the other hand, there are master’s degrees and master’s degrees: we have already seen that the qualifications continue to work and there are also subjects with high demand that make them potentially attractive. In Xataka | If the question is “how can I earn more money throughout my life,” the answer is simple: by going to college In Xataka | The most in-demand master’s degrees right now in Spain: a volume of enrollees that continues to grow every year Cover | Irene Vega

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