boar Archives - usatoday24

If the question is whether we can delay aging, Russia has an unusual plan with the “cousin” of the wild boar and humans

June 9, 2026 by usatoday24

In 1928, a Soviet scientist convinced that young blood could rejuvenate the body exchanged his own with that of a university student. The experiment turned the student into a survivor and the researcher into a of the first victims of the modern pursuit of longevity. The great Russian bet. If the question is whether aging can be delayed, Russia has decided to respond with an initiative of extraordinary dimensions. Under the direct impulse of Vladimir Putin, the weekend counted the wall street journal that the Kremlin has made longevity a national priority through a program valued at about $26 billion that seeks to develop technologies capable of prolonging human life and combating age-related deterioration. What for many Western leaders and businessmen remains a private bet financed by technological fortunes, in Russia has become a state strategy which combines genetic research, organ printing, xenotransplantation and other experimental technologies with the promise of saving hundreds of thousands of lives before the end of the decade. New organs for aging bodies. One of the most ambitious ideas of the project consists of progressively replace the defective parts of the human body as if it were a complex machine. It we have told before and Putin himself even commented publicly on the possibility of achieving a kind of practical immortality through the continuous replacement of damaged organs. To get closer to that goal, Russian scientists are working on two main lines: three-dimensional bioprinting of living tissues and the growth of human organs inside minipigs, a variety of pork considered especially compatible for this type of research. The stated goal is to achieve functional transplants of laboratory-produced organs by 2030, a goal that, if achieved, would represent one of the most important biomedical advances of the century. Genes, tissues and pigs at the service of longevity. The program also includes the development of gene therapies aimed at slowing down cellular aging. According to Russian authorities, these treatments represent some of the most promising tools to combat the biological wear and tear that accompanies the passing of the years. At the same time, researchers they claim having managed to print human cartilage and a mouse thyroid gland using bioprinting techniques, preliminary steps towards much more complex structures. The combination of Genetic engineering, organs grown in animals and the manufacture of artificial tissues paints a vision in which medicine stops limiting itself to repairing damage and begins to replace entire components of the organism. Putin’s daughter and the architects of the project. Behind this strategy appear some of the most influential figures of the presidential circle. Among them stands out Maria Vorontsova, Putin’s daughter and an endocrinologist linked to various state genetics programs, as well as the physicist Mikhail Kovalchuk, director of the historic Kurchatov Institute and one of the Kremlin’s main scientific ideologues. Kovalchuk holds that humanity is approaching an era in which organs can be routinely repaired or replaced, prolonging life for increasingly longer periods. For its defenders, aging will no longer be seen as an inevitable destiny and will begin to be treated as a technical problem susceptible to scientific intervention. Between cutting-edge science and community doubts. However, the program’s promises are far from to generate consensus. Many researchers they point out that much of the progress announced by Russia has barely been published in peer-reviewed international scientific journals. Some scientists who participated in the early stages of these investigations hold that there is a great distance between the proclaimed objectives and the results actually demonstrated. International sanctions, scientific isolation derived from the war in Ukraine and the difficulty of collaborating with Western centers also limit the capacity Russian to validate many of these projects. For critics, some of the statements made by the authorities should be interpreted more as aspirations for the future than as technologies close to becoming a reality. Personal obsession turned into state policy. Putin’s fascination with longevity it’s not new. For years he has cultivated a public image associated with physical strength through exhibitions Carefully constructed for sporting activity, hunting or outdoor adventures. At the same time, their behavior during the pandemic showed a extreme concern due to illness and physical deterioration, with strict quarantines, disinfection protocols and isolation measures that attracted the attention of the entire world. At 73 years old, also surrounded by an aging political and economic elite, the fight against the passage of time seems to have become more than a personal curiosity: it is part of a strategic vision shared by much of the Russian leadership environment. The long Russian tradition. The current project does not come out of nowhere either. Russia and previously the Soviet Union have historically shown a recurring fascination for research aimed at prolonging human life. Since the experiments with rejuvenating blood transfusions carried out by Alexander Bogdanov in the twenties until the theories of Oleksandr Bogomolets Regarding a life expectancy of 150 years supported by Stalin, different generations of Soviet and Russian leaders have pursued the idea of overcoming aging. Paradoxically, many of those pioneers they died long before to reach the extraordinary ages they defended. A race against an uncomfortable demographic reality. The bet is even more striking because it takes place in a country that continues to suffer some of the worst mortality indicators of the developed world. Male life expectancy in Russia He is currently around 68 years, well below that of the United States or Western Europe. In this context, the gigantic longevity program promoted by Putin it reflects both a scientific ambition and a national need. The question is whether printed organs, genetic treatments and minipigs capable of hosting future transplants will bring Russia closer to that vision of a increasingly longer life or if they will end up joining the long list of projects that promised to defeat aging and ended up crashing into a biological reality much more difficult to defeat. Image | IToldYa, Press Service of the President of the Russian Federation, Picryl In Xataka | We knew that living … Read more

No drones, no snipers. Wild boar hunters in Barcelona have a simpler natural remedy: a homemade recipe

May 26, 2026 by usatoday24

In 2022, a wild boar broke in on a terrace in Cadaqués and took several bags of food in front of dozens of tourists who recorded it with their cell phones while the animal walked between tables as if it had been living there for years. For many residents it was the definitive confirmation that wild boars were no longer occasionally entering the cities: they were beginning to behave like any other inhabitant. Barcelona and the impossible war. It we count a few days ago. Barcelona has been trying for years to contain the expansion of wild boars with health campaigns, population controls, forest surveillance and increasingly sophisticated protocols. However, the animals they keep moving forward street by street from Collserola to the urban heart of the city. The last episode has been especially symbolic: a specimen appeared calmly rummaging through garbage containers on Casanova Street, crossing the street for the first time. psychological frontier of the Gran Via and approaching the Raval. The image perfectly summarizes the underlying problem. While administrations and technicians deploy complex devices to control African swine fever and empty entire forest areas, wild boars continue to enter Barcelona attracted by something much more basic: easy food, accumulated garbage and urban waste converted into a permanent night buffet. The city as a new wild ecosystem. He Eixample case It reflects the extent to which the wild boar has stopped behaving like a strictly forest animal. Neighbors in the area had been reporting saturated containers for weeks, leftover food scattered on the street and a constant accumulation of dirt that attracted rats and other pests. The wild boar simply ended up occupying the last step of that urban food chain. The paradox is that, despite the thousands of copies captured and slaughtered around Collserola to contain swine feverthe city continues to offer exactly what these animals need to lose their fear of the human environment: easy access to food and the absence of predators. The result is a species increasingly accustomed to traffic, lights and densely populated neighborhoods, capable of crossing half of Barcelona during the early hours of the morning with absolute normality. The real secret remains the smell. The most striking thing is that, while Barcelona deploys health protocols, forest controls and institutional campaigns, many hunters have been using methods for years. much more rudimentary to attract wild boars. He viral success of homemade recipes based on anise, fermented corn, sugary soft drinks or sweet mixtures demonstrates the extent to which the animal’s behavior continues to be guided by extremely simple impulses. The strong smell of anise sprayed on cereal or the acidic aroma of fermentation act like a magnet for wild boars, which quickly locate any easy caloric source. This logic also explains what is happening in Barcelona: in the end, technology matters less than the ability to control access to organic waste. the city can deploy surveillance, sanitary sacrifices and mobility restrictions, but as long as there are points where garbage overflows and waste accumulates, it will continue to offer exactly the same stimulus as those improvised feedlots used in the mountains. Fauna altering a big city. I counted the weekend The World that the expansion of the problem is already beginning to have consequences that go far beyond neighborhood coexistence. The outbreak of African swine fever detected in Catalan wild boars has forced sanitary restrictions to be activated that have even ended up affecting the filming of large international productions. the movie The Last Druidstarring Russell Crowe, had to paralyze part of its production in Sant Cugat due to the limitations imposed in forest areas near the health outbreak. The episode illustrates the extent to which wild boar overpopulation has ceased to be a strictly environmental or agricultural problem and has become in a phenomenon with economic, urban and logistical impact. What began as the occasional presence of animals in the limits of Collserola is even beginning to interfere with industrial and cultural activities linked to the territory. Increasingly difficult coexistence. The big problem for Barcelona is that everything indicates that this situation It’s not temporary. Wild boars adapt extremely quickly to urban environments because they find constant food, less hunting pressure and relatively safe refuges in parks, open fields and peripheral green areas. At the same time, cities generate enormous amounts of accessible waste every night. The combination is explosive: animals increasingly trusting entering neighborhoods densely populated while administrations try to balance health control, animal welfare and citizen security. And there appears the great irony of the entire story. After massive campaigns, forestry devices and complex protocols, the battle against wild boars continues to revolve around something very ancient and elemental: the smell of food. Image | x In Xataka | The technological war that we see in Ukraine has an unexpected replica in Barcelona: this time the enemy is thousands of wild boars In Xataka | Lead has its days numbered in hunting. The problem is that no one really knows how to replace it.

We had been asking us for years why Chernobyl wild boar were so radioactive. The answer was not in the accident

July 4, 2025 by usatoday24

Almost four decades after the accident of the nuclear power plant located in Prypiat, Chernobil animals They continue generating fascination. These survivors in one of the most polluted regions in Europe They surprise us In many ways, but there is an enigmatic species in this place is that of wild boar. One of the most radioactive species of Chernobil. Solving the mystery. Have A new trackrevealed by a team of researchers, about these animals: we finally know why their radioactivity is greater than that of other species. The answer does not have so much to do with the nuclear accident in itself but with something that happened quite before. More radioactive? It is very little that we still know about Chernobil animals. One of the most curious enigmas was that of wild boars. To understand why we have to talk about one of the most polluting radioactive isotopes, the Cesio 137 (CS137). The semi -dear period of this isotope (the time in which half of the atoms we have of the material will have disintegrated) is just over 30 years. The concentration of cesium in the trophic chain should in principle even reduce to a greater extent since atoms tend to leak on the ground or be dragged by the water to the rivers. Going down. That is why the level of radioactivity in animals such as deer or roams has descended significantly in the area. Not only this situation has not occurred in the towns of Jabalís: its radiation levels have remained almost constant, that is, the descent is not even in line with which the semi -detail of the CS137 would imply. Is the “wild boar paradox” Nuclear tests and radioactive truffles. The response starts from Cesium 135. The team that resolved this mystery managed to focus not on radiation levels but in its origin. They found that it was this other Isotope of Cesium who was behind this phenomenon. The CS135 has a much longer half -grooming period, which explains why the reduction had been lower. This also makes it harder to detect the presence of CS135. As Explain the responsible team From the study, each type of nuclear incident has its own “signature”. It is estimated that 90% of CS137 present in Europe was released by the Chernobil accident, but this is not the case of CS135. The origin of this is 68% in the nuclear tests developed in the context of the Fíra war. The fair depth. The feeding of wild boars has also been one of the key factors when it comes to understanding the reason for their radiation levels. These animals feed on a type of truffle (Elaphomyces) that grows in the subsoil, at depths of between 20 and 40 centimeters. As we indicated before, part of the Radioactive Cesium He leaked year after year on the floor of the area. At the rate of a few millimeters a year, the Cesium (both the one from the nuclear tests and the accident) has been advancing towards these depths, contaminating these fungi, food source of the wild boars. From Chernobil to Bavaria. The study that clarified this mystery was carried out by analyzing a population of 48 wild boar in the state of Bavariasouth of Germany. The Analysis details They were published in the magazine Environmental Science & Technology. In the long term. The study results invite us to think that the situation will not change in the short term. That is, it is unlikely that the levels of radioactivity of wild boars begin to descend in the coming years until they are equal to those presented by other similar animals such as deer or roeans. The greatest radiation present in these animals has made the hunters resist their capture. This implies that the populations of these wild boars will go increasing. Perhaps their expansion through central Europe makes the radiation levels of these animals decline generation after generation but, from what we have seen, this process could still be extended for decades. In Xataka | Birds, wild boars and even a prehistoric clam: these are some of the species that returned from extinction In Xataka | Some Spanish scientists are recreating the cranobil accident in Seville. Objective: See how it affects biodiversity Image | Joachim Reddemann / Кирил урин *An earlier version of this article was published in July 2024

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