century

If the question is how much an employee would have to work to earn the same as a manager, we have the answer: a century

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The wealth gap between the richest and the poorest is skyrocketing around the world. There are people whose salary in a single year far exceeds what any other average job could earn by working their entire life. It’s not an exaggeration: it’s what the numbers show. A report of Oxfam Intermón and the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), analyzes the salary data of 1,500 large companies in 33 countries and quantifies the difference between what an average worker earns and what he earns a senior manager in Spain: That gap is no longer measured in years of salary, it is measured in centuries. A century of work to earn the same. According to data from the Oxfam report, in Spain, the general directors of the 12 largest companies in the country earned an equivalent average remuneration in 2025 98 times the national average salary. That means that an employee in Spain with an average gross salary in Spain of between 27,300 and 31,600 euros would have to work almost an entire century to accumulate what one of those senior managers earns in a single year. The data in the report is in line with what was included in the fourteenth edition of the remuneration report that published The Countrywhich stated that the annual salary received by the managers of Ibex 35 companies was 103 times higher than that of their employees. A gap that has become an abyss. The problem is that the gap is not only enormous, but it is widening every year and risks becoming an unbridgeable abyss. The average compensation of CEOs grew by 16% in the last year, while the average salary of workers in Spain it only increased 3.6% in 2025. At a global level the figure is not much better, since the real salary of workers globally fell by 12% between 2019 and 2025 due to inflation and wage stagnation. What happens in the rest of the world. The data from the report shows that, on a global scale, the situation is not very different, and the 1,500 highest-paid CEOs in the world earned an average of 8.4 million dollars in 2025, compared to 7.6 million the previous year. That represents an increase of 11% in real terms. For an average worker to accumulate that same salary, they would need to work 490 years non-stop. Meanwhile, the real salary what the worker receives average taking inflation into account, barely rose 0.5% between 2024 and 2025. That means that the highest paid executives improved their income 20 times faster than your employees. Real salaries, in free fall since 2019. The data on workers is worrying in itself, regardless of any comparison. Since 2019, workers’ real salaries have fallen by 12% worldwide, which is equivalent to having worked 108 days without pay between 2019 and 2025, 31 of them in the last year alone. Although the study shows that productivity per worker has grown by 51% since 2004, the part of GDP that goes to salaries has been reduced by 2 percentage points in that same period. Miguel Alba, head of Inequality and the Private Sector at Oxfam Intermón, pointed out that: “The remuneration of senior managers in large companies reaches exorbitant dimensions, very far from what ordinary people earn to cover living expenses.” Extreme wealth and a demand for change. The report also points to the growth of large fortunes as part of the same phenomenon. In Spain, the billionaire wealth It increased by 29.5% in the last year, representing 13.8% of GDP, distributed among 44 billionaires. In contrast, the average net wealth of Spanish households only grew by 3% between the end of 2022 and the end of 2024, according to data from the Bank of Spain collected in the report. On a global scale, among the largest beneficiaries of dividends in 2025 are Bernard Arnault, owner of LVMH, with $3.8 billion, and Amancio Ortega with 3.7 billion dollars (3,234 million euros). Faced with this scenario of extreme differences, Oxfam Intermón and the ITUC call on governments to limit the remuneration of senior managers, to tax the richest more fairly and to guarantee that minimum salaries are updated in line with inflation to ensure that employees do not lose purchasing power. In Xataka | Low salaries have ruined the job satisfaction of Spaniards: only 28.7% are satisfied with their job Image | Unsplash (Muhammad Sultan Ali, Ruthson Zimmerman)

The current that warms Europe will weaken by 51% before the end of the century. And Spain, according to experts, is already beginning to notice

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“The 5% chance just became 50%.” This quote from Stefan Rahmstorf, the world’s leading expert on the collapse of the AMOC, describes the change it introduces the study just published by the University of BordeauxIt’s this April 15th. But the story goes beyond the number: it is the latest installment of the great climate debate of the decade. A debate that, whoever wins, we are all losing. What exactly is AMOC and why do we care? The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation is the North Atlantic branch of the thermohaline circulation. Since the sun does not heat the sea equally everywhere and freshwater flows reach the ocean at very specific points, this is the basic mechanism by which the oceans balance differences in temperature and salinity. The AMOC is a good example of this regulation. After all, as explained from AEMETit is an “Atlantic basin-scale north-south ocean flow that begins with cold sea water sinking to the bottom off Greenland, subsequently flowing south, and being replaced by warmer water flowing at the surface from the south, transferring heat from the tropics to the east coast of North America and the west coast of Europe.” Therefore, it is a key mechanism and if it stops, as studies began to say a decade ago, the problems for Europe would be enormous. Huge? “Without it, Western Europe and eastern North America would cool significantly, with a host of potential adverse effects,” said Sánchez Laulhé. We talk about a “widespread cooling throughout the North Atlantic and northern hemisphere in general” that would collapse the temperature in Europe would drop several degrees and cause a “strengthening of winter storms, with more and more powerful explosive cyclogenesis” and a “greater proportion of precipitation falling in the form of snow throughout Europe.” However, scientists do not fully agree. In 2021, the IPCC said the AMOC was “unlikely” to collapse. In 2023, the Ditlevsens not only said that it was a probable scenario, but that they set the first date for the collapse. In 2024, 44 signatories They asked to take the problem seriously. But in January 2025 Terhaar, Vogt and Foukal said which, in short, had not weakened since 1063. Now, the University of Bordeaux states that the AMOC will weaken by around 51% by the end of the century with a confidence level of 90%, under the intermediate emissions scenario. What can already be seen. French researchers they are right in which the most recognizable observational signal of the weakening of the AMOC is the “cold spot” of the subpolar Atlantic south of Greenland. In the midst of climate change, “the only point on the planet that has cooled in the last century.” However, we are also not clear what that really means. And there is the key. So will Europe freeze? Probably, but that’s not what’s interesting. Throughout the history of the Atlantic it has been passed many times. The question is whether it will be soon, if it will be our fault, if we can avoid it and what consequences it will have. Be that as it may, Spain will not be the most affected, but it will be. It is being. Stefan Rahmstorf, for example, said last year at the Autonomous University of Madrid that “the slowdown of the AMOC is already having impacts in Spain.” You just have to know how to read the signs. Image | Xataka In Xataka | We have been fearing the fading of the AMOC current for years. We have good news

In the 13th century, some monks destroyed a valuable manuscript of the Bible. We just recovered 42 of your pages

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The one of ‘Codex H’ It’s an ironic story. Despite its enormous value, in the 13th century the monks of the Great Laura Monastery (Greece) They decided to dismantle it to reuse their materials in other works. Parchment was scarce and it was time to recycle, even if it was at the cost of destroying a manuscript that was already more than 400 years old at that time. Historians have always considered its content lost. Now, with the help of science, they have rescued more than 40 pages. And they are a real treasure. What is the ‘H Code’? A 6th century manuscript especially valuable for its content. Beyond its age, its heritage value or as a curiosity, the work is interesting because it offers us a copy of the Letters of Saint Paul made only a few centuries after the apostle himself wrote them. That is, the codex was written in Greek a few centuries after (VI) Paul of Tarsus wrote his epistles in the 1st AD. It may seem like a long time, but to scholars who study the New Testament it offers a valuable treasure: a clue to how those epistles were organized in the Early Middle Ages. The ‘Codex H’ also has another peculiarity: it is the oldest sample of the known as “Euthalian Apparatus”a system of divisions and annotations of the New Testament. And what happened to him? That the work ended up dismantled. Literally. In the 13th century, parchment was a scarce commodity, so in the Monastery of the Great Laura, on Mount Athos (Greece), they decided to sacrifice the manuscript to take advantage of your materials. Their idea was to use parchment to bind and create endpapers for other works, so they inked their pages again. This explains why researchers have found fragments of the work scattered throughout libraries in Italy, Greece, Russia, Ukraine and France. Other pages never appeared and were considered lost forever. And it wasn’t like that? Not quite. The monks of the 13th century may have recycled the parchment to make endpapers and bind other manuscripts, but that does not mean that the original pages (and their content) had been lost. Not at least when examined with the help of science of the 21st century. “We knew that, at some point, the manuscript was re-inked. The chemicals in the new ink caused ‘shift’ damage to the facing pages, creating a mirror image of the text on the opposite sheet, sometimes leaving traces of several pages, barely visible, but very clear with the help of the latest imaging techniques,” explains Garrick Allenprofessor at the University of Glasgow and one of the experts who have studied the codex. What exactly have they done? With the collaboration of the Electronic Library of Ancient Manuscripts (EMEL), the researchers used multispectral imaging and processed the preserved pages in search of “ghost” texts. The term may sound strange, but it basically allows experts to get the most out of a folio, looking for traces that allow them to reconstruct other pages that are no longer physically preserved. To guarantee historical accuracy, the team led by Professor Allen collaborated with experts from Paris who, thanks to radiocarbon dating, confirmed that the material they were working with was parchment from the 6th century. What did they find? Neither more nor less than 42 pages lost (so far) from ‘Codex H’. And that is much more important than it may seem at first glance. The recovered texts are fragments of the Letters of Saint Paul, writings that were already known and do not represent any historical novelty in themselves. What is really interesting is not so much his sentences but everything that surrounds them. What does that mean? That those 42 pages provide an enormous amount of information to researchers on issues such as the way the scribes worked, how they related to Paul’s work, how they organized them and (of course) how they reused the materials when the codices aged. Does it give you that much information? The University of Glasgow stands out especially how the 42 pages of the codex help us better understand the changes that the New Testament has undergone. “They offer a unique perspective on how it has evolved and been interpreted over the centuries,” notes the institution before stopping specifically at the “list of chapters.” “These pages contain the oldest known examples of chapter lists from Paul’s Letters, which differ drastically from how we divide these letters today,” they need in Glasgow. The Greek codex also provides information about how 6th-century scribes corrected, annotated, and interacted with the epistles of Saint Paul with whom they worked. Images | University of Glasgow In Xataka | The Bible has always been the most sacred book. Young Christians are filling it with post-its, underlines and cute covers

Mexico’s real problem is that it is warming three times faster than a century ago

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Mexico is experiencing the first major consolidated heat episode of 2026 and there is more than 22 entities affected on the Pacific slope and the southeast. That’s highs of up to 45 degrees in a country that is warming up to three times faster than the last century. And, despite everything, no one seems too worried. Why would they be? Mexico closed 2025 with reservoirs at 72% and by April 15 only 12.3% of the territory is affected by drought. You only have to go to 2024 to find a spring with 76% of the country in a critical situation: no matter how much the heat is getting earlier, it is logical that no one takes it very seriously. Especially if we take into account that experts do not agree on the nature of the event. Once it has been ruled out that, technically, it is a ‘heat wave’; The National Weather Service says we talk about a ‘color wave’ and services like Meteored doubt whether that can even be talked about. The great Mexican mess. While the thermometers of Sinaloa, Durango, Nayarit, Guerrero, Michoacan, Chiapas and, occasionally, Jalisco will be placed above of 40 degrees; the rain will reach the eastern half of the country: It is a clear example that the asymmetry in how climate change affects Mexico means that the country begins to live in several seasons at the same time. And that is the central issue: Mexico is warming rapidly and that means innumerable problems. Heating up rapidly? According to the UNAM Climate Change Research Programbefore 2012 the warming rate per century was 1.9 degrees. Now that rate has catapulted to 3.5. This means that projections speak of 1.95 degrees only for 2026, while the average is 1.5. And El Niño is knocking on the doors. Therefore, the fact that there is water in the swamps does not solve anything: it simply makes us trust. But let’s talk about the problems. Because, although we do not usually emphasize it, heat has a direct impact on public health. Only in 2024 306 people died from heat stroke in Mexico. The fact that the heat is ahead is not good news. Above all, because as we already know, the hot Mexican season produces peak values ​​between April and May. In this way, it is reasonable to think that all this heat is nothing more than part of what is coming. Image | BenBaso | Xataka In Xataka | We are living in the hottest years on Earth and the consequences will be so severe that not even our grandchildren will see the end.

the remains of a 17th century nobleman that have not decomposed over the years

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In the crypt of a small rural church in Kampehl, a town in Brandenburg, one of the most studied and controversial corpses on the entire continent has been lying for more than three centuries: that of Christian Friedrich von Kahlbutz, a feudal lord of the town who died in 1702. What is so special about a nobleman? German Prussian died more than 300 years ago? That at this point he should be decomposed and not only is he not, but his body is preserved in an exceptional way, that is, mummified naturally, without anyone embalming it. The discovery. It was the year 1794 when, while the Kampehl church was being renovated, workers opened the family crypt with the intention of moving the remains and demolishing the vault. Over there they found three coffins: two contained completely decomposed corpses and in the third was the body of Christian Friedrich von Kahlbutz, quite intact, dry and with an appearance reminiscent of leather. The nobleman was a mummy that preserved recognizable facial remains, remains of hair and part of the clothing they used to bury him (another thing is that with the passage of time and desecrations he remained naked, which earned him that nickname). Since the coffin had no name, the initials on the shroud served to identify him. The Kalebuz knight is extremely well preserved for his age. Via: Anagoria The character. If the state of preservation of Christian Friedrich von Kahlbutz is already striking, his life (and the legends that have emerged around it) are not far behind. The knight Kalebuz (that is the correct spelling according to the parish book of the Köritz church) was not actually a knight by military rank (he was a cornet) but by belonging to the nobility, he participated in the Battle of Fehrbellin and he won but not before injuring his left knee, as they say. Stay with this last piece of information. As a reward, they granted him the lordship of Kampehl. There he married and had numerous legitimate children and many others illegitimate. Among other things, because among its practices was the right of stay. In 1690, a servant named Maria Leppin accused him of the murder of her fiancé, Pastor Pickert, supposedly because the young woman had denied him the right to stay. One of the (many) good things about his status was that swearing that he had not been was enough for acquittal. And so he did in the court of Dreetz. The legend tells that in that oath he said something like: “If I am the murderer, may God ensure that my corpse never rots.” Since the original trial records no longer exist, there is no way to verify it. The hypotheses of its natural embalming. Leaving aside the explanation of the divine promise for obvious reasons, several explanations for the mummification of the Kalebuz knight have been proposed over the years: Mummification by healing (yes, like sausage) is the main one: the coffin used was of exceptional quality, made of double oak and raised on four legs, which allowed dry air currents to extract moisture from the body before bacterial decomposition. This was helped by a well-ventilated crypt, the sealing of the coffin to prevent access by ghoul insects, and the condition of the corpse itself. Apparently Kahlbutz probably suffered a serious lung disease (such as tuberculosis) and was already very deteriorated, with little nutritional substrate for microorganisms. This is what is deduced from comprehensive analysis report of the team Professor Andreas Winkelmannprofessor of anatomy at the Brandenburg Medical School Theodor Fontane. The effect of ingesting toxic substances. Another hypothesis that is more difficult to verify point to the chronic ingestion of toxic substances common in the pharmacy of the time (such as arsenic or mercury) that could have impregnated the tissues with compounds that inhibited decomposition, in addition to, of course, slowly poisoning him. After three centuries, these substances transform or volatilize and leave little analytical trace. Soil conditions. In addition, there is research that suggest that the sandy and dry composition of the crypt subsoil could have been a contributing factor in the extraction of moisture. Mummification by healing, the main hypothesis. Anagoria Yes, but. The passage of time, looters and legends do not make it easy to shed some light and science on the mystery of the good preservation of the Kalebuz knight. The fact that the trial records do not exist is in fact the least of the problems. The thorniest thing is identity: trusting everything to the initials of the shroud is a delicate matter. In 1983 a computed tomography made by Professor Meinhard Lüning at the Charité Hospital in Berlin found no trace of the knee injury. Neither does the 2024 investigation. Furthermore, Knight Kalebuz had two sons with the same initials, although it is not recorded that they died in Kampehl. In 2024 they also did a DNA analysis and there they could neither confirm nor deny that tuberculosis was the cause of death. In short: it is not known what ended the life of this nobleman. The most disconcerting thing is that the CT scan showed a pencil in the middle of the chest cavity. The only explanation is a subsequent manipulation: in 1895 the doctor Rudolf Virchow performed an extraction of tissue leaving a hole in the chest, which made it possible for someone to insert the object. The pencil was identified as Faber brand and dated between 1900 and 1920, which fits with the period in which the mummy was already on display to the public. In Xataka | A treasure hunter looted a shipwreck, did not reveal where he had kept the treasure and spent 10 years in prison. Now you are free to get it back In Xataka | We just discovered that a semi-legendary Nile king really existed thanks to a 17th century document found in trash Cover | Wikimedia and Mmoka

If the question is why men don’t wear skirts, the answer lies in the 18th century: the Great Male Renunciation

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We have it so internalized, so assimilated, that perhaps you have never thought about it, but here goes one of those questions that sound like a truism: Why do men and women dress differently? Why is it that when we go to a wedding, a gala or an elegant dinner, it is taken for granted that they will wear a more or less sober suit and discreet colors while they will wear dresses and heels? Why are ‘men’s’ clothes usually more functional than women’s clothes? And already, why don’t we wear skirts, like was wondering recently David Uclés? As is usually the case when we talk about fashion (social trends in general), none of the above is the result of chance or simple whim. Why do you dress the way you dress? Things as they are: if you are a man (at least in the Spain of 2026) and you go to a meeting in a dress and heels, it is quite likely that your colleagues will be surprised to see you cross the door. However, the same clothing on a woman would be considered very normal. Because? That same question was recently asked by the writer David Uclés. And it’s not the first. Before him, others had already slipped it, such as the designer and photographer Ana Locking, who in another recent interview on the SER network encouraged men to be much more risky when selecting their wardrobe. “If you want to feel sexy today, dress sexy. The boys’ legs are super sexy, the boys’ necklines are super sexy. Open your neckline, wear a skirt, some shorts, some ankle boots with a little heel,” encouraged Locking after lamenting that, as they mature, men “clip their wings” when they confront the closet. “What they will say comes into play a little bit, feeling vulnerable.” Is it just social pressure? It depends how you look at it. Fashion in itself is a social construct, but the tendency that leads us men to opt for sober clothing and banish skirts, heels and clothing that may be considered ‘extravagant’ from our wardrobes is explained by another reason: the story. In fact, it is not a guideline that has always been applied. Come take a walk through the Costume Museum or El Prado to prove that when it comes to men’s fashion, sobriety has not always been synonymous with good style or elegance. For example, this canvas of King Philip V with his family painted in 1743 by Louis Michel van Loo or this other work from the end of the 17th century, also preserved in El Prado, and in which Jacob-Ferdinand Voet shows us Luis Francisco de la Cerda, IX Duke of Medinaceli. Is there anything that catches your attention about them? Wigs, high heels and brilli brilli? Exact. If you look at both works you will see that the men wear wigs, heels, stockings, loose jackets that fall almost like skirts, and an abundance of bright colors, the kind of clothing that at that time (late 17th century, first half of the 18th century) denoted status. If you think about it it makes sense. What they show us Jacob-Ferdinand Voet and Louis Michel van Loo They are characters dressed in colorful outfits, although they are not what we would say ‘functional’. But… Why should they be? If anyone could afford that kind of clothing it was aristocrats who didn’t have to work. Who doesn’t like heels? William Kremer explained it well in 2013 on the BBC when reviewing The history of high heels and why men stopped wearing them. Again, it may sound like a far-fetched question, but it actually makes a lot of sense and reveals even more about our history. For centuries heels were worn in the Middle East as part of horse riding clothing. And not only for aesthetic reasons. With them Persian soldiers could stand on the styles, stabilize themselves and adopt a good posture to use the bow. When at the end of the 16th century sha Abbas I of Persia He sent a diplomatic mission to Europe to gather support. The nobles noticed the Persian-style shoe. They liked it so much that over time they began to wear high heels that highlighted their size… and their social rank. And all that with heels? That’s how it is. “One of the best ways to convey status is through the impractical,” commented in 2013 Elizabeth Semmelhack, of the Bata Footwear MuseumToronto. Perhaps heels were not very advisable for walking through the countryside and the paved and potholed streets of the 17th century cities, but did the same nobles who posed for chamber painters dressed in clothes as luxurious as they were cumbersome have to do so? “They don’t work in the fields nor do they have to walk a lot.” Why did they stop being used? Times have changed. And the way of thinking. When they review the history of fashion (especially men’s fashion) historians usually stop at the Enlightenment, between the mid-17th century and the beginning of the 19th century, a time in which intellectuals opted for a way of thinking in which what was rational and useful was prioritized. Also education about privileges. Status is no longer an inherited gift, but the result of training and work. As far as fashion is concerned, this translated into a new sensitivity that favored the use of garments comfortable and functional. In England, for example, even landowners ended up embracing a more practical style, better suited to managing their properties. At least that’s how it was among men. The rational aspect stood out among them; The emotional nature was highlighted in them. Did only the Enlightenment influence? No. The Enlightenment mentality played a crucial role, but historians usually point out an episode that (although inspired by the Enlightenment) is much more specific, both geographically and temporally: the french revolution. Against this backdrop, the way one dressed became more than a simple aesthetic choice or a mark of status. … Read more

Germany has found a source of perovskite for solar panels in an unusual place: bullets from the 17th century

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Solar energy is, with the permission of wind energy, the renewable energy that has stood out the most and best in the energy transition on a global scale. There are already solar parks everywhere: from fields that They fill the emptied Spain to deserts passing through the tibetan plateau and also in high seas either in lakes. And although the most common technology is crystalline silicon, perovskite is the great promise. There is a compelling reason to bet on perovskite: a record efficiency certified in a laboratory. up to 26%. However, a large-scale deployment of perovskite solar cells requires a large-scale, sustainable supply of high-purity lead iodide. We have come across lead: a toxic element whose mining is not exactly sustainable. On the not-so-good side, recycling it to the required purity levels is a technical challenge that a German research team at the Helmholtz Institute in Erlangen-Nuremberg has just solved. And in what way: have achieved converting 17th century musket balls into high-performance solar cells. The idea. It consists of a process of upcycling (upcycling) in two stages: first a non-aqueous electrochemical route and then purification through the crystallization of single crystals, quite different from traditional methods based on strong acids and large volumes of water. To demonstrate the robustness of their method, the team used lead bullets from the 16th and 17th centuries as raw material, a truly complicated material in that it contains carbon residues, metallic inclusions and oxidation patina. If the process can clean up this type of historical residue, it can handle virtually anything you throw at it (obviously any lead residue). Recycling bullets into solar cells transforms lead waste into a clean energy source. Why is it important. Perovskite solar cells require extraordinarily pure lead iodide, and achieving that level of purity from contaminated waste was until now a challenge without a practical solution that this research has solved: the team manufactured solar cells with their recycled material and obtained 21% efficiency, practically identical to the 22% of devices manufactured from industrial synthesis. Beyond the technical result, the process solves two problems at the same time: it offers a way to supply the enormous demand for lead iodide that will be generated by the take-off of perovskite solar cells without resorting to new mining and at the same time eliminates a toxic pollutant whose current management is expensive and environmentally problematic. Context. As we mentioned above, lead is an abundant waste: it comes from used car batteries, electronic scrap, construction materials or ammunition, among others. Lead recycling is dominated by car batteries, which have very high recovery rates in developed countries. The problem is in the rest: In 2018, only 48% of the world’s residual lead at the end of its useful life was recovered and in more dispersed flows such as electronics or construction, the recovery is even lower. Conventional recycling returns metallurgical-grade lead, useful for batteries and alloys, but far from what the solar industry requires. In addition, they are slow processes that generate toxic gases such as nitrogen oxides and large quantities of contaminated wastewater, up to 70 liters per kilogram of lead iodide produced. Traditional high-temperature purification methods are expensive and complex. More robust, adaptable and cleaner extraction and purification methods are needed for perovskite technology to truly scale. How they do it. The bullets are cleaned with dilute nitric acid, melted and molded into rods that act as electrodes in an electrochemical cell with acetonitrile and dissolved iodine. When current is applied, lead reacts directly with iodine and precipitates as lead iodide with 94% efficiency. Doing it this way, in a non-aqueous medium, is a deliberate decision to avoid introducing impurities that would accelerate the degradation of the perovskite. The resulting lead iodide still contains metallic impurities, so it is not suitable for solar cells. That is why it is subjected to a second purification stage through crystallization at a controlled temperature for about 70 hours. The process is exceptionally selective: as the crystal grows, it expels contaminating metals such as silver or copper, raising the purity of the material to levels comparable to or even higher than the highest quality commercial standard. Yes, but. The process works and the results are solid, but scale matters: at the laboratory level, productivity is just 0.05 grams per hour and each purification cycle lasts about 70 hours. The leap to an industrial scale requires solving the recovery of organic solvents, controlling the passivation of the electrodes and substantially improving the productivity of the process. The research team does not hide it: the chemistry is proven, but the distance from the laboratory to a real production plant is long and will determine whether we end up seeing perovskite panels made with recycled lead or if this remains like a shiny piece of paper in a drawer. In Xataka | Germany has had a crazy idea to solve one of the problems of renewables: covering a lake with solar panels In Xataka | 800 meters deep in a 175 million year old rock: Germany’s solution to nuclear waste Cover | By Branch and Soren H

an Arabic document from the 17th century has confirmed its existence

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If we think about characters and civilizations in African history, most of us think of the pharaohs and pyramids of Ancient Egypt and little else. However, there is much more and you don’t have to go far from that enormous continent: just to the south, following the river inland, there were powerful kingdoms with their own kings, their own cities and their own cathedrals (yes, I said cathedral). One of those kingdoms was called Makuria, and its capital was Old Dongola, a great city on the banks of the Nile that for almost a thousand years was a center of power, commerce and culture. Curiously, while Europe was living through the Middle Ages, Dongola was a prosperous Christian city that even stood up to the Arab armies that conquered North Africa. Over time it declined, became Islamized and was almost forgotten, buried under the desert. The history of the region Nubia It is almost a documentary silence. It’s not that nothing happened: it’s that almost nothing was written or what was left had not been excavated. In that darkness, a small fragment of Arabic paper recovered in a garbage dump in ancient Dongola (the north of present-day Sudan) has just marked a before and after. The discovery. The document measures just 10 × 9 centimeters, it was found in a garbage dump inside Building A.1 of the Old Dongola citadel (what has been popularly known there for centuries as the “King’s House”) and it is an administrative order issued in the name of King Qashqash. The king orders a subordinate named Khiḍr to arrange an exchange of sheep with their offspring, cotton cloth, and a headdress between several individuals. The text was written by the scribe Hamad and the research team behind the paper considers that it is probably the response to a previous letter, suggesting that there was an active epistolary network around the court. It is, simply, the king working on his task of administering, managing assets and relationships within his network of power. The first face of the King’s order. M. Rekłajtis/PCMA in Barański et al. 2026 Why is it important. The relevance of the discovery has several levels, but the most direct and immediate is to confirm the historical existence of Qashqash, of which there was previously only evidence through oral tradition, including fragments of the Kitāb al-Ṭabaqāt of Wad Ḍayfallāh. This book compiled in 1700 compiles the biographies of the most important saints and religious teachers of the Sudan, based on stories that had been transmitted orally from generation to generation. Beyond that confirmation, the discovery sheds some light on what the “Dark Ages” of Nubia were like. For centuries the image left by Leo Africanus in the 16th century predominated, describing the king of Nubia as a monarch perpetually at war. This document demonstrates the opposite: the region was politically active and its king was not on the battlefield, but rather involved in the daily management of goods and networks of reciprocal exchange, which was the central mechanism of political power in precolonial Sudan. Context. Old Dongola was the capital for centuries of the Christian kingdom of Makuriaone of the most powerful medieval African kingdoms in the Nile Valley. In the mid-14th century it ceased to be so, and the city progressively contracted until it was reduced to its citadel and its immediate surroundings. What followed is the period that historians call the Sudanese “Dark Ages”: three centuries in which Dongola was caught at a geopolitical crossroads: with pressure from the north by Ottoman Egypt, from the south by the Funj sultanate, and meanwhile its society was Islamized. It was in that delicate context that Qashqash probably reigned between the second half of the 16th century and the first years of the 17th century. one of the first rulers of that dark period that has been able to be verified. How have they done it. The PCMA research team at the University of Warsaw have combined three independent avenues to date and contextualize the document: with numismatics using Ottoman silver coins from the same stratum, radiocarbon of organic matter from the garbage dump, and cross-literary genealogy, combining the Kitāb al-Ṭabaqāt and the account of the traveler Evliya Çelebi, the documented descendants of Qashqash. The convergence of the roads has made it possible to reconstruct the limits of when his reign was. Qashqash is just the tip of the iceberg. The document is also a linguistic testimony of the first order: written in Arabic, it has grammatical irregularities and colloquial spellings that show that although it was not fully established, it was already the language used by the chancellery. In short: evidence of the gradual Arabization of Nubia, which was adopted and adapted. Another interesting point is that archaeological evidence and local oral memory confirm each other. Building A.1 has been called the “King’s House” by the inhabitants of Dongola for centuries and the descendants of Qashqash continue to live nearby. Finding the royal order precisely there is no coincidence: it is archeology validating what the community had remembered for generations. In fact, the collaboration between the research team and those who live there has been close, something they consider essential for a correct interpretation. Shedding light on the dark ages. The Qashqash order is only the first published result of a much larger corpus as the project has recovered approximately fifty Arabic paper documents in Old Dongola, including letters, legal and administrative texts, and written amulets. The first analysis points to communication networks that connected religious, administrative elites and possibly nomadic leaders of the region. A comprehensive and in-depth analysis of the set will shed some light on the political, legal and social history of pre-colonial Nubia. In Xataka | A cargo sunk in a Swiss lake 2,000 years ago confirms it: the Roman legions did not deprive themselves of anything In Xataka | A treasure hunter looted a shipwreck, did not reveal where he had kept the treasure and spent 10 years … Read more

the astronomical event of the century is approaching

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Many of us still have the healthy envy of seeing the spectacular images of the total solar eclipse who toured Mexico, the United States and Canada two years ago. It was an event that paralyzed a continent, especially in the so-called “strip of totality”, the areas that were left completely dark. Well, the next great cosmic event has Spain as a global protagonist. And we won’t have to wait long. August 12, 2026. In just four months the first total solar eclipse visible in Spain since 1905 will take place, a unique opportunity in more than a century. Together with Iceland, which will enjoy 58 seconds of totality, we will be the only country in the world that will be able to see all phases of the eclipse. And let’s be honest: in the middle of August, our chances of having clear skies are considerably better than those of Icelanders. Context. A total eclipse occurs when the Moon aligns perfectly between the Sun and Earth, casting a shadow that plunges the lucky ones into twilight darkness in broad daylight. In the event of 2026, this shadow, the strip of totality, will be about 300 kilometers wide and will cross Spain from west to east, from Galicia to the Balearic Islands. The autonomous communities that will remain under the shadow cone of totality are Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria, Castilla y León, the Basque Country, La Rioja, Aragon, Catalonia, the Valencian Community and the Balearic Islands. Madrid will be right on the edge, with a fleeting totality in the north of the region. But the rest of the country will not be left empty-handed and will witness a very deep partial eclipse, with coverage of more than 90% (and up to 74% in the Canary Islands, with Lanzarote as the island with the best seats for the show). Almost two minutes. An essential tool to plan the observation of the eclipse down to the millisecond is the interactive map by Xavier Jubier. This resource is the gold standard for eclipse hunters because it allows you to click on any point on the map to obtain the exact times of each phase, the duration of totality, the altitude of the Sun in the area… You can also consult the map of the National Geographic Institute. The eclipse will begin just before sunset. The totality phase will take place around 8:30 p.m. (peninsular summer time), with the sun already very low on the horizon. This turns observation into a race against time against the setting sun. In cities like Oviedo, totality will last 1 minute and 48 seconds, just a few moments longer than in Burgos, León or the island of Mallorca, which is emerging as one of the most tourist places to see the eclipse (with the disadvantage that the Sun sets earlier than in the northwest of the peninsula). Safety first. As much as it may tempt us to look directly at the Sun, even partially eclipsed, can cause permanent eye damage. During all partial phases (before and after totality), it is necessary to wear glasses certified to view eclipses or indirect methods to observe it. For the rest, it will be enough to find an elevated observation place, with a horizon clear of mountains or buildings to the west so as not to miss what will undoubtedly be the astronomical event of the century. In Xataka | Half of Spain waits expectantly for the historic eclipse of August 2026. The authorities are already thinking about the problems In Xataka | Spain is very excited about the three eclipses that will arrive between 2026 and 2028. The Government is worried This article was originally published in June 2025. With the eclipse approaching, we have recovered and updated it.

Japan sent the wrong creature to eradicate snakes from an island. The disaster was so big that it took half a century to solve it

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Once again, desperate situations lead to extreme measures. Save a species sometimes it involves “exterminating” another. We have seen it in South Africa and his plan to annihilate miceeither injecting radioactive material into the horns of rhinosthe cases of hunt the wild cator the plan for exterminate half a million owls. However, sometimes things do not go as governments imagine. In Japan they know it perfectly. The incident of ’79. The story begins in 1979 on the Japanese island of Amami Ōshima, located in the Kagoshima prefecture. That year, Amami’s rabbit is rediscovered (Pentalagus furnessi), an endemic species and considered a “living fossil” due to its evolutionary antiquity. Before the discovery, the rabbit was thought to be on the brink of extinction due to habitat loss and hunting. The discovery marked a before and after for the conservation of the species and highlighted the importance of protecting the natural environment of the island, home to many other unique species. An event that also highlighted the need for greater conservation efforts at Amami Ōshima, for example trying to eradicate or control the snake population. A wrong “bomb”. Thus, a few months later, Japan launched a plan. Introduces around 30 mongooses to the island with the intention of ending the population of snakes, specifically the habu (Trimeresurus flavoviridis), which represented a threat to the local inhabitants. The idea, on paper, was a seamless plan: that the mongooses, which are natural predators of snakes, would reduce the number of habus and improve security on the island at all levels. However, that project was far from infallible. The mongoose was not the ideal creature to eradicate snakes. Firstly, because they are animals active during the day, therefore, they could not catch the nocturnal habu snakes, which continued to inhabit the following decades without problem. What happened as a result had an enormous ecological impact. A specimen of Trimeresurus flavoviridis Predation of endemic species. Thus, during the day, instead of focusing on the habu snakes, the mongooses began to prey on a wide range of native species, including several that had no natural enemies on the island until then. That seriously affected the local fauna, especially endemic and endangered species, like the same Amami rabbit that had just been happily announced months ago. Hundreds of thousands of mongooses. The situation reached such a point that the mongooses, brought in to eradicate one pest, had become an even larger and more dangerous one, one that It reached around 10,000 copies. at its peak around the year 2000. The truth is that Japan had already started a mongoose control project in 1993 that was expanded over time. As? Around 30,000 traps were set on the island to capture the animals and cameras with sensors were installed to monitor them. In addition, local residents formed the so-called Amami Mongoose Bustersa team specialized in capturing mongooses (they captured thousands). The end? In 2018, the last official capture of a mongoose on the island occurred. It occurred in the month of April, and since no creature has been captured for a long period of time, the expert panel, which is tasked with determining whether the animal is eradicated from the island, estimated that the eradication rate was between 98.8 and 99.8% in February last year, reaching a preliminary conclusion that it is reasonable to say/think that mongooses are eradicated from the island under the current circumstances. Finally, on September 3, 2024, Japan’s Ministry of Environment declared eradication of non-native mongooses on the island of Amami-Oshima, declared a World Natural Heritage Site by UNESCO. The statement was based on the opinion of the expert group on scientific grounds, taking into account that the capture of mongooses has not been confirmed for more than six years since the last one in April 2018. A unique case. The ministry itself did not hide the disaster that was the attempt to control the snakes in 1979. In fact, and as the administration has announced, it is one of the largest cases in the world in which non-native mongooses that had been established for so long have been eradicated. After the statement, the government explained that it will remove the traps that were placed on the island, although it will continue to monitor with cameras to prevent a new group of these small creatures from entering again. After all, if it took half a century to get them out of there, any contingency method is more than understandable. A version of this article can be foundlaunched in 2024 Image | Animalia, TANAKA Juuyoh, Patrick Randall In Xataka | “There are so many that you can hold them with your hand”: the daily nightmare of a town in Pontevedra with flies In Xataka | Salamanca faces its biggest environmental plague in decades. And the problem is that you can’t legally stop it.

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