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Toledo has proposed to change mass tourism for another “quality”. And it is clear where to look for it: in China

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With the flow of foreign visitors at record levels and the touristry converted into Hot debate themeToledo has proposed to rethink its tourism. The city lasts a ordinance that regulates the sector and He has recognized openly that he wants his flow of travelers to be more compatible with the day -to -day life of his neighbors, enhancing “quality tourism against mass.” Given that challenge, your City Council It is very clear Where you should look: China. That is why he has decided to go to the Asian giant has promoted himself. To the hunt for tourists. Toledo wants more Chinese tourists. And is willing to travel thousands of kilometers to achieve it. The city has just launched a commercial mission Headed by its mayor, Carlos Velázquez, to sell the benefits of the Castillanomanchega town in the Asian market. The delegation, in which local representatives and representatives of the hoteliers and the Toledo business fabric will participate, part today with a clear purpose: “reinforce tourism promotion” in China and (an important nuance) “attract quality tourism.” And what exactly will they do? In The statement In which he reports the campaign, the City Council does not give too many details, but it does advance that it will include “commercial meetings”, aspires to “consolidate” the image of Toledo as “quality tourism destination” and contemplates meetings with representatives of Chinese provinces. The team also wants to start the procedures for The twinning From Toledo with Xi´an, the city of the celebration Terracota warriors. What … and when. The initiative is interesting both for its content and (especially) for its context. After all, it is not any time for Toledo tourism. The City Council expects to approve This same month a New Ordinance which aspires to “make coexistence easier” between visitors and residents of their historic center and above all, In words of Carlos Velázquez himself, “to enhance quality tourism against mass.” That expression (“quality tourism”) is repeated half a dozen in The statement in which the City Council informs of the commercial mission. The New standard which will regulate the tourism of Toledo contemplates the declaration of certain streets of the Historic Center as saturated areas, in which special rules will be applied that facilitate the passage of visitors and neighbors. It also foresees that broad groups (formed by more than 30 people) must use individual audio systems, prohibit the use of megaphones at night and establishes that the guides Free Tours They will not be able to use colored umbrellas to capture customers. Why Chinese tourists? For several reasons. The main (and obvious) is the size of the Chinese market, a country of 1.4 billion of potential visitors. The Toledo Consistory himself remembers that only in the Xi´an metropolitan region, a territory with which he wants Portugal. And although the flow of travelers of the Asian giant is in a way conditioned By the war in Ukraine (the conflict affects aerial connections), Europe remains a Popular destination For the Chinese, whose tourism sector He recovers After the pandemic sake. In fact Toledo is not the only city that seeks to cut its visitors. Others locations and companies Spanish have already traveled to the Asian giant to strengthen ties. Carlos Velázquez himself has shown in other occasions His interest in China as the engine of a “quality tourism.” A figure: 3,150 euros. The Chinese visitor usually highlights for another reason, especially interesting for the tourism industry in its broader spectrum: the portfolio. According to the UNChina leads the ranking of international tourism spending, standing well above the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom and France, which complete the ‘Top 5’. And the United Nations is not the only source that points in that direction. In July Visa published A report on expenses of foreign visitors in Spain that places the Chinese in first position. “Each international tourist plans to spend on their trip to Spain up to € 3,150, which reinforces the positive impact of the sector on the national economy. For markets, Chinese tourists lead the average expenditure (€ 3,150), followed by Americans (€ 2,850) and Mexicans (€ 2,435)”, collect the reportwhich recalls that those who visit Spain do it above all for their cultural wealth, their attractiveness as a destination of sun and beach and the desire to know emblematic cities. The authors of the study They slide In addition, another interesting idea: as well as the British who arrive in Spain, they seek especially sun and beach and Mexican cultural experiences, the Chinese especially value purchases. Is there more data? Yes. And show the potential of the Chinese market that now hopes to conquer Toledo. While the flow of visitors to the Asian giant continues to be far from other countries such as the United Kingdom or Germany, The INE shows That last year Spain received just over 640,000 Chinese visitors, still below the 700,700 it reached before the pandemic. As for spending, the INE agrees that the average by Chinese visitor was around last year the € 2,900in front of the 1,300 of the Germans or 1,200 of the English. Statistics does not detail if it includes the value of flights. In any case, your half -day/person is also high: 406in front of the 165 of the Germans. Images | Daniel Velásquez (UNSPLASH), David Stanley (Flickr) and A Tourism (X) In Xataka | In San Juan de Luz they are discovering something: tourists are going from “picnic” to the beach before the prices of the bars

41,000 years ago, our ancestors survived an investment of the poles. We already know how they cope with this change

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About 41,000 ago, planet Earth became a much more hostile place than it is now. He magnetic shield that protects us from solar wind and Cosmic radiation It weakened until almost disappearing, and the magnetic poles, those references that the compasses use, abandoned the Arctic and Antarctica to roam all the globe. This event, known as the Laschamp excursionhe plunged the planet into An unprecedented radiation environment for almost two millennia. Our ancestors lived differently. The Homo sapiens I know They expanded by Eurasiaand the Neanderthals In their last millennia of existence, they lived under a very different sky. A new and revolutionary study published in Science Advances The space environment of the Earth has first rebuilt in 3D During this chaotic period. The results not only show us what the planet was like, but they offer fascinating clues about how our ancestors could have survived and even prospered. A broken magnetic shield and auroras about Ecuador. The Earth’s magnetic field is like an invisible shield generated by the planet’s liquid iron core. It protects us from a constant flow of charged particles emanating from the Sun. without it, The atmosphere would be swept and life on the surface, bombarded by harmful radiation. During the Laschamps event, This shield weakened until it reached just 10% of its current force. According to the simulation of the team led by Agnit Mukhopadhyay, this had two spectacular consequences related to the magnetosphere and the poles. The magnetosphere contracted dramatically. The protective bubble that surrounds us shrunk almost half of its normal size. At its weakest point, the limit of this shield (the Magnetopause) was only 15,500 km from the surface, a dangerously close distance. The poles went crazy. He Magnetic axis More than 75 degrees leaned. This caused the Earth’s magnetic field to become “multipolar”, with several North and South weak poles distributed by the planet, a configuration More similar to Uranus or Neptune than to that of our current land. Logically they had consequences. The most visible consequence of this magnetic chaos was the migration of the auroras. Normally confined to the polar regions, the lights of the north and the south expanded and wandered throughout the globe. The simulation shows that the Auroral oval moved from the Arctic, passing through Western Eurasia, until it reaches northern Africa. At the same time, in the southern hemisphere Las Auroras moved over Australia and New Zealand. In the peak of the event, the auroras were probably a global phenomenon, visible from almost any point on the planet. Adapt or die. See auroras From the Sahara it may sound poetic, but the reality was much more bleak. Those lights meant that the “open field lines” were no longer only on the uninhabited poles. They covered regions densely populated by prehistoric humans such as Europe. This implied a much greater exposure to Ultraviolet radiationwith all its associated hazards such as burns, skin cancer, eye damage or even fetal development problems. This is where the study connects geophysics with archeology in a fascinating way. The researchers point out that the Laschamps event coincides with notable changes in human behavior, which could be interpreted as adaptations to this new and radiant world. Appearance of custom clothing. The Homo sapiens From the Auriñaciense culture they developed tools such as bone needles and scrapers, associated with the manufacture of tight clothing. This clothes, unlike the simple skins or layers that are believed to use the Neanderthals, offered a Much more complete protection against UV radiation without sacrificing mobility. This innovation could have conferred on sapiens A competitive crucial advantage. Generalized ocher use. The ocher, a mineral pigment of iron oxide, becomes much more common in the archaeological sites of this era. It is known that ocher is an effective topical sunscreen. Its extended use could have been a direct response to protect the skin. The Boom of Rock Art. The event also coincides with the appearance of some of the first cave paintings known figuratives. The hypothesis is that, to protect themselves from radiation, humans spent much longer within caves, which could have encouraged the development of this cultural and symbolic expression in the safety of the gloom. The inevitable: the disappearance of the Neanderthals. This fact occurred just at the end of this period and that is why it was almost safely A multifactorial process. However, this study suggests that its possible inability to adapt to high levels of radiation, in contrast to the cultural innovations of the Homo sapiensit could have been another factor in its decline. If it occurred today, it would end up in Apocalypse. Although a geomagnetic event like Laschamps is not imminent, the Earth’s magnetic field It has weakened around 10% in the last 180 years and The magnetic north pole is moving at a record speed. If a similar event occurred in our current society, we would face an apocalypse. A weakened magnetic shield would leave our completely exposed communications and GPS satellites. The global electricity would suffer massive overloads that would cause generalized and lasting blackouts. And all this would be added to an alteration in the atmosphere that could lead to very important climatic changes. A look at the future of our planet. The Laschamp excursion study is not just a window to our deep past. It is a warning about the fragility of our world and a reminder that Earth is a dynamic and sometimes violent system. 41,000 years ago, our ancestors survived thanks to their ingenuity. Today, our survival would depend on a technology that, ironically, would be the first to fall. In Xataka | Amputations, cannibalism and dehumanization: the most violent and extreme killing of prehistory happened 4,000 years ago

The last O2 movement is not a simple rate change. It is an unexpected turn that can shake the market

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O2 has surprised us this week with a change that, although it seems small, tells us a lot where the operator is directed inside The new telephone. A rate It has disappeared From its catalog, and with it, O2 has eliminated the 300 Mbps of its offer and the possibility of hiring fiber and mobile for 30 euros per month. It is not good news for the market, let’s see why. Goodbye at 300 Mbps. O2 decided to charge a few days ago the fiber combined of 300 Mbps + two mobile lines of 10 GB and 30 GB, and also eliminated the possibility of hiring only 300 Mbps fiber. The only option that remained with that speed was the fiber combined 300 Mbps + Mobile 50 GB for 30 euros per month. That rate has disappeared this week, so the minimum speed that O2 offers throughout its catalog has become 600 Mbps. It doesn’t matter if you want only fiber or mobile fiber, you can no longer have 300 Mbps. It is only possible to choose 600 Mbps or 1 Gbps, just like Movistar. A higher input price. By eliminating that package of 30 euros per month, the most cheaper fiber and mobile team of O2 costs 35 euros per month. Of course, you have two modalities to choose from that price: 600 Mbps + 60 GB mobile fiber. 600 Mbps + Mobile 10 GB + Mobile 40 GB. These two plans offer twice as a speed and more gigabyes that the rate eliminated by a little more, yes, but there will be those who agree with those 300 Mbps to pay 5 euros less. When an operator eliminates its cheapest plan, the access price is more expensive to its products and that is never good news for the user. Quiet, O2 is not going to upload the price. The strategy of O2 goes to keep the customer happy, so the price never uploads or change the conditions of your rate unless it is an automatic and free improvement. Therefore, if you have hired the team that has eliminated, you can continue enjoying it, at the same price and with the speed of 300 Mbps. The competition does offer 300 Mbps. O2 is a very important actor not only for Telefónica, but for the Spanish market. And we have already seen on several occasions that, when O2 takes the first step, others usually move file. But that the panic does not travel, for the moment, there are still several 300 Mbps options for that price (or even less): In areas with own coverage, Digi It offers 300 Mbps + mobile 25 GB for 13 euros per month (15 euros if you want 50 GB). In areas where there is no smart fiber, DIGI proposes the same thing that has just eliminated O2: fiber 300 Mbps + mobile 50 GB for 30 euros per month. Lowi It has a pair of combined with 300 Mbps fiber for 30 euros per month. One with a 50 GB mobile line (like the rate that has removed O2) and another with two mobile lines of 25 GB each. Pepephone It gives the possibility of hiring 300 Mbps + Mobile fiber with 50 GB cumulative for 30 euros per month. But attentive to its next movements, because Pepephone is usually One of the first to imitate O2. Moremobile It also maintains a 300 Mbps + mobile fiber rate with 40 GB for 29.90 euros per month. O2 moves away from the low cost. Since its launch, O2 has offered much more competitive prices than its sister Movistar. And many expected Telefónica to be even more aggressive with O2 after have been released from regulatory obligations that limited their commercial capacity. That is why this movement has caught us by surprise. Now you can’t have fiber and mobile with O2 for 30 euros per month. If you want O2, you have to pay a minimum 35 euros. That amount enters its reasonable price policy, but it moves a lot away from the cheapest proposals of many of its low cost rivals (read Digi). With Murtra in command, one of the unknowns is which strategy will continue with O2. And who knows, perhaps the objective of O2 with this change is precisely that: to move further away from the concept of low cost that, for many, is synonymous with poor quality. Images | O2 In Xataka | If someone believed that the optical fiber was at the limit of their possibilities, Japan has arrived to show him the opposite

Bill Gates was so obsessed with driving a Porsche 959 that he managed to change the laws that prevented him

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Bill Gates, Microsoft’s co -founder is, in addition to one of the richest men in the worlda passionate about Supercars that Porsche manufactures. So much so that he even had to fight for more than a decade for the US government to change a law that would allow him to drive his Porsche through the streets of Seattle. Thanks to your perseverance, today Millionaires lovers of supercarlike Elon Musk or Larry Ellison, they can have their garages full of limited editing exotic hypercoches and drive them. The story of a Porsche 959 parked in customs Bill Gates is a great passionate about technology and engineering, so in 1987, he commissioned a brand new Porsche 959 that has just been presented. At that time, 959 was one of the most advanced supercarincluding one of the first biturbo engines with total traction and an electronic toe. The six -cylinder and 2.8 -liter engine of 959 delivered 450 horsepower and was able to reach 317 km/h. A prodigy of technology that the young and already millionaire Bill Gates did not resist driving. However, when his Porsche 959 arrived in the United States, he was held at Seattle Customs. The reason: the strict shock test imposed by US laws had not passed, and that prevented him from being able to circulate on public roads. The Porsche 959 was A technological revolution By the end of the 80s, a supercar that Porsche had developed with a huge expenditure that would never recover For direct sale. Due to the high cost that would add to the list of development expenses that they were not going to recover with sales, the German brand refused to perform the shock tests required by the United States. This left the Porsche 959 in anyone’s land and could not legally circulate in the country, and Porsche did not want to adapt it to comply with the regulations. Bill Gates then found an important problem, since his precious Porsche of the only 337 units were manufactured, he was CUSTOMS IN CUSTOMS of Seattle. Bill Gates’s obsession for that particular model led the millionaire to an unpublished situation that forced his brand new car to remain retained in Seattle customs for no less than 13 years. To ensure that he remained there, the millionaire paid throughout that time the $ 28 per day required by the Port Authority for keep the car parked In your deposit, adding a total of more than $ 138,000 for this concept for more than a decade. The Law “Show and Display” Bill Gates’ tenacity was essential to change this situation. Not satisfied with accepting that his car was confiscated in customs, the billionaire gathered the best lawyers and undertook a legal battle against US authorities to ensure that his Porsche 959 could legally circulate. For more than seven years, Gates pressed Washington to change the legislation and allow an exemption For importation and the use of certain rare and collectible cars that are not officially sold in the United States. In this way, the door opened to them US Millionaires and Collectors They can buy these exotic units and limited editions, although they do not meet certain legal traffic demands. Bill Gates’ perseverance was fruit and, in 1999, President Bill Clinton signed the Law “Show and Display” which allows certain historical or technologically relevant vehicles to be imported and driven under special conditions. This law only affects cars with less than 500 manufactured units and special editions, and limited its driving to no more than 2,500 miles per year (about 4,023 kilometers). These limits emphasized the orientation of the law to allow entry to collection pieces and rare units, not to regular use cars. Thanks to this law, the Porsche 959 of Gates was finally able to leave his captivity in the Customs of Seattle and circulate through the streets of the US. In Xataka | The fastest supercar of the 80s no longer beats speed records. Now height batting after falling from a truck Image | Porsche, Flickr (Government Tom Wolf)

Quantum computers will change the world when they don’t make mistakes. This milestone is closer thanks to quantum gravity

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Some experts believe that all the effort that is being carried out in the field of Quantum computing Not anywhere. One of the members of the scientific community more critical of quantum computers is the Israeli mathematician Gil KalaiProfessor at Yale University. According to this researcher, the increase in the number of states of quantum systems and their complexity will cause them to end up behaving like classical computers, so the superiority of the former will end up evaporating. However, the absence of unanimous support by the scientific community should not tarnish the notable effort and advances that many research groups are doing, some of them in Spanish institutions such as the CSIC and others integrated into the structure of companies that have very bulky resources, such as IBM, Google or Intel, among others. In fact, as expected, the latter defend that the long -awaited error correction will reach quantum computers and will allow them to face a much broader fan of problems than that of current prototypes. Terra Quantum bets on quantum severity to correct errors The main problem facing quantum computers in the field of error correction is noise, understood as the disturbances that can alter the internal state of the cubits and introduce calculation errors. The strategy for which many of the research groups that are involved in the development of quantum computers are opting for monitoring the operations carried out by the cubits to identify real -time errors and correct them. The problem is that from a practical point of view this strategy is very challenging. QMM technology reduces errors by up to 35% in current quantum processors Logical cubits represent a way to overcome the difficulty of the use of hardware or physical cubits, which are extremely noise sensitive, and, therefore, prone to make mistakes. Each logical cubit is constructed abstractly on several physical or hardware cubits, so that a single logical cubit encodes a single cubit of quantum information, but with redundancy. It is precisely this redundancy that allows to detect and correct the errors that are present in the physical cubits. The error correction strategy proposed by the researchers of the Swiss Terra Quantum company is not an alternative to the solutions in which we have just inquired; It is a complement. In fact, as explained in the article they have published in Advanced Quantum Technologiesits QMM technology (Quantum Memory Matrix) Reduce errors by up to 35% in current quantum processors. And, in addition, it reaches 94% fidelity using ten times less cubits than conventional methods. An important note: Terra Quantum’s scientific article has been reviewed by pairs. Terra Quantum has tested its QMM technology in IBM superconductor processors, and works. It only requires adding a quantum circuit that does not alter the architecture of the processor, although it is very ingenious. In fact, its operation is inspired by A principle of quantum gravity which maintains that the space-time continuum can be described as a network of me memory cells. It is a complicated idea, it is true, but the really important thing is that we know that this theoretical concept is the one that has inspired Terra Quantum scientists the design of their quantum circuit of errors suppression. Anyway, this innovation joins the effort that IBM, the MIT and other organizations are making to invite us to tie the future of quantum computers with a very reasonable optimism. Image | IBM More information | Advanced Quantum Technologies In Xataka | Bitcoin encryption and other cryptocurrencies will fall. And those responsible will be quantum computers

Despite drought and climate change, Andalusia is today greener than in the 90s. It is not as positive as it seems

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A few months ago we count that Spain was getting greener. We did not refer to renewablesbut to the spectacular effects of a spring Exceptionally rainy that He moved the ghosts of the past. The problem was what would happen after those rains and If the drought would call back to the door. Now we are in a totally different scenario: heat waves and, Like every summer of recent years, The fight against fires. In spite of everything, and to climate change, NASA shows that Andalusia is today more “green” than in the 90s. And it is not to be too excited. Short. Spain is a country with drastic microclimal changes on which the flora depends. In the south of the peninsula, they are the Mediterranean forests Those who occupy 26% of Andalusia and the conditions of much of the soil have made pines and holm oaks are the dominant speciesS, since they adapt well to areas without plant cover. Andalusia is a good study scenario because climate change clearly draws its effects, such as upward temperature, decline rains and increased aridity. And, as we see in Physa team of researchers has published in Ecological Indicators How these forests have responded during the last 30 years. Tools. For the analysis, the researchers used more than 5,000 satellite images captured between 1994 and 2021 obtained Thanks to Landsat 5 and Landsat 7NASA. In total, they analyzed 2,358 plots that compared with data from Google Earth Engine and created an “greenery” index measured by Ndvi. They are the acronym of ‘Standardized Difference Vegetation Index ”, a way of quantifying, through satellite images or remote sensors, how much living vegetation there is in an area. In short, it is something that indicates the amount and vigor of the vegetation, being a tool widely used in studies of agriculture, natural resources management or those associated with climate change. Black squares represent 2,358 farms analyzed. In the most dependent areas of agriculture, the effects are much more limited What do we see. In general, except red eucalyptus, all species have shown an increase in this NDVI value, something that points to sustained revergeration. In trees such as holm oaks, cork oaks and pines, the maximum moment of activity is concentrated in the soft winter months, falling in the summers. And the chestnut, which is the only deciduous species of the study, operates on the contrary. The Effects of climate change And aridity have a decisive role in these cycles, extending the activity period of the Carrasco pine and the resin in the driest places and shortening that of other pine species, such as the wild, and that of the wild olive tree. Between 1994 and 2005, the growth of these species was evident, and followed its course from 2005 to 2021, although at a more moderate speed. ¿Because? The result is that, the green territory is now greener and the conclusion is that many species have maintained or increased its green coverage. There are several explanations, and very diverse. Carrasco or Encina pine are designed to support heat and droughtwhich allows them to remain active when other species lower the activity. Here the policies of natural reforestation and regeneration have played a role, as well as global factors such as the increase in Atmospheric co₂ that would act as fertilizer. There are also factors directly related to human activity, such as a progressive abandonment of farmland in certain areas that has favored the natural regeneration of the forest, as well as changes in land use, such as the decrease in livestock pressure that reduces the degradation of the undergrowth. We have also influenced the contrary, as with a cork oak, which we extract cork periodically, limiting the regeneration of the tree. Nuances. The study is very useful to see the current situation of the Andalusian Mediterranean forest, but also to observe which are the most resilient species and those that best adapt to changing conditions and a rampant aridity. And the conclusion of the study is that things are not going well, but due to that resilience of some species and, despite the continuous increase in annual average temperatures, most species did not demonstrate a relationship between phenological metrics and that temperature increase. And, perhaps, the most important thing is that the greenest does not equals a healthier vegetation, since various factors (natural and human) intervene and we see that this revergence is nothing uniform, with a south and this drier in which the vegetation is hardly growing. But well, as researchers point out, see what species are more resistant and adapt better is something that allows you to find the best options for adequate reforestation policies, Not how we are doing in many places in Europe. Before we talked about that rainy spring that moved the ghost of drought and that summer was returning to reality. And the Recent restrictions in Galicia They are a sad sign of this. Image | José Sánchez Rodríguez and Rafael Palomo López In Xataka | Spain has been dismissing its forest firefighters in winter for years. Fire show that it may not be a good idea

Astrophysics do not know how to certain how the first stars of the universe formed. This is about to change

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All stars are different. Each of them has its own character. His own “personality.” However, THE MECHANISM OF NATURE that has triggered the birth of most of those we can observe is always the same, so, in some way, we can consider that All are related. The stars are born from clouds of dust and gas that are disseminated by the universe, and that began to form Shortly after the Big Bangwhich took place, according to the estimates of scientists, almost 14,000 million years ago. The analyzes that many research groups are carrying out defend that the first stars were born shortly after the formation of the universe. In fact, it is currently considered that the oldest known, whose name resists me to transcribe because it is a cluster of letters and numbers that will not contribute anything, was born nothing less than 13.6 billion years, which reflects that it is almost as old as the universe itself. A team of astronomers from the National University of Australia, which is the group of scientists responsible for its discovery, assures which is sixty times larger than our sun and is located in our same galaxy, the Milky Way, but to 6,000 light years from the earth. Just to a jump. Our protagonist is the oldest molecule known in the cosmos The most interesting thing is that, despite their age, astronomers are convinced that there are even more archaic stars. This suspicion relies on the fact that our 13.6 billion giant is composed, in addition to hydrogen, carbon, magnesium and calcium. These chemical elements have necessarily had to be previously manufactured by one or several stars of an even older generation and with a very low presence of metals, understanding as metals all those elements that are heavier than helium, regardless of their position in the periodic table. The problem is that the knowledge that astrophysics have about these primal stars is still very limited, although this scenario seems to be about to change. And it is that a research team of the Max Planck Institute of Nuclear Physics, which is housed in Heidelberg (Germany), has identified unexpected behavior of helium hydride (heh⁺), which is the oldest molecule known in the cosmos. It consists of a helium atom (He) and a proton (H⁺), and astrophysicists believe it was formed in the universe shortly after the Big Bang, when the temperature was reduced enough so that the helium and hydrogen atoms began to join. Astrophysics of the Max Planck Institute of Nuclear Physics have managed to reproduce the conditions of the original universe using a cryogenic storage ring One of the reasons why helium hydride is so important is that its appearance triggered the beginning of chemical bonds in the universe and strengthened the foundations for the creation of molecular hydrogen (H₂), which is the fuel that feeds the stars. The strategy used by astrophysicians from the Max Planck Institute of Nuclear Physics to recreate how this molecule behaved just after the Big Bang is amazing. And they have managed to reproduce the conditions of the original universe using a cryogenic storage ring. This experimental ingenuity is used to store ion beams for prolonged periods of time at extremely low temperatures and under ultra -oral vacuum conditions. This allows scientists to study the properties of molecules as unstable as helium hydride without being destroyed very quickly when colliding. As explained in the very interesting article that these astrophysicians have published in Astronomy & AstrophysicsDuring their experiment they realized that instead of slowing down as the temperature dropped, the reaction between helium hydride and the deuterium remained constant. This finding is important because in the primal universe helium hydride interpreted a leading role in the primordial gas cooling process. This cooling was essential so that the clouds of dust and gas collapse under the effects of gravity and give rise to the formation of the stars. In short, what these scientists have discovered is that Helio hydride had a much more active role in the primary chemistry of the universe of what was believed so far. Taking this idea as a starting point, astrophysicists onwards will be able to rethink the theoretical models that describe the processes involved in the formation of the oldest stars. Image | POT More information | Astronomy & Astrophysics In Xataka | The CERN has made an incredible pirouette: its last discovery has the ability to revolutionize quantum computers

The throne on the list of the most reliable cars of 2025 has changed. What does not change is Japan’s domain

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Usually, after a house, The purchase of a car It is the second greater expense that we have to face. It is still something indispensable in the day to day of us, But with upward pricesit is necessary think very well what is bought. Apart from choosing a motorization model or personal tastes, it is always advisable to take an eye on the lists of the most reliable cars in the market. And the new analysis of Consumer Reports It is a great help to make that decision. Changes in the noble zone. Although they focus on the US market, there are common models in different territories and lists like the one we have in hand or JD Power’s are very interesting. They handle reports sent by thousands of consumers, analyze several key points of new cars and are so relevant that some of their findings They have forced brands to take action (such as the failure in the rotary engines of Mazda in 1973). Every year they make their list with the most reliable car brands, Those who go down the least for the workshopand in which they have just published they take reports from 2022 to 2024, as well as the first bars of 2025. Normally, it was a boring table, but in this year’s edition we see that Toyota and Lexus, who had been dominating for years, have lost one position each due to the rise of another brand that, to anyone’s surprise, remains Japanese: Subaru. Graph | Consumer Reports The tail does not change. The domain of the Japanese in the upper part is a constant in recent years, this reliability being one of the presentation cards held by cars in the ‘rising sun’. In the lower part of the reliability list there are also some position changes, but the names we see are the same (and the countries too). If the Japanese stand out above and in the middle part of the South Koreans like Kia or Hyundai, in the lower part those who dominate are the Americans. Jeep, GMC or Cadillac are not well stopped. Nor does the German Volkswagen (again) and the red lantern is Rivian. The one who became the Third most important car manufacturer in the world In the stock market, they collapsed in record time, losing 90% of its value in just three years. It is the brand that worst score takes this year’s list. And if you are wondering where Alfa Romeo, Mercedes, Mitsubishi or Fiat are, from CR points out that they did not have enough data to be able to add them legitimately to the list. We will see if for the final report of the year contemplating everything 2025 changes the thing. What do they analyze. View the list, let’s see the data and conclusions of Consumer Reports. For this year’s report, they have asked their members about the problems they have had with their vehicles in the last 12 months. In total, data from more than 300,000 vehicles from 2000 to 2024 have compiled, but as we said, also with 2025 models that have had sufficient units on the street to be relevant to the compilation. They analyze 20 problem areas ranging from brakes to the engine, through broken embellishness, potential problems outside battery, transmission and problems that affect the electric and hybrids as the battery and load and create a score for each vehicle from 1 to 100. Hybrids stand out. As they point out, all that previous experience and the data of newer models have allowed this year’s list to be the most complete for hybrids and electric. They claim that they continue to improve, but that if there is a king on all electrified, they are the HEV hybrids. Jake Fisher is the technical director of Tests at Consumer Reports and points out that, although hybrids “remain extremely efficient in fuel consumption, they also offer reliability that is similar to conventional combustion cars despite their added difficulty.” He continues to affirm that “on average, they have a similar number of problems that cars propelled by a combustion engine” and comments that the most reliable models are from Toyota, Lexus, Kia and Hyundai, with cars such as Corolla, Rav4, Elantra el Sorento, Highlander or Lexus NX. But with reservations. It also points out that not all hybrids are the same and that Ford, for example, has a reliability problem with both the F-150 as with the F-150 hybrid. In addition, they strive to indicate that the most reliable of electrified are pure hybrids, since PHEV or plug -in hybrids They are less reliable. And, as a final recommendation, from the report they clarify that, although a brand can be very reliable, there are always models that stand out and others that lower the average. If we are interested in particular, it is worth looking for information from that and not getting carried away by the general reliability guides. And they say it with a specific model in mind: the TOYOTA BZ4Xbeing the one that lowers the score of the brand. Interestingly, it is the basis of Subaru’s single, and also lowers the average of this company. In Xataka | The German ITV has analyzed the reliability of the Tesla and has reached a conclusion: Dacia is above

This motorcycle looks like a vespa, the motor roars like a tractor and the change is of a snow motorcycle. It’s Russian, of course

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One of the most fascinating subcultures is that of ‘Dieselpunk‘. It is a Retrofuturist vision of the period between the First and Second World War which has the combustion engine at the center of all its technology. Films like ‘Sky Captain and the world of tomorrow‘They recreate aesthetics perfectly. In video games, we could talk about ‘Wolfenstein The New Order‘. And, in real life, there are those who have determined to create a Dieselpunk scooter that sounds like a tractor and shoots the Vespa design, but With Soviet influences. And its creator is Russian, of course. Dieselpunk Scooter. The creation of homemade vehicles is an art. On the one hand, we have the so -called ‘restomods’. These are projects that allow a classic car on the outside, but with current mechanics and electronics. One of the most used cars in these ‘mixtures’ is the Tesla Model 3which allows to give life to models such as This beautiful Mercedes-Benz 300sl. On the other hand, we have those who pull inventive to create something new. Russia is prolific in this work, this being Lada Vaz-2110 with a V16 engine based on chainsaws An example. But also the ‘scooter dieselpunk’ that crowns this article and that is Work of the Saint Peter’s Builds Workshop. They are enthusiasts who modify vehicles in artisanal projects and upload their work to networks. One of them was this Honda Super Cubbut with the Dieselpunk they promise to overcome. Soviet engine. The motor of the motorcycle is a 1,200 cc V4 diesel engine taken from a Zaz 968. This was a compact car that intended to become The “town car”, like Volkswagenbut in the Soviet Union. The engine was located in the back, getting a peculiar distribution of weights and, with a power of 50 hp, is chosen for dieselpunk. The original box was four marches, but to facilitate things on the motorcycle, from Saint Peter’s Builds they have decided to go further with Frankenstein’s monster: a CVT system (or continuous variable transmission change) that uses a pulley system instead of gear and that have taken out of a snow motorcycle. To connect the change to the engine, they have used combinations of axles and chains. The most incredible thing is that, after some failed tests, the engine is already snoring. Well, “snore” for saying something, since it sounds like a tractor: Vespa retrofuturista. The engine is the most complicated piece of this vehicle, but although it is an achievement that works as they want, there is a long way forward. In the video we can see the design, which is half Vespa of the rear to the handlebar, half tractor throughout the front. The engine appears on the sides, with the cylinders appearing as a couple on the sides and an artisanal escape. It is that elongated nose, the engine cylinders acting as fins and, above all, the decorative lines throughout the side what gives the motorcycle that Retrofuturist airas just taken from ‘Fallout‘. Anxious for the future. At the moment, as its creators claim, the first steps have already taken themselves and we will have to be attentive to see how they model the outside, on which chassis they mount everything and, above all, if one day they will end up finishing the project to delight us with another video in which we see them take a walk. What seems obvious is that this front of the engine and, above all, the nose, will imply a complex mass distribution that will affect both stability and the passage through curve. But well, the last thing to wait is to see this on the road on a day -to -day basis. Although who knows, it is Russia … In Xataka | The Chinese brands promised them very happy plagiarizing the design of the Vespa. They ran into a problem: it’s “art”

Hybrids have become the best selling car in Spain. Now we know how much it costs to change your battery: a lot

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35.35% of the cars sold in Spain are hybrid. Last yearthe category of hybrids is the one that enrolled most vehicles and right now no other shades in our country. With June datain our country 254,604 hybrid cars have enrolled, by the 192,447 gasoline cars, the second category most purchased in our country. That has been possible by the little trick of the Microhíbridosthat add a small electric battery of very small dimensions, which slightly reduce consumption but, basically, allow manufacturers electrify models with very little investment. That investment, however, adds complexity to the whole. That is, greater problems if we have to make a repair. Because it is not only to replace a battery. In relation to its size, changing the battery of a hybrid is very expensive. And contrary to what we would expect, we will have to leave more money the smaller the battery. Small battery, large cost That is what the International Energy Agency That it states that last year, the average price of a 20 kWh battery pack for a plug -in hybrid had a cost similar to a 65 kWh electric car battery. This is explained for various reasons. The first is that in the report itself it is highlighted that the price of batteries for electric cars in China has been significantly reduced, falling the cost by 30%, compared to 10-15% on average that has fallen in Europe and the United States. Taking into account that China is the country where more electric cars are boughtthis has significantly decreased the average global price of batteries. The second reason is that the battery, large or small, have components that do not vary and, in addition, those of a plug -in hybrid need higher energy and energy density requirements because they are required more power (in relation to their size), which makes the product more expensive. The problem is that, as our partners of Motorpasionthis scale in reverse. The battery of a hybrid is more expensive to that of a plug -in for the same reasons indicated above. Adding that, in addition, many plug -in hybrids are bought (they enter the electric category), which reduces its price global medium. But non -plug -in hybrids are not bought so those prices are not reduced. And everything gets exaced when we get to cars Mildhybrid Or light hybrids, those that carry a small battery of 48 volts (or even 24 volts) and are already indicated as hybrid vehicles. In that case, the average cost of battery replacement is 2,000 euros but in some cars it approaches 3,000 euros if we add the labor. In MotorpasionThey put some interesting examples with 48 volt batteries. For example, within the Volkswagen Group, changing the Audi A6, A7 and Q8 or their sports versions S and RS entails an expense of 3,000 euros, of which 2,500 euros are taken by the battery. In a Volvo XC60, the change in this component entails the disbursement of about 2,000 euros. Prices are not as expensive as in non -plug -in hybrids but when we look at the price to disburse in relation to battery size. For example, the 1.2 kWh battery assembled by the Renault Clio, Captur, Arkana and Symbioz (But also the Dacia Jogger and Duster) It costs 3,500 euros in the official network of the brand. And if we go to the battery that rides the Renault Rafale1.7 kWh, we are already talking about about 4,000 euros. That is, the KWH price of this last case is 2,352 euros but, as we have seen, with that money in some cars of the Volkswagen group we would not change the 48 volt battery and in the case of the Volvo XC60 we would barely have money. In addition to all of the above, it must be taken into account that the replacement of the batteries is usually carried out in official workshops, so the cost of labor is usually superior. At the moment, there are not many independent workshops that are specialized in this type of breakdowns and although the data says that They are growingthe offer remains limited. Photo | In Xataka | I’ve been trying electric cars for years. I bought one of combustion for a single reason

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