conventional

Data centers do not want to depend on the conventional electrical grid. Solution: build your own plants

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AI data centers have sparked a new fever: the so-called “bring your own power.” The demand and consumption The pressure these plants impose is so enormous that they do not want to depend on external sources. The solution is theoretically simple, and we are already seeing how when a new data center is built, it is normal for some type of power plant to be built next to it. We are seeing it now. The data centers that OpenAI and Oracle are building in West Texas are accompanied by the creation of a natural gas-based power plant. Both xAI’s Colossus 1 and Colossus 2 in Memphis take advantage of gas turbines. And as they also indicate in The Wall Street Journalmore than a dozen Equinix data centers across the US are powered by stand-alone fuel cells. If the conventional electrical grid cannot be used, nothing happens: you create a power plant and that’s it. The US has an electrical problem. The technology giants would prefer to connect to the conventional grid, but bottlenecks in the supply chain, bureaucracy – permits, licenses – and the slowness in building the necessary transmission infrastructure prevent this. According to the ICV firmThe United States would need to add about 80 GW of new generation capacity per year to keep pace with AI, but right now less than 65 GW per year are being built. There is another direct consequence of this problem: the rise in the electricity bill. Data centers that look like cities. The needs and ambition of AI companies has made data centers become calculation and resource consumption monsters. One can only consume as much electricity as 10,000 stores in the Walmart electronics chain, WSJ estimates. Before 2020, data centers represented less than 2% of US energy consumption. By 2028 they are expected to represent up to 12%. A 1.5 GW data center, for example, would have consumption similar to that of the city of San Francisco, with about 800,000 inhabitants. China has a lot of advantage over the US in this. While the US deal with that lack of powerChina does not stop investing in new energy generation. According to data According to the National Energy Administration, the Asian country added 429 GW of new energy generation in 2024, while the US only added 50 GW. It is true that China has four times the population, but its centralized planning is helping to avoid problems that affect the US electrical grid. The white knight to the rescue. Faced with this shortage, natural gas has become the preferred resource for on-site energy generation. Although large turbines have long delivery times, smaller turbines or fuel cells that use natural gas are being used because of their rapid availability and installation. Renewables lose steam. Meanwhile, things are not promising for renewable energies (solar and wind, especially). There are about 214 GW of new generation theoretically in projectbut spending on such technologies could decline due to the potential loss of tax credits: the Trump administration criticizes that those clean energies do not provide a constant flow necessary for AI. The nuclear alternative. Faced with this apparent decline of nuclear energy, there is a growing interest in compact nuclear reactors (SMR), which allow us to provide the advantages of this type of center and a flexibility that can be very interesting for AI data centers. amazon, Google, Goal either Microsoft They are betting part of their future on nuclear powerbut that It doesn’t mean there aren’t challenges to overcome.. Image | Wolfgang Weiser In Xataka | World record in nuclear fusion: the German Wendelstein 7-X reactor has broken all records

Spain studies the viability of its first conventional aircraft carrier. We can expect sitting

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There was a time when Spain was one of the great powers of the sea. Gone are those times when even The US feared, for various reasons, the Spanish Navybut these last times have resurfaced interest in strengthening security in this environment. Projects like him New Bac II Combat Ship They are ours and, now, Navantia has a new commission: studying the viability of the first conventional aircraft of Spain. It will not be easy, but the project is tremendously ambitious. Studying possibilities. A few weeks ago, and how we read in The countrythe Navy commissioned the public shipyard Navantia a viability study on the construction of an aircraft carrier. The shipyard must specify the technical characteristics of the ship and pass budget data that, subsequently, the Government must approve, but although all the details to be specified, as we read in The debatethere are already those who point to the modern French carrier Charles de Gaulle as inspiration. What Spain wants. Unlike the French flagship, the new Spanish carrier would not be a nuclear aircraft carrier, but it would have similar dimensions, with more than 260 meters in length and about 40,000 tons. What is clear is that, as we say, it will be the first pure aircraft carrier that the Navy will have, and this must be clarified. In 67, the US ceded the Labyrinth To the Navy, then Navantia built The ruinous prince of Asturias And, currently, we have the Juan Carlos i. The three have space for both helicopters and airplanes, but although they have a ramp, they have an important limitation: the airplanes that can land and deploy are the Stovl, which start the movement in vertical. And what is the problem? That limits the model that you can operate, and with current AV-8B Harrier II That they ask for the time, it is urgent to have an aircraft carrier that is able to house more modern fighters and without so much dependence on the United States. For example, the FCAS Developed together by France, Spain and Germany. If in the end it has a naval version, of course. According to EFEthe intention of the Navy is that it has a cover with capacity for up to 30 state -of -the -art aircraft. Officially, Juan Carlos I is a “Ampibio assault ship” India comes into play. As they point in Infodefensethe development of a traditional aircraft carrier (without being electromagnetic Like those who already operate China and USA) or with nuclear propulsion as the aforementioned Charles de Gaulle, it should not be a challenge for Navantia. “Simply” will be expensive, it will take time and will have a lot of steel, but the technology is more than settled. And here Navantia can have an advantage as “training”: Türkiye. Navantia has already made some designs for Türkiye, such as TCG Anadolu which became the jewel of the Turkish Navy crown and, as we read in Infodefensethe Spanish company would also be developing with Türkiye a traditional aircraft carrier of more than 300 meters. It will be something that serves to acquire even more experience in this type of vehicles. Strategic strength. Having a “pure” aircraft carrier is necessary for Spain in the current context of geopolitical tensions, even with allies that we considered as close as the United States. Within the European Rearme Processit is also something that makes sense, as much as countries and France and the United Kingdom have collaborated to “Add” your nuclear arsenals. An aircraft carrier, even A vehicle with a very expensive maintenanceit is an important element of deterrence due to its implications, something that we have recently seen in the Tensions in the South China Sea. To Japan, that for years It was a demilitarized nationalready started moving in this regard and has already presented its First aircraft carrier since World War II. For long. On the other hand, there is no hurry for this first Spanish aircraft carrier. Those hurries will arrive when the Harrier are retired, because the F35B Americans, but as we said, there is on its way to go. If everything is fulfilled, we would be talking about the first aircraft carrier for about fifteen years, but to reach that point the Navantia report must convince the government and he authorize its construction. Image In Xataka | The size of the armies of the main powers, summarized in this interesting graphic

50 years ago we discovered people whose blood did not fit into conventional types. We have just discovered why

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We have been classifying blood types for more than a century as a function of two characteristics, the antigens of these and the RH factor. The four types of blood depending on the antigens (0, A, B, AB) and the two depending on the RH (positive or negative) allow us to classify people’s blood into one of eight categories. But as always, there are exceptions and one had intrigued scientists since the 1970s. Until now. A new blood group. A study led by researchers from the University of Bristol a new blood group has describedANWJ (positive or negative). According to the study, the key to this group is in the evil gear, a gene that encodes a homonymous protein that we can find on the surface of the red blood cells. A more complex system than it seems. The antigens surrounding the cell wall of the red blood cells are a pillar of blood transfusions. The presence of antibodies linked to this type of molecules makes some transfusions associated with complications. For example, a person from Group A receives a transfusion of a person from group B, antibodies associated with antigens to attack newly arrived cells. There are two key systems, AOB and RH Factorwhich are key since they are the ones that present the most diversity, and therefore greater is the possibility that a blood transplant can generate incompatibilities. However to date we have found more than a quarantine Of variants that, although they affect a small part of the population, must be considered. 50 years of mystery. The ANWJ antigen was discovered in 1972 but it has not been until now that we have discovered the genetic background behind the existence of Anwj-negative people, that is, people whose cells do not contain this antigen on its surface. This absence affects less than 0.1% of humanity and is generally due to hematological and oncoligic disorders. The evil gear. The team responsible for the discovery investigated the few known cases of ANWJ-negative people who were not as a result of any disorder. They found that this antigen was in the bad protein. They found that the hostj-negative people lacked full copies of the protein badly. “The work was difficult because genetic cases are very scarce. We would not have achieved this without the sequencing of exams, since the gene we identify was not an obvious candidate and it is little that we know of the bad protein in the red blood cells,” explained in a press release Louise Tilley, co -author of the study. The details of the study were published In an article In the magazine Blood. Less risks in transfusions. Knowing the different blood groups, including those that only include a very small portion of the planet’s inhabitants is important. The more we know about these groups, the greater our ability to Avoid complications associated with blood transfusions. “Now it is possible Nicole Thornton addedalso member of the work responsible for the work. In Xataka | The unequal distribution of blood groups in the world, illustrated in this detailed map Image | Swiftsciencewriting

West believed that mines and conventional artillery were the past. Ukraine has shown that they were wrong

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They have been Several occasions in which the conflict after the Russian invasion in Ukraine seemed Go back to the pastat an era where technology did not dominate the battlefield, but the human through it. The effect of what has happened to east of Europe begins to have its echoes on several nations of the old continent. Conventional artillery and mines, for decades considered obsolete, have seen A resurgence That nobody seemed to glimpse, and now everyone wants to rearm. A return to the past. As we said, the conflict in Ukraine has radically reconfigured Western understanding about The modern warrevealing the validity of weapons that for a long time were forgotten as vestiges of the past. Antipersonnel minesheavy artillery and non -guided ammunition have reappeared as key elements In a type of war that NATO and European armies had stopped planning: the large -scale land war. For years, Western powers imagined the conflicts of the 21st century as technological, rapid and surgical clashes, starring reduced units and high precision weapons systems. It happens that the Ukrainian realitywith their stagnant fronts and prolonged fighting For territorial control, those assumptions have denied sharply. The Treaty of Ottawa and Las Mines. In fact, one of the most visible effects of this doctrinal turn has been the decision of several European countries to abandon the Ottawa treaty of 1997, the same that prohibited the use, production and sale of antipersonnel mines. Who is it? Finland was the last In reverting his adhesion, adding to Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, who had already announced their departure. These nations, all neighbors of Russia or in their area of ​​geopolitical influence, are actively preparing for undermine its bordersin an attempt to contain a possible Moscow military offensive. The reasons are clearly clear: the Use of mines in Ukraine It has demonstrated its effectiveness not only to stop advances, but to channel enemy troops to areas where they can be faced with greater guarantees of success. It is a territorial defense tactic that resurfaces in a conventional war context, precisely when it was believed to be overcome. Artillery and unburgated ammunition, the resurgence. While the guided missile systems provided by NATO face problems in the face of the Russian capacities of Electronic interferencetraditional artillery, with simple and cheap projectiles, has charged New prominence. These ammunition, not depending on electronic signals, are immune to blockages or technological sabotages. In addition, combined with modern surveillance tools (such as drones that identify real -time objectives), they have become extraordinarily lethal. Ukraine, in fact, has taken advantage of this synergy, adapting old technologies to the new battlefield. The result has been a war that advances very little in terms of territory, but that consumes huge amounts of projectiles and requires a sustained production that Europe was not prepared to assume. Europe and industrial career. On the other sidewalk, the paradigm shift has exposed the fragility of war production capacities in Europe, although that is not quite news when the old continent has already talked about rearming. A report by the Royal United Services Institute criticized European governments for Trust blindly in which the private sector would solve the manufacturing needs of ammunition without having offered them incentives or favorable regulations. This omission has had serious consequences: according to General Christopher CavoliSupreme Comandante Allied with NATO in Europe, Russia is on the way to accumulate projectile reserves three times higher to those of the United States and Europe together. He imbalance is alarmingespecially considering that the Ukrainian conflict does not show short -term resolution signs and that the current levels of ammunition consumption are unsustainable without an industrial restructuring. Russia’s mirror. In this regard and According to CavoliRussia currently produces 250,000 artillery projectiles per month, which leads it to build that arsenal three times greater than the United States and Europe. Not just that. Cavoli’s testimony underlines a crucial point: while Russia is perceived in the West bogged down In a wear war, its defense machinery He has managed to adaptgrow and, in some aspects, strengthen in full conflict. Moscow has been recovering its arsenals on all fronts (from ammunition to armored vehicles and troops), which strongly contrasts with the logistics and production difficulties faced by their adversaries. The estimate of Cavoli points to an annual manufacture of 1,500 tanks by Russia, in front of the 135 produced by the United States. In the last year, Russian troops would have lost Approximately 3,000 tanks9,000 armored vehicles, 13,000 artillery systems and more than 400 air defense systems, but would be completely replaced, keeping their land projection capacity intact. Planning errors. Experts like Paul van Hooft, from the Think Tank Rand Europe, They explained to Insider that this lag is a direct consequence of three decades of strategic planning focused on asymmetric wars. Since the September 11 attacks, NATO designed its military operations thinking of insurgencies, terrorism and irregular forces, where neither heavy artillery nor mines seemed to have practical utility. That vision led, according to the analyst, to the dismantling of traditional arsenals and the abandonment of terrestrial war doctrines, especially in Western Europe. However, the current conflict demands precisely opposite: territorial defense, sustained occupation of broad areas and classical deterrence capacity. The balance between the future and the past. Mark Cancan, from Center for Strategic and International Studies, stressed that prolonged wars, once stabilized the front lines, make weapons such as artillery and mines not only useful, but dominant. While drones, artificial intelligence and other innovations continue to perform An important roledo not replace the volume of fire or logistics resistance that allow sustaining an offensive or defending a position for months. In this regard, Cancan warns against excess confidence in futuristic war visions, many of them promoted by startups technological ones that compete to attract funds from the new defense budgets. Faced with this, the evidence seems to show that, at least for now, the war remains a matter of volume, physical resources and conventional abilities well managed. Ironically, if … Read more

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