dark

an “invisible” galaxy made up almost 100% of dark matter

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The Universe continues to be that great unknown. Not only because of its vast immensity, but because human research and subsequent theories that explain its functioning continue to require tweaks and reformulations. we have seen it when calculating the distances between planets of the Solar System, the size of Jupiter either what is the training mechanism of planetary systems. Now, a research team from the University of Toronto has discovered to the strongest candidate for a “dark galaxy”, something that until now was only considered a possibility. The candidate. The study presents the discovery of CDG-2, an acronym that literally means Candidate Dark Galaxy 2. It is an object 300 million light years away, in the Perseus cluster, with a peculiarity: it is almost completely dominated by dark matter, with a minimal number of stars. Thus, between 99.94% and 99.98% of its total mass would be dark matter and it only delivers a light of “only” six million suns compared to the brightness of tens of billions of the Milky Way. Context. Galaxies are something like the Lego pieces that make up the universe and they all contain dark matter. The dark matter It is something scientifically fascinating: it is invisible, it does not emit or reflect light, but its gravitational influence was the scaffolding on which galaxies were formed and is what holds them together today. In the Milky Way, estimates suggest that between 65 and 90% of the mass is dark matter, depending on the model, but astronomy has always wondered if there were even more extreme galaxies. The “dark galaxies” were until now just a theoretical prediction. Why is it important. To begin with, because it empirically confirms what the theoretical models contemplated, but it has more implications: It opens a new way to detect galaxies from statistically significant groupings of globular clusterswhich serve as a trace. As a case study: the most probable hypothesis is that neighboring galaxies ripped away the gas necessary for star formation, leaving only the skeleton. It makes us look at its “twin” CDG-1 with different eyes. Detected previously, it could be a case of an even more extreme dark galaxy, possibly a pure dark matter halo. How they discovered it. The research team came across this galaxy in a striking way: looking for its shadow, since it is practically undetectable. Their fingerprints were four globular clusters, small dense concentrations of stars around the Perseus cluster. After analyzing its disposition with statistics and ruling out that its grouping was a matter of chance, they pointed the three most powerful telescopes available, Hubble, Euclid and Subaru, towards that region and created the image that evidenced its existence. Is, in the words of the main researcher Dayi Li, “the first galaxy detected solely through its population of globular clusters.” Image: NASA, ESA, Dayi Li (UToronto); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI) Pending subjects. However, CDG-2 is still a candidate and not a confirmation, which is why it keeps its name. To confirm with certainty the mass of dark matter it would be necessary to measure the velocities of its stars or clusters, something technically very difficult with current technology due to how little they shine. It will be necessary to wait for James Webb and new Euclid observations to improve the image of this object to better define it or continue finding more dark galaxies like it hidden in the universe. It would require measuring the velocities of its stars or globular clusters, something technically very difficult given their extreme tenuity. The next few years, with James Webb and new observations of Euclid, will be crucial to refine the portrait of this object and track whether there are more galaxies like it hidden in the large clusters of the universe. In Xataka | A new “solar system” has just been discovered. There’s just one problem: it shouldn’t exist. In Xataka | We have been deceived by the distances of the Solar System: the closest neighbor to Neptune is Mercury Cover | POT

The Middle Ages seem like a dark age. Until you discover that they were able to count up to 9,999 on their fingers.

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Historians have been trying for decades free her from her bad reputationbut it’s still hard not to feel a pang of compassion when one thinks of the Middle Ages. Logical. We have been burned with the idea that it was a time of wars, epidemicsfamines, wars and superstition in which humanity moved away from the advances of previous centuries to throw itself into the arms of barbarism. Things change when you find out that an 8th century monk was capable of doing something that will probably seem impossible to you (and most people): count up to 9,999 with your handsrepresenting any number with just your fingers. Count with your hands? Exact. If we keep doing it in a rudimentary way (and limited) today, in a time when almost everyone walks around with a phone in their pocket, imagine how important the art of counting on your fingers was centuries ago. How do you do addition and subtraction when you have nothing to rely on? And by nothing we do not mean a calculator or a primitive abacus, but tools as basic as paper and a pencil or pen to take notes. For centuries those who wanted to do calculations were content with what was closest to hand. And usually that was (pardon the redundancy) his own hands, his 10 fingers and the universe of combinations that opened up his joints and, above all, his imagination. The result is an ancient art that has fallen into disuse over the centuries, but came to acquire an astonishing level of perfection. In fact it can date back to ancient times, long before the Middle Ages. One name: Bede Venerabilis. If we know the peculiar way our ancestors had to count astronomical figures with their fingers, it is thanks largely to a Benedictine monk who lived between the 7th and 8th centuries in what is now the United Kingdom. His name: Bede, although he is usually known as Saint Bede the Venerable. In 725 the religious wrote ‘De temporum ratione’ (‘The Calculation of Time’), a treatise that talks about the cosmos, calendars and the best way to calculate the date of Easter, a relevant topic in its day. Before addressing most of these questions, the author however touches on a simpler and more important question: “De computo vel loquela digitorum”how to make beads with your fingers. Bede does not expose us to a system devised by him, but rather he describes to us a practical art that has its roots long ago. The power of one hand. “Before we begin, with the help of God, to talk about chronology and its calculation, we consider it necessary to first briefly show the very necessary and practical technique of counting on the fingers,” starts Bede in the first chapter. From there it goes on to explain how we should place our fingers to show the numbers from 1 to 9,999. By complicating the system a little more you can reach 999,999. There is even a symbol for the million “Somma di arithmetica”, by Luca Pacioli. And how the hell do they do it? With imagination, ingenuity and also a certain agility with the hands. Especially if what we want is to represent high figures. In Scientific Culture UPV/EHU mathematics professor Raúl Ibáñez signs an interesting article which details how the system works, including graphics and translated quotes from Bede himself, who first explains how to place the fingers of the left hand to represent low numbers. “When you say one, bending the left little finger, place it in the middle joint of the palm. When you say two, bend the second finger placing it in the same place,” clarifies the Benedictine monkwho continues patiently explaining to us how to show figures with the left hand, move to tens or make the jump to hundreds and thousands with the help of the right. The key is in the meaning of each hand and groups of fingers, which are assigned the value of the units of thousands, hundreds, tens and ones. If we want to go further and express tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands we will only have to vary the position of each of the hands with respect to the body. Beyond the Middle Ages. In a video published in 2020 by the BBC, Seb Falk, author of ‘The Light Ages’, also explains how centuries ago they managed to represent astronomical quantities with their fingers. The most surprising thing is that the system long predates Vera. “It was used from Roman times to the Middle Ages (11th to 13th centuries) throughout Europe,” says the historian. “Just as when we write we have a column for units, another for tens, for hundreds and thousands, they dedicate the little finger, ring and middle fingers of the left hand to the units and the index and thumb to the tens. On the right, the thumb and index indicate the hundreds and the other fingers, the thousands.” In short: ten fingers, 9,999 numbers. It’s all a matter of internalizing the system, understanding its dynamics and playing with positions. The truth is that the method is so curious that it has aroused the interest of authors after Bede, such as the mathematician Jacob Leupoldwho addresses it in an 18th century treatise; or the famous Luca Pacioliwhich refers to (with some changes) in ‘Summa’. Why get so complicated? At a time when we are accustomed to walking with smartphones (with their respective calculators) in their pockets and it is not difficult to find paper and ink, perhaps we will be surprised by the system that the Venerable Bede tells us about. Things change when we think about the resources they had available centuries ago. And the range of possibilities that such a system opened up, which only needs something as simple and universal as the fingers of the hands. “It was a code, a sign language, that was used in markets, as it was an effective way to communicate … Read more

The 2026 Minotaur Prize takes a turn towards dark fantasy in Ancient Egypt with ‘The Shadow of the Black Lotus’

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This year the Prize celebrates a very special edition: twenty years since what has ended up becoming the most important award for fantasy literature in the Spanish language began to be awarded. This year the winner has been Africa Vázquez, who proposes with his novelto ‘The Shadow of the Black Lotus’ a dark fantasy story set in pharaonic Egypt that will go on sale next March 25. 216 manuscripts have competed for this edition of the award, mostly from Spain, in search of the 6,000 euro prize of which the award consists. The Minotaur is an award of international scope and this year proposals have come from countries throughout Latin America, especially Argentina and Mexico. Even so, the winner África Vázquez is from Zaragoza. She is not new to literary awards: her first novel already won, when she was only 17 years old, the Jordi Sierra i Fabra Prize. Since then he has published more than thirty books between Spain and Latin America, and has won various literary awards, including the Kelvin 505 at the Celsius 232 festival. In this work he has opted for travel to the remote past, with the story of a embalmer embarked on revenge which will take her to places as inhospitable as Waset, City of a Hundred Gates and capital of the Ta-Mri, with the intention of infiltrating the court of Pharaoh Nekht-en-sen. In ‘The Shadow of the Black Lotus’ you will discover that the secrets hidden in the heart of the Nile will not only shake the foundations of an empire. The earth rots, plagues come, and the secret behind it all seems to lie beyond the land of the living, in the depths of the Underworld. We are facing an epic and dark mythological fantasy story in a reinvented Egypt, where a priestess of the goddess Isis will plot revenge of ancient proportions. A dazzling journey The jury, made up of Sabino Cabeza (winner of the previous year), Laura Díaz (literary popularizer and writer), Fernando Bonete (university professor, author and prescriber), Judit Bertran (cultural journalist and editor of El Periódico) and Francesc Gascó (doctor in Paleontology and cultural popularizer) have praised Vázquez’s book. According to the jury, it offers a “millennial Egypt So carefully detailed you can even smell the embalmers’ ointment and the perfume of the lotuses of the Nile” Vázquez stated upon receiving the award that “in my novel I have poured all the passion I have felt for Ancient Egypt since my parents, at the age of thirteen, gave me the immense gift of taking me and my older sister to discover the wonders of the Nile. Later, when I had turned twenty-seven, I returned to sail through those ancient waters to receive another gift that would change my destiny.” The author assures that “perhaps that is why in ‘The Shadow of the Black Lotus’, a novel in which death and darkness are so present, there continues to be a light and a life that refuses to go out.” In Xataka | Conan has become an archetype and has survived for decades thanks to an unusual strategy: refusing to evolve

Do you sneeze when eating dark chocolate? It’s not an allergy, it’s a “bug” in your DNA inherited from Neanderthals

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Buy a bar of chocolate with 90% cocoa to get home and put the first piece in your mouth to have that bitter and pleasant hit that many seek. But what you find is a series of sneezes as if it were an allergy. If you have identified with this microstory, you are not allergic to cocoa, but you are part of a curious minority victim of a neurological “short circuit” that science has studied and that could directly connect with Neanderthals. A crossing of cables. Sometimes the body gives us many surprises, such as sneezing when we get a bit of sun after leaving the house. But if we focus on chocolate, the reality is that We are not talking about an immune response with histamine involved. The explanation most accepted by the scientific community lies in the trigeminal nerve. The trigeminal nerve is one of the most important nerves we have and is responsible for transmitting sensitive information from the face to the brain. In the event that we eat dark chocolate, especially with a purity greater than 70%, compounds such as theobromine and caffeine intensely stimulate taste receptors. The theory. What is being proposed right now is that in certain people this signal is so powerful that the trigeminal nerve becomes “confused.” In this way, when passing close to the optic nerve and the respiratory tract, the brain interprets this explosion of bitter and intense taste as a nasal irritant or a powerful visual signal, triggering the sneeze to “expel” the supposed threat. The solar connection. As we have mentioned previously, there is a well-documented phenomenon in which 25-30% of the population sneezes when looking at bright light like that of the Sun. This is what is known as a photic sneeze reflex and science has strong support for stating that it is due to hyperexcitability in the visual cortex. Well, chocolate sneezing seems to be a variant or “first cousin” of this photic reflex. In fact, it is quite likely that if a person sneezes on chocolate, they will also do so when leaving the house on a sunny day. Both are failures in the filtering of signals in the trigeminal nerve. Neanderthal heritage. As explained by biologist Gerry Ward in an archived blog postthis trait is not a random error that exists in the population, but is a direct inheritance in our genetic material, and goes one step further by pointing out that it may come directly from Neanderthals. The hypothesis on the table is that, in prehistoric times, this reflex acted as a defense mechanism to clean the respiratory tract against unknown tastes or smells that could be dangerous. In this way, what today is a great nuisance when eating a simple dessert, 40,000 years ago could have been a great evolutionary advantage that marked the survival of certain individuals. It’s more complex. Although dissemination almost always falls into great simplicity, genetic data is complex. In this case, Ward’s theory placed the responsible gene in the chromosome 11but later data from 23andMe, the famous genetic analysis company, identified specific markers associated with this phenomenon on chromosome 12. But this later changed, since studies on the photic reflex pointed to variations in the chromosomes 2 and 3. This suggests that the trait is polygenic since there is not a single “switch” for sneezing, but rather several genetic components that increase the probability of suffering from it. How many suffer from it. Although a priori you may hear that this is a ‘problem’ that is present in 30% of the population, the reality is that this figure corresponds to the photic reflex related to sunlight. The sneeze caused specifically by dark chocolate is much more unique, since, according to data collected by 23andMe among its users, only about 1% of the population reports systematically sneezing after consuming dark chocolate. In this way, we are facing a select club within the largest group of those who sneeze for light. Images | Tetiana Bykovets Towfiqu barbhuiya In Xataka | Something strange is happening with the chocolate crisis in Spain: households consume less, but business improves

Something dark keeps growing in the Greenland ice. And it’s melting the frozen mass at an unexpected speed

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Greenland was for centuries synonymous with immobility, a territory that seemed oblivious to the passage of time, protected by an ice sheet so vast that even polar explorers could see it. like something eternal. From the first Inuit settlements to the European expeditions of the 19th century, the island was more a symbol of resistance than change, a place where the landscape imposed its own rules. Precisely for that reason, any alteration On its surface today it has a historical weight that goes far beyond what appears at first glance. A dark spot on the ice. Something seemingly insignificant is growing on the immense Greenland ice sheet, but with a disproportionate effect: microscopic algae that dye the snow green, red or grayish brown and reduce its ability to reflect solar radiation. In a warming Arctic up to four times more faster than the rest of the planet, this so-called “dark zone” accelerates the loss of hundreds of billions of tons of ice each year, directly contributing to sea level rise and adding a new layer of complexity to an already destabilized climate system. Dust, nutrients and a cycle. counted the new york times last week that much of the latest research shows that the wind blows phosphorus-rich dust from the rocky fringes discovered on the margins of Greenland into the ice, fueling algal blooms. Here’s the crux of it all, because as the ice melts, also releases trapped nutrients for decades or centuries in its deep layers, creating a kind of vicious cycle: one where more melting releases more food, algae proliferate, the ice darkens and melts even faster. This mechanism, time and time again, turns warming into a self-accelerating process that is difficult to stop once it has started. The measurable impact of a microscopic phenomenon. In southwest Greenland, one of the fastest melting regions, algae already explain about 13% of runoff water generated by summer thaw. In fact, studies published in journals such as Environmental Science and Technology and Nature Communications have shown that even minute amounts of phosphorus and nitrogen, released from the ice or transported through the air, are enough to sustain these biological communities, suggesting that the phenomenon could extend to areas much wider of the cap. A climate problem. Plus: ice darkening does not occur in a political or economic vacuum. The retreat of sea ice around Greenland is opening new sea routes and facilitating access to mineral, oil and gas resources, increasing the strategic interest for the region. Any additional industrial activity could release, for example, soot and particles that further aggravate the darkening of the ice, accelerating a process that, in the worst case scenario, could contribute to a global rise in sea level of up to seven meters if the ice sheet completely disappeared. What is known… and what is not yet. The scientists match in which algae are not the cause of global warming, but rather a consequence which amplifies its effects, while underlining that the root of the problem continues to be the burning of fossil fuels on the planet. However, it is still unknown precisely to what extent this “dark spot” can expand and how to integrate your impact in sea level rise models. Meanwhile, Greenland seems to offer us a most ominous warning (another one): that even the smallest changes, those invisible to the naked eye, can tip the balance of one of the largest and most fragile systems on the planet. Image | Jenine McCutcheon/University of Waterloo In Xataka | Why we find 50,000 meteorites in Antarctica if they fall the same all over the planet: ice has the answer In Xataka | Antarctica launches its “Doomsday Vault”: a sanctuary at -50 °C to save the memory of the glaciers

the dark history of mercury in the fashion industry

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When we think of Alice in Wonderland one of the most recognized characters is ‘Mad Hatter’‘, an eccentric character with a top hat and a label that says 10/6. And although it may seem that the author of this story wanted to give that characterization to the famous rabbit, the truth is that all hats at that time had a serious problem which made them look too much like the classic rabbit. What’s behind. And the reality behind the character is much murkier and less colorful than in Disney or Tim Burton films. The expression “mad as a hatter” was not a literary invention in this case, but a quite popular medical diagnosis for the timesince for centuries the hat industry suffered a silent epidemic that led to serious neurological damage. and the culprit it was mercury. The ‘carroting’. To understand why hatters fell ill, we must look at how the felt was made between the 17th and 20th centuries that would give rise to hats. The raw material was usually rabbit, hare or beaver fur, and in order for these furs to become a high-quality, rigid and durable felt, they were subjected to a chemical process called “carroting”. This name came from the orange color of the carrots that the skins acquired when treated with a hot solution of mercury nitrate. But logically it was a death trap for the workshops of the time, just as collect NIOSH historical archives. Security issues. Although there are now strong regulations regarding safety at work, if we look back it was not like that. And the treatment was carried out in a poorly ventilated space, which caused mercury vapors to be released when the acid mixture was heated with the skins. By not being able to escape through any ventilation slits, the professionals who were constantly working with the skins ended up inhaling the mercury vapors. It was not a one-time accident, but rather a chronic exposure that accumulated in the body and directly attacked the central nervous system. A new reality. Although in the popular culture of the time the profession was directly related to being completely crazy, the truth is that current toxicological reviews indicate that chronic mercury poisoning produces a devastating and very specific clinical picture. And the hatters did not simply become ‘eccentric’, but also had Danbury tremorswhich are uncontrollable muscle spasms and intentional tremors that prevented fine movements. But there were also personality changes making pathological shyness, extreme irritability, depression and emotional lability the norm. The countries took note. Logically, this is something that had to be regulated to guarantee the safety of workers. France was one of the pioneers by prohibiting the use of mercury in the manufacture of hat boxes in 1898, but in Anglo-Saxon countries the industry was quite resistant to change. And the resentful. In the United States the process remained in force for decades. In this case, it took World War II for the tables to turn and it was not until 1941 when the use of mercury was definitively abandoned in key states such as Connecticut. But the reason was not the safety of its artisans, but rather that the war required a large amount of mercury to manufacture detonators, which forced the hat industry to look for substitutes such as hydrogen peroxide, as detailed in the industrial records of the time. Alice’s Hatter. It’s tempting to think that Lewis Carroll designed his character as a textbook case of erethism, but the evidence suggests otherwise. A classic analysis published in BMJ puts the dots on the i’s in this case, pointing out that Carrol knew the popular expression “mad as a hatter”, since he lived in a time where hatters with tremors were a visible social reality. However, the character of Alice in Wonderland It doesn’t quite fit the medical profile. The Hatter in the book is hyperactive, talkative, euphoric and a lover of riddles. Mercury erethism, on the other hand, is characterized by extreme shyness, social anxiety, and depression. It is likely that Carroll took the figure of the hatter and the idiom to create a caricature, but the identification of the character as “mercury poisoned” is a reading that we have made a posteriori. In Xataka | If you have ever thought that AI is useless, science has something for you: an antidote to cobras

unfold the most wicked dark pattern we have ever seen

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In 2018 there was a service that was successful in the United States and that we were dying to try. It was called MoviePass and was known as ‘the Netflix of movie theaters’. Its operation was simple: you paid 10 dollars a month and you could go to the movies as many times as you wanted. What sounds like a dream for any movie buff was actually a bottomless pit of losses, so the company launched a strategy to stop the bleeding. The problem is that it was a directly illegal strategy. a ruin. First of all, it is worth stopping at the MoviePass business model. For 10 dollars we could see as many movies as we wanted per month, the problem is that the company did not have any type of agreement with movie theaters and in 2017 a ticket cost 12 dollars. That is, they lost 2 dollars a month per user as long as they only went to see a movie. The only way they could generate profits was if their users didn’t watch any movies a month and that’s where their CEO’s brilliant idea came from. Dark patterns. Are quite tricky design strategies so that it costs us more to cancel an account or encourage us to make a purchase, but MoviePass is another level. They counted on Business Insider in 2019that the company’s CEO Mitch Lowe gave the order to deliberately change the passwords of a group of very active users, thus preventing them from accessing their account and purchasing tickets. Furthermore, he did it just when ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ was released. reset password. You may be thinking that if they change your password, you reset it and that’s it. It wasn’t that easy. When users tried to recover their accounts, the process failed and it was no coincidence. Bloomberg published fragments of the formal complaint filed by the Federal Trade Commission (FCT), which details that the company knew that the process would fail on most smartphones and nothing was done to prevent it. Faced with this situation, many users contacted customer service, but it usually took weeks for them to respond (that is, if they responded). There are quite a few threads on reddit with users suffering from this situation. Unscrupulous. The details of how it was carried out are absolutely crazy. They called it the “password breakpoint program” and it was the topic of several meetings and emails, as if it were any other business topic. Furthermore, to avoid possible action by the FCT, they decided that they would only block the accounts of 2% of their most active users (about 75,000) and that the excuse would be that they had detected “suspicious activity or possible fraud.” They also monitored the success of their program: a week later only half of those affected had managed to reset their password. Consequences. The FCT ended up discovering the cake so it is logical to think that MoviePass had to pay a million-dollar fine. Well no. MoviePass admitted the facts and reached an agreement in which they promised not to repeat it (as if they were trustworthy). The reason is that a court ruling prevented the FCT from imposing fines in such cases. The company did not survive its terrible business model and In 2019 it closed its doors. In 2020, the parent company filed for bankruptcy. In the end they couldn’t repeat it. Image | MoviePass, Daniel Dalea in Unsplash In Xataka | The first fine against “dark employers” in Spain is already here (and it will not be the last)

We have searched for dark matter with the most sensitive detector in history and we have found nothing. And that is a success

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The search for dark matter It becomes more and more like a game of hide-and-seek where, as we improve our vision, the target appears to become more invisible. The last thing we tried to do to find it was drill 1,500 meters deep underground, although in the end we had a very bad result, although it did allow us to find things that we were not looking for. The dark matter. It is without a doubt one of the great mysteries of physics. While many researchers suggest that this matter surrounds us and is the main component of the universe, others believe that we were wrong and it doesn’t exist. Although little by little evidence is emerging that it is true that it exists so that our own theories fit. This whole mess is mainly focused on the fact that we do not have the ability to detect this matter. We know it’s there, but we don’t ‘see’ it. Something that generates a great confrontation within the world of physicistsand that is why these types of experiments try to shed light on this matter that allows us understand much better the composition of what surrounds us. New tools. Science has exploited the LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) experimenta very sophisticated tool built by humanity to hunt down these ghost particles. To understand it, it is nothing more than a sensor that had to be buried 1,500 meters deep, in the facilities of the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF), in South Dakota. The reason? Use the rock as a shield to block the cosmic radiation that bombards the surface. The concept. The magnitude of this experiment has undoubtedly been quite considerable, since at its core 10 tons of ultrapure liquid xenon have been housed. The theory here is that if a dark matter particle passes through the Earth, it should occasionally collide with a xenon atom that produces a tiny flash of light. In total, the LZ has analyzed data collected for 471 daysbetween March 2023 and April 2025. A period of time that makes this the most exhaustive search that has been done so far. The sound of silence. The main result is that no direct interaction with the particles has been detected. However, this null result is practically worth gold in the field of physics. And by not finding anything, scientists have been able to rule out a huge range of possibilities about what dark matter is and what it is not. In short, we have been able to establish tighter margins to detect dark matter, now having the strictest limit in the world on the cross sections of dark matter particles for a very specific mass. And it is that being of such a small masswhich is why it offers so many problems when it comes to detecting them. The surprise. The most fascinating thing about these results is not what was missing, but what appeared. Although the detector did not see dark matter, it did validate its extreme sensitivity by recording something incredibly difficult to capture: solar neutrinos. This marks a bittersweet milestone: the experiment has officially entered what physicists call the ‘neutrino fog‘. This means that we have reached a point of such extreme sensitivity that neutrinos (that go through everything without flinching) begin to generate background noise that could be confused with dark matter. And the truth is that we are facing a big problem, since technology will have to find a way to distinguish dark matter from neutrinos. The future. The experiment does not stop here. Although these results cover until April 2025, the official plan is to continue taking data until 2028, with the aim of accumulate more than 1,000 days of observations. And many experts continue to point to the same thing: 85% of the mass of the universe It’s dark matterand although it escapes us, we are getting closer to knowing what the universe is made of. Images | Karo K. In Xataka | The strangest event that humanity has witnessed occurred in 2019 under a mountain in Italy

We have been searching for dark matter for 90 years. Now a Japanese man believes he has found his “fingerprint”

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Since Fritz Zwicky suggested the existence of dark matter in 1933, the reality is that it has been one of the great ghosts of modern physics, generating many debates about its existence. The little we know indicates that this matter is there because we see how its gravity pushes galaxiesbut we have never been able to see it or touch it. It is invisible. Or at least, that’s what we believed until now. And to ‘see’ this matter you have to be a true superhero, since it does not emit, absorb or reflect light. Something that makes it completely invisible to telescopes around the world. But it is not something that is a small part of what surrounds us, but which makes up 85% of the total matter in the universe. But now there is hope to have more information about this great mystery of physics thanks to a study Professor Tomonori Totani of the University of Tokyo claims to have found the first direct evidence of this elusive substance. He has not seen it directly with his own eyes, but he has detected the “smoke” of his gun: a very specific gamma ray signal emanating from the halo of our own Milky Way and that eerily coincides with theoretical predictions of how dark matter behaves. A large amount of data. To understand the discovery, you have to look at the sky with gamma ray eyes. Totani has used a total of 15 years of data accumulated by NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (LAT). But the important thing was undoubtedly knowing where to look: in the galactic halo. That is, the ‘quiet’ outskirts of the Milky Way, excluding the galactic disk to avoid interference. What he found when cleaning the background noise was surprising: an excess of gamma rays with a very specific energy peak, located at 20 billion electron volts (20 GeV). The importance. So far so good, but… Why is it important? Basically, because it doesn’t fit what we would expect from normal astrophysical sources, like pulsars or supernova remnants. However, it fits like a glove for the WIMP theory. This is a theory that basically suggests that dark matter It is made up of WIMPs (Weakly Interacting Massive Particles). According to physical models, when two of these particles collide, they annihilate each other, releasing a cascade of energy in the form of gamma rays that would be detected in the universe now. And that is their conclusion: the detected signal is compatible with WIMP particles that have a mass of 500 times that of a proton. This would, therefore, be the fingerprint that gives the most information about dark matter, although it does not stop there. The shape is not a point on the map, but a soft, spherical halo that surrounds the galaxy, just as dark matter is distributed in the cosmological simulations that physics has made. The same goes for consistency, since the signal persists even when different background models are used and other known sources of noise in the universe are removed. There are precedents. This isn’t the first time someone has yelled “Eureka!” In the past, excess gamma rays have been detected at the Galactic Center (known as GCE), but the scientific community has tended to think that this signal comes from undetected millisecond pulsars, rather than dark matter. The key to Totani’s study is that he has looked where no one was looking in such detail. By moving away from the center and analyzing the diffuse halo, it is where he has found a much cleaner signal that does not invite so many doubts about its origin. There are still doubts. The study itself admits that the calculated cross section (the probability of interaction) is higher than the upper levels established by the observation of dwarf galaxies, which are often used as scale for dark matter. This means two things: either our models of the density of dark matter in the Milky Way are incorrect (which is possible, since there is a lot of uncertainty in the profile of the halo), or we are looking at a new and unknown astrophysical phenomenon that mimics dark matter. A great mystery. If this finding is confirmed, we would be facing one of the greatest discoveries in physics of the 21st century. It would confirm that dark matter is composed of particles that we can detect (and not primordial black holes) and open a new door for physics. go beyond the standard model. But as we say, this still needs to be verified by a second laboratory such as the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory (CTAO) that may have the ability to detect these gamma ray spectral lines. Image | A. Schaller (STScI) In Xataka | Exactly 100 years ago we began to understand how the world works. Quantum physics has radically changed our lives

Convenience stores were an emblem of Japan. Until the demographic crisis has revealed the dark side of opening 24 hours

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The stores japanese convenienceknown as konbini, are not simple shops where you buy fast food or basic products, they are a deep part of the social fabric of the country. Its success is measured not only in numbers (more than 55,000 establishments spread across the 47 prefectures) but in the way in which they accompany daily life: they allow you to pay bills, send packages, print documents, buy tickets for shows, resolve unforeseen events, take refuge in case of emergency or simply take a break in them. And now that the country doesn’t stop agingthe stores are mortally wounded. The konbini. Let’s think that, in urban neighborhoods, rural towns or isolated coastal areas, these establishments have become the minimum infrastructure indispensable where there used to be post offices, banks or small family businesses that have now disappeared. The store, therefore, is not just a business: it is a safe space, open and available 24 hours a day, an emotional and logistical support point that has shaped the Japanese daily rhythm and has captivated even to millions of touristswho find in these establishments a mix of efficiency, warmth and aesthetic thoroughness that is difficult to replicate. Efficiency and expansion. I remembered the new york times in summer that the development of the Japanese konbini has been the result of an evolution of decades. Since 7-Eleven opened your first store In Japan in 1974, the combination of non-stop hours, quality fresh food (onigiri, bentō, noodles, seasonal desserts) and integrated services made the model a unique phenomenon. For many residents, these stores are literally the closest store, the most accessible ATM, the place to go when something is missing or something happens. The associated image is one of precision: perfectly organized shelves, impeccable coffee machines, attentive employees, continually renewed food and a sense of total availability. From Japan to the world. This internal success was projected outwards, so that 7-Eleven, today Japanese owned, is the largest retail chain on the planet, and global expansion plans aim mainly to North America. The konbini became an exportable image of Japan: efficient, friendly, reliable. The hidden reverse. But not everything shined the same. one piece from the Financial Times has revealed that behind that facade of functional perfection A franchise system is under increasingly intense tensions. Japan agesthe active population is decreasing and small businesses are experiencing increasing difficulties to hire staff. The model requires stores open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and the pressure not to close falls squarely on the owners. He Akiko’s case and her husband, a 7-Eleven manager who worked without a day’s rest for six months until dying by suicide, starkly revealed the human price of this silent perfection. And more. It was not an isolated case: a labor inspection recognized the relationship between death and overwork, but the root of the problem is structural. Franchisees must deliver between 40% and 70% of gross profit to the parent company, which reduces their margin and exposes them to absorbing personnel, overtime and unforeseen charges. Visible efficiency therefore has an invisible cost. The crisis of the model. Faced with the problem, the chains 7-Eleven, FamilyMart and Lawson have tried make schedules more flexibleintroduce automatic checkouts, ordering systems assisted by AI and robots cleaning to reduce the need for labor. But none of these measures solve the main equation: fewer available workers and more opening hours supported by fewer people. Domestic consumption is also not growing as before, which limits the owners’ ability to increase payrolls. As minimum wages rise, margins narrow even more. many managers they work for free for dozens of hours to keep their stores open. Some they confess that, in the current state, closing would be a more rational option than continuing to operate. The fragility of the system thus becomes visible: if there are no new franchisees willing to take over, the model can collapse. Adaptation or goodbye. The response of the companies points towards a profound transformation of the model. 7-Eleven study contracts renewed from 2027, possibly moving towards the “mega-franchise” model, where the same owner manages multiple stores and distributes human resources between them. However, this implies a concentration of the business and could further displace the small independent owners who historically defined the konbini as a community space. The central question is whether the konbini will continue to be a connected capillary network to the territory or whether it will become a centralized corporate system, more profitable but less close. The great dilemma. If you will, the konbini was born as proximity symbol and frictionless service, and became part of emotional memory from Japan: open places when everything else is closed, spaces where the daily routine has a friendly pause. But that same ideal has been held for decades by people whose efforts they have become invisible beneath the surface of efficiency. Today, the system faces a limit that is not technological, but human. The future of the konbini will depend on whether Japan manages to rebalance the contract between the community, the company and those who keep the doors open at any time, 365 days a year. If it manages to adapt without sacrificing those who support it, it will continue to be an intimate and essential institution. If not, it could become the emblem of a society that knew how to take care of every detail… except for the people who made it possible. Image | Pexels, Japanexperterna, Shankar S. In Xataka | While half the planet aspires to retire, in Japan the opposite is true: 100-year-olds who only want to work In Xataka | The aging population and a poor pension system have a new symbol in Japan: grandmothers are rented

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