designed

Stress was designed by evolution to save your life. Modern chronic stress is taking it away from you

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It is easy to hear in this society the phrase “I am very stressed” because we have more and more demands on us in the workplace or staffand the truth is that it is something that is gradually being used as a “crutch” to associate it with mental fatigue or lack of time. However, the reality is that the great effect that stress has on our body is generating very relevant physical problems that can alter us in the long term. Its effect. The immune system is a fundamental part of our body that defends us against microorganisms, but also against cells that do not follow a natural division and that, without this control, can continue ahead. generating cancer. That is why taking care of it is fundamentaland constant stress is one of your worst enemies by reducing your ability to act. There is no need to demonize. To understand the damage, we must first be fair with the stress, since logically there are situations where you have to have stress to be able to stay aliveand without that ‘stress’ our species would literally be extinct a long time ago. And to understand it, if we ‘travel’ thousands of years ago, if a lion chased a human, the body released adrenaline and cortisol, preparing the immune system for possible injuries and enhancing short-term defenses. The problem with modern life is that the “lion” is no longer a specific predator, but the mortgage, work or constant anxiety. But it is a problem. When stress becomes chronic, it becomes a poison for the body, since, according to different articles, the perpetual state of alert overstimulates the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and the sympathetic nervous system. Here the result is a sustained elevation of cortisol that, paradoxically, ends up causing “glucocorticoid resistance,” which are the molecules that are naturally produced to reduce inflammation. The body is then flooded with stress hormones, but your cells stop responding properly to them to curb inflammation. And as we have seen on many occasions, long-term inflammation brings more problems than benefits. The defenses. The immune dysfunction caused by this chronic condition is perfectly documented. An example is in the classic Cohen study which already mapped out the physiological mechanisms that make us more vulnerable to infections, but experimental studies and reviews from 2025 give us an exact cellular x-ray of what we lose. Among the examples that stand out, we have a drastic reduction of NK cells which are our first line of defense against viruses and tumor cells. Furthermore, both T lymphocytes (which are fundamental cells of the immune system) such as B lymphocytes see their response capacity diminished, making them unable to ‘destroy’ microorganisms that enter our body. But if that were not enough, chronic stress ages the immune system before its time. In a loop. Perhaps the most fascinating discovery that science points to is the connection between the immune system and mental health through neuroinflammation. Here, chronic stress is literally wearing down the body by continually adapting, causing the immune system to skyrocket. proteins related to inflammation that can travel to the brain and activate microglia, which is the ‘defense’ system of the nervous system. The result? A neuroinflammatory environment that is directly linked to the development of depression and anxiety disorders. And logically, if we have anxiety, stress will continue to increase, causing more inflammatory proteins to be released that will continue to affect the brain. It’s not forever. Here science points out that the damage caused by stress is not perpetual, but can be reversed at any time through interventions psychological interventions focused on stress reduction, as well as regular physical exercise. This has shown that chronic inflammation can be reduced and normal immune system cell function restored. That is why now rest and mental health should not be seen as a luxury, but rather we must begin to see them as an important biological shield that can greatly extend our lives if we manage to keep it under control. Images | creativeart on Freepik In Xataka | We thought staying up late was just a bad habit: It’s your body complaining about stress, according to an anxiety expert

Your refrigerator has a compartment designed for eggs in the door. It’s the worst possible place to keep them.

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Almost all refrigerators on the market, when purchased, come with an accessory designed specifically for this purpose: an egg cup that goes on the shelves of the appliance door. This has become the place that many of us look at at first to catch the eggs, but the truth is that it is the worst refrigerator place to save the eggs. The thermal trap. The reason lies not in the fragility of the food, but in a microscopic enemy that surrounds us and can be potentially dangerous: the Salmonella. Here the main problem with the refrigerator door is that it is the area most exposed to thermal changes, since every time we open the refrigerator to get milk, water or simply to think about what to eat, the temperature on the door shelves fluctuates drastically. Here are the regulatory bodies of the United States They are quite clear pointing out that these constant rises and falls in temperature are the ideal breeding ground for bacterial growth. Furthermore, as pointed out by the South Korean Ministry of Food, the door is prone to generate condensation, creating a humid environment that facilitates the proliferation of pathogens in the shell that end up in the food when we break the eggs in the same bowl where we beat them (something also not recommended). The ideal temperature. To keep salmonella at bay, the temperature must be stable and below 4°C – 10°C, since under these conditions, the growth of the bacteria is suppressed by more than 99%. But this on the refrigerator shelves is something that is not always achieved. What the studies say. Here the science is quite clear with different studies that have pointed to the survival of strains such as Salmonella Typhimurium and the Salmonella Enteritidis in very specific conditions. A 2021 study demonstrated that at room temperature the bacterial load increases alarmingly in both the white and the yolk. On the contrary, keeping them at 5ºC limits their multiplication and reduces virulence. But if we come more to the present, a study launched in 2024 found that, under alternating temperature conditions, that is, in cycles of 25 ºC to 5 ºC, similar to taking food in and out of the refrigerator, salmonella manages to migrate to the yolk in 64% of cases. How to preserve them. Taking all this into account, the big question is: what should we do when we get home from the supermarket? In this case, the health authorities point to two strategies, the first being to put them directly on the interior shelves, preferably on the lower or middle ones. In this way, the temperature remains stable below 4ºC, and especially if it is at the bottom of the refrigerator. Do not throw away the cardboard. Although we usually take eggs out of their boxes to put them in plastic egg cups for convenience, the truth is that it is a mistake. That is why the second conservation strategy is to keep them in the original packaging, since the cardboard not only protects them from possible knocks, but also acts as a crucial barrier against moisture loss, prevents the shell from absorbing odors from other foods and protects the egg’s natural cuticular barrier. Images | Onur Burak Akın Katie Bernotsky In Xataka | The internet has become obsessed with drinking hot water in the morning. Science is clear about what it does (and what it doesn’t)

All about Lepas, the new Chery Group brand that arrives in Spain with Chinese cars designed specifically for Europe

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Spain is experiencing a flood of Chinese brands in the automobile market. Manufacturers from this country have considered that Spain is a perfect country for their entry into the European market. Their reasons: key ports to unload cars and a customer who values ​​the quality/price/equipment ratio above brand loyalty. This is candy for Chinese companies. These brands have the challenge of winning over the customer with new models whose added value is, as a general rule, a very attractive price compared to the offer of Western vehicles, always with the same size, equipment and/or technology. With all this in mind, the Chery Group has started in Spain with Omoda and Jaecooin addition to Ebro Although it is a brand with Spanish capital, it uses the models that arrive in kits to Barcelona to build its own cars in our country. To these companies is now added Lepas. Chery will have a third own brand in Spain as a first step in an expansion that should continue throughout Europe soon. The objective is to put on the market a car that begins to target the premium market. This is your plan. What is Lepas and where does it come from? Lepas will be the third brand of the Chery Group to arrive in our country and is the youngest company of the automobile conglomerate since it was created in 2024. It must be taken into account that Chery already sells the Omoda and Jaecoo brands in China but also Jetour, iCar or Exeed. The name, they point out, is the mixture of “Leopard” and “Passion” and aims to position itself as an alternative company created specifically for Europe. It must be taken into account that Chery Group was founded in 1997 and has been exporting cars outside of China for more than 20 years. Its main market, until its arrival in Europe, was South America, but the objective is to continue expanding its borders in the coming years. With this roadmap in mind, Lepas will position itself as a brand designed by and for Europe. Its cars will be Chinese but the brand assures that it is about “responding to new customer profiles in different markets”, so the differentiation with Omoda and Jaecoo should be evident in the next launches. Omoda is, right now, the most youthful brand in Chery’s catalog. The conglomerate has positioned this company as an attractive bet for the most urban client, with a striking aesthetic and somewhat more aggressive or sporty shapes. Jaecoo is committed to the more rural market, with more or less mild offroad ambitions and a somewhat more country aesthetic. Lepas will occupy a slightly more refined position. The shapes of their cars, we assume seeing their first launch, will be softer and less aggressive. Everything indicates that Chery wants to have in Lepas an alternative with a slightly more premium character than its two previous brands. We are not talking about fighting with Audi or Mercedes but we are talking about playing in a league superior to the general league, halfway between both worlds. Lepas L8 Lepas L8, his first car For now, the Lepas landing comes with the Lepas L8. This car is an SUV 4.68 meters long, 1.87 meters wide and 1.69 meters high with a clear family vocation thanks to a trunk capacity of 507 liters. As a plug-in hybrid, it promises a range of up to 1,300 kilometers following a scheme that is common in other models of the group: 1.5 TGDI engine with dedicated DHT hybrid transmission and offers 205 kW (279 HP) of power and 365 Nm of torque. The promised electric range is up to 100 kilometers supported by an 18.4 kWh battery. Interior of the Lepas L8 The car is built on a multi-energy platform that allows plug-in hybrid versions to be put on the market, like this case, and completely electric or extended-range electric options. The latter is a type of car that works the vast majority of the time as an electric car and has a small gasoline tank to generate electricity and support electrical technology in case of emergency. The interior of this Lepas L8 has a steering wheel similar to that of the Omoda 9 so we found soft plastics and attractive design of the steering wheel, with only two horizontal spokes. It has wireless charging for your mobile phone and a large vertical screen. It is a differentiation from the Omoda options, whose screen is horizontal. Some functions with physical buttons are also maintained, although the air conditioning is carried out on the screen. The company points out that the car will arrive with more than 20 ADAS driving assistance systems, including adaptive cruise control, parking assistant (with remote parking) or “540º panoramic camera.” In the future In addition to this Lepas L8, the company’s roadmap involves continuing to send cars to our market. We are talking about the Lepas L4 and L6. At the moment, we know very little about these two cars. Yes we have confirmed that the Lepas L4 is an urban SUVof about 4.30 meters that will help the company to lower the price of entry to the brand. We are not clear, however, what the technology will be and if it will be based on exclusively electric specifications or will add options with combustion engines. The little progress that the brand has made is that the car is already being manufactured in Wuhu, where the Chery Group headquarters is located. As for the Lepas L6 we find ourselves in the same situation but this time we are talking about a compact SUV. We will know the details throughout the year. If we talk about its launch. The company’s roadmap involves putting the first cars on the market at the end of this first half of 2026. Therefore, all the details of the Lepas L8 and the first contacts should arrive shortly before the summer. In the coming months we should know all the … Read more

Spanish cities are collapsed because they were not designed to go “from the periphery to the periphery”

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For decades, commuting to work in large Spanish cities had a clear logic: workers lived on the outskirts of large cities and They traveled every morning towards the center to their jobs. It was a fairly stable urban model, reinforced by transportation networks designed to take workers to the large office districts of the urban area. However, in recent years this pattern has been changing as the price of land in the center has skyrocketed and companies have also had to move to the periphery. As and as it portrays The Countrythe problem is that cities are not designed to move from periphery to periphery, and that movement has become in a daily mousetrap for millions of employees. In recent years, many companies have chosen to move your offices to peripheral areas where land is cheaper and there is space to build large office complexes. This movement has made it possible to build huge business campuses that would be unviable in the urban centers of large cities with high demand for land such as Madrid or Barcelona. In Madrid, the north of the city has become one of the main destinations for this type of projects. An example is the Telephone Districtlocated in Las Tablas, which occupies about 22 hectares and concentrates more than 12,000 workers in a single business complex. The records of the Residence-Work Mobility Atlas of the Community of Madrid show that districts such as Fuencarral-El Pardo (where the Telefónica District is located) are already among the areas with the highest concentration of employment in the region. Barcelona experienced a similar process with the development of 22@ technological district in Poblenou, where numerous technology companies and corporate headquarters have been setting up shop in the last two decades. The transformation of this old industrial neighborhood created a new employment center outside the historic center of the city. Employment is moving, but so are prices The problem with this migration of companies to the periphery of urban centers is that when thousands of workers begin to concentrate in a specific area, the real estate market usually reacts quickly. Proximity to work centers increases the value of neighborhoods nearby, which ends up raising rental and housing prices. This increase, in turn, forces employees to move to municipalities even further away from the city center and the offices where they work. The result is a constant increase in daily trips within the metropolitan area. In Madrid this phenomenon is reflected in the labor mobility figures. According to the recorded data According to the Mobility Atlas of the Community of Madrid, every day 1.2 million people enter the capital from other municipalities to work, compared to the 790,000 who did so in 2016. Something similar is happening in the city of Barcelona, which after the growth of 22@ has attracted workers from numerous municipalities in the metropolitan area, congesting the northern and southern access roads and the city’s ring roads due to the traffic generated by these employees at peak hours, such as and how collect traffic congestion report of Inrix of 2025. All these congestion problems have their origin in the fact that the large transport infrastructures (metros, trams, Cercanías, bus lines, etc.) of the large Spanish cities have been designed for decades with a radial structure. They were planned to connect the peripheral neighborhoods with the city center, which was where most of the employment was concentrated. When new business centers began to grow outside the center, that structure began to show its limitations. Many workers no longer need to go to the urban area, but rather travel between peripheral areas that are not directly connected by public transport. A very clear example of this is the demand of the residents of Tres Cantos for an axis that connects them with… The A-6, not with the center of Madrid. This requires long journeys or several transfers, something that often makes the car faster. Even if it means getting stuck every day on the way to work. Furthermore, public transportation in many cities has become a lottery with constant delays and breakdownswhich generates uncertainty when considering alternatives to the private car. The increase in long trips to work and dependence on the car is clearly reflected in traffic data. According to the TomTom Traffic IndexMadrid registered an average congestion level of 38% in 2025, which is 3.6 percentage points more than the previous year. That level of traffic means that traveling 10 kilometers during rush hour can take about 34 and a half minutes, at average speeds. close to 17.5 km/h. The report also estimates that Madrid drivers lose around 98 hours a year in traffic jams during rush hours. When daily journeys are long, the accumulated time can multiply and reach up to 500 hours per year per person lost in traffic jams. Barcelona faces a similar situationwith a level of congestion in its urban center and access roads of 41.1%, which is one of the highest figures in Europe. In Xataka | The worst traffic jam in history: two weeks, more than 100 kilometers and thousands of cars detained in China Image | Commons

Meta just bought one designed for AI agents

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If we look back, the history of social networks is deeply linked to a very specific idea: connecting people. For years, platforms like Facebook were presented as places to keep in touch with friends, family or co-workers. That logic is still present, but the panorama is beginning to incorporate new actors. Meta has confirmed the acquisition of Moltbook, a platform created for artificial intelligence agents to interact with each other within a social network-like environment. The purchase. We are facing an agreement that does not go unnoticed. As part of the transaction, Moltbook creators Matt Schlicht and Ben Parr will join Meta Superintelligence Labs, the AI ​​unit led by Alexandr Wang, former CEO of Scale AI. The company has not revealed the economic conditions of the operation, but a spokesperson told TechCrunch That the arrival of new talent opens new avenues for AI agents to work for people and companies, and their approach to connecting agents represents a novel step in a rapidly evolving space. A social network for agents. What differentiated Moltbook from other platforms was precisely its approach. Instead of focusing on human profiles, the site allowed AI agents to post messages and interact with each other within a forum-like format. Many of these agents used OpenClawa tool that connects models like Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini or Grok with common messaging applications, including iMessage, Discord, Slack or WhatsApp. That combination turned Moltbook into a very striking experiment within the technological world, to the point of leaving the most specialized circle. An experiment with risks. The rapid popularity of Moltbook also exposed some major problems. Security researchers discovered that the platform had flaws that allowed human users to impersonate AI agents and publish messages as if they were autonomous systems, so that the environment designed for interaction between agents was not as solid as it seemed. Wiz also detected a vulnerability that exposed private messages, more than 6,000 email addresses, and more than one million credentials. open question. All this leaves an open question that still does not have a clear answer: how will Meta leverage this purchase in its artificial intelligence strategy. While there are clues, he has not explained how exactly he plans to use this project within his products or research. What we do know is that the operation comes at a time when large technology companies are competing for talent, tools and new ideas around autonomous agents. Images | Dima Solomin | Moltbook In Xataka | OpenAI is hitting the brakes with Stargate. The reason: Oracle builds yesterday’s data centers with tomorrow’s debt

Spain is preparing a data center specifically designed to have AI for war. The surprise: it is in Soria

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More than two thousand years ago, on the hill of Numanciaits inhabitants preferred to resist to the end rather than surrender to the siege of the legions of Publius Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus. That story of defiance against a superior enemy has remained engraved in Soria’s memory as a symbol of resistance. Now, a few kilometers from that place, in the Valcorba industrial estate, the Ministry of Defense wants to build another kind of fortress: a data center named Numant-IA, where defense will no longer be measured in walls or swords, but in servers, algorithms and artificial intelligence. A unique project. While we live a technological-military schism in the USSpain accelerates in a project that precisely combines both sections. The Government has launched Numant-IA, a data center with a notable investment and totally dedicated to offering computing for AI. Here there are, yes, two notes that stand out. The full name of the project will be the Center for Advanced Defense Technological Capabilities, and its investment is part of the Annual Contracting Plan of the Ministry of Defense (Pacdef) from 2026. It includes 7,868 proposals and 156 framework agreements with a combined value of 10,102 million euros. Soria, new technological capital. The data center announced by the Government last September and that already it was outlined months before, it will have its headquarters in Soria. The project will take advantage of a space provided by the Soria City Council and that covers an area of ​​almost four hectares in the Valcorba industrial estate. Lieutenant General José María Millán, director of CESTIC, already warned then that said center will carry out the “incorporation of artificial intelligence systems for the benefit of the Armed Forces.” Military applications. The initial investment, which was 70 million euros, has been increased to almost 130 million euros according to El Heraldo de Soriaand will be assumed by the Ministry of Defense. Its resources will be used for applications that will process classified data in the area of ​​operations and logistics, and military applications will be an integral part of its mission. This project confirms other movements of the Armed Forces such as the development of Gonzalo, that “ChatGPT” for the army which is precisely designed to support this type of tasks safely. Employment and template. About 20 people will be a permanent part of the staff of this center that will operate 24/7 once it is operational. The construction of the data center, the Department of Defense states, will generate “a significant economic and employment impact on the city.” We know when, but we don’t know what. The Ministry of Defense has indicated that the project has a construction period of 24 months, and therefore they hope that it will theoretically be ready by early 2028. What we do not know is what type of infrastructure it will house or what the real capacity of the data center will be. 67.88 million euros will be dedicated to information systems and servers – unspecified, perhaps because they are not yet defined – while construction will be allocated 58.68 million euros and a third item of 1.65 million euros has no specified purpose. Sovereignty and decentralization. Choosing Soria as the location for this data center responds to the decentralization strategy of the Armed Forces. The defense budgets demonstrate this with a distribution of these funds throughout Spain in different projects that try to avoid the danger of excessive centralization of critical centers. The movement also answers to others that we have been seeing for months and that make it clear that in Spain and Europe they are trying to find solutions that allow us to have the highest possible degree of digital sovereignty. Image | Ministry of Defense In Xataka | Spain’s main problem is not weapons, fighters or drones: it is the number of hands it lacks to use them

Sprout has been designed with another goal in mind

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Humanoid robotics has been feeding the same promise for years: the more a robot resembles a person, the more useful and more natural it will be at our side. That is why we have learned to associate humanoids with increasingly stylized bodies, increasingly realistic movements, and an aesthetic that seeks to erase the border between machine and assistant. However, this race towards similarity is not the only possible direction. In this context, proposals have begun to appear with a different objective: to design robots that do not try to impress with their strength or agility, but rather with their ability to be safe and approachable. the robot. Fauna Robotics has introduced Sprouta humanoid robot with a different approach than the one that usually dominates the conversation. Instead of promising a “person robot,” the company insists on something more concrete: building a humanoid capable of being close to people and functioning safely in human spaces. His idea is that the future of robotics is not only played in the factory, but in homes, schools, offices and places of passage, where interaction matters as much as mechanical capacity. And there, they maintain, the resemblance to a human being is not everything: to earn a place in that environment, Sprout needs to move with control, avoid dangerous situations and communicate in an understandable way, with gestures and signals that invite you to approach, not to move away. Soft, human-scale design. Sprout measures 107cm and weighs 22.7kg, compact enough for one person to move and handle. That scale is not accidental. Fauna Robotics describes it as a lightweight, quiet and soft-touch robot, with a padded exterior that prioritizes safe contact. The company ensures that the design avoids pinch points and sharp edges, two important details when a robot shares space with humans. And he finishes the idea with an unusual decision in this category: an expressive face, with articulated eyebrows and a facial LED matrix that is not there to decorate, but to communicate intention. In detail. The automaton has 29 degrees of freedom, that is, a high number of possible joints and movements to walk and manipulate objects. He also builds a computer based on NVIDIA Jetson AGX Orin with 64 GB of memory and a 1 TB SSD, designed to execute perception and control on board. In sensors, it includes stereoscopic vision, several depth sensors to measure distances and an inertial sensor in the torso for orientation and balance. In locomotion we talk about legs with 5 degrees of freedom and low-impact feet. The battery is interchangeable, with between 3 and 3.5 hours of autonomy. Instead of delivering a body and letting the buyer figure out the rest, the company says its humanoid already integrates ready-made movement, control, and social behaviors, as well as perception, navigation, and mapping to operate in the physical world. To this he adds conversation guided by interaction and dynamic expressions, which are the basis of his “social” approach. It is a way to lower the entry bar: if the robot already moves, orients itself and reacts, the developer’s job becomes the interesting one, creating applications, testing voice interfaces or exploring new forms of human-robot interaction. Designed for others to build on top of. Fauna Robotics’ strategy with Sprout is, for now, less “home robot” and more “tool for creating robots.” The company first offers it as a platform for developers, researchers and universities, a type of buyer who often ends up stuck in the same bottleneck: having a good idea, but not the budget or time to build a complete humanoid. Sprout seeks to resolve that starting point. Fauna presents it as a modular canvas on which to develop manipulation, task planning and interaction, with an almost community approach: someone solves a problem, shares it, and the next team can focus on the next step. A new category? If we look at the most well-known humanoids, it is quick to see that shape is only part of the story. Atlas, from Boston Dynamics, stands out for its electric version aimed at industrial uses. Optimusfrom Tesla, moves in the field of general purpose, with the idea of ​​taking on repetitive or unsafe tasks. Figure 02from Figure AI, also targets industry and commercial workforce, with tests at a BMW plant. In China, Unitree pushes democratization with the G1, a low-priced humanoid aimed at education and research, while Walker S2, from UBTECH, It is already being tested on the border with Vietnam. In Europe, Neo (Beta), from 1Xrepresents the ambition of a safer home robot. Sprout falls close to that last idea. Price and availability. Sprout does not present itself as a consumer robot, and that also shows in how it is offered. Fauna Robotics frames it within an edition aimed at creators and developers (Creator Edition). As for the price, it is offered for $50,000. From there, it is advisable not to fill in the gaps: the company does not detail a public calendar for mass deliveries nor does it propose, for now, a deployment for homes in the style of an appliance. Images | Wildlife Robotics In Xataka | Google had a practically unsolvable dilemma with AI and its search engine. So you have chosen to create a subscription

We have been looking for new weapons against superbugs for years. We have designed one at 400 km altitude

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Humanity has a big problem right now that can condemn it to its disappearance: antibiotic resistance. This forces science to be in a constant search for new treatments and also for raising awareness of the responsible use of drugs. And the last place where they have found a new path of research is in space. The study. A team of researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison has published in PLOS Biology the results of an experiment carried out aboard the International Space Station (ISS), demonstrating that the absence of gravity not only alters cellular behavior, but also accelerates evolutionary processes that would be unlikely on Earth. Something that is undoubtedly very important, since it has been seen how phage T7a virus that has the ability to infect a bacteria to kill it, developed genetic mutations in space that would not have occurred on Earth surely. Some mutations that allowed us to attack a specific bacteria that would have been unthinkable on Earth. A changing biology. On Earth, biologists are quite clear that if a virus binds to a bacteria and infects it, it can kill it. But to understand this you have to know that on our planet the interaction of these two elements in a liquid medium is facilitated by gravity. A key factor for both beings to collide within the medium. On the International Space Station these forces disappear. The movement of the particles is almost exclusively reduced to the Brownian diffusionthat is, the random movement of particles. And here it was seen that this had a great impact on the kinetics of the infection. What happened. The first thing that could be seen is that the bacteria’s ability to divide to give new ‘children’ was reduced, causing it to increase up to four hours, making it difficult for the virus and the bacteria to meet. However, after 23 days of culture on board, the infection was successful. In this way, the viral population not only reached the bacterial population, but the selective pressure of the environment forced the virus to optimize its attack mechanisms with different mutations. Genetic engineering. By analyzing the DNA of viruses that arrived from space, the research team discovered the evolution that had taken place. In this way, it was seen how it had mutated in record time in different genes that are key, such as the one used to synthesize the ‘legs’ with which it anchors itself to a bacteria. The most relevant thing is that these mutations were not random, but a direct response to the lack of frequent contacts. Having fewer opportunities to collide with a bacteria because they replicated less, the virus evolved to be more efficient at adsorption (the process of adhering to the cell surface) once it made contact. For its part, the bacteria E.coli also responded to environmental stress. The analyzes showed mutations in the genes mlaA and hldEresponsible for maintaining the integrity of the outer membrane and the synthesis of lipopolysaccharides. This suggests that the bacteria attempted to “shield” their surface both to resist microgravity and to prevent phage entry, creating a molecular arms race different from the one on Earth. Its importance. Once this has been proven, the question is clear: why do we care? The key is that the researchers used variants of the virus that evolved in space and pitted them on Earth against strains of uropathogenic E. coli that had developed resistance to phage T7 original. And the result was spectacular: the mutated viruses killed these resistant bacteria. This suggests that microgravity makes it possible to explore an “adaptive landscape” that is inaccessible under Earth’s gravity. On Earth, evolution pushes phages down already known “low resistance” paths. In space, extreme conditions force the virus to unlock alternative genetic pathways that we did not know about until now. A new model. This discovery validates a hypothesis that has been brewing for years in astrobiology and biotechnology: space is not just a place for observation, but a unique manufacturing environment. In this way, if we can use the EES, or future commercial stationsas incubators to direct the evolution of bacteriophages, we could generate a library of therapeutic viruses that are capable of defeating the superbacteria that currently threaten global health systems. That is why it is not about artificial genetic engineering, but about using directed evolution in an environment where physical rules favor the appearance of exceptional biological traits. Images | POT CDC In Xataka | Manufacturing materials to produce chips in space is not science fiction. It is a very real plan that is already underway

South Korea has designed a rover with wheels that change size to explore them

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The dream of colonizing the Moon has been around since we set foot in it more than five decades ago. Settling on our satellite poses innumerable challenges; from how to get oxygen, what the food should be likeeven of course what is the best place to do it. We already have an answer to the latter: in caves. The problem is that you have to explore them first. A new rover. They count in Futurism that a team of South Korean scientists and researchers have designed a rover specially designed for the exploration of these lunar caves. The work has been published in Science Roboticswhich includes a video showing how the rover is capable of moving through difficult terrain, withstanding extreme temperatures and even being launched from a drone without suffering damage. The key is in the wheels. They are made up of metal sheets assembled to form a type of helix. The peculiar thing is that the wheels are soft and are capable of changing their diameter from 23 to 50 centimeters. This makes it much easier for you to overcome obstacles, enter smaller gaps when necessary, and also cushion falls. It is a very simple design, without hinges or bearings or complex parts; They simply fold or unfold by torsion, as if they were a spring. Moon cavesyes. As we said, there are many, but the main one is that the conditions are extreme. During the day, the temperature can reach 127ºC and at night it drops to -173ºC, which is not feasible. There is also the problem of long-term radiation. This is on the surface, but there is good news and that is that the Moon has a series of pits or caves where the temperature is much more stable, around 17ºC. A lunar tunnel. There is still more. By mid-2024 NASA discovered a huge cave in the Mare Tranquillitiatis crater, near the area where the Apollo 11 mission landed in 1969. It is estimated that the cave (actually a lava tube) measures about 45 meters wide and reaches up to 80 meters long, and the ground is also quite flat, so placing a settlement inside it could be viable. At the moment this cave has not been explored, although Solutions have already been proposed to do so. Artemis Program. Returning to the Moon is one of the most important space projects currently underway. Artemis It not only proposes setting foot on our satellite again, but also establishing our presence on it. The first unmanned mission was launched in 2022 and the plan is that Artemis II takeoff in February 2026. Artemis III will be the first manned mission, although this could still be missing several years. Image | Kaist In Xataka | We are sending cannabis samples to space. They are going to be key to knowing if we can colonize the Moon or Mars

These glasses with AI have been designed to look like a genius. They register your environment and give you all the answers

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Imagine carrying glasses that seem normal, but that inside offer you constant and silent help. The concept sounds intriguing: without touching anything, You can solve doubts instantlyreceive a clear explanation of something that you do not understand or have an automatic translation in the middle of a talk. A startup called Halofounded by former Harvard students, has created glasses with that idea in mind. And not only that: they promise to endow us with a “superhuman intelligence.” Beyond the marketing strategy, the approach is interesting. Glasses that listen and respond in real time Halo X do not resort to cameras to dazzle us, but bet on a different approach. They are designed for Listen to what happens around youtranscribe each conversation and show on an internal screen information that they consider relevant at that time. They do not wait for them to dislike, but try to anticipate and be useful proactively. In practice, that means that if the name of a car model arises in a talk, they can show a card with key data; If a technical term appears, promise to display a clear definition. The information operation appears in front of your eyes in less than a second. Even in everyday situations, such as speaking in another language, they should be able to real time and facilitate communication without having to do anything else. Halo talks about answers around 900 milliseconds for most consultations, while the most complex searches take about two and a half seconds. To achieve this, the glasses rely on two complementary artificial intelligence engines. Geminithe Google model, is responsible for reasoning tasks, while Perplexity It works as a contextual search engine that consults information on the web. As for the hardware, the halo X bets on the discretion. Incorporate a small type display Waveguide Visible only for the user, microphone and integrated speakers, and dispense with this version. The autonomy announced is around eight hours of continuous use. Of course, they do not process everything on their own. They depend on a connected mobile phone and an application that acts as an intermediary, where most of the calculation and consultation work really runs. The great debate point is in privacy. The system records what you listen, transcribes it and, according to the company, eliminates the audio immediately after. Halo ensures that the product will arrive with end -to -end encryption and that is working to obtain the SOC 2 certification, which would imply external audits on data management. The system records what you listen, transcribes it and, according to the company, eliminates the audio immediately after. However, they do not include any visible indicator that alerts those around you that they are being recorded, and that raises reasonable doubts. The controversy is not new: the founders They had already experienced with unauthorized facial recognition systems about Meta Ray-Banwhich generated debate about security and improper uses of technology. At the moment, Halo X are not available in stores. They can be reserved on the official website with a starting price of 249 dollars And, by selecting euros in checkout, today they appear in 223.13 euros. The company has not yet offered a specific date of shipping or confirms whether there will be official distribution in Europe. It will be necessary to see if the halo X does not end up repeating the recent history of other devices that promised to revolutionize our relationship with artificial intelligence and ended up being sued fiascos. Rabbit R1 and the AI ​​Pin of Humane They aroused enthusiasm in their presentations and arrived with very ambitious speeches, but failed in practice. Halo’s ambition is on the table and his proposal is as attractive as controversial. It remains to be seen if these glasses They fulfill what they promise or if they will end up swelling the list of inventions that pointed high and stayed on the road. Images | Halo In Xataka | China has proposed to be independent in all technologies. And for augmented reality it has “five dragons” In Xataka | The Meta Ray-Ban are the first smart glasses that have managed to impress me. They are the beginning of something more

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