exists

the continent has just realized that its infrastructure lives in a world that no longer exists

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a tugboat approaching a dutch drawbridge and watering it with their hoses; stopped trams in Leipzig, British supermarkets without chilled products, melted roads… They seem like a bunch of curious anecdotes about how Europeans survive one of their first real ‘heat waves’. But they are not. Each of these failures is the symptom of a problem that, despite bombastic speeches and sickeningly detailed plans, we have persisted in forgetting: that climate change is serious. And here we are. A Europe that does not exist. For practical purposes, the event these days is the second heat wave that the continent has faced so far this year. We have seen incredible things: 37.3 in the United Kingdom, 37 in Denmark, 41.7 in Germany, 39.5 in Slovakia, 39.4 in the Netherlands… it is not only that the June highs have fallen in almost all the countries of Western and Central Europe, it is that absolute records have been broken (i.e. also July and August) in four countries. According to World Weather Attributionis the most severe episode ever measured in the region studied: in 1976, such heat would have been “virtually impossible” in June. And that is perhaps the most important lesson of these days: that the Europe of 1976 no longer exists. And we have begun to notice it in the worst possible way. Although we can make distinctions between what has happened these days (In Leipzig, the problem is that the sealant between the lane and the road surface softened to dangerous levels; while in Holland the bridges began to be refreshed by protocol without any problem being detected), the truth is that these are all signs that the European infrastructure is outdated. Many of Europe’s roads, bridges and highways were designed for maximums between 32-35. Before, exceeding that limit was something anecdotal (in the 119 years between 1881 and 2000 There was only one day in Germany that measured 40° or more), today is the ‘new normal’ (last week there were 4 days like this). It is important to note that so far I have not said anything about mortality. It will take some more time to have the complete data, but suffice it to say that France has already registered around 1000 deaths attributable to the heat wave. The obvious question is… what have we been doing all along? While all this is happening, no one can claim ignorance or surprise: in March 2024, the European Union itself recognized in its first European Climate Risk Assessment that “Europe was not prepared” for what was coming, that policies “were not keeping pace with the increase in risks” and that incremental adaptation “was not going to be enough.” I don’t want to say that nothing has been done. There are analyzes that say that without the adaptation of this century (things like heat plans, surveillance or the alert system) mortality would have been a 80% older. However, the data is there: no matter how much we have done, the deficit grows with each passing day. And that means we’re not doing enough. What can we expect? It seems like little or nothing. In recent years, public support for climate policies appears to have tempered. And there is a lot to do: we must not forget that estimates tell us that Europe’s air conditioning fleet will go from less than seven million devices in 1990 to more than one hundred million in 2030. That requires radical changes: an enormous reconversion that, given what we have seen, we do not know if we are going to want to undertake. Europe knows what is coming and knows what it has to do. You have it planned, signed and approved. The question is whether he will do it before this stops being an anecdote and begins to become an unmanageable crisis. Image | Bill Iliot In Xataka | ENT doctors agree: “Sleeping with air conditioning forces the nose to work excessively”

This week the bootidae arrive, the slowest and most unpredictable meteor shower that exists

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If we think about meteor showers and the summer of the northern hemisphere, possibly the only one that comes to mind is the perseids. Without a doubt, it is the most famous of all, that is indisputable. But it’s not the only one. Right at the beginning of the summer period we can also enjoy the bootidas, a very special meteor shower for being, possibly, the most unpredictable of all. Don’t stop looking at the sky this week. The Booties can be seen crossing the sky between June 22 and July 2, although its peak takes place between June 22 and 30, normally the 27th. That is why it is recommended that this week we look at the sky, especially during Saturday night, when the peak is most likely to occur. And hopefully also an explosion. A variable number of meteors. We usually know how many meteors per hour we will see with a meteor shower. For example, the Perseids usually leave between 50 and 100 meteors per hour. It is quite a spectacle, which still pales in comparison to the December Geminidswhich can reach 120-150 meteors per hour. The bootidae, on the other hand, only give us 1 or 2 meteors every hour. We should be very focused on the sky to be able to see them. However, from time to time they experience outbursts in which a number of meteors comparable to those of the Perseids can be reached. The last of these outbreaks took place in 2004 and it is not known when the next one will be. That’s why it’s such a special occasion. The explanation. When comets and asteroids pass near the Sun, they often leave behind a cloud of debris caused by various reasons, but especially by the sublimation of the ice that they usually have on their surface or their core (in the case of comets). That cloud floats in space, usually in a defined place. Therefore, when the Earth revolves around the Sun, it always encounters these clouds at the same time of year. As it crosses our atmosphere, debris burns, giving rise to small fireballs streaking through the sky. Those are meteors or, as we know them colloquially, shooting stars. If there is a planet near the orbit of a comet or asteroid, can exert a gravitational effect on its debris, preventing it from being distributed homogeneously. That’s what happens with booties. They come from the debris of comet 7P/Pons-Winnecke, strongly influenced by Jupiter. In their case, instead of leaving a homogeneous cloud of debris, these are formed into dense threads, so that the Earth each year encounters a point of different density. Some of those threads are well studied. For example, it is known that the thread that led to outbursts in 1916, 1998 and 2004 could leave another outburst in 2037. However, there may be other unidentified threads that leave outbursts in other years. Maybe this 2026? Other information that makes it special. Another reason why bootida rain is so special is the meteor speed. While the Perseids fly across the sky at 59 km/s and the Geminids do the same at 35 km/s, the Bootids They move at 18 km/s. They are much slower, so if we manage to see them, we will enjoy them much better. We’ll have more time to make a wish! Yes, scientifically it is useless, but we have all caught ourselves trying to do it at some point. How to see them. To see the meteor showers, you basically have to follow the same steps as to see any meteor shower. It is best not to use telescopes or binoculars, since we will not know where to point. The ideal option is Find a place well away from light pollution and fix our eyes on a point in the sky until our eyes get used to the darkness. The radiant of the Bootes is, as its name indicates, the constellation of Bootes. That means that this is the place in the sky where shooting stars seem to be born. However, they can come from any point. The important thing is that: fix your eyes and get your eyes used to it. As for the time, the ideal is to start searching after midnight, at least in latitudes close to the Spanish one, since that will be when they will be seen high enough in the sky. If there is no explosion, there won’t be much to see, but what if there is one and we don’t try to go out and look? Better to be bored than to regret not having tried. Image | Michal Mancewicz (Unsplash) In Xataka | Meteor showers, planetary alignments and lunar phases: all the astronomical events that we have in view

Chile wants a tunnel under the Strait of Magellan to link Tierra del Fuego with the continent. The project exists, the agreement with Argentina does not

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Today, if a person wants to cross from Chile or Argentina to the island of Tierra del Fuego, they depend on ferries and barges. Normally, about 600 vehicles and around 2,000 people They cross the island every day. The extreme southern region of Patagonia is also a complicated area in meteorological terms, which leads to the suspension of maritime transport services every now and then. Hence, it makes all the sense in the world that they are considering building an underwater tunnel that connects both regions. The idea is to build an underpass of about 3.7 kilometers in the First Angostura, thus replacing ferry transportation. The project has existed on paper for a long timebut now it has just gained some political momentum. What exactly is proposed. The project would consist of an underwater road tunnel that connects Punta Delgada, in the continental zone, with Bahía Azul, on the Big Island of Tierra del Fuego. This section, known as First Angostura, is the point where the Strait of Magellan narrows to the maximum, making it the most technically reasonable place to attempt a work of these characteristics. Why is it resurfacing now? The project has been included since June 2025 in the Extreme Zones Development Plan 2025–2035 of the Magallanes Region. The governor of Magallanes, Jorge Flies, has been the main person responsible for restore some visibility to the initiative in recent weeks, according to some media reports. What the technicians say. Francisco Hernández, academic at the University of the Andes, counted to the Uruguayan edition of El País that the work is technically possible, but warns that it should not be seen “as a simple work.” The media also points out more difficulties than the length of the route, including the detailed study of the geology of the seabed, the water pressure, the currents or the seismic behavior of an area located very close to the mountain range. Depending on the results of these analyses, the project could be executed with a TBM-type tunnel boring machine or using conventional rock excavation techniques. According to account According to La Nación, Norwegian engineers have already reviewed the proposal in a preliminary phase and concluded that the conditions could be favorable. cHow much does it cost and who pays. The estimates oscillate between 500 and 1.5 billion dollars. As it is a binational project, Chile and Argentina would have to agree on the distribution of the investment, the management model and long-term maintenance guarantees. The media also points out that viability does not depend only on engineering, but on there being a firm agreement between both countries on who pays, under what conditions and with what operating scheme. What point is it really at? For the moment, the tunnel is nothing more than a proposal included in Chile’s planning. There is no official confirmation of the start of works, no definitive agreement between the two countries, nor guaranteed financing. The next step would be to complete the geotechnical and geophysical studies that allow the design, costs and security, evacuation and emergency systems to be refined. Until then, we will have to wait to find out if the project finally comes to fruition. Cover image | Vincent Etter and Ricardo Gomez Angel In Xataka | With 3,500 tons and 15 meters in diameter, China already has the largest tunnel boring machine in the world for high-speed trains

Every time a megaship arrives at a port, the electrical grid collapses. The alternative already exists and does not need cables to the city

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Ports around the world face an urgent and unavoidable mandate: decarbonize. The requirement is to turn off the huge diesel engines of commercial and cruise ships once they dock, connecting them to the local electrical grid. However, in practice, port cities have hit a concrete wall: there is not enough capacity in the land network to plug in these giants of the sea. Faced with this bottleneck, the engineering response has been to take the problem off the ground. A consortium backed by the United Kingdom and led by the firm ELIRE Maritime has been successfully validated what they define as “the world’s first floating, grid-independent hydrogen energy center.” The end of endless port works? To understand the impact of this development, you have to look at the current logistical ordeal. As emphasized Enlitinstall traditional shore power supply systems (known in the industry as shore power) is a real nightmare. The process can take between three and seven years, as it requires massive reinforcements of the network, improvements in substations, complex civil works and permitting deadlines that paralyze any progress. All this consuming land space that most ports lack. By placing the energy infrastructure directly in the water, this obstacle is overcome in one fell swoop. Furthermore, since ELIRE Maritime highlight a crucial financial advantage– The system avoids the risk of creating “stranded assets”. Unlike a concrete substation that cannot be moved if shipping routes change, this floating mega plant can be relocated as market demand dictates, giving port authorities complete independence from the network. Technological radiography. Far from being a mere concept on paper, the technology has just passed a rigorous six-month validation program. The physical design, echoed by all the media, consists of three interconnected hexagonal floating platforms that occupy about 1,200 square meters. But how does it supply power without collapsing? The system does not use huge generators to inject shock energy into the ship, but rather works on the premise of a “giant floating battery.” Through continuously operating 1.3 MW modular fuel cells (supported by up to 146 kW of onboard solar panels), the system slowly charges a massive 45 MWh battery bank throughout the week. When a ship docks, this battery releases energy quickly, delivering 5 MW of clean, continuous power without flinching. To fuel this process, the system consumes between 7,500 and 8,000 kilos of hydrogen per week. It has seven tanks on board integrated into low-pressure containers, which require refueling a couple of times a week. This allows ports to gradually adopt hydrogen without having to undertake extensive work to build pipelines or permanent storage facilities on land. The real impact. To ensure its real-world viability, the platform has undergone stability and wave testing in tanks at the University of Strathclyde, while industry giants such as Schneider Electric and Ricardo UK have successfully validated its entire complex electrical architecture. The environmental lights: According to the feasibility analyzes of the Ricardo consulting firm, the system can reduce emissions from docked ships by 77% compared to traditional diesel generation. In tangible figures, this represents a saving of about 47 tons of CO₂ per ship each week (almost 2,450 tons annually), in addition to completely eradicating emissions of toxic particles, nitrogen oxides (NOx) and sulfur (SOx) that poison the air in coastal cities. The shadow of cost: Today, this solution is more expensive than plugging into the conventional network. The estimated energy cost of this hydrogen hub is between £0.25 and £0.50 per kWh, compared to £0.15 – £0.25 for the traditional ground system. However, the consortium argues that this initial extra cost is offset by the astonishing speed of deployment and they anticipate that standardization and the future drop in the price of hydrogen will equalize the trade balance. The potential is immense. The consortium estimates a global market of 62 TWh annually for grid-independent maritime solutions, with the potential to avoid the emission of 500,000 tons of CO₂ in the next decade. Next stops. As detailed ELIRE Maritimethe consortium is already in commercial talks to start the first real deployments in first-tier ports such as London, Singapore, Hamburg, Brisbane and Riga. The future of maritime decarbonization seems to have found a shortcut. It is not about inventing exotic technologies from scratch, but about integrating what we already know works (hydrogen, batteries and electrical power systems) in a much smarter way. If the mainland does not have enough electricity to power the giants of the oceans, the solution, ironically, has always been to go back into the sea. Image | ELIRE Maritime Xataka | The great challenge of drones was to transport loads for kilometers. A Chinese company has solved it with hydrogen

The nuclear explosion that changed the world also created a material that exists nowhere else in the known universe

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On July 16, 1945, the first detonation of an atomic bomb—known as the trinity test— changed the course of history and left an indelible mark on the New Mexico desert. The explosion of the plutonium device released energy equivalent to 21 kilotons of TNT, enough to vaporize the 30-meter test tower, the kilometers of copper cables connecting the recording instruments, and the desert sand itself. All this material, carried by the immense fireball, rained down in the form of molten glassy fragments, creating a unique form of matter known today as trinite. The vast majority of this trinite is a classic green color, but there is a much rarer variant called “red trinite,” whose color is attributed to the presence of copper oxide formed when transmission lines vaporized in the explosion. It is precisely inside this rare variant where scientists have discovered unprecedented crystalline structures. The violent conditions of the detonation subjected the materials to temperatures of around 1,500 °C and extreme pressures of 5 to 8 gigapascals. The matter vaporized, mixed, and cooled so extremely quickly—in a matter of seconds—that the atoms did not have time to organize themselves into stable structures, forging forms of matter that had never existed on our planet. An unprecedented find. Almost 80 years after that first nuclear explosion, an international research team led by Luca Bindi, a geologist at the University of Florence, has managed to identify a new material hidden in these samples. As the research explainsit is a “clathrate”: a cage-shaped chemical network that traps other atoms inside. This new crystal is built with 12- and 14-sided silicon cages that enclose atoms of calcium, copper, and small amounts of iron. It represents the first time that the presence of a clathrate among the solid products of a nuclear explosion has been crystallographically confirmed. That this discovery comes now, in 2026, is no coincidence. Samples of red trinitite are extremely rare and difficult to obtain, and only recent advances in mining techniques x-ray diffraction At a nanoscopic scale, they have made it possible to identify such tiny structures within metallic microdroplets embedded in glass. The technology simply was not up to par with the material before. The quasicrystal that arrived first. The story becomes even more fascinating because this discovery joins another monumental find made by the same team in 2021: the identification of a quasicrystal in the same little red trinity. Unlike ordinary crystals—such as salt or quartz, which have a precisely repeating atomic pattern—quasicrystals break the rules of classical crystallography. Its atoms are ordered, but without periodically repeating themselves, which generates symmetries that are prohibited in a conventional crystal. The one found at Trinity exhibits five-fold icosahedral symmetry and is composed of silicon, copper, calcium and iron. It is not only the quasicrystal created by the oldest known human being: has the incredible property that its exact moment of creation was indelibly recorded in historical records. The decisive role of copper. The most elegant thing about the new study is the mechanism that explains why two such different structures were formed in the same explosion. The key was the concentration of copper available during cooling. In the microzones where copper levels were low —about 10 to 11%— conditions allowed the clathrate cage structure to stabilize. Where there was more copper, that same structure collapsed and the atoms rearranged themselves in the forbidden geometry of the quasicrystal. Two radically different destinies, separated by a microscopic difference in chemical composition, at the same time and in the same place. The power of natural laboratories. Discovering these architectures on a microscopic scale is revolutionary because, as Terry C. Wallace explainsdirector emeritus of Los Alamos National Laboratory and co-author of the quasicrystal research, these structures require extreme environments that rarely exist on Earth: colossal shocks, temperatures and pressures, comparable only to the hypervelocity impacts of meteorites or nuclear detonations themselves. Destructive events that, paradoxically, act as laboratories capable of producing what no conventional laboratory can replicate. A tool for global security. Beyond materials science, this type of research has direct applications in the field of nuclear nonproliferation. Understanding the design of other countries’ nuclear weapons programs is an enormous forensic challenge. Scientists often track radioactive gases and waste in test areas, but those signatures inevitably decay over time. The crystals formed at the site of the explosion, on the other hand, are practically eternal. The red trinitite samples still preserve radioactive isotopes that allow variables such as the exact distance to the hypocenter of the explosion to be calculated with great precision. Wallace sums it up clearly: If science can establish a precise thermodynamic explanation for how these crystals form, a complete picture of the bomb and the materials used could be obtained, giving the world a new tool to monitor illicit nuclear explosions. A timestamp that cannot be falsified or deleted. The paradoxical legacy of Trinity. The study of trinitite demonstrates how matter is capable of reorganizing itself in astonishing ways under unimaginably hostile conditions. It is an almost poetic paradox that an event designed for destruction has left, 80 years later, a hidden legacy of microscopic geometric perfection that is useful today for the human future. This discovery is not only a window into the creation of cutting-edge energy materials and technologies, but it functions as a compass for future research. As the experts conclude in his academic publicationexamine the remains of other extreme and fleeting natural phenomena, such as fulgurites forged by lightning strikes or rocks subjected to meteorite craters, could continue to reveal unusual configurations of matter. Even today, hidden beneath the scars of destruction, structures await that continue to challenge our fundamental understanding of the universe. Image | PNAS and Unsplash Xataka | Europe throws away 16 billion a year in electronic waste. Spain has just turned on the first oven in Europe to recover them

China has shown that the good and cheap electric car exists. So Citröen has had to get its act together

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China is doing very well with the cheap electric car. And if not, tell them BYD Dolphin Surfa 100% electric vehicle that the company finances at just over 3% for 125 euros per month. Without financing it costs 19,990 euros which, after aid, can become 11,780 euros. Saving exceptions like Dacia Springwhich compete in a much lower league, Western manufacturers have no choice but to respond. And Citröen has been the first to do so. 11,700 euros. Citroen has been lowering the price of its ë-C3 for more than a yeara car that was launched on the market for more than 20,000 euros and that, since its launch, has been reduced by almost half. Now, after aid, the Citröen C3 costs 11,700 euros, with an eight-year warranty. What it offers. With a price practically identical to the Dolphin Surf, an almost identical autonomy (220 km under the WLTP cycle), and a technology relatively similar to that of the Chinese alternative, we are finally talking about a price at which the company can be competitive. What China offers. Both vehicles, in their most economical version, have LFP batteries. The main difference is in the charging system: 65 kW for the BYD and 30 kW for the Citröen. The key, however, is not in the specs: it is that BYD has been offering a competitive price since its arrival in Spain, which has catapulted it into the top 3 of the best-selling electric cars in the country. Beyond Tesla. There is no electric car that sells more than the Model 3 in Spain. This is to be expected, given the reliability, range and price of the vehicle. Just below Tesla, we have the BYD Dolphin Surf, which has sold more than 1,332 units so far this year (compared to 2,489 for the Model 3 and 2,023 for the Model Y). Taking into account that they play in completely different leagues, the BYD case is a resounding success. A purely urban car that sells practically twice as much as its direct rivals. The electric C3 has 634 units sold, placing it in the top 9. The ranking points to something very clear: the price is the main purchasing factor for the Spanish electric companyand Western manufacturers will have to tighten their grip if they want to compete with China. In Xataka | The electric cars with the most autonomy that can be bought in 2026

When Sora was released many assumed it was “the death of Hollywood.” Only two years, then Sora no longer exists

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In February 2024, OpenAI published on X a string of AI-generated videos with his new model, Sora. Although today, after two years of progress, they even feel outdated, at the time the result was convincing enough for the media around the world to start headlines that Hollywood had a very serious problem. Two years later, Sora does not exist. Panic effect. The effect of this presentation with videos was immediate: MIT Technology Review, for example, described them as “impressive“, although warning that they had probably been chosen and were not representative of the output usual. That did not stop the narrative: for weeks, the dominant conversation in the specialized media was that film studios were facing an almost perfect replacement tool: synthetic actors, sets generated in seconds, automated post-production… The Hollywood unions, which they had signed agreements with the studios the previous year after a historic strike they put the issue back on the table. Two bombs. Sora’s story has two moments of media panic, separated by eighteen months. The first arrived in February 2024, with the presentation of the model described above. There was talk that Hollywood had a serious problem, that the almost perfect replacement tool already existed and that the studios were not prepared to face this threat. The second came with the launch of Sora 2 in September 2025with real faces inserted in videos generated by AI and with third-party intellectual property by default, unless the prompts expressly requested otherwise. All of this multiplied the volume and intensity of the alarm in Hollywood and the media. What was said In February 2024, coverage of Sora’s first model mixed amazement and alarm in similar proportions. Fortune commented that OpenAI had moved the generative AI battle directly to Hollywood. NBCNews asked filmmakers if this was the end of Hollywood, and some responded that it wasn’t yet. IndieWire He sensed that Sora could mean the apocalypse of cinema. The cycle of apocalyptic headlines with Sora 2 was much more intense. CNBC declared that the app was challenging Hollywood and causing panic in the film industry. deadline He said Hollywood was raw. LA Times He spoke of a battle that was worsening and a firestorm unleashed in the sector. slatewell, he talked about how AI was about to crush Hollywood as we had known it. What happened then. The panic increased in December 2025, when Disney, the most careful entertainment company in the world with its intellectual property, signed a three-year agreement with OpenAI: investment of 1 billion dollars and access to more than 200 characters from Disney, Marvel, Pixar and ‘Star Wars’ so that Sora users could generate them in their videos. Disney+ would broadcast a curated selection of that content. It was the definitive legitimation, which has only lasted 90 days. OpenAI has closed Sora before a single dollar has changed hands. Property problems. Sora’s problems have not only been financial. The app has accumulated a long list of controversies: deepfakes of deceased public figuresmassive use of copyrighted characters without permission prior, and the appearance of external tools to remove watermarks that identified AI-generated content. In November 2025, CODA (Japanese association representing, among others, Studio Ghibli and Square Enix) sent a formal letter to OpenAI demanding that it stop using its intellectual property to train the model. The families of Robin Williams and George Carlin They publicly asked for it to be blocked generating videos with your images. Moderating generative video content at scale turned out to be much more complex than moderating text or image. The consequences of hype. Analyst Ed Zitron criticized this attitude of the media, stating that they did not cover the launch of Sora but rather they amplified their marketing. Saying that Sora was a real threat to Hollywood was, from the beginning, an extrapolation built on selected demos and clips of a few seconds. Thousands of audiovisual professionals spent months convinced that their industry was about to be replaced by a tool that, according to OpenAI’s own numbers, never found enough users willing to pay $200 a month for it. The hype cycle has real consequences: it inflates expectations that are not met, generates costly defensive decisions, and when the product closes, no one takes critical stock. Sora’s coverage is a textbook case of how uncritical amplification of tech demos can be confused with industry analysis, and the damage that attitude can do. Hollywood is still alive. The closure of Sora does not erase the generative video sector in one fell swoop: runwaywhich rejected an acquisition offer from Meta, currently leads the sector with its Gen-4.5 model, along with I see 3.1 from Google and Chinese models Kling and Seedance. These tools are absorbing the space that OpenAI abandons. Who no one absorbs is Hollywood. The film industry, with all your problems (reorganizations, box office decline, threat of streaming), remains a profitable business built on decades of well-established creation, distribution chains and franchises that no generative model can replicate with a prompt. The question is not whether AI will transform audiovisual production (it is already doing so, in post-production, pre-visualization and marketing content creation) but in what real time frames and under what viable economic models. For now, the market responds that generating photorealistic video on a massive scale is computationally very expensive and that consumer users are not willing to pay what it costs. Disney signing Sora wasn’t evidence that Hollywood was in danger. It was, rather, evidence that big studios want to be in the AI ​​conversation, not outside of it. In Xataka | Seedance’s strategy was to copy first, go viral later and back away later. Until Hollywood said “enough”

There is an invisible chip in every USB-C cable that decides whether your phone charges fast or slow: almost no one knows it exists

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There is a small and notable chip in our USB-C cables. This is the so-called “e-Marker”, which is especially important. The reason is simple: when we connect a cable to a device, it is responsible for indicating to those devices whether the cable supports more or less transmission or charging speed, for example. USB-C chaos is a little less chaos. USB-C connectors completely dominate the market, especially after European regulations that require them to be used to charge mobile phones and other devices. Although they have become the Swiss army knife for connecting all types of devices and peripherals, it is not easy to know what we can do with a cable when we connect it to our mobile phone or laptop, for example. And that’s where the e-Marker chip (Electronically Marked ID chip) comes in, a fundamental yet invisible component of the connectivity of our devices. In Xataka We criticize the EU a lot with its obsession with regulating Big Tech. There are at least two examples that justify this obsession A chip to identify everything. The official specification of the USB-C standard clearly indicates the mission of this chip, which is responsible for showing what capabilities the cable in question has. The document that talks about this chip is the one dedicated to USB Power Delivery, the power delivery function through these cables. Specifically, the identification data includes: Manufacturer and model of the cable. Signaling protocol: that indicates the maximum transmission speedthat is, if it is a cable with USB 2.0 support, or USB 3.2 of one generation or another (Gen 1, Gen 2, etc.). Active construction (in long cables there may be chips that regenerate data signal to act as a kind of repeater) or passive construction (they do not alter the data signal). How much power does the VCONN pin (intended to power accessories) consume? Whether the cable can support 3A (standard) or 5A (required for powers from 100 W to 240 W). Latency (signal delay over the cable). RX/TX directionality (how the high-speed cable pairs are configured). SOP Controller Mode: Whether the cable controller can communicate independently with the charger or device Hardware/firmware version. One of the sections of the USB Power Delivery specification that talks about this chip. Source: USB.org An active safety mechanism. The e-Marker is not only official, but is a mandatory part of the USB Power Delivery (USB-PD) specification dictated by the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF). This chip acts as an active safety mechanism, and during the power negotiation phase, the chip tells the charger “I am a cable certified to support up to 100W” (for example). If the charger does not receive that digital confirmation, it will assume that the cable is basic and cheap, restricting the flow of power or data transmission. Does your phone charge slowly or is the transfer using pedals? In fact, if a USB-C cable does not have an e-Marker chip, most device drivers will automatically treat it as a USB 2.0 cable. That means that even if the cable is physically capable of more, the speed will be limited to 480 Mbps maximum, and charging will also be slower. With 3A you can reach 60 W at 20 V, so even so this section is not so affected and it also depends on the charging capacity of the charger. {“videoId”:”x8dmqaj”,”autoplay”:false,”title”:”One USB-C TO RULE THEM ALL- the European Union approves a single charger for mobile phones”, “tag”:”webedia-prod”, “duration”:”54″} The rails. High-speed cables (USB 3.2, USB4, Thunderbolt) have multiple pairs of copper wires designed to transmit data in parallel. The e-Marker tells the device “I have all the threads necessary to activate dual lane mode.” If this confirmation does not arrive, the transfer speed is again limited. The e-Marker on long cables. Another function of the e-Marker, as we said, is to identify the length of the cable. At high transmission speeds the signal degrades very quickly, and the e-Marker is responsible for notifying you, allowing the device (mobile phone, computer) to adjust the signal strength to compensate for potential data loss. Support for alternative video modes. Another option that this chip enables is to indicate what video connection standards the USB-C cable in question supports, and if, for example, it has the necessary bandwidth for 4K or 8K resolutions. There are “readers” of the information provided by the e-Marker chip, although they are not cheap: this one from ChargerLAB costs about 140 euros. Two key pins. The “brains” of a USB-C connector are located on two specific pins known as the configuration channel (CC). These pins (CC1 and CC2) allow, for example, the orientation or reversibility to be detected. Since the connector is reversible, the device needs to know which side you inserted the cable to activate the appropriate data pins (TX/RX). When connecting it, the side will be identified, and based on that the rest of the pins are switched for transmission. The other pin of the configuration channel becomes Vconn to power the e-Marker chip. In Xataka | Mobile phone manufacturers first stopped including the charger with every purchase. Your next threat is clear: the USB cable (function() { window._JS_MODULES = window._JS_MODULES || {}; var headElement = document.getElementsByTagName(‘head’)(0); if (_JS_MODULES.instagram) { var instagramScript = document.createElement(‘script’); instagramScript.src=”https://platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js”; instagramScript.async = true; instagramScript.defer = true; headElement.appendChild(instagramScript); – The news There is an invisible chip in every USB-C cable that decides whether your phone charges fast or slow: almost no one knows it exists was originally published in Xataka by Javier Pastor .

Whether “altruism” exists among animals or not

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An ape reviving another after a small electric shock; a herd of pigs pushing back to the river to a fish stranded on the shore; a group of crows discovering the gigantic carcass of a reindeer and calling other crows to enjoy the feast. Examples are reproduced everywhere in the four corners of the Internet, and behind them often lies a voluntaristic question: are animals altruistic? In the background lies a moral reading: unlike selfish human beings, animals are capable of teaching us authentic goodness. Give without expecting anything in return. This is what happened some time ago as a result of the viral image of a duck covering a young dog under its wings. It does not matter that the facts themselves be diffuse or that the conversation starts from two image captures without reference to the original source. The debate is legitimate, and it is alive. Was the bird protecting a cub of another species out of mere compassion, out of high moral altruism? It is common for the answer to this question to be pregnant with moral conditions. We want to project our own insecurities, anxieties and emotional conflicts onto animals. For years, the idea of ​​”animal altruism” was reduced to the margins of science due to its connotations anthropocentric. However, the issue has enjoyed an interesting revival during the last decades. Numerous studies have tried to put an end to the question of altruism, and to provide an effective response to the sometimes inexplicable behavior of some animal species. Altruism, a definition Biology and ethology have reached a definition relatively accurate of “altruism”: that action that benefits a third party to the detriment of oneself. That is, acts that have positive consequences without at the same time deriving self-interest. Dissecting the wheat from the chaff is complex, because many “altruistic” acts actually hide deeply selfish motivations. (Hossein Ghaem/Unsplash) In the late 1980s, a biologist specializing in animal behavior, Bernd Heinrich, noticed something peculiar during a walk through the Maine woods. A group of crows had found the succulent remains of a huge reindeer, and had begun to attract the attention of other reindeer in a striking and scandalous way. At first glance, it seems that the crows wanted to share the abundance of meat found by chance. Did it make sense? From a somewhat simplistic point of view (survival of the fittest), not too much. Evolutionary logic (at least as we usually understand it) dictated that crows they had to compete for that piece of meat. It is a basic impulse and a vector that explains much of animal relationships, the fight for scarce food and self-survival. By calling other crows to enjoy the banquet, those birds were breaking a dynamic long accepted by the scientific community. He Heinrich’s particular discovery It has been discussed for years. Ultimately, it is likely that the crows did not display any altruistic behavior. Finding the reindeer in the territory of an adult, and therefore more powerful, crow, the young, upstart crows had done something pretty smart: call other colleagues to avoid retaliation. Pure defense by accumulation. In that way, the adult crow would limit any type of territorial defense. (Mikhail Vasilyev/Unsplash) The case of the crows is very unique, but there are others that help limit the scope of “altruism.” It is known that, in some species, female bats are able to share part of their food with the males when they have a lean season. The behavior is social, but not altruistic: the act of sharing arises from need to perpetuate the species, to protect its own in the long term. It is a defense mechanism explained by well-established theories (the “kin selection”for example), and that we can identify in other animal species (such as packs of wild dogs that warn by barking of dangers lurking on the horizon or ants kamikaze who sacrifice themselves for the colony). Is there a point of genuine goodness in the help of others? The question comes from an erroneous human perspective. Bats, ants or dogs seek something more basic: the benefit of the species. And therefore one’s own benefit. Okay, but what about the duck and the puppy? Although it is tempting to explain almost all animal behavior from determinism, there are cases that escape to your logic. There is evidence, for example, of groups of orcas that have adopted dolphins with certain genetic malformations. for several weeks. Orcas are not very social animals nor do they tend to interact with other species in a friendly way. The known examples In 2009, two researchers attested something even more exceptional. During an exploration in Antarctica, they came across a seal in distress. Pursued by a group of orcas, her days seemed numbered. In the middle of the fray, a pair of humpback whales appeared and began to maneuver to protect the seal. Humpbacks only feed on fish and crustaceans: what the hell were they whistling in that scene? (Michael Blum/Unsplash) According to scientists, manifesting an act of rare altruism among animals. The whales managed successfully protect at the seal, getting between the orcas and making it reach dry land (predictably hallucinated). There was no direct individual benefit for those humpbacks, nor was there a deep biological mechanism that could explain their actions. From any perspective, they had decided to help that poor seal. In the process, the humpbacks had identified a situation of danger and vulnerability of others and had decided to put themselves in danger despite the absence of self-interest. But is it like that? It was not an isolated incident. Some compilation studies have identified more than 115 encounters between humpback whales and orcas over the past 62 years. On some occasions up to fifteen humpbacks came to the rescue of calves of other species of whales. It could be due to a mechanism of automatic defense based on previous incidents (orcas also attack humpback calves) or a response to the calls of the orcas themselves (in such a … Read more

Senna has given us back the passion for a Formula 1 that no longer exists. And its sound is key to understanding its success

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March 1, 1981. Brands Hatch, United Kingdom. He had fought for two karting world championships but was still a complete unknown to the general public. Not even in England, where the passion for motorsport is several steps ahead of other European countries, were they aware of what they were seeing. Brazilian with curly hair. The face of a child on the body of a 21-year-old boy. The arrogant look of someone who knows he is superior. And it is superior. That day was fifth at the controls of his Van Diemen. Two weeks were enough for me to get his first victory. With the circuit flooded, Ayrton Senna da Silva asked his team to put as much pressure as possible in their tires. They say that no one on the team believed in that decision but as a pilot who paid to have a guaranteed seat, the mechanics followed orders. The rest is history. The Brazilian driver began to string victories. Six races held that year in the Formula Ford 1600 with four victories. 12 victories out of 19 rounds in which he took the exit. At the end of that same year, Ayrton Senna fulfilled his family commitment and promise to Lilian de Vasconcelos Souza, then girlfriend and then briefly wife of the man considered the most talented Formula 1 driver in history. Senna returned to his country to run the family business. But he had already experienced what it was like to win. He had already experienced what it was like to be the best. And he came back to win it all. They exist, they are somewhere More than 40 years after that Brands Hatch race, Netflix released Senna. “While we were still searching, we recorded a Formula Ford in Sweden, an FF 1600,” The speaker is Gabriel Gutiérrezsound designer of the six-episode series in which the pilot’s life is recreated working with, among other tools, Dolby Atmos. Senna talks about the human side of the driver, his private life and his path to becoming a triple world champion. But if something attracts an amateur, it is the montage of the images, the recreations aboard legendary single-seaters. Recreations that would be nothing without their sound. “I received a call from a post-production supervisor from Brazil, Gabriel Queiroz, who told me about a new project by Vicente Amorim, with whom I had already worked on Holy. From the beginning, we started looking for cars worldwide and how to get models from that era to go out and record them,” explains Gutiérrez about how Senna was built. “The filming was going to be done with replicas of the cars that were custom-built models, fantastic, with enormous precision, but their engines were not Formula 1 racing ones,” Gutiérrez clarifies. Ayrton Senna in the Formula Ford 1600 in 1981 And there begins the challenge: to be able to record the most iconic models driven and against which Ayrton Senna competed throughout the decade of the 80s and early 90s. “Many people told us that we were crazy, that we were never going to achieve it, that those cars were dismantled and that they do not exist.” But boy do they exist. Whoever has ever gone to see a Formula 1 race, there is something that they do not forget: the sound. The current V6 hybrids have nothing to do with the brutal howl of the V10s of the late 90s and early 2000s that Senna himself would not see. What he did have in his hands were cars from a time that will not return. Between his debut in Formula 1 in 1984 and the fateful May 1, 1994 when he lost his life in the Tamburello curve of the Imola circuit (San Marino), the turbo V8 and the naturally aspirated V10 and V12 paraded through Formula 1, the latter with a brutal sound, hoarser than the return of the V10 from 1995 onwards. Pure sounds, without a trace of electrification, that danced inside the cabin to the metallic tapping of the gearbox lever. From stomping on the clutch to downshift, playing with the accelerator to synchronize the revolutions of an engine that was going above 10,000, 11,000, 12,000 rpm. The engine backfired before taking the first chicane at Monza where the Ferraris of Berger and Alboreto watched in shock as Ayrton Senna abandoned the car after Jean-Louis Schlesser crashed and got the only victory they would scratch to the McLarens throughout 1988. The hit of the accelerator at the start and the howl with each gear change before reaching the Parabolica and heading down the finish line. The no less powerful cry of the typhosi in the stands when they saw that they were returning to the top of the podium in Monza when just three laps before they had seen it impossible. They were years of pure driving, of senses. By sight, smell, touch… and hearing. For the protagonists and those who admired them. For those who saw a Brazilian debutant swims between the rails in Monaco in 1984jeopardizing the victory of an already renowned Alain Prost who managed to stop the race before its end, distributing half of the points in a decision that would end up costing him the World Championship at the end of the year in favor of Niki Lauda. Ayrton Senna aboard the Lotus 97T “We were able to record Ayrton Senna’s original Toleman from 1984 and the original Lotus, the 97T model at the Lotus Classic Track in Oxford, which was a fantastic recording. The Toleman was positioned as the new leading car for us, the favorite,” explains Gutiérrez. By then, they had already obtained a good handful of the cars that marked an era. As? Moving through the mist. Senna’s sound designer explains that his first idea was to talk to Frank Cruz, who held that same position in Rush by Ron Howard, a film about the duel between Niki Lauda and James Hunt in the 1976 World Championship. The film … Read more

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