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in China they explore an alternative inspired by nature

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For years we have associated drones with a very specific image: unmanned devices with several propellers rotating at full speed, capable of recording, monitoring or even form figures in the sky at mass events. It is the reference that we have internalized and the one that usually comes to mind when we think about these devices. However, it is not the only possible way to understand a drone. While this model has been consolidated, proposals have emerged that seek to replicate the flight of living beings instead of depending on rotors, opening a path that until recently seemed closer to fiction than to real engineering. Drones with wings. According to 163.coma team from Beijing University of Science and Technology has developed several flapping-wing drones inspired by animals such as eagles, pigeons, butterflies and beetles. Among them, the model based on an eagle has attracted special attention for one specific fact: it has reached 256 minutes of continuous flight, a figure that marks a record within this category. The chain itself also recalled that in 2023 a bionic airplane developed by researchers at the Northwest Polytechnic University of China recorded 185 minutes and 30 seconds, then a Guinness record in this area. Another way to fly. If these prototypes are attracting attention, it is not only because of their appearance, but because of the technical principle on which they are based. Global Times defines them as bionic unmanned aerial vehicles capable of imitating the flight of living beings by flapping their wings. According to the same medium, it is the type of drone that most closely approximates the flight of flying organisms in nature. Added to this base, in the model inspired by an eagle, is a visual system designed to recognize, locate and follow vehicles, people, buildings or license plates, as explained by researcher Wu Xiaoyang. What we do know. It is advisable to separate what is confirmed from what has been interpreted from these images. Information disseminated by Chinese state media describes these drones as an advance in research into bionic unmanned systems, with progress in flight time and detection capabilities. However, it does not offer details about its operational deployment or specific use in real scenarios. In fact, researchers point out that challenges related to flight autonomy and system intelligence still need to be resolved before talking about broader implementation. There are obstacles. If we look beyond the current results, the experts themselves point out that the road ahead remains demanding. According to Wang Zhijie, from the Beijing Institute of Technology, one of the main challenges is developing batteries with greater energy density that allow this type of flight to be sustained for longer. Added to this are high-precision, small-sized beating mechanisms, as well as materials capable of adaptive deformation, imitating how bird wings change in response to aerodynamics to maintain efficiency. In that context, what we have is a technology that points in several directions, but is still being defined. Global Times possible uses in environmental monitoring, rescue and other specialized missions, although without specifying how or when they will materialize. Beyond that, research remains focused on making these systems more autonomous and efficient. If this evolution is confirmed, we would be facing a different path in the development of drones, one that seeks to get closer to biological flight instead of continuing to perfect the more conventional scheme. Images | CCTV In Xataka | The United States has found how to protect its most vulnerable ships on the high seas: with escort drones

A comprehensive interactive map to explore all the blood circuses of the Empire

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If you are one of those (non-generic masculine) those who are fascinated by the Roman Empire, taking a little getaway to continue discovering ruins and fortifications probably seems like a good idea. Yes, there are classics within the state like Tarragona or Mérida, but if you fancy a more exotic and distant trip, Ephesus or Split are good candidates. The old continent is full of jewels (and even beyond, as long as Rome It covered three continents) Although “all roads lead you to Rome”, surely this Google Maps of the Roman Empire It would be useful for you to plan a route (and the Romans of the time, I won’t even tell you about it) and even better, this evolution. But let’s not fool ourselves, there are cities and cities and remains and remains. If you are going to prepare an excursion and your objective is visit a city of status within the Roman Empirethere is an unmistakable sign: the amphitheatres. Having an amphitheater was a luxury. May it remain in good condition today, even more Amphitheaters were a medal of prestige to a city. They did not build it just anywhere: those provincial capitals had it, such as the previously mentioned Tarraco and Emerita Augusta, as well as those cities founded for the retirement of their veterans (this is the case of Itálica). However, there were also cities that decided to build it as a thank you to the emperor or for the local elites to show off. And pragmatically, to carry out the maxim of “bread and circuses”. The amphitheaters of the Roman Empire. Via:Tataryn. Wikimedia It is estimated that in the Roman Empire there were about 230 amphitheatersof which only about 30 are moderately well preserved. The figure drops to 10 if they also maintain their full structural functionality, among them the Arenas of Nimes and Arles in France, the one in Verona, the one in Pula, The Djem in Tunisia and of course, Pompeii. The map above, courtesy of Wikipedia, is great to take a look at. but there is another interactive map of the Roman Amphitheaters much better. It uses the data of Sebastian Heath, PhD in Classical Art and Archeology from the University of Michigan, a key figure in the modern study of Roman amphitheaters, among other things for his approach to digitization through open data. Thus, it has its Roman Amphitheater dataset which serves as a base, combined in turn with the map of the Roman Empire from the Gothenburg Digital Humanities area. The result is a three in one map published on RAMADDA’s wiki-based open source data and content platform: Interactive map of the Amphitheaters of the Roman Empire. Ramadda The first and largest allows you to view the terrain, roads and main cities of the Roman Empire as you move or play with the zoom. When you tap on a city, you can see details on all three maps. For example, when you click on Segóbriga in Cuenca, information appears such as its name in Latin, when it was built, the capacity, the region… and on the left, its integration into the roads and a satellite view. Given the number of municipalities and places with Amphitheater, it is convenient to use the filters that appear in the upper area. Thus, we can sift based on the region of the time, its capacity or even easier, what state it currently belongs to. When selecting Morocco, several cities appear and one of them marked in blue: “Lixus”, next to Larache. In Xataka | The death of one empire is the birth of another: the graph that reviews the history of civilizations from 4,000 years ago In Xataka | The Google Maps of the Roman Empire: the map that allows you to plan a route at that time

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

Roman roads changed the world. And this Google Maps from 2,000 years ago allows you to explore them

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What have the Romans given us? It’s not a question I ask myself when I can’t sleep, but the brilliant satire that Monty Python captured in ‘Brian’s life‘. He aqueductsewage, education, irrigation, health, wine, public baths… and roads. At its peak, it is estimated that The empire’s network expanded over 120,000 kilometersbut as excavation has been carried out, more and more remains of Roman roads have been found. On some occasions we have brought some “Google Maps” of the Roman Empirebut what we have in our hands today is the culmination of an anthological work that compiles some of the most important sources of the arteries of the empire and captures those roads is an impressive interactive map with almost 300,000 kilometers of roads. The tool is called itiner-eand it is something that can absorb us for hours and hours. The Google Maps of the Roman Empire If you have already taken a tour of the mapyou should know that it is a living element. As discoveries are made and the location of the tracks is determined, the team will update the map. But what we currently have is the result of more than five years of work carried out by a team with members from both the Autonomous University of Barcelona and the Aarhus University of Denmark. In it study published in Naturedetail that it is “the most detailed and complete digital data set of roads in the entire Roman Empire” published so far. In fact, it exceeds the known length of Roman roads by more than 100,000 km thanks to both greater coverage at the focus and better spatial precision. Previously, the Digital Atlas of Roman and Medieval Civilizations (DARMC) mapped 188,554.7 kilometers. To do this, the researchers identified both the most important routes and the paths of archaeological and historical sources, locating them using both historical and current topographic maps. The main sources have been the Antonine Itinerary and the Tabula Peutingeriana, but the “milestones” and settlements close to each other (for example, limits of the empire, such as those near Hadrian’s Wall) are what have allowed researchers to assume the existence of roads that connected them. Other sources include summaries of the Roman road network in specific regions, maps from the Mapping Past Societies, the Barrington Atlas or the Tabula Imperii Romani, among many others. As a result of this work, the new map includes 299,171 kilometers of roads (to connect a territory of more than four million square kilometers), and they are divided as follows: 103,478 kilometers of main roads, 34.6% of the total. 195,693 kilometers of secondary roads, 65.4% of the total. And it is not that more than 100,000 kilometers have been taken out of the bag, but that roads that previously crossed rivers or were simple straight lines, have now been drawn with greater precision, adapting to the topographical peculiarities of the terrain. Now, although the work is amazing and we can see by playing with the different layers of information that many of the main roads coincide with current roads, the researchers confess that “only” the location of 2.737% of the Roman roads is known with certainty. That is why the vast majority of itiner-e roads show the legend “hypothetical” or “conjecture”, just before detailing the record from which they took the data. This certainty depends on: Certainty: segments well documented in the sources, which have been digitized with high spatial precision. Guess: segments with lower spatial precision due to a lower level of documentation. Hypothetical: paths that are speculated to have existed, but for which there is insufficient evidence to classify them within one of the above groups. For example, roads in desert areas where the infrastructure was less fixed and where several parallel roads have been found. But beyond satisfying our curiosity, something we can do with this map is… play. The team has including a function that is still in beta status and allows you to explore the time these routes took. To do this, we have to select between several points and select between four modes of land transportation: On foot at a speed of 4 km/h. By oxcart at 2 km/2. In an animal like a donkey at 4.5 km/h. And on horseback at 6 km/h. We can also select maritime routes with speeds of 2.5 km/h downstream and 0.6 km/h upstream. In the end, that rebel group from ‘Life of Brian’ was quite right when it came to saying that one of the most important things the Romans had done for them had been the deployment of roads. Because they were fundamental to speed up transportation within the empire’s domains, and that work is noticeable even today. They were the foundations on which we build our roads and urban centers. It is something that becomes clear when we observe that the only place in the empire in which there was not such an important or meticulous deployment, such as Africa and the Middle East, where trade on wheels was abandoned in favor of camel caravans in the 4th-6th centuries, has consequences today. Images | itiner-e In Xataka | Forma Urbis Romae: the gigantic map of Ancient Rome conceived in 1901 and still unsurpassed today

Extremadura has decided to explore an energy “treasure” under his feet: rare earth deposits

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In recent days, we have heard a lot about “rare earths.” This last obsession of the US president, Donald Trump, has infected everyone and We have followed closely your insatiable search by different parts of the world as Greenland either Ukraine. However, this desire for the dominance of this element is due, among things, that China is the giant that It dominates it. However, to the surprise of many, Extremadura handles the hypothesis that houses a potential of four deposits of rare earths. Short. The Board of Extremadura granted a license In August 2024 to explore an area of ​​49,500 hectares, which will cover 20 municipalities of the Cáceres de los Ibores and scratch field. For its part, indications of the presence of rare earths have also been confirmed in the Badajoz area. An opening for Europe. This new finding marks a new path to Europe, since it needs its own reservations to reduce its dependence on third countries. Francisco Fernández, delegate of the College of Geologists of Extremadura (ICOG), He explained: “The geological characteristics of Extremadura are favorable to house rare earth deposits”, although it is still in a preliminary phase. However, it has not ruled out the possibility that in deposits already exploited from metals I can host these elements. In addition, more than five years ago there were previous work where there had been search for mining resources in the area. The work, entitled “Mining Resources of Extremadura, Rocks and Industrial Minerals”was commissioned by the Ministry for the Ecological Transition, and placed the deposits in the Pacenses localities of Bartrota and Burguillos del Cerro, and in a cacereña, Alía. Spain has potential. The deposits are not reduced only to Extremadura. Spain has a wide variety of elements to extract and different areas for it. In particular, rare earths can find them in Galicia, Gran Canaria, Almería, Ciudad Realamong other places. The fan that has been opened is very wide, but these deposits have in common not only the element, but their extraction seems to be complex. However, another thing that does not remain and we can affirm that we have is ingenuity. In Spain, the formula has been found to stop depending on other countries to obtain rare earths, and It is by recycling. From a recycling plant, valuable elements are recovered through a process of merger at high temperatures. Other critical minerals. Ester Boixereu, an expert in Mineral and Vocal Resources of ICOG, in an interview for Radio 5, has detailed That rare earths are a critical mineral, but that the list of critical minerals in turn is a “very long list of elements.” In addition, he added that rare earth minerals have a peculiarity, and are not difficult names, but do not form their own minerals. In other words, it is difficult to find a high concentration of these elements, since they are all together in a series of minerals. On the other hand, Extremadura has a lot to offer, as it has great potential for minerals and is also in plans to carry out a Great Lithium Mine. However, making a more general photograph, Spain He is highlighting In the EU as a power in other productions such as copper, wolframium, graphite, vanadium and cobalt, among others. A long road. Despite the potential, rare earth mining is not immediate or simple. Despite the advance in extraction technologies to significantly reduce the environmental impact, there are still concerns about past cases such as that of Aznalcóllar. For this reason, Spanish legislation requires rigorous environmental controls before authorizing any mining exploitation to ensure care of the environment. Image | Pexels Xataka | Europe has been trapped between two powers: US and Russia already discuss the controversial Nord Stream 2 on their own

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