explosions

for whatever reason, it resists nuclear explosions

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China has just landed a project that has been on the table for a decade: that of the first floating island of deep sea research of the world. It looks like an oil well, but it is actually a megastructure that is prepared for everything. And, when we say “everything,” we include the end of the world. Because it is a research center, but also a command center and a nuclear bunker. And it has already raised concerns about possible dual use by China. In short. A few months ago we echoed the China’s plan to formalize this project that has been in the oven for years, but that has not materialized. It was now when, according to the state channel CCTV Newsthe country will begin the final phase of design and construction of the platform. The name by which it has been known until now is the “Deep-Sea All-Wather Resident Floating Research Facility”, and it will basically be a facility that can do everything. The installation. Jio Tong University in Shanghai is in charge of the bulk of the project, a platform that will have a double twin hull of 78,000 tons and scandalous dimensions. We are talking about 138 meters long, 85 meters wide and a main deck located 45 meters from the waterline. He Fujianthe brand new new generation aircraft carrier from China, has a displacement of 80,000 tons. To contextualize. It is semi-submersible and, from the University, they have detailed that it will come to fill a gap that they have detected in the country’s arsenal: that of a research facility that can navigate quickly and remain in an area of ​​operations for prolonged periods. “And, if it reminds us of an oil well, it is because they have been inspired by those facilities, they have combined the design with that of the research vessels and what has come out is… well, what we see in the conceptual image. Investigation. The idea is that the facility can house almost 240 people for months thanks to the backup energy systems and the main objective set out by CCTV News and Jiao Tong University is to explore deep waters and serve as a research field. mining system testingoil and gas prospecting, as well as research into that unexplored ocean floor. Bombproof. But there is a twist. The structure is designed to be a fortress capable of withstanding nine-meter-high waves and category 17 typhoons, the highest for this type of cyclones. It is normal since it will be in areas where the hull can suffer, but what is no longer so normal is that the armor has been designed to resist nuclear explosions. Instead of conventional steel armor, the walls of the complex will be like a sandwich with several layers that will dissipate the shock wave from a nuclear explosion. For construction, it is proposed to use a metamaterial that, under pressure, compresses to create a denser structure than thicker steel panels. The simulations indicated that these walls will resist more pressure than that of a submarine. And that, together with the fact that it will have a command center, has raised some doubts about the possible dual use of the facility. Mapping the terrain. Because the ocean floor has become the new battlefield. We don’t even talk about space, since the United States claims that There has been a war with China and Russia for months for control of space, but the launch of this platform project comes shortly after the publication of some information that reveal how China has deployed dozens of research vessels to map the ocean floor. According to reports published in Reutersdozens of ships have been studying the terrain for years, mapping it and deploying sensors in a strategy to be able to monitor in real time data such as water temperature, salinity, the best prospecting areas and… also everything that moves in that territory. From the United States it has already been raised the voice pointing out that these civilian research vessels “can” collect military intelligence, which represents “a strategic concern.” This systematic mapping, for some military analysts, has a single objective and it is not to find oil wells: it is to erode the advantage that the United States had in the oceanic battlefield.” And a facility like the one they are now preparing with their sights set on 2030 can be a true marine fortress. Image | SJTU In Xataka | Japan has dozens of “forgotten” islands off the coast of China: it is now preparing for the worst scenario

Science has investigated why we bite our nails or leave everything until the last minute: “controlled explosions”

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Biting our nails until it hurts, bingeing on junk food after a stressful day either open TikTok just when we have to start workingit is not an irritating habit that we would like to erase from our daily lives. But the reality is that science is beginning to see these behaviors in a radically different way: as a protection strategy for the organism. The brain seeks survival. As pointed out by different experts such as clinical psychologist Charlie Heriot-Maitland, author of Controlled Explosions in Mental Healthour brain prefers to inflict controlled “microdamage” on itself rather than face a greater and unpredictable threat. And the premise from which affective neuroscience and evolutionary psychology start is forceful: our brain is not programmed for us to be happy, but it is programmed to seek survival. Which is precisely what we did thousands of years ago when we tried to hunt or flee from predators. Systems that are still very present in our genetics. A hypersensitive system. This threat detection system is hypersensitive today. In the modern world we do not have to flee from a predator, but criticism from the boss or the fear of failing in a project activates the same alarms that a predator in the savanna activated in our ancestors. And faced with this unbearable stress, the brain looks for an escape route that acts as a “safety valve.” This is what Heriot-Maitland calls “controlled explosions.” Nail biting. Why can something as absurd as biting your nails or picking your skin be “protective”? The key is predictability. And in a chaotic world and an emotional, abstract and difficult to manage threat, cause us a little physical damage (like biting a cuticle), causes the brain to divert attention towards a specific, real stimulus and, above all, under our control. In this way it works as a “costly signal”, since we prefer a small and known damage to cushion emotional pain that we perceive as potentially devastating. Procrastinating is not laziness. scientific literature speaks in this sense of the self-handicapping (self-limitation), which suggests that we put obstacles on ourselves to protect our self-esteem. This way, if you stop studying for an exam and fail, you can tell yourself, “I failed because I didn’t study.” It’s a small damage to your ego. However, if you study to the maximum and fail, the conclusion is much more painful: “I failed because I am not capable.” The brain prefers the narrative of lack of effort (microdamage) rather than facing the threat of incompetence that poses greater emotional damage to anyone. It is not exclusive to us. In nature, there are numerous social insects that resort to defensive self-immolation in order to save their colony, as we already saw. In our case, the mechanism is something like this: we sacrifice our current well-being, such as physical health, to reduce a perceived long-term risk. The problem is that this system is designed for life or death situations, not to manage the chronic stress of the 21st century. In this way, what began as a useful defense ends up becoming a self-defeating pattern that generates more anxiety than it relieves. How to avoid it. If we understand that modern nails or procrastination are defense mechanisms, the solution changes completely. In this way, modern therapies, such as Compassion Focused Therapy, They propose that the first step It is not fighting against the habit, but understanding the reason for its existence. The most important thing in this case is not to punish yourself, since self-criticism is perceived by the brain as other threatens more, which reinforces the need to resort to the destructive habit to calm down. In this way, if we generate security, the brain will not have the need to cause these “controlled explosions.” Images | Sander Sammy Tim Gouw In Xataka | Procrastination is one of the great temptations of the mind. There are techniques to avoid it, according to science

We had to observe 4,000 supernovae to realize that something does not fit the explosions of the white dwarfs

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Approximately a century ago we realized that the universe was not static but extended. Some theories even estimate that it does it at increasing speeds, but measuring this speed has become A major headacheas much as explaining the mechanisms that underlie this cosmic inflation. But maybe we are doing too many turns to the matter. Not so predictable. A study has observed That the supernovae associated with the white dwarf stars are not as predictable as we believed. The study presents us with a problem, and that is that the role of these explosions as markers of the cosmic distance is staggered now. Star milestones. Regular and predictable cosmic objects and events are of great help for astronomers when analyzing a vast and diverse cosmos. Know what intensity an object or a distant event shines opens the road to precisely calculating your distance based only on the intensity with which it shines in our sky. That is why these supernovas had been useful for calculating distances and with it the changes in the distance over time, that is to say the speed. The speed at which the objects of the cosmos move away from each other. Explosions of the most varied. The new study has revealed that supernovae associated with White dwarfs They are not in this group of regular cosmic events as we believed. Through its observations, the team found “multiple and exotic ways” in which white dwarfs could explode. These included collisions between two stars and star cannibalism in binary systems. “The diversity of ways in which white dwarfs can explode is much greater than it was previous And until years later ”´, pointed in a press release Kate Maguire, co -author of the study. 4,000 Supernovas. The finding was possible thanks to the use of tools capable of detecting very faint signals and the accumulation of a large amount of data for the sample. The team resorted to the data of the ZTF survey (Zwicky Transient Facity), From which they obtained information from a total of 4,000 supernovae, a sample, they explain, much greater than those previously compiled. “Thanks to the unique capacity of ZTF to scan the sky quickly and deeply, it has been possible Maguire added. The details of the study were recently published in a special number in the magazine Astronomy & Astrophysics. Dark energy. The finding is at the same time a problem and it is that if we lose one of the tools used to calculate the distances in the cosmos. In spite of this, it is great news since knowing that the outbreaks of white dwarf the one that moves away from us. In Xataka | What astronomers believed was going to be a boring supernova has revealed an enigma of the galactic dust Image | Trinity College Dublin

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