extinction

extreme heat has put parmesan cheese in danger of extinction

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Summer has started strong with a heat wave that has affected all of Europe and experts are already warning that an even worse one is coming. Extreme temperatures not only affect us, animals also suffer from them and it is wreaking havoc on a very important industry in Italy, that of Parmesan cheese. what’s happening. They tell it in Reuters: Extreme heat is threatening the production of the most famous Italian cheese. The maximum temperatures, which can exceed 40 degrees, cause the cows to eat less, spend more time lying down and consequently produce less milk, the main ingredient in this cheese. Specifically, up to 10% less. Cool cattle. Livestock farmers decades ago only had to open the windows of the stables at night so that the livestock could cope better with the heat, but now this is no longer enough. The windows are constantly open and some ranchers have installed fans with water misters to lower the temperature a little more. The energy cost. The problem with installing these fans is that farms have seen their electricity bills increase. It is also being a problem for the companies that store the parmesan wheels, whose air conditioning systems have increased energy consumption by up to 30% more to maintain the optimal storage temperature, but the expense goes beyond the refrigeration itself. Giancarlo Ravanetti is the director of one of these facilities, known as “The Bank of Parmigiano”, and stores half a million wheels of parmesan worth 300 million euros. Speaking to Reuters, he indicated that “To make our facilities as energy efficient as possible, we have improved our cooling and boiler systems, modernized building insulation and increased renewable energy production.” Without grass, there is no parmesan. There are still more problems. Authentic Parmigiano Reggiano is produced in five provinces within the Emilia-Romagna region. To receive the designation of origin, the cows must be fed with grass and hay grown in this area, but with the heat and lack of rain this is an impossible task. The president of the Parmigiano Reggiano Consortium laments that “If it does not rain, the grass does not grow, hay cannot be produced and it is impossible to obtain the milk necessary to make cheese.” A million-dollar industry. Parmesan is not only an icon of Italian cuisine, it is also the industry that supports much of the economy of Emilia-Romagna, where it employs thousands of people. It is estimated that it generates about 4.5 billion euros annually, of which half comes from exports, with the US being its main client. According to Paolo Ganzerli, sales director of the GranTerre food group, the situation is critical: “If extreme events become longer and more intense, they will undoubtedly have an impact on both the quantity and quality of milk, but above all they will cause an increase in costs.” And he adds that “Parmigiano Reggiano has been around for more than 800 years. We don’t want to be the last generation to eat it.” Image | Unsplash, edited Direct to the Palate | How Italians have made Parmesan cheese known (and imitated) all over the world

The first “social network” in history is 57,000 years old, it was made up of hunters and gatherers and served to avoid extinction

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The survival of prehistoric hunter-gatherers has historically been explained by two things: climate and available natural resources. And although in general terms it is true, a new study proposes that the social relations between human groups at that time were as decisive as the physical environment. The discovery. The research team focuses on small groups of hunter-gatherers who lived in the South Caucasus between 57,000 and 27,000 years ago. Apparently, these small groups traveled long distances and shared tools and techniques with other groups. Initially they thought that due to their size and distance they would live almost isolated from each other, but no. The key evidence is in obsidian objects, a volcanic rock used to make cutting tools, present in deposits located between 40 and 200 km from the quarry of origin. Why it is important. Because it forces us to rethink the classical models of human evolution that attributed the success or failure of a population almost exclusively to its capacity for climatic adaptation. Now we see that cooperation and the circulation of information was an essential survival factorwhich has implications for understand human resilience in the face of environmental change. Context. The study area is the south of the Caucasus, the natural bridge between Europe and Asia where mountains, valleys and very different climates come together in a small space, so it is a key place to understand How ancient humans moved. At the time in which the study is framed, Neanderthals and modern humans coexisted in other parts of the world and also when stone tools changed style. That is why the Caucasus is a magnificent place to verify if these changes were a sudden replacement of one population by another or there was coexistence between both cultures. In detail. Each obsidian quarry has a unique chemical composition, which allows us to determine exactly the origin of each tool located. According to the research team, the distance over which these tools are dispersed is too great for a single group to travel in search of food: the most plausible explanation is that different groups were in contact and exchanged materials. But there is another clue: the way of carving the stone is repeated in sites very far from each other, which suggests that some groups learned from others, not that they reached the same conclusion by chance. Furthermore, when dating the layers of earth from different sites, it is seen that the cultures of the Middle Paleolithic and the Upper Paleolithic coexisted for thousands of years in the same area, that is, one did not replace the other. Three powerful reasons to maintain that social networks helped these groups survive. Yes, but. The inference of “social networks” or alliances from carved stone is still an interpretation, not a direct observation: there are no written, oral or testimonial records from the Paleolithic, so any conclusion about social relations is constructed indirectly, from material patterns. In fact, the fact that obsidian travels between 40 and 200 km does not in itself prove social exchange between groups: it could also be explained by a single group with a very large territory or by reuse of tools for generations. In Xataka | A remote cave in Africa has revealed something about humans from 200,000 years ago: they already changed the clothes on their beds In Xataka | 77 skeletons, a single head: the mystery of the Slovak mass grave that torments archaeologists Cover | Gemini with AI

the countries that are doomed to extinction and those that are not

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Geographically speaking, the world is divided in two. On the one hand there are countries where more people are born than die: as a result, the population grows naturally. On the other hand, those countries where more people die than are born, which implies a population contraction and eventual disappearance… unless someone remedies it from the outside. What this map reveals Our World in data At a glance it is not something that comes overnight nor are its consequences. Behind these two colors hides the future of the economies and public systems of the different states of the planet. The map represents the natural population change during 2023, that is, the difference between how many people are born and how many die based on data from the official demographic report World Population Prospects 2024 of the UN. To prepare it, the UN used data from 1,910 censuses, birth and death records from 169 countries and 3,189 demographic surveys, so this is a fairly exhaustive compilation. Countries in blue have more births than deaths and those in orange have more deaths than births. Migration is excluded from the calculation, which allows us to see only the reproductive dynamics of each society without the corrective effect of flows of people. This reality is important because a country can appear orange on the map and still not lose inhabitants if it receives enough migrants. Note: the historical “magic” figure for a society to remain stable considering only reproduction it has been 2.1 babies per woman on average. That in a state more people die than are born on a sustained basis ago let all the alarm signals go off insofar as it causes a structural problem: the population ages, the population pyramid is inverted and there are fewer and fewer working people to finance the welfare system. Health, education and social protection systems were designed for younger and larger populations. According to the United Nationsby 2070 the number of people aged 65 or over will exceed those under 18 years of age globally. And spoiler: most states in demographic decline are world powers. And in some cases, the decline is practically irreversible. The countries that are born and the countries that die Where more people die than are born. Our World in Data A look at the countries that die returns places like Japan, China, South Korea, Russia and almost all of Eastern Europe. The most extreme case is Japan, where there are twice as many deaths as births (1.2 children per woman). South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan are between 0.7 and 0.9, well below that 2.1. China has a 1 and a particular history: the one-child policy applied between 1980 and 2015 artificially reduced entire generations. It is true that it was abandoned years ago, but the structural damage has already been done. On the old continent, Germany has had more deaths than births since the 70s and France, which was practically the only state that was saved thanks to decades of public aid for motherhood, has seen how that balance was broken. Although this map uses data from 2023, in 2025 France record more deaths than births for the first time since World War II. The block in blue includes almost all of Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, and South and Southeast Asia. And although the map is a simplification that reduces the world in two colors, Ethiopia should be extremely blue: it has more than five times as many births as deaths. The populations of these countries have high fertility rates and a young population. Of course, this growth is not synonymous with well-being: some of these places combine high birth rates with high infant mortality, low life expectancy and precarious infrastructure to sustain this population growth. Africa is the great demographic hope in terms of growth, which is also a challenge in terms of employment, education and resources. Among the bulk of countries that are growing, there are many developing countries, but there is also the particular case of the United States: it has 20% more births than deaths. Talking about countries that are born and die sounds alarming, but let’s remember that migration is not present on this map, which means that states like Germany, Italy or Spain are not losing population in absolute terms. This means that generational replacement becomes directly dependent on migratory flows, which generates integration, coexistence and institutional challenges that cartography does not reflect. In Xataka | Europe’s brutal demographic crisis can be explained on a single map with one country as the protagonist: Nigeria In Xataka | Europe is divided in two: the devastating map of deindustrialization Cover | Our World in data

A plant was on the verge of extinction in the Mojave Desert. So they built a solar park on top

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The Mojave Desert is not only a paradise when it comes to filming movies, setting video games and name operating systems: It is also home to thousands of plant species that are accustomed to an extremely hostile climate. It is estimated that there are about 2,000 species and a very specific one is in danger of extinction. Until they decided to build one of the largest photovoltaic plants in the United States on top of it. The Gemini Solar Project. In short. The journal Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution revealed a few weeks ago the results of a curious study. The ‘threecorner milkvetch’ plant (which has a name for everything except a plant) went from 12 specimens in the Mojave Desert to 93. This plant was being evaluated for inclusion in the Endangered Species Act in the United States and not only has its number multiplied: the new plants are larger and produce more flowers. And they have “only” had to build one of the largest photovoltaic plants in America on top of it, next to Guanchoi in Chileto achieve it. Threecorner milkvetch. It is a creeping plant that has curious needs: it only grows in sandy soils of the Mojave Desert. However, it is dependent on rainfall because its seed remains dormant in the soil and only germinates and reproduces with favorable rainfall. In dry years, it remains completely unnoticed, waiting for a little rain. And it is so rare that the species remains under evaluation for status as threatened or endangered under U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service regulations. In the same desert there is another threatened species: the desert tortoise Gopherus agassizii. The habitat of the two species should be the last one on which it would be decided to build a photovoltaic plant, but there is the Gemini Solar Project. The plant Megaplant. When such an installation is to be carried out in the desert, a technique known as clearing and leveling is used. In essence, all vegetation is removed, the land is leveled and prepared for install the pillars of the solar panels. Not only is a lunar landscape created, but any type of latent seed beneath the surface, such as that of the threecorner milkvetch, is destroyed. However, the Gemini Solar Project’s approach was different. The company wanted the land because it is especially ‘fertile’ within the US to harvest sunlight, but concessions had to be made. One was to minimize the alteration of the habitat of both species to conserve the desert surface with all its biological resources, preserve the topsoil and adapt the facility to the natural relief. On the US Geological Survey website we can see photos of little turtles between the panels. Works. This is part of what we know as ‘ecovoltaics’, with a branch called ‘agrovoltaics’ that we have also talked about and that, although it can be used by companies as a facelift, it serves to unite energy activities with agricultural activities. In the study on the impact of the Gemini Solar Project and the evolution of the plant, researcher Tiffany Pereira discovered what we have mentioned: there were more plants and they were healthier. This showed that the energy company had done its part by not destroying the soil because the seeds had been able to germinate, but they found something else. The plants inside the installation evolved earlier than those outside it and grew not under the panels, but in the strips between the rows. This implies that they still need intense sunlight to mature. The yellow zone is where the Sun shines the most hours. The blue one is the stripe that varies depending on the position of the Sun. The red one is where direct light never shines. Okay, but then… what is the role of the panels in the improved evolution of these plants? The hypothesis used by the researchers is that the panels provide partial shade on the groundslowing down evaporation. We have already said that seeds are dormant until they have the necessary humidity conditions to germinate, and in this context, a more humid microclimate has allowed plants to grow more and produce more seeds. Not all the field is oregano. Now, like almost every scientific study, we look at the other side of the coin. The rainfall in recent years has been favorable and we will have to see what happens with periods of prolonged drought. In a few years we could talk about long-term effects. But, in addition, this absence of plants under the panels could indicate a possible loss of potential habitat in very humid years. In any case, Pereira’s study is not isolated. Other studies point to improvements in both the number of flowering plant species and pollinators in agrovoltaic installations in a state like Minnesota. AND in China there are also indicators that those photovoltaic plants in deserts is contributing to the moisture pocket construction in which plants can thrive more easily. As we said, it remains to be seen the impact of the panels on the creation of a “new” biodiversity in the long term, but for now, what is evident is that it is not necessary to raze land to build a photovoltaic plant. Images | DRI, Tiffany PereiraGemini Solar Project In Xatka | The biggest fiasco of solar energy is in the Nevada desert: it is useless and its promoter blames a Spanish company

There are some that practice ‘partner exchange’ to avoid extinction

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For decades, popular culture and a certain anthropocentric vision have projected the idea that the traditional family It was the most normal thing in the animal kingdom. However, biology has a habit of contradicting us and if we look Alaskan watersand specifically the belugas From Bristol Bay, monogamy is not only rare: it is evolutionarily inefficient. The study. It has had as its objective analyzing the DNA of hundreds of these cetaceans for more than a decade, and confirms what we could call, in human terms, a lifestyle “swinger” either polyamorous among these animals. Although this word is more for our daily life, since in a scientific way it is called polygynandryand it is the secret of these whales to stay genetically healthy and resilient. The myth of the “better half”. Choosing a life partner for whales is something that is not the norm in this case. To reach this conclusion, the researchers They didn’t just watch what they did.but carried out an exhaustive analysis of 623 genetic samples collected over 13 years in the Bristol Bay beluga population. And we are facing a very interesting population because it is geographically isolated and has about 2,000 individuals. What they found was a mating system where both males and females mate with multiple partners. There is no “alpha male” that monopolizes females (polygyny), nor females that have only one consort. It is a constant and strategic exchange. Stepbrothers everywhere. The definitive proof of this behavior is in the family trees that the study managed to reconstruct. When analyzing kinship, scientists came across a revealing fact: there were many half-siblings who shared a mother or father but not both. The fact that it is very difficult to find full siblings indicates that season after season, females do not repeat partners, but rather change. A strategy that is aimed at maximizing reproductive success, since otherwise a few males would dominate the genetics and cause less genetic diversity. ‘Swinger’ as an advantage. We might think that this behavior is chaotic, but it is actually a very sophisticated biological defense mechanism. And constantly mixing genes with different partners ensures greater variability in the offspring to avoid serious diseases such as those that historically occurred. we have had in the European monarchies. But the interesting thing is that it is a choice of the females who play an active role. In this case they are not passive, but actively choose the males to mate with to have great variability, possibly to ensure that their offspring have the best possible genetic combinations. Its longevity. One of the characteristics of this species is that it can last for many years, and that is why maintaining genetic diversity through polygynandry allows them to adapt to long-term changes in their ecosystem. And it is a finding that aligns with previous research, since a high diversity in the microbiome and population structure of these whales was already pointed out, but the mating system had never been confirmed. A genetic lifesaver. The most fascinating thing about this discovery is how it rewrites our understanding of cetacean sociality. We often assume that highly intelligent and social animals tend toward monogamy (as is the case with certain birds), but the reality is that belugas demonstrate that you can have a complex society, care for offspring, and at the same time have a promiscuous sex life for the good of the species. For conservationists, this is good news. Knowing that this population maintains high genetic diversity and avoids inbreeding itself means that they have better biological tools to cope with climate change and human pressure than other more “faithful” but genetically poorer species. Images | Todd Cravens In Xataka | Going to the mountains to go hiking is increasingly popular in Spain. And those who are suffering are the golden eagles

How a mummified wolf has solved the mystery of the woolly rhino’s extinction

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14,400 years ago, a barely nine-week-old wolf cub feasted on the Siberian stage. Shortly after gobbling that piece of meat, the puppy died and was buried in the permafrostnear the village of Tumat in northeastern Siberia. Something that at first seems insignificant, has given one of the most important milestones in modern paleogenetics. And this one was in this puppy’s stomach. The study. A team of scientists from the Center for Paleogenetics at Stockholm University has achieved what seemed impossible: Recover the complete high-coverage genome of a woolly rhinoceros (Coelodonta antiquitatis) from the undigested remains in that wolf’s stomach. The results, published in Genome Biology and Evolutionforce us to rewrite the books on how and why this megafauna became extinct, since until now we had a very different idea. A biological miracle. The discovery of this puppy is not something recent, since it was found in 2011, and received the nickname Tumat-1. Being mummified in ice, the reality is that it was in perfect condition, but during the autopsy the researchers found a 3-centimeter piece of tissue with remains of blonde fur. Due to the area in which it was initially found, it was thought that it was a cave lion. But the reality is that genetics has said something very different: it was a woolly rhinoceros. Something that is incredible, since it is the first time in history that the complete genome of an Ice Age animal has been sequenced from the stomach contents of another animal. A great milestone. For science to recover the genetic material of a species in these conditions, the truth is that it is something incredible because of the doors it opens. And DNA is where we can find practically everythingeven the genetic health of the species before its end. Genetic decline. For decades, the dominant theory suggested that woolly rhinos disappeared due to slow genetic erosion. It was believed that, as its population was reduced, inbreeding accumulated harmful mutations that doomed the species due to the many diseases caused by having children between relatives. But this is something that has now been completely debunked. When comparing the genome with samples from 18,000 and 48,500 years ago, the researchers found no decline in diversity. Furthermore, there was no indication that the species was in a state of inbreeding as there was no genetic crossing between close relatives. That is why the effective population remained stable at about 1,600 individuals until just a few centuries before its total disappearance. The culprit. If it was not genetics and inbreeding that condemned the species and not human hunting (because thousands of years passed together without it happening)… what happened? Science now points to Bølling-Allerød Interstadial, a period of abrupt climate warming that occurred about 14,000 years ago. This phenomenon transformed the dry, cold steppe (the rhino paradise) into a landscape of bushy vegetation and, most critically, deep snow. Without being able to live. The woolly rhino, with its short legs and heavy body, was not designed to walk on soft snow or dig for grass under thick layers for food. In this way, it was an environmental trap that caused the animals to not be able to adapt correctly to the new habitat that had been generated around them due to how quickly it happened. Looking to the future. What we learn in the past can also be applied today and tomorrow. And this study does not only speak of the past, since in a context of current climate crisis, the case of the woolly rhinoceros is a warning. It shows that even a species with a stable population and robust genetics can collapse almost instantly if the ecosystem changes abruptly. Images | Wikipedia In Xataka | Whale vomit: a rare substance that looks like floating garbage, but can cost up to $71,000 per kilo

The extinction of Neanderthals has always been a mystery. Science now believes that they are still with us

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For decades, the disappearance of Neanderthals has been one of the biggest mysteries of human evolution. It happened about 40,000 years ago, suspiciously coincident with our species Homo sapiens to Eurasia… But now we are thinking that they did not become extinct. What was thought. Classical theories paint a replacement scenario: either we wiped them out in direct competition, or they couldn’t withstand brutal climate change. But now a study published in Scientific Reports offers a much more fascinating answer: we absorb them among ourselves. And the key to all this is genetic dilution. The hypotheses. To go deeper, the competition hypothesis suggests that Homo sapiens We were simply superior: we had better hunting strategies, a broader diet or more advanced social structures that allowed us to monopolize all the resources, driving the Neanderthals to extinction. On the other hand, the environmental hypothesis blames the drastic climate changes that occurred just at that time. According to this idea, Neanderthals could not adapt to extreme fluctuations and their populations fragmented until they disappeared permanently. However, the new study presents a mathematical model that leaves both factors aside and focuses on the most basic of all: demographics and sex. The new model. The authors of the study propose an analytical model that demonstrates how Neanderthals could disappear without the need for the Homo sapiens had any selective advantage over them. The model does not require “catastrophic events” or cognitive superiority. Instead, it relies on a concept called “species-neutral drift” and a key factor: small, recurring immigrations of Homo sapiens in Neanderthal territories. There were many more of us. One of the first ideas pointed out in this case is that the population Homo sapiens that left Africa was much larger in number than the Neanderthal, acting as a “practically infinite demographic reservoir.” By going together, because friction makes affection, and between the species they began to intersect and had very fertile offspring. The model assumes that this was not a one-time event, but rather a “sustained gene flow” that occurred every time a small group of modern humans arrived in an area. So, adding that the Neanderthal population was much smaller and there was a constant influx of genes from Homo sapiensthe result is the dissolution of the gene pool. It’s literally like pouring a glass of Neanderthal water into an ocean of Homo sapiens. In the end his presence is completely diluted. The time. The most powerful thing about the study is that its calculations fit with the archaeological record. The mathematical model shows that this process of “almost complete genetic replacement” could have occurred within a period of 10,000 to 30,000 years, something that aligns with the long period of coexistence that both species had in Eurasia. Were they extinct? This is the question we ask ourselves. Know if the word ‘extinction’ is appropriate for this paradigm. This model offers what scientists call a “parsimonious explanation” (the simplest). In words we understand, it does not deny that other factors, such as competition or weather, could have contributed. But it shows that this genetic dissolution alone is something that may have explained the disappearance of the Neanderthals. That is why, rather than an extinction, we speak of a fusion by absorption. This perfectly explains why the Neanderthals disappeared as a genetically distinct group, but their legacy endures: modern humans of Eurasian ancestry conserve in our DNA a small percentage of their genetic heritage (although very diluted). Images | mostafa meraji In Xataka | Human evolution has not stopped: in fact, there are reasons to think that it is more accelerated than ever

We thought dinosaurs were on the verge of extinction before the meteorite. we were wrong

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The most emblematic mass extinction in Earth’s history without a doubt occurred up to 66 million years ago. It marked the end of an era like the Cretaceousand with it, the disappearance of dinosaurs that were not birds. But what was that extinction really like? This is the big question that experts have asked themselves and that it is already beginning to have light. For decades the scientific community has debated whether dinosaurs were already in decline before they abruptly went extinct or whether they were wiped out while they were still thriving. This is where the new has had an impact published study in the magazine Science in which the Spanish researcher Jorge García-Girón from the University of León participates, who sheds light on this debate. Simply put, the research refutes the idea of ​​a prolonged decline and suggests that dinosaurs were diverse and divided into distinct ecological regions just before the asteroid impact. The fossils of the south. Much of the uncertainty about this issue comes from a bias in the fossil record. The only well-dated faunas that span the extinction boundary come from northern North America (in the famous Hell Creek Formation). This made it impossible to know whether the extinction pattern observed there was a global or local phenomenon. In this case, the research team focused on a fossil-rich unit much further south, in the San Juan basin of New Mexico, known as the Member Naashoibito. The age of this formation has been a matter of controversy for years and was often considered much older. But now by applying geochronology techniques with Argon dating and magnetostratiography, the study has finally achieved precise dating. The results are conclusive: the Naashoibito Member dates back to the latest Cretaceous, which corresponds to up to 66 million years. This means that the fossils found there, which include a variety of species, preserve some of the last known non-avian dinosaurs. They lived a maximum of 340,000 years before the asteroid impact and were contemporaries of the Hell Creek fauna. Separated by weather. This finding is crucial because, for the first time, it allows us to compare two different faunas from the same end of the Cretaceous. And the result refutes the idea that we had all about decline in our minds. And the study not only dates the fossils, but also uses powerful ecological models to analyze the diversity of terrestrial vertebrates throughout North America. The results show that, far from forming a homogeneous and cosmopolitan fauna, the dinosaurs maintained high diversity and clear endemism until the end. In other words, it can be said that the dinosaurs were “strong” and divided into distinct regional assemblages. In this case, the study identifies two clear bioprovinces in the north and south that remained stable during the late Cretaceous. What separated these faunas? The analysis suggests that the main factor was temperature. More than a simple geographic division, different dinosaur communities were adapted to different climates. For example, the data propose that warmer southern regions may have been more tolerable for sauropods, while colder, more temperate northern regions were more suitable for hadrosaurines. The conclusion. The sum of the evidence points directly to the fact that non-avian dinosaurs were abruptly annihilated at the end of the Cretaceous. They were not in a decline as was thought, so they did not have this factor on top of them that would already condemn them to extinction if the disastrous event on Earth had passed. Instead, it has been seen that its ecosystem was diverse and biogeographically compartmentalized. Extinction in this way was sudden and, as the later fossil record demonstrates, was followed almost immediately by the rapid diversification and rise of mammals. Images | Vaibhav Pixels In Xataka | A museum kept bones for 20 years that they thought were rubble. Now we know that Mexico had its own T-Rex

that supernovae are behind two mass extinction events on Earth

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When we think about mass extinctions, we almost always The asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs comes to mind. But the universe has much more spectacular ways of reconfiguring life, as pointed out a scientific study which suggests that at least two of the ‘Big Five‘Earth extinctions were not caused by space rocks, but by the lethal radiation of stars exploding very close to our solar system. The study. The research, led by Alexis L. Quintana of the University of Alicante, has complicated the most complete census to date of OB type starsthe “heavyweights” of the galaxy. These stars are incredibly large, hot and luminous, and they live fast and die young, ending their lives in titanic explosions known as core collapse supernovae (ccSN). Space bombs. The team in this case has mapped 24,706 of these stars within a radius of 1 kiloparsec (about 3,260 light years) around the Sun. And with this map, they have been able to calculate something crucial: the frequency with which one of these cosmic bombs explodes in our neighborhood. The key fact is chilling: they estimate that a supernova close enough (about 20 parsecs or 65 light years) to wreak havoc on Earth that occurs about 2.5 times every billion years. This figure, which may seem low, fits eerily into the fossil record. A death mechanism. How exactly would a nearby supernova kill you? It’s not the blast wave, but the radiation. Such an energetic and upcoming explosion would bathe our planet in a torrent of gamma and cosmic rays, tearing apart our ozone layer. Without that protective shield, ultraviolet radiation from our own Sun became lethal, sterilizing the planet’s surface and causing ecological collapse. Specifically, the study points out that this rate of 2.5 events per billion years is “consistent” with the fact that one or more of the mass extinctions recorded on Earth were caused by this mechanism. Specifically, they point to two devastating events: Both extinctions have been linked by other studies to periods of intense glaciation and, crucially, a drastic reduction in atmospheric ozone, a “murder weapon” that points directly to a cosmic culprit. Updates. Beyond the threat to Earth, the new OB star census has allowed the team to recalculate the overall supernova rate for the entire planet. Milky Way. And here there has been a surprise: it is lower than we thought. Previous calculations put the rate at 1 or 2 explosions per century. The new study lowers it to 0.4 – 0.5 supernovae per century. The authors attribute this difference to the fact that their census is more precise and reliable thanks to Gaia data, since the models of how stars evolve have improved. This new figure is not just an astronomical curiosity; It is fundamental data for other fields of physics. For example, it is vital for calculating the frequency with which we should be able to detect gravitational waves coming from these explosions within our own galaxy. Our protection. Fortunately, a look at our current stellar neighborhood is reassuring. Although there are massive stars that we know will explode “soon” (in astronomical time), such as the famous red supergiants Antares and Betelgeuse, both are hundreds of light years away. They are too far away to fry us with their radiation, but close enough that when they finally detonate (which could happen tomorrow or 100,000 years from now), they will give us a light show in the sky that will last for weeks. Meanwhile, we now have a new suspect to blame for some of the worst catastrophes in the history of life, long before humans came along to witness it. Images | Aron Visuals 愚木混株 Yumu In Xataka | We could think of space as a place without climate threats to Earth. We could ignore the “space tornadoes”

74,000 years ago, a volcanic eruption led humanity to the edge of extinction. We begin to understand how we survive

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74,000 years ago, in a remote lake north of Sumatra, a volcano erupted. But it wasn’t a normal volcano. According to archaeologist Jayde N. Hiniak“The Toba expelled 2,800 cubic kilometers of ash to the stratosphere, created a crater of 1,000 soccer fields” and caused a global winter. That could take our species to the edge of extinction: for more than half a century, many anthropologists are convinced that it was that eruption (one of the greatest known eruptions) that reduced the human population to about 10,000 fertile couples. It would be the most critical moment of Homo Sapiens since it arose. It is true that the theory is controversial and the debate around the real climate change that the Toba created is still very alive; However, no one doubts that what happened that day in Sumatra was a huge catastrophe. And that can be seen in archaeological remains. As Hiniak pointed out“Most archaeological sites show a history of resistance.” In areas such as South Africa or the lowlands of Ethiopia these climatic changes led to the adoption of technological innovations such as the development of arches and arrows. In much closer places (such as Indonesia, India or China), the population also suffered deep changes that allowed him to survive. All this can be known because the Toba left many geological samples distributed throughout the world. Studying the deposits before and after the ash of the volcano gives a lot of information on how these societies changed socio-technologically. The flexibility was key. Regardless of what Toba will cause (or not) drastic reduction Of the population, what is clear is that it allows us to draw conclusions about what was the fundamental feature that explains the survival of human communities: behavioral flexibility. Something that allows Image | Tetiana Grypachevska In Xataka | When Newton reached the fundamental laws of physics there was already a sign that said “Leonardo was here”

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