fingerprint Archives

How the new document that registers the fingerprint and iris of citizens works

February 17, 2026 by usatoday24

The Government of Mexico has decided to update the identity document of its citizens. The Unique Population Registry Code (CURP) goes from its classic 18-character format to become a biometric document which incorporates fingerprints, facial photography, electronic signature and even iris scanning. The change is no small feat, since it affects the entire population. And that is precisely why there have also been certain doubts about its implementation. What exactly is biometric CURP. The CURP is the personal identifier that the Mexican State assigns to each citizen and resident of the country. In its traditional version, it was simply an alphanumeric key printed on paper. This new biometric version maintains this, but now also includes a photograph of the holder, electronic signature, QR code with cryptographic authentication and, in most cases, iris registration. Management is carried out by the National Population Registry (RENAPO). What is it for and what problem does it seek to solve. The Government of Claudia Sheinbaum has placed the fight against disappearances in Mexico as one of the main arguments to promote this new measure. By integrating biometric data into the ‘Single Identity Platform’, authorities will be able to carry out identity searches and validations on site, connecting the RENAPO bases with the National Forensic Data Bank and with records from institutions such as the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) or state intelligence bodies. Beyond that, the document also seeks to combat identity theft, reduce the proliferation of falsified documents and simplify procedures such as opening bank accounts, accessing health services, applying for a passport or school registrations. What data does it collect and how does the document look like? Citizens have to appear at the Civil Registry, and the process usually takes between 20 and 30 minutes. During that time, ten fingerprints, a scan of the iris of both eyes, a photo, and the applicant’s digital signature are taken. The document is issued in physical and digital format, and includes the usual personal data (name, date and place of birth, sex, nationality) along with the new biometric elements and a QR code that gives encrypted access to all that information. As the Government assures, the document is valid both nationally and internationally. Who should process it and when. The decree establishes that the biometric CURP will be mandatory for all Mexican citizens and legal residents. However, its implementation is being gradual. The measure came into force last Octoberwith a pilot phase that involved Mexico City, the State of Mexico and Veracruz, and since then the expansion has reached other regions, including Jalisco, Nuevo León, Querétaro and Tlalnepantla. According to RENAPO, from October 2025 145 modules operate throughout the country. Starting this month of February, this document will be requested for certain government and private services. Although the traditional CURP will continue to be valid during this transition period, public institutions and banks will progressively require the biometric version for new procedures or data updates. What documents do you have to bring? The process is in person, free and is carried out only once. To attend the module, you must present: Original birth certificate or certified copy Valid official identification with photograph (INE, passport or professional ID; for minors, school ID) Validated traditional CURP Proof of address no older than three months personal email According to the authorities, in the case of minors, they must be accompanied by their mother, father or legal guardian. Where is it processed? The enabled modules include RENAPO offices, Civil Registry offices, the CURP Mobile service and itinerant modules installed in schools and community centers. The institution recommends managing the prior appointment through the official website from RENAPO. Issues. Despite the official argument to implement the measure, the project has not been without criticism. The fact of being obliged to transfer biometric data to the State (fingerprints, irises, photographs) has generated discomfort among citizens, especially those who fear improper use of this information or an expansion of mass surveillance. The decree establishes that the data will be stored under strict security protocols and with audited access in accordance with the General Law on Protection of Personal Data, although the real effectiveness of these guarantees is, reasonably, a matter of debate. From GQ Mexico express that some citizens do not feel comfortable providing information of this nature to the Government, although others consider that it is not new given the level of personal data that already circulates on the Internet. What happens if it is not processed. There are no economic sanctions if a citizen does not request the biometric CURP, but there are practical consequencesespecially in terms of blocking access to certain services. And those who do not have it when it is required may see their request rejected in public or banking procedures, longer waits in administrative procedures or incompatibilities in digital identity records. How to check if you already have it. To know if the biometric registration has already been processed, simply access the official portal of the CURP. If the receipt shows “CURP Biometric – Verified with RENAPO and Civil Registry”, the record is already updated. You can also go directly to any Civil Registry or RENAPO module to confirm it in person. Cover image | SEGOB and Onur Binay In Xataka | The US closed the El Paso airport and everyone looked at the Mexican cartel. It was worse: it was the US with a weapon that it did not know how to use

We have been searching for dark matter for 90 years. Now a Japanese man believes he has found his “fingerprint”

November 27, 2025 by usatoday24

Since Fritz Zwicky suggested the existence of dark matter in 1933, the reality is that it has been one of the great ghosts of modern physics, generating many debates about its existence. The little we know indicates that this matter is there because we see how its gravity pushes galaxiesbut we have never been able to see it or touch it. It is invisible. Or at least, that’s what we believed until now. And to ‘see’ this matter you have to be a true superhero, since it does not emit, absorb or reflect light. Something that makes it completely invisible to telescopes around the world. But it is not something that is a small part of what surrounds us, but which makes up 85% of the total matter in the universe. But now there is hope to have more information about this great mystery of physics thanks to a study Professor Tomonori Totani of the University of Tokyo claims to have found the first direct evidence of this elusive substance. He has not seen it directly with his own eyes, but he has detected the “smoke” of his gun: a very specific gamma ray signal emanating from the halo of our own Milky Way and that eerily coincides with theoretical predictions of how dark matter behaves. A large amount of data. To understand the discovery, you have to look at the sky with gamma ray eyes. Totani has used a total of 15 years of data accumulated by NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (LAT). But the important thing was undoubtedly knowing where to look: in the galactic halo. That is, the ‘quiet’ outskirts of the Milky Way, excluding the galactic disk to avoid interference. What he found when cleaning the background noise was surprising: an excess of gamma rays with a very specific energy peak, located at 20 billion electron volts (20 GeV). The importance. So far so good, but… Why is it important? Basically, because it doesn’t fit what we would expect from normal astrophysical sources, like pulsars or supernova remnants. However, it fits like a glove for the WIMP theory. This is a theory that basically suggests that dark matter It is made up of WIMPs (Weakly Interacting Massive Particles). According to physical models, when two of these particles collide, they annihilate each other, releasing a cascade of energy in the form of gamma rays that would be detected in the universe now. And that is their conclusion: the detected signal is compatible with WIMP particles that have a mass of 500 times that of a proton. This would, therefore, be the fingerprint that gives the most information about dark matter, although it does not stop there. The shape is not a point on the map, but a soft, spherical halo that surrounds the galaxy, just as dark matter is distributed in the cosmological simulations that physics has made. The same goes for consistency, since the signal persists even when different background models are used and other known sources of noise in the universe are removed. There are precedents. This isn’t the first time someone has yelled “Eureka!” In the past, excess gamma rays have been detected at the Galactic Center (known as GCE), but the scientific community has tended to think that this signal comes from undetected millisecond pulsars, rather than dark matter. The key to Totani’s study is that he has looked where no one was looking in such detail. By moving away from the center and analyzing the diffuse halo, it is where he has found a much cleaner signal that does not invite so many doubts about its origin. There are still doubts. The study itself admits that the calculated cross section (the probability of interaction) is higher than the upper levels established by the observation of dwarf galaxies, which are often used as scale for dark matter. This means two things: either our models of the density of dark matter in the Milky Way are incorrect (which is possible, since there is a lot of uncertainty in the profile of the halo), or we are looking at a new and unknown astrophysical phenomenon that mimics dark matter. A great mystery. If this finding is confirmed, we would be facing one of the greatest discoveries in physics of the 21st century. It would confirm that dark matter is composed of particles that we can detect (and not primordial black holes) and open a new door for physics. go beyond the standard model. But as we say, this still needs to be verified by a second laboratory such as the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory (CTAO) that may have the ability to detect these gamma ray spectral lines. Image | A. Schaller (STScI) In Xataka | Exactly 100 years ago we began to understand how the world works. Quantum physics has radically changed our lives

We have found the oldest human fingerprint in the world. He is 43,000 years old and someone left her in Spain

June 1, 2025 by usatoday24

Now we know a scene that occurred thousands of years ago. It happened more or less like this: a Adult Neanderthal He found a granite shot whose irregular shape, rich in quartz and natural clefts, possibly evoked for his eyes more than a simple stone: it looked like an elongated face. What followed was a seemingly minimal act, but full of significance. He left the oldest human footprint ever known, and did it in Spain. The art of Neanderthals. The scene has now described the scientists and calculate what happened about 43,000 years in what is today the province of Segovia. As explained in the study Recently publishedthe adult Neanderthal wet his finger in red pigment and pressed with him the stone just where the nose of that possible face would be, thus leaving the oldest human fingerprint ever recorded. The discovery, made in 2022 in San Lázaroit has been verified through an interdisciplinary team of archaeologists, geologists and forensics, which have concluded that the reddish point contains iron oxides and clay minerals not present in the cave, indicating that the pigment He took intentionally From another place. Art. Unlike a tool or utilitarian utensil, the stone did not present signs of practical use: its value was symbolic, aesthetic, or perhaps spiritual. The red pigment point, without which the object would not have archaeological value, marks the decisive step between the merely physical and the cultural: between the stone and the idea. The stone found The meaning behind the gesture. The authors of the study, published in the magazine Archaeological and Anthropological Sciencesthey argue that the finding reinforces the hypothesis that the Neanderthals had a symbolic mind similar to that of Homo sapiens. For them, the act of selecting a stone for its shape, transporting it, applying a precision pigment and probably attributing a meaning is proof of the existence of at least Three cognitive processes Complexes: the mental conception of an image, the will to communicate something through symbols, and the ability to attribute meaning. This triad, they affirm, is the art base. In that sense, the simple pebble with a red point can represent one of the oldest human face abstractions of the European prehistoric record. The uniqueness of the object makes it a difficult piece to contextualize: there is, for now, another equal. That said, remember that your artistic dimension cannot be ruled out. On the contrary: its rarity reinforces its character as an isolated, but revealing example, of the ability of the Neanderthals to Project thoughts and ideas about the material world. Breaking prejudices. There is more, of course. The finding highlights not only the original act of that Neanderthal, but also the persistent modern resistance to consider these hominids as authentic art creators. As explained Archaeologist David Álvarez Alonsoif it were a human intervention dated just 5,000 years ago, no one would hesitate to classify the object as art portable. But the fact that a Neanderthal has produced a debate that is not strictly scientific, but also cultural: our resistance to accepting that others Humans, extinct about 40,000 years ago, shared with us not only tools, fire and hunting strategies, but Also imaginationsymbolism and the need to represent. Under that prism, the stone of San Lázaro breaks that taboo with a single footprint. It is not a mural, nor a petroglyph, not even a figurine: it is a unique gesture on an ordinary support, one that, they assure, demands a deep rereading of what we consider “art” and who can produce it. A window The researchers tell In his work that the trace of pigment, interpreted as a deliberate act, forces us to ask ourselves for the Mental process that led to that moment. The first: What did that Neanderthal see in the stone: a face, a spirit or a sacred object? We will never know, but what the intervention suggests is a will to assign meaningto highlight, to leave a brand (mark). As the team points out, the total absence of pigments in the surroundings of the cave suggests A firm intention: The stone was collected, transported and altered with purpose. If we also want, in its apparent simplicity, the finding contains a complexity that forces us to reconsider the conception of the human being. If the Neanderthals could look at a stone and see a face in it, and then intervene it so that others would also see it, then they shared with us something essential: The ability to transcend the immediate and imagine the invisible … through a simple sign. Image | Mr. Álvarez-Alonso et al. In Xataka | We have been convinced for years that the fingerprints are unique. These researchers want to demonstrate that it is a myth In Xataka | The Neanderthals left a deep genetic footprint in us. The last example: the sense of pain

Log In

Sign In

Forgot password?

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

Log in

Privacy Policy

Add to Collection

No Collections