Every week, millions of flies are released on the Valencia Community and, although it does not seem like it, it is a sensational idea

The Valencia war against the Mediterranean fruit fly dates back more than thirty years and is A constant reminder That going to war against an insect is never easy. It is not a reminder that is needed, the truth. Hundreds of regions around the world fight their particular conflicts with All kinds of insects, fungi or bacteria. If Valencia is important, it is something else. For a factory in caudete of the sources. An army of flies. Since at least 2017, the one we know today as Valencian Center for Genetic Fight It has been releasing hundreds of millions of flies weekly to combat pests. The technique is not new, but in this Valencian municipality they have led it to its maximum expression. Not for nothing is the largest bioplant in Europe and the second largest in the world: a reference in what is called “sterile insect technique”. Sterile insect? Yes, it is “a method of biological pest control that is based on raising males of the same species to fight that they are sterilized by irradiation.” These sterile males They are released to the fieldwhere they compete with wild males due to mating with females, “reducing plague levels by not giving rise to offspring.” Is a solution that “has been used in agriculture of multiple countries and in various flies and beetles. In addition, it is studied to fight against mosquitoes, in particular the Aedes“vectors of diseases such as dengue and chikungunya.” And is it viable? According to the Valencian example, it seems that. Although the regional government Spend about eight million Of euros a year, it has become a key piece in the defense of a sector that moves more than 10,000 million only in the region. As explained in the country: “In recent years there has been a very pronounced decrease in hectares of citrus treated with chemicals through aerial media (from about 330,000 at the beginning of the 21st century to just a few thousands of hectares today).” That is, it is a relatively cheap and quite effective project that also allows Very specific interventions And safe: “Since sterile males generally only appear with females of their own species, little effect on ecosystems is expected, unlike insecticides, which are toxic to many different species.” An increasingly present future. A few years ago, Manuel F. HerradorProfessor of the UDC Civil Engineering School, he said that in the future, they will be horrified how much of our way of building was summed up in two words: brute force. Something like this will happen when technology historians look at how we cultivate during the 20th century. Now, little by little, we are recovering (and creating) other ways to intervene in the nature much more intelligent, powerful and effective. Font caudete is just the beginning. Image | AlvesGaspar | THAT In Xataka | These mosquitoes are genetically modified to resist the four dengue virus serotypes and avoid their propagation

This man is the first person who flies to space without revealing his identity. They haven’t taken to find out who it is

Six people traveled yesterday to the Blue Origin suborbital rocket. One was Jesús Callejathe first television presenter that crosses the line of Kárman as part of the filming of a documentary. In the same ship another five people flew. Four of them, millionaire businessmen and executives who had paid for the flight. The sixth crewman was an anonymous person. Was An anonymous person because on the Internet there are difficult secrets to maintain. Context. They are already going 52 people That they fly to the space with Blue Origin since Jeff Bezos, the owner of the company, premiered the small New Shepard rocket with his brother Mark, the aviator Wally Funk and the young Oliver Daemen (the oldest woman, with 82 years, and the youngest man, with 18, in crossing the border of the space). Taking into account that just 719 people have traveled beyond the 100 kilometers of altitude, Blue Origin’s space tourists begin to be a multitude in the select club of people who have gone to space. With its flights for millionaires of just 10 minutes, the New Shepard rocket has a growing record of records: the oldest man (William Shatner), the first Mexican (Katya Echazarreta), the first Portuguese (Mário Ferreira), etc. What they had not had until now was an anonymous passenger. The first suborbinaut without name. Of the 719 people who have flown to space so far, none had done without revealing their name. The astrophysician Jonathan McDowell knows it well, who maintains a database of all space flights in historystarting with Yuri Gagarin on April 12, 1961, and Alan Shepard, on a suborbital flight, 23 days later. When McDowell went to update his database with the crew of the NS-30 mission of Blue Origin, he decided not to settle for the unknown of the sixth traveler (the first stain of the history) and asked his followers (in a tweet now erased) if they could find out who he was. Most of the answers reproached McDowell having used their influence to try to expose a person who wanted to remain anonymous. Others They wondered If it could be the camera of Jesús Calleja (but why hide his identity, then?). Until, finally, one of McDowell’s followers found who he was. R. Wilson. Blue Origin had diligently complied with his client’s desire. The mysterious traveler He went out to face discovered In the official photos and videos of the mission, but on the web, on social networks, in the press releases, in the retransmission of the launch, Blue Origin only mentioned the first five passengers with name and surname, adding: “and a sixth crewman whose name has not been revealed.” What did not help the man to preserve his identity was to have his initial and his last name embroidered in the space suit: R. Wilson. However common the last name Wilson was enough to French YouTuber Ufotinik He will find his full name and news about him on the Internet. An Australian cryptocurrency. Jesús Calleja mentioned in an interview that an Australian friend had done on the mission. Perhaps he refers to Russell Wilson, founder of the Coinspot cryptocurrency exchange platform, based in a modest Melbourne building. According to a report of 2023 of the Daily MailWilson leads a discreet life in the city’s suburbs, although he has paid 538 million dollars in dividends. The report includes a photo of the businessman, who already maintained a low profile and avoided public attention, delegating media appearances in his executives while led the company from anonymity and following strict security protocols. He failed to maintain anonymity then, nor has he achieved it on his trip to space. But McDowell’s efforts for not letting an entry into its database only reinforce the initial idea of ​​this article: space tourists are beginning to be a crowd in the select club of people who have gone to space, so we will see more and more eccentricities above the karm line. After all, career astronauts, those of space agencies, are officials chosen and formed to the extreme for a single thing: act according to the protocols and be predictable in any situation. Images | Blue Origin In Xataka | Jesús Calleja is already a history of Spanish space exploration: its launch is a success and has taken him to space

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