future

It’s called Starfall and it points to the future of space mining

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At 6:53 AM EDT (12:53 in Madrid) today, Tuesday, took off a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral in Florida (USA). He did so with a very special mission: a technical demonstration of his new and mysterious re-entry capsule, called Starfall. This is not about missions to the Moon or Mars. What’s up? It goes from manufacturing products in space to then taking them to Earth. Musk Space Transport, SA. As they point out at Ars Technica, published documents by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) give more information. This document indicates that the purpose of Starfall is the “transport and delivery of goods through space.” We are therefore faced with a new and interesting business avenue for SpaceX, which once again – as is the case with Starlink – moves away from pure space exploration to propose alternative solutions to “terrestrial” operational problems. SpaceX does not release any pledge. The company has detailed some of the phases of the mission on their official websitebut he has not given much information about the burden of said mission, and his message is confusing. According to those responsible: “today’s mission includes a demo of a new vehicle that will allow affordable and routine access to the microgravity environment for scientific research and for manufacturing in the same space.” The vehicle will make its re-entry to end up in the Pacific Ocean about 1,300 km west of California. Space pharmacies. The FAA report reveals that Starfall will enable “point-to-point delivery of critical payloads through space in rapid times,” in addition to ushering in an era in which make products in space thanks to the absence of gravity or in microgravity environments. There are companies already involved in this objective, and the purpose at the moment seems to be to manufacture pharmaceutical products. Once manufactured, vehicles like Starfall could be used to deliver these products to Earth. One ton of cargo. Existing documentation shows how Starfall is shaped like a cylindrical disk. Its diameter is 3.1 m, its height is 0.75 m and its weight is 2.1 tons. The current design contemplates that the load capacity of this capsule is about one metric ton. SpaceX wants to eat the competition. Companies such as Varda Space Industries or Atmos Space Cargo had already launched reentry vehicles on missions with Falcon 9 rockets. With Starfall, SpaceX precisely enters this market to provide not only the rocket in which the cargo is launched, but also the reentry capsule that will bring the manufactured product to Earth. It will be very difficult to compete with its costs and vertical integration. Space mining in sight. The short-term focus seems to be the production of drugs in microgravity conditions, but SpaceX could have another objective in the medium and long term. Specifically, the asteroid miningwhich could end up being commercially viable and will require a cheap and massive way to bring metals and rare earths mined in space to Earth. Destination Mars. Starfall can also be part of the Elon Musk’s ambitious plan to colonize Mars. While the Starship will be tasked with moving massive 100-ton loads, Starfall can be very useful for precise delivery of smaller supplies and delicate equipment. A Starlink-like pattern. SpaceX’s plan seems to propose a strategy similar to that followed with Starlink. The satellite constellation It has become an increasingly important alternative to traditional communications systems, and with Starfall the idea is not to explore space, but to control the supply routes to exploit it. In Xataka | SpaceX wants to reach a capitalization of 1.75 trillion dollars. Analysts are clear that it is worth less than half

the protein that longevity laboratories want to inject in the future

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In 1997, the Japanese doctor and researcher Makoto Kuro-o made a mistake in the laboratory where he carried out his experiments. I was trying to create mice with hypertension when the genetic material he manipulated was inserted in the wrong place and altered an unknown gene. The resulting mice aged at an astonishing rate: in just two months they had arteriosclerosis, osteoporosis, cognitive decline and wrinkled skin. The normal thing is for a mouse to live almost three years, but those animals would live much less. After four years of investigating what had gone wrong, Kuro-o identified the gene responsible and published his discovery in Nature. called him klotho in honor of Clotho, the Greek goddess who spins the thread of life. He had discovered, by accident, one of aging suppressants most powerful known. The protein klotho It exists in two versions. One is anchored to the membrane of kidney and brain cells. The other is a fragment that breaks off from the membrane, enters the bloodstream and travels throughout the body acting as a signal of systemic health. The problem is that its levels fall constantly with age in both humans and all primates that have been studied. The interesting thing is that this is not at all a biological coincidence: it is a mechanism that has direct consequences on our aging. A very powerful weapon against aging The most relevant experiment so far He published it in 2025 an international team of researchers from the Institute of Neurosciences of the Autonomous University of Barcelona led by Professor Miguel Chillón. These scientists treated mice with gene therapy in order to get their own cells to produce more klotho. At 24 months (equivalent to about seventy human years) the results were notable: the treated animals lived between 15 and 20% longer with better muscle mass, greater bone density, less fibrosis and better cognitive function. In the hippocampus, the area of ​​the brain where memory resides, the treatment stimulated the generation of new neurons. A 20% longer lifespan in mice is, in aging biology, an extraordinary result. Have klotho in blood is important because this protein acts on several of the most damaging processes derived from aging. In the kidney it regulates how the body manages phosphorus. In fact, without klotho Phosphorus accumulates and accelerates cellular deterioration. The biggest challenge is to find a way to transfer all this knowledge to human beings. And in the rest of the body it reduces oxidative stress, stops chronic inflammation, activates FOXO3A (one of the most studied longevity genes) and inhibits cellular senescence, which is the state in which aged cells stop functioning well but do not die and slowly poison the tissue around them. Be that as it may, the biggest challenge is to find a way to transfer all this knowledge to human beings. In mice, viral vectors were used, injected both into a vein and directly into the brain, a combination that carries significant risks in people. The alternative is administer protein directly as a drug, but finding a system that keeps it stable and delivers it effectively to its target organs (the kidney, brain, muscles and bones) remains an unsolved problem. Still, the longevity biotech industry has decided not to wait. The American startup Minicircle, in which Sam Altman and Peter Thiel have investedbegan a phase 1 clinical trial with 24 participants in October 2025 to test a gene therapy for klotho based on plasmids: DNA fragments that do not integrate into the chromosome and whose effects last approximately one year. This therapy is not approved by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration), so it operates through international clinics. However, the applications pursued by the industry go beyond aging in healthy people. Klotho Neurosciences has programs underway to combat Alzheimer’s, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and cardiovascular diseases, with phase I and II trials planned between 2027 and 2028. BioVivaon the other hand, has identified improvements in cognitive tests in patients with dementia treated with a combined gene therapy of klotho and telomerase. and the company Avaí Bio works with modified encapsulated cells that overexpress the protein. He plans to have his first results ready for the Second Annual Klotho Conference in September 2026. We have clinical trials, there is private capital moving on a large scale, and there is an annual conference dedicated exclusively to this protein. Everything we have seen in this article looks very good, but we must not overlook that the solid life extension data comes from mice, and the history of the biology of aging is full of spectacular findings in animals that have not been transferred to humans with the same success. Furthermore, several important unanswered questions remain on the table: what effects does overexpression of klotho in the long term, whether the timing of its administration matters in both people and rodents or what happens to phosphorus metabolism and vitamin D after years of treatment. Still, for the first time we have clinical trials, there is private capital moving on a large scale, and there is an annual conference dedicated exclusively to this protein. Klotho is, ultimately, one of the most promising weapons that biology has put in our hands to deal with our aging. Image | Alirio García on Unsplash More information | Nature | UAB In Xataka | Longevity experts are clear: “120 minutes of strength per week is associated with lower mortality”

Mercedes believed that the new electric motor in its AMG GT was “barely feasible.” Now it aims to be the future of all electric vehicles

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A few days ago, Mercedes finally announced the start of serial production of your axial flux motor at the historic Berlin-Marienfelde plant. This has serious implications for the future of electric cars, as the technology that powers this engine promises to redefine what a high-performance electric vehicle can do. That is why under these lines we are going to tell you all the details. What exactly happened. On June 9, Mercedes confirmed the start of serial production of this new engine in Berlin-Marienfelde, the historic factory founded in 1902 that has now been converted into the center par excellence for the brand’s high-performance electric motors. The first production model to debut is the new Mercedes-AMG GT 4 Door Coupea car that has also been left in the background in the conversations of recent weeks due to Ferrari and its first electric, Luce. However, this new vehicle will be the very first host of Mercedes’ new axial flow engine, which enters large-scale industrial manufacturing in a 30,000 square meter plant, three pavilions and seven production lines. Why is this engine different?. The vast majority of current electric cars use radial flux motors. In these, the magnetic field goes from the center outward, like the spokes of a bicycle wheel. In an axial flux motor, this field runs parallel to the axis of rotation, which allows the internal components (rotor, stator, etc.) to be coupled in flat layers facing each other, something like a sandwich. This arrangement makes the engine much more compact and lighter for the power it is capable of generating. Where does this technology come from?. The story begins in 2009, when engineers from the University of Oxford They founded the British company YASA with the aim of developing axial flux electric motors. Before arriving at Mercedes, YASA already supplied its engines to manufacturers such as Ferrari, Koenigsegg and Lamborghini. In 2021, Mercedes acquired the company seeing the potential these engines could have in their future AMG models. From there, the challenge was to transfer this technology from the laboratory to the mass production chain, something that, according to the company itself“for a long time it was considered barely feasible due to its complexity.” Figures. In its development phase, YASA presented an engine weighing just 13.1 kilos capable of generating 550 kW, which is equivalent to 738 HP, with a power density of about 42 kW per kilogram. It is no small feat, since if we compare these figures to those of the best radial engines, it practically doubles them. In more recent iterations, that same concept, weighing only 12.7 kilos, reached 750 kW of peak power, close to 1,000 HP. What comes out of those production lines. The AMG GT 4 Door Coupé mounts three axial flux motors grouped in modules called High Performance Electric Drive Units, which integrate motor and reducer in the same housing. One is on the front axle, less than 9 centimeters wide, and two on the rear axle, just 8 centimeters wide. Despite these dimensions, in its most powerful version (the AMG GT 63) the set adds 1,169 HP and 2,000 Nm of torque, with acceleration from 0 to 100 km/h in 2.1 seconds and a maximum speed of 300 km/h with the specific high-performance package. The challenge of manufacturing it. Making this engine in series has required processes that did not exist before. And just as account Mercedes in its official publication, of the 98 stages that make up manufacturing, 65 are used for the first time within the Mercedes group and 35 are completely unprecedented worldwide, generating more than 30 patent applications. According to the brand, one of the most technically demanding steps is what the factory calls “the wedding”, the moment in which the stator is placed between the two magnetic rotors. The magnetic forces are equivalent to about 900 kilos, and the margin of error allowed is less than a tenth of a millimeter. To do this, a control algorithm sends adjustments in the last 0.5 seconds of the process to ensure alignment. Mbeyond the AMG GT. The axial flux engine has not arrived in Berlin just to power an electric supercar. From Autoblog they point out that, given its compact and modular design, the technology is easy to adapt to different platforms. The usual industry logic also applies here, as when production volumes increase, costs fall. So there is hope that these types of engines will end up reaching more accessible models in the future. We will have to wait to find out if it really ends up being like this. For now, ArenaEV point to the CLA as a possible future candidate. It should be noted that Mercedes is not the only one working on axial flux engines, but it is the first to bring them to mass production in a series vehicle. Manufacturers such as Ferrari, BMW, Koenigsegg or Alpine are already investigating this technology. After all, electric cars are heavy by nature, so a lighter and more compact engine helps offset that burden without sacrificing performance. Tim Woolmer, CEO and founder of YASA, affirms that this technology “will change the game in the high-performance automotive sector.” We’ll see if it ends up being that way. Cover image | Mercedes-Benz In Xataka | Michael Leiters, CEO of Porsche: “We rushed with the Taycan, a 911 will never be an electric car”

Carrefour is selling off this 85-inch LG MiniLED for large living rooms today and is giving you 188 euros for future purchases

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Setting up a real cinema in the middle of the living room without having to spend a fortune is something you can get by buying a TV in stores like Carrefour. Now, for example, they have reduced this LG 85QNED7EB3A that you can take away 1,249 euros. In addition, at this time, you get a 15% coupon (187.35 euros) for future purchases and you can add a sound bar for 99 euros, the LG DS30A. Smart MiniLED TV 85″ (215.9 cm) LG 85QNED7EB3A with AI, 4K MiniLED, 60 Hz, a7 AI Processor 4K Gen9, Dolby Digital Plus, AI Sound Pro The price could vary. We earn commission from these links A large smart TV with Artificial Intelligence The great asset of this model compared to giant economical televisions is its panel technology. By combining MiniLED with the QNED system (Quantum Dot and NanoCell), the TV uses thousands of tiny LED lights to illuminate the screen. This translates into much more precise light control, achieving pure colors, good brightness and deep, detailed black tones. In his bowels, he mounts a a7 AI Processor 4K Gen9 smart processor. This latest generation chip relies on Artificial Intelligence to analyze what you are seeing in real time, optimizing contrast scene by scene and performing good scaling to 4K resolution. Thus, even the DTT channels or old YouTube videos will be seen clearly. In the sound section it is not far behind. It has Dolby Plus and the AI ​​Sound Pro systemwhich uses the processor to simulate an immersive audio environment. Finally, note that the entire television ecosystem is governed by webOSLG’s own operating system that stands out for its speed, security and for including all the essential streaming apps. ⚡ IN SUMMARY: offer for smart TV LG 85QNED7EB3A today ✅ THE BEST Brutal cinematic immersion: With its almost 216 centimeters diagonal (85 inches), it is the closest thing to having a commercial movie theater tucked into your living room. MiniLED Technology (QNED): By using thousands of microscopic LED bulbs to illuminate the panel, it offers fantastic light control, with ultra-high brightness and much deeper blacks than a regular LED TV. ❌ THE WORST Limited to 60 Hz… If you have a next-generation console (PS5 or Xbox Series X) and are looking to squeeze maximum fluidity in competitive games at 120 frames per second, this model will fall short. Viewing angles in dark rooms… Although the MiniLED improves contrast tremendously, if you sit too far to the side in a completely dark room, you may notice some loss of intensity in the colors. 💡 BUY IT IF… You devour movies and series on streaming platforms and look for maximum visual spectacularity without the hassle of maintaining a projector. ⛔ DON’T BUY IT IF… The distance between your eyes and the screen is less than 3 meters, a diagonal of 85 inches will force you to move your head from one side to the other and will end up causing visual fatigue. Other large TVs that may interest you Hisense 85E7Q Pro – QLED Smart TV The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Samsung TV 85 Inch QLED Q7F 4K The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Some of the links in this article are affiliated and may provide a benefit to Xataka. In case of non-availability, offers may vary. Images | Webedia and LG In Xataka | Best sound bars in quality price. Which one to buy and seven recommended models from 140 euros In Xataka | Best televisions in quality price. Which one to buy and seven recommended 4K smart TVs

The future European fighter in which Spain participates has received the worst news. And it comes directly from France

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Europe wanted to build its great fighter of the future with three countries in the cockpit: France, Germany and Spain. It was not a minor project nor a simple renewal of aircraft, but one of the most ambitious commitments of European defense for the coming decades, with a view to replacing models such as the French Rafale and the Eurofighter used by Germany and Spain by 2040. But this plan, presented for years as a symbol of strategic cooperation, has just collided with a much less epic reality: the companies called to make it possible have not been able to reach an agreement. The blow. According to Reutersthe Elysée confirmed that France and Germany were no longer in a position to continue with the project after the German authorities considered the margin to pressure the companies involved exhausted. French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz had discussed the matter the previous week in Montenegro, on the sidelines of a summit between the EU and the Western Balkans. The conclusion was difficult to conceal: after months of blocking, the program had been left without a clear exit in its current form. industrial shock. The program was stuck for months between Dassault Aviation, the French company linked to the Rafale, and Airbus, which represents the industrial interests of Germany and Spain. The dispute was not minor: who led the development, what technology was shared and how intellectual property was protected. Dassault would have defended a leading role to avoid losing control over its capabilities, while Airbus defended a more balanced relationship. It wasn’t just a fighter. The FCAS It was always something broader than a substitute for the French Rafale and the Eurofighter used by Germany and Spain. The plan aspired to build a connected combat system, with a manned aircraft at the center, drones, remote carriers and a military cloud, the Combat Cloudto coordinate secure communications between air, naval, land and space platforms. That is why the blow has more depth than the cancellation of a plane: it affects an architecture designed so that Europe would not only buy future capabilities, but could develop them itself. What is at stake in Spain?. The coup also hits Spain hard. Its participation is articulated through Indracalled to reinforce the Spanish role in areas such as connectivity, technological integration and some of the critical technologies of the system. Furthermore, Airbus not only defended German interests, but also Spanish ones within the program. That is why the blockade does not only affect the calendar of the future fighter: it can alter the industrial weight that Spain aspired to consolidate in one of the great European defense bets for the coming decades. Tension in the air. The Guardian points out that Paris and Berlin maintained differences over the type of aircraft they needed, because France was looking for a model capable of operating from aircraft carriers and carrying nuclear weapons, while Germany did not have exactly the same military priorities. Merz had also publicly questioned whether the development of a sixth-generation manned fighter still made sense for the German air force. The discussion, therefore, was not only who manufactured what, but for what specific needs the system should be created. What remains standing. The stopping of the fighter does not necessarily imply that the entire FCAS disappears completely. The program also includes drones and a high-security combat cloud, and European sources cited by Reuters saw it possible for these two elements to continue. A German government source even spoke of continuing the core of FCAS as a European system capable of connecting aircraft, drones and other components into an integrated whole. The big question is whether this architecture can survive without the airplane that was supposed to serve as its centerpiece. The initial plan and the current reality. The FCAS was on its way to being one of the great symbols of European defense for the coming decades. Today, however, it has become a direct test of the limits of that cooperation. We know that France and Germany have considered the current path exhausted, we know that Spain has industrial interests at stake and we also know that some pieces of the system could try to survive. What we don’t know yet is what form the project will take from now on. Images | Airbus In Xataka | Airbus has just made the most autonomous commercial aircraft in the world fly. Your goal: 22 hours straight without a stopover

The clothes of the future are made by bacteria. Jeff Bezos just invested 34 million to prove it

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Whoever is free of contradictions should cast the first stone, but Jeff Bezos plays in another league. On the one hand, he is the father and founder of a company that has made delivery logistics its watchword (Amazon), space tourism with Blue Origin or is behind AWS, one of the large cloud companies necessary for those resource-hungry data centers. On the other hand, Bezos also has his philanthropic side, which he develops in foundations such as his Bezos Earth Fundaimed at fighting climate change. Yes, the same man with the private jet and the megayacht. And he recently just invested 34 million dollars precisely in his “Bezos Fund for the Earth” to develop sustainable textiles new generation from bacteria, agricultural waste and other biological sources. The objective is to create materials that require less oil, are biodegradable and sooner or later are capable of replacing polyester, viscose or even cotton, a material of natural origin but whose production for textiles consumes a lot of water. The investment. These 34 million dollars are divided into four projects assigned to four top-level research entities: 11.5 million for Columbia University and the Fashion Institute of Technology to develop textile fibers made by bacteria that feed on agricultural waste. 10 million dollars for Berkeley, Stanford and Caltech to develop biodegradable fibers inspired by the spider web, but without the arthropod or using plastics. 11 million dollars for Clemson University to genetically modify cotton with the aim of improving its performance and so that it sprouts with the desired color. 1.5 million for the Cotton Foundation to restore the largest non-GMO cotton seed bank in the world. Why is it important. Because of fashion It is the second most polluting industry: is responsible for 8% of total carbon emissions and 20% of global wastewater and forecasts point to an increase in greenhouse gas emissions of 50% by 2030. And that’s just for production. Once we have used it, there is another problem inherent to synthetic textiles: microplastics. The European Environment Agency esteem that synthetic textiles represent between 16% and 35% of the microplastics that reach the oceans each year, with between 200,000 and 550,000 tons entering the marine environment annually. Context. The textile industry does not stop growing. In fact, in the last 20 years fiber production has almost doubled: from 58 million tons in 2000 to 116 in 2022 and with an estimate of reaching 147 million by 2030. Meanwhile, only 1% of the clothing produced is recycled to make new clothes, according to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. The situation is so alarming that the UN Secretary General has already warned that fast fashion is accelerating an environmental catastrophe and the solutions involve either doubling the useful life (which leads to clothing lasting longer), something that according to experts could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 44 percent. The other option is to use a new generation of recycled and/or more sustainable textiles. In detail. Given that automation and advances in the textile industry have already been optimizing the production process, what Bezos and his team intend to do is solve the problem at the source, that is, change the base material by improving it. Thus, for cotton the objective is to integrate color, improve performance and resilience by tapping into the biology of the plant. In the case of bacterial fabrics, Columbia’s approach is to create a digital map to learn how cells make it in order to replicate it. Yes, but. The biggest challenge is the jump from the laboratory to the factory. Synthetic spider silk fibers have been promising a textile revolution for decades without having reached real industrial scale. There are already sustainable textile startups like Spiber o Circulose marketing alternatives to traditional fabrics, but its presence is testimonial. And 34 million dollars may be a fortune for most mortals, but it is pocket money to change an industry like the textile industry, valued at 1.3 trillion dollars and which employs more than 300 million people throughout the value chain, according to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. In addition, sustainable fibers are usually more expensive, difficult to produce on a large scale and are only profitable for large brands if volume and quality are adequate. It takes something more to convince against fast fashion alternatives and amazingly cheap clothes like Shein. In Xataka | We already know why Jeff Bezos invests so much money in space: he believes that in 20 years millions of people will live there In Xataka | When Jeff Bezos asked his parents for $240,000 to found Amazon, they asked him only one thing: “What is the Internet?” Cover | Flickr and David Clode

UK eyes a “hybrid navy” for the future. Navantia already has an autonomous proposal: the LASV75

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The classic image of a navy is still easy to recognize: large ships, large crews and long campaigns far from port. But the future that is being drawn around the Royal Navy adds another layer. It is no longer just a matter of building larger or more sophisticated ships, but of combining them with autonomous platforms designed to take on specific missions alongside them. That’s where it comes in Navantia UKthe British subsidiary of the Spanish Navantia, with the LASV75: a proposal for that “hybrid marine” that the United Kingdom wants to explore. The concept appeared on the scene in the Farnborough Combined Naval Eventan event for the naval sector held in the United Kingdom. According to Navantia, the LASV75 has been designed in the country and is framed in a very specific idea: combining manned warships with unmanned escorts and autonomous technologies, including drones. The announcement also comes after the British subsidiary to complete the acquisition of Harland & Wolff assetsa movement with which it has reinforced its industrial presence beyond Spain. LASV75 is, in essence, a large autonomous ship surface conceived from the beginning to operate without a crew. Naval News details that the concept is based on a 75-meter modular hull and a displacement of more than 1,000 tons, a scale that distances it from the idea of ​​a small naval drone. The company proposes it as a platform capable of accompanying conventional ships, acting as escort or serving as support in broader operations. The key is that it is not born as an adapted boat, but as a design thought from the keel to function without personnel on board. A proposal for a navy with manned ships and autonomous escorts The usefulness of the LASV75 is not understood as that of a vessel specialized in a single task, but as that of a platform that changes depending on what it carries. It will be prepared for possible missions such as surveillance, escort, electronic warfare and attack-related operations, always linked to the installed payload. This precision helps us not to oversize the concept: it is not that the ship can do everything by itself from day one, but that Navantia UK presents it as a modular base for different missions. The promise is in that capacity for reconfiguration. Thinking about an autonomous system for relatively controlled waters is not the same as thinking about a platform capable of sustain presence in tough scenarios. Simon Jones summed it up at Farnborough with the example of the North Atlantic: to have a persistent and credible capability in severe cold conditions, you think you need something of this size. The other piece of the concept is how all of those systems connect to the ship. In the mockup presented during the event, a deck prepared for different payloads, interchangeable sensors and a modular mast arrangement could be seen. Everything is designed with standard interfaces, aligned with NATO, so that the modules are as interoperable and interchangeable as possible. It is a relevant detail in an allied naval force. For a proposal like this not to remain an attractive model, something more earthly is needed: shipyards capable of manufacturing it with rhythm, precision and scale. Navantia UK is investing 157 million pounds (about 181 million euros) in its four British centers, Appledore, Arnish, Belfast and Methil, with the intention of turning them into some of the most advanced facilities in Europe. Among the improvements is an automated panel line in Belfast, designed to make large pieces of steel faster, safer and more accurately. The idea is to bring these shipyards closer to the concept Shipyard 5.0 that the company already applies in Spain. The account raised by the company is not only about technology, but also about manufacturing. If, as Navantia suggests, an unmanned vessel can be built at a significantly lower cost than a conventional one and, furthermore, be produced with a certain amount of repetition, it fits better in a navy that seeks to increase its presence without multiplying human and industrial costs. The company adds to this logic a specific objective: to reduce the usual design and construction times of large naval vessels by up to 30%. So we are looking at a ship with a date of entry into service? Not really. What Navantia UK has taught It’s a concepta proposal to enter a conversation that is already open: what navies will be like when large manned ships have to coexist with autonomous escorts, interchangeable sensors and platforms designed and built with shorter deadlines. There the company plays a double card: the accumulated experience of a Spanish group with programs such as the F-100 frigates and the S-80 submarines, and a British industrial base that wants to gain weight in the future hybrid navy. Images | Navantia In Xataka | Four years ago, Spain was left without an essential weapon for war. Airbus is rebuilding it in Seville

This is how Mario Rodríguez, CPO of GitHub, sees the future of programming

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Almost five years ago we asked ourselves Why program when a machine could do it for you?. It was July 2021 and GitHub Copilot was launched, the first major AI assistant that also boasted of being powered by GPT-3. That was quite a turning point for the world of developers, and since then we have experienced the explosion of a segment that has been the first to test the honeys of generative artificial intelligence. Among those who were at the forefront of that development is Mario Rodriguezan engineer born in Cuba but who emigrated to the US when he was 14 years old. After studying at the University of Miami, Rodríguez began working at Microsoft, and has developed his entire professional career there. In 2018, following the acquisition of GitHub by Microsoftjoined the management team as vice president of product. Since August 2024, he has been its Chief Product Officer, and therefore he is the one who decides where GitHub goes as a platform. It is an enormous responsibility considering that we are dealing with the collaborative platform that has become the social network for programmers on its own merits. A few days ago we had the opportunity to sit down to talk with him precisely to talk (“in Spanish, I prefer it, that’s how I practice it”) about the present and especially the future of GitHub, now totally involved in the generative AI revolution. The competition tightens Github Copilot was an absolute pioneer in normalizing that code generation support between 2021 and 2023, but the absolute dominance that seemed to have with the appearance of Cursor and, later, in mid-2025, with the release of Claude Code by Anthropic. In the last year and a half, Cursor’s popularity surpasses that of GitHub Copilot, at least if we take into account visits to their respective websites. Source: Sherwood News. Both AI agents have not stopped growing since then, and the popularity is moving apparently to these new platforms although GitHub Copilot still has an exceptional market share in this segment. If we talk about Claude Code, things are even more striking, because his success is such that even Microsoft engineers themselves they have been using it instead of using the company’s own alternative. The situation was so unique that Microsoft has ended canceling your Claude Code licenses to force their engineers to use Github Copilot, although there is a strong financial argument here: heavy use of Claude Code was becoming too expensive. Microsoft executives recently stated in The Informationwere very concerned about the erosion of their leadership. Rodríguez is clear that now there is more competition, but clarifies that “we knew that was going to happen“. Not only that, because he added that “competition is good. “It’s exciting for me to wake up every day and see what we have to do to continue leading.” GitHub Copilot App, currently in Technical Preview, is the company’s answer to Cursor or Claude Code. Source: GitHub. But GitHub, as he explained, is much more than GitHub Copilot, “it is a platform in itself.” That doesn’t mean they don’t continue to push that part, and in fact in May GitHub announced the launch of the preliminary version of GitHub Copilot App, which, as Rodríguez explains, solves a gap because Cursor or Claude Code (among others) offered “the Integrated Desktop Environment (IDE), which is what we didn’t have. Beyond the model: why GitHub’s strategy is not to compete in pure AI At the moment the situation is what it is: OpenAI has its AI agent for programming, called Codexbut it also develops one of the best frontier models in the world, GPT-5.5. Google, the same: it has Antigravity as an IDE, but it also has models like the recent one Gemini 3.5 Flash. Anthropic is not short, of course: it has Claude Code as an AI agent, but it also has its Claude Opus 4.7 model as a very clear reference in the field of programming and agentic software engineering. Even Cursor, which initially only had its AI agent to program, has ended up launching a surprisingly good model in programming tasks, Composer 2.5. GitHub has the tool, but not own model. For Rodríguez this is not a problem at all, because he sees GitHub as something that goes beyond the modelas a native platform for collaboration in development tasks. “For me the code repository is like a garden that is alive and there are always AI agents collaborating with the human in that repository. So, when you change one thing, people say, ‘Oh, you changed it, this has to change.’” In fact, although GitHub Copilot appeared with OpenAI models as the main protagonists, today it is a multi-model platform that works with cloud models but also with local models. Actually Microsoft does have own models like MAI“but our strategy is not the model. Where we believe the value is in the systems themselves, not in the models.” In fact, he pointed out, in the model segment things change too quickly. “Tomorrow the best will be OpenAI, the next day Anthropic, then it may be an Open Source model… what’s the difference? Every day it changes, and differentiating at that layer is very complicated, so where we are going to differentiate ourselves is in the platform itself, in our AI agent platform.” For him, GitHub’s role is differentiating because it is not an IDE or a model, but a platform. One that not only provides tools to share code and work with it, but also focuses on what he calls “macrodelegation and microsteering“(“macrodelegation and microdirection”). Macrodelegation is high-level autonomy, which makes the developer focus not on looking at each line of code, but on the results. Microsteering is the constant control to correct course, having a human being in the loop (human-in-the-loop) so that errors can be avoided and micro adjustments made. These are the options that GitHub proposes for the future, and they also focus it on two crucial tasks: “For all this to … Read more

The industrial future is more like Terminator than Ford

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“Hunter-Killers. Patrol machines. Built in automated factories.” The phrase is pronounced Kyle Reese in ‘Terminator‘, when trying to explain a future dominated by Skynet and its war machines. Forty years later, we are not in that science fiction nightmare, but the connection is too powerful to ignore: China is manufacturing structural components for stealth fighters in a highly automated plant, with almost no humans on the line and with machinery capable of working for much of the day. Turn off the light. The news comes through Science and Technology Daily. According to that source, the factory has more than doubled efficiency in the production of structural components for Chinese stealth fighters, including the J-20. The process, which previously required employees monitoring operations around the clock, now relies on autonomous vehicles, automated machinery guided by AI and systems capable of sustaining activity for almost 24 hours. Of course: we are not talking about complete planes leaving a ship alone, but rather about the manufacturing of the “skeleton” of the aircraft under conditions of very reduced human intervention. What is a dark factory. We are talking about facilities designed to operate with very little human presence, to the point that lighting is no longer a necessary condition for production. Siemens describes these plants as facilities with minimal human activity, capable of operating in the dark. We can see this idea applied to a variety of sectors: steel, mobile phones, domestic engines, and rocket ignition device parts. A complex product. The plant combines autonomous material transportation, high-precision machining, intelligent scanning and robotic inspection. Previously, however, it took two or three employees per shift to keep the machinery running all day, but now the human labor hours needed to operate the plant have been reduced by more than 80%. A factory that learns to speak. The leap did not depend solely on installing more robots. As Song Ge, head of digital manufacturing, explained to Science and Technology Daily, the dozens of machines in the plant used different protocols and software languages, a fragmentation that made it difficult to unify the line and control it as a system. The solution was to ensure that the equipment could communicate, be controlled remotely and coordinated within the same production flow. The plane behind the factory. The J-20 occupies a central place in Chinese air modernization. The Chinese Ministry of Defense confirmed in 2018 its entry into combat service and presented it as a fighter with the capacity to contest air superiority, carry out precision attacks against land and maritime targets, electronic interference and tactical command. An old dream with new machinery. The idea of ​​manufacturing almost without humans was not born with China or with the J-20. CNN recalled in 2003 That dream already came from the eighties, when General Motors imagined robots so reliable that they could assemble transmissions in the dark. That collided with a much clumsier reality: the machines did not work well even with the lights on. Today the map is broader: FANUC has operated a dark factory in Japan since 2001, Makuta Micro Molding applies that model in the United States to microinjection molding and Philips has produced electric clippers in the Netherlands with a highly automated unit supported by hundreds of robots. Looking to the future. The industrial future does not have to look like Skynet, but it does point to factories where human presence weighs less in certain production phases. And when that happens, keeping the lights on throughout the entire operation stops being a productive necessity and becomes dependent on when people enter the plant. Images | Chinese Ministry of Defense In Xataka | Airbus had a single center in the world to convert commercial aircraft into military tankers. Now another one will open in Seville

The ‘Improved Games’ wanted to show that the future of sport is doping. Things didn’t go as expected

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It is still too early to know if the Enhanced Gamesthe famous ‘Enhanced Games’ that were held this weekend in Las Vegas with some rules on doping infinitely more lax than those of any competition recognized by the IOC, will achieve their commercial objectives. Whether or not it has been an effective marketing campaign. What is already clear is that they have deflated at a sporting level. Its organizers promised an evening full of heart-stopping records and marks by athletes ‘enhanced’ with steroids, EPO or testosterone, but they have obtained only one record. The question that remains is… And now, what? Doped athletes? To the Enhanced Games Many things may be blamed on them and their philosophy will be more or less convincing, but there is one thing that cannot be blamed on them: going head-on. The event, held over the weekend in Las Vegas with the pomp of a great showadvanced its objective already in its name: ‘Improved Games’. Its purpose was to organize an athletics, swimming and weightlifting competition in which athletes could doping almost without restrictions. The only limit was that they did not use illegal drugs and the drugs had been prescribed by a doctor. From there, wide Castilla: anabolic steroids, testosterone, EPO… The use of prohibited equipment was even allowed, such as polyurethane suits similar to those that the International Swimming Federation (FINA) banned years ago. The idea was very simple: to prove that, in order not to remain “stuck” and allow athletes to give “the best version” of themselves, official sport must rethink its vetoes. @enhanced_games A $1,000,000 WORLD RECORD SWIM! Kristian Gkolomeev wins the Men’s 50m Freestyle in 20.81 and takes home $1,000,000 bonus + 250,000 first place finish and reclaims his 50M Freestyle world record. ♬ original sound – Enhanced Games The value of a good show. Although the idea is provocative and has earned it enormous media exposure, the organizers of the Enhanced Games wanted to give the event the appearance of a great show. The competition was held at Resorts World in Las Vegas, in a stadium with capacity for 2,500 people and after months of a speech measured to the millimeter to generate expectation. In his favor he had two great claims, beyond the controversy. The first, a team of media athletes. Among the athletes who agreed to participate, Olympic medalists or podiums from world tournaments such as Leidy Solis (silver in Beijing 2008), Fred Kerley (silver in Tokyo 2020), Kristian Gkolomeev (silver at Gwangju 2019) or Hafþór Björnssonweightlifter who reached a world record in 2025 and is famous above all for playing “the Mountain” in ‘Game of Thrones’. And that among a wide etcetera. 42 athletes. In total, 42 athletes (sprinters, swimmers and weightlifters) participated in the Enhanced Games, the vast majority of whom were doped. Guardian precise that of all of them there were only three people who chose to participate in the tests in a ‘clean’ way, without consuming chemical substances that would be equivalent to a disqualification in any official tournament. Their participation in the event gave an extra point of epicness to the Enhanced Games and reinforced its main challenge: Can the consumption of testosterone, EPO, steroids or polyurethane suits really make a difference? Don’t say sport, say money. The second claim that we referred to before explains what Gkolomeev, Björnsson and many other athletes who agreed to participate in the Enhanced Games were doing yesterday in Las Vegas. Beyond their greater or lesser harmony with the underlying message, if they decided to compete it was because the organization promised great awards: $500,000 per test, half of it for the winner. If he also managed to set a world record in one of the “definitive tests” (100 m dash and 50 m freestyle) he could earn an extra one million. And how was it? Not as good as the organizers (probably) expected. Despite the expectation generated, the advertisements who claimed that records were already being broken in training and throughout the hype generated around the use of chemicals, the reality is that the first Enhanced Games only managed to crown a world record. The Greek swimmer did it Kristian Gkolomeevalmost in extremis. Under the watchful eye of the organizers, he managed to complete the 50 meter freestyle in 20.81 seconds, slightly lower than the 20.88 official record achieved by the Australian. Cameron McEvoy in March. Proof of the relief that this meant for those responsible for the Enhanced Games is that, after the race (and in further demonstration that the tournament was more intended as a show than a sporting event), the executive director of the ‘Games’, Max Martin, he knelt before Gkolomeev to proclaim his victory. The mark of 20.81 will not be officially valid, but it will allow the Greek to pocket the bonus of one million dollars. “Maybe next year I’ll beat it again,” he said. A pyrrhic victory. Martin did not save on superlatives when evaluating the competition and went so far as to celebrate that the Enhanced Games have “changed the world”. “We have seen how records were broken and how 12 athletes broke personal bests,” celebrated. The reality is that the balance of the first ‘Improved Games’ has been discreet and has certainly fallen far below the expectations generated by the organization itself. Beyond the consumption of doping substances allowed in the event, Gkolomeev, for example, scratched his record with the help of a ‘supersuit’ banned by FINA. Doped vs ‘clean’. Apart from the fact that there were athletes who broke their “personal records” thanks to doping, as the organization claims, in some cases the competitions were won by the few athletes who claimed not to use drugs. This was the case, for example, of Hunter Armstrong, who won the 50 m backstroke against two doped rivals, or the sprinters Tristan Evelyn and Fred Kerley, who in addition to taking the winner’s check he threw a jibe to their opponents: “They have to train a little harder, … Read more

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