garbage

we are creating a 250 million ton mountain of garbage

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The energy transition is happening at an unprecedented speed. According to the latest report from the IEA-PVPSIn 2024 alone, 601 GW of solar power was installed in the world, reaching a cumulative total of 2.2 TW. However, this success hides an environmental paradox. As researcher Rabia Charef warns At The Conversation, we are installing the future on a mountain of potential garbage that, by design, is an “industrial strength sandwich” almost impossible to separate. The “sandwich” design: a durability trap. For a panel to withstand hail, snow and wind for 30 years, it is built by stacking layers of glass, silicon and polymers sealed with adhesives so powerful that they become a single unit. As Charef explainsthis virtue is also its condemnation, since at the end of its useful life the separation of materials is so expensive that most end up in the landfill. It is not a minor problem. Already in 2016, IRENA reports They warned that by 2050 solar waste could total 250 million tons, which would represent 10% of all electronic waste on the planet. China and the “poison” of overproduction. The clock on this crisis has sped up due to geopolitics. China dominates 90% of global capacity of solar cells and in this desire to lead the sector, the Asian giant manufactured 588 GW last year, doubling global demand. This flood of cheap panels has sunk prices and caused million-dollar losses, but also has created a perverse incentive: It is so cheap to buy a new panel that repairing an old one does not seem profitable. Analyst Bo Zhengyuan explains that that “animal spirit” that made the Chinese industry triumph is now suffocating it, filling the world with equipment that will die in two decades without an exit plan. The laboratory of saturation. For its part, another problem that is committed is forgetting the fundamentals, as happens in Spain. The country broke records last summer by generating more than 10,500 GWh per month of sun and wind, but the system cannot hold up. Spain already waste 7% of its clean energy due to lack of networks and storage. “The mistake was not putting up panels, but forgetting about the networks,” quotes an executive in the Financial Times. This lack of investment has plunged the value of solar parks by 30% in just one year, forcing “liquidation sales” (fire sales). If the companies that run these plants go bankrupt or lose profitability, who will take care of the millions of panels when they stop working? The limit of current recycling: shredding is not recovering. Today, recycling is disappointing. As The Conversation denouncesmost plants simply shred the panels to recover low-value aluminum and glass. In the process, the true treasure is lost: high-purity silver, copper and silicon. Silver, although it only represents 0.14% of the weight of the panel, represents 40% of its material value. When crushed, this metal is pulverized and mixed with impurities, making it unrecoverable. According to sourceswe are throwing away an estimated economic value of $15 billion by 2050. Although there are sprouts of hope. Despite the panorama, technology is trying to catch up with the problem: Silver Recovery: Researchers from the University of Camerino (Italy) have developed a hydrometallurgy technique that recovers 99% of pure silver without using harsh chemicals. The milestone of the 100% recycled panel: The Chinese giant Trina Solar has achieved create the first fully recycled crystalline silicon panel. Although its efficiency (20.7%) is somewhat lower than that of a new one (25%), it demonstrates that circularity is possible and that the performance of recycled material is already fully competitive compared to current industry standards. Cutting-edge plants in Spain and the US: While in the United States the company SolarCycle seeks to recover 99% of photovoltaic materials; in Spain, the CERFO project in Teruel positions itself as a European pioneer in the recovery of silicon, a component historically difficult to recycle. Repair before recycling: “Revamping”. Before the panel reaches the recycling plant, there is a more sustainable option: the revamping. A study by the University of Castilla-La Mancha shows that renewing Specific components of a solar plant can maximize production and profitability without the need for total dismantling. In Japan, the startup Girasol Energy has achieved restore the oldest solar system in the country (from 1994), aiming for it to operate for 50 years by using Big Data to identify faults piece by piece without replacing the entire equipment. Digital passports and modular design. The definitive solution could come from regulation. The European Union will implement the Digital Product Passport (DPP) starting in 2027. As the EU source explainsthis document will allow you to know the origin, materials and disassembly instructions for each panel. This passport, along with the “digital twins” mentioned in The Conversationwill allow technicians to monitor performance in real time and know exactly how to separate the “sandwich” of materials without destroying them. Faced with the solar paradox. Solar energy is essential to stop global warming, but it cannot be “clean” if its end is dirty. The industry now faces its biggest test: redesigning the panels not only so that they catch the sun, but so that, when their last sunset comes, they don’t leave behind a legacy of glass and plastic that future generations cannot manage. Image | freepik Xataka | All the solar panel technologies that exist and which ones are most efficient, in a graph that goes from 1975 to today

Nepal imposed a $4,000 bail on tourists to clean Everest. Now you have more garbage and a problem

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If we talk about remote, isolated and inaccessible regions, few places reach the level of Everest. The highest mountain of the planet (at least if we take sea level as a reference) is not within everyone’s reach. Crowning it requires years of preparation, acclimatization and in-depth knowledge of mountaineering, in addition to spending a few tens of thousands of dollars in tickets, equipment, fees and Sherpas. Despite that, despite all its rigors, Everest has become a monster touristified full of tons and tons of garbage. In Nepal they just checked that this problem, that of the accumulation of waste in the mountains, cannot be solved even with the threat of paying thousands of dollars. Hence, the Government is already considering tougher measures. What has happened? That Nepal has realized that the threat of sanctions is not enough to prevent Everest from becoming a gigantic landfill frozen. More than a decade ago, its authorities adopted a measure with which they intended to clean the mountain: each climber who wanted to ascend to the roof of the world must first deposit $4,000, a kind of deposit that would only be recovered if he returned from his expedition with eight kilos of waste. The objective was clear: for the mountaineers to collect their garbage. If they did, they got their $4,000 back. If not, they lost the deposit. The idea looked good on paper, but it has turned out to be a fiasco. Over the past few years, mountaineers have returned from their climbs with backpacks full of debris to unlock their bails, but that hasn’t improved Everest. On the contrary. Why’s that? Very simple. Because (paraphrasing the Spanish proverb) ‘the law is made, the trap is made’. Tourists who have set out to conquer Everest have spent the last few years returning with rubbish to claim a refund of their money, but what at first sounds so positive has actually meant a problem for the mountains. The reason? The origin of these wastes. Climbers collect waste, true, but in lower altitude camps. Things change if we talk about the highest bases, where loading and eliminating waste is more difficult, expensive and even dangerous. Hence, the waste problem continues to be worrying and has even worsened in the most sensitive areas: the camps located closer to the summit. “From the highest bases people tend to return only with oxygen bottles,” explains to the BBC Tshering Sherpa, executive director of the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee. “Other items like tents, cans and boxes of packaged food and beverages are left there, mostly abandoned. That’s why we see so much trash piling up.” What has been the result? A fiasco. The Sherpas themselves recognize that the pollution problem has worsened in the camps closest to the summit. After all… Why descend loaded with garbage from the top of the mountain if 8 kg can then be collected in the lower camps? As if that were not enough, managing the $4,000 deposits has resulted in more paperwork for Nepalese officials. Although the problem of dirt has not been solved, the majority of mountaineers recover their deposits, which translates into an “administrative burden” for the nation. Does it work that badly? In the country there are those who speak directly of a “defective norm” that fails in several key points. The main one, surveillance. “From the checkpoint above the Khumbu Icefall there is no supervision over what the climbers do,” comments Sherpa. Hence, it is not a problem for tourists to leave their garbage at the top of the mountain and then cover the quota with waste from lower camps. There is also another important handicap. The rule requires climbers to return with 8 kg of waste, but there are studies that warn that a climber produces much more waste during his stay on the mountain, at least if the weeks of acclimatization are taken into account. To be precise, we are talking about 12 kg. Is the problem that serious? Yes. The figures speak for themselves. Estimates may vary from one study to another, but they generally show that after years of tourism, Everest has become a large landfill in which dozens of tons of waste accumulate. And that includes everything from packaging, store remains, ropes… and even kilos and kilos of feces. It is not at all surprising if you take into account the great popularity that the mountain has been gaining over the last few decades. Although the expeditions are not affordable for everyone (some estimate that they cost between 40,000 and 60,000 dollars) every year hundreds of climbers land on Everest. The Telepragh esteem that around 600 mountaineers try to climb the mountain every year, which represents a huge flow of climbers who arrive accompanied by equipment and Sherpas. There are many, but the figure falls short when compared to the activity that was recorded in the area before the pandemic. Statista calculates For example, in 2023, 656 successful promotions were recorded, a figure that exceeded 800 before the health crisis. And now what? After assuming that their previous bailout plan “did not show tangible results,” the Nepalese authorities want to toughen their conditions to tackle the pollution problem. They have a new plan on the table that includes a cleaning fee that It would be around $4,000.although with an important nuance: in this case would not be refundable. The idea is that this flow of thousands of dollars will serve to finance the conservation of the mountain. “With the new plan we will deploy qualified rangers paid for by the cleaning fee collected from climbers,” comments Himal Gautamfrom the Department of Tourism. If the measure goes ahead, it will join others that in recent years have sought to improve the preservation of Everest, such as the increase in rates administrative or even the norm which since 2024 requires mountaineers to carry bags to collect their excrement. Images | Akunamatata (Flickr), Mari Partyka (Unsplash) In Xataka | When a storm hit Everest, a … Read more

The visual garbage of AI is so omnipresent that it is already unleashing a counter-aesthetic current: neo-brutalism

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The Internet is being flooded with images and designs that seem to be cut from the same mold: identical fonts, predictable gradients, aesthetics polished to the point of nausea. This phenomenon is difficult to describe and limit due to its infinite variants and omnipresence, but it has a name: “AI slop“. By this we refer to digital content generated with artificial intelligence, from images to web design itself, and where quantity takes precedence over any hint of originality or meaning beyond the effectiveness of the mass production chain. But what is AI Slop. The expression gained traction in 2024 thanks to British programmer Simon Willisonalthough it had previously circulated in communities such as 4chan and Hacker News. The concept indicates a root problem: When AI models are trained with the most common patterns on the internet, they replicate a generic and forgettable aesthetic ad nauseam. It’s what experts call “distributional convergence”: everything seems designed by the same depersonalized algorithm. And the anti-AI slop? Faced with this invasion of algorithmic uniformity, a visual counterculture emerges that celebrates precisely what AI avoids: the clumsiness, the unevenness, the marks of the human creative process. The anti-AI slop is not an aesthetic whim, but a declaration of principles that rescues imperfection and turns it into a differential value and a trait of delicious humanity. Some critics celebrate it as a kind of digital neo-brutalism, referring to the famous unadorned concrete architecture of the 1950s. This neo-brutalism is characterized by taking digital nudity to the extreme: sites built with basic HTML and minimal CSS, where the code is displayed without artifice. The fonts are not the elegant paid fonts, but the system ones installed by default: Arial, Times New Roman, Courier. The photographs appear unretouched, with their digital noises and compression artifacts clearly visible. Asymmetrical compositions, in short, that break any notion of classical balance. Like children. This leads us to a style perhaps opposite to cold brutalism, but also contrary to IA Slop: the aesthetic of a childish hasty sketch. Deliberately unbalanced proportions, freehand illustrations, elements that overflow the margins. Lindsay Marsh, a designer specializing in visual trends, points out that These visible “errors” act as signatures of authenticity: They are proof that behind the screen there are human fingers, not processors without humanity. The people of Phantom Watchers formulates it in a similar way: “It’s our way of saying ‘a human was here.’” Any notable example? The recent redesign of the oldest magazine The Face It is full of imperfections. Hell, it even looks like they programmed it in HTML. What features does it have? Like IA Slop itself, this opposition mutates in countless ways: disproportionately large fonts that challenge traditional visual hierarchy, website scaffolding exposed in an exhibitionist manner (even leaving the code visible), and color combinations limited to one or two colors on uniform black or white backgrounds, sometimes imitating the texture of analog montage. The templates are twisted on purpose, breaking with the obsessive symmetry that dominates more formal styles, and which are easier to imitate by those AIs that propose to set up a web store in just a few minutes and with a couple of prompts. But… why? The guiding principles of this rejection movement are clear: imperfections as a form of rejection of digital makeup, functionality without disguises, frontal rejection of prefabricated templates. “We don’t need decoration, we need design that just works,” summarized the people from the U1CORE design team when analyzing one of the many tentacles of this anti-AI Slop: the brutalist minimalismwhich is the label under which this new design trend is also categorized We have philosophy. And China, no less. Some evoke the aesthetics of another architectural and decorative trend: Japanese wabi-sabiwho finds the ephemeral and the defective beautiful. Cracks in walls and objects, time-worn textures, organic asymmetry… everything that algorithmic perfection rejects, anti-AI slop highlights. Many designers have named it “post-AI visual fatigue“the feeling that has given rise to all this: a collective exhaustion in the face of designs as polished as they are sterile and devoid of personality. Who said punk? For some of us, those of us who are old dogs, this philosophy reminds us of the guidelines of the first punk, the one who created fanzines with headlines made with letters cut out of magazines. Then ethics became aesthetics, and everything was militancy of photocopying and album covers as if they were kidnapping notes; But along the way, there was also opposition to a giant. To serious media, with gray designs and content without stridency. Punk stood up to the establishment with filth and “do it yourself”. It sounds very familiar to us: AI is the new mainstream, and many are going hardcore mode. Header | Kris Shakar In Xataka | Young people have decided to stop posting (so much) on Facebook and Instagram. “AI-generated garbage” has free rein

China needs garbage to burn and it needs it so badly that people are digging it up to sell it to incinerators.

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Until a few years, China was the dumping ground of the world. Voluntarily. Since the 1980s, garbage imports have helped China supply raw materials for its industry. Today, the situation has changed and China continues to have a very intense relationship with waste management. But a very different one. What they have left over now is not garbage, but incinerators to burn it. And that has caused old landfills to begin to be unearthed. Many plants of the country They are burning garbage from 20 years ago today. The great Chinese love affair with garbage. In 2016, China imported 7,350,000 tons of plastic and Hong Kong another 2,850,000. In total, they imported almost 70% of all the plastic waste moved around the world that year. That’s not counting paper, scrap or textiles. China was, for more than two decades, the world’s dumping ground. And it wasn’t an accident. In the 1980s, faced with the shortage of certain raw materials, the Chinese Government decided to start importing certain especially useful waste (plastic, paper, mineral slag or textile waste). “The most notorious case was probably the importation of electronic waste that was dismantled and reprocessed in terrible environmental conditions,” Erik Baark explained to us. Everything has an end. However, by the late 2010s, the Chinese situation had changed. In those years alone, the total volume of urban solid waste generated in the Asian giant increased from 158 million tons to more than 249 million. Suddenly, the Government understood that it was running out of space. So he took several measures. And what did he do? On the one hand, got serious about environmental regulations. In the summer of 2017, more than 800 companies were prosecuted for not complying with recycling standards. And, a few months later, authorities arrested more than 259 people for the illegal importation of 303,000 tons of garbage. But it wasn’t enough. And they prohibited imports. That was what affected us the most: the 2017-2018 decision plunged to the international garbage market (and especially to Western recycling systems) in a crisis from which we have not yet emerged. However, it was not the only thing they did. As Baark explains“the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015) explicitly supported the incineration of municipal solid waste, with the aim of increasing the proportion of waste treated by incineration from 20% to 35% at the national level.” However, China does not know how to do anything by halves. In less than five years, incineration power plants experienced a real boom (from 428 in 2019 to 1010 in 2023). The goal for 2025 — a daily incineration capacity of 800,000 tons — had already been exceeded in 2022. And shortly after, this energy production system came to “process” 80% of the country’s waste. Today they have literally run out of trash. As I said, in recent months, Chinese and international media have reported on waste incinerators for energy recovery in large cities that operate at low capacity due to a lack of raw materials. It is the story of how the impressive operational capacity of the Beijing government goes too far, yes. But the consequences are very curious: because the plants continue looking for waste to burn. In fact, to the extent that plants compete with each other: the price of garbage is rising. And that seems to be causing in many areas of the country “old” garbage is being dug up. A present that is ending. But no one is aware that this is something temporary. If Chinese waste continues to grow so little by little (10% in recent years), the incineration model is going to enter a crisis. First, for the most obvious thing, of course: it is not sustainable. but also because It is still an emergency resource and not a rational waste management policy. The most interesting thing for us is that this more than predictable crisis It will also change our world. Image | 烧不酥在上海 老的 In Xataka | The European waste industry has been lying to us for years: in 2018 everything blew up and we still haven’t recovered

If the question is whether you have to pay garbage tax for a parking space in Madrid, the answer is: good luck with the Cadastre

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April 8, 2022. The Government publishes in the BOE Law 7/2022, on waste and contaminated soils for a circular economy. Behind this name hides a small bomb that has been exploding, little by little, in each municipality. In Madrid, that detonation has come this year. Beyond the calculation, there are thousands of car parks that are now wondering: do I have to pay the new garbage fee? Where do we come from? My colleague Carlos Prego explained it a few days ago in Xataka. Madrid has recalculated its garbage rate, making reference to the famous Law mentioned above with a calculation that the OCU has come to define as “original and unfair”. The point is that controversy has arisen because Madrid City Council said “eliminate” this rate in 2015, alleging that they removed the tax burden from the citizen. The 2022 Law obliges municipalities with more than 5,000 inhabitants to begin collecting it, following European guidelines. To calculate that rate, The City Council has taken into account the cadastral value of the apartments or the tonnage of garbage that is collected in each neighborhood. That is, those who live in a neighborhood where more garbage is generated will pay more… and that directly affects neighborhoods with great tourist activity (hotels, tourist apartments…), commercial or very densely populated. a truce. The criticism has been so virulent on the part of the oppositionof the neighbors and of the associations of consumers who the City Council has partially rectified. They assure that now it will be taken into account the number of registered in each household looking ahead to next year. But what happens where no one lives? Yes, where, for example, there is a parked car because we are talking about a garage. And the garbage rate also affects the owners of a parking space… At least, apart from them. and a battle. Because although the neighbors seem to have received a truce with the new calculation in the garbage rate, which, yes, the City Council continues to defend that it will have little impact on obvious changes for neighborsthe new open front is what happens to the parking lots. And the door had been opened for a neighbor to have to pay a garbage fee for his home and another garbage fee for his parking lot. Despite the fact that, obviously, the garbage generated by a parking space is minimal or non-existent. Little more than general cleaning if we talk about a community parking lot. However, the rate taxes the provision of the service of collection, transportation and treatment of urban waste, in the words of the College of Administrators. That is, the same person (house and garage) could be charged for a single garbage collection. Who pays then? Those who will pay. Those owners of parking spaces whose parking lot is registered in the Cadastre as a “parking-industrial-use warehouse”, in the words of a circular sent by the Madrid College of Administrators to the Property Administrators of the Capital. What does this mean? They clarify it from the Cadastre which, upon consultation with one of these administrators, have confirmed that they are those independent garages that cannot be accessed from a home or from the common areas of a building. That is, those in which garbage is collected individually. Those who will not pay. Those owners of a parking space whose parking is registered in the Cadastre as “residential use”. Or, in a simplified way by this last entity, which are accessed from a home or from common areas with another building. In that case, they may be communities of different owners (garage and building) but if access is from the same common areas, the former will not pay the garbage fee. What does the City Council say? That they adhere to the type of land use specified in the Cadastre and, therefore, that it is the latter that specifies who should or should not pay the garbage rate. The only solution given in this case by the College of Property Administrators of Madrid is for the community to present a declaration of cadastral alteration to specify that the land use is residential and does not correspond to industrial use. The other alternative is to present a written due to discrepancies with the description of cadastral use. Photo | Kertis Stick and Madrid City Council In Xataka | The best horror movie of this winter has been released. And the protagonists are the owners of a home in Spain

The garbage rate has become the big hot potato of Spanish politics. In reality there is little unexpected

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They call him the rubbish and, whether you like it more or less, what is undeniable is that the word sums up well the surprise that thousands of Spanish households have encountered when reviewing their accounts: suddenly their town councils have started charging them sums more than considerable for garbage collection or have skyrocketed their rates (in some cases going from 67 to 126 euros), which even it is already felt in the CPI. In reality there is little unexpected, if you take into account that it is something that can be seen coming (at least) from 2022. What there is behind it is debate… and doubts. What has happened? That Spain has seen how garbage became a huge political hot potato. And rightly so, if we take into account that thousands of homes spread throughout the country have found that the bill their city council passes them to finance waste collection has been shot. In some cities a new rate. The rise has been so forceful that it is already reflected clearly in the IPC and in some municipalities has provoked heated protests. The best example was left on Monday Cangas (Pontevedra), where a thousand residents gathered in front of the City Hall to protest against what has already been called (there and in the rest of the country) rubbish. The neighborhood anger escalated to such a level in the municipality that the councilors had no choice but to leave escorted by the police. But why is the rate more expensive? By the BOE. To understand it you have to go back to Law 7/2022 . Among other issues, the rule establishes that the town councils of Spain must provide themselves with “a tax or property benefit of a non-tax public nature, specific, differentiated and non-deficit that allows the implementation of a payment system per generation and that reflects the real cost, direct or indirect, of the collection, transport and treatment operations.” The wording is somewhat confusing, but at least it leaves two ideas clear. First, municipalities have to charge a specific bill focused on garbage. Second, the ‘polluter pays’ maxim must prevail, with a rate that covers “the real, direct and indirect cost” of the collection service. It is not a minor nuance if we take into account that in many municipalities the service was deficient and it was compensated via taxes. The Commonwealth of O Morrazo, for example (the one that suffered Monday’s protests) handles a report that reveals that its service suffered a deficit of about two million of euros. Why is it news now? Because the Law 7/2022 included another indication: it gave the town councils a maximum of three years to comply with this requirement, a period that ended at beginning of april. Since then, the municipalities with more than 5,000 inhabitants They are obliged to conform to the norm. Some, like Barcelona, they have been for years preparing the ground to soften the blow; but others have waited until almost the end. The majority of councils have in fact chosen to drag their feet and some have not yet adjusted, as is the case in Malaga either Balearics. Where the change has been noticeable is in Madrid. There the impact has been especially notable because in 2015 the then mayor (Ana Botella) decided “eliminate” the garbage rate for the sake of “less fiscal pressure on the citizen’s pocket.” After years with the amount included within the IBIresidents of the capital have encountered a Waste Management Fee that, according to the calculations published by the Consistory itself in October, will have an average cost of 141 euros for homes and 310 for commercial properties. Does it affect the pockets that much? The best way to answer that question is to use the INE. Its latest calculations on the CPI, corresponding to the month of September, show a year-on-year increase of 30.3% in garbage collection, the largest (by far) in a historical series dating back to 2008. The data far exceeds the general index (3%) and has in fact influenced its upward trend. It is an important nuance because, although the deadline set in the 2022 law has already ended, its guidelines have not been applied in all cities of the country. When that happens, it is not unreasonable to think that that 30.3% will be even higher. Why so much controversy? If he rubbish has raised such a political stir, it is not only because of the cost it entails for residents and businesses. The debate has revolved around more formal but equally important questions: Who is ultimately responsible for the increases? Is it the city councils with the formulas they apply when calculating it, is it the Government for promoting the 2022 standard or is it Brussels, through the community directives that cites the law itself? Some town councils, such as Alcobendashas already released statements to inform its neighbors that the new “mandatory” garbage receipts apply. The truth is that months before the deadline set by law expired, in October, the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP) already demanded the Government to review a law that, in his opinion, is “complicated to understand and apply” and ignores municipal autonomy. Specifically, they asked the Sánchez Government for “a much clearer and more concise regulation that avoids the discretion of each local entity” and at the same time guarantees the objectives set by Brussels. Is that important? Yes. And for several reasons. The first because one of the topics that is raising the most debate about the rubbish They are the differences between cities and the risks that this implies. “It can be applied depending on the address, the number of people residing in the home, the cadastral value… There are many possibilities and without a guide we can end up with more than 8,000 different garbage rates, which will surely generate resources and even different criteria in the courts until the Supreme Court unifies doctrine,” explained already last December ABC the Association … Read more

Chinese astronauts have spent six hours reinforcing tiangong against an increasingly dangerous enemy: space garbage

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The night in orbit just leaves truce. In low orbit, the Tiangong Space Station It becomes the scene of a constant activity that requires millimeter precision. In the last extravehicular exitChinese astronauts had to face a challenge that does not come from technical failures or scientific experiments, but from a silent enemy that multiplies the risks of each mission: the Space garbage which accumulates in the low terrestrial orbit and threatens to hit the structure of the complex. The schedule of China’s manned flight agency places the start of extravehicular activity on September 25 at 19:45 (Beijing time), with Wang Jie as the first astronaut to leave the Wentian module. It was followed shortly after Chen Zhongrui, in charge of attending the installation of the equipment. Chen Dong, from inside Tiangong, managed communications with the control center and supported his teammates throughout the maneuver. The walk concluded at dawn, at 1:35 of September 26, when the two crew closed the hatch after completing the planned agenda. The maneuver was carried out with support from the robotic arm of the station and the team on land. Sludes against fragments: Tiangong’s strategy to resist in space During the walk, the main objective was to install a protection device against Orbital fragmentsdesigned to reinforce the most exposed areas of the station. The operation also included the review of the state of external equipment and structures, with special attention to the systems that suffer greater wear due to continuous exposure to the spatial environment. According to those responsible for the programthis combination of installation and maintenance seeks to ensure that Tiangong maintains its operational capacity in the middle of an increasingly saturated environment of remains. The increase in spatial garbage in the low orbit is one of the factors that most worries agencies in recent years. Each launch adds fragments that, although small, reach speeds that multiply their damage. For China, reinforcing Tiangong does not respond to a specific incident, but to the need to get ahead of an increasingly complex scenario. China is not the only one that has had to reinforce its station in the face of the threat of orbital fragments. The International Space Station Specific armor systems for years have beenknown as anti-mmod shields, which protect their habitable modules from impacts from Micrometeoritos and space garbage. The difference is in the context: it is an infrastructure with more than two decades of service, which has needed to adapt continuously to an increasingly congested environment. In the ISS, this philosophy materializes in shields in Whipple and Stupfed Whipple layers, with several hundred shields distributed in critical areas. The comparison between Tiangong and the International Space Station helps to understand the scope of its protection systems. The Chinese station completed its construction in 2022 with a T configuration formed by the Tianhe, Wentian and Mengtian modules. The ISS, on the other hand, began to assemble in 1998 and ended its main segment in 2011, with a much broader and more complex structure. This difference in dimensions and seniority explains why its shields follow different logics: ISS combines protections included from its design with reinforcements added over the years, while Tiangong integrates solutions designed from the beginning for a more congested environment. The closure of this extravehicular activity does not imply a break, but the beginning of a new stage for the Shenzhou-20 mission. The three astronauts They will continue with numerous scientific experiments and technological tests, in addition to participating in on -board celebrations linked to the Chinese calendar. The installation of additional shields has a clear objective: to hold over time the crew safety and the integrity of Tiangong, which aspires to consolidate as a stable basis for space research in the midst of a more demanding orbital environment. Images | Xinhua In Xataka | 24 years ago, the earth was symmetrical. Now the northern hemisphere is “unequivocally” darker than the southern hemisphere

Our brain also “draws the garbage.” And it is one of the reasons why sleep is so important

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We have known for a long time that sleep is more than rest, it is a vital need such as eating or breathing. Lack of sleep can have devastating consequences on our physical state, but also on our mental state. The big question for many scientists is why, a question that we have not yet answered at all, but in whose resolution we have advanced significantly. Sleep and dementia. A line of research that in recent years has gained importance has been the one that studies the role of the glinphathic system in the relationship between our dream and the appearance of dementia. The key would be in the “cleaning” work that this system exerts in our brain. The glinphathic system. The glinphathic system can be seen in certain contexts such as a cerebral analogue of the Lymphatic system. This forgotten anatomical system exercises different tasks in our body, being one of them to “take out the garbage”, clean the accumulation of waste generated by cells and eliminate harmful substances that may be present in our tissues. The lymphatic system does not extend through our brain, but someone must perform this important task in the central nervous system. A few years ago we began to understand who and how. The problem is that we have not yet managed to find out the most relevant aspects of the call GLINFATIC SYSTEM. Cleaning the plates. This cleaning work could be linked to the appearance of diseases such as Alzheimer’s. In A recent article in The conversationa group of researchers from the Macquarie University formed by Julia Chapman, Camilla Hoyos and Craig Phillips, explained this relationship. This hypothesis is based on the role they play in the appearance of the disorder Beta-amyloid proteins (Aβ). Over time these proteins tend to accumulate in our brain and, if they are not refined, they form plates that hinder the proper neurological functioning, damaging the brain and giving rise to the appearance of the disease. Night work The hypothesis that links sleep and Alzheimer’s way of the glinphathic system is also based on the idea that it is during the dream that the system takes the opportunity to clean impurities and toxins. However, the doubts about what the dream is what this relationship unleashes. As Chapman, Hoyos and Phillips stand out, studies sometimes seem to contradict, for example when measuring if the Aβ levels we find in the brain liquid are greater during sleep or during vigil. From mice to people. One of the problems we find in this line of research is that much of what we know we know it thanks to studies in micewhile the analysis with humans are limited. However, some studies have managed to approach the problem from human biology. An example cited by the team is A study Posted in 2018 in the magazine Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (Pnas). In it the team observed how a simple night of sleep deprivation could cause Aβ levels to increase significantly in the hippocampus. The study therefore reinforces the theory that the dream is closely linked to the probability of dementia. The risks of insomnia. The 2018 study was conducted in healthy people who experienced a night of sleep deprivation. So what about people who have insomnia or similar problems? This issue is different and requires a separate study. According to Macquarie’s team, some analysis carried out with people with insomnia and sleep apneas (interruptions caused by breathing problems) have associated these types of problems with a higher risk of dementia or with lower levels of Aβ. This again seems to support the thesis of a relationship between sleep and dementia mediated by this “cleaning system.” Another relevant issue is how sleeping pills influence, if it is at sleeping facilitate the functioning of the glinphathic system or if on the contrary the effect of these does not facilitate their night activity. A study Made in mice and published this year in the magazine Cell points to the second possibility since these compounds They did not activate the appearance of norepinephrinea compound that seems to perform an important rum in this “drain” function of toxins and other harmful compounds for the brain. In Xataka | We have been detecting a relationship between Herpes and Alzheimer’s years. Now we are discovering that treating one helps with the other Image | Craig Adderley / Milad Fakurian

China has many garbage incinerators. So many, they don’t have enough garbage to burn

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A few years ago, China was the world landfill. Since the 80s, countries around the world exported their garbage to China and processed them as raw materials for their industry. Today, China has a problem with waste management, but very different. What is left over is not garbage, but incinerators to burn it. Hungry incinerators. China has more than 1,000 garbage incineration plants for electricity generation. Combined, they have an ability to burn more than one million tons of garbage per day. Currently, according to a report from Cinda Securities These incineration plants are working at an average of 60% of their capacity, which represents an important underutilization of their resources. Because. The amount of waste continues to grow in China, the problem is that it does so at a lower rate than their management industry. According to South China Morning Post, Since 2019 solid waste has increased more than 10%, but incineration capacity has doubled. The reasons for this lag are, on the one hand, an economy in recession where it is urbanized at a slower pace, and on the other an excess of optimism of the past. On fire. Although they started building incineration plants much earlier, it was in the 2000s when China began a more powerful expansion. In 2015, China already had 223 plants working And he intended to double his ability. And what if they got it. In October of last year there were 1,010 incineration companies throughout the country. And all despite the numerous population protests and the Criticism of environmental organizations They estimate that, only in 2022, this industry issued more than 100 million tons of CO₂. It was seen coming. China did not count on a point where the population (and therefore the waste) would not grow so quickly. In addition to the Covid caused the migration of cities to less populated areas. This excess of optimism could have a pass in the first years, but according to statements by climate activist Chen Liwen to SCMPin 2020 it was already evident that there was a problem. Energy garbage. It is not just about eliminating waste, but also extracting energy in the process. The garbage incineration plants for energy production were part of the Chinese government plan for renewable energy. They offered many subsidies to companies that generated electricity with this system, which caused many companies to see a profitable business. It is estimated that such a plant takes ten years to recover the initial investment, so the situation of many of these plants is critical. Image | Chatgpt In Xataka | The European waste industry has been lying for years: in 2018 everything jumped through the air and we have not yet recovered

A garbage cube of 2,000 ago in Mallorca exposes the star product of Roman fast food: Zorzal’s skewer

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The concept of “fast food“It is currently strongly associated with that of”junk food”. It usually involves a not very healthy dish due to the presence of processed foods. But fast food really exists For centuries And the Romans, of course, have something to say there. And a recent study puts on the table an important fast food industry in Roman times to northern Mallorca. The star dish? Singing birds. “Popina”Alejandro Valenzuela is a researcher at the Mediterranean Institute of Advanced Studies in Mallorca and the author of a Published article in the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology in which he details how in the Roman city of Pollentiahe Zorzal He was the protagonist of street food. Founded in the 123 AC to the north of Mallorca, Pollentia was an imperial city for the empire due to its location in the Mediterranean and its ports that They favored trade With the island. Today is an archaeological site in which we have a curious and small theater, but in its day it must have been a very busy city, a bustling shopping center in which food played an essential role. Inside the shops, were the ‘Popinae‘. These are small establishments where you could eat something fast and have a wine before following the way. They were focused on the lowest classes of Roman society. Searching in the garbage. This was something common in Roman cities due to their rhythm of life. In Herculano and Pompeii you can see some ruins in good condition of Themopoliumwhich are more like taverns for somewhat more wealthy people, but basically, in both cases there was a bar with amphorae to get some hot food, serve the client and that it followed on their way. An example of Thermopolium Valenzuela, what interested him was to know what was in those mud vessels, but to discover what the inhabitants who were walking for Pollentia had to look in their garbage. Near one of those popinas there was a septic tank of a few meters deep in which everything was thrown. Part of the garbage was ceramic, which has allowed to date the date of use of the well between 10 AC and 30 AD What else was there? A large number of mammalian bones, birds and fish. And the bones of the birds are the ones that caught their attention. Pollentia location in Mallorca in image A. in B, the location of the well. In C, the meters at which a greater concentration of bones were found Fast Food Bird. Although there were several species, such as chicken, the bones were mostly slut. They are small singing birds associated with the diet of the upper classes of the Roman empirebut here we are in a very different context: popular food at street level. The remains highlighted the skulls and sternons of those birds, which indicated one thing: the most juicy parts should be the ones that served in the popina. As with other birds, the extremities and the upper part of the chest are the most juicy, and Valenzuela estimates that removing that juicy meat allowed the food seller to cook those parts quickly to the grill or in oil to serve it quickly. It is a meat that hardly takes a few seconds to cook. The darker, the more presence of parts they found in the black well. Within the red perimeter, the most fleshy parts and their associated bones, little present in the well Seasonal. There is also the possibility that customers sit down and consume the zorzal in dishes, since ceramic remains could indicate that there was a dishes, but due to the size of the bite, Alejandro Comment In Live Science that, within the “context of street food, it is also plausible to serve in skewer to facilitate consumption.” In the end, except exceptions, food in ancient times was linked to seasons and the foal is a seasonal product that would have integrated well into a diet like that of Roman cities with others like domestic chicken either European rabbittwo species whose remains would also have served in this restaurant Fast food of Pollentia. But the most important thing is that this finding makes the belief that the Zorzal was a luxury bite for the Romans staggers because the Popinae They were not precisely the premises that most frequented the High classes. Images | Daniele Florio From Rome, Dion art In Xataka | The world ranking of ultraprocess food: the countries that most and less consume it worldwide

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