happening

What is really happening with AI and mental health

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A woman named Kendra has gone viral in Tiktok. The reason? It is probably the first case of psychotic outbreak fed by the AI ​​we are seeing live and direct. A teenager He discussed his suicide plans with chatgpt and His parents have sued Openai. They are only two recent cases, but there are more and more news that blames the cause of provoking delusions or even deaths. We already saw that reality is much more complexbut it is clear that there is a debate on the effects of AI on our mental health. What is happening? The Adam Raine case. They tell it in the New York Times. Adam began using Chatgpt to help him with his homework, but later his conversations took a dark turn. After his death, his father reviewed his mobile and discovered that he had been asking the details about how to commit suicide. Although Chatgpt identified the messages as dangerous and insisted several times to seek help, Adam managed to skip these warnings by telling him that he was not really going to do it, but was collecting information for a story he wanted to write. His parents have sued Openai arguing that the AI ​​validated the “most harmful and self -destructive thoughts” of his son. The Kendra case. Since the beginning of August, Kendra is one of the hottest conversation issues in Tiktok. It all started when, in a series of several tens of videos, he told how his psychiatrist had manipulated her to fall in love with him. For the situations he narrates, for experts it is evident that Kendra suffers some kind of personality disorder. The striking thing is that he constantly went to Chatgpt, whom he nicknamed “Henry”, to validate his delusions. Arrived a point, Chatgpt did not tell him what he wanted to hear and began to use Claude, the AI ​​of Anthropic. Kendra does not consider that its use of AI is dangerous, on the contrary: in This video ensures that it is a prophecy. Worry. AI is in the spotlight for many reasons and the impact it can have on our mental health is one of them. Cases like those we have described are the most striking because of how alarming they are, but they are not so common. There are other use cases, such as the tendency to resort to AI as if it were a psychologist wave Emotional dependence caused by the apps of “Companions AI”that they are popularized and have aroused a wave of concern. New studies are also emerging in this problem, such as East of Stanford University which concluded that therapy chatbots They tend to be complacent and in cases of risk they can reinforce delusions instead of questioning them (as in the case of Kendra). The response of authorities and defense groups It has not been expected. Alarm voices. The American Psychology Association (APA) met with the US authorities to give the alarm to the growing use of psychological therapy chatbots. The organization expressed its Concern against deceptive practices like the chatbots that are passed through real therapists. They demand education campaigns to inform consumers and that applications integrate mandatory security measures for users who are in crisis. The ‘Center for the Fight against Digital Hate’ has also demanded a stricter regulation. In his Report ‘Fake Friend’ They presented how fragile the safeguards of the chatbots IA, all from the point of view of a vulnerable teenager (the case of Adam Raine is a clear example of this). They ask that the age verification be enforced, that designs that manipulate emotionally and make independent audits of the IA tools are prohibited. They are not the only ones. There are more organizations that are alerting this problem as Mental Health Europethe WHO And even the General Council of Psychology of Spain. Legal measures in the US. Although you still cannot talk about a federal regulation, there are already several states that have taken measures. This is the case of Illinois, where a Law that prohibits the use of AI in psychological therapy. In Utah they have opted for a more transparency oriented approach and In their law they establish that users must be informed Clearly when they are talking to an AI. In New York they have prepared A law that will enter into force in November and will require that the partners notify users repeatedly that they are interacting with a non -human entity. In addition, these colleagues must have a system that detects risk of self -injury or suicide and remits users to help lines. In California there are A law proposal that wants to prohibit “interaction maximization strategies that emotionally manipulate users.” If it ends up, it would be the first law that regulates the design mechanisms that encourage the dependence of these tools. And the European Union? In Europe we have the AI ​​ACT that He entered into force a year ago. The law defines four risk levels With specific regulations for each one, including an “unacceptable risk” that would lead to the prohibition of technology in question. In matters related to mental health there is nothing concrete, but In article 5 We see that it prohibits any system that uses “subliminal techniques” to manipulate people so that “causes that it causes physical or psychological damage.” The AI ​​is also prohibited to “infer emotions in people”, although it includes an exception if it is for therapeutic purposes, which is somewhat ambiguous. The measures of the companies of AI. In the case of companies, although practically all have some type of security for cases such as these, the reality is that Openai is the one who has detailed their measures most, partly because the success of Chatgpt makes them the ones who are usually in the spotlight. Let’s see what each one says: Chatgpt: After the news of Adam Raine’s suicide, OpenAI has confirmed that it will add additional parental and safeguard controlslike users can contact an emergency … Read more

We believed that at this point the PS5 and Xbox would be cheaper than ever. The hallucinating thing is that it is happening just the opposite

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Sony has just announced that all models of their PlayStation 5 consoles will rise $ 50 in the United States. The argument that Sony has used in its statement To explain the decision is that there is a “difficult economic environment.” Or what is the same: they blame tariffs. But that is already a generalized trend … and very unreasonable. PS5 rises around the world. It is the same that happened in April in Europe, Middle East, Africa, Australia and New Zealand, when this company He also announced that prices went up for some models. In Europe, for example, the PS5 digital edition cost 499.99 euros. In the US, these increases affect all models, and the new prices will be activated as of Thursday in that country, being like this: PlayStation 5: 549.99 dollars (before $ 499.99) PlayStation 5 Digital Edition: 499.99 dollars (before $ 449.99) PlayStation 5 Pro: $ 749.99 (before $ 699.99) Prices for accessories, yes, remain unchanged. Microsoft already did the same. This movement is the same as Microsoft also with its Xbox Series S/X consoles, which They also rose in price at 50 euros In Europe and the US. Even the controls and some accessories saw their prices increased. And of course, Nintendo. The Japanese company took a long time to end up lowering the price of the original Nintendo Switch, but the Switch 2 has given it the excuse for uprise even more Even in the games. Not only that: the economic situation has caused Nintendo that Prices upload of the original Nintendo Switch, the Lite edition and the accessories. These data have not been met for the latest Sony and Microsoft models. In fact, the thing is totally the other way around. Damn tariffs. Most video game consoles are manufactured in China, and tariffs have especially affected the Asian giant. That certainly makes manufacturers more expensive to manufacture and export them to be able to sell them in the US or Europe. And if they want to keep their profit margins, they end up doing something logical for them and terrible for consumers, because we are the ones who end up paying the duck. But some manufacturing costs have dropped. The amazing thing about the situation is that both the PS5 and the Xbox Series S/X are now cheaper to manufacture (let’s not say the original switch). After five years in the market (nine in the case of the Nintendo console), the components of these consoles have dropped in price: their cost was then very high, but after all this time those components have ended up becoming almost obsolete compared to the new chips that have appeared in all this time. So what is happening? Not everything has come down. In fact, these consoles are based on GDDR6 memory chips and NAND chips for their solid state units, and there the prices They rose strongly in 2025 and 2025 for the relative shortage of this type of chips and the focus that manufacturers are putting in HBM memories for AI accelerators such as those of Nvidia. To this are added other costs not directly related to the material invoice (BOM), such as logistics, manufacturing energy, or marketing. The dollar loses bellows. But it is also the green ticket has lost value in front of the euro and other currencies. After 80 years being the pillar of the world economy, US tariffs They are starting to destroy it And that also translates into the price increases of everything. Including consoles. Less “boxes” are sold. Consoles manufacturers used to lose money with their models in the initial periods. The idea was always to recover those losses of plenty with the sale of physical games, but the rise of the sale of digital editions, the free-to-play games and the subscriptions have made the distribution of value change. For Sony or Microsoft the solution is simple: if we no longer recover so much value with the games, we upload the price of the hardware. But all that already happened before. The truth is that the situation is in many cases analogous to which it was lived with the PS4 and the Xbox One for example. These consoles ended up falling in a remarkable price over the years, but here a perfect storm has been created. One in which inflation, dollar weakness, tariffs and new video game access models have caused the worst result for users: more expensive consoles. In Xataka | 60 euros for a camera, 90 for a game. The worst (and best) of Nintendo prices for switch 2

Something strange is happening this year in the Svalbard archipelago

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February of this year, 2025, it is full winter, but some areas in the Svalbard archipelago do not seem to be aware: melted ice and green sprouts peeling among the rocks attract the attention of a group of scientists who work in these Norwegian islands in the middle of the Arctic polar circle. Something does not fit. A February too warm. The Researchers Team I recently caught attention About this fact, and did Through an article Posted in the magazine Nature Communications. In this piece it is pointed out that, for several days in February 2025, the temperatures recorded in this area exceeded 0º Celsius, the water freezing temperature. An archipelago in the eye of the hurricane. The increase in temperatures that we associate with climate change is not a uniform phenomenon: while some areas of the globe They coolabout hundreds of kilometers others are heated much faster than average. This is the case of the Svalbard archipelago. This set of islands belongs to Norway and is located in the middle of the Arctic Circle. The Svalbard archipelago is the place where we can find the most northern civil settlement on the planet, NY-work. From white to green. The exceptional warming in these islands was apparent to the team beyond the measurements captured by the thermometers. The snow in the area had backed away not only huge puddles of liquid water, but also suggesting the rock surface of the islands and the tundra’s own vegetation in summer. “Being on water swimming pools at the tip of the glacier on green, naked, was shocking and surreal,” described in a press release James Bradley. “The thick layer of snow that covered the landscape vanished in days. The team I wore felt like a relic of another climate.” Rain, no snow. These changes made almost impossible for the team to perform their work. First because its goal was to collect snow samples that rushed in this polar environment. In Words by researcher Laura Molares Moncayo“The objective of our field work campaign was to study newly fallen snow. But for a period of two weeks, we were only able to collect newly fallen snow once, since most of the precipitation fell in the form of rain.” The change also involved added difficulties, including more risks derived from the activity. The thaw hindered vehicles transit, making access to certain areas difficult, but also making the task of returning to the camp more complicated in the face of unexpected dangers, dangers that include, for example, the encounter with polar bears. Feedback According to the team, the implications of these changes can be very relevant beyond the difficulties involved for scientists working in the environment. According to the team itselfwarm events such as that registered in February can affect many different systems, “from the microbial carbon cycle to the survival of the Arctic Fauna.” In case it was not enough, these events can also generate a loop: by melting permafrost, soil that remains frozen all year, greenhouse gases are released that in turn aggravate heating. In Xataka | What is global warming, what are its causes and how we are trying to fight it Image | Bradley, Molares Moncayo, et al. (2025), Nature Communications

Something is happening in Silicon Valley. More and more startups are going to the day ‘996’ of China

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“If you want to leave at 5 you are not at the right work.” Lucy Guo said it, Founder of the Startup Scale AI. And it is not the only one. More and more Silicon Valley startups, especially those dedicated to AI, which are betting on this “extreme commitment” model that reminds us of the endless 996 Conference that were so controversial in China. What is happening? New culture. The culture of ultra-productivity defended by figures like Elon Musk It has been installed in Silicon Valley. In statements a WiredAdrian Kinnersley, CEO of a hiring company, says that “it is becoming very common. We have several clients who have as a prerequisite when selecting candidates who are willing to work on days 996”. Hysteria. In California, labor legislation is very favorable for workers and Kinnersley is surprised that many companies are “breastfeeding it.” It is one of the consequences of the AI career. Not only is there a great competition between China and the United StatesSilicon Valley has become the battlefield where small startups fight for being number one in his. The price: squeeze your workers. What was given was over. Not long ago, working in Silicon Valley was a dream for many. Companies like Google were known for offering gyms, coffee shops and even masseuses. All kinds of comfort for that employees felt at home. That is over. With the return to the offices after the pandemic, The dream began to fade. The tortilla has turned around. Today it is common for any startup to ask its employees to make marathon days and even work on weekends. Extreme commitment. It is another way of saying that you will not go through home much. We recently talked about the young CEO of Greptile and his controversial statements. “We do not offer conciliation”he said in Your X profile. The CEO says it directly in the work interviews: they work from 9 in the morning until late at night and, often, also on Saturdays. It looks a lot like China 996: from nine to nine, six days a week. The excuse: be competitive. In an interview, this CEO said that “nobody cares about the third best company, not even the second best, in any software category. If you are going to strive 95%, it is the equivalent of striving to 0%.” There are arranged people. In Spain we have attended the opposite in the hospitality sector: The waiters rebelled against the 12 -hour days, to the point that there was no labor. In Silicon Valley it seems that there are enough people willing to work 996. In Rilla, another AI startup, they say that 80% of their employees are working 72 hours a week. Even They put it in their job offers And they are not having problems hiring. His CEO says that there is “a very strong and growing subculture, especially in my generation (the Gene z), who grew up listening to stories by Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, entrepreneurs who dedicated their lives to create companies that changed the world. ” 996 in China. The 996 day became popular in China among Chinese technology last decade. This model was the growth engine of companies such as Alibaba or JD.com for years, but there came a point where The workers were fed up and The protests began demanding better working conditions. The Chinese government ended up prohibiting The endless days and went from 996 to 1065 (from 10 in the morning to 6 in the afternoon, five days a week). Temporary and only for those who want. There are startups that defend a slightly more moderate hyper-productive culture. The CEO of Sotiraa startup that applies AI solutions to the logistics sector, sees it as something temporary: “During the first two years of your startup, you have to work in the 996 style.” He also states that these days are for the leaders of the companies and does not believe that the entire employee base must be imposed. This vision creates a kind of structure on two levels, where only a part of the company meets these schedules. It is what the CEO of the “Telesalud” Fella & Delilah company proposed to its employees in a Publication in your LinkedIn. Employees who adhere to this schedule will receive a 25% increase in their salary. Image |Ron Lach, Pexels In Xataka | Work tired, stress and generates burnout. There is a way to reduce all that impact: the four -day week

Meteorologists have a name for what is happening in Spain: heat dome

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While a good part of Spain prepares for first heat wave From this summer, meteorologists study what is happening in the atmosphere to answer questions such as how we have reached here or when the extreme heat will end. The first wave is approaching. The State Meteorology Agency (AEMET) launched a Special notice for the arrival of this heat wave. The notice will enter into force tomorrow, Saturday 28, but the most intense days of this episode that will last at least until Tuesday, July 1 will be expected. The heat waves are, By definitionextreme events in which temperatures exceed statistically defined temperature intervals for the time of year. That is, the situation is remarkably hotter than one would expect for these days of the beginning of summer. Heat dome To explain what is happening at the atmospheric level, meteorologists resort to a metaphorical term, the dome or heat dome. Physicist Francisco Martín León explains this concept in a piece for Meteoredalthough the term speaks in itself. The main “ingredient” in this phenomenon is a height anticyclone. When one of these anticyclones remains static in a given area, it tends to catch air masses at lower levels. This air also tends to accumulate heat due to the high insolation associated with atmospheric stability. A shared dome. The peculiar atmospheric situation is not being the exclusive heritage of the Peninsula as on the occasions in which we talk about the “Iberian oven” but the dome formed by the anticyclone also covers a good part of the south and southwest of Europe. Bad news if we consider the temperature increase lived during the last weeks in Mediterranean waters and the risks involved in this anomalous accumulation of thermal energy. 42º and climbing. In addition to its special notice, Aemet has activated various notices due to extreme temperatures. For now it is yellow and orange notices, although it is convenient to pay attention to how the situation advances. For today, the agency expects maximum between 34º and 36º in good part of the country, with some areas that could reach 40º. As the days go by the situation could get worse, with areas such as the Guadalquivir Valley exceeding the 42nd mark. Some predictions They even speak of Andalusian cities that reach the 44th Celsius. An additional problem will be the minimum temperatures. They are expected to fall from the 23rd-25º “in large areas of the southern half and the Ebro valley.” That is, part of the country will encounter “tropical nights” that will make due rest of the people suffering them. Meteosalud. In addition to Aemet notices, Meteosalud, under the Ministry of Health, has issued its own evaluation of the areas with greater and lesser health risk these days. This evaluation warns of high -risk areas in areas of the northern peninsular such as the Ebro Rivera in Navarra, the central area of ​​Huesca or the central depression of Tarragona. In Xataka | We do not know anything about El Niño at this point of the year. That is a meteorological mystery … and good news Image | ECMWF

Whenever there has been war in the Middle East the price of oil has shot. Now something different is happening

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A truce between Iran and Israel announced by President Donald Trump had an immediate impact on energy markets. According to Financial TimesBrent’s crude oil fell up to 5.6 % on the morning of Tuesday, June 24 – having $ 67.50 per barrel – after the news of the high to fire. However, market volatility has not ceased during the day. Prices have partially rebound after Israel accused Iran of raping the truce and threatened with a “blunt response.” At the end of the day, According to Oilprice dataBrent’s price remains around 67 dollars. This sway reflects how the oil market is still extremely sensitive to geopolitical holders. Hadn’t they shot each other? Less than two months ago, A perfect sinking storm The price of oil below $ 60, for tariffs, refinery closure and overproduction. With the outbreak of the conflict between Iran and Israel, oil prices They had shot. As He explained Bloomberg, the military offensive revived one of the greatest fears of the oil market: an interruption of the supply from Iran, the third largest producer in the region. However, that climb lasted little, exceeding the breeze price of $ 80 per barrel only for a few hours. Operators did not detect concrete damage to critical infrastructures or interruptions in crude oil flow, which quickly cooled expectations. A persistent threat. Despite the initial containment, the Ormuz Strait remains the great friction point. For this narrow one – just 9 kilometers at its closest point – circulates around 20 % of the world crude. Iran has repeatedly threatened to close it if the scale scale, which would activate one of the worst scenarios for global markets. The tension has generated concrete reactions. Several Chinese oil ships They have received instructions to avoid the area. This gesture suggests that, although there is still no open conflict, navigation risks are real and affect logistic decisions of key actors such as China. There is a superlative difference. Despite tensions, prices have not climbed as in past crises. This is due to several structural factors such as high production and sufficient reserves. Thanks to the rise of Shale Oil in the US and the increase in production in Canada, Guyana and Brazil, the global market has a wide mattress. Even if Iranian exports were stopped – about 2 million barrels per day – OPEC+ could supply the void without great shocks, According to Bloomberg. On the other hand, in the same medium, they have stressed that even China, the largest oil consumer in the last decades, shows signs of having reached a roof in its demand, added to its own national production. A fragile balance. The immediate future of the oil market will depend on three major factors. The first, and more critical, is the Ormuz Strait: if Iran decides to close – or threats credible with doing it – this strategic route, prices could be shot. Second, there is the response from the United States and Israel. If the truce is officially broken or military reprisals intensify, a new cycle of uncertainty and volatility in markets would open. Finally, China’s position, the main Iranian crude buyer. Any decision of Beijing – is a tactical withdrawal, greater caution in transport or diplomatic pressure – could alter the current balance. For now, operators seem to assume that the situation will remain contained, without a real interruption of the supply. But with the atmosphere so loaded, a single spark could return to oil to the center of the hurricane. Image | Pexels Xataka | Geography has given Iran its best weapon against the US: a red button to shoot the world oil price

In Galicia it is already happening

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Make pension systems be sustainable In time while the population pyramid It will be reversed It is one of the main challenges For many countries in the coming decades. Japan, Denmark, Germany or Spain are already taking measures to delay as far as possible The retirement age. The worst possible scenario is that the number of active workers Be lower than the number of pensioners. It is something that It is already happening In some regions of the interior of Galicia. The Galician imbalance. According to the more recent data Of affiliation, Spain exceeded in March for the first time the figure of the 21.6 million affiliates. That is, active people who contribute a percentage of their salaries to social security pensions. For its part, Social Security paid in the same month 10.3 million pensions. However, if we focus on certain regions areas very punished for depopulation and demographic aging such as Galicia, the figure is reversed. According to published he Vigo lighthousein 15 of the 53 regions of Galicia there is a mismatch between the number of affiliates who provide contributions to social security and the number of pensioners. More pensioners than workers. The data of the GALEGO INSTITUTE OF STATISTICS They reveal that in the whole of Galicia there are 1,019,106 of social security affiliates, while The latest data of 2025 gave a total of 685,800 pensioners. That leaves Galicia with a ratio of 1.5 contributors for pensioner, compared to the 2.44 that is recorded on average In the whole of Spain. This ratio already leaves Galicia in a delicate situation. He BBVA Pension Institute He considers that, a ratio below the 2 is already serious risk. According to data published by The voice of Galiciaprovinces like Orense were already in 1.1. The “emptied Galicia”. Those regional figures only show a general photo in which territories with greater economic activity compensate for deficiencies of the most unpopulated areas and eminently rural from the interior of Galicia. This trend is especially observed in the provinces of Ourense and Lugo, where demographic aging and emigration of young people towards the Atlantic aspect with more employment opportunitiesThey have considerably aggravated the situation. According to the published data by him Vigo lighthouseOnly Pontevedra is saved relatively from this problem, while in Ourense and Lugo the situation is especially serious. Regions with a high depopulation rate such as Limia registered 5,943 quotes against 7,071 pensioners; o Verin with 6,674 active affiliates for 8,161 pensioners, which clearly reflects the existing imbalance. The lack of Labor opportunities And population aging in those interior regions has created a vicious circle difficult to break, where there are less and less young people to support a retired population in constant growth. The future is not encouraging. The forecasts for the next few years are not optimistic. According to projections of the GALEGO INSTITUTE OF STATISTICS By 2038 there will be 2% less active population in Galicia, despite the fact that those over 16 will grow 1.9%. In absolute terms, assets will go from just over 1.26 million in 2023 to 1.23 million in 2038, which will aggravate the imbalance between contributors and pensioners Leaving a ratio of 0.858 quotes for each pensioner. Or what is the same, more pensioners than active workers. In Xataka | If your dream is to retire at age 52 with 100% of the pension, Spain offers you a road: a high -risk job Image | Unspash (Carlos Torres), Flickr (Elantir)

Something weird is happening with the clouds of the planet. Something that will bring not very pleasant consequences

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Where are the clouds born? The answer to that question can become much more complex than it seems. Because yes, the clouds are formed in the sky, or in the atmosphere, but the layer of gases that surrounds our planet is vast and in it intermingle predictable factors with chaos. Complex and changing. Trying to answer this question, some scientists have encountered an additional problem: the place where the clouds are born It is changing. The area of ​​the earth’s surface in which these clusters arise has moved and has shrunk what has important implications in the climate and weather of the planet. They are the results of two studies published in recent years, The first In August 2024 in the magazine Climate Dynamicsand The second In May of this year in Geophysical Research Letters. Three cloud stripes. The first of the studies observed how the cloud areas located on the oceans of both hemispheres have moved and contracted throughout the last 35 years. The study focused on three zones: one, called Interopical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) located near Ecuador Earth; and the other two located in average latitudes, approximately between parallel and 60 north and south. Through observations of instruments such as the modis (Moderate Resolution Imptotroadiometer) On board the Aqua satellite, the team was able to map the areas of greatest cloudiness as well as their evolution over time. Interpreting the data. According to The US Space Agency explainsNASA, the tormentous clouds that run through our planet are usually forming in the vertices of large -scale atmospheric circulation areas, such as hagley cells, polar and hard -latter cells or average latitude cells. More specifically in the areas where the currents associated with these cells converge and make warm and humid air ascend. In contrast, the convergence areas where currents carry cold and dry air from upper layers of the atmosphere to lower altitudes correspond to the areas where the heavens tend to be more clear. Change in the trend. The study of the clouds gives us clues about the dynamics of these torments of the planet. The responsible team calculated for example that the area contracted between 1.5% and 3% per decade In recent years. As NASA details, the ITCZ ​​narrowed and the tormented areas in average latitudes moved to their respective poles at the same time that they also contracted. In contrast, the subtopics clear areas expanded. More than a matter of color. The most recent of the studies addresses the climatic implications of change in the cloud patterns of the planet. And it is that the climate our “blue marble” depends a lot on the clouds that overshadow the atmosphere and dye it occasionally in white since this layer of clouds depends on the amount of solar energy that reaches us due to the albedo. The clouds reflect the light and therefore the solar energy that reaches the surface of the Earth, so less clouds implies more energy and more heat. According to study estimates, change implies that oceans absorb 0.37 watts per square meter more per decade due to these changes. And climate change? We could fall into the error of assuming that this change explains the tendency towards global warming that we associate with anthropogenic climate change but the truth is that climatic models already incorporate these changes into them. In fact, a previous estimate made by the instruments of Ceres (Clouds and The Earth’s Radiant Energy System) estimated at 0.47 watts per square meter and for decade the increase in solar radiation that the planet receives as a whole. These changes contribute to the “energy imbalance” that implies heating, but they do not explain it for themselves. “These new findings suggest that the loss of oceanic tormented clouds is a key factor in the imbalance,” He explained George Tseliudis to NASAmember of the team responsible for the studies. According to the expert, these changes could also Help explain The anomalo oceanic warming seen a couple of years ago and that caused the North Atlantic to beat numerous temperature records. In Xataka | The clouds are each time a more scarce resource. And some countries are already “to war” for them Image | Michala Garrison, Modis Atmosphere Science Team / Tseliudis et al (2024), Dscovr Epic

Something is stealing our dream and they are not just the screens. A neurologist helps us understand what is really happening

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We sleep, we dream, we forget. But do we really know what happens while we sleep? Sleep paralysis, déjà vusawakening in the early morning or that exhaustion that appears even after Sleep eight hours. In this new section of Xataka we enter all those questions that we have ever asked ourselves and that until now were still without clear response. Or worse: full of myths. We release ‘Science and Apart’, a new section in Our YouTube channelalso Available as Podcast on Spotify and Ivoox. A space where we propose to talk about science with experts in the field. In this first episode, our partner Ángela Blanco talks with the doctor Daniel Blanes Jacquartspecialist in neurology and member of the Spanish Sleep Society. “Dream is a vital function,” explains Blanes. “It helps us to prepare our internal environment and respond to demands From the external environment. ”Sleeping is not simply to rest: it is a biological need that occupies much of our life. Although we perceive it as a kind of blackout, during the dream there are fundamental processes for our body, such as internal reparation. And it is not necessary to be a scientist to intuit it. Just look at the data of a smart watch like the Apple Watch Series 10 or the Huawei Watch 5. Those graphs that divide the night into phases such as REM, deep, essential or vigil are not only decorative: they respond to real processes that fulfill very different functions with each other. In our dialogue with Blanes, concepts such as declarative memory, emotional memory appear, what they are and in which part of the dream are fixed. The talk also addresses ideas such as the relationship between what we remember and the quality of rest. “We all dream a lot, but most dreams are not fixed in memory.” Our guest explains why this happens and what does it mean if We dream very often And we can tell what we have experienced (or we think we have experienced). Angela asks how it is possible to wake up paralyzed, unable to move. “Sleep paralysis is an incomplete awakening,” says Blanes, and adds: “I am awake, I wake up, but I continue with the activation of the visual, auditory cortex, that is, you can see things or you can hear things that are not because in the background is still that part of the REM active and, in addition, the paralysis is complete.” Issues that are very present in everyday life are also addressed. Do we sleep worse than before? Are the guilty screens? Does blue light affect us more than we believe? Throughout the episode we talk about the impact of sleep hormones, why we hate Mondays, narcolepsia and even the collagen we produce at night. “We have a tool to make collagen that is the dream.” We invite you to discover all this and much more in ‘Science and apart’, which starts with a very interesting episode and that makes some key concepts about sleep clear. It will help us better understand this fundamental part of our life. Now we just have to choose the platform you prefer to enjoy this first episode. Images | Xataka In Xataka | The close (and far) that we are not sleeping at all: for the first time in history, we have a small way to try In Xataka | More and more people are going on vacation simply to sleep

In case they were happening few things, the sun has just caused a radius blackout with its most powerful eruption of 2025

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The sun has decided to remind us that we are in their hands. A new active region of sun spots, called AR4087, has released this morning a solar eruption of class X2.7, the most powerful so far this year. The sun was not asleep. Eruptions, glows or solar flares are classified as Five categories According to its intensity: A, B, C, M and X. Each letter represents events ten times more intense than the previous letter. An eruption X2.7 is located at the lower end of the most powerful category, but remains an important and unusual eruption. Observatories that constantly monitor the solar crown They detected it on May 14 at 08:25 UTC (10:25 in Spain). The X2.7 class flares has been the strongest of 2025, demonstrating that the sun is still awake After last year’s activitywhen it reached the solar maximum. Radio lock. Although it was not directed directly to the Earth, the eruption launched an intense X -ray pulse and extreme ultraviolet radiation that reached our planet at the speed of light. When impacting with the upper atmosphere of the Earth, this radiation has rapidly ionized, interfering with the high frequency radio signals (HF) on the visible face of our planet. As a result, a R3 level radius blackout was detected (cataloged as “strong”) in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. The show begins. The sun stain AR4087 remains very active and Soon he will look directly to the Earth As the sun revolves on its own axis. In the last hours he has produced class rashes M5.3, X2.7 and M7.74. The big question now is whether the most powerful eruption was accompanied by a coronal mass ejection, the famous solar plasma and magnetic field languages ​​that, when impacting with the Earth’s magnetic field, can cause geomagnetic storms and intense auroras to different latitudes, Like the historic Red Auroras of 2024. At the moment, the AR4087 region is at the visible edge of the sun, so the earth seems to be out of reach. Image | Spaceweather In Xataka | Webb and Hubble telescopes watched Jupiter’s auroras at the same time. The problem is that they did not see the same

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