highest

Iberian ham has been synonymous with the highest quality for decades. Now Guijuelo wants to blow him up

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“Race is not a parameter of quality.” With that simple idea, the Salamanca town of Guijuelo wants to open a gap in one of the flagships of our country’s gastronomy: ‘low cost’ Iberian ham. With the endorsement of the Ministry of Agriculture and the opposition of the rest of the denominations of origin (which call it “deception of the consumer”), Guijuelo’s movement has just unleash a whole Civil War in the ham sector. And it’s no wonder. What has happened? That the Protected Designation of Origin (DOP) of Guijuelo (Salamanca) approved a modification of its regulations to certify, as Iberian, “hams and pork shoulders that are 50% Iberian breed and 50% Duroc”. Until now this was something that could only be done with 75% or 100% Iberian hams. On September 1, the General Directorate of Food He has limited himself to saying that the change is legal and various communities they have supported him (although others, as we will see, have opposed it). After all, The Iberian Quality Standard (RD 4/2014) covers legally this movement; as long as it is well labeled. If this had been done by a small DOP, it would have been controversial; but it surely would not have unleashed the enormous earthquake that it has unleashed. However, Guijuelo has done it: the oldest denomination and the largest in number of marked pieces. The rest of the DOPs have come out in a rush. Let us remember that there are only four DOPs of Iberian ham in the country. Well, the other three (Jabugo, Dehesa de Extremadura and Andalucía) have denounced the change because they consider it “unfair competition” and what is worse, a “trivialization” of the DOP seal and the Iberian in general. In recent days, regulatory councils, communities (especially Extremadura and Andalusia) and professional groups have announced appeals and do not rule out going to trial if Agriculture does not take action on the matter. But if it’s legal, what’s the problem? In slightly more technical terms, the conflict is not whether a “50% Iberian” ham can exist; but whether that type of ham should carry the DOP seal. We must not forget that these seals are designed to ‘make visible’ in the market a special relationship with the territory and the product. The rest of the Regulatory Councils that want to maintain stricter racial criteria (as has been customary) believe that there is a reputational risk and that it could end up confusing the consumer. And the issue of price, of course. Guijuelo is accused of wanting to burst the market by lowering prices and moving production towards less demanding specifications. The DOPs fear that the seal and label will harm livestock farmers and dryers who have been betting on higher quality standards. In fact, as reported from the Pedroches valley, the regulatory change in Guijuelo “facilitates more intensive productions (a jump in densities per hectare in “field bait” is cited within the specifications), which threatens the pasture and the sustainability story associated with traditional Iberian. And from Jabugo they assure that “Brussels said that can’t be done.” What do they say in Guijuelo? From the PDO of Salamanca, in addition to describe many of these statements as “barbarities”focus on defending that a) the movement is legal and b) that “race is not a quality parameter, food is.” And now what? The question is whether the changes to Guijuelo’s regulatory document are indeed “normal” or require the approval of Brussels. And the most likely thing, if the regulatory councils decide to go ahead, is that it will reach Brussels. Or at least Image | Tim Sackton In Xataka | A tax on ham? There are those who already propose it as the best way to eat less meat

A sliding butterfly has become the animal with the highest number of chromosomes than we have news: 229 pairs

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It is likely that at school they will teach us that the human being has, as a general rule, 23 pairs of chromosomes. We know that there are complex organisms, such as animals, that survive with Just a couple of chromosomeslike species ants Myrmecia Pilosula. The question is then what are the species with the highest number of chromosomes. A new record. A recent study has pointed out To a kind of butterfly, the so -called Atlas girl (Atlantic polyommatus), As the animal with the greatest number of chromosomes known: 229 pairs. The number is even more striking if we consider that many of the species closest to this in the taxonomic tree have 23 or 24 pairs. The Atlas girl. The Atlas girl is an elusive butterfly that inhabits the Northwest Cordillera of Africa, extending their habitat in parts of Morocco and Algeria. We had knew That this animal had a high number of chromosomes, but the new study of the animal’s genome opens the doors to have a precise measure of the number, at the same time that also allows us to know more about why this surprising figure. “I have been investigating this butterfly for many years and I am one of the few people who have been able to observe it in nature. Unfortunately, P. Atlantic is seriously threatened by the destruction of their habitat. Explain to Sinc Roger Vila, co -author of the study. Investigating the chromosome. The strange future of this butterfly genome began about three million years ago, Explain the responsible team of sequencing this genome. And everything would have begun with 24 chromosomes, a number similar to that of other species in his family. The analysis allowed to discover that the chromosomes of the Atlas girl had been fragmenting in the areas where DNA accumulated with less density. This, the equipment adds, implies that, despite the growth of the number of chromosomes, the genetic information contained in them did not grow proportionally. Three million years of fragmentation. The team observed that all chromosomes except sexual experienced this fragmentation, carrying the total number of cormosomes from 24 to 229 throughout the last three million years. A “relatively short” interval of time in evolutionary terms, highlights the team responsible for the study. The details of the study have been published In an article In the magazine Current Biology. Evolutionary advantage? The study raises new unknowns, admits the team. An example is to know to what extent the fragmentation of chromosomes or having an abundant number of these, can help or harm the species that travel this evolutionary path. More than counting chromosomes. Beyond establishing this “new record”, the study can help us better understand the evolutionary and genetic history of this and other species. Knowing this evolutionary past can also give us clues about the future of this evolution, the team maintains. We could, for example, better understand how species can respond to changes in their environment, such as the increase in the temperature we are observing in some regions of the globe. Chromosomatic changes also occur at the non-evolutive level, for example in some cancer cells. That is why knowing the fragmentation mechanisms of chromosomes It can help us to investigate the changes when they happen in medical contexts. In Xataka | The case of the wounded fox who returns to his caregivers is not so strange: how closely we are domesticating the fox? Image | Roger Vila

The highest rocket in the world again crossed the skies after the disaster

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Starship needs to get out of the bump. After A long streak of explosionsSpacex looks for a clean flight that allane the way to the new rocket generation. Booster 16 and Ship 37 are already stacked on the launch platform for the tenth flight. This will be the Penultimate Mission of Current Design Before moving on to the third generation starship. Date and time of launch. If everything goes as planned, the takeoff will take place this Sunday, August 24, in an afternoon schedule that will allow observing the reentry of the ship over the Indian Ocean in broad daylight. The launch window for the Starship’s tenth flight It opens this Sunday at 18:30 CDT, local time of Starbase, Texas. In other cities: Madrid, Spain (CEST, UTC+2): Monday, August 25 at 01:30 Mexico City, Mexico (CST, UTC – 6): Sunday, August 24 at 5:30 p.m. Buenos Aires, Argentina (Art, UTC-3): Sunday, August 24 at 8:30 p.m. Bogotá, Colombia (COT, UTC-5): Sunday, August 24 at 6:30 p.m. Lima, Peru (Pet, UTC-5): Sunday, August 24 at 6:30 p.m. Santiago, Chile (CLT, UTC-4): Sunday, August 24 at 7:30 p.m. Caracas, Venezuela (Vet, UTC-4): Sunday, August 24 at 7:30 p.m. How to see the live flight. As usual, Spacex will broadcast the launch Through its website and of Your official account in X. The broadcast will begin approximately 30 minutes before takeoff. For the most enthusiastic, YouTube channels like Nasaspaceflight and Everyday Astronaut They will offer live coverage with their own cameras from the vicinity of Starbase. In Spanish, the coverage of Space border, Mission control, Manuel Mazzanti either Spacexstormamong others. A streak that must end. This tenth attempt comes after a few months complicated for Spacex. The company has lost Four consecutive shipsturning each launch into An invaluable data source to improve its design, but also in a reminder of the complexity involved in building the highest and most powerful rocket in the world. Flight 9, which took place on May 27, ended with the loss of both stages. Booster 14, In his second flightdisintegrated during an experimental landing maneuver, subject to an angle of attack that is too aggressive that its structure did not support. Shortly after, Ship 35 reached the scheduled speed to put out its engines, but suffered a leak in the pressurization system that prevented him from completing his goals and condemned it to turn without control. As if that were not enough, the ship that had to star in this tenth flight, the Ship 36, violently exploded at the test base on June 18 during a fuel load. The culprit, according to Spacex, was a secondary nitrogen tank with structural damage that were overlooked. With this history, the pressure on the new prototypes is maximum. A flight full of experiments. Far from being conservative, Spacex has designed an ambitious mission to continue taking the vehicle to the limit and demonstrating that previous failures are solved. The Super Heavy propeller will not be caught by the tower. Instead, it will go to the Gulf of Mexico for controlled amelution while performing complex tests. Booster 16 will repeat the controlled turn that was already tested on flight 9 to save fuel in the return maneuver, after the separation of stages. But this time, it will intentionally deactivate one of the three central landing engines to test whether a backup engine can take over. The test will end with the propeller making a stationary flight on the ocean using only two engines before falling into the water. The ship 37, meanwhile, has the mission of finally fulfilling the objectives that its predecessors did not achieve. He will try for the first time to open your load gate in space to display eight Starlink satellite models. He will tasta again the redempted of a Raptor engine to perform a controlled orbit outlet. And will fly without some thermal tiles to stress vulnerable areas. In addition, it will test new materials for thermal shield, such as metal tiles (one of them with active refrigeration), and a more aggressive reentry profile. The penultimate test before the redesign. This tenth flight is not one more. It is, together with the eleventh, the last opportunity for Spacex to collect data from the current rocket design before making the jump the Starship 3. This new version, which we have already seen components, promises a deep redesign with larger and more robust fins, and a greater structural capacity. A success on flight 10 would be a fundamental moral and technical impulse for the program, demonstrating that the rapid Iteration of Spacex works and that the path to a totally reusable launch system, although full of explosions, continues to advance. Whatever happens, the show is guaranteed. Image | Spacex In Xataka | Spacex has asked Mexico to stop invading its property and returns the starship pieces that fell into the country

The food industry is living its highest price drop since 2014. There is a clear suspect: white brands

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Manufacturers in the food sector are living an interesting phenomenon. They go up Industry prices in general, Upload the CPIgo up What they pay consumers in stores when they buy food and yet The rates That applies the food industry have been in free fall for almost a year. Moreover, the sector is facing its highest price decrease since early 2014. Behind that apparent nonsense there is a clear suspect: the effect of white brands and The fight that is getting rid of supermarkets. We explain ourselves. A percentage: 3.3%. Among the many indicators that periodically publishes the INE there is one that helps us better understand a key link of trade, which connects industry with the chain of distributors that take their merchandise to stores. The so -called Industrial Price Index (IPRI) records the oscillations in the right prices in That “first stage” of “internal market”, when the articles leave the factories and do not yet incorporate other added expenses, such as transport, marketing or VAT. Your approach is different from that of IPCwhich takes into account the prices paid by consumers. The INE calculates the IPRI for large sectors every month and sometimes the indicator leaves us some surprise, as happened in June, when it showed an annual fall of the 3.3% In the food industry. What does that mean? That month food manufacturers decided to reduce their rates. Why is it important? For what that percentage means. What reveals to us is a Price drop In the food industry, an adjustment of the rates with which the products leave the factory. The most curious thing is that this fall is not the dominant tonic in the industrial sector. On the contrary. Even beverage manufacturers saw in June how their industrial prices experienced A 2.7% rise. He IPRI General registered one 0.8% rise and if We go down to detail We observed that the indicator rose in most industrial branches. It only retreated in oil refinement, the chemical, metallurgical sector … and food. The annual IPC rate, which reflects the prices paid by consumers, also It was positive: In June it rose 2.2%. If we talk about the specific IPC of non -alcoholic foods and beverages of the purchase basket, it also grew 2.8%. It matters what … And imports when. If we look back, to the context, we observe two interesting data. The first is that the price index of the food industry has already a few months adjusting down. In June he scored a variation of -3.3%, but in May he had already done -2.7%and in April 2.2%. Actually the indicator has been going back. The second fact that we must take into account is that the food industry I had a decade without registering such a pronounced price drop. To find a major year -on -year drop, you have to go back to February 2014. What is the reason? The million dollar question. In a context of industrial inflationwith energy, a 3.5% And the increasing industrial prices, why do those in the food sector descend? In An article in which he delves into that phenomenon, Javier Romera, from The economisthe remembered yesterday that the reduction of the industry arrives in a context marked by a crucial factor: the rise of white brands and their growing competition In supermarkets. THE GREAT PULSE OF THE SECTOR. The industry price adjustment therefore coincides with a key moment for manufacturers, marked by the pulse with supermarket chains and The growing weight that white marks have (those of the distributor itself, such as Auchan, Hacondado or Seleqtia). All this also after years marked by a deep inflationary crisis that has made the big chains that manage supermarkets try to contain prices. The phenomenon is not new and Manuel Morales, manager of the IFA group, in An interview with The economist: “If they don’t react, brands are dead.” His notice, he remembered, comes in a context in which white brands have a greater weight in the linear of supermarkets. “Already almost 50% add up and will continue to grow because they have increased quality and differentiating prices is increasing,” Morales foreshadowed. With that backdrop, the food industry has begun to Cut your profitability. In the first quarter it stood at 6.81% after falling for the first time since 2022. Does the white mark grow so much? Yeah. Last year Promarca presented A report which shows that in just a five years, between 2018 and 2023, the presence of white -branded goods in supermarkets increased by 13%. The opposite path followed the articles sold with the brand of its manufacturer, which during that same period they retreated 23%. Promarca represents manufacturers and is therefore interested in, but their report provides a valuable track. Promarca estimates that in a five years they have disappeared from the super more than 3,600 Products marketed by manufacturers outside the distribution chains while theirs, those of the white brand, added 1,800 only in the feeding and hygiene sections. The calculation was made after analyzing six large chains. The Statista platform estimates that the market share of the white brands grew between 2005 and 2015, fell for a few years and would rebound again in 2019 until they were in 2024 in about 46%. Other studies consider that their mark on the linear of supermarkets is greater and already exceeds 50%. Images | Arno Senoner (UNSPLASH) and Alcampo In Xataka | The favorite ice cream in Spain are from Mercadona and have no “brand”. And there is a Valencian company making gold with them

The construction of the highest skyscraper in the world

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China is synonymous with Megaconstructions. In addition, in record time, but there are two countries that have been in a particular battle in which the concrete is the absolute protagonist. In 2010 the imposing Burj Khalifa was inaugurated, dethroning Taipei 101 as the tallest building in the world and giving the departure gun to a war between Arab Emirates and Arabia to see who made the vast skyscraper. And, although we have seen numerous skyscrapers in recent years, there are two that have between eyebrow and eyebrow over Creek Tower and the Jeddah Tower. And perhaps it is that ambition that the two projects are being carried ahead. The Saudi Jeddah Tower. It is one of the most ambitious projects in the world and it is expected that, when it is complete, it will become the highest building in the world. Saudi Arabia is clear that it must dethrone the Burj Khalifa of 828 meters with this tower that will exceed 1,000 meters high. How many exactly? We do not know, since although the works began in 2013, they go quite slowly. It will be a tower that will house a luxury hotel, residential apartments, offices and the highest observatory in the world and will feature a whopping 59 elevators, four of them with a double floor. Your designer? The American Adrian Smith, the same one who designed the Burj Khalifa with which he will have a certain resemblance. Dubai’s Creek Tower. This is much more recent, since the works began in 2016 and the data are much more diffuse. As Burj Khalifa, Creek Tower will be in Dubai and will be a very different construction from the other two towers. It will be more a recreational tower with restaurants, places to spend time and ten observation platforms (with glass floor to see the entire city. You can also house some luxury residences, but a very scarce number to be considered the “highest building in the world”, at least technically. And how much are we talking about? Between 828 meters and 1,400 meters. It is a huge fan, but what were clear is that it should exceed 828 of the city’s iconic megonstruction. The design is also peculiar, and the leading architect of the project is the “Recognized” Santiago Calatrava. Shared difficulties. The two constructions share more elements than it might seem. Both have a peculiar design, both are very high and both … have been drawing problems for years. For different reasons, yes. The construction of the Jeddah Tower It was arrested in 2018 due to the fight of the Royal House against administrative, political and real corruption. In a process known as ‘La Purga’, the heir prince created a committee that arrested 281 people. It was a tremendously controversial process because in parallel, it seems that a group of death operated to kill dissidents silently. The works officially resumed In February this year. In the case of Creek Tower, its inauguration was planned For some time of 2020, but COVID-19 forced to paralyze the work and construction has not yet raised head. In 2024 some project updates were made, confirming that the final height would be far from what was expected and, with a total of 745 meters, will not meet the objective of overcoming Burj Khalifa. The craziest plan. Now, although these two towers are colossal, there is a Saudi Arabia project that wants to leave them up to a normal and current residential block. It has no name, but an objective height: 2,000 meters. We only know which is something that is on the horizon and that will be the responsibility of the architects of Foster +. Partners And yes, it is an idea of ​​the same country that is building The Mukaabhe Riad Airport and The Lineso it is sure they will try. Samsung, the silent winner. And although it is not very clear what the two countries intend with this particular battle of megaconstrucciones, the obvious thing is that there are companies that are filling the pockets with these projects. And beyond local construction companies and foreign architects, we must mention Samsung. Specifically, to the Samsung C&T Engineering and Construction Group division that is charge of the construction of Burj Khalifa and is in command of the Creek Tower. And they are not the only constructions of the South Korean division, since, within Vision 2030, the company advertisement In December of last year that the construction of the first Saudi Arabia subway system under Riyadh, a totally automated system without drivers and was ending 11 years with a total cost of more than 2.4 billion dollars. Images | Jeddah Tower, Emaar In Xataka | The tallest building never designed is a colossal (and theoretical) skyscraper of four kilometers: the X-Seed 4000

The highest grossing science fiction film without being a saga

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It makes sense that the name of Christopher Nolan comes up when we talk about one of the few films that approach the one billion collection and that are not part of a saga, because in this case Nolan himself is the franchise. We approach his films looking for the author’s brand he guarantees, and that is another way to franchise his works. In any case, this’Origin‘(What can you see in Netflix, Movistar Plus+ and Max) It is a box office milestone. It is not, yes, the highest grossing film in history that does not belong to a franchise, because that honor must be attributed before her to ‘Titanic’, ‘Barbie‘(which should be discussed whether part of a franchise or not),’ Bohemian Rhapsody ‘U’Oppenheimer‘, of Nolan himself. But ‘origin’ is The only one of them that can be considered to belong to the science fiction genre in its purest form. In it we will meet an expert in “steal”, during sleep, secrets of the subconscious of others. Because of this occupation he has had to give up a normal life: but he has a plan for this to change. Through a process known as “inception”, it will implement an idea in someone’s subconscious instead of subtracting it. The plan is complicated when within its labyrinthine plan someone appears who is able to predict all its movements. ‘Origin’ is one of Nolan’s most notorious films, among other things because it is not part of a previous work, as with the much more popular trilogy of the dark gentleman. Your way of visualizing dreams, Although not entirely original, it has been very influential And it is practically impossible to portray in the cinema the dream world without paying the thematic and visual (and sound, very important in the film) that Nolan settled. A classic moden that is worth reviewing … and not only for its extraordinary box office. Header | Warner In Xataka | Christopher Nolan explained to us the end of ‘origin’ with a purpose: prepare for the ‘Oppenheimer’

After a delay of seven years, Saudi Arabia takes up the works of the highest skyscraper in the world. Let’s see what lasts

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Saudi Arabia has become the Madrid of the ‘galacticos’, the Barcelona of the ‘Tiki-Taka’. When we talk about megaconstructions, the country plays in another league, a capable of shadowing the Almighty Manhattan. And it is evident when we see all those projects that have as hands like the imposing MUKAABthe huge Abraj al Bait tower watch or the ‘Boss’ end of urbanism: The Line. Another project is Jeddah Tower that, like The Line, It has been choking More than once to builders. But, after two threats to return to the work, now the final one has arrived: they have restarted the works of what will be the highest building in the world. Kingdom Tower. The Jeddah Tower, or Kingdom Tower, has an objective between eyebrow and eyebrow: make the Burj Khalifa 828 meters high. To do this, the same team of architects that built the Dubai skyscrapers is being in charge of this tower, which will be the jewel of the crown of the crown of the Vision 2030 Project and the heart of a new city that will rise around it. The construction began more than a decade ago, but although they advanced at a good pace, the planning was too optimistic. It was said that it would have been completed in 2018, but by then, the tower was not even close to completing. The reason? Delays due to labor problems and COVID-19 Pandemiabut above all to the purge of corruption of 2017. The purge. In 2018, the heir prince Mohammed Bin Salman created an anti -corruption committee with an objective: centralize political power. He had tired that different elites of the country handled the threads, so he created a system that ended with more than 380 arrests of entrepreneurs, ministers, princes and even members of his family, as his own mother. HE speak of death groups to murder dissidents and, in this purge to stop political corruption, extortion to officials and money laundering, foundations and first floors of the Jeddah Tower suffered the consequences, being frozen. Initial plans with the intention of release the tower in 2018 and a height comparison To the third is the defeated. At the end of 2023, the promoter invited local contractors to see which candidacy conquered him for the end of the work and, in October last year, a video made it clear that They moved on. The problem is that everything was very in the air … until now, when the company Kingdom Holding Companythe one behind the project has announced that construction has restarted. In it release before the press, They affirmed that they had already poured cement on the 64th floor and that they are using a cement application technique with which they can complete a floor every four days. 1,000 meters, more or less. It will have about 160 floors and we cannot speak with ownership of the matter because, really, it is not clear. It is curious that it is not known from the beginning how many floors the tower will have or how much it will measure, and in the last releaseThey explain that it will measure more than 1,000 meters high, but that it is something that will take place in the future. To every train. What seems invariable is that it will be a luxurious tower that will act as an epicenter of a new city. The skyscraper will house shops, offices, recreational spaces and hotels, such as Four Seasons. He also aspires to have the highest viewpoint in the world and is expected to be a structure covered with glass, such as an extremely elongated pyramid and with a base of three edges. It will be in an area of ​​5.3 million m² in which there will be hospitals, schools, universities, shopping centers and housing, as well as other high towers and, from the government, it has been confessed that they are open to any type of investment to develop The ambitious project. Investment? Welcome. They affirm that the financing has almost been completed, with the builders -binladin Group- financing the first part, the banks putting their grain of sand and other sources of capital that has preferred not to reveal (stating that it is something that they will do step by step). What has made it clear is that Binladin Group is “strongly supported by the government” and that they are open to any type of investment because it is a tower that will make the land around you increase their value. And not only the immediate, like that land of 5.3 million m², but the entire region. This is what they want to ride around them They have work ahead It is estimated that the Jeddah tower is completed by 2028 as part of Vision 2030 to diversify the economy of the country, but as this does not stop, they are already thinking about its following tower: one that will humiliate Jeddah with a height of two kilometers in Riadnear the imposing Rey Khalid International Airport. Images | Omarnizar05, Google Earth, Jeddah Tower In Xataka | Saudi Arabia is waste so much money in The Line that has entered deficit

The northern hemisphere has the highest snow extension of the last 20 years. In Spain that sounds like science fiction

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While the extension of Arctic Ice was in January the second lowest Since there are satellite data, snow is giving a surprise. According to the NOAAsnow levels in the northern hemisphere are the highest in 20 years. Although the truth is that Europe (even less in Spain) we are not noticing it. What about snow in the northern hemisphere? It is soon to know. As we knowthere are many descriptors of winter in the hemisphere that may seem inconsistent with each other, but that are only a sample of the enormous climate complexity of the earth. As with Any extraordinary event (And, of course, this amount of snow is) now it remains a whole series of analysis to know what is behind and what we can expect in the coming years. So much to Nevado? So we know more detailed analysis, the increase in snow extension It is mainly due to the strong snowfall that were in early February in Asia and North America. Especially, a huge snowstorm that lasted a week caused many problems In Russia in general and In the distant this Russian in particular. In the US and Canada too They are having more Normal Snowbut the Russian storm is the key push for these historical records. And in Spain? On our side, the extension of snow in Europe is below the average. And, as a result that snowfalls are becoming more irregular, higher levels, Spain is even worse. In the Cantabrian Mountains, for example, We are at 72.6 hm³ Faced with the average of 250. In the Pyrenees, 764 compared to 1400 of the average of the last 10 years. On the other hand, the central and Iberian systems accumulate about 5 hm³ compared to 50 on average. The only one Discordant note is Sierra Nevada: The surroundings of the most southern ski resort in Europe has 12.7 hm³. That is, not only is it twice as the central mountain ranges, but almost exactly the same amount of snow as in the average of the last decade. Little snow … For now. As Nacho Espinos explained in Meteored“just 7% of the mountainous surface in Spain” is covered with snow. In aggregate terms, there are 1,160.9 hm³ of snow compared to 2,000 average. Of course, we will have to wait to see how the year ends: in the 2023/2024 season, the great snow peak came between March and April. And, honestly, time is unpredictable that (despite the “advanced spring” we are living) any scenario is reasonable. Image | NOAA | Joan Oger In Xataka | Snowing stations at the end of the century: the most pessimistic models show what could happen in our high mountain

Europe has the highest rate of multiple sclerosis in the world. The explanation lies in the DNA of the steppe shepherds

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First there were hunter-gatherers about 45,000 years ago. The first modern humans arrived in a Europe where the Neanderthals still reigned. Then there were the farmers of the Middle East about 11,000 years ago and finally, about 5,000 years ago they were the nomadic pastoralists of the steppes of Central Asia. That is, according to research published in the journal Naturethe common genetic heritage of Europeans. A heritage that explains why, in an incredible historical twist, multiple sclerosis affects us more. A DNA mutating in the middle of the great steppe. While agriculture gained weight in the world, the great Eurasian steppe continued doing its thing. The culture yamnaa group of pastoral towns that arose in the enormous plains south of the Urals and east of the Black Sea, generations and generations passed living with livestock. Variant. It was there that it emerged (and was selected) a small genetic variant that strengthened natural immunity against zoonoses; that is, against livestock infections that could easily jump to the human communities that raised them. 5,000 years later, this genetic variant is behind the fact that Europeans have a higher risk of suffering from Multiple Sclerosis. The deep origins of current diseases. The study led by the Universities of Cambridge and Copenhagen (but with the participation of many more) analyze in detail from the DNA of almost 5,000 individuals spread throughout history. Some studied remains date back to about 34,000 years ago. The reconstruction. Reconstructing humanity’s immense genetic tree, researchers found numerous keys to understanding why there are specific geographic areas or ethnic groups that suffer from some diseases more than others. They realized that southern Europeanswith a greater genetic legacy from the agricultural people of the Middle East, have a greater predisposition to develop bipolar disorders; that people from the East had a higher genetic risk of developing Alzheimer’s or diabetes; and those from the northwest had a heightened risk of sclerosis. A medical enigma. For years, scientists have tried to understand why Europe has, with about 143 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, one of the highest incidence rates of sclerosis in the world. As I said in the previous paragraph, as you go south and east those differences fade, but (even so) the greater risk of developing this disease It is a European ‘differential fact’. Understanding better. The most interesting thing about all this is that the idea that the answer lies in the genetic history of its inhabitants It is not only a historical curiosity. On the contrary, thinking about this from an evolutionary point of view allows us to understand the disease in a new way. In Xataka | Where genes, do what you see: the surprising genetic differences (and similarities) within the Iberian Peninsula Image | Charlotte Venema *An earlier version of this article was published in January 2024

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