knew

We already knew that we ate plastic. Now science has discovered the exact chaos it causes in our intestines

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We have long realized that we are surrounded by microplastics, both in the water which we take as in food or even the air that we breathe, causing them to appear even in the human placenta. However, there are still many questions about the consequences of having these microplastics in the body, although science continues to take steps to give us an answer about them. how it can alter our general healthand the last thing we know is related to the effect on our digestive system. Ground zero. Something that is already known by almost everyone is that the intestine is full of billions of microorganisms which are essential for our immunity and also for metabolism, making its alteration related even to issues in the central nervous system. But now, science suggests that microplastics can drastically alter the composition and diversity of this ecosystem by destroying some of the bacteria that we harbor inside us to create a completely different environment that can affect our digestion, but also other parts of the body. How it has been seen. To understand how this happens in real time, CSIC researchers developed a sophisticated patented digestion simulation system known as SIMGI. This is mainly based on introducing artificial particles formed by the typical plastic of water bottles into the stomach and colon and observing how it affected bacterial diversity. From here, different investigations have seen that families of beneficial bacteriaas Lachnospiraceae, Oscillospiraceae and Ruminococcaceaeplummet, while the growth of groups that can generate disease is favored. And we must understand that ‘good’ bacteria occupy a space in our intestine so that nothing else can ‘germinate’ there. But logically, if they disappear, they leave their ‘hole’ for other bacteria to pass through. It goes further. But beyond a bacterial imbalance, there is different research that already points to how microplastics destroy the physical barrier we have in our intestine. In this way, scientists have detected that these tiny fragments cause the generation of oxidative stress and, therefore, the overproduction of reactive oxygen species, which only generates great damage to the tissues. But this chemical attack also adds to mechanical damage, which some experts categorize as ‘sandpaper’, since together they manage to reduce the expression of proteins that are key to maintaining the union structure that characterizes the cells that exist in our intestinal wall. The result. If we destroy the scaffolding that maintains the ‘walls’ of our digestive system, the only thing that will be achieved is that increase intestinal permeabilityso any toxin or bacterial molecule will be able to pass from the intestine to the bloodstream, since there is no ‘wall’ that blocks the access of agents that are not wanted in our body. Logically, the passage of toxins without the control of this intestinal barrier activates our immune system defenses, which results in inflammation maintained over time that favors the destruction of tissues and also progresses in important chronic diseases. There is more. As if that were not enough, it is known that microplastics are excellent transport vehicles, since when they come into contact with our biological fluids they become covered with a “protein crown”. This is something really important, since this layer literally camouflages the microplastic and makes it easier for it to adhere to our living cells. But added to all this, we also see that they can act as the perfect support for bacteria and form what is known as biofilms. In this way, microplastic can be seen as a vehicle for external and potentially dangerous microbial communities directly to our tissues. Where are they going? If microplastics alter our barriers, logically the plastic has a free way and that is why it is capable of traveling to different organs such as, for example, the liver, kidneys or brain. And once here, research already indicates that its accumulation is related to DNA damage, deregulation of the immune system or alterations in our entire hormonal system that can lead to chronic diseases. Images | rimufilms on Freepik In Xataka | Researchers analyzed 280 samples of bottled water. Only one of the brands was free of microplastics

AI already knew how to create images. OpenAI says it has found the missing piece with the new ChatGPT Images 2.0

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Over the last few years we have seen image generators become increasingly more spectacular, faster and also more popular. The problem is that a striking image is not always useful to work with. It is one thing to ask for an astronaut cat and quite another to obtain a usable marketing poster, a coherent vignette or a graphic that respects what we have asked for. That’s where OpenAI now wants to move the conversation with its new model: not so much towards the pretty image, but towards the useful image. The answer. What OpenAI proposes goes in that direction. The company led by Sam Altman He maintains that his new model is not only created to generate attractive images, but to solve visual assignments with more intention and less trial and error. In the presentation he went so far as to state that “images are a language, not decoration”, a fairly clear way of summarizing where he wants to take the product in a present with quite a bit of competition. The thesis is that: that asking for an image in ChatGPT It’s less like launching a creative prompt and more like commissioning a piece that we can actually use. The missing piece. If the firm wants us to talk about something more than showy images, it had to improve exactly the points where these models usually fail. Here they promise important changes on three very specific fronts: following complex instructions more precisely, better organizing elements within the image and reproducing dense text with greater reliability. In other words, we are not only looking for more beautiful results, but also less ambiguous and more controllable ones. Think before you draw. One of the novelties that OpenAI tries to highlight most strongly is that this is its first image model with reasoning capabilities. Translated into practical terms, the company maintains that, when a model with “thinking” is chosen within ChatGPT, the system can take more time, structure the task better, rely on the web to search for updated information and review its own results before delivering the image. And we have tried it, asking for the image of two people walking along Gran Vía, in Madrid, near Cines Callao, and some notes on activities to do in Spain during May. These are the images that we can see in the cover image. The keys. OpenAI talks about game prototyping, storyboards, marketing creatives, comics, social graphics and other materials where both content and form matter. To sustain that ambition, the company says it has improved on two delicate fronts: the handling of non-Latin text, with advances especially in Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Hindi and Bengali, and the more faithful reproduction of very marked visual styles. It also expands the possible formats, with proportions of up to 3:1 and 1:3, resolution of up to 2K and, in certain modes, the possibility of generating up to ten images within the same request with continuity between characters and objects. The competitive context. This announcement also cannot be read as if OpenAI had suddenly discovered a new market. Midjourney has already become a clear reference for works with a strong artistic charge, Nano Banana has attracted attention for its conversational editing capabilities and FLUX 2 has become strong in photorealism. With that board in front, the company seems to be looking for another angle. Rather than contesting each terrain separately, it tries to present ChatGPT as an environment where the image is not generated in isolation, but as part of a broader flow, something that on paper can be attractive if it really delivers what it promises. It’s already starting to unfold: One of the keys to the announcement is that OpenAI ensures that the model does not remain in the showcase phase, but is beginning to reach a product. The company places its deployment in ChatGPT for all users, including Free and Go, and associates the most advanced results with Plus and Pro, as also reported by Engadget. Additionally, it takes you to the API and Codex, a sign that they don’t want to limit it to casual use within the chat. If your strategy involves turning the image into another work tool, it made sense for the deployment to start precisely there. Images | Xataka with ChatGPT Images 2.0 | OpenAI In Xataka | Amazon wants to win the AI ​​race at any price. That is why it has invested both in Anthropic and OpenAI

We knew that lynxes were smart, but not that smart. Five females from Toledo have just rewritten what we thought we knew about wild felids

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Science works like this. One day, a member of the Hunting Resources Research Institute is reviewing trapping cameras, and the next, this research team is rewriting many of the things we thought we knew about terrestrial carnivores. And also for a handful of mothers taking care of their children. What has happened? As I said, a team led by IREC has used trapping cameras to document for the first time as females iberian lynx They deliberately immerse freshly hunted rabbits in basins of water before giving them to their young. It may seem like an ethological curiosity; but we are talking about the first known case (eight different events) of deliberate manipulation of dams with water (in five different pylons) by wild felids. A complex cognitive behavior that we did not think was possible. And it’s curious because it’s not a “put in and take out,” or anything like that. It is not at all subtle, nor easily confused with something else: lynxes maintain the dive for more than 60 seconds without letting go of the prey and they do it, of course, completely on purpose. Why do they do it? Well the truth is that they don’t know. The researchers point out that the females could be using the rabbits as a vehicle for water to their young in especially hot periods. It must also be taken into account that the puppies are just weaned at that time of year. However, as I say, we don’t know for sure. Why is it important? Until now we had found many cases of animals that They washed their food in water (Japanese and Thai macaques; great apes in captivity, wild boars and cockatoos), but all in omivorous or frugivorous species that used this manipulation to remove sand and dirt. We had never seen a carnivore doing it. But the interest goes beyond that. Because not only does it challenge the idea that terrestrial carnivores capture and hide their prey without manipulating them; but rather questions the idea that solitary lynxes do not have a great capacity for social transmission. This finding suggests the opposite: that there is what we could call a “lynx culture“. Things that separate each other. We know so little… That is the main conclusion of the series of studies that this team is developing in the Montes de Toledo: that although we have been living with animals and plants for centuries, there are many things (too many) that we still do not know. Above all, when they have to do with this: with animals that are getting closer and closer to what we have called ‘humanity’ for years. Image | Wildlife Ecology and Management Research Group of the Hunting Resources Research Institute In Xataka | The question is no longer whether reintroducing the lynx in Aragon makes sense: it is what are we going to do to stop the rabbits?

We knew that olive trees were very old trees, what we did not imagine was that they reached 4,000 years of age.

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The olive tree is undoubtedly one of the most iconic trees in the Mediterranean basin. Olive groves have populated the fields of southern Europe and the Levant since time immemorial, but such is the longevity of this species that the history of some of these trees also dates back to, at least, antiquity. An example of this is the Vouves olive treelocated on the Greek island of Crete. Conservative estimates put it on this tree about 2,000 years. This would imply that in his life he could be a silent witness to events such as the division of the Roman Empire, the fall of Byzantium and the Ottoman Empire and, of course, the birth of contemporary Greece. The most extensive estimates estimate that this tree could reach 4,000 years old. This would not only make it a contemporary of figures such as Pythagoras, Aristotle or Alexander the Great but would also imply that this plant was born in Minoan Crete and was Witness the collapse of the Late Bronze Ageone of the most intriguing events that occurred at the dawn of history as we understand it. But perhaps the most surprising detail of all this is that the Vouves olive tree continues to bear fruit. This has led many to ask, how is this possible? What makes this specimen and its species in general so long-lived? The olive tree (Olea europaea) has a life expectancy that, although it does not reach millennia, does exceed several centuries. It is estimated that the life expectancy of trees of this species around five centuriesalthough there is some debate about it. In this sense, a study published in 2021 in the magazine Dendrochronologyestimated that the majority of “monumental olive trees” had maximum ages ranging between 300 and 500 years. Estimating the age of an olive tree is difficult. We noted at the beginning that estimates of the age of this ancient tree ranged between 2,000 and 4,000 years, a very wide range precisely because of the difficulty involved in calculating the age of these trees. Dendrochronology is based on using the growth rings of tree trunks to estimate their age: how many rings, how many years. Counting rings in a felled specimen is simple, but doing it in a living tree and doing it in an olive tree is another story. The trunks of the olive trees grow irregularly, which implies an apparently chaotic pattern in the rings inside, making counting especially difficult, as I pointed out. a study published in 2013 in the magazine PLOS One. Its curious growth could be related to its longevity. According to Scott Travers, a biologist at Rutgers University, in an article for Forbesone of the “secrets” behind longevity of these trees is in vegetative or clonal reproduction. That is, in the fact that this tree is made up of various cuttings that start from the same root. This, adds Travers, allows this type of plants to survive extreme conditions, including fires, cuts and similar incidents. Another survival trick Travers continues explainingis in the biochemistry of the tree, which offers mechanisms that allow it to repair damaged tissues, as well as defend itself against pathogenic organisms. The same oil that we humans use is used by the tree that gives it to us through its fruits. The elderly around us Spain also has ancient olive trees, although if we want to find a tree that competes in age with the Vouves olive tree, we have to go to Portugal. It would be an olive tree located in Abrantesin the center of Portugal. According to a study carried out by the University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro (UTAD), Mouchao would be the tree that would hold this record with an age that would be around 3,350 years old. Spain also has ancient olive trees and among them all stands out. Arion’s Fargea tree that we can find in the province of Tarragona. The estimated age of this olive tree It is more than 1,700 years old. This implies that this ancient tree would have been planted in the time of Emperor Constantine I. Olive trees are not the only ancient tree species in our environment. Cedars, sequoias and even Canarian dragon trees can also reach ages that would make the biblical Methuselah pale. Olive trees are trees with a long life expectancy but they do not usually fill the lists of the longest living trees on the planet. The two longest-lived non-cloned trees known are two pines called Prometheus and Methuselahwhose ages are estimated to be over 4,000 years old. Both belong (or belonged in the case of Prometheus) to the species Pinus longaevathe “long-lived pine” so this fact is not entirely surprising. When Prometheus was cut, the botanists who analyzed it counted more than 4,800 rings, so they estimated its age to be about 4,900 years. Estimates indicate that Methuselah has also surpassed by decades the 4,800 year old mark. If we include clonal organisms we can find older trees. For example, the Pando forestconsidered the largest living organism on the planet, composed of thousands of cuttings from the same clonal tree, could have about 80,000 years old according to some estimates. In Xataka | A retiree planted a tree in 2003 in one of the most dangerous areas of Sao Paulo. Today it is an amazing “jungle” of the city In Xataka | We have found the oldest tree in the EU and it has been installed for 1,500 years in a very special place: Teide Image | Eric Nagle, CC BY-SA 4.0 This article was originally published in Xataka in April 2025.

We knew there was water on the Moon, but not why some craters were empty. Finally we have the answer

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It’s been a while since It is known that there is water on the Moon. However, accessing it is quite complicated. To begin with, so far only water in the form of ice has been detected. But also, it’s not clear what the best places to look are. There are some clues, but exceptions keep appearing that baffle scientists. That’s why, the study recently carried out by scientists at the University of Colorado Boulder It has been very illuminating. Frozen water hidden in the shadows. The missions that have detected ice on the Moon have located it in the depths of the craters of the lunar south pole. Mostly, in something known as cold traps. These are places that are permanently in shadow, so that the very high temperatures that are reached during the day, of more than 120ºCthey cannot evaporate the water. An essential resource for lunar colonization. The detection of water on the Moon was a great milestone at the time, since it would make it easier for lunar colonizers to use water to cover basic needs in the future. They could use it for drinking, but also, for example, it would be possible separate hydrogen from oxygen through hydrolysis and use it as fuel. Let us remember that the formula of water is H2O, two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. It’s not that easy. Some craters containing ice have already been detected, like the Cabeus. We could think that all the craters of the south pole that are found in cold traps, like this one, will serve as water sources. Unfortunately, the task is not so simple. It is known that several craters in this situation do not contain water, so another pattern must be sought to help future lunar colonizers know where to look. A question of orientation. The authors of the study just published relied on two types of data. On the one hand, the surface temperature data provided by the Diviner instrument of NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). On the other hand, the results of a series of computer simulations on lunar evolution. Studying all of this together revealed something interesting. That the orientation of the Moon has not always been the same. Its relative inclination with respect to the Earth has changed slightly over billions of years, so that what is in shadow today may not have been in the past. That’s why there are craters in cold traps that don’t have water. The older the better. Something that these scientists have also observed when reviewing previous studies is that the oldest craters at the lunar south pole are more likely to house water. Therefore, the ideal is to look for ancient craters that are located at the south pole and in cold traps. The number of likely places to search is greatly reduced. In fact, there is already a candidate following this premise: the Haworth crater. According to the models, it has been in shadow for 3 billion years. We will have to check it. The authors of this study are already designing an instrument, called Lunar Compact Infrared Imaging System (L-CIRiS), to analyze this and other candidate craters for water ice. NASA plans to deploy it near the lunar South Pole at the end of 2027. It will be a good way to detect the best lunar water sources with an eye on future long-term missions on our satellite. The more the ground is prepared, the better. Image | Xataka | The “hidden” side of the Moon has been a mystery for decades: China already has a chemical map to shed light

There is only one Bugatti La Voiture Noire and no one knew who owned it. The answer was in the Porsche garage

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For years, the owner of the most exclusive car in the world It was quite a mystery. Only one example of the Bugatti La Voiture Noire exists and, since its presentation at the 2019 Geneva Motor Show, no one has officially confirmed who had purchased it. That made the Internet full of theories and speculation: from elite footballers to oil sheiks. So much so that the then CEO of Bugatti, Stephan Winkelmann, publicly denied that the buyer of this gem of collecting out Cristiano Ronaldoone of the most repeated names for having several Bugatti in his garage and enough financial liquidity to afford their purchase. The mystery had remained intact until now. A work of art inspired by a missing car. He The Black Vehicle was born as an obsessive tribute to one of the most legendary automobiles in history. Bugatti designed this unique example looking at the Type 57 SC Atlanticcreated in the 1930s by Jean Bugatti, son of founder Ettore Bugatti. Only four units of that Atlantic were manufactured, and one of them, precisely the one known as La Voiture Noire, disappeared without a trace before the Second World War, and has never been found. The 2019 model takes up that heritage with an overwhelming technical proposal in the purest Bugatti style: 8-liter W16 engine with 1,500 HP, four turbochargers and six exhaust pipes that emerge on each side of the body as a direct nod to the design of the original Atlantic. With its black lacquer finish, sculptural lines and the weight of a legend on the body, Bugatti sold this unique specimen to an unknown owner for around 16.7 million euros. The mystery solved: Ferdinand Piëch, grandson of Porsche. It is now known that the Bugatti La Voiture Noire never really left his home since it was Ferdinand Piëch who acquired it. Piëch was the grandson of Ferdinand Porsche, founder of the brand that bears his surname, and one of the most influential engineers and managers of the 20th century in the automotive world. During his time at the head of the Volkswagen Group, he was the main architect of the Bugatti revival as an extreme luxury hypercar brand, driving the development of the impressive W16 engine that beats under the hood of La Voiture Noire. The history of that engine has its own epic. The concept of the W16 block was hand sketched by Piëch On paper he was traveling at 320 km/h on a Japanese bullet train. As if it were a premonition, that same engine turned the Bugatti Veyron into the first production car to become a missile. capable of exceeding 400 km/h. Ferdinand Piech passed away in 2019the same year that La Voiture Noire was presented to the world. The car, however, was not delivered until 2021, then passing into the hands of his son Anton Piëch as heir. The twist: the heir needs liquidity. Anton Piëch thus inherited the most expensive hypercar in the world at the time of its delivery. Now, however, he has made a decision that closes a symbolic circle: wants to sell it. According to sales documentation to which has had access to the German economic newspaper Handelsblattthe La Voiture Noire is offered through a discreet bidding process for 23 million Swiss francs, approximately 25 million euros. The reason for the sale of such a motorsports legend is the need to finance Piech Automotivetheir own electric vehicle startup founded in 2017. The company has been trudging along for over a decade and still doesn’t have a production vehicle. According to sources cited by Handelsblattthe company is also exploring a possible integration under the umbrella of the Chinese group Chery, although neither party has confirmed the details. In Xataka | Bugatti Veyron was a jewel that cost 1.7 million dollars: Volkswagen lost 6.7 million with each one it sold Image | Bugatti

A 4.6 billion-year-old “recorder” was hidden in asteroid dust: what it said changes what we knew

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We think of memory as something linked to memories that fade or transform over time. But there is another form of memory that is much more precise and stubborn, one that does not depend on people or technology and still preserves information with extraordinary fidelity. Some rocks are capable of recording the magnetic environment in which they were formed. That is what happens with the dust of a very particular asteroid: small particles that have preserved a magnetic signal for billions of years that today allows us to reconstruct what the solar system was like in its early stages. That “record” is not a metaphor. It comes from particles collected on the asteroid Ryugu and brought to Earth in 2020 by Japan’s Hayabusa2 mission. As Eurekalert points outa team led by Masahiko Sato has analyzed their magnetic behavior and has found signals that suggest that these particles retained information from the environment in which they were formed. This opens the door to reconstructing what the magnetic fields present in the protoplanetary diskthat is, the “nursery” where the planets were formed. {“videoId”:”x86bfqj”,”autoplay”:false,”title”:”JAMES WEBB: A TIME MACHINE and a SPACE TELESCOPE”, “tag”:””, “duration”:”504″} A trace that cannot be erased. The key is how some minerals react to the magnetic field when they form. Its internal structures, formed by small magnetic domains, are oriented following that field and remain “locked” when the material solidifies. That process leaves a lasting mark that scientists can measure today with highly sensitive instruments. This phenomenon, known as natural remanent magnetization, turns these particles into physical witnesses of the past. The challenge. The first analyzes of these samples offered very different conclusions: some studies suggested that they preserved a stable magnetic signal from the early solar system, while others argued that they had formed in a region with practically no magnetic field. There were also those who suggested that the signals detected could be due to contamination during analysis on Earth. Part of the problem was based on these works, which were based on a very limited number of particles, just seven, which made it difficult to obtain solid conclusions. New samples. To resolve these discrepancies, The team significantly expanded the number of particles analyzedgoing from seven to 28, which allowed us to work with a much more solid statistical base. After applying demagnetization techniques to eliminate possible modern signals, the results showed a clearer pattern: 23 of the 28 particles retained a stable magnetic signal. Of these particles, eight showed two stable components and one presented spatially inhomogeneous magnetization directions, something difficult to explain if the signal had been introduced later on Earth. In Xataka We have a serious problem in our plans to colonize Mars: the astronauts’ blood is mutating Why is it important. The detected signals suggest that these materials originated in an early phase of the solar system, approximately between 3 and 7 million years after its formation. They also point to water alteration processes in the asteroid’s parent body. So we can say with great confidence that Ryugu is not just a pile of rocks: it is a valuable archive of the early solar system that has allowed us to better understand the magnetic environment of those times. Images | JAXA In Xataka | NASA is on its heels, so it has made a decision: advance its return to the Moon to 2030 (function() { window._JS_MODULES = window._JS_MODULES || {}; var headElement = document.getElementsByTagName(‘head’)(0); if (_JS_MODULES.instagram) { var instagramScript = document.createElement(‘script’); instagramScript.src=”https://platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js”; instagramScript.async = true; instagramScript.defer = true; headElement.appendChild(instagramScript); – The news A 4.6 billion-year-old “recorder” was hidden in asteroid dust: what it said changes what we knew was originally published in Xataka by Javier Marquez .

Micron knew that the RAM crisis was going to be great for them. The reality that has gone even better

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As it could not be otherwise, the companies that are benefiting the most from the RAM crisis They are precisely those that have the product and, therefore, they are the ones that set the price. Micron is one of those few companies that is profiting from the excessive demand of this key component for any gadget, a demand caused by the AI ​​fever. The figures from its latest financial report have even exceeded expectations. Although there are some nuances to comment on. Let’s go to trouble. What has happened? Micron just published the results of its second fiscal quarter with numbers that have left analysts speechless. Its revenues have almost tripled those of the previous year, reaching $23.9 billion, well above Wall Street estimateswho expected about 20,000 million. Earnings per share have skyrocketed to $12.20, compared to the $9 projected. And for the third quarter, the company anticipates revenue of approximately $33.5 billion, almost ten points above what the market expected. Those who share the benefit. Artificial intelligence has changed everything in the memory market. The data centers that power AI models require massive amounts of high-performance memory, and the available supply cannot meet that demand. Micron, together with Samsung and SK Hynix, forms the trio that controls practically the entire supply world of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, which are basically one of the key components to run the long-awaited NVIDIA GPUs. Those who buy at any price. Micron’s own CEO, Sanjay Mehrotra, counted to CNBC that the company can only cover between 50% and two-thirds of what its main clients need. Put another way: there is a queue of buyers willing to pay whatever it takes, and Micron simply doesn’t have RAM for everyone. According to SK Group President Chey Tae-won, the global shortage could last another four to five years due to structural bottlenecks in semiconductor production. What’s coming Aware that what is happening now will not last forever, Micron is investing at a speed that has made the market nervous. The company plans to exceed $25 billion in capital spending in 2026 alone, and has already announced that in 2027 that number will rise another $10 billion. Among other operations, it has closed purchasing a plant of Taiwanese Powerchip for $1.8 billion, which will begin producing DRAM wafers in the second half of 2027. The company has also started mass shipments of its new HBM4 memory of 12 layers, which will be directed to the new Vera Rubin platform from NVIDIA. Precisely how much NVIDIA will depend on Micron for this new generation compared to its rivals is the big open question for all investors. Everything is going well for them, but the shares are going down. There has been a bit of a cold reaction in the stock market, as shares have fallen around 5% in the session after the results, despite the fact that the numbers have beaten all forecasts. The reason is the same thing that happened with NVIDIA a few weeks ago: When expectations are very high, even good results can disappoint. From Goldman Sachs they counted that the value could move in a narrow range in the short term after a “very solid quarter with guidance well above consensus, in a context of already elevated expectations.” That has not prevented banks like Wells Fargo or Barclays from updating their upward forecasts to $550 and $670 per share, respectively. The big photo. Micron has accumulated a revaluation of more than 60% so far this year, and has become the most profitable value on the PHLX (Philadelphia Semiconductor Index). Mehrotra affirms that Micron is “the invisible layer that powers AI today.” But it seems that the company is slowly losing that cloak of invisibility. In Xataka | NVIDIA has been pining for months to sell its H200 to China: it just received the news it was waiting for

We knew that mobile phones had an impact on children’s mental health. A study has defined the border: 16 years

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Today, we live in a time of great debate around Instagram, TikTok or X, wondering if they really negatively affect our minors, with several governments promoting the possibility of banning them, including Spanish. Now, a new study longitudinal has shed light on the true impact that using social networks can have on mental health, pointing to a much more complex scenario than we think. The study. It has been a team from the Miguel Hernández University that has decided to put the focus precisely on social networks at a time when research paints a very worrying picture. But in this case wanted to put the focus in the nuances that should really matter to us: age, gender and mental health status prior to entering the world of social networks. And its conclusions change the classical conception. It’s not how much, but how. Until recently, the most classic concept to measure danger was “screen time.” In this way, different reviews suggested that spending more hours in front of the cell phone was equivalent to having a worse well-being. But the UMH research goes a step further and focuses on how networks interfere with daily life, sleep or personal relationships. Here the most striking finding that the research team saw was that the impact of this problematic use on depressive symptoms has a very clear boundary: 16 years. But it fades. Although researchers have observed that increased depressive symptoms It is much more acute in those under 16 years of age, it has also been seen that around this age the effect diminishes. The reason that marks 16 years as a true frontier is precisely the greater capacity for emotional and cognitive self-regulation that adolescents have as they mature little by little. In this way, young people from the age of 16 become less vulnerable to the negative impacts of the digital environment, something pointed out by other external studies that already warned that early pre-adolescence is the true critical period of exposure to social networks as they are more sensitive. A gender gap. Another worrying point raised by science is how digital popularity affects depending on whether the teenager is a boy or a girl. And right now we live in the era of followers where anything is done to see how our accounts have more and more followers. And while it may seem like having more followers is a positive reinforcement for any teen, the data says otherwise. The researchers point out here that having a greater number of followers is associated with a greater number of depressive symptoms, and especially in girls. The reasons lie in the pressure to maintain a perfect image, the fear of being analyzed down to the last detail and, logically, the cybervictimization. A set of factors that act as a toxic cocktail towards mental health. In the boys. Here, having many followers has a neutral or even somewhat protective effect, operating as a status enhancer within a group of friends, for example. That is, the complete opposite of girls, marking a gender gap that has also been investigated by other third-party studies that already warned that the mental health of minors is much more susceptible to the dynamics of online validation. Previous vulnerability. Do social networks depress you or were teenagers already depressed? This is the question we can ask ourselves when addressing this complex issue, and science indicates that adolescents who already suffered from a previous vulnerability before using the networks are the most susceptible. In this way, if a young person already presents depressive symptoms, their evolution will be significantly worse if they develop problematic use of networks. In these cases, the screen becomes a true refuge that ends up worsening the original picture when exposed to a large number of people or by consuming negative content. What should we do? The great conclusion that can be drawn here is that We must protect preteens as they are the most vulnerable, and also give priority attention to girls because they suffer much greater aesthetic and validation pressure. This is where governments come in with the regulations that are already being put on the table to prevent these most vulnerable young people from being exposed to something that can be so harmful. Images | Johnny Cohen In Xataka | We say we are “depressed” beyond our means: where does the illness end and where does the illness begin?

The world has been fascinated by the collapse of the Mayans for decades. In reality, almost everything we thought we knew was wrong.

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They cultivated fields, raised livestock, built some of the most amazing buildings on the planet, developed a rich culture that included advanced astronomical knowledge that still intrigue today to the experts. The Mayans are one of the most fascinating civilizations on the planet. And rightly so. Without it it is impossible to tell the history of Central America. However, little by little and as technology allows us to delve into their secrets, we begin to understand something: much of what we thought we knew about the Mayans was wrong. And that includes its collapse. What happened to the Mayans? The question is very simple. His answer not so much anymore. As our knowledge of the Mayan civilization has expanded (thanks to resources such as LiDAR technology) has also mutated the idea that historians had of its decline. I remembered it recently in Guardian Marcus Haraldsson remembering what we know about Tikalone of the largest urban centers of the Mayans, located in what is now Guatemala. “Sudden and disastrous”? The most recent stele located at the site dates back to the year 869 ADwhich leaves the question of what happened in Tikal from that date on. For a time historians assessed the possibility of a “sudden and disastrous” collapse that marked its fate; But today that explanation seems increasingly distant. Now experts are leaning towards another option: a broad period of decline of around 200 years during which farmers moved north and south and powerful urban centers were abandoned in favor of settlements such as Chichén Itzá, Uxmal or Mayapán, towards the north of the Yucatán Peninsula. There is even talk of the period Classic Terminalwhich goes from the years 750 to 1050. Changing perspective. This perspective has been adapted over the decades and goes beyond the period of decline of the Mayan civilization. “We are no longer really talking about collapse, but about decline, transformation and reorganization of society, as well as a continuity of culture,” comment to Guardian Kenneth E. Seligson, associate professor of archeology at California State University (CSU). “There have been several similar changes in places like Rome. (But) we rarely talk about the great Roman collapse anymore because they re-emerged in various forms, just like the Mayans.” But… What happened? What exactly happened for many of the main Mayan settlements (not all) to begin to collapse towards the 9th and 10th centuries It remains a complex and highly discussed topic. Today the authors point out a combination of factors including changes in trade routes, adverse weather, severe and prolonged droughts and wars, among others. The truth is that in the middle of 2026, researchers continue collecting clues that helps us clear up unknowns about that period. The importance of water. You don’t have to go far back to read new discoveries that tell us precisely about the collapse of the Mayan civilization. Last August a group of scientists published a article in which they basically emphasized the “important role” that “prolonged droughts” played in the Mayan decline. For their study, the researchers analyzed a stalagmite located in a cave in the Yucatan, a true geological and archaeological treasure if its oxygen isotopes are analyzed. The examination revealed a series of periods of severe drought between 871 and 1021, during the Terminal Classic, stages marked by water shortages during which the Mayans found it “extremely difficult” to grow their crops. It may seem exaggerated, but the study revealed eight droughts during the rainy season that lasted at least three years. Not only that. The longest drought lasted about 13 years. Other previous studies, carried out from sediments collected in the Chichankanab lagoon or stalactites rescued in Belizehad already suggested the role that climate played in the Mayan collapse. Question of droughts (and something else). Months after that study, in November, Benjamin Gwinneth, from the Université de Montréal (UdeM), published another that helps complete the ‘photo’. The Canadian institution recalls that between 750 and 900 AD the population of the Mayan lowlands suffered “a significant demographic and political decline” that coincided with “episodes of intense drought.” What Gwinneth’s work questions is whether this collapse is explained only by the lack of water. Curiously, their research is also based on the analysis of sediment samples dating back to around 3,300 years ago. And what exactly did he do? Gwinneth dedicated himself to analyzing samples taken from Laguna Itzán, in present-day Guatemala, near an archaeological site Maya. To be precise, they focused on three “geochemical indicators” that reveal the evolution of fires, vegetation and population density in the area (something they estimate thanks to fecal stanols) for thousands of years. The first conclusion they obtained is that the first settlements appeared in the area 3,200 years ago and for centuries the Mayans cultivated, burned to clear forests and used the ashes as natural fertilizer. It also gradually increased the population of the area. Over time they even changed their “agricultural strategy”, dispensing with fire. A “stable” climate. The second conclusion (and this is the interesting part) is that, unlike Mayan populations located further north that did suffer “devastating droughts”, in Itzán the climate was relatively “stable” thanks in part to its geographical location, near the Cordillera. Curiously, that did not free Itzán from the crisis that they suffered in other areas of the Mayan world. The question is obvious: Why? If it kept raining there, what dragged them into the crisis? “Although there was no drought in the area, the population decreased during the Terminal Classic period. Indicators show a drastic drop, traces of agriculture disappear and the site was abandoned,” Gwinneth points out.which recalls that some archaeologists place the beginning of the Mayan collapse in the Itzán area. Why is it important? Because it suggests that drought (no matter how stubborn) is not enough on its own to explain the Mayan decline. “The answer lies in the interconnection of Mayan societies,” reflects the expert. “Cities did not exist in isolation. They formed a complex network of commercial ties, … Read more

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