knew

1,900 years ago the Romans knew that going barefoot in a public bathroom was a bad idea, so they wore bathroom flip-flops.

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The image above these lines illustrating the article belongs to the reconstruction of the Roman public baths in Bath, about 550 kilometers from one of the most prolific Roman sites: Vindolanda, also in Britain and next to Hadrian’s Wall. That’s where just found a fairly common item nowadays when we go to public bathrooms: bathing clogs, a kind of primitive bathing flip-flops. Of course, these are almost 2,000 years old. The Roman bathing slippers. The discovery dates back to between 140 and 180 AD. C. and is possibly the world’s oldest example of a shower shoe. The sole is a wooden platform with a leather strap on top to support the foot. Come on, a traditional flip flop, what the Romans called sculponeae. As explains Elizabeth Greene, an archaeologist at the University of Western Ontario, more than 5,000 Roman shoes have been found in Vindolanda and about 50 of them are bathing clogs. Most have platforms between 2.5 and 5 centimeters high and while some were smooth, others had geometric decorations or shapes. That they found so many clogs in that search implies that it was not something random, but rather the order of the day. And it makes sense: the Romans used these platform clogs to protect themselves from bathroom floors, slippery from steam and water, and hot from the heating system. hypocaust. Why is it important. Because Vindolanda It is UNESCO World Heritage and one of the most important Roman sites in Europe. The main reason why Vindolanda is a real treasure trove for archeology is that the organic remains of items such as clogs (made of wood and leather) have been moderately well preserved thanks to the layers of oxygen-free mud. On the other hand, it shows that preventive hygiene is not a modern invention: these primitive flip-flops constitute documented proof of the practice that dates back about 1,900 years, which is directly related to preventive medicine and the functional design of footwear. Context. The Roman baths were meeting places: whoever went there undressed and went from a cold room to a warm room to finally reach a hot room. When leaving, he finished with a cold water bath. To heat the rooms there was an underground oven that functioned as underfloor heating. Considering the estimated date of the clog, it falls within the period of the emperors Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius, when Vindolanda was an active military fort on the northern border of Britain. Who wore those bathroom clogs?. As a military fort that it was, what was abundant there were Roman soldiers and their families. However, the CEO of The Vindolanda Trust poses in the official podcast of the site a revealing question: why is there so little evidence that children used the bathrooms? (they have not found child-sized clogs), which suggests that access may have been conditioned by age, status or other social norms. It is known that at one time there were mixed baths, but it is most likely that men and women with children bathed at different times. The oldest bathroom flip flops ever known. It is true that there are much older samples of sandals, such as those of King Tutankhamun, from about 3,300 years ago; or those of the Etruscans of the 6th century BC But as nuance Elizabeth Semmelhack, director of the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto, none of these were intended for use in bathrooms. In fact, the National Institute of Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP) public in 2025 the discovery of two wooden soles of the sculponae type in Izernore (France), slightly earlier than those at Vindolanda, although the official source does not specifically associate them with use in bathrooms. It is in the specific application that makes the difference. In Xataka | The Romans found a macabre and sophisticated way to use perfume: breaking pigeons’ necks (made of glass) In Xataka | Almost 2,000 years ago a Celtiberian soldier visited the most remote frontier of the Roman Empire. Then he returned to Soria with a souvenir Cover | Diliff

We knew that living near the sea made us “gain” years of life. What we didn’t know is that it was literally

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We have known for a long time that getting closer to nature has benefits for our health. Beyond avoiding pollution in our cities, getting closer to the natural environments around us can improve our psychological well-being, perhaps even encouraging us to lead a more active life. Little by little, we are also observing that something similar happens if we change the mountain for the sea. More sea, more life. A study has observed a correlation between residing in coastal areas and greater longevity. The analysis provide evidence of the link between bodies of water and the health and well-being of people. Of course, the relationship between “blue spaces” and health is a little more complex than it might seem. 50 kilometers. The study observed that the benefits of living near the ocean improved the quality of life of people residing within a strip of about 50 kilometers of the coast. Inland, however, they observed a very different trend: people who lived near bodies of water of a certain size (about 10 km² in surface area) tended to have shorter life expectancies. “Globally, coastal residents are expected to live a year or more longer than the median age of 79, and those who lived in more urban areas near inland rivers and lakes were more likely to die around age 78. Coastal residents likely lived longer due to a variety of interconnected factors,” highlighted in a press release Jianyong “Jamie” Wu, member of the team responsible for the study. 66,000 census areas. The study was carried out in the United States, where the team analyzed 66,263 census areas, studying life expectancy and its relationship not only with the proximity of bodies of water, but also with socioeconomic and demographic factors to control the results. Details of the study can be found in an article published in the magazine Environmental Research. Searching for the cause. The team points out different factors that could mediate this relationship, such as milder temperatures, better air quality, more opportunities for recreational activities, better transportation, less vulnerability to droughts, or income. These factors could explain why residing near the coast is associated with a longer life expectancy, in contrast to people who live near inland waters. “Pollution, poverty, lack of opportunities to be physically active and a greater risk of flooding are the main triggers for these differences,” Yanni Cao indicatedco-author of the study. Correlation or cause? Fits remember that the existence of a correlation does not always imply the existence of a direct (or even indirect) causal relationship. For example, if income is the determining factor, this causal relationship could take different forms. A possible route would start from the fact that the coastal areas they would be more expensiveso they would attract people with more income, income being a factor that we know affects our life expectancy. Another possible way would be that coastal areas generate higher incomes by offering more job opportunities, and these incomes would again be the determining factor in longevity. In both cases the mediating factor is the same, but the causal relationship is not. In Xataka | Why it is hotter in cities than in the countryside: the urban heat island effect In Xataka | Perhaps aging better does not depend only on the body: science is also beginning to study the effect of art and culture Image | Emiliano Arano This article was originally published in August 2025

We knew that Russians like to travel to the islands, but not so much

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From the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipeline In 2022, underwater infrastructure has become an absolute priority for NATO security. that episode made evident both their vulnerability and the lack of legal tools to protect them. Now the Government of Spain has just published the Annual National Security Report 2025 where it makes it clear that submarine telecommunications cables are already one of the main strategic concerns. And the reason is specific: during 2025, the presence of Russian ships near the Canary Islands coasts increased five-fold. The discovery. Without a doubt, what draws the most attention report the thing is In 2025, the presence of Russian ships near the Canary Islands coasts has increased fivefold. The Navy, through its Maritime Action Operations and Surveillance Center (COVAM), detects around 50 vessels of this type in state waters every week, mainly in the Canary Islands, the Alboran Sea and the Strait of Gibraltar. It is what we know as the Russian “ghost fleet”: they do not sail under the Russian flag, but under flags of convenience with opaque insurance. AND Its official mission is to transport oil of Russian, Venezuelan and Iranian origin destined for Asia, thus avoiding international sanctions. The European Maritime Safety Agency has been tracking for years this phenomenon in their surveillance reports. Why is it important. submarine cables move approximately 99% of internet traffic, which includes sensitive data, financial and military systems and Spain is a key node on the routes that connect Europe with America and Africa, as can be seen on Google Maps of submarine cables. In short, any damage to these infrastructures would have direct and immediate consequences. The European Commission already contemplates this in its recent Plan of actionwhere it mentions everything from physical sabotage to cyberattacks and hybrid threats. The Baltic countries They have already alerted NATO of this type of fleet to cause GPS interference and damage cables and energy infrastructure. And that’s without talking about the environmental risk: the poor condition of many of these vessels makes an accidental spill likely in areas as sensitive as the Canary Islands. Context. This intense activity is part of the Russian hybrid war strategy in Europe, hostile actions within the gray zone, a kind of stones in the shoe that remain below the threshold of the casus belli. Underwater infrastructures, due to their inherent vulnerability, are the perfect target. The DSN report recognizes that Spain is not Russia’s main objective, but that the growing presence of this fleet in the western Mediterranean adds risks that cannot be ignored. In fact, there are already precedents such as cutting cables in the Baltic which show that the threat is real and not something theoretical. Spain’s response. The Spanish state has reinforced surveillance through various systems. The most visible is the Integrated External Surveillance System (SIVE) of the Civil Guard, designed to detect and follow suspicious vessels in real time. Added to this are ocean patrols by the Navy and active coordination with the European Maritime Safety Agency. The Department of Homeland Security insists that Spain must maintain technological resilience and permanent vigilance to prevent an incident, accidental or provoked, from leading to a major crisis. Yes, but. However, the report itself warns that current detection means are not accompanied by an equivalent response capacity. That is to say, there are not sufficient defense mechanisms, so the vulnerability continues to exist. One of the reasons is in the legal framework: the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea limits greatly increases the ability of States to intercept or inspect foreign vessels in international waters without a specific legal reason. In short: Spain can monitor, but not act preventively. The EU Action Plan tries to close this gap, but for the moment the state lacks legal instruments against a threat that moves in that gray area between legality and sabotage. In Xataka | A ghost fleet has mapped the entire underwater structure of the EU. The question is what Moscow is going to do with that information. In Xataka | 99% of the internet travels through submarine cables. Now there is a much more ambitious plan underway: linking the electrical grid Cover | Photo of Thomas Dorgler in Unsplash

In 1970 Japan built homes of the future where each capsule would be replaceable. Half a century later he discovered that no one knew how to repair them

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In 1970, during the Osaka World Expomillions of people lined up to enter pavilions where Japan showed how it imagined the 21st century: domestic video calls, automated cities, assistant robots and modular homes capable of changing over time. That event was so impressive that many visitors came away convinced that the future was going to arrive much sooner than expected. The spaceship that Japan wanted. In 1972, in the heart of Tokyo, a building appears that seemed to have landed from the future. The Nakagin Capsule Tower It was unlike anything of its time: two concrete towers covered by 140 metal capsules with circular windows, like a stack of futuristic washing machines or a block of space modules suspended over Ginza. The architect Kisho Kurokawa He imagined those capsules as replaceable homes that could be removed and replaced every 25 years, just as an organism renews its cells. The idea perfectly summed up the Japanese postwar optimism: mutable cities, living architecture and a future where houses would function more as interchangeable pieces than as permanent buildings. Half a century later, Japan discovered something much more uncomfortable: no one really knew how to repair that vision of the future. Nakagin Capsule Tower The metabolic dream. The Nakagin was born within the Metabolist movementa Japanese architectural movement obsessed with constant change. After the destruction of World War II, architects like Kurokawa wanted break with the western idea of eternal buildings of stone and brick. Japan lived with earthquakes, fires and permanent reconstructions. For them, the city had to behave like a living being capable of growing, adapting and transforming. The capsules were the perfect symbol of that philosophy. Each module It measured just ten square meters and included a bed, folding desk, compact bathroom, Sony television and even a tape player. They were aimed at typical Tokyo office workers who wanted a small urban retreat during the week, avoiding hours of travel to the suburbs. Kurokawa saw those capsules as the beginning of a new way of ultramobile life where people would change their homes just as they change their technology. Interior of one of the capsules The problem: the future cannot be dismantled. The great irony of the Nakagin is that the central element of its design it never worked. The capsules had to be periodically undocked and replaced with more modern versions, allowing the building to survive for centuries. On paper it seemed brilliant, but in practice It was almost impossible. Individual capsules could not be removed without disassembling all those that were on top, the costs were gigantic and the system hid structural problems that worsened over time. The joints began to rust, constant leaks appeared, and asbestos complicated any serious attempt at renovation. As Tokyo continued to move towards the 21st century, that supposed architecture of tomorrow began to look an aged relic from an old science fiction. The capsules that were supposed to be renovated like Lego pieces ended up converted into small corroded boxes where there were hardly any permanent residents left. Entrance to the Tower From futuristic utopia to cult ruin. As the decades passed, Nakagin stopped functioning as a residential experiment and began to transform into something else: a work of worship. Architects, photographers, designers and tourists arrived fascinated by that impossible building that continued to resist in the middle of Ginza like a time capsule from the 70s. Many apartments were used as creative studioswarehouses or simple occasional shelters. The community that formed around the building ended up being almost more important than its original use. Some residents organized guided tours, parties and campaigns to save the tower as the deterioration continued. In fact, Francis Ford Coppola, Keanu Reeves and numerous international artists They visited the complex attracted by that strange mix of decadence and futurism. What had failed as a practical solution survived as a cultural icon. Demolishing a utopian future. In 2022 it finally started the disassembly of the Nakagin Capsule Tower. The images were almost poetic: cranes tearing off the capsules one by one, as if they were dismantling an abandoned space station. Most were destroyed, but a small group of owners and preservationists managed to save 23 modules. Some have been completely restored with their original televisions, telephones and furniture, others have ended up in museums, galleries, hotels or exhibitions spread across Japan, Europe and the United States. Paradoxically, Kurokawa’s idea ended up being fulfilled otherwise: The capsules did end up separating and traveling around the world, although not as part of a living city, but as fossils from a future that never came to exist. The failure that changed architecture. The Nakagin It failed as a building, but triumphed as an idea. It inspired capsule hotels, modular architecture, and much of the contemporary obsession with micro-apartments and flexible spaces. Furthermore, its influence can be traced in high-tech projects later and even in current debates on sustainability and compact housing. What is fascinating is that the building simultaneously demonstrated two opposite things: that futuristic architecture can be decades ahead of its time… and that a vision that is too advanced can also become impossible to maintain in the real world. Japan dreamed of housing where each apartment would be replaceable and adaptable forever, and in the end he discovered that he had built something much stranger: a masterpiece of the future condemned to age before the future itself. Image | David Meenagh, Jordy Meow, Kestrel, Dick Thomas Johnson In Xataka | The incredible story of the tallest building on the planet that ended up becoming the largest swimming pool in the Soviet Union In Xataka | After the Guggenheim fever in Bilbao, Alcorcón wanted to replicate its success with a megaproject in 2004. It ended very badly.

We knew that octopuses were very intelligent. But not to the point of having a “brain” in each arm

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Octopuses are invertebrate animals, but the absence of a central nervous system like that of birds or mammals does not make their brains less interesting than the rest. Brains, emphasizing the plural since neuronal systems of each of its extremities They have a degree of independence, which leads many to consider them as such. A nervous system not at all central. In January 2025, a group of researchers has studied the nervous systems of these cephalopods to better understand how these nine neural organs operate together and to what extent they maintain their independence. What they observed is that each of these brains had the ability to operate individually. The team responsible for the study believes that it is thanks to the unique segmentation of the nervous system of octopuses that these animals achieve the level of skill in the management of extremely flexible organs that serve these animals to move, feed, sense their environment, and even copulate. “If you are going to have a nervous system that is going to control such dynamic movement, that is a good way to organize it,” explained in a press release Clifton Ragsdale, co-author of the study. “We think it’s a feature that evolved specifically in soft-bodied cephalopods with suction cups to carry out these worm-like movements.” Studying segmentation. The study focused on segmentation of this curious neuronal system, analyzing the distribution and function of the neurons in these arms, taking as reference an octopus of the species Octopus bimaculatus. Neurons that together add up to a greater number than the neurons located in the “central brain” of the animal, which is responsible for coordinating actions that require the use of various arms. These neurons in the extremities are concentrated, explains the teaminto an axial nerve chord (ANC), which “snakes” the limb to each of the animal’s suction cups. Neural columns. The ANC analysis showed that neurons in the octopus’s limbs were grouped into “columns” that in turn formed segments that the team compared to corrugated pipes. The segments were in turn separated by gaps called “septa” from which nerves and blood vessels made their way to the muscles of the limb. “From a modeling perspective, the best way to organize a control system for this long and flexible arm would be to divide it into segments,” Cassady Olson added.co-author of the study. “There must be some kind of communication between the segments, which you can imagine attenuates their movements.” Job details can be found in an article published in the magazine Nature Communications. Much to investigate. In fact, a subsequent joint study between Florida Atlantic University and the Marine Biological Laboratory analyzed 4,000 arm movements, captured on video, from three different species and came to a surprising conclusion: although all arms can perform any movement, according to his research, the front arms are used for exploration, while the rear arms are used for everything that has to do with movement. The arms of octopuses are very versatile limbs that allow this animal to navigate the seabed, but also, through their suction cups, allow these octopods to perceive the world around them, hunt and feed on their prey. Knowing the details of the functioning of such complex limbs will still require new research. In Xataka | Octopuses are not aliens, and scientists have had to come out to explain why Image | Theasereje, CC BY-SA 4.0 This article was originally published in 2025, but we have updated it with new information

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

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