lack

We have been blaming mobile phones for myopia for years. Now we have a much more subtle suspect: lack of light

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It is quite a grandmother’s and mother’s phrase to hear that spending a long time in front of a screen or being very close to a book can cause us to develop a disease in the eyes like the myopia. However, science has long suspected that “close work” alone does not explain why myopia has become a global pandemic. The new. Now a revealing study has proposed a physiological mechanism that fits all the pieces of the puzzle together, placing the blame not only on what we look at, but on the amount of light that reaches the back of our eye while we do so. And the investigation is quite justified, since the data is scary. In Spain, 19% of children between 5 and 7 years old are already myopicand projections estimate that by 2050 half of the world’s population will need glasses. To stop this, we need to understand exactly the mechanism that produces myopia, and a team from New York has found the key. The famine of light. The work, recently published in the prestigious magazine Cell Reports by researchers, points to a fascinating concept in this case: the light deprivation hypothesis. Until now we knew that focusing on nearby objects is closely linked to the development of myopia. But what this study has measured with empirical precision is how the myopic eye reacts to the healthy eye during this process. What they have seen. The main finding is that myopes suffer from excessive accommodative pupillary constrictionthat is, when you look closely, the pupil becomes much smaller than normal. If we add to this that close-up work is usually done indoors where lighting rarely exceeds 500 lux, compared to 10,000 lux outdoors, the result is a lethal cocktail for the eye: the combination of dim light and a maximally contracted pupil causes the retina to “starve” due to lack of light. The short circuit. Here the question that logically must be asked is: Why does this lack of light cause the eye to grow abnormally, causing myopia? This is where the purest neuroscience comes in, since our retina processes the image through two main channels: the ON path that is activated with increases in light, and the OFF path, which reacts to shadows. In previous work from 2024, this same team had already shown that in myopic patients the ON pathways have serious deficits, since they are less sensitive and slower. Now the new hypothesis postulates a vicious circle in which, when reading or looking at a cell phone indoors, the pupil closes too much. And this is a problem, since chronic lack of light further weakens the retinal ON pathway, and this imbalance sends erroneous signals that ultimately promote elongation of the eyeball. The treatments. This proposal not only stands out for explaining the biological mechanism of myopia, but also unifies at once why the treatments that ophthalmologists They have been applying it empirically for years. One of the examples is spending time outdoors, but not because it cures, but because the sunlight is so intense that it more than compensates for having a small pupil, keeping the ON pathway stimulated and slowing the progression of myopia. Another example is the use of atropine drops in children to stop myopia thanks to the dilation of the pupil so that more light enters the retina. The same goes for multifocal lenses that are used to reduce accommodation effort, since the pupil does not need to constrict as excessively. It is not definitive. As is almost always the case in science, this work does not demonstrate a direct coincidence yet, but rather offers us an incredibly solid and plausible physiological mechanism supported by very robust data on the behavior of our pupil and neural pathways. But there is still a way to go with new long-term studies to confirm the hypothesis 100%. While we wait for those results, the practical conclusion seems clearer than ever: the problem is not just the tablet or the book. The problem is doing it in the dark, so if you are going to strain your eyes up close, make sure you turn on a good lamp and, above all, don’t forget to go out into the sun. Images | Akshit Dhasmana In Xataka | Denialism has reached one of the last corners of science still free of it: seeing glasses

Snacking between meals is not a lack of will, but a battle that we lose in our brain

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A fairly typical scene in the lives of some people can unfold in the middle of the afternoon or even after dinner, where an inner force drags us to the pantry or the refrigerator to have some chocolate or some small pecking. And although this is something that we try to justify within a “lack of will”the reality is that our brain and hormones are fighting a battle with us in which we usually lose. And to understand what is happening here, you have to look at the scientific literature. A sleep problem. Blame lack of sleep of an imbalance in our hormones is undoubtedly one of the most solid pillars of current metabolic medicine, and the truth is that it is not any type of myth. This is something that was evidenced in a study published in 2004 which showed that when healthy young people restricted their hours of sleep, an endocrine disaster occurred. Here, your levels of leptinwhich is the hormone that sends the satiety signal to the brain so that we stop eating, plummet, while ghrelinwhich is the hormone that tells us to keep eating, it shoots. Greater intake. The result here cannot be other than consumption of 328 extra kcal per day through snackslooking almost exclusively for quickly absorbed carbohydrates because our brain is telling us that we need foods that provide us with energy quickly. Although in truth it is something that is not needed, so these foods directly end up forming more fat deposits. A more recent review goes further and confirms that even a single night of bad sleep is enough to disrupt insulin and orexin, physiologically preparing us for a day of uncontrollable cravings. Eat dinner early. This is something that in many countries, such as France, is totally normal, but not in Spain. Here the science is pretty clear because it has been more than proven that our body does not process food in the same way at 2:00 p.m. as it does at 10:00 p.m. Here the different trials suggest that aligning our meals with circadian rhythms drastically modulates appetite hormones, so eating while our central biological clock is active reduces the average daily germin levels and increases satiety hormones in the evening. This is the same as what a study published in 2023 which confirms that eating at times aligned with sunlight improves the synchronization between the central biological clock and the peripheral clocks in the different organs. The message we should take home here is that eating early literally turns off the physiological desire to eat at midnight because the body understands that the eating cycle has ended and the repair cycle begins. Protein to calm satiety. In this case, the field of nutrition has stopped focusing only on calories to focus on the hormonal response that each food generates in our body. The different reviews suggest that eating around 25-30 grams of high-quality protein per meal not only optimizes muscle protein synthesis, but also suppresses appetite in the long term and, therefore, reduces the temptation to snack between meals. A 2020 meta-analysis corroborated Likewise, seeing that this amount of protein in a meal reduces ghrelin levels and increases the production of hormones that inhibit appetite, such as famous LPG-1 on which medications such as Ozempic. Stress and cortisol. Snacking has an important emotional and brutal stress management component, since it has surely happened to you that when you have more things on you that’s when you eat the most. This is where scientific literature defines hedonic hunger as the strong desire to eat for pure pleasure, in the total absence of physical need for calories in our body. And the blame lies in the extra production of cortisol, which is the hormone classically related to stress. But the most interesting thing here is that in people who eat because of an “emotional” desire and not because of a physiological need, it was seen that when they already saw that a stressful situation was going to come (such as exam time for students), ghrelin levels increased. In this way, if you are nervous, bored or mentally tired, the brain will ask for food rich in fats and sugars, such as sweets, as a dopaminergic compensation mechanism. And here it is not that you are hungry, but that there is great stress. Images | Madalyn Cox Denny Muller In Xataka | We believed that a vegetarian diet guaranteed longevity. In extreme old age, the data says just the opposite

In Mejorada del Campo there is a cathedral built from scratch by a single man. Now it has closed due to lack of permits

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There are crazy projects and then there is the one undertaken 65 years ago by Justo Gallego on a plot of land in Mejorada del Campo, a town in 25,000 inhabitants of the Community of Madrid. In October 1961 Justo, a farmer and former monk without the slightest experience in architecture, embarked on the titanic task of building a temple from scratch. At first it was going to be a hermitage, but over time the project aimed at something much more ambitious: a Christian cathedral. A cathedral built without formal plans and with more will than means. Against all odds the temple is a reality today. In fact, it has not been the technical or logistical challenges that have complicated the dream of Justo, who died four years ago. Their big problem is municipal permits. The same ones that have now led the Mejorada City Council to close down the building. What has happened? That the one known as ‘Justus Cathedral’ has had to close its doors. The City Council of the municipality in which it is located, Mejorada del Campo, has ordered the cessation of all public use of the building, a veto that will be maintained in theory until its current managers (the Messengers of Peace organization) obtain the permits that it now lacks. What does that imply? The news has advanced it The Worldwhich clarifies that the Madrid City Council has made the decision after verifying that the building was operating without permits. On their website, Messengers of Peace confirm that the cathedral “will remain closed while waiting for the license to be processed.” Until then you will not be able to receive visitors or engage in any other public use, including the distribution of food for vulnerable people. The NGO has already contacted Cáritas to use its Mejorada del Campo facilities and that the municipal veto does not stop the work that was being carried out in the cathedral. Why now? The ‘Justus Cathedral’ is not new, it has been a popular icon for years (in 2005 it appeared in an Aquarius spot) and Messages of Peace took over the premises five years ago. So… Why is it closing now? The explanation must be sought in municipal offices. A few weeks ago a foundation consulted the City Council about the necessary permits to organize an artistic exhibition in the temple. By doing so, he launched the administrative machinery that ended up leading to the closure order. And what is the reason? That in reality the temple does not have the necessary permits. “Urbanism confirmed that the cathedral lacks licenses and that there was no processing in progress, which prevented the activity and led to the opening of a file that concluded with the closure order,” they explain from the Town Hall The World. The decision was transferred a few days ago to Messengers. In reality, the NGO had already moved to regulate the situation of the building, but did not present a key document: an architectural project endorsed by the Official College of Architects of Madrid. The Europa Press agency clarify Once this administrative requirement is met, the City Council will review the closure. The NGO already anticipates that it will deliver “as many documents as are required.” Why is it news? That a temple ceases its activity due to lack of municipal permits is curious, but it would not have made it past the pages of the local Madrid press. If the closure of the ‘Justus Cathedral’ has awakened so much interest It is because it is not just any cathedral. In fact it is not a ‘cathedral’ as such. Last September the NGO itself I remembered that in reality the building houses a “social center” that does not have official recognition by the Catholic Church as a cathedral. It has not even been consecrated as a temple. “It is a community space that welcomes social, cultural and spiritual initiatives,” needed then Messengers of Peace. The clarification was not free. It arrived shortly after skip the controversy for the opening of a mosque in the building. The decision generated such a stir that the NGO founded by the media Father Angel had to clarify that it is a “inter-religious prayer space” located in an annex at the request of the Muslim community. Are there more reasons? Yes. Beyond its religious status or uses, the Mejorada temple generates interest for his story. After all, it is not every day that you see a cathedral building built basically by the efforts of a single man, a farmer with no experience in masonry who in 1961 began building it to fulfill a religious promise. Without plans. With more will than means. In the 90s the temple was already so advanced that it began to arouse curiosity beyond Madrid: in 2004 Justo received an invitation to participate in an exhibition in New York, in 2005 he starred in an Aquarius campaign and in 2017 it reached the pages of The New York Times. The former monk died in 2021 and the property was passed to Messengers of Peace for completion. Images | Messengers of Peace, Wikipedia and M. Peinado (Flickr) In Xataka | It has been difficult but he has achieved it: the Sagrada Familia has just become the roof of Christianity in the world

We have plenty of electricity, but we lack cables to build houses and invest more

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Over the last decade, Spain has accelerated the installation of wind and solar farms, especially in “emptied Spain”, with the promise of becoming Europe’s green laboratory. However, upon reaching 2026, the system has hit an invisible but insurmountable wall: the cables. The reason is a “broken bridge”, since clean energy is born in the countryside, but does not reach the cities or factories because the transportation infrastructure does not exist or is saturated. The situation is critical. According to advance The Economistthe Spanish electricity grid has administratively “collapsed” and, for practical purposes, is closed to new projects. There is no longer room to accommodate new connection requests, which means that thousands of homes, data centers and industries are receiving a “no” answer when asking for a plug. Red Eléctrica’s technical documentation confirms this paralysis with endless lists of nodes submitted to a capacity contest, from Algeciras to Arrigorriaga, evidencing a blockade that runs through the entire peninsula. The “D-Day” that never came. The trigger for this crisis has a date and time. The electricity sector was anxiously awaiting February 2, 2026, the day on which the National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) was to publish the new access capacity maps, the “traffic light” that indicates where there is more consumption. But the maps did not arrive. In a last-minute maneuver, the CNMC has postponed the publication until Monday, May 4, 2026. The decision responds to a critical alert launched by the system operator (REE) on January 26: under the new and strict technical criteria, “approximately 90% of the nodes in the transportation network would have zero access capacity.” The problem is deeper. On the one hand, the application of the “dynamic criterion” has revealed that more than 9 GW of already authorized demand—mainly data centers and electrolyzers—might not be sufficiently robust against “voltage dips” (sudden drops in voltage), which forces the tap to be turned off for safety. On the other hand, consensus is non-existent: Red Eléctrica and the distributors they have only achieved agree on the reference values ​​in 26% of the interconnection nodes, a figure that in the case of some distributors plummets to just 11%. A traffic jam with real consequences. Far from being a mere dispatch procedure, it has devastating consequences for the real economy. The energy plug has become the new brake on brick: Last year only 12% of connection requests for new urban developments were granted. The Asprima employers’ association estimates that some 350,000 homes are at risk of not being able to be built, not due to lack of land or money, but due to the simple lack of electrical power. The impact has specific faces. An example that they expose in The Economist is that of the Costa del Sol, where the delay in the construction of a substation in Estepona and its associated line keeps the quality of supply and the connection capacity of a total of 72 families in suspense. The investment war. There is a chronic lack of investment in basic infrastructure. While Europe invests on average 70 cents in networks for every euro of renewable generation, Spain remains at just 30 cents. This has unleashed an open war. The large electricity companies (Aelec) accuse Red Eléctrica (Redeia) of having invested below what was planned, causing the current precariousness. Redeia defends himself forcefullyensuring that it has quadrupled its investment to exceed 1.5 billion in 2025. In addition, the system operator uses devastating quality data to deny the poor state of the network: the average annual interruption time is just 0.46 minutes, a value 30 times better than the 15 minutes required by regulations. The speculative bubble. Amidst the chaos, speculation flourishes. The CNMC is finalizing a complete report—a kind of “forensic” audit—to put order in the system. According to Expansionthere are access requests for 67,100 MW, an exorbitant figure that is equivalent to half of all the installed power in the country. The regulator suspects that there are massive duplications and “ghost” projects that hoard nodes for the sole purpose of reselling permits, blocking access to real industries. Three months of heart attack. Given the seriousness of the scenario, the sector now faces a three-month truce, until May, to try to avoid the total closure of the network. Express legal route. The recent Sustainable Mobility Law has introduced an “emergency mechanism” which allows changing the purpose of positions in substations. That is, unlock spaces reserved for generation that are not used and assign them to consumption quickly. “Amnesty” for Data Centers. To prevent the flight of digital investment, the Government has activated a grace measure for 2026: has eliminated the requirement that forced data centers to consume in “off-peak hours” (at night) to receive aid, recognizing that solar energy has changed the reality of prices and that said requirement no longer made technical sense. Cost for the citizen: fixing the network it won’t be free. The proposal for 2026 includes an increase in tolls (4%) and charges (10.5%) in the electricity bill to finance these investments and the “reinforced mode” of operation, necessary to guarantee stability after the incidents of 2025. Crisis of institutional trust. Despite the extension, legal uncertainty is latent. Electricity companies fear that industries that already had access granted they can lose it when applying the new, more restrictive criteria. Óscar Mosquera, sector expert, warns on LinkedIn about a “regulatory breakdown.” “The network is no longer just infrastructure, it is an institution,” says Mosquera. His diagnosis is lapidary: “A system that invites investment and then does not connect is not prudent, it is incoherent. That is the true country risk.” While the administration looks for solutions, real demand does not wait for the bureaucracy. Joaquin Coronado highlights that the electricity demand It has grown by 3.7% at the start of January 2026, exceeding the official forecasts of the CNMC itself. The Spanish economy tries to accelerate, but physical reality prevents it. A country disconnected from its own future. Spain finds itself at an ironic and … Read more

lack of electrical capacity

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For decades, the major obstacles to housing construction in Spain have almost always been the same: land, permits, financing or administrative deadlines. Today, a new limit has been added to that list, less visible and much more difficult to overcome. In many parts of the country, promotions with approved planning and projects ready to start are stopped before moving a single machine. Not because of a lack of buyers or because of urban problems, but because they cannot connect to the electrical grid. Without this permit, there is no development or work possible. What seemed like a technical procedure has become an unexpected wall. And it happens more and more frequently. The grid says “no”: the collapse of electrical capacity. The data confirms that this is not a one-time problem. Spain is going through structural saturation of its electrical distribution network, which is blocking new residential developments in much of the territory. According to the electrical employers’ association Aelecin 2024 the urban sector requested around 6.7 gigawatts (GW) of access and connection to the electrical grid for new housing developments. At the end of the year, only a very small part of those applications were approved. Around 40% were directly rejected due to lack of capacity, and another significant percentage was still in process. The traffic jam was not corrected in 2025. On the contrary, according to the employeronly 12% of requests for access and connection to the electrical grid have been granted. In total, around 40 gigawatts have been requested, of which 66% could not be met due to lack of capacity, a fact that reinforces the idea that the problem is no longer temporary, but structural. The diagnosis is clear for the promoter sector. The Association of Real Estate Developers of Madrid, ASPRIMA, estimates that the capacity corresponding to the applications denied in 2024 is equivalent to approximately 350,000 homes throughout Spain that are at risk of not being able to be urbanized, at least within the planned deadlines. The situation did not improve the following year. Although the data disaggregated by sector is not yet known, as El Mundo has detailedthe rejection rate for all applications for network access – including industry, urban planning, data centers or electric mobility – has increased to 66%, compared to 49% the previous year. A problem that spreads throughout the territory. The electricity blockade especially affects large cities, where the demand for housing is higher and residential developments are concentrated. Madrid, Barcelona, ​​Valencia and Seville are among the areas with the highest volume of rejected urban planning applications, as El Mundo has had access. But the problem is not limited to large urban centers. Entire provinces have critical levels of saturation. The capacity maps of the distribution network confirm this x-ray. The latest update shows that more than 88% of electrical nodes medium and low voltage networks are already saturated, which prevents the connection of new residential consumers. Why has it reached this point? The causes of the collapse are multiple and have accumulated over time. One of the main ones is the mismatch between urban planning and electrical planning. As ASPRIMA explainedresidential developments advance on paper without the network being prepared to absorb the new demand, forcing developers to assume unforeseen reinforcements or wait for network expansions that can take years. Added to this imbalance is a simultaneous increase in electricity demand coming from several fronts: industrial electrification, data centerselectric mobility, self-consumption and energy rehabilitation of the housing stock. According to Endesa datamore than 50% of connection requests are being rejected due to insufficient capacity. Regulation is another link in the traffic jam. The current system prioritizes the order of arrival (“first come, first served”), regardless of the degree of maturity of the projects. There are also long and rigid power reserves, as well as points with physically available capacity that are not used due to regulatory barriers, what is known as “idle capacity”. All of this is based on an infrastructure designed for an energy system very different from the current one. As We have pointed out in several analyzes in Xatakafor every euro invested in electricity generation, barely 40 cents are allocated to networks, when the energy transition requires just the opposite: strengthening transportation and distribution. A lot of land, little capacity to connect it. The contrast between potential and reality is striking. Spain has classified residential land with theoretical capacity for up to seven million homes, but only a minimal fraction is in a position to be developed in the short term. According to the Atlas Reanalytics report87% of potential homes lack immediate access to the electrical grid, which limits their viability even in advanced phases of urban management. The average time to transform land into housing exceeds twenty years in most provinces. In other words, the problem is not just how much land is available, but what infrastructure goes along with it. Unlocking the bottleneck. Given this scenario, ASPRIMA has prepared a report with 16 measures to unlock thousands of homes through regulatory and operational changes in the electrical infrastructure. The proposals are grouped into five large areas: network planning, optimization of existing capacity, administrative streamlining, certainty in the execution of infrastructure and review of cost distribution. From the electricity sector they agree that the problem requires an urgent response. Aelec, together with Deloitte, calls for more investment in networksmore advance and flexible planning and a stable regulatory framework that facilitates the financing of new infrastructures. It also proposes taking advantage of underused capacity in the transportation network and accelerating permits and reinforcements. An impact that goes beyond construction. The saturation of the electrical network not only affects the promotion of new housing. It also threatens electrification and improving the efficiency of the existing residential stock. Today, the residential sector concentrates the 18% of final energy consumption and continues to rely heavily on fossil fuels for air conditioning. Without a network capable of absorbing new demand, it will be difficult to deploy technologies such as … Read more

Everyone blames the manufacturers for the lack of memory. Micron says real bottleneck lies elsewhere

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For months, memory shortage It has established itself in the technological debate as one of those phenomena that do not seem to need too many explanations. If RAM is missing and prices risethe immediate conclusion is that someone is privileging AI and leaving the consumer aside. That idea has resonated strongly, especially after visible decisions that have affected the domestic channel and have reinforced the feeling of abandonment. But when you get down to how memory is manufactured and kept stable today, the diagnosis becomes less obvious: the bottleneck doesn’t seem as obvious as it seems. A controversial decision. In this climate of widespread suspicion, Micron has become a preferred target, shared with other large manufacturers, but for a very specific and recent decision: the announcement of the end of Crucial consumer products. The company recently announced that will stop selling RAM memory and storage under that historic brand, with shipments expected through February 2026. For many users, that move was interpreted as a direct consumer recall just when memory is short. Micron justified that decision by noting that AI-driven growth in data centers has skyrocketed demand and that Crucial’s exit seeks to improve supply and support to its strategic customers in higher-growth segments. The market has changed size. From Micron’s perspective, the problem is not a renunciation of consumption, but an abrupt change in the scale of the market. Christopher Moore, vice president of marketing for the client and mobile business, He said in an interview with Wccftech that the company continues to have a relevant presence in PCs and mobile devices, while serving data centers. What has altered the balance is the growth of the data center business, driven by AI, which has gone from representing around 30% of the market to approaching, according to its figures, 50% or even 60%. That leap, he defends, has left the entire industry without sufficient margin. Variety also creates scarcity. For Micron, the bottleneck is not so much the lack of factories as how the existing ones are used. Moore explains that producing memory is not about making a single type of chip seamlessly, but rather about switching between multiple densities and configurations depending on what customers ask for. Each change, for example going from 12 GB to 16 GB modules or from 16 GB to 24 GB, forces lines to be readjusted and reduces the total output volume. In a context of skyrocketing demand, this variety, which was previously acceptable, becomes a direct brake on production. Micron’s new Idaho factory under construction Faced with the temptation to think that new factories will solve the problem, the manufacturer asks for patience. Moore explains that expanding memory capacity is not an immediate process, because it requires not only building facilities, but equipping them, validating them and certifying each product with customers. The company laid the first stone three years ago in its ID1 plant in IdahoUnited States, whose entry into operation is scheduled for mid-2027. Even so, it warns that there will be no significant impact on supply until the entire qualification process is complete, which it places in 2028. Crucial is gone, the channel is not. Moore assures that, although Crucial has disappeared from the consumer showcase, the company continues to provide memory to major PC and mobile device brands through channels less visible to the end user. This OEM channel, in which Micron supplies memory directly to integrators and manufacturers, concentrates a very relevant part of the market and ends up being incorporated into commercial designs and equipment. From their point of view, the consumer continues to receive Micron memory, even if it no longer does so under a recognizable label. With this panorama, the lack of memory ceases to be a problem of isolated decisions and is revealed as the result of several overlapping tensions. AI-driven demand for data centers that has changed the scale of the market, operational limits on production and long lead times to expand capacity explain why supply will remain tight for years. Micron places the relief horizon no earlier than 2028 and, until then, the consumer will live with fewer options and pressured prices. The bottleneck, the company insists, is not only in who buys the memory, but in how it is manufactured. Images | Micron In Xataka | The situation with RAM prices is so desperate that there are already those who build their own memory at home

The problem with animal experimentation is not a lack of ethics, it is that science still does not have a plan B

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Scientific research is very necessary for a society to advance with new treatments to alleviate diseases, for example. But there is a big problem behind it that still lingers and that for many people may be incomprehensible: the use of laboratory animals to test these new advances before doing them in humans. And, as recognized by the Spanish scientific community: “we would use alternative methods if we could.” A paradox. Although we live in a time in which artificial intelligence and bioengineering dominate the current paradigm of society, we continue to depend on a frame designed in 1959 to validate whether a drug is safe or not. This happens for the use of animal experimentationwhich has been a major ethical conflict within science for years. The problem is that despite all the advances that exist, the use, for example, of a laboratory mouse cannot be replaced due to the lack of an alternative that is as complete as this one. The problem. The regulatory framework that is currently on the table focuses on the 3R principle proposed by Russell and Burch more than 60 years ago: Replacement, Reduction and Refinement. A theory that a priori seems quite noble, since In a few words it can be summarized in: if you can not use animals, don’t use them; If you have to use them, use as few as possible; and if you use them, do them as little damage as possible. However, as science itself has analyzed, this framework has become ‘procedural’. That is to say, it has become a list of bureaucratic tasks that legitimizes the use of animals under the pretext that it is a necessary evil that we must assume to continue advancing as a society. The ethics. The bioethical analyzes carried out on this matter focus on the type of studies that are approved to use animals. And it is not analyzed at this point whether it will contribute much or little to scientific knowledge, but rather how the proposed experiment is designed. This way, if an experiment is well designed, it is approved to use animals. All this despite the fact that their contribution to knowledge is marginal or insignificant. Something that creates an “ethical hole”: we continue to assume certain animal harm in exchange for an uncertain or diffuse human benefit. The great promise. If ethics pushes us to change, technology should give us the tool to do so. This is where NAMs (New Approach Methods) come into play, which focus on AI simulations of organisms, organs on a chip or organoids. In this way, we can understand this advance as the cultivation of mini-brains or human kidneys in the laboratory to work with them. Something that on paper seems like a great idea, since we would be testing drugs with human cells directly, eliminating the problem of testing on a different species. The problem. When we go down to the technical detail, we find a large wall in front of us. As the experts explainthese technologies cover specific niches, such as the damage that a drug can do to the liver, but they cannot replicate the entire film. Because an organism is not only the effect on an organ, but how all the systems that we have interconnected influence. The problems encountered They can mainly be summarized in several points: There is no possibility of creating a blood system that cleans the tissue and nourishes it as occurs in the real organism. There is no immune or nervous system that can react to the drug or generate pain in an organ. In a chip with an ‘organ’ inside, the effect of the drug cannot be simulated several years from now. Prohibited areas. With all these points, there are fields as important as autoimmune diseases (when the body attacks its own cells) where These models are irreplaceable. All this because it is necessary to see the simultaneous interaction of all the organs in a living being. Regulation. Currently there are different organizations that try to prevent a drug from killing a person, such as the FDA in the United States and the EMA in Europe. Both agencies to approve a trial of a drug in humans demand massive security data that are taken from the animals themselves. In this way, the alternatives are not used massively because they are not validated by these organizations that require the use of animal models in their standards. An attitude that perpetuates the system, which for many is truly crazy, since science depends on animals if it wants to continue developing drugs that improve the lives of citizens. All this because no committee places more value on the life of a mouse than that of a human. The future. In the short term we will not see a big change in this aspect. Organoids and AI It does not seem that they are going to suddenly replace animal modelsbut will act as complementary systems to reduce the number used in laboratories. Images | Matthew Mejia In Xataka | Researchers removed Instagram and TikTok from 300 young people to see if their anxiety decreased. The results speak for themselves

They depend on road transport and there is a lack of 3.6 million truck drivers

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Today almost everything you buy, from supermarket food to the latest mobile phone, has traveled by truck before reaching your hands, and in Europe three out of every four tons of goods move by road. 75% of the goods are transported by road and 85% of the transportation of perishable products is done in fleets of trucks that, currently, do not have enough drivers. The International Road Transport Organization (IRU) calculate that in 36 countries that add up to around 70% of the world’s GDP there are 3.6 million truck driver vacancies, which represents around 7% of the total existing positions. With the progressive aging of the templates, the problem it’s not going to get better in the coming years. One million truck drivers by 2026. For Europe, the IRU predicts that in 2026 there will be a shortage of around one million professional truck drivers. Meanwhile the rise of online commerce demand has skyrocketed of road transport and, according to calculations presented by IRU, the volume transported in Europe will grow by approximately 11% until 2030, which aggravates the tension between the supply of drivers and the real needs of the market. The data provided by IRU show that the driver shortage is a structural problem that affects America, Asia and Europe equally and is not limited to a specific crisis in the road transport sector. Sector sources warn that, if decisive action is not taken, the number of vacancies could exceed seven million drivers by 2028, with 4.9 million unfilled positions in China, about 745,000 in Europe and around 200,000 in Turkey. “If concerted and continuous measures are not taken, this demographic time bomb will explode, seriously affecting economic growth and competitiveness around the world,” said Umberto de Pretto, secretary general of the IRU in his report. Spain needs 30,000 drivers. This lack of professional drivers It is already visible in Spain, where it is estimated that there are around 30,000 unfilled truck driver positions and around 4,700 additional vacancies in bus transportation to meet the growing demand. The IRU and national carrier associations warn that, if the trend continues, the combination of more cargo to move and fewer available drivers could translate into uncovered routes, delays in deliveries and strong pressure on transportation costs. An aging sector with little relief. One of the underlying problems is the age of those who are already working behind the wheel of a truck. In Europe, the average age of drivers is around 47 years old, while in Spain the average is over 50 years old. 50% of Spanish truck drivers are over 55 years old. IRU points out that some 3.4 million truck drivers on the continent will retire in the coming years, which means that millions of professionals will leave the sector in a relatively short period, further aggravating the shortage of labor for the transport of goods. Without quarry. At the same time, the freight transport sector does not have a enough generational change. Less than 12% of professional truck drivers are under 25 years of age on a global scale and in Europe that percentage falls to around 5%, with countries such as Spain or Poland where those under 25 years of age barely represent around 3% of the workforce. To attract new drivers, some governments have begun to make moves, although for now in a limited way. In Spain aid has been approved up to 3,000 euros per person to get a truck permit or class C and D bus. Job improvements. Faced with a scenario of labor shortage, professional drivers’ associations they regret the few proposals aimed at improving the working conditions of professionals. According to a study by the transportation sector employment platform TDRJobs, salary increases (24.3%) and improved working conditions (22.1%) are among the main reasons for driver turnover. In Xataka | That Japan has 100,000 people over 100 years old explains a problem: they are literally running out of drivers. Image | Unsplash (Konstantin Kitsenuik)

The lack of generational change has opened a job opportunity for thousands of young people in Spain: bus driver

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The driver shortage In Spain and Europe it has generated an opportunity for those looking for a stable and well-paid job. Municipal companies are fighting to hire new talents who want to train as drivers of their city buses. The lack of generational change in passenger transportation is a problem that affects many local companies, which cannot fill the vacancies left by retiring drivers. The shortage of drivers in Spain and Europe. According to published data According to the European employment body EURES, in 2023 there were 105,000 vacancies for bus and coach drivers in Europe, which represents 10% of all positions in the sector and an increase in vacancies of 54% compared to the previous year. In Spain the situation is not better. The driver shortage already an officially recognized structural problem. The deficit affects both the freight and passenger transport sectors, and contrasts with the surplus in other professions such as administrative or technical personnel. The forecasts of the transport sector is that, by 2026, 37,000 new bus drivers and about 126,000 truck drivers will be needed. Why are there drivers missing? Among the structural factors that aggravate the shortage of drivers, the absence of a generational change. According to a report According to the Spanish Bus Transport Confederation (CONFEBUS), the aging of the workforce is one of the main reasons for this shortage. Data recorded by the International Road Transport Union (IRU) included in the EURES report indicated that, in many European countries, less than 5% of drivers are under 25 years old. Furthermore, the incorporation of women to the sector is very low, since only 12% of drivers in the EU are women. He sector It estimates that it will need about 24,000 new drivers per year to compensate for the rate of retirement of current staff. CONFEBUS also recognizes that working conditions in the sector Nor have they helped to attract young people: long hours, irregular shifts, temporary contracts and poor family conciliation. Access to training and certification is another obstacle, since the obtaining the CAP or the D permit entails a high cost, especially for young people or migrants who do not have sufficient economic resources and find there a barrier to accessing these jobs. Government aid for training. Precisely to alleviate this economic obstacle when obtaining permission to transport goods and passengers, the Government has promoted a Royal Decree which gives the green light to the Reconduce Plan, which offers aid of up to 3,000 euros to cover the costs of training and obtaining a bus or truck driver’s license. This helps is directed to people who want to train in the road transport sector and is available to cover the costs of the necessary courses and exams. The conditions to access this aid include being registered in the National Youth Guarantee System and meeting the age and training requirements demanded by the Ministry of Transport. Driverless buses. Faced with a prospect of constant staff shortages due to the progressive aging of the population, more and more city councils are deciding to start pilot tests with autonomous buses on their streets, not without some reluctance among the current driver templates. For example, in August the first test of this style was launched in Barcelona, ​​allowing a driverless bus to cover a short 10-minute stretch in open traffic. Our colleague Iván Linares tried it in first person. Madrid has just started a similar test autonomous bus, although in this case its scope of circulation is limited to Mercamadrid. These projects seek to modernize urban transportation and guarantee mobility, although they are still in the experimental phase, so they do not represent a short-term solution to the problem of driver shortages. In Xataka | Barcelona has grown tired of fining 80 cars a day for invading the bus lane. So he’s going to start monitoring them with AI Image | Wikimedia Commons (KingValid04)

The lack of additives at low-cost gas stations does not keep drivers up at night. That’s why Moeve wants to be more Ballenoil

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Moeve has changed its strategy and has done so in a big way. In just 12 months, the company has converted 50 of its service stations traditional to Ballenoil, its low-cost brand. And since this type of gas stations began to become popular, the ‘lack’ of additives It has not been a concern for consumers who, above all, prioritize their pockets. The transformation has been especially intense since this summer, when the oil company decided to accelerate the process of further prioritizing its low-cost brand in strategic points throughout the Peninsula. Transformation. The old one Cepsa bought Ballenoil in November 2023 with a clear objective: to challenge Repsol for the crown, which maintains the largest share of the Spanish market. But it is not only about growing the number of gas stations. And it seems that Moeve has understood that the future involves being present in two worlds: the premium, where it maintains its traditional brand, and the low cost, where the customer seeks to fill the tank at a lower cost. From Moeve confirm to the Vozpópuli medium that “both premium and low cost are important to respond to the expectations of our customers.” The perfect timing. Although fuel prices have fallen since all-time highs which they reached after the Russian invasion of Ukraine (when they exceeded two euros per liter), continue to remain at high levels. The liter of 95 octane gasoline exceeds 1.45 euros on average and diesel is close to 1.40 euros, according to data from CincoDías. Logically, given the rise in fuel prices, many drivers are looking for specifically economical gas stations, and that is where the low-cost ones come in. All in a context in which traditional oil companies focus on attracting customers through their promises of premium fuel and additives. Figures. The integration of Ballenoil has made Moeve exceed 2,000 service stations in the Iberian Peninsula for the first time, reaching 2,040 gas stations, according to 2024 financial data. The figure is expected to increase before the end of the year. The pace of transformation accelerated in June, when 16 stations changed their image in a single month. Just like affirms In the middle, during September and October the conversions continued, prioritizing territories where the company already has a greater presence. Madrid leads this transformation with nine gas stations that become Ballenoil, followed by Barcelona, ​​Navarra, Albacete, Ciudad Real, Granada, Seville and Badajoz. The Ballenoil network has also allowed Moeve to penetrate areas where it did not previously have a presence, especially in Catalonia, the Valencian Community, Andalusia and several regions of Castile. The rise of low cost. Low cost gas stations already represent 20% of all stations in Spain, according to inform the EconomíaDigital medium, with more than 2,400 installations spread throughout the country. As the media explains, the savings for the driver can exceed 0.18 euros per liter compared to traditional brands, a difference that ends up being noticed with each refueling. And the forecasts point high, which could mean a major structural change in the national oil panorama. Ballenoil, Plenergy and Petroprix are leading this transformation, betting on automated systems and simplified infrastructure that allow them to reduce costs. Manuel Sáez, CEO of Ballenoil, declared to CincoDías that the objective is to “exceed 380 operational service stations” in the second half of the year and “reach 500 throughout 2027.” Competence. Ballenoil has reached 350 service stations in Spain, becoming the leader in number of points of sale within the low cost segment. Plenergy follows closely, with 340 gas stations (331 in Spain and 9 in Portugal) and plans to reach 370 this year. However, Plenergy leads in business volume: closed 2024 with 1,385 million liters sold, a growth of 43% compared to the previous year. For its part, Petroprix, with 165 stations in Spain, has opted for a different strategy, prioritizing international expansion in markets such as Portugal, Chile, Panama and Poland. Cover image | engin akyurt In Xataka | Catalonia wants to make variable speed limits a reality. And he is already experimenting to improve the sleep of his neighbors

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