liquid

China bets on liquid air to stabilize its largest solar sea on the roof of the world

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In the vastness of Qinghai province, where the Tibetan plateau merges with the Gobi desert, dust and rock they have given up their domain to a mega-project of 610 square kilometers. This “sea of ​​silicon”—the size of the city of Madrid—is home to seven million photovoltaic panels that have transformed the ecosystem: the shade of the plates retains humidity and allows thousands of “photovoltaic sheep” graze today where before there was only sand. However, this massive deployment encountered a physical barrier. As researcher Wang Junjie explainssolar and wind energy are “random and intermittent”; When the sun sets in the Gobi, the power grid shakes. To stabilize this giant, China has gone beyond conventional lithium, betting on liquid air storage. White giants in the desert. On the outskirts of the city of Golmud, a row of white tanks stands sentinel against the horizon. It is the world’s largest liquid air energy storage (LAES) project, dubbed by Chinese media as the “Super Air Power Bank.” According to the Xinhua agencythis facility of the state-owned company China Green Development Investment Group (CGDG) has entered its final commissioning phase. It is not just any battery: its capacity is 60,000 kilowatts (60 MW) and it can release up to 600,000 kWh per cycle, a discharge capable of sustaining the daily consumption of tens of thousands of homes. Physics against lithium. Why has China opted for this technology instead of its popular lithium ion batteries? The answer lies in scale and geography. While lithium is ideal for mobile devices or cars, on an industrial scale it faces cost and degradation problems. Air has an advantage that is difficult to match: it is there and it costs nothing. AND, as CleanTechnica remindswhen it becomes liquid air its density skyrockets, up to 750 times more than that of normal air, which allows energy to be stored in large quantities without dams or geographical conditions. The alchemy of cold: From gas to liquid at -194°C. The operation of the system is a feat of cryogenic engineering. As detailed by Xinhuathe process is divided into three critical phases: Load (Compression): During the day, surplus solar from a nearby 250 MW plant powers giant compressors. The air is purified and cooled to -194 degrees Celsius (-317°F). At that extreme temperature, the air becomes liquid. Heat recovery: The heat generated during compression is stored in high-pressure spherical tanks to be reused. Discharge (Expansion): When electrical demand rises or the sun disappears, the liquid air heats up. When vaporized, its volume expands explosively (750 times), driving a turbine that generates electricity again for the grid. This cycle, according to researcher Wang Junjieachieves over 95% cold storage efficiency and 55% “round trip” efficiency, harnessing what would otherwise be waste heat and eliminating the need for rare materials. A global laboratory on the “roof of the world.” China is not the only nation in this race. The United Kingdom waits to complete a similar plant in Manchester by 2026, and South Korea too has made progress in this technology. However, the Chinese scale is, again, incomparable. However, the success of these projects in Qinghai is due to centralized planning which combines three sources: solar, wind and hydroelectric. At 3,000 meters above sea level, the cold, pure air improves the efficiency of the panels, and the electricity generated is already 40% cheaper than that of coal. This energy not only illuminates homes; It powers the data centers that power China’s Artificial Intelligence, using the plateau’s frigid air to cool the servers. From the factory to the engine of the world. As Professor Ningrong Liu reflectsChina no longer wants to be just the “factory of the world”, but the “engine” of that factory, exporting its engineering and its green network model. Golmud’s project It is the symbol of a paradox: the country that emits the most CO2 is also the one that builds the fastest carbon exit. In the silence of the Gobi, between cryogenic tanks and sheep herders, China is demonstrating that the air we breathe can literally be the fuel that sustains the 21st century. Image | freepik and Bureau of Land Management Xataka | On the roof of the world, China is building the largest solar park on the planet

Apple admits under his breath that Liquid Glass transparencies do not allow notifications to be seen: iOS 26.1 will solve it

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It has already been a month since Apple released the final version of iOS 26. The last major update promised “the biggest redesign in years” and debuted the Liquid Glass interface with that obsession with transparencies that we already saw that It didn’t do many favors for the readability of the icons and notifications. It wasn’t just our thing. The next iOS update will bring a new option to minimize the problem. The problem of transparencies We can argue if it looks good or not, but what cannot be denied is that the texts do not read well, or at least they read worse than before. It happens with the icons and, above all, with the notifications. For example, an image of the first beta of iOS 26: With dark backgrounds the problem is not so serious, but it is still less readable than if the background of the notifications were opaque. In its day we already told you a trick to return to having a more opaque designbut now the solution comes from Apple. The solution arrives with iOS 26.1 They tell it in 9to5Macwhere they have downloaded iOS 26.1 beta 4, which will be the next major system update. In it, there is a new option to adjust the interface design to make it more opaque. It is found in the Screen and Brightness menu and allows us Choose between a transparent or opaque look. Click on the image to go to the post in X. In the images you can see the difference between both options and how the entire appearance changes. According to Apple: “Choose your preferred look for Liquid Glass. Clear is more transparent and lets you see the content underneath. Tinting increases opacity and adds more contrast.” They don’t say there is a readability problem directly, but the simple fact that they release this option is a way to recognize the criticisms. Having more customization options is always good news. Yes indeed, Apple could have given us the option to choose the intensity between the two options. By applying one of the two, it will affect the entire system and also the apps that have implemented Liquid Glass. At the moment there is no confirmed release date for iOS 26.1, but taking into account that there are already four beta versions, it is expected to arrive very soon. According to 9to5Mac, that could be at the end of this week. In Xataka | iOS 26: 19 functions and some tricks to get the most out of the new operating system for your iPhone

I have tried iOS 26 for the first time and I have removed the transparent icons in minutes, but Liquid Glass is much more than that

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The day has come, iOS 26 It is already available and last night I left my cell phone updating while I slept. I did not installed the public beta, so when I woke up I have encountered A totally changed mobile. With the illusion of who opens new shoes, I have begun to navigate All news And these are my first impressions. Liquid Glass is more than icons (and less bad) Design is the great novelty of iOS 26. This is the most important change since iOS 7 in 2013, there is nothing. Apple has redesigned the entire interface, menus and native apps with the new design language to which Liquid Glass have baptized. My feeling in these first hours is that I had a wrong idea. Let’s see why. Icons by omission, dark, translucent and tired. The most striking thing is that we can now change the icons and, in addition to putting them with a light or dark background, it allows us to make them completely transparent. Transparent icons completely change the interface and is the first thing I have tried. I think it took three minutes to return to the “by omission” mode. Beyond tastes, transparent icons make everything be applauded and cost a lot to differentiate some apps from others. A design that costs us to read, is not a good design. If I had left them, I would have ended up getting used to where each app is, but it seems to me an unnecessary effort for something that I also do not find it especially groundbreaking. More than iOS, they remind me of any Personalized android theme. They called her Liquid Glass because “I can’t find my apps” it didn’t look good. The icons are optional, but transparencies affect the entire interface. My partner Ricardo was in charge of trying the beta when she was announced and had to suffer a much less polished interface. The contrast problem has been minimized And now notifications and other elements are more legible. Of course, if you choose a clear wallpaper, readability worsens. I recommend betting on a rather dark background. The Glow is subtle, but left over in normal icons What is still there is the effect Glow Around buttons and icons. With transparent icons it is necessary for us to see the edges well, but in normal icons with a clear background It gives the feeling that the edge is not well defined. Again, it is perceived more if we use clear wallpapers, even becoming annoying, as if there were a glare effect. Another striking novelty of the new design is the lock screen, especially the New elongated watch. This has seemed more interesting to me and I have left it configured. In addition, the depth effect is very achieved and is especially good if you use a portrait or a photo of your pet as a wallpaper. I had come countless times the starting screens with transparent icons and, without realizing it, I had formed the idea of ​​the interface was going to be illegiblebut beyond the icons, I think the design language is consistent and there are very interesting changes in some apps. Camera app and photos System applications have also been redesigned for the new visual language of Liquid Glass and I want to stop especially in the camera app and the APP photos. The camera app has changed a lot The first thing you think when opening the app is what has happened to the portrait or slow camera mode. Apple has reduced the options that are seen on screen to video and photo, which now look larger. Only when you slide on them the others appear. I don’t think it’s an especially intuitive solution, But it is not a drama either. The camera options has also changed and now a floating window with quite large round icons is deployed. Design is coarse, although a priori it seems quite a lot more comfortable than the previous one. However, I find it inconsistent that these buttons are so large and instead the direct access to the flash or the night mode (up to the right) are tiny. In fact, trying to open the emerging menu I have activated the flash unintentionally. The good news is that we can also open it sliding from the bottom. The APP photos makes more sense in iOS 26. On the other hand, the photos apptho has received a redesign that I loved and that It finally makes sense. I had become accustomed to using it in iOS 18, but it has been to install iOS 26 and realize that The previous version was a real disaster. With iOS 26 we have two eyelashes again, one with all the photos in chronological order and another with the collections, that is, albums, memories, prominent photos, etc. The interesting thing about this second tab is that it is customizable. If we go down to ‘reorder’ we can choose what we want to be shown above. If you let us eliminate some of these options, it would be ten, but at least we can leave them folded so that there is not so much noise. Most accessible menus Settings, notes and app store with the search at the bottom. Another novelty of the new interface is that the Search Bar in the system apps and menus is at the bottom. Here is a lot more comfortable access to it With one hand, especially if you have an iPhone of the biggest. Another change that I liked of the APP adjustments is that now Apps settings are grouped into a block. We no longer have that endless list on the main screen, but is nested in its own section. I think it makes much more sense. The new safari design can be customized. Safari is one of the apps that has been completely redesigned and also bets on the search bar and controls at the bottom, with a Very compact … Read more

The new aesthetic luxury of “liquid surgery” that promises what the Botox no longer sells

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In the new economy of the “invisible luxury”, the object of desire no longer hangs from the arm: it melts with the skin. Instead of great transformations, the aspiration is that “it is not noticed.” A lifting without scars, a brightness that looks like a repair dream. In that league the newly baptized “liquid surgery” plays: four -digit facials that promise a Botox effect without needles or rigidity. A new trend. After the rejuvenated reappearance of Lindsay Lohan, a reporter from The Times He went to the most exclusive spa by Beverly Hills to test the “MBR Best and Ultimate Liquid Surgery”, a 995 -dollar protocol. The session includes cleaning, toning, hyaluronic acid masks and, above all, the application of a star serum: 1,784 pounds the 50 ml bottle, sold as “viper venom imitator” to achieve a “more subtle” botulin toxin effect. The journalist described a “striking” difference after applying the product in half face and collected that the usual clientele includes local elites and celebrities that repeat monthly and complement at home. The text itself points out that the term “liquid surgery” was coined by a German marketing department: there is no scalpel, but a high -cost cosmetic ritual with immediate results. The spa presents it as the “less invasive” route towards the good face effect that was previously associated with visible injectables. Aesthetic luxury changes the skin. The turn responds to a broader trend: undetectable results. As we have detailed in Xatakathe deep flat lifting – which repositions muscles and ligaments in block to avoid rigidity – has become the standard among star surgeons. The effects last between 10 and 15 years, but prices easily exceed six figures. Given this situation, Botox has lost part of the story. In a report for Women’s Health They have described as Jennifer Aniston He has recognized that he tried the injections, but abandoned them for considering them “ridiculous” in excess. Instead, combine facials, lasers and radiofrequency (Themage) with a healthy lifestyle. The narrative now relies on bioestimulators: polynucleotides derived from salmon DNA (PDRN) that promise cellular hydration and regeneration, or exosomes, small vesicles that act as regenerative “messengers”. He Glow discreet becomes symbolic capital. Towards combined protocols. The immediate future points to repeatable treatments, expensive and continuous maintenance, which mixes apparatus (laser, radiofrequency) and cosmetic biology (polynucleotides, exosomes). That is today the “toolbox” that celebrities present as an alternative to click or go through an operating room with public visibility. On the cusp, the elite scalpel continues to mark status; At the base, four -digit facials sell the “invisible effect” in cabin format. This is how the term coined as “liquid surgery” fits at that intersection. The problems that are coming. The boom of “liquid surgery” and other less invasive treatments drag shadows that should look straight ahead: from the regulatory vacuum to unequal aesthetic pressure. On the one hand, The Newbeauty Portal Document The case of Victoria Nelsona client that denounced burns and scars after a “high -power” peeling and microneedling years performed, allegedly, out of the legal reach of a aestheticist in California. Dermatologists consulted recalled that procedures such as medical peels, microneedling, lasers or injections should be carried out in clinical environments and under medical supervision. A peeling, they underlined, is not a ritual of beauty but a “controlled chemical burn” that, if it runs badly, can leave irreversible sequelae. The case illustrates a hole between marketing, licenses and security. On the other hand, in other types of treatments science does not support a promise. Polynucleotides –extracted from salmon DNA and increasingly present in elite clinics– They have biological base and even a previous medical use in wounds and burns. Side effects, when injected, are usually mild (bruises, swelling), but robust studies are missing that support their long -term benefits. It also happens with exosomes that it is still consolidating in the scientific field and with collagen supplements, where the benefits are modest or contradictory and many studies have been financed by the brands themselves. There is an even broader background. The aesthetic pressure is not limited to the cabin of a spa. The cultural narrative has oscillated from Body Positive to ultra -launching standardsamplified by Fashionable thinning drug and Digital filters that multiply impossible expectations. In this field, scrutiny is deeply unequal. They carry the demand to stay young and with a double penalty: both those who are operated and those who decide not to do so are criticized. Sarah Jessica Parker has been insulted for showing wrinkles, while Pamela Anderson was criticized for exhibiting her naturalness without makeup. Men, on the other hand, usually enjoy indulgence: names such as Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise or Bradley Cooper have starred in speculation about touch -ups, but rarely face the same public trial. Even the data shows the gap: As we have pointed out in XatakaLiftings in men grew by 26 % between 2022 and 2024, but the media account presented them as a simple “set -up”, not as an “aesthetic obsession.” The result: eternal youth remains a female demand and an optional option for them. An eternal youth with conditions. The snake venom facial in Beverly Hills is more than an aesthetic whim. Summarizes a global trend: displacement towards less invasive procedures, more expensive and with an aura of exclusivity. An eternal youth reserved for those who can pay it, while the rest of society consumes supplements, collagen powder and digital filters as substitutes. The question, however, is still open: are these advances a real scientific revolution or a marketing mirage? Maybe how did The Times the chronicler When leaving the spa, the eternal youth does exist, but it costs the same as thirty beers in an airport. And, above all, it is still a luxury with class, gender and power more visible gender than any wrinkle. Image | Freepik Xataka | Surgeons are facing a new challenge: patients who want to resemble their double created by AI

Liquid Glass, iOS 26, Macos Tahoe, Watchos 26, the new Games app and all the news left by Apple’s WWDC 2025

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Apple has chosen the WWDC 2025 To launch a clear message: its ecosystem needed deep reorganization. And he has done so starting with the most visible, such as design, and extending to the most structural, including the name of its operating systems. Next we review all the news that Apple has presented in this WWDC 2025. From the most obvious visual changes to the most discrete functions, everything you need to know is here, well organized so you can consult it at a glance. A total redesign: This will look like the entire Apple ecosystem Liquid Glass arrivesa new translucent material that reflects and refracts the environment, providing visual depth in real time. This design extends to iOS, iPados, macos, watchos and tvos, with new icons, floating controls and adaptive navigation bars. Blocking screens, desks, docks and key interfaces such as camera, safari or Apple Music now offer a renewed (and more coherent) experience. iOS 26: More personal, smarter, more connected iOS 26 Combine the visual redesign with integrated artificial intelligence functions. Apple Intelligence allows you to translate messages in real time, suggest events and create visual content with Genmoji or image playground. Telephone and messages are updated with spam detection, call management and surveys suggested by IA. Carplay improves your interface and adds fixed conversations, widgets and compact view for calls. Apple Music incorporates letters, automatic mixtures and personalized musical suggestions. Apple Games: The new center to play throughout the ecosystem Apple Games It is the new app dedicated to gaming with social functions, catalog organization and connection with Apple Arcade. Group all games installed on the user’s devices, whether own, Apple Arcade or Game Center. It offers rapid access to recent games, markers, achievements and active events. Integrates social functions such as shared rankings, challenges between friends and monitoring of progress. It is available in iOS 26, Ipados 26, Macos Tahoe 26 and Visionos 26, with design adapted to each platform. In macOS y Visionos includes Game Porting Toolkit 2, with improvements for developers who want to adapt games to Apple Silicon. Watchos 26: Intelligent motivation and more control from the wrist Watchos 26 Win in customization, intelligence and comfort with key improvements to train, communicate and manage every day. Workout Buddy USA Apple Intelligence to offer motivating messages during training. The apply app and includes musical suggestions adapted to the type of exercise. Real -time translation comes to messages and new conversation funds synchronized with the iPhone. A new doll rotation gesture allows you to rule out notifications without touching the screen. The APP notes, accessibility improvements and new telephone functions complete the update. Tahoe Macos 26: More fluidity, more automation and more game Tahoe macOS 26 It opens a clearer interface, intelligence distributed throughout the system and a firm bet for gaming. The telephone app arrives at the MAC with functions such as call filter and Hold Assist thanks. Spotlight is redesigned to execute actions, activate shortcuts and look for content more efficiently. Apple Intelligence Power shortcuts, translates into real time and allows automating complex tasks. The new Apple Games app organizes the user’s catalog and allows you to play without leaving the environment with Game Overlay. Safari, messages, facetime and photos are updated with visual improvements, new functions and more content control. Visionos 26: One more step towards a more fluid mixed reality The Vision Pro system continues to evolve with improvements focused on navigation, performance and shared use. It is now possible to place apps in space and leave them fixed even when the device goes out, to resume them exactly where they were. People in SharePlay, which allows you to see realistic avatars of other users during a shared session is incorporated. The new travel mode allows you to use the vision in trains, adapting the experience to moving environments. VISIONS 26 Enter simpler and more precise gestures to control the interface without the need to move the head or hands both. Images | Apple In Xataka | How to install the beta for developers of iOS 26, iPados 26 or Watchos 26 In Xataka | Apple believed to have an excellent plan to deploy its AI in China. He is going as good as everything else in China

This is Liquid Glass, the new interface of iOS, Macos, Ipados and Watchos

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Great changes were expected to the Interface of Apple’s operating systems, and we already have them with us. Liquid Glass arrivesa new design language that makes use of translucent elements throughout the interface. Alan Dye, head of human interface in Apple, presented this “inspired” vision “redesign. This “expressive material” precisely adopts the appearance of a layer of liquid crystal that applies to drop -down menus, buttons and other visual elements. There is a unique effect also on all these visual elements: They are translucentbut they act as a unique lens that shows what is underneath as if those elements were actually made of that material. Transparencies are very realistic thanks to the effects that mimic this glass effect. In the iPhone wallpaper, for example, the time digits show the background color slightly modified by the effect of “liquid crystal” itself. This new interface adapts without problems in the dark mode if necessary, although Apple showed above all clear mode in all captures and demonstration animations. That interface promises to be especially clean, although a priori does not seem especially radical: we have a desk that seems more polished and with more “air” than its predecessor. There is something especially important: those visual elements are universal throughout the Apple ecosystem. The Liquid Glass design language reaches iOS, macOS, iPados or Watchos equally. All of them take another leap: Theoretically this year Macos 16 or iOS 19 were going to arrive, but instead we will have macos 26 or iOS 26. In development …

Is glass solid or liquid? A much more difficult question to answer what it seems

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There is an urban legend that attributes the irregularities in the glass decorated by the Gothic cathedrals to the fact that Glass is not a solid but an extremely viscous liquid that, over time ends up falling dragged by gravity. Well, according to experts, this story is a myth. And at the same time it really has a lot. Yeah, It is complicated. As we learned at school, matter can occur in three states: solid, liquid and gaseous. Then we would learn that the panorama is a bit more complex, with somewhat more unusual phases such as plasma, or the existence of a “Triple point”, A combination of temperature and pressure under which matter can be in three phases at the same time. In An article in The CovnersationPaddy Royall, a professor at the University of Bristol, explained a few years ago some details of this mystery and why the history of the windows of the cathedrals has some foundation Despite not describing a real cause of cause effect: the irregularities in these windows are due to the technique and not over time. For Royall, the key to the matter is in the transition. To understand where glass fits in all this we can think of water or, more specifically, what happens when the water changes its liquid phase to its solid phase. When the water freezes it does so more or less sudden. Small crystals arise from the liquid water, that is, regions where H2O molecules are structured in an orderly and invariable way. This crystallization occurs quickly, as a kind of infection that extends until the whole solidifies. In any case, the water will become ice in a discreet and not continuous process: it will pass from solid fluid without further proceduresso that their molecules will go from disorder to order. The problem is that not all matter seems to behave with that immediacy. And the glass, or rather, the glass are the best example of it. “The problem with the materials that form glass (which include plastics, alloys and ceramics, in addition to the daily ‘glass’) is that there is no obvious transformation. When cooling we cannot say the moment in which the glass becomes solid, ”he explains in Your article Royall And this is not simply due to a matter of temperature but in the same viscosity. So that a material crystallizes its atoms must “order” and structure. As explained to Livescience John Parker, from the University of Sheffield, “(the glass) cools quickly, but as it is so viscous, Atoms cannot be moved in a simple way to regroup in a more orderly solid structure, and are trapped in disorderly formations. ” “(Glass) is by mechanically solid, but with a messy structure like that of a liquid,” adds Parker. Something similar explains Royall In your article in The conversation. “The reason that (the transformation) is difficult to observe is that to do so we would have to wait an extraordinarily long time (much more than centuries),” he says. However, the teacher gives us some details of how atoms and molecules are structured in this solid that is not such. He explains that, if we look with a microscope, we can see how small groups of a few tens of molecules act differently: some are structured in orderly, as in a solid, while those around them remain unstructured, as in a liquid . A difficult experiment In 1927, the one that is considered “was launched”The slowest experiment in history” It is about Brea drop experimentan essay whose objective was to demonstrate that this substance was a liquid of enormous viscosity. Those responsible for the experiment placed an amount of break in a funnel, all protected in a glass bell. Under the funnel, another container to collect the fallen break. After three years letting the break, those responsible for the experiment opened their mouths and left the gravity to do their job. Ten years later the first drop fell. In the 95 years since the opening of the funnel, they have fallen A total of nine drops of break to the second container. This experiment remains active as curiosity and because it can still teach us things. For example, how environmental conditions alter the viscosity of this type of liquids. After the seventh drop (fallen in 1988), the University of Queensland installed air conditioning in the faculty that houses the experiment. The result: a remarkable slowdown of the speed at which the drops fall, that is, an increase in the viscosity of this fluid. So, glass is a liquid, right? The question remains without a definitive answer. In John Mauro’s words collected by Livescienceglass “is neither a true liquid nor a true solid: it has properties of both but has its own state of matter.” “The technical definition It is that glass is a state of non-echinibrated and non-cristaline matter that appears to be solid in the short temporary scale but that relaxes towards the liquid state, ”added Mauro, expert in material science of the Penn State University. The question of the time scale is important. The stained glass windows of the Gothic cathedrals are centuries behind. The temporal scale in which glass is located is much larger. That is why we know that, although there is something true in the legend of these stained glass windows, it would actually need more time so that we could observe changes in the structure of these materials. Much longer. In Xataka | We have discovered that diamonds can compact even more. The result is a much harder material Image | Antoine Pouligny / Jamieson Gordon

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