living

IBM has been living for decades that no one could kill COBOL. Anthropic has other plans

by

IBM shares fell about 13.2% yesterday on the New York Stock Exchange for a simple reason: Anthropic advertisement that its AI model, Claude, can be used to modernize systems that are based on the legendary COBOL programming language. And that is something that seemed virtually impossible. The immortal language. As Anthropic itself indicates, it is estimated that COBOL manages 95% of all transactions made at ATMs in the US. A 2022 study revealed that there are 800 billion lines of COBOL code that continue to operate in production systems on a daily basis. That almost no one uses anymore. Faced with this reality is another equally powerful one: almost no one programs in COBOL anymore, because this language has been with us for 65 years and has ended up being replaced by modern programming languages. The question, of course, is who is in charge of those millions of lines of code if there are almost no human programmers who can do it. Anthropic itself made it clear: “the number of people who understand COBOL decreases every year.” AI to the rescue. That’s where Claude, Anthropic’s family of generative AI models, comes in. According to this company, Claude is now capable of “modernizing” COBOL despite how difficult and expensive it was to carry out something like that. IBM has been trying for years and in fact applied that same recipebut its AI (Watson) does not seem to have managed too much progress. Claude helps, but there must be a human expert supervising. At Anthropic they promise that their AI model is capable of reading the entire code base of a COBOL project, identifying entry points, execution paths through subroutines, mapping data flows and documenting dependencies. They highlight, however, that with the supervision of a human expert this can help modernize and polish all types of COBOL-based systems. Critical systems. Of course, the question is whether AI will actually deliver on that promise, especially when we’re talking about absolutely critical systems used in financial transactions. According to Anthropic “the modernization of the code legacy It has been stagnant for years because understanding it cost more than rewriting it. “AI reverses that equation.” COBOL is no longer IBM’s ace in the hole. It’s hard to know how much of IBM’s business depended on COBOL systems, but it’s certainly a relevant part. In 2025 the company achieved revenue of $67.5 billion. About 45% comes from software. The rest is consulting and infrastructure, and this last division is where the IT business is included. IBM Z mainframesclosely linked to COBOL systems. It’s reasonable to think that revenues dependent on mainframes and COBOl are around 20% of IBM’s revenues (and probably more in profits). AI and the SaaSpocalypse. What happened with IBM and COBOL is the latest case of a software that seemed to have a long-term future but with AI may not have such a long-term future. Investors now seem to think that AI will replace many of these systems and SaaS platforms. It is indeed what has been called “SaaSpocalypse” in reference to the stock market falls of this type of companies in recent months: Salesforce, SAP, Microsoft, Adobe, Intuit and Atlassian have suffered notable falls in the stock market that are around 30-40% on average. But. This investor panic that is being experienced contrasts with the current reality: AI models are proving to be able to do surprising things in the field of programming, but they are far from being perfect. The code must be reviewed, and IBM itself he already made it clear In a 1979 training manual: “A computer can never be held responsible. Therefore, it should never make an administrative decision.” IBM has already survived other crises. The blue giant has suffered a blow to the stock market, but it is one of those technology companies that have managed to recover and resist all the attacks of an industry that is normally merciless. IBM itself also has its modernization solutions for its clients, and some analysts they are clear that in fact IBM will make more money than before if COBOL finally goes away. In Xataka | Old programmers never die, and Silicon Valley is realizing that

For years we blamed testosterone for men living shorter lives. Now we know that the culprit is a chromosome

by

For decades, biology has observed an incontestable demographic fact: women live longer than men. It has often been blamed lifestyleto testosterone or to the greater male propensity for risky activities. However, science has found a much more subtle and genetic culprit that we carry in all our cells and that literally we start to lose as we get older. A genetics class. In a very general way, we must remember that all our genetic information is collected in 46 chromosomes which are found within the nuclei of our cells in pairs. But there is a part of all these chromosomes that define us as men or women: The presence of two X chromosomes defines women and the presence of one X chromosome with one Y defines men. Although there is great genetic complexity behind something as redundant as a pair of chromosomes, what interests us in this case is that science has seen a effect called mLOYwhich is literally the loss of Y chromosome mosaic in men. And different scientific articles suggest that it is not a simple side effect of getting older, but rather it is a “silent killer” that explains much of the longevity gap between the sexes. The runaway chromosome. For a long time, the Y chromosome was considered the “little brother” of the genome. Small, with few genes and almost exclusively responsible for determining the male sex with no other known functions, almost all of which fall on the X chromosome of considerable size. But the truth is that we were wrong, and the Y chromosome has great importance in the adult life of men. The mLOY phenomenon. This occurs when the cells that are in charge of manufacturing the blood elementslike erythrocytes, platelets, or lymphocytes, suffer errors when dividing and lose the Y chromosome. Something that generates a “mosaic” in our body, that is, some white blood cells have the Y chromosome while others do not. But what is disturbing is the frequency with which it occurs, since, according to the data reviewed, this is something that has been detected in 40% of men at age 60 and in 70% of men at age 90. There is damage. Until recently, it was believed that losing this chromosome was benign and normal, a simple “genetic gray hair.” But the evidence accumulated between 2022 and 2025, including massive UK Biobank studies and the recent German studio LURIChas set off alarm bells: losing the Y chromosome is not harmless and has important side effects. The heart. One of these side effects is precisely heart failure, which is a very prevalent disease in the elderly. Here science has been able to see that, by eliminating the Y chromosome in mice, the animals rapidly developed cardiac fibrosis. That is, their hearts were filled with scar tissue, becoming rigid and, therefore, having great difficulty pumping blood. But it is not the only disease that occurs, since in the United Kingdom Biobank, men with mLOY in more than 40% of their white blood cells had a 31% higher risk of dying from cardiovascular causes. And even the LURIC study published last year, carried out on 1,700 men, found that the mLOY effect increased the risk of fatal heart attack by almost 50%. More diseases. Beyond the heart, the impact of losing the Y chromosome also affects our body’s defense system to be able to combat different threats. Among them we have cancer, since the immune system needs the Y chromosome to effectively monitor the tumor cells that arise. Its loss is associated with a worse prognosis in bladder cancer and other solid tumors, since it is as if our body’s security guards had gone partially blind. In addition to cancer, the frequency of mLOY has also been seen to be up to 10 times higher in patients who have Alzheimer’swith studies showing an almost 3 times higher risk of developing the disease. The COVID. During the pandemic we saw that older men died much more than women without fully understanding why. We now know that the loss of the Y chromosome increases 54% risk of fatality for being infected with COVID in the elderly, finally offering a biological explanation for this bias. Is there a solution? It may seem depressing to know that a part of our DNA decides to abandon us and cause us so many problems, but in reality, it is a hopeful finding. And it is hopeful, since, seeing that the loss of the Y chromosome is a direct cause of a disease, therapeutic doors open. In experiments with mice, it has been seen that treatment with an antifibrotic drug was able to reverse the cardiac damage caused by the loss of the chromosome. This means that the mLOY effect can be used as a marker in a blood test, as happens with cholesterol, to predict a patient’s cardiac risk and to be able to give preventive treatments to delay it and improve the patient’s quality of life. Images | nrd Miroslaw Miras In Xataka | The X chromosome has new clues about aging: why women tend to live longer than men

The canonical “living room furniture” in Spain in the 80s and 90s is dead. That says more about us than it seems.

by

There is an object that disappeared from Spanish homes within a generation or two, without almost anyone noticing: the living room furniture. I’m not talking about a base for the TV but about that solid wood architecture that occupied an entire wall, with its display cases, shelves, drawers, space for the TV and, in the most ambitious models, even an integrated minibar, the only thing in my childhood home that seemed like a luxury to me. For decades that piece of furniture was the nerve center of the home. It housed books, television, mini chain (another vestige of another era), family memories and the boy’s judo medals. Today it is a relic that no one millennial buys and that Generation Z doesn’t even recognize. The obvious explanation is practical: televisions grew much faster than the space that these pieces of furniture reserved for them. It became impossible to fit a 42 or 55 inch screen where barely 21 could fit.. Apartments shrank while prices skyrocketed, and dedicating four square meters to a cherry monolith no longer made sense. Furthermore, moves have multiplied because job insecurity forces people to change cities more than in the past, and no one wants to carry a piece of furniture that requires a truck and three rocks. But That doesn’t explain why no one misses them.. What died with the living room furniture was something deeper: the idea that the home should display who we were. These displays were, in addition to functional display cases, a showcase: the good dishes that were only used at Christmas, the collection of porcelain figurines, the religious motifs if the family was a believer, the bound volumes of encyclopedias that no one read but that let visitors know that culture is valued in this house. The shelf with the VHS carefully arranged, the crystal glasses, the framed photos. It was all there to be seen by those who came to see us, to say, “This is our family, this is our status, this is what we value, this is who we are.” That today is, at best, a piece of melanin furniture with some funkos and the Switch. Image provided by an acquaintance. In this case, a 55″ TV covers more than what the furniture manufacturer had planned and there is no room for more. In this case, the tradition of furniture and tea sets coexist with the modernity of consoles, the yoga mat or souvenirs definitely different from those of yesteryear, such as the Japanese torii or the Mexican mask. Where was the ceramic with ‘Memory of Torrelavega’. Today we exhibit on Instagram, or in our profile photo and WhatsApp statuses, but not in the living room. Identity is no longer constructed through physical objects arranged in a display case, but through selected images on a screen. It is no longer necessary to demonstrate to visitors that you have good taste (visits, in fact, are increasingly rare) because your followers They have already seen it in the stories. The other thing is a matter of our parents and in-laws. The living room furniture was a gesture of permanence and stability: We bought one that we knew would last a lifetime, we even inherited it. Now we live in forced flexibility, in rental apartments with annual contracts, in Ikea as religion and in the imperative to travel light. It’s not just that it doesn’t fit. It is that its very logic (the solid, the definitive, the expository) belongs to a time that no longer exists. The space where the furniture used to be is now occupied by a giant television mounted on the wall, a minimalist shelf from Amazon or, directly, nothing. And that absence is not coincidental. It is the symptom of a culture that stopped believing in the idea of ​​the home as a personal museum. and he began to conceive it as a provisional set for a life that happens, above all, elsewhere. On the screens. In Xataka | The 17 photos that explain the 90s as if you had lived them Featured image | Xataka

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates import millions of tons of sand every year despite living on immense deserts

by

The story is striking in itself: Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, two countries closely associated with the desert, import tons and tons of sand every year. So striking, in fact, that the first intuition is that it is false. But, as soon as you get closer to it, you discover that not only is it true, but it is more interesting than it seems. Because yes, these countries import a lot of sand. In 2023, only the United Arab Emirates bought more than six million tons. And it is surprising, of course, because these are two countries located on enormous deserts. The explanation, however, is simple: the sand they have is not suitable for certain things. At a technical level, what is known as “eolian sand” (that which the wind accumulates in dunes) is very fine, very uniform and very rounded. That makes it a poor sand for making glass, concrete or other industrial products. It is not that it cannot be used, but it requires adjusting the mixtures, controlling the granulometry and impurities (fines), and carefully balancing the manufacturing processes. That is to say, the process ends up becoming so expensive that it is cheaper to import sand that is more suitable for standardized processes. And this, ultimately, should not surprise us. Sand is, today, the second most exploited resource in the world (only after water). The United Nations Environment Program estimates that every year 50,000 million tons of sand and gravel are used. What’s more, the lack of sand is so obvious that there are criminal networks that traffic with her internationally. However, we are not talking about just any sand. There are, as is evident, many types of sand. For what is not interesting today we can distinguish natural sand (HS 250590) and siliceous/quartz sand (HS 250510). The Gulf countries import, above all, the second. Emirates, to give an example, is spent half a million a year in the first and 87 million in the second. That is to say, although they are countries ‘rich’ in sand, they do not have the sand they need. A sand, moreover, with very specific specifications (granulometry, purity, humidity, fines, contaminants, consistency of supply) and that are basic for glass, foundry, filtration or the chemical industry. However, they also import natural sand. And this is interesting because, as they point out in the UNthis only makes clear the significance of the problem of governance and externalities. Despite having usable sand, in many cases it is preferred to buy from other countries (such as Oman) to avoid the negative externalities of draining sand from their coasts and deserts. Something that can alter livelihoods (fishing, agriculture due to salinization, coastal tourism) and increase vulnerability to storms. In the summer of 2019, the couple who became famous was arrested in Sardinia for hiding 40 kilos of sand in his trunk. That was the anecdote, the problem was another: that beyond mass tourism, the tensions on the sand are increasingly greater. It is something that has only grown and is normal. The world is not here to do without one of its most valuable resources. Image | Lars Portjanow In Xataka | We are running out of sand. And there are already traffickers who negotiate with it in India or Morocco

In 1965, a notary bought an apartment of bare ownership from a 90-year-old owner. The old woman was already living her second life

by

In 1965, in the picturesque city of Arles, in the south of France, the notary André-François Raffray believed he had found a bargain to invest. Jeanne Calment, a 90-year-old widow and no heirs owner of a large apartment in the historic center of the town, was willing to reach an agreement to sell her housing in exchange for a life annuity and to be able to live in it until his death. With the statistical data in hand, the purchase of the apartment was going to be a bargain for the notary, so he did not hesitate to reach an agreement with the elderly owner. What the young notary did not expect is that it was going to be the worst deal of his life: the old woman had a bombproof geneticsor at least that’s what everyone thought. The deal was a bargain, but not for who it seemed The purchase agreement was simple in its approach: Raffray would pay 2,500 francs per month to Calment (an amount equivalent to about 380 euros per month). until the death of the old woman (who we remember was already 90 years old), after which the property would be fully his. This type of contract (known in France as traveler) is based on the bare property. This legal concept establishes that the buyer acquires the right to property without enjoy the usufruct until an uncertain event occurs, in this case the death of the saleswoman. That is, it is like a deferred purchase in which a certain immediate payment is established and the seller can use the property until his death. The buyer then takes possession of the property. Given this condition, the price of the investment is considerably lower than the market value, since it is not available immediately. That reduction in the initial price has shot the number of operations that have been growing at a double-digit rate since the pandemic. According to published data by Expansionin 2021, this type of operations grew by 22.6%, 23.7% in 2022 and 11.3% in 2023. For a 47-year-old buyer like Raffray, that seemed like a smart move and a very low-risk investment. In 1965 and with the life expectancy statistics much smaller than the current ones, Raffray assumed that Calment would live perhaps a few more years and that the total amount he would pay would be less than the market price of the apartment. A saleswoman with a lot of attachment to life However, what seemed like an operation with few unknowns turned into a financial nightmare for Raffray. Jeanne Calment, the elderly nonagenarian, not only lived beyond any reasonable expectation at that time, but his longevity surpassed all calculations. Officially, Calment died in 1997 at the age of 122 years and 164 days. as he collected The New York Times. That is why he entered the Guinness Book of Records as the oldest person recorded to date, It’s also bad luck for Raffay. Raffray, in turn, died in 1995 at the age of 77, 30 years after signing the contract with Calment. Until that moment, the notary had paid fees that, together, They far exceeded the value of the property. However, after his death, his widow was forced to continue with payments to Calment, because the obligation agreed in the annuity contract only disappeared with the death of Calment, not Raffray. There was no escape. The result was that Raffray’s family ended up spending much more money than it would have cost to buy the apartment through conventional methods, without ever moving in. Calment herself, with irony, even commented in an article for The New York Times that “in life, sometimes bad deals are made.” A life worth two As expected, such remarkable longevity did not go unnoticed by science and medicine, with much interest being shown in investigating the details about the life and habits de Calment to try to reveal their secret…and boy did they do it. In 2018, a research team formed by the Russian mathematician Nikolay Zak and the gerontologist Valery Novoselov proposed a radical hypothesis: Jeanne Calment could have died in 1934. The Calment who had signed the bare ownership contract with André-François Raffray could be Yvonne Marie Nicolle Calment, daughter of Jeanne Calment who, supposedly, had died of pleurisy on January 19, 1934. The hypothesis was that Yvonne would have impersonated his mother’s identity to avoid paying inheritance taxes. That artificially “extended” the longevity of his mother, who was actually living two lives under the same name. This theory was supported by discrepancies in ancient documents, such as differences in physical characteristics between historical records and by comparing photographs of Yvonne and the supposed elderly Calment. So it was not only a fraud to avoid paying taxes, Raffay was also victim of deception. However, there is no scientific consensus on this version. Subsequent research by a team of Swiss and French demographers and historians, published in it Journal of Gerontologythey discard the hypothesis of fraud and maintain that, statistically, Calment could live to be 122 years old. In Xataka | There is a ‘good’ fat that hides a secret to aging better and being in shape. All that remains is to get the pill Image | Wikimedia Commons (Emilien Barral), grg.orgUnsplash (Jakub Zerdzicki)

We have found the oldest living tree in the EU. It is on Teide and almost coincided with the Roman Empire

by

Spain is a tourism monster, and one of the most visited points is Teide. The territory of the volcano is imposing, and Bárbol hides on one of its slopes. As the character of ‘The Lord of the Rings‘, Treebeard, a Canary Islands cedar that was the oldest living tree in the European Union. And we say “was” because it has just been surpassed by one of its own species. One that is estimated to be 1,544 years old. Clonal or non-clonal, that is the question. Before we get into the discovery, let’s clarify an important concept when talking about the oldest living trees. There are two categories main: clonal and non-clonal. And understanding them is quite simple: A non-clonal tree is an individual, the traditional concept of a tree that grows from a seed. It is a unique individual with its root system and a main trunk. A clonal tree is one that is born from a root system. For example, some roots can give rise to a tree that grows and dies, and from those same roots, another tree is then born, being a “clone” of the original. Another Canary cedar. Found by researchers from the School of Forestry, Agronomic and Bioengineering Industry Engineering at the Duques de Soria Campus and by experts from the University Institute of Sustainable Forest Management at the University of Valladolid, the newly discovered specimen is a whopping 1,544 years old and is, like Bárbol, a Canary Islands cedar. He overcomes it by several years, since esteem that Bárbol is 1,481 years old, and fortunately for these two specimens, they are very far from tourist areas and human influence. This has allowed them to spend a millennium and a half in the same place where they were born, without worrying about the deforestation of the area caused by humans, and they have not been affected by the eruptions of the volcano. To access the new specimen, the researchers had to be assisted by local climbers to access these remote areas of the Teide National Park to be able to take the samples. This is how they found Treebeard Importance. Thus, they have been able to carry out an inventory of ancient cedars located in these areas that are difficult to access. Of the 25 specimens analyzed with the carbon 14 techniquethe existence of eight millennia has been evidenced, three of them exceeding 1,500 years. They are the witness of an ancient population of cedars that would have covered a large part of the park. The team has commented that it is one of the most important concentrations of ancient trees in the European Union and, furthermore, that “its persistence is due to the inaccessibility of the rocks in which they live.” Lucky. Its scientific value is also enormous, since it is like a historical record of the climate. Studying rings of ancient trees allows us to reconstruct the climatic history of the region, obtaining data on rainfall and drought patterns, tracing an evolution of temperatures and, in the case of Teide, identifying the frequency of volcanic events. It all depends on the “portage”. Those responsible for this discovery are the same ones who already dated to Treebeard in 2022, and it must be said that in Finland they found a juniper with a century more on its bark. Baptized as Utsjoki, in a first analysis in 2021 it was given 1,242 years, but after the discovery of Bárbol, they repeated the analysis and they found with which he was many more: 1,647 years old. But since technicalities have their importance in these things, it must be said that… everyone is right in stating that “theirs” is the longest-lived. The difference is in the arboreal habit of each subject. Both are non-clonal, but while the Finnish juniper had a bushy appearance, the canary has an arboreal appearance. And… well, it must also be said that the juniper died in 1906, so the two canaries are the longest living trees. That’s how they found Utsjoki. | Photo: UTU, Marco Carrer Legends. It is evident that there is a “competition” to find the oldest tree, but this is not a race to turn it into something touristy, as if it can happen with other finds, but rather to have new specimens that allow us to obtain a historical x-ray of the land on which they are. Apart from the specimens studied with methods such as carbon 14 belonging to this classification of non-clonal trees, we have specimens such as Old Tjikko Swedish 9,560 years old. The “trap” is that it is a clonal specimen, so the root system is almost 10,000 years old, but the trunks that appear from time to time only last a few centuries. And finally, those that belong to “folklore”, such as the yew Llangernyw in Wales which, located in the cemetery of a church, is estimated to be about 5,000 years old or the yew tree Fortingall in Scotland between 3,000 and 9,000 years old. Too wide a range. Images | Jens SteckertUVa In Xataka | Even when Spain does it well, it goes wrong: becoming the third most forested country in Europe has become a problem

There are so many English people living in Alicante that the largest British pub chain has decided something: open there

by

The millions of British tourists who land in the province of Alicante each year will now have a piece of their country just before they leave. As if Benidorm, Torrevieja or the entire Costa Blanca had not been enough, next January the first Wetherspoon in all of continental Europe will open at the Alicante–Elche Miguel Hernández airport. A “100 Montaditos British style”, but installed in the boarding area and designed, paradoxically, for those who are already queuing to return to the United Kingdom. The very British landing. According to The Guardianthe chain has confirmed that its premiere outside the United Kingdom and Ireland will be in Alicante, where it will open a newly built pub called Castell de Santa Bàrbera (when in Valencian it would be Castell de Santa Bàrbara), in “homage” to the fortress that crowns the city. This is a striking move for the company founded by Tim Martin more than four decades ago and which had never operated on continental European territory. For its part, as The Independent has detailedthe store will open every day from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. and will be located in the departures area, aimed mainly at British people returning from vacation. The space will be about 93 square meters and will have an outdoor terrace. In addition, the menu will replicate 90% of the typical Wetherspoon pub menu: full English breakfasts, fish and chips, burgers and pizzas. Even so, it will also incorporate some typical Spanish dish such as garlic prawns or Spanish tortilla, an adaptation that the company has already confirmed. The choice is not accidental. British tourism in the province of Alicante is one of the most important in the region; Benidorm is well known for this. According to data collected by La Vanguardiaalmost 90% of English people choose the province as their favorite destination. Although a decade ago the owner publicly celebrated Brexitthe chain has recently experienced slowing growth in the UK: like-for-like sales of 3.7% in the first 14 weeks of the financial year, lower than in previous years. According to The Telegraphthe company is suffering from the increase in labor, energy and tax costs, which has led its president to explore new markets, and hence its strategy focused on airports: places where traffic is guaranteed and the clientele is usually predisposed to consume, even at times when most bars would not open. A British icon, almost invisible for Alicante. Despite the commotion that the news has generated in the province, the truth is that this first Wetherspoon on the European continent will be out of reach of the general public. It will be necessary to pass security control to access, which makes it a rarity: a British icon installed in Alicante, but almost invisible to the people of Alicante. Although Alicante will be the first, it will not be the only one. Tim Martin has reiterated in different British media that his intention is to open “several pubs abroad in the coming months and years, including some in airports”. The new location at Alicante airport will, therefore, be a test by fire. One last drink before heading home. Alicante can now boast of having the first Wetherspoon on the continent, although only travelers who fly will be able to enjoy it. For British tourists, it will be the last sip of home before returning; For the province, further proof of the weight that this market has in its economy. Time will tell if this little pub next to the departure gates is the start of a new European conquest or simply a last pint in the sun before heading home. Image | FreePik Xataka | Years ago Alicante thought it was a good idea to build an artificial island with a luxurious restaurant. It didn’t turn out as I expected

the last one caused a big change in their way of living

by

For ten years, in Kibali National Park (Uganda), a silent and brutal war was fought. Its protagonists were not humans, but the community of Ngogo chimpanzees largest known, which maintained a constant conflict with its neighbors until they ended up exterminating them to keep their territory. Now science has wanted to find biological meaning in this, and it has succeeded. Something natural. From the outside, this conflict can be seen as something very bloody, like the one we see between humans themselves to dominate a specific territory. But science believed that there was something more behind it, and in the end it has been seen that these wars They are more natural than we think within nature itself. And it gives us a concrete idea of ​​how the minds of these animals work. The PNAS scientific journal just found the biological logic behind this massacre, and has not hesitated to confirm that we are facing an evolutionary strategy very profitable. After the victory, the females in the winning group not only doubled their fertility, but infant mortality plummeted. A spoil of war. The investigation, led by Brian Wood and veteran anthropologist John Mitani, puts numbers to this brutality. And in this lapse of time the Ngogo expanded their domains by 22% at the cost of eliminating the neighbors who were occupying it in that case. But just like humans, we often create wars. to get more resourcesanimals seem to do something similar. This territorial expansion brought with it a great abundance of food resources that completely transformed the demographics of the group. To get an idea, the researchers in this case compared data from the three years before the conquest with those from the three years after. In this case it was seen that before the victory there were only 15 births in the group, while after the victory there were 37 new offspring. And it is not something random, since it is the first time that cooperative killing between groups has been linked to “territorial gain and greater reproductive success.” The biological sense. But beyond the fact that more chimpanzees are born in this environment, it has also been seen that much more survive. And in the chimpanzee population, infant mortality is really high because they suffer from serious malnutrition at the beginning of their lives, as well as diseases or infanticide. The data is quite clear. Before winning the war, 41% of the offspring died before they were three years old. After annexing neighboring territory and eliminating border threats, that figure radically dropped to 8%. Because? The equation is quite simple: more food in the environment, less competition and greater security as there are not so many enemy incursions that kill their young. Josep Call, a primatologist at the University of St Andrews, defines it as “biological rationality”. It is not a moral decision, it is pure natural selection: the genes of those who successfully apply this violence are much more likely to perpetuate themselves. Death patrols. A question that we can ask ourselves in this case is how an animal with these characteristics can be organized to go to war. And although we may think that they do it without thinking about it first, the reality is that they organize very well calculated border patrols in their territory. Upon reaching the border, these animals completely change their behavior, as they become much quieter to maintain stealth, with a strategy that is quite similar to what we can see in a human military exercise. The moment they encounter a rival group, if they are outnumbered they know that they will not be able to win and the smartest thing to do is to retreat. But if the situation is contrary, it will be attacked without mercy. Attacks include hitting, biting and dismembering. It is a coordinated violence that, in the case of the Ngogo, was favored by an unusual demographic factor: they had a disproportionate number of males, which allowed them to form patrol “squads” that were more lethal than those of their neighbors who did not have this advantage. War? Although the parallel with human conflicts is inevitable, scientists prefer the term “intergroup violence.” The reasons that exist to defend this difference are that among chimpanzees there is no ideology, but rather they do it exclusively out of biological necessity, such as having food or providing for the smallest members of the community. And the truth is that annihilating the neighbors is one of the smartest ways to achieve this. Images | Satya deep In Xataka | These researchers are not only convinced that chimpanzees can talk, but that we have proof since 1962

Faced with impossible housing prices, an alternative is gaining weight: living in a motorhome

by

If you consult the online dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy you will see that, at least for academics, a mobile home It is a “vehicle with its own engine conditioned to make life in it.” In the Spain of 2025, that of the housing crisishe floor deficit and the price escalationcaravans increasingly have more of the latter and less of the former. They are still vehicles, but above all they are spaces in which their tenants live: they sleep, have breakfast, cook, wash, study or spend time reading or watching movies. They do not do it out of vocation (at least not in all cases), but out of necessity. Although they work, have a stable job and a salary, the money is not enough to access an increasingly tight real estate market, so they choose to do their daily lives in the few square meters of a motorhome. Housing, impossible. that the housing is getting more expensive (a lot) is nothing new. In fact, its price is one of the issues that most take away sleep to the Spaniards and has already motivated massive protests, some with a hint of tenant strike included. However, it is good to review a few data to understand the scope of the housing crisis that the country is experiencing. According to Idealista, rents have skyrocketed 96% in just a decade, a percentage that falls short if markets such as that of Palm, Tenerife either Malaga. The situation in the purchase and sale market is not much more buoyant. The increase in the price of the square meter, which fool around now with the values ​​prior to the brick bubble, have complicated access to the market, forcing families to dedicate years of salary to pay for housing. Result: homes that exceed the “effort rate” recommended economic and young people who only have one option left if they want to become owners: inheritances or donations. What if I move to a caravan? In view of all of the above, more and more people are asking themselves the question: if the market has become so draconian, if it prevents any ability to save and requires assuming exorbitant prices, why not change apartments for caravans? There is no data to help follow the trend, but a search on Google or diving on YouTube to check that abound the news of people who moves into mobile homes. It occurs in Balearics and Canary Islandsvery places touristifiedbut also in cities like Madrid. By necessity, by strategy. Although the price of housing is (almost) always the backdrop, not everyone who moves into a caravan does so for the same reason. There are those who take the step pure necessitybecause their salary does not allow them to rent a regular home, and those who decide to spend a stage of their life living in a caravan in order to gain savings capacity and make the jump at some point (without pressure or rush) into the buying and selling market. That is the case of Antonio, a 37-year-old civil servant who I counted these days to The Country What is it like to live in a caravan in Madrid. Although he has a stable job with a salary of about 1,900 euros per month, Antonio, a native of Alcoy, has lived in a motorhome since 2020. The formula gives him flexibility when he has to travel for work, allows him to have more private space than he enjoyed when he shared a flat and, above all, it seems like the smartest option today. “I live in a motorhome right now because I want to, not out of necessity. Although obviously if housing prices were different I would move to a house, my future project. What happens is that after this satisfactory experience I have become more demanding and I am not willing to be drowned like I did for 10 years,” relates. His mobile home, a second-hand 2003 Fiat Ducato Carioca, cost him 22,000 euros and by living in it, utility costs have been significantly reduced. Right now they don’t reach 100 euros a month. Are there more cases? Of course. The profiles vary greatly from one case to another. Also from one region to another. There are those who live in motorhomes because it is “the only solution” that finds itself in a market of skyrocketing prices, who are forced to opt for that exit while they work temporarily in tourist destinations and those who prefer to enjoy “their” handful of square meters before sharing a conventional and larger apartment with other colleagues. “I have everything in four meters, but it is mine and I don’t have to share a flat,” confessed in April to The Vanguard Begoña, a 61-year-old woman who lives in a motorhome in the Balearic Islands. “Here I have my kitchen, next to it I have the oven and the refrigerator and the field. I pay for parking, but it is infinitely cheaper than renting,” agreed in 2023 during a talk with La Sexta Carlos, a 23-year-old engineer from Murcia who had a job opportunity in Madrid. When he started looking at apartments he decided that the best thing was a caravan. Is there data? One of the big problems in tracking the trend is that it lacks official data as such. The INE census shows that in Spain there are 7,200 people registered in shacks and caravans, but that category does not have to fit exactly with that of people who choose to live in motorhomes and the statistical institute itself recognizes that when preparing the census it encountered “a certain limitation”, so the overall figure is probably higher. As a reference, in 2024 the local press pointed out that in Ibiza alone there were almost about thirty of caravan settlements. Even was spoken of locals with houses who chose to move into caravans in the high season to rent their houses to tourists. The goal: get some extra income in the summer. More registrations. … Read more

inside a living being

by

For some time now, the most powerful nations in the world have started a race to find the rare earths that China dominates with iron fist. They all did it from the same perspective: with mining as part of the fundamental process for its extraction. And this is when China has announced the most shocking element in memory regarding these minerals. What if the mines were not needed? Challenging mining. The discovery by a Chinese-led team of scientists of a rare earth mineral formed inside a fern alive Blemchnum orientale It represents a profound break with the extractive logic that has dominated this sector for more than a century. For the first time, a hyperaccumulator has crystallized monazite (a critical material for strategic technologies) under normal environmental conditions, without heat, pressure or industrial processes. This natural ability turns the plant into a chemical laboratory capable of organizing metallic elements into functional structures, a phenomenon never documented in any living organism. The plant monazite. The monazite generated by the fern concentrates fundamental elements such as cerium, lanthanum or neodymium, all essential for magnets, lasers, advanced optical devices or energy systems. Its physical properties (thermal resistance, chemical stability and durability against radiation) place it in the core of the modern technology industry. That a plant can produce this mineral without human intervention reveals a completely new road to obtain materials that normally require intensive mining and aggressive chemical processes. Monacita The internal logic of the process. The identified mechanism shows that the plant crystallizes the mineral in their extracellular tissues to prevent non-nutritive elements from entering the cells. This spontaneous organization reproduces, on a plant scale, structures similar to the so-called “chemical gardens”, formations that arise when metallic salts self-assemble in aqueous media. This biological self-organization turns the fern into a system capable of transforming metallic solutions in minerals solids without altering their physiology. Hyperaccumulators as a tool. The process is based on the extraordinary capacity of certain plants to store metals in concentrations hundreds or thousands of times higher than those of the soil in which they grow. This ability makes hyperaccumulators ideal candidates for mining valuable items. without digging or removing large volumes of land. The detected mineral formation demonstrates that these organisms not only capture metals, but can convert them into a recoverable and stable form. A Blechnum Orientale fern A sustainable circular model. And here comes the possibly most transformative fact of the announcement. The combination of absorption, crystallization and plant detoxification allows us to imagine a model for obtaining rare earths based on plant cultivation in metal-rich soils. Once harvested, the biomass would serve as a direct source of the desired mineral, reducing dependence of mining operations traditional. The process also allows for simultaneously recovering degraded soils, treating them and returning them to an ecologically functional state, integrating production and restoration in the same cycle. Environmental implications. There is no doubt, the possibility of extracting rare earths without aggressive mining could alleviate geopolitical tensions in a sector dominated by few countries and marked by strategic risks. At an industrial level, it opens the door to cleaner and more diversified supply chains. And at the environmental level, it proposes a solution capable of reduce toxic wasteemissions and ecological damage, offering an alternative path to secure essential materials without repeating the impacts of the conventional extractive model. A new frontier for science. If you like, the discovery not only transforms the understanding of how minerals are formed in nature, but also opens up an innovation space radical that unites biology, geology and advanced technology. If the fern’s ability can be replicated, optimized or expanded to other species, plant mineral production could become in a key piece in the transition towards more resilient and sustainable supply chains. Science has shown that the plant can replace the mine, and now the challenge of transforming that possibility into a practical tool for the 21st century industry begins. Image | Ahmad Fuad Bin Morad In Xataka | The great paradox of the US: the world keeps asking for more F-35 fighters, but China has turned off the tap to build them In Xataka | Battery fever reaches the abyss: mining waste is changing life in the depths of the Pacific

Log In

Forgot password?

Forgot password?

Enter your account data and we will send you a link to reset your password.

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

Log in

Privacy Policy

Add to Collection

No Collections

Here you'll find all collections you've created before.