managed

Science has managed to turn off the extra chromosome of Down syndrome. It has also opened the great ethical debate on gene editing

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In the complex genetic map that surrounds the known down syndromethe problem is not that there is a lack of information in our cells, but that there is an excess. The presence of a third copy of chromosome 21 It unbalances the entire cellular system that ends up generating an entire clinic that today did not have any type of cure. But thanks to clinical advances and revolutionary gene therapies, we have found a way to turn off this gene that is extra in the cells of people with Down. A natural switch. To understand this advance, we must look at how nature itself resolves its own genetic imbalances. And, for those who do not know, in human beings sex is determined by two types of chromosomes: X and Y. If you are a woman, you will have XX chromosomes, and if you are a man, you will have XY. The problem, boiling it down to its most basic, is that always one of the ‘X’ genes must be silenced so that the genetic load is compensated in humans. And this is something that is done thanks to the gene XIST which encodes an RNA molecule that covers the chromosome and alters its chromatin, silencing de facto their genes. Something that has been developed by nature itself in order to maintain the species, and then the question is obligatory: why not use this natural switch to silence the chromosomes that generate diseases as important as Down syndrome? It’s not something new. The idea of ​​using this “switch” to be able to alter the gene expression of the chromosomes that we have in excess is not new, since in 2013 the researcher Jeanne Lawrence demonstrated for the first time that this RNA could induce the silencing of the extra chromosome 21 in human cells that were in culture in a laboratory. Later, in 2020, it was applied to neural stem cells, but the historical problem has always been the same: the very low efficiency when integrating this gene into the affected cells.. A new milestone. This has changed radically, as a team at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston has published a new article in PNAS with a solution to eradicate this bottleneck thanks to the tool CRISPR/Cas9. This system can be visualized as simple scissors that specifically cut into our DNA to eliminate something that was left over or altered. The problem is that it was not very efficient at integrating new genetic material, and to overcome this, scientists have developed a modified version of CRISPR/Cas9 that boosts the success rate of the integration of the XIST gene which will silence the third chromosome 21. Good results. Here we recognize how XIST has been integrated into 20-40% of cell lines that have trisomy 21. Furthermore, the method reliably affects only the extra copy of chromosome 21 without silencing other genes that can cause other diseases. There are problems. Despite the enthusiasm, the technique is far from being applied in humans, since one of the biggest challenges of CRISPR is the mutations off-target, That is, it acts on other genetic points that are its marked objectives. And this occurs when these ‘scissors’ cut a sequence of DNA that closely resembles its target, but which in reality is not. In this way, an error off-target It could trigger severe cellular problems or even cancer. Recent studies show that experimentation on embryos with these techniques often results in mosaicism with edited and unedited cells, as well as incomplete edits. This means that right now we have to work on having greater specificity in the genetic objectives of the therapy so that the consequences of using it are not much greater than the fact of curing a disease. Ethical shock. The controversy is served with genetic therapies in general, since right now one of the lines that are open is to eliminate this extra chromosome directly in a human embryo before implementing it in a woman so that she is not born with this disease. This is where bioethicists they point because experimenting with human embryos damages their physical integrity and poses irreversible risks for future generations. Furthermore, they underline the urgency of distinguishing between the use of CRISPR for purely therapeutic purposes, such as treating symptoms, and its use for “genetic improvement” or the selection of embryos that are much more advanced or genetically perfect. This is also added to the fact that genetic editing in embryos for reproductive purposes is currently prohibited in most countries. Images | Sangharsh Lohakare In Xataka | The surprising thing is not that we have sequenced the DNA of a Neanderthal from 11,000 years ago: it is what it has revealed

Science has managed to turn off the extra chromosome of Down syndrome. It has also opened the great ethical debate on gene editing

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In the complex genetic map that surrounds the known down syndromethe problem is not that there is a lack of information in our cells, but that there is an excess. The presence of a third copy of chromosome 21 It unbalances the entire cellular system that ends up generating an entire clinic that today did not have any type of cure. But thanks to clinical advances and revolutionary gene therapies, we have found a way to turn off this gene that is extra in the cells of people with Down. A natural switch. To understand this advance, we must look at how nature itself resolves its own genetic imbalances. And, for those who do not know, in human beings sex is determined by two types of chromosomes: X and Y. If you are a woman, you will have XX chromosomes, and if you are a man, you will have XY. The problem, boiling it down to its most basic, is that always one of the ‘X’ genes must be silenced so that the genetic load is compensated in humans. And this is something that is done thanks to the gene XIST which encodes an RNA molecule that covers the chromosome and alters its chromatin, silencing de facto their genes. Something that has been developed by nature itself in order to maintain the species, and then the question is obligatory: why not use this natural switch to silence the chromosomes that generate diseases as important as Down syndrome? It’s not something new. The idea of ​​using this “switch” to be able to alter the gene expression of the chromosomes that we have in excess is not new, since in 2013 the researcher Jeanne Lawrence demonstrated for the first time that this RNA could induce the silencing of the extra chromosome 21 in human cells that were in culture in a laboratory. Later, in 2020, it was applied to neural stem cells, but the historical problem has always been the same: the very low efficiency when integrating this gene into the affected cells.. A new milestone. This has changed radically, as a team at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston has published a new article in PNAS with a solution to eradicate this bottleneck thanks to the tool CRISPR/Cas9. This system can be visualized as simple scissors that specifically cut into our DNA to eliminate something that was left over or altered. The problem is that it was not very efficient at integrating new genetic material, and to overcome this, scientists have developed a modified version of CRISPR/Cas9 that boosts the success rate of the integration of the XIST gene which will silence the third chromosome 21. Good results. Here we recognize how XIST has been integrated into 20-40% of cell lines that have trisomy 21. Furthermore, the method reliably affects only the extra copy of chromosome 21 without silencing other genes that can cause other diseases. There are problems. Despite the enthusiasm, the technique is far from being applied in humans, since one of the biggest challenges of CRISPR is the mutations off-target, That is, it acts on other genetic points that are its marked objectives. And this occurs when these ‘scissors’ cut a sequence of DNA that closely resembles its target, but which in reality is not. In this way, an error off-target It could trigger severe cellular problems or even cancer. Recent studies show that experimentation on embryos with these techniques often results in mosaicism with edited and unedited cells, as well as incomplete edits. This means that right now we have to work on having greater specificity in the genetic objectives of the therapy so that the consequences of using it are not much greater than the fact of curing a disease. Ethical shock. The controversy is served with genetic therapies in general, since right now one of the lines that are open is to eliminate this extra chromosome directly in a human embryo before implementing it in a woman so that she is not born with this disease. This is where bioethicists they point because experimenting with human embryos damages their physical integrity and poses irreversible risks for future generations. Furthermore, they underline the urgency of distinguishing between the use of CRISPR for purely therapeutic purposes, such as treating symptoms, and its use for “genetic improvement” or the selection of embryos that are much more advanced or genetically perfect. This is also added to the fact that genetic editing in embryos for reproductive purposes is currently prohibited in most countries. Images | Sangharsh Lohakare In Xataka | The surprising thing is not that we have sequenced the DNA of a Neanderthal from 11,000 years ago: it is what it has revealed

Pancreatic cancer is a silent killer. A new experimental therapy has managed to “intercept” it before it attacks

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Pancreatic cancer is classically known as one of the most lethal and feared that exist because of how difficult it can be to treat in some cases and the high mortality rates. But this high mortality rate is not due to its aggressiveness from minute 0, but to its stealthy nature, making it when he shows his face With the first symptoms, the disease is already in a very advanced phase that makes treatment very difficult. It’s where to act. In this way, the objective of the researchers is precisely to try to advance the diagnosis as much as possible, since treatment in the initial phases of the disease can give great results. And this is exactly what a new study that focuses on the ‘cancer interception’ strategy suggests. This is something that researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have focused on, who have achieved a vitally important advance in mouse models. And the fact is that, instead of focusing on attacking the already formed pancreatic tumor of considerable size, they have directed their artillery against the microscopic precursor lesions, known as PanIN. Its foundation. This is something that can be reduced to literally putting out the fire when it is still just a small spark. And as the specialized media report, by removing these microscopic lesions precancerous diseases, researchers manage to stop the advance towards the dreaded pancreatic adenocarcinoma in mice, proposing a total paradigm shift in how we could face this disease. Genetics is key. Something that has been known for a long time is that there are people who have a genetic predisposition to suffer from this disease. Specifically, in more than 90% of cases, the mutation responsible for triggering the disease is found in a gene called KRAS. A gene that for decades was considered “unapproachable” by classical pharmacology and that acted as a great shield against the disease. However, medicine is advancing in leaps and bounds, and this study uses selective inhibitors for this gene with the aim of silencing it precisely in PanIN lesions. In this way, by neutralizing the growth signals that the KRAS gene gives to tumor cells, they cannot take the step to begin to spread throughout the body, which causes the most serious symptoms. Mice today, hope for tomorrow. Logically, we must put our feet on the ground, since we are dealing with a preclinical study. That is, the therapy has proven to be a resounding success in animal models, but there is still a long way to go until this therapy can be used in a human in a hospital, since it must be seen that the effect is similar in our organisms. However, this research fits perfectly with the new medical philosophy against pancreatic cancer. As highlighted by the National Cancer Research Center (CNIO) in his recent communicationsthe future undoubtedly involves knowing the personalized risk and ensuring that those people who are more likely to suffer from pancreatic cancer due to their genetics receive exhaustive screening to detect the disease in time and increase the probability of survival. Images | Bioscience Image Library In Xataka | A Spanish milestone against pancreatic cancer: we are one step closer to eradicating it but there is still a long way to go

Meta just launched managed accounts for tweens

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WhatsApp is part of the daily lives of millions of people and, in many homes, also part of family communication. The company itself has been presenting it for some time as a common tool to talk to parents, notify that someone has arrived home or coordinate day-to-day activities. However, The platform establishes that its use is intended for people over 13 years of age.. Now Meta has decided introduce a new modality designed precisely for that terrain. The novelty. What was announced by Meta consists of introducing a new type of account within WhatsApp designed for preteens. Instead of creating a conventional profile, the minor uses an account managed by a parent or guardian that is linked to that of the adult from the moment of configuration. This allows the person responsible to monitor certain aspects of app usage, such as who can send messages, which group invitations can be accepted, or what privacy settings apply to the account. A more limited experience from the beginning. The managed account does not replicate all the usual WhatsApp functions, but rather reduces the service to the essentials. In this format, the preteen can use the application to send messages or make calls, but some of the tools that the platform has incorporated in recent years are excluded. Among them are channels, the possibility of sharing location or integration with Meta AI. The adult is in control. As we say, these managed accounts not only limit functions, they also change who makes certain decisions within the application. Once the minor’s account is linked to that of the father, mother or guardian, that person begins to manage various aspects of the use of WhatsApp. You can decide which contacts are authorized to communicate with the account, which group invitations can be accepted, and review message requests from unknown numbers. Additionally, privacy settings are protected by a parental PIN, meaning only the responsible adult can access and modify them. privacy. Although managed accounts introduce new controls for adults, WhatsApp ensures that the platform’s privacy system remains intact. Messages and calls remain protected by end-to-end encryption, so only people participating in the conversation can access their content. Step by step activation. To launch one of these managed accounts, the process begins on the child’s phone and also requires the parent or guardian’s device. WhatsApp also indicates that both devices must have the most recent version of the application and that the person managing the account must be over 18 years of age. The adult must download WhatsApp to the preteen’s phone and choose the option to create a managed account during the setup process. Download WhatsApp on the minor’s mobile Choose the option to create an account managed by a parent or guardian Register and verify the minor’s phone number Enter date of birth and confirm age Scan the QR code with the adult’s mobile phone to link the accounts Verify that the adult is of legal age Create a six-digit parental PIN to protect settings Finish setup on the child’s device The Spanish context adds another layer. In Spain, the debate about minors’ access to certain digital platforms has been ongoing for some time. At the beginning of 2026, the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, announced the intention to ban access to social networks for minors under 16 years of age as part of a future regulation aimed at reinforcing digital protection at those ages. In this framework, platforms such as TikTok, Instagram or YouTube appear in the debate, while WhatsApp would be left out as it is considered a messaging service and not a social network. The new function seems designed to respond to a familiar use of messaging that the company itself assumes exists. Instead of ignoring it, Meta proposes a model in which this access occurs with more limits and with the direct supervision of a responsible adult. The result is a more limited version of WhatsApp, focused on basic communication and with additional controls over contacts, groups and privacy settings. In this way, the company tries to fit the use of the application by preteens within a more controlled environment. AvailabilityWhatsApp has only confirmed that these accounts will begin to roll out gradually in the coming months. That calendar leaves open an important question in regions like the European Union. In the European Region, On April 11, 2024, the company lowered the minimum age of use from 16 to 13 years to harmonize it with the rest of the world. However, the sources consulted do not yet detail how this new modality administered for minors below that threshold will be articulated in Europe or what scope it will actually have in those markets. Images | WhatsApp In Xataka | You’ve been ‘user84721’ for years. A study just showed that AI can know who you are in minutes

An Aragonese company used the brand ‘La Mafia’ for its restaurants. Italy has managed to have it annulled in Spain

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The restaurant chain ‘The Mafia sits at the table’ it’s news. And not because of the new features of its Italian-inspired menu or because of the opening of new stores. What has made it hit the headlines (much to its chagrin) is its brand, a business card that the Republic of Italy considers offensive and takes years starring in a complicated judicial soap opera. Now Roma has achieved a key victory that puts the brand in serious danger in Spain. The key: Can the word ‘mafia’ be used happily? What has happened? The news has advanced it the diary Expansion. The Spanish Patent and Trademark Office (OEPM) has resolved that the name of ‘The Mafia sits at the table’a popular restaurant chain founded more than 20 years ago in Zaragozais “contrary to public order and good customs”, which is why it has endorsed the request for annulment made by the Government of Italy. The OEPM resolution is recent (February 26) and leaves little room for interpretation. In the opinion of its techniciansthe brand alludes to a real organization with activities “contrary to the ethical and moral principles” of the EU. Hence, I agree with Italy that it is questionable whether it can be registered and exploited on a commercial level. “It would offend the victims and their families,” he warns. Is it something new? Yes. And no. Italy has been maneuvering for years to force the Aragonese restaurant chain to abandon a name that it considers offensive. And nothing has gone wrong in his efforts. In 2015, he filed a complaint that led to the EU Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) refusing to register the trademark at the community level. Years later (2018) it was marked equally important when the General Court of the EU (TGUE) endorsed the decision of the EUIPO and prevented the company from shielding its commercial name. What does that mean? That was more than a simple judicial victory. The decision The TGEU prevented the company from registering its trademark at the community level, which in practice left it unprotected. However, the TGUE’s decision had its limitations. For example, it did not prevent the Zaragoza chain from continuing to use its name in the dozens of restaurants it has throughout Spain. What changes now? The OEPM opinion goes one step (and several) further. The brand is no longer only annulled at the community level, but it is also doing so in Spain, a fundamental decision since ‘La Mafia sits at the table’ (remember) is a chain born 26 years ago right here, in Zaragoza. The Spanish organization has aligned itself with European justice and has come to the conclusion that the name is “contrary to public order” and “good customs”, which is why it has endorsed the request for annulment presented by Italy. Not only that. The transalpine country has already gone to the commercial courts of Barcelona to prevent the Aragonese company from continuing to use its name. What will happen now? “The resolution could be issued in less than a year and, if favorable, would force them to cease using the trademark,” explains to Expansion Josep Carbonell, partner of Fieldfisherthe office that has advised Italy in the procedure. Of course, the company also has margin (one month) to appeal the OEPM’s decision. In any case, its resolution of February 26 represents a setback for the future of the brand in its large market. What is the problem? The underlying question is very simple: can the word ‘mafia’ be used happily or not? Should its commercial use be banned? The company claims that it was inspired by a recipe book and appeals to the right to freedom of expression, remembering in passing that it is not unusual to find books, movies and series focused on the same topic. years ago in fact already clarified that its objective is not to offend anyone, but to generate an atmosphere similar to that of the ‘Godfather’ saga. For the authorities, however, the reading is somewhat different. In its resolution, the TGUE recalled that (at least in this case) using the term “banalizes organized crime” and even warned of the risk of “romanticizing” it. In a similar vein, the OEPM recalls that Spain is no stranger to this criminal organization and its activities, “contrary to the ethical principles” and “fundamental moral values ​​of the EU.” In the background there is a more complex issue, such as remember Carbonell: Is using the word ‘mafia’ in an artistic work the same as elevating it to the category of a business’ trademark? Is it an isolated case? Not at all. The Italian authorities have not only focused on the Zaragoza company. In 2024, fed up with his town being associated with organized crime, the mayor of Agrigento (Sicily) issued a municipal order to prohibit the sale of tourist souvenirs related to the mafia. The underlying reason was similar: to prevent people from doing business with (and romanticizing) an organization that, beyond the veneer that Hollywood has given it, has been causing headaches for the Italian authorities for years. Images | The Mafia 1 and 2 Via | Expansion In Xataka | Sushi was a sleeping giant of the fast food industry: in the US it has already begun to eat hamburgers

South Korea has had the most catastrophic birth rate in the world for years. And now it has finally managed to grow

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For a few years now, talking about demographics in South Korea has made it necessary to first take out a clinex package. Despite all his attempts (and there have been not a few) the country seemed condemned to suffer an uncontrollable ‘bleed’ of birth rates and see the seams of its economy tighten. It may sound exaggerated, but it is good to remember that he said goodbye to 2024 by declaring “super aged” and that there are academics who warn that the nation is emptying (literally). With that backdrop, Seoul has started 2026 with a positive fact: wins babies. And it also does so for the second consecutive year. The big question that arises now is… Are we facing a change in trend or just a mirage? The figure: 254,457. It is provisional data (the definitio will not arrive until the summer), but even so it has arrived like manna in a country accustomed to every piece of news about demographics involving a national drama. Last year South Korea registered 254,457 birthsa good balance no matter where you look at it. To begin with because it means 6.8% more that in 2024 and leaves the largest percentage increase since 2007; but those are only two of the possible readings. More babies per woman. Another interesting reading is the one that tells us about the “fertility rate”, the average number of babies that (at a statistical level) a woman is expected to have throughout her reproductive life. A few years ago that indicator plummeted to 0.72very far from the “replacement rate” (2.1 children per woman) that allows societies to remain stable. The data is still below that red line, but at least it has grown: in 2025 it passed from 0.75 to 0.8. Not only that. Reuters remember that the South Korean Government had optimistic estimates that suggested that this rate would grow to 0.75 in 2025 and 0.8 in 2026, which appears to be recovering positions faster than expected. In Seoul the trend is even more pronounced. There the indicator rose 8.9%, going from 0.53 to 0.63. The data is still very poor and they are far away to solve the problem that Korea has, but they suggest a change of cycle. Breaking the bad streak. That the birth rate is increasing in South Korea is news, but it is even more so if (as is the case) that growth is maintained for two years. In 2024 the country has already registered a positive fact (breaking up with eight exercises of consecutive falls) that now invites us to think about whether it has really found the right way to encourage its young people to have more offspring. Of course, the country has invested time, efforts and especially economic resources in that objective, in which it is played from the social sustainability and the march of his industry to issues as relevant as national defense. More weddings, more babies. 2025 has not only been a good year in maternity hospitals. It has also been for the wedding planners. Marriages increased by 8.1% in 2025, reinforcing the 14.8% rebound already recorded in 2024. This is good news because, in a conservative society like South Korea (the percentage of births outside of marriage It’s surprisingly low.), weddings are often considered an early indicator of a rebound in birth rates. Trend or mirage? That’s the million dollar question. That South Korea has been trying to activate its birth rate for years is undeniable, as is the fact that it has invested large resources in this effort and that they have been involved in the effort since the public institutions to the business world. However, there are other factors at play that suggest that the recent growth in the South Korean birth rate could be more circumstantial than structural. That is to say, in reality we would be facing a kind of demographic ‘mirage’. The hangover of the pandemic. When explaining the phenomenon, there are those who point to the influence of the pandemic. Not so much in the birth rate itself as in marriages. It is true that more South Koreans are getting tired and that this indicator will probably influence the birth rate in the coming years, but it is also true that many couples had to postpone their plans during the pandemic. “The number of marriages has increased for 21 consecutive months, from April 2024 to December last year, as couples who had delayed their marriages due to COVID-19 have tied the knot,” recognize Park Hyun-jung, director of the government office that analyzes population trends. He himself admits that today it is very difficult to establish a clear “correlation” between government policies and improved birth rates. A demographic with ‘echo’. There are those who point out, however, another factor that would be directly influencing South Korean demographics: history. The explanation I broke it down Rapahel Rashid recently in Guardian and provides an alternative theory. More babies have been born in the South Korea of ​​2024 or 2025 simply because the same thing already happened in the Korea of ​​30 years ago. To be more precise, more or less during the first half of the 1990s (1991-1995) there was a peak of around 3.6 million of babies who today enter their thirties and begin to become parents themselves. Reviewing history. We explain ourselves. Paradoxical as it may be, in the 1950s and 1960s Korea had a very different problem than today: a very high fertility rate which led authorities to launch family planning programs. The objective: guarantee the country’s recovery after the war. The message that was launched was very simple: have fewer children (two, one) and guarantee them a better life. It worked so well that by the early 1980s the fertility rate had fallen below the replacement margin and Seoul decided change course. By doing so, it favored the rebound that would now be heating up the birth rate. According to that theory, what we see today is actually a … Read more

Tokyo is one of the few cities in the world that has managed to maintain housing prices. His secret: build

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“If you can’t solve a problem, make it bigger.” This oft-repeated maxim (and mistakenly coined for Dwight D. Eisenhower) can be good advice when it comes to housing: Expanding the scope of a problem can make new solutions possible. Japan is the world’s best example of an advanced industrial democracy with abundance of affordable housing with low carbon emissions. To build. The key to Japan’s success is its unusual degree of national control over zoning and building rules. Centralized authority trumps local housing obstructionism. Tokyo builds more housing in a year than all of California or all of England, which have 3 or 4 times its population. In the largest megalopolis in the world, the way Rents stay low in the long term is to build. National decisions. The political scientist Grant McConnell wrote on the classic articulation of the view that the national government is more likely to solve difficult problems than state or local governments. Small can be beautiful, the reasoning goes, but it can also be provincial, backward and oligarchic. This logic fits well with the housing issue: Putting much more at stake, all at once, in one big fight, rather than piece by piece in hundreds of separate local fights, could disrupt the housing war. More homes around the world. The world has provided some examples of this. Japan has had extraordinary success in housing construction. He has long been a leader and expanded his leadership even further in recent years. Germany, Austria and Switzerland have always had good records, behind Japan but still performing well. France has stepped up, at least in Paris. These countries generally employ rule-based (or “by right”) building permit systems: if your plans check the stipulated boxes, building authorities have no choice but to sign. The Anglo-Saxons. On the other hand, English-speaking countries, including Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States and New Zealand, are lagging behind. Their permit systems are often more discretionarygiving local officials the power to approve or reject buildings at will. In many parts of these countries, especially their large cities, housing is expensive because it is scarce. For now, the Anglosphere suffers the worst housing shortages and prices. The Japanese case. The Asian country is the best example of the maxim of “magnifying” problems. Japan’s national government controls the use of land and buildings to a greater extent than national authorities in other countries. This control has grown in recent decades, even as other nations have gone into lockdown. The number of homes built per year in industrial democracies has fallen by more than 60% since 1970, according to The Economist. Meanwhile, housing construction in Japan has remained solid at all timesbroad public interest in abundant housing has triumphed over obstructionism. What did they do? To boost construction and lower prices, Japan redoubled efforts to allow more housing construction. He resorted, in particular, to administrative changes in building codes. “To help the economy recover from the bubble, the country eased the regulation of urban development,” explained Hiro Ichikawa, a construction development advisor. in the Financial Times. “If it hadn’t been for the bubble, Tokyo would be in the same situation as London or San Francisco.” Build, build and build. The results, in abundant housing, low prices and low carbon urban formswalkable and transit-focused, are notable. The city of Tokyo had 13.5 million residents in 2018. But the city built 145,000 new residences that year. Tokyo’s achievement was particularly surprising considering that the prefecture has very little vacant land, so almost all of those 145,000 homes were located in an existing neighborhood. The astonishing pace of housing construction in the capital has continued for years. Tokyo routinely builds more new homes than all of California (which has three times its population) or, in some years, all of England (which has four times its population). It has increased housing construction by 30% since the turn of the century, even as its population peaked and began to decline in 2007. disposable houses. It is true that Japan demolishes houses much earlier than other industrialized countriesso a large portion of their housing starts are replacement housing. But the much criticized Japanese culture of “disposable houses” It is actually one of the secrets of its success. Japan’s rigorous and up-to-date earthquake safety laws, plus a cultural attachment to new homes, mean that tiny houses in Japan often depreciate completely in just 30 years and are replaced soon after. Because housing is renovated quickly, the country has a much better chance of installing larger buildings. In parts of the US, where buildings typically have an economic life of 100 years, you only have one chance per century to replace a house with an apartment building. In Japan, you get three. More housing. The prefecture has tripled its stocks of housing in the last 50 years and has expanded the number of residences in the city by about 2% annually since 2000. In fact, its overall housing unit growth rate was three times faster than London or New York in the 2010s. Among the 14 megacities around the world, only Singapore and Seoul surpassed Tokyo in the pace of overall housing growth. Thanks to the Japanese program to govern housing, Tokyo Prefecture and the world’s largest metropolis have completely avoided residential closures. Japan seems to have learned the maxim attributed to Eisenhower: if you can’t solve a problem, make it bigger. In Xataka | In its crazy rise in housing prices, Madrid has just broken a barrier: that of the most expensive apartment in its history In Xataka | Tenants and owners are not the same type of Spaniards: some pay €400 more than others for the same home Image | Yu Kato

After 16 years, Mexico has managed to get a millionaire to pay his taxes. And they are going to use them to help young people

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One of the richest men in Mexico has been litigating for two decades to avoid paying what he owes to the treasury. In an unexpected turn of events, that money that was owed has ended up financing scholarships, soccer fields and cultural centers for young people at risk of falling into drug trafficking violenceat least that is what the Mexican Government has assured. President Claudia Sheinbaum has presented the social program “Young People Transforming Mexico” aimed at distancing young people from the influence of drug trafficking networks. During the explanation of the measures that includes the program, the president was very direct about the origin of the project’s financing: “Where does this resource come from? All this resource for young people, well, from the payment of a person who finally paid his taxes.” Sheinbaum was not referring to just any citizen, it was a direct reference to businessman Ricardo Salinas Pliego, owner of TV Azteca, Elektra and Banco Azteca, who at the end of January settled the largest individual tax debt in the history of Mexico. The largest payment in Mexican tax history The conflict between Salinas Pliego and the Tax Administration Service (SAT) dates back to 2009, when the Treasury concluded that the Elektra Group, owned by Mexican millionaire Ricardo Salinas Pliego, with a estimated fortune at $5.8 billion, it had declared non-existent tax losses to artificially reduce its bill between 2008 and 2013. As explained in the specialized medium LexLatinFor 16 years, the businessman used a strategy of systematic delay, filing appeals in multiple judicial instances and requesting recusals of judges in order to prolong the lawsuits that demanded payment of his tax debt. In the Supreme Court alone, the seven main trials generated 100 secondary processes, the majority at the initiative of the Salinas Group. The turning point came in October 2025, when Congress approved a reform of the Amparo Lawwhich limited the possibility of challenging already final tax rulings. In November, the Supreme Court used this new law to resolve the seven trials, confirming sanctions of more than 48,000 million pesos (about 2,367 million euros), including one of more than 33,000 million pesos (about 1,627 million euros) from the 2013 fiscal year. What began in 2009 as the claim of a tax debt of about 38,000 million pesos (around 1,874 million euros) had already exceeded 74,000 million pesos (about 3,649 million euros) due to accumulated interests, surcharges and penalties. On January 29, 2026, Salinas Pliego made a first disbursement of its tax debt with a payment of 10,400 million pesos (about 513 million euros), which were deposited that same day into the Treasury. The total debt finally recognized has amounted to 32,132 million pesos (the equivalent of 1,584 million euros), with the remaining balance to be settled in 18 monthly payments. This final amount represents a discount with respect to the 51,000 million pesos (about 2,515 million euros) that the Mexican treasury had initially set, since Salinas Pliego took advantage of the benefits of the Tax Code, which in this case represented a 37% reduction of the debt through voluntary payment. As and how I collected The CountrySheinbaum He did not hide his satisfaction after knowing the sentence. “It is the largest payment that has ever been made for a case of this type. And it is really good that he decided to pay it!” The president recalled that “for many years, based on negotiations and agreements, taxes were not paid. When President Andrés Manuel López Obrador arrived, the remission of taxes was prohibited in the Constitution.” A plan against youth violence As Sheinbaum pointed out at the presentation event, the money collected from taxes owed for years by one of the largest fortunes in Mexico was going to be used to finance the program “Young People Transforming Mexico“. This project includes the construction of new educational facilities, more places in secondary and higher education, as well as the expansion of the Gertrudis Bocanegra Scholarship for one million students. In the sports field, 4,208 football fields will be rehabilitated, 100 community centers will be created in high violence areas with capacity for 1,000 young people each, offering sports, cultural workshops, mental health and addiction prevention. The objective of all these measures is to offer educational opportunities, social support and leisure to prevent young people at risk of social exclusion and without professional opportunities from falling into the networks of the Mexican drug cartels. “That young people stop any activity that has to do with criminal groups,” the president stated Mexican. In Xataka | The chances of two superyachts colliding are few, but never zero: “You won’t believe it, but our yacht was hit” Image | Wikimedia Commons (JGTorresH), Unsplash (Jesus Herrera)

This is how SETI managed to isolate 100 possible alien technosignatures

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For more than two decades, millions of desktop computers around the world shared their computing power while they were ‘at rest’ with a common goal. This was nothing more than searching for extraterrestrial technological signatures in the noise of the cosmos. Now, the team behind SETI@home has published the final analysis of its dataclosing a fundamental chapter in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. A cosmic funnel. The data analyzed by SETI@home come from observations made over 14 years using the iconic Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. During this time, the project operated by collecting data while the telescope was targeted by other astrophysical research. The immense amount of data recorded by this telescope was divided into small packages that were distributed over the Internet using the platform BOINC. In this case, more than five million volunteers lent the computing power of their PC processors to analyze these frequencies in the background with the legendary screensaver in the form of graphics with a latent pulse that crowned some PCs from the 2000s. All this thanks to a collaborative work that I started by installing a small application and giving up part of the processing power. What was seen. The result of all this information was nothing other than statistical outrage. Specifically, more than 12 billion initial detections were identified, and volunteers from there looked for energy spikes, narrowband pulses and signals with repetitive structures over time. The analysis focused on a 2.5 MHz band around the 1.42 GHz frequency, known as the hydrogen transition line, considered the logical “radio channel” for an interstellar civilization. The sieve end. Finding an alien signal in that mountain of data requires, first, discarding our own technological screams that we have in space. The second phase of the project consisted of cleaning those 12 billion detections from radio frequency interference. Aviation radars, television stations or even mobile phones constantly pollute the radio spectrum, not allowing us to see what is in the background. How it was done. The truly interesting thing about this project was how they managed to Separate the wheat from the chaff in a sea of ​​millions of datasince the researchers designed complex algorithms with a very ingenious technique called ‘birdies’. The ‘birdies’ are nothing more than software-simulated alien technosignatures that the team artificially injected into the database. Its importance lies in that they simply serve to test the sensitivity of the system, since if the anti-noise filters erased the ‘birdies’ or failed to group them, it meant that the algorithm was failing, since it would also be eliminating possible data that pointed to extraterrestrial life. The result. In this way, the researchers were able to go from having 12,107,039,965 in their database to selecting 100 specific signals, which is where some type of communication with an extraterrestrial could be found. A titanic cleaning task, and it is where one of the most important points of all this research lies. The role of China. The problem with all this is that the Arecibo radio telescope in December 2020 prevented the original source of the data from being able to verify these findings. Fortunately, the gigantic rFAST adiotelescope in Chinacurrently the largest and most sensitive of its kind in the world, has taken over for the final stage. In this way, with a database of 100 signals and with 23 hours of observation time dedicated to the FAST, the different locations began to be re-observed. And it is not a quick process, since each re-observation at the Chinese telescope lasts about 15 minutes and includes a slow scan with the 19 beams of the FAST receiver. This is fundamental, because the sensitivity obtained in these new measurements is substantially better, reaching between 2.0 and 2.5 times the capacity of the original Arecibo data. The outcome. After all this, the question seems obvious: Does this mean that we have finally contacted an extraterrestrial intelligence? We must be honest and emphatic: no. To date, none of the signals analyzed or reobserved have been shown to be a repeatable or conclusive alien technosignature. However, from a technological and astronomical point of view, SETI@home has been a historic triumph, as it not only democratized computer science and pioneered the immense power of distributed computing for the masses, but it has established an open source framework and new documented sensitivity limits for the future. The use of high-computational birdie injection for end-to-end testing of analysis software is, in fact, a pioneering advance in radio astronomy. Images | SETI@Home Leo_Visions In Xataka | TRAPPIST-1 was the most promising solar system to search for life. Now our joy is in a well

China has managed to create an AI that has made Hollywood tremble. Disney has not been amused at all

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The phenomenon of the month in AI is Seedance 2.0. To date, the most amazing text-to-video creation model and theard a dart at the same industry from Hollywood. So much so that Disney itself has legally warned Bytedance, the Chinese giant behind this model. The notice. Sources of Reuters They claim that Disney has sent a cease and desist letter to Bytedance, accusing the Chinese company of having used company characters to train its Seedance 2.0 model. According to statements, Bytedance would have created a package of copyrighted characters to feed this artificial intelligence, the main reason why it is so accurate at recreating them. Bytedance’s response. The Chinese company has not acknowledged having used copyrighted characters to train its model, but it has reacted to Disney’s notice. “We are taking steps to strengthen current safeguards as we work to prevent unauthorized use of intellectual property and likeness by users.” Beyond the statement, the company has not detailed what measures it is taking to prevent users from distributing copyrighted content, such as the one we have been seeing flooding the network for two weeks. They are not the first. Disney has already taken similar measures against Character.AIan AI specialized in creating animated characters capable of perfectly emulating Disney characters. The company It only has an alliance with OpenAIwith whom he signed an agreement so that Sora could generate more than 200 characters thanks to a three-year license. The operation included a $1 billion investment by Disney in OpenAI. Doors to the countryside. “Creative prompt engineering” and code modifications to make AI bypass the very limitations for which it is programmed are inevitable, in addition to all the derived Open-Source models that can be trained outside the jurisdiction. The key here is not in the dispute between Disney and Bytedance, it is that China has created the first model that directly threatens the creation of cinematographic content. Join the enemy. For some time now, the film industry has been clear that the coming years they will be cuts and embrace of AI. CEOs like Sony have already spoken out and positioned themselves as “very focused on AI”, making it clear that the current problem for movies is expense. Models like Seedance now allow us to generate in minutes what previously required entire teams and million-dollar budgets. In the coming years, video generation models will force the industry to rethink its cost structure. In Xataka | We are entering a new era of robotics driven by AI and Disney is its perfect showcase

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