matter

The gold of the 21st century is not in Venezuela. China and Russia know it, and that is why the US wants Greenland no matter what.

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As if it were a Deja Vú2026 has exactly begun same as 2025: with Trump’s insistence on take over Greenland. It happens that it no longer seems like an isolated whim or a rhetorical eccentricity, but rather the convergence of a personal drive, a strategic opportunity perceived as easy, and a high-impact geopolitical calculation. Venezuela It has served to light the fuse. Greenland as an obsession. After the capture of MaduroTrump confirmed once again that the use of force abroad lacks the legal and judicial brakes that do constrain his domestic action, and that, in the face of clearly outmatched adversaries or allies, the reality is imposed on international law without too many immediate consequences. Greenland then appears (again) as the perfect prize: a huge, sparsely populated territory, defended by an ally incapable of military resistance and located in an area where Washington can dress territorial ambition in the language of “national security”. The reiteration of the message, the appointment of a specific envoy and the public statements that normalize even the military option indicate that this is not a joke or simple diplomatic pressure, but rather an obsession that grows as Trump’s internal political margin narrows. The founding paradox of NATO. The central problem is that Greenland belongs to the Kingdom of Denmarka full member of NATO, and any US action against it would place the Alliance before a paradox for which it was not designed. He Article 5, designed to deter external enemies, does not see clearly What happens when the aggressor is the hegemonic member. As has warned Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, in that scenario “everything would stop”: NATO could continue to exist formally, but its credibility would be destroyed. No one would come to the defense of Greenland against the United States, not only due to a lack of political will, but also due to the absolute material asymmetry between Washington and the rest of the allies. The implicit message is thunder for Europe: security guarantees are no longer automatic, and force is once again in place above the treatyan outcome that directly benefits Russia at the moment of greatest tension since the end of the Cold War. Critical minerals. The economic and technological argument is supported in mineral wealth that lies under the Greenland ice, the result of an ancient geology that concentrates rare earths and other essential critical minerals for the energy transition. From the 19th century to today, different actors have tried exploit that potential, from Ivittuut cryolite during World War II to contemporary rare earth projects. However, the enthusiasm collides with a stubborn reality: extracting these resources is extraordinarily expensive, slow and risky. The almost total lack of infrastructure, the dependence on maritime or air transport, the complexity of processing (with minerals often associated with uranium) and restrictive environmental legislation mean that only a minimal fraction of exploration projects become operational mines, usually after more than a decade of investment. Extra ball. Furthermore, the memory of the environmental damage caused by past exploitations, whose effects are still detectable half a century later in extremely fragile ecosystems, explains why Greenlandic society only contemplates mining. like an opportunity if you actively participate in decision-making and project ownership. The loot exists, but it is neither immediate nor easy, and it certainly does not seem to be able to justify the American strategic urgency on its own. Hybrid war. The backdrop is a northern Europe increasingly militarizedwhere incidents against submarine cables, gas pipelines and critical infrastructure in the Baltic have normalized the idea of a permanent hybrid war. In this context, Washington observes how Moscow and Beijing test pressure tactics below the threshold of open conflict, while legal and judicial responses appear slow or ineffective. The explicit willingness of the United States to include military option for Greenland fits into that fait accompli logic: securing key positions before the strategic environment deteriorates further. It is not just about denying advantages to rivals, but about getting ahead of a scenario in which infrastructure, logistics and control of physical nodes are worth more than declarations of principles. The navigable Arctic and a port. Here a possible decisive derivative emerges. Science has been warning for some time a stage where the Arctic is heading, on a horizon of decades, to be navigable for most of the year. The sustained retreat of sea ice is transforming routes that were once seasonal into viable commercial corridorsdrastically reducing the distances between Asia, Europe and North America. Today, they capitalize on that advantage especially Russiawith the Northern Maritime Route, and Chinawhich presents itself as a “near-Arctic power” and invests in ports, icebreakers and logistics agreements. For the United States, which is late to this board, Greenland represents the perfect shortcut: an enclave located between the Atlantic and the Arctic, capable of hosting deep-water ports, air bases and logistics nodes from which to offset the Russian-Chinese advantage. Seen this way, more than a mine, Greenland is a port ahead of the world to come, a piece from which to influence the global trade of the 21st century and the control of routes that, for the first time in modern history, cease to be be closed by ice. A small island, a global change. If you will, the final paradox is that all this pulse revolves around a tiny territory of less than 60,000 inhabitantsone mostly opposed to integrating into the United States and in favor, at best, of a slow and cautious independence. However, its symbolic and strategic value is disproportionate. Greenland condenses the transition to a world where melting ice reconfigures maps, critical minerals redefine dependencies, and alliances are strained to the limit. For Trump, it is a source of political impact, potential money and demolition of the old order. For Europe, possibly proof that geography prevails again to the law. And for the international system, the warning that the Arctic is no longer a remote edge of the planet, but one of its new centers of gravity. Image | The … Read more

We have searched for dark matter with the most sensitive detector in history and we have found nothing. And that is a success

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The search for dark matter It becomes more and more like a game of hide-and-seek where, as we improve our vision, the target appears to become more invisible. The last thing we tried to do to find it was drill 1,500 meters deep underground, although in the end we had a very bad result, although it did allow us to find things that we were not looking for. The dark matter. It is without a doubt one of the great mysteries of physics. While many researchers suggest that this matter surrounds us and is the main component of the universe, others believe that we were wrong and it doesn’t exist. Although little by little evidence is emerging that it is true that it exists so that our own theories fit. This whole mess is mainly focused on the fact that we do not have the ability to detect this matter. We know it’s there, but we don’t ‘see’ it. Something that generates a great confrontation within the world of physicistsand that is why these types of experiments try to shed light on this matter that allows us understand much better the composition of what surrounds us. New tools. Science has exploited the LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) experimenta very sophisticated tool built by humanity to hunt down these ghost particles. To understand it, it is nothing more than a sensor that had to be buried 1,500 meters deep, in the facilities of the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF), in South Dakota. The reason? Use the rock as a shield to block the cosmic radiation that bombards the surface. The concept. The magnitude of this experiment has undoubtedly been quite considerable, since at its core 10 tons of ultrapure liquid xenon have been housed. The theory here is that if a dark matter particle passes through the Earth, it should occasionally collide with a xenon atom that produces a tiny flash of light. In total, the LZ has analyzed data collected for 471 daysbetween March 2023 and April 2025. A period of time that makes this the most exhaustive search that has been done so far. The sound of silence. The main result is that no direct interaction with the particles has been detected. However, this null result is practically worth gold in the field of physics. And by not finding anything, scientists have been able to rule out a huge range of possibilities about what dark matter is and what it is not. In short, we have been able to establish tighter margins to detect dark matter, now having the strictest limit in the world on the cross sections of dark matter particles for a very specific mass. And it is that being of such a small masswhich is why it offers so many problems when it comes to detecting them. The surprise. The most fascinating thing about these results is not what was missing, but what appeared. Although the detector did not see dark matter, it did validate its extreme sensitivity by recording something incredibly difficult to capture: solar neutrinos. This marks a bittersweet milestone: the experiment has officially entered what physicists call the ‘neutrino fog‘. This means that we have reached a point of such extreme sensitivity that neutrinos (that go through everything without flinching) begin to generate background noise that could be confused with dark matter. And the truth is that we are facing a big problem, since technology will have to find a way to distinguish dark matter from neutrinos. The future. The experiment does not stop here. Although these results cover until April 2025, the official plan is to continue taking data until 2028, with the aim of accumulate more than 1,000 days of observations. And many experts continue to point to the same thing: 85% of the mass of the universe It’s dark matterand although it escapes us, we are getting closer to knowing what the universe is made of. Images | Karo K. In Xataka | The strangest event that humanity has witnessed occurred in 2019 under a mountain in Italy

India wanted to impose an indelible state app on all mobile phones. In a matter of days he had to take an unexpected turn

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The Government of India movement to force a security app to be installed On all mobile phones sold in the country it has lasted less than a week. On November 28, the Ministry of Telecommunications sent a private communication to the manufacturers in which it gave them 90 days to comply with the measure. However, the general rejection of public opinion, doubts about its impact on cybersecurity and the apparent opposition of some manufacturers have forced a change in plans. The order began to gain public relevance when its internal details became known. Reuters noted that The Government not only requested the mandatory presence of Sanchar Saathi in new mobile phones, but also its incorporation in those already in the supply chain through software updates. The agency also reported that the initial instruction specified that the application could not be disabled. What is Sanchar Saathi. The program’s own website define the tool as a public service aimed at empowering users against fraud and device theft. It is available as a mobile application and also as a web portal, from where it is possible to temporarily lock a lost phone, track subsequent use attempts and, if recovered, reactivate it. The Government frames these functions within a broader digital education effort, with end-user security materials and advisories. From security discourse to doubts about surveillance. The debate intensified when opposition figures and privacy specialists They questioned the initiative. In his opinion, an application managed by the State, coupled with such a broad mandate, required additional guarantees to rule out intrusive uses. Organizations such as the Internet Freedom Foundation They asked for transparency and access to the full legal text. Under pressure, Scindia publicly defended that “spying is not possible” with Sanchar Saathi and denied that the app can be used for surveillance. Opposition from manufacturers added pressure to the process. Reuters indicated that Apple had no intention to comply with the order as it was proposed and that it would convey its objections to the Government, while Samsung and other actors expressed similar reservations. According to sources cited by international media, the companies questioned whether the instruction had been issued without prior consultation and warned of its impact on the privacy policies of their ecosystems. The context was not minor: India has become one of the fastest growing markets for smartphones, especially for companies like Apple and other large manufacturers. An express reverse gear with success figures in hand. The rectification came on December 3, when the Ministry of Communications published a note announcing that mandatory pre-installation was no longer necessary. The decision was justified by the “growing acceptance” by Sanchar Saathi, which according to the Government now has 14 million users and allows around 2,000 frauds to be reported daily. Only the previous day, 600,000 new registrations had driven tenfold growth. Scindia then insisted that “spying is not possible”, despite the skepticism of specialized groups. In recent years, as reported by BloombergIndia has driven decisions that have forced big tech companies to readjust, such as demands for access to encrypted information or recent attempts to have manufacturers distribute the GOV.in public app suite. All of this occurs in a market that is strategic for Apple and Google, both in sales and production. The withdrawal of the mandate makes it clear that these dynamics continue to evolve and that balances will likely continue to be redefined. Images | Ministry of Communications of India | Piyanshu Sharma In Xataka | There are 500 million users who could perfectly upgrade to Windows 11. The problem is that they don’t want to

Russia had managed to manufacture drones and missiles despite the sanctions. So selling Zara clothes was a matter of time

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In recent months, a strange wave of western products has begun to reappear in places where, on paper, it is already they shouldn’t exist. Between geopolitical changes, forced business exits and an increasingly opaque market, certain brands have unexpectedly become visible again, fueling rumors, theories about how they are getting there and who is really pulling the strings of their distribution towards Moscow. Now a giant from Spain has (re)appeared: Inditex. A market that does not close completely. After announcing the end of operations in Russia a few days after the invasion of Ukraine, Inditex left behind its second largest market and sold its business in the country. However, more than two years latergarments with official labels from brands such as Zara, Bershka, Oysho, Stradivarius or Massimo Dutti have once again appeared on the shelves of the Russian channel Tvoenow renamed Tvoe n Ko, which boasts a “constantly updated” selection on social networks and presents the collections as almost clandestine finds. The pieces, which match models from previous seasons and carry prices in euros, are now sold in at least 19 stores Russian companies without there being (according to the official version offered) any contractual relationship between the Spanish company and the local distributor. In fact, they occur two months after the executive director of Inditex, Óscar García Maceiras, will declare to the Financial Times that the conditions “were not met” for his return to Russia. The engineering of the Russian gray market. I was counting a few hours ago the FT that the mechanism that allows the reappearance of these garments is based on the system of “parallel imports” established by Moscow to circumvent the massive departures of Western brands. In this scheme operates Disco Club LLCa Russian company that has recorded 18 statements in accordance, citing Inditex as supplier and presenting itself as its “authorized representative”, despite the fact that Inditex flatly denies having granted such permission. The garments come partly from inventories originally destined for various EU countries and partly from Chinese factories, according to labels and documents customs, in a circuit that takes advantage of legal loopholes and the Kremlin’s lack of inhibition to give formal coverage to a trade that would previously have been considered smuggling. The denial. For its part, Tvoe assures that it does not have direct agreements with Inditex and hides behind confidentiality agreements so as not to detail its suppliers, while Disco Club insist in which he only performed a “punctual technical service.” Burkhard Binder, the businessman linked to the founding of the company and based in Dubai, is disassociating himself from current operations. Inditex, known for its tight control of inventory, distribution and franchises, completely reject any link: he claims not to have authorized Disco Club or any Russian entity to act on his behalf and avoids commenting on how his products arrive in the country since he withdrew. Matter of time. we have been counting: the ability of the Russian economy to adapt in the midst of war has shown that international restrictions, no matter how strict, always find cracks. A country that has rebuilt chains complex supply chains to produce drones, precision ammunition or long-range missiles, despite technological embargoes and industrial vetoes, would not have difficulties reopening the door to much more “simpler” products, such as Western fashion clothing. In that context, the reappearance of garments of Zara in Russian stores is not so much surprising as confirming a trend: Moscow has perfected an ecosystem of parallel imports capable of circumventing almost any blockade, from military components even t-shirts and dresses from past seasons, turning the impossible into routine and the forbidden into a merely logistical problem. Russia, a laboratory of consumption in times of sanctions. The appearance of Zara products in Russia despite the exit from the company illustrates the magnitude of the gray market that Moscow has made official since 2022: an ecosystem that allows consumers to access Western brands through private intermediaries and indirect routes, without participation of the original companies. In this context, the reappearance of the Spanish firm in the Russian commercial landscape is not due to a business return, but rather to a state-run mechanism. commercial evasion that turns its garments into parallel import merchandise. If you like, the phenomenon also reveals the extent to which Russia has rebuilt its global consumption through third countries and front companies, and how even the strictest groups in controlling its supply chain cannot prevent its products from reappearing in a market from which they tried to leave definitely. Image | Pexels In Xataka | Ukraine has opened the Russian ballistic missile that has devastated its cities. Your surprise is a condemnation: your main supplier is untouchable In Xataka | Zara has been selling clothes for years. Now he aspires to sell something more difficult: prestige

We have been searching for dark matter for 90 years. Now a Japanese man believes he has found his “fingerprint”

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Since Fritz Zwicky suggested the existence of dark matter in 1933, the reality is that it has been one of the great ghosts of modern physics, generating many debates about its existence. The little we know indicates that this matter is there because we see how its gravity pushes galaxiesbut we have never been able to see it or touch it. It is invisible. Or at least, that’s what we believed until now. And to ‘see’ this matter you have to be a true superhero, since it does not emit, absorb or reflect light. Something that makes it completely invisible to telescopes around the world. But it is not something that is a small part of what surrounds us, but which makes up 85% of the total matter in the universe. But now there is hope to have more information about this great mystery of physics thanks to a study Professor Tomonori Totani of the University of Tokyo claims to have found the first direct evidence of this elusive substance. He has not seen it directly with his own eyes, but he has detected the “smoke” of his gun: a very specific gamma ray signal emanating from the halo of our own Milky Way and that eerily coincides with theoretical predictions of how dark matter behaves. A large amount of data. To understand the discovery, you have to look at the sky with gamma ray eyes. Totani has used a total of 15 years of data accumulated by NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (LAT). But the important thing was undoubtedly knowing where to look: in the galactic halo. That is, the ‘quiet’ outskirts of the Milky Way, excluding the galactic disk to avoid interference. What he found when cleaning the background noise was surprising: an excess of gamma rays with a very specific energy peak, located at 20 billion electron volts (20 GeV). The importance. So far so good, but… Why is it important? Basically, because it doesn’t fit what we would expect from normal astrophysical sources, like pulsars or supernova remnants. However, it fits like a glove for the WIMP theory. This is a theory that basically suggests that dark matter It is made up of WIMPs (Weakly Interacting Massive Particles). According to physical models, when two of these particles collide, they annihilate each other, releasing a cascade of energy in the form of gamma rays that would be detected in the universe now. And that is their conclusion: the detected signal is compatible with WIMP particles that have a mass of 500 times that of a proton. This would, therefore, be the fingerprint that gives the most information about dark matter, although it does not stop there. The shape is not a point on the map, but a soft, spherical halo that surrounds the galaxy, just as dark matter is distributed in the cosmological simulations that physics has made. The same goes for consistency, since the signal persists even when different background models are used and other known sources of noise in the universe are removed. There are precedents. This isn’t the first time someone has yelled “Eureka!” In the past, excess gamma rays have been detected at the Galactic Center (known as GCE), but the scientific community has tended to think that this signal comes from undetected millisecond pulsars, rather than dark matter. The key to Totani’s study is that he has looked where no one was looking in such detail. By moving away from the center and analyzing the diffuse halo, it is where he has found a much cleaner signal that does not invite so many doubts about its origin. There are still doubts. The study itself admits that the calculated cross section (the probability of interaction) is higher than the upper levels established by the observation of dwarf galaxies, which are often used as scale for dark matter. This means two things: either our models of the density of dark matter in the Milky Way are incorrect (which is possible, since there is a lot of uncertainty in the profile of the halo), or we are looking at a new and unknown astrophysical phenomenon that mimics dark matter. A great mystery. If this finding is confirmed, we would be facing one of the greatest discoveries in physics of the 21st century. It would confirm that dark matter is composed of particles that we can detect (and not primordial black holes) and open a new door for physics. go beyond the standard model. But as we say, this still needs to be verified by a second laboratory such as the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory (CTAO) that may have the ability to detect these gamma ray spectral lines. Image | A. Schaller (STScI) In Xataka | Exactly 100 years ago we began to understand how the world works. Quantum physics has radically changed our lives

It doesn’t matter if you are looking for an iPad or a Galaxy Tab

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Now that we are in Black Fridaythere are many of us who set out to look for offers and bargains of all kinds. One of the devices that can give us the most versatility today is a tablet, ideal for both working and studying, watching a movie on the couch or even playing. There are offers, yes, but we cannot lose sight of the refurbished tabletsespecially those of Back Market. This store offers us a huge catalog of tablets, all refurbished by professionals, with 24 months warranty and with a period of 30 days where we can try them and return them if they do not convince us. There is a lot to choose from, but below we leave you a selection of some very interesting examples: iPad Air (2025) by 498 eurosa very interesting option if we are looking for a powerful and balanced device. Galaxy Tab S10 FE by 493.49 eurosa tablet that meets the grade in terms of quality-price ratio. iPad Pro (2024) by 850 eurospowerful and with one of the best tablet screens there is. Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra by 832 eurosone of the best tablets with Android operating system that we can buy. iPad Air (2025) We start this selection of refurbished tablets with the iPad Air with M3 chip. Taking into account how difficult it is to find Apple devices on sale and at a good price (even on Black Friday), this refurbished model is presented as a great option for all those users looking to spend as little money as possible without giving up having a current and powerful device. We have it available for 498 euros. This 11-inch version of the iPad uses an IPS Liquid Retina panel with 2,360 x 1,640 pixel resolution and True Tone technology. By using, as we have said before, the M3 chip, it is more than guaranteed that we will have great performance. It is a very comfortable device to use and has one of the best autonomy that we can find for this type of tablets. iPad Air (2025, M3 series) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Galaxy Tab S10 FE What if we look for a similar option within Android tablets? There stands out a lot the Galaxy Tab S10 FE. This device, as with all Samsung Fan Editions, is a high-end device that makes some concessions to reduce its price. It arrived in stores at around 800 euros in its cheapest version, but it is difficult to find it at as good a price as this reconditioned one: it goes for 493.49 euros. This Samsung tablet has a 13.1-inch screen with a 90 Hz refresh rate and an Exynos 1580 chip, which offers quite remarkable performance. It arrived in stores with seven years of guaranteed updates, so it is a device that will last us for years. Its battery is 10,090 mAh and it comes with the S-Pen as standard, which gives it a lot of versatility. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links iPad Pro (2024) We now change to iPad Pro 2024. It is true that the same already has a successorbut we cannot ignore two things: Apple devices age very well and betting on a previous generation is always cheaper. Taking all this into account, this refurbished device is presented as a great option to renew a tablet for demanding users: it comes out 850 euros. This device, which, remember, is 13 inches, stands out for its OLED screen with a peak brightness of 1,600 nits and an anti-reflective layer that is ideal if we are going to use it in a brightly lit room or outdoors. At the power level we will not have any type of problem even in the most demanding tasks thanks to its M4 chip, which makes it perfect for working. Its sound section also stands out, making it ideal for playing multimedia content. iPad Pro (2024, M4 series) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra We close this selection of reconditioned tablets with another from Samsung, in this case the Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra. It is a great option if we are looking for an Android device that offers us a good screen, good power and versatility. It also has a successoralthough the same thing happens as with the previous iPad: if we are looking to spend less, the previous generation is more attractive. In Back Market, go out 832 euros. It is a device that comes with a large 14.6-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X screen with a 120 Hz refresh rate, making it a very interesting option for gaming. It uses a MediaTek Dimensity 9300+ chip and has 12 GB of RAM, a top combination if we are looking for notable performance. It comes with the S-Pen included and its battery is 11,200 mAh, so we will have good autonomy. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Some of the links in this article are affiliated and may provide a benefit to Xataka. In case of non-availability, offers may vary. Images | Xataka, Apple, Samsung In Xataka | Best tablets (2025). Which one to buy and 8 recommended models for all pockets and needs In Xataka | Best tablets in quality price. Which one to buy based on use and recommended models

The connected home is chaos. IKEA’s solution is 21 new devices compatible with Matter

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IKEA has been wanting to be the protagonist of the connected home for years. In its catalog we have motorized blinds, door sensorswater leak detectors… The problem was getting everything to work cohesively and without friction. It is just what IKEA wants to change and to do so it has completely renewed its range of smart devices. with a total of 21 products, all compatible with Matter. Goal: full compatibility The promise of the connected home sounds great on paper, but the reality is that, if you have many devices at home, friction between them is the order of the day and in the end it is a chaos of different apps and hubs to be able to control them all. In statements to Wiredthe director of home electronics at IKEA confessed to having “more than 100 smart devices at home, but I also have like 10 different hubs. I hate it.” IKEA has been launching connected devices for many years and has a fairly large offering, but this launch is the recognition that Their offer was quite chaotic. For example, the first light bulbs and their controllers are compatible with the Zigbee standard, but later they launched the hub DIRECT Matter compatible. What they are looking for with this renewal of their offer is to get closer to that total compatibility and for everything to work with everything. To achieve this they have chosen mattera standard that was launched in 2022 and is present in devices from the main home automation platforms such as Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Samsung Smartthings or Apple HomeKit. Despite many devices already integrate itthere is still the problem that many older devices do not offer itbut it is undoubtedly a step in the right direction to solve this chaos. Lights, sensors and more IKEA’s new home automation range consists of a total of 21 products grouped into three large categories: lighting, sensors and control. First of all we have a new range of light bulbs called KAJPLATS. It consists of eleven different models. They will be dimmable and will also come in various shades of white, warm and colored light. In the case of sensors, there will be five models aimed at different use cases. They are the following: MYGGSPRAY: a motion sensor for both indoor and outdoor use. It is designed so that lights turn on automatically. MYGGBETT: It is a sensor to detect door or window openings and allows you to configure notifications. TIMMERFLOTE: to measure the temperature and humidity inside the home. ALPSTUGA: is the new sensor that measures air quality using CO2, temperature and humidity measurements. KLIPBOK: to detect water leaks. You can notify us with a beep or with a mobile notification Finally, BILRESA will be your new remote controls to control lights and GRILLPLATS will be the new smart plug. They will be available from December at prices yet to be confirmed, although IKEA claims they will be more affordable. Images | IKEA In Xataka | There is a new fever among the ultra-rich: fed up with technology, they want houses that are as “dumb” as possible

75% of the universe is made of unknown matter. Australia has gone to look for her 1 km underground

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More than a kilometer underground, in an old gold mine in a small Australian town, a group of scientists is building a laboratory that aims to look where no one has been able to look before. Its name is SABER South, and its mission sounds simple but borders on the impossible: detect the particles that make up dark matter, that mysterious component of which, until now, we only sense its existence. The search begins. To understand how we got here, we have to travel back to 1998. That year, an experiment in the underground laboratory of Gran Sasso, in Italy, registered a strange signal which some interpreted as a clue to dark matter. That observation, known as DAMA/NaI, ignited a scientific career that has not stopped since. Now, Australia enters that global race. According to ABC News AustraliaSABER South will be the first dark matter detector in the southern hemisphere and will begin collecting data next year. Its director, physicist Phillip Urquijo, explains that the objective is to reproduce the Italian observations and check whether these signals are real or the product of interference from the environment. Currently, three other teams—in Italy, Spain and South Korea— they are still trying to replicate the original experiment. However, the Australian project has a unique advantage: its location in the southern hemisphere will allow the data to be compared with those from the north and rule out seasonal or local effects. The enigma of the invisible universe. Powered by the University of Melbourne and the ARC Center of Excellence for Dark Matter Particle Physics, seeks to understand the nature of a substance that surrounds everything, but that no one has ever seen. The Standard Model of physics accurately describes the particles and forces we know, but it still leaves too many gaps unfilled. One of the biggest is this: why don’t galaxies disintegrate? What holds them together if everything we see—planets, stars, gas, dust—barely adds up to 5% of the universe? The rest is hidden from view. The physicists They estimate that around 27% would be dark matter and another 68% would be dark energy. Physicist Elisabetta Barberio, director of the ARC Center of Excellence for Dark Matter Particle Physics, puts it bluntly: “Between 75% and 80% of the universe is made of something we can’t see or touch. This experiment brings us closer to discovering what most of the cosmos is really made of.” Therefore, if SABER South detects WIMPs —those hypothetical massive particles that interact weakly—, we would be facing a new form of matter and, perhaps, facing a physics that goes beyond the Standard Model. Simply put: it would demonstrate that almost everything that exists has a tangible structure. And every time humanity has understood a new force or particle, technologies that previously seemed like science fiction have appeared: semiconductors, lasers or magnetic resonance. A mine converted into a cosmic laboratory. The experiment is carried out at the Stawell Underground Physics Laboratory (SUPL), excavated 1,025 meters deep a distance that is equivalent to a protection of almost three kilometers of water, enough to block cosmic rays and natural radiation that could interfere with the measurements. The laboratory is air-conditioned, has filtered air and has data connections linking to the University of Melbourne. At its heart, a room-sized detector houses ultrapure sodium iodide (NaI) crystals. When a WIMP particle collides with an atom in the crystal, it produces a tiny flash of light, so weak that it lasts just a few nanoseconds. These flashes are captured by photomultiplier tubes (PMT), devices capable of transforming light into measurable electrical pulses. The crystals they are submerged in a scintillating liquid—linear alkylbenzene (LAB)—that acts as a “veto”: if the LAB detects light at the same time as the crystal, the event is discarded as background noise. The entire system is sealed inside a low-radioactivity stainless steel tank, surrounded by alternating layers of steel and polyethylene, and monitored from above by a muon detector. A machine that listens to itself. SABER South will operate almost autonomously. According to the technical reports of the projectthe system records in real time the temperature, humidity, detector voltage, nitrogen gas flow and even mine vibrations. If something goes out of normal values, it generates an automatic alert. In addition, human presence will be minimal: scientists will monitor the data remotely and will only access the laboratory for specific maintenance tasks. Even before its construction, the operation of the detector was simulated with the GEANT4 software, a tool also used by NASA and CERN. These simulations allowed us to estimate the background radiation levels and optimize the sensitivity of the system. Each light pulse captured will be analyzed with programs designed to distinguish between noise and possible real signals. Some are not optimistic. In a study by the University of Ottawa, physicist Rajendra P. Gupta poses that what we think we see as dark matter could just be a mathematical effect. Their model suggests that the fundamental constants of the universe could vary with time, and that the so-called “tired light”—the loss of energy of photons as they travel through space—would explain the observations that until now we attribute to an invisible mass. Waiting for the flash. For years to come, SABER South’s crystals will remain in the shadows of the mine, waiting for a flash so faint it could barely illuminate a speck of dust. If that signal is confirmed, it would be the first direct trace of dark matter, the invisible glue that holds galaxies together. But if it doesn’t appear, it will also be an answer: a sign that perhaps the universe works in a way we don’t yet understand. As detailed theoretical physicist Nicole Bellfrom the University of Melbourne: “This project represents the definitive quest to understand the world in which we live.” And perhaps, in that tiny spark beneath the ground, humanity will find the answer to a question it has been pursuing for decades: what is the universe actually made of? Image | … Read more

We had been believing that dark matter existed. A new study believes that we were wrong

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For decades, cosmology has been sustained on a pillar as fundamental as mysterious: The dark matter. The invisible glue that, according to the standard model, keeps galaxies together and prevents the stars from being fired by centrifugal force.Represents 27% of the universebut it has a problem: nobody has seen or detected it. It only trusts that it will be there. But now A published study in Galaxies This conception of the concept has changed. The study. Research led by the physicist Rajendra P. Gupta From the University of Ottawa proposes an idea as elegant as radical: what if dark matter does not really exist? According to his work, this ghost component could actually be an ‘illusion’, a side effect caused by something we were assumed: that the fundamental constants of nature are ‘constant’. The importance. To understand the magnitude of this proposal you must first remember the origin of the problem. Specifically, we have to go to the 70s, where astronomer Vera Rubin noticed that the stars at the edges of the galaxies revolved at the same speed those of the center. This completely challenged Newton’s laws, something that is as if a person sitting on the outer edge spinning at the same speed as a sitting near the axis. Physically, it should be triggered. The solution that the scientific community adopted was the existence of a “dark matter”, an invisible mass that generates the extra gravity necessary to maintain cohesive galaxy. This concept became the cornerstone of the cosmological model known as ΛCDM (Lamda-Cold Dark Matter). This model works incredibly well to explain the large -scale universe, but after searches with ultrasensitive detectors and experiments in the LHC We have not found a single particle of dark matter. It has always ‘detected’ indirectly through its gravitational effect on visible objects. The proposal. This is where Gupta’s idea enters. Its model, called CCC + TL (Covarying Couplening Constants + Tirad Light), is based on two different ideas. The first one is the so -called ‘Covriant coupling constants’ (CCC). In this case, the model suggests that the fundamental constants of physics, such as the speed of light (c) or the universal gravitation constant (G), are not fixed. Instead, they evolve and change as the universe expands. This is not a completely new idea (the physicist Paul Dirac already flirted with her), but Gupta integrates it into a complete cosmological model. The second idea raised in the investigation is that of ‘tired light’. A concept that arrives directly from the old hypothesis of ‘tired light’, which postulates that light loses energy throughout its trip through the cosmos. In this case, the Gupta model suggests that the redness of the light of the distant galaxies is not only due to the expansion of the universe but to a combination of both effects. Although the “tired light” as the only explanation, has been widely refuted, its inclusion in this hybrid model is key to its calculations. New terms. Once these two new ideas are taken into account, it is time to modify Einstein’s field equations with these variable constants, the GUPTA model makes new mathematical terms appear. This is something that the author has baptized as “α-material” and “α-energy.” And this is where it is true magic: these terms, which are not a physical substance but an effect of the evolution of the laws of physics, generate the extra gravitational attraction that until now we attributed to dark matter. Dark matter would not be something to find, but a mathematical mirage. It is tested. Something to keep in mind is that theories can be very well written and look very good on paper, but logically they have to demonstrate. For this, Gupta used the SPARC database, a high quality catalog with the rotation curves of 175 galaxies. The method used was the reverse to the traditional. Instead of adding dark matter to justify rotation curves, Gupta took the curves observed and used its model to “subtract” the effect of “α-material”. The result should be the rotation curve generated only by visible (barionic) matter. Something that has wanted to materialize in a graphic taking as an example the NGC3198 galaxy. In this image, the blue line (VO) is the rotation speed observed in the galaxy. The points line (VB) is the speed that should have if only the visible matter existed, according to the estimates of SPARC and the discontinuous line (VBX) is the prediction of visible matter calculated by the GUPTA model. The similarity between the prediction of its model and the estimation of barionic matter is remarkable. Something that the author repeated for several galaxies with promising results to give a very forceful conclusion. A new paradigm. If the CCC+TL model is correct, its implications are huge. Not only would it eliminate the need for dark matter, but, according to the author, it could also explain dark energy and other cosmological enigmas, such as why the first galaxies Observed by James Webb They seem more mature than they should. You have to be cautious. This is, for now, a “proof of concept” as the author himself points out. This means that it is using simplifications, such as treating galaxies as perfect spheres, something that is far from reality in the universe. In addition, its dependence on “tired light” is a friction point with conventional cosmology. Models such as this should demonstrate that they can explain with the same precision as λCDM Key observations such as microwave background radiation or the accelerated expansion of the universe. A new advance. But what is clear with this research is that the scientific community is exploring alternatives, especially when the predominant model presents fissures, such as the absence of a direct proof of dark matter. The Gupta model is, for now, a fascinating possibility. A reminder that in science, the most entrenched truths can be questioned and that the solution to the greatest mysteries of the universe might not be to find something new, but in … Read more

Apple has succumbed to what was resisted for years: megapixels do matter

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Apple has already celebrated the traditional Keynote to present your devices For the coming months. He has renewed his three Apple Watch families (with the Series 11, SE 3 and the Ultra 3), but we also have some Airpods pro 3 that began to be necessary. The main course, as usual, are the mobiles and we already have on the table the iPhone 17he iPhone 17 Pro and the iPhone Air that arrives to compete the curious Superdelgados playground. Much of what is presented is conservative, but we had something very curious that does not usually happen with those of Cupertino: They have marcheds. Twice, in addition, and with two decisions that concern a single model: the iPhone 17 Pro. The first is rectifying with the materials, passing the glass and the titanium to aluminum, being a Better material to solve a problem that the iPhone have been dragging for years. The second has to do with the megapixels of the Telefoto camera. Because for years Each new iPhone defended that the telephoto only had 12 megapixelsnow they take chest with a new 48 megapixel sensor. And with an optical zoom that is 4x instead of 5x of the last generations. The 48 megapixels of the iPhone 17 Pro Telefoto When the rest of the mobile industry He embarked on a race to conquer the megapixels (24, 48, 64 megapixels that strengthened in the mid -range, 108 and even 200 megapixels), There were a few companies that remained faithful to their philosophy: Google and Apple. Not directly, but implicit in their presentations, both defended that the 12 megapixels allowed sensors with pixels of a larger size, improving the capture of light and, at the same time, allowing computational photography to be carried out with agility (without long waiting times in the process) and with files of a contained size. Because climbing megapixels has a weight in the result: The same is not processed A photo at 12 mpx than one at 50 MPX and, the smaller the pixel of a sensor, the more megapixels, but less light “catch” and there are worst results with high lights and with shadows, for example. But the day arrived: Google went up to 50 megapixels with the Pixel 6 Pro and Apple did the same reaching the 48 megapixels with the iPhone 14 Pro. The approach of both has gone very hand, using those extra megapixels to make available to the user A 2X digital zoom which is a sensor cut. This has been called for years “zoom with optical quality”, not “optical zoom” because the software uses the main camera as hardware, but virtually cut the sensor to make that 2x increase. Quality is, in many cases, indistinguishable to that of a photo taken with a 2x optical. It would be necessary to talk that the focal distance of a 2x optical offers a different perspective, but in terms of image quality, those 2x of iPhone and Pixel are excellent. However, while the rest of the competition mounted sensors with more megapixels in all its cameras, Apple kept the telephoto anchored in the 12 megapixels. And so since they premiered it in the iPhone 7 Pluswhich is said soon. Telefoto sensors were being more and larger, yes, but the resolution did not change and that had a price: the digital zoom of the iPhone from the optical zoom of each generation (2x for years, but later 3x and 5x) It was far behind the rest of the industry. With increasingly present and mobile computational photography with an increasingly clear zoom thanks to that hardware mixture (lenses + megapixels) and software, Apple was staying behind. Until now. Finally, those of Cupertino have taken a step forward with three cameras with 48 megapixels. Thus, photos can be taken at full resolution or use the factory resolution (12 megapixels, but with larger virtual pixels to improve photography exposure and control size), but above all, allow a higher quality digital zoom. With the iPhone 17 Pro, Apple states that It is “how to have eight professional goals in your pocket” And, far from the brave marketing, they are part of reason. The iPhone 17 Pro has three cameras: Wide angle or 0.5x Main or 1x 4x Telefoto But, with different clippings of the sensor and the macro mode using the wide angle, we get 1.2x, 1.5x and 2x “hybrids” and one step further: an 8x that will be the one that applies the same formula as the 2x a couple of years ago: a cutting of the 48 megapixel sensor of the telephoto. In addition, it is a sensor 56% larger than the previous one, so photodiodes will also have an adequate size. On paper, It is more user versatilityand about practice is good news. It is true that the word “digital” has a tremendously negative connotation when we talk about the zoom due both to what the digital cameras did years ago and to the digital results of the mobile themselves, but with those clippings of the sensor that are achieved using large sensors And with a lot of megapixels, the thing changes. Photos with the 3X optical honor Magic V5 and with the 10x “hybrid”. Quality is brutal | Photo: Xataka It is Apple surrendering to evidence And, although we have to wait for the analysis of the iPhone 17 Pro to test these cameras, examples such as those seen with the Honor Magic V5he Pixel 10 Pro or the Samsung Galaxy S25 UltraThey allow us to excite ourselves with that 8x “of optical quality.” Now, there are those who can see it as a step back with respect to the 5x optical of the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 15 pro maxbut from my experience with the 2x hybrid of the iPhone (even of the 16 base), I think it is a movement in the right direction. And it is also about to see how the strictly digital zoom behaves beyond that 8x … Read more

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