Meters

Some astronomers made a paella at 2,000 meters above sea level in Almería. And they discovered the best cooking point for rice

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If you like cook a paellait is best that you do it on the coast. And not only because of how pleasant the impression of having a rice at the beach bar looking at the sea is. Also because, basically, it will cook better. Astronomers know this well. Calar Alto Observatoryin Almería, who have a curious anecdote with this story. It wasn’t the chef’s fault.. Years ago, the astronomers at the Calar Alto Observatory enjoyed the dishes prepared by a magnificent chef, from a small town in the province of Almería, during their work days. In his municipality he was known precisely for the quality of his rice. However, I had a thorn in my side with the paellas I was trying to prepare at the observatory. Rice never suited him. At least, not as tasty as normally. In Xataka We have spoken about it with Ana Guijarro, one of the astronomers at this observatory. One day she explained to him that he should not martyr himself. The fault was not his, but rather the fact that the facilities They are 2,168 meters above sea level. The physics behind. As we rise meters above sea level, the atmospheric pressure is lower. To understand it, we can visualize it: there is less column of air above our heads, therefore there is also less pressure acting on them. The boiling point of liquids depends on the pressure. If we heat waterthe molecules that make it up will move faster and faster, colliding with each other. When they reach the surface, they may attempt to “escape,” turning into vapor. However, atmospheric pressure pushes them down and prevents this from happening. If the atmospheric pressure decreases, so does the boiling point. That is, the temperature at which the liquid can begin to turn into vapor. At sea level, the boiling temperature of water is 100ºC. However, at 2,168 meters, water boils at approximately 92.6ºC. A cooking class. For rice to cook properly, it is necessary for the starch in its grains to hydrate and gelatinize correctly, and for that to happen, sufficient heat is needed. The problem is that, when a liquid boils, all its energy is invested precisely in that change of state instead of continuing to raise the temperature. The 100ºC at sea level, or 92ºC at higher altitudes, remain stable so that the liquid turns into a gas. Therefore, there is not enough temperature to process the rice grains in the best possible way. And what about Andean rice? In the Andean countries there are many rice-based dishes that are very tasty. The height is even higher than that of the Calar Alto Observatory, but in these places, where they have no choice but to cook at high altitudes, They have a very precious trick: the pressure cooker. Precisely the objective of this utensil is to artificially increase the pressure, so that the boiling point rises and the food can be cooked for longer. It is valid for rice and all types of stews. Even at sea level it is very precious for cooking certain dishes, such as stews. Sometimes physics makes it difficult for us, but there are tricks to deal with it. It’s not just a matter of rice. Ana Guijarro tells us that this does not only happen with rice. “For example, tea or any infusion They don’t taste the same in the mountains, because the water boils at a lower temperature and that affects the extraction of the flavor that these things have.” It is something that can frustrate a chef a lot, but with which people who, like astronomers, usually work many meters above sea level, are more than familiar. Better paella on the beach. In short, the next time you have a paella on the beach, remember that it is the best place you can have it. And everything is much more enjoyable when you know the science behind it. Images | MagnificentJorgechp In Xataka | The paella Taliban have been growing strong for years. More and more evidence points to the contrary.

220 meters in length and three giant sails of 1,500 square meters

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When someone says “the largest sailboat in the world”, one immediately thinks of the whim of some millionaire. Jeff Bezos paid $500 million to build his schooner koru 127 meters long and the Russian oligarch Andrey Melnichenko also paid a fortune for his impressive Sailing Yatch A 142.8 meters of length. However, all those luxury sailboats pale when compared to the new titan of sailing that has just been launched in Saint-Nazaire. This is not a private yacht, but a new concept of luxury cruise for millionaires Equipped with three gigantic masts to recreate old-fashioned navigation. The Orient Express leaves the tracks. If we think about great classic luxury trips, it is inevitable to mention the Orient Express as a reference for luxury and glamor trips at the beginning of the 20th century. Now, the hotel company Accord, which also operates one of the lines of the Orient Express, has thrown away the Orient Express Corinthian in the shipyards of Chantiers de l’Atlantique, the same ones where the mythical Normandie liner. The Orient Express Corinthian is not only the largest sailing ship in existence. It is also a form of sea travel that has not been seen for a long time. This is a cruise where 110 passengers sail through the Mediterranean without rushing, assisted by personal butlers on board, with Guerlain spa and avant-garde cuisine with Michelin stars. Three sails, no anchor and an AI looking out to sea. What makes the Corinthian technically unique is not that it has the wingspan of an ocean liner, but rather its propulsion system. It carries three rigid sails of 1,500 m² each, developed by Chantiers de l’Atlantique with a technology called SolidSail. The masts of the Orient Express Corinthian rotate 360 ​​degrees and tilt up to 70º to capture the wind from any angle and make the most of its thrust force. This technology has already been tested successfully in huge freighters to reduce their emissions. Another peculiarity of this luxury supersailboat is that there is no anchor. Instead, the boat uses a dynamic positioning system that keeps it still without touching the bottom. This avoids damaging Posidonia meadows or protected reefs. It also has an artificial intelligence system that continuously monitors the water to detect marine mammals and drifting objects. As support, the sail propulsion system uses a hybrid liquefied natural gas engine. The result, according to the buildersis that it avoids about 9,000 tons of CO₂ per year compared to a conventional cruise of the same size. The luxury of slow travel, from trains to the sea. For a few years now, a part of high purchasing power tourism has turned towards what they call “slow luxury“. A simple idea that recovers all the luxury of the great voyages of yesteryear, where the important thing was not to arrive, but enjoy the journey with the calm that the fast-paced modern lifestyle steals from us every day. The legendary Orient Express train has been the symbol of that spirit of luxury on railsbut now they propose an alternative on the sea. The luxury supersailboat has 54 luxury suites spread over four decks. Each of them is decorated with leather, fine woods and marble. The service includes an exclusive personal butler and you can enjoy the best dishes of avant-garde cuisine in the five restaurants run by chef Yannick Alléno with several Michelin stars to his credit. Vacations within reach of very few pockets. You can now find combined packages where you travel on the Corinthian on routes along the Côte d’Azur, the Italian Riviera and the Adriatic. By 2027, Orient Express introduces new itineraries through Greece, Türkiye, the United Kingdom and northern Europe. To give an example, a seven-night cruise along the Adriatic coast departing from Venice and arriving in Malta in one of the Orient Express Corinthian Suites costs around 39,900 euros. If you opt for one of the most exclusive suites, such as the Agatha Christie Penthouse Suiteof 225 m2 and a 180 m2 terrace and capacity for four guests, can cost up to 198,800 euros on an all-inclusive basis. In Xataka | The latest trend among millionaires is not to buy a yacht. It’s sharing a luxury mini cruise Image | Accor

With 3,500 tons and 15 meters in diameter, China already has the largest tunnel boring machine in the world for high-speed trains

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China has just introduced Jiaoping No.1, the world’s largest earth pressure balance (EPB) TBM designed specifically for high-speed railway tunnels. According to counted recently reported by the state broadcaster CGTN, it is a 3,500-ton colossus with an excavation diameter of 14.57 meters, capable of also using artificial intelligence to monitor, adjust and correct breakdowns while drilling underground, all under extreme underground conditions. We tell you everything. What exactly is it. An earth pressure balance tunnel boring machine is a type of machine that excavates the ground while supporting it at the same time. The rotating head (cutting head) tears off material from the front, which accumulates in a closed chamber just behind. This accumulated earth acts as a “plug” and compensates for the natural pressure of the soil and water, preventing the excavation face from collapsing or the surface land from sinking. For soft soils or urban areas, it is a widely used method and we have seen it other times, like in Madrid with ‘Mayrit’ for transform L11. Why size matters. The larger the tunnel, the more complex and heavier the equipment needed to excavate it, and the more difficult it is to keep such a large excavation face stable. The latest one presented in China is almost 15 meters in diameter and specializes in high-speed lines, so it exceeds a considerable technical ceiling. It is a diameter comparable to that of the largest Chinese underwater tunnel boring machines, like the Dinghaiwhich has an identical maximum excavation diameter (14.57 meters) for the Jintang underwater tunnel. What AI does. According to the media, Jiaoping No.1 incorporates AI to monitor drilling in real time, adjust parameters and detect failures autonomously. And it is something that we see more and more in machinery of this caliber, since in recent projects such as the yangtze river tunnel between Chongming and Taicang, the Linghang TBM employs, according to Interesting Engineeringan intelligent control system capable of automatically regulating pressure, anticipating ground conditions using data and self-guiding during progress. Independence of the West. As has happened in many other sectors, China has gone from depending almost completely on foreign technology to dominating the world market in just a few years. Until a decade ago, German and Japanese manufacturers controlled the vast majority of this market. The turning point came in 2017, when China presented its first domestically manufactured 15-meter class TBM. Today the situation is very different. And according to data from People’s Daily, Chinese-made tunnel boring machines They hold close to 70% of the global market. Behind these teams are usually large state groups such as China Railway Engineering Equipment Group (CREG), the largest manufacturer in the country, or China Railway Construction Heavy Industry. What is all this for? The ultimate goal of these machines is to allow high-speed trains to cross rivers, seas and mountains at 350 km/h inside tunnels, something that a decade ago was a much greater challenge. Projects like the Yangtze Undersea Tunnel seek to drastically cut travel times between large cities and boost the economy of entire regions. And a tunnel boring machine like the Jiaoping No.1 makes its way however it wants. Cover image | Modern China In Xataka | Spain and Morocco have been dreaming of a tunnel under the Strait for 40 years. The great enemy of the project is called Umbral de Camarinal

It has 12 sides and is 351 meters high

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Although in recent times Asia and the Middle East have emerged as the new locations for skyscrapers (in fact, China is the place in the world where there are the most buildings that caress the sky), the place par excellence for skyscrapers has always been North America. Cities like New York or Chicago and legendary buildings like the Empire State, One World Trade Center or the Central Park Tower set the pace of a competition that once seemed reserved for American cities. But North America is not just the United States and the constructions of Torres Obispado in Monterrey or the imminent Tower Rise They show that their neighbors also know how to build skyscrapers very well. In this context comes the Pinnacle SkyTower in Toronto, a skyscraper that, although it is not the tallest in meters nor does it have the most spectacular silhouette, is going to mark a milestone: be the residential building with the most floors in all of North America, as well as the tallest skyscraper in Canada. The skyscraper with 12 faces. The Pinnacle SkyTower that is being built in Toronto reaches a total height of 351.85 meters in its 106 floors. It will house 958 luxury homes, the new Le Méridien Toronto hotel, some 7,400 square meters of common areas and crowning it all, a restaurant with panoramic views on the top floor, such as explains the design studio Hariri Pontarini Architects. The forecast suggests that future residents They will be able to move in starting in autumn 2026, although the complete delivery of the set will be in 2027. One of the aspects that attracts the most attention is its dodecagon shape. As Jodi Buck, partner of the architecture studio, details, this geometry seeks a balance between architecture and functionality, that is, it allows the construction of a more slender structure, opens views in various directions and something essential in buildings of this size: it better distributes the wind load on the façade. The upper floors progressively reduce until the tower ends in a striking pointed crown, which makes the SkyTower an unmistakable silhouette on the Toronto skyline. Why it is important. To begin with, because The SkyTower breaks records: it will be the building with the highest number of floors in a residential building in North America. But there is a trick: it is not the tallest in meters, that title is still held by the Central Park Tower in New York, but it is the one with the most floors. This implies a design decision: favor the construction of more homes in a commitment to greater residential density per meter built. At the urban level, with this building Canada is put on the map as a country capable of competing in this segment of super-high-rise skyscrapers, historically dominated by American and Asian cities. In fact and how points out New Atlasis one of the first Canadian skyscrapers to exceed 300 meters in actual building height. Curiously, setting the record was not initially in the project: with construction already underway, Pinnacle International made it possible because submitted an application to increase the height of the ceilings on some floors and convert mechanical space into habitable space. Projection of the new and exclusive urban development of Toronto. One Yonge Toronto Context. The SkyTower is the jewel in the crown of the Pinnacle One Yongea mixed-use development plan that is transforming the grounds of the former Toronto Star building into one of the city’s largest urban complexes, connecting the tower to a future public park next to Lake Ontario and the financial district. The complete set is formed by six towers of between 22 and 106 floors that will house 2,500 homes, 93,000 square meters of offices, 7,400 square meters of shops, a community center of 4,600 square meters with a swimming pool and gym and a one-hectare public park. The first tower in the complex was the Prestige: it has 65 floors and was completed in 2022. The Pinnacle SkyTower is another example of the trend of super-tall towers that combine homes with hotels, a model widespread in Asia that North America is adopting in response to the housing need and the scarcity of land in central areas. Without going any further, Toronto has several similar projects under construction. Yes, but. As we mentioned above, SkyTower does not win in meters but in floors: the Central Park Tower in New York surpasses it in absolute height thanks to its higher internal ceilings and we have the antenna, the First Canadian Place in Toronto equals it (although it is true that this does not count in official rankings). On the other hand, and although it obviously increases the housing available in the Canadian city, we are talking about a building with 958 luxury homes with prices from 800,000 Canadian dollars and a five-star hotel. With that budget, it is difficult to resolve the problem of access to housing for its citizens. It is new housing, yes, but with prices within the reach of few. In Xataka | Mexico touches the sky with a new and elegant skyscraper of 484 meters and 99 floors: it will be the tallest in all of Latin America In Xataka | If the question is whether a skyscraper can be erased without demolishing it, Paris has the answer: yes, in exchange for a fortune Cover | Dillan Payne and JK Liu

It already has more than 672 meters

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The ‘Mayrit’ tunnel boring machine It is already in its first months of operation under the basement of Madrid with the aim of expand Metro Line 11. The gigantic machine has already left behind the first 672.6 meters of gallery from the future Comillas station and, according to data made public by the Ministry of Housing, Transport and Infrastructure shared by El Debate, confirm that the machine is already gaining quite a bit of momentum. Progress figures. In less than two months of activity, Mayrit has extracted 46,676.2 cubic meters of earth, as stated by the media, the equivalent of filling about 19 Olympic swimming pools. In addition, 389 of the 3,076 concrete rings that will end up covering the 5,227 meters of tunnel planned between Comillas and Conde de Casal have already been placed. Each ring is made up of seven voussoirs, rhomboidal pieces that are manufactured in Noblejas, Toledo, in a plant specifically built for this work. How extracted land is managed. The tunnel boring machine tears up the ground with its cutting wheel and the earth travels along a network of conveyor belts that lengthen as the machine advances. These ribbons cross the interior of what will be the Comillas station until they reach the surface, where the earth falls into a pit. with capacity for 8,500 cubic meters. From there, several backhoes load it into a fleet of about 150 trucks that are responsible for the final transfer. All this extracted material is being used to restore half a dozen mining operations and even an abandoned landfill. The start. The first month of work was slower than normal because the machine was still in the adjustment phase. Those first 200 meters were done with Mayrit filming. From now on, according to the ministry’s own forecasts, the tunnel boring machine should move between 400 and 500 meters per month, around 15 meters per day, working 24 hours a day and seven days a week. The next stop. The Ministry’s forecast is that the section between Comillas and Madrid Río, of 1,114 meters, be finished next June. When Mayrit arrives there, it will stop for about two weeks so that the operators can carry out a technical inspection. Then it will continue to Palos de la Frontera, Atocha and, finally, Conde de Casal, the final point of the route and headquarters of the future interchange. The general director of Collective Transport Infrastructure of the Community of Madrid, Miguel Núñez, calculate The complete excavation will take between 13 and 14 months, which puts the end of drilling around May or June 2027. Material at large. To complete this section of tunnel, 32,000 tons of steel, 210,000 cubic meters of concrete and more than 25,000 segments will be needed. Just like they count From El Debate, 50 workers work in the Noblejas factory, producing 42 segments a day, equivalent to six complete rings, which are transported to Comillas in vehicles prepared to support up to 38 tons of weight. The investment in this phase exceeds 740 million euros and the overall progress of the works already exceeds 50%. A bigger project. This entire operation is just one piece of a much larger puzzle. The future Line 11 will be ‘the great diagonal’ of Madrida 33.5 kilometer stretch from Cuatro Vientos to Valdebebas, with 20 stations that will connect key points such as Atocha, the airport, Zendal Hospital or the future Formula 1 circuit in Ifema. When it is finished, it is expected that traveling Madrid from end to end without passing through the center will take around one hour and six minutes. The total investment in the project exceeds 2.5 billion euros and the works will be carried out in phases until 2031. Cover image | Community of Madrid In Xataka | Madrid has just become the spearhead of a technological transformation in Europe: robotaxis

After the Titan millionaire submarine disaster, China plans to take more rich tourists 1,000 meters under the sea

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The depths ofto Mariana Trench or exploration from the deep ocean It has always been a thing for scientists and remotely controlled machines. China wants it to stop being so and already has an ambitious plan in motion: taking wealthy tourists to 1,000 meters deep, where sunlight does not reach and where there is no turning back for an engineering failure. The project comes three years after the Titan tragedythe OceanGate submersible that imploded in June 2023 while I was visiting the remains of the titanic in which its five occupants died. Far from stopping its efforts, China is moving forward with a proposal that, unlike the Titan, is backed by decades of naval engineering developed with the support of China. Four highly sought-after seats. Ye Cong, director of the China Naval Scientific Research Center, counted to ChinaDaily that “after more than four years of research, engineers have finalized the structural design” and that, once the prototype is built, “they will carry out sea trials and then improve the design based on the results.” The submersible will have enough space to accommodate four peoplepilot included, so, to begin with, the availability of places is very limited. This shortage of vacancies is expected to contribute to skyrocketing prices for filling each seat. One of the most complex problems of the small submarine has already been solved: the panoramic viewfinder. Your designers they describe it as “one of the most difficult structural codes to decipher on a deep-sea submersible.” And it makes sense since at 1,000 meters deep the pressure is about 100 times greater than on the surface, and that window has to withstand it without giving way. An unprecedented leap into the abyss. This is not the first submersible that Chinese engineers have operated. However, such andhow do they count in South China Morning Post The new projects that are being tested far exceed the depths at which current submersibles operate, which do not go below 20 meters deep. They are used for lakes, reservoirs and shallow coasts, so going from there to 1,000 meters is multiplying the operating depth by 50. The same naval engineering center that is now building this new generation of manned mini-submarines already built The Huandao Jiaolong 1 and 2, two tourist submersibles with capacity for seven passengers and a limit of 40 meters. However, on that occasion, immersion operations were suspended due to regulatory restrictions, but everything learned then has been applied to the new design. China plunges into the field of underwater exploration. The West has been designing submersibles for decades for deep dives. Companies like Deep RoverTriton and U-Boat Worx have been manufacturing submersibles over 1,000 meters since 1985 and until now had no Chinese competition in that segment. The new project developed by the China Naval Scientific Research Center changes that scenario supported by the previous experience of the Jiaolongthe Deep Sea Warrior and the Fendouzhe, three ships that last year completed more than 300 dives around the world and accounted for more than 50% of all manned deep-sea expeditions on a global scale. Ye Cong assured the Chinese news agency that the submersible: “will be a valuable asset for cruise lines, high-end tour operators and oceanographic researchers. It will offer the most demanding travelers an unforgettable experience in ocean exploration.” The prototype should be ready before the end of 2026, with the commercial debut expected before 2030. Much more than a tourist “toy”: it is a key strategy. This submersible is not just a mere product intended for tourist use of millionaires with adventurous concerns. It is part of China’s strategy to become strong in the blue economy, the sector of economic activities linked to the sea, a developing sector in which China seeks to play a leading role in the future. The Asian giant already leads manned deep-sea exploration and wants that this technological advantage is amortized in the form of a private business for their companies. After the Titan catastrophea good part of the luxury underwater tourism industry came to a screeching halt. China is the first to step on the accelerator again in this area, and this project is supported by State resources, which gives it a considerable advantage over projects that, like the Titan, are developed with private funds and investors. In Xataka | There is a new chapter in the Titan submarine tragedy: the memory card of its camera survived the implosion Image | CSSC

A gigantic tunnel boring machine 16 meters in diameter is devouring the sea floor under Genoa. It is your solution against traffic

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Under the port of Genoa, the largest in Italy, there is a machine that aims to devour the sea floor meter by meter. And it does so from the bowels of the earth, 45 meters deep and without interrupting the traffic that passes above it every day. The key is a 16 meter diameter tunnel boring machine that is drilling into the seabed like butter. This is how Italy is solving one of its most entrenched mobility problems, and in the process building the first underwater tunnel of the history of the country. A problem that has been unsolved for decades. Genoa is a city trapped between the Mediterranean Sea and the foothills of the Apennines. It has no room to grow. Its historic center is a labyrinth of narrow streets, and east-west traffic has always been a headache. The solution adopted in the 1960s was to build a gigantic elevated highway, the Sopraelevata Aldo Moro, which crosses the city like a concrete scar. for her About 80,000 vehicles pass through each daybut at a high price: it blocks the view of the sea, generates constant noise and, for many citizens, is a barrier that separates the city from its own port. Its demolition has been stalled for years because no one knows what to do with that traffic in the meantime. Tragedy. The tunnel project was born from an agreement between Autostrade per l’Italia, the Italian Ministry of Transport and local administrations as compensation to the city after the collapse of the Morandi bridge in 2018. That collapse, which claimed 43 lives, left Genoa without one of its main accesses and put the highway concessionaire company under the spotlight. As part of the repair agreement, signed in October 2021, Autostrade per l’Italia, the Liguria Region, the Western Ligure Sea Port System Authority and the Municipality of Genoa agreed to build this underwater tunnel. It is, in practice, the great work of compensation for a city that suffered a tragedy. What is being built. The total route is 4.2 kilometers, of which 3.4 run under the sea floor. It will consist of two separate galleries, one in each direction, each 16 meters in diameter, and will reach a maximum depth of 45 meters below sea level. When completed, it is expected to be Italy’s first underwater tunnel, the largest in Europe (with pardon is being built between Germany and Denmark) and the fourth largest in the world by diameter. Next to nothing. The key: a Hydroshield TBM. Excavating under an active port without interrupting its activity is a monumental challenge. The solution is a TBM tunnel boring machine (Tunnel Boring Machine) Hydroshield type. Each of the two main galleries will be constructed by mechanized excavation with a Hydroshield type back-pressure armored TBM milling cutter, with an excavation diameter of approximately 16 meters. Why this type and not another? In a Hydroshield TBM, the balance in the excavation chamber is maintained through the pressure of water or bentonite slurrywhich stabilizes the excavation face. The extracted material is mixed with these sludge and transported to the surface through pipes. It is the ideal technology for unstable terrain with the presence of water: it allows you to continue drilling without the sea floor crumbling and without the sea entering the gallery. The port above is still working. The gallery measures 15.4 meters in diameter on the outside, but the useful space for circulation is somewhat less, 14.3 meters, because the walls are considerably thick. These walls are built by assembling prefabricated pieces of concrete, as if they were the staves of a giant barrel, joined together with screws and sealed with rubber gaskets so that water does not enter. As if that were not enough, an additional layer of concrete is added inside that further reinforces the impermeability, especially in the sections that are just below the port. The result is a practically airtight tube capable of withstanding the pressure of the sea on its walls. lto logistics of the work. You can’t just place a tunnel boring machine on the seabed and run it. First you have to prepare the ground. The tunnel boring machine was thrown from an attack pit in the San Benigno areaon the west side of the city. To free up that space, Autostrade first had to move a port railway line that ran through there. The railway route, about 700 meters long, has been moved about 70 meters to the south with respect to its previous position, running parallel to the port sopraelevata until passing under it in its final section. Deadlines. Preparation works started in 2023, and work began in March 2024. However, the full tender for the construction of the two main galleries was not approved until January 2026. The specifications set a period of 75 months to complete the entire work. According to the latest Autostrade documents, the TBM will complete excavation work in October 2030, with full completion of the work planned for 2031. Budget. The project started from a budget of 700 million euros, although the mayor of Genoa, Silvia Salis, confirmed that Autostrade now places the cost at more than 1,129 million euros. An escalation of costs that, according to the original agreement between the parties, is covered by a mechanism linked to national highway tolls. Transformation. When the tunnel is completed, it will allow the creation of new green areas (10 hectares, distributed in three public parks) and pedestrian routes that reconnect the city center with the sea. In the San Benigno area, on the new railway gallery already in use, the Lantern Park will be built, which will connect that sector with the city’s historic lighthouse through a bicycle and pedestrian path. In Xataka | Mexico touches the sky with a new and elegant skyscraper of 484 meters and 99 floors: it will be the tallest in all of Latin America

two satellites have come within just 3 meters and no one knows why

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Two russian satellites They have been observed carrying out very sophisticated behaviors that attract attention for two reasons. On the one hand, due to its commendable technical difficulty. On the other hand, because they could have a hidden purpose that, for the moment, has only been possible to speculate on. It’s not a coincidence. The American space monitoring company COMSPOC has been the one that has caught red-handed Russia carrying out this curious maneuver. As they have explained in your X accountOn April 28, the Russian satellites COSMOS 2581 and COSMOS 2583 approached to within 3 meters of each other. This requires great precision, but also gives a lot of food for thought. More satellites involved. Both satellites were launched together with COSMOS 2582 into low Earth orbit last February 2025. All of them participated in the maneuvers that led to the approach on April 28. Even a subsatellite called Object F was also part of this satellite dance. However, it is true that COSMOS 2582 remained in the distance, just under 100 kilometers away. In a simulation carried out by COMSPOC the entire maneuver can be seen perfectly. spying on spies. Russia launched these satellites with some secrecy. At no time was it indicated what its function could be. However, now that this curious maneuver has occurred, there are certain suspicions. And, in reality, everything is reminiscent of what COSMOS 2542 was seen doing in 2020, another Russian satellite that was detected following a US spy satellite very closely. It is not clear if these new satellites are being tested for the same purpose, but it is undeniable that there could be military objectives behind the mission. If the suspicions are corroborated, considering how much they have improved in accuracy, they would be much more dangerous in that sense. Other countries. In reality, Russia is not the only country that tries this type of maneuvers. As explained from Spaceother great powers have satellites with similar capabilities. For example, Chinese or American satellites have been seen closely following satellites or probes from other nations. Basically, spies are spied on too. Other possibilities. It should be noted that, in reality, proximity maneuvers They can also have other purposes. For example, they can be used to carry out maintenance work from one satellite to another or to remove debris. In fact, it is a very useful maneuver to being able to clean up space debris that is a bigger problem in low orbit every day. In short, we have no idea what those Russian satellites were doing. There has been a lot of room for speculation, but it could be anything from a hidden military mission to something completely harmless. Image | Bill Ingalls In Xataka | Russia wants to know how trips to Mars will affect us, so it is going to launch a thousand flies and 75 mice on a rocket

They measure 85 meters, have no anchors and are connected to Starlink: the gigantic "Roombas" sailors who want to save AI from the blackout

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The rise of artificial intelligence is devouring the capacity of electrical grids around the world, skyrocketing consumption and carbon emissions. And this is just the beginning. As Garth Sheldon-Coulson, CEO of the startup Panthalassa, warned, in an interview with CBS News: “We are still at the beginning of this lawsuit.” To solve this bottleneck, the heaviest investors in the technology sector are looking to the sea. Peter Thiel, the controversial billionaire co-founder of Palantir and PayPal, just led a $140 million injection into Panthalassa. But what exactly is Panthalassa? To understand it, you have to erase the traditional image of an industrial warehouse full of servers. Sheldon-Coulson described it with a rather peculiar metaphor: “It’s like ‘a giant Roomba,’ an autonomous, self-propelled system that sails without anchors across the Pacific.” The anatomy of a marine colossus. Panthalassa will use this newly raised $140 million to complete its pilot plant in Oregon and accelerate the deployment of its new model, the Ocean-3which will be tested in the North Pacific in 2026 with a view to commercialization in 2027, as detailed ESG Today. We are not talking about small buoys. The proportions are colossal. As explained Financial Timesthese solid steel structures measure about 85 meters long. To give us an idea, they are almost as tall as the iconic Big Ben of London or the building Flatiron from New York. In Xataka There is a company that has grown 3,000% in the stock market, even beating the performance of Nvidia: Sandisk The engineering behind. Just as described Tom’s Hardwarethe nodes are shaped like a “lollipop”: a huge white sphere floats on the surface, while a long tubular structure submerges vertically under the water. As the waves pass, the structure rises and falls. This relative motion forces seawater up the pressurized tube into the spherical chamber, where it spins a turbine. Being a continuous cycle powered by an ocean that never stops, the system generates electricity 24 hours a day. But this is where the real twist of the project lies. Historically, the big problem with wave energy has been the enormous cost of laying underwater cables to bring electricity to the coast. According to GeekWirePanthalassa solves this in one fell swoop: it doesn’t send power to shore, but uses it directly on board to power the AI ​​chips. Once the information is processed, the results (inference tokens) are sent back to clients on the ground via low-orbit satellite connections, such as SpaceX’s Starlink network. The end of terrestrial bottlenecks. This approach represents a radical paradigm shift in technological infrastructure. “Panthalassa’s idea transforms a power transmission problem into a data transmission problem,” explains to Ars Technica Benjamin Lee, computer engineer and architect at the University of Pennsylvania. In addition to inexhaustible energy, the ocean offers another vital advantage: cold. Traditional data centers spend fortunes and consume millions of liters of drinking water just to prevent servers from melting due to heat. On the high seas, the story is different. As detailed BusinessWirethe ocean provides “free supercooling,” solving one of the industry’s biggest engineering challenges and extending the life of chips. Added to this is the growing citizen resistance. As pointed out Tom’s Hardwarelocal communities are increasingly rejecting the construction of these huge land-based industrial warehouses due to noise, land grabbing and energy diversion. On the ocean, there are simply no neighbors to bother or urban planning plans to navigate. Besides, as highlighted Finance TimesBeing a closed water circuit without external engines or emissions, the impact on marine life is minimal, underpinning its ecological appeal. The challenge of taming the ocean. As revolutionary as the idea may sound, transforming the ocean into a global supercomputer has titanic obstacles: The connectivity bottleneck. As he warns Ars Technicarelying on satellites is fine for “inference” (i.e. returning real-time responses to ChatGPT users or similar), but satellites have limited bandwidth and latency. If multiple ocean nodes are required to coordinate to train a heavy AI model, satellite connectivity simply won’t measure up against traditional fiber optic cables. The fury of the sea. Data Center Dynamics emphasizes that these nodes They will have to survive extreme conditions: hurricanes, corrosive saltpeter and perpetual motion for more than a decade without human intervention or maintenance. They are not alone in the idea of ​​​​wetting the servers. According to Ars Technica, Microsoft has already tested submerging data centers in the seabed with its Project Natickand Chinese companies already operate underwater infrastructure near Hainan Island. However, Panthalassa is much bolder: being floating, autonomous nodes without grounded cables, they completely break the umbilical cord with the continental electrical grid. {“videoId”:”x9sjece”,”autoplay”:false,”title”:”CHINA is WINNING the TECH WAR because they planned it that way 10 YEARS AGO”, “tag”:”china”, “duration”:”721″} A bet at the height of desperation. Despite investor optimism, transforming the Pacific into the next computing cloud will not be a cake walk. $210 million (the company’s total funding to date) may seem like an outrageous amount to throw servers into the sea, but it needs to be put into perspective. As highlighted Ars Technicathis figure is anecdotal if we consider that large American technology companies plan to spend $765 billion building terrestrial data centers in 2026 alone. Faced with the desperation of the sector – which has been exploring since reopen abandoned nuclear power plants until setting up servers powered by solar panels in space orbit—the option of floating in the ocean seems reasonable. The ultimate goal of Panthalassa, as shared by its CEOis to deploy thousands of these nodes far from the coasts. If they can tame the waves and satellite bottlenecks, they could have found the Holy Grail of AI: “The cheapest energy on the planet, infinite, clean and beyond the reach of Earth’s bureaucracy.” Image | Panthalassa Xataka | Old chips never die: companies that made “boring” chips are riding the dollar (function() { window._JS_MODULES = window._JS_MODULES || {}; var headElement = document.getElementsByTagName(‘head’)(0); if (_JS_MODULES.instagram) { var instagramScript = document.createElement(‘script’); instagramScript.src=”https://platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js”; instagramScript.async = true; instagramScript.defer = true; headElement.appendChild(instagramScript); – The news They … Read more

the day the US stole a Soviet nuclear submarine 5,000 meters deep

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In the 1970s, a gigantic American ship sailed slowly through the Pacific while several Soviet ships they watched him a few meters away, taking photos and listening to every conversation. On deck, the sailors talked loudly about rocks on the seabed and collected samples so that everything seemed routine, without anyone suspecting that, right under their feet, one of the most unusual operations of the entire Cold War. An impossible robbery. At the end of the 60s, in the middle of the Cold War, the United States secretly located the Soviet submarine K-129 sunk to more than 5,000 meters deep in the Pacific, a distance that made any recovery attempt practically unfeasible. Even so, the strategic value it was hugesince the submersible carried nuclear missiles, codes and key technology that could tip the balance at a time of nuclear parity between superpowers. With that goal in mind, the CIA launched the Azorian Projectan operation so ambitious that for years only a small circle within the Government knew of its existence. Context. In reality, the mission, which lasted more or less six years, had begun in 1968, when the K-129 loaded with ballistic missiles disappeared without explanation somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. The situation was not entirely strange if we think that, at that time after the Cuban Missile Crisisboth American and Soviet submarines patrolled the high seas with nuclear weapons on board, prepared for possible war. Model of the sunken and deteriorated submarine K-129 The sinking. There are reports indicating that it was due to a mechanical failure, such as the missile’s engine accidentally starting, while the Soviets suspected for a time that the Americans had acted in bad faith. Be that as it may, and after two months, the Soviet Union abandoned the search for the K-129 and the nuclear weapons it carried, but the United States, which had recently used Air Force technology to locate two of its own submarines sunken, located the submarine 2,400 kilometers northwest of Hawaii and 5,030 meters deep. According to the declassified history of the project by the CIA decades later, “no country in the world had managed to recover an object of this size and weight from such depth.” Sherman Wetmore, chief engineer of the Glomar Explorer, looks at an oil painting of the ship refloating the Soviet submarine The great theater of lies. Once Washington found its location and in order to hide the true purpose, one of the more elaborate covers of history: an alleged underwater mining mission led by the eccentric millionaire Howard Hugheswhose reputation made any extravagant project credible. As? The enormous was built Hughes Glomar Explorerpresented to the world as a ship capable of extract manganese nodules from the seabed, while in reality it hid inside a secret system designed to capture the submarine. The operation was so convincing that even influenced markets and universitiesfeeding for years the illusion of a new mining industry that was never actually the objective. Details of the construction plan of the Glomar Explorer (reproduction), from 1971. In the lower central part of the ship, you can see the plans of the so-called “lunar pool”, into which the claw could introduce the submarine The giant claw. The heart of the mission was, possibly, the most exciting part of an already incredible story. It was a device hidden under the boat: a gigantic mechanical “claw” capable of descending kilometers to the ocean floor, hugging the hull of the submarine and raising it through a complex system of pipes and cables. The entire process had to be executed out of sight, using an internal opening in the ship (the called “moon pool”) that allowed working completely hidden, even under the constant surveillance of suspicious Soviet ships, but they couldn’t prove anything. There is no doubt, the operation required extreme precision, withstanding colossal stresses and maintaining the ship’s position in the open sea for days, something that in itself already represented an unprecedented technological challenge. Everything (almost) ready. In the summer of 1974, after years of preparation, the CIA managed to reach the submarine and hooked it with the claw, at which point he began to slowly raise it towards the surface, in an operation that lasted days and kept the entire crew tense. However, halfway through the ascent, the structure gave way and much of K-129 fell back to the ocean floor, leaving only a recovered section. Even so, they managed to rescue remains of the helmet and bodies of several Soviet sailors, who were buried with honors at sea, while the real loot (the missiles and secret codes) was shrouded in uncertainty and absolute secrecy by the United States, since many of the details remain classified today. “We neither confirm nor deny.” The biggest twist in history came when the operation came out in 1975 after leaks and thefts of documents linked to the business cover, forcing the US Government to face a most delicate diplomatic situation. However, instead of admitting or denying the theft of a Soviet nuclear submarine more than 5,000 meters deep, Washington adopted a response that would go down in history: “We neither confirm nor deny”a formula designed to avoid direct tensions with Moscow and which has since become a standard in intelligence matters. That calculated silence It encapsulates the essence of the entire operation: a gigantic mission, almost impossible on paper, visible to everyone in appearance, but whose true purpose and results remain, to a large extent, hidden from the general public. The legacy. Although he Azorian Project did not recover the entire submarine, it left a deep mark on history of espionage and engineeringamong other things because it demonstrated that it was possible to operate at extreme depths and execute missions of a unprecedented complexity. Of course, it also demonstrated the extent to which the Cold War promoted radical technical solutions and operations that bordered on the improbable, in a race for gain strategic advantage at any price between both sides. Decades later, it remains one … Read more

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