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German scientists have discovered that the Earth has been receiving radioactive fallout for more than 100 million years due to the violent “kiss” of two supernovae.

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Planet Earth is home to the ocean depths a radioactive plutonium deposit that could only be formed in space, during a violent cosmic cataclysm. Although there are reserves of this radioactive dust at great depths, it has been proven that it continues to rain down on us today. That would lead one to think that it was a recent cataclysm in astronomical terms. However, according to a recently published study by German scientistsit was hundreds of millions of years ago. Two isotopes to understand everything. Plutonium-244 does not exist naturally on Earth. In fact, the only isotope of this element that can be produced naturally in some geological processes is plutonium-239. and it does so mostly in the form of traces. Plutonium-244 is the heaviest isotope of this element. That is, the one with the most neutrons. It is known that it is usually formed by cosmic phenomena during something known as the r process, where lighter atoms quickly absorb neutrons into their nuclei. Generally, the event that usually gives rise to this phenomenon is the kilonova, an explosion resulting from the merger of two neutron stars. In the process, curium-247 is also formed, which is why these scientists have also analyzed its levels. Taking this data into account, they have discovered that the explosion in question must have occurred more than 100 million years ago, but less than one billion years ago. And, also, that the radioactive fallout has not stopped since then. The key is in the ferromanganese crust. Ferromanganese bark It is a layer of the ocean floor which is formed when metals dissolved in sea water, such as iron and manganese, are deposited and solidify. This occurs at a fairly slow rate, with growth of between 1 and 10 millimeters per million years. The deposits do not only have iron and manganese. Mixed with them are other substances that have fallen into the sea at that time. Therefore, this crust is a perfect chemical photograph of the history of our planet. A section with surprise. The authors of this study analyzed a section of this crust extracted at a depth of 4,830 meters in 1976. This had already been analyzed previously and had pointed out something surprising. And, in addition to plutonium, iron-60 was also found, another radioisotope associated with supernova explosions, which has a fairly short half-life of 2.6 million years. This figure means that, every 2.6 million years, half of the initial atoms of this isotope will have decayed. In another 2.6 million years half of what remained and so on. Since it is a fairly short half-life, it was concluded at the time that the kilonova that caused the fall of radioactive dust took place about 3 million years ago. However, the authors of the study just published debunked that hypothesis. Half-life of the study isotopes Curio to the rescue. The formation of plutonium-244 when neutron stars merge is always accompanied by the formation of curium-247. The plutonium isotope has a half-life of 81 million years, while that of curium “only” has a half-life of 15.6 million years. When analyzing the ferromanganese bark sample, these researchers found no curium. Therefore, it must have completely disintegrated. That places the explosion more than 100 million years ago. Be careful, remember that the half-life is the time it takes for half of the radioactive material to decay. Every 15.6 million years, half of it disintegrates, so in 100 million years there should be no curium left, but a lot of plutonium, which only lost half of it 19 million years ago. For plutonium to completely disappear, it would take 1 billion years. What about iron? The reason why there is iron-60 in the sample, despite having a lower half-life than that of curium-247, is that they originated in different events. In fact, the level changes of iron do not coincide with those of plutonium. On the other hand, it has been seen that plutonium continues to appear uniformly in the upper layers, hence it has been concluded that the radioactive fallout has not ended. At least it hadn’t ended in 1976 and that in astronomical terms was before yesterday. And now what? These scientists think that the cataclysm that released this long radioactive fallout must have been immense. Possibly even affected life on Earth. But at the moment it is something that cannot be known. We will have to continue investigating to have the answer. Image | University of Warwick/Mark Garlick | B. Schröder/HZDR/NASA, ESA, J. Hester, A. Loll/ASU In Xataka | Gravitational waves work their magic: we are closer to revealing the enigmas of neutron stars

Spain has 15 million pets that cannot set foot on a good part of its beaches. That’s something that’s starting to change.

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It comes with going to a park or taking a walk through any city in the country, but in case there were still any doubts, the Government recently provided definitive proof that Spain is a land of pets. The first official census has counted neither more nor less than 15.2 millionof which 7.6 are dogs. With such figures it is better understood that, as summer approaches, more and more people are asking themselves a question: Can we go to the beach with our four-legged friends? The answer is: it depends. Reviewing the figures. We mentioned it before: in Spain there are many (many) pets. It is something that we intuited thanks to the censuses carried out by feed manufacturers, companies dedicated to the care of pets or the Companion Animal Identification Network (REIAC), but which has been confirmed by the first official study of the State. It details that in Spain there are 15,171,569 pets, of which 7,562,893 are dogs. They represent, respectively, 14.1 and 9.6% more than in 2021. Beyond the raw data, the census confirm that in Spain there are now more pets than people under 30 years of age or who live in the country almost double of dogs than small children. Hence the pet economy this awakening the appetite of more and more companies (from feed manufacturers to insurance companies and venture capital) or that, when planning their summer vacations, they have already many families looking for accommodation (or even destinations) pet friendly. To the beach with the dog. Proof of this enormous interest is that every year the blogs specialized in pets (and also some other generalist) publish maps and online guides to dog-friendly beaches during the bathing season, which usually runs from June to September. Their ‘photograph’ does not always coincide, but usually includes more than a hundred sandy beaches. Some place the total count around 130 beaches. Others raise it to more than 150. That disparity is not surprising because the list can change from one year to the next and not all sandy beaches that accept dogs do so in the same way. Fine spinning. Last year, in fact, RTVE published a map in which he differentiated between three main types of beach, depending on the freedom that the dogs had on each one. The most comfortable for pets would be the ‘complete’ beaches, those to which they can freely access all year round. In second place would be the ‘partial’ sandbanks, which tolerate pets, although with small print. For example, the presence of dogs can be restricted to only a defined stretch or a certain time slot, such as at night, when the number of bathers is reduced on the beaches. Finally there would be what RTVE calls ‘nearby’ beachesstretches of coast close to urban areas in which access is allowed in at least part of the sandy area. Why so much complication? Basically, because the Coastal Lawthe framework standard that regulates the maritime-terrestrial public domain, leaves a wide gap that have been covered by the regional and local administrations. And that challenge has not been faced in the same way everywhere. What’s more, sometimes the topic has generated intense social, political and institutional debates. One of the latest examples has been left by Gijón on account of his new ordinance municipal on animal welfare: in March, during the allegations phase, the Principality he was reluctant to the presence of dogs on the city’s beaches, although later nuanced that the decision depends on the City Council. From the beaches to Change.org. Another interesting case is found in A Coruña, where it has been activated a collection of signatures in Change so that the Consistory allows dogs on the beaches in summer in night timefrom 9:30 p.m. to 10:00 a.m. Right now the local ordinance prohibits pets on beaches between June 1 and September 30, with the only exception of the Bens sandy area, which is considered a “dog beach”. Along the Spanish coast there are many more With these characteristics, which are added to other sandy areas where dogs are allowed during the summer, although at night. One figure, two conclusions. let there be between 100 and 150 beaches that can be considered (to a greater or lesser extent) dog-friendly) leaves several conclusions. The first, as recently reported on the Sr.Perro blog, is that the number of sandy areas in which there is a clear regulation that allows enjoyment with dogs is very small. In general, it is estimated that Spain has somewhat more 3,500 beaches. That the proportion is so low is explained, in part, by the requirements that all those sandy areas must comply with opt for the badge of ‘Blue Flag’. The “Guide to Blue Flag criteria” of 2025 states that “the prohibition of domestic animals on the beach must cover the entire area of ​​the candidate beach, including the bathing area.” “Local regulations must prohibit the presence of domestic animals on the beach during bathing season, even outside bathing hours,” the document insistswhich cites WHO studies on “microbiological risks” associated with the presence of excrement on beaches. Gaining weight (little by little). That is the second conclusion that the sandbank map leaves. dog-friendly. Although they remain a minority, some sources they specify that their number has been increasing due to the increase in the pet census and citizen pressure, which sometimes results in campaigns like the one activated this year (also in 2025) in A Coruña. A quick check on Google shows that Sanlucar de Barrameda, Marin, Vila-seca, Cadiz, Punta Umbria either Almeriaamong other populations, have taken steps in recent years (or months) to make it easier for people to enjoy the places of a dip. Image | Nathalie Anfuso (Unsplash) In Xataka | Your cat asks you to cuddle and then bites you. It’s not evil, it’s that you don’t understand its signs

We believed that cities were a desert for bees, but 5.5 million live under this cemetery in New York

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Although cities have their own fauna, the reality is that one could reasonably think that for animals of all kinds the urban environment is far behind the countryside in diversity and quality of life: there is a lot of asphalt, noise, pollutants… well yes, but no, because there is a place where bees have found a true residential paradise: a cemetery in IthacaNew York. Where you see a cemetery, the bees see paradise. It turns out that a laboratory technique called Rachel Fordyce had a trick to get to your work at Cornell University without paying for parking: park on the other side and take a walk through the East Lawn Cemetery. In spring 2022 he arrived at his post with a jar full of bees that he had found along the way: that was the beginning of it all. The bees inside were Andrena regularis, known as the “common mining bee,” a wild, solitary species that nests underground. That is, it does not have a queen and it does not build hives either. Each female digs her own tunnel, lays her eggs, supplies them with food, and seals them. And under the ground of the Ithaca cemetery there are millions, more specifically 5.56 million in just over 6,000 square meterswhich come out every spring to pollinate the surrounding apple trees. Why is it important. Because it is the largest population of wild bees with a nest in the ground ever documented and very far of the secondof 1.6 million individuals of a different species in Arizona. And their work is essential: pollinators in general are responsible for the production of approximately 75% of the world’s food crops. according to the FAO. As explains Bryan Danforthprofessor of entomology at Cornell University, they must be protected: “If we don’t preserve nesting sites and someone paves them, we could instantly lose 5.5 million bees that are important pollinators.” The most striking thing of all is that this enormous population was there, in the midst of civilization and next to one of the most prestigious universities in the world. Context. Contrary to popular belief, the most common way of life for bees is solitary and with a nest on the ground: approximately 75% of the bees on the planet live like this. Those bees that produce honey and live in hives may be the most famous, but they are an absolute minority. Solitary wild bees are not as well known, but their pollination work is key in nature and in food. Thus, this enormous population lives independently but concentrated in that place because the substrate conditions are optimal. The bad news is that pollinators are in decline: according to the report of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Servicesmore than 40% of pollinating insect species are threatened. In this scenario, finding such a large population in a city shows that there are more refuges for biodiversity than we thought and we must find them before they disappear (and if possible, avoid it). In detail. We knew about the presence of Andrena regularis in that cemetery since 1935, but it was not until 2021 when the scientific community began to intuit what was underground. To estimate the population, the team installed mesh traps at 10 points in the cemetery between March 30 and May 16, 2023. The result was extraordinary: as explains the press release from the New York university, is the equivalent of 200 honey bee hives on just 0.6 hectares of land and more than triple the population of Manhattan. Yes, but. The study has important limitations, such as that the population data is from a single spring (2023) and that the figure is a statistical estimate and not a real inventory, so we do not know if the population is rising, falling, remaining stable or how climate change affects it, which is advancing the flowering of apple trees and therefore altering the life calendar of the bees. And although it is the largest aggregation of wild nesting bees documented to date, its presence in a cemetery suggests that there may be others whose existence we are unaware of. In Xataka | We have a serious problem with the extinction of bees. The United Kingdom wants to solve it with bricks In Xataka | If the question is how to protect bees and other insects, in Peru they are clear: recognizing their legal rights Cover | Marisol Benitez, Chad Madden and Damien TUPINIER

Today on Prime Video, a disaster movie that lost 45 million in theaters but is sweeping streaming

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In January 2026, ‘Greenland 2‘ premiered at number six at the US box office and closed its run in theaters with 44.8 million dollars collected against a budget of 90. The numbers are incontestable: a tremendous failure. Five months later, the sequel starring Gerard Butler tops the most watched lists on HBO Max in the United States, and now lands in Spain in Prime Video. The story of this saga begins with a pandemic and a comet. The first ‘Greenland’ never reached American theaters: COVID-19 forced it to be transferred directly to video on demand in December of that year. In international cinemas it did have a theatrical release, and it worked very well, since the reviews were good despite it being a genre not very popular with specialists. But it was the perfect time for a film of this type. The sequel tried to ride that same wave, but it didn’t turn out so well, although it ended up finding its audience. The family protagonist of the first installment has been in an underground bunker in Greenland for five years after the impact of a comet, but a series of earthquakes destroys the shelter and forces them to evacuate. They will head towards the south of France, where a crater has generated a habitable microclimate, free of electromagnetic storms and radiation. A true epic in which they will have to test their courage, their resistance and their trust in the family unit. The trajectory of ‘Greenland 2’ has parallels with that of ‘Tomorrow’s War’, the science fiction thriller with Chris Pratt that Paramount gave to Prime Video during the pandemic. It passed without pain or glory in theaters, with barely 19 million dollars collected against a budget of 200 million, but it became one of the most viewed films of the year. streaming at that time and one of the first massive successes of the Amazon platform. New dynamics of exploitation, new unexpected successes, and yes, a common point: the destruction of the planet, better to see it comfortably at home. In Xataka | Premiere: Harlan Coben is the real King Midas of Netflix, and he has a new series to confirm it

A single programmer, simple mechanics, crappy graphics and Paint interface. And he has earned ten million in a week

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Characters that are generic puppets, aseptic to the point of being experimental, elements in the sets that seem to come from a free library for programming learners, an interface that has completely renounced any hint of design or usability and that seems to come from a ‘Paint’ type application… ‘Meccha Chameleon’ has, however, almost ten million dollars earned in one week on Steamand the only reason is not its extremely low price. The milestones. On June 9, Japanese developer lemorion_1224 launched the game on Steam at a price of only $4.99. Today it has sold more than two million units, that is, it has earned about ten million dollars. Discounting the 30% that Valve keeps, the developer has made 6.9 million in less than a week. And it’s all the work of this solo programmer, in approximately two months. How to play. The central mechanic of ‘Meccha Chameleon’ is simple: at the beginning of each round, some players hide and others look for them. The difference with other hide-and-seek games is that hiders can paint themselves to blend in with their surroundings, like chameleons do (sometimes with hilarious results that content creators are fond of). exploiting thoroughly). The more elaborate the camouflage, the harder the player will be to detect. That is, the ability to replicate the pattern of a wallpaper or a painting comes into play. Those less skilled with the brush have another option: look for dark corners of the map where uniform camouflage is sufficient. The precedent. The game collects ideas from ‘Prop Hunt’, a mode that was born in the mythical and highly cult ‘Garry’s Mod’, and that was later incorporated into franchises such as ‘Call of Duty’. The mechanics are the same: some players start as hunters, the chameleons hide, and those who are discovered go to the opposite side. An option can be activated with which those hidden whistle from time to time to give clues about their position. What is original about this new iteration of the idea is the layer of paint that allows for more effective camouflage. But… who is Lemorion_1224? Certainly not a newcomer. This developer had been experimenting for years with hiding mechanics within ‘Fortnite Creative’, the development platform integrated into ‘Fortnite’ that allows you to publish your own modes and accumulate players at no cost. Among these There is a game where players hide by making themselves extremely thin and another where they disguise themselves as NPCs. Lemorion_1224 has also experimented with mechanics inspired by ‘Dead by Daylight’ and ‘Peak’. ‘Meccha Chameleon’ is, therefore, the distillate of several years of testing. Friendslop it. Meccha Chameleon belongs to what in recent years has been called “friendslop”: cheap games, with a very simple, even tacky, visual finish, designed to be played in a group and shared on social networks. That is, games like ‘Peak’, ‘Lethal Company’ or ‘REPO’. The common denominator is the price (below six dollars in most cases), the viral potential and an approach that can be explained in thirty seconds. But to say that ‘Meccha Chameleon’ is part of a viral trend is to understate it: it had a peak of 200,000 simultaneous playerssomething that many AAAs never achieve. ‘Meccha Chameleon’ is another of the very triumphant successes of the medium that reminds us that issues such as graphics or technical neatness are completely accessory aspects to generate fun. In Xataka | This game has been programmed by only one person, and it is already being talked about as one of the great shooters of the year

Threads already boasts 500 million users. The missing figure remains the most important

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Threads was born at the time when competing with X seemed more possible than ever. The old Twitter was going through a period of profound changes under Elon Musk and Meta decided to enter with its own app in a field that X had dominated for years: brief, immediate public conversation supported by text. What was not clear was whether that window could become sustained use, community and real scale. Almost three years after its launch, the company already has an answer to teach the market. The data comes from the Goal itself, which has announced that Threads It has reached 500 million monthly active users in June 2026. The application would have added about 100 million monthly users since August of last year, when it was already around 400 million. It is a huge figure for such a young network and enough to place it in a very different conversation than in its first months. The company led by Mark Zuckerberg has presented the milestone along with several new features, with special emphasis on reinforcing the role of communities within Threads. In its official announcement, Meta maintains that these groups, organized around conversations on topics such as books, basketball, parenting or musichave helped shape the application. That’s why Communities It is now out of beta and adds functions such as a center to find communities, own icons, progress indicators for topics that are close to becoming a community and more recognition for outstanding users. The figures we have and the figures we are missing Part of the explanation is that Threads didn’t have to convince the user to start from a blank page. It’s no secret that upon its initial launch it benefited from a highly optimized growth strategy: the app was able to build on the connections that millions of people already had on Instagram, and some viral Threads posts even appeared on Instagram and Facebook. This advantage helps to understand why its adoption was so rapid, although it does not solve the underlying question: how many of those users have turned Threads into a commonly used app. This pace places Threads in a striking position if we compare it with other large networks, although with an important caution: not all of them were born in the same conditions nor did they communicate their metrics in the same way. TikTok/Douyin reached 500 million monthly active users in July 2018a little less than two years later of the launch of Douyin in China. Instagram reached that barrier in June 2016some five years and eight months after its premiere. Facebook announced 500 million active users in July 2010a little more than six years after its birth, although that communication did not formulate the metric with the same detail as MAU. Threads did it just before turning three years old. There is the missing figure. Meta has given the global number, but has not published the breakdown by country: we do not know what Threads’ main market is, where the growth is concentrated or how many monthly active users it has in Spain. That gap matters because a social network is not only measured by its aggregate size, but by the weight it achieves in each local conversation. And in Spain, without a public figure that allows it to be measured, Threads does not yet seem to occupy a place comparable to that of X, Instagram or TikTok. Some clues help to read this incomplete map, although none replace the official breakdown that we do not have. In its announcement, the company led by Mark Zuckerberg mentions that local communities will start with native language labels in Japan, Korea and Taiwana clue as to where you are putting the focus. Meta claims to be seeing more traction in Asia, especially in South Korea and Japan, where usage time has increased by 80% and 130%, respectively, compared to the previous year. This is useful data, but it is not equivalent to knowing how many monthly active users there are in each country. Images | Goal In Xataka | “Deepfake” calls have become a top-level security problem: Google believes it has the answer

Spain will dedicate 719 million to build an “AI Gigafactory” between Madrid and Tarragona. It will have little giga

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While the world debate about control of models like Claude Fable 5the Government of Spain has moved to try to gain positions in the race for technological sovereignty. The Council of Ministers has authorized a public investment of 719 million euros with one objective: to create an “Artificial Intelligence Gigafactory”. The investment is notable for a country like Spain, but it is a drop in an ocean absolutely dominated by large US technology companies. The political signal here is strong. The European Commission wants to mobilize 20,000 million euros to develop AI projects. That money is reserved for gigafactories, and presents these data centers as a bet so that Europe does not depend only on external actors. Here Spain not late at allbecause it already has “AI Factories” linked to the EuroHPC consortium, and the MareNostrum 5 The BSC is precisely one of those reference centers. The Spanish project “will compete with a multi-site candidacy that includes the locations of Móra la Nova, in Tarragona, and San Fernando de Henares (Madrid), to house the gigafactory,” explains the official announcement. Many unknowns. The announcement mixes things like public investment with the promise of strategic infrastructure. The problem is that it is one thing to “approve” the plan and another to build those data centers. We still need to know the final composition of the consortium that will provide the funds, the deadlines, and above all the fine print that clarifies who will have access to these data centers and who will manage them. The description of its scope is also ambiguous. There is talk of a service to the “Spanish AI ecosystem”, but it is not clear if this infrastructure will be available to end users or will be exclusive to public organizations and large companies. Perspective puts everything in its place (for the worse). In the United States, private investment in data centers is skyrocketing. Only that belonging to venture capital companies reached 45.7 billion dollars in 2025. But as we know, the capex of large technology companies, dedicated almost entirely to AI, will reach 2026. the 673 billion dollars. In China the ambition is also colossal, and the country is already preparing an investment of about 295 billion dollars in the next five years to create data centers throughout the country. China-Spain, compared. There are several ways to compare this data, and China is a good way to size this news: China is 19 times larger than Spain in surface area In addition, it is about 29 times larger in population China will invest more than 400 times Spain’s nominal investment, although it is true that the Chinese plan is five-year. In China, about 195 euros per person are invested, while in Spain about 15 euros per inhabitant are invested. China invests about 14 times more for each citizen. Chinese investment (again, five years) represents 1.5% of its GDP (0.3% per year). In Spain the figure would be close to 0.05% of GDP. Chinese investment could be considered six times higher in terms of GDP. Who will have access. To understand who will have access to this gigafactory, the best mirror to look at is MareNostrum 5, which is not “public” in the sense of free use by any citizen. This, like other centers in the EuroHPC consortium, is supposed to be available to European researchers, industry, SMEs and startups. All of them can theoretically take advantage of this infrastructure with access requests to resources. This is not like someone who connects to chatgpt.com and starts working: whoever wants to use those resources must justify it and go through a bureaucratic process. The data center is from Spain, its chips are not. Although the Government’s message is that of avoid dependency of foreign technology, the reality is obvious: those data centers may be in Tarragona and Madrid, but the chips with which the data will be processed They will be from the American company Nvidia and will be manufactured by the Taiwanese company TSMC. Europe and Spain are making efforts to try to mitigate this dependence, yes, but the reality is overwhelming: We continue to depend on these and many other companiesand it is not likely that we will stop doing so in the short or medium term. Promises and realities. The approval of the project is undoubtedly good news, but once again this is at the moment more of a promise to act than an immediate initiative. There are no estimated dates or clear details about the execution of the project, and once again in both Europe and Spain It seems to be more important to say things than to do them.. Let’s hope that this investment soon crystallizes into a real project: the intention and purpose are good. Now it remains for them to come true. In Xataka | I have decided to become independent from all US technology and embrace European technology. This is how I’m getting it

Spain has 46 million cubic meters of unused biomass. They are a crucial shield against summer fires

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The summer of 2025 left us a scar of ash and a lesson that we continue refusing to learn. European forests are burning with unprecedented ferocity, but the answer is not to accumulate more firefighters in August, but to return to inhabit and manage the forest in January. The Copernicus satellite balance from the last summer campaign It was, simply, terrifying: more than 403,000 hectares burned in Spain and over a million in all of Europe. However, the truly disturbing information was provided by the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS): 217 fires were recorded in Spain, less than half of that in 2022 (493). The burned area, however, was dramatically larger. Fire has not become more frequent; He has become a much more ferocious monster. By the end of 2025, the Copernicus Atmospheric Monitoring Service (CAMS) confirmed the disaster: Europe had recorded its highest fire emissions on record in 2003, releasing almost 13 megatonnes of carbon into the atmosphere. Faced with this scenario, the institutional response remains stuck in the same loop: more seaplanes, more retardation, more summer troops. An emergency strategy that ignores an incontestable reality: the problem does not begin when the spark ignites, but long before, in the silence of the mountains, throughout the year. The diagnosis that no one wants to hear. Every year, Spanish forests add 46 million new cubic meters of plant biomass. Of that amount, according to data from Expobiomassonly around 40% is used. The European average is between 65% and 70%. The rest stays on the ground: branches, bushes, dry leaves, weeds. Year after year. Decade after decade. The result is what foresters have long called “fuel loading.” It is not a literary metaphor, it is pure physics: in the face of a heat wave or a dry storm, this accumulation turns an attempt into an uncontrollable inferno. Galicia, Extremadura and Castilla y León already suffered it firsthand last year. As the Spanish Biomass Association (AVEBIOM) warnsthe origin of this powder magazine is historical. Decades of rural exodus and the abandonment of traditional uses – such as grazing, extensive livestock farming or firewood collection – have left the forests orphaned by the management that, for centuries, kept them safe. Nature didn’t do the dirty work, and we stopped doing it for her. A proposal that reaches the European Parliament. This week, that diagnosis landed in Brussels with its own name. Bioenergy Europe presented in the European Parliament the documentary Fuel the solution, not the fire —in Spanish, “Feed the solution, not the fire”— with a central message: preventing large forest fires involves acting long before the flames arrive. The initiative, supported in Spain by AVEBIOM, shows experiences developed in Greece, Italy and Spain that show how the sustainable use of forest biomass can simultaneously contribute to three objectives: reducing the fuel load on the mountains, generating local renewable energy and boosting rural economies. The proposal is not new in the sector. But that it reaches the European Parliament, at the start of a new high-risk season, gives it a political dimension that it did not have before. The model: from the mountain to the caldera. The idea is, in its structure, simple. When pruning, clearing or forestry treatment is carried out, the remaining plant remains – what was previously abandoned or burned in the forest itself – are collected, crushed and converted into chips or pellets. This material fuels boilers in municipalities, hospitals, sports centers or industries. The mountain is cleaner. The town, hotter. And the energy bill is lower. “Sustainable forest management is part of the response to fires. And bioenergy can help provide an outlet for part of the biomass that needs to be removed from the mountains,” explains Pablo Rodero, head of certifications at AVEBIOM, in statements collected by Energies Renewable. Rodero insists on an important nuance so as not to confuse the discourse: “It is not about ‘cleaning the forest’. It is about managing the territory better, with technical planning and sustainability. When the remains of pruning, clearing or preventive work are transformed into renewable energy, prevention stops being a cost to generate economic activity, employment and energy savings.” The specific actions defended by AVEBIOM range from forestry treatments and the maintenance of firebreaks to the recovery of extensive livestock farming and the promotion of sustainable forestry exploitation. Active management, all year round, that does not depend on the urgency of summer. Real numbers on the ground. Beyond the theory, there is concrete data that illustrates the potential. Veolia Biomass In 2024, it transformed more than 300,000 tons of forest biomass—material accumulated in the mountains—into 700 GWh of clean energy. To get an idea: that is equivalent to the annual electricity consumption of more than 200,000 homes. The company already operates in several Spanish provinces: it works in Moros (Zaragoza) and in the Sierra de la Culebra (Zamora) in the elimination of vegetation on 500 and 400 hectares respectively; carries out thinning and thinning in Mayorga (Valladolid), Barcial, Castropepe and La Hiniesta (Zamora) and Cilloruelo (Salamanca); and has restored 200 hectares in Andalusia affected by the fires of the previous year. He CRECEMOS report on Forest Fire Managementpublished in May 2025, adds another dimension to the equation: sustainably mobilizing one million tons of forest biomass per year would avoid the emission of 580,000 tons of CO₂. In regions such as the northwest of the peninsula, where biomass potential is still underutilized, this approach would combine fire risk reduction with economic reactivation of currently depopulated areas. The European lifeline. It is important to put into perspective what is at stake. Bioenergy is neither an experimental technology nor a niche bet: according to the GROW reportrepresents 60% of all renewable energy produced in the European Union. And 96% of this biomass is produced in European territory itself: it is not imported, it does not depend on foreign regimes, it is not exposed to the vagaries of the global gas market. It is, in other words, the most autonomous … Read more

Two friends sold their company for 1.5 billion dollars and bought it back for 450 million: today it is worth 150 billion

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Buying low and selling high is one of the maxims of any financial operation if you want do well in life. It’s the advice likely followed by two immigrant friends from Asia who met playing basketball in Los Angeles. The story of these two friends is one of the most bizarre and fortunate in the technological business field, since they managed to sell their company for 1.5 billion, and then buy it back for 450 million and turn it into an empire of 150,000 million dollars. Its history is that of one of the best-known RAM and storage device companies since the late 80s: Kingston Technology. Two immigrants and the worst Monday in history John Tu came to Los Angeles from China in the 1970s. David Sun took the same route, but from Taiwan. They were both engineers and were looking for their big break in California. By the whims of fate, they both ended up playing basketball on the same basketball court in Los Angeles in the 80s. Everything else arose from that friendship. His first business was Camintonn, a memory-related components company used by personal computers that were beginning to make the leap from laboratories and electronics hobby clubs to offices and homes, driven by promising young people like Bill Gates or Steve Jobs. After a few years of success and growth, Tu and Sun sold Camintonn in 1986 to AST Research for six million dollars. With that money in their pockets, the future seemed like a bed of roses for the two friends, but their joy was short-lived. The feared Black Monday The October 1987 crash on Wall Street caused a good part of his savings to disappear in one fell swoop. They were left with almost nothing. However, instead of looking for work in a company in the flourishing technology market of the time, they began their adventure as entrepreneurs again. “I told him: ‘You make something and I’ll sell it, like last time,’” Tu said. in an interview for Fortune. John Tu and David Sun, co-founders of Kingston Technology That same year they founded Kensington, a company with a name that seemed elegant and sophisticated, but another company had beaten them to it and registered it. So as they were fans of the folk group The Kingston Triothey chose to rename their company Kingston Technology and launched it in a garage in Fountain Valley, California. How much does current technology owe to California garages! From being born in a garage to being worth 1.5 billion To the contrary to Samsung or other brands, Kingston did not manufacture its own memory chips, but rather bought components from large manufacturers and turned them into products that people use: memory modules for computers, pen drives, flash cards, SSD disks. It was a model without great aspirations, but it worked with a precision that few could match. In fact, it is the same business model that it maintains today. By August 1996, the company was already valued at more than $1.8 billion, and SoftBank acquired 80% of Kingston for $1.5 billion. Masayoshi Son’s Japanese giant was then in the midst of a technological buying spree and Kingston was exactly the type of company it was looking for: profitable, well-positioned and growing. That is, with the acquisition of Softbank, Tu and Sun continued to be a decisive part of the company’s operations thanks to the 10% of the company that each one retained, and they also pocketed 700 million dollars each. Yes, I was not wrong: 700 million for each one, because the founders distributed 100 million dollars in extraordinary bonuses for your employees as a sample of thanks for your work. The deal was perfect because both employees and founders had put a lot of money in their pockets, but they continued working in the same position and with the same conditions as up to that date. What a bargain! …but there was still room for further improvement. Sell ​​high, buy low Three years later, in 1999, SoftBank came knocking on Kingston’s door again. The dotcom bubble was at its highest moment and Masayoshi Son wanted to recover liquidity to invest in the effervescent internet companies. Kingston was still a good business, but it was not the type of hypervolatile asset that Softbank was looking for at that time, so it offered them to recover the same 80% that it had bought from them for 1.5 billion. However, the new price was very different: $450 million. We guess holding back their laughter, Sun and Tu said yes. Obviously. In fact, they were even generous to Softbank. Just like you counted to Fortunein 1996 SoftBank had paid part of the purchase with a promissory note of 300 million that it had to pay in two years, but the investment bank did not fulfill its part and was late in that payment. Faced with such a breach, the founders could have recovered the company by contract in 1998. But they did not do so. They forgave their debt. “SoftBank was shocked,” Tu said. When Masayoshi Son wanted to sell Kingston, his first option was to sell it to them because it was his way of returning the favor they had done a year before. Thus, starting in 1999, Sun and Tu once again owned 100% of Kingston: 50% for each one. According to ForbesKingston Technology had a turnover of about $14.4 billion a year and ranked 28th on the list of the largest private companies in the United States. Its value is estimated at 150,000 million thanks to the memory shortage. A peculiarity of the company is that, despite being one of the most consolidated technology companies, it is still not listed on the stock market. No funds. Without external investors. Just the two friends who met on a court in Los Angeles almost fifty years ago and had two strokes of luck in their career that allowed them to become millionaires without losing control of the company they founded. … Read more

Theker achieves 74 million to beat China at its own game

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74 million euros they just got up those responsible for the Barcelona startup Theker. The amount is far from the multimillion-dollar rounds of Silicon Valley AI companies, but it is a vote of confidence for a particularly ambitious project: compete with the Chinese robotics giants from a different perspective. What Theker does. The company was founded in 2022 by Carla Gómez Cano and Jia Qiang Ye Zhu. Unlike traditional industrial robotics, which performs mechanical and repetitive tasks, Theker automates processes where objects constantly change. One of its latest achievements is to automate the process of folding textile garments, an extremely complex task for a robot due to the different textures, thicknesses and materials. A milestone. The financing round obtained by Theker becomes one of the largest venture capital operations in the Spanish technology sector so far this year. The startup, born with the ambition to recover part of the microelectronics production in the West, will use these new resources to expand its production plants in Catalonia, hire talent and accelerate the distribution of its high-precision robotic arms in Europe and the US. This round is added to the one the company obtained in July 2025, which was 18 million euros. Fashion bets on technology. The round is led by the American fund CRV, but Spanish funds such as K Fund, Itnig, Mission and Kibo Ventures also participate. There are striking surprises in the shareholding, which now includes two giants of the fashion world: on the one hand, LVHM. On the other hand, attention, Inditex, which already supported the company in its beginnings. Robots made in Spain. The great contradiction of Theker’s business model is trying to surpass China in terms of price using labor and engineering developed in our country. The European industry has focused on super-specialized and very expensive software or robotics. How to compete with China. Meanwhile, Theker has designed a super-efficient automation architecture that theoretically drastically reduces assembly costs. Their idea is simple: logistical proximity and optimization of algorithms can neutralize the competitive advantage that China has with cheaper labor in its factories. Of humanoid robots, nothing. In an interview they conducted with Itnig, the two co-founders they explained that humanoid robots like the Tesla Optimus are not mechanically prepared to be used industrially: by seeking to be light to walk and use batteries, they use less durable materials and weaker reducers. For industrial applications, where the floors are flat, it is much more efficient to use a robust industrial arm with wheels, capable of operating connected to the power supply uninterruptedly. Humanoid robots, of course, will end up finding their market in household tasks. Artificial vision to adapt to any situation. The real jewel in Theker’s crown is its intelligent automated soldering system for printed circuit boards (PCBs). This company’s robots integrate artificial vision systems (they develop their own Vision-Language Model) and combine them with deep learning algorithms. With these two components, the robots are capable of adapting their movements to the millimeter in real time. Errors under control. This technology, they say, allows imperfections in assembly lines to be corrected without having to stop production. It is an advance that provides operational flexibility to companies that use these robots, since it reduces the rate of defective components to minimum levels. Ideal moment. This financial takeoff of Theker comes at a very significant moment: both Europe, the US and China are seeking their technological sovereignty. Past trade tensions and logistics bottlenecks have demonstrated the risk of outsourcing all hardware. The Barcelona startup proposes a very interesting alternative for Western industries, and benefits from this ambitious trend. Image | UOC In Xataka | Humanoid robotics are striking, but China is clear about which robots make money

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