mystery

In 1994 archaeologists discovered a sunken 17th century ship with more than 400 gold coins. They have finally solved their great mystery

by

The surprise came in the mid 90s. A group of British divers explored the waters of the salcombe bayin Devon, when they came across the remains of a 17th century boat. At first glance, the wreck was very degraded by the passage of time, but it hid a real treasure: hundreds of coins of gold, jewelry and ceramics, among other pieces, most preserved today in the British Museum. Once the initial surprise was overcome, a mystery remained: What was the name of the boat? Where did it start from and where was it going? We already have the answer. What has happened? That archaeologists have finally solved a mystery that had gone unanswered for three decades: the identity of the merchant ship located in 1994 facing Salcombe Bay, England. We knew it hid valuable treasures, including 400 gold coinsbut until now no one had been able to clarify what the ship was called, its voyage and why its remains have spent centuries rotting in the English Channel. There, resting on the seabed, was the culmination of a story; the beginning was missing. Do we already have an answer? Yes. In a publication launched by the British Museum, a group of researchers has finally revealed the identity of the ship: it is the Dom van Keulena Dutch merchant ship that set sail from Morocco around the fall of 1633. Its destination was the Netherlands, but the trip became complicated when it was sailing with its valuable cargo off the southern coast of England. The weather was not favorable, the ship suffered a fatal leak and ended up capsizing. How did they find out? Diving. Although in this case the researchers have not immersed themselves in the cold waters of the Atlantic. The exploration has been carried out by historian Ian Frield among files from the British National Archives. There he located a series of documents that tell us about the voyage of the Dom van Keulen at the beginning of the 17th century, the storms it had to face and its unfortunate end, which ended with the ship at the bottom of the sea. The story of the merchant, however, was not as tragic as it could have been. We know that his crew managed to survive the shipwreck, and experts like Dave Parham, a professor at Boston University and one of the book’s editors, believe that “most of the load” He ended up recovering around the same time. “Most of it”? Exact. If Parham and his colleagues are correct, the treasures that the ship carried inside were recovered long ago; but neither the shipowners of the Dom van Keulen nor the generations that followed them were able to remove all the traveling items stacked in the holds. There they stayed for centuries, among the mud and oblivion, until in 1994 SWMAG divers located what remained of the wreck. The rest is the history of marine archeology: when exploring the site, the divers found a part of the cargo. Most are preserved in the British Museum. Did you transport that much? Yes. Parham is pretty clear in this regard: “Among their cargo were 150 bags of gum arabic, 64 bags of saltpeter, 320 goat skins and 9,000 Barbary ducats, Moroccan gold coins.” Its considerable value explains why the majority of this cargo ended up being extracted from the merchant ship’s holds, but for one reason or another more than 400 coins remained hidden until the SWMAG divers arrived in the 1990s. Did you find anything else? Those hundreds and hundreds of gold coins from Africa probably represent the largest treasure extracted from the shipwreck, but they are not the only thing that archaeologists have found. During your research They have also recovered a bowl, a pewter spoon, gold jewelry, a fish-shaped weight, a seal, ceramics and a piece of cast gold like a finger. Regarding the Dutch merchant ship, although no portraits of the period are preserved (or at least known), Parham explains that the wreck measures 30 meters long, includes cannons and anchors and rests about 18 meters deep. Why is it important? There are several reasons. The main one is that we finally know the identity of the merchant. Not only do we know that he was Dutch and transported valuable cargo. Now we know his name, career and complete history. As remember the SWMAGIn the area, remains of wood, rope, lead, dishes and other pieces were also found that tell us about life aboard the Dutch ships that covered that route at the beginning of the 17th century. If that were not enough, the wreck tells us about the traffic between North Africa and Europe and the trade in precious metals. “It provides an important context for the richness and architecture of the sharif Saadian trade, the African gold trade, and tangible evidence of the flourishing 17th-century maritime trade connecting Morocco, the Netherlands, and Britain,” Dave comments.. What was your relationship like? Intense. Bournemouth University (BU) remember that between the 16th and 17th centuries the Dutch traded actively, exchanging manufactures for pure gold from West Africa. In fact, some of the Berber ducats that were imported ended up being melted down to make Dutch gold coins with their metal, which was widely accepted at the time. The Dom van Keulen has given maritime archaeologists something else: the opportunity to examine 16th and 17th century Moroccan jewelry in a dateable contexta historical clue that is not often found. Images | Bournemouth University In Xataka | We finally know what sailors ate on the high seas in the 16th century. Thanks to the CSIC and a sunken galleon

This is how they solved the mystery of the black hole of IC 3599

by

In 1990 a large eruption was detected in the black hole located in the center of the galaxy IC3599, 280 million light years from Earth. Later, in 2010, a new eruption was detected. This type of phenomena They occur approximately once every 10,000 to 100,000 years per galaxy. It is extremely rare, so the eruption of the same black hole with just 20 years of separation was worth investigating. Therefore, a team of scientists from Northern Kentucky University decided to monitor the black hole to immediately capture any other eruptions that occurred in the future. Those of 1990 and 2010 had been rebuilt a posterioribut in order to understand them they needed to capture them in real time. And they did it. It took 15 years, until on October 31, 2025, another one was captured. Without a doubt, it was a most exciting Halloween night. What they captured. The authors of the study just published followed this black hole in three different ways. On the one hand, with the Neil Gehrels Swift telescope, specialized in detecting gamma ray emissions. He is currently not in his best days. It has been necessary launch a ship to rescue it before it falls out of orbit. However, so far it has done its job very well. These scientists also used the XMMNewton, a space observatory specialized in detecting X-ray emissions. And, finally, they took data using ground-based telescopes at the Lick, Xinglong and Caucasus Mountain observatories. With all this, on October 31, 2025 was observed that the black hole’s brightness increased 50 times compared to its lowest levels. Something was happening. Another eruption had occurred in the black hole. But why? The data to have everything clearer. To understand what was happening in the black hole it was necessary to have as much data as possible. Therefore, we began measuring its size. It can’t be done directly, but it can be done by analyzing the host-galaxy mass ratio. This allows the mass of the black hole to be extrapolated by analyzing the galaxy that contains it. Thus, they saw that the black hole is equivalent to 2 million solar masses. On the other hand, terrestrial telescopes analyzed its spectrum and detected a series of lines during the eruption that are not normally present. These were mostly related to highly ionized iron, so it seemed that the eruption consisted mostly of ionized gases released over a long distance. The reasons for the black hole eruption. The eruption of a black hole is usually caused by the destruction of a star that came too close. It can also occur when two black holes orbit each other. However, all of these hypotheses did not fit with the data that was measured in IC3599. What seemed most fitting to these scientists was that it was an episode of instability in the radiation pressure of the accretion disk. This happens when light presses the gas in the inner disk so much that great instability is generated in this area, followed by its collapse. The ionized gas is ejected until the disc is empty. Afterwards, it is cooled and little by little it is slowly refilled. It is a process that It does not have a fixed periodicity. Between the first and the second eruption 19.5 years passed and between this and the third 15.7 years. For this reason, the hypothesis that it is due to the action of stars or compact objects with a fixed orbit is also ruled out. A fact that draws attention. Although the eruption of the black hole does not follow a fixed periodicity, there is something that does occur with a certain periodicity: an oscillation of X-ray measured every 7.4 hours. This may be something known as quasi-periodic oscillation, but at the moment it is not known what this is due to. It will be necessary to continue monitoring this black hole. 15 years have not been enough. Image | Pixabay artistic rendering In Xataka | Stephen Hawking made a prediction about black holes in 1971. A new signal has proven him overwhelmingly right

The Medici have been carrying an apparently unsolvable mystery since the 16th century. Science finally has an answer

by

The uncle of a famous superhero said that ‘with great power comes great responsibility’. If what we are talking about is the Medici, the saga of bankers, prelates, patrons and rulers who dominated Tuscany between the 15th and 18th centuries, great power entailed something else… enormous risk. One filled with rivalries and plots that could come from both external enemies and the family itself. Hence the chroniclers carry four centuries wondering why some of its main figures died suddenly at the end of the 16th century. Disease? Bad luck? Murder by poisoning? Science already has an answer. Worthy of Agatha Christie. The British queen of suspense left us exciting novels, but few match the Medici family chronicle in mysteries and script twists. It takes reviewing some of the events that shook the Florentine saga in the second half of the 16th century to prove it. In 1562 the cardinal Giovanni de Medici He died at the age of 19 after a trip along the coast accompanied by his mother, Eleonora and his little brother Garzia, who also died around the same time. Only 25 years later the drama hit the family again through his brother, the Grand Duke Francesco I. He died in 1587, aged 46. Just a few hours later his wife did it Bianca. Quite a coincidence, right? That is what they thought the contemporaries of Francesco and Bianca, who in a matter of 24 hours watched the two members of one of the most powerful couples in the region go to their graves. In theory the cause of death was malaria, but… Wasn’t it a coincidence that husband and wife died just a few hours apart? Wasn’t it suspicious that exactly the same thing had happened to them as had happened to Giovanni 25 years earlier? Rumors of murder arose and eyes soon turned to Ferdinandanother Medici. The Tuscans of the time cannot be blamed for their suspicion. Ferdinando was next in the line of succession and risked being overtaken on the right by his nephew, the illegitimate son of Francesco I. As if that were not enough to spark rumors, they say that he had visited the Grand Duke and his wife shortly before the couple fell ill. How long does a suspicion last? Well, more than four centuries, which is how long historians have been turning around Francesco’s story. Why did he die in such a sudden and premature manner? Was it malaria? Arsenic poisoning perhaps? Did Ferdinando plot against them? Science tried to solve the mystery a long time ago, but it has only added fuel to the fire. At the time, the analysis of exhumed bone remains confirmed the malaria theory; but other studies, including one from 2006 carried out by professors and forensic experts from Italy and based on toxicological examinations, pointed to poisoning. An impossible labyrinth. The testimonies of the time do not help either. We know that Francesco and Bianca showed symptoms compatible with malaria and that the Medici family doctors tried to cure them with bloodletting, a method with which they surely (now we understand) only made things worse. The problem is that supporters of the poisoning theory also have their own arguments. Donatella Lippi, one of the authors of the 2006 study, remember that although it is confirmed that the couple contracted malaria, it does not mean that that was the cause of death. It even slips that in the Vatican Library there are testimonies that speak of skin rashes and other symptoms that could well be related to arsenic poisoning. And the genetic analysis arrived. This is how things were until a few weeks ago, when a group of researchers from the University of Pisa and Yale published a new study in iScience in which they collect their conclusions after subjecting bone remains of two members of the Medici family to DNA analysis: Giovanni, who died in 1562, and Francesco, who followed him to the tomb 25 years later. To be more precise, the researchers extracted genetic material from four rib samples, three from the duke and one from the cardinal. His remains and those of other Medici rest in mausoleums located in the Basilica of San LorenzoFlorence. Go one step further. In the past, researchers had already tried to clear up the mystery with paleo-immunological analyzes that, although they yielded some interesting conclusions, did not serve to silence “the rumors.” as you recognize Valentina Ciuffra, professor of History of Medicine at the University of Pisa and one of the authors of the study published in iScience. It was necessary to go one step further. And that is precisely what the Pisa and Yale team intended by using advanced methods to study ancient DNAgenetic material extracted from samples that are centuries and centuries old. What have they found out? That both Giovanni and his brother Francesco suffered from malaria. We know this because researchers located traces of Pasmodiumthe parasitic protozoa that cause the disease. One of the two Medici brothers even suffered it in a particularly bloody way: both the bones of the cardinal and the Grand Duke preserved traces of Pasmodium faciparumthe most lethal species among humans; but in the case of the latter (Francesco) greater molecular traces of P. malarie. What does that mean? That the Grand Duke who died in October 1587 showed traces of two species of malaria. It is not something exceptional. Experts have already detected samples in Belgium that suggest the coexistence of several species of malaria, although they insist that further research is necessary before stating with complete certainty that both species circulated in 16th century Italy. “With scientific certainty”. For the authors of the new DNA study, their work is conclusive and settles a 400-year-old mystery: “This genetic analysis confirms historical accounts, as well as previous research. We can now affirm with scientific certainty that malaria, and not poisoning, was the cause of the death of Grand Duke Francesco de’ Medici,” stands out Valentina Giuffra. In case there … Read more

Testosterone levels have plummeted by half in the last 50 years. The mystery is why it is happening

by

If we analyze the blood of an average man today and compare it to that of his grandfather at the same age, the results reveal that testosterone levels have been reduced by half. This is something that for years has been a rumor or an isolated finding in local studies, but now an important study has given it much more rigor. It’s proven. The study, presented at the annual meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology, sheds light on what scientists They consider it a “silent epidemic.” And it is that the investigation has focused on analyzing data from 118,593 men from six longitudinal studies in Israel, the United States, Brazil, Finland and Denmark between 1972 and 2019. After analyzing the progression of testosterone levels, a drop of 54% on average in total testosterone levels has clearly been seen. We are talking about a decline of more than 1% per year on average, which has been accelerating since 2000. Aging. The first logical reaction when reading this data is to think about life expectancy. If we live longer, it is normal for the population average testosterone to drop, but the researchers anticipated this hypothesis. Its results have made it clear that the decline detected is independent of aging, since the data have been adjusted for age. This means that a 30-year-old man in 2019 has significantly lower levels of testosterone than a 30-year-old man had in 1980. And if it’s not age, the science points directly to our environment and how we live. Obesity. If we look for the culprits, this is one of them, and without a doubt one of the more decisive. We must know that adipose tissue is not inert, but rather functions almost like an endocrine organ that converts testosterone into estrogen through an enzyme called aromatase that is present in fat. In this way, the more fat there will be a greater conversion and, therefore, a lower amount of testosterone. However, the most recent studies go one step further and warn that type 2 diabetes has surpassed obesity as the leading risk factor for low serum testosterone. The reason is that insulin resistance creates a vicious cycle that blocks the normal production of this hormone. Endocrine disruptors. We live surrounded by chemicals and substances present in plastics (such as bisphenols), food packaging, pesticides and personal care products that act as “hackers” of our endocrine system. And although the evidence on specific substances continues to be built due to the difficulty of isolating their effects, the scientific community assumes that chronic exposure to these chemicals is interfering with fertility and testosterone synthesis at a global level. The lifestyle. Currently we are living in a society where a sedentary lifestyle is the order of the day, and this lack of exercise and excessive hours in a chair slow down hormonal production. But in addition, sleep deprivation is also a big problem, since little or bad sleep destroys the circadian rhythms necessary to secrete testosterone, which occurs mainly at night. Beyond reproduction. We usually associate testosterone with fertility or muscle development, but its role is systemic. Here it is important to know that chronically low levels are associated with increased risk of cardiovascular diseases, osteoporosis, depression and cognitive decline. That is why a change in life is essential to maintain high levels of testosterone that act with that protective profile to achieve much stronger health over time. Images | Julia Larson In Xataka | For years we blamed testosterone for men living shorter lives. Now we know that the culprit is a chromosome

We know that the inhabitants of a Roman site in Aragon loved wine and games. A mystery remains: why they vanished

by

When we think of ancient Rome, the first image that comes to mind is that of patricians in togas, the Colosseum, legionnaires and heroes gathered in the Senate. That however is only one part of the Empire. The “Rome of marble”, as the archaeologist Ángel A. Jordán recently summarized it in an interview with The Newspaper. Another, equally important and much less known, is the “Rome of clay”, that formed by people who lived far from the metropolis and dedicated their days to working, drinking and playing, went hungry, loved and mourned their dead. That last Rome is the one that Jordan and his companions are discovering little by little in Barker Heada deposit of Five Villasprovince of Zaragoza. In a place in Aragon… It may not be the best-known site in Spain, but Barker Head has proven to be a box of surprises for archaeologists interested in the history of Aragon. Located in the pre-Pyrenean foothills, near Sofuentes, its land was occupied for centuries and played a key role in the road which Augustus ordered to be built and toured the area. Hence since 2016 Researchers have carried out several campaigns to peer into the secrets of a population that, it is estimated, covered 19 hectares and extended from the late bronze age until late antiquity, between the centuries VI and IX AD., a period that has left a good handful of vestiges. Last year, for example, was announced the discovery of a Roman road. Why is it news? Because after eight campaigns, a new excavation has just been launched at the site. He revealed it a few days ago The Aragon Newspaperwho in the process chatted with the project director, Angel A. Jordanabout the objective that the team has set for this year: to clarify why the population declined, something difficult to understand with the data they have collected so far. “It is a city that a priori has water because it is located in a place where there are many springs, it is a privileged area with very good agricultural land… It is a great mystery why the city stopped being inhabited. In the 7th century it no longer exists,” details the expert The chronicle of Cabeza Ladrero can therefore extend from the IX or VIII BC until late in our era, although it is believed that it reached its period of splendor during the Roman era. One unknown, two theories. Although the excavations will (hopefully) clarify the mystery, Jordán and his team already start with some theories on the table. One is that the settlement succumbed to external attacks. “Last year the excavation began to give us curious elements. Small remains are appearing that indicate the presence of fire, ashes are appearing in different parts of the street and that makes us think that it could have been abandoned due to some violent event,” admits in The Newspaper. “Taking into account that the city does not reach the 7th century and that there are signs of destruction, we could still be facing some type of attack, especially from the Bagaudas, rebel groups that acted in the Ebro valley during the 5th and 6th centuries and that looted several cities in the region,” apostille the expert The other suspect. The second hypothesis is that it was the disease that killed the locals. As remember Jordanit is known that in the 6th century there was “a brutal epidemic of the Black Death” that had devastating consequences. “It is estimated that in many parts of the empire up to 25% died,” says the director of the archaeological project before remembering that there is evidence of another phenomenon: a transfer of population to The Bañalesa Roman settlement located not far from Cabeza Ladrero and which became a prosperous town. The “Rome of clay”. Beyond its geopolitical relevance, its role in the road system or the details of its chronicle, there is another reason why Cabeza Ladrero is so special: it offers us a window into the “Rome of clay”which completes the image of “marble Rome” that cinema usually conveys and has formed the cliché of the empire. After all, at the Aragonese site archaeologists have found much more than vials and ancient milestones. Pitchers and board games. During their excavations, researchers have found jugs that tell us about his love of drinking and several tokens that, experts believe, could have been part of an ancient board game. “They were people who lived, got drunk and robbed each other; but they also loved and we have been able to see that very well in the necropolis,” Jordan says in The Newspaper. “Indeed, they played because they had to have fun and, if not, they were bored out of their minds. They organized tournaments and the kids had their toys.” Images | Wikipedia 1 and 2 Via | The Aragon Newspaper In Xataka | Under an institute, Rome has found something impressive: a perfectly preserved “domus” from the 2nd century

China is diverting its largest rivers thousands of kilometers away. The price to pay is a huge environmental mystery

by

Water in China has a basic geographical problem, since the south of the country floods very frequently while the north is in a drought situation. To solve it, the Asian giant has spent decades running which is probably the most ambitious hydraulic engineering project in the history of humanity, since they are literally moving nature. Making history. If there is a country capable of altering the face of the Earth to guarantee its economic and demographic survival, it is China. The premise is as simple to understand as it is pharaonic to execute, since what they are doing is transferring water from the rich Yangtze River basin in the south to the arid plains in the north, where a large part of the country’s population, agriculture and industry is concentrated, but barely 20% of its water resources. The result of this It is the ‘South-North Water Transfer Project’ that has a colossal network of canals, pipelines and pumping stations that are defying geography. The figures of a titanic work. To estimate the size of this project, it is enough to go to official sources, since, according to the latest updates from China’s Ministry of Water Resources, the infrastructure is unparalleled in the world. Specifically, to date, the system has managed to transfer more than 70,000 million cubic meters of water through its central and eastern route. From a hydrological perspective, as detailed in CEDEX technical schemes on platforms such as Hispagua, this is equivalent to moving entire rivers artificially. The beneficiaries There have been 150 million people who have seen how this water injection It has even allowed an “ecological replenishment”, recovering the water table in northern areas that had been depleted for decades. But massive intervention on the ground always has a “B side.” The rivers. As China redraws its water map, an alarming fact emerged, as official censuses revealed that tens of thousands of rivers appeared to have disappeared in the country in just a few decades. Here the specialist media have raised great global concern about this phenomenon, since it is not known if this transfer was drying out the country at an unprecedented rate. The answer. It was given to us by an article published in 2019 that pointed out that the massive “disappearance” of the channels was not due to the fact that they had evaporated overnight due to dams or climate change, but rather to a problem of cartographic methodology. That is, historically, censuses included what scientists call ‘pseudo-rivers’ and used counting criteria that were not supported. Now that they have applied a much better and more consolidated hydraulic classification, the number of these “lost” rivers has been drastically reduced. The ecological cost. The fact that rivers are not disappearing en masse from the maps does not mean that the megaproject is free, since modifying the flow of some of the most important basins on the planet entails risks that scientific literature has been monitoring for years. Already in 2009, a classic review published in Wiley by researcher Zhang Quanfa warned of the profound Yoenvironmental implications of the transfer. Here he proposes that extracting such massive volumes from the south irreparably alters the Yangtze basin, causing an alteration of the southern aquatic ecosystem, or it has even been seen that as less fresh water reaches the mouth of the Yangtze, sea water penetrates inland, threatening the local supply and agriculture of the delta. The demographic cost. Added to these environmental warnings is the institutional analysis of experts such as Mark Wang and Chen Li who point out the governance challenges and the enormous political and social friction generated. Here different critical organizations point out that the authorities have forced the resettlement of hundreds of thousands of people and have required multimillion-dollar investments in treatment plants to prevent contaminated water from the south from ruining the reserves in the north. Images | ダモリ In Xataka | A small river lost between Russia and North Korea is testing something much bigger: China’s patience with both.

The biggest mystery of the World Cup is why all the boots are pink: the answer is very simple to understand

by

When the referee started a Spain-Curaçao match that should have been a mere formality, nine of Spain’s eleven players were wearing pink boots. Yesterday, as Harry Kane appeared to skate across the Dallas turf, ten of England’s eleven players were wearing pink boots. Shortly after, whoever had the courage to stay to watch the Ghana-Panama game at dawn will have seen that eleven of the eleven Panama players were wearing pink boots. The original and striking become the most standard decision possible. When Mateo Kovacic jumped onto the field to try to build a retaining wall for Kane’s England, a short shot was enough to catch our attention: the boots were black. Complete. What was once the norm has become a countercultural exercise. The feeling of “here we have someone who knows everything.” Without expecting it, Mateo Kovacic became the player who stood out the most on the entire field. In Xataka "It’s a golden cage, the World Cup is being hijacked": Hydration breaks have turned football into a new sport From original to irrelevance The issue of boots in this 2026 World Cup reminds me of wooden bow ties. For some reason still unknown, there was a day when the wooden bow tie became fashionable. At a wedding, a friend showed up with one. Evidently, it was the center of attention at that time when one seems to be facing a fashion show before the first beers begin to flow. At the next wedding the scene was repeated with another protagonist. A couple of years later, up to four people coincided at the event with one of these wooden bow ties. It’s not that the percentage was very high but it was clear that something had broken. The one who thought looked in the mirror before leaving the house to reaffirm that today he was the different one, he had fallen into the trap. He was no longer unique. Not at all. You could almost read the sarcasm in those of us who were witnessing the collapse of a fashion that should never have achieved that status. When Alfonso Pérez Muñoz appeared with white bootsin the late 90s, caused a stir. It was Joma, a Spanish brand, that dared. In a few years, the world’s greatest figures were already combining the classic black with red or blue touches in the mythical and precious Zinedine Zidane’s Adidas Predator. The norm was blown up with the Nike Total 90. The silver and blue of Luis Figo, the white and gold of Wayne Ronney and even the silver and dark gray of Lionel Messi who debuted at FC Barcelona, ​​before moving to Adidas. In the 2000s, almost all schemes regarding the use of color in boots were broken. All that was left was to wear one boot of each color. Spoiler: was also done. In Xataka In Spain-Cape Verde, a small town in Galicia had its heart broken in half: Burela That is why it has attracted so much attention that almost all the World Cup players wear pink boots. Alejandro Mendo, specialist in soccer fashion and creator of the substack Pieces of Fabriccollects the premises of why pink has become the new black. In this thread of X realize that Nike, Adidas or Puma (and even the Skechers that Harry Kane wears) are pink because the marketing message suggests that footballers feel more encouraged and confident in themselves if they wear bright colors that reinforce their personality. But, above all, point to the simple: studies show that the color that looks best on the screen over the green of the grass is pink. Simply put, the companies that dress the players have realized which color stands out the most. And along the way, fashion has become the standard. The pink boot is the new wooden bow tie. Click on the image to go to the original tweet In BBC They point out that it is a mixture of what Alejandro Mendo commented and market studies. They explain that sports brands, like any fashion company, request reports up to two seasons in advance from their trusted consultants to know “what will be worn” in a specific season. And they have all fallen into a pink with a similar tone. Brands like Puma have played to add nuancesas gradients with other colors such as yellow or blue that, in addition, They are independent for each boot (Puma was the first to propose this). Adidas has also played with similar formulas, adding touches of white on the rear. In both cases, from afar the feeling is that we are looking at the same old pink boots. The most curious thing is that this standardization around pink has helped define the campaign of the most special boots since some players stand out from the others for the simple fact of wearing footwear that should be less striking on camera. Click on the image to go to the original tweet We have already talked about Mateo Kovacic but a much rarer case is that of Michael Olise. The France striker has built a story very far from the stereotype of a footballer. A free verse that, in fact, He doesn’t even have a signed sponsorship contract.simply choose boots based on your personal preferences for comfort and your team’s attire. At the moment, we have been able to see him wearing pristine black Nikes. Wear black bootsIn this case, it helps create an image of a differential player that the brands themselves continue to promote. Lionel Messi wears Adidas Último Tango that are reserved exclusively for hima tribute from the German firm to which, we assume, will be the Argentine’s last presence in a World Cup. Of course, Messi doesn’t wear pink boots either and his combination of white and blue shines especially brightly in a tide of bright colors. In Xataka Sneakers have become delicate luxury products, so they have generated a new business: laundry laundries. "sneakers" It is an old strategy among these companies. … Read more

Archaeologists have found the bodies of two women embracing in a medieval tomb. Now they are a huge mystery

by

There are eternal hugs, there are mysterious hugs, there are hugs with so much sentimental charge that only those who melt into them understand them and then there are hugs like that of the two corpses from the Middle Ages. located a few years ago next to Opole Cathedralin southern Poland, which add up to all these characteristics (and some more). When archaeologists discovered their intertwined bodies underground in 2023, they began to ask questions that they hoped to resolve by analyzing DNA samples. They have achieved it… halfway. Experts now better understand who the bodies belonged to, but are even more confused about how to interpret their eternal embrace. In a place in Poland… To understand the mystery you have to go back three years ago, between May 2022 and November 2023when a group of archaeologists began to excavate around the cathedral of Opolea small city in Upper Silesia (Poland) located on the banks of the Oder River. The origins of temple They date back to the 11th century (in the 13th it was expanded thanks to the support of the local nobility) and researchers hoped that their tombs would help them better understand the funerary rituals of the time. In total they discovered 46 burialsalthough there was one in particular that caught his attention: a grave that contained two skeletons, baptized ‘nº31′ and ’32’. What was so special about them? To begin with, his tomb was located in the northern area of ​​the cathedral, near the walls and foundations of the temple. That is relevant in itself because not everyone could hope to have their remains rest in a place like that. When both bodies were buried, in the Middle Ages, the burial areas so close to the consecrated temple and its relics were usually reserved for the most powerful and wealthy people. The bones fell apart 154cm deep and were very deteriorated by the passage of time, which greatly complicated their identification. The reason: they were once deposited in the ground, only with shrouds and on stretchers, so parts of the skeleton have been lost and others are fragmented. An enigmatic position. Although the above is interesting, there was another reason that made archaeologists interested in bodies numbers 31 and 32: their posture. The first skeleton (31) reveals that the body was buried face up, in the position in which the deceased were usually buried. The 32nd, however, was lying on his side, leaning on his side, with one leg half bent and his right arm stretched under his partner’s skull. The composition is as clear in 2026 as it probably was in the 13th century: both corpses they are hugged in a position that denotes intimacy. Add and continue. Those in Opole are not the first centuries-old burial sites in which we have found hugging bodies. In 2007 We saw something similar in Mantua, where archaeologists also discovered the remains of two bodies buried 5,000 years ago in an intertwined position. And that is just one of several examples. We located another one in 2015 in the Peloponnese, where a couple from 3,800 BC was found buried in a similar pose. And what does it mean? The big question. The most logical thing is to assume that the two people buried in Opole maintained such a close relationship that those who survived them believed that it was most appropriate to bury them together, in an intimate position, with their bodies intertwined. The key is… Why? Were they family? Did they have a romantic relationship? It is not a simple question because by asking it from the 21st century we run the risk of trying to answer it with a presentist approachbased on our own vision of the world. The DNA wild card. To clear up unknowns, a group of researchers turned to DNA analysis. Their goal was to subject the bones unearthed next to the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Opole to an archaeogenetic examination in search of some answers: What age and sex were both deceased? Were they family? Maybe they were father and son, brothers, an uncle and his nephew? The results have just been published in an article published in the magazine Archaeological Science: Reports and they are surprising. Although the bones have degraded and do not allow tooth enamel to be analyzed, a study carried out by experts from the Kiel University Yes, it has revealed three clues. First, the bodies belonged to two people who were around 40 years old. Second, both correspond to women. And third, there was no relationship between them. There is a link, but… what? “Our DNA analysis shows that the two women were not closely related by blood, but genetics cannot tell us how they were socially or emotionally connected,” recognize to The Country Joanna Romeyer-Dherbey, one of the researchers who signed the paper and who highlights how “extraordinary” it is that centuries later archaeogenetics can reveal to us the secrets of two people buried together. If they were not direct relatives, and in view of how they have been found buried, does that mean that the two women from Opole were lovers? Are we looking at a homosexual couple buried together and embracing in the middle of the Middle Ages? Researchers cannot rule it out. Nor affirm it “with confidence”. Theorize yes, but with caution. What your article does insist on is the call for caution: “Archaeologists should avoid projecting modern cultural categories onto past practices when material evidence does not distinguish between multiple plausible explanations.” After all, both women could be lovers, but also friends, relatives without a biological link (through adoption, for example) or even members of the same religious community. To put it another way, what if they had tragically died at the same time and the community decided to bury them together? Are there more clues? Yes. One. and it is fundamental. The bodies have not only appeared in the same grave, in a position that denotes an embrace. … Read more

Dark matter has been a mystery for decades. A strange event from 2019 could be the evidence we were looking for to unravel it

by

December 18, 2019. A star of the great Magellanic cloud increases its brightness. It does so in a way that is intense enough not to go unnoticed by scientists analyzing the data from the Víctor M. Blanco telescope at the Inter-American Observatory of Cerro Tololo (Chile), but not so intense that it corresponds to an explosion. Rather, it is a gentle increase in brightness, followed by a symmetrical decrease in brightness. The entire process lasts 1 hour and baffles scientists, who baptize the object causing this phenomenon as Phoebe. Since then, Phoebe’s origin has been a mystery. Now, the same scientists who made the discovery they have answers that point to what would be one of the oldest objects that have ever been detected. Phoebe’s origin. There are three hypotheses for Phoebe’s origin. For one thing, it could be a free floating planet in the Milky Way. That is, a planet that was expelled from its solar system and now wanders through our galaxy. It could also be exactly the same, but in the Large Magellanic Cloud instead of the Milky Way. Finally, it could be a primordial black hole. That is, a very small black hole that, instead of being formed by the collapse of a star, was caused by fluctuations in the density of matter in the cosmos during the first seconds of the Big Bang. The authors of the study that has just been published have calculated the probabilities of each hypothesis and the third one beats the rest by a factor of 100,000. A gravitational microlens. While Phoebe’s origin has been a mystery all this time, it didn’t take long for scientists to understand the phenomenon that had caused the star’s brightness to fluctuate in 2019. It must have been gravitational microlensing. This is a phenomenon which is formed when a very massive object is placed between our telescopes and another object. The mass of the central object is so great that its gravity is capable of bending space-time, forming a kind of lens that magnifies the image of what is behind it. On the other hand, if what is behind it is a very distant star, what is magnified is its brightness. That is why this increase in brightness occurred, because Phoebe was passing between the star and the telescopes of the Chilean observatory. The key is in the duration. Previous studies with gravitational lensing show that the duration of the event can give us an idea of ​​the mass of the body that causes the lens to form. The lighter the object, the faster it moves and the shorter the increase in brightness lasts. In this case, the phenomenon lasted an hour. It may seem like a lot to us, but in cosmic terms it is quite little. In fact, it is just above the detectable limit. This tells us that the object that caused this increase in brightness must have been very light. According to calculations made by scientists at Swinburne University taking into account fluctuations in brightness, it would have approximately the mass equivalent to three moons. A winning option. Black holes that form from stars usually have at least the mass of about 5 suns. 3 moons is much less. It is also too small an object to correspond to a planet wandering in the Milky Way or the large Magellanic cloud. This, together with the geometry of the event and the expected spatial distribution, has led the probability calculation to lean so clearly towards the primordial black hole. Primordial black holes Big news about something very small. Primordial black holes are theoretical phenomena. It is believed plausible that could have formed in the first seconds of the Big Bang, when fluctuations in the density of matter in the cosmos caused an accumulation of matter dense enough to collapse. Most of them would be very small. They would have most of the characteristics of a black hole, but radically smaller in size. They would form before there were stars or matter as we know it, but they could be related to one of the greatest mysteries of astrophysics: dark matter. Only 5% of the cosmos is made up of “normal” atoms. The rest is unknown. One part is known as dark matter and another as dark energy. It is not known what they are, but one of the hypotheses about dark matter is that it could be composed in part of primordial black holes. Therefore, if it is shown that Phoebe is really a primordial black hole, we would perhaps be facing one of the first demonstrations of the composition of dark matter. And now what? Logically, this is just the beginning. We will have to continue looking for more objects like Phoebe to be able to prove that these scientists are right. For this, You have to know well where to point the telescopes. To begin with, not any of them will do. They need to be sensitive enough to detect gentle changes in the brightness of stars. They also need to be able to focus on large fields of vision. And, if possible, focus on places with a large concentration of stars, since it is easier for the gravitational lensing phenomenon to occur there. It is expected that some observatories, such as the Vera Rubin, will provide interesting data in this regard. Now we will have to analyze them and look for points in common with Phoebe. That December 18, 2019, a pandemic was brewing on Earth, but in space the clue could be jumping that would resolve one of the greatest mysteries in the history of astrophysics. Image |Martin Bernardi |NASA In Xataka | We have been deceived by the distances of the Solar System: the closest neighbor to Neptune is Mercury

Something strange happened inside the Earth in 2011 and 27 years of data have not solved the mystery

by

In 2011, scientists observed an unexpected change in the flow of molten iron and nickel that makes up the earth core external. While its surface flow normally moves westward, it was detected to be moving just eastward. It was something totally unusual and mysterious. As a result of this observation, a study was launched, the results of which have recently been published. The objective was to know the reasons, but now there are only a few certainties and still many doubts. 27 years of observations. In this study 27 years of behavior of the Earth’s core were retrospectively analyzed, between 1997 and 2025. The core cannot be directly observed. However, its behavior directly influences that of the Earth’s magnetic field. Therefore, fluctuations in one can be detected in the other using satellite observations. It was seen that while the Earth’s outer core moves normally westward, there was a portion of it that went from a weak westward flow in 2010 to a much stronger eastward flow in 2012. It remained that way until 2020 and now appears to be starting to weaken again. Three options. When this change in movement was detected in 2011, it was thought that it could be due to three reasons. On the one hand, it could be a one-off fluctuation. On the other hand, it is possible that it is part of a periodic oscillation. And finally, it could be due to a way of establishing a balance in the circulation of the core. The only thing we see at the moment with the satellite observations is that the change was progressive. The behavioral modification began in 2010 and was already very clear in 2012. In 2011, when it was observed, it was in full transition. Other simultaneous observations. When analyzing the data from that period, it was seen that, coinciding with this change of direction, there were also some seismic signals that agree with the dates. Even geomagnetic shocks have been detected that correspond to a turbulent activity in the earth’s core. It’s not a whirlpool. This change of direction has not occurred throughout the core. For a start, the earth’s core consists of two parts: the internal and the external. The internal one is subjected to so much pressure that the metals are in a solid state despite the high temperatures. On the other hand, on the outside they are in a liquid state and, therefore, in motion. Even so, it wasn’t the entire outer core that changed its movement either. It corresponds to a specific region, located under the Pacific Ocean. It could be seen as a whirlpool, but these scientists have concluded that it is not, since the movement is part of a larger, wavy structure. Something like if an entire section of this part of the core suddenly began to move against expectations. Why is it important. The movement of the molten metal in the core generates electrical currents, which in turn give rise to a geomagnetic field that extends into space. Therefore, thanks to the movement of the Earth’s core we have an entire magnetic shield around the Earth that protects our atmosphere from the erosion caused by particles from the solar winds. For this nucleus to change its movement is not dangerous. We are not going to run out of atmosphere, because the core is still there. However, understanding its fluctuations can help us also understand the fluctuations of the magnetic field. This not only protects the atmosphere from erosion. It also helps us keep away a good part of the particles that could affect our telecommunications systems. Therefore, understanding how this shield works can help us prevent those more extreme events that do cause some technological havoc. That’s why, while this study has given us a lot of interesting data, it’s still not enough. We must continue monitoring the Earth’s core, what caused this anomaly of 2011. Image | THAT In Xataka | The Webb and Hubble telescopes simultaneously observed Jupiter’s auroras. The problem is that they didn’t see the same thing

Log In

Forgot password?

Forgot password?

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

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

Log in

Privacy Policy

Add to Collection

No Collections

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