mystery

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

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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

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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

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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

12 premieres this week on Netflix, including a sci-fi mystery series from the creators of ‘Stranger Things’

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We’re halfway through May, and although Netflix slows down its pace of releases a little, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have attractive proposals for this week. On the one hand, a curious mystery and science fiction film with a seal of distinction: the Duffer Brothers from ‘Stranger Things’, tireless in their search for new veins. And it’s not the only thing: the occasional exclusive film and a documentary about a true diva. Let’s review everything. series Kylie Three-episode documentary series that covers five decades of Kylie Minogue’s career, from her beginnings on television to her consolidation as a global pop icon with more than 80 million records sold. She starts from her now-forgotten beginnings as an actress in the series ‘Neighbors’ to becoming one of the most influential pop figures worldwide. The director of the series is a renowned specialist in celebrity documentaries, with titles such as ‘Beckham’ and ‘Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie’ to his credit. The series not only reviews the milestones of her career but also moments as difficult as the breast cancer diagnosis that interrupted her career, in footage punctuated by statements from close friends such as Nick Cave, Jason Donovan and producer Pete Waterman. Premiere: Wednesday, May 20 The Boroughs: Rebel Retirement Matt and Ross Duffer, creators of ‘Stranger Things’, take us this time as producers to a luxurious retirement complex in the middle of the New Mexico desert. The creation of this nice ‘The Boroughs: Rebel Retirement’ has been left to Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews, from ‘Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance’, and it stars Alfred Molina, who plays a newcomer who soon faces a mysterious monster that stalks the residents of the idyllic community. To do this, he allies himself with a group of misfits from the neighborhood, with whom he will unravel what the complex hides. The cast includes names such as Bill Pullman, Geena Davis and Jena Malone. The brothers’ reference, as they have said, is the legendary ‘Cocoon’ by Ron Howard. Premiere: Thursday, May 21 Other series Very expensive – Wednesday, May 20 James – Thursday, May 21 One Tree Hill – Thursday, May 21 Season of zeal – Friday, May 22 Future desert – Friday, May 22 Movies Ladies first British adaptation of the French comedy ‘I’m not an easy man’, which addressed the reversal of gender roles with a satirical tone. Here we will meet an arrogant and successful man who, after suffering an accident, wakes up in an alternative reality where women dominate all spaces of power, from companies to social life, experiencing firsthand the dynamics of inequality that he was previously unaware of. Katie Silberman, writer of the wonderful ‘Super Nerds’, co-writes this story that mixes humor and social criticism and whose cast is headed by Sacha Baron Cohemn and Rosamund Pike. Premiere: Friday, May 22either In Xataka | One of the most brilliant films and also the most ignored by the last Oscars arrives today on Prime Video

The change of Google’s search engine with AI was a mystery about its monetization. Finally it will be another subscription

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For months, the technology industry has been closely watching how Google resolves its particular dilemma: how to integrate artificial intelligence into its search engine without destroying the advertising business that supports its empire. The doubts are being cleared up little by little, and everything indicates that the company has already solved it: through AI Plusa subscription with a cost of 7.99 euros per month. Dilemma. The results of traditional search with blue links They generate billions in advertising, being one of the company’s most lucrative businesses and also one of the reasons why it is where it is. On the other side we have his foray into the AI ​​careera business in which they are burning money on infrastructure in the hope that it will be profitable in the long term. This last business also clashes with the traditional advertising system, with which Google also takes great advantage. Embracing the new potentially means burying what feeds you. The company is looking for a solution to this dilemma with Google AI Plus. What does the 8 euro subscription include? AI Plus has recently reached 35 new countriesamong them Spain. For €7.99 per month, users get enhanced access to Gemini 3 Prothe image generator Nano Banana Prothe research tool Deep Research200 GB of cloud storage and the possibility of using Gemini directly in Gmail, Docs, and other Google apps. Also includes 200 monthly credits for flow and Whiskthe company’s AI video creation platforms. Duel with OpenAI. The price is tight and even lower than the offer. ChatGPT Gowhich is found in Spain at a price of 9.99 euros per month. Both companies are fighting to attract users who want more than the free version, an opportunity to obtain more financing for their AI operations and, over time, attract even more customers who want to immerse themselves in more complete and higher-cost plans. Limitations to justify the price. The version of Gemini 3 Pro included in AI Plus has significant restrictions compared to the AI ​​Pro subscription of 22 euros per month. For example, the context window is drastically reduced from 1 million tokens to 128,000, which means that the model will “forget” information much sooner in long conversations or when analyzing long documents. Monthly credits for creation tools are also five times lower: 200 versus 1,000 in the Pro version. Google gives away AI to its storage customers. The company is adding all AI Plus features automatically to existing subscribers of Google One Premium (2 TB for 9.99 euros per month) at no additional cost. This avoids the absurd situation where paying more would result in having fewer features, but it also shows Google’s commitment to getting its users who pay for storage familiar with Gemini without them having to think twice. A change for the media. Google is building a monetization strategy around AI, and that affects the media. In this way, the media goes from being the user’s final destination to becoming data providers to train and feed AI responses. When Gemini responds directly instead of displaying blue links, traffic to the original sites evaporates, along with the advertising revenue they generated. The issue is somewhat tricky and it is still unknown how all the parties involved are going to agree. Subscriptions. Google is betting on a freemium model that allows it to make its investment in AI profitable without completely abandoning its traditional advertising business. The question is whether users will be willing to pay for something that until now they considered free. Unlike Netflix or Spotify, AI subscriptions They are still a relatively new concept to the general public. We will have to wait to find out if this tightrope walk balancing exercise by Google ends up convincing in the long term. In Xataka | The number of new apps coming to the App Store has skyrocketed. We have a culprit: “vibe coding”

How a mummified wolf has solved the mystery of the woolly rhino’s extinction

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14,400 years ago, a barely nine-week-old wolf cub feasted on the Siberian stage. Shortly after gobbling that piece of meat, the puppy died and was buried in the permafrostnear the village of Tumat in northeastern Siberia. Something that at first seems insignificant, has given one of the most important milestones in modern paleogenetics. And this one was in this puppy’s stomach. The study. A team of scientists from the Center for Paleogenetics at Stockholm University has achieved what seemed impossible: Recover the complete high-coverage genome of a woolly rhinoceros (Coelodonta antiquitatis) from the undigested remains in that wolf’s stomach. The results, published in Genome Biology and Evolutionforce us to rewrite the books on how and why this megafauna became extinct, since until now we had a very different idea. A biological miracle. The discovery of this puppy is not something recent, since it was found in 2011, and received the nickname Tumat-1. Being mummified in ice, the reality is that it was in perfect condition, but during the autopsy the researchers found a 3-centimeter piece of tissue with remains of blonde fur. Due to the area in which it was initially found, it was thought that it was a cave lion. But the reality is that genetics has said something very different: it was a woolly rhinoceros. Something that is incredible, since it is the first time in history that the complete genome of an Ice Age animal has been sequenced from the stomach contents of another animal. A great milestone. For science to recover the genetic material of a species in these conditions, the truth is that it is something incredible because of the doors it opens. And DNA is where we can find practically everythingeven the genetic health of the species before its end. Genetic decline. For decades, the dominant theory suggested that woolly rhinos disappeared due to slow genetic erosion. It was believed that, as its population was reduced, inbreeding accumulated harmful mutations that doomed the species due to the many diseases caused by having children between relatives. But this is something that has now been completely debunked. When comparing the genome with samples from 18,000 and 48,500 years ago, the researchers found no decline in diversity. Furthermore, there was no indication that the species was in a state of inbreeding as there was no genetic crossing between close relatives. That is why the effective population remained stable at about 1,600 individuals until just a few centuries before its total disappearance. The culprit. If it was not genetics and inbreeding that condemned the species and not human hunting (because thousands of years passed together without it happening)… what happened? Science now points to Bølling-Allerød Interstadial, a period of abrupt climate warming that occurred about 14,000 years ago. This phenomenon transformed the dry, cold steppe (the rhino paradise) into a landscape of bushy vegetation and, most critically, deep snow. Without being able to live. The woolly rhino, with its short legs and heavy body, was not designed to walk on soft snow or dig for grass under thick layers for food. In this way, it was an environmental trap that caused the animals to not be able to adapt correctly to the new habitat that had been generated around them due to how quickly it happened. Looking to the future. What we learn in the past can also be applied today and tomorrow. And this study does not only speak of the past, since in a context of current climate crisis, the case of the woolly rhinoceros is a warning. It shows that even a species with a stable population and robust genetics can collapse almost instantly if the ecosystem changes abruptly. Images | Wikipedia In Xataka | Whale vomit: a rare substance that looks like floating garbage, but can cost up to $71,000 per kilo

In 1845, John Franklin’s expedition set sail in search of the Northwest Passage. 180 years later his loss remains a mystery

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On the morning of May 19, 1845, Captain John Franklin and his expedition weighed anchor from the Greenhithe Harboralmost at the mouth of the Thames. They were looking for the Northwest Passagethe (at that time theoretical) maritime route that would link the Atlantic and the Pacific through northern Canada. They never came home. 129 men who never returned and who, for 170 years, have been one of the great questions of scientific and naval exploration. We now know why the men of John Franklin’s lost exploration died. There are those who insinuate that the trip started badly from the beginning. It should never have been in the first place. John Franklin. The first option William Edward Parryone of the great English explorers, but he had already traveled to the Arctic five times and “was tired.” So he declined the offer. Secondly, they thought about James Clark Ross. Ross has just arrived from Antarctica where he had explored the Ross Sea and Island. In fact, the ships on that expedition were the same as those that would be used on this mission (two of Ross Island volcanoes They are called Erebus and Terror in honor of the ships). But upon returning to England, he became engaged to his future wife and decided that great explorations were no longer for him. He was followed by James Fitzjames (discarded due to inexperience), George Back (considered too controversial) and Francis Crozier (who, well, was Irish and that was more than enough reason to rule him out). Seeing the yard, John Barrow, second secretary of the Admiralty, called John Franklin. To this day no one knows why Franklin, who was already a legend at the time and was almost 60 years old, he said yes. But the fact is that, as I said, they left the vicinity of London that day in 1845. They stopped in Orkney and the convoy formed by the two main ships (HMS Erebus and HMS Terror), the HMS Rattler (the first English warship with steam propulsion) and a transport headed to Greenland. There they sacrificed ten oxen and the expedition began its solo journey. The search for the Northwest Passage The travels of Marco Polo are a peculiar book. Not only does it remain a very interesting precedent for current anthropology, but it served as an inspiration for many during the era of great exploration. The image you can see above is precisely the annotated copy of ‘The Voyages’ that Christopher Columbus had. In one of its versions, the Italian one from 1559, a Chinese province called Anian. We assume that it was from there that the geographers and explorers who discussed whether America was a new continent or, on the contrary, an Asian peninsula, got the name of the Strait of Anian, the separation between Asia and America that would give access to the Northwest Passage. It is what we know today as the Bering Strait and for years it was pure mythology. But, first, Ferdinand Magellan and his crew turned around Cape Espiritu Santo and found themselves face to face with the southeastern passage; and, second, a Dane in the service of Russia, Vitus Beringrediscovered for the West the strait through which Semyon Dezhniov had already traveled sixty years before. The rest was geopolitics: the quick passage to the Pacific without having to pass near the Spanish territories in America was too juicy. In 1745, an English law promised 20,000 pounds to whoever discovered the pass and the boom began. I have tried to convert the amount to a current currency and I have not been able to do it accurately, but I have drawn one conclusion: it was a lot of money. Favorable weather In early August 1845, two whalers, the Prince of Wales and the Enterprise, encountered Franklin’s ships in Baffin Bay. They were waiting for favorable weather to enter the Strait of Lancaster. That was the last time they were seen. Two years passed. And, little by little, Lady Jane Franklin, some members of Parliament, and the fledgling British press began to ask the Admiralty to send someone to search for the heroes of Franklin’s expedition. The Government sent three expeditions: one by land and two by sea, one through the Atlantic and another through the Pacific. They failed. Fearing that they would be forgotten, Lady Jane Franklin composed her lament, the song you can hear just above. And, although I don’t know if it was for that reason, the truth is that was not forgotten. In fact, the search for the lost expedition “became nothing less than a crusade.” In 1850 alone, eleven British and two American ships tried to locate them. It was then that the first tombs were found. Over the years, the different expeditions found fragments, Inuit stories and objects from the expedition. In 1855, following the indications of some Inuit tribes, pieces of wood were found with the name of Erebus. In 59 two messages were found. The first, dated May 28, 1847, was from Franklin himself and read “Sir John Franklin, Commander of the Expedition: All Well.” It is the document on the right. It was a common practice at the time, documents were left in different places so that, in case of problems, they could be reconstruct the details of the trip. But in this case, something curious happened: on the edges there was another message, dated April 25, 1848, explaining that the ships had been trapped in the ice. Franklin and twenty-three other crew members were dead. And the rest, the survivors, had abandoned the ships looking for an exit to the south. In the next few years some objects, some rumors and some tombs appeared. Nothing else. The ships never appeared and we never, in 150 years, discovered what had really happened to Captain John Franklin’s lost expedition. One hundred and fifty years without news In the 1980s, the University of Alberta launched a project to track the expedition. The different possible routes were traveled … Read more

Australia has decided to ban social media for those under 16 years of age. The mystery is how they are going to achieve it

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December 10 was the date marked on the Australian calendar for prohibit social networks for minors under 16 years of age. Australia becomes the first country to implement a measure of this type, although there are others that also want to do it like Denmark or France. The ban is already in force, however there are still many doubts about how the measure will be enforced and how effective it will be. What exactly does it prohibit? The Online Safety Amendment establishes 16 years as the minimum age to have a social media account. This means that minors can access networks without logging into an account, which will allow them to consult public posts on social networks, watch YouTube or read Reddit threads. Without an account, they will not be able to access personalized feeds, receive notifications or communicate with other users. Currently, the amendment includes eleven services prohibited for minors: Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, X (Twitter), Reddit, YouTube, Twitch, Kick, Threads and Lemon8. It is not ruled out that the list will change in the future. How are they going to verify the age? The million-dollar question and the one that leaves us with the biggest doubt of all. The amendment details the prohibitions, but leaves it up to the platforms to do the work of verifying the age of their users. It does not say how they should do it, it only specifies that they will not be able to do it just by asking for the DNI and they will not be able to save data related to age verification. Although they do not establish rules on how to carry it out, the Australian Government published a report in which they concluded that age verification technologies were technically viable. In the report they analyze several methods: Checking documents and identity records. Age estimation using biometrics and facial recognition. Age estimation from the user’s behavior or fingerprint. Parental control mechanisms. Image: Wikipedia The doubts about the effectiveness We have the recent case of United Kingdom when it banned porn for those under 18. They also proposed various age verification methods such as those mentioned in the Australian report. The reality has proven to be more complex and, after the blockade, there were a brutal spike in downloads of VPN serviceswhich means that many users fake their location to bypass the block. The law is made, the trap is made. Furthermore, the system is not perfect. They count in NYTimes that some teenagers have used the facial recognition option in some apps and it has incorrectly estimated their ages. And there is also the issue of privacy. Although the law says that platforms cannot collect data from the age verification process, there is no standardization in this regard and if we have learned something after decades on the internet, it is that leaks happen. What are the platforms doing? Instagram, Facebook and Threads Meta has already done his homework. On November 20, it notified users minors under 16 that their accounts on Facebook, Instagram and Threads were going to be deleted. Regarding age verification, in September 2024 already announced “accounts for teenagers”which restrict certain features, such as making the account private by default and limited messages. To detect age, since April they have been using AI tools to detect users who lie about their age. In statements to Vergea representative of Meta has assured that the regulations “isolate adolescents from online communities and information, while providing inconsistent protection in the numerous applications they use.” TikTok and Lemon8 Bytedance apps have confirmed that from its entry into force, they will deactivate the existing accounts of those users under 16 years of age and will not allow them to create new accounts. Additionally, content from underage Australian users will be hidden. Regarding facial recognition, they offer several methods such as age estimation through facial recognition, credit card authorization, and verification of official identification documents. reddit Reddit has also started suspending the accounts of those under 16, but gives them the option to download their data first. In a post on the platformthey say that age verification will be done through “a prediction system.” The platform has taken a stand against this decision and states that the law “undermines everyone’s right to freedom of expression and privacy.” YouTube YouTube communicated that as of December 10, it would begin to suspend the accounts of those under 16, although they will be able to continue watching YouTube without being logged in since the law does allow it. They do not say how the age verification will be done, what they do say is that the new law is a mistake and that it will have a counterproductive effect since, by deleting the account, the possibility for parents to control what their children see will be lost, so minors will be even more insecure. snapchat In one publication on your website, Snapchat confirms that from December 10 it will block all accounts of those under 16. They will keep the account blocked for three years and if users turn 16 during that time, they will be able to recover it using age verification. Verification will be done in three ways: connecting the app with an Australian bank account, scanning the ID document and using the age estimation through a selfie. Twitch The streaming platform will prevent users under 16 from creating an account. For this they will use their verification system through facial recognition. Existing accounts will be deactivated starting January 9. Kick In the case of Kick, as published Guardianthey will use the same age verification system that Snapchat uses. X (Twitter) Elon Musk’s social network requested last September that the entry into force of the new regulations be delayed, as published Guardian. From X they expressed “serious doubts” about the legality of the regulations. What happens if the platforms do not comply? The law does not say how they should ensure that minors create an account, but it does say the consequences … Read more

The existence of lightning remains a mystery to atmospheric physics. Austria has given us a clue to solve it

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It seems unbelievable, but in the middle of 2025 one of the most common and violent phenomena of nature continues keeping many secrets. This is the case of raywhich we know how to protect ourselves from and we know that Franklin had very right with your kite. But if we ask an atmospheric physicist what exactly detonates the first spark inside a cloud to start the download, you’ll probably shrug your shoulders. The discovery. We would expect the answer to this classic meteorology question in the sky itself, but in reality it seems to be in a laboratory in Austria. It has been here where they have achieved something that seems like magic: using lasers to trap microscopic particles in the air, and almost by accident, discovering a charging mechanism that could be the ‘missing link’ in the formation of lightning in our sky. What we knew. For lightning to strike, it is necessary that there is a monstrous electric field that breaks the resistance of air, something that has a name: dielectric breakdown. The problem is that when we measure the electric fields inside a thundercloud, the numbers don’t add up: They are too low to initiate lightning on their own. This means that scientists have long suspected that the secret was in the aerosols and ice crystals that collide within a cloud. And the theory is quite clear: if a small particle could accumulate enough charge, then it has the ability to create a micro-electric field around it so intense that it would start a chain reaction. The problem is that studying a microscopic ice grain in the middle of a storm is impossible, since we can be next to it and we cannot lower the cloud to the ground either. That is why this is where this research comes in, which has found a high-tech solution with optical tweezers. The experiment. To find the answer, a 532 nm green laser was used to make lift a silica sphere just a micron in diameter. But… Why? In this case, the initial objective was to measure forces precisely, but they encountered something very strange: the laser itself that held the particle was electrically charging it. Far from being a mistake, they realized that they had in front of them a perfect tool to simulate the atmosphere in miniature. It was no longer necessary to go to a cloud to analyze it. In this way, they began to charge a particle with so much static electricity that it caused a dielectric breakdown in the air around them, discharging themselves suddenly. They had literally created a controlled micro-ray in the laboratory. The authors of the study explicitly suggest that this system is an ideal model to study the electrification of aerosols and clouds. Its importance. Until now, studying these phenomena required getting into a storm-chasing plane or relying on computer simulations. But now we have the ability to simulate these conditions in a controlled way. And it is also ideal to understand why sometimes the sky seems like it is going to break in our own heads. Images | Michael Mancewicz In Xataka | What is a dry storm: when the sky throws lightning, but the rain never reaches the ground

The mansions of the most exclusive urbanization in Spain are usually a mystery. Marc Márquez has opened it up a little

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The MotoGP rider has had no shame in reveal the value of his mansion in La Finca, along with other details about how he manages an asset that exceeds 80 million euros. Far from the clichés of the millionaire athlete, Márquez talks about fiscal responsibility, professional advice and a clear philosophy: money has not changed his lifestyle (or at least not in everyday things). The mansion as an investment, not as a whim. Marc Márquez has resided since 2022 in La Finca, the most exclusive urbanization in Pozuelo de Alarcón, where he has neighbors such as Cristiano Ronaldo or Cristina Pedroche. His property, valued at around 10 million euros, has 1,300 square meters distributed in seven rooms, a gym, a two-story swimming pool and a minimalist aesthetic with straight lines and light tones. When asked about the price, the pilot responds: “10 million? Around there. That area is around there. But it is an investment,” according to declared on Imagin’s ‘The End of the Month Podcast’. He also states that “the house is paid for.” This case, in fact, It was owned by Mariano Díazformer Real Madrid player and current Deportivo Alavés forward. The jump to Madrid. The move from Cervera to the capital was not just a matter of comfort. According to revealed to ‘Todo Circuit’the decision was motivated by medical reasons, being close to his doctors after the injuries that have marked his career, and by logistical efficiency. “I save hours on the train, with events and commitments,” he explained. The Finca also offers you the privacy you are looking for, being a refuge where you can disconnect from the circuit without fanfare. The lesson of the first million. The path to economic stability began in 2013, when Márquez won his first MotoGP title at just 20 years old. That bonus of more than a million euros opened his eyes about money management. “More than 50%, bam!, Treasury. 10% for the manager, training motorcycles…”, remembered in that same interview. It was then that he met the lawyer who still advises him and learned the importance of not losing his mind: “They told me: ‘it seems like a lot, but it’s little, leave it in the bank.’” Since then, he assures that his advice is provided by a lawyer and an accounting manager, without limited companies. “I am self-employed, I am not a company, I do not have a SL,” he says. An empire beyond motorcycles. In addition to his residence, Márquez has diversified his assets with investments in the audiovisual sector with his brother Álex. They participate in companies such as Fast Brothers Productions, dedicated to film and series production, and Café Para Muy Cafeteros, focused on podcasts. They also founded Vertical Management SL, specialized in representation and advice of athletes and content creators, together with Vertical Content Creators SL and Bamboleo Events SL, the latter focused on organizing sporting events. With this network of companies, he not only manages his image, but also builds a professional future that will be very good for him once he retires from his profession. 2025, year of 10. His season with Ducati has been historic: he has won his ninth world title, achieved 11 victories in grand prix and 14 in sprint. This, according to Forbes, has reported him extraordinary income that totals more than 5 million euros in bonuses, in addition to his base salary of 12 million. Added to this are sponsorships with brands such as Estrella Galicia, Alpinestars, Shoei or Audi, which represent a substantial part of a total assets that exceeds 80 million euros. Money without posturing. “I’m lucky that money hasn’t changed my lifestyle,” says Márquez. “I have the same time with my friends anywhere, I don’t need to show off.” He has no debts, declares himself self-employed and maintains a low profile. “I don’t want to be in the newspapers or anything like that,” he confesses. It is the same solvency with which he rides a Ducati: a cool head, long-term vision and feet on the ground. In Xataka | An atoll in the South Pacific has become a magnet for millionaires. Its great attraction is not its beaches, it is its banks

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