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what it is, how it works, main news, and when it will be available

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Let’s explain to you what is Seedance 2.0the model of artificial intelligence designed by ByteDance. Specifically, it is a multimodal AI model capable of generating video from prompt descriptions, but also using other references such as audio, images and video. Let’s start by reminding you what Seedance is, so you know what exactly we are referring to. Then, we will tell you the main features of its new version, as well as the differences with its predecessor and some other things that you should keep in mind, such as when will it be available for use in Spain. What is Seedance and how it works Seedance is an artificial intelligence model created by ByteDance, the company that created the TikTok social network. This model is used for generate video from textbeing the competition of models such as I see from Google either sora from OpenAI. The truth is that ByteDance is one of the five most relevant Chinese companies in AI. In fact, it has its own family of models called Seedin which we have a Seedream to create images, Seededit to edit images, Seed3D to create three-dimensional models, Seed LiveInterpret to translate voice in real time, Seed-Music to create music and more. As in other similar models, its operation is simple. You simply describe what you want to see through a prompt, uploading a reference image if you want, and Seedance will create a video of several seconds with the scene you have described. To create the video, you will first be able to process and understand what you ask with natural languagesince it has been trained to understand the way we speak and express ourselves. It will then proceed to create the video, including synchronized audio based on the instructions you give it. Seedance tries to stand out from the competition with physical realism, so that objects move naturally and consistent with physics. Also with visual consistency, and duration, since it generates videos up to 10 seconds long. Seedance 2.0 Features As we all know, the race in generative artificial intelligence is frenetic, so every few months a new model comes out, revolutionizing everything. In this aspect, Seedance 2.0 is now the one that is surprising the most, being a multimodal model capable of combining images, video, audio and text to generate content. Think about this. You can add audio of a sound or conversation and generate the video from it, and even include another video or photo to use as a reference. Everything will be able to process simultaneously. The model supports precise reference capabilities, and is capable of exporting results in 2K resolution with 30% faster generation speeds than the previous version 1.5. It has also improved the level of understanding of the physics of sound, This new version of the model also introduces the so-called multi-lens storytellinga term that means you can keep the same character, with the same clothes and features through different camera cuts. Something that will allow the video to be more complex but maintain cohesion between the cuts. When will Seedance 2.0 arrive? ByteDance has not yet included Seedance 2.0 in the website of their modelsthat It is only available in testing phase for a very limited group of people. Even so, it is to be hoped that little by little it will also begin to reach everyone. You have to be careful, because there are also fake pages that use the name Seedance 2.0 as a claim. In Xataka Basics | How to create videos with artificial intelligence: 13 essential free tools

Great white sharks are appearing off the Alicante coast. The problem is that we don’t know if it’s good news or bad news.

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On April 20, 2023, by pure chance, some fishermen caught a juvenile-sized white shark. No one would have been surprised if it weren’t for the fact that the fishermen were in Spanish waters, right in front of the Alicante Cape of La Nao. Two meters 10 centimeters of white shark in the middle of the Mediterranean, what was happening here? Do we have to worry? That is the question that was asked at the Spanish Institute of Oceanography and, in collaboration with the University of Cádiz, has carried out a deep review of the presence of white sharks in the Mediterranean Sea. It is not something superficial: they have collected all the records (direct and indirect) from 1862 to 2023 and have reached a surprising conclusion. The presence of this type of specimen has been “persistent” (although “extremely rare”) in the Spanish Mediterranean. It is not something, a priori, worrying. As explained José Carlos Báezresearcher at the IEO-CSIC, “we have only found two attacks: one in 1862, in which a person died in Malaga who was swimming, and another in the eighties, when a shark bit a surfer’s board in Tarifa and caused serious injuries.” But the problem is not that. And, although “with the available data, it is not possible to affirm that the Mediterranean white shark population is recovering”, it is inevitable to think about what will happen in an increasingly warmer sea. In the end, “the presence of young individuals provides key information about the demographic structure of the species” and, one way or anotherthis leads us to seriously consider the risks of having breeding spaces in Spanish waters. However, everything seems to indicate that there is a relationship between the presence of the shark and the routes of the bluefin tuna. If so, it would be another symptom of the problems that sharks have to keep their populations healthy and robust. Should we worry? It doesn’t seem like it. Against the media angle about the “return of the monster”, international evidence tells us that attacks are extremely rare and the role of sharks in the conservation of aquatic ecosystems is very important. Be that as it may, monitoring and conservation programs must be developed. And it has to be done soon. Image | Oleksandr Sushko In Xataka | The white shark is an exceptional swimmer. Its secret is in its “teeth”

If you’re in a hurry to upgrade your PC, NVIDIA’s CEO has bad news: don’t be in a hurry

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Talking about artificial intelligence is talking about Jensen Huang. The CEO of NVIDIA has become the figure of an industry: that of artificial intelligence. In large part, it is your company’s products that are driving the engine of the data centers and, at the same time, enormous semiconductor industries and memory are the essential components of NVIDIA GPUs. And if Huang has been commenting for a few weeks that this 2026 it’s going to need wafers and a lot of RAMhas now asked for patience with AI. Because he has another seven or eight years of unchecked climbing left. In short. When we talk about artificial intelligence, there are two poles. On the one hand, those who see signs of a bubble that will burst in the short term. On the other hand, those who defend the billion-dollar investment against all odds. In that boat is Jensen Huang, who recently noted in CNBC that this massive spending is “necessary and appropriate” because a “once-in-a-generation infrastructure” is being shaped. The most interesting thing is that, for him, this career will continue for several years, pointing that the investment and construction of infrastructure for AI has seven or eight years left. Mortars of money. In his statements, Huang pointed out that companies like Anthropic and OpenAI are making money despite everything invested and that their current brake is not so much the budget as the limit of computing power. That is why you want your suppliers –Samsung in HBM4 memories new generation or TSMC with the processors- increase the pace. It remains to be seen, however, if the pace can be maintained over the next five years. On CNBC, the CEO of NVIDIA pointed out that, despite the astronomical amount of money, the spending is sustainable. And proof of this is that it is increasing. If in 2025 the total spending of Big Tech did not reach 400,000 million, wait that this year the number of American companies will rise to 650,000 million. Only between Amazon and Alphabet -Google-, they will invest about 385,000 million. They see the AI ​​computing race as the next “whoever wins the most,” and none are willing to lose – DA Davidson analyst Gil Luria speaking to Bloomberg Parallel career. And that, as we say, in American companies, since China is the other pole in this race for artificial intelligence. The Asian giant is the birthplace of several extremely capable models, but also something that is missing in the United States: energy to feed the enormous needs of AI. China is betting on AI, but also on robotics, and all this at the same time buy NVIDIA products and develop your own semiconductor network with the goal of achieving technological sovereignty. It is another race parallel to that of the United States, and apart from the two poles of infrastructure development, we have particular names. That so much money is being invested means that opportunities are being created, and there are companies that have gone through a bad patch and want to surf the wave. For example, a Intel that, after needing a rescue by the United Statesis positioning itself as one of the great foundries in the United States. In addition, they are putting their foot in a segment that they had not explored, that of DRAM memory, and They are doing it with the Japanese giant SoftBank. Japan has not had a say in the memory industry since the 80s, when South Korea snatched their positionand now they may have another chance. Translation for the user. These are a couple of examples of companies that are taking advantage of the conditions to obtain financing and expand, seeking to position themselves in what they have determined is the future of the technology industry. With that amount of money and investment, there is a question you may be asking yourself: will I be able to buy a PC? The answer It is not hopeful. Giants like Micron -one of the heavyweights in the RAM segment- They are investing a lot to expand facilities and be more capable when creating memories, but they will not be for us: they will be for data centers. If the end of 2026 or 2027 was targeted as the end of the component crisis like the RAM or SSD (which are still components with memory modules), now it is Lip-Bu TanCEO of Intel, who states that It won’t be until 2028at the earliest, when we can see a horizon in the current panorama. So, yes, the entire tech industry has turned to AI and those that can increase their production of key components will do so over the next few years. The issue is that they are going to focus on components that users neither care about nor care about, neglecting those that we really need on a day-to-day basis. AND an example is NVIDIA itself. Image | NVIDIA In Xataka | Apple has been the industry’s first customer for decades. AI is relegating it to the background

The European Bizum will soon be a reality. It is very bad news for VISA and Matercard

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Europe will have its pan-European mobile payment system. Although we all thought that we would have a unique and universal Bizum For EU countries, what will happen will be a little different, but just as effective and probably better: long live interoperability. European Bizums connect. As indicated in CincoDíasBizum and the rest of the European platforms that imitated those free transfer functions easily accessible from mobile phones have finally joined forces. all friends. That was the last obstaclebecause all of them wanted to become the unique and universal Bizum. That would have forced the rest of the platforms to say goodbye to make way for that single platform, but instead what will happen is that the different platforms will be interoperable. The agreement includes 130 million connected users. Thanks to this interoperability project, 130 million EU (and Norwegian) citizens will be able to use this system. Not only that: the interoperable platform will be prepared to accept those from other European countries such as Switzerland or even others from markets not belonging to the euro zone. The key is in SPL. This interoperability can be achieved thanks to the so-called Standard Proxy Lookup (SPL), a “directory” service at the European level managed by the European Payments Council (EPC). This service allows banks to check which IBAN corresponds to each telephone number. Everything runs on the SEPA Instant Transfer infrastructureand thanks to new EU regulations, these transfers will soon be mandatory free or will have the same cost as a standard transfer, eliminating the traditional abusive commissions for immediate transfers. In 2026, personal payments. The technical implementation will begin in the coming months, and it is expected that before the end of the year a Spaniard with Bizum will be able to send money to a German with Wero and vice versa in a transparent and simple way. In theory, the operation of the system will not change for users, who will simply have to enter the recipient’s mobile number, regardless of the EU country, so that the transfer is carried out instantly. Shops in 2027. These personal payments with the European Bizum will end up giving rise to the other great option of the system: payments in electronic stores and points of sale. This option will arrive a little later, in 2027, and will undoubtedly be the great spearhead of these platforms against the two fierce competitors that dominated this segment. Setback for Visa and Mastercard. This agreement allows the European Union to have an internal payment system that will allow it to reduce its dependence on the systems that have been the de facto industry standard for decades, those offered by Visa and Mastercard. And a measure of the banks for the banks. European banks are also strengthening their position regarding the digital euro project that the European Central Bank (ECB) is preparing. This currency will in the future allow European citizens to have deposits in central banks without intervention by private banks. That, of course, took power away from these entities, but with this European Bizum they reinforce their role. Another step towards European digital sovereignty. For decades Europe has delegated all its digital systems to companies, especially from the US, and this project confirms an increasingly strong trend: that of European digital sovereignty. When processing payments within a European banking network, citizens’ consumption data does not go to US servers (as happens when using Visa, Mastercard, Apple or Google). And you can use Bizum without a bank card. This agreement does not prevent the platforms from continuing to evolve and improve on their own. This is what Bizum intends to do, which will launch Bizum Pay this year to pay directly in stores with the current account and without the need for a bank card. This will allow us to avoid dependence on Google Pay or Apple Pay, for example, on our mobile phones. It will first offer this option in shops in Spain, and in 2027, in line with the objective of that interoperable European Bizum, in shops in the EU. In Xataka | The Treasury confirms it: payments for dinner and gifts to your friends through Bizum do not go to the Tax Agency

In a chaotic 2025 of cancellations and delays, Renfe does have good news: record number of travelers

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Renfe has had one of its most chaotic years in 2025. The company has had to face more competition than ever, it has suffered delays due to its own trains and infrastructure, it has seen Talgo trains crack or how fires blocked its most profitable line. And, despite everything, he has achieved a new record. 37.3 million. They are the people who have traveled on AVE and long-distance Renfe trains. And in 2025 the company has managed to move more people than ever on these trains. The figure is 6% higher than that achieved a year ago when it added 35.2 million trips. According to data provided by the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, the bulk of these trips are made up of the AVE, which has set a new record with 21.5 million trips. That’s a million more travelers than last year. Although AVLO is the company that has had the best performance, growing from 4.55 million in 2024 to 6.2 million travelers in 2025. Where? According to Transport, the corridor that continues to receive the most passengers is the Madrid-Barcelona route ending in Figueres. In total, Renfe has attracted 8.1 million passengers to this corridor. The figure is almost identical to last year’s. The Levante and Mediterranean corridor (which connects Madrid with the Valencian Community and Murcia) is where the impact on passenger growth has been felt most. Here, trips have increased from 5.5 million to 7.7 million. Andalusia has also experienced growth from 6.9 million travelers to 7.2 million. Although the corridor that has added the most passengers is the Madrid-Castilla y León-Galicia one. Adding its routes and the connection with Asturias has gone from 2.5 million travelers in 2024 to 4.6 million. Doubts. What Renfe leaves up in the air is how much passenger volume has been lost on other lines. In his statement It is not explained, for example, how many passengers there are in the Extremadura corridor. And if the data is well transmitted, there are lines that have had to lose the number of passengers. The text mentions, as we said, an increase of 2.1 million passengers in the sum of high-speed and long-distance lines. However, there is talk of increases of 2.2 million passengers in the Mediterranean corridor, 2.1 million in the northwest area and 300,000 more passengers in Andalusia, without mentioning the inevitable drops in passengers on other lines. A chaotic year. Although it is the year in which it has moved the most passengers, 2025 has been a chaotic year for Renfe, marked by the following milestones: And some good things. In addition to increasing the number of travelers, 2025 has also had some good things for Renfe. To begin with, it has been confirmation that the train can fight the plane as long as high-speed trains work with guarantee. And the fact is that Madrid-Galicia has made the airlines retreat. The company, Renfe points out, continues to be the most used in all corridors (although it is not specified that it is the one that works the most frequencies) and its travelers will be able to benefit from the new flat rate ticket of 60 euros to take all medium and long distance trains and that is pending the addition, potentially, of municipal or regional public transport. Furthermore, and although this is not so good for Renfe but for the user, travelers we should be able to receive refunds partial or total delays of more than 15 minutes this year. Photo | Xataka In Xataka | Renfe is obliged to compensate for delays of more than 15 minutes starting January 1. The Government wants to prevent it

Scientists have investigated what happens to your brain when you play video games. And they have surprising news

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There is something strangely comforting about dissonance. Sometimes, while I’m fighting with a crochet hook trying to make a scarf not end up looking like a dish towel, I like to put the TV channel in the background. TacticalGramma. Michelle is 59 years old, she is a proud grandmother and, while I clumsily count wool stitches, she is annihilating entire squads in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 with a precision that any teenager would want for themselves. The scene has that visual irony: technology has not come to isolate us in a basement, but to rescue our neurons from rust. For decades, the social narrative sold us that video games “rot” the brain; Today, science is beginning to suggest that, if you want to reach 60 with good mental agility, perhaps you should take control. The brain clock. A study published by Nature has managed to compare the health of neural connections with the person’s actual age—what is known as brain clocks. The team led by Carlos Coronel-Oliveros has discovered that players who are experts in strategy titles like StarCraft II They have a mental structure that is much more resistant to the passage of time. On average, the brains of these players function with the agility of someone four years younger, according to a statistical estimate based on neuroimaging models. An efficiency phenomenon that neuroscience calls Brain Age Gap (BAG). When Sudoku is no longer enough. While classic brain games are isolated and repetitive tasks, an action video game forces the brain to manage an avalanche of information in real time. This level of constant demand—planning movements, reacting to attacks, and filtering out distractions simultaneously—forces neurons to reorganize. To reach this conclusion, the research team used research techniques whole-brain modelingcombining fMRI with machine learning algorithms capable of detecting subtle patterns in connectivity. The results showed more efficient integration in the so-called “frontoparietal hubs”, key regions for attention and executive function that are usually among the first to deteriorate with age. Changes in brain hardware. This apparent rejuvenation has a physical reflection in the structure of the brain. Science has found that, just as a muscle develops with exercise, certain key areas of players become denser and more robust. Studies in Scientific Reports and Translational Psychiatry reveal that those who regularly play action titles have more “gray matter” in regions responsible for coordination, attention and making quick decisions. It is as if the brain had expanded its information highways to react sooner and better to each stimulus. But the most useful change is the refinement of our visual “filter.” Research in PLOS ONE show that the players They develop a superior ability to ignore unnecessary noise. It’s not that they see more, it’s that their brain has learned to process only the information that really matters to win the game, optimizing the energy expenditure of the visual cortex. The ‘learning to learn’ factor. What is truly significant is not being more precise within the game, but the impact on the ability to continue learning. A study in Communications Biology showed that video game training Action speeds up the speed at which people learn new tasks, even when they are unrelated to the game. As they explain psychologists Daphne Bavelier and C. Shawn Green, these games train the brain’s attentional control. The result is improved cognitive adaptation, valuable in an ever-changing technological world. But experts still debate the degree of “far transfer”—that is, the extent to which being a keyboard whiz makes you better at managing a real crisis or a complex spreadsheet. When the benefit runs out. Even so, it is advisable to lower your enthusiasm. Most of these studies they are correlational: they do not allow us to state with certainty whether playing transforms the brain or whether certain already “agile” brain profiles are more inclined to enjoy video games. Furthermore, the effects vary depending on age and life context. Side B is not minor either. Researchers warn that excessive exposure can cause cognitive fatigue and sleep disturbances. The World Health Organization recognizes the video game disorder as a real problem when gambling becomes a compulsive behavior. The neural benefit depends on the balance that if the challenge stops being stimulating and becomes automatic or addictive, the protective effect disappears. Not just any game will do. Another key point is that not all video games produce the same effects. The strongest benefits are seen in action and real-time strategy games, which require quick decisions and multitasking. As experts point outonce a game stops being difficult and becomes mechanical, brain plasticity stagnates. Speed ​​and time pressure seem to be essential ingredients for keeping machinery in shape. There is something hopeful about seeing someone like TacticalGramma master a digital environment. The science doesn’t say that video games are a panacea, but it does suggest that brain aging doesn’t have to be a one-way path to decline. Perhaps the secret to a healthier brain is not in a pill, but in our ability to continue to face what is difficult and accept the frustration of constant learning. For now, I’m going to leave crocheting for a while. Image | freepik Xataka | The art of self-deception: why our brain defends our mistakes even if it knows we are wrong

In the midst of the RAM memory crisis, Samsung takes a leap with its HBM4 memory. It does not imply good news for the pocket

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We are in full RAM price crisis. The industry is a cake that three large producers share and the data centers and the artificial intelligence They want to eat the whole cake. Samsung is one of the companies that manufactures memory for consumption and data centersand will soon begin mass production of its latest broadband memory chips: the HBM4. Don’t throw the bells in the air too soon. HBM4. This technology represents a crucial advance in stacked memories. Its density allows double the bandwidth, key to transmitting more data per second, but they are also up to 40% more energy efficient than HBM3. In short: they consume less energy and have fewer bottlenecks, which translates into an improvement in data processing. Industry sources point out that Samsung will use the 10-nanometer D1c manufacturing process for the matrix of these HBM4 memorieswith an internal structure of 4 nm. It’s a more advanced process than the 12-nanometer D1b from its main rival, SK Hynix. In addition, it will achieve a data transfer speed of 11.7 Gbps compared to 9-10 Gbps of the current standard. Hello Nvidia. South Korean media they point that these new Samsung HBM4 modules they would have passed Nvidia certification testing and will be in february when the company starts mass manufacturing them. Where will they end up? Some to Nvidia’s new AI acceleration system, called Vera Rubinothers at the heart of Google’s seventh-generation TPUs. After these reports, the company’s shares they went up 5.3% in the Seoul market. The enemy at home. In statements To South Korean media, Samsung representatives have commented that they feel quite confident with a new product that will clear up doubts about the company’s ability to supply the demanding needs of data centers. The fifth-generation HBM3E memories were a bottleneck for the company, so major players in the AI ​​industry looked next door: SK Hynix. Also South Korean, she is the second leg of memory chip manufacturing. The third is the American Micron Technology, a considerable distance from the two South Koreans. A year ago we already told that SK Hynix had achieved enormous efficiency in the DRAM stacking process to create these HBM memories, which allowed it to be 8.8 times more efficient than Samsung or Micron and, therefore, produce more modules for an industry that never stops asking. Meanwhile, the two South Koreans were in a race for the development of the new generation HBM4, and Samsung seems to have struck the first blow. Of course, it is estimated that Hynix will also begin mass production of these new memories on the same dates. And the consumer… what? Well nothing. If you were expecting good news related to the price of RAM, it must be said that no improvements are expected. These HBM4 modules will go to Nvidia, but we recently commented that OpenAI had reached an agreement with Samsung and SK Hynix to supply with 900,000 wafers per month. It is the volume equivalent to 39% of the estimated global capacity… and only for one company. Translation? Bottleneck in the market, a manufacturing speed that may not meet that demand and more bad news for the user. We have seen that Micron has abandoned its Crucial brand for consumers in favor of RAM for data centers, and that Samsung and SK Hynix are focused on HBM4 memories en masse, although they are not used in consumer devices, implies that this is where they will focus on this lucrative AI market. In short: Samsung may be dominating the new generation of memories, but 2026 seems difficult for anyone who wants to build a PC, expand RAM of yours, buy a new mobile or even wait for good news from the Steam Machine. Image | TSMC, Google In Xataka | RAM has become so, so expensive that there are manufacturers selling computers in an unprecedented way: “pre-assembled”

They have dismantled the latest Huawei phones and what they have found is bad news for the US: 57%

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May 2019, this was the date the United States declared that Huawei was “a threat to national security”thus becoming the first major victim of the trade war against China. Without being able to use American technology, the company was mortally wounded, or that’s what we believed so. Today, Huawei has not only achieved return to the top of mobile phones in Chinahas also become the banner of technological independence. 57%. It is the percentage of Chinese-made components that we can find in the Huawei Mate 70 Ultra launched in 2024 and the Huawei Pura 80 Ultra launched this same year. They tell it in Nikkei Asia where, in collaboration with the Japanese firm Fomalhaut Techno Solutionshave disassembled both models to analyze the internal components. It is the result of six years of efforts to become independent despite the vetoes. The turning point. The US veto forced Huawei to look for alternatives and create new national supply chains. In 2020, the percentage of Chinese components in Huawei flagships was only 19% and in 2023 it increased to 32%. Reaching 57% in 2024 represents a jump of 23 points, which is said to be early. The countries where most of the components that Huawei managed to supply came from were Japan, the United States and South Korea. Processor. It is the Kirin 9020, the first manufactured entirely in China and most critical component of all. It is a 7nm chip manufactured by SMIC. To achieve the 7 nanometer process they would have used multi-pattern techniquesquite a technical feat considering that they do not have access to the newer machines, but rather have done so by “tweaking” old ASML machines. More components. There are more key parts that have managed to be manufactured entirely in China, such as the RAM memory, which is produced by ChangXin Memory Technologies, or the storage, produced by Yangtze Memory Technologies. For OLED screens, almost all the components are Chinese, specifically from the company BOE Technology Group. Challenges. The 2019 veto was a near-death blow for Huawei; sales fell dramatically and there were moments when we had serious doubts about its continuity, until it began to resurface. Being able to manufacture critical components in China is an enormous achievement, but there is a reality and that is that, technologically, Huawei is several years behind. To put it in context, the Kirin 9020 that they launched in 2024 is at the level of the Snapdragon 855 or the A12 Bionic launched in 2018. The challenge now is to manage to cut positions and Huawei is already doing it. The Huawei Mate 80 Pro mounts the Kirin 9030which has managed to cross the 7nm barrier and reach 5nm. Furthermore, recent leaks indicate that They have managed to copy an ASML SVU machine which would allow them to go even further, although at the moment it is not ready to produce commercial chips. Image | Xataka In Xataka | Huawei is coming back. And not everyone is prepared for what is coming

We have been lowering the toilet lid all our lives for hygiene. Science has bad news: it is not enough

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Every time we flush the toilet, a small invisible “rash” occurs in the bathroom. It is not a literary exaggeration: science calls it ‘toilet plume’, or toilet plume: a phenomenon by which a Water discharge launches thousands of microscopic particles into the air loaded with everything you just deposited in the cup. A piece of advice. For years, it’s been pretty simple: lower the lid before pressing the toilet button. However, recent research suggests that this gesture, although useful, is not the definitive shield we thought. A microscopic volcano. When the water enters the cup with force to clean the residue that we have deposited, the impact generates bioaerosols. These droplets are so light that they can remain suspended in the air for minutes or even hours, something that can be quite dangerous for those people who have low defenses. A biological cocktail. According to the scientific reviews that have been done on the matter, the invisible clouds we are talking about are real cocktails with numerous biological agents. For example, bacteria such as Escherichia coli, Salmonella, Shigella and Clostridium. This is something that is magnified when we say that in a single gram of feces there can be up to 1,000,000,000,000 viral particles. And this is something that is magnified in public bathrooms, as scientific studies have shown that bacteria are not only found near the toilet, but also on the floors and sinks, confirming that pollution does not remain stagnant in the air. The myth of the cover. A priori, lowering the lid should be a clear solution to prevent bacteria from escaping, and although it helps a little, the reality is that it is not perfect. According to science, Lowering the lid reduces the dispersion of visible droplets by 30 to 60%being a substantial improvement to prevent heavier particles from landing even on the toothbrush. However, there is a design problem: the gap between the cup and the seat. The finest aerosols (particles less than 1 µm) are expelled under pressure through these slots. In experiments with viruses such as MS2, it has been proven that up to 57% of aerosols manage to escape even with the lid closed. And once outside, their size allows them to avoid many conventional air filters. It’s not just disgust. As microbiologist Raúl Rivas explainsthis is not just a debate about aesthetic hygiene. Flushing the toilet without lowering the lid releases many viruses and bacteria that may even be resistant to antibiotics. But this is something that is greatly amplified in public bathroomswhere ventilation is poor and where there are a large number of people per day. Here there is a high concentration of particles that, due to their small size, can be inhaled or deposited on the surfaces we touch such as the doorknob or the paper dispenser. What should be done. Science doesn’t say to stop lowering the cap, as it’s still best for larger droplets, but it suggests it’s not enough. That is why the tips that we can apply especially in the domestic sphere are the following: The summary is quite clear: the toilet is a very efficient microbicidal aerosol generator, and lowering the lid is the first step although it does not replace good hygiene and ventilation. Images | Giorgio Trovato CDC In Xataka | We have been believing that bacteria are a weapon against tumors for 150 years. And finally we have discovered how

Astronomical RAM prices are bad news for everyone, but especially for Apple

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RAM memory prices have skyrocketed between 100% and 400% in just six months. 32 GB kits that cost $95 in the summer now cost $400. There are stores in the United States that They have removed the prices from the shelves and communicate them at the checkout, as if it were lobster on Christmas Eve. Why is it important. RAM prices have skyrocketed between 100% and 400% in just a few months. Samsung and SK Hynix have committed 40% of all global production to Stargate, OpenAI’s infrastructure. The three manufacturers that control 93% of the market prioritize servers over consumption. TrendForce has predicted that Entry-level smartphones will return to 4 GB of RAM in 2026. Budget laptops will stay stuck at 8 GB. For the first time in decades, specifications are not improving but going backwards. The paradox. The scarcity is caused by AI, but that same scarcity is going to undermine our ability to use local AI. Data centers take up all the memory to train huge models, but users won’t be able to run those models on their computers because much-needed RAM has exploded, so we’ll have the same, or less. Main loser. Apple has the most to lose in this scenario. Meta, Google and Microsoft can use the cloud for their models as they have been doing until now, but Apple has been betting heavily on local AI for two years as a great differentiator: models that run on your device, privacy by design and processing without depending on servers. The entire narrative of Apple Intelligence It is built on having enough RAM and local computing power. The iPhones They have been increasing their RAM precisely to run Apple Intelligence smoothly, closing the RAM gap between base and Pro models. Macs with Apple Silicon They have normalized 16 GB, after many years stuck at 8 GB, as the base in all models. The impossible dilemma. Apple has financial muscle and preferential contracts that allow it to get memory when others cannot. But that doesn’t solve your fundamental problem: you have two options and neither are good. You can maintain specifications and raise prices, but there is a limit to what the market will tolerate. Or you can start cutting RAM, but that means compromising just the competitive advantage you’ve been selling for two years. Between the lines. Other manufacturers can adapt by lowering specifications without breaking their value proposition too much. Samsung can put 6 GB in a mid-range Galaxy and still function the same: its AI depends on the Google cloud. But Apple has committed to an architecture that requires powerful devices in the user’s hands. And those devices are now much more expensive to manufacture. Private Cloud Computing It is a help, but it does not change the local narrative. The unexpected turn. Apple Intelligence may end up being much more expensive than Apple had planned. Not because the technology is expensive, but because the raw materials to execute it have become a scarce commodity. Apple is probably the company best positioned to weather this crisis due to its purchasing power (as we already saw with the semiconductor crisis due to the pandemic), but it is also the one that has the most to lose strategically. Apple chose a different path than its competitors precisely when that path was about to become prohibitively expensive. Cloud AI scales with servers you can rent or expand. Local AI scales only if each user has powerful hardware, and that hardware just got wildly expensive. In summary. For the first time in years, Apple does not control the key variables of its strategy. You can pay more than anyone else for memory, but you can’t change the fact that only three companies manufacture it or that those companies prefer to sell to OpenAI and company rather than to mobile and laptop manufacturers for the consumer market. The era of cheap memory is over, and among its many consequences is also the economic viability of Apple’s great differentiating bet. In Xataka | The RAM crisis is so extreme that it has achieved what seemed unthinkable: Apple’s memories are “cheap” Featured image | Georgiy Lyamin

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