points

China’s longest underwater tunnel has 600,000 LED points calculated so you don’t fall asleep at the wheel

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A few months ago we unraveled everything about the Taihu tunnel in China and its LED ceiling that has turned the infrastructure into a tourist attraction. However, in addition to the very curious aesthetics offered by this illuminated ceiling, there is another reason why this infinite screen runs through the tunnel, and that is so you don’t fall asleep at the wheel. It is normal, since we are talking about the longest underwater tunnel in the country. Eyestrain. Traveling the 10.79 kilometers of the Taihu tunnel at the maximum permitted speed takes almost ten minutes under the lake, enclosed between concrete walls, without windows or external references. And it is precisely this scenario that is most conducive to the appearance of visual fatigue, a danger especially if we are behind the wheel. For this reason, when the tunnel was designed, lighting was no longer considered only a matter of visibility and aesthetics and also began to become a safety tool. Tthree “heavens” distributed along the route. The engineers divided the tunnel into three sections and placed, at the junction points between them, what the technical documentation calls a “visual wake-up system against fatigue.” There are three ceilings made up of LED dot screens, very common in tourist locations in China. Each of these roofs is made up of about 200,000 LED light pointsand the system can show different scenes, from a blue sky with clouds, a night sky full of stars or, on specific dates, the five-star flag of China. The control system can automatically switch between these scenes by time slots and sections. According to Baidu Baikethis “visual awakening” system seeks to relieve the tension and feeling of overwhelm caused by driving for a long time in a closed space. Why those colors? Those responsible for the project chose blue, yellow and cyan as the main colors of their activation zones, combined with warm tones to generate dynamic changes. There is scientific support behind this decision, since light with cold tones and short wavelengths, such as blue, has non-visual effects on the brain that go beyond allowing us to see better. Different studies have verified that the color temperature of the light influences the mood, alertness level and reaction time of drivers, something related to how this type of light stimulates the brain mechanisms that regulate wakefulness. Just like share From Motorpasión, simulator tests showed that blue-toned lights were the ones that increased drivers’ attention the most, followed by red-toned ones, precisely the colors that are repeated the most in the images showing the tunnel ceiling. On the other hand, researchers presented their results at an IEEE conference in 2024, having conducted field tests in the Taihu tunnel itself to see how different LED configurations modified the eye movements and physiological responses of drivers in real conditions. lThe walls also “speak”. Throughout the entire route, the side walls of the tunnel are decorated with stripes of blue, yellow and green that intertwine in geometric gradients, as if they were ribbons. According to they count From the local media Sohu, all this display of lights is managed by an intelligent lighting system that not only decides which scene to show and when, but also monitors its own operation. The system incorporates real-time monitoring of breakdowns, with automatic alerts that inform the exact point where a failure occurs, which facilitates the maintenance of an installation that, after all, has to operate uninterruptedly under a lake. Cover image | FeatureChina/AP (cnn) In Xataka | Chile wants a tunnel under the Strait of Magellan to link Tierra del Fuego with the continent. The project exists, the agreement with Argentina does not

Europe believed that the Russian ghost fleet moved oil. Report points to something much worse: drone “aircraft carriers”

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During the First World War, the United Kingdom created the called Q-ships: Seemingly harmless merchant ships that hid cannons under their decks to attract German submarines and surprise them when they approached. The idea of ​​turning a commercial ship into a weapon It wasn’t new.. The striking thing is that, more than a century later, it could have evolved much more than we imagined. It all started with some drones. At the end of 2024 they began to register drone raids on several American military bases in England and, shortly after, on other strategic facilities in Germany. The devices appeared and disappeared without a trace, forcing investigations to be opened that they never identified publicly to those responsible. Those flights seemed like another episode in Europe’s growing hybrid war, although a new report maintains that the true origin could have been much further from the coast. Capture of the IISS report The hypothesis. a study from the International Institute for Strategic Studies maintains that it is “highly probable” that Russia used ships linked to its well-known ghost fleet as platforms to launch and recover drones. This network of oil tankers and merchants had been associated until now with crude oil transportation to avoid Western sanctions. If the hypothesis ends up being confirmed, those ships would have also played a military function much more sophisticated covert. A tanker can become an aircraft carrier. They counted TWZ analysts that the great advantage of a merchant ship is precisely that no one expects it to act as a military platform. A ship can remain for days in international waters, discreetly approach the coast, launch a reconnaissance drone and continue its trade route without raising suspicion. Compared to an aircraft carrier, whose presence is impossible to hide, a cargo ship offers perfect cover for operations that are difficult to attribute. The chosen bases. The targets included facilities such as RAF Lakenheathwhich is being prepared for host nuclear weapons American, as well as RAF Mildenhall, RAF Fairford, RAF Feltwell and Ramstein air base in Germany. The researchers collected around of 170 citizen noticesof which approximately half were considered credible after being corroborated by several witnesses or images. They also detected coordinated flight patternsdifferent types of aircraft and trajectories incompatible with recreational use. The sea offers an explanation. The report poses that some drones were able to take off from Russian-related ships located out of visual range of the coast. Among the possibilities is the Orlan-10a military drone with sufficient autonomy to cover these distances and equipped with intelligence sensors, surveillance, reconnaissance and even electronic warfare capabilities. The authors themselves recognize that using an identifiable military model would increase the risk of attribution, so they do not rule out the use of modified commercial drones to make it even more difficult to trace their origin. The boss worries. Plus: the study’s authors admit that their conclusions rest on a combination of cluesknown capabilities and geographical coincidences, not on definitive public evidence. No European government has officially linked a specific ship to a specific incursion, although various policymakers have called for new investigations. For their part, both the British Ministry of Defense and the US Air Force in Europe have confirmed drone flights, but remain silent on any intelligence information related to their possible authorship. The hybrid war. If the hypothesis is correct, the problem would no longer be solely the existence of a ghost fleet dedicated to transporting Russian oil. Europe would also have to assume that some of those same ships can serve as discrete platforms for espionage operationsreconnaissance or electronic warfare hundreds of kilometers from the front. In other words, the biggest threat of the report is not to identify who launched those drones, but to propose that a simple merchant ship could play part of the role that until now was only attributed to an aircraft carrier. Image | Google In Xataka | Europe has encountered a problem bigger than Russia: drones cannot be stored for more than eight weeks In Xataka | Cities such as London or Madrid appear on Russia’s new objective map. The reason: drone production

Cancer in people under 50 years of age has been growing for decades. A macro study finally points to the big culprit: biological aging

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The increasing incidence of cancer in young adults is one of the most debated topics in recent oncology. In recent years, exhaustive reviews have warned of an increase in diagnoses in those under 50 years of agealthough medical science had long been searching for the underlying mechanism that connects the dots between modern lifestyle and the early onset of this hated disease. The answer. A new study recently published seems to have found a key piece of the puzzle, which is nothing more than that our cells are aging faster than our ID card. This is the conclusion of research published in the journal Nature that indicates that accelerated biological aging is associated with a greater risk of developing early-onset cancers, especially solid cancers such as lung, stomach and also uterine cancer. Two concepts. To understand the finding, we must first differentiate between chronological age and biological age. The first of these is immovable, since it is nothing more than the years that have passed since our birth. But biological age is flexible, since it is calculated by evaluating the physiological state of a person through blood biomarkers and metabolic profiles. It reflects how “old” our tissues and organs really are. How to measure them. To measure this, Tian’s team used models already consolidated in scientific literaturesuch as PhenoAge and the Klemera-Doubal method. With these tools, they crossed the data of more than 150,000 adults from the UK Biobank and approximately 10,000 program participants. All of Us of the United States. The result shows a dangerous imbalance. This means that those people born in more recent decades had a greater tendency to have a biological age higher than that corresponding to their date of birth. And this time “jump” has direct clinical consequences such as the appearance of cancer. To be more specific, it has been seen that every time we have a person with a biological age higher than their corresponding age, they have an 8% higher risk of having early-onset solid cancer before the age of 50. If we compare the extremes, individuals located in the tertile with the greatest biological aging have a 15% greater risk of developing the disease compared to those in the tertile with the least biological wear and tear. The context. The main thing is not to fall into alarmism, since, although it is true that cancer is increasing in the youngest people in society, it is also increasing in all remaining bands due to multiple factors such as general population aging and better screening methods that allow us to detect cancer earlier. However, the specific data on early onset are undeniable, since large studies point to significant increases in thyroid, breast, colon, kidney and endometrial tumors in the 20 to 49 age group. Colorectal cancer, specifically, is the one that worries the most due to its escalation in young adults. The lifestyle. That we are biologically aging much faster than we should is not magic, but rather it seems to be influenced by different factors related to lifestyle. These include rates of youth obesity, prolonged consumption of diets rich in ultra-processed foods, a sedentary lifestyle, and exposure to environmental toxins. What this new work provides is the quantification of the damage, since these risk factors accelerate the biological clock. We must keep in mind that the human body is exposed to pro-inflammatory factors for more years from early stages of life, which makes it easier for DNA damage to accumulate faster than cellular mechanisms can repair it. In Xataka | Experts agree about the sun and hair: “It is one of the most exposed areas and one of the most forgotten”

We believed that loneliness was just an emotional problem. Science points out that it is a risk factor for dozens of diseases.

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Loneliness is undoubtedly a scourge that is integrated into our society and that on many occasions goes unnoticed, especially affecting older people who are practically confined to being at home and with little social contact. And although this is something that a priori can remain in the psychological fieldthe reality is that loneliness emerges as a major public health threat as it is related to very serious diseases. A big risk. When we talk about risk factors in the field of medicine, we immediately think about nutrition or lack of exercise that are related to very serious diseases. But loneliness must also be added to this entire list, since numerous studies have found a direct association with cardiovascular, neurological and metabolic pathologies, although unraveling the exact cause continues to be one of the great challenges of current medical literature. The problem. In 2023, the United States Surgeon General public a devastating report pointing out that we were facing an “epidemic of loneliness and isolation.” And it was not a mere poetic metaphor, since the WHO has been warning that social disconnection not only affects us emotionally, but also alters our body to the point of increasing the risk of heart disease, stroke, depression, dementia and premature death. A measurable impact. When we talk about disease risk, cardiovascular health is the first to suffer. Here, a scientific statement from the American Heart Association, published in it Journal of the American Heart Associationconcluded bluntly that loneliness and social isolation are independent risk factors for poorer heart and brain health. And the percentages are not anecdotal, since a meta-analysis pointed out that loneliness or social isolation is associated with a 29% increase in the risk of suffering from coronary heart disease and a 32% increase in the risk of stroke. It goes further. A massive analysis led by the Autonomous University of Madrid in 2026, after following more than 400,000 peopleconfirmed a strong association between isolation and multimorbidity, highlighting that physical social isolation is a relevant risk factor even if the person does not subjectively perceive that loneliness. The case of dementia. Among dementias, the most important disease is undoubtedly Alzheimer’s and the data are clear in pointing out that unwanted loneliness is an important risk factor for all dementias. Among the reasons that exist, the Alzheimer Center of Barcelona points out in a recent note as follows: “The relationship between isolation and cognitive decline is supported by research showing how a lack of social interaction impoverishes vocabulary, reduces cognitive flexibility, and accelerates brain decline.” Here the advice given to be less likely to suffer from this disease when you reach a risk age is to participate in group activities, take advantage of technology to maintain contact or create a social routine. In mental health. In addition to the organic section, if we move on to mental illnesses, the fact that there is no adequate social support network also leads to an increase in the probability of illnesses as important as depression or even the schizophrenia. Many causes can influence here, such as genetic factors, but in the end a cluster of situations can generate the final trigger for the disease. The great nuance. The question we must ask ourselves here is the following: do we get sick because of the biological impact of disconnection, or because loneliness is accompanied by other conditions? And here the science suggests that isolated people tend to do less physical activity, have poorer diets and have a greater propensity for smoking or alcoholism. Factors that can trigger a whole battery of serious diseases. Even with these factors in the equation, loneliness demonstrates surprising predictive strength. For example, recent research in patients with diabetes revealed that loneliness was associated with a greater probability of suffering from coronary heart disease, even outweighing several classic risk factors. Images | Anthony Tran In Xataka | Generation Z is both the most connected and the loneliest in history. And there is nothing casual about it

It’s called Starfall and it points to the future of space mining

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At 6:53 AM EDT (12:53 in Madrid) today, Tuesday, took off a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral in Florida (USA). He did so with a very special mission: a technical demonstration of his new and mysterious re-entry capsule, called Starfall. This is not about missions to the Moon or Mars. What’s up? It goes from manufacturing products in space to then taking them to Earth. Musk Space Transport, SA. As they point out at Ars Technica, published documents by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) give more information. This document indicates that the purpose of Starfall is the “transport and delivery of goods through space.” We are therefore faced with a new and interesting business avenue for SpaceX, which once again – as is the case with Starlink – moves away from pure space exploration to propose alternative solutions to “terrestrial” operational problems. SpaceX does not release any pledge. The company has detailed some of the phases of the mission on their official websitebut he has not given much information about the burden of said mission, and his message is confusing. According to those responsible: “today’s mission includes a demo of a new vehicle that will allow affordable and routine access to the microgravity environment for scientific research and for manufacturing in the same space.” The vehicle will make its re-entry to end up in the Pacific Ocean about 1,300 km west of California. Space pharmacies. The FAA report reveals that Starfall will enable “point-to-point delivery of critical payloads through space in rapid times,” in addition to ushering in an era in which make products in space thanks to the absence of gravity or in microgravity environments. There are companies already involved in this objective, and the purpose at the moment seems to be to manufacture pharmaceutical products. Once manufactured, vehicles like Starfall could be used to deliver these products to Earth. One ton of cargo. Existing documentation shows how Starfall is shaped like a cylindrical disk. Its diameter is 3.1 m, its height is 0.75 m and its weight is 2.1 tons. The current design contemplates that the load capacity of this capsule is about one metric ton. SpaceX wants to eat the competition. Companies such as Varda Space Industries or Atmos Space Cargo had already launched reentry vehicles on missions with Falcon 9 rockets. With Starfall, SpaceX precisely enters this market to provide not only the rocket in which the cargo is launched, but also the reentry capsule that will bring the manufactured product to Earth. It will be very difficult to compete with its costs and vertical integration. Space mining in sight. The short-term focus seems to be the production of drugs in microgravity conditions, but SpaceX could have another objective in the medium and long term. Specifically, the asteroid miningwhich could end up being commercially viable and will require a cheap and massive way to bring metals and rare earths mined in space to Earth. Destination Mars. Starfall can also be part of the Elon Musk’s ambitious plan to colonize Mars. While the Starship will be tasked with moving massive 100-ton loads, Starfall can be very useful for precise delivery of smaller supplies and delicate equipment. A Starlink-like pattern. SpaceX’s plan seems to propose a strategy similar to that followed with Starlink. The satellite constellation It has become an increasingly important alternative to traditional communications systems, and with Starfall the idea is not to explore space, but to control the supply routes to exploit it. In Xataka | SpaceX wants to reach a capitalization of 1.75 trillion dollars. Analysts are clear that it is worth less than half

Richard Liu, CEO of “Chinese Amazon”, points out the fate of 700,000 employees

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One of the internal debates that some of the largest technology and logistics companies are having to take on revolves around the automation of your templates: replace human workers with robots that do not sleep, do not get sick nor do they demand salary increases. At the same time, they are faced with the dilemma of leaving a good part of their staff unemployed. Richard Liu, founder and CEO of e-commerce giant JD.com, considered the Amazon of China, believes that replace your employees It is inevitable, but consider that technology will “complement” humans, but human labor will find a new space. The key, according to Liu, is for companies to prepare their staff to fill it. The diagnosis, without euphemisms. Liu assured in the framework of the summit of APEC Economic Leaders (Asia-Pacific Economic Corporation) held in Shenzhen that “In the future, when robots deliver packages, the day will come when delivery people will no longer be needed.” But Liu added that he is not going to leave his employees stranded. “Without a doubt, robots will be the ones who deliver the packages. But I really don’t want our 700,000 colleagues to go hungry or lose their jobs,” the manager insisted. The CEO of JD.com no longer proposes a hypothetical replacement of employees with robots, but rather takes it for granted. That is, the question is no longer whether it will happen. What large companies have on the table is when this change will occur, and what is done in the meantime. Amazon was already raising a similar issue with the replacement of 600,000 warehouse employees with robots. JD.com bill more than 150,000 million dollars a year and has more than 900,000 employees. That its CEO speaks in these terms about replacing more than two-thirds of its staff is a very serious matter. The Nirvana plan: 120 schools for 700,000 people. However, JD.com’s approach does not stop at drawing a future of labor collapse, but rather assumes that the new situation will require human labor in other tasks. As I collected Financial Timesthe company has signed contracts with 120 centers education throughout China. Its objective is to train current delivery drivers in robot repair and maintenance tasks in a training program called Plan Nirvana. The idea is that those who today deliver packages on the street end up working in offices programming and maintaining the robots that have replaced them. Liu spoke of “white collar employees” as a destiny for those who are today workers. That means training them as robot technicians, AI trainers and maintenance personnel. The great challenge for JD.com is the scale of converting 700,000 delivery workers into specialized technicians. China: the ground that can sink. Liu’s announcement comes just as a report estimated that China will reach 320 million workers of the “gig economy”. Five years ago there were 200 million. That figure represents about 40% of all urban employment. They are delivery drivers, app drivers or factory workers. People with little economic margin to face a long or uncertain transition that replaces them with robots. However, China seems willing to lead this industrial transformation at all costs and has put robotics at the center of his five year plan approved in March. Xi Jinping’s goal is to make robots the engine of Chinese growth. The government steps on the accelerator of automation and at the same time tries do not overwhelm the most vulnerable with its progress. JD.com, like Amazon, is already doing it. The Chinese trading giant, like its western counterpartalready operates warehouses without staffdelivery drones and autonomous vans in China. At Shenzhen airport, delivery robots They already bring meals at boarding gates, and others they travel by subway to resupply stores. The technology that Liu claims will replace his delivery drivers is already in the testing phase within his operations. Amazon now exceeds one million of robots in its logistics centers and could stop hiring more than 600,000 people until 2033. However, what sets Liu apart is the directness of his speech, which removes some of the uncertainty (and rejection) that are causing this entire process of automation of the labor market among employees. In Xataka | We believed that AI was going to retire an entire generation of workers early. The opposite is happening Image | World Economic Forum, VX Logistics

the explanation points to a cheap Iranian drone

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If we stage a AH-64 Apache of about 25 million dollars and, on the other side, an Iranian drone Shahid of about $35,000, the answer seems written before starting. One is an attack helicopter designed to operate in hostile scenarios; the other, a low-cost ammunition associated with long-range attacks. But the current war is leaving less and less room for these inherited intuitions. What we have seen near Oman points just in that direction. The incident. According to the United States Central Commandthe AH-64 Apache went down on June 8 near the coast of Oman while patrolling regional waters. Its two crew members were rescued by US forces in about two hours and are stable, although the cause was still under investigation in the official communication. The trickiest part comes next: The New York Timesciting US officials, attribute the crash to the impact of an Iranian Shahed one-way attack drone. The great unknown. This distinction is important because not even the version that points to the Shahed completely closes the sequence. Military investigators were trying to determine whether the Iranian drone hit the Apache deliberately or if it all happened as a reckless accident in congested airspace off the Omani coast. In other words: the result is already extraordinary, but the intention remains under examination. Why is it surprising?. Shahed’s basic models are not typically intended to pursue moving targets such as a helicopter. Mark Canciansenior advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies cited by the aforementioned newspaper, explained that these versions depend on GPS guidance and pre-programmed coordinates to attack stationary targets at long distances. If the impact is confirmed in these terms, we would not be facing a routine case, but rather an episode that forces us to look closely at the trajectory of the drone, the environment and the possible existence of modified variants. A more present threat. Loitering munitions and drones are changing the way we operate in the air, also for platforms that were born in another technological era. The US Army reflects this in its own exercises: last year it presented the AH-64E Apachev as an adaptable solution to the UAS threat after a live fire demonstration. That context helps to understand why the incident near Oman is not just a striking anecdote, but part of a much broader concern. In detail. In exercises carried out by the US Armythe AH-64E appears using electro-optical, infrared and radar sensors, in addition to missiles, guided rockets and the 30 mm cannon to confront drones. The other plane is the survival of the aircraft itself: BAE describes the AN/AAR-57 as a warning system for US and allied fixed and rotary wing aircraft against infrared missiles and hostile fire, compatible with chaff, flares, radio frequency decoys and DIRCM/ATIRCM systems. But there is no invulnerability. This list of capabilities should not be confused with an absolute guarantee against any scenario. It is one thing to detect, track and destroy drones in controlled exercises, and another to operate in a real environment where there may be unexpected trajectories or just seconds to react. The US Army itself left a relevant nuance in March 2026: Many pilots had not conducted air-to-air combat with the Apache, so they were still developing tactics, techniques and procedures for that mission profile. The equation has changed. The episode does not demonstrate that a cheap drone can always prevail over a much more sophisticated platform, nor that the Apache is vulnerable by definition. What it does leave behind is an idea that is difficult for any modern military to ignore: a low-cost threat can disrupt an operation, elevate risk, and expose even highly advanced systems if conditions align. That is one of the lessons that is pushing armies to adapt: ​​the price of a weapon is no longer enough to anticipate its impact. Images | Richard Kim/2nd Combat Aviation Brigade In Xataka | Silently, Russia has deployed a sophisticated network of satellites with one mission: to leave all of Europe without GPS

We thought that the problem of insomnia was on the mobile screen. Science points to the harmless five o’clock coffee

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There is a ritual that many of us follow without questioning it. We arrived at five in the afternoon with our brains fried, we ordered a coffee—or a tea, or a Coca-Cola—and we continued. It’s the push we need to get through the rest of the day. What almost no one knows is that that five o’clock coffee may be sabotaging your eleven o’clock sleep. What we usually do when we don’t sleep well is point to our cell phone, stress, late dinner, or looping thoughts. We rarely point to the cup. And yet, for doctor Pablo Ferrero, a specialist in sleep medicine, the answer is there: “Caffeine is the number one enemy of good rest.” The chemistry behind the problem. To understand why caffeine is so disruptive, you have to know adenosine. It is a substance that the brain accumulates during waking hours and that, when it reaches a certain level, gives us that feeling of tiredness, that it is time to stop. It is, in a certain sense, the biological alarm of sleep. What caffeine does is to block adenosine receptors: Silences the alarm without disabling actual fatigue. The body continues to accumulate fatigue, but the brain stops perceiving it. The problem is not just that it is difficult to fall asleep. It’s what happens inside while we sleep. A study published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine found that a dose of 400 milligrams of caffeine consumed six hours before bedtime significantly reduced sleep efficiency. Other job in Neuropsychopharmacology was more specific: Consuming caffeine before bed reduces the amount of REM sleep, the phase in which the brain consolidates memories and regulates mood. More in depth. The numbers They are concrete and not very reassuring.: That dose can delay sleep onset by up to 45 minutes and reduce deep sleep—NREM phases 3 and 4—by up to 20%. Taken to everyday practice: if you have a coffee at 5:00 p.m. and go to bed at 11:00 p.m., your deep sleep can go from the usual 120 minutes to just 96. That’s 24 minutes less brain and physical repair. Nightly. But there is something even more disturbing: a scientific review published in the magazine Nutrients concluded that caffeine can reduce deep sleep even when the person sleeps eight hours continuously. That is, it is not enough to add hours. Quality does not always coincide with the perception of having a good rest. You can wake up thinking you’ve had a great night’s sleep while your brain hasn’t gone through the cycles it needed. Time matters. One of the most common mistakes is to think that afternoon coffee “no longer works” because you are used to it. Tolerance reduces the perception of the stimulus, but The half-life of caffeine in the body is between 4 and 9 hours: That means that half of what you drank at three in the afternoon is still active at eleven at night. And the problem is not limited to coffee. Caffeine is also present in some soft drinks, energy drinks, teas and chocolates, something that Ferrero expressly points out as a factor that goes unnoticed. It’s not just the breakfast cup: it’s the entire consumption circuit of the day. The broken clock. Caffeine, however, does not act alone. Ferrero points to another factor that can be even more decisive: schedule disorder. The body works through the circadian rhythman internal biological clock that regulates when we feel sleepy and when we are alert. When schedules constantly change—we go to bed at eleven Monday through Thursday and one o’clock on Fridays and Saturdays, and we get up three hours later on Sunday—that system loses synchronization. science back this up with data: Sleeping at irregular hours can cause insomnia, daytime sleepiness and alter hormone production, metabolism and eating habits, increasing the risk of diseases such as diabetes, obesity and depression. The impact don’t stop feeling tired Since while we sleep, the brain eliminates the beta-amyloid protein, accumulated during wakefulness and directly related to Alzheimer’s and other neurological disorders. Poor sleep is not just a tomorrow’s problem: it is a long-term investment—or debt. The motive is not innocent either. But the mechanism is more precise than is usually explained. The blue light emitted by screens suppresses the production of melatonin, the hormone that signals the brain it’s time to sleep. A study by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health warned that this overexposure directly alters the sleep-wake cycle. Just two hours of exposure to bright screens before bed can reduce melatonin levels by 20% or moreand the time to fall asleep can go from 15 minutes to more than an hour. Using a tablet before going to sleep can delay nighttime sleep by up to 96 minutes; that of a smartphone, up to 67. Harvard Medical School noted that “just a few minutes of screen stimulation can delay the release of melatonin by several hours and desynchronize the biological clock.” The problem is that we live in a society with increasingly irregular patterns: high light exposure at night, changing work schedules, screens until the last minute. We are sending our brain signals that it is still daytime when it is no longer daytime. So what works? Ferrero’s answer is not particularly glamorous, but it is supported by evidence. Going to bed and getting up at similar times every day—even on weekends—is the most basic and most ignored advice. Added to this is a dark, quiet and cool bedroom: artificial light and high temperatures send alert signals to the brain that make it difficult to rest. Avoid screens before going to bed—at least 30 minutes—and have a light dinner, without excess fats or spicy food, close to bedtime. For those who do not have insomnia, a short nap may be beneficial; The key is that it does not exceed 25 minutes so as not to disturb your night’s sleep. And in the face of anxiety or thoughts in a loop, Ferrero points out tools with scientific evidence: … Read more

A mysterious Chinese structure has remained for five days in one of the most tense points in Asia

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In September 2023, a Philippine patrol cut and removed a floating barrier of about 300 meters that China had installed at the entrance to the Scarborough Shoal lagoon. The scene was so symbolic that it gave around the world: a simple cable supported by buoys had become one of the most delicate geopolitical hotspots in Asia. Five days in suspense. It all started with a series of images by satellite that showed something unexpected at the entrance to the lagoon Scarborough Shoalone of the most sensitive and disputed enclaves in Asia. For several consecutive days, different satellite captures recorded the presence of a reflective object accompanied in some cases by a type of linear barrier that seemed to partially cross the access to the atoll. No one could determine with certainty whether it was a buoy, a floating platform or a more permanent installation, but its mere appearance was enough to trigger investigations in the Philippines and attract the attention of specialized analysts. When new images taken days later showed that the object had disappearedthe questions remained the same: what the hell exactly was it, who placed it, and what was it trying to achieve. Why Scarborough Shoal is much more than a reef. The reaction is explained by the strategic importance of the place. Scarborough Shoal is situated within the exclusive economic zone claimed by the Philippines, but remains under effective Chinese control since the crisis of 2012. Since then it has become one of the main points of friction between both countries. Its waters are valuable for fishing, its lagoon serves as a natural refuge for boats and its position offers an important advantage to control sea routes and airspace in a region through which billions of dollars in commerce circulate each year. In such a sensitive environment, even a structure less than ten meters tall can acquire disproportionate geopolitical relevance. Scarborough Shoal The suspicions behind the mysterious structure. The images showed a visible object for at least five days and a possible barrier similar to those that China has previously used to restrict Filipino fishermen’s access to the lagoon. That sparked speculation about whether Beijing was taking a new step to tighten its control over the atoll. The experts they warned that, if it was a fixed installation, it could be interpreted as a disruption of the status quo in an area whose sovereignty remains disputed. Although no authority has been able to confirm the exact nature of the object, the episode reflects the extent to which satellite surveillance has become in a key tool to detect movements that just a few years ago would have gone completely unnoticed. A dispute that has never stopped escalating. The appearance of the structure also coincided with a particularly tense moment. China maintains an almost permanent presence of coast guard and vessels around scarboroughwhile the Philippines increases its patrols and strengthens military cooperation with the United States. Shortly before the object was detected, US and Philippine forces had carried out new joint maneuvers in the area. Manila also denounced the presence of dozens of Chinese vessels operating within its claimed waters. The result is something like a constant cycle of shows of force where every patrol, every maneuver and every potential construction is watched with enormous attention by all parties involved. The great transformation. What happened in Scarborough also fits into a much broader trend. As we have been countingOver the last decade, China has turned practically submerged reefs into authentic artificial islands equipped with ports, radars, military installations and even landing strips. The transformation of places like Mischief Reef, Fiery Cross Reef or Subi Reef changed completely regional balance and demonstrated that physical construction can become a tool of territorial control as effective as military presence. Each new structure detected satellite arouses concern precisely because there is a clear precedent of how small initial changes can end up becoming permanent bases. A race to consolidate positions. The response of the other claimants has been to assume that the scenario has changed. Vietnam has been expanding reefs under its control for years, building ports and new infrastructure. The Philippines reinforces its existing positions, expands landing strips and strengthens isolated detachments. The feeling that dominates the region is that the multilateral negotiations have failed and that each country is trying consolidate what you already control before circumstances worsen. In this context, the mysterious structure of Scarborough It is especially symbolic. Regardless of what it really was, it reminded all the actors involved that in the South China Sea a simple spot detected from space can become for a few days the center of a geopolitical dispute that affects a good part of Asia and in which China continues to be, by far, the most powerful player. Image | Vantor In Xataka | China has a problem: behind thousands of food delivery restaurants there is no establishment, no kitchen, no restaurant In Xataka | The US had a ship with 2,000 marines ready to invade Iran. Now he has sent it right to the place where China worries the most

That Iran shot down a US F-15 was something unusual. The problem is that they have opened the missile… and everything points to China

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In 1960, when an American U-2 spy plane was shot down over the Soviet UnionWashington initially believed it was facing a military problem. He ended up discovering that the incident had diplomatic consequences much larger and blew up a summit between the two superpowers. Because sometimes a single downed plane reveals a story much bigger than the battle in which it fell. The takedown that changed the conversation. He downing of an F-15E on Iran last month was, in itself, an extraordinary event. It had been decades since a United States fighter had been shot down by enemy fire, and the rescue movie operation later, with one of the crew hiding for two days in the Zagros Mountains, underlined the seriousness of the episode. However, as investigations continue, the incident is shifting from being a story about Iranian military capabilities to something else: a story about China. According to cited sources by NBC News the suspicion that the plane was hit by a portable anti-aircraft missile (MANPADS) of Chinese manufacture has shifted the focus from the battlefield to a much more uncomfortable question for Washington: to what extent Beijing is helping to sustain Tehran’s military capacity. More important than the missile. From a military point of view, a portable anti-aircraft missile is not a revolutionary weapon. Its appeal lies precisely on the contrary: It is relatively cheap, easy to deploy, and capable of threatening even extremely sophisticated platforms if circumstances are favorable. Hence, what has aroused American interest is not so much the type of weapon used as its possible origin. If suspicions are correct, the shootdown would demonstrate that Chinese technology has ended up participatingdirectly or indirectly, in one of the more symbolic hits suffered by American aviation in years. From that perspective, the discussion then stops revolving around how Iran managed to shoot down an F-15 and begins to focus on what role played China to make it possible. The shadow of broader support. Because suspicions are not limited to the missile. US sources also suggest that China may have provided Iran with radar systems capable of detecting stealth aircraft and access to space capabilities that would facilitate the location of targets. So far none of these accusations have been conclusively proven publicly and Beijing categorically rejects them, but together they paint an image that is worrying in Washington: that of a technological support network which, without involving direct military involvement, could significantly increase Iran’s ability to challenge the United States and its allies. In this context, the downed F-15 becomes tangible proof of a broader phenomenon that US officials have been denouncing for some time. The contradiction of American diplomacy. The situation is especially delicate because the United States simultaneously needs to contain Iran and keep channels open with China. Beijing is the main buyer of the iranian oil and one of the few actors with enough influence to put economic pressure on Tehran. During negotiations to reach a ceasefire, the Trump administration sought precisely that collaboration. But every new accusation on Chinese missiles, radars or satellites used by Iran complicates that balance. Washington thus finds itself in an uncomfortable position: it needs China to contribute to stabilizing the region while accusing it of providing tools that strengthen one of its main adversaries in the Middle East. The real message. That’s why the downing of the F-15 It has a relevance that goes far beyond the loss of a plane. What is at stake is not only the effectiveness of Iranian defenses, but the American perception that more and more regional conflicts are connected to global strategic competition. against China. The investigation on the missile seeks to determine how the fighter fell, but also who was behind the technology that made it possible. In a sense, Washington has opened up the missile to examine it piece by piece, and in doing so has discovered that the biggest questions no longer point solely to Tehran. They aim more and more towards Beijingwhere the United States believes is a growing part of the economic, technological and military infrastructure that allows its rivals to challenge its power in different corners of the world. Image | U.S. Force In Xataka | The US has copied its very cheap drone swarms from Iran and Russia. The problem is what Starlink asks for connecting them In Xataka | The war in the East has reached an unexpected agreement: one where the US does not discuss Iran’s missiles, bombs or uranium

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