problems

Brussels says that two thirds of what is sold in Europe has problems

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In 2022, the European Commission did a study about the most popular spices on the market. The x-ray was devastating: fraud was the order of the day. Furthermore, it was extremely common. We are talking about pepper, cumin, turmeric, saffron or paprika. That was a huge scandal and the Commission itself asked the Member States to strengthen controls. What happened next cannot surprise anyone. Let’s talk about cinnamon. In 2023, cinnamon was the fifth most imported spice in the Union. In September 2025, the Commission’s science and knowledge service (the Joint Research Center) analyzed more than a hundred samples of cinnamon marketed in a dozen countries of the European Union. The result? More than 66% of the samples analyzed They have problems. What happens to them? Well, they either violate international quality regulations or the food safety legislation of the European Union. Some show signs of fraud, others a high amount of lead and some more exceed the legal limits of coumarin (a substance that, although natural, is potentially toxic to the liver). That’s without counting fraud, of course. Up to 9% of samples labeled as Ceylon cinnamon were totally or partially replaced for Cassia cinnamon, “a cheaper and lower quality alternative, with a stronger flavor and containing coumarin naturally.” What we can do. That’s the worst. Judging by the results of the JRC, we can do little with the means we have right now. “The type of irregularities detected in cinnamon, including fraudulent practices, is diverse and cannot be addressed with a single analytical technique, which is why standardized methods are needed,” says the Commission. Taking the problem seriously would entail taking action on the matter. Above all, because the high rate of irregular cinnamon samples on the European market indicates that “all actors in the sector, from policy makers to control laboratories and manufacturers, must pay attention.” A version of this article was published in 2025 Image | Michael Collett In Xataka | It looks like honey, it smells like honey, it tastes like honey, it’s not honey: the import fraud that devastates Europe

If the alcohol industry didn’t already have enough problems, it has now encountered one more: Ozempic

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Drugs from the family of GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide 1) hormone agonists such as Ozempic or Zepbound have represented a revolution in the global pharmaceutical market. The success of these medications intended for the treatment of diabetes has to do with their slimming effect, but the ramifications of this phenomenon go even further. There is already evidence. One of these ramifications has to do with alcohol consumption: a study from a few months ago found evidence that semaglutide, the active compound used in drugs such as Ozempic or Wegovy, can also help in the treatment of alcohol addiction. New studies confirm it: In 2026 The Lancet published a larger, longer trial with 108 participants, half on semaglutin and half on placebo for 26 weeks. The result was that people who took semaglutide reduced the days of heavy consumption by 41.1% compared to 26.4% of those who took the placebo. Chronicle of a social phenomenon. Ozempic began to gain popularity about two years ago when it was beginning to be used not to keep glycemic levels under control in people with type II diabetes, but as a weight loss treatment for both people with diabetes and those who just wanted to lose weight. In parallel, several clinical trials supported this effect and regulatory bodies approved the use of the drug for this second use. This success led to the appearance of other side effects associated with this compound, some of them positive. It was then that some laboratories got to work to test these effects. Among them an apparent reduction in alcohol consumption among those who were under this treatment. How does it work? The GLP-1 hormone plays several functions in our body, one of them being to tell us that we have satisfied our appetite. That is why drugs that work like their analogues in our body generate the same feeling of satiety, which in turn implies that we will eat less and therefore lose weight. But soon some users began to realize that this not only affected the food, but also the alcohol they consumed. Although the mechanism is not entirely clear, it can be assumed that the same mechanisms are at work. There is another factor to take into account, and that is that among the side effects Of drugs similar to Ozempic we can find stomach symptoms such as nausea and vomiting. This can also lead to making alcoholic beverages, as well as other foods, less palatable. That’s what studies are like. These studies are carried out through a randomized placebo-controlled trial. That is to say, is distributed randomly participants into two groups: one is treated with semaglutide and the other with a placebo. They thus found that the effects of the treatment were greater than those of a simple placebo, that is, the participants drank less alcohol. Although the number of days on which the participants drank was not reduced, they did so in smaller volumes. “These data suggest the potential for semaglutide and similar drugs to fill an existing need for a treatment for alcohol use disorder,” explained in a press release Klara Klein in the first published study on this, member of the team responsible for the study. “Larger studies (…) are necessary to fully understand safety and efficacy in people with (this) disorder, but these initial results are promising.” The team presented the details of the trial in an article in the magazine JAMA Psychiatry. The analyzes continue. The small sample size in this study suggests that there is still much work to do. If we want to better understand the potential of Ozempic to fight addictions and similar disorders, experiments with larger samples and studies will be needed to better understand the underlying biological mechanisms, as well as the potential risks of this use. All this while other teams investigate other potential risks and benefits of this family of drugs. An example of the potential benefits yet to be explored is in heart healtha context in which we have begun to see some potential benefits but which, as in the case of excessive alcohol consumption, we still need to explore further, but the first studies seem to go in the same direction. In Xataka | On Tinder there is a trend that is gaining weight among Generation Z: dating without a single drop of alcohol Image | Andreas M / Chemist4U

“Solving problems will not be limited by our ability, but by our imagination.”

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Jeff Bezos has set out to be everywhere both physically and metaphorically. Apart from being behind Amazon (leaving it aside to focus on other projects) or Blue Originhas a “new” company called Prometheus. Its goal is to develop AI systems capable of creating artificial engineersand his latest statements They have heated up the conversation about AI and the future of work. The reason? Qwho boos the AI because he thinks it will take away his job is “very far from reality”, but then he claims that AI will lead to job reductions. Regarding physical presence, Bezos is in Europe these days. Specifically, in Paris, where the Vivatech fair is being held, which we were able to attend and where he gave a talk about the obsession of large companies with exploring space, reach the Moon, explore it and create “clouds” of satellites orbiting the Earth. The talk was about that, but we had to ask about the controversy, about Prometheus and about that future of work. And he wondered. And if you thought he was going to cast himself on the argument that AI will create jobs…you thought well and, in fact, he has gone further: he has compared it to the Industrial Revolution. Prometheus and the AI ​​that will be good at doing things, not just knowing things Prometheus is neither a model nor a technology: it is a company. Bezos founded it in 2024 and already has 150 employees spread across three countries. It has a valuation of $41 billion and is currently in deals to raise a $100 billion fund. It seems outrageous because it is, but on repeated occasions, these businessmen have declared that we are in a new golden ageand at Vivatech 2026, Bezos has said precisely that. “We live in the most incredible time in history. There has not been a better time to found a company” and Prometheus is an example. Your product will be an AI that does things, not just knows things. This is where the ‘gravy’ is, since what they are doing is developing AI systems capable of assisting in the entire engineering process, from start to finish. It will cover everything from the initial design, simulation, prototypes, manufacturing and launch, and an example that Bezos has put on the table on several occasions, and that he has repeated, is that of the engine for a new generation airplane. Because the idea of ​​this new AI is that it is capable of assisting an engineer, “empowering” him, according to Bezosso that they can make tools much easier and much faster. If developing a jet engine takes a decade of work, the idea is that these artificial engineers will be able to create it in five years first, then in three, then in two… “If we can accelerate that process, everything will change,” comments Bezos in his talk. For him, the key is how Prometheus is focusing on developing this AI. “We have great language models, but not one focused on building things. If I read 100 books on how to be a great athlete, I will know a lot, but I will still be a bad athlete. That’s why we have to change the way we train these models,” he says. “You can’t have a model that only reads. You have to have a model that is good at doing things” One of the legs that Bezos focuses on is that speed when developing something. He comments that industries embark on very long development cycles, of five or ten years, before having products, and something is necessary to change that dynamic. Something similar happens with semiconductors and chips. In fact, in the United States there are a center called Epic which has Applied Materials, Samsung or SK Hynix behind it and is focusing not only on developing machines to create chips, but also on tools for reduce development cycles for these cutting-edge chips. That is, it is not an approach that only Bezos is working on. The problem is another: how he is defending it. AI, the future of work and the new Industrial Revolution “If you take a step back, 6,000 years ago someone invented the plow and everything changed. Then someone invented the steam engine and everything changed again. We want to be in that cycle to make a leap in productivity and prosperity,” Bezos declared at the Paris fair. This argument of comparing artificial intelligence with the Industrial Revolution is not new. In recent months, the tone of university graduations in the US has been the presence of AI gurus telling how this technology is the future. The response has been young people worried about their current job booing the statements. “Solving problems will not be limited by our ability to execute something, but by our imagination” Because there is a fear that AI will end up replacing them and Bezos is not hiding too much. Returning to the engine example, a few days ago he commented that now it takes 100 people to make a next-generation jet engine, but with Prometheus AI it will take 10. He also stated that “despite the fact that the number of people who will be needed is being reduced by 10technology will create opportunities to multiply those jobs by 10.” The problem is what kind of job it will be, since software engineers will be needed (for the moment, at least), but Other jobs can be completely replaced. “I understand that there is a lot of concern about how AI will make humans redundant, but, AI will actually create jobs because people will focus on creating and finding other problems to solve,” he points out. “Solving problems will not be limited by our ability to execute something, but by our imagination,” he points out. And, I guess, the imagination is infinite… In Xataka | Laying off employees and saving for AI seemed like a seamless plan to make more profits. The data show that not

Boeing needs the 787 Dreamliner to run like clockwork. Two problems threaten his plans

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There are times when an industrial program is no longer measured only by the number of units it can manufacture. At Boeing, that role is now occupied by 787 Dreamlinera family of wide-body aircraft characterized by its efficiency and long-haul versatility. We are not talking about a plane pending release: Boeing completed the first delivery of the 787 to All Nippon Airways in September 2011and the Japanese airline operated the model’s first passenger flight a month later, between Tokyo Narita and Hong Kong. What is at stake now is not to prove that the Dreamliner can fly, because we already know that, but that Boeing can manufacture it and deliver it regularly. The objective that Boeing has set for this year is clear: to increase production of the 787 from eight to ten aircraft per month at its North Charleston plant, as explained by its CEO, Kelly Ortberg, on May 27. at an investor conference. The problem is that this leap depends on two fronts that still do not advance at the pace the company needs. FlightGlobal points outOn the one hand, delays in engine deliveries GEnx from GE Aerospaceone of two engine families available for the 787 along with the Rolls-Royce Trent 1000and, on the other, delays in the certification of business class seats with doors, which are blocking some deliveries. A plane that Boeing needs to deliver, not just manufacture That nuance is important because Boeing does not arrive at this phase in a vacuum. The company continues to drag the shadow of the 737 MAX, a program marked first by a global safety crisis and then by the Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 door plug incidentwhich brought back to the table a very damaging conversation about quality controls, documentation, supervision and industrial culture. The NTSB investigation Regarding this latest episode, he pointed to internal failures at Boeing and pointed out deficiencies in “adequate training, guidance and supervision.” The FAA, for its part, toughened pressure on the manufacturer after detecting systemic safety and quality control problems. That history does not directly affect the Dreamliner, but it does change the reading of any new instability: Boeing needs the 787 to be a test of order. To understand why this increase in pace matters so much, you have to look at the recent history of the Dreamliner itself. The inspector general of the US Department of Transportation remember that Boeing paused deliveries of the 787 in 2020 due to quality problems in manufacturing, with delays that ended up accumulating almost two years. In addition, those problems led to rework valued at more than $5.8 billion for Boeing and its suppliers. Jammed seats are easier to overlook, although they have a very concrete effect. Some business suites with doors require more complex certifications, and Boeing and its suppliers miscalculated approval times. According to FlightGlobal, there are 787 already built and with those seats installed that still cannot be delivered because the documentary authorization is missing. Another element is added to this pressure: 777XBoeing’s next big widebody plane, has yet to enter commercial service. The 777X family is set to occupy the top of the company’s long-haul catalog, but its schedule has been shifting due to certification delays. AP reported in October 2025 that Boeing had delayed the first delivery until 2027 and that this postponement implied a charge of $4.9 billion in the third quarter. And the pressure is not just internal. Boeing has improved its deliveries, to the point of reaching 600 aircraft in 2025, its best record since 2018. But Airbus is still ahead in deliveries: the European manufacturer reported of 793 commercial aircraft that same year and a record total portfolio of 8,754 orders, with a specific maximum in wide-body aircraft. For Boeing, the 787 has to be one of the pieces that helps reduce that competitive pressure. If the Dreamliner has demand and orders, the challenge is no longer in convincing the market, but in transforming that traction into constant deliveries. Images | Tienko Dima In Xataka | Brazil has achieved something more historic than its sixth World Cup: being the first in Latin America to have its own supersonic combat aircraft

The heat is uncovering one of the biggest problems with smart rings

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A quarter of a century ago (seriously), Sonia and Selena sang that “When the heat comes, the boys fall in love.” Today we can add one more phrase to the song: your hands swell and, if you are wearing a ring, forget to take it out. If it is also a smart ring, with its sensors and lithium battery, we have a problem. This is what many users are discovering. This is tight. If it is hot and we also start exercising, it is quite common for a small swelling to occur in the hands. That’s exactly what happened to him to this journalist when he went out for a route through the forest: shortly after starting, he felt how the ring began to tighten more than necessary and he had to take it off. In the case of a watch or bracelet there is no problem because we can loosen it, but the rings are completely rigid devices, often made of metal, and with a thicker design than a conventional ring so they end up being more annoying. The effects of heat. When the temperature begins to rise, blood vessels dilate to release heat, causing more fluid to leak into the tissues. The areas where it usually ends up accumulating are hands and feet due to the effect of gravity. It is what is known as heat edema and it is quite common in the summer months or when we exercise. Not only do the fingers swell. The battery can also expand due to a defect or heat itself, making the ring feel smaller. This Oura Ring user He noticed that as time went by his ring felt tighter and the battery also lasted much less. When he contacted the brand, they confirmed that it was a battery problem and they ended up changing the device. There is more similar cases on Reddit. Miss a plane. The case of youtuber Daniel Rotar It is perhaps the most striking of all. The battery in his Galaxy Ring began to swell causing the ring to get completely stuck on his finger. It hurt and there was no way to get it off, not even with soap and water. As if that were not enough, Daniel was about to take a flight, but was denied boarding because the ring’s battery posed a security risk. He ended up missing his flight and had to go to the emergency room to have the ring removed using ice and lubricant. What companies say. Samsung has a help page with tips on how to remove a Galaxy Ring in case it gets stuck on your finger. They suggest using soap and water, dipping your hand in cold water, or holding your hand up high. If none of this works, they recommend going to the emergency room and having them cut the ring, even indicating the points where to cut so as not to damage the battery and which could end up causing burns. In the case of Oura They also offer the same advice and a guide to know where to cut if necessary. Rethink the design. Smart rings are sold as the solution to monitor our health with an ultra-compact design and more comfortable than a watch, until it gets stuck and you have to cut it off, of course. In this sense, perhaps the future of this product involves sacrificing that rigid and continuous aesthetic, giving way to open designs that can better adapt to these natural changes in the body. It is a path that the company has already started Movano with the Evie ring. Image | Xataka In Xataka | Best smart rings 2026. Which one to buy based on use and six recommended models

The Ferrari Luce is a game of lies. And that says a lot about the problems that all electric supercars have.

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Unless you’ve been lost on a remote island in the middle of the Pacific for the last 36 hours, there’s a good chance you’ve had a little inkling of what’s happened to Ferrari. The brand of Il Cavallino has presented its first electric car, the Ferrari Luce. And no, I didn’t like it. The vehicle designed by Jony Ive and Marc Newson has had an almost unanimous response. Undoubtedly, it has not been saved from criticism on social networks. But he has also received them from figures such as Luca Cordero di Montezemolowho led the company for more than a decade. The former president of the Italians has made statements as harsh as that Ferrari is running the risk of “destroying its myth.” But there are reasons to understand why the new Ferrari Luce is unlike anything we’ve seen from Ferrari before. It is not that we defend its aesthetics, we point out why the company seems to have wanted to completely separate this new electric line from its more sporty image. Everything seems to indicate that They are doing everything possible to find a new audience. Ferrari has preferred to put aside its intention to create a completely electric supercar. At the moment, that market does seem completely deserted in terms of potential clients. The Porsche Taycan is stuck. The Rimac Refrigerator does not sell. Brands like Lamborghini have distanced themselves from the pool when they realized that it most likely lacks water. And the electric supercar is faster than a gasoline one. Its acceleration is unmatched. Well executed, it can have a faster and more spectacular cornering than any thermal rival. But in this life not everything is numbers. And when you sell experiences, that’s a problem. It’s not perfect, it’s better than that There is something disturbing about perfection: the absence of soul. Human beings feel pleasure through the senses and enjoy experiences. He likes the tactile, he delights in sound, he tastes and smells with pleasure. And that is difficult to overcome. Even though the substitute product is more efficient and more effective. Cleaner and odorless. A Tesla Model 3 Performance is faster than most sports cars of the moment. Its 3.1 seconds from 0 to 100 km/h was impossible to match for any mass vehicle, a figure within the reach of the best. Cars worth hundreds of thousands of euros. But saying that it is a better sports car than a naturally aspirated V12 is like equating a paella made with care and love over an orange wood fire with a pill manufactured by a pharmaceutical company in seconds at a ridiculous price. Both can provide the same nutrients but I am clear about which one provides more pleasure. The same thing happens with supercars. With any sports car, in fact. And that is a problem for the electric car. Let alone for a brand like Ferrari. When someone buys a Ferrari, buy an experience. Just like when you buy a Lamborghini, a Porsche or, much simpler, a Mazda MX-5. The car is, in most cases, an object of mobility. The electric car is the best and maximum expression of that. Especially in the city. But a sports car is not only about cornering and acceleration that glues you to your seat. Guillermo García Alfonsín explains well why the electric Mini JCW is fun: because it’s not tuned well on purpose. Imperfection attracts us. A Miata isn’t especially fast, but the driving experience is one of the best. The characteristic sound of an engine, whether it is a V6, V12 or an inline five-cylinder. A precise and manual gearbox. Its metallic sound of an H shift in classic supercars. Cabin vibrations. The smell of gasoline while you refuel. All of these are unmatched experiences for an electric car. All things being equal, they are faster and more effective. But the brands are aware that their customers have enormous reluctance to this clean and odorless experience when Mercedes installs an artificial sound in the new Mercedes-AMG GT, the electric that comes to replace the roar of its V8. In their Ferrari Luce, the Italians have chosen a different path. In its press release, the brand refers to the, undoubtedly, very high performance of a car capable of developing more than 1,000 HP of power. To the innovations used to carry out our own development with more than 60 patents. The truth is that, despite everything, a Tesla Model S Plaid that costs cost Five times less is faster. But in its text, Ferrari has tried to value the experiential nature of the proposal. For example, the explanation of how sound works: The Ferrari Luce’s approach to sound is based on the key principle that it must be authentic and functional, generated from the car’s own mechanics and at the service of the driving experience. A precision accelerometer located in the center of the shaft captures the dynamic texture and vibration of rotating components while sound waves are in motion. Developed in-house and patented, this system filters, equalizes and amplifies the signal similar to how an electric guitar does, but only when functional to the driving experience. The sound will depend on the driving mode chosen but also on the use of the paddles, to simulate an experience similar to what would be changing gears with a combustion engine. Cams for a car without gear change. Lie upon lie to build an identity It must be said that Ferrari is by no means the only company that opts for these trompe-l’oeil games. We have mentioned the case of Mercedes but the speakers to filter the sound inside the cabin and comply with the noise limits outside have been on the market for years. Toyota has patents for simulate gear changes in electric cars without gear changes. Honda does exactly the same with its new Prelude. The engineering behind the automobile has been an art since its birth. An art based on engineering and product development that, … Read more

Hormuz blockade is about to cause serious problems for Samsung and TSMC

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The closing of Strait of Hormuz because of the conflict with Iran has turned the entire technology industry upside down and energy, beyond all the geopolitical tension that has been dragging on. It is an earthquake that runs through the entire semiconductor supply chainincluding key components that we do not have in mind a priori, but that are essential for the production of all types of microchips. From the most specialized gases to solvents, minerals and, essentially, all critical raw materials that are now much more complicated and expensive to obtain. Raw material. Apart from silicon, there are other essential raw materials for chip manufacturing that have recently been very difficult to obtain. Just like they count From Bloomberg, the production of these chips requires dozens of materials as specific as ultrapure gases, acids, solvents, resins… Many of which come from a very specific geographic region: the Middle East. The blockade of the Strait of Hormuz has suddenly cut off the supply of a good part of them, and although large manufacturers such as TSMC and Samsung have some accumulated inventory, the margin is narrowing with each passing week. Helium has no substitute. Helium is perhaps the most critical material of everyone. It is used to cool wafers during circuit etching, in EUV lithography processes, and to maintain the thermal stability of silicon. It has no substitute. Qatar produced about a third of the world’s supply, but Iranian attacks on its energy facilities in Ras Laffan and Mesaieed have paralyzed virtually all of its production. According to Bloomberga complete restoration could take up to five years. South Korea imported around 65% of its helium from Qatar, making Samsung and SK Hynix the most vulnerable manufacturers. Memory chips require much more helium than logic chips. bblunt, sulfuric acid and solvents. Beyond helium, the blockade is also affecting other equally critical materials. High-purity hydrogen bromide gas, essential for etching processes, is in short supply. High-purity sulfuric acid, used to clean wafers and remove photoresists once the circuits are printed, also is facing restrictions. Just like they explain In The Guardian, the Gulf exports about 45% of the world’s sulfur, the raw material from which it is obtained. And then there are solvents for photoresists, such as PGMEA, which is obtained from naphtha, a crude oil derivative that previously came largely from Iran. Inventories. The large manufacturers have come out to say that, for the moment, they have enough reserves to last several months. The South Korean government confirmed in April that bromine and helium inventories covered several months of production. TSMC, for its part, said it does not expect an immediate impact, although it warned that the prices of certain gases and chemicals will likely rise. The problem is that many of these materials have a limited useful life, since they cannot be stored indefinitely. Liquid helium evaporates during transport (especially now that ships must go around Africa), and photoresist solvents expire once opened. Jonathan Colehower, general manager of UST’s Global Operations and Supply Chain department, counted to PC Gamer that companies like Samsung “were operating with very tight inventories” following the just-in-time model, and that “this was not on their radar.” cgeographical concentration. One of the hardest lessons of this crisis is that the technology supply chain has very specific choke points. And it is not just about the Gulf producing oil; the thing is produces very specific materials in very specific installations that have no easy equivalent elsewhere. Jenna Ingram, Director of Proactive Intelligence at Exiger, counted told PC Gamer that manufacturers that previously bought helium from the Gulf are now competing for the same limited volume produced by Canada and the United States, which already had their own customers. It should be added that China has just restricted its exports of sulfuric acid and that Russia has imposed temporary controls on helium exports, making the picture even more complicated. Who will endure and who will not. In this scenario, size matters a lot. The big ones (TSMC, Samsung, SK Hynix) have enough purchasing power to sneak to the front of the queue when there is a shortage, pay premiums for high purity materials and draw on strategic relationships if necessary. The smallest ones, no. According to GartnerIf the situation continues, it could also affect the AI ​​industry. For consumers, the forecast is not at all hopeful. Supply priorities will most likely favor AI infrastructure over consumer electronics. How long will this last? “I think at best we are looking at another 12 or 18 months of difficulties. I don’t think this will reset overnight,” explained to the media Derek Lemke, Senior Vice President of Product Intelligence at Exiger. Colehower, for his part, explains that “a good part of the damage is not only an interruption of supply, but damaged infrastructure” that must be rebuilt. And, above all, he emphasizes that “prices are sticky. They go up, but they rarely go down.” Cover image | Harrison Broadbent In Xataka | China takes off in quantum computers: it already has the first dual-core and 200 qubits on the planet ready

China already knows how to keep a fleet of drones in the air indefinitely. The problem is that there are too many problems

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Wireless charging in everyday devices It is a resource that provides comfort. In other areas, wireless and remote charging implies a much more powerful advantage: supremacy over a rival. That is precisely what China is testing, how to maintain a drone fleet flying almost indefinitely thanks to a microwave charge injected from a ground system. And they are not the only ones. In short. A few days ago, Chinese scientists from Xidian University published a peer-reviewed article in the journal Aeronautical Science & Technology in which they presented a system microwave emitter that could send energy to an array of antennas installed on the top of a drone to charge the vehicle’s battery in mid-flight. The most important thing is that it works while the ground vehicle and the drone are moving, which eliminates the need for a stationary charge that would make no sense from a strategic point of view. Image of Xidian University How it works. For the system to work, and as we read in SCMPthe researchers integrated a GPS positioning system that allowed a drone and a ground vehicle to be aligned. On the ground there is the microwave emitter and the drone has a series of antennas at the bottom that collect the energy. In tests, the system kept fixed-wing drones in the air for up to 3.1 hours at an altitude of 15 meters. The great challenge was maintaining the alignment between the drone and the ground vehicle to maximize the load, but once the obstacle with the GPS system was overcome, the drone can stay in the air depending only on the vehicle’s fuel. On the other hand, we are approaching it from the point of view of indefinite autonomy, but such a system would also allow drones to have less battery (which, in the end, adds weight) and have more carrying capacity. The BIG asterisk. Defense analysts liken it to a “land-based aircraft carrier” in which an armored vehicle on the ground is both the command and power node, monitoring, charging and providing logistical support to the drones in a manner similar to that of a aircraft carrier It is the lifeline of manned fighters. However, the system has a huge problem: it is extremely inefficient. The Xidian team estimates that the efficiency of the microwave ‘cannon’ is between 3 and 5%. It’s… ridiculous, which means that the vast majority of the energy emitted is simply wasted. Why not a laser? It’s the big question. A laser system is more precise and has a longer range, which opens the doors to other types of missions. However, being a beam of light and not directly the energy that we launch, the laser is very sensitive to interference such as fog and dust. Also, think of the laser as a precision rifle and the microwave as a shotgun: any turbulence or bump in the road would affect the beam, but microwave energy has a wider range of action. China is not alone. Chinese analysts point out that it is a promising concept, but also something that is very far from being able to be applied to satisfy an immediate operational need. What it is, is one more step to find that way to get those drones that are appearing to be a very valuable element on the battlefield, as the wars in Ukraine and Iran, unfortunately, are demonstrating. The advance is important because Xidian has time working in the theoretical framework of the technology, but it is now that they have carried out a successful field test. Now, they are not alone, since the American agency DARPA is experimenting with radio frequency and laser to charge drones remotely, and in Germany, Rheinmetall is also developing wireless charging platforms for unmanned ground vehicles, although in this case, the drones are perched on a platform. In Xataka | Sending electricity without cables seemed like a thing of the future. DARPA has done it again, and the test has turned out better than expected

Terence Tao is the best mathematician in the world. He has recognized that he is using AI to solve one of the Millennium Problems

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Stating outright which person is the best in the world at something is risky. If we stick to cutting-edge research in the field of mathematics the German Peter Scholze, the British James Maynard or the Chinese-American Yitang Zhang, among other researchers, are usually considered the most capable living mathematicians. However, in the scientific community there is an almost unanimous consensus that Terence Tao, who has dual Australian and American nationality, is the authentic “Mozart of mathematics.” His prestige has been earned hard. He won the Fields Medal, which is often considered the Nobel Prize in mathematicsin 2006, when he was 31 years old. And he was awarded it for his contributions in three fundamental areas: number theory, partial differential equations and harmonic analysis. However, the Fields Medal committee especially highlighted his ability to connect areas that most mathematicians considered isolated. In any case, this is not all. Tao is often admired for his versatility. Many elite mathematicians specialize in a specific field, but this scientist has produced cutting-edge work in combinatorics and compressed detection, in addition to the three areas for which he received the Fields Medal. And, furthermore, he has earned a reputation as a generous researcher who works very well in a team and is always willing to adopt new technologies to address the greatest mathematical challenges. AI is an essential tool in mathematics for Terence Tao Dwarkesh Patel, an Indian-American content creator specializing in technology and artificial intelligence (IA) who has established himself as one of the most influential voices in Silicon Valley thanks to his interviews with Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Satya Nadella, Ilya Sutskever and Demis Hassabis, published just a few days ago a very interesting conversation with Terence Tao. And AI has been the absolute protagonist of a dialogue in which this mathematician has enthusiastically defended the role that this technology already has as a “trusted co-author” in research in the area of ​​mathematics. Terence Tao is currently one of the biggest promoters of Lean within the scientific community In October 2024 Meta AIMeta’s AI, managed to generalize the Lyapunov function. Russian mathematician Aleksander Lyapunov proposed the concept of the function that bears his name in 1892. His work is a very important tool in the study of dynamical systems, but mathematicians have struggled since then to find a general method that would allow them to identify Lyapunov functions. And they were not successful. However, Meta AI has had it. This is just one example that clearly illustrates the capacity that AI already has when it comes to facing some mathematical challenges. Terence Tao does not believe that AI will end up replacing researchers; argues that it is actually a very valuable tool that allows mathematicians to leave behind individual research and collaborate on much larger and more ambitious projects. And he leads by example. In fact, you have introduced Lean into your daily workflow. This tool is a proof assistant and programming language designed to verify mathematical reasoning and verify that it is completely correct. Tao is currently one of the biggest proponents of Lean within the scientific community. “I hope that the AI ​​of 2026, when used correctly, will be a trusted co-author in research in mathematics. And in many other fields as well,” defends Terence Tao. He is currently using this technology to confront some of the biggest math challenges there aresuch as the Collatz conjecture or the Navier-Stokes equations. The latter give shape to one of the Millennium Problems and they seek, broadly speaking, to understand how fluids behave. Interestingly, these equations are constantly used to predict the weather or design airplanes, among many other applications, but we still don’t understand precisely how they work. Terence Tao and AI are one of our best assets when it comes to definitively solving this enigma. Image | Generated by Xataka with Gemini More information | Dwarkesh Patel In Xataka | These two problems have baffled mathematicians for decades. A genius has solved them with a stroke of the pen

Southeast Spain is the driest place on the peninsula and a DANA has just arrived to “rescue” it. It will give more problems than solutions

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Right now, as I write, “the world cup is falling” on Alicante. And that, in itself, is news. Not the DANA that is crossing the southeast right now, which has a moderate entity and is going to leave unremarkable accumulations; No. It could be, but no. The news is thatit’s raining in the southeast and that, for some time now, has become almost a miracle. A miracle that leaves something revealed, Almería, Murcia and Alicante live in a climatic (and emotional) ‘new normal’ for which we have no physical (nor psychosocial) infrastructure. Let’s look at it in some detail. What is happening? At a meteorological level, the situation is very simple. In the early hours of March 10, a DANA detached itself from general circulation and positioned itself between eastern Andalusia and the Alboran Sea. In the next few hours, the epicenter It will be located over the province of Alicante and it will also cause enormous instability in Murcia, Albacete, all of eastern Andalusia and some parts of Valencia. AEMET predicts accumulations of between 30 and 50 mm in Murcia and Alicante, with some very specific areas reaching 80 in six hours. We may see snow above 900 meters. However, it must be taken into account that the DANA is very small: any change in trajectory, can move precipitation from one region to another. Is it normal? If we are honest, it is quite normal. This is part of a very unstable first week of March with storms, DANAs, haze and many more problems. The underlying problem. The problem is that, for months, we have seen how the very abundant rains of January They left aside this corner of the Peninsula. Thus, the Segura basin is the worst in the entire country followed by that of Júcar and that of the Andalusian Mediterranean basins. That is, not raining is a problem. But let it rain too. Because throughout that area of ​​the country, although it may not seem like it, although it is very subtle, tension continues every time a DANA appears on the weather forecast maps. The worst part goes to the areas where it hit the DANA of 2024 (with up to 30% of children with sleep problems and thousands of people suffering from eco-anxiety and fear), but the consequences are there whether we like it or not. Above all, with failures around the corner. Rethink everything to adapt to what is coming. A few weeks ago, AEMET and the University of Valladolid They published a very interesting work in which they explained that without climate change the DANA of 2024 It would have been much more unlikely. The January rains over Andalusia they do not help to calm to the experts. Image | ECMWF In Xataka | In California, the funds discovered that there is no investment more profitable than farmland. Now it’s Spain’s turn

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