reality

The theory said that Ozempic was going to put an end to ultra-processed foods. The reality is that it has reinvented them

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Whoever believed that Ozempic fever was going to be a hard blow for the manufacturers of ultra-processed products I was very wrong. And, as he recently explained in the BE food technology expert Beatriz Robles, the food industry never loses, it reinvents itself. As a result of the rise of this and other GLP-1 agonist drugs, the GLP-1 friendly foodproducts that are advertised for consumption by those who take these medications, but also for those who are thinking about trying to lose weight in other ways. The term arose among some nutritionists to refer to the foods that should be included in the diet of those who take Ozempic. However, the food industry has seen a breakthrough and has decided to convert classic ultra-processed products into alleged GLP-1 friendly options that not only give these people an adequate supply of nutrients. They also make their lives easier, because they don’t have to cook. With this and the appropriate doses of marketing, a fever is achieved similar to that of the famous black labels of foods rich in protein or the craze for superfoods with exotic origins. Because no, the superfoods that were never missing in your grandmother’s pantry don’t have such good marketing on social networks. Although they are even more superfoods. What is GLP-1? Before knowing what GLP-1 friendly foods are, we must start at the beginning: What is GLP-1? The answer, broadly speaking, is simple. It is a hormone that is synthesized naturally in the intestines, usually after eating. Its function is, on the one hand, control glucose levelssince it stimulates the production of insulin, a hormone that promotes its uptake in the cells, and decreases the production of glucagon, which does the opposite, as it stimulates the synthesis of glucose. On the other hand, GLP-1 reduces appetite by two different routes: directly in the brain, and also in the stomach, since it slows down gastric emptying. If the stomach empties more slowly, we will feel full for longer and perceive less feeling of hunger. The main problem with GLP-1 is that has a very short half-lifeof very few minutessince there is an enzyme that degrades it as soon as it reaches the bloodstream. Therefore, this is where GLP-1 analogues come into play. These drugs, including Ozempic, exert exactly the same effect as GLP-1, but for a longer duration. Traditionally they were designed to patients with diabetes. However, its effect on satiety led to its consumption also to treat overweight, either under medical advice or through self-medication. The rest is history. We live in a world increasingly dominated by Ozempic. And of course, that has led the food industry to reinvent itself. What are GLP-1 friendly foods? Mainly, Ozempic and other GLP-1 analogues help you lose weight due to their effect on reducing appetite. Therefore, nutritionists recommend that people who consume these medications adjust their diet appropriately. Since they will be eating less, they must further optimize the nutrients they consume. If we think about it, it’s simple: if you consume 10 dishes a day, adding all the meals, it is not so serious that one of them is not completely nutritious. On the other hand, if your appetite only allows you to eat three dishes, you should concentrate all your daily nutritional requirements there. Experts recommend above all focusing on protein and fiber. The first is necessary to strengthen muscle mass. When we eat less, we have a caloric deficit, which forces our body to consume energy by burning fat reserves. So far so good. It is what we look for if we want to lose weight. However, there comes a point where these are no longer enough, so muscle tissue also begins to be consumed. If we do not simultaneously consume a good supply of protein and we do strength exercisewe will lose a lot of muscle mass, with all the harm that entails. Regarding gastric emptying, on the one hand it is beneficial because it increases the feeling of satiety, but it also has a negative side: constipation. That is the reason why fiber consumption is so recommended. Nutritionist Lauren Manaker, for example, recommends salmon and eggs as sources of protein, as they are also very complete foods in other nutrients. Regarding fiber, he recommends prunes and berries. Additionally, for the upset stomach that Ozempic and other similar medications can sometimes cause, he recommends probiotics and ginger. Also, remember the importance of hydration. All of these could be considered basic GLP-1 friendly foods. However, the food industry has risen to the next level. What does the food industry propose? When appetite is reduced, the desire for certain ultra-processed products is often also reduced. For this reason, many brands have jumped on the bandwagon of GLP-1 friendly processed foods. They sell them as healthy options, which provide a very adequate amount of fiber and protein in one bite. However, this is somewhat similar to environmental greenwashing. Although it usually resorts to small environmental protection measures to divert attention from very harmful practices, with these foods the focus is on protein, fiber and vitamins, while on the other hand very inadequate doses of other nutrients are provided. Nutritionist Juan Revenga gives two examples in an article for The Country. To start, Nestlé has launched its own brand GLP-1 friendly food: Vital Pursuit. One of the products included in this brand is a cauliflower pizza that contains 32% of the recommended amount of protein. It is very good for those who are not going to eat much more in a day. The problem is that it also contains 40% of the not-to-be-exceeded amount of sodium and saturated fat. With a couple of dishes like this in the day, we would almost be over. A supposedly healthy smoothie could provide more calories and cholesterol than a donut It also mentions Smoothie King brand shakes. This includes a vanilla one that provides a highly recommended amount of protein and fiber, without added sugar. Instead, it contains more calories, sodium … Read more

We think that the body asks us to “eat lightly” in summer. In reality, we are buying tickets to malnutrition

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When summer arrives, important routine changes also come to our daily lives, beyond ‘hiding’ from the scorching sun that we are having these days. And something that has surely happened to many people is that heavy digestion becomes unbearable and the body cries out for fresh foods like a salad. The problem is that this can also pose a very important nutritional problem by giving up essential nutrients due to having a much lighter diet. The heat takes away our hunger. It is not a subjective idea that, when we are at forty degrees, we do not feel like stuffing ourselves with food, since it is pure biology. Here scientific evidence shows us that heat reduces appetite and, consequently, the amount of calories we eat (with some exceptions in people who do not have this problem). Here is a study published in 2021 in the British Journal of Nutrition put to the test this premise in healthy men, seeing that acute exposure to an environmental temperature of 30 ºC drastically reduced food intake during lunch in those exposed to 20 ºC ambient. In addition, the overall perception of appetite before sitting down at the table plummeted. In Spain. In our country, the data also supports this summer problem, as pointed out in a study published in 2005 that revealed that we eat significantly less in summer than in winter. And in the cold months, the average intakes of calories and almost all nutrients were much higher in both sexes. The most worrying thing about this last study was the conclusion on the coverage of dietary recommendations, since During the summer, a greater percentage of the population was unable to meet their minimum calorie needs or most micronutrients. And this is a serious problem. The salad trap. The statement that “you eat light in summer” is not inherently bad, but it does not justify poor nutrition. According to the WHO healthy eating parameters, the risk of malnutrition appears when our diet does not cover our physiological needs for an extended period, and summer lasts long enough to wreak havoc on our diet. Experts here point out that, when we lose our appetite, we usually replace full meals with salads with little variety or simply fruit. That is why if we go from eating three full meals to surviving on a couple of light dishes, we run the risk of have some nutritional deficiency. Our shortcomings. Among the nutrients we lack is, above all, quality protein and also iron. Added to this are the dangerous summer “fad diets”, which restrict food to fruits or juices. And beyond how healthy it sounds, these practices not only cause rapid deficiencies, but, if maintained over time, they can trigger adverse metabolic effects. Hydration a priori it is essential throughout the summer because we do not stop sweating and that means a greater loss of water and minerals. However, replacing meals with drinks (especially if they are sugary or excessively juiced) is a textbook error. Something to keep in mind is that hydration should come from water and seasonal foods rich in it, but not at the cost of emptying our diet of solid nutrients. This is something essential to take into account in people who are more vulnerable to color or nutritional losses, such as children, the elderly and the chronically ill, where dehydration and loss of appetite overlap very easily. A varied diet. If the body asks to eat less food to avoid heavy digestion and increased internal heat, logically it will have to compensate with a greater nutritional density of the little that is ingested. This involves eating cold legumes in the form of a salad, oily fish such as tuna or sardines, boiled eggs as a source of protein and nuts to have a lot of energy. Images | atlascompany In Xataka |We have searched for the formula for the definitive pre-workout breakfast. The answer from science is much simpler

Jaén was the largest producer of lead in the world. Decades later, he wants to repeat the game with rare earths, but he has a problem: reality

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Somewhere between Linares and La Carolina there is a rusty derrick: the iron skeleton of what was, at the end of the 19th century, the largest producer of lead in the world. It is, obviously, the past, but in recent years many are completely obsessed with it being also the future. We have the latest example of this about 80 kilometers north of that derrick. There, in Aldeaquemada, an Australian company has just extracted a drill core and to announce that it is “a high quality area”. The question that hovers over Jaén these months is not whether there are minerals under its feet. We all know that. The question is whether all this dance of prospecting that we are seeing is something real or is it simply the expression of the desire of a province that continues to associate its ‘golden age’ with mining. What is happening? The last episode, as I say, stars Osmond Resources. In the SOR-08 survey has cut more ore than expected north of the province. We are talking about a project that covers 756 mining units between Aldeaquemada and Santiesteban del Puerto and search “titanium, zirconium, hafnium and rare earths” trapped in quartzites that hundreds of millions of years ago were beach sand. The ad has a trick, yes. What they have announced is a confirmation ‘during’ drilling. Laboratory analyzes (those that count) will take weeks. But, in reality, that is not what interests us. It is enough to do a small search on the internet to confirm that Jaén entire is being drilled with passion and enthusiasm for months now. And where does all that enthusiasm come from? In principle, three relatively independent engines. The first is geopolitical: in 2024, the European Union pressed the accelerator on ‘mineral sovereignty’ and approved a regulation on critical raw materials. The idea was to ensure that the extraction, processing and recycling of strategic raw materials carried out in Europe cover respectively 10%, 40% and 25% of EU demand. A project like Orión, oriented towards rare earths, is typical of something that in Europe (and in Madrid) sounds like glory. The thing about Madridor it is rhetorical. Just a couple of months ago, the Government approved a raw materials plan of 414 million euros which includes the largest mining prospecting campaign in Spain in more than half a century. Sierra Morena is expressly cited in it. Sara Aagesen he came to say that “with all certainty” rare earths will appear in the country. And then there’s the bag… That is the third engine. Companies like Osmond Resources live off the deposits, yes; but above all they live off the news cycle. After all, its market capitalization depends more on the ‘media battle’ than on the final results. In a field as complex as mining, failure is almost a given. And why is it important? Because behind all this noise there are a lot of small, aging towns those who are sold a new future. The mayor of Aldeaquemada It didn’t take long to celebrate Osmond’s results as a way to “generate jobs and wealth.” But the reality is that the Most exploration projects never produce. The energy transition has served as an alibi to look underground again, but the sector has changed so much that for the vast majority of actors, expectations are beginning to be more useful than reality. And that, in Empty Spain, is an existential problem. Image | Shane Mclendon In Xataka | Where there was lead before, now there will be rare earths: Jaén revives its mining past for the energy transition

We thought it was a bend in the Rhine. In reality it was a huge Roman water channel that survived the fall of the Empire for 300 years.

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If there is something for which Rome has remained in memory, it is for its impressive road layout throughout their empire, but be careful because in hydraulic engineering they were not far behind either, the aqueducts of Segovia and Tarragona serve as close examples. It is true that aqueducts are striking constructions due to their dimensions, but there is another that rivals them in size and capacity to move water: canals. In fact, a research team just “discovered” that what looked like an old abandoned Rhine channel was actually an ancient Roman canal. They had an unappealable clue on the terrain: it is rare to see such a long and straight line in nature. The discovery. In southwestern Germany, on an agricultural plain next to the Rhine River, an interdisciplinary research team from the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, the Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel and the Hessen Monument Office have found something that has been buried for more than a thousand years: an artificial Roman canal 15 meters wide and 2.5 meters deep that connected the Rhine to a small military fort called the burgus of Trebur-Astheim. Why is it important. Because the Trebur-Astheim Canal is one of the few known navigable canals north of the Alps during the Roman period and the Early Middle Ages, demonstrating that the Roman Empire in Germania modified the landscape more intensely and lastingly than previously believed. The presence of Rome was more than a mere occupation. As explains the research teamthe burgus of Trebur-Astheim probably functioned as a central logistical node for the Landgraben region, where cargo ships of the time could dock and goods were redistributed around the area on other vessels. This demonstrates a global vision of the empire for supplying its troops through infrastructure that goes beyond the roads. Context. The consolidated Roman presence in the Hessische Ried began in the 1st century AD, under the Flavian emperors. The fort of Trebur-Astheim was built between 364 and 375 AD under the command of Emperor Valentinian I as part of his plan for military deployment along the Rhine. with a goal: contain the Alamanni, a group of tribes settled on the right bank of the river. In fact, the Rhineland border is clearly demarcated by watchtowers and forts, as can be seen on the UNESCO World Heritage List. In detail. In short, the town of Trebur-Astheim was practically a protected inland port: its dimensions were similar to those of the Roman navigable canal Fossa Corbulonis (present-day Netherlands) and made it suitable for different types of Roman river vessels, such as military type Mainz-A or the cargo boats found near Xanten, both with drafts of between 0.35 and 0.65 meters, well below the depth of the channel. Carbon 14 has revealed that, from the sediments of the canal, it was in operation from Roman times until the 7th-8th centuries AD, when it became clogged with mud and was abandoned. In fact, the large amount of sediment in the area forced the channel to be dredged frequently for centuries: after the Romans, the team points out that the Merovingian and Carolingian communities exploited it and maintained the infrastructure. Yes, but. The excavation carried out in 2024 did not reach sufficient depth to physically see the walls of the canal due to the high water table and the amount of sediment. That is to say, the dimensions that we know have been estimated indirectly, something that is common in underwater archaeology. In this sense, a complete excavation is pending to obtain direct data on the construction of the canal. In Xataka | Some go to the gym to do legs and others to discover an impressive mansion from the Roman Empire In Xataka | The Romans found a macabre and sophisticated way to use perfume: breaking pigeons’ necks (made of glass) Cover | Wolfgang Pehlemann and An Artificial Canal Connecting the Roman Burgus at Trebur-Astheim (Upper Rhine Graben, Germany) with the River Rhine

Predicting Alzheimer’s 10 years in advance is now a scientific reality. The challenge now is to prevent healthcare from collapsing

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Alzheimer’s is a devastating disease that is undoubtedly a true ghost, since it only It becomes visible when the damage is already irreparable and that, despite trying to stop it, it is becoming difficult to control it. And historically, the medical diagnosis comes when memory begins to fail, but by then the brain has been suffering in silence for years, even decades. Now science focuses on the need for early diagnosis so that treatments can work. A new analysis. One of the ways to detect this disease before it begins to show the classic symptoms such as memory loss is through a blood test. This is the milestone that has been collected in The Lancet magazine recently thanks to research from the University of California, and that could generate a large population screening that is not free of controversy. What they did. The researchers followed 1,350 people aged between 56 and 69, without any type of dementia, for more than 35 years. And here the key was to look for specific proteins circulating in the blood that increased in the earliest phases of Alzheimer’s, as occurs with others marked in other diseases such as PSA in prostate cancer. And they found two biomarkers. The first of them is Aβ42/40, which is an early indicator that warns of the accumulation of hateful beta-amyloid plaques in the brain. But they also found the protein p-tau217, which is considered today the most precise marker for the pathology. The results. The 6% of participants who tested positive for these biomarkers showed a four-fold increased risk of developing verbal memory problems and a decline in their cognitive speed a decade later. But science has been trying to refine this tool for years, looking for markers such as GFAP, which rises about ten years before symptoms appear. See the invisible. The blood test does not walk alone in this diagnostic revolution, since on the same day, The Lancet published a second study based on nearly 800 participants from the US and Canada that tests a new and sophisticated neuroimaging technology: the MK6240 PET plotter. Until now, visualizing the tau protein, which is one of those responsible for Alzheimer’s by accumulating in neurons, was a great challenge. But this new tracer promises to be much more sensitive, detecting twice as many positive cases in healthy people with amyloid accumulation compared to the standard used today. You have to wait. Before throwing the bells in the air, it should be noted that experts point out that this test not ready to be used as general population screening. The reason lies in mathematics, since the prevalence of asymptomatic Alzheimer’s in healthy middle-aged people remains low in absolute terms, so applying this test to everyone would generate a very high volume of false positives. That is, an increase in this protein that is not actually related to early Alzheimer’s. But logically, the fear, anxiety and the resulting cascade of confirmatory tests would collapse the health services that are already stressed, and furthermore, the drugs we have, despite the fact that they stop the effects of the disease in its earliest phases, are not yet definitive. That is why we must remain on the right path, but there is still a long way to go to get this disease under control. Images | Robina Weermeijer Testalize.me In Xataka | Alzheimer’s no longer seems irreversible: science allows brains with advanced damage to recover for the first time in animals

We thought AI was laying off engineers. In reality, it has pilloried another profile: middle management.

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We’ve been hearing for several years that AI was going to change work as we know it. What perhaps no one anticipated is that the first mass casualty They would not be factory operators or data analysts, but the layer of professionals that holds together the structure of any company: middle management. The phenomenon is already leaving a trail of layoffs with the successive restructurings that the big technology companies have been applying for the last year. Departments are reduced by the implementation of AI and become increasingly autonomous in decision-making, so the intermediate step that united everything becomes unnecessary. The profile that worries the most. Middle managers have been acting as a transmission belt between the management that dictates strategies and the teams that execute them for decades. The function of these positions was to collect data, synthesize it, transfer decisions and coordinate day-to-day operations. That intermediary job is exactly the role that AI is automating most easily, making middle managers the most important link. likely to be fired in that chain because it is not related to either decision-making or their execution. The pressure on this intermediate profile has been building for some time and the data confirms it. By the end of 2025, job offers for middle managers in the US were 42% lower to the maximum recorded three years earlier, according to Revelio Labs. The consulting firm Gartner calculated that by 2026 one in five companies will use AI to eliminate more than half of their middle management positions. Companies are applying it. Just a few weeks ago, Block, the payments company founded by Jack Dorsey, announced the dismissal of 40% of its staff and presented a new organizational model in which AI assumes the role of a link between teams. In one later blog postDorsey and councilor Roelof Botha explained this move: “There is no need for a permanent layer of middle management.” Brian Armstrong picked up Dorsey’s baton in your ad of dismissal for 14% of the Coinbase workforce, specifying that the intermediate positions were going to disappear as such and that they were now going to contribute by “getting their hands dirty with their teams.” What is lost when a link disappears. In statements to GuardianFreeland Abbott, former CTO of Square, warned that “AI cannot provide team motivation, human connection, and support the way a person can,” removing the human component from middle management in companies. Furthermore, the elimination of this role could mean another obstacle in promotion options for junior employees, who usually find those opportunities by starting to manage the work of other junior employees as they gain experience. According to the study By Anastassia Fedyk, a professor at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, as AI tools allow more work to be shifted from managers to their subordinates, these structural changes could become permanent. Rehire middle management. Matthew Bidwell, professor of management at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, assured on his podcast on the labor market that there are precedents of companies that tried eliminate intermediate hierarchies and they ended up turning back. According to their analysis, middle managers are in an especially vulnerable position in restructurings because it is more difficult for them to demonstrate their value to management. Far from putting an end to the “productive” positions held by engineers and administrators, AI seems to have opened the door and the piece that is being most affected to the point of placing it as a species at risk of extinction are middle managers. Above all, after his post-pandemic proliferation. In Xataka | Generation Z is avoiding promotions to mid-level positions: too much stress and too little reward Image | Unsplash (Austin Distel)

The Solar Impulse made the dream of the solar airplane a reality. Now it has ended up destroyed after an accident

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There was a time when the Solar Impulse 2 It seemed like it came from a simple question: how far can a plane go if we leave out conventional fuel. The answer was not a commercial product, but an experimental aircraft powered by solar energy and batteries that ended up flying around the world. That is why the news has a special charge. That plane that symbolized a different way of imagining aviation has ended crashed in the Gulf of Mexico during an autonomous test. The coup came on May 4. According to Aviation Safety Networkthe Solar Impulse 2 was conducting an autonomous test flight when it lost power and ended up crashing into the water. The least bitter part of the news is that there were no injuries or deaths, something important because the plane was already flying without a crew in this new stage. The most symbolic part is another: the device that for years turned a technological promise into something visible has been reduced to the remains of an accident. Behind the project was Bertrand Piccarda figure marked by a family tradition of explorers: his grandfather Auguste Piccard was a pioneer of the depths and his father, Jacques Piccardarrived at the Mariana Trench. In 2003 started to imagine a solar aircraft capable of going around the world to draw attention to the “sustainable energy“First came Solar Impulse 1, with its initial flight in 2009and then the final jump. The plane that converted the sun into flight energy What is striking is that this ambition was not based on a gigantic machine in the traditional sense. The Solar Impulse 2 had a huge wingspanabout 71 meters, higher than that of a Boeing 747, but it weighed around 2.3 tons thanks to its carbon fiber structure. The energy came from 17,248 photovoltaic cells distributed throughout the plane, with a maximum power of 66 kW to drive four electric motors and charge four lithium-ion batteries. The moment that made it more than a technological oddity came in 2016. That year, the Solar Impulse 2 completed the first trip around the world of a fixed-wing plane powered entirely by solar energy, a journey that It lasted for more than 15 months. Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg, co-founder of the foundation, alternated at the controls during the tour. It was not a demonstration of speed, of course: the plane was moving between 31 and 62 miles per hour, slowing down during the night sections. After that feat, the story changed tone. In 2019, the Solar Impulse Foundation announced the sale of the plane to Skydweller Aero for an undisclosed amount. The Spanish-American company did not view the project from exactly the same place as its creators: its interest was in exploring the potential of the aircraft as a surveillance and communications platform, a very different destination from the original message of energy awareness. With Skydweller the technical transformation of the device also began. After incorporating numerous modifications, the plane completed in Spain his first autonomous flight in 2023and the following year it carried out its first completely unmanned operation at Stennis International Airport, near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. The company’s stated goal was to develop a fleet of solar aircraft capable of non-stop flights at certain latitudes, between Miami and Rio de Janeiro. The ambition was evident: almost continuous operations for military and commercial contracts, at a much lower cost than satellite-based options. A huge promise that has ended underwater. Images | Solar Impulse (1, 2, 3, 4) In Xataka | While we all look at Iran, something is moving in the Arctic Circle: Russia is sending bombers with missiles

There are people who buy plants to purify the air in their home. The reality is that you are wasting your time

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When we want to give a little life to our homes, the first thing we think about is putting in several plants with the idea that, in addition to giving it a more natural touch, they will also clean the air we breathe. And it’s no wonder, because all you have to do is take a look around the internet or through the hallways of any nursery to find us. with the promise that pothos, mother-in-law’s tongue or ribbon are “natural purifiers” that eliminate toxins. But It’s not like that. The origin of the idea. To understand why we blindly believe in the purifying power of the plants that we can have in our home, the responsibility lies with NASA and its classic studies published in the 80s. Here, in their quest to find ways to clean the air on space stations, researchers placed different plants in hermetically sealed chambers and injected volatile organic compounds that were partly removed by the plants. This was very relevant, but the extrapolation to the general population, not so much. And these investigations were carried out in an airtight chamber in a laboratory, and at the moment a home or an office is not hermetically closed, but there is the possibility of air constantly entering and leaving through windows, doors or cracks. But this detail has not resonated so much with the population. A bath of reality. This arrived in 2019, where a study from Drexel University analyzed a dozen previous studies to evaluate actual plant performance using a standard metric: the clean air delivery rate, or CADR. Here the conclusion reached is that potted plants do not improve indoor air quality in a relevant way. And the explanation is purely mechanical, since the normal ventilation of any building eliminates volatile organic compounds at a rate faster than the absorption capacity of an indoor plant. Size matters. With this premise, for the plants to match the purification achieved by the ventilation system of a standard building or the simple act of opening windows, you would need between 10 and 1,000 plants per square meter. I mean, you would have to literally turn your living room into a dense, impassable rainforest to notice the difference. Very controlled exceptions. This does not mean that all pro-plant studies lie, but rather that context is everything, since some studies point to a decrease in CO₂ levels. A notable example is a study conducted in a school in Portugal, where flower pots were introduced into classrooms and an improvement in the air was measured. However, the scientists themselves warn that these are highly specific and controlled environments and their results cannot be mathematically extrapolated to what happens in the living room of a normal apartment or in a standard office. There is no evidence. Given all this that we already know, the authorities are sharp noting that there is no evidence that a reasonable number of indoor plants remove significant amounts of pollutants in homes and offices. What do we have to do? In order to improve air quality inside the home, the important thing here is to reduce the use of chemicals and avoid smoking indoors. In addition, opening the windows every day to renew the air is the key measure, as well as the installation of air purifiers, which are almost mandatory in many cases for people who have significant allergies. Images | freepik In Xataka | The countries that pollute the most in the world, gathered in a detailed graph

The reality is that only 0.1% wins and almost everyone loses

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In recent years, so-called prediction markets such as Kalshi and, above all, Polymarket. Here you can bet on all kinds of things happening today and get rich, or that’s what they advertise. The reality is very different. 67% for the 0.1%. A Wall Street Journal analysis has revealed that in Polymarket, as in the world in general, only a small group shares most of the profits. The analysis, which covers 1.6 million accounts and took data from 2022, concludes that 67% of all profits generated have been distributed among only 2,000 users, which represents 0.1% of the total. In figures, we are talking about about 500 million dollars, so each of these users amounts to 250,000 dollars. Not bad. The rest. What is left over from the profits is much more competitive and is distributed among approximately a third of the total users analyzed. The striking thing is in the largest portion of the pie, which are users who not only are not earning, but are losing money. At Kalshi, a competitor of Polymarket, the ratio of profitable to unprofitable users is 1 to 2.9. That is to say, for every person who earns money, there are almost three who are losing. In other words, many finance the party of a few. The winners. Who is behind that 0.1%? They are not ordinary people with a good eye, but professional traders and ‘quant firms’ that work as a team and buy data sets in real time at very high prices. With this information they feed algorithms that execute tens of thousands of operations a day, hunting for price microvariations that a normal user would miss. Many also act as ‘market makers’: they constantly set purchase and sale prices, pay fewer commissions and even charge incentives for providing liquidity. The losers. The typical Polymarket user is in the red between $1 and $100, but of all of them there are 10% with losses of $4,000 on average. They are casual users who make decisions guided by intuition or by what they want to happen, based on superficial information. What ends up happening is that your money ends up in the hands of that small professional group. Disguised gambling addiction. Prediction markets like Polymarket have managed to give a financial appearance to what is essentially still a game of chance. Lifelong bets are presented as informed investments, disguising gambling addiction under trading language. We can call it whatever we want, but the reality is that for many users, the losses are very real. Image | Xataka with Gemini In Xataka | We have a problem with Polymarket: it has become the Bet365 of geopolitics without any regulation

When the fathers of quantum physics discovered the fundamental ideas of reality, they discovered that a Jesuit had already been there 200 years before.

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The story is a classic of popular science: 200 years before the birth of quantum physics, the Jesuit Ruđer Bošković advanced the central ideas of 20th century physics: field theory, the uncertainty principle and even dark energy. Furthermore, he did it alone. What Bošković did, as Héctor Farrés points outit’s incredible. Not only is it real and important, but it is beyond doubt (Heisenberg himself lor recognized in 58), but what he didn’t do too. The latter is, in fact, the most interesting. What Bošković knew. In 1758, the Jesuit (who was one of the great mathematicians of the time and had even helped fix the dome of St. Peter’s) published in Vienna ‘Philosophiae naturalis theoria redacts ad unicam legem virium in natura existentium‘. In this book he developed ideas that he had already presented almost 15 years earlier in Rome: that matter was not made of extended solid corpuscles (as Newtonian physics maintained), nor of inextended metaphysical monads (as Leibniz thought). For Bošković, matter is essentially composed of dimensionless points that only exist as points of force. In essence, Bošković believed that Newton’s inverse square law was a ‘limiting case’ (for planetary bodies) of a different equation that governed the relationship of all things in nature. Just this idea that scale is important, that the behavior of forces could change radically depending on it, deserves to go down in the history of physics. Because? Because it is the piece that helps us stop understanding matter as impenetrable ‘bodies’ and allows us to understand that impenetrability as an effect: it was giving mathematical entity to atomism. And the most interesting thing is that his later influence is real. It is documented, come on: there is a chain of readings that takes us from these ideas to those of William Rowan Hamiltonthe most direct precursor of quantum mechanics. Apparently, Werner Heisenberg, he of the uncertainty principle, he even said in 1958 that “the remarkable concept that forces are repulsive at small distances and must be attractive at greater distances has played a decisive role in modern atomic physics. (…) Bohr’s quantum theory of the atom can be precisely related to this concept, and the study of the atomic nucleus during the last thirty years has taught us that the particles that constitute the nucleus, protons and neutrons, are bound together by precisely such a force.” However, one should not exaggerate either. As Borges said when talking about Kafka, authors create their own precursors. That is, as Heisenberg himself said, Bošković’s work “contains numerous ideas that have only achieved full expression in modern physics in the last fifty years.” They were brilliant intuitions that are fully understood in the light of quantum physics, but not seeds that logically contained all the physics of the 20th century within them. A very common mistake. Too common, in fact. We don’t usually approach history from what we already know and there, of course, the similarities shine in the middle of the night. The reality is that what we see are usually ‘pareidolias’: things that say more about us and the functioning of our brain than about what happened in the past. Image | Xataka In Xataka | One of the greatest philosophers of the 20th century already identified the problem of Generation Z: “Not tolerating boredom”

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