reason

For some reason, evolution does not stop creating antiques. 12 times different around the world has emerged

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Like the Chavo del Ocho when he did for the umpteenth time the joke to continue criticizing Professor Jirafales once the others had silenced, nature can have somewhat repetitive scripts. The point is that they work. Trend to eat ants and termites. It doesn’t matter if we are in America, Africa or Asia. Again and again, throughout the history of the earth, different mammalian lineages have reached the same evolutionary conclusion, developing a similar body plan to exploit one of the most abundant banquets on the planet. A recent study Posted in Evolution magazine It reveals that the specialization in eating ants and termites (a feature known as Mirmecophage) has emerged independently at least 12 times different since the extinction of dinosaurs 66 million years ago. Convergent evolution. When we think of an anthill, the iconic elongated snout animal of the Americas comes to mind. But the anthill is not alone. Pangolines and Aardvarks, who inhabit Africa and Asia, are distant relatives who have developed a surprisingly similar tools kit. Adaptations include long and sticky tongues, a reduced or non -existent teeth and powerful front legs armed with claws to dig in insect nests. This phenomenon, in which unrelated species They develop similar features To adapt to similar conditions, it is known as convergent evolution. The same strange design. “The specializations associated with Mirmecophage are among the strangest and most fascinating mammals,” says Laura Wilson, an evolutionary biologist, In Science magazine. “This study illuminates our understanding when, and how many times, these fascinating characteristics evolved and under what conditions.” To reach these conclusions, the also biologist Thomas Vida and his team collected and analyzed data on the diet of almost 4,100 species of mammals, mapping their eating habits in the great evolutionary tree. The resulting model left no doubt: the evolution has taken the path of mirmecophagy over and over again, and has done so in the three large branches of mammals, including marsupials and monretrems, which put eggs. The postdinosaurs world. There are several crustaceans that have evolved towards a body shape similar to that of a crab. This phenomenon has occurred at least five times, but over several hundred million years. Mirmecophagous mammals, on the other hand, have done it 12 times in just 66 million years. “For some reason, things continue to evolve until they become hormigueros,” says the author of the study. Why this rise of ants dining rooms just after the disappearance of dinosaurs? The answer, according to researchers, is in the history of social insects. After the great extinction of the Cretaceous-Paleogen, the ants and the termites experienced a demographic explosion. His presence in the fossil registry shot, and his biomass became an abundant ecological resource. A road without return. The study also reveals another fascinating fact: once a mammalian lineage specializes in eating ants and termites, it seems that there is no turning back. The researchers only found a reversal case: the musarañas elephant of short ears. Their ancestors were probably fed on ants and termites more than 13 million years ago, but today, these southern Africa creatures have a mixed diet that includes other insects and plant matter. This evolutionary dead end is probably due to the stability and abundance of the food source, or the difficulty of recovering the features of a generalist once the body has adapted to such a specific diet. The story, therefore, tells us that while there are ants and termites in abundance, the evolution will continue to threaten more mammals into relentless devouring machines of colonies. Image | Claudio Olivares Medina (CC BY-DC -nd 2.0) In Xataka | “This is not a penguin.”

Abu Dabi’s Disney Park will not look like any other. For a hot reason

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The next Disney park, which will be built in Abu Dhabi is going to be a bargain for the company, and that is that He will not cost him a cent. La Razón: The Arab Grupo Miral will give life to the park with Disney’s licenses, and these will only be dedicated to collecting money. Goodbye to the usual Disney. The park’s approach will not arrive free of problems: after months of speculation, Mohamed al Zaabi, CEO of the Miral, has gone out to stop the rumors: Outdoor park would never work. If almost completely interior, it is a change of paradigm: all of the six parks that Disney has active have closed spaces, but most of its attractions are outdoors. Because. A theme park in Abu Dabi sounds very good until The average temperature of the place It comes into play: it exceeds 30 degrees from May to September and 35 in July and August. And what is worse, has maxims of 40 degrees or more than June to September, which makes the enjoyment to the outdoor. According to Al Zaabi, what Miral now raises is a hybrid Disney park. This means that it will have external areas and interior areas. The leader states that it is still early to decide, but believes that “a good percentage will be on a roof.” In Orlando, headquarters of one of the Disney Worldthe National Meteorological Service Extreme heat alert when 45 degrees are exceeded. In Abu Dhabi, the temperature exceeds 43 degrees. The problem is the thermal sensation at that temperature: more than 54 degrees. This is the mastodontic Ferrari World who will be a neighbor of Abu Dhabi’s Disney, almost completely covered. The model to follow. In Miral they know the land well and how to ensure that the experience in the parks is pleasant. On the island of Yas, a place that houses the Formula 1 circuit, and it is planned to build the new park, they already have SeaWorld, Ferrari World and Warner Bros. World. The latter are striking and known for their mastodontic size, but above all for hosting almost all their attractions inside, with a great ally, the air conditioning. According to The Question and Answers website From Ferrari Park: “Ferrari World Abu Dhabi is a theme park covered with air conditioning. (…) which makes it an ideal world destination regardless of season or weather” Other historical changes for petrodollars. In a publication a month ago to Zaabi already mentioned that “everything we do here, we do it differently.” And the reality is that yes, bringing large events to the countries in the area has forced draft changes. As a great example is Catar 2022the first soccer World Cup that had to be held in November for high temperatures. It is so hot in the country that the government had to Install air conditioning on the street. Speaking of differences, we can not forget those of workers’ conditions. The high temperatures were also the key reason that Formula 1 began to be held at night in circuits such as Abu Dhabi. In Baréin in April, whose grand prize was held during diurnal hours of 2004 to 2014the ambient temperature during the race often exceeds 35 degrees. And what is worse, the asphalt temperature of the circuit, built in the middle of the desert, oscillated between 48 and 56 degrees. The minimum value was 13 degrees higher than that of the asphalt of the Montmeló circuit, for choosing an event that is held near dates. Images Bastien NVS and Kevin JD In Unspash, Visit Abu Dhabi In Xataka | We have known how to eliminate the tails of the attraction parks. Disney keeps them for something

In the Middle Ages the Child Jesus was represented as an “old baby.” The reason still fascinates experts

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It is not necessary to be a scholar, or have an eye trained in the study of medieval art. Soon you are familiar with the Christian iconography of the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth centuries or have seen any of the Religious altarpieces That they painted themselves in Europe at that time, you are likely to ask yourself a question: why do they show the Child Jesus like this, ugly, aged, touched? And ugly, aged and touched are three adjectives that probably fall short for not a few of the medieval portraits that represent Jesus in their early years, in Mary’s arms. Where there should be a child in his most tender childhood we find a creature with wrinkles, incipient baldness and the expression of a philosopher submerged in brave reflections. The most curious thing is that they are not due to lack of expertise of artists. They are anything but childish because that is what was sought. Portraits of the child? Jesus. There are examples to bore. Paolo Veneziano, Duccio di Buoninasegna, Massaccio, Giotto… If something has in common their representations of the Virgin and the Child Jesus, beyond having painted them between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries and always represent the same religious characters, it is how they did. They were supposed to represent a young woman with her newborn son or only a few years, but what came out of her brushes was very different: “old children”, creatures not very healthy who seem sexagenarians about to sign retirement. Instead of angelic faces, they created incipient baldness heads, wrinkles and expressions that evoke anything except the idea of childhood. And to show a button. Or several. Arrives with a look at the child Jesus of ‘Crevole Madonna’ (1283-1284), by Duccio Di Buoninasegna who looks at you from the right side of the cover image. Or this other painted by Giotto At the beginning of the fourteenth century and observes you with an equally intense expression under these lines. Detail of ‘Maestà di Ognissanti’, by Giotto, the beginning of the fourteenth century. Lack of expertise? That is the first explanation that comes to mind: if they painted the Child Jesus of that guise, maybe it was because of the ability of those who handled the brushes. The reality is much more complex … and fascinating. “These ugly babies were very intentional,” Phil Edwards explains in Vox Magazine. They were more or less skilled, when drawing the face of Jesus the painters were guided by conventions, an assimilated and shared code and a cultural background that in this case affected both the idea of childhood and especially that of the Child Jesus himself. In fact, one of the keys that help us understand these pieces is that medieval artists did not seek to faithfully capture reality. If their babies are not realistic it is because they were not interested in realism. The message matters, not fidelity. “The strangeness we see in medieval art is due to the lack of interest in naturalism. They were more inclined to expressionist conventions,” Matthew Averett recountsProfessor at Creighton. Each painter handled their own brushes and paintings, true; But in a context that influenced his works. They were the creators, but they resorted to a language and clear conventions. “The idea of artistic freedom to represent these people as one would have been new,” he adds. “Art was not interested in naturalism, but rather in the theological expression,” emphasize in The conversation Angela McCarthy, from the University of Notre Dame Australia. And that does not notice only in the aspect with which the Child Jesus was portrayed. In Western art theology also influenced COMPOSITIONS: Jesus usually appears sitting with a mature or diaper posture. “The latter was an attempt to represent the biblical references to a child wrapped in diapers or the shroud placed on Jesus after his death,” Apostille McCarthy. Detail of a representation of the Child Jesus of the mid -14th century of Paolo Veneziano. Do not say a child, give better “homunculus”. If there is a word that helps to understand those disturbing “children-man” who rest in Maria’s lap and look at us from the medieval tables is that: homunculus, which means “Little Man”. The Child Jesus was after all a child, but not anyone. McCarthy recalls that his artistic representation with Mary began to expand after the Council of Ephesus, in 431, and not much later, in 451, another council was held in Chalcedon that would be key to the representations of the Child Jesus: “Part of the interpretation that the Church made of the Council was that Jesus was fully human and divine. Some theologians interpreted that this meant that this meant that this was fully formed. with knowledge of his divinity “, reveals The expert of the University of Notre Dame Australia: “This was difficult to represent in art and hence the name of the child.” “Perfectly formed”. What we observe in the Middle Ages altarpieces is therefore not a simple (more or less realistic) representation of a child with his mother. No. The message is more complex … and rich. It shows us an idea of the Jesus Child influenced by Christian theology and certain conventions. And in which that concept, the “homunculus.” “There is the idea that Jesus was perfectly formed and unchanged”, Remember Averett“And if you combine that with Byzantine painting, it became a standard form to represent Jesus. In some of these images it seems that he had baldness with an adult pattern.” Good example is the child who observes you from the left side of the composition that opens this report. The image is taken from ‘Madonna Della Pace’an icon that, as they remember from the Santi Giovanni E Paolo Basilica, was donated to the Dominicans by a senator who took him from Constantinople in the mid -fourteenth. “In the eastern orthodox tradition, from approximately the sixth century to the present, the child Jesus looks like a little man,” McCarthy abounds. Detail of ‘Virgen … Read more

Ryanair workers have a good reason for passing passengers with too big suitcases: collect more

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When we approach the shipping doors, it is quite common that part of the airline team is responsible for looking sideways at passengers to see if We comply with the regulations of luggage and we do not carry excessively large bags in the cabin. In addition to because it is part of their work, Ryanair employees also have another motivation behind: collect more. The airline pay your employees 1.50 euros For each suitcase that detects that it does not meet the rules, a practice that the company’s own CEO itself, Michael O’Leary, not only defends, but even considers expanding. Why this happens. The Irish airline has confirmed that this economic incentive pays for its staff for catching passengers that carry luggage that exceeds the allowed dimensions. Those who catch can fall a sanction of up to 75 euros for billing it in the cellar. O’Leary justifies This policy as a way to “eliminate the scourge of passengers with excessive luggage.” The numbers that explain the business. Each employee can win up to 80 euros per month for this practice. Although it should be said that, according to the company, more than 99.9% of travelers comply with luggage standards. It should be said that the difference between what Ryanair pays to its employees for detecting a suitcase and what charges the passenger for sanction (up to 75 euros) is a considerable margin that contributes in part to the spectacular results that the airline has had. And is that Up to 820 million euros in the last quarter, shooting their shares 4.7% in the stock market after exceeding all forecasts. The growth of 7% in auxiliary income, where these luggage penalties are included, has been key next to the 21% rise in average rates up to 51 euros per ticket. Ryanair is not the only one. This practice makes employees at the boarding door also act as a kind of luggage guards. It is not for less, since if in addition to making passengers to comply with the regulations, they take a pinch, better than better. Todo esto teniendo en cuenta además que Ryanair anunció que would expand the dimensions of the permitted suitcases in cabin. Although the truth is that the practice is not exclusive to Ryanair: other airlines like Easyjet have also implemented similar schemes Through subcontracted companies such as Swissport, which pays 1.20 pounds for each pillada suitcase. The workers, who usually charge around 12 pounds per hour according to The Guardian, also face tense situations with passengers, since no one makes it funny to have to pay more just when you are going to ride on the plane. The context of the sector. Ryanair is now in a sweet moment, especially knowing that it has become the main airline in Spain by passengers with a growth of 20.6% this last quarter and maintains this country as its second most important market after Italy, with income of 772 million euros. The European Parliament Press so that airlines allow luggage in cabin and hand for free, but O’Leary predict that this proposal “will not prosper due to the lack of space in the airplanes.” According to its latest financial report, the airline operates with virtually 94% occupation flights, where approximately half of the passengers can carry two packages and the other half only one. And now what. Ryanair does not rule out increasing the incentives paid to its employees for detecting excess bulk, although O’Leary expects detections to decrease in the coming years as passengers adapt better to the standards. Meanwhile, the airline benefits from a European market with a limited capacity until 2030. “We will be at least five years old, until 2030, with the constrained offer,” Neil Sorahan accountfinancial director of the airline. This allows them to keep high rates and strict policies. For travelers, this means that we will have to take special care in the boarding gates, especially to comply with the regulations and not take an unpleasant surprise later. Cover image | Niels Baars and Anastasiia Nelen In Xataka | Ryanair’s new competition does not come from any European airline: it comes from India and has an ambitious plan

The US will finally continue selling engines for C919. He has also given China a reason not to need them again

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USA has given green light to continue selling engines for the Comac C919the plane with which China seeks to challenge the Airbus-Boeing duopoly. But that same decision contains a paradox: it has given Beijin one more reason to move towards Your own autonomy. Who ensures that another restriction is not applied within a few months? What will happen when that plane begins to cross borders? China has been preparing for years. The C919 is not a prototype or a laboratory promise: it is a narrow fuselage aircraft that can accommodate up to 192 seats and boasts a range of between 4,075 and 5,555 kilometers. At the moment they are in service 18 units, but orders multiply. China’s aerial dream flies with western help (for the moment) This ambitious project continues to depend largely on foreign engineering. The flight control system, the brakes, the plane, the auxiliary power unit … A good part of the critical components come from American or European companies. And in the center of everything, the engine: the LEAP-1Cdeveloped by CFM Internationala joint business between the American Ge Aeospace and the French Safran. The United States Department of Commerce Department to reactivate the export licenses of the aforementioned engines is presented as a momentary relief for China, which will be able to comply with the expected delivery deadlines, but also as a signal. As Hugh Ritchie points outCEO of Aviation Analyst International in Australia: “Without access to that technology, in essence US would control the pieces of Chinese airplanes.” China has been learning to read between the lines. Each commercial restriction, each veto, has been interpreted as a notice. When the Trump administration vetoed Huaweithe blow was very real. His market level collapsed and seemed to be out of the game. But far from resigning, Huawei redoubled his technological commitment. In 2025 he has recovered an outstanding place in the marketlaunches phones with own chips such as Kirin 9010 And he has reactivated his muscle in artificial intelligence with his new Ascend 910c. The automotive tells a similar story. For years, Chinese manufacturers dealt with the distrust of the international market. Today, names such as Byd or MG compete in price, design and autonomy with historical manufacturers. It has not been a blow of luck, but the result of a strategy. That is why C919 is not an isolated case. It is part of a pattern. So everything seems to indicate that it is a matter of time for China stop depending on Western engines. He CJ – 1000A It is the name of the engine that develops AECC (Aero Engine Corporation of China) as a national alternative to the LEAP -1C. It is not finished, it is not certified, nor does it have a green light for mass production. But progress silently. LEAP -1C, the western engine used by Chinese mate The plan has been running for years. The prototype It has completed several Tests at Banco Esque 2018. According to Airinsightthe declared objective is that the CJ -1000A is ready to replace the LEAP -1C in the future versions of the C919 throughout this decade. The most optimistic forecasts indicate that the Chinese engine could be certified for commercial flights around 2030, although a 2035 distant is also on the horizon. China has several arguments to continue working in that direction. The Chinese aviation market is one of the largest on the planet, and grows with a speed that few can match. According to the commercial Boeing Market Outlook 2024–2043China will need around 8,600 new commercial airplanes during the next two decades. Comac wants to keep a portion of that demand. And if you get it, you will not need to leave the country to become a relevant actor. That explains why the C919 can be allowed to operate exclusively within China as long as it advances in international certifications. Also why their own engines – although they are not ready tomorrow – have guaranteed an entrance way. An internal market of that size offers something that few economies can ensure: scale. In parallel, Comac does not hide its outer ambition. The European regulator (EASA) estimates that C919 certification could reach between three and six years since 2025which places the possible approval between 2028 and 2031. If you get it, it will finally make the leap out of its borders. Images | Comac | Safran In Xataka | The EkranoPlano was the most delusional plane designed by the USSR. And now China has recovered it without anyone knowing why

Two 19 -year -old kids put Spanish national security with a bot and a telegram channel. The reason: they bored themselves

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It happened a few days ago. The National Police had arrested two young people by the Data filtration of Pedro Sánchez and other high positions of the State. A massive filtration that, In police wordsis a “very serious threat to national security.” Behind all this there is no large group of perfectly coordinated hackers, only two 19 -year -old Canarian kids and a bot that they sold on Telegram. @Akkaspace and @pakito. They are the nicks of the two authors of the filtration. Yoel (Akkaspace), the main responsible, is a computer student and was arrested at his home on July 1. Next to him also stopped Pakito (Cristian), who was aware of his friend’s activities and would have participated in helping him promote them. Yesterday July 3 They were releasedalthough they are being investigated for an alleged crime of terrorism and will have to appear in the played twice a month. A bot. It is the tool they have used to extract the data. The bot was in charge of tracking previously compromised databases. That is, they have taken advantage of existing vulnerabilities in companies and institutions. In Declarations to Eldiariosecurity expert Rafael López, says they have used OSINT, OR INTELLIGENCE OF OPEN SOURCESand it has not been a hacking as such. Yoel himself said in an interview he gave on Twitch with his face covered: With a bot that I have, with which I have taken everything basically. I take databases, Indexo, and people, if you buy the bot, searching for a full name, a phone number or a ID, you can access all the information. This is how I have done politicians. Filtration. The investigation began weeks ago in Telegram. @Akkaspace and @pakito used a channel with more than 90,000 members to start spreading personal data from public figures, although later they were closed and used other more minority channels. In the beginning it only affected seven personalities, but little by little they were filtering more data, getting to involve the president of the Government himself. The data contained in the filtration includes birth dates, telephones, ID numbers and even homes, although some were apparently outdated. Motivation. “We are two boring kids,” said Yoel on Twitch, which denies that there is an ideological motivation behind the filtration. “And as the issue of corruption is being uncovered lately, why don’t we get the information from those politicians and publish it? It is a lesson,” he said. Although it is not clear what led him to filter the data, everything indicates that there would be an economic motivation. Yoel sold the databases and the bot itself with which it extracted the data, which it charged in Bitcoins. An undercover agent. This is how they hunt. The National Audience car includes that an undercover agent “has managed to buy from the investigated access to the database that sold for 60 euros that have been paid in Bitcoins. “The second investigated, Cristian or @Pakito would be in charge of managing the cryptocurrency portfolio where they received the payments, although it has not transcended how much they won. Images | National Police in X In Xataka | Alcasec is not any youth hacker: he set up a Spanish criminal infrastructure that even had customer service bot

He returned his rental car and found an extra bill of $ 400. The reason: the AI ​​hunted a tiny scratch

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During a trip, unforeseen events may arise. That is something relatively common, assumed and that must internalize anyone who considers making the bags to spend a few days away from home. Much less frequent is what happened to Patrick, a traveler who recently encountered a bill of More than 400 dollars When he returned his rental car at the Hertz branch of the International Airport Hartsfield-Jackson from Atlanta, in the US. The reason: A system with AI He analyzed the vehicle thoroughly and in just a few seconds he discovered that he had a scratch of several centimeters on a rear wheel. The story He has revealed it The Drive And more than one tourist who considers renting a car this vacation is probably removed. At least around Atlanta, in the US. Patrick recently, a client of Thriftya vehicle rental company linked to the international chain Hertz, found a surprise when he wanted to return the vehicle that had leased. Betrayed by algorithms The man did the usual one: he went to the company’s branch, delivered the vehicle (from the Volkswagen brand) and gave the procedure per setback. After a few minutes, however they told him that he had to pay a whopping $ 440. The reason? The company had identified a friction on the rear wheel on the driver’s side, a 2.5 cm scrape whose arrangement had to pay. Not just that. The company also broken down to him how he had calculated those $ 440. Of that amount almost half would be dedicated to repair. The rest corresponded to a series of expenses that made Patrick crawl the eyebrow. According to the company$ 125 responded to processing and 65 to administrative expenses. The man also found that the invoice came through a web application that contributed the damage test and allowed him to enjoy A small discountor as long as he paid at the same time. According to collect The Driveif it accepted the conditions and disbursed the money in 48 hours the company offered a bonus of 52 dollars. In case something else was delayed, but did not miss more than a week would be 32.5. The man chose not to pay. Moreover, when a few days ago He spoke with The Drive He had not yet paid the amount that the company claims for the wheel scrape. “Save 30 dollars to accept responsibility is not worth it,” says the driver, who after meeting the invoice first resorted to the Chatbot from Hertz (without too successful) and then sent an email to the company. So far the story is curious, but what makes the case of Patrick exceptional and has caught the media attention from other countries It is how the company detected the damage on the rear wheel of its Volkswagen. The merit was not of any operator or worker of the Branch of Atlanta International Airport especially diligent when examining the cars. No. The failure in the wheel was located by a New scanning system of cars that is based on AI. In April Hertz announced An alliance with Uveye, a firm specialized in the inspection of vehicles with AI, precisely to apply its technology in the US. “The camera systems with the Uveye and the algorithms of Machine Learning They allow automated inspections in real time of the body, the crystals, tires and low “, He claims Hertzwhich emphasizes that the new technology allows you to detect failures “with unprecedented speed and precision.” {“Videid”: “X91SZ26”, “Autoplay”: False, “Title”: “This is the perfect shipment of an airplane and no airline does it ❌✈️”, “Tag”: “Webedia-prod”, “Duration”: “567”} Already then The company advanced That the system would be released in Hartsfield-Jackson, although its objective is to expand it in not much time to the main US airfields. The company also claims that by “complementing” traditional exams with Uveye technology, it can guarantee its customers “more efficient and transparent reviews”, the latter nuance that He stressed These days a The Drive. The app that informed Patrick in fact included A photo of the scrape and another of the same part of the car just when he rented. The service, yes, does not seem free to leave. Hertz He explained That the so -called processing rate, which at least in the case of Patrick represents a sensitive part of the invoice, corresponds to “the cost of detecting and estimating damage during rent.” As for the administrative rate that includes the invoice, “it covers part of the costs incurred by Hertz by processing the claim.” Images | Uveye Via | Motorpasion In Xataka | Car rental: what is important to look before hiring (Function () {Window._js_modules = Window._js_modules || {}; var headelement = document.getelegsbytagname (‘head’) (0); if (_js_modules.instagram) {var instagramscript = Document.Createlement (‘script’); }}) (); – The news He returned his rental car and found an extra bill of $ 400. The reason: the AI ​​hunted a tiny scratch It was originally posted in Xataka by Carlos Prego .

We are far from getting the pill that can replace food. The reason we may not get it is very simple

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Today we can find a huge variety of Nutrients in the form of pill or in a similar format: vitamins, minerals and other compounds that our body generally obtains from food, in a more “practical” format. Some of these pills in fact incorporate a wide variety of these nutrients. This leads us to raise an issue: why not everyone. Is it possible to concentrate all micro- and macronutrients, and all the energy contribution that our body needs in a simple format? And if it is, are we close to achieving it? If someone hoped that the answer to this last question was something different from a resounding “no”, he was wrong. To understand why it is so difficult we have to understand a key detail: not all nutrients are the same and some simply do not fit in a single pill. The first thing we should know for understand the great difficulty to which we would face if we wanted to create A pill to feed It is how we classify nutrients. We usually distribute them into two groups. The first is that of macronutrients that covers three categories: fat or lipids, carbohydrates, and proteins or amino acids. The second, that of micronutrients, which covers the vitamins and minerals that our body requires for its function. The difference between the categories can be intuited by name (and advances the great reason why it is difficult to concentrate the food in a pill), is the amount. We can see food as a mechanism of our body to obtain two things. The first, chemical elements and compounds that you need in your daily function such as amino acids, minerals or vitamins. The second is energy, which obtains mainly through two key macronutrients: carbohydrates and fats (although our body can “recycle” its own proteins as an emergency energy source). Energy is the main problem, and even the most energy concentrated foods, FatsThey require relatively large volumes to be able to provide us with the energy we need (Between 1,600 and 3,000 calories a day in adultsdepending on our body and our habits). The idea of lipid supplements It is not new, but concentrating the necessary amount of fat to replace a meal in a single pill (in which we would also have to include other compounds) does not seem viable, so in the best case we would become dependent on the consumption of several pills to consume throughout the day. “Human beings are never going to eat pills such as food … pills can never be made in a way that contain enough caloric volume,” he explained in an article published in 1936 in the Jefferson City post-tribune (according to He collected more recently The British chain BBC) The professor of the University of Comumbia Milton A. Bridges. “Experfically plausible to provide all the necessary vitamins and minerals in a meal in the form of a pill. But you cannot achieve calories if it is not eating food.” We still have no food in pill but we do have products that try to offer us all the micro and macronutrients that our body needs in a more bulky formatthe milkshake. Slopes of this type are not new: a decade ago they began to popular formulas Like Soylent or Joylent. Is it possible to subsist and stay healthy with these formulas? We do not know, but there are two reasons that lead us to doubt. The first is that human nutrition is very complex. We know a lot about it but it is possible that our bodies require traces of some micronutrient that we have not considered. This is not necessarily the case, but it is a possibility. To know this we would have to put this type of test formulas in rigorous experiments and long term. Something is complicated today. The second issue has to do with the diversity of our bodies: people of different age, sex or body mass would need specific formulas for adapt to your body’s requirements. Even controlling these variables we would also find a huge diversity caused by health disorders and conditions, habits and daily activities, and other factors very difficult to introduce if we would like to customize the pills or The smoothies To consume. Reducing our diet to a series of pills would undoubtedly have their advantages. But it would be difficult to make us lose, as a species, our taste for gastronomy. This way of feeding ourselves is today science fiction and for many surely of the subgenre focused on dystopia: after all, these formulas, practices on a day -to -day basis, eliminate the agency and the feeling of having free will. This does not mean that these options could not have their niche, for example facilitating food in Interplanetary trips or in other contexts in which access to food could be more complicated. In Xataka | We have asked two nutritionists to blind a weekly menu created with GPT-4. It has been very well stopped Image | Danilo.Alvesd

If you ask the IAS to choose a number between 1 and 50, they usually choose 27. The reason is very human

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You may want to do the test. Go to Chatgptto Gemini to Claude OA Perplexityand see everyone asking to choose a number between 1 and 50. It is not certain that everyone does it, but there is a high probability that The chosen number is 27. What is happening? Andrej Karpathy asked it months ago, one of the best experts in AI in the world. Actually his initial perception was that “All LLM sound the same“That is, everyone speaks surprisingly and also answers very similarly. Chatbots usually give similar answers in their formulation to our questions if they are factual. That is, if they are based on verifiable facts, such as “what is Rafa Nadal’s age?” The funny thing is that in many cases give the same answer when what we ask is much farther. For example, that they choose a number between 1 and 50. You ask several chatbots, and everyone chooses on 27. What happens here? Karpathy himself I recovered that question A few hours ago with a discovery I had seen In Reddit: Those who had done the test proved that most chatbots answered the same thing: 27. In The answer to his comment in x Many users “Although not all— They showed captures either Shared conversations of different chatbots that had precisely answered with that same number. Coincidence or problem of the IAS? The condemnation of human biases Because? In one of the responses of the chatbots who answered the user, he just asked that to AI. This answered that he had chosen that number because he avoids the ends, because it is beautiful mathematically (the cube of three), and 27 “Give the feeling of being random but human”. And there is one of the keys: the IAS try to answer in a similar way as a human would. An entrepreneur named Chester Zelaya precisely elaborated a theory curious about this phenomenon. For him the models used games theory and try to “win” to guess the number. For this they adopt a binary search strategy that allows building A binary tree. And in the game of guessing that number between 1 and 50, 27 is a starting number that according to him is especially adequate (although not the only one). However, another way of explaining that AI frequently chooses 27. AI models have been trained by humans with human data, and therefore they are full of biases included in these data and used voluntarily or involuntarily by those people. The “7” is an especially frequent number on its own or as a termination, and As explained Another user called Yogi, that human bias is everywhere. “That is why when you ask multiple LLM to choose a” randomly “number, they all respond with confidence 27. Not because it is random, but because it is predictably popular.” Almost 7,000 people chose a number between 1 and 100 in an experiment. And many chose 69, and then 7 and 77. Source: Reddit It is also a very reasonable theory. An experiment carried out years ago on social networks asked people to choose a number between 1 and 100. Of the 6,750 people who responded conclusion was reached that the number that had been chosen most was —Us— on 69. And after him, 7 and 77 were also especially frequent. There are, as always, exceptions to the rule. In my tests I have been able to verify how almost all chatbots chose number 27, but there were one that did not. The same thing happened to many X uuarios, who found that when they asked Grok, the number chosen It was 42. Very appropriate. Image | Xataka with chatgpt In Xataka | The old dream of “resuscitating” your deceased relative is realizing thanks to AI. And there is a whole business behind

Quantum computers threaten encryption technologies. This is the reason why we do not have to panic

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This month is being very exciting for enthusiasts who follow up the current Quantum computers. Xanadu, a young Canadian company founded in 2016, has announced that Plan to have ready before 2030 A quantum computer of one million photonic ulna with error correction. However, it is not the only company that intends to make this milestone come true. IBM plans to make available to its customers in 2029 ‘Starling’its first large -scale quantum computer endowed with the ability to amend your own mistakes. The main problem facing quantum computers in the field of error correction is noise, understood as the disturbances that can alter the internal state of the cubits and introduce calculation errors. In any case, if finally the correction of errors comes to fruition the prototypes of quantum computers that we have currently will leave behind their status of prototypes and allow us to face really significant problems. And presumably Bitcoin encryption and other cryptocurrencies will fall. We are facing a worrying challenge Quantum computer experts have known for several years that quantum computers They will end classical cryptography. That moment came in May 2024. A team of researchers from the University of Shanghai (China) led by Professor Wang Chao used a quantum computer D-Wave for I successfully violate the SPN encryption (Substitation-Permutation Network), which is a cryptographic algorithm that is used to encrypt information. This encryption is the cornerstone of, for example, the AES standard (Advanced Encryption Standard), which is used a lot. These scientists published the result of their research in An interesting article entitled “Public Cryptographic Attack Algorithm based on quantum processing with the advantage of D-Wave”. However, this is not all. And it is that in the middle of May several Google researchers They published an entry In the blog dedicated to the security of this American company in which they support a crucial premise: an integer RSA (Rivest – Shamir – Adleman) of 2,048 bits can factor in less than a week with a quantum computer of less than one million cubits. An RSA integer of 2,048 bits can be factor in less than a week with a quantum computer of less than one million cubits Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana and the other modern cryptocurrencies use a cryptography technique known as elliptical curve that is more robust, efficient and difficult to break than RSA, but its mathematical foundations are similar to those of the latter encryption algorithm. In fact, according to Google scientists signed by the article that I have mentioned above, if the future quantum computers will cost them less than initially breaking the RSA encryption, the cryptography of elliptical curve will also fall with relative ease. So far we have talked about cryptocurrencies, but it is crucial that we do not overlook that encryption technologies have a fundamental role in our daily lives. In fact, WhatsApp and Telegram use them to encrypt our messages; Banks turn to them to Protect our transactions And every time we buy something on the Internet, it is the encryption that is responsible for protecting our credit card information. These are just some of the applications of this technology. Keith Martin, professor of the Information Security Group at the University of London (England), has published in The conversation An interesting article in which it addresses this topic. And it reminds us of something important: the threat of quantum computers to encryption technologies is very real, but we have no reason to panic because many researchers have been working on the solution to this challenge for several years. In fact, most of the theoretical work is already done. In 2024 the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) of the United States published an initial set of standards that includes a post -mecuantic keys exchange mechanism and several postcuantic digital signature schemes. The work that is already done invites us to anticipate that at the time the relevant quantum computers appear from a cryptographic point of view Technologies will already be ready They will be able to protect our information. And in all likelihood these techniques will also be in the hands of quantum computers, such as Juan José García Ripoll holdsResearcher at the Institute of Fundamental Physics of the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC). Image | IBM More information | The conversation In Xataka | China manufactures quantum computers as if it were life in it. Its best plant is capable of producing eight at the same time

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