remains

A teenager discovered the ‘Málaga’ virus and ended up founding VirusTotal. The enigma that remains is the same since 1992: who programmed it

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Bernardo Quintero (@bquintero) was 14 years old and his first PC, an Amstrad PC-1512, had just arrived home. It was 1987, and the co-founder of VirusTotal He was excited by this machine that allowed him to exploit his computer curiosity. His hobby ended up being trying to circumvent the copy protection systems of some games, and he was there one day when something suddenly happened. A little white ball moved on your screen. By itself. Without him having done anything. He soon discovered that it was a computer virus. One that he ended up studying to know how to detect and eliminate it. He succeeded, and over the next three years he ended up improving his first antivirus, a tool that allowed him to recognize and eradicate seven different viruses he had encountered. It didn’t seem like that project was going to go much further, and Quintero began his studies in Computer Science at the Polytechnic University School of Malaga. In one of the first classes, a professor asked if anyone wanted to raise a grade with a Pascal programming project. He signed up, and when talking to the professor, he asked him if he had done any previous projects. “Well, yes,” he replied. “An accounting program, disk utilities, an antivirus…”. The teacher cut him off. “Did you say antivirus?”. When he answered affirmatively, the professor asked him to accompany him to his office. There he showed him how the entire IT department had been infected by a virus that the antivirus did not recognize. Fragment of the code in Turbo Pascal 5.5 of the antivirus that Bernardo Quintero developed to eliminate the “Málaga-2610” virus (1992). Source: Bernardo Quintero. Quintero soon detected where the problem could be and went home with an infected disk to work on an antivirus. It took him more than he thought, but after a few hours he managed to figure out how to detect it and delete it. That helped him pass the subject, but it also ended up being the definitive seed of the professional project that would end with the founding of Virus Total. He tells it all in more detail in his novel, ‘Infected‘, which he published at the beginning of the year and in which he narrates those beginnings and how that ended up leading him to create VirusTotal, the Malaga company that would later end up being bought by Google. That virus in his faculty was called “Málaga”, and Quintero spent years without paying much attention to it again. So, three years ago, this expert posted a message on Twitter (X) to try to solve the mystery of who would have created it. Already then he discovered that according to several sources the virus had been created at the Polytechnic School of Informatics. The objective, I counted thenit was not about bringing the name to light, but about chatting with that person and remembering those times. He failed to reveal the mystery, and that mystery remained unsolved again. But Bernardo Quintero never forgot that and returned to the fray with a new attempt a few days ago. After first publishing a message on X, the next day he published a summary of that story on LinkedInand asked for help in that post to try to solve the mystery once and for all. We contacted him, and he told us how while in the past he had focused on discovering how it infected and creating the disinfection tool, he never tried to find out who had created the “Malaga” virus. But he told us that “now, looking at it with new eyes, I have seen a couple of interesting details and I have discovered the motivation.” In fact, he adds that thanks to those messages on X and LinkedIn “I have received stories from several people who studied those years at the Polytechnic of Malaga and who believe they know the author.” Of those candidates, he explains, “I have ruled out 3 or 4, but there is one that fits very well with the new data I have.” The mystery seems to be close to being solved. “I just need to clear up one unknown to confirm the author.. And if it is confirmed, there is a beautiful and sad story that will be worth telling.” Everything therefore indicates that it will finally be known who was the author of that virus, and Quintero has promised to tell more details these days. We will be attentive. Image | Mika Baumeister In Xataka | The computer with the most malware in the world: this is MICE, the challenge of Bernardo Quintero and VirusTotal

The only Russian access gate to the ISS remains out of service. And that is forcing NASA to take action

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“We are taking a very serious risk; we have no technical reserves for platform number 31; There is only one position for Soyuz-2 launches (in Baikonur),” warned Dmitri Rogozin, then director general of Roscosmos, on January 25, 2022. That wake-up call went almost unnoticed, but today it takes on unexpected weight. What was then described as a structural vulnerability has become an immediate problem for Russia’s ability to reach low orbit. And, in turn, for the operational balance of the International Space Station. That reflection of 2022 seemed distant until the last takeoff from Baikonur showed that the lack of redundancy is no longer a hypothetical risk. Platform 31/6, from where manned missions and freighters take off to the ISS, was damaged after the launch of Soyuz MS-28 (Expedition 74). The ship docked without problems, but the ramp did not pass the test. From that moment on, the question stopped being technical and became operational: what does it mean for the only infrastructure configured for these missions to be out of service from one day to the next. What happened in Baikonur and how is Russian access to the ISS? The first images of the Baikonur complex after the launch showed that the incident had not been minor. The service platform located under the rocket, a mobile structure of about 20 tons used for access prior to takeoff, a fall appeared in the ramp pit. According to sources consulted by Ars Technica, everything indicates that it was not secured correctly and was ejected by the thrust of Soyuz-2. Roscosmos admitted damage to “several elements” of the complex, although without going into details. The visible magnitude of the impact suggests a more complex repair than the official message indicates. Condition of damaged platform in Baikonur, Kazakhstan Now, one of the least visible elements of the Russian program is the diversity of platforms from which the different Soyuz take off. However, only a subset of them meets the technical and orbital conditions to send crew or cargo to the ISS. That detail explains why the damage in Baikonur generates such an immediate impact on international planning. Current overview of the main ramps: Baikonur, Kazakhstan. Site 31/6 (Soyuz-2): ramp used for manned missions and Progress freighters. Currently not operational. Baikonur, Kazakhstan. Site 45 (Baiterek/Soyuz-5): future candidate, still in the testing phase and without certification for missions to the ISS. Baikonur, Kazakhstan. Gagarin’s Start: symbolic installation of the Soviet program, today deactivated and in the process of becoming a museum. Plesetsk, Russia: designed for high and polar orbits, it is not suitable for reaching the inclination of the ISS. Vostochny, Russia: in use for cargo missions, but not configured for crewed flights or missions to the ISS. The temporary paralysis of the Russian capacity to launch missions to the station affects a decisive element of the orbital ecosystem: the Progress freighters. These ships not only transport supplies for the Russian segment, but also provide the fuel necessary to periodically raise the orbit of the ISS and use their thrusters to assist in attitude control. Other ships, such as Dragon or Cygnus, have demonstrated ability to contribute in part to these tasksalthough they do not cover all uses of Progress. NASA’s response was not long in coming. According to internal planning cited by Ars Technica, lThe agency has advanced two Dragon cargo missions to ensure sufficient operating margin in the coming months. CRS-34, initially scheduled for June 2026, moves to May, and CRS-35 moves from November to August. One source describes these changes as a “direct result” of the Baikonur incident. The goal is simple: ensure that the station has supplies without depending on the uncertain schedule of upcoming Progress missions. Launch of Soyuz MS-28 from Baikonur on November 27, 2025 From the outside, the agency has insisted that the station maintains sufficient capacity for the maneuvers of reboot and attitude control and that no immediate impacts are expected. Everything seems to indicate that the rescheduling of the Dragon missions works as an additional cushion. Roscosmos claims to have of the necessary spare parts and maintains that the repairs will be completed “in the near future.” However, the official estimate contrasts with the valuations collected by the Russian newspaper Kommersant. In that publication, Aleksandr Khokhlov, a member of the St. Petersburg branch of the Russian Cosmonautics Federation, maintains that the repairs could be prolonged from half a year to more than a yeardepending on the actual extent of the damage. Added to this are the extreme temperatures in Kazakhstan in winter and the budgetary pressure derived from the war in Ukraine. What happened at Baikonur reminds us that the architecture of the station depends on both technical decisions and political priorities. NASA has already reinforced its operating margin and now the question is how Russia will respond to a setback that reveals the lack of redundancies in its infrastructure. The pace of repair and the willingness to sustain their participation will mark the stability of the program in the coming months. Ultimately, this episode anticipates the challenges of a stage in which the ISS requires more effort than is sometimes visible. Images | NASA (1, 2, 3) | Roscosmos In Xataka | We already know when the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS will be closest to Earth and what’s better: how to see it

The existence of lightning remains a mystery to atmospheric physics. Austria has given us a clue to solve it

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It seems unbelievable, but in the middle of 2025 one of the most common and violent phenomena of nature continues keeping many secrets. This is the case of raywhich we know how to protect ourselves from and we know that Franklin had very right with your kite. But if we ask an atmospheric physicist what exactly detonates the first spark inside a cloud to start the download, you’ll probably shrug your shoulders. The discovery. We would expect the answer to this classic meteorology question in the sky itself, but in reality it seems to be in a laboratory in Austria. It has been here where they have achieved something that seems like magic: using lasers to trap microscopic particles in the air, and almost by accident, discovering a charging mechanism that could be the ‘missing link’ in the formation of lightning in our sky. What we knew. For lightning to strike, it is necessary that there is a monstrous electric field that breaks the resistance of air, something that has a name: dielectric breakdown. The problem is that when we measure the electric fields inside a thundercloud, the numbers don’t add up: They are too low to initiate lightning on their own. This means that scientists have long suspected that the secret was in the aerosols and ice crystals that collide within a cloud. And the theory is quite clear: if a small particle could accumulate enough charge, then it has the ability to create a micro-electric field around it so intense that it would start a chain reaction. The problem is that studying a microscopic ice grain in the middle of a storm is impossible, since we can be next to it and we cannot lower the cloud to the ground either. That is why this is where this research comes in, which has found a high-tech solution with optical tweezers. The experiment. To find the answer, a 532 nm green laser was used to make lift a silica sphere just a micron in diameter. But… Why? In this case, the initial objective was to measure forces precisely, but they encountered something very strange: the laser itself that held the particle was electrically charging it. Far from being a mistake, they realized that they had in front of them a perfect tool to simulate the atmosphere in miniature. It was no longer necessary to go to a cloud to analyze it. In this way, they began to charge a particle with so much static electricity that it caused a dielectric breakdown in the air around them, discharging themselves suddenly. They had literally created a controlled micro-ray in the laboratory. The authors of the study explicitly suggest that this system is an ideal model to study the electrification of aerosols and clouds. Its importance. Until now, studying these phenomena required getting into a storm-chasing plane or relying on computer simulations. But now we have the ability to simulate these conditions in a controlled way. And it is also ideal to understand why sometimes the sky seems like it is going to break in our own heads. Images | Michael Mancewicz In Xataka | What is a dry storm: when the sky throws lightning, but the rain never reaches the ground

nutrition remains unclear and we continue to improvise

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In the new Frankenstein of Guillermo del Toro there is a silent detail that is repeated: Victor Frankenstein—played by Oscar Isaac—drinks milk. As a child, as an adult, at family dinners, even at a solemn moment when you are presented with a bottle of milk as if it were wine. In Gothic language, this gesture symbolizes innocence, purity, duality. But beyond the metaphor, something draws attention: that silent debate that touches our daily lives. Victor drinks milk without hesitation. Us, not so much. Whole? Semi? Skimmed? Because, unlike in movies, in the real world not even science is clear about what milk we should be drinking. Welcome to the dairy maze. An everyday food in an impossible debate. The debate is not trivial. We are talking about a food that is consumed daily, that is part of official recommendations, that is linked to cardiovascular risk and that even enters school programs. If one reviews the most cited studies, the sensation is peculiar: it is as if science described three parallel realities about the same food. In a recent large Norwegian study Those who drank more whole milk had a 7% higher risk of dying from cardiovascular disease. However, another study, published in Science Direct within the CARDIA studyfound just the opposite: those who drank more whole milk had a 24% lower risk of arterial calcification, an early marker of coronary heart disease. Yes, one study says “more risk” and another says “less risk.” It is not a typo. The confusion continues. A 2016 clinical trial showed that a blood pressure-lowering diet worked just as well using full-fat dairy as it did with low-fat dairy. And the studies on weight do not provide clarity either: the 2020 meta-studies, together with previous studies, agree that whole milk It is not more fattening than the skimmed one, despite having more calories. In fact, the Framingham Heart Study, published in Nature, relate greater dairy consumption —including yogurt—with less weight gain and long-term waist. So what are we left with? The magic—and misleading—word: “neutral.” Into this chaos comes Harvard to launch another narrative twist. According to its researchers, dairy products appear to be “neutral” for cardiovascular health. That is, they do not increase the risk of heart attack or stroke, but they do not reduce it either, when compared to the average diet. Now, Harvard adds a key nuance: “neutral” does not mean “healthy.” It only indicates that dairy products are as unhealthy as the rest of the common foods in the Western diet, such as refined cereals, soft drinks or processed meats. If instead of comparing them with these, we compare them with vegetable proteins (nuts, soy, legumes), the balance clearly leans towards the vegetable options, with less cardiovascular risk and lower mortality. So the scientific picture, for now, is anything but clear. Why so much contradiction? The mess is not accidental. Science does not contradict itself for the sake of it; It does this because the studies measure different things and compare foods that are not equivalent. For example, both in harvard as Washington Post They explain that many studies that conclude that dairy products are “neutral” compare them with very unhealthy foods: sugary soft drinks, processed meats, products with refined flour… It is easy to “look healthy” when the rival is an industrial sausage. But if the rival is nuts or soybeans, the results change radically. Another factor is the call dairy matrix. Cheese, for example, has saturated fats, yes, but also bacteria, proteins, vitamins and polar lipids that can modify how the body absorbs that fat. Whole milk contains compounds whose function we still don’t fully understand: some studies suggest that they may reduce inflammation or decrease intestinal absorption of cholesterol. This complexity means that the same nutrient—saturated fat—does not behave the same in dairy products as it does in meat. In addition, the genetic variant must be taken into account. The ability to digest lactose varies depending on the population. In northern Europe only 5% are intolerant; in Asia, up to 95% are. This implies that the same food can have very different digestive, metabolic and inflammatory effects depending on the person. One last detail of nothing. Most studies are observational, not experimental. That is, they detect associations, not causes. If people who drink skim milk usually do so because they want to control their weight, their level of exercise, their overall diet, or their risk factors also influence the results. And vice versa. Sometimes, more than studying milk, what is studied is the lifestyle of those who drink it. This battle is the milk. In Spain there is also a small shift taking place. After decades in which skimmed milk was the almost mandatory option for anyone who wanted to “take care of themselves”, whole milk has begun to regain prestige. Nutritionists and disseminators they have been pointing out for months something that was previously overlooked: that dairy fat not only provides flavor, but also satiety and fat-soluble vitamins such as A and D, which are lost when the fat is eliminated and then attempted to be reintroduced artificially. As explained by nutritionists cited by Infosalus“whole milk retains all its properties,” while skimmed milk may be more difficult to digest for some people. At the same time, the skim deflates. One could talk about “end of caloric fundamentalism”: that stage when we thought that removing fat was always synonymous with health. Experts now warn that reducing fat does not always compensate if, in return, we lose satiety or end up adding other more caloric or sugary foods to “fill” hunger. Not everything comes from the cow. Meanwhile, plant-based drinks continue their rise, but with important nuances. Mayo Clinic remember that most They have less protein, may include added sugars and, unless fortified, do not match the calcium naturally present in cow’s milk. Soy is the only one that comes close nutritionally, but even so, calcium absorption is lower due to the presence of phytates. Taken together, all sources … Read more

It is not an alien ship, but remains of a distant planet

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When astronomers detected a third interstellar object visiting our solar system, they probably did not imagine that it would have an even greater impact than the previous two. The fault was with the first estimates of its size, which had a colossal upper limit of 20 kilometers, which led to several articles by Harvard professor Avi Loeb arguing that it could be “a possibly hostile extraterrestrial probe“. Although the latest observations disprove that it is an alien ship, they open new possibilities. Goodbye to the alien hypothesis. The idea that 3I/ATLAS was a spacecraft was based on a number of apparent anomalies. Avi Loeb argued that its trajectory, unusually aligned with the ecliptic plane of our solar system, its enormous size and its supposed stealth approach were suspicious. It suggested that the object could be performing a maneuver to remain unnoticed while exploring our planets. However, later observations dismantled these arguments one by one. The sharpest image of the comet, captured by the Hubble Space Telescope, was devastating for Loeb’s theory. It turned out that we were totally wrong about its size. The real core did not measure 20 km, but between 320 meters and 5.6 kilometers. The initial estimate had been misled by the bright, extensive “coma” of gas and dust surrounding the true core. On the other hand, the behavior of the object, with an asymmetric material ejection and the formation of a dust tail, confirmed that it behaved like a classic comet, and not like a ship with artificial propulsion. But perhaps it is not just any comet, but a very, very interesting one. A piece of exoplanet? According to a new hypothesis, presented in a study pending review3I/ATLAS could be a piece of an extrasolar planet: a “lithified clastic fragment” torn from a sedimentary basin on a distant world that has traveled through the cosmos to reach us. In other words, a rock made up of layers of hardened sediment, similar to those we find on Earth in ancient river or lake beds, but from outside the solar system. Geoscientist Eahsanul Haque’s hypothesis is supported by several previous analyses. On the one hand, the trajectory of 3I/ATLAS suggests that it comes from the thick disk of the Milky Way, a region populated by stars much older than our Sun, up to 7 billion years old. This implies that the object formed in a planetary system with more than enough time to develop complex geological processes, including the liquid water activity necessary to create sedimentary basins. And its size is consistent with the size of large fragments that could be ejected from a planet after a high-speed impact. But wasn’t it a comet? The presence of a comma and a tail does not contradict this idea. Water and other volatiles could have been trapped in the pores of the sedimentary rock. As it approached the Sun, the heat would have caused the sublimation of these ices, generating the observed cometary activity without the main object being a “dirty snowball.” Its spectrum resembles that of D-type asteroids, rich in carbon and silicates2 This composition is compatible with that of terrestrial sedimentary rocks, such as shales or sandstones, which often contain clay and carbonaceous material formed in aqueous processes. All eyes on 3I/ATLAS. The interest in this interstellar traveler has been such that space agencies have mobilized their instruments to study it. The European Space Agency (ESA) targeted its Martian orbiters, ExoMars TGO and Mars Expresstowards the comet during its closest approach to Mars. Although the enormous distance (30 million km) made observation a technical challenge, the images captured the diffuse coma that surrounds it. It is expected that future observations, such as from the Juice probe, which will see it in a more active state after its close pass to the Sun, will reveal more data about its composition. But if 3I/ATLAS has already taught us something, it is the importance that missions such as the Comet Interceptor probe planned by ESA. Without a fixed target, it is designed precisely to wait in space for a long-term target or, with great luck, another interstellar visitor, to then turn on its engines and head towards it. Image | THAT In Xataka | NASA ignores the Harvard study on an alleged extraterrestrial spacecraft: “it is an interstellar comet”

The main work of the creator of ‘Doom’ remains to explain how demons exist ‘doom’

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John Romero’s enthusiasm is contagious: we agree that his main work, although he continues to devote himself to programming, is essentially to explain the ‘Doom‘. And it does it great. Romero is not only very aware of the essentials for the history of the piece he created with the rest of Software idbut he knows perfectly why, today, he is still the favorite video game of many fans. And he told us with hairs and signs in the Comic-with Malagawhere he came to explain what, in his opinion, the essential bases of the DNA of the FPS genre were. The original ‘doom’ is considered today a technical feat for many reasons that Romero himself was in charge of getting ourselves meticulously, but from the first minute, he made it clear what in ID knew that he had to have the game to shine above his competitors and his venerable predecessors: an infernal speed. He tells us that “we needed to design new techniques to create light and dark in a 3D world. And how to do it with very high frame speeds, which was the biggest obstacle: try to do it very fast” To get at that speed First they had to invent a new way of making 3D: “For a time ‘doom’ looked like what we had done in Wolfenstein 3D, because we mentally still there, doing things as they were done before us.” And how were things done before? “Wolfenstein’s walls were 90 degrees completely illuminated. But in ‘Doom’ there were stairs, dark corridors, immense open spaces, lots of monsters, and nobody had never seen anything like that before. We had no references. So we could only create, test, invent and try to improve it little by little.” Everything points to amounts of demential work, and Romero confirms it: “And the speed was not everything. The sound, the multiplayer (‘doom’ was the first in high speed, and with different ways, cooperative and Deathmatch), allowing people to modify the game and change it. And, well, all these things happened in a single game. And on top of that we wanted to launch it for Christmas. “A real madness, but he does not doubt a second to remember that schedule and design it” was very fun. “ History matters There is a very widespread topic, which is that ‘doom’ has no history, and indeed, the argument is of a minimum density, but That does not mean that he does not strive to convey an atmosphere and a narrative. “There was a general history,” Romero tells us, “for which we inspire ourselves in D&D. I always try to make games different from everything that players have experienced before: with ‘Wolfenstein 3D’, no one had faced Nazis like that. In the ‘Castle Wolfenstein’ ‘on which we rely, 11 years before, you had to camouflage yourself as Nazi. And if not, you were detained without the possibility of response. And we said: ‘Let’s put in this game a frontal confrontation with the Nazis’ “ And that philosophy translates into ‘doom’: “We could not have a science fiction game in which we only kill aliens, because that was what was expected. What could we do to be different? The idea of ​​’Doom’ emerged from the ‘Dungoons & Dragons’ campaign to which we had been playing for years and that ended because the demons multiplied they multiplied with everyone What existed. And they adding elements to the mixture: “We were inspired by the movie ‘Aliens’ in the space marines and Fast action, that tension, suspense and terror of having so many things moving around youwanting to kill you. And then evil for black humor, shotgun, chainsaw and attitude. “Finally, it is time to ask for an impossible. We ask Romero to make a total summary of ‘doom’, of his influence and impact. Why do we keep talking about the game decades later? “We can divide its influence into two branches: technical and cultural,” he says. “Technically, we boost the industry towards the 3D. When things have been successful for a long time, it is not easy to overcome them. And in the eighties, the lateral displacement games had been very popular and a lot of personalized hardware was created to manage this genre, such as the Super Nintendo or the friend.” Thus, “Domestic computers and consoles wore incredible dedicated chips. A lot of work was invested in R&D to manufacture these things. And huge companies, multimillionaire companies, launched these things to the market. But we think: “We are going to go to 3D, people are tired.” But there were no graphics cards, so we had to try to make my best with what we had. Technology at full speed Another important technical aspect in ‘Doom’ is the integration of the multiplayer in the game: “Today the game that does not carry multiplayer is rare, but then the strange was incorporated. Our intention was not only to take it, but to integrate it into everything we had already created for the individual mode. We put that multiplayer mode during the last three months of the game development, when we thought” shit And we schedule it in a hurry. And culturally, how did ‘doom’ mark the environment? Romero lists some details (“Heavy metal had never been heard in a commercial game”), but stays with two aspects that certainly changed everything definitively. On the one hand, ID launched instructions to freely modify the game, which generated a community around it: “We launched the game in 1993, and In 1997 we published all source codesyou could take the game and do everything you would like with him, without consulting us. Moreover, we get involved in the community and that helped it grow out of control. “ And that was from the same concept of the game: “We created it thinking that people could change the game at will, so that it was modifiable, and we published all the data explaining how to modify the levels and others. So, … Read more

There is a ‘good’ fat that hides a secret to aging better and being fit. It only remains to get the pill

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Aging is inevitable, and with it it comes A progressive loss of physical capacity that causes it to be more difficult to walk or stand up. This makes Stay fit It becomes much more difficult and therefore the resistance begins to decline. But … what if this decline can be slow down? This is precisely what science is focused on. Fat as anti -aging. Researchers at the Rigers New Jersey Medical School They have discovered That a special type of adipose tissue, known as brown fat, could be the key not only for healthier old age, but also Improve physical performance. A study of great relevance, since it can open a new route in the anti -aging field. The team that has led this research has been able to identify an unusually powerful form of this ‘good fat’ in mice, which not only Increased his life expectancybut improved its exercise capacity by an impressive 30%. Now, the race has begun to be able to replicate these same effects in humans through a drug. Not all fat is bad. When we think of fat, the White fat or white adipose tissue. Its main function is to store excess calories in the form of triglycerides and is the one that can bother us aesthetically throughout our lives. Although in essence it is a large energy deposit. But, nevertheless, there is another type of fat that is much more interesting: brown fat or Brown adipose tissue. Unlike white, brown fat is specialized in burning calories to generate heat in a process called thermogenesis. This is possible thanks to the fact that their cells are full of mitochondria, which are the organelles that act as cellular power plants and that give it its characteristic brown color. In our life where we have more fatty fat in our body is when we are babies, since here it is crucial for Keep body temperature. But when we grow, the brown fat is lost until some cracks are around the neck and shoulders. But here the white fat is the one that dominates our body completely. One step further. Knowledge about brown fat already has a long journey in scientific literature. But it is now when this study goes further to point that it is linked to having a healthier longevity and with a much more appropriate physical exercise. How they knew it. To get to this conclusion, the researchers worked with a genetically modified mouse model to lack a protein called RGS14. The mice without this protein lived approximately 20% than their normal partners, and curiously the females lived more than the males in a pattern similar to that followed by humans. Even at the advanced ages, these mice avoided the typical signs of aging such as body atrophy, hair loss or the graying of the fur. But it does not stay here, since when submitting them to physical tests, the modified mice showed a 30% higher performance, both in distance traveled and in resistance. And all this because mice without RGS14 developed a dense and powerful brown fat than who expressed the protein correctly. The definitive test. To confirm that it was brown fat, and not another effect of genetic modification, scientists conducted a crucial experiment: transplanting the brown ‘supergras’ of mice without RGS14 to normal and healthy mice. The results were overwhelming. The mice that received this transplant improved their ability to exercise in just three days. On the other hand, when brown fat was transplanted from a normal mouse to another, an improvement was also observed, but much more and with eight weeks ahead to manifest its effects. Something that showed that the fat of the genetically modified mice was exceptionally powerful. Because? The mechanism seems to reside in an improvement in blood circulation. The indications suggest that brown fat promotes the creation of new blood cases in the muscles that improves the flow of blood and oxygen during exercise. The goal. Research suggests that this brown fat not only improves physical performance, but also protects against a series of ailments associated with age, such as obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disorders and even cancer and Alzheimer’s. Vatner’s team is already working with collaborators to develop a drug that imitates the effects of this powerful brown fat, hoping to have a compound ready to be tested in approximately one year. But the idea is not only to increase life expectancy, but “healthy life expectancy.” That is, even if you live longer, these ‘extra’ years enjoy good physical and mental health. While we expect that future pill, there are techniques such as deliberate exposure to cold (the famous ice baths) that can naturally increase our brown fat levels. However, as Vatner points out, most people would prefer to take a pill to take an ice cream bath. Images | Tatiana Zanon In Xataka | Our brain has its own backup. It is already known how to create copies in parallel of each memory

Celestis promised an unforgettable spatial tribute. A European capsule ended star with human remains inside

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The idea is, at least, singular: send a small symbolic portion of the cremated remains or a person’s DNA to space. That a part of what was a human body experience zero gravity, go around the earth and become a relic for the family. A capsule that acts as a space urn. That’s how it is Earth Riseone of the services it offers Celestisan American company with more than 30 years of experience in this business that they define as “perseverance flights.” But this time not everything went as expected. On June 23, an Earth Rise mission transported 166 capsules with human remains and DNA samples. The take -off on board a Falcon 9 rocket of Spacex was successful. The capsule, developed by the European company The Exploration Companymanaged to enter orbit and completed two laps around the planet, fulfilling the planned flight profile. So far, everything went as planned. However, something failed during the reentry process. The NYX capsule, which had to return to the earth and deliver its individual modules to each family, He suffered an anomaly. The vehicle was lost shortly after starting its descent, and ended up crashing into the Pacific Ocean. With him, human remains and flight capsules also dispersed. “We believe we can’t recover anything,” He has recognized Celestis In a statement. The Celestis container with human remains that traveled inside the NYX capsule The origin of Celestis It goes back to 1992, when NASA included a sample of the remains of Gene Roddenberry, creator of ‘Star Trek’, in a mission of the Columbia ferry. Shortly after, Celestis collaborated with the agency to send remains of the Geologist Eugene Shoemaker to the moon, making him the first buried person there. Since then, they say, they have sent more than 1,200 capsules to space, aboard commercial releases, commemorating both known figures and anonymous citizens. They have several active services: suborbital flights that return to the earth, missions to the lunar orbit or even to the deep space. Earth Rise: A farewell with round trip ticket Celestis offers several types of commemorative spatial flights, but Earth Rise is the most economical and direct. For $ 3,495, the company launches a small capsule with cremated remains or DNA. After experiencing a few minutes in microgravity, the capsule returns to Earth and gives family members as a souvenir. It is a trajectory that seeks symbolism, not permanence. For those who look for something more ambitious, there are also other options: Earth Orbit: For $ 4,995, the capsules enter into terrestrial orbit and remain there until they resent and disintegrate in the atmosphere, “like a fleeting star.” Moon: For $ 12,995, the remains are sent to the lunar orbit or even land on the surface, “becoming a permanent tax on the moon.” Voyager: Also from $ 12,995, this service launches the capsules to the deep space, beyond the moon, in a trajectory without return. A European space capsule The capsule that transported the human remains on the Perseverance flight was not any space vehicle. Was NYXa prototype developed by The Exploration Company, a startup with presence in Germany, France and Italy that seeks to make a place in the new European space race. Its proposal is clear: create reusable, rechargeable capsules in orbit and compatible with any heavy pitcher in the world. The NYX capsule, prepared for its mission, at The Exploration Company facilities According to your websitethe company was founded in 2021 by Hélène Huby and a team of engineers with experience in large European programs such as Orion-Esm, Ariane or ATV. In just three years they have built two demonstrating capsules and have sold six missions. Its development rate has been unusually rapid for the sector. The flight Possible missionin which Celestis’s funeral capsules were traveling, it was the second demonstrator of the company. It was designed to perform a controlled reentry and recover the load after completing the mission. That was, in fact, one of his key technological promises: not only reach the space, but to return. And do it precisely. It was also the first time that a Private capsule of European origin offered that type of commercial service in collaboration with an American company as Celestis. The mission was an important step for The Exploration Company, which aspires to compete in the growing orbital transport market with its future NYX Earth capsule, designed to supply space stations in low orbit. The families expected to receive a capsule that had orbited the Earth, a symbolic and emotional tribute for those who decided to bet on this unique form of farewell. It was not possible. What remains is a story of ambition and failures. Touch to wait to know if Celestis will try again in the future. Images | Celestis/Exploration Company (1, 2, 3, 4) In Xataka | Taiwan believes having found the mythical planet 9 of the Solar System. Instead of looking for his light, he has been looking for his heat

The C929 wants to be the great leap of China in commercial aviation. For now, your heart remains in Western hands

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For years, the domain of commercial sky has been in the hands of two giants: Airbus and Boeing. China wants to break that hegemony, and is willing to do it with its own name in the cabin. Comacthe China commercial aircraft corporationhe has been trying to make planes capable of competing with global references for years. First was the C919. Now, the bet is redoubled with The C929. This new model, even in a preliminary design phase, represents the most serious ambition of Beijing for placing a long -range plane on the international board. The objective is clear: to deal with heavyweights such as the Airbus A330neohe A350 or the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. And the figures accompany: capacity for about 280 passengers, an estimated autonomy of 12,000 kilometers and a design that, on paper, would allow to cover routes such as Beijing – New York. The internal deployment of C919: a discreet but strategic conquest The C919 has not conquered the global sky, but it has begun to take off within China. Since It was officially presented in 2017has gone through years of evidence, certifications and adjustments. SCMP points out thatas of June 2025, about 18 units fly domestic routes, mainly operated by airlines such as China Eastern. It may seem little, but the fact that it works only in China is not necessarily a failure. On the contrary: We talk about one of the largest aviation markets on the planet. And in that context, having its own plane capable of covering regional routes without depending on Western manufacturers is already, in itself, a strategic movement. The real commitment of Comac, however, is the C929. A plane from Width and long scope fuselage which aims to stand up to the most advanced models in the market. The project has won impulse in recent months: Air China signed an agreement To become a launch customer, and a supplier has reported that he hopes to deliver the first fuselage section in 2027. PROMOTIONAL IMAGE OF COMAC C-929 The development of C929 has a peculiar history. In the beginning, it was a joint effort with Russia. The project was then known as CR929, under the baton of a mixed company between Comac and the UAC Russian, called CRAIC (China-Russia Commercial Aircraft International Corporation). However, political tensions, the invasion of Ukraine and international sanctions on Moscow ended up forcing The dissolution of that alliance. Since 2023, Comac has moved on solo, turning C929 into an exclusively Chinese project. Comac has presented this plane highlighting several advanced technologies, including a Optimized aerodynamicsstate -of -the -art engines and integration of smart flight systems. In theory, it is a plane at the height of its western competitors. A C-919 Landing in China But there is a key detail: to fly, the C929 needs much more than Chinese wings. His “technological heart” continues to depend on the West. Safranthe French giant of the aerospace industry, He has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with COMAC to supply the brake system, ice detection, tire pressure sensors and oxygen system. For her part, the American Crane Aerospace will provide sensors for cabin doors. Although these agreements show that Comac is still able to attract international suppliers, they also put an uncomfortable reality on the table: their program remains, to a large extent, Tied to foreign technology. And that, in an uncertain global context, is a latent risk. The Russian precedent that China cannot ignore Russia offers a mirror. The latest Western sanctions cut off the country’s access to key components for its aeronautical industry. The TU-214a half-long reach that could transport between 155 and 210 passengers and fly to about 6,500 kilometers, was severely limited. Many of their critical systems depended on foreign technology. Moscow has worked since then in local substitutions, but possibly at the expense of performance and reliability. China, of course, has proven to be very resilient. He has dodged restrictions in sectors such as semiconductors, and has learned to convert traction obstacles. However, a change in United States commercial policy I could leave them without western engine. “If the US authorities prevent ge supplies the engine, then there will be no CFM engine,” A spokeswoman for Safran warned during the Paris Aeronautical Hall. Images | Comac In Xataka | The C919 Comac

We have found in the Philippines the remains of an advanced culture of navigators about 35,000 years old

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When did the human being thrown into the sea? The human being has had a close relationship with the maritime environment from the dawn of history, but we know that this link comes from beyond what our collective memory reaches. We knew that in the stone age our ancestors were able to throw themselves into the sea. Now we began to see that perhaps their techniques were even more advanced than we thought. Advanced technology. A team led by Filipino researchers has found remains that would correspond to a prehistoric culture With advanced maritime technologies. This culture would have reached Mindoro, one of the Philippines that never in recent geological history has been linked to Continental Asia, at least 35,000 years ago. A variety of artifacts. The team’s conclusion is based on a series of objects found in Mindoro deposits, a medium -sized Filipino island located north of the archipelago. Among the objects found are human and animals, including marine animal shells; as well as tools made with stone, bone and the shells themselves. The team The existence stands out of a culture that will use shells as raw material in the manufacture of tools within the temporal framework of the finding. The deposits, which cover objects of various ages, also include azuelas made of the shells belonging to specimens of the genus Tridacnathe “giant clams.” The inhabitants of Mindoro would have reached this climax of their maritime manufacturing between 7,000 and 9,000 years ago. Dominating the seas. The fact that humans reached this island already implies an indication of a certain relationship with the marine environment, but the team also found rudimentary hooks made of bone, as well as objects that would have been used as weight in fishing networks. A “maritime network.” The team also found a more modern grave, about 5,000 years old. As explainedthe burial could be linked to others found in various parts of Southeast Asia, which would suggest “shared ideological and social influences and an emerging social complexity throughout a vast area from the continent to the distant islands.” The details of the study were published In an article In the magazine Archaeological Research in Asia. A different map. The last glacial period began about 120,000 years ago and would not end until about 11,500 years ago. During that period the volume of ice in the polar areas was greater, so the sea level was lower. Environments like Mindoro They serve as an important reference To know better how, where and when the human being achieved owner of the sea. The Pacific conquest. The discovery fits with the predominant hypotheses indicating that the human being began its expansion through the Pacific Ocean about 45,000 years agostarting from Southeast Asia to New Guinea and Australia. Of course, it would not be until many millennia later (about 3,500 years ago) that humans would begin to expand their habitat to more remote archipelagos such as Samoa or Hawaii. The new study gives us therefore valuable information about how the humans of that era achieved the inhabitants of Asia to achieve the necessary dominance of the sea to undertake the most recent and perhaps the most surprising of the great migrations, the conquest of the Pacific. Millennia sailing. We began with the question of when the human being was thrown into the sea. It is a difficult question to answer since technologies such as navigation could appear in different historical moments and in different geographical and cultural contexts. It may even that the first humans to navigate did not belong to our species, the Homo sapiens. Who then? Probably some species closely linked to ours as Neanderthals (Homo Neanderthalensis); or the mysterious “flowers of flowers” (Homo Floresiensis), more related to the H. erectus. The older indications What do we have and that date back about 700,000 years ago They are linked precisely with this group that would have inhabited the island of Flores, in Indonesia, not so far from the Filipino archipelago where we have now discovered a new piece in the puzzle of human navigation. . In Xataka | We have found 21 human remains of 6,000 years ago in Colombia. They do not look like any current living population Image | Manila / Gebco Athenaeum

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