researchers

two researchers have found how to approximate it within the game

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‘Minecraft’ seems, at first glance, to be the last place we would go to look for a mathematical constant associated with perfect circles. Its world is made of cubes, its landscapes rise block by block and almost everything we see in the game has edges. That is precisely why what Molly Lynch of Hollins University and Michael Weselcouch of Roanoke College have done is so striking: finding a way to approximate π within Minecraft without turning the game into a conventional calculator. What are we trying to calculate?. π It is the constant that appears when comparing the length of a circle with its diameter. It is an irrational number with infinitely many non-repeating decimals. On paper, it seems like an idea inseparable from continuous geometry, of clean circles without edges. ‘Minecraft’ plays in another terrain: everything there is represented by discrete units. That is why the challenge is not only to obtain a number, but to translate a mathematical idea into a gridded world. Too heavy a possibility. ‘Minecraft’ has already proven to be Turing complete, a technical way of saying that, in theory, any program can be implemented within the game if the right mechanisms are built. This opens the door to calculating π as a machine would do, with logical instructions transferred to the universe of blocks. But Lynch and Weselcouch didn’t want to solve the problem by brute force. Translating records, logical operations and steps of an algorithm into ‘Minecraft’ actions would have turned a teaching idea into a huge and inaccessible construction. The choice. Choosing was not a whim, explains Spektrum. Lynch and Weselcouch wanted to bring mathematics closer to young people, and they saw the game as a particularly useful tool to do so. The point was not to demonstrate that Minecraft could replace a computer or to search for a particularly brilliant approximation of π, but rather to take advantage of its internal rules to construct a comprehensible explanation. That’s why his work explored relatively accessible methods for calculating known constants within the game, without turning the experiment into a difficult-to-follow technical demonstration. The darts method. The mathematical key chosen by Lynch and Weselcouch was a technique known as the Monte Carlo method, which the aforementioned publication explains with a very simple image: throwing darts at random against a circular target inscribed in a square. If all the impacts fall within the square, but only some within the circle, the proportion between them allows us to approach π/4. Then it is enough to multiply this result by four to obtain an estimate of π, although we are always talking about a statistical approximation. The translation to the game. Lynch and Weselcouch brought that idea to ‘Minecraft’ by first building a kind of red circle with a radius of 11 blocks, then enclosed within a blue square. From there they needed random events that could be counted, which they found in two creatures in the game: the slimes, which continue moving even if there are no players nearby and change direction at random, and the zoglins, which kill them. To record these eliminations, they used hoppers, funnel-shaped blocks capable of automatically picking up objects that fall on them. The final figure. The researchers recorded 619 dead slimes, of which 508 were eliminated within the circle, and with that data they arrived at π ≈ 3.283. To do this, they compared the deaths recorded within the circular area with the total deaths in the square. It is not a particularly precise approximation, and Lynch and Weselcouch do not hide it: the method would gain precision with a larger structure and with many more recorded deaths. But that limitation does not ruin the proposal. On the contrary, it helps to understand that the goal was to turn an abstract mathematical idea into something visible within Minecraft. Images | minecraft In Xataka | If you had any hope of buying a Steam Deck OLED at a good price, the RAM crisis has something to tell you

Researchers solve a problem that has been stuck for decades

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A team from Monash University in Australia has developed an ultrathin membrane able to operate hydrogen fuel cells at 250 °C and, most surprisingly, without the need for water. This is a wall in which technology has been crossing for a long time and the discovery has been published in the journal Science Advances. Below these lines we tell you all the details. Why is it important. Hydrogen cells are one of the great promises to decarbonize transportation, heavy industry and sectors where batteries fall short. They only emit water and heat, they recharge quickly and offer autonomy comparable to gasoline. The problem is that current membranes, such as those based on Nafion (a synthetic resin), they need to be permanently hydrated so that the protons can circulate. And that forces us to operate below 80-100 °C, because at higher temperatures the water evaporates and the entire system collapses. In detail. The team, led by researchers Huanting Wang and Kaiqiang He, has built atomic-thick nanosheets made of graphene and boron nitride. Between those layers they have introduced phosphoric acid in a state that researchers call nanoconfined, where the acid is trapped in tiny spaces from which it cannot escape or evaporate, even at 250 ° C. The result It is a membrane of just 50 micrometers, named GBP, that acts as a dry highway through which protons move at high speed without depending on a single drop of water. How it works. Wang, professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Monash, account that “by combining proton-conducting nanosheets with nanoconfined phosphoric acid, we have developed a membrane that maintains rapid proton transport without water.” The trick is in a mechanism that the authors define as synergistic, in which protons directly pass through the hexagonal rings of graphene and boron nitride and, at the same time, jump along the network of hydrogen bonds that forms the acid confined between layers. On the other hand, He adds that this combination is what gives the membrane high conductivity and stability in dry and high temperature conditions. The figures. In laboratory tests GBP achieved a proton conductivity of 166 mS cm⁻¹ at 250 °C and a power density of 1,011 mW cm⁻² in a hydrogen-oxygen stack, well above industry reference membranes. In addition, the team kept it running for 150 hours straight at that temperature without signs of degradation. Between the lines. Working at 250°C is a game-changer on several fronts. One: The water management and humidification systems are eliminated, which in current hydrogen cars are heavy, bulky and expensive. Two: at that temperature the platinum catalyst tolerates impurities better such as carbon monoxide, which opens the door to using less pure hydrogen and, therefore, cheaper to produce. Three– Cooling the system becomes much easier, allowing for smaller radiators and lighter vehicles. Beyond the car. Although we usually focus on the hydrogen cars When we talk about this type of technology, the truth is that the potential applications go much further. GBP was also tested in direct methanol cells and performed at 502 mW cm⁻² with 16 M concentrated methanol at 250 °C. This suggests that it could be used for portable systems where hydrogen is difficult to store. In addition, the authors point to uses in data centersplanes, trains, factories and hospitals as energy backup, and other electrochemical processes such as the separation of water molecules, the reduction of carbon dioxide or the synthesis of ammonia. And now what. The next step is the usual one. And when a laboratory announces an advance like this, we have to wait until it ends up coming to fruition and its commercialization on an industrial scale is viable. If they succeed, the combination of cheaper batteries, less pure hydrogen and simpler systems could accelerate the arrival of this technology in sectors where electrification with batteries does not quite fit. Cover image | CARMAN and Monash University In Xataka | The world depends on gas to produce food. Paraguay believes it has the definitive solution thanks to the Itaipú dam

A simple router is a machine capable of identifying humans with almost 100% accuracy. Or so these researchers say

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Using WiFi networks as a technology to track people is a twist in the script that not all of us saw coming. He Karlsruher Institute for Technologyone of the strongest research institutions in Germany, assures close to 100% accuracy when recognizing people without any type of camera and using it. What exactly happened. The KIT (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology) team published a paper with a promising headline: “Ordinary WiFi can identify people with almost perfect accuracy”. And this is achieved thanks to something that routers have been doing for recent years: beamforming feedback information. How the hell does this work?. To understand what it is about beamforming You must first understand how the devices emit signals. routers. In their first generations, routers emitted in all directions, just like a light bulb emits light in that way. With the most modern versions of WiFi, the way the signal is transmitted has improved. Routers began to concentrate the signal towards where the receiving device is, like a flashlight instead of a light bulb. Beanformig. That is called beamformingto form a concentrated beam and received by another device. But to aim well, the router needs to know where to point, and it is the connected devices themselves—your cell phone, your laptop—that send that information to the router continuously. Basically, they are constantly telling the router “hey, I’m here.” That message is the BFI, beamforming feedback information. And what is this for?. Now you know that your router sends information to your gadgets and that your gadgets send information to the router. When the devices send information to the router, they describe how the signal arrives, and interference along the way is recorded. Among them, human beings. Our body partially absorbs WiFi waves, reflects them, deflects them and alters how they reach the mobile phone or router. The researchers used that signal data to train models of artificial intelligencein order to detect patterns that would allow humans to be detected. They fed the system with thousands of examples associated with different people until the model learned to detect those wave changes associated with human presence. The system is not capable of visually recognizing anything in the environment, but it manages to have information about when a human is present in the environment. The caution. According to the researchers, “this technology turns each router into a potential means of surveillance.” “If you regularly pass by a café that operates a WiFi network, you could be identified there without realizing it and be recognized later, for example, by public authorities or companies.” The reality? It would be necessary for cybercriminals to develop a system identical or similar to that of the KIT to achieve a human video surveillance system through WiFi signals. The nuance. Under laboratory conditions, with 197 participants and in controlled environments, the system was close to 100% accuracy. But in the real world, it would be necessary to train a new model with data from hundreds of people in different spaces. The model is not a ready-to-deploy technology or a real threat – nor is it intended to be applied – but the research reveals how simple a priori data sets can be trained as a surveillance tool. In Xataka | There is a booming job in the era of artificial intelligence: cybersecurity expert

The history of writing seemed untouchable. Until researchers discovered a tablet on Easter Island

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Easter Island is known above all for the moaienormous head-shaped sculptures that natives carved from volcanic tuff and have fascinated scientists for decades. On the Polynesian island there is, however, another archaeological enigma that is much less visible but equally (or even more) important for humanity: the rongo rongothe pictographic writing system used by the Rapa Nui people. Linguists have not yet been able to decipher its signs, but above all they are concerned about one question: When was it invented? It may seem anecdotal, but the answer would be a milestone that would transcend Polynesia and help us better understand how humanity gave birth to one of the inventions that has most influenced history: writing. One word: rongo rongo. It is not nearly as well known as the moai, but the rongo rongo is one of the most fascinating treasures that we owe to the Rapa Nuithe Polynesian natives of Easter Island. It basically consists of a writing system based on pictograms that is preserved in a series of tablets spread around the world. Experts estimate that it is made up of 400 charactersalthough its meaning and logic remains surrounded by unknowns. The experts they have not been able to decipher it Still, something understandable if two pieces of information are taken into account. First, although rongo rongo has centuries of history, Europeans were not interested in it until the 19th. We owe much of the credit to the French missionary Eugene Eyraudwho shortly before dying described the symbols that covered wooden tablets and staffs located on the Polynesian island. The second fact is that we keep a fairly limited number of engraved boards, pieces that are also distributed in places like Rome, Honolulu or New York. The great mystery. A few years ago Silvia Ferrara, professor at the Department of Classical Philology and Italian Studies at the University of Bologna, explained to the BBC why the challenge is so complicated: “No one has reconstructed the systematic correspondence between each sign and the sounds it registers.” At first glance, the glyphs seem to represent silhouettes of animals, plants, people, artifacts and geometric designs, but understanding them requires clarifying such basic questions as whether two signs similar to each other, with slight variations, represent the same sound. The curious thing is that, as complex as this challenge is, it is not what experts are most fascinated by. There is another question that worries them even more: When and how was the rongo rongo created? Was it something that the natives of Easter Island came up with or did it develop after the arrival of the first European navigators, to beginning of the 17th century? The key is no longer so much to understand what the pictograms say as to clarify who, when, how and under what influence created the system. Is it so important? Yes. And the reason is very simple. There are many languages ​​(very many), but writing systems developed from scratch, independently, there are very few (very few). “For many, writing represents an essential quality of civilization. There are four cases and places in human history where writing was invented from scratch without any prior knowledge,” explained in 2010 Christopher Woods, of the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures at the University of Chicago. This ‘miracle’ basically occurred in Mesopotamia, Egypt, China and Mesoamerica. “It is likely that all other writing systems evolved from the four systems,” detailed the expert If rongo rongo developed on Easter Island basically after the arrival of Europeans, in the 17th century, that ‘photo’ would not change. It would be a valuable creation, although not ‘independent’. Its origin would be explained by external influences. But… What if it was the Rapa Nui who devised the system completely autonomously? After all, it is known that, despite being a remote island in the middle of Polynesia, the natives arrived there several centuries before than the Dutch sailors. Solving the unknown. Convinced that this is the great enigma of Easter Island (with the permission of the majority), a few years ago Ferrara tried to clarify the chronology of the rongo rongo writing. The study, carried out together with other colleagues and whose conclusions were collected in Scientific Reportsfocused on four engraved tablets preserved in Rome. To find out what era they were from, the researchers subjected them to radiocarbon dating and asked a botanist to analyze their materials. What did they find out? That three of the tablets appear to have been used in the 19th century, after the arrival of Europeans to the island. The fourth, however, reserved a surprise: it points to a period between between 1493 and 1509. “It stands out as an anomaly in our chronological model, since it shows an antiquity before the arrival of the Europeans,” reveals Professor Sahra Talamo, also from the University of Bologna. This discovery opens a fascinating horizon that contradicts the version that the rongo rongo flourished under the influence of Western navigators. “The common narrative has always been one in which the local population was exposed to writing when Europeans arrived on the island starting in 1722 and this was what drove the creation of writing, as a kind of result of a transmission, of exposure to a pre-existing writing system,” comment Ferrara to the BBC. His work opens another door: he suggests that rongo rongo was an “original invention, an innovation that happened because the brains of local people took them in that direction.” Way to go. Although Ferrara and Talamo’s research is fascinating and sheds light on the origins of Rapa Nui writing, the truth is that it does not settle the debate. Not at least definitively. Radiocarbon analysis concluded that a tablet can be dated between late 15th century and early 16th centurybut that, admits the teacher herself, does not necessarily mean that the engraving it contains is from the same period. That is, the inscription may also have been made in the 19th century, except that its author decided … Read more

Researchers point out that the first 1,000 days in a person’s life are key to our life and memory

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Something quite popular among society in general is that the youngest children are true sponges that absorb everything that is around them, this being fundamental for their adult personality. Here are some experts who specifically point out that the first 1,000 days of life are They are practically everythingsince a temporary window opens that can largely determine the intelligence, health and social skills of the future. But… is it like that? There are questions. Scientific evidence calls for pressing the brakes, since, although the overwhelming importance of these first stages of life is not denied, researchers are beginning to warn against absolute determinism. And all this because, although the first 1,000 days are a critical window, the next 1,000 days They are just as crucial. The first days. What happens up to two years in the brain, the truth is that it is fascinating, because here some research they point specifically because early feeding influences physical development and long-term metabolic health. But in addition, the attachment bond with an adult figure traces the physical, neural, cognitive and socio-emotional trajectories, meaning that, if this attachment does not exist, many problems can arise. But also, listening to caregivers, such as parents, speaking, singing and interacting, lays the foundations for the neural networks linked to language and the communication skills that we will have in the future. The effect on memory. We often think that memory is the adult ability to remember knowledge that we have ‘put’ in our brain ‘drawer’, but in childhood memory It is a basic neural learning mechanism and identity construction. In these cases, babies record constant sensory and emotional information, such as smells, voices, affective responses, and the receiving context. And precisely, experts point out that if at this stage the child is correctly stimulated and takes in the memories well, the brain “trains” its synaptic circuits, making learning new skills much easier in the future. It is literally as if a base is being generated (which we will not remember) to generate new skills in the future by generating very strong neural networks for future memory. We don’t have to be absolutists. Saying that only those 1,000 days determine cognitive and social development is a mistake, since the literature tells us that we are not facing a “closed window”, since human brain plasticity is amazing and does not have a switch that automatically turns off when two years have passed. From here, what surrounds the little ones in the house, the education they receive and also the social interactions continue to have a profound impact beyond 24 months. That is why simplifying the concept to the extreme can lead to a biological determinism that diverts attention from other equally important stages of childhood. Everything that happens. This is where the most recent evidence comes in so we have to focus on what they can be. the “next 1,000 days” which is the period that goes from 2 to 5 years. This preschool stage is not a maintenance period, but rather it is a new golden window of opportunity, since during these years complex motor skills are triggered when starting to walk, for example. But beyond this, language also goes from isolated words to a complex grammar and the ability to narrate and reason. And even social-emotional skills such as empathy or impulse control are also experiencing rapid growth. This is why promoting an environment of safe care and healthy habits in this period is capable of significantly altering and improving development, compensating for the deficits that may have occurred in the first years of life. Images | javi_indy on Magnific In Xataka | One baby, three (biological) parents: a promising fertilization technique that, for now, we will not see in Spain

Researchers analyzed 280 samples of bottled water. Only one of the brands was free of microplastics

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Better taste and smell and health reasons. Those are the two main reasons why people drink bottled water, according to a study from the Autonomous University of Barcelona. Spain is, in fact, the third European country that consumes the most bottled water (up to 107 liters per inhabitant). That clashes with one thing: that bottled water is not only much more expensive than tap waterbut now we know that it also has micro and nanoplastics in quantities much greater than estimated. The original study. Some researchers from Columbia University analyzed three popular bottled water brands in the United States (whose names have not been revealed) in search of micro and nanoplastics. To do this, they used a new technique called Raman stimulated scattering microscopy based on probing samples with two simultaneous lasers tuned to resonate specific molecules. Analyzing seven common plastics, the researchers developed an algorithm to interpret the results. According to Wei Min, co-inventor of the technique and co-author of the study in question, “it is one thing to detect and another to know what you are detecting.” The findings. On average, this study found that one liter of bottled water contains 240,000 detectable plastic fragments, between ten and 100 times more than previous estimates. Specifically, the researchers state that they found between 110,000 and 370,000 plastic fragments in each liter, of which 90% were nanoplastics. In that sense, it is important to remember the difference between micro and nanoplastics: Microplastics: those whose size varies between 100 nanometers and five millimeters. Nanoplastics: those whose size is equal to or less than 100 nanometers. The most common plastics. To no one’s surprise, one of the most common plastics was polypropylene terephthalate, better known as PET. It is the material that many bottles are made of. “It probably enters the water by breaking off pieces when the bottle is squeezed or exposed to heat,” say the researchers, who cite another study that suggests they can also break off when repeatedly opening and closing the cap. Usual. And although the presence of PET is common, this plastic is surpassed by polyamide, a type of nylon that “probably comes from the plastic filters used to supposedly purify water before bottling it,” says Beizhan Yan, researcher of the study. Other common plastics the researchers found were polystyrene, polyvinyl chloride and polymethyl methacrylate. And the rest? The technique used includes the seven most common plastics, but there are many other plastics. According to exposes Columbia University, “the seven types of plastic the researchers looked for only represented about 10% of all the nanoparticles they found in the samples; they have no idea what the rest are. If they are all nanoplastics, it could be tens of millions per liter.” And what about those sold in Spain? That’s what he wanted to find out a study by the CSIC and the Barcelona Institute of Global Health. They have developed a technique to quantify particles between 0.7 and 20 micrometers, as well as the chemical additives released into the water and, for this study, they analyzed 280 samples of 20 commercial water brands. Only one of the brands did not contain microplastics, but all 280 samples contained plastic additives. More specifically. The result is that, on average, one liter of water contains 359 nanograms of micro- and nanoplastics, an amount comparable to that obtained in the tap water found in a previous study made by the same group. “The main difference we found is the type of polymer: in tap water we found more polyethylene and polypropylene while in bottled water we detected mostly polypropylene terephthalate (PET), although also polyethylene,” said Cristina Villanueva, ISGlobal researcher and author of the study. Lots of microplastic. Considering that we drink two liters of water a day, the authors estimate “an intake of 262 micrograms of plastic particles per year.” Regarding additives, 28 plastic additives have been detected, mostly stabilizers and plasticizers. According to the researchers, “our toxicity study showed that three types of plasticizers presented a greater risk to human health and, therefore, should be considered in risk analyzes for consumers.” In that sense, other studies have discovered the presence of microplastics in atheromatous plaques in the arteries, which increases the risk of heart attack. From the American Diabetes Association they also ensure that some components found in bottles, such as BPA and the aforementioned microplastics, increase insulin resistance, thus reducing its effectiveness. Images | Jonathan Chng in Unsplash In Xataka | The US has decided to abandon paper straws because everyone hates them. The problem is the alternative: plastic In Xataka | After the failure of the yellow container, the Government has reached a conclusion: it is time for returnable bottles *An earlier version of this article was published in February 2024

We thought we were 8 billion people on the entire planet. Until some researchers started crunching the numbers

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In November 2022, the UN celebrated that we were now 8 billion humans on Earth. They are estimates, of course, but beyond the figure, the really interesting thing is that in 2023 we do not reach the replacement rate and that humanity will reach its peak at the end of the century to, inevitably, start to fall. But… to what extent can we trust these accounts? It is something that has been on the table for some time and, according to a study of 2025, we have made a mistake in counting. So much so that we have left several hundred million people behind. Can we trust the numbers? “Calculating the number of people on the planet is an inexact science.” That was demographer Jakub Bijak’s comment to BBC in mid-2024, just when the World Population Prospects study. Something scientific is something exact, but the researcher also commented that the only thing you can be sure of when predicting population figures is the lack of certainty. That, be careful, does not mean that demographers take figures out of thin air. “It is a difficult thing based on our experience, knowledge and every piece of information we have access to,” said Toshiko Kanera, an expert in demographic forecasts. Demographers draw on the data and trends of each country since 1950, but… what if it had not been counted correctly? We are missing millions. In a 2025 study published in Natureresearchers at Aalto University in Finland show how the data sets handled by demographers “profoundly and systematically” underestimate population figures around the world. The serious thing is that we would be talking about hundreds of millions more people living on Earth. Example of the tools that demographers use in their analysis. Each one corresponds to a different bias Rural areas. Josias Láng-Ritter is one of the researchers in charge of the study and points to the accounts carried out in a specific segment: that of rural population. “For the first time, our study provides evidence that a significant proportion of the rural population could be missing from global population data sets,” he notes. As we say, we are not talking about a few million, but billions. “Depending on the data set used, rural populations have been underestimated between 53% and 84% in the period studied. The results are notable, since these data sets have been used in thousands of studies and have widely supported decision making, but their accuracy has not been systematically evaluated,” comments the researcher. The map shows the location of the 307 rural areas analyzed in the study. The populations reported in the graph were found to be underestimated by between 53% and 84% | Aalto University Biases. Attempts to review this data are not new, but previous research has focused on specific countries or urban areas. Researchers from Aalto University wanted to give a more global picture by comparing the five most used population data sets worldwide. They have used maps that divide the planet into high-resolution grids and have taken something very specific as a reference: resettlement figures from more than 300 rural dam projects in 35 countries. Why this bias of the dams? Because when a dam is builtthe population that lives in the area that will be flooded is relocated and accurate resettlement data is usually available. Comparing that population data from 1975 to 2010, the researchers found that the 2010 maps were more accurate, but still left out between 32% and 77% of the rural population. Between 2015 and 2020 the data sets were updated, but demographers continue to believe that underestimation of the rural population continues to exist and is a problem that persists in all regions of the world. Consequences. And we are talking about a problem whose resolution is complex. According to the researchers, no matter how much the data is reviewed, it is a structural problem. Governments do not have the resources to collect accurate data in these rural regions, there is a huge discrepancy between the real population and that reported on the population maps used to carry out demographic studies and that influences decision making. Average percentage of rural population underestimated (red and orange) and overestimated (blue) | Aalto University And it’s important. Current estimates place 43% of the 8.2 billion inhabitants of the world in rural areas -about 3,526 million people- and if we take into account that it is a percentage that has been underestimated between 53% and 84%, we are not talking about a small population, precisely. And it is essential to know exactly how many we are for a simple reason: the redistribution of resources. No data. The lack of accurate demographic records can affect political decision-making. Ritter gives the example of social decisions. “In many countries, there may not be enough data available at the national level, so they rely on global population maps to support their decisions: Do we need a paved road or a hospital? How much medicine is needed in a specific area? How many people could be affected by natural disasters like earthquakes or floods?” he says. Doing quick math, in the best scenario – that of 53% deviation in the rural population – we would be talking about 1,869 million people who would not have been counted. In the worst case, in that of the 84% not registered, we would talk about 2,962 million people. In the Nature study, they give the example of Paraguay, which in the 2012 census may have left out a quarter of the population. Reviewing the methods. In the team’s analysis, there are countries that fare better than others. They point to Finland as an example of reliable data, even in rural regions, because they began keeping digital records of the population 30 years ago. However, in countries where this thorough digital registration has taken longer to be implemented due to crises of any kind, the differences between the real population and the estimated one can be significant. “To provide rural communities … Read more

Skyscrapers are full of glass, so some Spanish researchers have had an idea: let them serve as "solar panels"

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Every 60 minutes, the Sun bathes the Earth with enough energy to cover the world’s consumption for an entire year. The data, remembered by the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM)it’s overwhelming. But there is a problem: harnessing all that energy in our cities hits a literal wall. Classic solar roofs are becoming too small for us in increasingly dense cities, and hanging rigid and heavy panels on the facades of buildings is not a realistic option. To avoid this aesthetic and space blockage, the laboratories have found a pioneering solution: using new two-dimensional materials. These are microscopic layers that will allow the windows of any skyscraper to be converted into totally invisible solar panels. With Spanish seal. The Silicon and New Concepts for Solar Cells (SyNC) research group of the Solar Energy Institute (IES) of the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM) has managed to manufacture micro-prototypes of ultra-thin and highly efficient solar cells. The secret of this technology lies in the so-called two-dimensional photovoltaic materials. Imagine a sheet so thin that it is only a few atoms thick; For all practical purposes, it is so thin that physics considers it to lack a third dimension. Science knows this family of compounds with a complex name, transition metaldicalkogenides (TMDC), among which molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) and tungsten diselenide (WSe2) stand out. Their great rarity—and their greatest virtue—is that, despite being an almost invisible layer, they have an extraordinary capacity to absorb sunlight. In Xataka Solar panels have an invisible and very brief moment in which they do not work. And solving it is key to your future The actual scope. To understand this technology, researchers published a study in the scientific journal Nano Energy. In it, they simulated what would happen if the façade of a real skyscraper, the Torre Picasso in Madrid, were covered with semi-transparent windows made with these materials. The results estimate that between 16% and 23% of the building’s daily electricity consumption could be covered. If this technology is also combined with areas of opaque modules, the generation could exceed 30% of the energy needs of the skyscraper. Natural light, real colors and savings on the bill Historically, the big “but” of solar windows has been the poor visual quality. Alternative technologies, such as organic or perovskite cells, often act as a filter that colors the light entering the room in unnatural reddish, yellow or brown tones. As explained by UPM researchersthe structure of TMDC materials solves this root problem: they allow a very balanced absorption of visible light, which eliminates the problem of unwanted “coloring” of light. The result is lighting with a natural and warm tone, achieving a Color Rendering Index (CRI) greater than 90, a very high quality metric for work spaces. In addition to generating electricity, in very sunny places like Spain, these glasses naturally block excessive glare. This means that the skyscraper not only produces its own energy, but also saves a lot of money by not having to turn on the air conditioning as much. From the microscopic laboratory to the factory. Creating these ultra-thin solar cells is a work of very high precision. To manufacture the prototypes in the laboratory, the UPM team has used a technique called hot-pick-up. Using this method, they use a small transparent bubble to select, collect and deposit fragments of the materials, creating tailored stacks that combine the best properties of each one. But the goal is not to stay in the laboratory. IES-UPM researchers are already working with new techniques to scale this process and cover large areas, such as entire windows. According to the scientists themselves“through spraying and deposition techniques of these solutions, manufacturing processes could be scaled, reducing costs and allowing the industrialization of this disruptive technology.” The ace in the hole: catch the lost heat. The potential of these two-dimensional materials goes far beyond solar windows. Another investigation from the same team, published in the scientific journal ACS Applied Energy Materials, demonstrates that by modifying molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) with an element called niobium, the material acquires impressive thermoelectric properties. More simply, this means that in the future, these materials could not only capture sunlight, but could also have applications in thermal sensors or in the recovery of energy from the heat wasted by machines or buildings themselves. {“videoId”:”x81qnhf”,”autoplay”:false,”title”:”Is it possible to generate energy at zero cost?”, “tag”:”Energy”, “duration”:”109″} The new skin of the city. The lightness, flexibility and low manufacturing cost of these solar cells makes them one of the most promising options to achieve the desired “green cities”. Two-dimensional photovoltaic technology shows us that the ecological transition in dense urban environments no longer depends only on finding space on roofs to place large rigid panels. The real paradigm shift consists of transforming the very “skin” of buildings – their windows, their walls, their facades – into active sources of clean energy, ensuring that any surface can be an ally against climate change. Image | Photo by Arthur Mazi on Unsplash  Xataka | Plastic solar panels have always been more of a dream than reality: China has just changed that (function() { window._JS_MODULES = window._JS_MODULES || {}; var headElement = document.getElementsByTagName(‘head’)(0); if (_JS_MODULES.instagram) { var instagramScript = document.createElement(‘script’); instagramScript.src=”https://platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js”; instagramScript.async = true; instagramScript.defer = true; headElement.appendChild(instagramScript); – The news Skyscrapers are full of glass, so some Spanish researchers have had an idea: let them serve as “solar panels” was originally published in Xataka by Alba Otero .

Researchers have discovered “lost continents” from 4 billion years ago

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The idea we have of the early Earth involves a huge ball of incandescent magma and conditions incompatible with life. The problem? That there are no rocks from 4.3 billion years ago to confirm this consolidated theory. What we do have are some microscopic crystals called zircons. And zircons are telling a different story, according to this study by a research team at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. published in Nature. What zircon says. Regarding the behavior of the Earth’s surface, geology valued two ideas for that period known as Hadean: that there was a plate tectonics where one plate sinks under another or that the Earth had a kind of stagnant lid, a rigid and hot surface where heat only escaped through large columns of magma. Well, neither one nor the other, both: zircons leave evidence of an Earth that already had oceans, liquid water and a crust that alternated both systems. John Valley, the University of Wisconsin-Madison geoscientist who leads the study explains that “There were about 800 million years of Earth’s history in which the surface was already habitable, although we have no fossil evidence and we do not know when life first emerged.” Why it is important. Because they determine that the Earth did not choose a single model, but rather that both processes took place at the same time in different places. Of course, it was not a stable plate tectonics like the one that exists today, but rather it had violent and short episodes of sliding of the edges of one plate under another (subduction) that coexisted with large jets of magma that rose from the interior of the Earth. This discovery is key to understanding how the Earth’s surface moved, the formation of continents and life. On the one hand, without tectonics, the felsic continental crust that floats on the mantle and makes up the lands on which we live would not exist. On the other hand, plate tectonics regulates the climate and recycles nutrients, so knowing when it started working helps understand when the Earth became a place compatible with life. How they analyzed it. The John Valley team analyzed the popular zircons from Jack Hills (Western Australia). These sand-sized minerals are a kind of time capsule, housing the only direct record of Earth’s first 500 million years. They were looking for chemical “fingerprints” that would reveal where and how they were formed, for which they used technology WiscSIMS high resolution. They then compared the results of the analysis with other zirconiums from the Hadic Eon found in Barberton (South Africa). Each one told a different story. Surprises in the “DNA” of the mineral. 47% of oceanic zircons had high levels of Uranium compared to Niobium, indicating that they formed in subduction zones where ocean water sinks into the mantle. On the other hand, the South African zircons show that they were born from virgin rock from the planet’s interior, confirming the classic ‘stagnant lid’ theory by which the Earth’s first solid surface was rigid and immobile. Or what is the same: while in Australia the crust sank and created protocontinents, in what is now South Africa the Earth behaved differently, with a rigid and stagnant crust. That is, the early Earth was a mosaic of tectonic styles. The Earth did not go from being hell to what it is today overnight, but rather it was a hybrid process and generated the necessary conditions for life sooner than we thought. In Xataka | We know it as “the red planet”, but 3.37 billion years ago Mars was almost as blue as Earth In Xataka | 4.5 billion years of Earth’s history, summarized in a spectacular video map Cover | Tomáš Malík and Javier Miranda

AI is very comfortable inventing everything it doesn’t know. Some researchers think they know how to stop him

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The hallucinations have been the Achilles heel of AI since chatbots began to be part of our lives. Companies like OpenAI promised that hallucinations could be mitigated with adequate training processes, but years later both ChatGPT and its direct rivals They keep making up answers when they are not sure what to say. Shuhui Qu, a researcher at Stanford University, believes she has found a way to address the problem. A structural problem. Current language models have a factory defect: they respond with complete security even when they have no idea nor the necessary information. This has to do with how they progress when processing any answer, since LLMs have no problem completing the missing information, even if they are not being faithful to reality and are working with assumptions. First thing, recognize it. Shuhui Qu, a researcher at Stanford University, publishes an article in which she introduces what she calls Bidirectional Categorical Planning with Self-Consultation. An approach that starts from a simple idea, but uncomfortable for large technology companies: forcing the model to explicitly recognize what it does not know and not move forward until solving it. A more scientific method. The idea is not that the model think betterBut stop pretending you know everything. The approach of What starts from a basic premise: every time the model takes a step in its reasoning, it should ask itself if it really has the necessary information to do so. When an unknown condition appears, the model cannot continue. You are not allowed to fill the gap with an assumption, and you have to stop to resolve the uncertainty before moving forward. You can do this in two ways: Well asking a specific question to obtain the missing information Either by introducing some intermediate step (verification, additional consultation) that becomes part of the chain of reasoning. The method. The researchers, using external code, made models like GPT-4 They responded only when they had complete information. They did it with simple tasks, asking about cooking recipes and Wikihow guides. The key? They purposely withheld information to force him to stop. The conclusion of the research was that making preconditions explicit and verifying them before moving forward significantly reduces LLM errors when information is missing. Of course, along the way it is admitted that even this is not enough to make the hallucinations disappear completely. not so fast. Although the researcher’s idea sounds brilliant, it is quite unlikely to see it in the short and medium term. This way of processing breaks the natural flow of current LLMs, designed to return complete answers. To make such a system work, it is necessary to add an additional layer to the structure, some preconditions that force it to control the calls, interpret the responses themselves, classify them and self-block from asking questions if they do not have all the information. In other words, for the moment, AI will continue to score the triples to which we are already accustomed. Image | Xataka In Xataka | ChatGPT invents data and that is illegal in Europe. So an organization has set out to fix it with a lawsuit

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