Science

If you feel guilty every time you leave your dog home alone, science has an explanation (and a couple of solutions)

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Anyone who has a dog as a pet has probably faced a big problem when they grab their keys and coat and head out the door. This is nothing more than the whining and nervous pacing of an animal behind its owner that can end up barking or even destroying some object in the home due to the stress they feel when they are left alone and ‘abandoned’ under their conscience. However, science suggests that This separation anxiety is a bidirectional phenomenon. In two senses. As stated in different texts, leaving our pet alone not only triggers a peak of stress in the animal, but also generates a deep burden of guilt and anxiety in the human. And no, it is not that we are excessively humanizing our dogs, it is that our brains and theirs have developed an attachment bond that is comparable to that of interpersonal relationships. It’s not parenting. One idea we have in mind is that when a dog has anxiety when its owner leaves, for example, for work, it is the result of having had a very permissive childhood in which no animal restrictions were imposed. But today this has changed with important data. We can find these data in a large study published in 2020 on the canine population in Finland that revealed that between 14% and 20% Of dogs suffer from separation anxiety, they often have a strong fear of other stressors, such as loud noise. Why do they do it? Neither revenge nor general anger at having been left alone come into play here, but rather this behavior is linked to patterns of frustration and panic. Besides, there are some factors that predispose animals to have these problems, such as being male, coming from a shelter, having suffered early weaning or facing an environment that lacks predictability. In the human. Staying with only the reaction that the animal has, the truth is that it is a very short understatement. And here science has seen that owners also experience stress, difficulty concentrating at work or even cancel social plans to avoid the distress of leaving their pet alone. And here the bond that is generated between the human and the animal comes into play, being an attachment bond like that of a father with his newborn. And the people who develop an “anxious attachment” to their pets are precisely those who experience higher levels of anxiety when separating from them, as well as much more serious depressive and somatic symptoms when the animal dies or is not present. The solution. One of the important points in this case lies in teaching the dog’s brain that “exit signals” such as taking the keys or putting on the shoes, do not necessarily mean the end of the world, doing them without leaving the house. But also, we must keep in mind that when we return home we do not have to ‘throw a party’ to compensate for the guilt, since we only confirm to the dog that our absence was a terrible state of exception that has finally ended. This is why reunion should be normalized when we talk about a few hours of separation. Images | Wade Austin Ellis In Xataka | We have been using our pets to relieve our anxiety. And now the stress is on them

One of the best science fiction series in history is animated, and today it returns to HBO Max with new episodes

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In 2013, Adult Swim premiered a series about an alcoholic scientist and his teenage grandson traveling the multiverse. ‘Rick and Morty‘ seemed like another hooligan animated series, but it became, for reasons that have a lot to do with being in the right place at the right time, into one of the most relevant television phenomena of the last two decades. The ninth season has just arrived HBO Maxand everything indicates that they are going to give us more of the same. Which in the case of ‘Rick and Morty’ is always excellent news. Season 7, released in 2023, was the first without Justin Roiland, one of the series’ co-creators. Adult Swim cut ties with him in January of that year following criminal domestic violence charges (ultimately dismissed) and the ‘Rick and Morty’ characters, voiced by him, were reassigned to other actors (and if you didn’t know it, it would be impossible for you to detect it). The public reaction was cold, and it ended up having the lowest score in the series’ history on Rotten Tomatoes. The eighth season, broadcast in 2025, was proof that the series could survive trauma. It started with 100% among critics and its public score reached 93%, which finally stabilized at 79%. A considerable improvement over the previous year and more in line with the series average. Now comes the time to confirm that, indeed, the series has overcome past traumas. And he does it in a big way: with the return of Evil Morty and with the introduction of a new cosmic entitythe Collective. Furthermore, this return is accompanied by other news: Warner Bros. is in the first stages of development of a feature film. Its possible director, Jacob Hair, has helmed several episodes since 2019 and is the current supervising director of the series. According to the co-creator of the series, Dan Harmon, the intention is to invest more money and make a 90-minute episode, no more, no less. It may not seem too ambitious, but let’s not forget that we are facing one of the best science fiction series of all time. In Xataka | Five years later, there is a Netflix series so well made that psychologists recommend it to understand mental health

Science warns of its silent and devastating impact on fertility

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When we think about the effects that tobacco has on the body, our mind quickly goes to the lung cancer or cardiovascular diseases. However, the damage goes much further and one of the key points here is in the direct impact it has on the fertility of men and women. But it not only alters conception, it alters our DNA and reduces success rates in medical treatments. In the case of women. The scientific evidence is very consistent regarding the effects of smoking on the female reproductive system, since smoking harms conception, alters ovarian follicular dynamics and makes embryo implantation difficult. In fact, a higher risk of delayed pregnancy, as well as primary and secondary infertility, is observed in women who smoke. To highlight some of these points, we must know that women smokers have up to 60% more likely of developing fertility problems. This is justified by the difficulty in forming the blood vessels that will nourish the endometrium. But in addition, it is also estimated that today 13% of infertility cases that have been reported to be related to tobacco itself. Aging. One of the most striking effects is how tobacco steps on the accelerator of ovarian aging. A study of the Women’s Health Initiative found that both active smoking and passive smoke exposure are associated with natural menopause before age 50. Specifically, menopause can be advance between 1 and 4 years in smokers or ex-smokers compared to women who have never smoked. The masculine factor. Although we can almost always blame women for reproductive problems, the reality is that the impact of tobacco on men is equally severe. Here the WHO itself point that tobacco affects fertility and sexual potency, something the CDC agrees with, pointing out that smoking damages sperm and can be one of the causes of erectile dysfunction. Because? Science has seen in these cases that smoking reduces semen volume, sperm count and also how they are moving. But in addition, smoking can negatively affect hormonal production and damage the DNA of the sperm, which makes conception less likely. In assisted reproduction. When a natural pregnancy does not occur after several months of trying, assisted reproduction techniques are used, but here tobacco can also play tricks. And we are not talking about an infallible technique, and that is why smokers face a worse prognosis in in vitro fertilization treatments. To be more specific, the figures suggest that these patients suffer pregnancy rates 30% less and they need a higher dose of medications to stimulate their ovarian reserve. Pass the generations. This is one of the most interesting discoveries that has been made in this case, since smoking not only affects those who ascend to the cigarette, but its trace can follow the offspring. For example, children of smoking mothers may suffer a reduction in sperm concentration of between 20% and 40%. And in the case of daughters there is a risk of being born with a low ovarian reserve. Images | Haim Charbit freestocks In Xataka | ‘Children of Men’ is ceasing to be a dystopia: the global sperm count has been sinking for years

We believed that raiding the refrigerator at dawn was a lack of willpower. Science has discovered the real culprit

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When night comes, there are many people who cannot conceive of watching a series without something in your hands to eatand not exactly a little carrot, but a little ice cream or some ultra-processed bun. Traditionally, popular culture and fad diets have dismissed this behavior as a simple “lack of willpower” or a sweet tooth. However, the most recent scientific evidence suggests that it is not gluttony, but chronic stress taking control. Night feeding. Eating at night is not always a disorder, but medical literature has been delineating for decades when the line is crossed. Already in 1955, a researcher defined the bases of the so-called night feeding syndrome (NES), characterized by a curious triad: lack of appetite in the morning, hyperphagia at the end of the day and insomnia with awakenings to raid the pantry in the middle of the night. Today, the diagnostic criteria have been updated and indicate that this syndrome occurs when more than 25% of daily calories are consumed after dinner, or if there are two or more episodes of nighttime binge eating per week for at least three months. The trigger It is none other than the hated stress and emotional dysregulation. Here various studies they point Because this nocturnal snacking is associated with a depressed mood, high levels of stress and the need to eat to find a little comfort after a very difficult day. The biological clock. When we eat late, usually after nine at night, or in the two hours before going to sleep, the reality is that we are sending contradictory signals to our ‘primal’ endocrine system. On the one hand, eating at night prolongs the rise of cortisol, which is the stress hormone, at a time when it should be at its lowest levels to prepare the body for sleep. In this way, the body postpones the secretion of the hormone that induces sleep, which is melatonin, and the serotonin and dopamine receptors are altered to respond to food intake. An explosive cocktail. Perhaps one of the most surprising recent findings is the devastating impact that this combination has on our digestive system, since if we combine a high level of stress with late dinners or nightly visits to the refrigerator, the result is catastrophic for the microbiota. Science suggests that those who combine poor sleep, stress and eating habits are up to 2.5 times more likely to see their intestinal health diminished, and also have noticeably less diversity in the bacteria in their microbiome. The whiting that bites its tail. In the end, we are faced with a textbook vicious cycle, wonderfully documented by the University of Arizona. According to your investigations60% of adults confess to itching at night on a regular basis. Of them, two-thirds admit that it is precisely lack of sleep that triggers junk food cravings. But precisely eating at these hours makes you less sleepy. And so on. Images | freepik In Xataka | We Spaniards love to have dinner at 9:30 p.m. and even at 10:00 p.m. Who is paying the price is our body

We believed that eating with our cell phone in our hand was harmless. Science warns that it is “hacking” our satiety

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Today, a fairly everyday scene is to see how, at meal time, in addition to the plate on the table, there is also the illuminated mobile screen is next to it while playing a TikTok video or an Instagram reel. The habit of eating by doing scroll on social networks, reading news or answering messages has become normalized to the point of becoming invisible. However, scientific literature has been warning for years that this disconnection between the plate and the brain has measurable consequences. The hijacking of satiety. The fact of eating while looking at the mobile screen makes us eat much worse, and this is what is known in the literature as mindless eating, which can be translated as “eating unconsciously.” Something that makes a lot of sense because when we are looking at something that interests us, we don’t even realize what we are putting in our mouths, going into automatic mode. And this is very important, because science is quite clear that the fact of feeling full of food is not something that depends only on the gastric process, but also involves our consciousness. In this way, when we eat while paying attention to something else, we damage the episodic memory of food. in the brain there is no adequate record of the textures, flavors or amount of food that has been put in the mouth. As a result of this “food amnesia”, the signals that indicate that the stomach has become full and that one should stop eating more become blurred. This causes us to eat more at that moment, and also, since we do not have a solid memory of having been full, we tend to eat more calories at lunch or snack. The data. This lack of active attention during eating can be extrapolated to specific figures, and something that has been repeated a lot is that cell phone use can increase caloric intake by 30%. Although this is an extreme limit derived from the sum of several disconnection factors, since studies point to somewhat lower figures. a study published in 2019 showed that eating with a mobile phone increases caloric intake by around 15% compared to people who are completely aware of their food. Furthermore, we do not eat more of everything but rather the nutritional profile worsens by tending towards a noticeably higher intake of fats. In the long term, we have a studio published in 2025 by Kyoto University where regular cell phone use during meals was associated with more marked weight gain in adults. But in the case of adolescents, it is associated with a greater consumption of sugary drinks and a higher BMI attributed to multitasking with the mobile phone. That is why it is best to always eat without any type of distraction that diverts attention from the task at hand, because otherwise there are several risks to our own health. Images | drobotdean in Magnific In Xataka | Eating in front of a screen is not a modern mania: it is the new social ritual

The giant jugs of Laos have long baffled science. A “death jar” has solved the riddle

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The heart of Southeast Asia and scattered throughout the mountains of Xieng Khouang province in Laos, rest thousands of monumental stone vessels. Some of these reach three meters in height and weigh several tons, and that is why this place received the name ‘Plain of Jars’. However, this landscape has been a great mystery for all the experts because it is not known who carved them, nor how they moved them nor what they were for. Resolving. Now, a new archaeological study seems to have finally found the key piece of the puzzle, revealing a mortuary tradition much more complex and macabre than previously thought. The discovery of a huge “death jar” has confirmed that these stone colossi were not isolated monuments, but the protagonists of a sophisticated multigenerational funerary ritual. A secret. The key to this puzzle is based precisely on the analysis of a single, gigantic vessel that hid inside no more and no less than the bone remains of at least 37 different people. But the most interesting thing of all is that this “overcrowding” is not the product of a hasty mass grave or a sudden catastrophe, since the study shows that we are dealing with a practice known as secondary burial. How they did it. This practice, the truth is, is very far from our current customs, since instead of burying the deceased directly, the ancient culture that inhabited the area allowed the bodies to decompose first. Once cleaned of meat, the bones were transferred and deposited inside these monumental jars, being a process quite similar to the one that continues with Spanish royalty in the Royal Pantheon of Escorial. But the presence of the remains of so many people in a single jar suggests that these were reopened and reused over several generations, functioning as authentic family or community pantheons. Ritual recycling. This article does not come out of nowhere, but already in 2023 investigations at “site 1” of the plain had found signs of secondary burials around the stones, but this new discovery consolidates the hypothesis that the jars themselves were main containers of this mortuary tradition. The most fascinating thing about this research is the time lag that the dating has revealed since scientists have discovered that the history of the Plain of Jars is made up of overlapping layers. This shows that the human remains analyzed date from between the 9th and 13th centuries, but the gigantic stone jars are, according to geological and archaeological estimates, much older. What does it mean? Basically, the landscape was the subject of a profound “ritual recycling.” The medieval inhabitants of Laos did not carve the jugs; They came across a pre-existing, mysterious and monumental megalithic landscape, and decided to appropriate it for their own funerary rituals. In other words, the site was not built for a single function or at a single moment, but rather had an unusually long lifespan, being resignified by different cultures over the centuries. Images | Wikipedia In Xataka | We still don’t know where Tartessos was, but we do know where we are going to solve the enigma: in Badajoz

If you wake up tired on a regular basis, your rest is fragmented. The good news is that science knows how to fix it

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When the alarm clock rings in the morning, many of us ask to stay five more minutes between the sheets. But sometimes these five minutes are not for convenience, but for necessity, since there are people who wake up as if you haven’t slept at all. And this is a problem, since waking up tired on a regular basis is not normal. The myth of hours. Sleeping eight hours seems the standard that we must follow to be able to rest well, as occurs with the mantra of take 10,000 steps a day to have good cardiovascular health. The problem is that there are many people who can sleep eight or more hours and feel in the morning as if they had not slept at all, and here science suggests that real rest is given to us sleep phases and how time is distributed in each of them, not in the global calculation. The distribution. Sleep is not a linear state, although it may seem that way to us. The reality is that while we are with our eyes closed, we are going through a complex cycle of fragile architecture that passes through light phasesdeep stages and the well-known REM phase where dreams occur. But here what interests us most is deep sleep, which is responsible for physical restoration and the immune system, so when this cycle is broken repeatedly during the night, which is what It is known as fragmented sleep.the direct impact the next day is a decrease in cognition and an increase in fatigue, regardless of the hours we have spent lying down. Sleep or fatigue. For some they may be similar terms, but the truth is that they are quite different, since, while drowsiness is the biological and overwhelming need to sleep, fatigue, on the other hand, is a lack of physical energy or mental motivation. If what you feel when you wake up is fatigue, the origin may transcend the pillow and there may be a medical cause such as anemia, hypothyroidism, depression, chronic stress or the side effects of certain drugs that may be behind this lack of vital energy. Two culprits. Among the medical conditions, there are two that stand out above the others. The first of them is the sleep apneawhich is undoubtedly the great invisible saboteur, since it causes breathing to stop and restart repeatedly throughout the night. These drops in oxygen cause micro-awakenings that the brain uses to survive and breathe again, which we are not aware of. The problem is that these shocks prevent deep sleep from being achieved and result in extreme fatigue. The other culprit is sustained insomnia, since, beyond the difficulty in falling asleep, insomnia also manifests itself with early awakenings or constant interruptions, greatly reducing the restorative nature of rest. It can be corrected. Once medical causes are ruled out, there are several tips that can be followed to have a better quality of sleep. The first of them is to stay away from screens before going to sleep, since if we are already close to falling asleep and our body is preparing for it, exposure to blue light and stimulating content can cause it to take longer to fall asleep. Another very important tip is for dinner, which should ideally be as light as possible so as not to feel very heavy all night and also keep it as far away from bedtime as possible. This is where British time has a clear advantage over ours, as it means you don’t go to sleep with dinner food still in your stomach. The environment matters. In addition to removing any television from the room where you are going to sleep, the comfort you have is also important. This involves having a suitable mattress and ensuring that the temperature of the room is not uncomfortable, since this will cause awakenings that will cause you to not finish resting. This is also added to the need to have as little noise as possible. What is done during the day It matters a lot to sleep, and here exercising several hours before bed can make you sleep much better. But in the diet you also have to be very methodical, since you have to limit caffeine in the afternoon or at night, and limit alcohol consumption which, although it seems to put us into a very deep sleep, the reality is that it makes it not at all restorative. Images | jcomp in Magnific In Xataka | There are people who sleep four hours a day and are still functional. It’s the closest thing we have to genetic “superheroes”

Influencers have made it fashionable to give yourself cramps in your vagus nerve to cure stress. Science has bad news

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After a marathon day, what if the report doesn’t arrive, feed the kids, walk the dog, go to that Pilates class… And your brain refuses to turn off. You open TikTok or Instagram looking for a distraction and, between dances and recipes, a influencer. Wear a minimalist design device around your neck or clipped to your ear. It promises that with the push of a button and a few small electrical pulses, your anxiety will disappear, you’ll sleep like a baby, and your “brain fog” will lift. they call it “the great reset of the nervous system”. For centuries, the vagus nerve has functioned in complete anatomical obscurity, but today it has achieved an almost mythical status in the wellness ecosystem. According to The New York Timesthere are billions of social media impressions about this nerve. Celebrities like Kelly Ripa and podcasters like Andrew Huberman They praise their virtues. “A lot of this is being driven by influencers saying, ‘Just do this to stimulate your vagus nerve, and all the problems in your life will be solved,’” explains Dr. Kevin Tracey, a neurosurgeon and president of the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research. It sounds like science fiction, but forecasts suggest that the stimulation of this nerve will generate a billion-dollar industry by 2030. The inevitable question that arises is: can we really “hack” our stress with neck cramps, or are we facing the umpteenth expensive internet placebo? To understand the phenomenon, you must first understand the biology. As explained by the Cleveland Clinicthe vagus nerve (whose name comes from the Latin “wanderer”) is the tenth of the twelve cranial nerves and the longest of all. It arises in the brain stem and winds through the neck, chest, and abdomen, connecting the brain to the heart, lungs, and digestive system. It is the main highway of our parasympathetic nervous system, the one in charge of the “rest and digest” function. Basically, it is the body’s handbrake. When we get stressed, the sympathetic system (the “fight or flight” response) is activated; When the danger passes, the vagus nerve should come into action to calm the pulse and relax the body. But why are people obsessed with electrocuting him? According to the magazine Women’s Healthwe live in an epidemic of chronic stress. The flood of emails, traffic jams and daily pressures cause what is known as “vagal dysfunction.” Our body gets stuck in survival mode and loses the ability to calm down.. The promise of a quick fix has led to the emergence of commercial devices. When faced with the idea of ​​using home electricity, it is normal to wonder if this is dangerous. Generally, the physical answer is no. According to Dr. Michael Kilgard, director of the Texas Biomedical Device Center, interviewed by The New York Timesthe batteries in these commercial devices are too small to burn the skin. The most you feel is tingling. However, the real danger is psychological and medical. “The strangeness of the sensations is annoying enough that people feel like the devices are doing something,” Kilgard warns. In most cases, these gadgets are “probably little more than a placebo disguised as neuroscience“. The risk lies in false hope: patients who spend hundreds of euros on devices that do nothing, delaying medical treatments that have been proven to be effective. To understand the true impact of this false hope, it is vital to separate the wheat from the chaff and define where scientific rigor ends. The line between medicine and marketing wellness The science of Vagus Nerve Stimulation (VNS) is real, fascinating and very complex, but it is light years away from what the marketers sell. influencers. There are real medical devices, but as a comprehensive review article published highlights in the scientific journal Comprehensive Physiologyinvasive stimulation (iVNS) “remains the gold standard with well-documented efficacy.” That is, we are talking about small devices similar to pacemakers that are surgically implanted under the skin of the chest, with cables threaded directly to the nerve. According to Cleveland Clinicthe FDA (the US drug agency) has approved these severe implants to treat cases of resistant epilepsy and severe clinical depression. Medical research continues to advance. A pivotal clinical trial published recently in Nature Medicine (the RESET-RA trial), demonstrated that an implanted neuromodulator system targeting the vagus nerve significantly reduced inflammation in patients with rheumatoid arthritis who were unresponsive to conventional medications. On the other hand, as a review points out from the magazine Exploratory Research and Hypothesis in Medicinethe use of non-invasive stimulators (in the ear or neck) is being intensively studied in clinical settings for rehabilitation after stroke or to slow cognitive decline. But what about the devices that anyone can buy online to “de-stress”? The experts are blunt. Dr. Kristl Vonck, neurologist at Ghent University, warns that consumer devices They are “lightly regulated and do not have to prove to the FDA that they actually work.” Many companies hide behind vague claims about “wellness” to avoid medical controls and use the language of real clinical trials as a mere marketing tactic. Furthermore, as a clinical researcher explains in The Conversationmanipulating the vagus nerve is not a panacea and does not work the same for everyone. Some people in clinical trials experience headaches, worsening migraines, or even a drop in mood when receiving stimulation. “Most diseases involve multiple biological and psychological factors, and no single nerve explains or solves all of them,” he says. Misinformation is not limited to devices; It also covers home diagnostics. The magazine Bustle recently echoed a viral trend on TikTok: the “three drinks” test. Content creators claimed that if you are unable to swallow saliva three times in a row and quickly, your vagus nerve is seriously deregulated due to chronic stress. The therapists had to intervene. Chloë Bean, an expert somatic trauma therapist, clarified that swallowing does involve this nerve, but not being able to do it three times in a row “does not automatically mean that your vagus nerve is stuck.” It … Read more

“Slaughterbots” are no longer science fiction in Ukraine. Russians wear masks to avoid the drone that aims at their heads

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A few years before the start of the war in Ukraine, a Berkeley computer science professor presented at the UN a short called “Slaughterbots”a piece where small drones with facial recognition chased people autonomously. Many saw it then as another technological exaggeration in the style of the Black Mirror series. A few years later the short… has fallen short. Drones that search for tanks, search for people. For much of the Ukrainian war, drones were seen as a support weapon intended to destroy armor, correct artillery fire or monitor enemy movements. That phase has gone disappearing quickly. What is now emerging is something much more disturbing: cheap drones, produced by the millions, designed specifically to hunt down and kill soldiers. individually. They counted in Forbes that the Russian military channels themselves they are warning of Ukrainian FPVs equipped with thermal vision, reconnaissance systems and munitions capable of firing explosive projectiles at a distance directly against a human body. The detail that is generating the most fear is not the weapon itself, but the possibility that these drones are already learning to identify Where to hit to maximize lethality. The idea of ​​small autonomous devices “hunting” specific people no longer belongs to technological dystopias or viral YouTube videos: it is beginning to form part of the front line’s routine. A gigantic aerial hunting area. The most profound consequence of this revolution is that huge parts of the front have been transformed in “kill zones”those corridors where any human movement can be detected and destroyed from the air in a matter of minutes. Ukraine has especially perfected this model around cities like Kostyantynivka or Chasiv Yarwhere small Russian groups are identified long before approaching the defensive lines. The result has been devastating for classical Russian doctrines: large armored columns and mechanized assaults have become too visible and vulnerable. In response, Moscow is trying to create their own “drone racers”infiltrating small teams of operators hiding in basements, destroyed buildings or tree lines to build temporary bubbles of local air dominance. In other words, war is no longer just about controlling the terrain, it is about controlling the sky just a few meters above each soldier’s head. The true technological leap. The most important thing about these new systems is not the size of the explosive charge, but intelligence that begins to guide them. Many Ukrainian FPVs already integrate autonomy modules capable of continuing the attack even when the operator loses signal due to electronic interference. Western companies and civilian developers have created relatively inexpensive kits that turn commercial drones into smart munitions capable of automatically locking on and pursuing targets. Until recently, that autonomy was mainly used against vehicles; now the focus shifts to the infantry. Some models use EFP loadsformed explosive projectiles that do not need to hit directly to penetrate protection and kill the target from a distance. That eliminates many of the defenses improvised measures that had proliferated on the front, from metal nets even the famous Russian “turtle tanks”. The problem for soldiers is that hiding no longer guarantees survival: the drone can continue observing, wait for the exact moment and attack when it detects vulnerability. “Slaughterbots” stopped seeming over the top. We said it at the beginning, in 2017 Professor Stuart Russell launched the short film “Slaughterbots” as a warning about autonomous drones with facial recognition capable of murdering specific people. At the time it seemed like a futuristic hype designed to open ethical debates about military artificial intelligence. Nine years later, the parallels are beginning to be uncomfortable even for those fighting on the ground. Russian soldiers develop countermeasures that seem straight out of a science fiction movie: using masks to confuse recognition systems, throwing helmets as decoys, hiding their heads behind obstacles or remaining completely still to avoid thermal tracking. Obsession reflects a huge psychological change. For centuries, a soldier could attempt to protect himself from enemy fire using cover, armor, or distance. Many fighters now feel that there is a camera constantly watching them from above, capable of deciding when to attack and possibly where to do it to ensure death. The industrial and algorithmic battle. The great Russian fear is that Ukraine will manage to combine mass production, autonomy and precision on an unprecedented scale. kyiv aims to manufacture millions of FPVs a year, and that completely changes the mathematics of combat. Whether a relatively cheap drone can chase soldiers with hit rates close to 80%human wear and tear begins to take on industrial dimensions. That is why Russia is desperately trying to build its own drone racersdeploy interceptors and saturate local airspace before moving larger troops. However, Ukraine maintains an advantage in both quantity and technological sophistication, especially in optics, autonomous navigation and aerial interception. What is being seen in the Donbas is not simply a tactical evolution of drone warfare: it is rather the birth of a new form of combat where thousands of semi-autonomous machines continually compete to detect, pursue and eliminate individual human beings. And the most disturbing thing is that this transformation is just beginning. Image | Defense Ukraine In Xataka | Satellite images reveal how much Russia fears Ukraine’s drones. 7,000 km away they are covering their nuclear missiles In Xataka | Ukraine has resurrected one of the oldest tactics of warfare. And he is isolating Russian cities without the need for soldiers

Spain will have 27,000 new civil servants. The surprise is that experts in AI, cybersecurity and data science are now sought

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In recent years, Spain has promoted the public employment calls. This has managed to beat historical figures in the number of places and, although the OEP (Public Employment Offer) of 2025 took its foot off the accelerator, the Council of Ministers has just approved the OEP corresponding to 2026 with figures somewhat higher than those of the previous period. What draws attention is something else: the 1,700 positions for information technology specialists to achieve a ambitious goal. Transform Administration thanks to AI. 27,000 for the AGE. How has published The Government through the Ministry for Digital Transformation and Public Service, the OEP 2026 includes 27,232 places for the General Administration of the State. It represents a small increase compared to the 26,889 places last yearalthough it continues to show that there is a personnel problem. The breakdown is 26,886 ordinary places and 346 corresponding to an extraordinary offer linked to the climate emergency. The Government points out that this offer will generate 6,200 net jobs and ensures that, since 2021, the different public employment offers have met the objective of rejuvenating the public workforce, with an average age now at 49 years. New specialists. Now, the big news is that the Administration wants profiles that are much more specialized in technology. Of these positions, 1,700 will be for information technology specialists. It is estimated that it is 42% more than those called in the previous offer and it is not only the increase in places, but also the profiles they are looking for. Because what they are looking for are “specialists in Artificial Intelligence, Cybersecurity and Data Science” with the aim of, according to Minister Óscar López, “transforming the Administration.” López points out that we have to see what the administration’s priorities are, the needs of citizens and, thus, “have a more effective and efficient administration with the use of AI and the creation of quality public employment.” More digitization. This increase in digital profiles is supported by Government figures that indicate that the percentage of citizens who use official websites or applications is 83% while the European average is 75%. Furthermore, they point out that Spain is seven points above the average in digitalization of the Public Administration. The objective they aspire to is to increase digital administrative procedures by 25%, digitizing public administration. If this is going to be accompanied by the destruction of jobs, López affirms no and that what they are going to do is transform those jobs, not destroy them. They do not detail much else, other than that a series of digital training courses will be carried out with AI modules and “data tools” to strengthen the digital skills of all public employees. Exceeding 37,000. In total, counting the beaches already announced for the National Police, Civil Guard and Armed Forces, the OEP 2026 will exceed 37,000 places, slightly above the 36,588 last year. And, beyond the striking nature of these digital offers in AI and “data”, the Government intends to reinforce strategic areas such as the energy transition, the prevention of climate emergencies and the fight against climate change. The problem is that, according to the OECD, Spanish public employment remains below the international average. In the 2025 report, the OECD pointed out that Spanish public employment represented 15.25% of the total active population in 2023, with the average for all OECD countries being 18.41%. We will have to wait for more recent reports to see if the record rally of 2023 and 2024 has reversed the situation. Image | Treball Generalitat (edited) In Xataka | The easiest oppositions to pass in Spain following three criteria: by syllabus, by places and by requirements

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