Science

Ozempic’s great challenge is the rebound effect. Science already has two promising solutions to avoid it

by

The rise of medications such as Ozempic, wegovy o Mounjaru has completely transformed the clinical and social landscape of the weight lossmaking many people do not hesitate to ask their family doctor to prescribe it in order to lose weight and also regulate blood sugar. The results during treatment are undeniable, but the big question it raises about medical consultations is what exactly happens when the medication is stopped. What we know. One of the most feared points of this type of treatment is the ‘rebound effect’ which causes that, at the time of stopping the treatment and if eating habits have not been adjusted, a large weight gain will be seen. This is something that causes many people to see that this treatment only gives a few months of ‘thinness’, but science is now trying to avoid this effect. The rebound. An exhaustive analysis published in The BMJ finally put exact figures on this phenomenon so that you can speak appropriately to patients. And what has been seen after analyzing 9,300 participants is that patients recover an average of 0.4 kilos per month after stopping treatment. At this rate, the return to the initial weight before starting therapy occurs in just 1.7 years. But this is also accompanied by a loss of cardiovascular shield at 1.4 years. The solution. one of them it involves taking a pill daily known as orforglipronwhich is nothing more than a non-peptide GLP-1 receptor agonistwhich means that it can be taken orally and not through subcutaneous injections. The idea here is to use the injectable treatment, which is more powerful, for the first few weeks and then transition to this daily pill to consolidate the results without the rebound effect. This not only greatly improves patient comfort, but facilitates mass production by not relying on problematic ‘pens’ containing semaglutide, and helps maintain satiety signaling at the brain level without the invasive impact of the needle. A bacteria. The second line of research points to the intestinal microbiome, by analyzing supplementation with the bacteria Akkermansia muciniphila MucT pasteurized as a tool to avoid the rebound effect after a low-calorie diet. A bacteria that is long known in the field of nutrition for its role in the integrity of the intestinal barrier. After doing the analysisit was seen that the group of patients who received the bacterial supplement recorded a weight recovery of only 13.6%, compared to 32.9% in the control group. But beyond the scale, it has been seen that this bacteria shows a notable preservation of insulin sensitivity, a crucial factor to avoid the development of type 2 diabetes and keep lipid metabolism under control. The future. We are undoubtedly at the beginning of a paradigm shift, since the medical narrative is moving from the short-term “war against kilos” to chronic and sustainable management. But logically, for this to reach the market, we must wait (and not a little) for better results and above all for it to be tested in humans. Images | stefamerpik in Magnific In Xataka | We thought Ozempic was only for weight loss. Science is seeing that it can end alcoholism

Science explains why your brain prefers paper to keyboard to learn

by

In an era dominated by mechanical keyboards, touch screens and cutting-edge tablets, the ancestral gesture of slide a pen over the paper seems like an anachronism reserved for people who haven’t updated. And this is a reality in areas of study such as, for example, universities, where it is rare to see someone studying by hand. But the reality is that, to be much more productive while studying, it may be best to put the laptop aside and start writing. The ‘magic’ of the pen. Here science, in its different disciplines, has concluded that taking notes by hand significantly improves retention and comprehension compared to actively using digital devices. And it’s not a question of romanticism, it’s a question of neural processing. A transcription effect. One of the pillars of this evidence is in a study published in 2014 which pointed out that students who use laptops to take notes become authentic transcribers of what the teacher says. And we have reached the point where many people can write faster than teachers speak and become “transcription machines” without processing the information. and stay with what is most important. I have even seen that even jokes end up being copied. On the contrary, who writes by hand You can’t write it all down. This requires you to engage in active cognitive processing: you must listen, digest, synthesize, and rephrase the idea in your own words. This “desirable difficulty” generates a much deeper encoding in memory that lasts even a week after the study. Better paper. Beyond the transcription effect, neuroscience has confirmed that the benefit is not only strategic, but also physical. Here, a study from 2021 published by the University of Tokyo demonstrated using electroencephalograms that handwriting activates brain areas critical for memory, language and fine movement. This is why, when using a pen, it has been seen that the hippocampus is significantly activated, which is essential for memory and spatial coding of information. But it does not stop there, since up to 25% more neuronal connectivity has been detected in complex tasks when the analog method is used. This explains why students in highly demanding careers tend to perform better cognitively when they opt for neural methods such as engineering. Less distractions. Beyond neurons, paper offers a competitive advantage in the study environment, since it is a closed system. This is very important because a tablet or laptop It is also a tool with open doors to notificationssocial networks and messaging apps that can be a temptation when it comes to interrupting the study quite easily. In addition, it facilitates word recognition and visual memorization, something vital for competitive exams or high-level exams such as a competition. And while well-designed digital notes may be superior for quickly remembering a single fact, paper wins by a landslide in conceptual understanding. Images | yanalya in Magnific In Xataka | The 2-7-30 method has become one of the fashionable systems to study faster. Science has doubts

2,500 years ago Athens suffered an epidemic that marked the end of its golden age. Science is determined to know what caused it

by

“Words are insufficient when trying to describe this disease. As for his suffering, it seemed almost beyond what is humanly bearable.” Although the news about the hantavirus They make it sound even scarier, that commentIn reality, it is more than 2,000 years old. The chronicler Thucydides wrote it in his ‘History of the Peloponnesian War’ to give an idea of ​​the terrible plague that devastated Athens around 430 BC, an ailment that he himself suffered and took the lives of some 75,000 people. For centuries that epidemic has been remembered as the ‘plague of Athens’although we don’t actually know exactly what caused it. Now a group of Greek researchers have shed some more light on that dark episode. Epidemic detectives. In a hyperconnected world, in which people are capable of traveling thousands of kilometers in a few hours and it comes with blocking a remote strait of the Middle East to put the world economy in check, the specter of pandemics seems more present, but the truth is that humanity takes centuries dealing with him. Before the COVID pandemic, we had, for example, the 1918 flu or the disastrous Black Deathwhich devastated Europe between 1346 and 1353 and (by some estimates) reached 60% case fatality rates in some regions. Long before any of them, in the times of Classical Greece, another equally devastating epidemic was recorded: the plague of Athens. Thanks to authors like Thucydideswho in addition to being a chronicler suffered it himself, today we can learn in detail how that outbreak developed and experienced, which left tens of thousands of dead. The episode was important not only because of its death toll: between 75,000 and 100,000 in the four years that elapsed from 430 to 426 BC One of the deceased was Periclesa historical leader of Athens. In fact, experts usually agree that the plague precipitated the decline of the Athenian Golden Age and its death toll facilitated its final defeat in the war against Sparta. The great unknown. Despite this historical value, the Athenian plague remains shrouded in unknowns. We know when it developed, we know where it developed and there is even evidence suggesting that the initial outbreak occurred in sub-Saharan Africa, spread to Egypt and Libya and then passed to Athens via Piraeus. What is not clear is what exactly caused the plague and why it was so disastrous. And Thucydides was in charge of describing all its symptoms. Now a team from the University of Athens (NKUA) have wanted to clear up this mystery by analyzing the symptoms described by the chronicler and comparing it with that of known ailments. The result they have published it in the magazine AMHA. A pulse on history. If it is difficult to track a viral outbreak in 2026, the task becomes daunting when we are talking about one of the first known epidemics in human history. To face such a challenge, Dr. Dimosthenis Papadimitrakis and his colleagues had an idea: they looked at the symptoms described by Thucydides and other sources, They selected 17 diseases known that more or less fit that symptomatology and created a “metric system” with different scores to determine which of them best fit the epidemic that hit Athens 2,400 years ago. “The most terrible thing, despair”. Whether due to his zeal as a chronicler or because he himself suffered from the disease, Thucydides detailed the symptoms suffered by those who contracted the Athenian plague: migraines, high fever, redness and inflammation of the eyes, bad breath, sneezing, cough and profound gastrointestinal discomfort, such as nausea, vomiting, spasms and painful diarrhea. Over time, rashes, pustules and ulcers appeared on the patient’s skin, especially in the abdomen area. Those who could not stand the disease died after seven or nine days, after experiencing intense burning that led them to take off their clothes or even immerse themselves in cold water. “Gangrene of the extremities and eyes was common among both survivors and victims,” detail experts, who remember that it was not unusual for patients who survived the plague to do so with amnesia. “The most terrible thing was the despair into which people fell when they realized that they had contracted the plague. They immediately adopted an attitude of absolute hopelessness and, by giving in in this way, they lost their capacity for resistance,” Thucydides reflects. “Words are insufficient when trying to give a general image of the illness.” Ruling out candidates. With that starting point, Papadimitrakis and his colleagues developed a list of diseases that the Athenians of 2,400 years ago could have contracted and that coincided to a greater or lesser extent with the symptoms described by Thucydides. They came up with 17 potential ‘candidates’, including cholera, measles, scarlet fever, tuberculosis, Ebola, malaria, smallpox, bubonic plague, ergotism or Lassa fever. Then with that chart on the table, two questions were asked: Which of those diseases caused rashes and gangrene? How many are transmitted between humans? And what historical evidence is there for each of these ailments? Thanks to this analysis they reached a series of conclusions, although the team warns that they are only hypotheses based on probability, not firm and unquestionable truths. “The plague of Athens presents difficulties in identifying the causal agent due to several factors. The main source of information is the accounts of Thucydides, but his lack of medical knowledge and the lapse of up to 20 years between the events and their documentation can lead to erroneous interpretations,” the authors explain. “Furthermore, the inability to isolate or culture the responsible microorganism poses a major obstacle. Even if preserved bodies of plague victims were discovered, the microbes would have decomposed over time.” And what is the conclusion? That of the diseases analyzed, the one with the most votes is typhoid fever. “It appears to meet most of the criteria, so it is considered the most likely agent,” summary the researchers. Furthermore, in a necropolis from the time of the epidemic, remains of the bacteria that trigger this disease … Read more

How much coffee can you drink a day? Science has a very clear limit to avoid its harmful effects

by

For many of us, the starter motor in the morning It has a dark color and a roasted aroma that characterize coffee so much. A drink that is one of the most consumed in the world, but with a popularity that has been accompanied by alarmist headlines about how bad it is to ingest it and the effects it can have directly on the organs. But the truth is that there are lights and shadows. There is good news. For those who love coffee, it will undoubtedly be a relief to know that the literature indicates that consumption is not as catastrophic as they want to sell. But, as in everything, excesses of something can always lead to problems, even if it may seem like something super healthy, such as water. And coffee, obviously, is not exempt. The limit. When it comes to establishing a red line for safe consumption, the clinical reference is not in the WHO, but in the FDA and the EFSAwhich are the food safety regulatory agencies in the United States and Europe, respectively. Here both point to the same figure in coffee consumption: 400 milligrams of caffeine per day. A very relevant figure, since for the vast majority of healthy adults, consuming up to 400 mg daily is not associated with harmful health effectshighlighting that this amount can be part of a perfectly healthy diet and lifestyle. How many coffees is this equivalent to? This is where things get complicated since talking about “cups” is an analytical error, because not all coffees are the same. That is why for the FDA a 355 ml cup, which is a standard size, can contain between 113 and 247 mg of caffeine. But all this depends on the type of preparation, the extraction time or the coffee used, because Robusta coffee has more caffeine than Arabica, for example. But generally speaking, that 400 mg is equivalent to about 3 or 4 cups of standard filter coffee per day. Organic damage. It is easy to see different alarming messages warning that coffee can damage our entire interior if a specific dose is exceeded. But the reality is that the WHO does not send this message to society, since it is too alarming and does not correspond at all to reality. What is true is that excessive daily coffee consumption has important effects on our body, but it will not ‘rot’ our internal organs. Among these stand out insomnia, nervousness, irritability, palpitations, muscle tremors, intestinal irritation, headache… This means that, although we talk about coffee not being contradictory for the population, logically, if there is an underlying problem, it may be better not to drink it, and even less so if it is taken in great excess throughout the day. It has benefits. On other occasions we have talked about coffee and its benefits, because it has more than just keeping us awake in the morning. Here different studies have already pointed out to us the cardiovascular benefits it can have or even improves sports performance. But the metabolism of each person is quite involved here, since there is no single metabolism. In this case, there are people who process caffeine very quickly and its effect disappears quickly, but there are other cases where they metabolize it slowly, so its effects remain in the body and they may, for example, have more problems with insomnia, nervousness or palpitations because they are more “sensitive” to caffeine. This is the explanation, for example, that a person can boast of having a coffee at night and being able to sleep perfectly. There are exceptions. Although we talk about a limit of 400 mg of caffeine, there are people who logically cannot reach this limit, such as pregnant women, where a maximum of 200 mg per day is recommended, since excess caffeine can cross the placenta and affect fetal development. But it also influences, for example, the cholesterol level, since here the Mayo Clinic points out that the consumption of unfiltered coffee, such as Turkish coffee, can raise cholesterol levels due to compounds such as cafestol. Images | Dragana_Gordic in Magnific In Xataka | If the question is “how much caffeine is in each cup of coffee or tea,” this graph offers insightful answers.

Science has a new magic number (and a golden rule about how to give them)

by

One of the mantras that has been repeated on numerous occasions is that yes or yes you have to take 10,000 steps a day in order to enjoy good health. Our activity bracelets are partly to blame, since they even give us prizes for reaching this goal or remind us that we have not managed to reach it. But this number was born as a marketing strategy in Japan in the 60s and now science is making more and more nuances with respect to this figure to give more importance to how it works. The study. The most recent evidence we have in this regard is found published in the prestigious magazine The Lancet in July 2025, which combined 57 studies and analyzed 31 different cohorts of people in order to reach the most robust conclusion possible. The results. In short, we can affirm that the mantra of taking 10,000 steps is more than dismantled, since already reaching 7,000 steps a day means having 47% less mortality from any cause, and 25% less risk of suffering from cardiovascular disease compared to those who only take 2,000 steps a day on average. This is what different reference organizations in the world of cardiology also point out, such as the American College of Cardiology, who claim that the health benefit follows a curve in which the biggest drop in mortality risk occurs before reaching 10,000 stepssetting the new goal at 7,000-8,000 steps per day. It’s not worth the walk. For many, all the steps on the physical activity counter are the same, whether they are the first ones in the morning to go to the bathroom or the ones we take while window shopping at the mall. But the reality is that they are not ‘productive’ steps, since to reach these 7,000 steps that do not ensure a reduction in mortality, the intensity of the walk matters much more than the number. How to get here. Here Harvard Health sums it up perfectly aim that walking becomes a moderate aerobic exercise only when we increase the intensity until we notice a higher pulse and more demanding breathing. To get an idea, if we are here, we can put ourselves in the situation where we can still speak, but only in short phrases. If we want to have a figure on the table, we can stick to reaching 100 steps per minute, which can be around 4.5 km per hour if we also want to do it on a treadmill in the gym. It’s important. Doing these steps daily is important, since it has been shown that adequate walking speed is directly linked to a significant reduction in cases of heart attack, stroke and heart failure, especially in people who already suffer from hypertension. Images | Drazen Zigic in Magnific In Xataka | Tell me how fast you walk at 45 and I’ll tell you how your brain ages: The science behind the ‘sixth vital sign’

We thought Ozempic was only for weight loss. Science is seeing that it can end alcoholism

by

The famous Ozempic has been revolutionizing the treatment of type 2 diabetes for years and also has an important effect on obesity when it comes to helping patients lose weight by causing a greater satiety. However, the scientific community had long suspected that its effects went far beyond weight control and now, science has an idea that it may have an effect on alcohol. New advances. A new study published earlier this month in The Lancet ha proven that these drugs are capable of significantly reducing the days of excessive alcohol consumption in patients who have an alcoholism problem. Something that is a great milestone, since until now the evidence on the use of these drugs to treat addictions was based on small studies, but now a big change has been made by designing a trial with the maximum guarantees to find a clear relationship between taking Ozempic and the control of addiction. How it was done. For 26 weeks, researchers followed 108 adult patients who had both obesity and an alcohol use disorder. From this sample, the group treated with semaglutide once a week experienced a 41% reduction in days of heavy drinking, compared to 26% in the placebo group not taking the treatment. In addition, patients on medication consumed an average of 1,026 grams of alcohol per month, which is a significantly lower figure considering that the control group drank 1,550 grams of alcohol. And they both thought they were taking the same treatment, although that was not the case. It’s not magic. To understand why this happens, we have to go to 2023, where a study showed that semaglutide, which is the active ingredient in Ozempic, binds directly to the nucleus accumbens of mice. By doing so, it suppresses the release of dopamine induced by alcohol consumption, suppressing the reward circuit that generates satisfaction when you drink a little alcohol and that is the effect that addicts seek. In this way, if alcohol does not generate that chemical “high”, the desire to consume it disappears. The limitations. Despite the enthusiasm that this may generate for having a new treatment against alcoholism, which is an addiction that has great negative effects, we must put the brakes on a little. At a technical level, we must keep in mind that 108 people is still a relatively small group to extrapolate the results to the entire population. Furthermore, all patients who participated in the study were obese and white, which limits the generalizability of the results to patients of normal weight or other ethnicities. And as if those were not enough limitations, it should be noted that the trial was funded by the drug manufacturers and does not have follow-up data beyond week 26. Images | freepik freepic.diller on Magnific In Xataka | We thought that quenching hunger with Ozempic was the definitive remedy against obesity. Until we look at the muscle

NASA has captured how an entire lake in Canada disappeared in just 15 days. Science has a disturbing explanation

by

Seen and unseen. In the spring of 2025 something happened in central Quebec: an entire lake disappeared in a matter of days. Lac Rouge, a 1.4 square kilometer body of water located in the Lac-Walker region of Sept-Rivières, a popular hunting and fishing area in the Waswanipi Cree First Nationdisappeared. It did not dry out little by little as a result of a prolonged lack of rain as for example happens to Moroccoit was something abrupt and silent. What you see on these lines is the before and after photographed by the Landsat 9 satellite NASA from space with a margin of one year (June 2024 on the left and June 2025 on the right). That a lake disappears is scientifically interesting, as is the list of suspects: the shores have soft geology, the terrain has been suffering from forest fires for years, there is a lot of logging and also melting ice. Where is the trick. What happened to the lake. The first sign was a destroyed road, as reported by local people who used it to move around the area: the access road was completely destroyed by water, as NASA explains. CBC echoes the subsequent investigationwhich revealed that the land surrounding the lake had collapsed and that Lac Rouge had been emptied. The lake had water on April 29, 2025 but was completely dry on May 14. I mean, It dried in just 15 days. At that time, the local administration released a statement alerting of the event. But the water didn’t disappear, it just moved around. Instead of following its usual outlet channel, it opened a new channel to the northeast, crossing a 10-kilometer chain of lakes and wetlands until it reached Lac Doda. If you look at the after photo, you will see that it left a mark in the form of light brown sediments. The explanation. Science explains this mechanism called outburst flooda flash overflow flood: a portion of the lake shore suddenly gave way and water quickly escaped through that gap instead of overflowing into existing river channels. He NASA Earth Observatory confirmed that it was the east bank that gave way, originating that new route. This phenomenon is relatively common in lakes of glacial origin with unstable ice barriers, but rare in a lake like Lac Rouge, whose barrier is made of soft sedimentary soil. The underlying physics is common in basin hydrology: a coniferous forest absorbs between 20% and 50% of the rain it receives, according to this meta-study published in Nature. If there is no vegetation cover, the water reaches the soil directly, saturates it and weakens those banks. Hydrologist Younes Alila, from the University of British Columbia, summarizes it like this: Any ground disturbance (e.g. fire, logging or forestry) raises the water table and keeps it high for longer, increasing the risk of extreme flooding. There is no Lake Ninio left, only Masibón. POT Why is it important. Because Lac Rouge is not an isolated case: it is a warning. Climate change is making fires more frequent and melting more irregular, as the IPCC climate change expert group explains in his AR6while intensive logging continues to weaken soils. The combination of both factors in basins with soft geology favors the appearance of these poorly studied and difficult to anticipate events, as warned by a study on the boreal forest and climate change published in Springer Nature. In this case, the direct blow is suffered by the indigenous communities. More than 600 communities depend on the Canadian boreal forest for their livelihood, according to the Boreal Conservation Foundationand events like this disappearance drastically alter the territory’s ecosystems and activities, such as hunting and fishing, from one day to the next. The list of suspects. Considering these risk factors, Lac Rouge had all the cards: The fire. In 2019 and 2023, areas near the lake burned. The 2023 fire was Quebec’s worst in more than a century: it burned 4.5 million hectares, according to this study published in the Canadian Journal of Forest Research. The Guardian echoes from the Quebec Cree forestry department, which concludes that those fires eliminated much of the mature vegetation cover in the Lac Rouge basin, including that bank that gave way. Furthermore, the fires can reduce infiltration and increase runoff. Intensive logging. After the fires, logging companies obtained wood by scarifying the land to facilitate replanting, which worsened even more the hydrological degradation of the basin. The thaw of 2025. The winter of 2025 snowed more than normal and the thaw was rapid, generating a volume of water that those weak banks could not contain. Natural or provoked? The Quebec government classified it as a natural event and did not investigate further. Their argument: Their own forestry studies say that if less than half of a watershed’s forest is damaged, the risk to rivers and lakes is minimal, as Sigma Earth collects. International experts and the Cree community do not accept it: these studies do not take into account that in Lac Rouge the damage accumulated in layers or that climate change makes all this happen with more frequency and intensity, according to the IPCC in its Sixth Assessment Report. It was probably a combination of everything: soft soil and weak shoreline set the stage, rapid snowmelt was the spark, and decades of logging and fires made the system much more fragile than it otherwise would have been. As points out Sigma EarthLac Rouge can be a warning of what is to come if the way this territory is managed is not changed. In Xataka | Chronicle of an announced collapse: the NASA map that shows how quickly Mexico City is sinking In Xataka | The Earth’s seabed has always been a mystery: an amazing 3D map reveals it in unprecedented detail Cover | POT

How Much Protein You Really Need per Day and What Science Says About Supplements to Reach Your Goals

by

In the sports world there is a great debate about how much protein should be consumed daily in order to have a good result in the gym and for the muscles to grow. But the truth is that sometimes the figures you hear about the doses you need to take are very high, and that is why it is best to go to the official source where they tell us the most appropriate doses for each person. We are not all the same. The biggest mistake when talking about protein is thinking that there is a universal figure, since recommendations vary drastically depending on whether you spend the day sitting in front of the computer or if you strength train four days a week. This is why authorities have historically established a minimum protein intake to avoid health problems, and not to optimize performance or body composition. The general population. Here the WHO it’s pretty clear pointing out that the minimum protein that should be taken is 0.75-0.8 grams per kilo of weight per day. But we talk about “minimum” and that means that it is not necessarily optimal, and that is why other guides raise this range to 0.8-1 grams per kilo of weight, emphasizing the need to include a source of protein in each meal. In athletes. Things change in this context, since the International Society of Sports Nutrition point Because, if you exercise, you should take between 1.4 and 2 grams of protein per kilo of weight per day, reaching peaks of 2.5 grams in very intense training phases. The supplementation. Achieving 2 grams of protein per kilo of weight can be a real logistical (and digestive) challenge based on chicken breast, eggs and legumes. But this is where the famous protein supplementation comes in, which should not be used as a magic remedy, but as a practical, safe and highly bioavailable tool for healthy people who They need extra protein. It is investigated. Here studies highlight that proteins derived from milk are the ones that offer the best results, although vegetable options such as those derived from soy are not far behind. The undisputed queen is wheywhose main advantage is its rapid absorption and high bioavailability, something that has been seen in clinical trials where greater development of strength and lean mass after exercise was evident. Another of the great supplements is casein, which is the slow-digesting protein, with an “anti-catabolic” effect that prevents prolonged muscle breakdown. In this way, experts point out that it is ideal to take it before sleeping to ensure a constant drip of amino acids during the night, which are nothing more than the bricks that will form the muscles. Images | Alex Saks In Xataka | When adding protein to everything is no longer a good idea: What science says about aging well

If the question is how the Egyptian pyramids were made, science has an idea: hydraulic systems

by

Ancient Egypt is recognized for being one of the first hydraulic civilizations in history: they had control over irrigation canals, dams and transportation that was essential for erect and maintain a centralized kingdom for more than three thousand years in a fertile strip surrounded by desert. In the Old Kingdom period (c. 2700–2200 BC), the Egyptians built seven enormous pyramids representing approximately 25 million tons of rock cut, transported and fitted in less than 150 years. How they did it remains a mystery. In that period the pharaohs they ordered stone blocks to be moved at a rate equivalent to 50 tons per hour sustained for decades. There are several hypothesesbut none are satisfactory enough to explain that performance, especially at the beginning. The origin of everything is in Saqqara: the Step Pyramid of Pharaoh Djoser It is the oldest of the great pyramids and the first built entirely of carved stone. This is precisely where a multidisciplinary team proposes for the first time that water was the driving force of its construction. The hydraulic hypothesis. What the research team led by Xavier Landreau proposes is a kind of hydraulic elevator formed by three large structures from the Zoser complex. The Gisr el-Mudir functioned as a retention dam, the southern Dry Trench was the settling tank and the twin shafts (connected by a 200 meter underground tunnel) constituted the lifting mechanism: a huge float that would have raised the blocks from inside the pyramid in cycles of filling and emptying. Water from the desert wadis was channeled and filtered before reaching the vertical wells. When filled, the water buoyantly raised a platform on which the blocks rested, allowing them to be deposited on the upper levels without the need for external ramps and with less labor effort. Why is it important. Firstly, because it provides a coherent functional explanation for three structures at Saqqara whose purpose was not entirely clear. The analysis brings together hydrology, archeology and civil engineering to integrate all these elements into a unified and logical system, possibly making the Saqqara complex the oldest hydraulic infrastructure in history. If the hypothesis is confirmed, it would leave behind the hegemonic belief of ramps and a large amount of labor as a universal solution for building pyramids. A hydraulic lifting system implies efficient management of resources, energy and logistics, by significantly reducing labor. Additionally, it involves even more advanced knowledge of hydraulics. The next question is clear: are there more pyramids in Egypt built like this? Context. Saqqara is on a limestone plateau west of the Nile. How the research team mappedto the west of the complex there was a potential watershed of 400 square kilometers linked to the wadi Taflah, an ancient tributary of the Nile already documented on 18th century maps. This point is important because although today it is a desert plateau, studies of sediments from the complex itself show that during the reign of Djoser the area received intense seasonal runoffwith enough kinetic energy to deposit sediments of water origin inside the structures. In short, there was water available and in quantity. Other historical hypotheses. The most consolidated theories about the construction of the pyramids point to ramps with different geometries combined with levers and sleds. For Giza for example, Jean-Pierre Houdin proposed an interior spiral ramp. For Saqqara, studies collected in the paper itself suggest that the Dry Pit was the main limestone quarry, with short ramps on each side as a supply mechanism. As for the twin wells, the dominant interpretation until now was funerary: the royal tomb of Djoser and the abode of his ka. As for the dry grave, it was considered a quarry or had a ritual function. How have they done it. This research team has not excavated anything: it has combined satellite images of Airbus Pléiadeselevation models from the French IGN and the QGIS GIS to reconstruct the paleohydrology of the environment. From here, they generated 3D models of the complex’s internal architecture with quite popular commercial software such as SolidWorks or SketchUp. Regarding the hydraulic mechanism, they developed their own deliberately simple numerical model to estimate the water consumption and carrying capacity of the system. Yes, but. Using existing data has been both its greatest strength and also its greatest virtue, as the team recognizes. That is, although their study integrates basin topography, hydraulics and internal architecture, they have not accessed the wells or dated the sediments directly. On the other hand, from the perspective of the study of Egypt, stating that the wells are not funerary contradicts decades of consolidated interpretation. On the other hand, it raises a structural question: if those who made the first pyramids in Egypt mastered this hydraulic technology, why are the pyramids after Giza increasingly smaller and poorer? In Xataka | China’s first pipeline network is 4,000 years old and something revolutionary: it was built without the need for kings or nobles In Xataka | What we see in Petra is a city “carved in stone”: what it really hides is an amazing water system Cover | Charles J Sharp

The spike in Google searches after the 2024 eclipse reveals that we continue to ignore science

by

It has been known for a long time that It is not healthy to look directly at a solar eclipse. It is said that Socrates himself I already recommended looking at it reflected in the waterbut never directly. However, human beings have a fairly significant tendency to ignore scientific recommendations. This is possibly the reason why in 2024, after an eclipse in the United States, Google searches for the phrase “my eyes hurt” had a very abrupt peak. The time and place coincide. That peak of searches took place on April 8, 2024 at 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Just at that moment a solar eclipse was occurring whose strip of totality crossed from Mexico to Canada, passing through the United States. The states where the most searches were carried out were Vermont, Arkansas, Michigan, Ohio and Indiana, all of them immersed in the path of the eclipse. Eclipse retinopathy. When looking directly into sunlight, the retina can suffer serious damage. The condition that occurs is known as eclipse retinopathy and causes symptoms such as photosensitivity, blurred vision and headache. Vision can be affected for months or even permanently in the most severe cases. For this reason, no matter how much it may seem like the sun is covered, we must look at it with adequate protection. No sunglasses or x-rays. We have all heard at some point that it is safe to look at an eclipse through an x-ray or a photo negative. However, this is a myth that can be very dangerous. Sunglasses are not safe either. Generally, These are prepared to filter approximately 99.9% of solar ultraviolet radiation.. However, in the event of an eclipse, in which we look directly at the sun, this protection is needed, added to a filter of 99.999% of visible sunlight. It is necessary to use special eclipse glasses, always with filters approved by the competent authorities. Be careful with binoculars and telescopes. We should also not look directly through telescopes or binoculars without using filters. These are placed outside the lens and protect our retinas from solar radiation when we look through them. If none of this seems right to us, we can always resort to a pinhole camera, which reflects the image of the eclipse on another surface. Something like what Socrates advised about looking at the reflection in the water. It is important to use approved glasses You shouldn’t even look at a total eclipse. When the eclipse is total, the Sun is completely obscured. At that point, we might feel safe without protection. The problem is that it is not easy to calculate the exact moment in which the eclipse will begin to dissolve and with just a little bit of light, just when the Sun begins to reappear, we can damage our retinas. It is important to use protection from the beginning. It wasn’t eclipse retinopathy. In reality, the symptoms of eclipse retinopathy They usually appear several hours after the event. Interestingly, eye pain is not one of these symptoms. Therefore, what all those people were looking for was due to another reason. When we look at the sun, we usually experience a blink reflex that forces us to look away. However, with a solar eclipse the brightness is dimmed enough for this reflection to disappear. As a consequence, we can comfortably look at the Sun and keep our eyes fixed, without blinking. That’s what can make our eyes hurt or feel a burning sensation. Specifically, that is not dangerous. Still, those Google searches show that many people were worried. Many of them may not have used protection and regretted it. Ready for August. Next August 12 we will have the first of the eclipses that make up the Iberian Trio. Many people have already bought tickets to travel to some of the points in the totality zone. There are even those who have gotten tickets for one of the many festivals that will be celebrated for this reason. Whatever plan we choose, the important thing is protection. Maybe, even if we protect ourselves, there will be a peak in Google searches, but it better be because we don’t blink for a while and not because we have really damaged our retinas. Image | Magnific/NASA | POT In Xataka | The trio of eclipses that await Spain on the horizon: an unprecedented and historic chain between 2026 and 2028

Log In

Forgot password?

Forgot password?

Enter your account data and we will send you a link to reset your password.

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

Log in

Privacy Policy

Add to Collection

No Collections

Here you'll find all collections you've created before.