Science

science points to other ways to help

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When a couple is expecting a child, before the birth a complex decision is made and one that is increasingly publicized: what to do with umbilical cord blood. And there is a fairly deep debate here: clinics sell it as “biological insurance” for the future, while the scientific community prefers talk about altruism and collective utility. Its biological importance. To understand this debate, you first have to know why The blood in an umbilical cord is so coveted. And it is actually very valuable, since it has blood cells that are essential for treat serious diseases such as leukemia or lymphoma. Situations in which a donor as similar as possible to the donor is required to renew their blood cells, and what better than one’s own blood to do so. The cells in the cord can regenerate blood cells, including those of the immune system itself, giving a patient who does not have a donor a great chance of survival. Although sometimes a cord is not enough to renew the entire reserve of blood cells. The reality of probabilities. As we say, the main argument of private banks is the immediate availability of stem cells for the child himself with an autotransplant. But the different European guides provide figures that invite reflection, such as that the possibility of using this blood for an autologous transplant is estimated. between 0.0005 and 0.000004%. In this way, it is calculated that there is a probability of using this blood less than 0.04% over a 20-year horizon. And there are even situations in which when a child presents leukemia, the clinic advises against the use of the child’s own blood in his cord because you could have some genetic alteration that has led to leukemia at a young age. Public banks. In the current paradigm, there are different banks where blood can be stored. On the one hand, we have the public option where any family can donate cord blood so that it is stored, but The use will be intended for anyone in the world that needs it and is compatible. That is, it will not be exclusive to the family that donated it, having to wait for a donation from this bank if they need it. But this means that this blood has many possibilities of being used in someone around the planet to resolve a serious illness such as leukemia. This is something possible in Spain be integrated into the REDMO network which is used to register bone marrow donors. What is clear is that Spain is an international benchmark in this field. With tens of thousands of units stored on its public network, there have already been nearly 2,000 successful transplantsdemonstrating that the true utility today lies in the altruistic model. The private bank. If you want exclusivity on umbilical cord blood, this is logically the most recommended option. But it must also be taken into account that the price that must be paid is quite high, since the maintenance of blood storage is not free, and requires periodic payments. Even science suggests that it is not the most advisable, except in very specific situations. The drawback here is that you may never have to use this blood because you do not contract a disease that is not common, and also because there are situations where it is not possible to do so. Regenerative medicine. Looking to the future It is not well known what can be done with these umbilical cord cells. Science is now exploring the possibility of treating type 1 diabetes with these cells by regenerating the function of the pancreas, or there are even studies focused on cerebral palsy. But nothing advanced. And while there is potential on paper, medical societies like the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)Warn to store cord blood for uncertain future use In regenerative medicine it is, today, a practice without consolidated scientific justification. What should be done. The majority recommendation from health authorities is clear: public donation is the most solid option. By donating to the public bank, the unit enters an international registry where it can save the life of a child or adult anywhere in the world. Although logically the decision always lies with the parents who have the freedom to take the path they want. However, even if you choose a private bank, you must keep in mind that it must have the necessary certifications so that when the blood is needed it is in optimal conditions to be processed. Images | Eduardo Barrios In Xataka | They have created an artificial blood factory that “breathes”: it is essential to give us the key to leukemia

We have been lowering the toilet lid all our lives for hygiene. Science has bad news: it is not enough

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Every time we flush the toilet, a small invisible “rash” occurs in the bathroom. It is not a literary exaggeration: science calls it ‘toilet plume’, or toilet plume: a phenomenon by which a Water discharge launches thousands of microscopic particles into the air loaded with everything you just deposited in the cup. A piece of advice. For years, it’s been pretty simple: lower the lid before pressing the toilet button. However, recent research suggests that this gesture, although useful, is not the definitive shield we thought. A microscopic volcano. When the water enters the cup with force to clean the residue that we have deposited, the impact generates bioaerosols. These droplets are so light that they can remain suspended in the air for minutes or even hours, something that can be quite dangerous for those people who have low defenses. A biological cocktail. According to the scientific reviews that have been done on the matter, the invisible clouds we are talking about are real cocktails with numerous biological agents. For example, bacteria such as Escherichia coli, Salmonella, Shigella and Clostridium. This is something that is magnified when we say that in a single gram of feces there can be up to 1,000,000,000,000 viral particles. And this is something that is magnified in public bathrooms, as scientific studies have shown that bacteria are not only found near the toilet, but also on the floors and sinks, confirming that pollution does not remain stagnant in the air. The myth of the cover. A priori, lowering the lid should be a clear solution to prevent bacteria from escaping, and although it helps a little, the reality is that it is not perfect. According to science, Lowering the lid reduces the dispersion of visible droplets by 30 to 60%being a substantial improvement to prevent heavier particles from landing even on the toothbrush. However, there is a design problem: the gap between the cup and the seat. The finest aerosols (particles less than 1 µm) are expelled under pressure through these slots. In experiments with viruses such as MS2, it has been proven that up to 57% of aerosols manage to escape even with the lid closed. And once outside, their size allows them to avoid many conventional air filters. It’s not just disgust. As microbiologist Raúl Rivas explainsthis is not just a debate about aesthetic hygiene. Flushing the toilet without lowering the lid releases many viruses and bacteria that may even be resistant to antibiotics. But this is something that is greatly amplified in public bathroomswhere ventilation is poor and where there are a large number of people per day. Here there is a high concentration of particles that, due to their small size, can be inhaled or deposited on the surfaces we touch such as the doorknob or the paper dispenser. What should be done. Science doesn’t say to stop lowering the cap, as it’s still best for larger droplets, but it suggests it’s not enough. That is why the tips that we can apply especially in the domestic sphere are the following: The summary is quite clear: the toilet is a very efficient microbicidal aerosol generator, and lowering the lid is the first step although it does not replace good hygiene and ventilation. Images | Giorgio Trovato CDC In Xataka | We have been believing that bacteria are a weapon against tumors for 150 years. And finally we have discovered how

They found a cube-shaped skull in Tamaulipas and thought it was a migrant. Science has turned history upside down

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Modern archeology has just thrown us one of those pieces of the puzzle that forces us to rewrite, in part, what we knew about different ancient cultures of northern Mesoamerica. Something obligatory, since a team from the National Institute of Anthropology and History has identified a find in Tamaulipas that is as unusual as it is fascinating: a skull with an intentional deformation in the shape of a “cube”. “Parallelepiped” deformation. The discovery took place in the archaeological zone of Balcón de Montezuma, in the Sierra Madre Oriental. As detailed in the official INAH bulletinthe remains belong to an adult man over forty years old who lived during the Classic period between 400 and 900 AD Although the most surprising thing may seem given the curious deformation of the skull, for anthropologists the real news was in a modification of the “erect tabular” type. in its “parallelepiped” variant. How did it come to this? To have a skull with this peculiar shape, it is suggested that the ancient settlers of that area had to use wood compression devices such as slats. These would be applied to the back of the head (the occipital bone) and the forehead to restrict the natural growth of bones from childhood. Because it is precisely when they are malleable to adjust them to what you were looking for. Who was it? This is where hypotheses begin to emerge. Anthropologists point out that this type of deformation is more typical of the Mesoamerican southeast. But these bones have been found in the northern area. So the question was clear: Was this man a foreigner who came to the north? The answer, thanks to the analyzes of strontium isotopesit’s a resounding no. The conclusion that has been reached is that the bones belonged to a local man who was born and raised in the Sierra Madre Occidental area. And this is something that changes the narrative completely: we are not facing a migrant, but rather evidence of cultural adoption. Because. The fact that a local inhabitant decided (or his parents decided for him when they were very young) that the skull had to be modified with a technique that involved two splints makes sense. The hypotheses initially point to the membership in a local eliteand this modification could be a distinctive sign to indicate that they were in a higher stratum than the rest of the inhabitants. But it is also something that can suggest a cultural connection, since there was a great flow of ideas and aesthetic fashions that was much more fluid than previously thought between different cities in the area. That is why it may be that having a skull like this was an indication of beauty or it was simply ‘viral’ at that time. Its importance. Until now, archeology had recorded cranial deformations in the area, but they were generally more inclined backwards. The appearance of this more elongated upward shape is something that had not been recorded before in this area. This is something that a priori will help discard the old idea that the northern areas were culturally isolated. On the contrary, this “cubic skull” is physical proof that the northern border of Mesoamerica was fully integrated into the ritual and aesthetic dynamics of the rest of the subcontinent. Images | Chelms Varthoumlien In Xataka | If Spain believes it has a problem with droughts, it is because it does not know what led the Mayans to collapse: 150 extreme years

Dogs are getting uglier and uglier. And science has several reasons to explain why we love that.

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In 1989, journalist Margo Kaufman reported in the Los Angeles Times how a stranger shouted “Hey, ugly!” upon seeing his two pugs walking down the street. It was not an isolated case, in his chronicle he commented that the derogatory comments accumulated day after day. At the time, these dogs were seen as comical anomalies, far removed from the prestige enjoyed by the German Shepherd or the Labrador. Three decades later, the world has turned upside down. What used to provoke ridicule today generates fascination. The networks have been filled with hairless Chihuahuas, toothless Chinese Cresteds, bulldogs that snort like locomotives and identical Brussels Griffons still Ewok. The phenomenon is as visible as it is undeniable: we are falling in love with ugly dogs. The rise of ugly dogs. The most compelling data It is contributed by The Wall Street Journal: As of 2022, the French bulldog is the most registered breed in the United States, displacing the Labrador retriever after 31 years of absolute reign. And it is not an isolated case: pugs, Brussels griffons, Chinese crested dogs and peculiar chihuahuas accumulate searches, followers and adoptions. Although Spain does not have a record as exhaustive as the United States, the trends point in the same direction. Industry platforms place the French bulldog, Chihuahua and other small and striking breeds among the most in demand in big cities, a symptom that aesthetics ugly-cute It is also gaining ground here. As explained by Elias Weiss Friedmancreator of The Dogist account, people look for dogs that stand out, animals whose appearance attracts attention and says something about the owner. Social networks as an amplifier. The aesthetics ugly-cute (translated as cute, but ugly or funny) is a fashion promoted by influencers and celebrities, who boast on Instagram of their pugs (either pugs) either french bulldog (either frenchies), contributing to normalize—and popularize—its extreme appearance. And contests also help: in 2025, the winner of the historic World’s Ugliest Dog Contest It was Petunia, a hairless French bulldog, rescued in Oregon. The contest may sound ridiculous, but its function is to make dogs from shelters and illegal breeders visible and facilitate their adoption. Ugly sells and moves. However, this trend is not sustained by virality alone. There are deep psychological mechanisms. But why? The general health psychologist Alejandra de Pedro González explains to Xataka that the fascination with the “rarest” dogs responds to a very human instinct: taking care of the vulnerable. “We associate certain traits—lameness, hairlessness, deformities—with a need for protection. That activates our most basic prosocial instinct,” he points out. This impulse is not exclusive to our species. Scientist Konrad Lorenz defined in 1943 the baby schema: a set of childhood traits (big eyes, round face, small nose) that trigger caring behaviors. Many “ugly animals” share these exaggerated traits: bulldogs and pugs with flattened snouts, Chinese crested dogs with prominent eyes, chihuahuas with disproportionate heads. The researcher Marta Borgi, in a study published by the scientific journal Frontiers in Psychologyexplains that these traits increase the willingness to protect and reduce aggressiveness towards the individual. Beyond tenderness. According to De Pedro, unusual dogs allow you to project an almost human personality: “With a strange dog you can almost invent a personality,” he details. This fits with what picks up The Wall Street Journal: owners who describe their dogs as elves, babies, literary characters, or even tragic souls. Crooked faces, prominent eyes or disproportionate bodies become emotional canvases. In addition, these breeds require special care—fold cleaning, respiratory medication, constant checkups—which strengthens the bond. For the psychologist, this emotional investment is a form of parentification: “In an individualistic society, people look for someone to take care of. An ugly dog ​​is the ultimate expression of unconditional love, it doesn’t even have to be cute for you to love it.” The dark side of the trend. Brachycephalic breeds—pugs, French and English bulldogs, Boston terriers—suffer from severe respiratory problems, difficulties regulating temperature, eye diseases, and infected skin folds. Veterinarians cited by The Wall Street Journal They describe these extreme cases as “medical nightmares.” Countries clike Holland and Norway have banned the breeding of some breeds for violating the animal welfare law, by perpetuating characteristics that condemn the dog to a life of pain. In fact, studies from the Royal Veterinary College show that English bulldogs are more than twice as likely to suffer from diseases compared to other breeds and have a drastically shorter life expectancy. Even so, owners and breeders resist changes: some people They think it’s “funny” the snoring or noisy breathing of pugs, without understanding that they are clinical signs of suffering. The (im)perfect beauty. Petunia, the hairless bulldog crowned in California, doesn’t know that she has been on the front page of newspapers. Nor has it fueled a global debate on aesthetics, vulnerability or animal welfare. He only wags his tail when someone approaches him. And perhaps therein lies the true explanation of this contemporary obsession. In a time that demands perfection —symmetrical faces, ordered lives, polished bodies—, ugly dogs offer us the opposite: unconditional tenderness. It doesn’t matter if they have a crooked tusk, a milky eye or a snorting snout. His way of loving does not change. Perhaps that is why we look so much for these unlikely animals: because, when we look at them, we recognize that tenderness remains a basic human need that does not understand symmetries. Image | freepik and freepik Xataka | For the first time in thousands of years, we are seeing the domestication process of a species live and direct: that of raccoons.

If you want your body to be biologically eight years younger, science has a recipe for you: vegan diet

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We humans have many desire to appear as young as possiblealways seeking eternal youth. This has meant that its search has ceased to be the exclusive terrain of the alchemy to become one of the hottest fields in biotechnology, with many treatments that seek to literally make us younger or even extend our lives. Now, the vegan diet It is at the center of supposed iron health, and science has wanted to verify whether consuming it leads to an increase in the years of life. The twin experiment. Traditionally, doing research on how a person ages has been a problem because of genetics. And comparing two therapies between two people to see if they age more or less quickly makes us wonder if the result is due to the treatment or diet or because one of the members has very good genetics. To eliminate this variable from genetics, science has found the best way to work: use identical twins. In this way, their genetics will be exactly the same and the effect of the intervention we perform will be directly related. The study. They recruited a total of 21 pairs of healthy adult identical twins. One of each pair was assigned a healthy omnivorous diet; on the other, a strict vegan diet. In total, for eight weeks the impact was measured using epigenetic clocks with algorithmic tools that estimate biological age based on in DNA methylation. Methylation is the process by which small chemical groups called methyls are added to certain parts of DNA with the aim of being able to ‘turn genes on or off’, causing some instructions to be read and others not. Something that is related to agingsince it changes over time. The results. In this case, what the researchers saw was very interesting, because despite the short time the diet was maintained, it was found that the vegan group showed significant reductions in estimated biological age. This is something that was seen in decreased DNA methylation in pathways related to inflammation and metabolism. All of this adds up to improvements in fasting insulin and a reduction in LDL cholesterol, leading to better old age. But although everything seems very good, caution was already requested with these results. Because. It’s okay that the vegan diet seems to offer good results, but the big question is why this happens. And the summary tells us that it was not just because they left meat aside, but because they stopped eating in general. This is the most important point, because the vegan group consumed fewer calories simply because the calorie density, and therefore the calorie restriction in the end It is one of the few methods which has been proven to extend life in animal models. This also adds up to weight loss, as the vegan participants lost more weight than their omnivorous counterparts. Critics point out that rapid weight loss can alter epigenetic markers on its own, regardless of the food source. The problem. Although the fact of being on this diet for such a short time and under the study means that longitudinal research is still needed to know if this translates into years of real life gained. And although the biological clock slowed down in this case, researchers warn about the long-term risks of having a poorly planned vegan diet. One of the consequences is the vitamin B12 deficiencyalthough today the supplementation that is done in foods makes this a minor problem. Added sugar. The other culprit of aging and to which we pay less attention. A study published in 2024 I was quite clear about the consequences of its consumption, in some cases without knowing it because we did not read the labels of the foods we consumed. In this case, a study with 242 middle-aged women used epigenetic clocks to measure cellular damage to correlate it with their consumption. The results in this case were quite clear: each extra gram of sugar added was associated with an increase in epigenetic age. However, there is a brake that we find in our Mediterranean diet, which is rich in vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. That is why eliminating up to 10 grams of added sugar per day could reverse the biological clock in approximately 2.4 months. The lesson. Scientific literature points out in this case that what matters in food is quality, not just the label. This is why a varied diet with fruits, vegetables or legumes is directly associated with lower mortality and a decrease in chronic diseases. On the contrary, a vegan diet that is based on ultra-processed foods (even if it has very little meat) can be really harmful in the end. Images | Anna Pelzer In Xataka | The truth about intermittent fasting to lose weight: deciding whether its benefits have a scientific basis or are pure hype

so you can watch our channel for free with technology and science content

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We are very happy to announce that Xataka TV is now available on all Samsung televisions with Samsung TV Plus. This is our FAST channel with a selection of our technology and science audiovisual content. After debuting in the entertainment services of Xiaomi, TCL, Plex and Tivify, it now arrives at Samsung, which will make it easier for more people to access our most successful formats for free. YouTube channel. How to watch Xataka TV on your Samsung TV? You don’t need to register or subscribe to anything. If you have a Samsung TV, you just have to go to Samsung TV Plusthe free platform to watch movies, series, sports and more from Samsung, and search within the Entertainment channels. There you will see our logo in green, although you can also access directly by going to channel 4205. Your remote probably has direct access to Samsung TV Plus, so it’s even easier. Once you click on Xataka TV, you will automatically begin to see the selection of content that we have prepared for you, including the best of our recent gala of the Xataka NordVPN Awards 2025. Samsung TV Plus is also available on Galaxy smartphones and tablets with Android 11 or higher. Keep in mind that you will need an Internet connection to watch Samsung TV Plus and Xataka TV. What if I don’t have a Samsung TV? At Webedia and Xataka we are committed to bringing our content to more platforms than traditional ones, and connected television is one of them. For this reason, our Xataka TV channel is also now available on: Xiaomi TV+ TCL TV Plus Plex Tivify (dial 97) What can you see on Xataka TV? As a leading technology medium in Spanish and with more than 20 years of experience, we take care of our productions so that you have a good time with us and, above all, help you as best as possible with: Test and comparisons of tech products Tricks and tips to squeeze our products Reports Purchase recommendations Curiosities about science and technology We are waiting for you on Xataka TV! In Xataka | Samsung TV Plus: what it is, how it works and what channels it offers Tivify: what it is and how to use it to watch your channels for free and without registration

There’s a reason you spend hours watching reels on Instagram until 3:00 AM: the science of doomscrolling

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It’s one in the morning. We should be sleeping but the finger is still sliding across the screen, scrolling through videos on TikTokreels on Instagram or posts on X. A viral meme, a new fire in the area or a new political crisis has us hooked on the screen. And although we may be exhausted, it cannot be stopped. If this scene sounds familiar to you, then welcome to the club. doomscrolling. A term that became massively popular during the pandemic and which can be defined as the habit of consuming prolonged form negative news or distressing, mainly through social networks. But behind this process, which may be very common in society right now, there are numerous chemical processes in the brain that science has not hesitated to investigate. The trap mechanism. To understand why we do doomscrollingwe must first understand that our brain did not evolve to have X or TikTok, but rather it evolved to survive. And it is not so long ago that humans were hunting for food or fleeing from a threat in nature, and it is something that our brain is still very much aware of. According to the most recent scientific literaturethe fact of sliding our screen down activates our reward brain circuits such as the dopaminergic system in each interaction. This drives us at all times to continue searching for information and evolutionarily knowing “where the danger is” was vital. The problem is that in this case the algorithm has no purpose, and we can spend 24 hours watching this type of news. But the reward system, which gives us ‘pleasure’ when knowing where the danger is, is not alone. It is accompanied by the amygdala which is the fear center in our brain. When seeing all this information, such as a war nearby in our territory, the brain interprets it as a potential threat that results in a large release of cortisol. This hormone is precisely known as the ‘stress hormone’, because it keeps the body in a state of hypervigilance. The result of these two circuits is quite clear as point out publications in Frontiers in Psychiatry and Brain Behavior: The brain seeks relief from information, but only finds more threats. This results in a toxic cycle being generated in which one seeks to calm down, becomes more scared, and searches again. The rotten brain. On social networks there is already a lot of talk of the term brain rot which translates to ‘brain rot’ like a real meme. but science has a very different opinionsince recent research suggests that repeated exposure to these fragmented stimuli with high emotional impact, with 15-second videos and alarmist headlines, have a high physical cost. The impact is located above all in executive functions (planning, organization, decision making…). And the constant alternation of these catastrophic contexts forces the brain to jump from one idea to another in milliseconds, and it is not something free. The cost we have to pay can be summarized in three points: Mental fatigue due to the high consumption of glucose that the brain has to make by having to constantly change focus. Deterioration of the prefrontal cortex, which is associated with a reduction in the efficiency of the area responsible for planning and impulse control. Processing blockage when the brain is on hyperalert. This makes it difficult to transfer information to long-term memory. Do we no longer know how to concentrate? This is the question we can all ask ourselves due to this phenomenon. The short answer from science is: we know, but it is much harder for us to “get started.” Studies on digital multitasking indicate that it is not that we have lost ability physiological of sustained attention, but we have trained our brain to expect interruptions. Deep attention (what you need to read a book for example) requires a “warm-up” time. He doomscrolling and the constant stream of notifications resets that counter constantly. Research collected in BMC Public Health they point out that attention remains “anchored” waiting for the next update. Even when you are not looking at your phone, a part of your cognitive resources is focused on it, reducing your performance on the task in front of you. It is not an irreversible decline, it is an atrophy due to lack of use of deep concentration circuits. There is hope. Despite the apocalyptic tone of the studies themselves on the subject, the scientific conclusion It’s not that we’re doomed. to be distracted automatons glued to a phone. The great advantage that humans have is neuroplasticity. With this term we mean that just as the brain learns to scroll compulsively, it can “unlearn.” Experts agree that the damage is not permanent unless the behavior becomes chronic for years without intervention. Evidence-supported strategies for breaking the cortisol-dopamine loop include: Set strict times to inform yourself and never before bed. Do exercises mindfulness as a tool to restore the default neural network. Allowing the brain to rest and ‘get bored’ without stimuli to help cleanse itself and regain the ability to focus. Images | Yazid N In Xataka | Young people have decided to stop posting (so much) on Facebook and Instagram. “AI-generated garbage” has free rein

is getting married, according to science

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We live obsessed with longevity, trying to extend life as much as possible, despite the fact that Our own biology puts a very clear brake on us that is very difficult to remove.. restrictive diets, intermittent fasting either treatments Very expensive are some of the actions we use on a daily basis to be able to last more and more years in this life. However, there is a factor that we did not expect to influence living longer: getting married and choosing your life partner well. This is an idea that spread Dan Buettner, the expert who popularized the concept of “Blue Zones” like Japan and that at 64 years old he dedicated decades to studying the regions of the world where people live the longest. And the truth is that the conclusion he saw is that the basis of longevity is having a strong marriage (among other things). But this conclusion, which has been drawn through everything he has seen on his travels, must also be found to have a correlation within scientific studies. And the truth is that what he says is not very crazy, and it makes us consider the fact of having to better look for who we are going to share our entire life with. And Buettner points out that on average married people live between 2 and 5 years longer than those who remain single, divorced or widowed. In blue zones, family unity is the central value. Buettner argues that marriage offers long-term emotional stability and helps build social support networks, which drastically reduces the risk of isolation, one of the great enemies of health in old age. In addition, there is a component of shared responsibility: having a partner implies mutual motivation to take care of yourself, from food to having to go to the doctor because your partner reminds you or insists. All because in the end they are worrying about themselves. The studies. Buettner’s claims are not mere anecdotal observations; They are supported by massive meta-analyses that have scrutinized the health of millions of individuals. Specifically, an exhaustive study published in Global Health Research and Policy in 2020 analyzed data from 7,881,040 individuals across 21 prospective cohort studies. The results were compelling: Compared with married people, being unmarried (including single, divorced, and widowed) was significantly associated with higher mortality from all causes such as cancer and cardiovascular disease. Difference by sex. In addition to providing this strong conclusion, it was also clearly found that the association between not being married and mortality was stronger in men than in women. Precisely, unmarried men showed a 20% higher risk of dying from a cardiac event compared to unmarried women. As if having a woman by your side was a protective factor from this event. But it does not stop there, since men who had married also had a 31% excess risk of mortality from stroke compared to women who had never married. Although staying single is not the only thing that can attract attention. Being divorced or separated was associated with a higher risk of mortality from any cause in men. But when the marriage dissolved, the risk of dying from cancer and cardiovascular diseases increased. Another study. Published in Social Science & Medicine and focused specifically on the elderly population, reinforced this initial thesis that we proposed. To do this, 53 independent comparisons were analyzed with more than 250,000 older subjects, finding that being married was a very important protective factor. If we go into detail, the data indicated that there was a 12% reduction in the risk of dying due to being married. When breaking down the data by marital status compared to married, the risk of death was increasing in all groups. Because. Science wants to understand the reasons that lead to this relationship. One of the first is focused on chronic stress and cortisol, which is undoubtedly a silent killer. It has been suggested that not being married contributes to less intimate social networks and loneliness, which increases levels of stress hormones, especially as the end of life approaches. In addition, it has also been seen that women have a stronger immune system than men, in part because testosterone causes immunosuppression. On the other hand, there are the estrogens in women that have many protective functions. From a social perspective, married men tend to benefit more because they often depend on their wives for their primary social support. Men who live alone are more likely to ignore medical advice and have smaller, less intimate social networks. Images | Eugenia Pan’kiv Aron Visuals In Xataka | Not all brain cells age at the same time: we have found a “hot spot” of aging

The best science comedian does not have any scientific training. And that’s the key to your success.

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Tom Gauld is one of the most accessible and yet peculiar cartoonists of today. His vignettes are a mixture of a wink for the initiated and simple, white humor.which often makes his cartoons a mix of “everyone can understand them” and “if you’re interested in science and literature, sure.” A real rarity in these times when you have to show up at franchise fan clubs with a very clear identification and resume. Because Gauld may talk about quantum physics, multiverses and the secrets of the cosmos, but he doesn’t leave anyone out either, all thanks to deceptively simple, but highly expressive graphics. Able to make an Escherian architectural nonsense believable or to perfectly portray the interior of an impossible dimension with just a couple of lines, Gauld reduces the complex to a couple of gentle strokes, and hence his popularity on the internet and in media of indisputable prestige such as ‘The Guardian’where he makes literary jokes, or ‘New Scientist‘, where it focuses more on science and technology. It is precisely a compilation of jokes of this last type, ‘Physics for cats’, which Salamandra is now publishing. Thanks to this brand new volume we have had the opportunity to speak with him and have him explain his creative processes and his career as a scientific comedian… who does not have much knowledge of science. We started, of course, by asking him how his collaboration with ‘New Scientist’ began and what impact it has had on the way he approaches scientific topics in his comics. It tells us that we have to go back very far in time. “My grandfather was a scientist, a marine biologist, and he always read the ‘New Scientist’. So when he went home, the magazine was always there, and when he finished reading the magazine, he would give it to my father, who was also interested in science. When I was little, I would look at the pictures and diagrams and, from time to time, I would read a little bit of the text.” And from there, a few years later and now a professional cartoonist, he began to collaborate with them. Gauld states that a magazine of this type is a splendid workplace for an illustrator: “Some concepts about reality or other universes cannot be photographed, so in These types of magazines have a good tradition of using illustrationsand in fact most of its covers are illustrations rather than photographs. Then, I don’t remember exactly why, I thought it was strange that they didn’t have a comic strip in the magazine.” He proposed it a decade ago and it was accepted, but, he says, “I got a little scared because I stopped studying science when I was about 16, so I’m not an expert at all.” How to draw science It is obvious that this approach to science from a non-scientist perspective will entail difficulties. But contrary to what it might seem, “the really difficult thing with vignettes is not getting the scientific details right.” His process is: “I read the magazine, I follow scientists on social media, I listen to podcasts and radio shows about science, and anything that I think could make a joke I write down in my notebook.” And his approach is clear: “I’m giving my own light-hearted, fun take on something that’s quite serious and thoughtful. I try to do it without being derogatory, like when you make fun of a friend you respect.” Which inevitably brings us to the next question: how do you balance scientific precision with the artistic freedom to create such abstract concepts? And in fact, here the lack of scientific training is revealed as an advantage: “When creating the strips, the fact that I have no scientific training, that I am an ordinary person, not a professional, perhaps helps me judge the level of knowledge at which the jokes should be.” And he adds: “I never want to make a cartoon that makes people feel stupid.which makes one think that a doctorate is needed to understand it”. What happens then when he stumbles upon concepts that even he can’t understand? “When some real science is mentioned in the cartoon, I like to get it right, so I do some research on the Internet or ask someone at New Scientist to check my formulas or whatever. Or I do it so badly that it’s obvious I’m not trying to get it right. In fact, last night an astrophysicist mentioned that one of the formulas in the background of one of my strips was correct and that he liked it, which I was very happy about.” When we ask him if there are any scientific ideas or theories related to physics that he finds especially inspiring, he tells us that two come to mind. “One that I think I keep coming back to in the cartoons is, and I guess this is more of a philosophical question than a physical one: What is reality? That and the idea of ​​many worlds. The other is quantum theory, which I still don’t understand. I’ve made some jokes about it and I’m proud of them, but I think they could be improved if I ever managed to understand all of quantum theory. Which may never happen, but I keep trying.” And here we enter into a personal question, but we couldn’t help but ask him: does Tom Gauld like Gary Larson’s humor? (Larson, for those who don’t know, is the creator of ‘The Far Side’, absolute master of comics with background geeka mix of surreal humor and deep knowledge of biology and science absolutely unmatched). “I’ve mentioned Gary Larson as an influence in almost every interview I’ve done today,” he confesses, “so I’m glad you brought it up.” Typical Gary Larson: “‘Hey! What is this, Higgins? Physics equations?… Do you like your job as a cartoonist, Higgins?” And he adds: “The cartoons from ‘The Far Side’ appeared in my local newspaper when I was a teenager and I have … Read more

While others sell us fireworks, she is rewriting science

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OpenAI does not seek to create an AGI. Make sure we don’t stop talking about her. It is the maximum exponent of the “productization” of AI. It and other rivals focus on offering flashy options that improve our productivity but don’t change the world. Which is precisely what some companies are trying to do, among which one stands out in particular: DeepMind. The AI ​​that helped science. For the past two years the tech industry has resembled a fireworks contest. Every few days or weeks a new model promises to write better emails, generate more realistic videos or have more and more human conversations. The cycle of novelty is often ephemeral —Studio Ghibli style images were a good example—but far from those “wow effects” there is a silent AI that does not seek to impress on social networks, but rather to help solve scientific problems that have been blocking new advances for decades. The Thinking Game. The recent documentary about DeepMind titled ‘The Thinking Game’ and available for free on YouTube precisely shows us that other side of AI. Although the tone is not exempt from that epic that we already experienced with the documentary ‘AlphaGo’, what it tells us serves as a reminder of this dichotomy that the industry experiences. While the AI ​​bubble inflates in search of immediate profitability, DeepMind seems to have maintained its original spirit. One that wants to use AI not to imitate the human being, but to – in this case – decipher the code of biology. From Pong to AlphaFold. This 84-minute documentary tells the story of DeepMind through the career of its co-founder, Demis Hassabis. This journey is fascinating and shows us how the startup began to develop AI models that taught themselves to play retro video games like Pong or Breakout (Arkanoid) to, little by little, evolve towards much more ambitious challenges. Specifically, being able to predict the structure of proteins through deep learning. AI can change science. The challenge DeepMind engineers faced seemed impossible. Predicting the structure of these proteins was often misleading and required enormous computing power, but with AlphaFold 1 (2018) and especially with AlphaFold 2 (2020) DeepMind achieved spectacular results. In 2021 the company published both the source code of the project and a database with the structure of more than 200 million proteins available for any laboratory or researcher. It was an absolute gift for the scientific world. Then AlphaFold 3 would arrivemore oriented towards drug development and with a somewhat more commercial point. A Nobel Prize-winning AI. Two of the 2024 Nobel Prize winners in chemistry work at DeepMind. These are Demis Hassabis and John M. Jumper, who received the award for their contributions to the prediction of protein structure. That work with AlphaFold demonstrated that AI could indeed contribute to scientific advancement, and put DeepMind on the throne of that segment more than ever. A radically different approach. It is important to do pedagogy here. While LLMs (large language models like GPT-5) work by predicting the most likely next word in a sentence, “AI for science” predicts physical and chemical behaviors: while LLMs can hallucinate and lie like it’s nothing, scientific AI submits to the laws of physics. From observation to simulation. Traditionally, science advanced through observation, hypothesis and experiment, which was often slow and expensive. With AI, an intermediate phase is introduced, massive simulation, which acts as a catalyst for this process. Thanks to AI, it is possible to rule out millions of dead ends before the scientist sets foot in the laboratory. DeepMind has seen this so clearly that created Isomorphic Labsa business spin-off dedicated exclusively to using this technology to discover new drugs. DeepMind is not alone. Although the company co-founded by Demis Hassabis is the clear reference in this area, there are other examples that follow the same path: Microsoft– Achieved a striking milestone in collaboration with PNNL (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory) by AI-screening 32 million potential inorganic materials and finding a new one capable of reducing the use of lithium in batteries by 70%. M.I.T.: The prestigious technical institute used deep learning models to discover halicinean antibiotic capable of eliminating bacteria resistant to all known treatments. NVIDIA: The firm not only imperially dominates the AI ​​chip market, but has built a “digital twin” of the Earth called Earth-2. Its AI models (FourCastNet) predict extreme weather events thousands of times faster and consuming much less than traditional supercomputers. The promise (a little) fulfilled. Almost since ChatGPT appeared, we were promised that AI would change the world. At the moment it has not done much, but what has been achieved by DeepMind and other companies in the field of science does seem to pose real revolutions. I recommend not missing the documentary: it is fantastic. In Xataka | What the AI ​​pioneers awarded today with the Nobel Prize say now about AI and its risks

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