Science

China had a tank more typical of science fiction. Now he has added a hypersonic missile in a video that attacks Japan

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China presented in August to the world a family of vehicles that broke with the classic logic of armored warfare: the Type 100 hybrid tank and its support vehicles ZBD-100. With barely 40 tons, these armored vehicles mix the lightness of a rapid deployment tank with an electronic architecture capable of converting them into nodes of a system hyperconnected combat. Now it has presented something more disturbing: a hypersonic missile aimed at a target. The Type 100 as a symbol. The robotic turret of the armored vehicles presented, their optical and laser sensors distributed throughout the hull and the fusion of data with drones and external radars give them a situational awareness which surpasses that of many Western cars. China does not seek to reproduce the heavy paradigm of the Abrams or the Leopard, but get ahead of him: Prioritizes sensors over armor, information on raw power, mobility over mass and active survivability against direct fire. His GL-6 system active protection, based on AESA radars that monitor an entire hemisphere, represents this new philosophy: in a battlefield saturated by drones, mines and loitering missiles, armor is no longer measured in centimeters of steel, but in milliseconds of electronic reaction. And more. The autonomy of its attack modules, the use of loads capable of imitating the power of the Abrams despite the smaller caliber and the incorporation of kamikaze drones from the support vehicles point to an ecosystem expressly conceived for contemporary war. He Type 100 also shows the Chinese commitment to lighter platforms that can operate in mountains, rice fields or coastlines, with less demanding logistics and easier to deploy near Taiwan or in possible points of friction with India. Overall, this armored vehicle reflects a theoretical break: China is betting on complete computerization of land combat and the massive use of distributed systems that share data in real time, something that can be decisive if it can be reliably integrated into doctrine and training. Type 100 The leap: low-cost hypersonics. Now, private company Lingkong Tianxing’s announcement that it is already mass manufacturing YKJ-1000 hypersonic missiles at a cost equivalent to 10% of a conventional missile It represents a profound alteration of the military balance in the Asia-Pacific. The fact that a private actor has entered into the systematic production of Mach 5-7 weapons points an industrial transition important: China is moving the frontier of war innovation outside of state monopolies, accelerating technological cycles and reducing prices to levels unthinkable for equivalent programs in the United States, where long-range hypersonics around 40 million dollars per unit. A clear threat. The YKJ-1000 not only stands out for its speed and its range of up to 1,300 kilometers, enough to cover the entirety of Japan from northern China, but also for its architecture autonomy-oriented: detection, target selection, defense evasion and evasive maneuvers in mid-flight. Its ability to travel inside standard shipping containers makes it a weapon hidden deploymentdispersible and easily moved by road or ship, adding strategic uncertainty in any crisis scenario. Plus: the images that close the promotional video (several missiles flying towards targets in Japan) constitute an unmistakable message in the midst of increasing regional tensions. The promise of a future version with integrated artificial intelligence anticipates a generation of cheap, extremely fast missiles designed to overwhelm or deceive defensesgenerating a new family of threats that could multiply in numbers that current anti-aircraft systems are simply not prepared to absorb. Frame from the missile video Japan, Taiwan and an escalation. The appearance of the YKJ-1000 comes at a time when relations between China and Japan are going through its most delicate phase in a decade. The statements of the new Japanese Prime Minister, Sanae Takaichi, hinting at a military response if Taiwan were attacked, have been interpreted in Beijing as a strategic shift of enormous significance. It we have counted: China has responded with travel advisories, flight cancellations and a public campaign suggesting Tokyo is getting dangerously close. to a red line. For Japan, China’s accelerated militarization is not an abstract phenomenon: it is a direct challenge to its sea routes, its energy security and its commitment to deterrence in the Taiwan Strait. For China, on the other hand, Japan is an actor that can decisively influence the American presence in the region. An intimidating missile. In this context, the massive deployment of the YKJ-1000 (capable of reaching bases in Okinawa, Kyushu or Hokkaido in minutes) takes on a obvious political component: It is a weapon designed both to operate and to intimidate. Furthermore, the mobile container system complicates pre-detection, while the multiplication of low-cost hypersonic platforms increases the pressure on Tokyo to reinforce anti-missile systems which, even in their most advanced configuration, were designed for slower, more predictable threats. He result is a spiral in which Japan accelerates its rearmament, the United States reinforces its air and naval presence and China responds by further expanding its panoply of both conventional and hypersonic missiles. Armored and missiles in it ship. What makes these developments more than isolated advances is their internal coherence. So much the Type 100 as the YKJ-1000 They reflect the same emerging doctrine: war based on saturation, speed, autonomy and distributed networks. The tank is not just a vehicle, it is a sensory node capable of sharing data with drones, radars and aerial platforms. And the hypersonic missile is not just a projectile, it is a mobile, cheap and difficult to intercept weapon designed to exploit vulnerabilities in complex systems. China is incorporating into its planning the idea that future conflicts will be decided by the ability to integrate sensors, automate decisions, and generate waves of simultaneous threats that outpace the adversary’s response. An island in the background. Thus, in a hypothetical attack on Taiwan, or in a limited confrontation with Japan, this synergy could allow China to combine computerized ground forces with hypersonic attacks of saturation intended to degrade enemy defenses, air bases and command nodes in the first minutes of the crisis. 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Science wants to put ‘microrobots’ into our bodies to medicate us. They have already given good results

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One of the great problems of modern medicine in the treatment of different human ailments is the “killing flies with cannon” approach. This means that when we have a headache and we take paracetamol, this medicine is distributed throughout the body and not only where it needs to take effect. But this is something that may end up changing thanks to microrobots. The importance. That the medication ‘walks’ throughout the body seems completely irrelevant as long as it has its analgesic effect, but the reality is that it is the responsible for many side effects that are generated. For example, taking a simple ibuprofen to relieve pain or reduce inflammation seems like a wonderful thing. But the fact that it has a general effect on the body also causes the blocking of mucus production in the stomach, which can lead to one of its most ‘famous’ side effects, such as the generation of stomach ulcers when abused. And when we talk about the much more serious side effects, it can cause many clinical trials of new drugs to have to be stopped because of this. But simply with a system that makes the medication act in a specific place in the body, this problem could be alleviated (in part). A new advance. A team of researchers from ETH Zurich has published in the magazine Science a solution that brings us a little closer to the setting of the movie Amazing Journey: a platform of magnetic microrobots ready for clinical use that are capable of traveling through blood vessels and releasing their cargo into the affected tissue. Bradley J. Nelson, co-author of the study and professor of robotics at ETH Zurich, says this is just the beginning: “We’re just the tip of the iceberg. I think surgeons are going to look at this and I’m sure they’ll have a lot of ideas about how to use it.” A simple grain of sand. In this case we are not talking about a metal robot with gears, but rather a capsule of approximately 1.69 mm in diameter that is designed to dissolve inside the body. We can rest assured that we will not have thousands of grains of metal sand in our bloodstream. But to get here, the engineering behind it is not at all simple. One of the challenges, logically, is that its application would be viable within the human body. To do this, the team had to balance three key factors such as: biocompatibility, drug loading capacity and magnetic control. The result was a spherical gelatin matrix that has three components: Iron oxide nanoparticles to respond to magnetic fields. Tantalum: a dense metal that can be ‘seen’ through radiology techniques in order to follow its path through the body. The medication you want to apply. How it moves. In addition to the capsule, what is important is how it moves until it reaches the target where it must act. For this, an electromagnetic navigation system called Navion is used. To do this, coils are placed around the patient’s head to generate a magnetic field around it that allows the capsule to move. In this way, a surgeon, for example, will be able to control the capsule almost as if it were a remote-controlled car to be able to reach the desired action point. To do this, there are different ways of moving through the vessels: by rolling, by dragging or by navigating the blood flow itself. A suicide mission. Once this microrobot reaches its destination, the doctor will be able to activate the final phase. Using high-frequency alternating magnetic fields, the iron nanoparticles inside will heat up, which will cause the gelatin matrix to melt in a matter of 40 seconds, releasing the drug at once. In their tests, they managed to transport rtPA (a powerful drug to dissolve thrombi) to a clot in a vascular model, managing to restore blood flow in less than 20 minutes. When will it reach the hospitals? Although the system is quite promising, it will take time to reach patients. The researcher himself points out that clinical trials could begin within three to five years. In addition to thrombi, applications are being considered to treat aneurysms, arteriovenous malformations and very aggressive types of brain cancer. It’s not the first time. The medicine every time tends more towards personalization of treatments. In cancer we already see it with use of therapies such as CAR-T which focuses on training the immune system to specifically attack a person’s tumor cells and not healthy cells. A completely targeted therapy like the one proposed in this system, but in this case it is applied in the daily clinic (although it has a very high cost). The same happens with the immunotherapy with the use of antibodies. In this case, science looks for those particles that are unique to tumor cells and that are not present in healthy cells. In this way, drug weapons can be created that directly attack cancer cells. In Xataka | The rarest element on Earth aims to cure cancer. And Europe is already accelerating its production

the science behind a geological risk that repeats itself every 1,200 years

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Although the tsunamis seem like effects that are reserved for the Japanese coasts, the reality is that Spain He also has many ballots to suffer an event of this magnitude on our coasts. Cádiz is one of the locations with the highest risk of suffering a tsunami in Spain, and the authorities wanted to verify that the emergency and response systems they work in case this type of event occurs at any time. In order to verify this, the authorities carried out a drill in mid-November in which the ES-Alert systemseveral schools and all emergency services. And given this great display, the question is mandatory: what are the chances of a tsunami occurring in Cádiz? Cádiz is at the center of this simulation because it is the area with the greatest danger from tsunamis in the country, due to the history behind it and the seismicity of the Azores-Gibraltar area. For this reason, the Junta de Andalucía has prepared a Emergency Plan for the Risk of Tsunami (PEMA) and has chosen Cádiz for the largest tsunami simulation carried out in Spain. Because. In the past, geological records indicate that at least five large tsunamis have occurred in the Gulf of Cádiz in the last 7,000 years. All of these associated with megaearthquakes at the plate boundary between Africa and Eurasia. Added to this is the historical reference: the tsunami linked to the Lisbon earthquake of November 1, 1755which completely flooded Cádiz and part of the Andalusian coast with waves of several meters in a matter of dozens of minutes. The paleoseismology works of the CSIC and several universities place the recurrence interval of these events between 1,200 and 1,500 yearslong enough to be socially forgotten, but too short to be ignored in risk planning. This places the southwest of the peninsula as one of the most exposed areas in Europe to tsunamis, despite the fact that the “perceived risk” on the street has historically been very low. And this is precisely something that has been analyzed in the layers of sand and marine remains left inland and that gives us information about what happened thousands of years ago. Although logically always with a time frame that is approximate. Why now. The fact of doing the simulation in this month of November may make us think that scientists have found evidence that a large tsunami is coming to Cádiz, but nothing could be further from the truth. What is happening in this case is that a risk that has been known for a long time and for which, until now, hardly anything had been tested on a large scale, is being taken more seriously. That is why this scientific evidence that tells us about the real risk that exists in this case on the coast of Cádiz has been transferred to the regulations. In 2015, the Basic Planning Guideline for Civil Protection against the Risk of Tsunamiwhich recognizes the Gulf of Cádiz as a critical area where the expected wave height exceeds 0.5 meters. A framework that is not limited to pretty maps, but defines decision guidelines according to magnitude and location of earthquakes, chains of command, warning protocols and response time objectives, with the National Geographic Institute, AEMET and the future SINAM network as input sensors. What has been simulated. In this case, Cádiz has simulated an earthquake with an approximate magnitude of 7.5-7.6 to the southwest of Cape San Vicente, very similar to the one in Lisbon in 1755 and which generates a tsunami that points directly to the western Andalusian coast. In this scenario, the propagation models estimate between 45 and 60 minutes from the activation of the alert until the arrival of the first wave from Cádiz, which in practice is the clock with which Civil Protection works. The objective of the exercise was to virtually save as many people as possible in that one-hour window: horizontal evacuation to non-flood areas, vertical evacuation to high floors, beach and port rescues, protection of cultural assets and management of damaged buildings were tested. On paper, all this already existed in manuals and maps; What was missing was to see how a real city behaves when a tsunami warning sounds in the middle of a work morning.​ Images | Matt Paul Catalano In Xataka | There are scientists deliberately causing earthquakes in the Alps and they have a good reason for it

There are exactly five things that you 100% haven’t dreamed of. And science already knows why

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He dream world It has its own rules. It is a place where the impossible seems to be the routine, but, paradoxically, some of the most mundane tasks in our lives become impossible to appear in our dreams. And this is something that can cause us many questions about why we have not dreamed of some specific things. The examples. We warn you that this is something that can break your head, because the question is obligatory: have you ever tried to read a text in a dream? (if you remember) o Have you taken out your phone to discover an incomprehensible interface? All this is not a coincidence, because in reality there are some things that we can never dream like we all expected (even if they are very real dreams). It has an explanation. science has several reasons in his lap to convince us why elements of modern life such as the smartphone or computer interfaces have little place in our dreams. Everything focuses on the fact that during the REM sleep phase the activity in the prefrontal networks of the brain are greatly reduced. And it is precisely here where executive control and language are ‘stored’. In this way, if during sleep these neurons are ‘asleep’, then we will not be able to read a text correctly or even hold a smartphone in our hands. When we sleep, it seems that we don’t want to work or be using our cell phone. This is because in this time range the activity of the limbic area, related to the emotional and visual part, is triggered. This results in the content of dreams leaning towards the associative, visual and emotional, rather than tasks that require a great analytical focus such as operating a complex interface. In this way, the material of our waking life is not literally copied from dreams, but rather is integrated in a selective and transformed way, prioritizing emotional charge over functional fidelity. The nightmare of reading. The same neurocognitive principle that we have seen is the one that explains another of the best-known phenomena: the inability to read texts stably. What is basically caused is that the characters literally ‘move’ or distort because the language networks are not being stimulated as much. This applies equally to numbers, mathematical calculations, or the simple task of looking at the time on a digital clock. Stimuli that require fine symbolic precision tend to become illegible or change constantly. Although some studies with lucid dreamers have shown that basic operations can be performed under experimental conditions, outside the laboratory, the stability of the symbols is almost non-existent. No smell or taste. While sight and hearing dominate the dreamscape, other sensory modalities are virtually absent. Systematic studies based on sleep diaries are consistent in showing that olfactory and gustatory experiences are extremely rare. Figures put its occurrence at approximately 1% of all dream reports. Even in laboratory experiments where the olfactory environment is manipulated during the night, most participants do not report smelling anything in their dreams, reinforcing the idea that chemical senses are a rarity in this state. The mirror. It is another quite common phenomenon in dreams: seeing yourself reflected in the mirror is something almost impossible to achieve. In dreams, this is generated predominantly “top-down”, that is, from the brain networks themselves and with very little or no sensory information from the outside. Because of this, high-resolution details, such as a reflected face, text, or an interface, tend to morph or distort as soon as we try to examine them closely. Visual stability is not the norm. The ancestral content. In stark contrast to the absence of cell phones or books, there is one type of content that seems to be overrepresented: threats. Dreaming about being chased, falling, facing dangers or even elements such as storms or snakes is extremely common. And on many occasions we remember it perfectly because we have precisely woken up at the moment sweating or with our heart pounding. This supports the known “Threat Simulation Hypothesis” (TST), proposed by philosopher Antti Revonsuo. This theory suggests that dreams could have an evolutionary function: serving as virtual “training” to rehearse how to respond to danger in real life. However, the scientific literature itself indicates that this hypothesis, although plausible and supported, is also the subject of debate and presents mixed results when compared between different cultures and environments. Images | Shane In Xataka | Years ago we discovered that our ancestors’ dreams were not like ours. There are now thousands of people trying to introduce biphasic sleep into their lives.

science has a different opinion

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For a person with celiac diseasesocial life can be a real minefield. Cross contamination is a dangerous enemy that is present in the way food is prepared, but also in the kisses we have with other people. In this way, the question is obligatory: if my partner has eaten bread, pizza or pasta… Is it dangerous for us to kiss if I am celiac? To answer, luckily we have science on our side. Until now, people who have to stay away from gluten for serious medical reasons could be afraid to kiss if their partner had not rinsed their mouth or brushed their teeth before. But science is pretty transparent. in the preliminary study presented at Digestive Disease Week 2025. Their conclusion is quite clear: some gluten can be passed through a kiss between two people, but the amount is so small that it is very unlikely to have relevant clinical consequences. The study. To reach this conclusion, 20 non-celiac people who ate a food with a large amount of gluten were recruited. Immediately afterwards, they had to kiss their celiac partners, allowing the researchers to measure the concentration of gluten in the saliva that had passed from one boba to another. The results were quite clear: in 18 of the 20 couples, the levels in the recipient’s saliva were below the international “safe” threshold, which is 20 mg, and furthermore, none reported symptoms related to intolerance. Although if you drink a little water before kissing, this risk decreases even more. Why 20 mg. This threshold value is not something random, but rather it turns out to be defined by science itself. Here one of the reference studies comes into play, Catassi’s essay and collaborators published in American Journal of Clinical Nutritionwhich administered 10 or 50 mg of gluten daily to adults with treated celiac disease for 90 days. What was seen is that the daily exposure was clearly below that 10 mg range for the majority of patients. A later review in Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics reached similar conclusions: the doses that are beginning to be worrying move in the order of tens of milligrams per day, especially if they are maintained over time, not in single isolated traces. In this way, an isolated kiss has the same concentration of gluten as foods that are categorized as safe. How is it possible that a kiss after eating a large amount of gluten-containing foods is not dangerous? This is the question we ask ourselves after reading these conclusions, and it has an answer, but in studies done on peanutsanother allergen. In this case it was seen that just after eating, the concentration of allergen in the mouth is really high. But after simple measures such as waiting a few minutes, drinking water or brushing your teeth, levels drop drastically. In this way, a kiss does not transfer food, but rather a fraction of a milliliter of saliva. And that saliva, minutes after eating, has already “cleaned” most of the protein that was inside. And this is valid for all allergies that are mediated by immunoglobulin E (which is responsible for generating the allergic response). There is a margin of safety. On a daily basis, people who are intolerable to gluten and who follow a very strict diet to avoid contamination, the truth is that they consume this allergen. Although in a very small quantity. This shows it a study who developed techniques to measure gluten immunogenic peptides (GIP) in urine and feces. The work showed that many people with celiac disease who follow a strict diet have small accidental exposures on a regular basis, the result of cross-contamination in modern life. However, the majority do not show clinical worsening or intestinal damage if these exposures are spontaneous and at very low doses. A kiss, in the worst case scenario, is exactly that: an isolated microdose exposure. The final verdict. What this new study provides is not a revolution, but a reassuring quantification of something that the consensus of experts already sensed. Even the main patient associations, such as the Celiac Disease Foundation or Coeliac UK, have been with a practical message for some time: the risk of kissing is low. The only common sense recommendation, which is still valid, is to avoid kissing right at the moment when the other person is eating gluten or has obvious remains of food in their mouth. You always have to wait a little for the saliva to take effect, but it doesn’t have to be a problem beyond this. Images | Cassie Lopez Wesual Click In Xataka | The difference between celiac disease and gluten intolerance can be difficult to appreciate. But there is a key detail that makes them very different.

how much science believes our longevity will actually increase

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Society is increasingly obsessed with living longer and longer and have an aesthetic that corresponds to a younger age. Right now there are many really eloquent projects to achieve practically immortalitybut this makes us wonder if our body has some kind of limit that cannot be exceeded. This is what science tries to elucidate. Nowadays, people who live more than one hundred years are something extraordinary, and we even see their centenary birthdays appear on the pages of the newspaper or on local television programs. But the question in this case is whether the new normal will be being able to live more than a century as something normal, and above all in good conditions. But the truth is that we are far from achieving this. Two concepts. The first thing to understand here is the difference that exists between the average life expectancy and maximum longevity. The first of these is growing spectacularly in the last century thanks to vaccines, hygiene, medications and better access to healthcare (although this reaches an older population, with its problems). But when we talk about maximum longevity we cannot say the same, since it is a much harder ceiling to crack. The obligatory question in this case is clear: where is our ceiling that we cannot break? Less than expected. There is now solid scientific evidence that suggests that human beings have a “factory” biological limit. Different studies, such as those published in Nature, they placed the natural human limit around 115 years. Although more recent and optimistic reviews, based on statistical modeling of the “supercentenarians” (people over 110 years old), extend that range up to 125 years. Therefore, we are not facing a scenario of immortality, but rather the age progression curve begins to stabilize at a specific point. And this is clearly a brake that biology itself is imposing on us, because our body has a very clear limit in its functioning. Prioritize well-being. Reaching the age of 120, but with very poor health, with many illnesses behind you or without being able to move, is not something at all attractive. That is why demographic projections for Europe They suggest that, by the year 2065, life expectancy will be between 87 and 93 years. This doesn’t sound like science fiction, and that’s precisely why it’s relevant. It is not about making quantum leaps through unproven gene therapies, but about the accumulation of medical and social improvements. The goal of modern longevity medicine is not for you to live 150 years connected to a machine, but to extend the “healthspan“, that is, the period of healthy life. We already know the ‘secret’. While we wait for drugs that reverse old age, science tells us that we already have the “technology” to maximize our lives and it has been used for decades in the so-called ‘Blue Zones’ of Okinawa as a standard. And it is precisely in this area that people It is capable of easily reaching 100 years without much problemand the question was obligatory: why here? We found the answer in studies carried out in this areait can be seen that the factors that influence being able to reach 100 years of life have nothing to do with transfusions of young plasma, blood cleansing or super-expensive therapies that promise miraculous results. Among the habits that follow we can find the following: Natural calorie restriction: They consume 10-15% fewer calories than an average Western adult. And we already know that this influences above all the generation of oxidative stress which is a great ‘poison’ for our body. The good carbohydrate diet: their diet is based on vegetables and complex carbohydrates such as sweet potatoes, with a very low animal protein intake. Youth biomarkers: the combination of diet and constant physical activity results in a lower incidence of chronic diseases. Less stress: another great poison for the body due to its involvement in cortisol levels. In Okinawa, community cohesion acts as a buffer for stress. The importance of habits. In this way, the scientific horizon for the next century does not promise immortality. It is likely that we will continue to see a trickle of individual records and exceptional cases of genetics that cause us to see people who far exceed the century of life. But for most humans, This is not something we get. (or at least with a good quality of life). The true longevity revolution in the 21st century will be to make reaching age 90 the norm and not the exception, applying what we already know works: moving, eating less (and better) and maintaining strong social ties. And above all, do not wait for a magic pill, as has been demonstrated by the habits of Japanese people who have achieved an effect that no gene therapy has achieved so far. Images | Ravi Patel In Xataka | Not all brain cells age at the same time: we have found a “hot spot” of aging

The extinction of Neanderthals has always been a mystery. Science now believes that they are still with us

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For decades, the disappearance of Neanderthals has been one of the biggest mysteries of human evolution. It happened about 40,000 years ago, suspiciously coincident with our species Homo sapiens to Eurasia… But now we are thinking that they did not become extinct. What was thought. Classical theories paint a replacement scenario: either we wiped them out in direct competition, or they couldn’t withstand brutal climate change. But now a study published in Scientific Reports offers a much more fascinating answer: we absorb them among ourselves. And the key to all this is genetic dilution. The hypotheses. To go deeper, the competition hypothesis suggests that Homo sapiens We were simply superior: we had better hunting strategies, a broader diet or more advanced social structures that allowed us to monopolize all the resources, driving the Neanderthals to extinction. On the other hand, the environmental hypothesis blames the drastic climate changes that occurred just at that time. According to this idea, Neanderthals could not adapt to extreme fluctuations and their populations fragmented until they disappeared permanently. However, the new study presents a mathematical model that leaves both factors aside and focuses on the most basic of all: demographics and sex. The new model. The authors of the study propose an analytical model that demonstrates how Neanderthals could disappear without the need for the Homo sapiens had any selective advantage over them. The model does not require “catastrophic events” or cognitive superiority. Instead, it relies on a concept called “species-neutral drift” and a key factor: small, recurring immigrations of Homo sapiens in Neanderthal territories. There were many more of us. One of the first ideas pointed out in this case is that the population Homo sapiens that left Africa was much larger in number than the Neanderthal, acting as a “practically infinite demographic reservoir.” By going together, because friction makes affection, and between the species they began to intersect and had very fertile offspring. The model assumes that this was not a one-time event, but rather a “sustained gene flow” that occurred every time a small group of modern humans arrived in an area. So, adding that the Neanderthal population was much smaller and there was a constant influx of genes from Homo sapiensthe result is the dissolution of the gene pool. It’s literally like pouring a glass of Neanderthal water into an ocean of Homo sapiens. In the end his presence is completely diluted. The time. The most powerful thing about the study is that its calculations fit with the archaeological record. The mathematical model shows that this process of “almost complete genetic replacement” could have occurred within a period of 10,000 to 30,000 years, something that aligns with the long period of coexistence that both species had in Eurasia. Were they extinct? This is the question we ask ourselves. Know if the word ‘extinction’ is appropriate for this paradigm. This model offers what scientists call a “parsimonious explanation” (the simplest). In words we understand, it does not deny that other factors, such as competition or weather, could have contributed. But it shows that this genetic dissolution alone is something that may have explained the disappearance of the Neanderthals. That is why, rather than an extinction, we speak of a fusion by absorption. This perfectly explains why the Neanderthals disappeared as a genetically distinct group, but their legacy endures: modern humans of Eurasian ancestry conserve in our DNA a small percentage of their genetic heritage (although very diluted). Images | mostafa meraji In Xataka | Human evolution has not stopped: in fact, there are reasons to think that it is more accelerated than ever

Years ago, microbiota transplants seemed like something out of science fiction. Today they are already curing diseases

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Sometimes extreme situations require extreme measures, at least in the field of medicine and health. Perhaps to many, the idea of microbiota transplants It seems to them that it belongs to this range of extreme measures. Perhaps more so if we refer to this therapy by its first and last name, because we are talking about fecal microbiota transplants. Let’s start at the beginning, explaining what exactly these transplants are. Although its name is quite descriptive. The central idea of ​​this treatment is to take a sample of intestinal microbiota from a healthy person and transfer it to the patient’s intestine. For this, samples of fecal matter are used, feces from the donor that are treated for introduction into the recipient’s gastrointestinal system. The process begins, therefore, by taking a sample (or several) of the donor feces. First of all, it must be verified that these feces do not contain pathogens but that the “good bacteria” of our digestive system predominate in the sample. Once this filter has been passed, the sample is prepared in different ways depending on how it will be administered. One possibility is to dry, freeze and encapsulate part of these samples to administer them. through a pill. However, the most conventional options involve diluting the sample in saline water and then filter it and enter it into our system gastrointestinal, either through a tube introduced through the mouth or nose and that would reach our stomach; either through a colonoscopy, an endoscopy through the colon. Fixing the imbalance And all this, for what? Interestingly, if we are transplanting microbes from one person to another, the reason is to fight against a pathogenic bacteria, called Clostridioides difficile (C. diff). This is a bacteria that normally inhabits our system gastrointestinal without causing major discomfort. But not always. In these cases, C. diff It can take over the inside of our intestine, wreaking havoc on it. C. diff They feed on toxic compounds that they metabolize from some foods we consume and that can end up causing even more damage to our microbiota. This infection It is considered the main cause of diarrhea associated with medical treatments, but this It’s not your only symptom.These include fever, pain or tenderness in the stomach, loss of appetite and nausea, symptoms of gastroenteritis. Some more serious cases They can lead to dehydration, blood or pus in the stool, and kidney failure. One of the problems associated with this bacteria is the appearance of recurrent infections: many patients become ill again between two and eight weeks after the original infection. The potential of this tool is yet to be explored. A recent study, for example, explored the possibility of using this type of intervention to improve sports performance. A luck of “fecal doping” similar in some ways to existing techniques. Sport, and especially elite sport, can affect our microbiome, which in turn can be exploited in favor of the athletes themselves. These transplants have even been proposed in veterinary. Specifically, to help preserve koalas, as we saw in a studio also presented in 2019 in the magazine Animal Microbiome. Over the last few years we have been discovering new links between our gut microbiome and seemingly very distant aspects of our health. Now we even know that there is a connection between our brain and this one. Unfortunately, we still do not understand the causal relationships operating in this connection. In this sense, recently we came across a link between these transplants and autism. a study published in 2019 in the magazine Scientific Reports observed that symptoms linked to autism were reduced among those who had received this type of transplants. In Xataka | 50% of the population is infected with H. pylori. We are finally eradicating it and that has unexpected consequences Image | shameersrk / chriskeller

science has discovered why

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Sleeping little is still one of the great silent evils of modern life. Long workdays, screens on until dawn, and the glorification of eternal productivity have normalized something that science has been warning about for decades: subtracting hours of sleep is not freeand can even be likened to going through life drunk. The psychologist specialized in sleep Nuria Roure summed it up on the podcast from ‘Mommy, what are you saying’: “People who have spent more than 20 hours awake have a level of attention similar to that of someone who has consumed about six beers”. It may seem like an exaggeration, but science backs up his claim. Like he was drunk. If you have slept very few hours, surely when you get out of bed the first steps you take hardly follow a straight line, but rather they may seem quite similar to the house having become a real boat. Something that also happens when we have two too many drinks. And it’s not that during the night you woke up sleepwalking and grabbed a few beers from the fridge, but the fault lies in your sleep hygiene. A study from the University of South Australia published in Occupational and Environmental Medicine compared the effects of lack of sleep with those of alcohol. After 17 to 19 hours without sleep, the participants showed cognitive and motor impairment equivalent to a blood alcohol level of 0.05%. That is, the tired brain and the drunk brain process information with comparable slowness and clumsiness. And this is something that also justifies that Driving without sleep is as dangerous as being a little drunk. Although it is not the only evidence we have, since a great study has confirmed that even partial sleep deprivation, which consists of sleeping four or five hours for several consecutive days, affects attention and decision making. You can also get sick. Although we focus on the effects on our brain, the reality is that it goes much further. A study published in the journal Sleep concluded that sleeping less than six hours a night was associated with an increased risk of hypertension, type 2 diabetes, or obesity. But we must not forget about Alzheimer’s. It must be remembered that during sleep, the brain activates its ‘cleaning’ systems to eliminate the garbage produced by neurons, including beta-amyloid that is implicated in Alzheimer’s. In the magazine itself Nature we can find solid evidence which warns that people who consistently slept less than six hours a night in middle age were more likely to develop dementia. Adolescents at the center of the problem. Sleep deficit begins every time before. According to the Spanish Sleep Society, Spanish adolescents sleep on average between six and six and a half hours a day, when their brain needs between eight and ten. One of the culprits in this case for science is the educational system, as pointed out by the American neurologist Mary Carskdon who has been pointing because having to get up early to go to class is a key factor in chronic fatigue syndromes among youth. Images | Shane BENCE BOROS In Xataka | Modern life is destroying the dream. Science explains how to fight back using your greatest ally: light

We sensed that arguing in front of small children was a bad idea. Science has revealed to what extent

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Arguing in front of a small child is something that classically always has been discouraged for the problems that it can cause for the minor himself. And this is something that is not nonsense, because a child seeing this scene does not think that he is witnessing the conflict between two adults, but rather he thinks that it is his fault. And it is not an exaggeration that has always been done, but developmental psychology and neuroscience have been explaining for decades why something as human as this happens. Self-blame. The minds of little ones function very differently from those of adults, and it is logical because they are developing over time. And this is something that was already defined by Jean Piaget, who attributed he “egocentric thinking“to children who are in their first years of life. In it, children interpret the world through their own perspective, and psychologists Wesley Rholes and John Finchman they showed it in the nineties when seeing that minors tend to take responsibility for conflicts family members, especially when they do not understand the causes or why. This causes minors to interpret the situation in a very emotional way without thinking about the reasons why it is causing this (which could be friction between two adults). And it is logical, because at an early age the mind is not yet learning to distinguish between what is internal and what is external. The impact. When these discussions are intense or frequent, children may develop anxiety, stress or guilt. It is something that is proven also by Edward Cummings and Patrick Davies, from the University of Notre Dame, who pointed out that unresolved conflicts between parents affect children’s ability to regulate their emotions and maintain a sense of security. Other studies reinforce this idea, showing that family tension can increase a child’s risk of have emotional problems with the passing of the years. The solution. So… Shouldn’t we argue in front of minors? This may become impossible in some situations, especially when living together. That is why the secret is not in avoiding them, but in how adults manage them and explain it later. This is something where psychologists agree when they point out that the strategy should be for the parents to clarify that the dispute has nothing to do with the child, to help neutralize feelings of guilt and strengthen the emotional bond with them. What the brain says. From neuroscience, we know that when a person (whether adult or child) is angry, the brain strongly activates the amygdala, which is the center where emotions are processed in the brain. Although logically we have a brake which is the prefrontal cortex as it has the activity of reducing this activity. Based on this, science suggests that in moments of intense anger, one cannot ask for calm because physically there are no neural resources that can calm someone down. Therefore, parental calm acts as a brain “anchor.” Its serenity not only calms, but also offers the child a model of self-regulation that his own brain cannot yet achieve alone because it does not have this brake. The link. Ultimately, understanding emotions—your own and those of others—is a shared learning process. Children don’t need arguments to go away, but rather to understand that these tensions do not threaten their safety or self-worth. This understanding does not arise by instinct: it is cultivated with words, presence and emotional coherence. And science backs it up. From Piaget to modern neuroimaging, everything indicates that the true antidote to childhood guilt is not adult perfection, but the opportunity to teach, with each conflict, that love and disagreement can coexist without breaking the bond. Images | Vitaly Gariev Marcus Neto In Xataka | If the question is where to find the time to play sports or learn languages, you have the answer on your mobile

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