Scientists

For 120 years, scientists considered the Omiltemi rabbit extinct. Meanwhile, in Sierra Madre del Sur they were hunted for food.

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When in 1904 Edward William Nelson identified the first Omiltemi rabbits, he did not know that this was going to be one of the last confirmed sightings of what, for decades, has been considered one of the most endangered mammals in the world. The bug. It was a large, nocturnal rabbit, with dark reddish hair, long ears and a short tail. But not much else was known because zoologists had frepeatedly scratched in finding and studying it. And yet, if they had asked the inhabitants of the Sierra Madre del Sur (in the Mexican state of Guerrero), they would have been able to add one more thing: that they are very rich. Because while scientists were looking for these bugs, neighbors hunted them and integrated them into their usual diet. Where are those rabbits? We must not fall into simplifications, since 1998 we already suspected that the rabbit was still alive and there. That year, some local hunters gave researchers the skin of a killed specimen: that is, we had physical proof that the species still existed. Therefore, the species was not officially extinct; What appeared in the species lists is that we did not have enough data to know what was happening with it. Now, after a long investigation with traps and sampling, we do have them. He wasn’t dead… Between 2019 and 2024, a team led by José Alberto Almazán-Catalán (the Institute for the Management and Conservation of Biodiversity) carried out a specific search for the rabbit under the program Search for Lost Species by Re:wild. They visited 10 areas and obtained records in 7 of them. The conclusion of this work (and I quote verbatim) is that the Omiltemi rabbit “is a rare species, but not only is it not extinct, but it is much more common than previously believed.” The data matches with the graphic material that Fernando Ruiz-Gutiérrez published in the Mexican Journal of Mastozoology. And then? Well, although the situation has not changed, it has revealed everything that we do not know. It is now evident that the distribution reaches an area up to three times larger than previously suspected. It is also true that, without suspecting it, the communities in the area have been hunting (and even breeding) these rabbits for decades without knowing that they were Omiltemi rabbits. And it is curious how this type of news helps make clear how little we know about the world around us. The initiative Search for Lost Species from Re:wild has already ‘recovered’ 13 species around the world. Some of them, like Winton’s golden molethey had gone 86 years without confirmed records. “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than your philosophy dreams of,” Hamlet tells Horatio and, if we apply it to contemporary science, we see that this is still the case. Image | Re:Wild In Xataka | Spain is witnessing a shocking phenomenon: three invasive species are feeding each other to conquer the country

We have been thinking about a single path to Mars for decades. A group of scientists has just found a “shortcut”

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If you travel to the Moon It’s quite a challengethe next step is only for the brave. To date, no one has traveled to Mars and even unmanned trips encounter multiple drawbacks. The first of them is the duration of the trip itself, since it can extend up to 8.5 months, one way. Almost nine months of space route, with all the inconveniences that may arise during it. That is why the shortcut that a team of scientists from the State University of Rio Janeiro has just proposed is so interesting. With it, the trip could be shortened to 153 days, round trip. The key is in the asteroids. The authors of this study They have looked for shortcuts on the route to Mars in a quite interesting way: by noticing other travelers. After studying the trajectories of several asteroids, they have focused on those whose orbit intersects both that of Mars and that of Earth. Until now, the trajectories are designed from the Earth’s orbital plane. If the orbital plane of one of these asteroids, specifically 2001 CA21, is also taken into account, new paths are opened, which were hidden from our planet. One of those paths, according to the study, would drastically reduce the duration of trips to Mars. The asteroid is not a vehicle. It is important to note that this study does not propose using asteroids as a vehicle to Mars. They simply use them to open horizons to other trajectories. We from Earth see only a few “roads”, but asteroids like this have other options. By looking for connection points between the Earth’s orbital plane and that of these asteroids, it can be linked to these other routes, some of which turn out to be more direct. Traditional tours. Normally, to travel from Earth to Mars something known as the Hohmann trajectory is used. This consists of beginning to make a turn around the Sun in our own elliptical orbit; to, when the time comes, take advantage of its gravitational pull and extend the ellipse to the Martian orbit. Broadly speaking, the ship does not go in a straight line to where the destination planet is, but rather travels to where it will be at a given time. It is not a short trip, but with it, by taking advantage of the gravitational pull, fuel consumption is greatly reduced. Planned trajectory for ESA’s ExoMars For this to be carried out, launch windows must be taken advantage of in which the Earth, the Sun and Mars are properly aligned. All this lengthens trips a lot. A change of plane. The orbits of the different objects that revolve around each other are not all in the same plane. Each one has its own plan. Like a sheet of paper that is spinning. The Earth’s plane is not exactly the same as that of Marsbut very similar. That of the asteroid in this study, however, is very different and is much more inclined. That is why it allows us to open the window to new trajectories. As explained in Wired, It is something like opening a secondary window in a video game to see a scenario that we do not see in the main one. Multiple launch windows. Taking into account the need to have a proper alignment between the Earth, the Sun and Mars, there are soon three interesting launch windows to travel to the red planet: 2027, 2029 and 2031. By studying them one by one, the authors of this study saw that it is in 2031 when the best alignment with the plane of the asteroid occurs and, therefore, a much faster opportunity for travel. In the best case, Mars could be reached in 33 days. The complete trip would be 153 days, although in less optimistic cases it could be 226 days. Be that as it may, it is still much less than those 9 months, one way, that it takes now. Other asteroids. Although the study has been carried out with specific data from a single asteroid, these scientists believe that, in reality, the orbital planes of others could be taken whose trajectories also intersect with Earth and Mars. Basically, the key is to look outside the box. Or, much more literally, out of shot. There are many interesting routes out there. More powerful propulsion systems. All this sounds beautiful, but there is a big drawback that we must take into account. And, in order to carry out this process, much more energy is needed. Therefore, it would be necessary to resort to practically unfeasible quantities of fuel or to new, more powerful propulsion systems. Today this is not possible, so advances in this regard should go in parallel with the development of advances in propulsion systems. Many examples are already being investigated, such as the use of nuclear energy. Even has been proposed use lasers, although it is a project that is very much in its infancy. There is still a long way to go, never better said, but if the future is in these short and alternative trajectories it must also be in new propulsion systems that leave traditional ones behind. Image | NASA | THAT In Xataka | ExoMars, this is Europe’s most ambitious mission to Mars

Although there are scientists saying the opposite, it is time to recognize it: continents do not exist

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For a couple of years and from time to time, a very specific type of article has gone viral: one that repeats that there is a group of researchers from the University of Derby has found a new (micro)continent in Davis Strait. That is, between Greenland and North America. And yes, it sounds a little Martian. How could we have lost an entire continent in the 1,143 kilometers that that strait measures? It has its explanation What the hell is a continent? The most intuitive answer is “a large area of ​​land surrounded by water”; But the truth is that it only works in theory and, when we tackle the problem, everything gets complicated. Therefore, if the question is “how many continents are there in the world?”, the only logical answer is this: “it depends.” What do you mean “it depends”? The reasons behind many of the divisions we handle are “purely historical and cultural.” In fact, as Miguel García explains“the educational systems of different countries establish different continental divisions”: In Anglo-Saxon countries, it is most common to say that there are seven continents (Europe, Africa, North America, South America, Asia, Antarctica and Oceania); On the other hand, in Romance language countries, the most common answer is that there are six continents (uniting the Americas into one); Six continents are also explained in the countries of the ex-Soviet orbit (although they keep America separate and what they unite is Europe and Asia). There are more options, of course. For example, we could unite Asia, Africa and Europe on a single continent and, together with America, Australia and Antarctica, there would be four. By proxy, we could even remove Antarctica because, well, without its snow cover it would become an archipelago (whose largest island would be smaller than Australia). It’s time to admit that continents do not exist. They are social constructs, like municipalities or provinces. Hence, as García explainsFrom a geological point of view, it can be concluded that continents do not constitute a scientific concept. In any case, we can talk about tectonic plates (and, although defining their number is also a hassle, we would not talk about less than 15). So what are the Derby researchers talking about? Now it’s time to get into the matter: what researchers have used is something elsethe thickness of the Earth’s crust. In general, there are two types of Earth’s crust: continental (about 35 kilometers thick) and oceanic (between 8 and 10). Of what they have realized is that as the tectonic plates between Canada and Greenland have shifted, the Earth’s crust has been reconfigured. The result has been a protocontinental (i.e. extremely thick) crust on what should be an oceanic crust. And what is all this for? It must be admitted that, once we get the matter down, everything seems more boring. However, the finding is very interesting: we actually don’t know very well how tectonic dynamics work. We have very developed ideas and models, yes; But when it comes down to it, there are more questions than answers. Being able to study in detail the formation of a protomicrocontinent is a unique opportunity to understand phenomena such as the one that is dividing Africa in two. And we have already seen that, unlike what we tend to believe, this has a real impact on daily life of millions of people. Image | Kate Ter Haar In Xataka | A huge crack has opened in Kenya’s Rift Valley and it seems it’s just the beginning This article was originally published in 2025. We have updated its content.

The ocean fooled scientists with this “alien egg.” Almost three years later, we have the answer

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Although we try to learn a lot of information about the space that surrounds us, the reality is that there is still a lot to know here on Earth. This is what we evidenced in August 2023 when the Seascape Alaska 5 expedition, at more than 3,200 meters deep in the Gulf of Alaska, found a shiny golden hemisphere and with a hole in the center. And the question was clear: how did he get there? Many questions. When these findings were seen live, the researchers themselves joked that it looked like the beginning of a horror movie, and social networks did not hesitate to dub it the “alien egg.” The problem here is that the scientific community had no idea what that artifact was doing attached to a rock on the seabed. But three years later this mystery has been solved. It’s not alien. After being extracted from the seabed, the enigmatic specimen was sent to the laboratories of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, where a research team set to work to determine what it was. And to the disappointment of many, it is not a specimen that came from outside our planet. The results, published a few days agorelate how the researchers decided to extract and sequence the mitochondrial DNA from the tissue and, from this, they crossed it with the large databases of genomes that are already known and in this way they ruled out that it was not a marine sponge, a bacterial biofilm and it was not an egg either. What was it? Here the genetic code pointed directly to a species that was cataloged in 2006 as Relicanthus daphneae and of which, if we look for a photograph, we will be surprised to see a kind of giant anemone of the depths with tentacles that can measure more than two meters. And this makes us wonder: why did the Alaskan specimen look like a smooth, golden sphere? And here the research team points out that the golden orb found in the deep sea was not an animal itself, but a “cuticular relic.” What exactly is it? In other words, these are the remains of the base or “foot” that this anemone uses to anchor itself to the rocks of the seabed, resisting the strong abyssal currents. In this way, when the anemone dies, it detaches or moves; this fleshy and resistant base is left behind. And the hole? This was a point that greatly worried researchers in 2023, but the reality is that it was not the hatching mark of a creature, but rather it is simply a natural tear in this residual tissue. The curious thing here is that this find also fits with another similar specimen collected in 2021, confirming that this golden “mold” is a common trace of the species after its death. Images | NOAA In Xataka | We have drilled the seabed at a depth of 2,500 meters. And we have found things we didn’t think were possible

Some Swedish scientists decided to drug salmon with cocaine and then release them. It happened just what was expected

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There is more than just fish and algae in the world’s rivers. More or less diluted amounts of chemicalsincluding pesticides, pharmaceuticals and illegal drugs. He checked it a few years ago a team from King’s College that, after taking samples in various parts of the county of Suffolk, in England, found cocaine and ketamine residues. Researchers have long known that wildlife is exposed to these compounds, but one question remained: How do drugs affect them in their natural environment? To find out in Sweden have drugged to dozens of salmon. Drugging salmon? That’s how it is. It sounds strange, but it is exactly what a group of scientists from Griffith University, the Zoological Society of London and the Max Planck Institute, among other organizations, have done. They basically took 105 salmon (salmo salar) from a fish farm, they divided them into several groups and added implants that supplied them with drugs. Then they released them. More or less as in the famous case of Cocaine Bearbut in a planned way. How did they do it? 35 of those salmon were implanted with a special device that slowly released coca into their bodies. A similar system was incorporated into others, although modified to provide benzoylecgoninethe main metabolite of cocaine. The third group did not receive any substance to act as a control. Once prepared, the salmon, all young specimens, were released into Lake Vätternsouth of Sweden. For eight weeks the researchers dedicated themselves to finding out how each group behaved. The specimens in the experiment wore a special tracking device, so (with the help of sensors installed around the lake) scientists could follow their trail and calculate how far they swam. And what did they find out? That the drugged salmon behaved very differently from the ‘sober’ ones. Especially those who received benzoylecgonine. After releasing the fish on the southwest bank of the Vättern, the researchers found that the salmon exposed to coca swam on average five more kilometers than the ‘clean’ ones, a considerable difference that falls short, however, when the specimens to which the metabolite was supplied are analyzed. They swam almost 14 km more, which led them to enter the northern area of ​​the lake. “The team found that fish exposed to benzoylecgonine swam up to 1.9 times farther per week than those not exposed and dispersed up to 12.3 km farther,” duck Griffith University. The agency also clarifies that the changes “became more evident” as the days passed, which shows that exposure to coca alters the behavior of fauna. Why is it important? Let the drugged salmon swim more kilometers and cover more space than others without ‘doping’ is more important than it may seem. These behavioral changes influence aspects such as what places the fish occupy, where they feed or the risks they face. More kilometers also translates into greater physical effort, which forces the salmon to look for more sources of nutrition to recover energy. “Where fish go determines what they eat, what eats them, and how populations are structured,” comment Dr. Marcus Michelangeli. “If pollution is driving these patterns, it has the potential to affect ecosystems in ways we are only beginning to understand.” But that was already known, right? Yes. And no. We knew that aquatic fauna is exposed to the drugs that we consume. The 2019 study in Suffolk and others, such as the made in 2016 in Puget (Washington), during which researchers detected traces of Prozac, Lipitor and cocaine in the body of salomes. We also knew that these substances alter the behavior of wildlife. In fact, scientists they already checked how water fleas exposed to coca swim faster or crabs are more reckless. The really interesting thing about the study carried out in Sweden is that it has allowed us to go one step further: to leave the laboratories, which were the isolated space in which these types of experiments had been carried out until now, and carry out research in natural environments and the same conditions that fauna is found. It hasn’t been easy. Although the team guarantees that the entire experiment has been done in safe conditions for the ecosystem and humans. Obtain all necessary permits, they confess researchers, it was “a tedious process.” And what to do now? Dr. Jack Brand, from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, recognize that more studies are needed to fully understand the consequences of pollution in rivers, lakes and seas. It is an important issue, among other reasons because the substance that has most altered salmon is benzoylecgonine, which has a special impact. “It was the metabolite, which we know is found in higher concentrations in nature, that had a much more profound effect on the behavior and movement of the fish,” warns in statements to Guardian. “This suggests that if we perform evaluations without including compounds such as these metabolites and their derivatives, we could be overlooking an important part of the environmental risks to which we expose these animals.” Images | Colin Davis (Unsplash), Katmai National Park and Preserve (Flickr) and Scazon (Flickr) In Xataka | In 2001, a yacht took refuge on a remote island in the Atlantic. Days later its inhabitants breaded fish with coca

Scientists have connected 200,000 human neurons to a chip. And he made them play ‘Doom’

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If they tell us that human neurons are playing ‘Doom’, the first thing we would think of is science fiction. However, that is exactly what the Australian company Cortical Labs has shown with your CL1 system: about 200,000 live neurons grown on an array of electrodes on a chip, capable of receiving information from the game and responding through electrical patterns. We are not talking about conventional artificial intelligence, but rather biological tissue interacting with software through an interface designed for that purpose. Human neurons and ‘Doom’. The demo isn’t just launching the game and letting something random happen. In the material shared by Cortical Labs, those responsible explain that the system receives signals from the video game environment and generates electrical patterns that translate into the character’s actions. This is a form of learning in which the system modifies its response depending on the result obtained. The key here is not skill, but the ability to adapt, which, according to the company, they are managing to train and mold in real time. How the interaction loop is established. For the experiment to work, it is not enough to display images on a screen. According to CTO David Hogan, an independent developer managed to convert the game’s visual signal into “electrical stimulation patterns” that are applied directly to the cell culture. These stimuli provoke electrical responses in neurons, and certain firing patterns translate into specific actions within ‘Doom’. In this way, the system creates a closed loop in real time in which each decision has an immediate effect on the virtual environment. look back. In 2021, the same company managed to make a system based on more than 800,000 neurons play ‘Pong’an experiment that required years of scientific work and specific training. That precedent laid the foundations for what would later become the CL1, the equipment presented at the Mobile World Congress in 2025 as the world’s first commercial biological computer. As we explained at the time, the system combines neurons grown on silicon with software called biOS, responsible for exchanging electrical information with living tissue. It is advisable to adjust expectations. The system, it should be noted, falls far short of advanced human performance. Brett Kagan of Cortical Labs emphasizes that the experiment is not intended to replicate a miniature brain, and rejects the direct comparison: “Yes, it is alive, and yes, it is biological, but it is actually used as a material that can process information in very special ways that we cannot recreate in silicon.” The emphasis, therefore, is not on skill, but on the type of processing that this biological substrate allows. Starting point. In the video, the team encourages researchers and developers to interact with the CL1 open API. Cortical Labs hopes to address progressively more demanding tasks than a classic video game, although the video itself also recognizes that there is room to fine-tune the feedback of successes and errors. For now, what we have is a proof of concept that shows potential, but whose path will depend on what others manage to build on this platform. Images | Cortical Labs In Xataka | Sam Altman has spent his entire life saying one thing and doing exactly the opposite. And this time it didn’t even take 48 hours.

The US has cut programs for research and science. Europe and Spain are recruiting their scientists

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The Trump Administration has cut substantially the funds allocated to finance universities and, with them, the research projects that were being carried out, as as they point out from Nature. So American scientists have had no choice but to look for solutions to the draconian cuts in their country. Europe in general, and Spain in particular, they have become a magnet unexpected for all that talent, with programs that promise stability and million-dollar resources. Talent drain. According to information from the Ministry of Science, the call for the ATRAE program, aimed at incorporating researchers of international prestige with experience abroad in Spanish R&D centers, received 254 applications for the 2025 call. This implies an increase of 32% in applications, marking a historical record, because in 2023 no applications arrived from that country and in 2024 they only accounted for 16% of the total. 33.5% of them came from scientists from the US, which represents more than double that of previous editions. Finally, the scholarship program has selected 37 researchers in a program that allocates 38.9 million euros. Of the selected researchers, 56.7% come from American institutions and universities. Scientists who choose Spain. The Country collected the reasons why some of these researchers had decided to leave the US to continue their work in Spain. Vincenzo Calvanese, a 43-year-old Italian researcher who works at the Josep Carreras Institute in Barcelona after a decade in the United States, says that “many of my colleagues are having a very difficult time because of the political and economic events that affect science.” He encourages other colleagues to follow in his footsteps in Spain or other countries in Europesince the program represents “one of the few opportunities to ensure the future of research and some professional security.” ​Audrey Sawyer, a 43-year-old American hydrogeologist who has joined the research team at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, expresses a similar concern: “I have never seen a situation like this in the US. I feel very bad for the researchers and students, they are very talented and are facing serious challenges.” Although she applied before the most recent cuts, she clearly sees how federal funding affects areas like biomedicine and climate change. Europe: a troubled river gains fishermen. According to a survey made by Nature Among the US scientific community, 75% of researchers have seriously contemplated emigrating due to the cuts and layoffs promoted by Trump. In this scenario of uncertainty, Europe fights back taking out the nets to try to attract a good part of that talent dissatisfied with cuts in US research. The EU has doubled the funding of the European Research Council (ERC) with 500 million euros to provide it with more resources for these new researchers under the umbrella of the program Europe horizon. Spain distributes the incorporation of these new researchers in a balanced way: Catalonia receives 35.1% of the funding provided by these new scholarships, Madrid receives 29.7%, and entities such as the CSIC host 29.7% of the researchers. In this way, local research is reinforced with international talent, new students are trained and more funds are attracted from international competitions. The exodus is not only about science. The desire to leave the US does not only occur in the scientific field, some EU countries have doubled the number of residency applications and citizenship of US citizens. It is the case of Irelandwhich went from receiving 31,825 in all of 2024, to 3,692 applications during the month of February 2025 alone. Europe’s response to those requests has been different, tightening requirements to obtain residency or, as in the case of Spain, eliminating the “Golden Visa“which granted a residence permit in exchange of an economic investment. In Xataka | Of course digital nomads love Oviedo. It’s not because of the way of life: it’s because they charge 90,000 euros Image | Wikipedia, Unsplash (National Cancer Institute)

We have been obsessed with microplastics for years. There are more and more scientists who believe that there is something wrong

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Up to 18 studies that affirmed the presence of microplastics in human organs they have just been challenged due to possible technical and control failures. And, although we have been obsessed with them for years, the truth is that it should not surprise us: we have known it almost from the beginning. Studies suggesting its presence in arterial tissue or in the testicles they have been receiving public criticism from the beginning. And the famous study that talked about the presence of microplastics in the brain was pure scientific fraud. None of this invalidates environmental concern, nor does it deny human exposure to these types of particles. It simply indicates that we have gone too far. And what is there many people taking advantage of it. What exactly happened? So far this decade, environmental contamination by microplastics has become a central issue that has not only generated a research boom, but has also promoted rules and regulations. And it is logical, the global use of plastics (which reached 460 megatons in 2019) is on its way to tripling by 2060 and that perspective makes its impact an issue to take into account. However, media interest is obscuring the fact that a good number of studies are being launched to make statements without a methodological solidity behind them to sustain them. What really is the problem? In reality there are many problems. To begin with, the very term ‘microplastics’ is deliberately broad and confusing: we are talking about a myriad of things (fragments, fibers, films or particles) of numerous sizes and compositions. Its use is useful to be able to speak globally about the problem, yes; worse, it is generating in the population the idea of ​​”colored confetti” sneaking through the organs of animals and plants. Then came everything else. This is possible because this “everything else” has an explanation that is as simple as it is worrying. As Sergio Ferrer emphasized“the detection of plastics at these size scales is an extremely complex analytical process and the urgency to publish information about their presence in remote places (even in the human body) can favor the appearance of these high-profile publications.” In other words, the problem is another. As Hannah Arendt said, we often do not know how to distinguish between a refuge and a trap. The (almost hysterical) concern about microplastics, the tendency to legislate in a hurry in response to the social mood and the lack of rigor of the media (problem in which it is inevitable that we include ourselves) have turned this topic into a trap. Because, as I say, everything seems to indicate that (even though we don’t have a teaspoon of them in our brains) microplastics are a problem. All that remains is for us to accept the type of problem they really are, not to overreact and to take action on the matter. Image | Naja Bertolt Jensen In Xataka | When Tap Water Tastes Like Hell: The Invisible Chemistry of Drinking Water That Explains Why It Tastes How It Tastes (And Why It’s One of the World’s Greatest Inventions)

Two scientists tried to publish a paper on why we get belly button lint. And that’s where his problems began

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In 2005, writer Mark Leyner and doctor Billy Goldberg published ‘Why do men have nipples?‘, a hilarious popular science book in which they answered very crazy questions: from the reason why hair comes out of our ears to the physiological reasons why asparagus perfumes our pee. However, they were not able to answer a key question: where did the fluff of the navel? Four years later, Georg Steinhauser wanted share your answer with the world. According to him, navel lint was mainly related to abdominal hair. According to him, the hair collected the fibers from the clothing and directed them to the navel. He did experiments for three years removing breasts to see the differences! But no one wanted to publish it. Nobody? No! A magazine populated by irreducible mad scientists still resists, as always, the most basic control practices of contemporary scientific publication. Welcome to the world of ‘Medical Hypothesis‘. Against the “gentrification” of science In recent years, “evidence-based” things They have enjoyed unprecedented fame. From politics to medicine, thousands of professionals have turned to science in search of solutions to respond to the problems of an increasingly complex society. However, all that glittered was not gold: again and again We have once again reflected on one of the blind spots of the approachthat science is, by nature, conservative. Not in a political sense, but in an epistemological sense. That is, we know better what we have; but when what we have doesn’t work, it’s a problem. A problem because, without resources to investigate new optionsare forced to implement interventions that do not work, leaving many professionals with their hands tied. For good reasons, yes. But with his hands tied. It is not strange, of course, that there are people who want more diversity. This is the case of ‘Medical Hypotheses‘, the most WTF science magazine of the last 40 years. ‘Medical Hypotheses’ was founded by the physiologist David Horrobin who directed it until his death in 2003. Horrobin, who was already himself a controversial figure (the British Medical Journal defined as one of the greatest “snake oil salesmen of his time”), made a magazine in his image and likeness. Fun, refreshing and dangerous In theory, the idea was to build a respectable forum to debate unconventional ideas unconstrained by current scientific publishing standards as a way to boost the diversity threatened by academic monoculture. ‘Medical hypotheses’ wanted to be a place to bring intuitions, extravagant ideas and crazy theories. In a world like the scientific one full of certainties and phrases in the present indicative, Horrobin’s magazine was all the y-sis and conditionals. That makes it a profound magazine. fun and refreshingbut it also does a bomb box. You can also read a study that relates heels with schizophrenia that one about the similarities between people with Down syndrome and Asians. These days, without going any further, a study is circulating in tabloids around the world about If we can abandon ourselves so much that we end up dying due to pure psychology. For years, the world was a party in ‘Medical Hypotheses’. In the first issues, pioneers from some of the most developing fields of the time wrote. But its main asset is also its main problem. It is a magazine that requires a very skilled editor to be able to navigate controversial terrain without publishing malicious and even dangerous work. The end of the party When Horrobin died in 2003, he was replaced by Bruce G. Charlton. Horrobin had written down that he was the only person he truly trusted to continue his work. At the end of 2009, an article in which he stated that “there was no evidence that HIV caused AIDS” was published in the magazine. The party was over. The paper had been rejected in all research area publications until it ended up in ‘Medical Hypotheses’. He scandal It was capital and Elsevier, owner and publisher of the magazine, fired Charlton a few months later. Furthermore, in an attempt to contain the damage, Elsevier introduced a review system halfway between the original system and the peer review of traditional publications. That clearly went against the magazine’s reason for being and Hundreds of researchers protested against the decision. ‘Medical Hypotheses’ is, in some ways, a symbol of the risky, indomitable and (often) reckless science that we still need, but it no longer plays a central role in public debate. Today, the preprints (and the repositories that store these open drafts — with arXiv.org at the head) fulfill that function. A function that, despite making our lives difficult, is best never missed. In Xataka | This frog is so photogenic that it is now on the verge of extinction In Xataka | Spain turns in the opposite direction to the rest of Europe. It is part of a geological plan: close the Mediterranean Image | Pexels

Scientists have investigated what happens to your brain when you play video games. And they have surprising news

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There is something strangely comforting about dissonance. Sometimes, while I’m fighting with a crochet hook trying to make a scarf not end up looking like a dish towel, I like to put the TV channel in the background. TacticalGramma. Michelle is 59 years old, she is a proud grandmother and, while I clumsily count wool stitches, she is annihilating entire squads in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 with a precision that any teenager would want for themselves. The scene has that visual irony: technology has not come to isolate us in a basement, but to rescue our neurons from rust. For decades, the social narrative sold us that video games “rot” the brain; Today, science is beginning to suggest that, if you want to reach 60 with good mental agility, perhaps you should take control. The brain clock. A study published by Nature has managed to compare the health of neural connections with the person’s actual age—what is known as brain clocks. The team led by Carlos Coronel-Oliveros has discovered that players who are experts in strategy titles like StarCraft II They have a mental structure that is much more resistant to the passage of time. On average, the brains of these players function with the agility of someone four years younger, according to a statistical estimate based on neuroimaging models. An efficiency phenomenon that neuroscience calls Brain Age Gap (BAG). When Sudoku is no longer enough. While classic brain games are isolated and repetitive tasks, an action video game forces the brain to manage an avalanche of information in real time. This level of constant demand—planning movements, reacting to attacks, and filtering out distractions simultaneously—forces neurons to reorganize. To reach this conclusion, the research team used research techniques whole-brain modelingcombining fMRI with machine learning algorithms capable of detecting subtle patterns in connectivity. The results showed more efficient integration in the so-called “frontoparietal hubs”, key regions for attention and executive function that are usually among the first to deteriorate with age. Changes in brain hardware. This apparent rejuvenation has a physical reflection in the structure of the brain. Science has found that, just as a muscle develops with exercise, certain key areas of players become denser and more robust. Studies in Scientific Reports and Translational Psychiatry reveal that those who regularly play action titles have more “gray matter” in regions responsible for coordination, attention and making quick decisions. It is as if the brain had expanded its information highways to react sooner and better to each stimulus. But the most useful change is the refinement of our visual “filter.” Research in PLOS ONE show that the players They develop a superior ability to ignore unnecessary noise. It’s not that they see more, it’s that their brain has learned to process only the information that really matters to win the game, optimizing the energy expenditure of the visual cortex. The ‘learning to learn’ factor. What is truly significant is not being more precise within the game, but the impact on the ability to continue learning. A study in Communications Biology showed that video game training Action speeds up the speed at which people learn new tasks, even when they are unrelated to the game. As they explain psychologists Daphne Bavelier and C. Shawn Green, these games train the brain’s attentional control. The result is improved cognitive adaptation, valuable in an ever-changing technological world. But experts still debate the degree of “far transfer”—that is, the extent to which being a keyboard whiz makes you better at managing a real crisis or a complex spreadsheet. When the benefit runs out. Even so, it is advisable to lower your enthusiasm. Most of these studies they are correlational: they do not allow us to state with certainty whether playing transforms the brain or whether certain already “agile” brain profiles are more inclined to enjoy video games. Furthermore, the effects vary depending on age and life context. Side B is not minor either. Researchers warn that excessive exposure can cause cognitive fatigue and sleep disturbances. The World Health Organization recognizes the video game disorder as a real problem when gambling becomes a compulsive behavior. The neural benefit depends on the balance that if the challenge stops being stimulating and becomes automatic or addictive, the protective effect disappears. Not just any game will do. Another key point is that not all video games produce the same effects. The strongest benefits are seen in action and real-time strategy games, which require quick decisions and multitasking. As experts point outonce a game stops being difficult and becomes mechanical, brain plasticity stagnates. Speed ​​and time pressure seem to be essential ingredients for keeping machinery in shape. There is something hopeful about seeing someone like TacticalGramma master a digital environment. The science doesn’t say that video games are a panacea, but it does suggest that brain aging doesn’t have to be a one-way path to decline. Perhaps the secret to a healthier brain is not in a pill, but in our ability to continue to face what is difficult and accept the frustration of constant learning. For now, I’m going to leave crocheting for a while. Image | freepik Xataka | The art of self-deception: why our brain defends our mistakes even if it knows we are wrong

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