silent

Science warns of its silent and devastating impact on fertility

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

why the silent user is the big winner of social networks

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A few years ago social networks were used as authentic repositories of information, with many publications throughout the day and maximum interaction. Nowadays it is not unusual to see Instagram profiles completely empty of posts and reserved only for stories or even on X people who publish absolutely nothing, but have a really old account. And it’s not that they are dead accounts, but that their owners are just “watching”. A paradigm shift. The technology industry has been selling us the need to have a presence on social networks to participate in the collective trend and with the aim of staying behind. But for science, these people who just watch without participating are actually the most intelligent and have received the name ‘lurking’. For a long time, this attitude was attributed to a lack of commitment, but the reality is that lukers We represent the vast majority of users on the Internet, who only prefer silent consumption without entering into controversies or commenting on anything at all. In this way, our opinions remain in our minds and are not materialized by putting an answer on X or a comment on YouTube on a video. Why does it happen? Here a key study from Frontier in Psychology has analyzed the psychological mechanisms behind this technological retreat and points to four critical factors: Seeing the lives of others generates pressure that inhibits the desire we may have to share our own life or our concerns. Concern for privacy, since a publication can easily be misinterpreted without context and expose itself to unnecessary controversy. The pressure to generate social interaction in the comment box of different platforms is something that can deplete our energy reserves. There is an excess of interactive stimuli that causes the brain to not be able to process more. Consumption without exposure. Not all those who remain silent do so for fear of entering into a controversy, but for many, it is a matter of efficiency. Here, according to a job from Computers in Human Behavior, the motivations for consuming content such as watching a tutorial on YouTube or reading a thread on X are totally different from those for participating. Here the user seeks mere usefulness for their daily life, making reading comments help to contextualize a news item without having to enter the mire of discussion. In this way, the user feels that they are up to date with all the news that may surround them, but without having to type a single word. The dark side. The problem is that these attitudes indicate that the level of toxicity on social networks is quite high, which is why this ‘defense mechanism’ is activated in which a user does not leave because they do not want to lose connection with the world, but they ‘turn off’ their microphone. In the end it is a selective withdrawal in which you continue to see what is happening, but the noise is not allowed to directly affect the user. Images | freepik In Xataka | Snapchat has almost 1 billion users and invented the king format of the Internet. He still doesn’t know how to make money with it

Sudden death has increased by 30% in Europe. In Spain the problem is even more serious and silent

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It arrives without warning, unexpectedly and in most cases with a fulminant cardiac origin that leaves patients on the ground in a few seconds and without the ability to respond. These are some of the characteristics that the sudden deathwhich has always been one of the biggest challenges for emergency medicine and that we must increasingly take into account because cases do not stop increasing. And especially in Spain. A new trend. A large study recently published in the journal The Lancent has put figures to this silent reality, pointing out that mortality records in the last decade have increased by 30% in Europe, and the trend in Spain exceeds the European average. How it has been seen. To understand the magnitude of this finding, we must look at the methodology that the research team has followed, which has taken as a source of data from the WHO that come from 26 European countries between 2010 and 2020. In this period, more than 53 million deaths were recorded from many different causes, and of these 2,583,559 were classified as sudden deaths. It is not a minor figure, since this means that almost 5% of the total deaths in that decade fall into this category. And if we look back, we observe an average annual increase of 2.9% in Europe, although if we focus on Spain, this increase rises to 3.3%. It’s not COVID. Seeing that the study ends in 2020 and automatically blaming Covid and the vaccines that were administered is something that may be an idea that many have in their heads, but the truth is that it has nothing to do with it, since the upward trend had already been consolidated since 2013. Which is the culprit. There are several hypotheses on the table here, one of them being the aging of the population, which is much more vulnerable to fatal cardiovascular events. But age is not the main problem, since cardiovascular risk is conferred by having a poor lifestyle that includes a sedentary lifestyle, obesity, hypertension or diabetes, which continue to be silent pandemics that prepare the ground for heart failure. It is also important to highlight that the difference between various countries depends on the effectiveness of health systems, ambulance response times and, above all, the availability of defibrillators (AED) and CPR training of the general population. The latter is something in which Spain is not as aware as in other European countries, where a good part of the population knows how to act in the event of cardiac arrest if it occurs in the middle of the street. Causes depending on age. In the case of the under 35 years oldthe cause is usually a genetic or structural failure that has not been previously detected, predominating electrical alterations of the heart such as the famous Brugada syndrome. The problem is that many times the patient does not present symptoms until the onset of sudden cardiac arrest, having already seen cases in our country in very young people who, for example, They play soccer and suddenly fall on the field. In people over 35 years of age the origin changes and here lifestyle and wear and tear prevail, with acute myocardial infarction causing the vast majority of cardiorespiratory arrests. The Spanish context. The data provided by The Lancent study fit perfectly with the demographic and health puzzle of our country, since if we go to the INE we see that heart diseases (along with oncological diseases) are responsible for half of the deaths in Spain. And although the INE points out that in 2024 deaths from circulatory diseases decreased by 2.4% globally, entities such as the Spanish Society of Epidemiology and Cardioalianza remember an uncomfortable truth: Ischemic heart diseases continue to be the leading single cause of death in Spain. How to improve. The European study does not seek to create alarmism, but rather to light an emergency beacon in terms of public health. Stopping this 30% increase does not involve a magic pill, but rather a dual approach: improving early diagnosis in young people with a family history and, above all, filling our streets with defibrillators and citizens who know how to do cardiac massage. And, in absolute terms, cardiorespiratory arrest is a time-dependent process, meaning that every minute that passes without the patient receiving assistance translates into 10% less chance for your heart to beat again. This makes in 10 minutes It is almost impossible for a patient who has suffered an arrest and who does not receive CPR to come back to life, and this should make us aware of how important it is to know the basics of CPR, since it can truly save many lives. Images | wayhomestudio on Freepik In Xataka | We thought the marathon was heartbreaking. The largest medical follow-up to date has just settled the debate

This is the silent crisis of the chip of the future

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While the world has its eyes on the race for traditional silicon and artificial intelligence, a silent crisis is brewing in the global technological bowels. The United States and Europe are investing billions to recover the sovereignty of microchips, but they have ignored a material that could put the future of robotics, defense and energy in check: gallium. Western blindness to an absolute monopoly. Gallium is not as high-profile as lithium, it is not even technically a “rare earth”—as the specialized publication China Talk—but it is of irreplaceable critical importance. While the US administration strives to shield its supply chains, Beijing has been moving its chips around the board with impeccable stealth. The data is overwhelming. China currently controls 99% of the global primary production of galliumwhile the United States stopped producing it almost four decades ago. The great particularity of this material, according to Geopolitical Monitoris that it is not extracted directly from a mine, but is a byproduct of the processing of aluminum and zinc. This makes it deeply vulnerable: its production cannot magically increase no matter how much demand rises. This dependency is not a mere theory. China has already started using this domain as a geopolitical weaponimposing export restrictions in 2023 and escalating to a complete ban on shipments to the United States at the end of 2024. From mastering the mineral to conquering the factory. The Asian giant’s strategy was not the result of chance. As pointed out China Talksince the early 2000s, China forced its aluminum producers to extract gallium, achieving self-sufficiency and global control of the raw mineral (what is known in the industry as a market upstream). But the real drama for the West is happening right now in the final products (downstream). China has given birth to the “TSMC of GaN”: Innoscience. This Suzhou-based company has burst the global market for Gallium Nitride (GaN) power semiconductors, sinking its American rivals – such as Navitas or EPC – by offering prices up to 50% lower. Such a collapse in prices is not magic. The secret lies in a lethal combination of state financial muscle and technical audacity. As revealed China Talkin its early years Innoscience It operated with negative gross margins of 266%, supported by more than $350 million in government funds. They were willing to lose money to gain the world. Added to this is its industrial business model. While Western companies are fabless (they design the chip but pay third-party factories, such as the Taiwanese TSMC, to assemble it), Innoscience manufactures its own chips. They were the first to mass produce 200mm wafers, allowing them to get 80% more components out at a fraction of the cost. Against this backdrop, the pattern that is drawn is chilling and mirrors that of the solar panel industry: European giants such as STMicroelectronics They have ended up surrendering to the superiority of Innoscience, injecting $50 million into the Chinese firm in exchange for access to its factories. Goodbye to traditional silicon. To understand the seriousness of the issue, you have to understand why silicon is no longer enough. As they point out from AZOM, Silicon is reaching its physical limits. Gallium Nitride (GaN), on the other hand, is a “broadband” semiconductor (wide bandgap). Compared to 1.1 eV for silicon, GaN has a bandgap of 3.4 eV, allowing it to operate at much higher voltages and temperatures without melting. Translated into simpler words: GaN provides greater energy efficiencythe devices do not heat up and allow the size of the components to be drastically reduced. That’s why our mobile phone chargers are now smaller but charge the battery in minutes. Beyond a phone. Gallium Nitride is the master pillar of critical technologies: AI data centers: These chips reduce energy losses by up to 30%, something vital in the face of the devouring electrical appetite of Artificial Intelligence. Electric vehicles: They are key for on-board chargers and converters, radically improving their autonomy. Defense and Military: Advanced radars, missile systems, electronic warfare and the 5G antennas that connect us all depend on GaN. A future dictated from Suzhou. The market is about to explode. From Geopolitical Monitor projects that the sector GaN semiconductor devices It will go from generating 3.06 billion dollars in 2024 to almost 12.5 billion dollars in 2030. And the lion’s slice seems to have a Chinese name. It is a fatal mistake to think that Innoscience He wins only because he is cheap thanks to the million-dollar subsidies from his government. As clarified China Talkthe company innovates at the highest level, designing chips across the entire voltage spectrum (from 15V to 1200V). Its quality is such that it has become the only Chinese partner of American giants like NVIDIA and Google to design the 800-volt power architectures that will power the “AI factories” of the future. The forecast is dark, but there is an ace up the sleeve. If the West does not react, Innoscience will go from having a dominant position to an absolute monopoly. If a new trade war breaks out, car, robot and data center manufacturers in the US and Europe will have to ask permission from a single Chinese company to be able to turn on their machines. Despite the pessimism, the battle is not entirely lost. Western companies and governments are testing various containment strategies: The judicial trench: Companies like EPC and Infineon They have sued Innoscience in the US for patent infringement, achieving some import restrictions. However, this is just a patch; The bans usually apply to loose chips, but not to final products assembled in China, and the Asians can redesign their models to bypass the ban. The technological leap (300 mm): The great hope is in changing the rules of the game. Texas Instruments (USA) and Infineon (Germany) are leading the move to larger, 300mm GaN wafers. They have the advantage that the highly specialized machinery to manufacture them is in German and American hands, heavily protected by export controls. Furthermore, at the basic … Read more

a walk through Beijing, Ebro, Chery and the silent streets

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This is the third time in two years that I have visited China. The first time was for visit OnePlus and OPPO headquarters in Guandong. The second, for get into the kitchen at the Honor factory and headquarters in Shenzhen. Now I do it for something totally different and that’s why I would like to do something different. I tell you. On this occasion I accompanied Ebro, yes, the car company of the Chery group, to the Beijing Motor Show and the Chery headquarters in Wuhu. And I do it for a reason: cars, historically, have not been my greatest passion, but now, at almost 32 years of age and with a view to starting a family, I am thinking about changing cars and I know China has a lot to say about this.. In Córdoba, my city, everything always arrives late. I mean, relatively recently they opened the first bowling place. açaito give you an idea. That’s why I know that something is changing, because every time I take my car, a small Seat Ibiza, I see cars from brands on the road that I didn’t see two years ago: Omoda, Jaecoo, Ebro, MG and BYD, mainly. Understanding his success requires understanding the context of his native country. and, to do this, there is nothing better than coming to it and experiencing it first-hand. And that’s why I propose something to you. Ebro S900 PHEV | Image: Ebro I propose that we live this together through a kind of daily blog in which I will tell you what I have seen, what I have learned and what things have caught my attention. Not from the perspective of an engine expert, but from the curious point of view of someone who knows that A new car is part of your next stage in life and you can’t stop seeing how Chinese brands are becoming more and more popular. Together we will visit the Beijing Motor Show, we will tour the streets of the Chinese capital, we will travel to Wuhu and we will see what and how is cooked in the bowels of Chery. That’s why I think the first thing is to put ourselves in context. At the group level, Chery takes bronze in the Chinese market, only behind BYD and Geely. Only in 2025, the firm sold 2,860,393 cars exactly, which is said soon. Chery, in turn, has several brands and subsidiaries such as Chery Automobile (where we find Chery New Energy and Fulwin), Omoda, Jaecoo, Lepas, Zongheng, Luxeed (along with Huawei), Exeed, Jetour, Karry, iCar, Rely, Soueast and the Chery Jaguar Land Rover joint venture. Its most famous products are, without a doubt, the Tiggo and the Arizo. Omoda, Jaecoo, Lepas (arrives in Spain this year) and Exlantix (in China it is Exeed and will arrive in Spain next year) are the brands that the company uses to boost your export strategy. Ebro, for his part, It is a joint venture established in 2024 between Chery and Ebro EV. Roughly speaking, this partnership allows Chery to assemble vehicles at the former Nissan plant in Barcelona and distribute them in Spain and Portugal under the (revived) Ebro brand. It’s a little more complex, but let’s stick with that idea. Tiggo 9 | Image: Xataka Actually, Ebro cars use Omoda platforms | Jaecoo (with some adjustments, for example in the suspension) and these, in turn, are the exported versions of the Tiggo. He Omoda 9 SHS It is, clearly, a Tiggo 9. Why so much branding? Because so they can attack different market segments with specific models and strategieshas no more. It is exactly the same thing that other Chinese groups such as Geely do, which has Geely, a large part of Volvo and Polestar, almost half of Proton Holdings, Zeekr or Lynk&Co, to name just a few. Aito M7, the electric SUV owned by Huawei | Image: Xataka Having said that and having that context, the first thing that has caught my attention in the short time I have been in China is how ubiquitous local brands are. I’ve seen endless BYD, Xpeng, Leapmotor, Nio, BAIC and ArcFox. I have even had the chance to see a couple of Xiaomi SU7s. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t BMW, Volkswagen, Mercedes or Audi, because there are, but it gives me the impression that they have a more luxury component. From the models I have seen, I get the feeling that European cars still have a certain premium aroma here. Toyota, Hyundai and Honda are also relatively common, but the omnipresence of local brands is evident. One of the few Chery that we have seen in Beijing Something that stands out in Beijing, where I am right now, is that you hardly see Chery cars. There are, a priori, three reasons: Chery​ is a great exporteris a Chinese brand whose power is not in China (despite being one of the best-selling brands), but in the international market. It makes sense, since abroad there is much, much, much less competition than in the local market and, above all, in the big capitals. We are in Beijing, a Tier 1 city. There is more capital and users are looking for higher-end/premium products, which explains the greater presence of Tesla, European, electric brands such as Nio or Arcfox and, above all, BAIC (Beijing Automotive Industry Holding). BAIC is a local brand and all taxis are BAIC. Arcfox is BAIC’s premium electric range. The registration system. Buying a car in Beijing is not about going to the dealership and that’s it. To avoid pollution, the government established a points and lottery system to obtain permission to buy a car. Gasoline cars go by lottery and the chances are tiny, 0.1%. New Energy cars (electric, hybrid, plug-in hybrid, etc.) are on a waiting list. It is long, very long, but unlike the lottery, it is safe. If you want a car in Beijing, the easiest thing is to buy an electric one and there … Read more

We have been terrified of superbugs for decades. The real silent danger is “superfungi”

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When we talk about the antibiotic resistancemany people are already aware of the great problem that not having medications against superbacteria poses for public health, since today there are many antibiotics that have no effect on bacteria. But the WHO launch an alert very important to expand our field of vision also to the “super mushrooms“. Growing danger. If there is a protagonist in this new threat, it is Candida auris, precisely because, unlike other fungi that have been with us for centuries, this one has recently emerged as a global public health problem by causing serious infections, especially in people who are admitted to hospitals or nursing homes, who already have other associated diseases. A genomic macro-study in which the Carlos III Health Institute has participated analyzing more than 300 isolates from patients in 19 countries, has drawn the map of the evolution of this multi-resistant fungus. And the reality we face is that it is capable of spreading rapidly among fragile patients, and worst of all, it is very resistant to the anti-fungal drugs that we use on a daily basis. It is very complete. As experts point out, the enormous expansion of C. Auris is not only focused on the ability to evade the first-line antifungals that we have, but also on its ability to form biofilms on hospital surfaces or medical devices. This causes an object used by several patients to become ‘infected’ and spread the infection among them. It was suddenly. The reality is that today there are many fungi from the Candida family that coexist with us by being on our skin naturally, and without causing problems. The trigger comes when our defenses fall because we are sick, immunosuppressed due to a transplant or naturally because we are older. And this is where this fungus goes from being a being that lives with us ‘in peace’ to completely invading us and causing disease. The culprit. Paradoxically, our efforts to kill bacteria have part of the blamesince here the experts point to a structural problem of abuse of broad-spectrum antibiotics that “sweeps away” the natural bacterial flora of our body. In this way, if bacteria that colonize our digestive system are destroyed, for example, it creates free ‘holes’ that can be used by fungi without control. Added to this is a serious pharmacological problem, since right now we do not have many medications to fight fungi. And the problem is that its structure is quite similar to the surfaces of our own cells as it contains cholesterol in many cases. This means that drugs that destroy the fungus without producing a toxic effect on the patient are not very abundant. There is more. Although we focus on C. auris, there are other threats in this same kingdom, such as Scedosporium prolificansa multiresistant fungus that, through unique evasion mechanisms, causes very high mortality rates in immunosuppressed patients. The solution. Right now, science indicates that we cannot address the crisis of superfungi and superbacteria with patches, but rather we must create a unitary strategy that encompasses human, animal and ecosystem health. And right now the massive use of fungicides in agriculture causes the fungi in the environment to resist our medications that we use in the most serious patients. Images | Adrian Lange In Xataka | Faced with the need to look for weapons against superbacteria, science has opted to send viruses into space

Our way of eating is experiencing a silent revolution that is already noticeable in the industry: “snackification”

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New times, new ways to eat. There was a time (not that long ago actually) when the concept “pecking” almost had a negative overtone. A “snack” was the concession that one made between breakfast and lunch or shortly before dinner to indulge in a culinary treat, something that was done exceptionally or knowing that it was not convenient for them. That is changing. As our habits transform, so does the way we organize our diet and how we understand snacks. It is no longer about eating snacks at the wrong time, but rather about considering the meals of the day in a different way. The shift is so clear that there are those who are already talking about snackfication. How many times do you eat a day? That question probably sounds like a platitude to many people. Three. Maybe five if we count the snack and a mid-morning sandwich, right? In 2015, the Center for Sociological Research (CIS) was interested in that same question (how many meals did Spaniards usually eat on a weekday) and discovered that, on average, we were around 3.57 intakes. To be more precise, half of those surveyed (50.4%) recognized three meals a day and another 26.1% extended it to four. Only 17.7% ate five or more meals, a figure in tune with that calculated by the Nestlé Observatory. Is it a still photo? No. As our way of life changes, so do traditional eating patterns that led us to limit ourselves to breakfast, lunch and lunch, adding (perhaps) a mid-morning snack and an afternoon snack. I explained it recently Expansion: instead of three blocks of meals we move to a more distributed intake made up of small quantities. More intakes, smaller portions. Why is it important? The phenomenon goes beyond simple “pecking” for several reasons. One of the main reasons is that these meals replace traditional meals (dinner, for example). Another key is that “pecking” or snack loses its negative nuance. It’s not about indulging in pastries and chips. The phenomenon is accompanied by a growing interest in healthy snacks. Manufacturers know this and often promote them by appealing to their functionality rather than the stomach. Is there data to support it? Yes. The first one is left by the International Food Information Council (IFIC), a Washington, DC-based organization focused on nutrition and food security. Their studies in the US reflect a clear tendency to replace central meals of the day with snacks. If in 2020 38% of those surveyed admitted this change towards smaller intakes, in 2024 they already represented 56%. The last indicator, from 2025, stands at 62%. Most do it occasionally, but the curve is revealing. Does the study say anything else? He notes that “for most Americans” snack consumption is already part of their “daily ritual.” “In 2025, 70% say they eat them at least once a day, which represents a decrease compared to 73% in 2024, but also the fourth consecutive year in which daily consumption of snacks exceeds 70%,” remember the reportwhich details that 12% of those who ‘sting’ daily do so at least three times. “Americans are replacing traditional meals with snacks and lighter meals, a change that continues to gain strength. In 2020, 38% reported having replaced meals with snacks or light foods. In 2024 that figure increased to 56% and in 2025 it stood at 62%,” points out the IFIC. The phenomenon is so clear that Food Navigator either BBC they talk about snackification. Is there data from Spain? We handle tracks. Although they do not address the topic directly and require combining several sources, they must be handled with some caution. In 2004 the INE published a report in which it stated that 58.4% of the population I used to eat three meals a day (breakfast, lunch and dinner), a percentage that shot up to 72% among those over 65 years of age. In 2022 Mapfre addressed that same issue again and found that on working days 38.7% We Spaniards eat three meals. Not only is this data lower than that published by the INE in 2004. It is also below the sum of those who eat four (29.9%) or five meals (23.2%). The photo changes on holidays, although there are still more people who eat four or five times. Graphic from the report “Food in post-pandemic 21st century society: food decision”, by Fundación Mapfre. What is it due to? There are many factors at play, such as recognize the consulting firm Circana, which breaks down a few when trying to explain the behavior of American households. One (fundamental) is that we eat more snacks and fewer leisurely meals for a simple matter of comfort. “Consumers are increasingly looking for ways to save time preparing meals,” highlights the firm, recalling that snacks are even gaining weight in main meals. It makes sense if we take into account that there are millions of people who almost never take a frying pan or saucepan to cook and every time we buy more dishes already prepared. Curiously, those who consume the most snacks (at least in the US) are not teenagers, but members of Generation 21% of consumption at home. The list also highlights the millennialswith 15% of the pie. When surveying the market, the firm found that the snacks that were most successful were the sweet and salty ones, not the healthy ones. Are there more factors? Yes. Cultural and dietary changes, changes in homes (some, like Juan Roig, believe that domestic kitchens are doomed), changes when shopping… Some analysts even slide the influence of the new weight loss drugs (GLP-1) and how they influence patients who consume increasingly smaller portions. What seems undeniable is that these changes in our diet are having an impact on the forecasts of companies dedicated to the production of snacks. Food Navigator assures that in 2025 the value of the global market of the snack industry will exceed 269 ​​billion of dollars and the forecast is that it will grow … Read more

“It takes two years to learn to speak and sixty to learn to be silent”

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Whether or not you are part of their legion of userssomething must be recognized about X, the old Twitter: it has become a gigantic social laboratory. Also definitive proof that it is often less difficult for people to open their mouths (or type) than to think beforehand about what we are going to use them for. It doesn’t matter that it’s the last game of the League, the war in Iran, a video of kittens or issues as sensitive as euthanasia: There will always be someone willing to take out their phone and share their opinion, even if that opinion has just been formed. Hence in this world verbose Ernest Hemingway resonates strongly: “It takes two years to learn to speak and 60 to learn to be silent.” Speak and be silent. The history of Philosophy (thus, with capital letters) is full of good ideas… and suggestive phrases of uncertain origin and dubious attribution. We have told it more times. A quick Google search arrives to find alleged statements by Marcus Aurelius, Da Vinci or Marie Curie (among a very long list of thinkers) whose authorship is impossible to confirm. Something similar happens with the sentence that concerns us today. We have been putting the phrase “It takes two years to learn to speak and sixty to learn to be silent” on Hemingway’s lips for decades when in reality it is impossible to know if he ever uttered it. In 2019 Quote Researcher tried to confirm it and came to three conclusions. First, it dates back to at least 1909, when Hemingway was still a boy from Illinois. Second, that it has been associated (with variants) with other intellectuals, including Mark Twain either Lydia Allen DeVilbiss. Third, it is very difficult to go beyond the two previous conclusions. The value of each word. In view of all the above, we might ask ourselves why pay attention to a proverb of diffuse authorship. The answer is simple. Perhaps we cannot confirm if it came from Hemmingway’s lips (or pen), but it certainly connects with the style of a novelist who was characterized by concise sentences and maximum economy of language. In the works of Hemingway every word counts. And that is also a valuable lesson if we think about the fact that humanity (or at least a large part of it) has never had it so easy when it comes to expressing its opinions and participating in public debate. The torrent of public opinion is so powerful that it has even overflowed and has been carried forward the 140 characters of Twitter. In defense of silence. If Hemingway’s supposed phrase has been captivating us for more than a century, it is not only because of its ironic point. To a large extent it also connects with an idea that has permeated philosophy since the time of Pythagoras, to whom another similar phrase is attributed: “Listen, you will be wise”. People express themselves naturally. It is part of our elemental baggage, which we develop during the first years of life along with other skills such as walking. The complicated thing, in fact, is to do the opposite: embrace silence. In silence you think, reflect and listen, tasks that often require active effort. “It takes sixty years to learn to be silent,” reminds us Hemingway sarcastically, implying that silence is a complex virtue that we must work on and takes a lifetime to master. Is it that important? Yes. Educated in a world in which from a very young age we are instilled that ‘he who remains silent grants’ it is easy to forget it, but silence is sometimes an art. To begin with, it requires self-control. It is not always easy to remain silent. As they comment our colleagues TrendsIt also requires discipline, tolerance and a certain dose of humility and generosity. Against polarization. In exchange, silence offers us other things. It leaves us more room for reflection, to form more informed opinions and, above all, to measure our words and avoid regrets. In the age of networks, the debate held from anonymity and with society increasingly polarizedalso helps to ask certain questions: Can I contribute something to the conversation? Am I sure of what I’m going to say or will I just contribute to generating noise? What repercussions might what I say have on others? The virtues of silence and contemplation have been defended by many thinkers throughout history, from Pythagoras to the Stoics (including Epictetus either Marcus Aurelius) to the great humanists of the Renaissance. Even neuroscience has endorsed the advantages of giving yourself some time before opening your mouth. I already said it Aristotle himself in another equally ingenious phrase: “The Wise Man never says everything he thinks, but he always thinks everything he says.” Images | Wikipedia 1 and 2 Via | Trends In Xataka | “A place of joy with pain”: the phrase that summarizes the Aztec philosophy to be happier in this life

Pancreatic cancer is a silent killer. A new experimental therapy has managed to “intercept” it before it attacks

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Pancreatic cancer is classically known as one of the most lethal and feared that exist because of how difficult it can be to treat in some cases and the high mortality rates. But this high mortality rate is not due to its aggressiveness from minute 0, but to its stealthy nature, making it when he shows his face With the first symptoms, the disease is already in a very advanced phase that makes treatment very difficult. It’s where to act. In this way, the objective of the researchers is precisely to try to advance the diagnosis as much as possible, since treatment in the initial phases of the disease can give great results. And this is exactly what a new study that focuses on the ‘cancer interception’ strategy suggests. This is something that researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have focused on, who have achieved a vitally important advance in mouse models. And the fact is that, instead of focusing on attacking the already formed pancreatic tumor of considerable size, they have directed their artillery against the microscopic precursor lesions, known as PanIN. Its foundation. This is something that can be reduced to literally putting out the fire when it is still just a small spark. And as the specialized media report, by removing these microscopic lesions precancerous diseases, researchers manage to stop the advance towards the dreaded pancreatic adenocarcinoma in mice, proposing a total paradigm shift in how we could face this disease. Genetics is key. Something that has been known for a long time is that there are people who have a genetic predisposition to suffer from this disease. Specifically, in more than 90% of cases, the mutation responsible for triggering the disease is found in a gene called KRAS. A gene that for decades was considered “unapproachable” by classical pharmacology and that acted as a great shield against the disease. However, medicine is advancing in leaps and bounds, and this study uses selective inhibitors for this gene with the aim of silencing it precisely in PanIN lesions. In this way, by neutralizing the growth signals that the KRAS gene gives to tumor cells, they cannot take the step to begin to spread throughout the body, which causes the most serious symptoms. Mice today, hope for tomorrow. Logically, we must put our feet on the ground, since we are dealing with a preclinical study. That is, the therapy has proven to be a resounding success in animal models, but there is still a long way to go until this therapy can be used in a human in a hospital, since it must be seen that the effect is similar in our organisms. However, this research fits perfectly with the new medical philosophy against pancreatic cancer. As highlighted by the National Cancer Research Center (CNIO) in his recent communicationsthe future undoubtedly involves knowing the personalized risk and ensuring that those people who are more likely to suffer from pancreatic cancer due to their genetics receive exhaustive screening to detect the disease in time and increase the probability of survival. Images | Bioscience Image Library In Xataka | A Spanish milestone against pancreatic cancer: we are one step closer to eradicating it but there is still a long way to go

Ships have been damaging the oceans with noise for centuries. Germany is working on silent propellers to solve it

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Every time a boat crosses the seas, it is accompanied by a continuous noise underwater: that of the propellers that propel it. The noise problem of propellers in marine ecosystems is identified academically since 2004, but its reason for being is even older: the first time they analyzed its cause It was in 1893. What there is no solution to that disturbing low-frequency sound that spreads for kilometers, disturbing fish, cetaceans and other marine living beings. And its reason for being is even older: the first time cavitation was analyzed was in 1893. A team from the Kiel University of Applied Sciences has set out to remedy it with its project MinKav. Brief notes on cavitation. To understand the problem, we must first see what happens to the blades of a propeller when they rotate at high speed. With their movement, the blades generate a pressure difference between their faces. Thus, on the back side the pressure drops so much that the water changes state, going from liquid to gas. More specifically, thousands of small vapor bubbles. The problem is when these bubbles leave that low pressure zone: they then implode violently, returning to the liquid state, which causes pressure waves that are transmitted at high speed through the water. If the waves collide with a surface, they can deteriorate it considerably. The phenomenon of cavitation is accompanied by vibration and noise, as if it were gravel falling on a machine. This sound is broadband, with low frequency components capable of traveling long distances. Why is it important. Of all possible aquatic pollution, human-caused acoustics are the least mainstream, but their effects are documented. A couple of concrete examples of the importance of sound for aquatic species: whales They use sound to communicate, orient themselves and huntthe fish for such essential tasks how to detect predators or spawning and crustaceans are sensitive to vibration in the background. To get an idea of ​​the magnitude of the problem, according to the International Chamber of Navigation There are approximately 50,000 merchant ships operating continuously around the planet and they all emit that sound. It is not something specific. And the research team adds a twist: a propeller with less cavitation is not only less noisy, it can also potentially be more efficient (cavitation is wasted mechanical energy). Less noise and fewer emissions. The discovery. The HAW Kiel team has identified when the problem originates: the sound peak does not occur when the bubble forms, but right at the end of the collapse. And its intensity depends directly on the speed at which this collapse occurs. The faster you go, the stronger the blow. Illustration of human, marine animal and environmental sound sources in the marine environment, with proportional sound waves. National Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration How are they doing it. The experiments are being carried out at the Naval Hydrodynamics Laboratory of the German university, in a kind of aquarium with a miniature propeller, so that they can reproduce the flow conditions around the propeller. Equipped with underwater microphones and high-speed cameras, they have determined where and when that noise peak occurs. The next step is computer simulations to experiment with designing different propeller geometries to reduce noise without sacrificing performance, efficiency or durability. The most obvious solution, lowering the rpm, is not an option: a commercial boat cannot afford to go slower. Pending subjects. However, MinKav started in January of this year, will last three years and have a budget of 390,000 euros, modest for a problem of global scale. Even if MinKav were to come to fruition, it would have to go from the laboratory to scale-up on a commercial ship. In Xataka | A Spaniard has patented a mast that transforms wind and waves into electricity: his invention challenges diesel in boats In Xataka | A “roomba” to clean rivers: the ship that the Three Gorges Dam has launched in China Cover | Pexels

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