solve

It has been frozen for 30 years at 8,500 meters. Now a mission wants to finally solve who was the most famous corpse on Everest

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If you like mountains and have ever gone (or fantasize about going) to Everest, surely the name of Green Boots sounds familiar: it is a reminder that climbing the highest mountain in the world is still a risky activity. The body of this mountaineer who died in the middle of the ascent was mummified at the entrance to a cave that you have to pass through when you climb the main ascent route from the Tibetan side. 30 years after his death, The Guardian echoes a leaked document where the rescue operation and repatriation of Green Boots to India is collected. In the rescue process it would also correct a mistake that has lasted three decades: the identity of the corpse would be cleared once and for all. The tragic story of Green Boots. “Green Boots” is the nickname of the mountaineer found in 1996 under a rocky outcropping at 8,500 meters above sea level, just 350 meters from the summit on the northeast route that ascends from the Tibetan side. The nickname has little originality: he was wearing boots of the same brand and model Koflach Arctis Expe phosphor green in color. His boots (and his body) were exposed and since it is in a transit area, it has become a macabre reference point to inform the base when they reach that position. Who really is Green Boots?. As for his identity, for almost 30 years it was assumed without official confirmation that It was Tsewang Paljoran Indian mountaineer who died in a severe snow storm known as the 1996 Everest disasterwhich killed 12 people. That tragedy inspired the book Into Thin Air. However, as reported by The Guardian, the document from the Indian rescue authorities identifies the body as Dorje Morupan Indian guard member of a Indo-Tibetan Border Police expedition who died in that same tragedy. The document ensures that this identification “has been confirmed through a prior verification process within the framework of a prior technical evaluation”, although without detailing what it consisted of. The recovery mission. The rescue bidding document asks companies to bid for the mission, which must have at least six Sherpas who have previous climbing experience. In addition, they must provide evidence of the mission and transport the body to Delhi before October. As explains Alan Arnettean American mountaineer and well-known blogger about Everest, lowering it is going to be “an arduous task” and estimates the operation at about $150,000. The monsoon rains also work against it. According to Sherpa Tshiring Jangbu details to The Guardianfounder of Everest Sherpa Expedition and with experience in this type of operations, with only a third of the oxygen available compared to that at sea level, activity above 8000 meters requires enormous effort and decision making can become more difficult. And that’s not to mention the load: a frozen body with mountain equipment can weigh up to 200 kilos. In addition, limbs frozen at angles impossible for descent sometimes mean they have to resort to amputation. A cemetery called Everest. Precisely because of the difficulty, danger and cost of the rescue operation, approximately 200 bodies still remain there on the slopes of Everest. As New Zealander Guy Cotter, who coordinated a similar rescue operation with his company Adventure Consultants in 1997, explains: “For families, recovering a body from the mountain gives them comfort, as long as it does not put other people at undue risk.” And according to their experience, there have been cases of recovery of bodies in which more people have died. Aware of the risk of their hobby, there are experienced climbers who wish that, if they die while climbing, their remains remain on the mountain, but are moved out of sight. Of course, families do not always think alike. In Xataka | Climbing Everest in person costs 50,000 euros. Uploading it in 4K from the sofa at home is now free In Xataka | There is something worse than Everest turning into a mountain literally full of shit: scam rescues Cover | Pavel Novak and Gemini with Koflach Arctis Expe

The new Ryzen 7 5800X3D does not solve the hardware crisis, but it is a lifesaver to extend the life of many PCs without breaking the bank

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Updating a desktop PC or brand new practically any current device that integrates RAM or storage (that is, almost everything) is face a harsh reality: you have to pay much more for the same thing. The hardware crisis, derived from the high demand for these components to supply clients related to AI, which has been with us since the end of last year, it seems like it’s going to be long. So if we have no choice but to renew components or equipment in 2026 and we do not want to pay too much, You have to look carefully at which is the best possible purchase option.. AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D 10th Anniversary Edition The price could vary. We earn commission from these links In this context, AMD launched the market a few weeks ago Ryzen 7 5800X3D 10th Anniversary Edition. The reissue of a best-selling processor, compatible with AM4 platformswhich allows you to give a facelift to computers (especially gaming, as it is a CPU designed especially for gamers) from up to a decade ago without the need to renew the motherboard. And, above all, without having to make the leap to DDR5 RAM memories (which are through the roof). All this, in exchange for a very contained investment in 2026, such as the 360 euros that is around in the main stores. Probably the best price-quality purchase for a gaming PC in the last decade In ideal conditions and focusing on the most current, the most recommended purchase when configuring from scratch or updating a PC to play, today, in the middle of 2026, is recent motherboards, DDR5 RAM and NVMe PCIe Gen5 SSDs. But of course, this represents an exorbitant expense in many cases that not all users are willing to assume. Above all, considering that just a few months ago all of this cost much less. In this scenario, the reissue of this Ryzen 7 5800X3D It makes a lot of sense. With it we can give a facelift (and greatly increase performance) to our current AM4 platform PC, with DDR4 RAM, without having to touch much else. Above all, if we plan to play and we come from a processor that does not belong to AMD’s X3D family. With the change, The jump in video games is brutal: more frames per second, thanks to AMD’s 3D V-Cache technology. In essence, this Ryzen 7 5800X3D maintains the 8 cores and 16 threads, frequencies of up to 4.5 GHz, the TDP of 105 W and the same amount of L3 cache as the original 5800X3D launched in 2022. But as an added bonus, this 10th anniversary edition includes a thermal solution as an alternative to the classic thermal paste: the Carbice Ice Pad, which is a thermal pad that must be placed between the surface of the CPU and the heat sink to keep high temperatures at bay. ⚡ IN SUMMARY: Ryzen 7 5800X3D 10th Anniversary Edition ✅ THE BEST You do not need to change motherboard or RAM if you already had one with AM4 socket and DDR4 memories Outstanding gaming performance thanks to its exclusive technology that triggers the FPS ❌ THE WORST It is not the most current on the market (although it has just gone on sale) and if you prefer the latest of the latest there are more powerful (and expensive) options. 💡 BUY IT IF… You need to renew your desktop gaming hardware in the middle of the sector crisis ⛔ DON’T BUY IT IF… You plan to make the jump to AM5/DDR5 in the short term (even at these prices) Two pieces of hardware ideal to accompany this Ryzen ASUS TUF Gaming B550M-PLUS WiFi II po A and C, Aura Sync RGB), B550 II The price could vary. We earn commission from these links CORSAIR Vengeance LPX DDR4 RAM 32GB (2x16GB) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Some of the links in this article are affiliated and may provide a benefit to Xataka. In case of non-availability, offers may vary. Images | amd, Timothy Dykes, Remy on Unsplash In Xataka | Best gaming mice: which one to buy and 8 recommended models In Xataka | Best gaming keyboards 2026. Which one to buy based on use and 8 recommended models

Making a robotic hand is “100 times more difficult” than building the entire robot. These Chinese companies are determined to solve it

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China has achieved let your humanoid robots run, they fight and even that execute choreographies with astonishing precision. That was the easy part. The key for a humanoid to stop being a fairground attraction and become a useful product is not in its legs, balance or its “brain”, but in something much smaller and much more complicated than it seems: the hands. The challenge of the hands. The human hand has 27 bones, 34 muscles and countless nerve endings. Replicating this in metal and circuits is the biggest bottleneck facing modern robotics. sums it up well Guardian Zhou Yong, founder of LinkerBot, one of the most advanced Chinese startups in this field: manufacturing a robotic hand is “a hundred times more difficult” than manufacturing an entire humanoid. “The dexterity required by a hand is ten times greater than that of any other part of the body, but its volume is only one-tenth the volume,” Zhou says. That is, not only is it the most technically complex element, it is also the smallest. The Chinese advantage. Pan Yunzhe, founder of Wuji Technology, studied in the United States and considered setting up his robotic hands company there, but soon saw that it was unviable. He tells The Guardian that “It was practically impossible to manufacture hardware in the United States due to the enormous limitations of the supply chain.” And China has an unmatched supply chain: it is agile, it is sophisticated and, above all, it is cheaper. This gives them a key advantage in hardware and allows companies like Linkerbot to already manufacture 5,000 robotic hands per month, a figure impossible to match anywhere else in the world. The problem is the software. Making the hand is only half the job, you also have to make it move like a human hand and there is still a long way to go here. Nathan Lepora, professor of robotics and AI at the University of Bristol, sums it up: “the challenge of making these hands is already being solved,” but controlling them “is a completely different game… no one knows how to do it yet.” The scarcity of data is one of the big problems and it is that, while LLMs have been trained with the enormous amounts of data on the Internet, there is hardly any data on how a human hand moves and, above all, what it feels like when touching something. To try to overcome this obstacle, Wuji Technology is testing a glove packed with sensors that captures all the movements of the human hand in everyday tasks. Its founder admits that being able to capture “how a person moves and what they touch or feel” is an “extremely complex and unsolved” task. The robotics market. The Chinese robotic hands sector had a turnover of $7.4 billion last year, almost four times more than in 2024. LinkerBot, one of the leading startups, aspires to a valuation of $6 billion. The case of this startup is just one example of the robotics boom in China, where more than a million companies are already registered, 40% more than last year. This translates into brutal dominance: China already manufactures 90% of the world’s humanoid robots and it is the country with the most industrial robotsby much difference with the rest. Yes, but. Robotics is advancing by leaps and bounds, but there are voices calling for calm, and not just any voice, but that of the International Federation of Robotics. In your report published in September last year were clear: “True multipurpose humanoids are still far away.” We are going to continue seeing more and more amazing demonstrations, but from there until they are sold en masse and we can all have one at home that is truly capable, there is a way to go. Image | Xataka with Magnific In Xataka | We still don’t know if humanoid robots will be the next great technological revolution. Yes we know that China will lead it

Galician depopulation is filling the cemeteries with anonymous tombstones. There are those who want to solve it with QR codes

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It is one of the most unknown parishes in Pontevedra, a small town that has been shedding its inhabitants until it is left with barely 700. We are talking about Cerpozones (Cerponzóns), near the town of Alba or Tilve, the northern corner where they have wanted to take a curious step to preserve their own history: place QR codes (quicktime response) on cemetery tombstones. You scan a tombstone in Galicia and a life appears. “Linguistic restitution act“The O Chedeiro Neighborhood Association has been responsible for reformulating the usual text that can be found on the tombstones of the San Vicenzo cemetery. Why? Because they want the most distant generations, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren, to be able to discover what story there is behind the names engraved in the marble. Read the past to understand the present. The first QR premiered in the family pantheon of Juan José Esperón-Recareyneighbor, writer and secretary of the association. The scan opens a direct link to the blog ‘O Roque de Cerponzóns’, where the life of this family crossed by emigration, agricultural work, sociability in taverns and the daily history of the parish is documented. In this blog you can discover the life, for example, of Jesús Recarey Lorenzo, tram conductor and conductor who dedicated a life to daily mobility, or Carmen Recarey Cochón, owner of the Rums tavernthe social center of the parish. Cerponzóns has also recently been the headline of several news stories for the documentary ‘A cardboard suitcase‘, as part of an initiative to preserve the memory and discover the history of this parish. The family has already changed the inscriptions on the tombstones from Spanish to Galician and this time they wanted to do something special, inspired by the Association of Officials for Linguistic Normalization of Galicia, which proposes using QRs with information in Galician about the deceased to remember names and experiences. Much better than a DEP When the grave is an interface As ironic as it may seem, this Pontevedra movement rhymes with many other actions carried out on the other side of the world. In Japan, the funeral company Ishi no Koe (literally “The voice of the stones”) has developed marble tombstones with embedded QRs that give access to websites with photos, videos, family testimonies and records of who visits the tomb and how many times said code has been scanned. These high-tech tombstones They are around $10,000. And the same with automated columbariums in china: In cities such as Shanghai, Shenyang or Fujian, cemeteries have been offering QR stickers on tombstones for years that, when scanned, show obituaries, photos, videos and music of the deceased, in the context of Grave Sweeping Day (Qingming) and a growing culture of “virtual mourning rooms“Well, and the candles are so automated that they light themselves at night. In Europe we can also find similar examples of this adaptation to the times. Denmark was one of the pioneers: In 2012, a tombstone company began offering porcelain plaques with QR codes for access to biographies within Roskilde Cemetery. The service cost about 100 euros and was sold as a way to preserve local stories and make the visit to the cemetery more interesting. I remember, in fact, on a visit to Berlin that its three Jewish cemeteries already had similar systems for being able to follow the sentences as if it were karaokeand even some masons were changing or repairing the codes for more robust plates. Although it is easy to consider it an experiment to understand digital grief. In the United Kingdom there are dozens of companies like Digital Gravestones or StoneCode Lite that sell packages of digital memorials. These include a website with photos, biography, timeline, cemetery location on Google Maps, condolence book and QR plate or weather-resistant NFC tag, with classic, minimalist or modern models and hosting from one to five years. There it is nothing. The truth is that an easy-to-read epitaph has an imprint that cannot replace a QR code. However, creatives such as historian Frederick Meza, designer of Memorial QR, consider that this is a more useful and practical form of documentation, archiving, and also to promote necrotourism and historical pedagogy of relevant figures: dignitaries, former mayors, artists and party founders, etc. Too much data for a place of mourning? Songs, poems and digital condolence books, this model also opens a debate: what about privacy? That anyone can scan and access that information may bother certain family members who prefer to preserve and reserve their past. However, the digitization of cemeteries has been unstoppable after the pandemic. In Spain, the cemeteries, with their cypress trees and flower crowns, are extremely quiet places where a certain decibel threshold is rarely violated. It is clear that QR codes are not just a gadget, but a way to expand the tomb from the name-date to the complete story, something very useful for anchoring biographies to local contexts, minority languages ​​or family genealogies that were previously lost in scattered papers. The parish of Cerponzóns has managed to manage its story through its blog, but the friction is still there: who decides what is told and who reads it? Or, more specifically: what happens when a public cemetery becomes an archive accessible to anyone curious, is it safe? It remains to be known how passwords are managed and what will become of technical continuity to verify whether great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren will truly know about their ancestors without entering broken links 50 years from now. Images | Unsplash (Brett Jordan, Waldemar Brandt), Tourism of the Council of Redondela In Xataka | Spain has more pets than children, so Malaga has inaugurated something inevitable: the first cemetery for dogs In Xataka | Burying a loved one is expensive. Some cemeteries are already beginning to offer an alternative: fertilizer for plants

In the 16th century someone decided that Da Vinci’s notebooks had to be dismembered. It took us 400 years to solve their mistake.

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Upon his death, in 1519, Leonardo da Vinci He left more than just paintings and frescoes that crown him as one of the great references of Renaissance painting. Just as (or even more) important to understanding the depth of his genius are his personal notebooks, full of notesillustrations, graphics… come from his own handwriting and sprinkled with his characteristic mirror writing. By chance of history, in the 16th century this bibliographical treasure suffered a ‘act of editorial vandalism’ that has conditioned the way we understand Leonardo. Until now. An unfortunate legacy. The name of Francesco Melzi Maybe it doesn’t tell you much. And it’s normal. Melzi was an Italian painter of the 16th century whose memory has been eclipsed for posterity by geniuses of the stature of Michelangelo, Raphael Sanzio and Leonardo Da Vinci, of whom he was a disciple. However, Melzi does stand out for something, a role that has conditioned our way of understanding the author of ‘La Mona Lisa’: upon Leonardo’s death, Melzi became his executor, responsible for looking after his manuscripts. That enormous legacy made up of hundreds and hundreds of manuscript sheets ended up in the hands of Pompeo Leoni (1533-1608), a sculptor from Arezzo, in Tuscany, who one day decided to dismember Leonardo’s notebooks. The result was disastrous, although to be honest Leoni’s objective was not to destroy the notebooks, but to ‘reorganize’ them following an arbitrary criterion. And what was the result? Basically Leoni dedicated himself to separating, classifying and putting together sheets of Leonardo’s notebooks and loose pages in a whimsical way. Based on what he considered best. The result was that many of the annotations that Da Vinci had recorded in the same set of manuscripts between the mid-1470s and his death in 1519 were divided into two different codices. In one, the largest, Leoni included all material (drawings and writings) of a technical or scientific nature. The second, smaller codex was reserved for material that in his opinion had an artistic and figurative character. From Italy to England. Leoni’s ‘attack’ did not end there. At the beginning of the 17th century his son-in-law, Polidoro Calchi, decided to get rid of the material he had inherited from the sculptor, which caused Da Vinci’s old notebooks to end up scattered around the world, separated by hundreds of kilometers. The first codex, that of technical annotations, today known as Codex Atlanticusended up in the hands of Count Galeazzo Arconati, who in turn donated it in 1637 to the Veneranda Biblioteca Ambrosiana. The second codex traveled even further. Around 1620 he ended up in England and half a century later was integrated in the Royal Collection at Windsor. Righted the wrong. More than four centuries later that capricious dismemberment of Da Vinci’s annotations has been amended at last. At least in part. A few days ago the Italian embassy in the United Kingdom, the Ministry of Culture and representatives of the Galileo Museum, the Veneranda Biblioteca Ambrosiana and the Royal Collection Trust presented in London a new tool named ‘Leonardotheka 2.0’. The name gives a clue to its approach: it is nothing more nor less than an immense ‘library’ digital of Da Vinci’s legacy, a resource that allows many of the manuscripts of the Renaissance genius to be consulted in an accessible and agile way. The Galileo Museum slide that from now on, whoever wishes will be able to explore the material by accessing the archives independently or with cross searches, in addition to “the results of more than 200 years of research” on Da Vinci’s career and work. 3,500 pages. Beyond that advantage, what is really important about Leonardotheka 2.0. is that, as remember The authorities of Florence have gathered around 3,500 manuscript pages by Leonardo that in some cases had been separated since the end of the 16th century. It is a virtual union, not a physical one, but it is still a milestone and helps to right the mistake made centuries ago by Pompeo Leoni. In total, the digital library brings together the 1,119 folios of the Codex Atlanticus and 550 pages from the Royal Collection of Windsor. Some sources specify that it is about one third of Da Vinci’s entire surviving legacy, which also includes the codices preserved in Madrid. Is it that important? Regardless of what it may mean for researchers, Leonardotheka 2.0 is important for several reasons. The main one is that it has allowed us, in words of the Galileo Museum, “reconstruct the original state of Leonardo’s manuscript legacy before Leoni’s disastrous intervention” in the 16th century. And that is not a minor detail. Although the separation between art and science might make sense to Leoni, the truth is that goes against of the Renaissance mentality that Leonardo embodied. “It offers a new perspective on his thinking, vision and working methods,” they underline from Florence. “The platform highlights the connection between scientific studies and the figurative drawings of the Tuscan genius.” Beyond Leonardo. “This project not only helps to recover the complexity of Leonardo’s work in its original form, but also contributes to the new interpretation, in development for several years, of this crucial period in European history. Using digital tools designed to analyze the original texts, Leonardotheka 2.0 will make this challenge possible,” highlights Michele Ciliberto, from the National Institute of Renaissance Studies. Filling gaps. The second reason why the project is so important is that it has allowed us to recover pieces that had been damaged when the notebooks were dismembered in the 16th century. To be more precise, those responsible for the Leonardotheka they assure who have been able to “reconstruct” 50 manuscripts “thanks to the insertion of fragments preserved in Windsor within the pages of Codex Atlanticus, restoring their original context.” One of the reconstructions carried out by the experts has made it possible to “reconcile” the drawing of a horse preserved in the British collection with a note on an equestrian monument preserved in the Codex Atlanticus. “The restored folio probably … Read more

NASA has a plan to solve one of the biggest mysteries in the cosmos and only one thing is missing: money

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Since the first confirmed discovery of an exoplanet in 1992, there have already been discovered more than 6,000 planets beyond the Solar System. Although there are many of them, and they have very specific characteristics, there is something that unites them all. Which can have a radius smaller or larger than 1.8 times the radius of the Earth, but never that. It is like a border that can be crossed or not, but that is never stepped on. The exoplanets that are below that limit are the super earths and those who are above subneptunes. It is not known what causes this gap, but there are two hypotheses. To confirm which of them is the good one, NASA has designed a mission. The problem is that he still hasn’t gotten funding for it. In search of young planets. The two hypotheses that exist about the origin of this gap are related to the origin of exoplanets. Therefore, the best way to unravel the mystery is to analyze young planets. The problem is that this is not easy. Of the 6,000 exoplanets that have been discovered to date, only 20 were younger than 50 million years. The objective of the Early eVolution Explorer (EVE) mission is to launch a ship loaded with probes specialized in detecting exoplanets around young stars. If the star is young, the planets around it must be young too, since the planet always forms after its star. Very different exoplanets. Super-Earths are rocky planets, with a radius less than 1.8 times that of Earth. They are closer to their star than the sub-Neptunes, which are also larger, with dimensions above the prohibited radius. On the other hand, sub-Neptunes have a less rocky, more spongy appearance. The first hypothesis. As we have anticipated, there are two hypotheses about the forbidden radius of exoplanets. The first points to the same origin. Supposedly, all exoplanets were born with a rocky core that dragged clouds of hydrogen and helium around it for millions of years. The difference between them would be that the super-Earths, being closer to their star, would receive more radiation, so the gas layer would end up being destroyed. The sub-Neptunes could preserve it, hence that spongy appearance. The second. As for the second hypothesis, it points to the possibility of planets clinging to water during their formation or not. Super-Earths are located between their star and what is known as the snow line. This is a line above which water can freeze. In this case, not only does it not freeze, but the water receives so much heat from its star that it ends up evaporating. If water is in the form of vapor, it cannot join the “pieces of the nascent planet.” That leaves them only made of dry rock. On the other hand, the sub-Neptunes are further from the snow line. Water can freeze, so it becomes bricks that can be incorporated into the planet in formation. It is bigger, because it not only has rock, it also has water. Furthermore, that water condensed around it gives it the cottony appearance that makes it different from a rocky planet. Artist’s concept of an aquatic world The handicap of young stars. We have already seen that to unravel the mystery of the forbidden radium we must study young planets. We have also understood that the best way to do this is to look around at young stars. The problem is that these have such intense activity that fluctuations in their brightness can occur. associated with flaresnot an exoplanet orbiting it. In short, many false positives can occur. Three sensors. To solve this problem, EVE would be equipped with three sensors. The first analyzes light in the near ultraviolet, the second in the visible light range and the third in the near infrared. The first is used to detect bursts from the star itself, since these emit great radiation at that frequency of the spectrum. Regarding the second, it is the type of light that is normally used to detect transiting planets, the most used tool for the detection of exoplanets. Finally, young stars emit a lot of light in the near infrared. For all this, if a peak is detected in the near ultraviolet we will know that it is due to the activity of the star itself. If we see fluctuations in visible light we will understand that there may be a planet orbiting the star; But, to be sure, we must compare the data with the light emitted at all times by the star itself. That’s what near infrared is for. The forbidden radio. By studying young exoplanets, we can know how their formation was and understand which of the two hypotheses is the good one. With this, in passing, we will understand why the radius of 1.8 radii of the Earth is prohibited. 30 star cluster fields, 30 days. The EVE project has been planned to analyze 30 fields of young star clusters for 30 days each. Thus, more than 20,000 young stars could be analyzed and, with them, possible exoplanets of recent formation could be found. At the moment, it cannot be done, because the project does not have financing, much less a launch date. But NASA has everything tied up. You just need that little push to unravel the mystery. Image| Superearth on the cover and aquatic world in the text. Credit: NASA In Xataka | Hubble made us believe that this exoplanet was impossible. James Webb just explained why we were wrong

We still don’t know how to cure blindness. So we’re going into space to try to solve it once and for all.

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We often wonder what space research is for. Is it worth investing huge amounts of money in exploring beyond our planet? Depending on who we talk to, they may give us a different answer, but if there is one thing that is clear, it is that part of the research that is done in space generates a return on Earth. For example, certain research conducted on the International Space Station (ISS) may help treat certain types of blindness on our planet. This research has been carried out over the last 10 years by the company LambdaVisionin collaboration with the commercial service provider of the ISS National Laboratory Tango Space. Basically, this company is dedicated to manufacturing artificial retinas to help restore vision to people with age-related macular degeneration or retinitis pigmentosa. The manufacture of artificial retinas is not new. It is something that has been investigated on Earth for some time, but there are some handicaps in the process that are resolved quite well in space. All advantages. In the last 9 years have been carried out 10 research missions to the ISS aimed at perfecting the development of artificial retinas in microgravity. In this time, they have managed to improve uniformity, optical performance and reproducibility. In addition, less material is needed, which is not only advantageous in economic terms. It also improves the biocompatibility of the final product. A microbial solution. Both age-related macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa cause vision problems due to loss of photoreceptor cells in the retina. Under normal conditions, these cells are responsible for capturing the light that reaches the eye and converting it into electrical signals that are sent through the optic nerve to the brain, where they are interpreted and transformed into what we see. If they are damaged, signals are not sent correctly and vision is obscured or impeded. For this reason, research has been carried out for some time with bacteriorhodopsin, a protein used by some extremist bacteria to obtain energy from light. In a way, it is similar to what happens in the retina. Light is transformed into energy, which can be used to send signals to the brain. Therefore, artificial retinas can be made using this protein. Layers and more layers. Briefly, artificial retinas are made up of hundreds of layers of bacteriorhodopsin, arranged on top of each other. Although in reality the process is somewhat more complex. Typically, a substrate is used that is placed in a beaker in which bacteriorhodopsin, a polycationic polymer that helps assemble the layers on the substrate, and a washing solution are deposited. Thus, the layers that give rise to the definitive retina are arranged. The problem of gravity. Just as when you put sugar in coffee it goes to the bottom of the cup if we don’t stir it constantly, the same thing happens in the beaker. The denser molecules sink to the bottom. On the other hand, precisely because of this difference in densities, convection currents are created that cause an uneven coating. In short, the layers do not remain the same. This could affect vision, as the light is not distributed equally and the resulting signals are not uniform. Images would be generated, but they would be distorted. To prevent this from happening, the area in which the layers are most homogeneous is cut and the rest is discarded. This represents a huge waste of material and, at the same time, great difficulty in scaling the process so that it is profitable to carry it out in large quantities. CubeLab Content The solution is in space. All problems that lead to heterogeneous layer distribution are due to gravity. If we do not have that downward attraction, the sugar would not settle to the bottom of the cup. For this reason, LambdaVision partnered 4 years ago with Space Tango to use its CubeLab, a compact experimental module in which experiments can be carried out in an automated manner. To manufacture artificial retinas, instead of doing the substrate and beaker procedure, a bag with liquid and a chamber with the substrate are used, so that the solution is pumped into the chamber alternately. All advantages. In addition to the advantages that we have already seenranging from reproducibility to increased optical performance, this process has more benefits. To begin with, it is carried out automatically. Once it is launched, it does not require the intervention of any astronaut. In fact, if there is a problem, the process stops and a notice is sent to Earth, from where solutions can be searched and executed remotely. On the other hand, all the material and machinery are very compacted. The payload involved within the ISS is minimal, so many retinas can be obtained with a minimal footprint. And now what? By the end of this year, LambdaVision wants to launch a new mission, in which it is expected to look for ways to increase production volume and optimize processes. Thus, if all goes well, they will be able to begin preclinical trials by the end of 2027 or beginning of 2028. There is still a long way to go before these artificial retinas can be used to treat blindnessbut the investigation is going from strength to strength. Of course, there is research in space that is most useful here on Earth. Image |Magnific | Tango Space In Xataka | Hundreds of blind people received bionic implants to restore their sight. Now they are out of support

Researchers solve a problem that has been stuck for decades

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A team from Monash University in Australia has developed an ultrathin membrane able to operate hydrogen fuel cells at 250 °C and, most surprisingly, without the need for water. This is a wall in which technology has been crossing for a long time and the discovery has been published in the journal Science Advances. Below these lines we tell you all the details. Why is it important. Hydrogen cells are one of the great promises to decarbonize transportation, heavy industry and sectors where batteries fall short. They only emit water and heat, they recharge quickly and offer autonomy comparable to gasoline. The problem is that current membranes, such as those based on Nafion (a synthetic resin), they need to be permanently hydrated so that the protons can circulate. And that forces us to operate below 80-100 °C, because at higher temperatures the water evaporates and the entire system collapses. In detail. The team, led by researchers Huanting Wang and Kaiqiang He, has built atomic-thick nanosheets made of graphene and boron nitride. Between those layers they have introduced phosphoric acid in a state that researchers call nanoconfined, where the acid is trapped in tiny spaces from which it cannot escape or evaporate, even at 250 ° C. The result It is a membrane of just 50 micrometers, named GBP, that acts as a dry highway through which protons move at high speed without depending on a single drop of water. How it works. Wang, professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Monash, account that “by combining proton-conducting nanosheets with nanoconfined phosphoric acid, we have developed a membrane that maintains rapid proton transport without water.” The trick is in a mechanism that the authors define as synergistic, in which protons directly pass through the hexagonal rings of graphene and boron nitride and, at the same time, jump along the network of hydrogen bonds that forms the acid confined between layers. On the other hand, He adds that this combination is what gives the membrane high conductivity and stability in dry and high temperature conditions. The figures. In laboratory tests GBP achieved a proton conductivity of 166 mS cm⁻¹ at 250 °C and a power density of 1,011 mW cm⁻² in a hydrogen-oxygen stack, well above industry reference membranes. In addition, the team kept it running for 150 hours straight at that temperature without signs of degradation. Between the lines. Working at 250°C is a game-changer on several fronts. One: The water management and humidification systems are eliminated, which in current hydrogen cars are heavy, bulky and expensive. Two: at that temperature the platinum catalyst tolerates impurities better such as carbon monoxide, which opens the door to using less pure hydrogen and, therefore, cheaper to produce. Three– Cooling the system becomes much easier, allowing for smaller radiators and lighter vehicles. Beyond the car. Although we usually focus on the hydrogen cars When we talk about this type of technology, the truth is that the potential applications go much further. GBP was also tested in direct methanol cells and performed at 502 mW cm⁻² with 16 M concentrated methanol at 250 °C. This suggests that it could be used for portable systems where hydrogen is difficult to store. In addition, the authors point to uses in data centersplanes, trains, factories and hospitals as energy backup, and other electrochemical processes such as the separation of water molecules, the reduction of carbon dioxide or the synthesis of ammonia. And now what. The next step is the usual one. And when a laboratory announces an advance like this, we have to wait until it ends up coming to fruition and its commercialization on an industrial scale is viable. If they succeed, the combination of cheaper batteries, less pure hydrogen and simpler systems could accelerate the arrival of this technology in sectors where electrification with batteries does not quite fit. Cover image | CARMAN and Monash University In Xataka | The world depends on gas to produce food. Paraguay believes it has the definitive solution thanks to the Itaipú dam

The US is using an exascale power supercomputer to solve the biggest challenge of nuclear fusion

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The Frontier supercomputer at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) linked to the US Department of Energy is one of the most powerful on the planet. In fact, it is currently the second most capable exascale supercomputer after El Capitan according to TOP500 ranking. These machines are very valuable tools that are already being used by researchers to try to solve some of the most complex scientific problems that humanity faces. And one of them is the behavior of plasma when it is under the influence of a magnetic field. A group of ORNL researchers is using two of the most powerful tools currently available to humans, the Frontier supercomputer and the artificial intelligence (AI), to understand with the greatest possible precision the chaotic behavior of the plasma of stars. An important note before moving forward: plasma is an extremely hot gas made up of particles endowed with an electrical charge, which is why it can be confined inside a magnetic field. This knowledge can presumably help scientists very accurately simulate the supernovaswhich are nothing more than the explosions that occur when a massive star loses hydrostatic balance by burning most of its fuel. When a supernova is triggered, a good part of the chemical elements that the star has produced through chemical reactions nuclear fusion It shoots towards the stellar medium with a lot of energy. From supernovae to experimental nuclear fusion reactors Dr. Eliu Huerta, a computational scientist at the Argonne National Laboratory (USA) who has had the opportunity to supervise the work of the ORNL researchers, express clearly why this scientific initiative is so important: “This type of capability has long been the dream of astrophysicists and many other scientists. This is the first time that this level of understanding has been achieved through AI for systems of this complexity (…) The more chaotic the system, the more difficult it is to simulate it.” Understanding very precisely how the plasma of stars behaves is important not only to have more information about supernovae; It is also crucial for predict solar flaresor even to simulate the interaction of the Earth’s magnetic field and the high-energy ionized atomic nuclei that constitute the cosmic radiation. Frontier’s role in this research is critical: it provides the computational power required to train the models needed to generate thousands of detailed plasma simulations. Inside nuclear fusion reactors it is still a challenge to keep turbulence under control However, there is another application in which this technology has the ability to make a difference: the development of nuclear fusion reactors. We can intuitively imagine a nuclear fusion reactor as a pressure cooker in which two essential ingredients are cooked: deuterium and tritium. In order for the nuclei of these two hydrogen isotopes to fuse and release the neutron that will ultimately allow us to obtain a large amount of energy, it is necessary to confine them in an extremely hot plasma. In fact, for this process to take place it must reach a temperature of at least 150 million degrees Celsius. Scientists know how to do it, so subjecting deuterium and tritium nuclei to the pressure and temperature necessary to make them fuse is no longer a problem. What still represents a challenge is to achieve keep turbulence under control. Otherwise the plasma will be destabilized, its density in critical regions will be affected and sustaining the fusion reaction over time will not be possible. The mechanisms that govern this process are very complex, but little by little physicists and engineers working on fusion energy are managing to understand them better. The research of ORNL scientists seeks to better understand the behavior of plasma confined inside the vacuum chamber of experimental nuclear fusion reactors with one purpose: to minimize turbulence so that energy loss is minimal. And they are on the right track. In fact, they already have a system ready that is capable of delivering very detailed turbulence predictions in just a few seconds, thus reducing errors by more than half compared to previous methods. Image | Fusion For Energy More information | ORNL | Interesting Engineering In Xataka | ITER has faced one of the great challenges of nuclear fusion: preventing plasma at 150 million ºC from destroying the reactor

Since we cannot solve the drought, we are creating plants that are 100% resistant to it.

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Five amino acids. For 450 million years, everything has depended on five amino acids. A team led by the Blas Cabrera Institute of Chemistry-Physics has managed to identify the ‘minimal molecular code’ that determines how plants perceive and respond to water stress. In fact, using crystallography and mutagenesis techniques, they have mapped the evolutionary history of that receptor. What’s more, they have shown that it can be rewritten. What is water stress? It is, in essence, something key for plants: the hormonal apparatus of plants uses abscisic acid to detect when they have to activate or not activate procedures to calibrate responses to water restrictions. We discovered how these receivers worked 19 years ago and, until now, we have not been able to obtain a commercial version that has benefited from this knowledge. This is what the IQF people want to solve. After all, 10,000 years of agricultural selection have radically improved plant productivity, but have left it highly exposed to drought. However, it is not that they have solved the problem. What they have achieved is, in reality, finding the grammar with which to rewrite the problem. The good news: The EU has just changed the rules. For years, European regulation has been very conservative when it comes to gene editing and, although it is true that The Regulation of New Genomic Techniques does not resolve the problem, yes it is a big step forward. Although, of course, that doesn’t mean much: almost 20 years of work has failed miserably. Perhaps the only difference (besides what we are discovering) is that we are running out of time. Time? From the change in rainfall regime in the 80sSpain has experienced increasingly intense drought episodes. In these 40 years, we have experienced at least three very intense episodes. And the structural agrarian impact of all this is enormous: 13 million hectares are rainfed and we do not have water to reconvert them. In the end, sooner rather than later, we are going to need those plants. Image | Wolfgang Hasselmann In Xataka | Spain faces its greatest agricultural challenge of the century: converting 1,901,529 hectares of olive groves into irrigation before it is too late

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