Japan sent the wrong creature to eradicate the snakes of an island. The disaster was so great that it has taken half a century to solve it

Once again, desperate situations lead to extreme measures. Save a species Sometimes it implies “exterminating” another. We have seen it in South Africa and Your plan to annihilate miceeither Injecting radio -material material into rhinos hornscases of Wild cat huntor the plan for exterminate half a million owls. However, sometimes things do not come out as governments imagine. In Japan they know perfectly. The incident of 79. The story begins in 1979 on the Japanese island of Amami ōshima, located in Kagoshima Prefecture. That year, rediscover Amami’s rabbit (Pentalagus Furnessi), an endemic species and considered a “living fossil” due to its evolutionary seniority. Before the finding, it was thought that the rabbit was on the verge of extinction due to the loss of habitat and hunting. The discovery marked a before and after for the conservation of the species and highlighted the importance of protecting the natural environment of the island, home from many other unique species. An event that also underlined the need for higher conservation efforts in Amami ōshima, for example, trying to eradicate or control the population of snakes. A wrong “bomb”. Thus, within a few months, Japan launches a plan. Introduce about 30 mushrooms on the island With the intention of ending the population of snakes, specifically Habu (Trimeresurus flavoviridis), which represented a threat to local inhabitants. The idea, on paper, was a fissure plan: that mushrooms, which are natural snake predators, reduce the number of Habus and improve safety on the island at all levels. However, that project was far from infallible. The mushroom was not the ideal creature to eradicate snakes. In the first place, because they are active animals during the day, therefore, they could not catch the nightly hubs, who continued to inhabit the following decades without problem. What happened as a consequence had a huge ecological impact. A specimen of trimeresurus flavoviridis Depredation of endemic species. Thus, during the day, instead of focusing on the snakes, the mushrooms began to prey a wide range of native species, including several that had no natural enemies on the island until then. That seriously affected local fauna, especially endemic and endangered species, such as Amami’s same rabbit that had just announced happily months ago. Hundreds of thousands of mushrooms. The situation reached such a point, that the mushrooms, carried to eradicate a plague, had become even larger and more dangerous, one than reached around 10,000 copies At its maximum point over the year 2000. The truth is that Japan had already started a mushroom control project in 1993 that was expanding over time. As? About 30,000 traps were placed on the island to capture the animals and cameras with sensors to monitor them were installed. In addition, local residents formed the so -called Amami Mongoose Bustersa team specialized in the capture of mushrooms (they came to capture thousands). The end? In 2018 there was the last official capture of a megosta on the island. It happened in April, and since no creature has been captured for a long period of time, the panel of experts, which has the task of determining if the animal is eradicated from the island, estimated that the eradication rate It was between 98.8 and 99.8% In February of last year, reaching a preliminary conclusion that it is reasonable to say/think that mushrooms are eradicated from the island in current circumstances. Finally, on September 3, 2024, the Ministry of Environment of Japan declared The eradication of non -native mushrooms on the island of Amami-Oshima, declared a natural heritage of humanity by UNESCO. The statement was based on the opinion of the group of experts on scientific bases, taking into account that the capture of mushrooms has not been confirmed for more than six years since the last one in April 2018. A unique case. The Ministry itself did not hide the disaster that supposed the attempt to control snakes in 1979. In fact, and as the administration has announced, it is one of the largest cases in the world in which non -native mushrooms have been eradicated that had been established for so long. After the statement, the government explained that it will withdraw the traps that were placed on the island, although it will continue to watch with cameras to prevent a new group of these small creatures from between again. After all, if it took half a century to get them out of there, any contingency method is more than understandable. A version of this article is PUblicó in 2024 Image | Animalia, Tanaka Juuyoh, Patrick Randall In Xataka | We have just found a surprising remedy against Argentine ants pests: caffeine dose In Xataka | The mission impossible to control the invasive plague that is eating the European pine: biomolecules, piñones and citizen science

The hypothesis that the mystery can solve

In the confines of the solar system, more than 1.4 billion kilometers away, Orbit Titanthe Saturn’s biggest moon. A satellite with a dense and orange atmosphere with temperatures that are around -180 ºC, but despite this, it stands out for having clouds, rain, rivers, lakes and seas. Now we have on the table the first theories of how life would be forming there. A first solid theory. For years, Scientists have wondered if in this exotic environment life could arise. Now, A new study Published in the International Journal of Astrobiology proposes a detailed and plausible mechanism on how the first precursor structures of life or Protocamples in its icy methane lakes. The first ingredient of life. For life to begin, you need a border. Something that separates a chemical ‘inside’ from a chaotic ‘outside’. In the case of humans, that border is the cell membrane, A lipid bilayer that delimits the formation of vesicles. Something that according to scientific consensus is a key step and price to the appearance of life. The big question is whether something similar could happen in a place without liquid water like Titan. The answer, according to the authors of the study, is a resounding yes. A key molecule. To affirm something so categorically the most important thing are some Amphiphilic molecules. They are compounds with a polar head and a non -polar tail, like the lipids of our membranes. In this way, this structure allows self -assembly forming the membranes that give rise to vesicles. In Titan’s atmosphere, solar radiation and energy particles constantly bombard nitrogen and methane, creating a complex organic molecules soup. Among them are organic nitriles that have precisely this amphipatic nature and could act as the bricks of these original membranes in a non -polar environment such as liquid methane. A simple mechanism. The study not only posture that these membranes can exist, but also proposes a surprisingly simple and elegant mechanism for their formation, driven by the Titan climate itself. This process begins when the amphipatic compounds created in the atmosphere fall and accumulate on the surface of the methane lakes, forming a thin one -layer film, as if it were oil on the water. When methane rain drops hit the surface of the lake, it causes splashes. They throw aerosols or small secondary drops of the lake itself that fall into the lake itself. Upon contact, its wrapping of a layer merges with the movie of a layer of the side that was already present and what we were looking for is formed: the double layer membrane. In this way, a perfectly formed gallbladder is created that is dispersed in liquid methane, already these hypothetical titan vesicles have been called ‘D endosomas‘. Of unstable bubbles to primitive evolution. Initially, these vesicles would be only ‘kinetically stable’, that is, temporary. But this is where the process becomes even more fascinating, since the study posture that once these vesicles would begin to interact with other organic molecules dissolved in the lake. Those vesicles that by chance capture and integrate other amphiphils in their membrane that make them more stable, will survive more time. This would lead to a kind of natural selection at the molecular level: the most stable vesicles of vesicles would last and accumulate, while the least stable would get rid of. This competition and selection process could lead to a primitive form of evolution, where vesicles develop a “compositional memory” based on molecules that make them more robust. It is a gigantic step that could lead to increasingly complex and functional structures, authentic protocamples. How we will find them. All this is a brilliant hypothesis, but you have to check if it is true. The answer is in future space missions. One of the hopes is put In NASA’s great dragonfly missiona drone of the size of a car that will fly through the atmosphere of Titan from the mid -2030s to analyze different places of its surface. With advanced technology. The authors propose an ideal instrument to conduct this research: a laser device. Ideally, it would be Raman spectroscopy, A technique that analyzes the chemical composition of the molecules. Using metal nanoparticles to amplify the signal in a massive way, it could identify the exact nature of the amphipatics that form vesicles, even in very low concentrations. I should also have Combined light dispersion. A technique that allows you to point a laser to the liquid and measure how the light is dispersed, detect the presence of suspended particles, determine its size and, observing how they settle over time, differentiate the vesicles of dust or ice particles. History in astrobiology. If a mission like Dragonfly found these vesicles, it would be one of the most important discoveries in the history of astrobiology. I would not confirm the existence of life, but would demonstrate that the first steps towards complexity and order, the previous conditions for life (abiogenesis), can occur in the universe in radically different conditions to those of the earth. Images | Alessandro Ferrari In Xataka | In 1995, NASA began to drug spiders with amphetamines, marijuana and the most devastating: caffeine

Humanity has a serious problem with antibiotics. A Spanish researcher has used AI to solve it

Artificial intelligence has opened a chest that had been closed almost 4,000 million years. Inside there was no gold, but something much more valuable: an arsenal of molecules capable of fighting superbacteria. This is the result of the team led by the Spanish biotechnologist César de la Fuente at the University of Pennsylvania, which has studied the genome of the arches, one of the oldest lineages of life on earth, to discover a family of antibiotics that has called archesasins. An invisible and increasingly strong enemy. WHO considers the resistance of antimicrobials (RAM) as One of the greatest threats to humanity. Only in 2019 almost 5 million deaths were associated worldwide Due to bacteria that cannot be eliminated with antibiotics because they have developed defenses against them. A threat that is increasing, and that forces us to look for new antibiotics to fight against them. The problem It is especially serious in vulnerable areas such as conflict environments or that have a very fragile health system where the misuse of antibiotics causes these ‘superbacteria’ to appear. And in Spain, something as simple as Take antibiotics to treat a virus or not finish the complete pattern prescribed can also contribute to this serious problem. Archaeas: Extreme rescue survivors. The Archaeas They are unicellular microorganisms that are really ‘strong’. They are evolutionary premiums of bacteria, but form their own life domain, together with bacteria and eukaryotes (the group where we find the cells we have in our body or in plants). They were born in the primitive earth, a hostile environment that forced them to adapt to live in conditions that would kill most living beings, with temperatures greater than 80 degrees, extreme acidity or the great pressures that were in the oceanic funds. Its resistance is our great advantage. Precisely seeing that these bacteria could survive the most inhospitable places, he gave rise to the research team to search among their defense mechanisms. And it was the key. César de la Fuente himself He explains it Thus to El País: Since the discovery of penicillin, the search for new antibiotics has been practically focused exclusively on bacteria and fungi. With our work, this paradigm changes because we find antibiotics in a domain of virtually unexplored life. An AI to look for molecular treasures. To be able to search among the more than 20,000 species of different arches, the team had to develop an AI with ‘Apexoracle‘To be able to find what they were looking for. And he did. The AI identified 90 candidate compounds that gathered the criteria they were looking for and of these, 93% were those that showed antimicrobial properties. In this way, a lot of time were saved. Archaeasins: The new artillery against superbacteria. Among the discovered compounds, one of them was the archeanine-73. This has demonstrated in models In vivo That has a power comparable to polymixin B, an antibiotic that is on the last step of antibiotic therapy when literally used as a last resort in a superbacteria. And here the future opens up to a new batch of antibiotics that allow us to continue surviving ultra -vertrassing bacteria. It is not the only way, but it is a revolutionary. This strategy of combining computational power with biology is a field in full boiling. We are seeing it with ia that are used to detect pancreatic cancer early, predict breast cancer either be a general help for any radiologist. And in the field of research, they also continue to support even to know why a superbacterial did not respond to a treatment. Images | Danilo.Alvesd Myriam Zilles In Xataka | Some engineers have simulated 500 million years of evolution with an AI. Now we have a fluorescent protein

O Solve these four big problems as soon as possible or Intel will be condemned to a very dark future

“I think it is too late for us (to achieve the position of Nvidia in the field of artificial intelligence), Although we have other opportunities in this market (…) twenty or thirty years ago we were leaders. Now the world has changed. We are not among the ten main semiconductor companies. We have to be humble. ” These words of Lip-Bu Tanthe general director of Intel, are aimed at the company’s employees in a clear attempt to expose what challenges they face. The challenges with Those who are dealing Intel They exceed the other challenges that he has faced during his more than half a century of history. The leadership that has sustained for decades in the manufacturing industry of integrated circuits is in the hands of The Taiwanese company TSMC Since the mid -2000s. In addition, the stagnation during the last years of the PC market and the slowness with which Intel has participated in the AI industry have placed it in a very compromised position. It is necessary to compete from you to compete again with AMD. Intel and AMD compete on several fronts. Three of the most important are the processors for servers and work stations, the GPUs for artificial intelligence and the CPUs for PC. The company led by Lisa supports a very solid position in these three market segments, and if we stick to CPU for PC enthusiasts During the last generations it has been very successful among users. In fact, to us your chips Ryzen 7000 and 9000 We love. In this Intel scenario you have no choice but to fight from you with AMD and recover a technological leadership that lost a long time ago. His future is in the hands of lithography 18a. Intel’s short -term competitiveness is closely linked to the success of a single semiconductor manufacturing technology: 18A photolithography. Ben Sell, Vice President of Intel Technology Development, confirmed At the end of last September that the 18A node already has the maturity necessary to enter large -scale production in 2025. and also assured that it will benefit from the resources that have been reallocated since the 20A node. In the current scenario the 18A node will be the true protagonist. That is not the slightest doubt. The 18A node already has the necessary maturity to enter large -scale production in 2025 The internal division should be left behind. The possibility that the Board of Directors of Intel decides to split the chips manufacturing subsidiary of the company’s matrix and put it in the hands of another company has triggered a deep internal division in the company. Joseph Bonetti, main manager of Intel engineering programs, expresses it in this way: “Intel leaders, Board of Directors of Intel and Donald Trump administration, please do not sell or give the control of Intel Foundry to TSMC just when Intel is taking the technological front and starting to take off. It would be a terrible and demoralizing error.” Bonetti also maintains that Intel is not lagging for its competitors, and that the advances that their engineers are achieving in the field of chips production are very important. Lip-Bu must recover government confidence. Lip-bu Tan, the general director of Intel, is in a very compromised position. Before arriving at the company that Cadence Design Systems currently led, an American company specialized in the development of software and hardware tools to design and verify integrated circuits. The problem is that just a month ago, in July, the US Department of Justice condemned her to pay a fine of more than 140 million dollars for selling commercial secrets to China. According to this US institutionCadence Design Systems delivered this critical information to the National University of Defense Technology, a Chinese teaching and research center that is supervised by the Chinese army. Lip Bu-Tan Intel leads since March 2025but there is a crucial fact that we should not overlook: although this conflict has taken it out of Cadence Design Systems directed this company between 2009 and 2021. And this was the period in which According to the US Department of Justice There were export control violations by which this company has recently been convicted. Image | Intel In Xataka | Intel has confirmed that the 20A node will be skipped to reduce expenses. The 18A node will enter production in 2025

The Line goes regular, so Saudi Arabia has asked some consultants to solve the obvious: if it makes sense

When years ago The heir prince Mohammed Bin Salman presented the plans of The Linethe gigantic Pharaonic glazed city that Saudi Arabia wants to build in full desert, the idea sounded for science fiction. And it’s normal. Not every day a megalopolis of 170 km long, 200 m wide and huge skyscraper, all thought to welcome millions of people without roads or cars. Over time His works started And the project advanced slowly, between huge exiles and foundations concrete. Now its promoters have done Something peculiar: Ask several consultants for help to confirm whether the initial plans are viable or should adjust them. What happened? That Saudi Arabia wants to review its most pharaonic, surreal and delicate project: The Linethe gigantic “corridor city” of 170 kilometers and 500 meters high and 200 m wide that the country wants to lift in the desert. Although every so often its promoters They presume the advance of the works, Bloomberg He has just revealed that the Saudi authorities have commissioned several consulting companies to carry out a strategic review of the project. What have you asked? That value if the current plans are feasible and suggest possible changes. This is at least supported by Bloomberg, which quotes anonymous sources close to the project. They have not transcended more details or the consultants to which the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund has been directed (PIF), But the decision is interesting both for its background and for the context. Once you have the data, those responsible for the project must assess the information and choose: Do you need to apply changes? Can you follow the work without adjustments? Bloomberg clarifies that the plan could be kept as it is and that, if remembering, any change would demand the OK of the PIF and the Saudi executive himself. And what do promoters say? The Line is part of an even greater project, Neomwhich seeks to diversify the economy of the nation and includes other initiatives, such as Magna, Oxagon, Sindalah and Trojenaalthough The Line It is the most ambitious of all. Those responsible have removed iron on the fact that the PIF has taken advantage of external consultants and ensure that it is a normal procedure. “As usual in large plurianual projects, strategic reviews are a common practice and are carried out several times during a large development project or infrastructure program,” claims Neom. “The Line remains a strategic priority and Neom focuses on maintaining operational continuity, improving efficiency and accelerating progress to meet the vision and general objectives of the project.” Why does the context import? Because, like Remember the agencythe country dealt with the price drop of oil, a minor foreign investment than the foresee and budgetary deficits. Bloomberg Precise That to balance its budget Saudi Arabia needs Brent barrel to be 96 dollars, a figure that rises to 113 if the internal expense of the FIP is included in the projects of the heir prince. Both values are above around $ 71 current. Are you lowering your expectations? The news of the project review comes only a few months after the Saudi authorities Sale your expectations On the development of The Line. At least as regards the calendar. The initial objective was that in 2030 the Megaciudad welcomed 1.5 million residents, but now the promoters estimate that there will be only 300,000, according to Another filtration Published in April by Bloomberg. The size of the city in 2030 will also be far from the target of 170 kilometers. The finished surface would be just 2.4 km. Some sources They point out that the total cost of Neom, including The Line and other initiatives, would amount to about 1.5 billion dollars. Is it standing? Although their promoters have had to reduce initial optimism and want to escape other voices about planning, something seems clear: The Line will not stay in an ambitious model and a handful of colorful infographics. Although there is still work ahead, the works They have been advancing On the ground, something that Saudi Arabia has been responsible for making it clear Sharing From time to time images of excavators, operators and land movements. Three months ago Giles Pendleton, operations director, public On LinkedIn a series of Aerial photos in which the progress of what several Neom projects seems, including infrastructure of the future corridor city of 170 km. “Neom is real,” defends the manager. On the same dates the embassy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in Spain also disclosed images Of the works in one of the tunnels that will circulate trains and load between The Line and Oxagon. Images | Neom In Xataka | Saudi Arabia has insisted that The Line possesses all the absurd records of the world. The last: the longest pool

Tiktok and Instagram have become an immense compilation of stolen videos. And they have no idea how to solve it

Open Tiktok (or your trusted short videos platform) and the following appears: a clip extracted from a podcast uploaded by random account @user97567, a video to a split screen with a talk up and Parkour in Minecraft below and a compilation of cat videos that upload @funnycatslolhaha. What do all these clips have in common? That none is proper. All that content It has been stolen to its original creators And the problem is that no platform seems to know how to solve it. Context. When you go up to the Internet, controlling its distribution is extremely complicated. In the same way that no one can prevent you from copying and hitting this text on a blog, preventing someone from downloading A YouTube video, A Tiktok, A reela content in general, it is not an easy thing. On many occasions the platform itself allows and, if not, it is possible to resort to third -party tools that sometimes can even remove the water brand. 21 Instagram tricks – Tutorial with all secrets! So that. Profiles that rectify content of other users do not do so for love of art. They do it with two possible objectives: monetize the account using dedicated platform funds or inflate the figures to sell them. Surely names Babronazi o PostureoEspañol make the bell sound. It is also possible that it is a fans account, in which case the reason may be more innocent. Be that as it may, these accounts are promoted based on stealing content from other users and republicing it after a slight modification (if any). The typical “for you”: Memes accounts, cat videos and accounts with zero units of own content | Captures: Xataka In fact, there are profiles and courses specialized in what is normally known as “network automation”. Roughlythis system consists of combining AI tools, videos of other creators and fast editing templates to generate a huge volume of videos and monetize the account. It is one of those practices to “generate passive income“, among quotes, how strong they usually hit in a certain segment of the population. The reality, however, is much more complex. Solutions. Few, unfortunately. Some users have found to embed a water mark within the video itself a way that, if any discharge tool can eliminate what generates the platform, that remains. However, the reality is that social platforms have failed to stop the distribution of original content by third parties. Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Tiktok are full of that content. The algorithm mixes it with the original content and serves it to users, which consume it. To all purposes, the platform is gaining because its objective (increase retention) is achieved. The creator, although it can be relatively benefited in terms of exposure, loses the gain that, potentially, could have had his profile of having published said content. Image | Xataka What are platforms doing. Given this situation, some platforms have tried to take measures with greater or lesser success. YouTube has it well tied. Although it is possible to continue up and monetizing “reused content”, that is, the typical video reacting to the new song of X or the video of another creator, the platform does not allow monetizing what it considers “non -authentic content” (mass made videos) or clips extracted from a podcast that is not yours. This applies to both long videos and shorts. Instagram allows Upstate third parties and does not hit. Now, if you detect that someone has uploaded a video of another person, you will automatically add an “original content of” content and link it to your profile. Politics, however, is … complex. The material edited materially, see “a person appears in a superimposed video and adds new information, such as comments”, is allowed and distributed as normally. Facebook has been more permissive (to the point of allowing direct monetization of videos with non -original content), so far. THE META PLATFORM has announced which will adopt in its reels a policy similar to that of Instagram. However, there are no mechanisms to prevent a reused content page. Tiktok It has some guides That, on paper, they exclude from ‘for you’ the “reproduced or non -original content that does not incorporate new or creative changes.” The reality, however, is that it is enough to add subtitles or make some edition for the video to be distributed as normally. Another issue is intellectual property. This is a swampy terrain and the platforms usually cover their backs in their policies prohibiting it, directly. When we upload a video to Tiktok or Instagram we grant a global license so that this video is exploited, but the rights of said video remain ours. We could, in theory, put a copy of Copyright to all the accounts that we see to use our content, but that is an intense job and, speaking in silver, putting doors to the field. We can find the same in other sectors. For example, models uploaded to 3D printing repositories are, unless it is marked, for personal use. That a Makerworld model is downloaded has no commercial license to exploit it in your Etsy store. However, this a practice known and persecuted by the community, but against which it is difficult to fight. In summary. The accounts that use third parties will not disappear and combat this practice does not seem easy. That is a full -fledged paradox, since the platforms encourage users to raise original content, but at the same time they do not protect it completely. And not only that, but the user does not care in excess because, after all, they go to these platforms to entertain themselves. It is indifferent if that entertainment comes from the most worked video in the world, a compilation of funny babies, the Senimous Iteration of Tung Tung Tung Sahur or a video of a boy dancing on a kayak. Cover image | Xataka

Now they invite us to solve crimes

For a long time, the books of hobbies They have been considered a summer and inconsequential entertainment, even with a stale point. But we live renewed times for exercise notebooks: now not only do self -defined and letters of letters is well seen. The last tendency to enrich the tight section of the hobbies is in the crimes puzzles. The ‘Murdle’ phenomenon. Behind this current is’Murdle‘, some notebooks with ingenuity puzzles that combine the deductive logic of the classic police enigmas with the immediacy of contemporary online hobbies. Its creator, GT Karber, was inspired by the black novel and game mechanics like ‘Wordle‘, the already massive online game of guessing words and to which indisimulantly refers to the title, but adding a narrative and mystery layer. How ‘Murdle’ works. The main objective of each puzzle of the book is to solve a murder answering four key questions: who committed the crime, how, where and why. The player receives a series of tracks that must be analyzed and everything is resolved logically. The elements that have given him fame are, apart from that there are all difficulties and, therefore, adapted to all types of audiences, a certain touch of humor and the narrative component of which more abstract puzzles lack. The result: three million copies sold in 30 countries and the creation of a franchise of which versions adapted for different countries are published. In Spain there are already three volumes of the series, plus a youth version. More crimes. ‘Murdle’ are not the only books that use crimes as an excuse to propose puzzles and ingenuity games. There are imitators (the planet herself, editor of ‘Murdle’ in Spain, launches ‘Can you solve this murder?’, A ‘Choose your own adventure’ in a police code), but the series ‘Illustrated Crimes’by Modesto García. In each book of the series, twelve independent cases are presented that the reader must solve analyzing illustrations of crime scenes, visual clues and hidden details. It is even more narrative than ‘Murdle’, although not linear, and there is an element of deduction based on concrete elements of the drawings that lose the abstract point, more of a traditional puzzle, which has ‘Murdle’. A very specific thing does have in common ‘Illustrated crimes’ and ‘Murrdle’: their birth in networks. The project was born during the confinement of 2020, when Garcia, together with the illustrator Javi de Castro, began publishing these interactive criminal deduction challenges on his Twitter profile that he later adapted to the printed format. The hobbies are the most. The Digital disconnection search And of intellectual challenges that go beyond what the screens offer the screens have marked the proliferation of this new hobbies of hobbies, although we have to look for a concrete guilty, there are very clear names: Blackie Books and its collection of ‘Notebooks‘Of hobbies, created by Daniel López Valle and Cristóbal Fortúnez. Each annual volume since 2012) collects 150 tests of ingenuity, attention, memory and cultural knowledge bathed in pop humor. Success led Blackie herself to launch similar notebooks outside the summer, oriented to children’s public, sometimes thematic, and editorials such as Larousse, Editions B, Anaya, Blume or SM have launched multiple imitators and notebooks inspired by Blackie’s originals. And within this trend, of course, lies the success of ‘Murdle’. We like crimes. The perfect storm that ‘Murdle’ has converted and derived from a success is the current fever that we live in the True Crime: Massive series of genre audiences worldwide and the impact of the Internet and social networks, which make spectators in amateur detectives willing to discuss all the details of the cases have been the breeding ground for ‘Murdle’. Yes, of course, we have ‘clued’ since the forties, but ‘Murdle’ would be unthinkable if we do not see us all a bit like the researchers capable of unraveling the details of ‘The Asunta case’ only pulling Wikipedia. Good times for “advisory detectives”, as Sherlock Holmes defined himself. Header | Planet In Xataka | 16 free hobbies apps: letters of letters, self -defined, sudokus and more games

Mathematicians have been trying to solve the mystery of Da Vinci’s ‘vitruvio’. The answer was in sight

The history of art is full of universal icons, but few, very few, reach the popularity level of the ‘Vitruvio man’ drawn around 1490 by Leonardo da Vinci. And it is logical. Artistic and scientific issues apart, the work has become a reference Pop. The original is preserved in the Accademia di Belle Arti Venice, but the same face, the same body, has stamped over the last decades in books, t -shirts, sweatshirts, backpacks and posters. That without counting every time we have seen it reproduced on the big screen. The most curious thing is that despite that exhibition, the ‘man of vitruvio’ is still surrounded by mysteries. Or so it was until now, at least. A London dentist believes having solved the complex mathematical puzzle that Leonardo hidden in the work. A name: Marcus Vitruvius. Leonardo da Vinci’s is (by far) the most famous, but the Tuscan genius was not the only one in representing the man of vitruvio. We keep more or less similar samples from other artists, such as Francesco Di Giorgio Martini either Giacomo Andrea de Ferrara. And it’s normal. After all, these are exercises based on the canon of the human body of Marcus Vitruvius (Exactly, hence his name), a Roman architect and engineer. It was he who many centuries before Leonardo theorized about human physiognomy in Of archiecture. “In the body, the central point is the navel. If a man placed himself on his back, with extended hands and feet and a compass focused on the nave The architect theorized Roman in the first century before our era, convinced that a man’s proportions can adjust to a square. But … how to do it? That is the theory. Different thing is practice. Throughout the different artists have launched themselves to represent human physiognomy partially inspired by the canon of proportions proposed by vitrubio. Not everyone with equal fortune. By 1490 Leonardo Da Vinci, who then was around 40, got down to work in one of his notebooks and prepared a drawing that during the last five centuries has fascinated scholars and profane. The work shows a man in several overlapping positions, standing, with extended legs and more or less open arms. All perfectly registered in a square and in a circle in an exercise that would probably have fascinated the Roman architect. We have recorded the result in memory and a quick search arrives on Google to find good quality reproductions, but there is a pending mystery: how the hell did Leonardo did? The great ask unknown. Yes, the result is obvious. And yes, the drawing is there for those who want to copy it in detail. But … what recipe Did Vinci continue to plan and execute it? What calculations did you use? Was it based on any pattern? And if so, what system did you employ? “The search for the Da Vinci geometric method has generated numerous theories, each of which tries to explain the measured relationship between the circle and the square in the original drawing,” Explain Rory Mac Sweeney, the British dentist who believes he has found the key. “For more than 500 years, the Da Vinci geometric system for the precise relationship between the circle and the square in his drawing of the ‘Vitruvio man’ has remained in the mystery,” Mac Sweeney abounds, which has just published An article reviewed by parts in Journal of Maythematics and Arts. What if the key is the golden proportion? His theory is just that, a theory, but it is interesting because it offers an alternative to the most popular explanation, which argues that to draw his drawing Da Vinci was inspired by the Aurea proportionan idea that reinforces the collaboration of the Tuscan with his compatriot Luca Paciolithe author of Of divine proportion. The problem, Remember Mac Sweeneyis that this explanation has not just been perfect. “It produces a significant error, which seems unlikely given Leonardo’s geometric precision.” Good riddle, bad explanation. Other authors have provided alternative explanations to the mystery of Vitruvio, such as Leonardo was based on octagons or a heptagon, but Mac Sweeney believes all these theories present “a fundamental problem”: they approach more or less the measures used by the artist in his diagram, but in the opinion of the British researcher it is difficult to connect them with the themes that really obsessed Da Vinci. “They are still purely abstract mathematical exercises, without connection with Leonardo da Vinci’s documented interest in human anatomy, natural functional and main relationships. As geometric riddles, they work. As explanations of Leonardo’s methodology and intentions, they do not offer a convincing justification of their specific decisions,” Reflect. Hidden “with the naked eye”. The most curious thing is that Mac Sweeney believes that the solution “has been hidden with the naked eye” in the handwritten annotations left by Leonardo himself next to the drawing. Specifically, it refers to a comment in which the artist points out that, with the body in a certain posture, the space between the legs forms an equilateral triangle. For a long time it was believed that this phrase was a simple poetic ornament, pure rhetoric or a practical guide for composition, but the British expert believes that it is the key to mystery. And what is special? That the triangle adjusts to a natural pattern, one that Mac Sweeney knows well for his dentist profession: Bonwill’s trianglean imaginary equilateral triangle of the human anatomy that marks the fundamental geometric relationship for the proper functioning of the jaw. “Connects the mandibular condyles with the midpoint of the lower central incisors and corresponds precisely to Leonardo’s explicit reference to an ‘equilateral triangle’ in its construction of the ‘vitruvio man’”, Clarify. “The construction of Leonardo demonstrates the same tetrahedral principles present in craniofacial architecture,” insists The British dentist before citing studies and calculations that reinforce its hypothesis. “The equilateral triangle, which Leonardo made explicit reference between the legs of the figure, when replicating six times around the navel, creates the … Read more

There are so many people growing marijuana in their homes that Endesa has a problem. And it will solve it with ia

In the industrial areas of many towns or cities, the constant buzzing of high pressure lamps illuminates hundreds of marijuana plants that grow to the rhythm of stolen electricity. It is a scenario that is repeated daily throughout Spain, where illegal cannabis cultivation and electric fraud They have woven a network of silent crime. Faced with this threat, Endesa has taken another step. Root cut. Endesa and the General Police Station of the National Police have signed a collaboration protocol to strengthen the fight against crimes that affect the electricity supply. From the massive electricity fraud to the theft of material, sabotages and even cyberators, as collects the press release. A more joint action. The protocol foresees, among other measures, joint training, information exchange, analytical reports, technical field advice. In addition, it contemplates the active participation of the Judicial Police in technical actions of Endesa and addresses associated crimes such as the manipulation of measuring equipment, the theft of personal data or scams to consumers by cybercriminals. A problem that does not stop growing. According to the European drug report 2025, Spain concentrate 73% Of all the seizures of marijuana in the EU, many of them in plantations Indoor connected fraudulently to the network. Only in the last year, the Endesa networks subsidiary, e-distribution, disconnected 2,214 illegal hooks related to crops, with a consumption equivalent to 70,000 homes. The data is replicated in different areas of the country. In Granada, like has detailed ABC Granada, between January and April of this year, Endesa has detected 246 illegal plantations, at the rate of two a day. In Córdoba, in the same period, 19 files have been opened, which is equivalent to one per week, According to the Córdoba Diario. In both cases, the excessive consumption – quoted to the up to 80 homes by plantation – saturates the network and causes collateral damage. The highest invoice. The impact goes far beyond the economic. These illegal connections cause constant overloads, with serious safety consequences. Last summer, 24 fires were recorded in the distribution network in Andalusia, five of them in Granada and four in Córdoba, directly linked to marijuana plantations, According to the Córdoba Diario. Technology at the service of prevention. To deal with this challenge, Endesa has opted for prevention. For years, predictive models based on artificial intelligence and Big Data have applied to detect suspicious patterns. Now, it has also begun to display smart sensors in its networks, capable of anticipating overloads before they occur. A battle without rest. Electric fraud linked to illegal marijuana culture not only challenges electricity, but also the coexistence model in many areas of the country. The answer is already underway, but the challenge – technical, police and social – has just begun. Image | Pexels Xataka | There are so many marijuana crops in Spain that they are causing problems to one of their great industries: electricity

Some neuroscientists believe they have found the trick to solve the most complicated problems: take a nap

Surely, on some occasion you have obcended to find the solution to a certain problem and, no matter how much you insist on finding a solution, nothing, there is no form. However, another day, Without coming to mindZas! A brilliant and creative solution appears before you as a revelation. Congratulations, that’s a “Eureka moment“ No one knows exactly what mechanisms in the brain activate that spontaneous creative lighting momentalthough a group of neuroscientists of the Institute of Psychology of the University of Hamburg, believe they have found a culprit: the light sleep or N2, which is mainly reached to take a nap. But a brief, we know each other. N2 dream and creative connections A group of neuroscientific has published A study in the scientific journal PLOS BIOLOGY which points to sleeping one (or several) light naps during the day can be the key to unlocking creativity and the ability to solve difficult problems. This discovery not only attracts attention for its simplicity, but also values ​​a practice as healthy as it is nap. The study results suggest that, far from being a loss of time, sleeping a few minutes can activate certain mechanisms involved in the Creation of neuronal connections and in the processing of abstract concepts. To reach these conclusions, scientists recruited 90 young and healthy volunteers. Each one was assigned a seemingly simple task, but they were not revealed that there was a trick to solve it more easily, so they had to discover it for themselves. After four rounds of trials, the volunteers were invited to Sleep a 20 -minute nap while monitoring their brain activity with an electroencephalogram. The results showed that all groups improved their performance after nap, but the difference was notable depending on the sleep phase is achieved. 85.7% of those who reached the N2 phase of the sleep, that is, a light sleep state, managed to discover the solution to the problem. Instead, only 63.6% of those who stayed in phase N1 (a more superficial sleep level) achieved it. Only 55.5% of those who remained awake found the trick to solve the task. “Sleep EEG data showed that sleep N2, but not the N1, increases the probability of having mental lucidity after a nap, suggesting a specific role in the deepest sleep. We find a beneficial effect of sleep N2 in the Probability of having a vision after the napwhich suggests the need for a deeper dream to have a vision, “says the researchers in the study. “What really struck me by sharing these findings with my environment, especially with creative people, was the great impact they had. Many identified with our results and personally experienced a great advance (creative) after a nap,” assured to Newsweek Anika Löwe, one of the study authors. Limitations and nuances of the study Although the data is promising, the authors themselves warn that the method used does not allow precisely to be completed if the benefit observed is exclusively due to entering a certain Sleep stateto the simple rest, or other mental factors that occur during the pause. However, as indicated in their investigation, the results obtained only delimit an increase in the chances of getting a time Eureka after reaching a N2 sleep phase, but recognize that they cannot determine exactly the reason why this spontaneous inspiration occurs. “In summary, our findings suggest a role of sleep N2 in facilitation of inspiration, but more work is needed to determine precise mechanisms and to distinguish the effects of the dream of other factors such as disconnection of the task or rest,” which implies that there are still open questions about the exact mechanisms that facilitate these moments Eureka. Get away from the problem to find the solution Rest, approach change or simple fact of “take distance“The problem could be playing such an important role Like the dream itself In itself. Therefore, although phase N2 seems to be associated with a greater number of chances of having a eureka moment, it cannot be ruled out that other elements, such as mental relaxation or temporal disconnection of the task, they are also decisive. In statements to Eldiario.esPablo Barrecheguren expert neuroscientific In sleep, it emphasizes that the candidates were exposed to the evidence under a lack of sleep of 30% during the previous night, so “in addition, when performing only very short naps, the work also does not give information about what is the effect of leaving the subjects to sleep longer naps until reaching the deepest states of sleep.” Beyond the technical details and doubts about the neuronal mechanisms involved, the main message is clear and applicable to everyday life: if you face a complex problem and You can’t find the exitit is best to change activity, take distance and, if possible, sleep a brief nap. “It is often informed that inspiration occurs during periods of rest or sleep, when the mind is disconnected from the problem in question,” so the moments Eureka usually appear in the shower, When you try the dishes Or while driving. These are times when the brain is not consciously focused on the problem and can activate its abstraction capacity. This idea is not new. Geniuses like Thomas Edison or Salvador Dalí They already practiced The creative nap to stimulate its ingenuity by promoting the appearance of these moments of revelation. Friedrich August Kekulé, said he had deciphered the secret of the benzene chain After waking up a nap. Now, science begins to demonstrate that, indeed, sleeping a light nap can be The definitive trick to solve the most difficult challenges. If it doesn’t work, then what you take. In Xataka | “Doing nothing” is a great technique to improve your productivity. Neuroscience is clear Image | Unspash (Mika Ruusunen, Adrian Swancar)

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