Apple admits under his breath that Liquid Glass transparencies do not allow notifications to be seen: iOS 26.1 will solve it

It has already been a month since Apple released the final version of iOS 26. The last major update promised “the biggest redesign in years” and debuted the Liquid Glass interface with that obsession with transparencies that we already saw that It didn’t do many favors for the readability of the icons and notifications. It wasn’t just our thing. The next iOS update will bring a new option to minimize the problem. The problem of transparencies We can argue if it looks good or not, but what cannot be denied is that the texts do not read well, or at least they read worse than before. It happens with the icons and, above all, with the notifications. For example, an image of the first beta of iOS 26: With dark backgrounds the problem is not so serious, but it is still less readable than if the background of the notifications were opaque. In its day we already told you a trick to return to having a more opaque designbut now the solution comes from Apple. The solution arrives with iOS 26.1 They tell it in 9to5Macwhere they have downloaded iOS 26.1 beta 4, which will be the next major system update. In it, there is a new option to adjust the interface design to make it more opaque. It is found in the Screen and Brightness menu and allows us Choose between a transparent or opaque look. Click on the image to go to the post in X. In the images you can see the difference between both options and how the entire appearance changes. According to Apple: “Choose your preferred look for Liquid Glass. Clear is more transparent and lets you see the content underneath. Tinting increases opacity and adds more contrast.” They don’t say there is a readability problem directly, but the simple fact that they release this option is a way to recognize the criticisms. Having more customization options is always good news. Yes indeed, Apple could have given us the option to choose the intensity between the two options. By applying one of the two, it will affect the entire system and also the apps that have implemented Liquid Glass. At the moment there is no confirmed release date for iOS 26.1, but taking into account that there are already four beta versions, it is expected to arrive very soon. According to 9to5Mac, that could be at the end of this week. In Xataka | iOS 26: 19 functions and some tricks to get the most out of the new operating system for your iPhone

Bill Gates has been a famous “workaholic” but he knew who to hire to solve problems: the lazy ones

Bill Gates is one of the most decisive figures in the evolution of technology of the last 40 years. Found one of the most innovative companies of his time can only be achieved through a lot of work. However, Bill Gates himself has stated that he can be a little lazy at times. The technology magnate has been away from the first line of command at Microsoft for some time, and he dedicates all his time and fortune to the philanthropic work carried out since foundation he created with his ex-wife Melinda Gates. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation invests in projects that encourage development, education and well-being of people in developing countries and at risk of social exclusion. One of his recent hobbies related to raising awareness about these socially conscious investments has been to create the Unconfused Me podcast in which he chats with personalities related to the scientific, teaching or business fields. In one of his last talks with San Khan (founder of Khan Academy) the magnate confessed that In his school days he was quite lazy. With an intelligence quotient (IQ) of 160, Bill Gates He has always had a knack for mathematics.. However, the millionaire himself confessed in his autobiographical book ‘Source code: My beginnings’he always tried to do as little as possible in class to pass the law of least effort. In eighth grade, his teacher reproached him for his attitude: “How can you be so lazy? You could be very good at this,” the teacher told him. “But we’re not doing anything interesting. I had this idea that the less effort you put in, the cooler you are.” Bill Gates states that, that teacher was crucial in his life since thanks to him his attitude towards learning changed since the teacher provided him with books and resources that encouraged his interest to continue moving forward and achieve a goal. Put a lazy person to solve a problem Bill Gates took his attitude towards effort to the extreme in the early years of Microsoft, when was able to remember car license plates that were parked in front of the Microsoft offices and relate them to their employees to know, at a glance through the window, which employees were still in the office and which had already gone home. In a so competitive scene As is the case with technological innovation, it is surprising to come across a phrase attributed to Bill Gates: “I will always choose a lazy person to do a difficult job because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it.” However, in it we can see represented the Bill Gates lazy and unmotivated in his school years. In reality, it’s not that Bill Gates is excited about being surrounded by sloths, but rather the meaning of his statement aligns with what he learned from his eighth grade teacher: the important thing is to have a clear objective. If your goal is not to overwork, then you will find a way to get the job done as easily as possible. The motivation to do something has been so important in Bill Gates’ career that even people around him have used it as a tool to prevent the technology magnate from neglecting his duties at the helm of Microsoft. In Xataka | Bill Gates was so obsessed with driving a Porsche 959 that he managed to change the laws that prevented him from doing so Image | Flickr

What kind of lights can interfere with the signal, and how to solve it

Let’s tell you How the lamps can interfere with the wifi of your home, because when you have problems It will not always be the router’s fault. The WIFI of your home can have problems, either because of its location or by The interference of the neighborssometimes you can give problems, and tricks to expand the Wi -Fi signal wave 30 centimeters rule They are not always enough. That is why we are going to tell you why a lamp or bulb can hinder the signal of your wifi, and What types of lighting They are the ones that cause these failures. Thus, you can have a list of usual suspects. Then, we will tell you some tips to prevent these interference from being given. What lamps hinder the wifi There are lighting systems that emit electromagnetic radiation. Not all, but when they do it happens at certain frequencies, and these can interfere with the Wifi signals affecting the quality of the connection. This happens with several specific types of lighting, which are the following: Compact fluorescent lights or CFL: They emit microwave ranges radiation, causing interference in the Wi -Fi signal. Especially when they are near the router or the device that the signal receives. Tube fluorescent: Those lights such as offices or shopping centers, which can also be in domestic kitchens. Its marketing has been prohibited, but if you still have one, they also generate interference due to their electromagnetic radiation. Low quality LED: Although good quality LED lights do not usually give problems, when the quality is low they can emit electromagnetic interference that affects the WiFi. It can also happen with good, but it is not so common, hence it is worth investing in recognized brands. Halogen lamps: They are already unusual, but they can also generate electromagnetic interference. Lamps and lights with metal structures: As with the walls of the walls, this metal can cause signal interference when they are close to the router. What can you do to solve it We have already told you the types of bulbs and lighting that can cause interference in your home. However, There are methods to reduce interference caused by them following some tips. First of all, Place the router away from the light sourcesespecially if they are halogen, fluorescent lamps, or any of the types of bulb or lighting that we have told you above. Whenever possible is recommended Use the 5 GHz band In your Wi -Fi router when it is compatible, or also in your mobiles. Sometimes you can choose between that or 2.4 GHz because your router generates two wifis. This 5 GHz SFNO band less susceptible to interference. In the event that you think the lights are affecting you and you cannot make changes in the router position or the receptors, you can use signal repeaters, Mesh networkssome PLC or wifi repeater and similar. In Xataka Basics | How to amplify the wifi signal: guide with all the ways you have to do

Incinerators are growing both in Europe that they are becoming a problem. The bad news is that we do not know how to solve it

“Every year We produce 2,000 million tons. They are everywhere, but since it is something disgusting, we do not think about it. “Oliver Franklin-Wallis, author of the excellent ‘said it.Dump‘(Captain Swing, 2025) and is right. What happens is that in Europe they forced us to think about it. And China did. In 2018, China left half the world game and He got fed up being the landfill in developed countries. This may surprise many, under the great speeches of ‘green revolution’ and care of the environment, what there was basically to pack up everything we generated and send it to China. Until, as I say, Beijing said ‘Enough’. And it wasn’t a joke. During 2019, The importation of plastics of the Asian country fell 99%those of paper 30% and those of aluminum and glass around 20%. Only if we take into account that 95% of European plastics and 70% of Americans end up there, we can understand The magnitude of the problem. We look for the exit, of course. During the following years, millions of tons of garbage They redirected the Gulf of Guinea, to the Southeast Asia And basically a Any site that was arranged To accept them. But we all knew that the problem was structural: for decades we have been dismantling the continental recycling system. That is, we had no capabilities to assume it. And, although the European Commission has considered various plans (from promoting the creation of recycling plants throughout the continent to “generate jobs and take care of their own waste” to ‘convince’ the market with taxes that they penalize the products created with new plastics), the truth is that only garbage was buried or burned. In fact, today, we burn “60 million tons of municipal waste.” And that worries many. So much that, in recent days, more than 150 organizations They have asked To the European Union “a moratorium throughout the EU On the new waste incinerators (R1 and D10), together with gradual reduction strategies of the existing incineration capacity and an increase in investment in circular economy infrastructure, such as reuse systems, composting and recycling technologies. “ It is not a coincidence. Everyone who is up to date with the problem knows that, without pressures, the expansion of incineration will grow. And that will have climatic consequences (according to the latest studies It generates more carbon than fossil fuels), but also toilets. The question is if we have an alternative. And, honestly, it is not clear. Europe is increasingly cornered And what seemed before us impossible responses begin to become reasonable exits. “Incinerate as if there was no tomorrow” begins to be in that category of things. Stop it will be complicated. Image | Jonathan Kemper | The Blowup In Xataka | We have been recycling the garbage we produce. Experts say it has not served at all

Canopo’s decree is one of the greatest mysteries to solve the ancient Egypt. And finally we have a key track to understand it

Egyptologists and especially those scholars dedicated to the study of hieroglyphs and The Ptolemaic dynasty They are in luck. And rightly. A team of archaeologists has located in the site of Tell el-Faran´inin the city of The Husseiniya (Sharqia), an unparalleled treasure in the last century and a half. Not because of the materials with which it is manufactured or its lavishness. No. The key is what he says, how he says it and above all what he does not say. What experts have found is neither more nor less than a famous stone trail Canopo decree. Of course, a very special. What is Canopo’s decree? A Egyptian decree promulgated by the king Ptolemy III Evergetes on a deck of 238 AC, in full Ptolomeics dynasty. The document was written after the high priests met in the city of Canopusto the east of Alexandria, to honor the monarch, his wife Berenice and the little daughter of both, who died by those same dates. It may sound boring, but the decree has been fascinating the Egyptologists. The text exalts the figure of the monarchs (“The benevolent gods”), their donations, campaigns and veneration in the temples. Also of more practical issues, such as the decision to lower taxes those years in which crops did not receive enough water from the Nile, or the creation of a new priestly range and a religious holiday. Another of the ads that it collects is the deification of the deceased daughter of Ptolemy III Evergetes and Berenice, which was called as her mother. Does it say anything else? Yes. Among other issues, the introduction of a new system of leap years which would add an extra day every four years to adjust it to religious rituals. Ptolemy III wanted that additional day to commemorate him and his wife, but the idea He didn’t finish curdling. Today it reminds us how advanced Egyptian astronomy was and how it advanced to Julian calendarintroduced by Julio César in the 46 AC replacing the Roman. Beyond what he says, the decree is valuable for how he says it. The document makes it clear that its content should be expressed in stelae that mixed three different writing systems: Egyptian hieroglyphs, The demotic and The Greek Koiné. The copies should also be distributed among the main temples for the edict to reach every corner of the kingdom. When in the nineteenth century the archaeologist Karl Richard Lepsius He discovered one of those specimens in Tanis, he found a valuable help to decipher the hieroglyphs. So or even more than Rosetta stone. How is the new wake? Of sandstone, 127.5 centimeters high and 83 wide, with a thickness of 48. Its upper part is rounded and, in addition to the registration of the central section, distributed over 30 hieroglyph lines carved in relief, the stone shows some interesting decorations. The design is crowned by a large winged solar disk flanked by two royal cobras that show the white and red crowns of Egypt, symbol of the union of the two lands. In the center, an inscription stands out in which “Di-Ank” can be read, a message that could be translated as “the one that gives life.” Why does the finding matter? Because the copies of Canopo decree do not abound. Or at least we have not found them. As remember The Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities of Egypt, the wake found in Tell el-Faran´in will join the other six known and unearthed versions inKom el-hisn, Tanis either Tell enough. Some are complete. Another are just fragments. “This discovery is considered the most significant of its kind in more than 150 years, since since then no new and complete version of the decree has been found,” Underline. Does it differ in something? Yes. And that is one of the reasons why the wake recovered in Tell el-Faran´in has generated so much interest. Although the decree of Ptolemy III made it clear that it should be captured in stelae that combined the three writing systems (hieroglyphic, demotic and Greek), the specimen we just found shows only one. This was confirmed by Mohamed Ismail Khaled, of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, who Clarify that the wake is written “entirely in hieroglyphs”, which differentiates it from other previous trilingual versions. What is it for? Beyond the obvious historical, archaeological and patrimonial value of the finding, Tell el-Faran´in wake has a key utility. From the outset, it has served the Egyptian Minister of Antiquities, Sherif Fathy, to breastfeed for the “continuous achievements” of the archaeological missions of the country and the “support” of the government to the excavation campaigns, something that feels especially good in full controversy by the Tourist megaproject of the Sinai. Political issues apart, scholars are relying on squeezing the content of the wake. The authorities expect them to help them expand their knowledge about the real and religious documents of the Ptolemaic era and “enrich” the understanding of that historical period. If something has aroused interest, it is, however, that the stone includes a single writing system, which seems an exception to the norm that includes the decree. “Open new horizons for our understanding of the language and provides additional information about Ptolemaic decrees, as well as about real and religious ceremonial systems,” Add the government. Images | Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, Egypt government and Wikipedia In Xataka | A 2,000 -year -old cup has revealed an unexpected facet of the Egyptians: psychedelic cocktails

Zaragoza trees are dawning full of bites. The mystery is not who does it but how to solve it

The Ribera del Ebro as it passes through Zaragoza is filling with nibbled trees. Tens. Dozens of tens. It has been confirmed by the City Council itself, which has counted around 70 damaged specimens in different parts of the urban section of the river. Actually the phenomenon has little mysterious and there are less doubts about who is responsible. What is not so clear is how to avoid it. In Spring Environment he already launched a plan to protect his poplars and poplars, which has not avoided that he has to withdraw one. The key is in a particularly voracious rodent. What happened? That Zaragoza has encountered dozens and dozens of nibbled trees. Literally. The technicians of the Aragonese City Council have identified neither more nor less than with 70 trees with marks of dentelladas in several sections of the Ebro riverbank as it passes through the city. One of them, a black poplar (Populus nigra) Located in the parking lot, it is so deteriorated that the Consistory has come to the conclusion that he has no choice but to withdraw it. Is it so serious? Not all trees are equal to damaged, but in the specific case of the Park of the Eyes, municipal technicians have concluded that there is a “collapse risk”. “Being in an area of ​​playful use is a considerable risk for citizens,” Apostille The City Council. And as an image always says more than a thousand words has shared a photo in which it can be seen how the trunk is stripped of bark and shows a crescent -shaped gap on the side. Around it, the floor is full of splinters. Who is responsible? The Zaragozano Consistory has few doubts about it: The beavers. Moreover, its presence in the area and the damage they cause to trees are no novelty for technicians, who have been trying to protect the trees from the most punished parks for these large rodents. In March, the Ministry of Environment, hand in hand with the conservation unit of the natural environment, launched an initiative to ‘shield’ some specimens of the Ebro banks: it placed meshes so that the beavers had more difficult to reach the cortex. The works began on the left bank of the river, in the Blacón de San Lázaro, one of the affected areas. “For a few years the presence of beavers has been detected on the banks of the Ebro River, who would be demolishing trees to use them in the construction of their burrows and dams, or as food. In recent months the damages have been located in the trees of both margins of the Ebro riverbank and its tributaries” The City Council recountswhich has counted more than 70 affected specimens, especially in the section between the Ebro azud, the Yacht Club and the San Lázaro balcony. Traces have also been seen on the banks of the Huerva and Gállego. Castores in Aragon? Exact. And this is not the first time they jump to the headlines. A year ago the farmers of the Jalón River environment already They showed their suspicion Due to the impact of these rodents on their fruit trees, an issue that even came to Congress and led the Ministry for the ecological transition to confirm that there are indications that point to the presence of beavers in the region since 2019 corroborates in statements to eldiario.es. But … where do they come from? The story From the European beaver it is quite long. And complex. It is known that Fiber castor It was well distributed by Europe and that at the end of the 19th century it was almost on the edge of extinction, with just 1,200 copiesdue to human harassment. As we altered their habitat or pursued them to get their skins, meats or even the glands (for the perfume industry), they losing ground. It is also known that they lived in the Iberian Peninsula, although there are different opinions about their history and the date of their collapse here. It is usually located towards the 18th, 18th or 19th century, although There are those who believe that there are hardly solid evidence that confirms the presence of rodents in Spain in recent centuries. About what there is more consensus is how they resurfaced in the peninsula: it is usually pointed to a unauthorized loose of 18 copies in the Ebro and Aragon rivers more than two decades ago. With the passage of time the species has been extending and experts have detected it in the Tormes River, more than 300 km from the populations that had already been identified in the Ebro, or in the Guadalquivir basin. What do we do with them? In The statement In which he informs of the nibbleed trees, the City of Zaragoza slides a key fact. Almost a paradox. While the species reintroduced without permission in the rivers of Spain, it is armored by Europe. “He Fiber Castor o European Castor is, according to the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, a native species of Spain that was extinguished for anthropic reasons and whose current presence is a consequence of an illegal reintroduction. Despite this, community regulations force their protection. “ The theme is complex because the liberation without permission from Castores, a practice known as ‘Beaver Bombing’ and that usually carry out activists convinced of the benefits of the species for the environment, does not fit the guidelines that usually follow species reintroductions. “As established by IUCN it is necessary to carry out a series of studies that are almost common sense”, emphasize in Climate Francisco José García, expert in Mammals of the SECEM. Why is it important? More graph was still the biologist Jacinto Román in 2023, in An interview with The country: “It is not that they are good or bad, but to know how a species that had been extinguished, studies are needed that, for now, do not exist. They cannot be made are visceral decisions.” … Read more

Now you know how to solve the biggest ship problem

On August 26, Starship completed his tenth test flight Ameriting at a precise point of the Indian Ocean. The images emitted live Spacex were impressive: the largest ship in the world was successfully stopped over water after an aggressive re -entry maneuver. However, something else caught attention: A worrying orange strip that walked most of the fuselage. Three small rusty tiles. Shortly after the flight, Elon Musk clarified in his X profile that the orange tone was oxide from test metal tiles on the side of the ship. But it has been Bill Gerstenmaier, a NASA ex -director veteran who works as head of construction and flight reliability of Spacex, who has given all the details. The thermal shield It is still the greenest part of Starship. The current design consists of thousands of ceramic tiles, most in hexagonal form, glued one next to the other without leaving holes. On flight 10 (and on the three previous failed flights, Actually) Spacex placed three metal tiles on the ship to check If they contributed adequate thermal controlsince they would be easier to manufacture and more durable than the ceramics. It turns out that they are not. All that oxide It was created by those three small metal tiles. A failed, but very useful experiment. As you collect Ars TechnicaGerstenmaier told a conference that metal tiles did not work very well. They oxidized extremely fast with atmospheric oxygen. Although metal tiles failed in their target, the experiment was very useful for data collection. He showed that ceramic tiles are still the option to follow for the thermal shield, and helped Spacex rule out an alternative development route without putting the ship at risk, which had enough protection underneath. The interesting thing was the white spots. Although the orange color was the most striking, the most valuable fact for Spacex engineers was in other areas of the thermal shield: white spots that appeared near the nose and other parts of the ship. Musk had already advanced that these spots were due to Isolation of the areas where Spacex had removed tiles deliberately To test Starship’s limits. Gerstenmaier confirmed that they were the remains of an ablative material, derived from that used in Dragon capsules, which in Starship is found everywhere under the tiles. “What this shows us is that the heat is entering between the tiles, it sneaks below, and this ablative structure is consumed. So we learned that we need to seal the tiles.” The solution: seal every tile. Now the main challenge of Starship’s thermal shield is not that tiles detach (a problem that seems solved, since almost all remained in place), but to prevent the incandescent plasma of the reentry from filtering through the tiny together between them. For Spacex, that has been the great learning of flight 10. True to its style of breaking things and iterates fast, the company already has a solution that will test on the next flight. And, how could it be otherwise, they have put a peculiar name: “Crunch Wrap”. It is not a filling like the one used by the space ferry; It is a sealing wrapping around each tile. “It’s like a gift paper that wraps every tile,” Gerstenmaier described. “These tiles are subject mechanically, a robot fits them. When we push the tile, this small gift paper is based around the sides of each one, and then we cut it on the surface.” Back to the ring. After three failed flights, flight 10 has shown that the Starship is again on track. Spacex put the ship to the limit and it responded as planned, threatening just 3 meters from its target. The oxide was the visual test of a discarded path, but what has been learned about the heat leaks paid the way for the next great improvement, bringing a little more closer to make a totally reusable rocket. The plan for flight 11, which could take place in October judging by recent tests in Starbase, is to apply this technique throughout the thermal shield. “We are going to put ‘Crunch Wrap’ everywhere and see if we can get a better seal and performance of the tiles,” Gerstenmaier said. Image | Spacex In Xataka | It was hired by Spacex at age 14. Now, with 16, the young genius has turned his back on Elon Musk to go to Wall Street

China knows that its population is going to sink but already has a long -term plan to solve it. How not, thanks to the AI

In 2024 China exceeded 1,400 million inhabitants, but according to United Nations Data That figure will begin to fall remarkably in the coming decades. Predctions talk about 2050 The population There will already be between 100 and 200 million people, and for 2100 in the best Chinese cases it will have only 900 million inhabitants. Among many other things, there will be a huge impact In a key sector: that of the number of workers available. Source: United Nations In Economist They go further and stand out as today 22% of Chinese citizens are over 60 years old, but in 2035 that fee will rise to 32.5%. The Birth rates They are also very low: to maintain the population that rate should be 2.1 children per woman, but in 2024 the rate It was 1.0 children. And as they point out in Chinese triviumthe situation threatens to make China fall into “the average income trap”, slowing the growth of its economy because, simply, it cannot already have so much cheap labor and the level of exports that it had so far. More productivity. The Xi Jinping solution lies in a concept that the Chinese government calls “new quality productive forces” (NQPF). It is a strategy to boost productivity, and for this you can take advantage of technological innovations, improve education or disseminate ideas and improvements throughout all industries. In April XI He already indicated that its 15th “five -year plan” (from 2026 to 2030) will precisely drive this type of measures. And above all, one. Ai plus. That is where the so -called AI Plus directive, a long -term plan that in the next 10 years hopes to get AI becomes fully infiltrated the entire business and consumption fabric in China. The phases They are clear: 2027: reach a penetration rate of more than 70 % of terminals and intelligent agents in six key sectors (science and technology, industry, consumption, social welfare, global governance and cooperation). 2030: That penetration rate must be 90%. 2025: According to the report, “the AI ​​will be adopted as universally as electricity and the Internet, becoming the ‘basic infrastructure’ of society.” In all areas. The plan pretends that AI is the great technological innovation that allows to boost productivity in all types of areas. For example in innovation and scientific discovery, but also in industrial transformation. In the latter case both agriculture and services are short -term objectives for the deployment of AI. And also for consumption. In the consumer sector, AI must stimulate demand with the application of this technology in products such as connected cars or intelligent domestic devices. And of course, the objective is also that AI accompany and help all citizens in education, work or to improve health. Governance and cooperation. The last two major sectors of the initiative are those that affect government efficiency – for example, for urban planning, national segurity or online censorship – and international competitiveness. In the latter case, the plan defends that AI must be considered an international public good and must follow an open source philosophy. Challenges. Some experts believe that the success of the AI ​​Plus program is not assured, and there are also no clear metrics that serve to really measure the contribution of AI to economic growth. Jeffrey Ding, from the George Washington University, explains that “China faces a diffusion deficit because its ability to innovate and be a pioneer in new technologies far exceeds its ability to spread those advances throughout the economy.” Low adoption. Although the country can train its best talents of AI in its best universities, it has certain problems to achieve that same training between “standard” ingenerios, which can create a barrier for the adoption of these technologies. A survey conducted in 2022 confirmed That perception: only 4.5% of the companies owned by the Chinese government confirmed that the efforts to transform them digitally were “fulfilling expectations.” And the AGI, what? Interestingly, in that document there is no mention of the General Artificial Intelligencewhat seems to suggest once again that China prefers to make generative AI infiltrate throughout society instead of going in search of supremacy in AGI. That does not mean that China does not end up looking for this type of achievement, but at the moment its focus is another. A much more pragmatic and that is precisely aimed at mitigating the effects of its future demographic contraction. Image | Global panorama | Brian Matangelo In Xataka | China has found the formula to upload salaries while still being the world’s factory: a silent robots invasion

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

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