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Adobe was not born with Photoshop. It started by solving a huge and inconspicuous problem: printing well

June 8, 2026 by usatoday24

Before becoming one of those companies that we almost automatically associate with digital creativity, Adobe had a much more specific and less brilliant obsession at first glance: printing. We are not talking about retouching photographs, editing videos or opening PDF documents with the naturalness with which we do it today, but rather about attacking a difficulty that is basic in appearance and enormous in practice. In the early years of personal computing, making what was seen or designed on a computer turned out well on paper It was not something guaranteed. Adobe’s story begins precisely at that point: with PostScripta language intended to describe how a printed page should look. The difficulty was that that chain was much more fragile than we can imagine today. Lemelson-MIT remembers that, at that time, personal computers were beginning to hit the market and the printers available were, in many cases, dot matrix, with very low quality results. For truly professional work, the alternative was composition equipment that could cost more than $150,000 at that time and required laborious processes. Between one extreme and the other there was an obvious gap: there was a lack of a more flexible, reliable and accessible way to bring complex pages to paper. The problem was not creating images, it was getting them to look the same on paper The next piece of history appears in the famous Xerox PARCwhere laser printing was already a laboratory reality, although still full of limits. Those early machines were controlled by Press, a protocol that worked well with simple letters and images, but got bogged down with demanding projects. A member of that team named John Warnock encountered the same message over and over again, “Too complex page“, and that was no small anecdote. His response was to think of an architecture capable of doing just the opposite: printing any page. That idea didn’t come from nowhere. Before coming to Xerox, Warnock had worked at Evans & Sutherland, where he was involved in a highly ambitious project for the New York Maritime Academy: a simulator of New York Harbor with computer-generated buildings, docks, buoys, changing weather and other ships. That system had to be built without yet knowing what specific hardware it would end up running on, so the team opted to create a language not tied to a specific machine. A decisive lesson emerged from this: device-independent software gave much more flexibility. John Warnock, left, and Charles Geschke, right, founders of Adobe With that learning behind him, Warnock once again encountered a similar problem at Xerox, but now fully applied to printing. The company used different schemes depending on the printer, to the point that its Star stations were under increasing load due to having to communicate with each model in a different way. Warnock and a group led by Charles Geschke They then worked at Interpressa standard, device-independent language for Xerox laser printers. The advance existed, but it collided with a business decision: Xerox adopted it internally and did not want to open it to the market. Apple LaserWriter The departure came in 1982, when Warnock and Geschke left Xerox PARC and founded Adobe. Lemelson-MIT says that its first idea was not exactly to become the software company that would end up marking desktop publishing, but rather to set up a printing service for companies and consumers. That plan changed when their financial advisors encouraged them to move toward software development. There PostScript began to take its decisive form: not as a closed solution for a single machine, but as a portable language that manufacturers could integrate into their own devices. One of the decisive pieces for that technology to jump from the laboratory to the market appeared in Apple. IEEE Spectrum explains that Steve Jobs had a very specific problem: The Macintosh was advancing, but without a quality printer it was difficult to enter the business world. Daisy printers didn’t work for Mac graphics and Apple didn’t arrive in time with a high-quality solution of its own. Adobe was building an answer. In late 1983, Adobe signed an agreement with Apple, and in January 1985, PostScript appeared for the first time on the Internet. LaserWriter. Seen from today, the interesting thing is that Adobe did not start with the most recognizable part of its current history, but with a layer that we almost always take for granted. Of course, Illustrator, Acrobat, Photoshop and Premiere are part of a later expansion, but the starting point was different: PostScript and the promise that text, images and graphics could reach paper with fidelity. There was the true initial intuition. Before becoming recognizable for its creative tools, Adobe found its place by solving a discreet but decisive task: that what was created could be printed well. Images | Adobe (1, 2) | Xataka with Nano Banana In Xataka | In 1967, a war veteran believed that moving around a computer could be easier. So he created the first mouse

The shape of the hands is one of the last evolutionary mysteries of the human being. And we are one step closer to solving it

May 26, 2026 by usatoday24

Our hands are, without a doubt, one of the wonders of biological engineering, since for a long time, the dominant evolutionary narrative has focused on how our anatomy transformed to allow precision grip and the manufacture of complex tools. However, if we look beyond the fingers and focus on the wrist, the bones tell a much older and more surprising story. New tests. A comprehensive published study in the magazine Proceedings of the Royal Society B has put on the table quite important evidence about how our ancestors moved. And the conclusion is that the morphology of our wrist retains an undeniable echo of a common ancestor adapted to walking supported on the knuckles. How they have done it. To reach this conclusion, the researchers have not relied on isolated conjectures, but on a large-scale anatomical analysis. The team analyzed more than 2,037 carpal boneswhich are what form the wrist, belonging to different species of primates, crossing these data with the anatomical analysis of 55 fossils of extinct hominins. What they discovered by mapping all this morphology is that human wrist bones don’t look like those of most primates, but instead share deep structural similarities specifically with African great apes. It’s not a coincidence, since it responds to the biomechanical adaptations necessary to support the weight of the body on the hands when they are closed. That is, although today we use our wrists for complex tasks such as typing, painting or even performing surgery, their architecture was designed for walking on the knuckles. Cautiously. Does this mean that our ancestor walked on his knuckles with absolute certainty? In science, closed statements are dangerous, and the authors of the study themselves are cautious, since they do not present this ancient practice as an irrefutable dogma, but as the most consistent and plausible interpretation according to the anatomical evidence on the table. Its evolution. Our body did not evolve suddenly to its current form, but rather went through different phases at different rates. Here the study shows this phenomenon in our hands, since, while the general structure of the wrist has preserved those primitive evolutionary signals shared with African apes, other parts of the hand changed later. Specifically, adaptations associated with fine, precision manipulation appeared much later in our evolutionary lineage. In Xataka | We had always believed that evolution had been arrested for thousands of years. The redheads were telling us the opposite

We have become obsessed with “natural” sleeping pills. The problem is that we are not solving much

May 9, 2026 by usatoday24

In a society where problems falling asleep are on the agenda, the promise of having a deep and restful rest It has become one of the great businesses of the 21st century. And faced with a silent epidemic of insomnia, millions of people have turned to a parallel pharmacy where no prescription is needed, since products such as melatonin, magnesium or CBD are available to anyone. The melatonin paradox. Health authorities in the United States have been warning for years of a drastic increase in melatonin consumption among adults. It is perceived here as a “natural hormone” and therefore harmless, and although it is true that has proven usefulnessscience calls for curbing enthusiasm. Here’s Duffy’s essay pointed Because at low doses it can improve the efficiency and duration of sleep, but what must be taken into account is the importance of following medical instructions to have a dose adjusted and controlled to the personal situation. It is true that there is still a lot of research ahead to determine the safety of melatonin supplementation, since some studies they even point to an increased risk of heart failure with taking for more than one year. The CBD. Cannabidiol is another of the protagonists that is beginning to have more and more importance on the shelves of many people who have sleep problems. Unlike melatonin or magnesium, CBD is a compound derived from cannabis to “turn off” the nighttime mental noise. And here the science suggests that the effect of CBD is promising, but there is still a long way to go to determine its safety. The most solid studies conclude that CBD is not a pure sedative, but that its greatest effectiveness is observed above all with patients whose insomnia is directly related to anxiety or chronic stress, since it can modulate the stress response, reduce nocturnal rumination and allows sleep to come as a side effect. But they have problems. Right now, marketing inconsistency is a big drawback of CBD, as much of the failures reported by users are due to over-the-counter products that are not of the proper purity or concentration. Magnesium. If there is a mineral that has capitalized on the attention on the internet in recent years, it is this one. It is promoted as the ultimate natural anxiolytic and sleeping pill; However, science suggests that they are greatly inflating the effects it has. Here, as we have repeated on many occasions, supplementing when there is no deficiency of this or other minerals is not the best decision. Some small trials indicate that specific formats such as magnesium bisglycinate can provide modest improvements in cases of mild insomnia, but at a general level, the scientific community concludes that its “miracle pill” status lacks robust support. Go to the doctor. On many occasions, when we have a problem, we want to resort to the miracle pill without doing anything else. When we are told about maintaining good sleep hygiene, keeping screens out of our sight several hours before going to sleep or forgetting about heavy dinners, the truth is that we find it complicated. Or at least more difficult than taking a pill they sell us, which will make us sleep without doing anything else. It is for all this that it is always best to go to the doctor to determine what is underneath the insomnia, to be able to treat the root of the problem and not put patches on top, which is ultimately what is achieved with supplements. Images | diana.grytsku in Magnific In Xataka | There is a whole fever for magnesium as a supplement to sleep better: science has things to say about it

the science of “chrononutrition” is solving them

March 23, 2026 by usatoday24

If there is one food that has polarized nutritionists, doctors and diet enthusiasts, it is undoubtedly breakfast. Indeed, for years we have been told the mantra that it is “the most important meal of the day”, conceived above all by companies that sell cereals. But then this went to the opposite side, driven by the popularity of intermittent fasting which pointed out that skipping it was not only bad, but could be beneficial. Then the trouble is over. Many doubts. The logical thing to do here is to ask yourself many questions: Is it good or bad? What happens to our body if we eat breakfast at 7:00 versus having it at 11:00? The answer to this great debate is not only in that we eat, but in when We do it, and it is where one of the most fascinating areas of research in recent years comes into play, which is chrononutrition. An internal clock. Our body does not process food in the same way at 8 in the morning as it does at 3 in the afternoon, nor does it do so at night, where digestion slows down. Everything is mediated in detail by our circadian clock, controlled in part by the famous melatonin, and also by hormones such as cortisol, which is popularly known as the stress hormone. Here we have seen how the human body experiences a natural peak of cortisol between 8:00 and 9:00 in the morning to help us wake up and activate. The problem arises when we delay breakfast beyond 9:00, since by not receiving food, the body interprets this lack of energy with food intake as a situation of stress and artificially prolongs the cortisol spike. The consequences. Here a process called gluconeogenesis is activatedwhere the body begins to make its own glucose and insulin sensitivity worsens. On the contrary, a classic trial showed that eating breakfast reduces cortisol levels after an episode of stress compared to fasting, improving the endocrine response. Breakfast time. Beyond the hormonal theory, large population studies are providing compelling figures. If morning intermittent fasting had its defenders, large-scale epidemiology is beginning to tip the balance towards early risers. This is what he pointed out a great study led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health that analyzed data from more than 103,000 people. In these cases they concluded that eating breakfast after 9 in the morning increases the risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 59% compared to those who eat breakfast before 8:00. And all due to the action of insulin. And it agrees. With previous meta-analyses that integrate the routines of thousands of patients, such as the one published in the British Journal of Nutrition that confirm that systematically skipping breakfast increases the risk of diabetes by between 21% and 48%. That is why desynchronizing our meals profoundly alters the hormones and normal lipids in our body and that is why eating breakfast irregularly or even not eating it favors the storage of abdominal fat. Not anything is worth it. Knowing that we should have breakfast early is only half of this equation, since sending that metabolic “safety” signal to the body requires quality fuel. In this way, an optimal breakfast should represent between 20 and 30% of our daily caloric intake, and science has an idea of what feels best. What they suggest should be prioritized are high-quality proteins, eggs, Greek yogurt, cheese, fish or legumes. And it is very important, since morning protein stabilizes blood glucose, reduces cravings during the rest of the day and modulates cortisol. Although it should not be taken in isolation, it should be combined with healthy fats and fiber. To avoid. On the other side of the scale we can find simple and ultra-processed sugars that make up the classic industrial pastries, cookies or sugary cereals. These foods cause an immediate glucose spike followed by a sudden drop, which triggers cortisol again and leaves us without energy and hungry in the middle of the morning, which leads to eating more food and giving in to cravings. Fasting is not bad. The great debate that is on the table right now is the one that seeks to maintain a balance between the currents of fasting and those of five meals a day. That is why chrononutrition does not rule out the benefits of stopping the digestive system from resting, but it proposes displacing that fast. In this way, what is proposed here is that it is advisable to maintain a 12-hour overnight fast, having dinner early and also having breakfast first thing in the morning. Images | Rachel Park In Xataka | We’ve gone from “breakfast is the most important meal of the day” to “I grab something quick and stick with it.” And that has problems

We had a very serious problem with our resistance to antibiotics. Now we are closer to solving it

November 1, 2025 by usatoday24

One of the great threats that humanity faces today is without a doubt the antibiotic resistancewhich leads to emergence of bacteria that are resistant to all pharmacological weapons that we have. This forces science to have to look for new antibiotics and new ways to ‘attack’ a bacteria. And at the moment it seems that we are approaching this great milestone with a new antibiotic that was hidden in plain sight. The problem. Having bacteria that you cannot compete against is undoubtedly a death sentence for the person who is unlucky enough to be its host. Something that responds to the mechanisms that these microorganisms have to evolve and develop ‘tactics’ that allow them to escape our antibiotics. A very typical situation in a hospital, especially where a bacteria that has been exposed to a treatment, but has survived, will adapt to that environment. This makes the WHO categorize antimicrobial resistance as “one of the top 10 threats to global public health.” Put another way: we are running out of antibiotics that work, since bacteria are evolving faster than we are discovering new drugs. And this is something that is also magnified by our own fault by taking antibiotics uncontrollably or not complete treatment guidelines appropriately. That is why the discovery just made by a team from the University of Warwick and Monash University is so spectacular: have found a “silver bullet” that had been hidden in plain sight for 50 years. The discovery. Published in it Journal of the American Chemical Societywe are talking about an antibiotic that, in early tests, has been shown to be up to 100 times more powerful than existing drugs against high-priority resistant bacteria, such as feared Staphylococcus aureus methicillin resistant (MRSA). The molecule in question is called pre-methylenemycin C lactone (compound 5), and it has arrived to try to save humanity from this pandemic we are experiencing. But the most surprising thing is where they found it: in the Streptomyces coelicolora soil bacteria that is literally the “model organism” for the production of antibiotics and which has been studied endlessly since the 1950s. That is to say, we had a possible solution before our eyes and we had not realized it until now. This bacteria produces a well-known antibiotic called methylenemycin A that is low potency and is not used clinically. However, scientists decided to investigate not only the final product, but the intermediate steps of its biological “assembly line.” This is where it was seen that it intermediately produced methylenemycin C, which has much more powerful antimicrobial effects. And this is a lesson for science: we are always left with the result of the reactions (that is, the final product). But now what should be done is analyze everything that happens between the first substrate and the final product. Because we are seeing how methylenemycin A was discovered 50 years ago and it was not until now that one of its intermediate products has been a protagonist in this fight. As. To achieve this, the team used genetic engineering. Basically, they “sabotaged” the bacteria’s production chain by creating a mutation that eliminated the gene. mmyE. When this piece is missingthe bacteria could no longer complete the process and began to accumulate the “intermediate steps.” Something similar to when in a production line we remove one of the tapes and an intermediate version of what we were manufacturing begins to accumulate. The tests. When they tested the activity of the new molecule, the results were astonishing. Compound 5 (pre-methylenemycin C lactone) was “one to two orders of magnitude more active” (i.e., 10- to 100-fold) than methylenemycins A and C (the final products). In this way, it was finally possible to see that the result was up to 256 times more powerful than even some drugs. Something that is revolutionary. The great hope. Being powerful is all well and good, but the real battle is against resistance. That is, when the bacteria come into contact with this antibiotic, they can develop a system to get rid of its lethal effect. And this is where there is good news, since after subjecting the bacteria E. faecium At increasing concentrations of the new antibiotic for 28 consecutive days, a standard method for forcing the emergence of resistance, no resistance was detected. A new way to search. Until now, the intermediate products generated in the production of different medicines had been ignored. Now this study puts an end to this custom, since it has become clear that the identification and testing of the intermediate elements of biosynthesis can lead to a great revolution. Now with this new treatment, preclinical tests with animals remain to assess its safety with the aim of subsequently moving on to tests in humans and the evaluation of its side effects. Images | CDC Myriam Zilles In Xataka | AI has opened a chest that had been closed for almost 4 billion years: the salvation of antibiotics

We have been talking about microplastics for years without being very clear about how they affect us. Science is close to solving it

October 18, 2025 by usatoday24

Plastic no longer only wraps our food or makes up the clothes we wear, but it has silently colonized our body. And microplastics have been found almost everywhere in the body: placenta, blood, lungs, testiclesbreast milk, brain human… But when faced with the big question of What effect does it have on the body?we are already having answers. The measurements. Studies already suggest that we could hold up to five grams of this material in our own brain. The image is shocking: the equivalent of a plastic teaspoon lodged in the deepest part of our being. Microplastics are particles, in this case they are very tiny, that come off from packaging, synthetic clothing, tires, cosmetics and countless everyday objects such as lettuce. But some are so small that they are able to cross the barriers of our lungs and intestines, travel through the bloodstream and deposit in our internal organs. What happens once there is the great unknown that scientists strive to clear up. The studies. Dr. Christian Pacher-Deutsch, from the University of Graz (Austria), recently presented a study in which he exposed human intestinal bacteria to five types of common microplastics. The result was quite clear: bacterial populations were altered, producing chemical changes, in some cases reflecting patterns observed in patients with depression and colorectal cancer. Although the researcher himself was cautious in pointing out that “although it is early to make definitive statements, reducing exposure to microplastics is a sensible precaution.” But the effects don’t stop in the intestine. Dr. Jaime Ross, a neuroscientist at the University of Rhode Island, conducted a revealing experiment: gave a group of mice water contaminated with microplastics to drink. Soon, the mice began behaving strangely, anxiously venturing into open spaces, an atypical behavior that is associated with aging and neurological diseases. Analyzing their brains, Ross found plastic in all organs and a reduction in GFAP, a key protein for brain health. This same pattern of exhaustion is seen in humans with depression and dementia. Caution. In this case, microplastics have been detected in arterial plaques, and an analysis concluded that people whose plaques were loaded with plastic were almost five times more likely to suffer a heart attack, stroke or die within three years. The practice. Faced with this avalanche of data, The Guardian wanted to move from theory to practice. The British journalist herself decided to undergo a test from the company Plastictox which, for £144, promises to reveal the amount of microplastics circulating in the blood. The test result indicated a concentration of forty microplastics per milliliters of blood. And although this figure placed her in the 25% of people with the least exposure, the laboratory gave her the total result: about 200,000 plastic particles in the bloodstream. However, other experts urge caution. Professor Stephanie Wright, a researcher at Imperial College London, calls this evidence “very premature.” He points out that although an analysis shows that there are 40 particles per ml, it is unknown if this is good or bad or if it will depend on the type of plastic it is or its origin. We live in real uncertainty. The advice. Although it is impossible to avoid exposure completely, there are a number of tips to avoid consuming this type of microplastics. For example, you can choose not to use plastic kitchen utensils or drink hot liquids from plastic cups. Even with the tap water either bottled we can have the same problem. Outside of food, the material composition of bedding or pajamas should also be reviewed, as they can release these types of particles, making cotton the best. Images | FlyD Chad Montano In Xataka | When Tap Water Tastes Like Hell: The Invisible Chemistry of Drinking Water That Explains Why It Tastes How It Tastes (And Why It’s One of the World’s Greatest Inventions)

29 years ago we clone to the Dolly sheep. Thanks to this, today we are one step closer to solving the fertility crisis

October 1, 2025 by usatoday24

Imagine a future in which the infertility caused by the lack of ovules or sperm is no longer an insurmountable obstacle. A future where two men can have a biological child together, or where A woman who has lost her ability to produce ovules For age or for a cancer treatment may have offspring with its own genetics. This future, which until now belonged to science fiction, is a little closer thanks to a revolutionary advance that has been published in Nature. Biology This advance, which seems like a science fiction, has been made by the team of researchers at Oregon Health & Science University, led by Dr. Shoukhrat Mitalipov. In this case they have managed to develop an experimental technique that forces a skin cell (somatic) to reduce your number of chromosomes in half. It is, in essence, the most crucial and complicated step in the creation of a gamete (an ovule or a sperm). A process they have called mitomeiosis. To be able to understand it, you have to know that all the cells of our body have in total 46 chromosomes in its nucleus. But there is an exception: sperm and gametes that They have 23 chromosomes. A very important number so that when an ovule and sperm merge, they have a total of 46 chromosomes. That is why it is revolutionary that they have managed to get a skin cell to have 23 chromosomes to be an ideal candidate to give offspring. The trick. The natural process to create these haploid cells (with 23 chromosomes) is called meiosis. A very complex type of cell division that has been investigating for a long time. This made it replicate in a laboratory, which is known as in vitro gametogenesis (IVG) was one of the greatest challenges of biology. Something that now reminds us of what we already saw with the Dolly sheep in the cloning process. OHSU’s team addressed the problem in an ingenious way. Using a technique similar to cloning, called nuclear somatic cell transfer (SCNT). A technique that is complex, but can be summarized in three different steps: The first thing is to take a donated human ovule and extract the genetic material. In this way, the ovule maintained all its cytoplasm with the organelles, which ultimately is like the machinery that the cell has to produce energy and carry out many processes such as meiosis. Once done, a skin cell is taken (a diploid cell with 46 chromosomes in a 2N state) and is extracted the nucleus inside. Now it only remains to introduce the core of the skin cell into the ovule that has been emptied. The result. In this case it was amazing, since the ovule cytoplasm could ‘deceive’ the skin’s core, forcing it prematurely into a state similar to the metaphase of the Meiosis. This caused its 46 chromosomes to be organized in a spindle ready to divide, despite having skipped the DNA duplication phase in the cell cycle that is before the division of the genetic material. The problem. However, here they met a wall. In nature, the entrance of the ‘active’ sperm to complete its division, being mediated by a large number of zinc. But in this case, when they tried to fertilize the SCNT ovules with sperm, the vast majority (almost 77%) remained ‘arrested’ without reacting. The natural signal was not enough for this artificial construction. The solution in this case went to develop an artificial ‘starter’ key. After sperm fertilization, they applied an assisted activation protocol an electrical pulse by electroporation to simulate the calcium entry caused by sperm to its entrance, followed by a treatment with a chemical inhibitor called Roscovitin. And it is something that ended up working. Forced activation made the modified ovules leave their arrest and complete the division. The 46 chromosomes of the cell were separated, leaving an average of 23 chromosomes within the fertilized ovum (now a zigoto) and expelling a small polar body from the rest, having achieved the long -awaited ploidy reduction that was the objective of this experiment. Progress. The embryos resulting from this experiment containing chromosomes of the skin and sperm cell, beginning to divide and even some reached the blastocyst phase (an early development of about 5-6 days), with a success rate of 8.8%. This shows that genomes can integrate and work together. It’s just a test. The authors who are still a long way forward, since for now it is a “proof of concept” by not being a perfect replica of natural meiosis. In this case, segregation is random unlike meiosis, where it is ensured that each daughter cell receives a copy of each of the 23 types of original chromosomes. In this project the separation of homologous chromosomes (the paternal and maternal) was completely random. This generates aneuploid embryos that are incompatible with life. In addition, it also lacks ‘cross -rise’ or crossovera vital mechanism in meiosis where paternal and maternal chromosomes exchange fragments creating genetic diversity. This is something that is not present in this process and that takes away a lot of variability. The future. Despite the limitations of this study, work is a fundamental milestone. It aligns with other laboratories such as the Japanese Katsuhiko Hayashi that in 2023 managed to create functional ovules From male mice skin cells, with which healthy offspring were born. In the long term, the implications of these studies give hope to those women who suffer from infertility due to lack of functional gametes and who want to have offspring with their own genetics. The same happens in same -sex couples that also open the door for a couple of men (using a skin cell to create an ovule) or women (creating sperm) can have biologically related son between both members of the couple. Although we cannot also forget that right now there is a fertility crisis that causes that in Spain, for example, there is reduced birth rate. This is also conditioned that it is … Read more

Solving the big doubt about the most effective supplement to sleep better: magnesium or melatotine

July 24, 2025 by usatoday24

Melatonin is perhaps in the most popular supplement for people with mild or occasional problems to reconcile sleep. But it is not the only one. In recent years, magnesium has become another well -known alternative, a Nutritional supplement to which we also attribute the ability to lend a hand when we have a hard time. Choosing between one and the other is not simple, There is no higher alternative To the other. Both supplements have demonstrated some capacity to facilitate sleep but the way they do differs completely. This implies that each of these supplements can be more useful in certain contexts, while the other could help us in different situations. Understanding the differences between them can help us choose in a better informed way between one alternative. The Melatonin sometimes receives the nickname of “sleep hormone.” As its name suggests, it plays a central function in our Circadian rhythmthat is, our sleep cycle. This compound is synthesized by our own body in the pineal gland and is released at night, when our senses begin to perceive the disappearance of daylight. Its function is to transmit the message that the time has come to sleep. Melatonin supplements have the objective of making this hormone transmit their sleep message to the brain even when our body does not consider that it is time to synthesize it by itself. Despite his growing popularitywe may not have heard about magnesium as sleep -related nutrient. This element is central to the biochemical processes developed by hundreds of enzymes in our body. Among these processes is the synthesization of melatonin. This would be a way in which magnesium could help us fall asleep, but perhaps it is not the main one. According to Experts explain Medical newsthis element plays a key role in tasks such as muscle relaxation. Exercise against calcium (which we use in contraction), blocking its action channels and thus helping our muscles relax. In addition, magnesium is also linked to other neutraltansmiores, such as Aminobutiric gamma acid (GABA). In this context, magnesium regulates the signs of this neurotransmitter, which again translates into “calm and relaxation.” The usefulness of magnesium as it helps when sleeping It has been observed by Some studiesbut it should be noted that there are still many doubts about their real ability to achieve this goal: some experts warn of the existing limitations in scientific literature. This was pointed out for example a systematic review of literature and meta -analysis published in 2021 In the magazine BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies. Different ways, different uses Melatonin stands out in contexts in which our cycle of vigil and sleep is disrupted. An example is the Jet lag that we suffer when changing abruptly from spindle. Adjusting our sleep cycle to a new schedule can be difficult, depending on the magnitude of change and personal circumstances. The supplements can offer us the melatonin we need to sleep at night until our body can end up adjusting to change. Magnesium, meanwhile, stands out for its help to muscle and psychological relaxation. This can help improve sleep quality and reduce the impact of anxiety About our sleep cycles. What if I combine them? Combining supplements can be an option in certain cases. According to Some experts suggestmelatonin has an advantage when helping us with “adjustments” in the short term in sleep; while magnesium has a broader range of benefits. Many of the clinical trials that have investigated the effect of magnesium on our dream have been based on trials on which a combination of substances. Combination that generally included not only magnesium but also melatonin. This strengthens the idea that this combination has the ability to help us with our sleep problems, at the same time that is also one of the reasons that skeptical experts of the use of magnesium as a supplement use. After all, if we have only proven that it works in conjunction with other compounds, we have no forceful evidence of its solo use. The side effects of melatonin and magnesium supplements are mild, but like any drug, it is convenient to meet them when deciding on a treatment. Among the possible adverse effects more common from melatonin They meet the headache, dizziness, nausea and diurnal drowsiness; But there have also been cases of vivid or nightmare dreams, short -term depression, irritability, constipation or diarrhea, among others. The side effects of magnesium are also usually mild, although also Their contraindications should be considered. The adverse effects of this supplement usually appear when consumed in high doses and usually have a gastrointestinal character, including diarrhea, nausea or vomiting. In Xataka | I put myself in the hands of some “sleep headphones” in the hope of reconciling sleep. It has come out regular Image | Vladislav Musekov / Beelith USA

Chinese immigrants have always been a mystery to Spain. The podcast ‘a and a half Chinese’ is solving it from within

May 26, 2025 by usatoday24

‘A and a half Chinese’ is one of the last phenomena that have emerged in Spain portraying the Chinese-Spanish experience. It’s about A podcast Made by a couple of young people from Chinese origin but totally settled in Spain, and who interview program after program to immigrants from the Asian country (although not exclusively), with which they address extremely diverse issues: from the personal experience of a Chinese that is also black to the evolution of purely Chinese businesses in Spain such as restaurants or bazaars. A combination of success. Jiajun Yin and Lin are the two presenters of ‘A and a half Chinese’, and a fast flutter on the themes of your programs And the extracts that select for social networks make clear the secret of their success, beyond the acidic gaze that translates the Chinese experience in Spain. It is a program that raises a very personal balance between playing with the topics of the Chinese seen from outside (with humor that, if it came from someone not Chinese, would be considered racist, as competitions to open your eyes a lot) and first -hand information about How Chinese immigrants open so many businesses in Spain. Main themes. The themes that Jiajun Yin and Lin van from personal anecdotes to the cultural shock, through the process of dismantling community stereotypes or detailing the differences between generations of migrants. Thanks to their ability to make a speaker of issues little visible in traditional media and, with the help of their closeness and humorous tone, they have earned an audience that exceeds, Only on YouTubealmost 130,000 subscribers. Chinese-Spanish for the world. ‘A and a half Chinese’ is not an isolated phenomenon there are multiple creators and artists who have similar approaches: an integration experience in Spain, but without losing their Chinese identity along the way. For example, without leaving the orbit of podcasts, we have a ‘Banana Generation‘. Its author is Ouyang Zhu, with a more serious point than ‘a Chinese and a half’ and that borders activism, with conversations about the Children of migrants And the problems to integrate, getting to touch aspects such as the relationship between racism and mental health. Second generation. Content creators such as ‘a Chinese and a half’ or ZHu address the needs and concerns of a second generation of migrants. This claimed in ‘El País’ the need to have “mediocre referents“That they are not marked by success or sacrifice. It is a generation often raised in solitude due to the work demands of the parents, who often Invite your podcast to also expose their views. On paper. Not only in the world of podcasts there are authors with these themes. For example, Quan Zhou Wu She is a comic author born in Spain of Chinese parents. Theirs are works such as ‘Gazpacho Agridulce’, ‘Andaluchinas for the world’ and ‘People from here, people from there’, in which they also add up issues such as racism, bureaucracy or the sense of belonging. Minke Wang, meanwhile, is a writer and poet and lives in Spain since the age of ten. In books like ‘Overseas voices‘makes a non -fictional story about the hybrid identity that has marked several generations of his family. A mentality that has marked second generation migrants, who are now being expressed with their own works. In Xataka | China wants to dominate world trade and has a plan in progress: bring the sea to its interior cities

Steve Jobs discovered that meetings were a huge problem. Larry Page confirmed that solving it was not easy

May 19, 2025 by usatoday24

He excess meetings At work it has been a obstacle to productivity For decades. Although today it is A very debated topicalready in 1986 Steve Jobs He identified him as one of the great enemies of efficiency in technology companies. Decades later, Larry Page, co -founder of Google, also faced this problem by assuming CEO in Eric Schmidt replacement. At that time he realized the challenge of solving that problem without causing others Even worse. Jobs and Page attempts to change the meetings culture They showed that, although the solutions seem simple, putting them into practice is much more complicated than it seems. Steve Jobs and the problem of meetings In 1986, Steve Jobs realized that frequent and unproductive meetings were negatively affecting the creativity and efficiency of the equipment, as recognized in the letters collected in the book ‘Make submission Wonderful‘. Jobs noted that, instead of helping to advance, many of the meetings in Next They became a waste of timebraking innovation and quick decision making. Jobs promoted the idea of minimizing meetings (and even prohibit them on Thursdays) and only call them when they were really necessary. According to Jobs, The key I was to keep small and focused teams, avoiding large groups where most attendees did not contribute anything relevant. This philosophy later helped Apple maintain its agility and response capacity, in addition to inspiring the CEO of another great technological: Google. Larry Page and the challenge of changing Google In 2011, Larry Page took the command of Google as CEO, at a time when the company already had 30,000 employees and increasingly ambitious challenges. Such and As I counted Jacob Votko, former employee of Google who lived in the first person those changes, Page realized that the excess meetings was affecting the company’s capacity To innovate quickly. The former employee had an anecdote in the Larry Page had criticized large companies as Yahoo! Because it took weeks to update their main page, while in Google they did it in hours. However, now that Google had grown up, Page wondered if in a startup someone would be making jokes about the slow decision of Google. To combat this problem, Larry Page He sent an email To the entire company with new Rules for meetings: Every meeting must have a “decision maker.” You can discuss issues, but once determined, each one executes them as if the decision were their own. Each meeting must have a clear purpose, structure and agenda. If you have nothing to contribute, don’t go All must be punctual, and pay full attention to the meeting (not other background tasks) Celebrate meetings in groups of less than 10 people and broadly spread the notes Establish a maximum duration of 50 minutes instead of an hour and respect those time limits The difficulties of applying new rules Although Page’s instructions were clear, Votko said that the implementation of these measures was not simple. Many employees continued to extend meetings until they were impossible for them to continue because others needed the room. In fact, some teams even tried to take advantage of the 10 -minute holes between meetings to carry out rapid meetings in which they did not even sat, generating friction with users who extended their meetings beyond the regulatory 50 minutes. According to published Business InsiderLarry Page established that no decision should wait for a meeting, and if it required a meeting, it should be summoned urgently. That generated some confusion and organizational chaos since it was interpreted as that these meetings had preference over others, demonstrating that changing such entrenched habits requires much more than simple rules. To reinforce these changes, Larry Page divided Google into seven large groups of product, each with a clear person responsible. The goal was that each of them will act like a startup internal In this way, decision -making would be expedited and unnecessary bureaucracy and unnecessary meetings would be avoided. More than a decade later, great technological ones try again apply the same recipes To prevent someone, in some startup, not get rid of his slowness When making decisions. In Xataka | Working in Google was a dream for many. Paradise in the technology offices is now fading Image | AppleFlickr (Niall Kennedy), Unspash (Rodeo Project Management Software)

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