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The AVE to Extremadura has taken a key step in its connection with Madrid. It’s a small step that takes us back a decade.

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They say that things in the palace go slowly. We could say the same about high speed. Not only because “high-speed” trains are taking longer than ever, but also because the construction of each new line resembles a birth that lasts decades. For example, the AVE to Extremadura. A quarter of a century has now passed since the project was approved. 25 years. And what we continue to have are connections typical of the 70s until we enter Extremadura where, coincidentally, the pace is already accelerating past Cáceres. We don’t lie. In 1970whoever took a train to Extremadura would arrive at the current Monfragüe station in 181 minutes. Today if everything goes well it will only take 20 minutes less. More than half a century after passing times collected in this guideit still takes more than three hours to get from Madrid to Plasencia. And right now it is necessary to stop at the aforementioned station and take a bus because the train no longer goes there. At least, in Extremadura they can boast since last December of having Cáceres and Badajoz connected, now, by high speed. Since the last days of the year, it is possible to cover the journey in 50 minutes. It is the result of works that, although they have taken time, have ended up being completed. A milestone that they cannot boast of in Castilla-La Mancha. And, 25 years after beginning to study where the AVE will pass on its way to Lisbon, a new step forward has been taken. One that also takes us almost ten years back. One step forward, Toledo. One step back When it was planned that an AVE would connect Madrid with Extremadura, it was decided that the work would have two large, clearly differentiated sections. One of them would be Madrid-Oropesa, the second Talayuela-Cáceres. With its obvious delaysthat second section is close to completion and its completion past Cáceres is what has allowed the arrival of high speed in that interprovincial Extremaduran section. And, as they point out in this great review of the diary Today Despite all the dates that have occurred in this quarter of a century, the end of the project could have been very advanced if the La Mancha section had been built at the same speed. However, since 2008 the various parties involved have been discussing what to do with the passage through Toledo. Or, rather, whether or not the train should pass through Toledo. That year, with the environmental impact report of the Madrid-Oropesa section already approved, the final approval was given to the informative study that contemplated a connection with the Andalusian corridor next to the Toledo town of Pantoja. The idea was to take a branch of this line towards Extremadura and thus save costs. The works, however, were not carried out. The 2008 crisis wiped out the project and it was never launched. Without machines working, the environmental report expired and that was when the Ministry of Public Works indicated that the AVE would pass through Toledo. We are already in 2017. The Government’s proposal was that, by passing through Toledo, the line would attract a greater number of travelers since the line would connect with a city that is a World Heritage Site. Of course, this meant traveling more kilometers and increasing travel time because Toledo is located further south than the first proposal. The idea was rejected by local authorities from the first moment. And the passage through Toledo It’s delicate. The Executive’s proposal has always been to take the AVE to the current station, which is just two kilometers in a straight line from the city center. But that means building a viaduct to overcome the passage of the Tagus, which has received continued rejection from local governments and the neighborhood platforms that consider that the image of the city would be damaged. Their proposal was to build a new station in a nearby industrial estate. This is how the year 2020 was reached, with an informative study in which it was proposed to subdivide the section into four parts: Toledo, Torrijos, Talavera de la Reina and Oropesa. They also showed their rejection of this project in Torrijos, which led to more bureaucracy and carrying out a complementary study in 2022. This document was presented in 2024 and had the approval of this town the following year… but in Toledo, as we have said, they still do not view the project favorably. In order to streamline the project, finally The Ministry of Transport has finally approved a new informative study that would contemplate building two branches from the Andalusian corridor. They explain in Today that if the branch goes ahead it would have its origin in Pantoja (as planned from 2008 to 2017) and that it would allow passage in both directions with trains of Iberian width and international width. However, it would be necessary to use trains capable of making this jumpsince the rest of the route to Extremadura is built on Iberian gauge. That is, right now what is being studied is the same to the conclusion that It was arrived in 2008 and that remained on the agenda until 2017. At least, as an alternative until it is decided whether or not the AVE to Extremadura passes through Toledo. And, if it happens, where is it going to do it. Photo | Gunnar Ridderström, Jaime Lillo and Falk2 In Xataka | The theory said that the entry of the AVE into Galicia would plummet aircraft prices. Practice is something else

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

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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

Huawei has found a way to step on TSMC’s heels

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The development of current semiconductor technology is deeply dependent on the size of the transistors that reside within the chips. TSMC, Intel, Samsung and other integrated circuit manufacturers they dedicate a lot of resources generation after generation of its technologies to the optimization and the miniaturization of its transistors. Even so, perfecting them is so difficult that sometimes they barely manage to improve them between two generations of consecutive integration technologies. That the chip industry depends so deeply on transistor size is a problem. Make them smaller it’s getting harderso the ideal is to undo this dependency as much as possible with a purpose: to ensure that the integration technologies developed by integrated circuit manufacturers continue to improve without being so profoundly limited by the physical characteristics of the transistors. This is precisely what Huawei has just achieved as part of the effort that China is making to ensure the development of its chip industry despite the pressure of US sanctions. He Tingbo, the president of the semiconductor business and director of the scientific committee of this company, has presented a new scaling law and a new chip architecture capable, on paper, of taking its semiconductors to a lithographic process node equivalent to 1.4 nm by 2031. Currently the most advanced integrated circuits that TSMC, Intel or Samsung produce are 2 nm. The “tau scaling law” promises He Tingbo made this announcement during his keynote address at the IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems (ISCAS 2026) in Shanghai, China, today. Huawei’s plan is to continue improving the performance and density of its chips despite restrictions that limit China’s access to the most advanced semiconductor manufacturing equipment. And the heart of their strategy is the “tau scaling law.” Tau is the time it takes for electrical signals to go from one transistor to another. Huawei’s bet is to reduce it to the maximum This principle seeks to reduce the time it takes for signals and data to travel through computer chips and equipment. According to He Tingbo, it proposes a paradigm shift that replaces the traditional geometric miniaturization of transistors. for a temporary escalation (τ), hence its name. It seems like a very complicated strategy, but it’s actually reasonably simple. We can easily understand what it is by referring to this example. Let’s imagine that we have a city (the chip) with many buildings (transistors) connected by roads (wires). Moore’s Law says: “make buildings smaller to fit more into the same space.” Huawei, however, proposes: “buildings can no longer be much smaller, so instead let’s make cars (electric signals) travel faster on the roads, and redesign the urban layout so that they travel less distance.” τ (tau) is, precisely, the time it takes a car to go from one building to another, and Huawei’s commitment is to reduce it as much as possible. Huawei’s LogicFolding architecture plays an essential role in this approach. And, if we continue with our example, it proposes a new design of the roads on which cars circulate, so that the chip will perform better without the need to build smaller buildings. Huawei has anticipated that its next generation of Kirin chips, which will arrive next fall, will be the first to implement the LogicFolding architecture. Image | TSMC More information | Reuters | SCMP In Xataka | The condemnation that afflicts China: after decades of manufacturing a competitive desktop processor, it is six years behind

This is how astronauts prepare to step on the Moon in 2028

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This week, SpaceX may take a giant step toward the Moon If Starship Flight 12 goes well. However, its main competitor in this race, Blue Origin, is not far behind. Its lunar module, the Blue Moon MK1, has successfully passed tests in a NASA vacuum chamber. And if that were not enough, there is now a model of the Blue Moon MK2 installed at the Johnson Space Center, so that the Artemis astronauts can practice the steps that will be carried out during the long-awaited moon landing. A step that SpaceX has not taken. The Blue Moon MK2 model is positioned in Building 9 of the Johnson Space Center, next to a prototype of the Orion capsule. The goal is for astronauts to rehearse the transition from one ship to another just before landing on the moon. This maneuver will take place during the Artemis IV missioninitially with Starship. This is because NASA closed the contract for this point of the mission with SpaceX. As for Blue Origin, would come into play in Artemis V. However, given some SpaceX delays, NASA has expressed the possibility of making changes to the contracts and advancing Blue Origin if it is ready sooner. At the moment, both are going well and it seems that SpaceX is recovering from its delays. The astronauts have also been able to do some training on Starship. However, everything has happened at the SpaceX facilities. It is the first time that NASA itself houses a mock-up of one of the landers so that the future crew can carry out the maneuver together with Orion. Different from the Apollo program. The Apollo program missions were manned by three astronauts, of which two landed on the moon and another remained orbiting the Moon. This happened after the two stages of the ship separated. The lander descended towards the Moon, but the command module remained in lunar orbit. In the case of Artemis there is not one ship that separates into two, but two ships. Astronauts will travel to lunar orbit aboard Orion. Once there, the ship will dock with the human landing system (HLS) developed by Blue Origin or SpaceX. This will allow two of the astronauts to transition to it and embark on the moon landing, while the other two remain in Orion. A very close race. The manned moon landing will happen on Artemis IV. However, before that, each company will need to have demonstrated the landing capability of its HLS separately, as well as the possibility of refueling directly in orbit. This is mission essential and has never been done before. Both SpaceX and Blue Origin are making good progress. Some more advanced than others in specific steps, but without stopping moving forward. A lot of money at stake. It is logical that both companies are putting so much effort into this competition. Not only the pleasure of making history is at stake. There is also a lot of money on the table. If everything goes as planned, is calculated that SpaceX could earn up to $4.5 billion and Blue Origin $3.4 billion. It may end in a tie. Although this has always been seen as a competition, in reality if both prove to be viable, it is expected that neither will be left without visiting the Moon in the Artemis program. It is expected that Artemis III already has one of the landers for its docking with Orion in 2027. Afterwards, a manned lunar landing would be completed in 2028 with Artemis IV. From then on, the goal is for trips to the Moon to become a regular occurrence. For that, the more landers, the better. In principle, the two companies will have their piece of the pie. Images | POT In Xataka | In 2018, Elon Musk put his own car into orbit. Eight years later it is still circling the Earth

Reddit was one of the last refuge platforms for Internet users. You just took a step in a worrying direction

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The social network Reddit has become the best source of human data on the internet. It is in fact one of the few remaining refuges from that “human network of networks” with which it all began, but this singular and anarchic social network has just taken a disturbing step: wants to force you to install their app when you use it from your mobile. uncomfortable notice. Millions of people use Reddit daily on their mobile, but in recent days they have encountered an uncomfortable message: a notice that forced them to use the Reddit mobile application instead of being able to continue using the browser to enjoy the famous thematic subreddits. There are many those who they have warned of the problem with diverse messages in the forums of the platform. In one of the most popular subredits, r/technology, the message that talks about the topic has nearly 20,000 positive votes and 4,200 comments. What Reddit says. Company spokespersons indicated at Ars Technica that Reddit has launched a test “for a small subset of mobile users that encourages them to download the app after visiting the site. These users are already familiar with Reddit and we have seen that the experience is much better for them on the app.” Personalization = data collection. The platform argues that if users take advantage of the app they can have a tailored news thread and better searches, but criticism has not been slow in coming. The Ars Technica editor who wrote on the subject himself commented how this notice has also reached him—not us, perhaps because we are not in the United States—and this sounds disturbing. And it sounds like that because it is just how apps like TikTok, X or Instagram work, which have managed to polish their content recommendation algorithms so that the user ends up condemned for doomscrolling. And that would point to Reddit’s ambition that we simply do nothing but be on Reddit. The danger of making your users angry. It is ironic that a platform like Reddit, which has always largely depended on the traffic brought to it by Google, decides to break with that way of reaching its forums. Those responsible for the platform seem to be confident that its content is essential enough for its users to convince them to download and use the app. The question is whether this will not cause an exodus of users. A small solution. Apparently is it possible avoid the message if we clean and we empty both the cache and the cookies of the mobile browser that we use to browse Reddit. This temporary patch can help you continue using Reddit directly from the mobile browser you use. Wall Street rules a lot. This apparent degradation or evolution of the service certainly seems to be aimed at maximizing profit. By going public, Reddit has to prove to shareholders that it can generate growing revenue. And if you can lock users into your official app, you can ensure that no one (including AI) can access that valuable content without going through your controls. Image | Brett Jordan In Xataka | Reddit, nude scenes and a forum out of control: this is how a Dane ended up being convicted in a case that sets a precedent

Europe and Japan step on the accelerator of nuclear fusion and place the ball in the court of a strategic country: Spain

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Europe and Japan walk hand in hand towards nuclear fusion commercial. They have been working together for several years in the JT-60SA experimental reactorthe largest magnetic confinement fusion energy machine that currently exists. However, this is not the only project in which they collaborate. They are also fine-tuning the LIPAc linear particle accelerator (Linear IFMIF Prototype Accelerator or IFMIF Prototype Linear Accelerator). This machine resides in Rokkasho (Japan). After having undergone a very ambitious update, it is ready to begin the final phase that will conclude with its commissioning in 2027. Its purpose is to test the limits of particle beam physics to pave the way for future fusion reactors. Europe and Japan began developing this 36-meter-long particle accelerator in 2007 with the aim of validating the design of an IFMIF-type machine (International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility) capable of acting as a neutron source. To achieve this, this device had to recreate the intense irradiation conditions that occur inside a fusion reactor. One of Europe’s most important contributions is a huge steel cryostat with magnetic shielding and a thermal shield that houses a powerful superconducting radio frequency system. This component serves to accelerate protons and deuterium nuclei until they reach a maximum energy of 9 MeV (megaelectronvolts), which will place them close to the high-energy neutrons that future commercial fusion reactors will produce. LIPAc is the precursor of IFMIF-DONES, which is already being built in Spain The knowledge that scientists hope to gain from LIPAc will be used in the development of IFMIF-DONES (International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility DEMO-Oriented NEutron Source), that is already being built in Escúzar, a town in the province of Granada. The heart of this facility is a linear particle accelerator that will cost approximately 450 million euros, although the Government of Andalusia will provide half of this money. However, this is the cost of the accelerator; The entire IFMIF-DONES project will cost around 700 million euros. Spain will contribute half of this capital. IFMIF-DONES is one of the three fundamental pillars of the nuclear fusion edifice in whose construction the European Union is involved. The other two are ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) and DEMO. The experimental nuclear fusion reactor that is currently being built in the French town of Cadarache aims to demonstrate that fusion at the scale that man can handle worksand also that it is profitable from an energy point of view. However, ITER does not aim to produce electricity. That will be the task of DEMO (DEMOnstration Power Plant), a facility that will take the technological advances that have been proven to work correctly at ITER and take them one step further to establish itself as the true precursor of commercial nuclear fusion reactors. However, without IFMIF-DONES there will be no DEMO, so right now Granada is the center of attention. The IFMIF-DONES linear accelerator will produce high-energy neutrons with the intensity and irradiation volume necessary to test candidate materials To fully understand the role of the IFMIF-DONES project, it is necessary to briefly review the fundamentals of nuclear fusion. One of the greatest challenges faced by technicians involved in the development of nuclear fusion reactors using magnetic confinement, such as ITER, is to recreate the conditions necessary for them to operate inside the vacuum chamber of these sophisticated machines. deuterium and tritium nuclei fuse. However, this is by no means all. When this reaction takes place, the fusion of a deuterium nucleus and another tritium nucleus triggers the production of a helium nucleus and a neutron that is ejected with an energy of about 14 MeV. The problem is that the neutron lacks a net electrical charge, so it cannot be confined inside the magnetic field which, however, does manage to retain the deuterium and tritium nuclei, which have a positive electrical charge. This is the reason why when it originates as a result of the nuclear fusion reaction, this neutron is ejected towards the walls of the vacuum chamber with enormous energy. This particle is very important because in practice it will be closely linked to the production of electrical energy in nuclear fusion reactors, but, at the same time, it represents a very aggressive form of radiation that can significantly degrade the materials used in the reactor. The components that will be most affected by the direct impact of high-energy neutrons and the most intense heat flow are the internal wall of the vacuum chamber and the blanket. The components that will be most affected by the direct impact of high-energy neutrons and the most intense heat flow are the inner wall of the vacuum chamber and the blanketwhich is a mantle that covers it and whose purpose is to regenerate the tritium that must be used as fuel in the nuclear fusion reaction. This is why it is crucial to develop new materials that are able to withstand the neutron flux and therefore ensure that the reactor will have a long operational life. This is, neither more nor less, the purpose of IFMIF-DONES. And to carry it out it is necessary to set up facilities designed to allow the technicians involved in the project evaluate the properties of candidate materials to intervene not only in DEMO, but also in future commercial nuclear fusion reactors. The mission of this project invites us to intuit what the heart of IFMIF-DONES is: a source capable of producing high-energy neutrons with the intensity and volume of irradiation necessary to test the candidate materials. And this neutron source will be nothing more than a linear particle accelerator that will help IFMIF-DONES scientists to test, validate and qualify the materials that in the medium term should reach future electric energy production plants through fusion. Image | Fusion for Energy More information | Fusion for Energy In Xataka | ITER has faced one of the great challenges of nuclear fusion: preventing plasma at 150 million ºC from destroying the reactor

Chinese electric cars already have massages, karaoke and even a refrigerator. The next step is an under-seat toilet.

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If you can’t hold back the urge to urinate while you’re in the car, the normal thing to do is wait until you make a stop at the next gas station to relieve yourself. That’s normal, and then there is Seres, the Chinese manufacturer of Aito cars, which has patented a rather peculiar solution: add a toilet integrated into the cabin that unfolds like a drawer. Exploring other areas. China has one of the most saturated electric car markets and competitive on the planet. Dozens of brands fight for the same type of audience and differentiation has become a race without limits: from massage seats and karaoke systems, even integrated refrigerators, giant screens…If everyone is doing the same thing in infotainment, why not explore the next territory? And this seems to be the conclusion reached by Seres, the Chongqing-based company that manufactures Aito brand vehicles. A portable toilet. According to they count From CarNewsChina, the Intellectual Property Administration of China granted Seres authorization for this patent on April 10. The device consists of a toilet integrated under the passenger seat that is extracted using a system of sliding rails (something similar to a drawer) manually or by voice commands. When not in use, it is completely hidden under the seat, without taking up additional space in the cabin. How it works inside. According to collect The BBC, which had access to the original document presented to the Chinese authorities, the system includes a fan and an extraction tube to evacuate odors to the outside of the vehicle. The waste is collected in a tank that must be emptied manually. In addition, it incorporates a rotating heater that evaporates urine and dries solids. Is for when the car is stopped. Before too vivid mental images arise, it is worth clarifying: the design is designed so that you stop as soon as possible and start with the task. According to CarNewsChinaSeres’ own engineers specify in the patent report that the objective is “to satisfy the needs of users during long journeys, camping or during prolonged stays in the vehicle.” Endless traffic jams, overnight stops or campsites without facilities are the intended use cases. It’s not as crazy as it seems. Toilets in cars are very rare, but it would not be the first time they have been seen in a car. In fact, just as account BBC, in the 1950s, a special version of the Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith already included a toilet under the back seat. There are also those who have modified their car to include one, such as this owner of a Toyota 4Runner. What Seres is proposing now is, in essence, a more technologically sophisticated version of an idea that already existed seventy years ago. Obstacles. Just because the patent exists does not mean that it will reach production. CarNewsChina points out several important technical obstacles, including integrating drainage pipes into compact chassis (especially in electric ones where the battery occupies a large part of the floor), guaranteeing the durability of the rails or achieving an airtight seal that prevents odor leaks. And then there’s the psychological barrier, which is basically convincing passengers that it’s perfectly normal to use the bathroom just inches from where the rest of the family sits. Seres is not going through its best moment. The company is going through a difficult time. According to data of China EV DataTracker, deliveries of Aito M9its high-end SUV, have fallen 44.2% year-on-year for three consecutive months. Seres and Huawei plan to soon launch a renewed version of the model to stop the decline. And in this context, these types of patents can help the brand, not even to make them a reality, but to try to generate conversation around its vehicles. Cover image | Polestones and Aito In Xataka | You buy a second-hand car, you pay for it and the police confiscate it: this is how the ‘twin’ car scam works

Anthropic is one step away from being worth as much as Samsung. And what the market is buying is not Claude

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Anthropic, the company behind Claude, is exploring a new round of financing that would value it at more than 900,000 million dollars. If it closes, it would surpass OpenAI as the world’s most valuable AI startup. Altman’s company set its needle at 862 million last month. The figure more than doubles the 350,000 million it had in February. In just two months. Why is it important. The valuation no longer reflects Anthropic’s sales. It responds to a bet on what the company can become in five years or a decade: a provider of something resembling an essential service. Anthropic bills Claude for subscriptions and accesses to its API. That business exists, grows quickly and has reasonable margins. But it does not by itself justify a valuation that is close to that of Samsung, the Korean megalodon that manufactures everything from the chips we carry in our pockets to the ships that cross the ocean. The context. What the market is buying with Anthropic, and as often happens in the stock market, is not the present, but a hypothesis: that a very small handful of laboratories will control the foundational layer on which the software of the next decade will be built. And that Anthropic will be one of those few. And it will do so in a very profitable way. The logic, on the other hand, is the same that led to overvaluing telecos during the bubble dotcom or to the electric companies at the beginning of electrification. Whoever owns the basic infrastructure sets the rules. Google has already committed 10 billion to the previous valuation, with another 30 billion conditional on objectives. Amazon has put in 5 billion and plans to inject 20,000 more. An IPO could come before the end of the year, around October. Between the lines. That Google and Amazon, two of the largest cloud companies in the world along with Microsoft, finance a company that also sells through them says a lot about how they understand the moment. They are ensuring supply, it is not just an investment in a supplier. It is the difference between buying shares in an oil company and buying a field. Anthropic is, for these hyperscalersa deposit. Yes, but. The hypothesis has its cracks. The models are commoditizing faster than it seemed a year ago. The technical difference between Claude, ChatGPT and Gemini It is measured in nuances, not in generational leaps. If foundational AI ends up being a commodity (something like electricity or water coming out of the tap), current valuations are unsustainable. If it ends up being an infrastructure with network effects and high barriers to entry (something like an operating system), they may even fall short. The market is paying for the second hypothesis. Time will tell. The money trail. Anthropic recently announced, with restrained fanfare, Mythosa model capable of detecting and exploiting vulnerabilities in critical software. The company deemed it “too dangerous” to release and has only given it to a closed group of companies for internal testing. Even so, it has been accessed by unauthorized users. That is exactly the reason why some investors pay these figures: such a model is not sold but granted. And whoever decides to whom it is granted has regulatory power de facto that not even a Samsung, at least outside of South Korea, has ever had. The big question. What happens if the bet goes wrong? A valuation of 900 billion means that Anthropic has to generate, at some reasonable point, revenues in the order of tens of billions a year with very high margins. It is possible. But it was also important for Cisco to maintain its 2000 valuation, and it has needed 26 years to tie. The difference is that this time the buyers of the bet are the companies themselves that depend on the result. This reduces the risk of a sharp correction. And he postpones it. In Xataka | There is a thing called “Ornn price index”, it is out of control and it is bad news for everyone Featured image | Xataka

Tim Cook will step down as CEO and John Ternus will be the new leader

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Apple management is preparing for a replacement that marks a turning point in the company: Tim Cook will step down as CEO and John Ternus will be his successor. As reported by Apple, confirming the rumorsthe change is part of a pre-planned transition process supported by the board of directors. The appointment will be effective as of September 1, the date on which Ternus will assume the position after years at the head of hardware engineering. John Ternus, current Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering, and future CEO of Apple Tim Cook will continue to lead Apple over the coming months while working directly with John Ternus on the transfer of responsibilities. Once the replacement is effective, he will assume the position of executive president of the board of directors, a role from which he will continue to be involved in the company’s strategy and its relationship with governments and regulators. The change redefines his role, but keeps him linked to the company’s strategy and certain institutional functions.

The chemical composition of galaxies has always been full of unknowns. James Webb has taken a huge step to solve it

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The James Webb Space Telescope sees where others can’t: its infrared vision pierces clouds of cosmic dust and reaches galaxies so far away that it took billions of years for its light to reach us. Looking far into space is, in that sense, looking back in time. However, what James Webb has seen in these galaxies differs from what was expected: these early galaxies seem to have too much nitrogen, much more than expected. Among the exotic possible explanations of science, hypotheses such as gigantic stars never seen before, black holes functioning as catalysts for galactic chemistry or large quantities of stars have passed. In fact, that was the topic of conversation in the middle of a phone call while Mexican astrophysicist José Eduardo Méndez-Delgado waited in line for the doctor. On the other end of the line, his colleague Karla Arellano-Córdova, who was in Edinburgh. In that informal talk they decided to change the prism: perhaps the problem was not the galaxies, but how we measure them. The discovery. The proposal from this international team is to analyze three light signals from the same oxygen ion to calculate temperature and density at the same time, without starting from one to calculate the other (the original source of error). The result: the gas was a hundred or a thousand times denser than was assumed in those galaxies. With that correction, the galaxies turned out to be richer in metals than they appeared and the excess nitrogen was drastically reduced. Why it is important. First, because the metallicity of a galaxy is directly related to its history: the more metals there are in its composition, the more stars have been born and died within it. Until now we were underestimating this figure, which made those early galaxies appear very different from our own and suggested a sharp and discontinuous evolution. Now they look more like what we know. But the elements essential for life, such as carbon, oxygen or nitrogen, did not exist when the universe was born: they were manufactured by the stars inside and expanded when they died. Hence the interest in knowing the chemistry of galaxies: it helps to understand when the universe had the necessary ingredients for life. With the wrong measurements, we don’t know if those ingredients were there earlier and in more places than we thought. Context. The standard method to know the composition of a distant galaxy is to analyze the spectral lines of its light based on the density of the gas and its temperature. The problem is that in these primitive galaxies the gas is much denser than expected, so its application as a thermometer works poorly. And from here on, everything failed. The nitrogen anomalies appeared in the first scientific data from the James Webb Space Telescope, as this either this. Since the results did not fit the models, the scientific community threw itself into trying to find explanations. This paper proposes to take a step back: before interpreting stellar physics, check that the measurements are correct. Besides, the Webb now allows it: simultaneously detects oxygen lines in the ultraviolet and in the optical in such distant galaxies. How they do it. In essence, the trick is choosing the right signals. One of the oxygen light lines, visible in ultraviolet, has a special property: it does not distort even if the gas is very dense, something that happened with the lines they were using previously. By combining it with two other signals from the same atom, the research team can calculate temperature and density at the same time, as if they were solving two simultaneous and independent equations. Using statistical simulations, the team found that the results were consistent with other independent measurements of the same galaxies. Yes, but. As the team explains in the work, their method corrects the density error, but not other possible errors that are equally important: the gas of these galaxies also has internal temperature variations, and that can bias the results in ways that this study does not resolve. Furthermore, the method only works well when all three light signals from oxygen are clearly detected. In three of the six galaxies analyzed this was not possible, and the results are less precise. Nitrogen remains a problem. The overabundances come almost entirely from a particular ion whose emission is extraordinarily sensitive to temperature: a variation of just ten percent in that parameter would reduce the calculated nitrogen by half. No one has yet measured that temperature directly. However, it points out a path to follow before looking for “exotic” explanations: verify that the measurement tools are up to par. In Xataka | For a time it was one of the asteroids most watched by astronomers: the Webb has just resolved a key doubt In Xataka | James Webb has been detecting red dots in the universe for years: the only problem is that we don’t know what they are Cover | Oleg Moroz

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