study

One study said that trees “sense” eclipses 14 hours in advance. The real explanation is much more boring

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In 2025, a team of Italian scientists discovered something surprising regarding eclipses. According to a study carried out in a coniferous forest of the Dolomitestrees can predict solar eclipses through changes in their internal electrical activity. Does this have any scientific use? Logically not, since there are other, much simpler and more proven ways to predict an eclipse. There are eclipses predicted a thousand years from now. Even so, the study was very well received, since it is a great example of curious science. The problem is that, according to the analysis of scientists Ariel Novoplansky and Hezi Yizhaq published this year in Trends in Plant Sciencethe results of that study were purely speculative, since there are other reasons why these changes in the electrical activity of the trees could have occurred. Changes in the electrome. Italian scientists detected changes in the electrome. That is, the set of electrical impulses that are transmitted through plant tissues in response to external stimuli, such as water stress or temperature changes. It is something like the electrical activity that is transmitted through our neurons. These researchers placed electricity sensors in conifers of the species Picea abies during a partial eclipse that could be seen in the Dolomites in 2022. They observed that, fourteen hours before the eclipse began, older trees experienced a large increase in their electrical activity. Furthermore, they then spread it to younger trees. Little sense. If you think about it, this doesn’t make much sense. We have seen that changes in the electrome are usually in response to external stimuli. It is true that during a solar eclipse decreases the temperaturebut two factors must be taken into account. The first is that they do it just when the eclipse begins, not fourteen hours before. On the other hand, in this particular partial eclipse, in the Dolomites area, sunlight was barely reduced by 10% for a couple of hours. The temperature should not have dropped slightly and the changes in luminosity should not have caused stress for the trees either. Lightning and sparks. For the scientists who published the 2026 counteranalysis, the explanation for what happened in the Dolomites is much simpler. It is known that, just 14 hours before the eclipse, there was a large storm in the vicinity of the Dolomites, with intense rain and abundant lightning strikes. That, precisely, could have caused a drop in temperatures and, of course, a powerful electrical activity in the atmosphere. Trees act as electromagnetic antennas, capable of capturing the electrical activity of the atmosphere and transforming it into changes in their own electrome. The larger an antenna is, the more powerful its activity in this regard. That’s why changes in the electrome may have been greater in older trees. Simply because they are bigger. That gives even more weight to the hypothesis of the role of lightning. Just three trees. Another limitation of the study is that it only analyzed three trees and five stumps. We cannot get much idea of ​​the behavior of the entire forest. Collective memory of trees to predict solar eclipses? The Italian authors also point out that the intense activity of older trees may be due to the fact that they “remember” the effects of past eclipses, so that they respond in advance to the temperature changes that are to come. However, Novoplansky and Yizhaq recall that it is very difficult for an eclipse to be seen in exactly the same place in a relatively short period of time. In Spain, for example, we will have three eclipses in three yearsbut the totality, in the case of the two totals, will be in very different regions. It is true that two partial eclipses in a row can be seen, like the one in the Dolomites, but experts insist that the environmental changes with a partial eclipse are minimal. More experts. Although the publication of the Italian study represented a great wave of acceptance, the 2026 counteranalysis went somewhat unnoticed by the press. But not to scientists. For example, was picked up by Science Media Center Spanishin which the statements of two experts were published. On the one hand, astrophysicist Javier Armentia pointed out that “there are no mechanisms by which a pine forest can react to small drops in light that do not occur regularly nor do they interfere with vegetative processes, nor were the measurements of this anticipatory behavior explained by the eclipse but by, probably, a cold night suffered a few hours before.” For his part, professor of Earth physics José Manuel Vaquero explained that a small partial eclipse, like the one studied in the Dolomites, “generates smaller environmental variations than those produced by the passage of a dense cloud or a front.” That great activity that was mentioned in the 2025 study would not make sense. In short, it seems that no, trees do not predict solar eclipses. The good thing is that we don’t care, because, as we saw at the beginning, we already know how to predict them. Image | Wikimedia Commons In Xataka | A third of Spain will be completely dark for a minute or two. The astronomical event of the century is approaching

We have been assuming for decades that the expansion of the universe is accelerated by dark energy. A study says it was all a statistical mirage

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Astronomers have spent decades trying to unravel the mysteries of subject and the dark energy. However, now a team of scientists from the University of Oxford has launched the most controversial of solutions: There is nothing to look for, because dark energy does not exist. And they have been so hot. Logically, the reactions have not been long in coming. Some researchers believe that it is an interesting solution that is worth continuing to investigate. Others, however, consider that they do not have enough evidence to demolish an entire cosmological model. After all, there are many more signs of the existence of dark energy than those they have been in charge of denying. Supernovas too weak. Dark matter and energy emerged as a solution to the problem of the expansion of the Universe. This is a phenomenon by which galaxies are increasingly distant from each other. But not because they are moving from their place, but because the space between them is widening. Something like that happens with a balloon on which we paint a series of dots. The more the balloon is inflated, the further apart the dots become. Today we don’t just know that the Universe is expanding. We also understand that it is an accelerated expansion, since the speed at which it expands is faster if we measure nearby galaxies than if we focus on points in the Universe closer to the Big Bang. All of this is measured like any speed. Distance between time. The distances are calculated using the Ia supernovae as a reference, since they have a very characteristic brightness that acts as a lighthouse and serves to map the Universe. The authors of the just-published study also used supernovae to make their own calculations, but they focused on one of the most current catalogs available. about them. There, they saw that younger supernovae have a dimmer glow, which could have led scientists to overestimate their distance, giving rise to the misconception that the universe is expanding rapidly. Dark energy as a solution. In fact, according to the Theory of General Relativitywhat is expected it would be that the expansion of the Universe slowed downsince galaxies experience the gravitational pull of their own neighbors and this should act as a brake. It would be something like what happens with the speed of a ball that is thrown upward. Little by little the Earth’s gravity slows it down until it reaches a point where it stops and falls. However, that doesn’t happen. There must be something reversing this effect and that is where dark energy comes into play, since would exert negative pressure which prevents collapse due to this gravitational pull and, in the process, increasingly accelerates the expansion. Now, where does that dark energy come from? Nobody knows, just as nobody has found solid evidence for the existence of dark matter. Supernovas help measure distances in space It’s not the first time. In fact, this team of scientists from the University of Oxford has already gone against the dark energy hypothesis in the past. Initially, they pointed out that the calculations on the accelerated expansion of the Universe would have statistical errors and that, if these were resolved, there would be nothing to solve with the existence of dark energy. However, they did not provide much evidence about these alleged errors. Now, they have shed a little more light with their new study, which is why the controversy has been much more intense. For and against. In statements to New Scientist Bielefeld University astronomer Dominik Schwarz points out that he finds this research very interesting, since it could explain the origin of all the discrepancies that made it necessary to launch the dark energy hypothesis. On the other hand, Joshua Frieman, from the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in the United States, tells in the same medium that we have evidence about the acceleration of the expansion of the Universe from multiple sources, including other supernova data sets, measurements of large-scale structure and cosmic microwave background radiation. Therefore, supernova analysis alone does not serve to disprove anything. Logically, more tests will be necessaryboth for and against dark energy. For now, it seems that the defenders of its existence win, while those who believe otherwise continue to be considered controversial. Images | DES Collaboration/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/M. Zamani | NASA/CXC/Rutgers/G.Cassam-Chenaï, J.Hughes et al.; Radio: NRAO/AUI/NSF/GBT/VLA/Dyer, Maddalena & Cornwell; Optical: Middlebury College/F.Winkler, NOAO/AURA/NSF/CTIO Schmidt & DSS In Xataka | 110 years later, Einstein is still winning bets: the Euclid telescope has discovered a ring in space-time

China has just launched its new heavy ion accelerator. He hasn’t built it just to study atoms

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There are machines that are built to observe what we already know and others to push matter to places where we barely know what we are going to find. In Huizhou, China has raised a complex whose beam line runs two kilometers and which is capable of accelerating heavy ions and direct them against atomic nuclei with an intensity that is difficult to achieve in other laboratories. It looks like an infrastructure designed for nuclear physicists. That description, however, falls short. The decisive step came on Tuesday, July 21. The High Intensity Heavy Ion Accelerator Facility, known as HIAF, passed the acceptance reviewn that certifies the fulfillment of its construction objectives and entered into test operation for scientific research. The project, built by Institute of Modern Physics of the Chinese Academy of Scienceshad begun to rise in December 2018 and produced its first beam in October 2025. The work is finished; Now is the time to do science. Now, the HIAF does not function as a single track through which particles enter and exit at full speed. Its architecture distributes the work between three major systems: a superconducting linear accelerator that delivers intense beams in continuous or pulsed mode, a synchrotron that accumulates the ions and takes them to higher energies, and a storage ring that allows them to be preserved while researchers carry out precision measurements. It all starts with ions, atoms from which one or more electrons have been removed and which can be accelerated and guided by electric and magnetic fields. Those in charge of the project claim that it is the first advanced heavy ion research facility that brings together these three technologies. A facility designed to study much more than atoms We still don’t fully understand how many of the heavy elements we find around us formed in the universe. To reconstruct that history, researchers will use the HIAF to produce unstable nuclei, measure how they behave and explore the frontiers at which nuclear matter stops holding together. That work also opens the door to trying to create new superheavy elements. The goal is not only to expand what we know about the periodic table, but to better understand the cosmic processes that ended up forming elements such as uranium. The same beams that are used to investigate nuclei can also be used to subject chips, electronic components and materials to intense radiation. In space, the impact of an energetic particle can corrupt data, crash a circuit, or cause permanent damage to a component; Reproducing part of these effects on land allows them to be studied before incorporating the technology into a satellite or ship. The HIAF was also born with that function: to offer a controlled environment in which to check what resists and what fails when a device must operate under the radiation of space. When these ions reach tissues or materials, the experiment changes scale, but not principle. Its energy can be used in the medical sector and, at the same time, to accelerate the accumulation of radiation damage in materials intended for advanced nuclear systems or to future fusion environments. We are not facing a hospital or a reactor intended to produce electricity. What the HIAF offers is something prior and decisive: a place to verify, under controlled parameters, what works, what degrades and what needs to be redesigned. The start-up phase has already left some figures with which to measure its capacity. According to those responsible for the projectthe team completed beam commissioning along the two-kilometer line in 16 hours, a record among comparable facilities. It also maintains that the pulsed intensities of the oxygen and bismuth beams exceeded previous international references by factors of three and 7.5, respectively. During the tests, work has already been carried out on nuclear masses, production of radioactive beams, nuclear structure and irradiation of materials. These are initial results: the HIAF is still being tested and must now demonstrate to what extent it can transform that capacity into real discoveries and applications. Images | Institute of Modern Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences In Xataka | In the 70s, a Nobel Prize winner in physics mathematically solved the tourist’s great dilemma: which restaurant to choose

ASUS summer offers are ideal for renewing equipment for work, study or play

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Summer is that time of year when most of us take the opportunity to escape from home for a few days. Wherever we go, It is always good to have a laptop with uswhether because we want to surf the Internet, answer an email or even play a video game. Are you looking for a new team? Well then you might be interested in taking a look. to the ASUS summer offers. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links This promo, which will be available until next August 9, has discounts of up to 69% on all types of equipment. Furthermore, the new members They will receive an additional discount on their purchases (coupon: ‘WELCOME10’). There are many interesting computers and devices, but these are the five we like the most: ASUS VivoBook Go 15 by 479.99 eurosa lightweight and very affordable laptop for working or studying. ASUS ProArt GoPro Edition by 2,999.99 eurosa beast for demanding users with 128 GB of RAM. ASUS Zenbook DUO by 1,799.99 eurosa very versatile laptop with a double OLED touch screen. ROG Xbox Ally by 499.99 eurosa top quality-price option to play wherever you want. ROG Strix G18 by 3,049.99 eurosa gaming laptop with the best of NVIDIA. ASUS VivoBook Go 15 We start with this VivoBook Go 15, an economical and light option that is perfect for working or studying. This device comes with a Ryzen 5 processor, 16 GB of LPDDR5 RAM and a 512 GB SSD, so it will last us several years at a high level. Its screen, which is 15.6 inches, has Full HD resolution and is also compatible with WiFi 6e. All taking into account that it weighs 1.63 kg, which makes it easy to transport. From 549.99 euros it now costs 479.99 euros. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links ASUS ProArt GoPro Edition If you are a content creator or usually edit video in 4K or 8K resolution, this ProArt GoPro Edition may fit you very well. It is a real beast thanks to its AMD Ryzen AI MAX+ 395 processor and 128 GB of RAM, which is also ideal for using AI models locally or for rendering video. In addition, it has a 2 TB SSD and a 13.3-inch OLED touch screen. And since it weighs just 1.39 kg, it’s also ideal for travel. From 3,599 euros it costs 2,999.99 euros. ASUS ProArt GoPro Edition The price could vary. We earn commission from these links ASUS Zenbook DUO A very versatile computer with two OLED touch screens. That’s this Zenbook DUO from ASUS, which is great if your priority is productivity, even if you’re not working at home or in the office. Beyond these two screens (14 inches and 3K resolution), it is a very interesting device with an Intel Core Ultra 7 255H processor, 32 GB of RAM and a 1 TB SSD. Right now it costs 1,799.99 eurosa discount of 200 euros compared to its RRP. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links ROG Xbox Ally We now move on to a consolidated PC or portable console such as the ROG Xbox Ally, possibly the best quality-price option right now. It is a very interesting machine that comes with Windows 11 installed as standard, which allows you to use Xbox Game Pass natively. It has the Ryzen Z2 processor, 16 GB of RAM and a 512 GB SSD. In addition, its 7-inch IPS screen with Full HD resolution has a 120 Hz refresh rate. Costs 499.99 euros. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links ROG Strix G18 And we close with a gaming laptop that, in fact, has one of the best graphics cards currently available, such as the RTX 5080. This ROG Strix G18 is a computer that will allow us to play any game at 4K, even the most demanding ones. It has a very good processor such as the Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX, 32 GB of RAM and a 1 TB SSD. Its screen is also 18 inches and has WQXGA resolution. It happens to cost 3,049.99 euros. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Some of the links in this article are affiliated and may provide a benefit to Xataka. In case of non-availability, offers may vary. Images | ASUS In Xataka | Best gaming laptops in quality price. Which one to buy based on use and six recommended models In Xataka | What is the best laptop for working in 2026. Tips and recommendations

A study reveals that we no longer know how to say “I don’t know”

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I notice that it is increasingly difficult for us to say “I don’t know.” Maybe it is one of the most honest acts that a person can do and, on the other hand, with the arrival of AI and with all the information at our disposal, it seems that we are losing that habit in conversations. a study He wanted to put some data on the table regarding the subject. And the conclusion reached by a group of researchers from different universities in Paris, Rome and Milan, by bringing together 3,100 participants, has been that having access to an AI, even if it gives wrong answers, pushes people to stop recognizing the limits of their own knowledge. I know everything. Recognizing that we don’t know something is more useful than we think, since it is a mental skill that prevents us from acting guided by false beliefs. The authors of the study they call her “suspension of judgment”, that is, the ability to stop before responding when there is uncertainty. As AI assistants sneak into more and more aspects of our lives, the research, signed by Chiara Marcoccia (École Normale Supérieure of Paris), Walter Quattrociocchi (Sapienza University of Rome) and Valerio Capraro (University of Milan-Bicocca), wanted to verify if the simple presence of these chatbots it alters the moment when we decide that we already know enough to answer. The experiment. To isolate the effect, the team purposely designed questions that were almost impossible for an AI to get right, with very specific visual details from movies, such as the color of the kit in ‘I Want to Be Like Beckham’ or the vehicle a character drives in ‘Like Cat and Mouse’. This is data so specific that it barely appears on the internet, so the model used in the experiment (Step 3.5 Flash) almost always failed. Participants could ask the AI ​​if they wanted, but they also always had the option of leaving the question blank or admitting they didn’t know the answer. Figures. In the group that did not have access to any assistant, 44% of the participants admitted not knowing the answer when appropriate. Among those who could ask AI for help, that percentage plummeted to 3%, according to collect the study. Furthermore, the proportion of correct answers also fell, from 27% to 9%. That is, people answered more questions, but they got much less right. The most striking thing is that, despite making more mistakes, the participants felt more confident, since according to the study, their confidence in the answers went from 30% to 76%, almost double. What if there is money at stake?. The researchers suspected that paying for getting it right (and penalizing for getting it wrong) might correct the problem. It did indeed help, but very little, because with financial incentives, the willingness to admit that they did not know the answer rose from 3% to 8%, and the correct answers went from 9% to 16%. Interestingly, the authors themselves expected the effect of AI to be weakened by money, but their data did not confirm this. And the pull towards trusting the machine turned out to be practically independent of the economic incentive. Boundaries. Capraro, co-author of the study, explained told The Register that people “became much worse” at their performance, being only one-third accurate than the non-AI group, but ended up “twice as confident” in their own answers. For the researcher, this ability to say “I don’t know” represents neither more nor less than “the recognition of the limits of our own knowledge.” On the other hand, Capraro was especially concerned about the effect that this phenomenon can have on children. According to declared In the middle, adults “already have formed critical thinking” before the massive arrival of these tools, but children who grow up using AI from the beginning “run the risk of never developing that basic ability to question an answer.” Cover image | Solen Feyissa and Dylan Gillis In Xataka | Meta warns: “We have been building infrastructure for humans for 20 years, we may have 20 months to rebuild it for agents”

Junior salaries have been in free fall for years. New study suggests the impact of AI is not so obvious

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We have been seeing headlines for a couple of years about the destruction that AI is doing to employment junior. And the usual reply: no, it’s an excuse, that companies cut when rates rise and AI is only a convenient justification. Both readings are partly right. That’s just the problem. The study. The Stanford Digital Economy Lab has been analyzing actual payrolls. Not surveys or estimates: payrolls. Published a study at the end of 2025 but keeps updated dashboard with much more recent data. The result. Employment of those aged 22 to 25 in professions highly exposed to AI has fallen since the end of 2022, just when ChatGPT arrived, and lately at a rate of 4% annually. In those over 30, in those same professions, it increases. Coinbase charged 14% of its workforce citing AI as the cause. Salesforce stopped hiring juniors last year. The nuance. The same study adds a very interesting nuance: the effect does not appear when the AI ​​helps someone do their job, but when it does it for them. Write code, answer ticketswrite a first draft: that’s where hiring goes down. Review, verify, support a decision: it remains there. It does not replace human work in general. It replaces the boring job you start with when you are a youngster. It’s time to stop and agree with those who disagree.. In 2001, relocation to India was blamed for a slowdown that actually came from interest rates: when rates fell, hiring returned, and the debate about India remained unresolved. The OECD points in the same direction in your report this month: Unemployment among young graduates was already rising before ChatGPT existed. Coexistence? The two things may coexist. But even if only part of the fall is done by the AI, that part attacks the step that no one else can replace. The intern who answers wrong tickets for six months or do well needing help you’re not wasting your time: you’re learning to fail cheaply in a controlled environment. Removing that step doesn’t fire anyone today. In ten years there will be a lack of people senior and no one will be able to explain why, because by then they will have forgotten that the bottom step disappeared long ago. Featured image | Xataka In Xataka | Spanish companies systematically hide their salary in job offers: there are notable exceptions

a study shows why it is a trap

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A common scene in any summer is seeing how people arrive at the beach, stick their umbrella in the sand, spread their towel or put their chair under the shade and breathe a sigh of relief because they think that this way they won’t get burned. The problem comes when you get home and, after taking a shower, you can clearly see how your skin is burned. The culprit. This situation, which is more common than we think, is not the fault of the material the umbrella is made of or even the protection factor assigned to these products, but rather the problem is in the sand itself and the rebound effect that the Sun’s rays have. The experiment. To understand what is happening here, we have to go to a great study published in 2017where researchers took 81 participants with sun-sensitive skin to a sunny Texas beach. They were left in this environment for 3 and a half hours at midday, but with the difference that one group of them only used a standard beach umbrella as protection and another group only used sunscreen with an SPF 100 factor without seeking shade. The results were devastating, since 78% of the participants who were under the umbrella developed sunburn, compared to 25% in the group that used the cream. Although if we look at the total number of injuries, the difference is even more overwhelming, as 142 incidences of sunburn were recorded under the umbrella, compared to only 17 in the sunscreen group. How is it possible? For many people, it makes no sense to burn their skin if they are constantly in the shade, but the answer to this lies in albedo, which is a metric that defines the percentage of radiation that is reflected by a specific surface. And ultraviolet light not only ‘falls’ from the sky in a straight line hitting us, but it also bounces off the ground and impacts from any direction. For example, we know that beach sand reflects between 15% and 20% of the UV radiation it receives, a figure that is much higher than that reflected by asphalt, which is around 2%. Although all of these remain ‘nothing’ if we compare it with snow, which is undoubtedly almost like a mirror, since it reflects a spectacular 85% of ultraviolet rays. You have to combine it. With all this data we should not fall into the thought that the umbrella is completely useless, but we should be aware of the importance of using sunscreen as soon as we leave home to prevent this radiation from affecting our skin. And logically, also combine it with the umbrella on the beach to achieve these two protection systems. It’s not just the beach. It is increasingly common to see people on the street who are walking with their umbrellabut here you are not exempt from suffering some burns because, as we have seen, even asphalt can reflect ultraviolet radiation. That is why sunscreen is not only an item that should be used when we go to the beach or pool, but in any situation where the UV index is high. Images | Engin Akyurt In Xataka | Italy has been privatizing its beaches for years. Now it has taken another step: prohibiting you from bringing your sandwich from home.

Two scientists will board a suborbital flight in 2027 to do the first real study of menstruation in microgravity

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If all goes well, in 2027 Virgin Galactic will launch Operation Period-01, a suborbital mission aimed at studying something that has never been done before: the effects of microgravity on menstruation. The first woman to travel to space was Valentina Tereshkova. He did it in 1963. Since then, around 100 women have traveled beyond Earth. However, in all this time it has not been studied how microgravity influences something that happens to the vast majority of adult women a few days a month for several decades of their lives. For whatever. Now, two engineers and astronauts in training want to solve the problem and both the Redshift laboratory and Virgin Galactic have made available the means to study menstruation in space, specifically in a suborbital flight. A study to close a gap that should never have been opened. Since space travel began, has been studied how microgravity affects bone density, muscle atrophy, sleep, cardiovascular function or mental health, among other issues. No trace of something that affects 50% of the population. For this reason, the two scientists who direct this project, Manju Bangalore and Priya Abiram, consider that there is a gap when it comes to studying the health of astronauts, which must be closed. What is known. In reality, there have already been women who have menstruated in space without posing operational difficulties. That is to say, beyond the generation of waste, they have not had the slightest problem in carrying out their functions within the mission. Therefore, we know that, in principle, menstruation symptoms do not worsen in space. However, as these scientists remember, everything that is known is due to historical records, not to well-designed research. Since there have been few cases of women menstruating in space, there is not enough information to draw solid conclusions. It is well known that microgravity affects fluid dynamics. This has a lot to do with menstruation. Therefore, it is logical that it should be studied further. For now, Bangalore and Abiram have done it in their laboratory, as part of the studies carried out by the organization Operation Period. Until next year they will not be able to do it in a real microgravity environment. History teaches us that it is necessary. In 1982, Sally Ride became the first American woman to travel to space. The second in the world to do so, after Tereshkova. According to her own account, when supplies for the ship were being prepared, she was asked if 100 tampons would be enough. 100 tampons for a mission that would last a week. With this it is clear that the people in charge of preparing these supplies do not have much idea about menstruation. Although they also offered her a makeup kit that she rejected. It seems like they had no idea about many things. On the other hand, it is known that in the 70s there were doctors who feared that women would travel to space, for fear of the effects of microgravity on menstruation. They thought that remnants of the endometrium could move into the abdomen and cause something similar to endometriosis. Today we know that, in principle, this does not happen, because it has not happened to any of the women who have menstruated during their missions. However, despite their “concern,” it never occurred to any doctor or scientist to conduct studies on the development of menstruation in space. Sally Ride was offered to bring 100 tampons for a week Most prefer not to have menstruation in space. There are female astronauts who have spoken openly about their management of menstruation in space. This is the case of the Italian Samantha Cristoforetti, who in 2022 he made statements about her personal case and that of some colleagues. She explained that they have a large arsenal of pads and tampons and that the management of menstruation in space is similar to what is done on Earth. However, the systems that process and recycle urine are not as good with menstrual blood. Extra filters are needed and can be tedious. For all this, many astronauts choose to suppress their period through the consumption of contraceptives. The freedom to decide. With their study, those responsible for Operation Period-01 hope that future astronauts will be able to make more informed decisions about the management of menstruation in space. If they finally want to take contraceptives, no problem. The bad thing is that, nowadays, since they have not studied in depth how microgravity affects menstruation, they prefer to avoid it directly. If suitable filters have already been found for urine recycling systems, that should not be a problem. Applications here on Earth. These scientists believe that, by studying menstruation in extreme conditions, their development could be much better understood and that knowledge applied here on Earth. For example, it would be useful in the study of reproductive medicine, as well as underdiagnosed diseases that affect menstrual health, including endometriosis and PCOS, which, by the way, recently a new name has been proposed. Breaking records. Manju Bangalore and Priya Abiram will carry out experiments that have never been done in space. It is not outer space, but it is a suborbital flight with real microgravity. That said, it should be noted that this is not the only thing in which they hope to overcome barriers; Well, if everything goes according to plan, they would become two of the youngest South Asian women to travel to space. It is clear that they are two women who want to break molds. It is great news that there are scientists like them. Image | Magnific/NASA In Xataka | Period pain in adolescence is not “normal”: massive study links it to increased risk of chronic pain in adulthood

A new study reveals its crucial role in memory consolidation

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The nap is an appointment that many people have during the afternoon and that is very difficult to leave aside. For decades, this practice has oscillated between being a purely Mediterranean cultural trait and a productivity “hack” repeated ad nauseum. However, taking a short break during the day is not a luxury for some, but is a top-level brain maintenance mechanism. They have studied it. To prove exactly why napping is so beneficial, a study chose to investigate the effects it has on the brain. Their objective was none other than to check if a short period of sleep could trigger the same ‘brain cleansing’ processes that occur during sleep. And the answer is a resounding yes. Neuronal “saturation”. To understand the impact of the study, you must first understand the synaptic homeostasis hypothesis. This tells us that since we wake up, our brain processes information non-stop and each stimulus and each new piece of information strengthens the connections between our neurons. A classic example may be in a student who is trying to learn an opposition syllabus. The problem is that this continuous increase in synaptic strength consumes a lot of energy and takes up physical and metabolic space. The really important thing here is that there comes a point in the day when the brain is “saturated” since cortical excitability is so high that the ability to consolidate new information plummets. This is when the system literally asks us to “reset” in order to continue processing the information to which we are exposing it. How have they seen it? The experiment involved 20 young adults, and rather than relying on subjective surveys of “how rested they felt,” the team turned to direct physical measurements. They used Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation to measure corticospinal excitability and electroencephalograms to monitor brain activity. Once the method was in place, it was decided to evaluate the patients first between 1:15 p.m. and 2:15 p.m., after spending a good amount of time awake, and then after taking a 45-minute nap. The results. They clearly saw with these analyzes that the brain cleaned its neurons and irrelevant connections were weakened, lowering the “background noise” and returning the system to an optimal state to create new connections again. But also, by releasing this charge, the neurons recovered a very high capacity to induce Long Term Enhancement. That is, the brain was once again in optimal conditions to create a lasting memory. The 20 minute rule. A mantra that can be heard is that the optimal nap should be twenty minutes long in order to regain alertness quickly. However, this study indicates that, to achieve a true architectural recalibration of plasticity in the cerebral cortex, entering into a cycle of about 45 minutes allows the memory consolidation mechanisms to act in depth. In this way, taking a break during the day is not at all something ‘lazy’ but rather it is a brain recalibration system that will allow us to increase our productivity when working or studying. In Xataka | In Spain we have glorified the long nap. In scientific studies they have a different opinion on the matter.

A study confirms that they are more durable than previously believed

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For years, the fear of an electric car battery failing prematurely has been one of the great brakes to make the leap to this type of vehicles. And although they are still systems with a good margin for improvement, the technology has advanced a lot since the Nissan Leaf It was first put into circulation in 2010. In fact, several recent studies based on real data from hundreds of thousands of cars suggest that this fear was, to some extent, unjustified. Why it is important. The cost of replacing a battery is one of the main reasons why many buyers are still wary of electric vehicles. In fact, according to a 2025 survey by the firm AutoPacific shared According to the Wall Street Journal, the fear of having to pay for a battery replacement is the number one reason why potential buyers rule out an electric vehicle. In detail. The most recent datacompiled by the analysis firm Recurrent from thousands of real vehicles in circulation, show that an average electric vehicle retains around 95% of its original range after five years of use. And the trend improves the newer the car, since according to the study, 2026 models retain an average of 97% of their autonomy after three years and 95% after five. The difference with the first electric ones is even more striking if you look at the battery replacement rate. One in twelve electric cars manufactured between 2011 and 2016 had to change their battery at some point. Among those manufactured from 2022 onwards, that figure has fallen to 0.3%, according to the same Recurrent data. Between the lines. Why have things improved so much? Experts point to better battery chemistries, more sophisticated thermal management systems and increasingly precise control software. Viet Nguyen-Tien, a researcher at the London School of Economics specializing in electric vehicles, explains told the WSJ that these advances have allowed modern batteries to last as long as a combustion car engine, even traveling more kilometers. Additionally, a less obvious reason is that traditional lab tests were much more aggressive than real driving. Simona Onori, researcher at Stanford University, counted to NPR that in everyday use the car constantly accelerates, brakes and recovers energy, a pattern much less demanding on the battery than the extreme charge and discharge cycles that were previously used to simulate its wear. According to Onori, batteries “age very gracefully” when used like this. On the other hand, Cox Automotive, which manages used car auctions in the United States, has analyzed nearly 80,000 electric cars and found an average battery health of 92%. And among electric vehicles that are more than ten years old, more than 90% continue to circulate with their original battery, according to Recurrent data cited by NPR. Be careful, not everything is perfect. Batteries do degrade faster in certain circumstances. The fast direct current charging often accelerates wear. And it is that according to the telematics company Geotaba battery usually charged at high power loses autonomy at twice the rate of one charged more gently, although even then it retains about 90% of its capacity after several years. As shared in WSJ, always charging at 100% or leaving the battery at 0% for a long time also accelerates aging, as do extreme temperatures, whether cold or hot. And now what. It is still early to know how long these batteries will really last in the very long term, because the vast majority of electric vehicles in circulation have not even remotely reached the end of their useful life. Scott Case, CEO of Recurrent, think that people’s confidence in these batteries should be considerably greater than it exists today. Cover image | Eren Goldman In Xataka | Xavier Celda, Norauto specialist: “Many do not check the air conditioning gas because they do not spend 60 euros and the breakdown is 400”

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