study

60 years ago a student wanted to study the mountains of the United States. Unknowingly felled the oldest known tree

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At a glance ‘Prometheus’ It was a twisted, rugged, whimsically shaped pine tree that stood on a Nevada mountain. Nothing to do with gigantic sequoias of Redwood National Park, also in the USA, where specimens of more than 100 meters high with bases that are around 30 m in diameter. That, of course, at first glance. Although its size was not striking and it barely stood out in the grove in which it sprouted, ‘Prometheus’ was a tree of almost 5,000 yearswhich made it one of the oldest in the world. Why do we talk about him in the past tense? Very simple: because in the 60s a student who was especially diligent with his research felled it with permission from the authorities. With you, the Pinus longaeva. Its name may not be as well known as that of the redwoods, the baobabs or the Douglas firstrees that have been fascinating humanity for centuries due to their colossal dimensions, but the bristlecone pines (Pinus longaeva) are just as amazing. Not because of its size, but because of its age. Located primarily in the higher altitude mountains of California, this species has managed to survive for several millennia. As? Its growth is very slow and they usually sprout separately from each other, which allows them to adapt to harsh habitats and withstand fires better. The key to its longevity however lies in its “architecture” and adaptations. As remember from the US National Park Service (NPS), the roots of the Pinus longaeva They only nourish the part of the tree that is directly above them. If that root dies, it only affects its section of the tree. Hence, it is not unusual to see specimens with dry bark on one side and that, however, continue to grow healthily. an old acquaintance. In Wheeler PeakNevada, stood years ago a magnificent specimen of Pinus longaeva. Its height was nothing out of this world, but it was so twisted and had such an ancient appearance that mountaineers in the area They baptized him ‘Prometheus’. Seen in perspective, the nickname is still ironic. In the classical mythology Zeus imposed a horrible punishment on the titan of that name for giving humanity the gift of fire and metallurgy. At Wheeler Peak the ‘Prometheus’ that grew rooted to the mountain ended up perishing precisely because of the efforts of a university student to understand the geology of the region. To understand it you have to go back to summer of 1964when Donald R. Currey, a graduate student studying the ice age of eastern Nevada, had an idea: To better understand the formation of glaciers, he decided to extract samples from the oldest trees that grew in the region. It wasn’t anything groundbreaking. The dendrochronologythe discipline that is responsible for studying climate patterns by analyzing tree rings, dates back to the beginning of the 20th century. In fact, the idea of ​​obtaining samples from the logs sounded so reasonable that authorities raised no objections when Currey asked for permission to study them. The great unknown. In theory, what Currey proposed was to use a drill bit to remove small samples of the trunk, a kind of cylinders from the trunk. pencil size that could later be analyzed in the laboratory. It came with the different rings and their characteristics being appreciated. When it was ‘Prometheus’ turn, something went wrong. Or so it is believed, since more than six decades later it’s still not entirely clear what exactly happened at Wheeler Peak. Some accounts claim that Currey’s drill bit broke while the geologist was trying to make his way through the dense pine wood, so he requested help from the Forest Service. To solve it, the workers opted for the most radical solution: they took out the chainsaw and cut down the tree. Other versions claim that Currey did not know how to work with such a complicated specimen or that there was simply no error and from the beginning he needed a complete cross section to study the trunk. Regardless, there are two clear details. First, that was the end of ‘Prometheus’. Second, Currey did not work as foreigners. He had permission from the Forest Service. And the surprise came. It was not necessary to cut ‘Prometheus’ in two to intuit that it was a very ancient tree. If Currey looked at this pine and others in the area it was precisely because he assumed that they were old enough to give him a broad ‘snapshot’ of the climatic events that had occurred in the region. The surprise came when he took the piece of wood to his laboratory. As ancient as I suspected ‘Prometheus’ to be, one thing is clear: Currey fell short. When he started counting growth rings, he added neither more nor less than 4,862. Given the harsh conditions in which the pine grew, which could have influenced the formation of the layers, the experts ended up concluding that its age was most likely closer to 4,900 years. That is to say, the ancient tree already appeared on the Nevada mountain when the pharaohs reigned in ancient Egypt or Hammurabi ruled in Babylon. The oldest in the world? Although environmental awareness in the 1960s was not the same as it is today, the mistake was considerable. Especially since it was the Forest Service itself that made it possible. The age of ‘Prometheus’ is in fact so astonishing that the NPS itself recognize which at the time was considered “the oldest tree ever dated.” It even surpassed the famous tree ‘Methuselah’other Pinus longaeva of California that is around 4,850 years old. Today that title is in question. Especially after a theoretically even older tree was discovered in 2012, another bristlecone from more than 5,000 years. The US authorities recognize in any case that it is “very likely” that there are other, even older, undated specimens of the same species. “The bristlecone pines of the Great Basin are notable for being the oldest non-clonal species on the … Read more

a macro study reveals the exact heart rate to minimize the risk of stroke

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Nowadays we monitor our vital signs, such as heart rateon the wrist itself thanks to smartwatches and activity bracelets that constantly tell us how many beats per minute our heart beats at rest. This information is vital, since traditionally it is believed that having an excessively high number is an indication that something bad is happening in the heart. The middle point is the best. In medicine, both due to excess and scarcity, we can find a scenario that is pathological, and that is why, although we relate high heart rate as something very negative, we must keep in mind that having them excessively low It is not always positive. This is the main conclusion of a pioneering research presented at the European Stroke Organization Conference, and although it has yet to undergo review, its foundations are extraordinarily solid, based on the analysis of 460,000 participants over 14 years. Crossing data. Of all these people analyzed, the researchers were especially interested in their medical histories and the diseases they presented, highlighting the registration of a total of 12,290 cases of stroke during the decade and a half of follow-up. But what is truly important here is when these records were crossed with the resting heart rate data of the participants, discovering a very clear pattern by showing a risk graph in the shape of a ‘U’ and not a straight line. Its meaning. The fact that a graph with this shape has been generated tells us that the optimal heart rate level is between 60 and 69 beats per minute, since these people were the ones with the lowest risk of suffering from a stroke. The problem is that, when the heart rate at rest exceeds 90 bpm, the risk of suffering a stroke increases by up to 45%, both ischemic and hemorrhagic. But in the case of having excessively low heart rate, the risk also increases, so we cannot be completely calm if we have 50 bpm at rest. Atrial fibrillation. Until now, medicine was very clear that severe arrhythmias such as atrial fibrillation They were determining risk factors for suffering a stroke. But now this study adjusted the data specifically to separate people with and without atrial fibrillation, showing that resting heart rate is, on its own, an independent prognostic marker. Because? Although this study gives us a lot of information, the reality is that previous medical literature already offered a fairly rigorous explanation as to why a low or high heart rate had implications for strokes. In this case, an excessively low frequency can alter cerebral hemodynamics, causing blood to pass too slowly through the brain, and facilitating the formation of thrombi in certain contexts, especially when there are more risk factors. On the other side of the scale, when the frequency is chronically high, we have the layer of our blood vessels exposed to blood flow, exposed to constant mechanical stress that favors inflammation, hypertension and vascular damage, as has been shown in previous studies. Preventive medicine. These findings are good news for patients, especially older patients, since it is a new parameter that can predict the possibility of something as serious as a stroke occurring. This allows, especially in primary care, to better control the heart rate and not miss when it goes too fast or too slow, since the consequences can be fatal. Images | freepik In Xataka | We cannot predict a stroke, but we can avoid its main risk factors: reducing the danger is in our power

A new study reveals how they manage to avoid cancer

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Reaching 100 years old is a statistical feat, but do it while avoiding diseases as serious as cancer or surviving a serious infection is almost a superpower. For decades, science has been asked what makes centenarians biologically special to reach where few reach, and the clearest answer we have right now is that your immune system ages at a completely different rate than the rest of us mortals. The passage of time. As we age, our body deteriorates at a more or less rate depending on how much we have taken care of it with the lifestyle we have wanted to follow. But something that cannot be skipped is the generation of a low-grade chronic inflammation called ‘inflammation‘ which is the perfect breeding ground for cells to deteriorate, cardiovascular problems and tumors to appear. An exception. But as a recent review points out published in Nature With Spanish participation, it has been seen that centenarians have an extremely efficient system for “cleaning” damaged or senescent cells before they cause problems, something that is very efficient in young people, but becomes less so with the passage of time. But in addition, compared to the impoverishment of the intestinal flora common in old age, centenarians preserve a spectacular microbial diversity, also lacking the pro-inflammatory obesity that affects a large part of the population. But not everything is natural genetics, since the habits one follows and the environment in which one has lived shape part of the genetics by activating or deactivating genes, protecting them from accumulated damage. The paradox of cancer. One of the most fascinating data that medical research reveals is the relationship between centenarians and cancer. Although the risk of suffering from tumors increases with age as more genetic errors accumulate, when the 100-year barrier is exceeded, the curve falls sharply. This means that the incidence of cancer in people over the age of one century is less than 4%. And again the question is: why? Here, science suggests that centenarians have very high selective cytotoxicity, that is, cells with problems inside are destroyed before they get worse. Here the protagonists are the immune cells that maintain relentless anti-tumor surveillance, eliminating malignant cells with the efficiency of a young adult, but maintaining a high tolerance towards their own healthy tissues to avoid autoimmune diseases such as the famous rheumatoid arthritis that is quite common in older people. We are moving forward. The study does not remain only in the laboratory, but compiles evidence about the “real world” such as the famous ‘Blue Zones’ of Okinawa (Japan) where great longevity among its inhabitants stands out. Here the autopsies on the corpses indicated that their coronary arteries were obstructed by age but that they had only suffered massive fatal heart attacks. Here the body had found ways to adapt and survive. During the worst waves of COVID, there have also been cases of centenarians in residences who managed to survive the virus even without being vaccinated. This fits with the published data in 2023 by Nature Aging on supercentenarians in Boston, who revealed an “elite” immune system, trained by a lifetime of environmental exposures that formed a profile highly resilient to infections. For the future. Although genetics are important, what we can control much better are lifestyle habits and their effect on how certain genes are expressed. In this way, it is about investigating the people who survive the longest with the aim of ‘copying’ what they do to find the Holy Grail of longevity. Images | freepik In Xataka | The promise of 120 years is dismantled: biology sets a life ceiling that is quite difficult to break

We believed that the secret to rest was sleeping eight hours. A study has shown that we forget a big element

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One of the mantras most repeated ad nauseum in the field of health is related to the need to sleep at least eight hours nightly. A goal that has been widely studied with the repercussions that failure to meet it may have. But now we have seen how the regularity in sleep is a much more powerful preacher of long-term health than mere duration. It’s when you sleep. Although we had very ‘glorified’ how much sleep we have to, trying to make up for lost hours on the weekendthe reality is that the important thing is to have good consistency, as is the case with many other processes. The regularity. The scientific consensus on this paradigm shift is gaining strength, and the last major proof is published by the National Sleep Foundation with an article that points to this regularity as one of the most forgotten components of our nocturnal habits. The key here lies in the internal clock, since we must remember that the time of waking up and early exposure to natural light is what activates our internal system with the cortisol release. In this way, by maintaining a constant reference, we ensure that critical biological processes, from hormonal secretion to body temperature, are regularized. When we don’t respect it. Just like when we travel to another country and we follow schedules very different from ours, the same thing happens here. We have the classic situation on the weekend, where we go to bed late and get up two or three hours later than usual, and surely the feeling when we get up is exhaustion. This is what is now known as ‘social jet lag’ or ‘Monday jet lag’, responsible for that mental fog, lack of alertness and low cognitive function with which we start the week. A shield. Unlike total sleep duration, regularity is a direct marker of the integrity of our circadian system, since when the internal clock and the demands of the environment become out of sync, known as chronodisruption, the body suffers. Just like when we travel between countries or experience time change. Here, a study published in Health Data Science HE dedicated analyzed more than 88,000 adults in the United Kingdom and found that irregular sleep patterns are associated with a greater predisposition to suffer from up to 172 different diseases. In fact, actigraphy studies have shown that intra-individual variability in our sleep hours is a direct marker of all-cause mortality, so trying to accumulate hours on Saturdays and Sundays not only does not save the furniture, but it puts us at risk. The impact of irregularity. In this sense, a linear relationship can be seen between sleep instability and the risk of suffering a cardiac event. But trying to “compensate” for tiredness on the weekend also results in worse insulin sensitivity and ends up altering glucose metabolism, which causes the bill to be quite expensive in the long run. Furthermore, the lack of a clear sleep routine causes a chronic pro-inflammatory state. This alteration compromises our immune response to pathogens, worsens the regulation of autoimmune diseases, and decreases the ability of our cells to repair themselves and eliminate metabolic waste. In summary, following set hours of sleep is essential if we really want to have optimal results in our daily lives. Images | diana.grytsku in Magnific In Xataka | We have accepted that “deep sleep” is the standard for sleep quality: science points in another direction

Barbacid’s promising cancer study has been withdrawn. The reason is not science, it is a “hidden” spin-off

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Last December, the team led by the prestigious researcher Mariano Barbacid filled the headlines of the main media with great news: had found a triple therapy to eliminate pancreatic tumors in animal models. Very relevant news because of how deadly pancreatic cancer is and how it affects our society, but now this euphoria has hit a wall after the decision of the US National Academy of Sciences to remove the item from PNAS magazine. The context. The original article, published on December 2 of last year, was not just another publication, but described the results of administering three drugs in 45 mice who had pancreatic cancer. And although it was a preclinical study that had not been tested in humans and was the expected next step, it generated great expectation. The promise of a cure, even if it was in the animal phase, propelled intense fundraising campaigns to be able to start a clinical trial with humans as soon as possible. In this way, foundations such as CRIS against cancer achieved raise 3.7 million euros in the heat of these advances and thanks to the media showcase that was given to them. And now they withdraw it. The first thing to keep in mind when faced with so many alarmist headlines is that it is not removed from the PNAS magazine because the results have been invented or exaggerated, but rather the reason lies in the omission of important information regarding to conflict of interest. In this case Mariano Barbacid, taking advantage of his status as a member of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States, used a “fast track” of publication that is reserved for academics of this institution. The problem is that this privilege requires scrupulous and impeccable transparency. Data omission. As detailed by El Paísthe alarms went off in February 2026, when the academy received notices about possible conflicts of interest that have now led to the sudden retraction of the article. The problem is that Mariano Barbacid, along with researchers Carmen Guerra and Vasiliki Liaki, are co-owners of Vega Oncotargetsa spin-off which was born in the ecosystem of the National Cancer Research Center (CNIO) with the aim of developing and marketing therapies against pancreatic cancer like this one. This is why informing the journal that the authors had a direct economic and business interest in the success of the study is a violation of the most basic transparency regulations in scientific publication. It always happens. When a researcher wants to publish the results of his or her research, a lot of data must always be provided, both about the method that has been followed and everything behind it, such as the source of financing or the conflicts behind. For example, if a researcher owns shares of a large pharmaceutical company and studies one of its drugs, logically good results will benefit him because the value of the company will increase. And this is something that should always be reported so that anyone reading the research knows if the researcher may have been influenced by an economic component. And in this particular case, the fact that there is already a company that will commercialize the future therapy that is being investigated is logically something that must always be specified, because if the study goes well, it logically benefits the company enormously. There are already answers. As we say, PNAS sanctions bad practice when it comes to being transparent, but in no case does it indicate that the research is poorly done. Along these lines, Carmen Guerra has already admitted the error, as El País points out, and has confirmed that the team has resubmitted the article with this correction, detailing that they do have participation in Vega Oncatargerts. The problem is that now they are going to have to go through the entire standard review process and the republishing will not be fast. Images | UPV brgfx on Freepik In Xataka | Mice today, hope tomorrow: researchers have managed to attack pancreatic cancer before it forms

the study that reveals its birth in an isolated corner of the galaxy

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2025 was the year of 3I/ATLAS, the third interstellar visitor that telescopes have been able to capture prowling the Earth. From the beginning it was considered that it could possibly be much older than the other two, Oumuamua and 2I/Borisov. However, there were many unknowns about its origin. Now, thanks to a recently published study by scientists at the University of Michigan, we have much more data on the matter. A visitor from a cold and distant place. According to observations made from the ALMA Observatoryin the Atacama Desert (Chile), 3I/ATLAS formed in a cold and isolated corner of our galaxy, before definitively integrating into its own solar system. The key is in deuterium. The observations that led to this recent study were made between October and December 2025. Several telescopes focused their attention on our interstellar visitor to observe the water on its surface and observed something striking: it had very high levels of deuterium. This is an isotope of hydrogen, somewhat heavier than the most abundant on Earth. In astronomy the deuterium/hydrogen ratio is used to estimate the age of objectssince it has been observed that the more primitive they are, the more deuterium they have. But this proportion also helps to know the temperature at which they were formed. A reaction without turning back. In the cold gas clouds in which stars form, the most abundant molecules They are hydrogen, followed by carbon monoxide (CO). Hydrogen participates in something known as deuteron-proton exchange reactions, where hydrogen protons and deuterium isotopes react with each other, forming something known as deuterated hydrogen. This is the reaction: H3+​+HD⇌H2​D++H2​ CO can compete with this reaction, making it less efficient. However, when it is very cold, the CO freezes into dust grains and cannot react. On the other hand, the deuteration reaction can occur in both directions (hence the two arrows), but if it is cold there is not enough energy to produce it backwards. All the hydrogen with deuterium that is formed accumulates. a lonely star. The fact that 3I/ATLAS occurred in such a cold environment may indicate that it possibly originated around a solitary star. If there had been other stars forming around it, it would be much hotter. Very far away now. Today, that interstellar visitor is near Jupiter, preparing to leave our solar system. It can only be observed with a few instruments. Luckily, he came to our neighborhood long enough to give us a lot of valuable information. Why is it useful information?. We already have a lot of data about 3I/ATLAS. For example, its core measures between 440 meters and 5.6 kilometers. Also that it moves at 220,000 km/h. Now, in addition, we know that it originated in an extremely cold environment, about 11,000 million years ago. This helps us understand the conditions of primitive planetary formation much better. As they always say, to know where we are going, it is very important to understand where we come from. There’s nothing like a visitor from a place far, far away to give us the pieces we need to understand it. Image |NSF/AUI/NSF NRAO/M.Weiss In Xataka | A Harvard astronomer has accused NASA of hiding 3I/ATLAS images. has an explanation

For decades we believed that extreme nausea during pregnancy was caused by “hormones.” A large study found the real culprit

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The beginning of pregnancy for many is associated with horrible nausea and vomiting that have become almost an inevitable and deeply annoying toll in pregnancy and that many women fear. And the reality is that, for a percentage of these women, nausea becomes a big problem and evolves into a very serious form called hyperemesis gravidarum. What was believed. At first, the most classic reviews They pointed squarely at the ‘hormonal dance’ that pregnant women experience while the placenta is forming. Here the peaks of human chorionic gonadotropin (which is the hormone that pregnancy tests detect), along with estrogens and progesterone, were the main responsible for this discomfort. However, in clinical practice, the exact cause remained uncertain, since it was not understood why some women only felt mild morning sickness and others ended up hospitalized due to the severe dehydration caused by vomiting. And the answer was in the DNA. A great study. Here science has dotted the i’s with an article published in Nature which has analyzed the data of almost 11,000 cases of hyperemesis gravidarum and contrasted it with more than 420,000 women who did not have this problem. The result. He targeted ten genes associated with this severe form of extreme nausea, but among all of them the GDF15 gene emerged as the main culprit. And here the different experts point out that the developing fetus and the placenta produce the hormone GDF15, which is produced from the gene that we mentioned before and sends it directly to the blood, causing this nausea. Although the key is not just how much hormone is produced, but the degree of prior exposure the mother had to this hormone before pregnancy. In this way, women who had low levels of GDF15 before becoming pregnant turn out to be much more sensitive to the sudden surge of this hormone from the fetus, which triggers the most severe symptoms of nausea and vomiting. A discovery with evidence. Despite the forcefulness that accompanies this evidence, the study suggests that the gene GDF15 It is the main cause, but not the only one. The fact that there are other genes involved demonstrates that hyperemesis gravidarum is a multifactorial condition so calling it the “sole cause” would be scientifically inaccurate, but classifying it as the most determining genetic factor is, today, a fact supported by the best peer-reviewed literature. What does it mean? Identifying GDF15 as the main biological switch of this problem is undoubtedly the first step to be able to apply a treatment that can help these future mothers who suffer from significant vomiting during pregnancy, and especially in the first trimester. Although it is true that this does not explain many other symptoms of pregnancy, such as heartburn or that some things begin to feel bad ‘just because’. Although there is still a lot of research ahead to discover them. Images | tirachardz on Freepik In Xataka | We have been sending pregnant women to bed for decades as a precaution. Science has just proven that it is a big mistake

The science of learning dismantles the mathematical rule of the fashionable study method

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When it comes to studying anything, almost all of us want to have a system that allows us learn quickly and efficient. This is where we can turn to the Internet, where there are numerous pages that promise us almost miraculous systems to pass easily, and one of them is the 2-7-30 method. But… What does science say about this system? What is it about? This method focuses on a system where you have to review the information exactly 2, 7 and 30 days after having addressed it on the first occasion. Something that is quite similar to what we want to achieve with the flashcards. Something that a priori seems quite simple to put into practice, but which can generate quite a bit of fear by leaving a topic shelved for so many days in the last round. It gives good results. But it is the best from the point of view of science, and to understand it, we have to go to the basics of how our memory works. And this method is based on the spacing effectwhich undoubtedly far surpasses the classic ‘binge’ the night before an exam, where you try to get all the data in in a matter of hours. Here, a classic meta-analysis published in 2006 in Psychological Bulletin, analyzed 839 measures in 317 experiments and confirmed that distributing practice over separate intervals dramatically improves retention. But even in the past, other studies suggested that repeating material over time consolidates memory much more efficiently. Recovery practice. There is no point in spacing out the reviews if, when day 2 or day 7 of the method arrives, we limit ourselves to passively rereading the notes. Here different studies have shown that actively trying to remember information produces much more lasting learning than passively re-studying it. In this way, forcing the brain to “rescue” that data strengthens neuronal connections, and science points to the advantage of active remembering over traditional binge-watching methods, such as making conceptual maps. The enemy to beat. The concept of reviewing in increasingly longer windows of time is born from the need to combat our natural decline in retention. This is where a work on the “forgetting curve” by Hermann Ebbinghaus comes into play, which demonstrated that we lose most of the newly learned information within hours or days if we do nothing to retain it. More modern replications of this idea confirm that this initial rapid forgetting is real and useful to contextualize the problem, although researchers depend on different factors and not only the strict passage of time. That is why the idea we should stick with is that every time we review the information, the forgetting curve resets and its slope becomes gentler so that it takes longer to disappear. The myth of exact numbers. Although it has been shown that spacing study days, in reality science does not identify 2, 7 and 30 days as a universally valid pattern for all learning and people, but will depend on many factors. Here, a study published in 2008 showed that the optimal interval between reviews depends on the retention interval we are looking for, but that the spacing changes radically if the objective is to remember something for an exam that is due in a week versus if we want to remember something in a year, as can happen in an opposition. In this way we get the following pattern: If the exam is in 1 week, the reviews should be separated by just 1 or 2 days. If the exam is in 1 year, Reviews should be spaced several weeks or even a month apart. Images | freepik In Xataka | SQ3R technique: the study method that helps you understand the subjects, not just remember them

One study compares what AI does to your ability to think to boiled frog syndrome. The frog does not come out well

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There are two things that the technology industry is pushing hard. On the one hand, short videos. The TikTok format ‘broke’ it a few years ago to the point that platforms like Instagram or YouTube jumped headlong into copying them. On the other hand, AI. Everything must have AI, and now a chatbot He must be our assistant at all times. In parallel, every time more studies appear that point to something disturbing. That, perhaps, our brain is eroding. In short. Months ago, a study pointed out that chatbots cause cognitive surrender, another that makes us lazy and there is even one from Microsoft itself pointing in the same direction. One of the last is the elaborated by researchers from MIT, the University of California, Oxford, and Carnegie Mellon titled “AI Assistance Reduces Persistence and Harms Independent Performance.” To test the hypothesis, they conducted three experiments in which they let part of the participants access a bot based on GPT-5 and, after ten minutes, they cut off that access. Before the results, the tests: Equation Test – 350 people had to solve those problems. Qlogic test – 670 people had to take a mathematical test, but of logical reasoning in this case. Reading comprehension test – 200 participants who had to analyze a text and complete a brief reading comprehension series. We are so-so. As we say, part of the sample had access to that bot that was deactivated in the middle of the ‘exam’, and the result was the same in all three tests. As the researchers point out, when access to AI is interrupted, not only does the participants’ performance drop, but also their perseverance. In statements to the magazine Futurismone of the researchers points out that “once we take away the AI, it is not just that they make mistakes when giving the answer, it is that they are not willing to try either.” There was a distinction between AI users: Those who wanted the easy answer were the quickest to lose interest in attempting the task when they no longer had access to the tool. Those who asked for explanations or not to “cheat” directly had better results because some did try to continue with the task. The boiled frog. That’s where the analogy of the boiled frog that applies so well to this situation. The premise is that if we put a frog in a saucepan of boiling water, the frog will jump as soon as it senses danger. However, if we put the frog in the saucepan with warm water and heat it little by little, the animal will cook. This is not the case because the frog is obviously not stupid and, as long as it cannot be thermoregulateit will jump, but the analogy serves to explain what is happening with AI and those who delegate all tasks to a chatbot so as not to have to think. Are they making us dumber? Fools, fools… wouldn’t be the word. Rather, we become lazy. We don’t think because, after all, we have AI to do it for us. Without going into the danger that it poses (because now AIs are free, but tomorrow they may take them away from us at a stroke and turn them into a paid product even for the most basic tasks), the researchers they point out that, if someone uses AI in their daily life for all types of tasks, that person runs the risk of seeing their capabilities erode to the point of creating a dependency on the system because they do not know how to do anything without it. with head. This study, like many others, is not a criticism of artificial intelligence. As we have once said, it is just another tool, but you have to have criteria when using it. As the researchers point out, performance and interest are not the same in the case of someone who uses AI as a quick response as in the case of someone who just wants a concept explained to them. What they are clear about is that their observations, apart from those of other studies, should serve as a basis when designing how to integrate chatbots into educational programs. Because we are already seeing that there are countries and institutions that are integrating AI into classrooms and the conclusion of the study is that the analytical and creative thinking that we develop during youth is vital in adulthood. “Practice makes you better, and that is precisely what AI will take away from you. We will have a generation of students and people who will not know what they are capable of, and then that will hurt both innovation and human creativity” – Rachit Dubey, computational cognitive scientist at the University of California fast food. I commented at the beginning that short videos were also affecting us and it was not a toast to the Sun. It has a lot to do with the use of AI to obtain easy answers because the bottom line is the same: not having to think. It is something related to the concept of “brain rot” and the trap of dopamine, creating that dependency. In the case of short videos with slop and empty content, another implication is that little by little they break our attention span. That is why videos on YouTube The aim is to hook you from the beginningthe songs are getting shorter and have choruses that fit into the 15 seconds of an Instagram story, microdramas are the order of the day and when you start watching a movie that is not releasing dopamine, not even five minutes pass until you pick up your phone. It’s up to us to let the frog stew until it’s cooked… or if it jumps out of the pot. Images | J. Ronald LeeChatGPT (edited) In Xataka | The big names in AI are fighting over neuroscientists like they were soccer stars

what a new study has discovered studying flies

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The brain is an extremely energy-demanding organ, as it needs a large amount of glucose to function correctly. But sometimes not everything focuses on functioning to live, but also to accumulate new memories or knowledge, something that students who put themselves in front of books need above all. And now we know that sugar can be your best ally. A new paradigm. A priori, we may think that what we eat is like a large amount of gasoline that we pour into the tank we have inside us. However, a recent study published in Nature describes an unprecedented biological mechanism, pointing out that it is not sugar that magically improves memory, but rather it is consuming it after learning something new, such as a study session, that can consolidate it. All this along with a good rest too. What has been seen? Here the researchers subjected a group of flies to aversive learning that began to be spaced out over time, in this way a neutral stimulus was associated with an experience that was detected as unpleasant so that they learned to reject it. Under this pretext, the researchers observed that subjecting the flies to this learning system causes the “hijacking” of the fructose-detecting neurons, which is a type of carbohydrate, in the brain of the flies. There is more. The fascinating thing about all this is that it happens even when the flies are completely full, so the learning generates a kind of temporary “non-homeostatic hunger.” In this way, after the cognitive effort, if the fly ingests sugar, these neurons, which had been disinhibited by learning, become massively activated. And it is something fundamental because activation triggers the release of a hormone called thyrostimulinwhich acts as the definitive signal to consolidate long-term memory. It’s not just about the taste. This article does not come out of nowhere, but already in 2017 a research group showed that the brain is too smart to be fooled by the sweeteners that give us the sweet taste. Here the concept “caloric frustration memory” was introduced, which pointed out that the brain perfectly distinguishes between sweet taste and real energy value. That is why for certain memories to be optimally consolidated, the nutritional value matters as much or more than the simple taste reward. Furthermore, this same French team demonstrated in 2024 that diverting the flow of glucose to neurons plays a vital role in memory memory. fruit fly, and that the metabolic activation of certain areas of the brain is an essential trigger for long-term memory. In humans. Although this is something that has been seen in flies right now, it offers us an incredible window into evolutionary neurobiology. This is something that gives us hope that, at a fundamental level, brains have evolved to link energy availability with metabolic expenditure in order to create new memories. If we look at the literature, there are studies that have analyzed this same effect in our own brains. Specifically, it has been seen that administering glucose can temporarily improve certain cognitive aspects. This is especially noticeable in verbal memory, episodic memory, and in hippocampal-dependent tasks such as object-location binding. Although in no case should you gorge yourself on sugar to be able to learn much faster. Images | Marcos Paulo Prado Daniel Kraus In Xataka | The memory of young people is deteriorating at a record pace. Science thinks it knows why

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