time

The time since 1940 has changed a lot. We finally have a time machine to see it on an interactive map

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I was born on a Monday in September at noon and, obeying the tradition of the San Miguel summer, the weather was mild and sunny even though October was just around the corner. I know this because my mother has told me a lot of times, but today I also just confirmed it. And be careful, finding out the weather of a day in the 80s was not a priori as easy as knowing what it was last year: it normally involved resorting to scientific databases or finding paper records, which are already old. The good news is that there is a free tool, accessible from any browser and moderately intuitive so that anyone can know what the weather was like on any day (and any time!) from today until 1940, from your date of birth to your wedding or a trip. The not so good news is that it is the best test to see how time is changing due to climate change. His name is Weather Replay and in a few words it works like a meteorological time machine in the form of a weather visualization web application. Behind this website there are two top-level European projects: on the one hand Copernicus Climate Change Serviceintegrated into the EU space program and with the aim of offering rigorous climate data available to everyone. On the other hand, ECMWF, the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasting, the world reference body for numerical weather prediction. Weather Replay Home Screen The climate time machine starts in 1940 The first screen says roughly what it does: you choose a date and time, use the box at the bottom left to write a location and from there you can see a 48-hour animation where the atmospheric conditions of that specific moment are reproduced: temperature, wind, precipitation, pressure and a few other variables. Everything is very visual and available in a few seconds, without installing anything or registering. Layers are a key element to learn more information. Weather Replay Although there is an initial tutorial that may be interesting to follow, the buttons and their function and the legend are easy to understand and despite its simple appearance, it is quite powerful and with practical options to only have what interests us such as zooming, modifying colors and levels or layers. An especially interesting function is being able to compare the time on two specific dates. Swipe left and right to see what the weather was like on two days from 1940 to today. Weather Replay Under the hood of this comprehensive interactive map is ERA5, the ECMWF global atmospheric reanalysis that continuously reconstructs the state of the atmosphere using real data from satellites, sounding balloons, ocean buoys and weather stations with high-resolution numerical models. Thus, it covers the entire Earth with a mesh of about 31 kilometers and 137 vertical layers up to 80 kilometers in altitude. Despite the huge amount of data it handles, the simulations and management are agile thanks to the fact that it is in the cloud DANA Floods of 2024. Weather Replay Beyond tinkering and satisfying curiosity, this tool means that anyone has access to 80 years of atmospheric data in an intuitive and graphic way to see with your own eyes how phenomena have evolved such as heat waves, extreme rain events or wind patterns in the regions you know best. In short: that everyone can see climate change. At a teaching or journalistic level, it constitutes a magnificent resource to contextualize meteorology. For example, reproducing how the tragic Valencia DANA of 2024 began. In Xataka | This is how rain has changed in Spain in the last 30 years, on maps: the result is clear, alarming and there is no turning back In Xataka | The temperature your city will have in 2080, simulated on this disturbing interactive map Cover | Weather Replay

Bill Gates is responsible for the “biggest mistake of all time” that cost Microsoft 400 billion, according to the co-founder of Android

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Nobody is perfect. Not even the great tycoons who have taken technology companies to the peak of success. One of these examples is Bill Gates who during an interview recognized What has been the biggest mistake he has made in his time running Microsoft. And the co-founder of Android did not hesitate to mock him through social networks several years after this confession. Today we all associate the Android operating system with Google, which is the company behind it. But in its beginnings Android was in limbo between Microsoft and Google. This is where Bill Gates’ mistake was, who did not decide to bet on this operating system, causing Google to keep it and get the great performance it has today. Android co-founder gives a different version of Gates’ “biggest mistake” It was a few years ago during an interview with Julia HartzCEO of Evenbrite, where the Microsoft co-founder acknowledged that the biggest mistake he has made ““It’s the mismanagement that I got involved in that caused Microsoft to not be what Android is.” This mismanagement caused Google will develop Android before Microsoftand achieved the great success it has today. In addition to the many benefits that Android leaves today for being the operating system with the largest market share, 72.46% global share according to statistics from the end of 2025. That is why a bad decision and problems with antitrust laws meant that this operation was not closed. Although he tried to do something similar with Windows Phone, it didn’t turn out well as we have already seen. For Bill Gates there is only room for an operating system other than iOS on the market. And this is something that figure at 400,000 million dollars that he lost with this bad decision 20 years ago. He related it in the following way: The biggest mistake of all was the mismanagement I got into that caused Microsoft to not be what Android is, meaning Android is the standard platform for non-Apple phones. In reality, it is a winner-take-all market. If you have half as many applications or 90% of them, you are on your way to total ruin. There’s room for exactly one non-Apple operating system, and how much is that worth? 400 billion dollars that would be transferred from company G (Google) to company M (Microsoft). For Gates, this is one of the biggest mistakes in history, and he has no doubt that if he had reached the mobile market before Google, Microsoft would be the company that would be dominating today. Their mistake was leaving Google with Android “free” until it developed Windows Phone. The best part of this story comes when the co-founder of Android appeared last year to comment on these words through your X account. In a publication he details that his goal when developing Android was to prevent Microsoft from controlling phones “as it did with computers, stifling innovation.” Click on the image to access the publication. With this concern that Microsoft could control the mobile world, the co-founder of Android affirms that “Sorry Bill, but you’re more responsible for the $400 billion loss than you think.” On this topic Steve Ballmer also spokethe charismatic former CEO of Microsoft, who admitted that this mistake by Microsoft was motivated by overconfidence and “arrogance” focused on the supremacy of the Windows brand. This led them to underestimate the competition and assume that they could dominate any new market by imposing their ecosystem, but evidently this was not the case. Images | Wikimedia Commons (UK Government) Via | Windows Central In Xataka | “In five years they will have to pay taxes”: Bill Gates has pointed out the elephant in the room of AI and humanoids A version of this article was published in 2025 in Genbeta

If we want to take care of our microbiota, this is what science says about what time it is ideal to have dinner

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We give more and more importance to what we eat, and we begin to take into account the information on food labels, and even demonize ultra-processed foods. However, it is so important that we eat like him when We eat, although the latter is something to which we may give very little importance in our environment, but which in truth has a great effect on our microbiota. What happens. We are not the only ones who go to sleep, since the two billion bacteria that inhabit our digestive tract have their own circadian clock. Change it by having dinner after hours Not only does it worsen our digestion, but, according to the latest studies, it pushes us towards a pro-inflammatory and obesogenic metabolism in a matter of days. In this way, changing the time at which we eat dinner can be essential to improve our general metabolic health. The bacteria. To understand why dinner time is critical, you must first understand that our microbiota is not static, but rather the composition and function of our bacteria oscillate in 24-hour cycles like ourselves. In this way, during the day, when we eat, bacteria such as Firmicuteswhich are active to help us process nutrients. However, when the night fast arrives, the ecosystem changes shift and families such as the Bacteroidetes and Verrucomicrobia. And this is something fundamental, because it is the moment in which our bacteria ferment the fiber and produce short-chain fatty acids such as butyrate, which will act as a protective shield for the intestinal barrier and regulate our glucose levels. It’s sensitive. Up to this point everything seems wonderful, but the moment we have a late dinner or if we break the fast with alcohol and a fast night meal like the classic kebab after a party, this delicate ecosystem becomes out of sync. At that time, the Bacteroidetes They decrease, the intestine becomes inflamed and we lose that protective shield. The experiment. The theory sounds good, but how long does it take for us to damage this ecosystem by eating late? The answer lies with a joint team from the CSIC, the University of Murcia and Harvard University through a rigorous test where he submitted to a group of young women and healthy to a crossover experiment. In this case, for one week the women ate the main meal at 2:00 p.m., and the following week it was delayed until 5:30 p.m. Everything else, such as calories, type of diet or hours of sleep, remained identical. The results were forcefulsince seven days of eating late were enough to completely invest the daily rhythm of the microbiota. And, as we have seen before, by moving the schedules towards the night, the microbial diversity was altered and bacteria associated with pro-inflammatory processes began to proliferate (such as Fusobacterium either Porphyromonas). Clinically, this delayed pattern pushes the body into a metabolic state that facilitates obesity and increases the risk of intestinal diseases. The ideal time. The scientific consensus points to a very specific window that for Spaniards represents an important cultural challenge, since it is believed that dinner should be eaten before 8:00 p.m. or 9:00 p.m., while lunch should not exceed 2:00 p.m. Although if we go further, microbiota researchers agree that the ideal period is between 6:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m., always guaranteeing that at least two to three hours pass before going to sleep. It is quite important, because it has been seen that people who eat dinner early or at least leave two hours of margin before going to bed They have a 20% lower risk of developing breast and prostate cancer. The key seems to be in melatonin, the sleep hormone, which when secreted naturally displays a powerful antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effect, as long as we are not in full digestion. Images | Caroline Attwood CDC In Xataka | We know more and more about the human microbiota. And there is still little we know about the benefits of probiotics

No bracelet could connect to an Android and an iPhone at the same time. The Xiaomi Smart Band 10 Pro: hold my cubata

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Xiaomi has just made the Smart Band 10 Pro official, along with the Xiaomi 17T, Xiaomi 17T Pro and the new TV S Mini LED. It promises to be one of the smart bracelets most advanced to date in the market wearables, cIt has a quality-price ratio that makes it especially attractive. It arrives in a single version in Spain and stands out, among other things, for its ability to connect simultaneously to an iPhone and a Xiaomi mobile. If you were thinking about renewing a smart bracelet or trying a Mi Smart Band for the first time, this caramelito It has a lot of war to fight in 2026. This is everything you need to know about Xiaomi’s most complete smart band. Technical data sheet of the Xiaomi Smart Band 10 Pro xiaomi smart band 10 pro dimensions and weight Standard: 46.18 x 33.35 x 9.7mm Ceramic: 43.96 × 33.36 × 9.7mm 21.6g (without strap) screen 1.74 inches AMOLED Resolution 480 x 336 pixels Peak brightness up to 2,000 nits Typical brightness of 1,500 nits 60Hz refresh rate Sensors heart rate sensor Accelerometer Gyroscope Compass Ambient light sensor GNSS connection Battery 350mAh Autonomy Up to 21 days duration connectivity Bluetooth 5.4 Android 8 and above iOS 14 and above Endurance 5ATM compatibility Android 8.0 or higher iOS 14 or higher PRICE 79.99 euros More and more smartwatches, less and less Band With the Xiaomi Smart Band 10the traditional “pill” format was maintained, in a compact device that clearly refers to its name, Smart Band. With the Pro version, things change quite a bit. Its 1.74-inch screen raises the resolution to 480 x 336 pixels, with a maximum brightness higher than that of many mid-range phones. Nothing less than 2,000 peak nits and 1,500 nits of HBM brightness, one screen. 2,000 nits of peak brightness, 1,500 nits in HBM, 2.5D curvature… The Smart Band 10 Pro smells like a high-end smartwatch more than an inexpensive bracelet The screen has a very slightly curved glass, with a 2.5D effect that does not curve the panel itself, but rather the glass that covers it. The technology is AMOLEDand in this version Xiaomi boasts of having more than 200 watchfaces to customize it. one step further Xiaomi has taken the health measurements of this bracelet very seriously, for which it wanted to collaborate with Clueone of the most relevant applications when it comes to tracking the menstrual cycle in women. By purchasing the Mi Band 10 Pro, we will have three free months of Clue Plus subscriptionfor advanced cycle measurement, fertility predictions, pregnancy monitoring, etc. Xiaomi has improved the measurement sensors physically, in addition to refining the algorithms to be more precise in information related to sports and health Beyond this novelty, we are looking at a bracelet that updates its PPG module – (the set of sensors and LEDs that measure the data) – to promise a 98.2% heart rate accuracy. It has more than 150 sports modes, including track recording for runners, and improved functions for cyclists. Sleep measurement It will now show trend reports in the app, it promises to be much more precise and, in terms of autonomy, in the best conditions it promises up to 21 days. The battery is 350mAhand still uses the magnetic charger system through pins. However, what is most striking about this bracelet is a possibility that we had not seen to date. When connected to a Xiaomi smartphone, the Xiaomi Smart Band 10 Pro allows notification synchronization and simultaneous pairing with an iPhone, which makes it possible to receive calls, messages and alerts from both devices on a single bracelet. The main limitation is that, yes or yes, we need a Xiaomi mobile to achieve this simultaneous synchronization, we cannot use another Android device. Versions and price of the Xiaomi Smart Band 10 Pro As Xiaomi usually does, the price of the Mi Band 10 Pro will be quite groundbreaking. Specifically, 79.99 euros and is available in various colors. Xiaomi Smart Band 10 Pro It will be available in colors: black, silver and pinkwith a selling price of 79.99 euros. In Xataka | It is the latest activity bracelet launched by Xiaomi: it has a battery for up to three weeks and costs less than 35 euros

Neither Robotaxi nor Cybercab. Elon Musk is having a hard time naming his autonomous taxi, and now it’s French sparkling water to blame

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It will soon be a year since Tesla’s first autonomous taxis began to roll And to this day the creature still does not have an official name. AND not because Elon Musk hasn’t tried. First it ran into the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and now it has been a French sparkling water company. rookie mistake. Tesla may have the technology of the future rolling on the streets, but when it held the ‘We, Robot’ event in 2024 in which it presented the Cybercab, it forgot a small detail: it announced the name without having officially registered the brand. This is where Unibev comes into play, a French beverage company, which saw the perfect opportunity to troll the richest man in the world. The patent troll. What Unibev did is a clear case of patent thief (or troll, as they would say in ‘Silicon Valley’). Taking advantage of Tesla’s oversight, six days after the announcement, the company registered the name Cybercab and it doesn’t seem like it’s because they want to call their sparkling water that way, but rather to simply be annoying. The company already had a history of trolling Musk and in addition to Cybercab they also registered Cybertaxi, Robocab Systems, XCab, Cyber ​​Diner, Teslaquila, Teslaquila Hard Seltzer and With a Touch of Musk. Some horny ones. The answer. The USPTO suspended Tesla’s application because Unibev had beaten them to it, but Tesla did not sit idly by and filed a lawsuit of more than 150 pages in which they accuse Unibev of bad faith and having acted as a patent thief. Having registered before is not synonymous with victory, since simply proving that Unibev does not manufacture vehicles the authority should rule in favor of Tesla. In their application, Unibev said they could use the name for “a car, a ship or a plane.” It seems easy enough to dismantle, the problem is that the litigation could extend until 2027. If Unibev wins the dispute, Tesla could be forced to negotiate the use of the name outside the US and even have to use another name in certain markets. And ‘robotaxi’?. Tesla too tried to register the trademark ‘Robotaxi’but the USPTO told them that nanai. The reason had nothing to do with any patent thief, but because it is “used to describe similar products and services of other companies. (…) This expression appears to be generic in the context of the applicant’s products and/or services.” The USTPO comes to say that it is too standard a name, it would be like registering the ‘taxi’ trademark. There is still more. The organizational chaos does not end with taxis, the same thing also happened with its autonomous minibus, presented with great fanfare as “Robovan.” The problem is that Tesla announced it without first having verified that the brand was already registered by an Estonian delivery company. Tesla has had to look for less attractive alternatives such as “Robobus”, “Robus” or “Cyberbus”. About launching autonomous vehicles with super-advanced technology, well, that’s all the paperwork. Image | tesla In Xataka | Tesla robotaxis are autonomous, except when driven by a man from Texas

Every time the Vatican has warned of the danger of a technology, that technology has ended up changing the world. It’s up to the AI

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Let’s do a little memory. The 15th century was ending and The Christian Church found the printing press wonderful.almost providential. The adoption of that invention by ecclesiastical institutions was enthusiastic because it allowed them to amplify their mission. It didn’t take long for the discourse to change noticeably. in the bull Inter multiplies In 1487, Pope Innocent VIII praised it but warned of its risks: the same thing that served to spread the word of God, could serve to spread heresies and false ideas. It was then that censorship was introduced according to which no book should be printed without the approval of the ecclesiastical authorities. That laid the foundations for the future Index librorum prohibitorum which established a list of prohibited works for all of Christendom. That didn’t go too well. Martin Luther precisely took advantage of that divine invention to distribute your propaganda during the Protestant Reformation, and if this movement ended up being successful it was undoubtedly thanks to the printing press. It is not in vain that Luther is considered the first author of best-sellers of history. The encyclicals in the face of technological advances Let’s move forward. In 1891 Pope Leo XIII published his encyclical Rerum Novarumpossibly the most famous social encyclical in history. In it the pontiff focused on the rights of workers as response to the disturbing Industrial Revolution. He denounced the concentration of wealth and new technologies “in the hands of a few,” and warned that this was turning workers into slaves. Let’s keep moving forward. 90 years ago, Pius XI launched his act Vigilanti Cura (1936), dedicated exclusively to cinema. It recognized the technological progress that cinematography represented, but warned that if it was not strictly regulated, it would become the greatest instrument of moral corruption and mass manipulation in history. That message would be accompanied by the encyclical Miranda Prorsus (1957), by Pius XII, which extended that warning to both radio and televisionwhich had as much or more capacity than cinema to be beneficial but also toxic to humanity. There have been other social encyclicals related to technology: Pacem in Terris (1963) by John XXIII spoke of the atomic danger, while Evangelium Vitae (1995) by John Paul II was a wake-up call against eugenic biomedical techniques and embryo manipulation. The curious thing is that most of these encyclicals were published many years after certain technological advances had occurred. That would make one think that there are one or several encyclicals dedicated to the internet, mobile phones or social networks. There are not, although these topics have been mentioned by the last Popes in other messages. Arrives Magnificent Humanitas Therefore it is surprising that Pope Leo XIV has dedicated an entire encyclical to artificial intelligence. He has done it just three years after ChatGPT was launched, and he has also done it with a unique title: Magnificent Humanitas (2026). A fact: Robert Fracis Prevost, Pope Leo XIV, graduated in mathematics in 1977 from Villanova University in Philadelphia. This encyclical follows a very clear historical line of argument: on many occasions in which a disruptive technology appears, the Vatican adopts the role of “ethical brake” and tries to warn of something relevant: technical and technological advances must be subordinated to human beings. In Magnificent Humanitas the discourse is known and reasonable: warning that large AI companies They will end up imposing their moral vision on the entire planet. It is not just that hyperscalers (Amazon, Microsoft, Google) or companies like OpenAI or Anthropic dominate this market in the commercial section: it is that this dominance also translates into a form of influence that is even more worrying than cinema or television were (and are). The encyclical also warns of how AI is causing a “cognitive displacement” in which human beings end up preferring that algorithms think for them instead of making a reflective effort. The text is very long (40,000 words, which is approximately equivalent to a novel of about 150 pages) and ambitious, and covers many more areas, but the univocal message is that of a warning about the dangers of this technology. If one looks at this entire catalog of papal warnings from a historical perspective, it is impossible not to see the paradox. Most of the technologies that the Vatican once denounced as existential threats ended up, in the end, making the world a better, more prosperous and more connected place. The printing press democratized culture, the Industrial Revolution raised the global standard of living, cinema and television enriched the collective imagination, and biotechnology saves lives. History shows us that these bad omens of the Popes never came to pass completely, but we must be careful. The value of these encyclicals is not in their ability to predict the future, but in their function as ethical counterweights. It’s okay and necessary that someone warns about the risks, because those dangers were and still are real. Image | The Holy See In Xataka | Spain has been a Catholic country for more than 1,500 years. “The Change” now wants to turn it into an evangelical one

College students are getting more A’s than at any other time in history. There is a suspect

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Some already call it “grade inflation.” It is a phenomenon that should make us happy—what grades our young people get—but that is increasingly worrying in the educational world. University students have never gotten as many A’s as they have until now, but in reality the credit is not theirs. Using ChatGPT and other AI tools It is distorting its capacity and putting the educational system at a global level in check (again). Note inflation. Igor Chirikov published in May 2026 a study in which he talked precisely about how artificial intelligence is causing grade inflation. In his research, he analyzed the data of half a million students in 319 subjects at the University of Texas, and detected something surprising: since 2022, when OpenAI launched ChatGPT, the number of outstanding students at that institution has grown by 30%. But not everyone gets the same grade. In his conclusions, Chirikov explained how “these increases” in the grade “were greater when homework had a greater influence on the grades, which is consistent with the theory that AI is replacing the student’s work, and not improving learning.” The effect is greater, for example, in courses such as Economics or Journalism, where there are many written assignments to be submitted, but also in Computer Science courses and others in which programming subjects are taught. Both ChatGPT and other AI models are an increasingly popular (and effective) tool for students who want to improve their grades at all costs. perfect homework. The researchers indicate that a displacement of cognitive tasks is occurring here. The student no longer uses technology to support the learning process, but rather completely delegates many of the tasks that he should do to the AI. Essays, research papers and programming practices What should they give to teachers? They are becoming more and more perfect. Mirage. That theoretical brilliance is a mirage. Controlled studies like this one reveal that students who systematically use AI in their assignments end up suffering a 17% drop in their grades when they are subjected to a classic in-person pencil and paper exam on the same subject. ChatGPT becomes a superpower, but without it, grades drop clearly. The problems grow. Grade inflation is not a new phenomenon. In the US, university centers suffer structural pressures: if they are strict, they receive criticism from students, which jeopardizes future students wanting to attend them. This contributed to the fact that at Harvard, for example, A’s went from representing 24% of grades in 2005 to 60.2% in the spring of 2025. ChatGPT, write me my TFG. In Spain and Europe the panorama is similar. 89% of university students admit to using AI to write reports or Final Degree Projects (TFG), according to a recent GoStudent survey. Meanwhile, 61% of teachers confess that they do not have tools or software to confirm that whoever has done a job has not done it with AI. They are all too good students. When the outstanding becomes something totally normal and so frequent, this grade loses its power of differentiation. The filter previously made it clear which students were exceptional, something that was also vital for companies’ search for talent. Now those looking for these talents have reacted: in the US, job portals such as HandShake show that job offers that require a minimum GPA (average score of the university degree) of 3.5 out of 4 have skyrocketed from 9% in 2020 to 25% in 2026. As all university students are exceptional, companies look for the most exceptional among the exceptional. No more A’s. This distrust of job and homework qualifications has made some institutions prefer to return to the past. harvard will apply a notable reform in fall 2027 and will limit outstanding grades to a maximum of 20% per course, while honors enrollment will also depend on a certain percentile instead of via grades. 85% of the students opposed to these measures, but at Harvard they will continue with the measures although they indicate that they will review their application three years after the start of their application. everyone cheats. At the prestigious Princeton University the phenomenon is equally worrying. About half of its students They used AI to write their essays. 15% admitted to using AI to cheat in school, and 65.5% “knew a classmate was cheating and did not report it.” Everyone seems to be cheating at the university, as indicated in an article in The New York Intelligencer as early as May 2025. The university has just approved a proposal that would allow supervised exams, something that would break a 133-year tradition in which the students themselves monitored each other to prevent others from cheating. The “Code of Honor” of this institution has not been able to with the avalanche of AI. Image | Christian Lendl In Xataka | Something is happening in the computer science major in Silicon Valley: enrollment falls for the first time in 20 years

If you feel guilty every time you leave your dog home alone, science has an explanation (and a couple of solutions)

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Anyone who has a dog as a pet has probably faced a big problem when they grab their keys and coat and head out the door. This is nothing more than the whining and nervous pacing of an animal behind its owner that can end up barking or even destroying some object in the home due to the stress they feel when they are left alone and ‘abandoned’ under their conscience. However, science suggests that This separation anxiety is a bidirectional phenomenon. In two senses. As stated in different texts, leaving our pet alone not only triggers a peak of stress in the animal, but also generates a deep burden of guilt and anxiety in the human. And no, it is not that we are excessively humanizing our dogs, it is that our brains and theirs have developed an attachment bond that is comparable to that of interpersonal relationships. It’s not parenting. One idea we have in mind is that when a dog has anxiety when its owner leaves, for example, for work, it is the result of having had a very permissive childhood in which no animal restrictions were imposed. But today this has changed with important data. We can find these data in a large study published in 2020 on the canine population in Finland that revealed that between 14% and 20% Of dogs suffer from separation anxiety, they often have a strong fear of other stressors, such as loud noise. Why do they do it? Neither revenge nor general anger at having been left alone come into play here, but rather this behavior is linked to patterns of frustration and panic. Besides, there are some factors that predispose animals to have these problems, such as being male, coming from a shelter, having suffered early weaning or facing an environment that lacks predictability. In the human. Staying with only the reaction that the animal has, the truth is that it is a very short understatement. And here science has seen that owners also experience stress, difficulty concentrating at work or even cancel social plans to avoid the distress of leaving their pet alone. And here the bond that is generated between the human and the animal comes into play, being an attachment bond like that of a father with his newborn. And the people who develop an “anxious attachment” to their pets are precisely those who experience higher levels of anxiety when separating from them, as well as much more serious depressive and somatic symptoms when the animal dies or is not present. The solution. One of the important points in this case lies in teaching the dog’s brain that “exit signals” such as taking the keys or putting on the shoes, do not necessarily mean the end of the world, doing them without leaving the house. But also, we must keep in mind that when we return home we do not have to ‘throw a party’ to compensate for the guilt, since we only confirm to the dog that our absence was a terrible state of exception that has finally ended. This is why reunion should be normalized when we talk about a few hours of separation. Images | Wade Austin Ellis In Xataka | We have been using our pets to relieve our anxiety. And now the stress is on them

We have been searching for extraterrestrial life for decades. According to these astrobiologists, we have been doing it wrong all this time

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We are very used to hearing that someone has found possible signs of life in space. Then life is never found, but the trail seems to be there. All of these findings often end up being false positives, something astrobiologists are more than familiar with. However, According to a study just published in Nature Astronomy, They could be overlooking false negatives and that would be serious. Pass life long. What the authors of this study point out is that false negatives could be more common than we think. That is to say, many of the times when it is clearly concluded that there is no life in a place in space, it could be that it did exist, but it had been passed by without being detected. The causes. There could be three reasons why these false negatives occur. On the one hand, no traces of life are preserved. That is, it exists or has existed, but has not left a detectable trace. It could also be that this fingerprint is difficult to detect. Or, perhaps, that the methods used to detect it have limitations. Along these lines, the authors of the study give an example. Let’s imagine that there is a living being that, through its metabolic reactions, generates some gas that is understood as a trace of life. Maybe oxygen or methane. But let’s also imagine that there is a geological activity in that place that captures that gas from the environment. I wouldn’t have time to measure it. Therefore, the detection of life would have to be covered from other points. The risks. There are two main risks of not paying attention to false negatives. On the one hand, instruments that would help find even more traces of life would be deprioritized. If we do not find anything that justifies its development, we limit the possibilities of continuing searching. On the other hand, if life is not adequately searched for, resources from other planets where such life is found could be exploited. We would destroy it before we even knew it existed. Solutions. These scientists believe that searching for patterns using artificial intelligence could be an option. If the usual methods have not worked so far, perhaps we should ask an algorithm to detect patterns that have gone unnoticed to find new search paths. Along the same lines, it would also be necessary to study the terrain better and pay attention to anomalies. For example, if an unconventional type of oxidation is detected on a planet, inexplicable with what we know on Earth, it could be that it was associated with some form of life. It may not look like the oxidation carried out by terrestrial living beings, but who says it has to be the same? You have to think outside the box. Combine different types of work. In short, these scientists consider that to adequately search for life it is necessary to combine laboratory experiments with modeling and field work. But, above all, it is important to change the questions we ask ourselves. What if it has already been found? In 2019, a former NASA scientist told in an article for Scientific American that, according to himhis agency found life on Mars, but accidentally destroyed it. Supposedly, it all happened in the 1970s, in an experiment that was part of the Viking mission. This consisted of depositing nutrients in the soil and checking if gases typical of microbial decomposition were produced. Then, to ensure that it was not a coincidence, they would repeat the process, but adding a substance lethal to living organisms to the soil. In that case, gases should not be produced. And no, they were not produced, so there was something alive generating the gases. It was great news, but NASA did not publish that result, because when trying to replicate the experiment it came back negative. In science it is very important to replicate the results, so they concluded that it must have been a false positive. However, this former member of NASA, Gilbert V. Levin, believes that they destroyed life unintentionally and that is why they could not replicate it. This is no longer an anecdote. Most likely, they would not have found life. However, this story shows that we are always more predisposed to false positive than false negative. The focus would have to be changed a little. Maybe then we will finally find some life beyond our own planet. Images | Eric Erbe and Christopher Pooley (illustrative image of E.coliit has nothing to do with the study)/ Brett Ritchie (Unsplash) In Xataka | Life on Earth underwent a spectacular change 540 million years ago. We have a new explanation why

The Milky Way has been in the sky for billions of years. It took a natural disaster for the residents of Los Angeles to see it for the first time

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January 17, 1994. The San Fernando Valley trembled under a large earthquake of magnitude 6.7 that shook the city of Los Angeles with terrible severity. As is normal after a disaster like thisthe emergency lines were soon filled with calls from terrified neighbors. There were many common warnings, but there was a much more curious call which was repeated ad nauseam. That of a lot of neighbors scared by the enormous silver strip that had opened in the sky. What they saw, far from being something dangerous, was a clear sign of the light pollution that already covered Los Angeles 30 years ago. It was just the Milky Way. In reality, what these neighbors saw was neither more nor less than the Milky Way. Many of them were not used to traveling outside big cities, so they had not seen our galaxy crossing the sky in their entire lives. This is precisely why this true story is often used to raise awareness about the risks of light pollution. Why is it not seen? Artificial light from streetlights, monuments or illuminated shop windows is reflected and dispersed in the atmosphere, so that it illuminates the background of the sky. Normally, we see stars because there is a great contrast between them and the dark sky. However, this scattered light almost completely destroys said contrast. From Earth, the Milky Way appears as a very faint band of light. Therefore, if there is not enough contrast it is practically impossible to see it. It’s still there, but it’s hidden from our eyes. The more pollution, the worse. The suspension of particles in the air can cause artificial light to scatter even further. Therefore, the problem in large cities, like Los Angeles, is twofold. On the one hand there are many streetlights and other luminaires and on the other hand there is usually a lot of pollution. It is normal that so many people have never seen the Milky Way. Getting worse. This event took place more than 30 years ago. Although today there is more awareness about the problem of light pollution and the City Councils of some cities design lighting projects advised by astronomers and other experts, the situation has not improved. In fact, currently is calculated that 80% of the world’s population lives under light-polluted skies. Using the striking case of the Milky Way as a reference, a study published in 2024 point because 60% of Europeans and 80% of Americans have never seen the Milky Way. The case of people who believed that the sky had cracked is just an anecdote. However, the reality is that the heavens are no longer what they were. If the problem of light pollution is not solved, future generations will not be able to enjoy many of the spectacles that the sky has given us. Image | Magnificent In Xataka | James Webb has found a galaxy from when the universe was 330 million years old. Hides a whole enigma

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