training

A group of astronauts without medical training has taken the world’s first X-ray in orbit: it is a brutal advance

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For more than sixty years, astronauts have only had one tool to diagnose possible injuries in orbit: the ultrasound machine. Now, for the first time, a crew has managed to take diagnostic X-rays of their own bodies while orbiting Earth, a milestone that completely changes what will be possible on future missions to the Moon and Mars. We tell you all the details. Why it is important. Until now, if an astronaut suffered a fracture or internal injury in space, ultrasound was the only option available, a technology that requires a lot of prior training and depends on a physical medium to transmit sound waves. The problem is that as the duration and distance of space missions increase, so does the risk of serious medical problems occurring. For this reason, having X-rays in space would allow, for example, to confirm a fracture in a matter of minutes, something that until now was not possible, according to explained to ScienceAlert Dr. Sheyna Gifford, aerospace medicine researcher at the Mayo Clinic and promoter of the project. In detail. The experiment was carried out during Fram2a private SpaceX mission that in March 2025 took four first-time astronauts to circle the Earth above the poles for three and a half days aboard a Crew Dragon capsule. None of them were medical personnel, since They received only four hours of training before takeoff to learn how to operate a portable, commercial X-ray machine, about the size of a beach cooler. Before leaving they took x-rays of a hand, forearm, chest, abdomen and pelvis for reference. In orbit they repeated those same images, and also added another of a smart watch. The test was a success. Back on Earth, three independent radiologists compared the images taken in orbit with those before the flight, according to the study. published in Radiology magazine. The verdict was positive, because although the x-rays captured in Earth’s gravity had somewhat higher quality, those taken in space were perfectly valid for diagnosing injuries such as fractures. The images of hands and arms, which are easier to keep still, came out better than those of the chest, abdomen or pelvis, areas where it was more difficult to achieve a good body position. The device also survived the trip with only superficial damage to its exterior after landing, and the entire crew agreed that it was easy to use despite the little training received. And now what. The next step, according to Giffordinvolves further reducing the size of this equipment and making it more resistant for future missions, since although it may be compact in itself on Earth, as long as the technology can be miniaturized in space missions, the better. Portable X-rays would not only be used to diagnose astronauts. And they could also be used to check hidden damage in space suits, electronics or damaged satellites, and even be installed in future vehicles that explore the lunar surface. The researcher herself also aims to bring this technology to rural areas far from large hospitals, where an autonomous and low-cost system could improve access to rapid diagnoses. Images | Radiology In Xataka | Julia de Marines, astrobiologist: “Any planet that has developed intelligence should have noosignatures, a physical history of cognitive activity”

Spain prepared thousands of young people for university by passing the PAU. Four out of ten ended up doing a vocational training degree

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Every July the same scene of thousands of teenagers leaving school is repeated. any of the exams of what was once called Selectivity and, for now, is known as the University Access Test (PAU). For decades, this ritual almost always ended at the same door: the a university. However, in recent years something has changed. The students who take this test no longer do so trusting that your future is assured after a university degree and no longer see Vocational Training as the way out for those who do not want to study. The twist that no one announced. For years, passing the PAU and not going to university was experienced almost as a failure. A waste of talent. Today that stigma has been broken. According to the report Education Panorama 2025prepared by the OECD, 39% of those who enter the economy for the first time Spanish higher education They do so through a higher degree vocational training cycle and only 47% opt for the university route. The figure more than doubles the organization’s average, where only 16% choose this route and 78% go directly to university. These percentages undoubtedly represent a change in mentality more than a statistical anecdote. The FP is no longer the “ugly duckling” of the educational system in Spain. The figures that support the change. According to the latest data collected by the Ministry of Education in the report Vocational Training Student Statistics 2024-2025there has been an increase of 23.5% in the student body in the previous five years, especially highlighting the number of students enrolled in higher grades, which receive 29.8% more students. The contrast with Europe is striking. In Spain, higher vocational training as a gateway to higher education is 33.3%, tripling the European Union average, which remains at 10%. This shift towards training oriented towards learning a profession responds to a specific request that comes from companies. Why young people choose FP and university. According to the report ‘Infoempleo Adecco 2024: Job supply and demand in Spain‘, 47% of the job offers published in Spain, asked for some vocational training degree. It is a figure that grows every year and that begins to compete face to face with the requirement of a university education. Marisa Bermejo, director of Sanitas Campus FP Madrid, declared to The Spanish that “After PAU, young people have to understand that there are several ways to get into a profession.” And he adds that vocational training “allows the development of technical skills from an early stage.” According to data From the Ministry of Education, the employability of Vocational Training is 73%, and with some sectors touching 90%, which places it as a direct access door to the labor market for young people. The sectors that use FP the most. Not all training families grow equally. Administration and Management leads the number of offers, closely followed by Health, with constant demand in laboratories and clinical areas. Commerce and Marketing is also pushing forward, driven by the rise of digital commerce. The fastest growth is carried out by Computing and Communications. It is one of the families with the highest job placement among Higher Degree graduates, where 54.7% find employment before completing two years after graduating. according to the data of the Ministry of Education. In Xataka | Europe is very clear that there are many graduates in Spain. The problem is that they are not what companies need. Image | Unsplash (ThisisEngineering)

science confirms the exact dosage of strength training

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For decades, when we thought about exercise for health, the image that came to mind was that of someone running or pedaling. Cardio exercise was the undisputed king of medical recommendations, but now a growing number of sports and medical professionals are raising their voices to give prominence to strength training as something practically mandatory if you want to reach an advanced age with a good quality of life. There is still evidence. It is not a gym exaggeration, but in recent years, scientific literature has taken a spectacular turn, demonstrating that lifting weights, using resistance bands or training with our own body weight is not just an aesthetic issue, but the true protective shield against aging and mortality. The tests. Until recently, we knew that being strong was good for preventing falls in old age, but current data goes much further. Muscle is a living endocrine organ that regulates our metabolism, and exercising it has a direct impact on the main causes of death worldwide. Without going any further, a review published in 2022 associated muscle-strengthening activities with a lower risk of all-cause mortality, but also with specific drops in the incidence of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and various types of cancer. That same year, the American Journal of Preventive Medicine put precise numbers on the table by pointing out that any amount of strength training is associated with a 15% reduction in all-cause mortality, a 19% lower cardiovascular risk, and a 14% lower cancer risk. The most recent. If we go to this same year, a Harvard megastudy has finished closing the debate after following 147,000 adults for 30 years. Their findings are an instruction manual for longevity, discovering that performing between 90 and 119 minutes of strength training per week was associated with a 13% lower risk of all-cause mortality and a dramatic 27% reduction in mortality from neurological diseases. The quantity. One of the big myths of strength training is believing that to get medical benefits, you have to train like a bodybuilder or lift extreme loads every day. Science shows that the dose-response relationship is not linear, but rather that most of the benefits are concentrated in surprisingly moderate training volumes. Specifically, the optimal range is found in this study between 30 and 120 minutes a week. That is why going from zero to 45 minutes a week represents a brutal improvement in life expectancy. However, doing 5 hours of weight training per week does not multiply those benefits by five; In fact, the data suggests that a plateau occurs where the additional benefit is minor, and even exaggeratedly high volumes may not be optimal for overall longevity. The combination. If strength training is incredible on its own, when combined with aerobic exercise, the results skyrocket. Already in 2019, the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology reported that combining both types of training produced an additive effect, reducing general mortality by up to 40%. But the recent Harvard megastudy has raised that figure and points out that people who combine an aerobic routine with their optimal minutes of strength manage to reduce their risk of mortality between 45% and 58%. Images | Anastase Maragos In Xataka | Experts agree: “People who lift weights 2 hours a week and walk daily live longer”

This is how strength training protects your heart, your brain and your life expectancy

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We have known for a long time that strength exercise It’s not just for having more muscles. and a more defined body. Today we understand that, to take care of our health, it is important to combine both strength and aerobic exercise. However, it is always good to have more evidence and more reasons to remind us of the importance of lifting weight. That’s why it’s so important a study recently published by scientists at Harvard Universityin which 150,000 people are followed for 30 years. This monitoring has allowed its authors to conclude that, indeed, those who practiced strength exercise regularly were more likely to continue to live older, since this practice protected them from numerous diseases, especially neurological and cardiovascular diseases. The reasons are clear, as is the fact that, in reality, the ideal is to combine this with aerobic exercise. Three studies, 30 years. In reality, this latest study is a review of 3 studies, all of them conducted in the United States. For 30 years, the health status of its participants was followed, while their sports habits were monitored. In those three decades, there were 36,000 participants who died from various causes. It wasn’t always due to not having exercised. After all, there are many factors that influence health. However, it was found that those who did between 90 and 120 minutes of strength exercise per week had a 13% lower risk of dying from any cause than those who did not. The types of diseases most prevented. Although the percentage was calculated with respect to deaths from any cause, neurological and cardiovascular protection stands out in this study. In fact, this practice of strength exercise reduced the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease by 19% and the risk from neurological disorders, especially dementia, by 27%. For all this, the study concludes that strength exercise has a positive effect on longevity. More is not always better. Another curious fact from this study is that those who did more than 120 minutes of strength exercise per week did not experience extra benefits. Therefore, if there is more time available, you can take advantage of it to do aerobic exercise, since, in reality, the ideal is to combine both types of training. The ideal combination. According to this same study, 150 minutes of weekly aerobic exercise reduces the risk of death from any cause by between 26% and 43%. But if this is also combined with the strength exercise mentioned above, the risk decreases by 45%. The ideal is to combine the two types of exercise to buy all possible longevity tickets. Two hours a week of strength exercise can be divided into two workouts in the gym. Training can be done full body both days, to train all muscle groups twice, but increasing the density of the upper part one day and the lower part another. As for 150 minutes of weekly aerobic exercise, it is very achievable. only with go walking to work or to run errands we would already have a good part accomplished. However, it is advisable to add several sessions of a somewhat more vigorous cardio, such as going for a run, swimming or cycling. Cardio, best distributed in several weekly sessions The causes. This is an observational study. That means a correlation has been seen, but not necessarily a causality. Those who strength exercise live longer, but their blood has not been analyzed, for example, for markers that indicate that quality of life. Even so, the authors of the research have their own hypotheses, also described in The Conversation by University of East London Professor John McNamara. To begin with, the muscle is a kind of sponge that, by order of insulin, absorbs a good part of the glucose that accumulates in the blood after eating. Thus, glucose acts as a source of energy for the muscle and does not increase in spikes or accumulate as fat. With all this, metabolic diseases such as type 2 diabetes or obesity. Clearly, yes there is more musclethe sponge is larger, which is why strength exercise is so important. Furthermore, with respect to cardiovascular diseases, myokines play an essential role. They are proteins that are released when the muscle contracts and that have a positive effect on the blood, reducing chronic inflammation. It is very beneficial against heart diseases; but also, again, for metabolic diseases and even against some types of cancer. On the other hand, it should be noted that this chemical cascade enhanced by strength exercise helps increase blood flow in organs such as the brain or liver and also reduces blood pressure and increases the flexibility of blood vessels. The key to longevity. A fall may be minor in a young person, but in the elderly it can lead to more broken bones, with a slower or incomplete recovery. The person’s health can greatly deteriorate. Therefore, one of the keys to longevity is to strengthen the bones. The musculoskeletal system is very well combined. Strong muscles also often translate into stronger bones. That’s why people live longer when they do strength exercise. Limitations to take into account. People who exercise, whether strength training or aerobic, often maintain other healthy habits as well. Furthermore, the study participants were health workers, so it is expected that they were clear about the measures to take care of their health. Therefore, it would be ideal to have done another similar study, with a greater variety of participants, and taking into account other habits to see the influence they have on the final result. Even so, everything points to a very beneficial routine for anyone. Image | Magnificent In Xataka | The trap of walking for the sake of walking: “Japanese walks” are much more effective than your daily hour-long walk

This is how strength training protects your heart, your brain and your life expectancy

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We have known for a long time that strength exercise It’s not just for having more muscles. and a more defined body. Today we understand that, to take care of our health, it is important to combine both strength and aerobic exercise. However, it is always good to have more evidence and more reasons to remind us of the importance of lifting weight. That’s why it’s so important a study recently published by scientists at Harvard Universityin which 150,000 people are followed for 30 years. This monitoring has allowed its authors to conclude that, indeed, those who practiced strength exercise regularly were more likely to continue to live older, since this practice protected them from numerous diseases, especially neurological and cardiovascular diseases. The reasons are clear, as is the fact that, in reality, the ideal is to combine this with aerobic exercise. Three studies, 30 years. In reality, this latest study is a review of 3 studies, all of them conducted in the United States. For 30 years, the health status of its participants was followed, while their sports habits were monitored. In those three decades, there were 36,000 participants who died from various causes. It wasn’t always due to not having exercised. After all, there are many factors that influence health. However, it was found that those who did between 90 and 120 minutes of strength exercise per week had a 13% lower risk of dying from any cause than those who did not. The types of diseases most prevented. Although the percentage was calculated with respect to deaths from any cause, neurological and cardiovascular protection stands out in this study. In fact, this practice of strength exercise reduced the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease by 19% and the risk from neurological disorders, especially dementia, by 27%. For all this, the study concludes that strength exercise has a positive effect on longevity. More is not always better. Another curious fact from this study is that those who did more than 120 minutes of strength exercise per week did not experience extra benefits. Therefore, if there is more time available, you can take advantage of it to do aerobic exercise, since, in reality, the ideal is to combine both types of training. The ideal combination. According to this same study, 150 minutes of weekly aerobic exercise reduces the risk of death from any cause by between 26% and 43%. But if this is also combined with the strength exercise mentioned above, the risk decreases by 45%. The ideal is to combine the two types of exercise to buy all possible longevity tickets. Two hours a week of strength exercise can be divided into two workouts in the gym. Training can be done full body both days, to train all muscle groups twice, but increasing the density of the upper part one day and the lower part another. As for 150 minutes of weekly aerobic exercise, it is very achievable. only with go walking to work or to run errands we would already have a good part accomplished. However, it is advisable to add several sessions of a somewhat more vigorous cardio, such as going for a run, swimming or cycling. Cardio, best distributed in several weekly sessions The causes. This is an observational study. That means a correlation has been seen, but not necessarily a causality. Those who strength exercise live longer, but their blood has not been analyzed, for example, for markers that indicate that quality of life. Even so, the authors of the research have their own hypotheses, also described in The Conversation by University of East London Professor John McNamara. To begin with, the muscle is a kind of sponge that, by order of insulin, absorbs a good part of the glucose that accumulates in the blood after eating. Thus, glucose acts as a source of energy for the muscle and does not increase in spikes or accumulate as fat. With all this, metabolic diseases such as type 2 diabetes or obesity. Clearly, yes there is more musclethe sponge is larger, which is why strength exercise is so important. Furthermore, with respect to cardiovascular diseases, myokines play an essential role. They are proteins that are released when the muscle contracts and that have a positive effect on the blood, reducing chronic inflammation. It is very beneficial against heart diseases; but also, again, for metabolic diseases and even against some types of cancer. On the other hand, it should be noted that this chemical cascade enhanced by strength exercise helps increase blood flow in organs such as the brain or liver and also reduces blood pressure and increases the flexibility of blood vessels. The key to longevity. A fall may be minor in a young person, but in the elderly it can lead to more broken bones, with a slower or incomplete recovery. The person’s health can greatly deteriorate. Therefore, one of the keys to longevity is to strengthen the bones. The musculoskeletal system is very well combined. Strong muscles also often translate into stronger bones. That’s why people live longer when they do strength exercise. Limitations to take into account. People who exercise, whether strength training or aerobic, often maintain other healthy habits as well. Furthermore, the study participants were health workers, so it is expected that they were clear about the measures to take care of their health. Therefore, it would be ideal to have done another similar study, with a greater variety of participants, and taking into account other habits to see the influence they have on the final result. Even so, everything points to a very beneficial routine for anyone. Image | Magnificent In Xataka | The trap of walking for the sake of walking: “Japanese walks” are much more effective than your daily hour-long walk

Science confirms how many minutes of weight training per week reduce the risk of mortality

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For decades, when we thought about doing physical exercise, our minds almost automatically went to get older. cardiovascular activity. Running, swimming or cycling have been star recommendations to keep the heart healthy and extend life expectancy. Or at least live with a better quality of life. However, little by little we are normalizing the need to prioritize strength exercises at any age. How long. This is one of the big questions that anyone who needs to quantify the amount of exercise they do per day can ask themselves. There are clear recommendations, such as walk one hour a day at a brisk pacebut in strength we were quite orphaned. Now a new and monumental analysis has come to put exact figures on what until now were general recommendations, establishing a precise time window to maximize our years of life. What has been seen. The finding comes from a large observational study which has had 147,374 participants and exhaustive follow-up that has extended up to 30 years. Its good results have been published in the magazine British Journal of Sports Medicine. And when it comes to lifting weights or doing resistance exercises, intuition could dictate that “the more, the better”, but human physiology provides more limited metrics. The study data found that spending between 90 and 119 minutes weekly in resistance training routines was directly associated with lower overall mortality. In other words, spending between an hour and a half and two hours a week working our muscles is linked to a lower risk of dying from any cause. We have to be adjusted. What is truly revealing about this study lies in what happens when those 120 minutes are exceeded of weekly exercise. Anyone might think that the longer the time, the less likely you are to develop a major disease, but the reality is that above this time the benefits seem to stagnate. This shows that maximum efficiency is achieved in that limited period of time, demystifying the need to spend endless days in the weight room to obtain many more protective advantages at the metabolic level that allow us to extend our life a little more or make it of a higher quality. You have to combine it. Although strength training shines in this study, abandoning cardiovascular exercises would be a profound mistake. Here the research group itself pointed out that combining strength exercises with aerobic activity offered the best possible results, since this duality confirms that a hybrid approach dramatically maximizes long-term survival benefits. It’s backed up. In the past there were reviews that explored the relationship between training and mortality, this being one more that gives it much more strength so that it ultimately continues to be recommended for consultation to anyone, regardless of age. Because exercise here does not understand age, and strength exercise can be for the youngest, but also for the elderly who need to preserve their muscle to have a better quality of life in their last years of life. Images | Anastase Maragos In Xataka | In the fever to train strength, the gym has faced competition: more and more people train on the street

The world is running out of data to continue training AI. China has an ace up its sleeve

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The models of artificial intelligence (AI) have a problem that more powerful chips cannot solve: they are running out of data. Epoch AI, a nonprofit research organization specializing in scaling AI models, warns with 80% certainty that the high-quality text available on the Internet will be exhausted sometime between 2026 and 2032. The reason is very simple: AI laboratories have been extracting everything the web has to offer for many years, and current models already train on data sets that approach the theoretical limit of the information available. When that gold mine empties, data volume scaling will stop working. And if this scenario occurs, AI development will most likely slow down. We still do not know what strategy US companies are developing to solve this problem, but we already know what is China preparing. His biggest rival. In fact, Xi Jinping’s government has decided that this shortage is an opportunity. This week the China National Data Administration published a draft outlining its action plan with a clear objective: to build an ecosystem of validated data by 2028 that will fuel the next generation of AI models. China’s bet is already on the table The document prepared by the National Data Administration identifies which specific sectors are priority objectives for information generation and certification. Some of them are scientific research, manufacturing, agriculture, energy, transportation, finance, healthcare, education and e-commerce. However, his plan does not stop at traditional sectors. China has a structural advantage that no Western laboratory can easily replicate And it also plans to cover cutting-edge fields with quality data, such as AI applied to robots, autonomous driving, low-altitude aviation or biomanufacturing. These are, precisely, domains whose data is not on the internet because they come from sensors, actuators and physical environments. Achieving them requires having industrial infrastructure, and in this scenario China has a structural advantage that no Western laboratory can easily replicate. However, this is not all. The document prepared by the National Data Administration explicitly encourages the expansion of the supply of text, code, images, audio and video necessary to train systems capable of complex reasoning, agentic behavior and control of intelligent robots. In fact, it’s an almost exact description of what the industry calls next-generation models. They are not just systems capable of answering questions; They will also be able to plan, act and operate in the physical world. The availability of high-quality multimodal data, especially that coming from real industrial environments, is today one of the least discussed and most determining bottlenecks in the AI ​​career. In a scenario where access to cutting-edge chips is restricted by US export controlsdata becomes a competitive advantage. If China can’t win the hardware race, it can try to win the fuel race that that hardware needs to be truly useful. Image | Daoducquan More information | SCMP In Xataka | The condemnation that afflicts China: after decades of manufacturing a competitive desktop processor, it is six years behind

secret training for war in Ukraine

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The scene took place a few months ago. Ukrainian soldiers surprised British instructors when they discovered that many NATO armies still They did not use anti-drone networks on a regular basis. After several years of war, Ukraine was beginning to teach the West how to survive on a front dominated by drones. Much more than drones. For much of the Ukraine war, the relationship between China and Russia has been interpreted primarily in terms economic and technological. Beijing bought Russian oil and gas while Chinese companies appeared linked to the supply of electronic components, drones and machinery useful for the Russian military industry. However, the revelations he has had access Reuters on the secret training of Russian military in Chinese facilities point to something much deeper: China would not be limiting itself to indirectly supporting the Russian war economy, but rather participating in the tactical and doctrinal training of soldiers who then return directly to the Ukrainian front. This enormously changes the dimension of the relationship between both countries. War as a military classroom. According to the documents and sources European intelligence agencies, some 200 Russian soldiers were trained discreetly in China at the end of 2025 under an agreement signed between senior commanders of both countries. He program included training in FPV drones, electronic warfare, army aviation, mechanized infantry and demining. Some sessions took place in military centers in Beijing, Nanjing, Zhengzhou or Shijiazhuang. What is important is not only the relatively small number of soldiers, but the profile of many of them: instructors and commanders capable of relaying that knowledge to whole units once back in Ukraine. In other words, China would not simply be sending technology, but helping to perfect the way Russia fights modern war. China learns while Russia fights. It just so happens that the relationship also greatly benefits Beijing. The People’s Liberation Army has not fought a major war in decades and the Russian invasion of Ukraine has become the largest military laboratory real of the planet. Russia brings direct combat experience in drones, trenches, electronic warfare and mass attrition. China provides industrial capacity, advanced simulators, technological production and training methods increasingly sophisticated. The exchange is extremely valuable for both. Moscow gains access to technology and training difficult to obtain under Western sanctions, while Beijing can observe how modern weapons, tactics and doctrines really work without being officially involved in the conflict. Silent revolution. The heart of all this cooperation revolves around drones. Ukraine has completely transformed the way it fights using cheap FPV capable of destroying armored vehicles, fortified positions and even helicopters. Russia had to quickly adapt to that reality and now appears to be turning to China to further professionalize part of that ecosystem. The documents describe simulator training flight, coordinated use of drones with mortars, electronic warfare against enemy drones and physical interception systems through networks. All of this reflects the extent to which modern warfare is ceasing to depend exclusively on large traditional platforms to increasingly focus on cheap, massive and very difficult to neutralize systems. Europe’s concern. For the European agencies, what is truly disturbing is that part of those soldiers trained in China already they would have participated later in combat operations in occupied Crimea and Zaporizhzhia. This means that the knowledge acquired in Chinese facilities ends up being applied directly on the European battlefield. Beijing, for its part, continues to publicly defend a neutral position and continues to present itself as a possible peace mediator, but this type of cooperation seriously erodes that image. In the eyes of many Western governments, China would be entering a much more sensitive gray area: not officially sending its own troops or weapons, but contributing to improving Russian operational capacity in an active war against Ukraine. Increasingly military alliance. The revelation It also confirms the extent to which the “limitless” partnership announced by Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin before the 2022 invasion has evolved far beyond simple joint exercises or diplomatic statements. China and Russia no longer seem to limit themselves to coordinating political positions vis-à-vis the West, they are beginning to share knowledge combat practices, training and doctrine. The most significant detail may be precisely the secrecy of the agreements: prohibition of media coverage, restrictions on information to third parties and programs developed discreetly away from the international spotlight. All this suggests that both countries perfectly understand the political sensitivity of a cooperation that, although still indirect, gets closer and closer to China to the real workings of the war in Ukraine. Image | Vitaly V. Kuzmin In Xataka | The closure of the Strait of Hormuz chokes the Chinese economy. Its only energy solution is a historic pact with Putin In Xataka | While everyone was looking at Hormuz, Russia has found a much more important route to supply drones to Iran

Schwarzenegger continues training every day at 78 years old and the fascinating thing is that he is right

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At 78 years old, the seven-time Mr. Olympia and the most famous cyborg in the history of cinema continues to faithfully attend his appointment at the gym, as Schwarzenegger acknowledges in an entry on his personal blogwhere he explains that even on days when he has less energy he goes to exercise, something that sums up pretty well with the phrase: “No matter the pain, no matter the weight, every day I achieve a victory.” It’s a reality. His mentality, forged in the golden age of bodybuilding, might seem like the eccentricity of a Hollywood star who refuses to age. However, behind Schwarzenegger’s weights and pulley machines lies one of the most robust physiological truths of modern medicine: strength training starting at age 70 and 80 is not an aesthetic whim, It is a medical necessity. Falling into the stereotype that sport is for young people who want to show off having a good body on the beach is real nonsense, because playing sport literally becomes the next prescription for all the benefits it entails. And logically being more or less old here does not at all condition entry to a gym, as science recognizes us. Inactivity weighs more. To reach old age in better health, you don’t have to invest a lot of money in super expensive supplements or creams to keep your skin firm. And there is a widespread belief that the loss of functional capacity and weakness are inevitable consequences of getting older, but here the National Institute on Aging from the United States is blunt about it: in the vast majority of cases, physical inactivity weighs much more than biological age itself in this deterioration. One of the great silent enemies of middle age is sarcopenia, which is the gradual loss of muscle mass and strength, and which literally correlates with both quality and life expectancy. And to correct it, the only treatment we have at hand is to do strength training adapted to each person profile, directly improving our ability to perform such everyday tasks as getting up from a chair, walking to the supermarket or carrying shopping bags. It’s never too late. Another of the great myths that we also have on the table is that you are too old to start exercising, but here the scientific literature reminds us that it is false, since starting late is still (very much) worth it. Here, a study that grouped 121 randomized trials with 6,700 participants showed that progressive strength training improves muscle strength and functional capacity in older people. This resulted in an improvement in autonomy by significantly improving their walking speed and their ability to climb stairs autonomously. Besides this, a recent systematic review of the Polytechnic University of Madrid on training in older people reported that traditional strength training can achieve improvements in knee extension strength of up to 46%. That percentage, in clinical practice, is the difference between needing a walker or walking on your own. Beyond the muscle. Strength work is also important for bone formation and combating osteoporosis by reducing several cardiometabolic risk factors. Besides, the Heart Foundation points out that strength work, added to balance and mobility training, is vital to protect against falls. It is not something minor, since in people over 70 years of age a fall is not an accident, but rather it is one of the most serious clinical problems that can drastically reduce life expectancy. Added to all this is that exercise has been shown to help regulate sleep, improve mood (reducing stress and anxiety) and even protect cognitive function. Adapted. There is no need to try to emulate Schwarzenegger’s youth records to obtain these benefits, but current medical guidelines agree on a minimum effective dose that is very affordable for almost everyone. In this case, for a person over 70 years old, a reasonable guideline supported by evidence is to train strength at least 2 days per week. But here you should always adapt the exercise to each person and start with a gentle exercise and gradually increase it. Although you don’t just have to be with the dumbbell in your hand, it should be combined with balance routines, joint mobility and some aerobic work. Images | Wikipedia Victor Freitas In Xataka | We have been debating for years whether it is better to go to the gym in the morning or in the afternoon. Physiology finally has the answer

Pokémon Go brought millions of players to the streets. Millions of players who were actually training an AI

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In 2016 it came to the mobile market Pokémon Goa spinoff of the popular entertainment franchise with a very interesting premise: capture Pokémon in your city using your cell phone’s GPS. The game caught on very quickly and became a phenomenon. It’s been almost 10 years since that and Niantic, its developer, has taken advantage of all the data that millions of players have been giving them to guide delivery robots through the cities. Your first client: Coco Robotics. The business that no one saw coming. The amount of information that can be obtained from Pokémon Go is truly impressive, since millions of people have voluntarily traveled the world with their mobile phones in order to capture (digitally) this type of creatures. And each game leaves an invisible trace, since there are millions of photos of buildings, squares and streets labeled with very precise coordinates that would not have been possible without the information provided by its users when playing. Five hundred million people installed the app in its first 60 days, according to Brian McClendonCTO of Niantic Spatial. Eight years later, the game still has more than 100 million players in 2024, according to data from Scopely, the company that acquired Pokémon Go from Niantic that same year. The problem that GPS does not solve. GPS devices become a bit silly when they have to operate on sidewalks and much of the urban fabric that does not correspond to the road. Signals bounce between skyscrapers, tunnels and viaducts and the margin of error can be up to 50 meters, enough to place a robot on the wrong sidewalk or the next street. “The urban canyon is the worst place in the world for GPS,” affirms McClendon. Coco Robotics, a startup that operates nearly 1,000 delivery robots in cities such as Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami and Helsinki, knows this well, as its devices operate precisely in those dense areas where the signal is never reliable. This is where Niantic Spatial comes in. In May 2024, Niantic separated its spatial and artificial intelligence division. created Niantic Spatial as an independent company. Its core product is a visual positioning system (VPS) trained with 30 billion urban images, capable of placing a device on the map with a precision of a few centimeters from a handful of photos of the environment. The key is that these images come from millions of points of interest in Pokémon Go and Login (the company’s pre-Pokémon Go AR game, released in 2013). In such popular games, players have for years been directed to photograph the same place from different angles, at different times and in different weather conditions. “We had over a million locations around the world where we can locate you to the nearest centimeter and, more importantly, know where you are looking,” explains McClendon. What this changes for robots. Coco Robotics has been the first partner to adopt this technology. Its robots, equipped with four cameras, will combine conventional GPS with Niantic Spatial’s VPS to position itself more accurately, especially in pickup areas in front of restaurants and in delivery to the customer’s door. According to Zach Rash, CEO of Coco, the goal is meet delivery times promised and not depend on margins of error that in practice mean arriving late or to the wrong place. The model already solves one of the most practical challenges of urban robotics: performing well where conventional systems fall short. Beyond the distribution. John Hanke, CEO of Niantic Spatial, talks about what he calls a living map: a hyper-updated simulation of the real world that updates as robots move through it and provide new data. The idea is not only that the maps are more accurate, but that they are designed for machines, not people. This involves adding descriptions of each element of the environment, its properties, its context. “This era is about building useful descriptions of the world for machines to understand,” says Hanke. In that sense, Niantic Spatial differs from other bets on world models, such as those of Google DeepMind or World Labswhich focus on generating virtual environments. Niantic Spatial wants to replicate the real world as it is. In Xataka | OpenClaw changed the rules of the AI ​​race. Technology companies already have their answer: copy it

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