trees

Belgrade’s “liquid trees” are the fascinating biotechnological solution to clean the air in cities

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Today, the city of Belgrade has a significant problem in terms of air quality, which is already something quite typical of large cities. The situation here, the truth is, is quite critical, with some areas where the limits recommended by the WHO are exceeded by up to 5 times, and to solve it, the idea that we can have in mind is need to plant more treesbut the reality is that there is little space available to plant them, so they have had to choose to install what they have called liquid trees. The solution. Under the name of LIQUID 3this project has been operating since 2021 in front of the Stari Grad City Hall in the Serbian capital, and to the surprise of many it is not shaped like a tree, but is a simple glass tank that is filled with 600 liters of water inhabited by local microalgae. But just because it doesn’t have the shape of a tree doesn’t mean it doesn’t work as such, since it literally uses photosynthesis to absorb carbon dioxide from the environment and release pure oxygen into the environment, and the truth is that they are very efficient, since a single tank of LIQUID3 is equivalent to the absorption capacity of two 10-year-old trees or 200 square meters of grass. How is it possible? That a simple tank surpasses an adult tree when it comes to ‘purifying’ the air, the truth is that it seems strange, but biotechnology has achieved something incredible. Specifically, science has seen how microalgae have the ability to capture carbon dioxide and fix it between 10 and 50 times faster than land plants under controlled conditions. In fact, studies indicate that these algae can fix approximately 1.8 grams of CO₂ for every gram of biomass generated, achieving CO₂ removal efficiencies close to 50%. And designed for the city. Being in the center of a city is not easy, and that is why scientists have had to use strains of Serbian freshwater microalgae that grow with simple tap water and withstand extreme temperature fluctuations. And here the research indicates that these species are ready for the most hostile environments. And another positive point they have is that they hardly require maintenance, since it is limited to the fact that the biomass generated must be extracted every month and a half, and in addition, water and fresh minerals are added. The positive here is also that biomass can be used as a great natural fertilizer. More than a lung. The LIQUID3 is not just a laboratory experiment that has taken to the streets, but has been designed as multifunctional urban furniture, since, in addition to purifying the air, the structure functions as a bench to sit on and even adds solar panels to charge your cell phone or provide night lighting. It is not definitive. Although it seems incredible, the truth is that we must put our feet on the ground in the face of technological enthusiasm. Although right now the figures are very good, there is still a lack of studies that can validate the impact it has in the long term and measure whether they are really giving good results, and above all that they are real. But the most important nuance here is that these systems do not replace traditional trees or forests, which logically must remain where they are and promoting their implementation. In this way, we are left with the fact that this technology has been designed for dense and highly polluted urban areas where traditional planting is logistically impossible. Where the asphalt does not give an inch to the roots, the liquid trees rise like a high-tech green oasis, giving the city’s lungs a break. Images | LIQUID3 In Xataka | Tell me where you live and I’ll tell you how healthy your tap water is: the map of Spain that analyzes each municipality

126,000 hectares of almond trees are about to flood a market that does not need them

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Tick ​​tock If you go to any Spanish countryside and stay very still, very silent; Immediately, you will start listening to it. Tick ​​tock, tick tock. It’s subtle, I admit. Almost imperceptible if you don’t pay attention. But it is there and no one can deny it: a ticking time bomb within the country’s agribusiness in the form of the 126,000 hectares of almond plantations that are about to come into production. It is the chronicle of an announced crisis. The almond, the fashionable fruit. In 2016, Javier López-Bellidoprofessor at the School of Agricultural Engineers of the University of Castilla – La Mancha, He told me he was worried because “lately, there is no conversation with farmers that does not include the word ‘almond tree’.” And there were good reasons for it; although they can all be summarized in the same way: a hectare of almond trees is twice as profitable as one of oranges. According to experts, it also had a wonderful future: “The demand market for almonds is on the rise throughout the world, so all experts agree that, at least within the next decade, this nut will have a great market outlet, especially abroad,” said Doménec Nàcher by Asaja in El Mundo. However, López Bellido I wasn’t so clear. This trend was going to translate into many farmers going into debt with an eye on the high prices of almond grains and they were going to find a saturated market that was going to suffocate them little by little. And that, word for word, is what is happening. And it’s been 10 years. Today, Spain is the second largest producer in the world almond In fact, the almond tree is already the most extensive woody crop in Spain and only in the last decade has grown 34%. Furthermore, as I said, right now there are 126,000 hectares of almond trees that have not yet matured enough. But they will. The thing is that we have already seen this movie. It is literally the same mechanism that has caused the lemon crisis: first a price-pull effect, then uncontrolled expansion and, later, calm while those trees reach production age. A calm that lasts until the almonds reach a saturated market and everything collapses. We know what is going to happen, but no one is very clear how to stop it. And that is the great drama of the Spanish countryside. One of many, it is true; but an especially bloody one: one that takes advantage of the desperation of farmers and ends up leaving them bankrupt. And of those dusts, these sludge. Image | Mercedes White In Xataka | How the “hen with the golden lemons” has become a trap for the Spanish countryside

We knew that olive trees were very old trees, what we did not imagine was that they reached 4,000 years of age.

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The olive tree is undoubtedly one of the most iconic trees in the Mediterranean basin. Olive groves have populated the fields of southern Europe and the Levant since time immemorial, but such is the longevity of this species that the history of some of these trees also dates back to, at least, antiquity. An example of this is the Vouves olive treelocated on the Greek island of Crete. Conservative estimates put it on this tree about 2,000 years. This would imply that in his life he could be a silent witness to events such as the division of the Roman Empire, the fall of Byzantium and the Ottoman Empire and, of course, the birth of contemporary Greece. The most extensive estimates estimate that this tree could reach 4,000 years old. This would not only make it a contemporary of figures such as Pythagoras, Aristotle or Alexander the Great but would also imply that this plant was born in Minoan Crete and was Witness the collapse of the Late Bronze Ageone of the most intriguing events that occurred at the dawn of history as we understand it. But perhaps the most surprising detail of all this is that the Vouves olive tree continues to bear fruit. This has led many to ask, how is this possible? What makes this specimen and its species in general so long-lived? The olive tree (Olea europaea) has a life expectancy that, although it does not reach millennia, does exceed several centuries. It is estimated that the life expectancy of trees of this species around five centuriesalthough there is some debate about it. In this sense, a study published in 2021 in the magazine Dendrochronologyestimated that the majority of “monumental olive trees” had maximum ages ranging between 300 and 500 years. Estimating the age of an olive tree is difficult. We noted at the beginning that estimates of the age of this ancient tree ranged between 2,000 and 4,000 years, a very wide range precisely because of the difficulty involved in calculating the age of these trees. Dendrochronology is based on using the growth rings of tree trunks to estimate their age: how many rings, how many years. Counting rings in a felled specimen is simple, but doing it in a living tree and doing it in an olive tree is another story. The trunks of the olive trees grow irregularly, which implies an apparently chaotic pattern in the rings inside, making counting especially difficult, as I pointed out. a study published in 2013 in the magazine PLOS One. Its curious growth could be related to its longevity. According to Scott Travers, a biologist at Rutgers University, in an article for Forbesone of the “secrets” behind longevity of these trees is in vegetative or clonal reproduction. That is, in the fact that this tree is made up of various cuttings that start from the same root. This, adds Travers, allows this type of plants to survive extreme conditions, including fires, cuts and similar incidents. Another survival trick Travers continues explainingis in the biochemistry of the tree, which offers mechanisms that allow it to repair damaged tissues, as well as defend itself against pathogenic organisms. The same oil that we humans use is used by the tree that gives it to us through its fruits. The elderly around us Spain also has ancient olive trees, although if we want to find a tree that competes in age with the Vouves olive tree, we have to go to Portugal. It would be an olive tree located in Abrantesin the center of Portugal. According to a study carried out by the University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro (UTAD), Mouchao would be the tree that would hold this record with an age that would be around 3,350 years old. Spain also has ancient olive trees and among them all stands out. Arion’s Fargea tree that we can find in the province of Tarragona. The estimated age of this olive tree It is more than 1,700 years old. This implies that this ancient tree would have been planted in the time of Emperor Constantine I. Olive trees are not the only ancient tree species in our environment. Cedars, sequoias and even Canarian dragon trees can also reach ages that would make the biblical Methuselah pale. Olive trees are trees with a long life expectancy but they do not usually fill the lists of the longest living trees on the planet. The two longest-lived non-cloned trees known are two pines called Prometheus and Methuselahwhose ages are estimated to be over 4,000 years old. Both belong (or belonged in the case of Prometheus) to the species Pinus longaevathe “long-lived pine” so this fact is not entirely surprising. When Prometheus was cut, the botanists who analyzed it counted more than 4,800 rings, so they estimated its age to be about 4,900 years. Estimates indicate that Methuselah has also surpassed by decades the 4,800 year old mark. If we include clonal organisms we can find older trees. For example, the Pando forestconsidered the largest living organism on the planet, composed of thousands of cuttings from the same clonal tree, could have about 80,000 years old according to some estimates. In Xataka | A retiree planted a tree in 2003 in one of the most dangerous areas of Sao Paulo. Today it is an amazing “jungle” of the city In Xataka | We have found the oldest tree in the EU and it has been installed for 1,500 years in a very special place: Teide Image | Eric Nagle, CC BY-SA 4.0 This article was originally published in Xataka in April 2025.

For Finland, protecting its roads in World War II was essential, so flying trees were invented

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In a war it is not only doing and being, but also appearing. We have already seen recently how Iran pretended to have parked fighters so that Israel wastes its missiles, but this trick of playing catch-up is older than gunpowder. In fact, in World War II the United States had until ‘Ghost Army’ who was dedicated to these tasks. Precisely within the framework of the second war on a planetary scale, this curious story of concealment of infrastructurewhich is run by Finland. Finland is a Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula, the easternmost of the triad made up of Norway, Sweden and Finland. That makes it have a border with Russia, only at that time it was the USSR. Its situation on the map made it fight three wars in three different positions: the Winter War where it was attacked by the Soviets, the Continuation War in which the USSR attacked it, taking advantage of the Nazis’ Operation Barbarossa and the Lapland Warin which he fought against Germany after signing his armistice with the USSR. The photo that illustrates the cover of this piece and that you can see in full immediately after this paragraph was taken by Osvald Hedenström and is preserved in the photographic archive of the Finnish Defense Forces, along with the legend written by the photographer: “The Finns have camouflaged the 10 km from the border on the Raatteen road with country roads, with fir trees that seem to hang in the air, because right on the border there is an observation tower erected by the Russians. Suomussalmi, Kuivajärvi 1941.06.27” Flying trees on the Raatteen road. Sa-Kuva The cheapest camouflage of World War II That is to say, the legend makes three facts clear: that there was camouflage that covered the 10 kilometers of road from the border, which included rural roads and the main highway, and that the threat was a Soviet observation tower right on the muga. As? With fir trees lying. The Finnish army was noticeably inferior to the Soviet one, so they took advantage of the terrain, explains Colonel Petteri Jouko, a military historian at the Finnish National Defense University. for Atlas Obscura: “The Finns did not have the funds to purchase large quantities of artificial camouflage, such as nets, they did use trees, leaves and foliage to confuse the enemy” Because Finland is also a country with exuberant nature: the density of its forests is around 75% of the territory. according to the FAOso discovering critical infrastructure for the movement of troops and supplies such as roads or railways was a piece of cake for the Soviets. Obviously this resource of camouflaged roads was only effective for sky-level observationbut not for reconnaissance aircraft. Trees laid to hide critical infrastructure. Sa-Kuva This camouflage technique was technically simple but arduous. The Finns cut down the pine trees near the roads and then suspended them with steel cables that they had tied to other trees at the ends, although they also used wooden poles. The result, as can be seen just above, in another photograph from the Finnish archive, is that it seemed that the trees were flying over the roads, which from a bird’s eye view appeared to be just another leafy forest. Currently, none of these tree structures have survived; the passage of time and the abandonment of these rural roads has condemned them to their disappearance. In Xataka | Ukraine has found the antidote to Russian kamikaze drones in World War II: an optical illusion worth 500 euros In Xataka | A secret Nazi bunker in Germany hides the most sought-after treasure on the entire planet: hundreds of tons of rare earths Cover and photographs | SA-kuva (Finnish Defense Forces photo archive)

The almond trees throughout Spain are already in bloom and that is fantastic news for the sector. Or also a disaster

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40 years ago, on January 10, the father of Simplisíssimus told him it would be a bad year for the almond. The reason was simple: when the trees flowered early, the almond embryo was exposed (“weak and sensitive”) to late frosts that could destroy entire crops. Therefore, the good time for flowering was March, he explained. And he must have been right, but in the last 44 years it has been increasingly difficult to prove it. According to an article published by AEMETSince 1981, the flowering of the almond tree has been advancing systematically and documented throughout the country. But it seems that, at least in some areas, this has changed this year. If confirmed, it could be good news. When do almond trees bloom? According to the work of the Autonomous University of Madrid, the Senckenberg Research Institute and AEMETin these 40 years, the median flowering date in the center of the peninsula has moved from February 12 to February 7. Of course, the progress has not been linear: it has accelerated in recent years. At a historical level, the most advanced in recent decades was in 1993 (around January 8). And why should we care? In general terms, because the almond tree is the most extensive woody crop in Spain and, in fact, it is growing: in the last decade the dedicated area has grown by 34%. The almendril madness in the country is such that, well, Spain leads the sector with 765,000 hectares productive. That is, it is an issue that matters to us as a country. So, we’re talking about good news, right? It will depend on how the weather goes from now on and, furthermore, we must not forget that It has not been like this in all places. However, as has been happening lately in the field, it can be (at the same time) good news and bad news. Good because a big harvest would help remove volatility that the almond has had in recent years, because it would help generate rural employment in a year which is expected to be complicated by flooding and will give a break to agricultural insurance. And yet, a good harvest can end up delaying a fundamental debate: that of varieties. The only way the sector has adapt to climate changes is betting on late or hyperlate variants. They are not a magic solution, but it is a solution. The question is whether the global almond giant, up to its eyeballs in debt, will understand that it has to make a move. Image | Tim Mossholder In Xataka | An end of February with 20 ºC, haze and full reservoirs is not “good weather”: it is the sign of a completely misplaced meteorology

His name is John, he studied at Wharton and manages olive trees from New York

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100 billion euros in farmland. That is what, according to an exhaustive report by Greenpeace and Datadistamanages venture capital in the Iberian Peninsula through some 900 investment funds. It is not a Spanish rarity: it is an international boom. In 2015, there were only 45 funds specialized in ‘agribusiness’ in the world; today there are more than a thousand. Back in Spain, since 2019 the purchase and sale of properties has grown by 20%. In 2023 alone, some 148,000 properties were sold. Nine out of ten; at least in Andalusia, They were bought without a mortgage. But this is not what is worrying. After all, we have spent years talking about the financialization of the field. What we didn’t know was the profound impact that this was going to have. How the Spanish farmer is changing. According to the report, there are three types of buyers: specialized investment funds, large industrial corporations and family fortunes. That is, the ownership of land is separating very quickly of it: what were previously businessmen or traditional owners with a certain connection to the territory, are now simply investors. And that has generated a new type of company: specialized intermediaries. Those that allow investors without any experience operate farms as if they were “franchises”. Companies like Balam or Todolivo offer comprehensive management of plantations (from genetic improvement and planting to harvesting). The problem, according to experts who are studying these transformations, is that changes in ownership and changes in management are leading to a change in productive structure of rural Spain. To put it bluntly: this approach does not generate meaningful local employment. Andalusia, to go with the most visual example, has lost 178,957 agricultural jobs between 2017 and 2014. Billions are entering the Spanish countryside, but that money does not reach the base. Why is it important? Because the rural world is being transformed at a forced pace: the generational change crisisthe lurches in the water regime and the problems with the CAP are the icing on the cake: sources of uncertainty that make it impossible to know where we are going. And that has direct consequences in our daily lives. For example, in the case of oil, we are not only going to see how EVOO price volatility increases even in good harvests. As if that were not enough, we are going to move towards varietal standardization (to focus on super-intensive varieties), a loss of rural population and an even deeper disarticulation (industrial, social and cultural) of emptied Spain. Image | Vasilis Caravitis In Xataka | In California, the funds discovered that there is no investment more profitable than farmland. Now it’s Spain’s turn

He planted 16,000 trees and turned it into an anti-rich sanctuary

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What of send everything to fry asparagus and go live on an island It is something that, more or less, has occurred to everyone. Now, whether you do it is another thing. If we talk about buying an island, the circle is already closed to a few and although the story we are going to tell is not from today and does not have current prices, the reality is that the 8,000 pounds that Brendon Grimshaw paid for the small island of Moyenne in 1962 (approximately 200,000 pounds today, about 230,000 euros) they gave him to buy almost three houses in his native Britain. He would have had real estate to speculate on, but the world would not have the Moyenne National Park. But let’s start at the beginning. Brendon Grimshaw was a British journalist who, after starting his career in popular newspapers such as the Batley News and the Sheffield Star in his native country, moved to Africa, where worked in important media such as the East African Standard magazine or the Tanganyika Standard. At the age of 37, he made a drastic decision: he was on vacation in the Seychelles when he made the decision to acquire an island of just nine hectares. Why buy an island? There are those who say that more than a vacation, he was looking for a purpose in life: to demonstrate his peace and love for nature. The BBC mentions “protect Moyenne from excessive urban development” as its initial objective, but it must be said that Until 1973 he continued working as a journalist and visiting the island on vacation. From that date on, he said goodbye to his profession and moved there to create a natural paradise that would last over time. The Sheychelles were beginning to emerge as a tourist destination and although it was abandoned, it would be a matter of time before someone arrived and set up a resort. And he changed Moyenne from top to bottom. The island had not been inhabited for half a century, except for a family of fishermen, and was in a scruffy state as a result of negligence and excessive human intervention: impenetrable thickets where invasive species reigned, as he himself says in the documentary. A Grain of Sand (which before it was a book). Note: globally the concept of environmentalism and care for the environment was being forged and was beginning to take off (the first “Earth Day” dates back to 1970). He was not alone in this mission: he worked hand in hand with the local René Antoine Lafortunea 19-year-old young man from that family of fishermen. Throwing everything away and setting up a five-star hotel is much easier than restoring an ecosystem, something that It took him a lifetime, literally.because Grimshaw died in 2012. René died younger, in 2007, leaving Brendon as a true Robinson Crusoe for five years. A restoration plan that took a lifetime Its areas of action can be divided into three: massive reforestation with native species, tackling the rat infestation and introducing some infrastructure. In A Grain of Sand narrates how the undergrowth was so thick that a coconut that fell from a tree did not reach the ground and that only four tall native trees remained that stood out, counted for the BBC in an interview. So planted by hand more than 16,000 trees of species such as mahogany, palm trees and other endemic species that had disappeared from the island. In the documentary he tells how the silence impacted him due to the absence of fauna: the absence of native fruit trees and the dense layer of scrub made it not an attractive place for birds, which are looking for a nesting place with food and safety. The reintroduction of native species and the restoration of the flora attracted more than 200 species of birds. Grimshaw also explained that when he arrived, there were also no giant tortoises that are now emblematic of the island: he introduced and bred Aldabra giant tortoises (Aldabrachelys gigantea) from other islands of the archipelago, which he later marked to continue their growth. Today there are more than 120 copies. Less striking but also very useful was that They built almost five kilometers of trails to improve accessibility. Practically with pick and shovel. In the 1980s, offers flooded in to buy the island, including that of a Saudi prince, who is said to have offered up to $50 million. Brendon Grimshaw’s response did not give rise to negotiations: “the island is not for sale“. The former journalist was getting older and had no children, so in 2009 and when Lafortune had already died, he arranged for the government of the Seychelles will declare to Moyenne as the Moyenne Island National Park to find legal protection for the island and its preservation. Today Moyenne has an essential biological importance for the Sheychelles archipelago: it serves as a seed bank and refuge for species, since while other islands are plagued with resorts, there there are no shops, restaurants or hotelshardly a basic restaurant for those taking an excursion to the island from neighboring islands such as Mahe. In Xataka | An atoll in the South Pacific has become a magnet for millionaires. Its great attraction is not its beaches, it is its banks In Xataka | A billionaire bought an island in Hawaii for himself and his friends. So the locals had to leave Cover | Jean-Francis Martin and documentary A Grain of Sand on YouTube

the “death bloom” of Ceylon palm trees

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There are plants that are born and die in a year, but every rule there is an exception, with species that spend decades in silence, accumulating energy for a single, spectacular final act. This is the case of Corypha umbraculiferabetter known like Ceylon Palmwhich has flourished again in the Palmetum from Santa Cruz de Tenerife. An event that is historical because it occurs once every 30 or 60 years and that, on the European continent, can only be witnessed here. A special variant. The Corypha umbraculifera It’s not just any palm treesince it has the largest inflorescence in the world, with a branched structure that sprouts at the top and can reach between 5 and 7 meters in height. To give us an idea, only “the flower” is as tall as a two-story house. This specimen of the Palmetum, planted in 1997, began its reproductive process in October 2025 and after months of preparation, now in January 2026, the spectacle is fully visible from the so-called “Red Route” from the Tenerife botanical garden. A unique phenomenon. This is a species that has ‘monocarpy’, a scientific term to define the botanical suicide that this palm tree faces. In this way, the plant dedicates all its energy accumulated over decades to producing millions of flowers and, later, fruits. Once its reserves are exhausted, it dies. And it is something unique, since the Palmetum of Santa Cruz de Tenerife is the only garden on the continent that has managed to see this species bloom on two occasions (the previous one was a different specimen years ago). And its origin is not in the Canary Islands, but comes from Southeast Asia, where its leaves were historically used as paper for religious manuscripts. Why so much? The fact of having to wait 30 or 60 years to flower is something that responds to an evolutionary strategy of the species. In this way, by flowering only once in such an explosive way, it produces such a quantity of fruits that local predators such as rodents are unable to eat them all. Thus, the palm tree ensures that, even if it dies, thousands of its descendants manage to germinate. The process we are seeing now in Tenerife is the final phase of its life. According to the official records of the Palmetum and local media as Notice Diarythe process is slow, but unstoppable, since during the next few months, the flowers will give way to fruits and, gradually, the structure of the palm tree will wither until its final collapse. The Palmetum. This event is not just an aesthetic curiosity; It is a triumph for the Palmetum of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. This space, which is technically a botanical garden built on an old landfill, has established itself as the best collection of palm trees in the world in an urban environment and the truth is that it has managed to grow anything. For botany and photography enthusiasts, this is an opportunity that is unlikely to be repeated on European soil for decades. The “wonderful death”, as some local media already call it, is a reminder that nature has its own times, sometimes slow, but always relentless. Images | Wikipedia In Xataka | Finding a partner for the “loneliest plant in the world” has been one of the great challenges of botany. Now AI wants to solve it

In 1957 the BBC explained that Italians picked their spaghetti from “pasta trees.” And millions of Britons believed it

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On April 1, 1976, Patrick Moore He entered the BBC Radio 2 morning show to comment on a curious astronomical phenomenon that was about to take place. He explained that, just at 9:47 that morning, Jupiter and Pluto would align with the Earth, producing a gravitational effect that would predictably be noticed throughout the planet. According to Moore, the most (re)known astronomer in England at the time, those who jumped at that precise moment would notice a brief but significant sensation of weightlessness. Just after 9:47 the BBC lines were jammed with people saying that, indeed, they had observed this decrease in gravity. The only problem is that it was all a joke. On April 1 (‘april fool’s day‘) is the Anglo-Saxon equivalent of our April Fool’s Day and Moore’s action was, indeed, an April Fool’s joke. A very successful prank: a woman even claimed that she and eleven other friends had been “dragged from their chairs and orbits gently around the room” as a result of the gravitational phenomenon. In 2008, the British network announced that a colony of flying penguins on King George Islandvery close to Antarctica. In fact, they made a video as you may have seen above. Another very funny one was the ’57 documentary about the “pasta trees” from which the Italians collected spaghetti. the dragons return The BBC has a long history of dabbling with pranks and science, but they’re not the only ones: to the now traditional BJM joke numberwe can add very funny jokes like NASA’s cow spacesuit, the Stonehege forgery by Martínez Ron or the one Nature published in 2015 about the existence of dragons. “Emerging evidence indicates that dragons can no longer be dismissed as creatures of legend and fantasy, and that anthropogenic effects on the global climate may be paving the way for the resurgence of these beasts,” they said in Nature. And, hey, it sounded like a great argument against climate change. In ’96, Discover Magazine published a long report about a new fundamental particle in physics, the bigon, and it was the size of a bowling ball. According to scientists, the only factor that prevents us from identifying them is that they only exist for a millionth of a second. The article ended on a wonderful note: “Is there any chance that bigon is just some kind of ridiculous April Fool’s Day joke, as almost every other physicist says? ‘People are so cynical,’ Zweistein replies. ‘Science,’ he notes, ‘routinely produces findings that seem too wonderful to be believed, and yet turn out to be true.’” But without a doubt my favorite joke was from CERN in 2015. That April 1st, they released a press release with a bang: they had found the “first unequivocal evidence of the Force.” Finally, so many millions invested were useful for something! As the researchers explained, many details were unclear and much remained to be investigated, but the preliminary results They indicated that this new physical phenomenon could be used for “long-distance communications, influencing minds, and lifting heavy things out of reservoirs.” The research was carried out by a research team led by the prestigious Professor Ben Kenobi from Mos Eisley University on Tatooine. So that later they say that scientists are not doing well. In Xataka | “It’s a little scary, but it’s normal”: in Sweden anyone can know how much their neighbor earns and it has been a success In Xataka | I asked the AI ​​any nonsense and now I’m writing a news story about it

The Black Death continued to hide an enigma almost seven centuries later. The answer was in some trees in the Pyrenees

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There are few episodes in the history of humanity more famous, studied and debated than that of the Black Deaththe epidemic that spread death across Europe between 1347 and 1353. However, there remained an enigma to solve, one as basic as it was relevant: Why the hell did the epidemic break out when, where and how did it do so? Why did this wave of death break out in the 14th century and not before or after? Solving a puzzle. This mystery is what Martin Bauch and Ulf Büntgen, from the GWZO and the University of Cambridge respectively, have wanted to solve in a study just published in Communications Earth & Environment. With it they not only want to shed light on one of the darkest episodes in Europe. They also show that, almost seven centuries later, the “black death” continues to be one of the chapters that most fascinates the world. Nothing surprising if one bears in mind that between 1347 and 1353 it took millions of lives in Europe, reaching mortality rates that in some regions they touched 60%. Searching in the Pyrenees. Perhaps the most curious thing about Bauch and Büntgen’s study is that it does not start in historical archives. Or that wasn’t at least his main place of work. The key to his research is in the Spanish Pyrenees, more specifically in the secular pines that they found there. When studying the interior of their trunks in search of clues about the medieval climate of Europe, they found something unexpected: a succession of “blue rings”. For most, that detail would go unnoticed, but Bauch and Büntgen saw something in it: evidence of a chain of colder, wetter summers than usual. “Unusual summers”. When the tempera falls, the trees cannot properly lignify their cells, which in turn leaves a bluish mark in the ring register of the trunk. In the Pyrenean pines, researchers found such marks that suggest that much of southern Europe must have experienced “unusually cold and wet summers” in 1345, 1346 and 1347. What’s more, when digging through libraries and written sources they found clues that point in exactly the same direction: a period marked by “unusual cloudiness and dark lunar eclipses.” The next question is… What caused this change in climate? And why is it important? The power of an eruption. Regarding the first question, researchers have few doubts. In his opinion, the drop in temperatures in summer was caused by a volcanic eruption (or even a chain of them) recorded around the year 1345 and which triggered a fatal domino effect: a considerable expulsion of ash and volcanic gases that generated a layer and caused a drop in temperatures, just as happened in other episodes throughout history. Climate, agriculture… Hunger. For the next question, why is it important that a volcano began releasing gases and ash almost seven centuries ago, the answer is simple: agriculture. The changes in climate not only left their mark on the centuries-old trunks of the central Pyrenees, they also punished the fields of the Mediterranean region, reducing crops and generating losses that threatened to lead to famine… and social instability. Against this backdrop, the powerful maritime republics of Italy did the most logical thing: chartered ships to import grain from the east, from the Black Sea area, more specifically from the Golden Hordein the Sea of ​​Azov region. It didn’t matter that Genoa and Venice were at war with the Mongols. Hunger was pressing, the threat of riots loomed and European diplomacy did its job. Already late in 1347, ships with grain began to arrive in Europe, unloading their precious merchandise in Mediterranean ports. More than grain. The problem is that in the holds of the ships mobilized by Venice and Genoa, the same ones that were supposed to prevent Europe from being besieged by famine, there were not only tons of grain. On board they brought fleas infected with Yersinia pestisthe bacillus responsible for the bubonic plague. “The exact origin of this deadly bacteria is still unknown, but ancient DNA suggests that a natural reservoir may have existed in wild gerbils somewhere in central Asia,” they explain from the University of Cambridge. The result: grain ships suddenly became vectors of a fatal disease, the bacteria jumped from rodents to humans, and the Black Death soon spread across Europe, with something much worse than famine. The ships of the black death. The rest is known history. Between 1347 and 1353 the disease killed millions of people. It is often said that the plague took the lives of 60% of the European population, a percentage that some raise to 65%, although in recent years some studies They have warned that the calculation is overstated and there were regions in which the registry was maintained. “Evidence of the Black Death can be found in many European cities almost 800 years later,” Büntgen and Bauch explain. “We were also able to show that many Italian cities, such as Milan or Rome, were probably not affected, because they did not need to import grain after 1345.” Why is it important? The study is interesting for several reasons. The main one, because it sheds new light on an aspect as basic as until now enigmatic about the Black Death. We knew about the role of Yersinia pestisabout the ships, about the role played by rodents, we knew the tragic death toll, its impact on the society, culture and economy of Europe… But we did not know why the epidemic broke out just when it did and not before or after. The succession of factors is so fascinating that researchers speak of a “perfect storm” in which climatic, agricultural, social and economic factors were added. A cocktail that, they insist, does not only speak to us about the Middle Ages. “Although this coincidence seems unusual, the probability of zoonotic diseases emerging due to climate change and resulting in pandemics is likely to grow in a globalized world,” Buntgen adds.. “It is … Read more

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