trees

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

We Spaniards are stopping having Christmas trees because they don’t fit in our house. So there are already companies renting them

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The year or the city doesn’t matter. At least in Spain, Christmas usually comes accompanied by a series of images that are repeated December after December, invariably: streets full of colored ledsbalconies in which they begin to appear papanoels and other Christmas decorations, shop windows in which gold, silver and reddish colors suddenly predominate… and living rooms in which trees full of tinsel and garlands sprout overnight. Year after year the same questions are also repeated: better natural or artificial tree? And above all… What the hell do we do with it after Epiphany, when it’s time to pick up the decorations? Where do we store it, if we already have the storage room all the way up? There are those who have seen In those doubts a promising business. Tree Earrings. There is no Christmas without decorations. And there is no Christmas decoration worth its salt without a good tree. It’s been like this all our lives, but just in case there were any doubts, cities like Vigo, Barcelona, Badalona either Madriddetermined to build gigantic trees in the heart of the urban area. Something similar happens in businesses, offices and homes. People demand trees (both artificial and natural), something that is felt in the nurseries and the big chains of decoration. As a reference, the National Christmas Tree Association (NCTA) estimates that each year they are sold in the US between 25 and 30 million of natural Christmas trees, which requires a huge plantation with hundreds of millions of copies distributed throughout the country. The dilemma, whether you choose real or fake fir trees, is… What to do with them later? A question, a business. There are those who have seen that question and the demand for Christmas trees as a business. After all… Why rack your brains choosing decorations, assembling them, disassembling them and then looking for a place to store them for months if we can pay a company to take care of everything? Or better yet, what if instead of buying the tree we rented it? Leasing trees may sound strange, but there comes a quick search on Google to find a few companies that operate in Spain and they dedicate precisely to that: to temporarily give up trees full of lights in exchange for a fee. The offer is wide and includes everything from small specimens to others of large size and size, for both indoor and outdoor spaces. But is it a business? Yes. The holidays may only last a few weeks, but if companies like Ximenezthe Córdoba company that has been in charge of setting up decorations in Vigo, Madrid, Barcelona or Milan, is that Christmas decorations can become a million dollar business. After all, it is not only families who demand decoration. Governments and companies of all kinds also do it, from businesses that do not have space to store decorations the rest of the year to hotels that need trees for their living rooms and hallways. In a warehouse in Madrid… One of the most popular Christmas tree rental companies in Spain is B&M, a family business with twenty years of experience that works from a warehouse in Tetuán, Madrid. Recently those responsible they explained to The Spanish Newspaper Every campaign, about 200 trees come out of there ready to decorate and that the company itself is in charge of collecting once the holidays are over. Their work involves several challenges, such as matching the taste of their clients and coordinating the logistics that require dismantling and removing 200 trees during the second week of January. “The pickup is intense because on the 9th everyone wants you to pick it up.” “Three, four hours at least”. The company also makes it clear that although it may seem like a simple task, preparing the ideal tree requires work. First they convey a proposal to the clients. Then they shape it. “A four or five meter tree is a job for five or six people, who have to spend at least three or four hours on it,” clarifies the signaturewhich explains, for example, that there are businesses that want trees with their corporate colors. How much do these services cost? In your website There are rates (with delivery and collection service included) ranging from 265 to 2,800 euros, without VAT. It all depends on the tree you want. They range from 1.5 to five meters. Are there more options? Yes. The demand for Christmas decoration is intense enough that it has encouraged other businesses, such as those that are committed to sustainability and offer a rent in pot. Your proposal? Instead of buying a plastic tree or taking a felled fir, rent one that you can place in your house alive, with its pot. Once in your living room you can decorate and take care of it and after Christmas the company will collect it to take it to a forest or to its nursery of origin. Images | Arun Kuchibhotla (Unsplash) and Jared Lind (Unsplash) In Xataka | Without knowing it, we all honor Thor during Christmas thanks to a pagan ritual: the Christmas tree

Zaragoza trees are dawning full of bites. The mystery is not who does it but how to solve it

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The Ribera del Ebro as it passes through Zaragoza is filling with nibbled trees. Tens. Dozens of tens. It has been confirmed by the City Council itself, which has counted around 70 damaged specimens in different parts of the urban section of the river. Actually the phenomenon has little mysterious and there are less doubts about who is responsible. What is not so clear is how to avoid it. In Spring Environment he already launched a plan to protect his poplars and poplars, which has not avoided that he has to withdraw one. The key is in a particularly voracious rodent. What happened? That Zaragoza has encountered dozens and dozens of nibbled trees. Literally. The technicians of the Aragonese City Council have identified neither more nor less than with 70 trees with marks of dentelladas in several sections of the Ebro riverbank as it passes through the city. One of them, a black poplar (Populus nigra) Located in the parking lot, it is so deteriorated that the Consistory has come to the conclusion that he has no choice but to withdraw it. Is it so serious? Not all trees are equal to damaged, but in the specific case of the Park of the Eyes, municipal technicians have concluded that there is a “collapse risk”. “Being in an area of ​​playful use is a considerable risk for citizens,” Apostille The City Council. And as an image always says more than a thousand words has shared a photo in which it can be seen how the trunk is stripped of bark and shows a crescent -shaped gap on the side. Around it, the floor is full of splinters. Who is responsible? The Zaragozano Consistory has few doubts about it: The beavers. Moreover, its presence in the area and the damage they cause to trees are no novelty for technicians, who have been trying to protect the trees from the most punished parks for these large rodents. In March, the Ministry of Environment, hand in hand with the conservation unit of the natural environment, launched an initiative to ‘shield’ some specimens of the Ebro banks: it placed meshes so that the beavers had more difficult to reach the cortex. The works began on the left bank of the river, in the Blacón de San Lázaro, one of the affected areas. “For a few years the presence of beavers has been detected on the banks of the Ebro River, who would be demolishing trees to use them in the construction of their burrows and dams, or as food. In recent months the damages have been located in the trees of both margins of the Ebro riverbank and its tributaries” The City Council recountswhich has counted more than 70 affected specimens, especially in the section between the Ebro azud, the Yacht Club and the San Lázaro balcony. Traces have also been seen on the banks of the Huerva and Gállego. Castores in Aragon? Exact. And this is not the first time they jump to the headlines. A year ago the farmers of the Jalón River environment already They showed their suspicion Due to the impact of these rodents on their fruit trees, an issue that even came to Congress and led the Ministry for the ecological transition to confirm that there are indications that point to the presence of beavers in the region since 2019 corroborates in statements to eldiario.es. But … where do they come from? The story From the European beaver it is quite long. And complex. It is known that Fiber castor It was well distributed by Europe and that at the end of the 19th century it was almost on the edge of extinction, with just 1,200 copiesdue to human harassment. As we altered their habitat or pursued them to get their skins, meats or even the glands (for the perfume industry), they losing ground. It is also known that they lived in the Iberian Peninsula, although there are different opinions about their history and the date of their collapse here. It is usually located towards the 18th, 18th or 19th century, although There are those who believe that there are hardly solid evidence that confirms the presence of rodents in Spain in recent centuries. About what there is more consensus is how they resurfaced in the peninsula: it is usually pointed to a unauthorized loose of 18 copies in the Ebro and Aragon rivers more than two decades ago. With the passage of time the species has been extending and experts have detected it in the Tormes River, more than 300 km from the populations that had already been identified in the Ebro, or in the Guadalquivir basin. What do we do with them? In The statement In which he informs of the nibbleed trees, the City of Zaragoza slides a key fact. Almost a paradox. While the species reintroduced without permission in the rivers of Spain, it is armored by Europe. “He Fiber Castor o European Castor is, according to the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, a native species of Spain that was extinguished for anthropic reasons and whose current presence is a consequence of an illegal reintroduction. Despite this, community regulations force their protection. “ The theme is complex because the liberation without permission from Castores, a practice known as ‘Beaver Bombing’ and that usually carry out activists convinced of the benefits of the species for the environment, does not fit the guidelines that usually follow species reintroductions. “As established by IUCN it is necessary to carry out a series of studies that are almost common sense”, emphasize in Climate Francisco José García, expert in Mammals of the SECEM. Why is it important? More graph was still the biologist Jacinto Román in 2023, in An interview with The country: “It is not that they are good or bad, but to know how a species that had been extinguished, studies are needed that, for now, do not exist. They cannot be made are visceral decisions.” … Read more

They barely have trees to hide

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There are still contactless tribes on the planet that defend their territory with nails and teeth. Possibly, the more extreme case is that of the trench they have mounted In North Sentinelbut they are not the only ones. In general, the few tribes of this type that remain have managed to escape the “exterior” showing themselves faithful to their way of life. The problem, As we point out Recently, they are receiving a series of visits Very dangerous. And in other cases, they are directly taking away their “hiding place.” The last resistance. They told it in two extensive reports The Guardian and O Globe. Twenty -five years ago, the anthropologist Beatriz Huertas He followed the traces of an invisible town in the heart of the Peruvian Amazon. The Mashco Pirothe largest indigenous group not contacted on the planet, appeared on the banks of the rivers, took bananas and faded in the jungle. Since then, its history has been that of a silent resistance to threats every time most lethal: Legal and illegal felling, drug trafficking, diseases brought by outsiders and climate change that alters the vital cycles of the jungle. Although Peru protected a portion Of their territory, the wood concessions granted right next and within their traffic areas have caused forced and violent coexistence. The expansion of Protected Areaapproved Almost a decade To avoid these clashes, it was never implemented. The result is a jungle where the Mashco Piro live In constant alert And where even the indigenous guards such as Romel Ponciano confirm that only men and adolescents are seen: the rest is hidden, fearing new fatal meetings. A diffuse border. Despite international treaties already a national law of protection of villages in isolation, the real measures to safeguard the Mashco Piro have been fragmented, slow and insufficient. While the Ministry of Culture reduces budgets and surveillance positions operate with just two people, wood concessions with international certification as FSC (supposedly synonym for sustainability) overlap vital territories for isolated. Companies like Tahuamanu Canales Madera They have been involved in mortal confrontations, and others as wood They manage concessions within the area whose protection remains stagnant Since 2016. In parallel, officials of the Ministry of Agriculture and local authorities such as the mayor of Tahuamanu They promote studies “Verifiers” that seek to question the need for the territory for isolated, prioritizing the commercial value of wood over the right to exist without contact. What do the authorities say. He Official speech oscillates between denying the very existence of isolated peoples (as the former President Alan García) and justify its displacement on behalf of the “order” against drug trafficking. All this under a developmental development that makes indigenous obstacles and not holders of fundamental rights. Paper battles. Indigenous organizations have achieved legal victories, such as the Cancellation of 72 concessions In Loreto, but they fear that these triumphs evaporate if the idea of ​​”shared areas” between isolated villages is institutionalized. In fact, the proposal to exclude non -contacted communities from the consultation processes required by the FSC certification It has been indicated as a serious omission. Impunity. Activists like Carla Cárdenas have presented motions To prohibit any certification in territories with indications of peoples in isolation, but the vote is in the hands of the sector’s own companies. While, The Guardian remembered that each delay in summoning the committee that must decide on the expansion of the Mother of God Reserve prolongs the impunity of operations in Mashco Piro territory and paralyzes other strategic reserves Like Yavarí-Mirimin the north of the country. Plus: all this happens in a region already crossed by the Interoceanic roadwhich brought illegal gold, secondary routes of logging, and a Deep fragmentation of the Amazon ecosystem. Even areas with “more responsible” companies have become conflict points. Two countries and a threat. On the Brazilian side, the situation It is not better. Although the Lula government has taken some steps such as the proposal of the indigenous territory of the Chandless River, indigenous organizations denounce that the commitments are more rhetorical than real. The projected path between Santa Rosa do Purus and Manoel Urbano worries the defenders of the ACRE, as it could become a new entrance door for timber and traffickers. Binational cooperation with Peru, essential to protect a people whose mobility does not know political borders, expired in 2016… and was never renewed. In absence of agreements Government, indigenous organizations themselves have proposed two large territorial corridors that would add 25 million hectares protected From the ground, Manchineru volunteers monitor the movements of their “distrustful relatives” to avoid fatal encounters and preserve their autonomy. But the recent dynamism of the Mashco Piro (their appearance out of season, its downstream) suggests that external pressure is forcing them to alter your patterns traditional Warning from the jungle. Thus, in the core of this silent tragedy the report highlighted a truth that the Mashco Piro repeats when they are shouted from the other shore: They don’t want contact. It is not ignorance or a whim: It is memory. That of generations that have seen diseases, weapons, chainsaws and roads such as Death omens. For the Mashco Piro, the trees They are monuments. Asking them if they want to approach, The answer It is the same: “No, because you are bad.” They do not distinguish between good and bad, but between a worldview that respects the jungle and another that destroys it. If you do not act soon, and if your will is not respected and your territory is protected effectively, that warning could become an epitaph. Without trees and their wood has nowhere to hide. Image | Survival International In Xataka | In the Peruvian Amazon, the latest tribes never contacted will receive a visit: that of oil companies In Xataka | Those who have approached less than 5 km from this island have not returned. An American managed to enter … and has lasted five minutes

The ice age had a solar storm so powerful that its effects can still be detected in trees

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How powerful can it become a solar storm? More than one will have ever asked this question for mere curiosity. And also out of necessity. Answering this question is important in order to prepare in the face of potential storms of great magnitude, but it is complicated: we have a limited sample and the most intensity events are those that happen less frequently. But now we have a new track. The mother of all storms. A recent study has analyzed The remnants of the greatest solar storm of which we have record to date. The storm, about 500 times more powerful than the largest solar storm since the beginning of the space era, would have happened about 14,300 years ago. Although We already had enough previous clues about this eventThe new study facilitates the work of preparing for such events, and can also help us improve our radiocarbon dating techniques. 14,300 years ago. The discovery of this solar storm has been possible thanks to the detection of a radiocarbon peak, the well-known carbon-14, happened towards the year 12,350 AEC, towards the end of the last glacial period. This implies that the storm is not only the most powerful of which we have record, it is also the only solar storm known outside the Holocene, the contemporary geological era (if we exclude the existence debated from the anthropocene). Different storms. The storm analyzed was a solar particle storm. There are different events That we can catalog as solar storms, each with its characteristics, such as radio blackouts, solar radiation storms or geomagnetic storms. Radiation storms, such as the one studied, are produced when large amounts of charged particles from the sun reach the magnetic field of the earth. This field tends to divert the particles towards the poles, making the effect on high latitudes greater. Carbon 14. The team responsible for the new study He turned to a new model Chemist-Climatic, Socol: 14C-EX, for analysis. This is a model designed to rebuild solar storms of particles in climatic conditions of the past glaciations. Thanks to this model, they explain, it was possible to verify that this solar storm was 18% stronger than the event of the year 775 EC, the largest solar storm known until the discovery of this event. “Compared to the largest event in the Modern Era of Satellites (the 2005 particle storm) the old 12,350 AC event was about 500 times more intense, according to our estimates,” explained in a press release Kseniia Golubenko, co -author of the study The details of the study were published In an article In the magazine Earth and Planetary Science Letters. More than establishing a record. The study allows us to establish a new framework to the “most pessimistic scenario,” says Golubenko. Knowing what we can face gives us essential tools when preventing this type of event. The study can also help scientists who study something very different: archaeologists. The analysis has been based on carbon-14, a very important isotope when it comes to very diverse organic matter remains, from fabrics to ships. Understanding the peaks of this isotope caused by the impact of loaded particles from the Sun can help us to date back objects created in past times. In Xataka | NASA has calculated how much time we would have to prepare before a devastating solar storm and has got to work to get that time Image | NASA/GSFC/CIL

Apple does not know how to meet their environmental goals, so they have started planting trees crazy

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The Big Tech are in the middle of a change. Not that of artificial intelligence –that too-but that of Achieve carbon neutrality. On this path to decarbonization with Objectives for 2030 and 2050Apple is one of the companies that have the most interest in users to know that they care about the environment. In fact, in the presentation event of the iPhone 15 and of Apple Watch Series 9being one of the most important technological events of the year, the company shared a Fun video. In it, their mandamases met with the representation of the Earth to inform about their progress in reducing emissions, the installation of Solar panels in California and the increase in recycled materials on its devices. But renewables are not enough to achieve those objectives, and Apple has made the decision to plant tens of thousands of trees. He is doing it in Brazil with the aim of reconverting grasslands in forests that catch carbon, but everything that shines is not gold. A two times bigger forest than Manhattan There is a trend among companies that we are seeing in recent years. To reduce carbon emissions, it is not enough to install more renewable, reduce the consumption in your data centers and optimize transport. In Fast Company We read that these actions are not enough to reach the objectives and that the secret is in the direct capture of CO₂ (and there are controversy about it about its effectiveness). We are seeing how there are companies that are investigating the creation of buildings that capture carbon dioxide, but also experiments to discover What kind of trees They are the ones who catch the most. Apple ha reduced Emissions in 60% compared to 2015 and expect to reach 75% of a 2030. The problem is to exceed that figure and reach 100% in the face of 2050. Chris Busch is the Director of Environmental Initiatives of Apple and comments that they do not have “a clear line of vision of how to avoid these broadcasts today.” It seems that they have reached a point where the use of renewables is not enough and you have to move on to a new approach. “And that’s where nature comes to play a role,” says Busch. In 2021, Apple destination 200 million dollars to a fund to help in the creation of environmental and carbon elimination projects, something for which it promised additional 200 million dollars in 2023. During these last two years, different associations with the support of this member of the Big Tech have replanted more than 10,000 hectares in an area southwest of Brazil. The idea is to reconvert areas for grazing and livestock in forests that not only recover trees to capture CO₂, but also the return of local fauna such as rabbits and pumas to an ecosystem that had been very damaged by other types of activities. It is an effort part of a major program that seeks to restore almost 300,000 hectares of degraded land in Brazil, Uruguay and Chile. Apple is not only helping financially, but also at the technological level. And, obviously, this is not selfless. “What we intend is to generate financial performance as a investor in these projects,” says Busch. This yield will be in the form of lower payments for their CO₂ emissions and the manager also comments that the global objective is shared. “We have to reduce emissions as soon as possible, but also put an end to deforestation and increase carbon elimination to maintain within 1.5 degrees”He said. And this is not just about planting trees. The Cupertino are technologically supporting project monitoring, such as the measurement of the trees’s trunk diameter, but they are not the only ones. Google, goal or Microsoft have also created coalitions To plant trees and compensate for their greenhouse gas emissions, and companies that are not within that select group also have reforestation initiatives. It is not planting by planting Now, you have to be careful with the type of trees that are planted in these reforestation programs. And with other factors. In Fast Company they point to a controversy in this concrete reforestation because they are planting eucalyptus. They are trees with potential to evolve in punished terrain, such as ancient animals for animals, and grow rapidly absorbing large amounts of co₂. The problem is that reforestation reduces rainfall and eucalyptus, precisely, need water, so critics point out that these plantations will do will end underground water reserves. Also Questionable actions have been produced. In Pakistan, mass reforestation programs came into conflict with the practices of nomadic communities, something that has also occurred in places in China or Brazil itself. We must not go so far: in Europe we are reforesting huge areas with trees that are suitable for that reforestation, but that They may not reach 2100. The reason? They are species that or are not native or, even if they are planting without taking into account possible future pests or the effects of climate change. Research has also been carried out that the effectiveness of these projects is limited. As they comment on The Guardianmost of these projects do not generate real climatic benefits and there are areas that are being reforested in which there was no real risk of deforestation. The point by which some actions have been undertaken is due to the overestimation of the emissions avoided. And the study does not point to 10 or 20% of these reforestation actions, but 90% of them. As much as it may be, planting trees is positive whenever it is done with the head, but as Forrest Fleishman, an expert in mass plantation of trees, rather than planting trees, must be made. Images | Apple In Xataka | A study from satellite images has indicated the areas where the jungle could recover. Without human help

We thought we had solved the mystery of the giant “trees” of the Paleozoic. We couldn’t be more wrong

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More than a century ago, when the first known fossils of Prototaxitesintuition said that it should be the remains of a tree. Decades of study revealed to paleontologists that this fossil did not belong to a plant, so everything seemed to indicate that it was an immense fungus. Now a new study has reopened this unknown. Neither plant nor fungus. The study in question has revived the discussion About the nature and taxonomy of Prototaxitesprehistoric beings that so far the catalog scientific consensus as fungi. The involvement of “taking out” these beings from the evolutionary branch of fungi is that perhaps these beings belonged to an extinct and unknown branch of the tree of evolution. 400 million years ago. What we do know about Prototaxites For the fossil registry, it is that being trafficking with organisms that were alive towards the middle of the Paleozoic era, does Between 420 million and 375 million years. These beings had a more or less cylindrical structure, similar to a trunk and stood up to eight meters above the sky with a diameter that the subway could reach. These measures and their age make them one of the first large beings of those of which we have record in the fossil registry. The debate on the nature of these prehistoric living beings seemed to mid -2000s. It was then that an analysis revealed that the Prototaxites They did not obtain their carbon from photosynthesis, as is the case of plants, but obtained from other living organisms, as fungi do. Rhynie Chert. The new study that reopens the case It now contributes tests that this being did not belong to the kingdom of fungi and focuses on one of the known species of this genus, Taiti prototaxites. The team resorted to the fossils found at the Rhynie Chert site in Scotland. This site contains not only fossil remains of this species, but also of fungal species and others belonging to other kingdoms of nature. Similarities and differences. The new analysis of the fossils of this species ran into some similarities with fungal structures such as those that could be expected. However, despite having tubular internal structures similar to those of fungi, these tubes in P. Taiti They branched and linked in a different way from what they could expect. That was not, however the strangest detail. The analysis did not detect in fossils evidence of the products that are associated with the presence of chitina, a compound present in the cell walls of all contemporary fungi and that we know was also present in prehistoric fungi. They found that the chemical “firm” was more similar to that left behind by lignin, a polymer that we associate with vascular plants. The study has been published for now draft In the repository Biorxivso the standardized scrutiny of peer review has not yet passed. So what? This detail implies that we must extreme caution when drawing conclusions from the study we have in front. Even so, the signing team of the study outlines in this its conclusions, in principle preliminary. In his study, the team concludes that “the morphology and the molecular footprint of P. Taiti It is clearly different from that of fungi and other organisms preserved with it in Rhynie Chert, and we suggest that it is better considered a member of a group not described and totally extinct of eukaryotes. ” In Xataka | An amateur fossil search engine is behind a curious finding: vomiting of the dinosaurs era Image | Іщн

We knew that the olive trees were very old trees. What we did not imagine is that they arrived at 4,000 years of age

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The olive tree is undoubtedly one of the most iconic trees in the Mediterranean basin. The olive groves have populated the fields of southern Europe and the Levante since time immemorial, but such is the longevity of this species that the history of some of these trees also goes back, at least to antiquity. An example of this is the Vauves olivelocated on the Greek island of Crete. Conservative estimates throw this tree about 2,000 years. This would imply that in his life he could be a mute witness of events such as the division of the Roman Empire, the fall of Biscay and the Ottoman Empire and, of course, the birth of contemporary Greece. Broader estimates calculate that this tree could reach 4,000 years of age. This would not only do it contemporary of figures such as Pythagoras, Aristotle or Alexander the Great but also implied that this plant was born in the Crete Minoica and it was Witness of the collapse of the late bronze ageone of the most intriguing events that occurred at the dawn of history as and how we understand it. But perhaps the most surprising detail of all this is that the olive tree of Vouves continues to bear fruit. This has led many to wonder, how is it possible? What makes this specimen already its species in general so long? The olive tree (Olea Europea) has a life expectancy that, although it does not become ancient, does exceed several centuries. It is estimated that the life expectancy of the trees of this species Round the 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 that ranged between 300 and 500 years. Estimating the age of an olive tree is difficult. We indicated at the beginning that the estimates of the age of this millenary tree ranged between 2,000 and 4,000 years, a very wide fork precisely because of the difficulty that involves calculating the age of these trees. Dendrocronology is based on using the growth rings of tree trunks to estimate their age: how many rings, so many years. Counting rings in a carved copy is simple, but doing it in a living tree and doing it in an olive tree is already another song. The trunks of the olive trees grow irregularly, which implies a seemingly chaotic pattern in the rings inside, making the count especially difficult as pointed out A study published in 2013 In the magazine Plos One. His curious growth could be related to his longevity. According to Scott Travers, 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 consists of various cuttings that start from the same root. This, adds Travers, allows this type of plants to survive extreme conditions, including similar fires, cuts and incidents. Another of the tricks for survival, Continue explaining traversIt is in the biochemistry of the tree, which offers mechanisms that allow repairing damaged tissues, as well as defending against pathogenic organisms. The same oil that humans take advantage of by the tree that gives us through its fruits. The elders of our environment Spain also has ancient olive trees, although we do want to find a tree that competes in age with the olive tree of vouves, we have to go to Portugal. It would be an olive tree located in Abrantesin the center of Portugal. According to a study conducted by the University of Trás-Montes and Alto Douro (Utad), Mouchão It would be the tree that would have this record with an age that would be around 3,350 years. Spain also has ancient olive trees and among all of them stands out The Arión Fargaa tree that we can find in the province of Tarragona. The estimated age of this olive tree is more than 1,700 years. This implies that this millenary tree would have been planted at the time of Emperor Constantine I. Olives are not the only millenary tree species in our environment. Cedros, Secuoyas and even Dragos Canarios can also reach ages that would pale the biblical matusalem. The olive trees are trees with a long life expectancy but do not usually fill the lists of the longest trees on the planet. The two longest -known non -cloned trees are two pines called Prometheus and Matusalemto which ages are estimated above 4,000 years. Both belong (or belonged in the case of Prometheus) to the species Pinus Longaevathe “long -lived pine” so it is not completely surprising this fact. When Prometheus was cut, the botanists who analyzed him told more than 4,800 rings, so he was estimated at an age of about 4,900 years. Estimates indicate that Matusalem has also surpassed for decades The 4800 -year -old brand. 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 of the same clonic tree, could have close to 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 is an amazing “jungle” of the city Image | Eric Nagle, CC by-SA 4.0

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