unpleasant

Thousands of people bought the “romantasy” fashion book because it was cute. An unpleasant surprise awaited them.

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The consumerist desire that invades any area of ​​our lives also contaminates our hobbies. We are no longer talking about your identity being determined by your style when it comes to dressing or the music you listen to; Now, not missing the latest literary viral phenomenon in #Booktok also forms that identity that is built through what we consume. And if not tell everyone who bought ‘Catabasis‘, the author’s new novel RF Kuangfor its colorful edition and supposed themes related to a whole legion of readers, only to end up with a disappointment that leads them to abandon it after a few pages. Be aware of the latest news and let your private library be ground zero of your literary diogenes, full of those decorated songs so instagrammableis a new aspect of consumerism. The essential thing is not to search and select a book that suits your taste or surprises you, but to look for that pompous edition in trend on Tiktok. With the rise and increase in the number of readers has given way to a community on social networks that consumes books, mostly from a specific genrehe romanticasyand that follows like a mantra literary fashion of the month. As we have mentioned, marketing strategies can confuse the public and in order to attract the largest number of buyers, sometimes blur categories and genres that should be delimited. The fever for colored songs As a regular reader, it is healthy to get out of that nebula and inform yourself well about the reading you are going to do or, on the contrary, go with an open mind and let yourself go when starting those new pages. Because if you don’t, you can come to ‘Catábasis’ looking for a romance within an academic-fantastic environment and end up with your head full of equations, formulas and philosophical postulates. If we dive in reviews from ‘Catábasis’, we will find an alleged romance Dark Academia with the clichés of rivals to lovers (rivals to lovers), forced proximity (forced proximity) or one bed (the famous trope of rom-coms where the protagonists are forced to share a single bed). This would lead us to place our perception of the work in an erroneous perspective. The novel has been sold as if it were addressed to the general public, when It’s niche. Doctoral thesis, graphic description. RF Kuang is not your typical romance writer. In his previous books such as the ‘Poppy War’ trilogy (named by Time as one of ‘The 100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time‘) we find an epic fantasy of Asian inspiration; in ‘Babel’, a criticism of British imperialism; and in ‘Amarilla’, a satire on the publishing world. Perhaps it is from there that we have to establish the starting point of ‘Catábasis’. It may be that the public has been launched en masse to buy Kuang’s new novel infected by expectations, but just look at social networks to see that the outcome has been disappointing for not a few. The result of this phenomenon is curious because the criticisms of Kuang’s novel are based, for the most part, on issues that have little to do with its theme or the characters. It seemed that part of the book’s audience, directly, I didn’t know what he was facing. On this occasion the #Booktok community was a victim of “what goes” and an elegant and striking edition: but, dear readers, not everything has to be romance and romanticasy. This lucrative sales strategy that consists of labeling all the literary novelties under clichés that are associated with romance to attract more attention ends up being a double-edged sword for books like Kuang’s. hell is a campus In this new novel we find the story of two Cambridge doctoral students who, after the death of their thesis advisor, decide to travel to hell to look for him and obtain a letter of recommendation that will determine their professional future. And yes, we can accept the label Dark Academia since it has several of its elements, just as we also find a romance that floods and emerges throughout the story; but ‘Catabasis’ (a Greek term that refers to the descent to hell and subsequent exit from it), is about something else. RF Kuang, in essence, uses the underworld as MacGuffin to create a critique and a satire of the academic world through a raw and realistic vision. Sounds good, maybe not so good. The author shoots us with scenes in offices that cause more chills than Dante’s own inferno; while talking about toxic rivalries, directors who abuse their power, gender inequality and academic obsession with knowledge. And, despite fantasy and a system of magic based on logic and paradox, these unreal situations trigger a conversation and social criticism about the academy. While the protagonists Alice and Peter wander through the “eight circles of hell” we are immersed in numerous philosophical and mathematical elements. Dante, Piranesi, the myth of Orpheus or the scrolls of Hecate are part of the daily narrative. The book is full of mathematical theories, academic references, and terms that will make you stop several times to do a Google search. The fact that for some doctoral students hell is, literally, their own university, already makes us suspect that we are not facing a rivals to lovers to use; not even in the face of academic criticism of Ali Hazelwood style. ‘Catabasis’ is dense and requires active reading; In fact, we can say that it is an essay disguised as a novel that sometimes sacrifices the rhythm of the plot or its development in favor of the style and ideas it wants to convey. With an acidic, witty and harsh tone, Kuang uses Alice as the epicenter of the narrative. A character who is not designed to make you like him, but to embody the loss of health and identity caused by the pressure of his tutor and the academic environment. The message that we can filter is quite clear: Sartre said that … Read more

A study has investigated how many microplastics we inhale daily when breathing. And has an unpleasant surprise

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From a time to this part, microplastics seem to have sneaked into all areas of our life: From the lettuce that we eat In the salad, even In men’s testicles. This polymer is not only found in the earth where vegetables are grown, in the oceans where the fish are or in The springs where the water we drink comes out. And the idea that all these particles are in the environment that we breathe more and more consolidates. Already in the past ‘Nature’ magazine He published the first evidences that showed that microplastics are found in the air that surrounds us. But now A recent French study Published in the magazine ‘Plos One’ gives us more details about the concentration of these polymers that we are constantly breathing, and how the car is one of the biggest foci we face. The good news is that this gives rise to solutions to reduce your presence. The conclusion of this new study are very direct, but also alarming: we are inhaling a drastically greater microplastics than we believed. The previous estimates have fallen short, very short. The new figure suggests that an average adult inhales about 68,000 microplastic particles every day. One hundred times more than what was calculated so far for the range of more dangerous particles. An invisible enemy that attacks our lungs The problem of measurements that were done so far was a matter of view. The most common methods in this type of detection, such as infrared spectroscopy, are effective to detect particles up to 20 micrometers. However, they are completely ‘blind’ with the smallest particles, which are known as PM_10 (less than 10 micrometers), and that are the ones that can make the lungs the most damage when the different defense mechanisms that the body has. This new study, led by French researcher Nadiia Yakovenko, has used a much more precise technique called Raman spectroscopy, capable of ‘see’ particles of up to a micrometer, eliminating the limitation that the conventional spectrometer had. In this way, we have a new molecular zoom that has revealed that the situation of our environment is much more alarming than was thought. Taking advantage of this new technique, the investigation was conducted in the path of knowing the place where there is a greater concentration of microplastics. In the case of an apartment, the average measure measured was 528 particles per cubic meter. But the problem was when measuring in the car, where the figure shot up to 2,238 particles per cubic meter. Box chart showing the concentration analyzed with microplastics in cars and apartments. Seven apartments and five cars were analyzed. In this way, the simple fact of this in the car makes us exposed to a concentration of microplastics four times higher than that we expose ourselves in our own home. And this is not due to anything other than the amount of synthetic material that we have in a car, such as plastic splashing, carpets or upholstery. All this, added to a very small space and that can be without ventilating for many hours, makes it the ideal breeding ground for the cabin to be filled with microplastics that we breathe at the time of starting to drive. Because the reality is that we do not ventilate the cabin before driving, but that we enter the car, we start and go. The new and alarming daily account: 68,000 particles Here comes the data that changes everything. When combining its findings with those of the history of the bibliography, the team has recalculated the exposure we face on average. In total there are 68,000 particles small size (less than 10 micrometers) to which an adult is faced daily. These are the most worrying particles, since being so small They can reach the alveoli and cross the alveolocapilar barrier formed by pneumocytes and blood capillaries. This means that they can end in our blood. In a lower exposure range are the particles with a larger size ranging from 10 to 300 micrometers. These being larger do not reach the alveolocapillary barrier, but are ‘trapped’ in the mucous membranes of the upper respiratory tract, although they are not harmless, since they crawl to the throat and end up in our stomach. It has important health consequences. This constant exposure to plastic fragments It is not harmless. The authors of the study remember that the inhalation of these particles can be associated with damage to lung tissue, inflammation, increased oxidative stress and also to the appearance of chronic diseases such as COPD. But microplastics do not ‘travel’ lonely. They can transport with them different heavy or polluting metals that adhere to their surface and that once within the body can be released and alter endocrine functions such as endocrine disruptors or increase the risk of other diseases. In this way, this new study demonstrates that there is still much to investigate microplastics and redipline as a complex a public health problem that occurs silently and ‘invisible’. Images | Flyd Brock Wegner In Xataka | More than 50,000 microplastic particles per year: that is what an average citizen ingests according to the first estimate we have

An unpleasant fault in the ISS bath forces astronauts to extreme precautions

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Living in space is full of challenges. One of the most earthly is the frequency with which the toilets of the International Space Station are spoiled. A ghost threat. Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi told on social networks that his weekend had been crowded by “a strange damage in the bathroom just before Saturday lunch.” In a somewhat cryptic way, Onishi reported That, after the incident, he had been “living with fear of the ghost threat, an invisible threat” that his followers soon interpreted as an unpleasant olfactory experience. Extreme precautions. Finally, Saturday’s breakdown in one of the toilets of the International Space Station has persisted this week, forcing astronauts to take drastic measures, such as giving up coffee. “The bathroom worked badly before yesterday,” explains Onishi in his X profile. “I had to spend yesterday without even taking a cup of coffee,” he laments. For a “coffee lover”, like He describes himselfthe measure reflects the seriousness with which the crew of expedition 73 are living the breakdown. The nth fault of the WC. On Wednesday, NASA astronaut Nicole Aunapu Mann “did an emergency maintenance in the afternoon, so I could enjoy a quiet morning again,” Onishi account. But the ghost threat persists. The bathrooms of the American segment of the Space Station have been for weeks, if not months, giving war. Without going any further, on July 15, Onishi himself He spent two hours replacing the “toilet pump separator”, a key piece that centrifuges urine and air. A Russian eschatological roulette. In May, the problems were even more evident. After change a defective pump Together with his NASA partner Jonny Kim, Takuya Onishi compared the use of the bathroom with “playing Russian roulette.” On another occasion, the breakdowns light was turned on at dawn. “Not to wake up others, I secretly contacted Houston and took care of the situation,” The Japanese astronaut commented. With humor, he added that the six times that the fault light had lit, he had been present in five. From the mission control they replied: “You are the chosen one.” A complicated engineering. The International Space Station has four toilets: two in the Russian segment (in the Zvezdá and Nauka modules) and two in the US segment (the WHC and The modern UWMSboth in the Tranquility module). These systems are engineering wonders that use air suction instead of water. While Urine is recycled through a processor complex To turn it into drinking water, solid waste is collected in bags inside hermetic containers. The containers are stored and, finally, are discarded in load ships designed to burn in the atmospheresuch as American Cygnus or Russian progress. Why do they fail so much. He New UWMS toilet He has given many problems since his installation, but he is not the only one who fails. In recent years there has been From water leaks In the urine pretreatment system until Simultaneous breakdowns in all toilets. Each failure requires that astronauts, who are also the plumbers of the station, dedicate time and effort to complex repairs in small spaces. Onishi’s story, a veteran astronaut in his second long -term stay, is a reminder that life in orbit mixes scientific experiments in microgravity with much more mundane challenges. For now, thanks to an emergency repair, normality and coffee have returned to the International Space Station. Images | NASA, JAXA In Xataka | In the 90s they experienced with living outside the earth and, indeed, we would all be dead except cockroaches

Eating fermented col can seem an unpleasant idea. Science is increasingly clear that it is excellent for your diet

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The Germans call it Sauerkraut and the French Choucroutea term that usually is castelling as sauerkraut. It is a fermented col, a typical preparation in various European countries where it is used as accompaniment in dishes of different kinds. A beneficial preparation. We have been indicated that this traditional preparation could contribute important benefits to our health. Now, a new study by two researchers from the University of California, Davis has found new tests that Chucrut can help our health through digestion. According to the study, the fermented col can help maintain the integrity of our intestinal cells. Good news is that this beneficial effect occurred both with the Homemade Chucrut as with which we buy already prepared. “It doesn’t matter, in a way, if we do Sauerkraut at home or if we buy it in the store; both types of Sauerkraut They seem to protect the intestinal function, ”Maria Marco, co -author of the study, explained in a press release. Three elements. The team compared three elements related to the chucrut and its fermentation process: the “raw” vegetable, the brine extracted from the fermented product, and product itself, the Sauerkraut. Team efforts They focused on the study of metabolites present in this food. Metabolites are compounds that occur when biologically decomposing food and its compounds. When passing through a fermentation process, the chemical changes that occur in a food can be important, hence its flavor and aroma, but also its nutritional value. Nutritional changes. The chemical analysis by the team showed changes in the nutritional profile of the Col after fermentation. They found beneficial metabolites, including lactic acid and amino acids, but also observed a lower carbohydrate contribution. Some of the metabolites found were identical to those generated by the intestinal mcirobioma. The changes found, the team stands out, could explain the digestive benefits often attributed to fermented products. The details of the study were published In an article In the magazine Applied and Environmental Microbiology. More than probiotics. The study conducted in the laboratory is one more indication in favor of the idea that fermented colm is a healthy food that we can include in the context of a balanced and varied diet. Fermented foods are not just a contribution of nutrients metabolized by the microorganisms responsible for fermentation, they can also contribute to us as Probiotics beneficial bacteria that perform similar processes in our digestive system. In Xataka | We have been studying chocolate and tea compounds for more than 75 years. Now we know that they help control blood pressure Image | Jana Ohajdova

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