waves

In Barcelona they did not drop below 19°C on an April night. And that’s more important than all the heat waves

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It’s one piece of information, just one. But he alone weighs more than all the daytime maxims combined. Barcelona-Fabra just broke the record of a century with a nighttime minimum in April above 19 degrees. And yes, 19 degrees seems little compared to the 33-35 that the Guadalquivir Valley experienced that same day in the morning; But if climate change has been teaching us something for decades, it is that appearances can be deceiving. That anomaly called ‘April’. Although it is not being as scandalous as January, April is breaking all historical records. The fact that has been repeated the most is that AEMET has recorded more than 70 records temperature only in the first time of the month. In aggregate terms, we are talking about a sustained thermal anomaly of between 5 and 10 degrees. And it is interesting because, although it is evident that we are not talking about a ‘heat wave’, experiencing an anomaly of this size in this context is something tremendously revealing. Not only because they are the temperatures that most affect the population’s rest, but because they are the ones that rise the most due to the effect of climate change and the ones that best explain where the country’s climate is going. But what has happened? On April 10, at the Fabra Observatory in Barcelona, ​​at the foot of Tibidabo, the minimum it did not drop below 19 degrees. That is, it is the warmest night in at least a century. And it was not an isolated event: the ALmería airport registered a minimum of 23.3 degrees that same night. That’s two degrees higher than the previous record. The month, as I said, has had more than 70 temperature records. AND, according to Duncan Winger of Tiempo.comwhat awaits us between the 18th and the 24th looks to be much worse. The explanation is simple… because it arises from two combined elements: a subtropical ridge installed on the peninsular vertical that blocks the arrival of Atlantic storms and a very warm air mass from the south that causes little relief at night. …but the fact that it is ‘explainable’ doesn’t reassure anyone. Above all, because we come from 9th warmest winter on record and an especially hot February with an anomaly of more than 2.4 degrees above average. Everything seems to indicate that the meteorological data show the structural warming that the models indicated. But… what can we expect from all this? First of all, be clear that nights are becoming a problem. Without leaving Barcelona, We know that mortality from natural causes in the city it increases up to 9.2% on nights when the temperature does not drop below 23 degrees. There are more consequences, of course: a good part of the country’s agriculture is in critical phases and the Mediterranean is getting so hot which is going to cause innumerable problems. But warm nights before HVAC systems are turned on are a public health risk that is difficult to control. Image | BenBaso | Xataka In Xataka | In two days, AEMET is clear that spring is suspended: an “early summer” arrives in Spain

wants to extract infinite energy from the waves

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In the global race for decarbonization, humanity has managed to tame the wind and the sun, but the waves of the sea still resist it: the wave drive It is still a sleeping giant within renewable energies. Although the energy potential of waves is immense (unlike wind or solar, the contribution is continuous), the challenge lies in its effective technical use. In this scenario, Galicia has taken a step to place itself at the forefront of marine energy with Innomara project to move from theory to practice with the first floating prototype in Spain capable of connecting marine generation devices and evacuating the energy produced to land in Punta Langosteira, one of the most demanding marine environments on the planet. The project. It consists of designing, manufacturing and installing a next-generation floating prototype, a floating multi-connector with integrated sensors that will act as a central hub: it will connect multiple marine electrical generation devices and evacuate the energy produced to land through a single line. In addition, it will also integrate sensors to monitor in real time the waves, wind, currents, tides and marine biodiversity in the waters of the Outer Port of A Coruña. Why is it important. Because Spain is one of the leaders in solar and wind energy but in wave driving it is still in its infancy: as explains the XuntaInnomar is the first system of its kind in the state as there is currently no marine energy experimental zone in the country with a similar multi-connector. The extracted energy could be used for self-consumption in the port of A Coruña and the surrounding industrial estates, contributing to the energy decarbonisation of the port environment. More generally, this prototype allows companies to validate their projects in a real environment and speed up the development of their own patents in a sector with enormous growth and export potential, which means taking a step towards energy and technological sovereignty. Context. Wave energy is one of the great pending issues of the energy transition: the technology to exploit it has been in the research phase for decades without making the commercial leapAmong the main problems, the unpredictability of the waves (yes, they are constant, but they vary in height, rhythm, direction) and the harsh conditions of the marine environment when designing and maintaining it. However, recently we have seen promising initiatives in the United States and in Japan. And be careful, Europe is also taking the race seriously: United Kingdom, Portugal either Denmark They are investing in similar test zones. In this scenario, Punta Langosteira is a first-rate strategic asset: as explained by MITECO and IDAE in the official roadmap of offshore wind and sea energy in Spain, is considered the second area in the world with the highest concentration of wave energy, only surpassed by the south coast of Wales. Bottom line: if it works there, it has a good chance of doing it anywhere else in the world. In detail. The prototype will function as a smart laboratory on the high seas: with an underwater cable to bring electricity to land, sensors to monitor biodiversity and the marine environmental environment, and it will also be a kind of testing platform where different components can be tested. The project has been promoted by Inega (Energy Institute of Galicia) and its budget amounts to 5.7 million euros, of which 60% is financed with FEDER funds. There are seven companies that have submitted candidates for the prior selection, whose award is scheduled for September 2026, following a Public Procurement of Innovation model. Yes, but. The location is magnificent, the European co-financing provides solidity to the project, the model between the Administration and the private sector provides the best of both worlds and also the multi-connector hub approach is technically intelligent since it reduces redundant infrastructure, lowers costs and allows testing several wave converters in parallel. In short, they have everything in their sails, but the technical challenge is immense. Furthermore, the prototype is still a connection and measurement infrastructure, but it does not generate energy. Effective generation will depend on the devices that connect to it in the future, technology that is still far from being commercially mature. And here again the unknowns and viability appear again, since the cost per kWh of wave power is notably above wind and solar. That there is interest from the main actors is good news, but it does not imply that the leap to an effective solution is just around the corner. In Xataka | The United States is launching giant spheres into the sea with one goal: to take advantage of one of the largest sources of renewable energy In Xataka | With oil skyrocketing, Japan has resurrected an old idea to extract infinite energy from the ocean Cover | Deensel, Wikimedia and photoholgic

resort to the waves of the sea

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If we take a look at the weight of renewable energies in energy generation (for example, in Europe), we are going to find that some, such as wind and solar, are the ones that call the shots while others have a testimonial contribution: this is the case of wave drivebetter known as wave energy. Yes, the resource is there to take advantage of (and in some places like the Cantabrian coast to give and give away), but it is one thing to surf and another to obtain energy. Because the waves that reach the buoy this morning have nothing to do with those that do so in the afternoon: another height, another rhythm, another direction… it is part of the charm of surfing but it is also a nightmare to get electricity. The wave works, but it is unpredictable and not constant, which reduces efficiency. So Takahito Iida, a researcher at the Department of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering at Osaka University, has come up with a solution to that problem that he has published in the Journal of Fluid Mechanics: a rotating steering wheel. The invention. The device is called GWEC (Gyroscopic Wave Energy Converter). The idea in essence is a rotating flywheel inside a floating buoy that allows you to extract maximum energy from the waves regardless of their frequency. It does not follow the movement of the waves, but rather converts it into a perpendicular rotation that drives a generator. The trick is to adjust the rotation speed of the steering wheel in real time: this way the system adapts to the sea instead of waiting for the sea to adapt to the ideal conditions of the device. Why is it important. Because wave energy continues to be the eternal promise of energy and the oceans They cover 71% of the Earthaccumulating a large amount of energy. All previous systems failed in something: they are optimized for the resonant frequency, a single and specific one. At that moment it reaches its maximum efficiency of 50%, the maximum that physics allows. Iida’s GWEC is capable of maintaining it across the entire frequency band. Context. The time to publish the paper could not be better: the price of oil exceeds 100 dollars the barrel and Japan 95% matters its own in the Middle East, so the search for alternatives is urgent. The basic idea is not new, the novelty is knowing how to control it so that it performs at its maximum regardless of the sea. In fact, the concept was patented in 1981 by engineers Laithwaite and Salter and prototypes have been tested since then in Japan, Spain and Italy. What no one had done until now is a complete theoretical analysis that explains how to “tune” the system in any wave condition. How do you do it. Iida develops for the first time the complete equations of the entire system, including the waves, the platform and the gyroscope, and also identifies the optimal control parameters (the stiffness of the generator, its damping and the speed of the flywheel). Likewise, it shows that with the system well adjusted, the system can reach the theoretical physical limit of energy absorption: exactly half of the energy carried by each wave. Why half? A wave arriving at a symmetrical body is divided equally between symmetrical and asymmetrical components. A device with only one type of movement can only capture the asymmetric component. Be careful, it’s not that more can’t be absorbed, but it would be necessary to have asymmetric geometries (such as the salter duck) or more complex systems. Yes, but. Iida has tested his device and equations on a laboratory scale, where practice has been adjusted to theory, but it is still a device under controlled conditions. The declared next step is tests with a physical model in the wave channel of Osaka University Additionally, there are other limitations such as it only works with small waves (if the waves grow, the physics is no longer linear), which reduces its efficiency. The author is clear: the valid range of the amplitude is too small for real use. Similarly, mechanical losses have not yet been quantified. In Xataka | Something is happening in the oceans for which we have no convincing explanation: the waves are disappearing In Xataka | When an earthquake hit Kamchatka, tens of thousands of people in Japan did the same: climb onto the roofs Cover | Jeremy Bishop and David Edelstein

The waves are disappearing and we already know what causes it

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Imagine that one morning, one of the most famous natural wonders in your region disappears. It is not progressively lost, it simply ceases to exist from one day to the next. This is exactly what happened in October 2003 in the Basque thing. The Mudanka waveconsidered one of the best lefts in the world and an economic pillar for the area based on surf tourism, stopped breaking. The cause. It was not a mystery: a dredging of 243,000 cubic meters of sand Oka riverexecuted to facilitate the passage of barges to a shipyard, undid the underwater sandbank that, like a reef, sculpted the wave. The surf sank, and with it the local economy, which was based on surf tourism. This event is the starting point of ‘Las Olas Perdidas’, an investigation and exhibition at the Botín Center in Santander that unites the duo of artists and researchers from Cooking SectionsDaniel Fernández and Alon Schwabe, with the geomatics and oceanography group of the University of Cantabria. The project reveals an alarming truth: the oceans are losing their waves, becoming calmer, and we are the reason. Traveling in time. Just like the two researchers have recognized to ABC, although it seems impossible that the waves will end up disappearing, the reality is there. They point to the seas and oceans being calm and losing their strength. To demonstrate this, the GeoOcean team from the University of Cantabria applied its modeling technology in a novel way. According to the artists, they discovered the scientific group’s “ability to travel through time” to be able to see the waves that seemed to be only in the memories of the surfers. By using satellite imagery, historical databases, and complex numerical models, GeoOcean was able to do something amazing. “We indicated a day, month and year and they were able to show the height, speed or direction of the waves perfectly,” explains Fernández. All this with technology that today is used to predict future storms and the impact they may have on the coast. Although going back in time. The objective. Seeing exactly what was happening in the past made it possible to compare the state of the mythical wave before and after the key intervention that led to its eventual disappearance: a new breakwater. The conclusion in this case is that at the moment of ‘touching’ the seabed with any building or by simple trawling, the damage is caused by the wave. The investigation, which lasted two years, analyzed cases on all continents, including mythical enclaves now disappeared or degraded such as Cabo Blanco in Peru either Jardim do Mar in Madeira. They showed that when infrastructure cuts off the natural drift of sediment or dredging alters the seabed, the result is a loss of energy and, ultimately, the death of the wave. The injured. Logically, the fact of eliminating waves affects the surfers themselves, above all, and also the economy in general, since it is a very important driver of tourism in different regions. This has caused them to rise up on a war footing to defend the oceans and different phenomena. In Peru, for example, the protests of surfers and fishermen in Cabo Blanco were fundamental in promoting the pioneer “Law of Breakers”a unique legislation in the world that protects waves from infrastructure that could alter them. In Cantabria, groups such as ‘Surf & Nature Alliance’ are looking for formulas to declare the surf as natural heritage to prevent human hands from altering it. However, Cooking Sections warns of the other side: massive surf schools and championships that radically transform the life of a region is a double-edged sword. Surf-focused tourism and real estate speculation have fueled gentrification and, paradoxically, driven coastal development that ends up destroying the very waves that attracted people in the first place. The move to art. Science can sometimes be difficult to understand because you are working with a lot of data. That is why the team wanted to turn it into an artistic representation. Composer Duval Timothy turned the rhythms of each break before its disappearance into eleven unique sound pieces. In the room, eleven suspended structures undulate and vibrate activated by interpreters, simulating the “breathing” of those waves now extinct in order to raise awareness of the great problem that exists. In this way, ‘The Lost Waves’ uses data science to create an archive of what we have erased in the sea, demonstrating that the seabed and the surface are intimately connected and that our ‘scars’ on the ocean floor have direct consequences on the energy that materializes on the surface. Images | Silas Baisch In Xataka | We are clogging the ocean’s carbon toilet and it is something that is only going to cause us problems

The most detailed gravitational waves in history have just confirmed the great prediction of Stephen Hawking

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After ten years Perfecting the detection of gravitational wavesLigo sensors achieved such a precise observation which has allowed physicists to confirm one of Stephen Hawking’s most famous predictions: the black holes area theorem. Ten years. A decade has passed since the scientists of the Ligo Observatory The universe listened for the first time in a completely new way: by detecting gravitational waves. On September 14, 2015, wrinkles in spacetime tissue Predicts by Albert Einstein a century earlier inaugurated a new era in astronomy. What was then an almost imperceptible cosmic whisper, today has become a symphony that sensors can clearly hear. And on the tenth anniversary of that milestone, the Ligo-Virgo-Kagra (LVK) collaboration has captured the most clear gravitational wave signal to date. GW250114. Detected on January 14, 2025, physicists believe that these gravitational waves were caused by the collision and subsequent fusion of two black holes to about 1.3 billion light years from the earth. Interestingly, the event is almost a twin that ended using Ligo’s physicists the 2017 Nobel PrizeGW150914. In both cases, it was two black holes with masses between 30 and 40 times that of our sun. But there is an abysmal difference: the signal quality. An unprecedented sharpness. Thanks to a decade of technological improvements and advances in quantum engineering, Ligo detectors are now almost four times more sensitive. While the first signal had a signal/noise ratio of 26, that of GW250114 has a 80. “We can hear it high and clear, and that allows us Physical Review Letters. This sharpness has been key to unraveling the secrets that were hidden in the vibrations of the black hole resulting from the merger. Hawking theorem. In 1971, Stephen Hawking proposed that the total area of ​​the event horizon of a black hole can never be reduced. It can increase or remain the same, but never shrink. This, which is known as the Hawking area theorem, is analogous to the second law of thermodynamics, which says that the entropy (the disorder) of an isolated system always increases. Therefore, the area of ​​a black hole is a measure of its entropy. Trying it is complicated. When two black holes merge, part of their mass becomes an enormous amount of energy in the form of gravitational waves (the famous E = mc²). In addition, the new black hole can turn much faster, and a larger turn implies a minor area for the same dough. Does the increase in mass compensate for these losses so that the final area is always greater? The analysis of GW250114 has been settled by the matter bluntly. Hawking was right. In this case, the two initial black holes had a combined area of ​​about 240,000 square kilometers. After the merger, the new black hole, with a mass of about 63 times that of the sun, it had an area of ​​400,000 square kilometers. If in 2021 a first test with the 2015 signal showed a 95%confidence, the new data raises that certainty to 99,999%. As Kip Thorne recalls, one of Ligo’s parents and Hawking personal friend, the British physicist called him right after the first detection in 2015 to ask if they could try his theorem. Hawking died in 2018but today his theory has been verified in a way that would have left him very satisfied. Einstein too. Thanks to this new signal, scientists have been able to analyze the moment just after the merger in which the new black hole vibrates like a newly hit bell before stabilizing. The frequencies and speed with which these tones are attenuated. It is the most solid test to the date that black holes are seemingly simple objects that can be completely described with only three properties: mass, spin and electric charge. All other information of the material that formed them is lost. But each detection of gravitational waves is one more piece in the puzzle of the cosmos. And as GW250114 demonstrates, to understand them we travel on the shoulders of giants such as Einstein and Hawking. Image | Aurore Simonnet (SSU/edeon)/LVK/URI In Xataka | Everything to know about gravitational waves: what they are, where are they and why we will not stop talking about them

The Los Angeles Plan to turn waves into megawatts

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They look like piano keys dancing on the Pacific, but they are blue floats that rise and go down to the rhythm of the waves in the port of Los Angeles. At first glance, they could go unnoticed, but in reality they hide a promise: transform the inexhaustible force of the sea into clean electricity for thousands of homes. Short. The company Eco Wave Power He successfully completed The operational evidence of its first pilot project in the United States just a few days ago. The key moment was the descent to the float water, Transmitted live by Good Morning Americaa symbolic gesture that marked the beginning of the operational phase within the Energy Mix of California. The company has an ambitious plan: it wants to cover with floats the 13 kilometers of the breakwater that protect the port of Los Angeles. This installation could generate electricity for about 60,000 homes, According to Eco Wave Power press release. More in depth. The system uses eight floats fixed to a concrete dock. At first glance they seem piano keys, but their function is much more complex: with each movement of the waves, the floats act on hydraulic pistons that push a biodegradable fluid through pipes to a unit of energy conversion (ECU) installed on the ground. Inside, it works almost like a small hydroelectric plant. The accumulated pressure moves a turbine and, with it, electricity is generated. The entire system fits in two 20 -foot maritime containers, which makes it easy to transport, mount and maintain. The key is in the location. Other projects were launched inside and ended up sunk by the cost of submarine cables and the damage of the storms. Here, however, the floats are anchored in existing port infrastructure. And if you arrive bad weather, they get up as if they were retractable awnings to avoid damage. “When the waves are too high, the floats simply go up until the storm passes, so there is no damage,” The CEO Inna Braverman explained to Techxplore. But not everything is perfect waves. Undimotriz energy has been promising for decades and fulfilling little. The teams in the open sea suffered constant damage, and the repairs were very expensive. The coastal model of Eco Wave Power seems to solve part of the problem, but it is still an experimental technology. We need to check if you can compete in costs with giants such as solar or wind, today cheaper than ever. “The Achilles heel of this energy is in the maintenance and inspection costs. Therefore, to have a device near the coast, from where you can walk and review it, it makes a lot in statements collected by Techxplore. However, we must not forget the current American political context. While the federal government REduce support for green technologiesstates like California continue advancing on their own towards carbon neutrality in 2045. In that pulse, the echo pilot Wave Power works almost as a statement of intentions: although Washington goes in another direction, innovation continues to find holes to emerge. A symphony of the sea for the future. The official inauguration is scheduled for September 9 in Altema, in the port of Los Angeles, and a new chapter in the state’s energy transition is expected to mark. For now, the floats continue to move like aquatic piano keys. But if they fulfill their promise, they could compose a different melody: that of a future in which the ocean sway illuminates an entire city. Image | Eco Wave Power Xataka | Get drinking water with the brute force of the waves: the ambitious plan of the Canary Islands to face the drought

A Spaniard has patented a mast that transforms wind and waves into electricity. His invention challenges diesel in ships

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A mast shaken by the wind, the waves pushing without rest: usual scenes in any maritime journey. The interesting thing is that the same movement can serve to generate electricity. A canary who is one step away from being an engineer has designed a system that converts the strength of the ocean into usable energy, with the ambition to reduce the dependence of the diesel in the ships. It is an idea that takes the everyday of the sea and makes it a concrete technical proposal, simple enough to intrigue and ambitious enough to demand validation in the sea. “In the end it is a three -dimensional generator,” Juan Francisco Sarmiento Medina said in an advance of the Podcast of the Stier Groupand described the mechanism with simple images: “Let’s imagine that my arm is the mast. When the wind comes in front, it clashes, as the mast of a flag, and begins to oscillate. The keel works as a piston of a combustion engine (…) then movement occurs in the x, y y y z axes, all under Faraday’s law,” he explained. That narration of the inventor itself forms the technical spine of the project. What exactly is the e-mast. In its LinkedIn account the project appears as E-MAST (Energy Mast System) and is presented as a technology that transforms the structural vibration of the mast into clean electrical energy. According to the textthe system integrates an encapsulated rotor without exposed parts, linear generators and piezoelectric elements to convert oscillations into electricity, and can direct part of the induced air under the keel in the form of microburbujas. The advantages of the inventor are clear: “Without diesel engines, or maintenance. The owner of the boat, as there are no mechanical parts that have to be maintained with oil or that are broken, also reduces costs in that sense,” He pointed to El Español. The inventor also underlines the operational silence due to the absence of external propellers and the total structural integration into existing masts. These benefits, in any case, will require trials to measure power, autonomy and acoustic signature. Of production patent. The applications of applications published by the author encompasses autonomous marine surveillance, oceanographic research, defense and ecological navigation platforms in protected areas. According to Sarmiento Medina, the e-mast is protected by two patents, ES202430338 and ES202430339, with a favorable report according to the promoter. According to the newspaper La Provinciathe promoter figure around half a million euros international protection and development and has conversations with shipyards in France and the Netherlands to explore production. The sea still has the last word. Sarmiento says that he is a neighbor of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and recognizes that part of his learning and opportunities come from the Stier Group, which has supported his training. This local support, added to the intellectual protection that it declares in its public profile, has allowed to convert a daily element of any ship at the base of an ambitious technological proposal. Now the most difficult part remains: validate the system in the sea. But the idea has already demonstrated something important: that there is still margin to imagine new things, even in an environment as old as navigation. Images | Juan Francisco Sarmiento Medina In Xataka | A “Roomba” to clean rivers: the ship that the three throats has launched in China

This year it seemed destined to be the recovery of the crops. Heat waves and fire are changing this

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The last years have been convulsive for the Spanish field. After more than a year suffering a drought that put many against the strings, the arrival of an exceptional humidity period between autumn of 2024 and the recent spring seemed to bring the long -awaited relief. However, the arrival of summer has brought a script. Heat and fire. The intense heat seen in recent weeks has been the climax of a remarkably hot summer, with an exceptionally warm month and one month of August on the way to be (if the imminent cooling does not avoid it). Both extreme heat, as the fires associated with this heat wave have introduced new threats For crops. Direct and indirect damages. The damage associated with heat and fire can be both direct and indirect. It is evident that fire can destroy crops whole and that heat It can also affect to the productivity of plants, but the effects are even more complex. Fire can be an indirect risk. For example, areas that have not been affected by the flames They can be inaccessible During the fires, either due to smoke or by the cut of access roads. Extreme heat can also limit the time that workers can dedicate to work abroad. To this can be added the impact that heat and fires have on the Water availabilityincreasing the ghost of water stress even after almost a period of extraordinary economic bonanza. The oil. Recently, Agricultural Associations such as Asaja, Coag, UPA and Union of Unions They pointed to EFEAGRO Some of the crops that could be more affected by heat and flames. Among them, one about to go through one of its critical points: oil. The Olivar sector fears that this season is not kind to the olive harvest. Water stress can affect the maturation of the fruit so the sector believes that the current situation could lead to olives, dynamiting the (Already scarce) Hopes to recover from the sector. The other crops at risk. The list of harvest at risk by heat is wide. Includes crops like the vineyardpotato, tomato and fruit trees. In the case of grapes, for example, lack of water can replace its phenolic maturation with maturation by dehydration, they explain from the sector, which impacts the quality of the product. Not even crops such as cereals are saved. Although a good part of the harvest has already been collected, in some areas fires can prevent farmers from finishing the collection of these crops. What is true for agriculture can also be for livestock. They are not rare the times that fires are primed with farm animals: even when the fire does not put them directly, their pastures and their abbrevics can disappear overnight. More quantity, less price. Heat and fire add uncertainty to a year marked by Important drops in prices of agrarian products. A very marked fall in some crops but that in general responds to the recovery of agricultural productivity after years of drought. A recovery for which now the sector fears. The good news is that they await us a few days, Maybe weeksof thermal relief. The issue now is whether it is down the temperatures and rainfall that is expected these days are able to relieve this situation. In Xataka | We thought we were facing a “historical” oil harvest. Farmers now foresee a reality bath Image | Matt Palmer / Eberhard Grossgasteiger

will pause its AI during heat waves to relieve the electricity grid

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Google has announced A pioneering agreement with two of the main electrical companies in the United States to reduce the consumption of their data centers during energy demand peaks. In other words, Google will pause its artificial intelligence during heat waves. AI is hungry. It is no secret that generative artificial intelligence has a voracious energy appetite. Train and execute the huge models that drive from the summaries in the Google search engine to the youtube folded videos requires dozens or hundreds of megawatts of power continuously. This massive consumption, concentrated in huge data centers, has become a growing concern for electricity companies, which see how energy demand triggers at a rate that the current infrastructure is not prepared to support. An unthinkable movement. Until now, the main concern was to add enough power to the network, with solutions that go From reopening abandoned nuclear centers until Sign the largest hydroelectric agreement in history. But Google’s last movement proposes an unthinkable solution in the competitive AI industry: instead of just increasing energy supply, managing demand flexibly. The measure, agreed with two of the main electrical companies in the United States (TVA and I & M.), arrives just when both states prepare for an intense heat wave. While millions of homes and companies light their air conditioners, putting the electricity to the limitGoogle has agreed to reduce the consumption of its less urgent tasks to avoid overloads and possible blackouts. Demand flexibility. Google has not invented anything new. This type of Flexible response to network demand It already applies in many industries, usually to pay a lower price for the light. Google itself has used it for a long time to postpone non -essential tasks, such as the processing of YouTube videos, moving them to data centers in other time regions or executing them at night, when the demand for the network is lower. The novelty is that, for the first time, it will apply contractual to automatic learning workloads, the heart of the AI. According to the agreement, if the demand for energy increases dangerously or there is an interruption in the network due to extreme weather conditions, operators can ask Google to reduce their consumption. Google will respond by reprogramming or limiting non -urgent tasks until the network stabilizes. You won’t run out of Google Maps. The company has made it clear that this demand response system has its limits. Critical services that require 100% reliability and constant availability, such as the search engine, Google Maps or cloud services for clients of essential sectors such as health, will not be affected. Flexibility will apply to tasks such as the training of new AI models thanks to advances in techniques such as Checkpointing (which allows you to save the progress of training and resume it later). A model could be trained exclusively at night, when the network capacity is greater, without losing the work already done. What does Google win with this? In addition to relieving the overload of the network and preventing off, the clients of the network will end up reducing the light of the light thanks to this system. Including Google data centers. Image | Pawel Czerwinski in Unspash In Xataka | The AI has disrupted Google’s plans to be sustainable. His plan to remedy it: the “four m”

After the earthquake of Russia, evacuations and alerts extend through the Pacific for fear of something much worse: waves

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With the still recent memory of what happened in March 2011, when a Powerful earthquake Registered in front of the Japanese coasts, it generated a tsunami and sowed the destruction, with thousands of victims and missing, in Japan and Russia they look at the ocean with tension. And they are not the only ones. The reason: Another powerful earthquakeof magnitude 8.8, has shaken the ground of the Kamchatka Kraiat the east end of Russia, and unleashed the fear for the waves it can generate in the Pacific. In just a few hours that has resulted in alert messages, evacuations and authorities asking the population to stay away from the coasts. What happened? That the ground has trembled in Russia. And with violence. In the last hours the US Geological Service registered an earthquake from Magnitude 8.8 at the east end of Russia. More specifically the tremor broke out At 23.25 h GMT (two more in peninsular Spain), with epicenter 126 kilometers southeast of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskyin the Kamchatka Krai, in the north of the Pacific, and a depth of around 19.3 km. In some areas of the region they soon registered waves between three and four meters high. Has it been serious? Sergei Lebedev, the head of the emergency department in the region, He explained That the earthquake has left some injured, although for now, as confirmed to the Russian agency Tass, there seems to be none of gravity. It is not bad balance if the power of the earthquake is taken into account, of magnitude 8.8. The governor of Kamchatka has recognized that the earthquake was “serious” and “the strongest in decades”, which explains that the tremor causes the collapse of part of the facade of a nursery. “Before July 31, a list of buildings will be developed that will undergo instrumental inspection. The general evaluation of material damage will be ready in a week,” Point out The governor of the region, Vladimir Solodov. In its telegram channel, the Unified Geophysical Service of Russia has confirmed that it is the greatest earthquake since 1952 in Kamchatka (in November of that year there was another tremor of Magnitude 9 which generated important material damage and caused waves of several meters in Hawaii) and the sixth most intense globally since 1900. What reactions has generated? Fear. And caution. Since the earthquake was produced by authorities from different countries and regions bathed by the Pacific, from Russia to Chile or the United States, passing through Japan or the Philippines, have reacted with different degrees of alert, depending on the type of waves they expect. One of the most forceful responses has probably given Japan, where alert sirens have already been heard and seen to the Hokkaido coast residents Uploaded to roofs When the initial waves of the Tsunami, 30 centimeters arrived. The authorities have ordered the evacuation of the east coast of the country, punished in 2011, and required more than 900,000 people of 133 municipalities of the Pacific coast that leave their homes. Some sources They raise the population that has received evacuation orders or alerts to about two million. Have you done anything else? Yes. On the island of Hokkaido, an evacuation order of 5 out of 5the highest level, which affects about 10,500 citizens of the town of Urakawa, and the alert has spread to prefectures such as Hokkaido, Aomori, Iwate, Mie or Miyagi, among others. In some regions waves of up to three meters are expected. With that backdrop, public transport has been altered at some points and the authorities They have evacuated to the workers of the Fukushima nuclear plant, which was already affected by the tsamot of 2011. And beyond Japan? Russia and Japan are not the only ones who have activated emergency measure. The United States Tsunamis Alert Center has warned of the risk of waves of more than three meters in the Hawaii archipelago and between one and three on the island of Guam. Before Panorama the governor of Hawaii, Josh Green, has declared The state of emergency and ordered evacuations in areas of the coast, which has even derived in traffic jams. In the islands they have also enabled shelters in schools, hotels or community centers. It is not the only American territory that looks at the Pacific. The National Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has also transferred the alert to some parts of Alaska and follows the situation on the east coast of the country, such as California. “Keep strong already except!” I exhort Donald Trump. Are there more countries on alert? Yes. In Chile President Gabriel Boric He has recognized That, “for now, we have Tsunami alert for the entire coast” on Wednesday. “The protocol is to evacuate three hours before the estimation of arrival of the wave,” he said. In China the tsunamis alert center He has warned also of the possibility of receiving waves of between 30 and 40 cm in Zhejiang and Shanghai and Peru has activated Also alert in his coast. Ecuador has even gone further to order the eviction of the Galapagos Islands, “which implies the suspension of maritime activities and eviction of beaches, docks and low areas.” The list adds and continues with organisms from different nations that ask for caution in different points of the Pacific. In Mexico the Semar has issued an alert For the country’s coast bathed by that ocean after the Kamchatka earthquake and has asked its population to remain away from the beaches and warn of strong currents. Images | USGS, NOAA and X In Xataka | Tsunami’s alert is leading people to get on the roofs of Japan. It is a good idea, but only at the beginning

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