works

a textbook “if something works, don’t change it”, but with two beastly hearts

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Apple is having a big week. The company is not attending the Mobile World Congress, but has decided to talk about it this week. Yesterday he presented the iPhone 17e and today they were playing the laptops. If last year they launched the MacBook Pro with an M5 processor, it was clear that it was our turn to see the older brothers. Next, we go with all the details of the new MacBook Pro with M5 Pro and M5 Max. Some beasts with eight times more AI performance (but with immense fine print). First of all, the technical sheet of the new laptops. Technical sheet of the MacBook Pro with M5 Pro and M5 Max 14 inch macbook pro 16 inch Macbook Pro screen 14.2-inch Liquid Retina XDR 3,024 by 1,964 pixels ProMotion technology with up to 120Hz adaptive refresh rate HDR 1,600 nits (peak) 16.2-inch Liquid Retina XDR 3,456 by 2,234 pixels ProMotion technology with up to 120Hz adaptive refresh rate HDR 1,600 nits (peak) processor Apple M5 Apple M5 Pro Apple M5 Max Apple M5 Pro Apple M5 Max RAM 16 to 128 GB 24 to 128 GB storage 1TB to 8TB 1TB to 8TB ports SDXC card slot HDMI port 3.5mm headphone jack MagSafe 3 port 3x Thunderbolt 4 (USB‑C) SDXC card slot HDMI port 3.5mm headphone jack MagSafe 3 port 3x Thunderbolt 4 (USB‑C) WEIGHT 1.55kg 2.14kg webcam and sound 12MP Center Stage and Top-down View Camera Six Dolby Atmos speakers 12MP Center Stage and Top-down View Camera Six Dolby Atmos speakers battery 72.4Wh Fast charging with a 96W adapter 100Wh Fast charging with 140W adapter operating system macOS 26 Tahoe macOS 26 Tahoe price From 1,929 euros From 3,049 euros Identical on the outside We said it in analysis of the MacBook Pro with M5: Apple is one of the few companies that can afford to launch a generation without it being noticed. With the iPhone it is something that was set in stone with the notch, now with the ‘Dynamic Island’ and with the MacBook the same thing is happening. They made the change by introducing the notch and giving us connection ports again and, since then, the changes have been more internal than external. In this sense, the new 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro are no exception. In development…

I have tried all the browsers with AI on the market and the one that works best is the one that started the worst: Dia

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I started using Arc in the summer of 2024. I was slow to get into it (I had tried it before and found it too capricious, too determined to teach me how to sail when I already knew) but when I arrived, I really arrived. Vertical tabs. The spaces. The way he organized the digital day without me having to think about it too much. Arc to me was not just a browser: it was a work environment. And then The Browser Company Dia announced. I remember it with some annoyance. Josh Miller, the company’s CEO, uploaded a video talking about “something new,” and Arc was in “minimal maintenance,” a euphemism for not saying the word “abandonment.” The Arc community complained, rightly so, and I joined the discontent. They had built something great and threw it overboard at the first opportunity to pursue the AI ​​chimera. Still, I tried Dia as soon as I could and wrote about it: You opened Dia and saw Chrome. Chrome with better typography, Chrome with more careful animations, but Chrome nonetheless. No split tabs, no gaps, no anything that had made Arc great. Just a chatbot in the sidebar. I closed it and went back to Arc, which continued to work despite the abandonment warnings, until I started trying other AI-based browsers. Months passed and Dia was updated, week by week, with a striking cadence. And at some point I started to notice something: the things I missed were coming backsometimes even improved. First the vertical tabs, which Arc had popularized and which Chrome has just announced that it will also adopt, something that says a lot about who sets the pace in browser design. Then the groups of eyelashes, with that aesthetic care that has always been a trademark of the house and now goes further than before. Other browsers already have this feature, but “not like this.” Recently, the split viewwhich I have been using for years in Arc and which is one of those functions that, once you have it, you don’t understand how you navigated without it: Simultaneous view of several tabs in a single window. Split tab view to display multiple tabs in a single window. Image: Xataka. Tab groups have even partly replaced my use of favorites. You can create them by hand or see how they are automatically grouped and renamed when you open multiple tabs from the same place. Its design and user experience are fantastic. Image: Xataka. The set favorites are still there. Tabs in the sidebar also ended up coming to Dia. And between both blocks, the groups of tabs. Image: Xataka. There is a pattern in The Browser Company that you should have already learned with Arc: they release something that seems incomplete, almost “psché”, and then they improve it until you can’t put it down anymore. It took me two tries to fall in love with Arc. Something similar has happened with Dia, only the process has been longer and the reconciliation more gradual. And that boss now has to live with a new owner, because since September This company was bought by Atlassianwhich wants to make Dia the reference for working with AI. Nothing has changed at the moment on a day-to-day basis (pun intended) of the browser. What Dia has done smartly (and differently than Arc) is start almost from scratch and give up all the weirdness. Arc asked you to adapt to it, to learn its logic, to assume its curve. And Dia does exactly the opposite: she is very Chromiumvery familiar, very little foreign to anyone coming from Chrome and not as rigid as Arc. That takes a toll: some of Arc’s more radical ideas have been lost in the transition, but it also means it doesn’t create as much friction for the average user. You open Dia and browse. There is no twenty-minute tutorial on how to think about tabs, which is something that penalized the growth of Arc: those of us who used it loved it, but many people left when they saw that they did not understand the proposal. The weight is what catches my attention the most on the negative side: it’s around gigabyte, which is an outrage for a browser. And there is no mobile version yet. That hurts more, because it means the experience is split between devices, and the consistency Arc was trying to offer across platforms doesn’t yet exist on Dia. I hope they don’t take long. In theory it will arrive this year. Regarding AI, it is not what I use the most. Of course I use Claude or Gemini, I mean Dia’s chatbot sidebar. It’s not something I used on Dia nor have I used much on Neon, Atlas or Comet, the other three that I’ve tested in some depth. The chat in the sidebar is a good complement, I can ask it something about the tab I have open, ask it to summarize several at once, respond with context of what I am reading; but it is not the focus of my browsing experience. All three browsers conveyed at their launch that AI would change everything, and reality is more modest– It’s useful, sometimes very useful, but it doesn’t transform your workflow in the same way that a good tab design does. At least in my experience. I have tested more browsers that leverage AI for their value proposition. And they all have their strong points: Comet It is very fast and efficient searching for information in real time. Atlas is very capable when you need to systematically extract data from multiple pages, but none have the level of care in the experience that Dia has. Opera Neon is a browser built from the ground up for the AI ​​era, with much more than a well-placed chatbot. But it’s not just that they work. Dia feels good. There is something in the design, in the animations, in how the groups of tabs are constructed, that remains … Read more

What it is, what you can do with it and how it works to create your bots within Telegram

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Let’s explain to you What is BotFather and how does it work? This father of bots, a bot created by Telegram to be able to create other bots within the messaging app. When you want to proceed to carry out projects such as controlling an AI agent from Telegram, or you simply want to have your information and news bot, this will always be the first step to take. Let’s start by explaining what exactly this bot is. Then, we’ll go on to summarize the things you can do with it, and we’ll finish by telling you how you can use it to create your own bot. What is BotFather BotFather is the official Telegram bot to create and manage bots created by you. Its idea is to be a bot that literally acts as the father of all the bots within the platform. Being official, this bot has been created and is maintained by the official Telegram team, not by third parties. With this Telegram bot you will be able to create a bot, give it a name, add a description and avatar, and manage it as you wish. It will also give you a bot token to connect to it. to an external program with which to control it and make it work. Therefore, what BotFather allows you to do is create the bot shellbut then you will need to connect it to some program to give it functionality. Of course, it will also allow you to edit the welcome message, configure visible commandsactivate or deactivate privacy mode or manage your permissions. But then, the actual programming of the bot will have to be done outside. In summary, we can say that this is a bot for creating bots, and that it works in such an extremely simple way that democratizes creating them so that anyone can do it. Of course, without forgetting that you only create the framework, then making it work depends on your skills connecting it with the tools where you program it. What you can do with BotFather The main function of BotFather is to create new bots which will remain in your name so that you can use them as you wish. You will be able to create a name and you will have to give them a username to be located. When you create a bot, you will receive the access token to connect it to external tools. You can also customize the bot you created to adapt it to your needs. You can change their description, their “about” presentation, and their profile photo. You can also choose the list of commands it accepts, and activate or deactivate advanced functions such as inline mode to use it from the text bar of any chat, its payment system, or its privacy in groups. In addition to this, you will also be able to edit the bot to change these aspects as you want, as well as regenerate access tokens in case you need a new one. How to use BotFather. Creating bots is as easy as open a chat in BotFather and write /newbot. This will open a process where you will first have to type the bot name and then the username. The bot’s username, the @bot to find and write to, must be empty and end in “bot.” Once you have it, you will be given the API token and the address to access it. Then, in the bot you will always have a button open that opens a window with your bots. By pressing one of them you can enter its settings and change all the aspects you want about it, from the commands to the information or the internal games and all its settings. In these options you will also be able to configure your payment system, and transfer or delete it. If you delete it, the bot will disappear forever and its username will be free. And if you transfer it, you will make a different user own it and be able to control and configure it. You will no longer be able to do it. In Xataka Basics | How to create a Telegram bot that sends you a summary made by Gemini of each email you receive in Gmail and other emails

How the new document that registers the fingerprint and iris of citizens works

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The Government of Mexico has decided to update the identity document of its citizens. The Unique Population Registry Code (CURP) goes from its classic 18-character format to become a biometric document which incorporates fingerprints, facial photography, electronic signature and even iris scanning. The change is no small feat, since it affects the entire population. And that is precisely why there have also been certain doubts about its implementation. What exactly is biometric CURP. The CURP is the personal identifier that the Mexican State assigns to each citizen and resident of the country. In its traditional version, it was simply an alphanumeric key printed on paper. This new biometric version maintains this, but now also includes a photograph of the holder, electronic signature, QR code with cryptographic authentication and, in most cases, iris registration. Management is carried out by the National Population Registry (RENAPO). What is it for and what problem does it seek to solve. The Government of Claudia Sheinbaum has placed the fight against disappearances in Mexico as one of the main arguments to promote this new measure. By integrating biometric data into the ‘Single Identity Platform’, authorities will be able to carry out identity searches and validations on site, connecting the RENAPO bases with the National Forensic Data Bank and with records from institutions such as the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) or state intelligence bodies. Beyond that, the document also seeks to combat identity theft, reduce the proliferation of falsified documents and simplify procedures such as opening bank accounts, accessing health services, applying for a passport or school registrations. What data does it collect and how does the document look like? Citizens have to appear at the Civil Registry, and the process usually takes between 20 and 30 minutes. During that time, ten fingerprints, a scan of the iris of both eyes, a photo, and the applicant’s digital signature are taken. The document is issued in physical and digital format, and includes the usual personal data (name, date and place of birth, sex, nationality) along with the new biometric elements and a QR code that gives encrypted access to all that information. As the Government assures, the document is valid both nationally and internationally. Who should process it and when. The decree establishes that the biometric CURP will be mandatory for all Mexican citizens and legal residents. However, its implementation is being gradual. The measure came into force last Octoberwith a pilot phase that involved Mexico City, the State of Mexico and Veracruz, and since then the expansion has reached other regions, including Jalisco, Nuevo León, Querétaro and Tlalnepantla. According to RENAPO, from October 2025 145 modules operate throughout the country. Starting this month of February, this document will be requested for certain government and private services. Although the traditional CURP will continue to be valid during this transition period, public institutions and banks will progressively require the biometric version for new procedures or data updates. What documents do you have to bring? The process is in person, free and is carried out only once. To attend the module, you must present: Original birth certificate or certified copy Valid official identification with photograph (INE, passport or professional ID; for minors, school ID) Validated traditional CURP Proof of address no older than three months personal email According to the authorities, in the case of minors, they must be accompanied by their mother, father or legal guardian. Where is it processed? The enabled modules include RENAPO offices, Civil Registry offices, the CURP Mobile service and itinerant modules installed in schools and community centers. The institution recommends managing the prior appointment through the official website from RENAPO. Issues. Despite the official argument to implement the measure, the project has not been without criticism. The fact of being obliged to transfer biometric data to the State (fingerprints, irises, photographs) has generated discomfort among citizens, especially those who fear improper use of this information or an expansion of mass surveillance. The decree establishes that the data will be stored under strict security protocols and with audited access in accordance with the General Law on Protection of Personal Data, although the real effectiveness of these guarantees is, reasonably, a matter of debate. From GQ Mexico express that some citizens do not feel comfortable providing information of this nature to the Government, although others consider that it is not new given the level of personal data that already circulates on the Internet. What happens if it is not processed. There are no economic sanctions if a citizen does not request the biometric CURP, but there are practical consequencesespecially in terms of blocking access to certain services. And those who do not have it when it is required may see their request rejected in public or banking procedures, longer waits in administrative procedures or incompatibilities in digital identity records. How to check if you already have it. To know if the biometric registration has already been processed, simply access the official portal of the CURP. If the receipt shows “CURP Biometric – Verified with RENAPO and Civil Registry”, the record is already updated. You can also go directly to any Civil Registry or RENAPO module to confirm it in person. Cover image | SEGOB and Onur Binay In Xataka | The US closed the El Paso airport and everyone looked at the Mexican cartel. It was worse: it was the US with a weapon that it did not know how to use

What is Claude Cowork, how it works, and what things you can do with this AI assistant on your computer

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Let’s explain to you What is Claude Cowork and how does it work?one of the advanced tools of the artificial intelligence of Claude. It is an automation assistant for the computer, a kind of AI agent which you can ask to do tasks on your PC without you having to touch anything. Let’s start by explaining what it is so that you understand the concept. Then we will tell you how it works, to finish by giving you some examples of the things you can do with it. What is Claude Cowork Claude Cowork is basically a personal assistant with artificial intelligence Designed to work natively on your computer. This way, you can use Claude on your Windows or Mac PC to ask it to do things automatically. It has been designed above all to help you with the repetitive tasks you do in your daily life with files, folders and applications. Imagine being able to ask the AI ​​to do things like rename files in a folder, look for duplicates, or even give you summaries of the contents of these files. It is something similar to an AI Agent, but it is not exactly this. AI agents are capable of doing complex tasks for you, like booking a hotel. However, Claude Cowork is designed specifically for automate tasks with files and applicationsand manage the operating system of your local computer. So it doesn’t have as many features, but it does what it’s trained to do better. This tool is available in the Claude desktop appalthough only for paying users. This means that you always have it available. In addition to this, You can also give access to your browser to be able to ask it to do tasks on it or interact with web content, but for that you need to install the extension Claude in Chrome. How Claude Cowork works The way Claude Cowork works is very simple. You open the Claude application and go to the Cowork tab, and in there you ask him what you want him to do using natural language. When making the request, you will have to specify what you want, the folder where you want it done, and all the details you want. Here, you should think that you are asking a person for the task. If you want to change the name of the files in a folder, you will have to specify that you want to rename them, indicate what folder it is, and even the format, in case you want it to be “Year-Month-Name” or any other. Cowork has controlled access to your file systemso that you can decide and customize which elements you can touch and which ones you can’t. When you make a request you can even choose the folder where you want it to act. This tool will first process your text to understand what you want, and then will chain several actions to carry it out. It will be Claude’s own AI that will figure out the way he wants to do it, and if necessary because it doesn’t work, rectify it to do it another way. In the Claude app, within the Cowork section, you will be able to see step by step what it is doing this assistant. The AI ​​will ask you for permission on each piece of data, for example to rename files or connect to a tool, and you can always see the progress and stop it whenever you want. Lastly, you should know that you can use the connectors and extensions to link web services and applications on your computer and be able to do things in them. You can add your notes application, Spotify, or the messaging app among many others. But also web services such as Gmail, Google Drive, Notion, Trivago, WordPress, and many others. What you can do with Cowork The uses of this tool depend on many things, although there are a series of basic actions that you can know and that will save you a lot of time. They are the following: File management: Manage files in any folder, organizing downloads, renaming batches of files with specific patterns, moving documents between folders, finding and deleting duplicates, zipping and unzipping files, and more. Document processing: You can process various document types by extracting text from PDFs, converting files from one format to another, combining multiple documents into one, or extracting specific data from multiple files to create summaries. Automation of repetitive tasks: It can also help you automate tasks you do every day or week, such as preparing reports by putting together data from different files, creating folder structures for new projects, or making organized backups of certain files. Cleaning and maintenance: You can also ask it to do tasks like asking it to delete old files that you no longer need, clean up temporary folders, organize your photo or music library, or find large files that are taking up space. But these are just the basic features of Cowork, and you can get it to do many more things connecting it to cloud services, other applications, or installing the extension to use Chrome. To give an example, I have asked you to create a text file with the list of all the songs (more than 600) that I have in a certain playlist on my Spotify account. So Claude ran his Chrome extension, I could see it go to my Spotify account, I gave him permission to log in, he then looked for various ways to read the songs in the list (first a script and then using the mouse to scroll), and then he created the plain text document. In Xataka Basics | Claude: 23 functions and some tricks to get the most out of this artificial intelligence

what it is, how it works and how to protect yourself from it

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Let’s tell you what is zero click attack typeused by spy applications such as Pegasus. We will all remember that in 2021 The phones of Pedro Sánchez and the Minister of Defense were infected by this malware espionage or Spywareand to do so this technique was used. The zero-click technique in Pegasus was first documented by Citizen Lab in a 2016 reportand it is worth knowing it for its sophistication. Basically, it is a method of infecting devices in which the victim does not need to do anything or touch any link. What is the zero click attack The Zero Click This is what we call an exploit.a trick that exploits a security flaw in operating systems or web pages to do something that you should not be able to do. In this case, what we should not be able to do is install spyware on the mobile phone without the victim knowing. To spy on another person’s cell phone you have to install a spy program, and the most common method to do this is through hacking attacks. phishing: The victim is sent a fake email or message with a link on which, when clicked, the spyware is downloaded. Come on, an interaction is needed on the part of the victim. However, zero-click exploits are designed to function without interaction of the user. This means that they are methods so that a victim’s mobile phone can execute code on its own. This is a very sophisticated type of attack, subtle, and with a high success rate, since we will not realize that it is happening. Thus, your device becomes infected invisibly or by simply receiving a missed call notification from an unknown number. Zero click attacks They are not a virus or malware, but a technique through which these malwares can be installed. Therefore, your antivirus will not detect this attack, although it can detect the program installed on the mobile phone through it. How the zero click exploit works This type of exploit uses vulnerabilities within communication applications completely normal and legal that we carry on our mobile. For example, messaging applications, SMS or social networks. What they do is take advantage failures in automatic processes of mobile phones or applications. For example, when you receive an SMS on your mobile, the application automatically processes it to send you a preview in the notifications, or a notification with the specific message. What attackers do is use flaws that they have discovered but the companies responsible for mobile phones, operating systems or applications do not know about. To follow an example, if the messaging app has a flaw when processing images, PDFs or audio, the exploit can take advantage of it to send a message that has a code with which to exploit this flaw to install the malware in question. For example, Pegasus used zero-click exploits in iMessage and WhatsApp. The attackers only had to send a specially designed message to exploit the flaws of this app, and the phone was infected without you realizing it, even deleting the message afterwards to leave no trace. There are groups of cybercriminals specialized in creating these exploits, which because they are so difficult to design can be worth millions. Today, the most common types are those aimed at smartphones, although they can also be created for other devices. How to protect yourself from zero-click exploits Since these attacks work without requiring any interaction from the victim, you won’t have a chance to identify the threat and defend yourself from it. This makes them extremely difficult to avoid, although we can always resort to proactive security measures. First of all, keep your devices and their applications ALWAYS updated. These attacks work through vulnerabilities that have not been discovered, but if they are discovered, the companies of the apps, devices and operating systems will always send urgent updates. The more unupdated applications or operating systems you have, the more vulnerable you will be. Another very important measure is avoid using unsafe applications. Be careful with almost unknown apps, or those that you download from third-party application stores or directly from websites. I know we all like to explore new apps, but only trusted apps downloaded from reputed app stores can minimize the risks. You can also consider install anti-spyware and malware applicationsthe classic antiviruses. Behind them are companies dedicated to monitoring risks and malware, and zero-click exploits are often used to install this type of virus. Take extreme precautions if you are a public figure. Obviously, a government or an institution is not going to spend millions of euros on one of these exploits to infect the town baker. But if you are an activist or member of an institution or government, then you are going to have to take all these measures more seriously. In Xataka Basics | Cybersecurity for your vacation: tips and recommendations for before and during your days off

what it is, how it works, main news, and when it will be available

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Let’s explain to you what is Seedance 2.0the model of artificial intelligence designed by ByteDance. Specifically, it is a multimodal AI model capable of generating video from prompt descriptions, but also using other references such as audio, images and video. Let’s start by reminding you what Seedance is, so you know what exactly we are referring to. Then, we will tell you the main features of its new version, as well as the differences with its predecessor and some other things that you should keep in mind, such as when will it be available for use in Spain. What is Seedance and how it works Seedance is an artificial intelligence model created by ByteDance, the company that created the TikTok social network. This model is used for generate video from textbeing the competition of models such as I see from Google either sora from OpenAI. The truth is that ByteDance is one of the five most relevant Chinese companies in AI. In fact, it has its own family of models called Seedin which we have a Seedream to create images, Seededit to edit images, Seed3D to create three-dimensional models, Seed LiveInterpret to translate voice in real time, Seed-Music to create music and more. As in other similar models, its operation is simple. You simply describe what you want to see through a prompt, uploading a reference image if you want, and Seedance will create a video of several seconds with the scene you have described. To create the video, you will first be able to process and understand what you ask with natural languagesince it has been trained to understand the way we speak and express ourselves. It will then proceed to create the video, including synchronized audio based on the instructions you give it. Seedance tries to stand out from the competition with physical realism, so that objects move naturally and consistent with physics. Also with visual consistency, and duration, since it generates videos up to 10 seconds long. Seedance 2.0 Features As we all know, the race in generative artificial intelligence is frenetic, so every few months a new model comes out, revolutionizing everything. In this aspect, Seedance 2.0 is now the one that is surprising the most, being a multimodal model capable of combining images, video, audio and text to generate content. Think about this. You can add audio of a sound or conversation and generate the video from it, and even include another video or photo to use as a reference. Everything will be able to process simultaneously. The model supports precise reference capabilities, and is capable of exporting results in 2K resolution with 30% faster generation speeds than the previous version 1.5. It has also improved the level of understanding of the physics of sound, This new version of the model also introduces the so-called multi-lens storytellinga term that means you can keep the same character, with the same clothes and features through different camera cuts. Something that will allow the video to be more complex but maintain cohesion between the cuts. When will Seedance 2.0 arrive? ByteDance has not yet included Seedance 2.0 in the website of their modelsthat It is only available in testing phase for a very limited group of people. Even so, it is to be hoped that little by little it will also begin to reach everyone. You have to be careful, because there are also fake pages that use the name Seedance 2.0 as a claim. In Xataka Basics | How to create videos with artificial intelligence: 13 essential free tools

We have been searching for the origin of life in hot puddles for years. Bennu has shown that radioactive ice works just as well

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When the capsule OSIRIS-REx mission landed in the Utah desert in September 2023, NASA knew it had a treasure on its hands. We are talking about a bit of black dust that was collected millions of kilometers from Earth and that was about to rewrite one of the most important chapters of science: the origin of life. What we knew. Until now, the predominant theory regarding the origin of life told us that for “cook” all the basic components of life, such as amino acids, heat and liquid water were needed to make a kind of hot chemical soup. However, science has just flipped the script: the bricks of life They are not only formed in heatbut they can be born in the most extreme cold and under gamma radiation. And that completely changes our understanding of how we got here, and also of the possible presence of life in any corner of the Universe. The importance of Bennu. Definitely is the protagonist of this whole story, and it is nothing more than an asteroid of about 500 meters in diameter which functions as a fossil from the early solar system. But the most interesting thing is that it is approximately 4.6 billion years old, the same age as the Earth, although, unlike our planet, its surface has not melted or been drastically altered by geological processes throughout its ‘life’. And little by little we are learning more about this asteroid thanks to the samples brought by OSIRIS-REx that had already been confirmed in preliminary analyzes an unusual abundance of carbon, nitrogen, water and organic compounds. But what the team led by Penn State University has now found goes one step further. The surprise. This same team, when analyzing the isotopic composition of the amino acids present, especially glycine, came across a chemical signature that did not fit with the classical theory of formation in hot water. A radioactive freezer. Until now, we thought that amino acids in asteroids were formed primarily through aqueous alteration processes: ice melts from heat, liquid water interacts with rock, and voilacomplex organic chemistry. However, science now suggests that liquid water is not necessary for amino acids, an essential molecule of life, to form. Simply from simple ice they can arise without much problem. And there are many of these in the universe. The catalyst. The other important factor in this formation was the energywhich in this case came from gamma radiation emitted by radioactive elements that were abundant in the early solar system. And the energy could not come from thermal heat, since this process occurs in icy environments, long before the asteroid was compacted or heated enough to have liquid water. This explains why we found amino acids both in asteroids that underwent a lot of water heating and in those that remained “drier” and colder. Life, it seems, is more stubborn than we thought and can begin to develop in the most hostile conditions of the vacuum of space. An increasingly complex menu. But we are not just talking about simple molecules, since analyzes of Bennu samples have identified a variety of compounds. Among these is tryptophan, which is an essential amino acid, much more structurally complex, and vital for terrestrial life. Besides, DNA and RNA components have been detectedin addition to ammonia and amines, surpassing in richness many samples of famous meteorites such as that of Murchison. Backlash to Panspermia. If amino acids can easily form in irradiated ice grains in the solar nebula—before the planets even formed—it means that these “ingredients” are spread throughout the solar system. The fact that Bennu, a B-type carbonaceous asteroid, is packed with these compounds reinforces the idea that Earth didn’t have to produce all the components of life itself. A constant shower of asteroids and meteorites during the late intense bombardment could having “sown” our planet with a pre-made deep space biological starter kit. That is why in the end looking at a grain of Bennu dust is looking at ourselves. Or, at least, to the chemical great-great-grandparents who made us here today. Images | NASA Hubble Space Telescope In Xataka | NASA has just announced that this large asteroid has a 1% chance of impacting Earth. That’s not normal

In Tokyo there is a bookstore with only one book in the catalog. It has been open for ten years and works

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In an alley in the Ginza district of Tokyo, a small white-painted room houses what could be considered the most radical bookstore in the world. Morioka Shotenopened in May 2015 by Yoshiyuki Morioka, reverses the commercial logic of the book: while the Japanese publishing industry produces approximately 80,000 new titles each yearthis establishment only sells one, which is renewed every week. It is not performance. Morioka Shoten It is a business that works, selling multiple copies of a single work for six consecutive days. The interior is unusually bare for a bookstore (concrete walls, a piece of furniture used as a counter, a cable telephone) and serves as a canvas for displays inspired by the current book. It is a bit the absolute opposite of Amazon: from infinite offer to minimalism in choice. How it works. Each title remains on display for exactly six days, from Tuesday to Sunday, accompanied by artistic installations, objects or photographs related to its content. The space functions simultaneously as a gallery and a point of sale. The location of the project reinforces this symbolic dimension: the Suzuki Buildingbuilt in 1929 and protected as historic architecture, housed between the 1930s and the end of World War II the offices of Nippon Kobo, the publisher that produced the magazine ‘Nippon’, which many consider foundational for the modern Japanese publishing industry. The context. The opening of Morioka Shoten in 2015 comes at a critical time for the industry. Two decades earlier, in 1995, Amazon had begun operations, and the domino effect was inevitable: American independent bookstores went from more than 7,000 stores in 1994 to just 1,651 in 2009, a reduction of 76%. The physical bookstore model seemed obsolete given the speed of the Internet and recommendation algorithms. Morioka Shoten proposed just the opposite: concentration, deliberate scarcity and time to focus on a single work. The philosophy of issatsu, isshitsu. The Japanese expression issatsu, isshitsu It means “a room, a book.” For eight years, Yoshiyuki Morioka worked as an employee in second-hand bookstores in the Kanda neighborhood, a traditional bibliophile district in Tokyo. He later opened his own independent bookstore in Kayabacho, where he organized author presentations that multiplied sales. The question that it was done was: why maintain hundreds of works if the optimal experience was produced with just one? The Takram design studio developed the store’s visual identity based on a sketch by Morioka himself: a rhombus that condenses the double metaphor of the project, simultaneously representing an open book and a single room. The resurgence of indie. The proposal is part of a broader recovery of independent book trade. In 2015, a curious phenomenon occurred in the United States: American indie bookstores. They began to multiplyup to 49%. The study cited factors such as the feeling of community, the work of booksellers as curators and the capacity of bookstores as meeting points. The pandemic accelerated the trend: since 2020 The sector grew by 70%, in 2024, 323 new stores were inaugurated and in 2025, more than a hundred additional stores were opened in the first months of the year alone. Quality over quantity. The commercial results of the experiment confirm the viability of the model. Morioka Shoten has sold more than 2,000 works since its inauguration. The weekly catalog has ranged from comics by Tove Jansson to botanical photographs by Karl Blossfeldt, novels by Mimei Ogawa and short stories by Hans Christian Andersen, spanning fiction, non-fiction, manga and illustrated books. In an era that offers immediate access to millions of titles, abundance generates paralysis when it comes to decisions. From that point of view, Morioka’s radical limitation does not restrict, but liberates. In Xataka | The 24 most beautiful bookstores in the world

the underground works of the A-5 in Madrid

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Yesterday, January 19, 2026, a little before 8 in the morning, I was already in front of the computer preparing for the work day. I had been carrying out a task for a few minutes when suddenly, surprise: the websites I was trying to load in the browser did not load. The Wi-Fi connection had been cut offso I tried the network connection. Nothing. My wife, who was also online at the time, confirmed it to me. We didn’t have internet at home. Taking a look at the HGU router we use (we are O2 customers) I found two red lights flashing. I turned it off and on again, but the problem persisted. This looks bad, I thought. I immediately called O2 customer service, at 1551, and found the second surprise: they don’t answer until nine in the morning unless the phone is lost or stolen. Fortunately, the mobile data connection was still working, so I went to it: I shared that connection from my mobile to my work computer through tethering and I got to work without too many problems: the bandwidth of 5G connections is already more than enough for this type of scenario, so essentially I didn’t notice the problem too much. Shortly after nine in the morning I called O2 again, and a person answered the call to whom I told the problem. As soon as I did it, he told me that there was a service interruption in my area —”Oh, is it in my area, isn’t it something just mine?” I asked—and that they were working on solving it. “In the meantime,” he said, “We are going to offer you an unlimited data bonus both to your line and to all those associated with your contract. The person who assisted me also told me that the company would notify me by message when the incident was resolved. Some time later I received that confirmation message, and I continued working with the mobile data thinking that the problem would be resolved in a few hours. It’s been more than 24 hours and I’m still the same. The works on the A-5, recurring culprits Throughout yesterday I checked from time to time to see if the lights on the router changed, and just in case I restarted it to regain normal connectivity as soon as possible. There was no way. Source: Diario de Madrid. When several hours had passed and we still had no solution to the problem, I looked for some more information about the cause and quickly found an article in ADSLZone commenting on it: the underground works of the A-5who had left without internet an unknown number of Movistar and O2 clients. Those affected belong to the southwest area of ​​Madrid —Aluche, Campamento, Colonia Jardín, Pozuelo—, and I was one of them. This latest incident is not the first of its kind, and in fact there have already been cuts, for example in july, in August and in November. In all of them the reason was the underground works on the A-5, although at no time has the specific reason why these cuts occurred been clarified. This work is producing other side effects such as the saturation of Metro line 10, the dust and the deteriorated air quality for the residents of the surrounding areas, or traffic jams on the roads enabled in an extraordinary way throughout the underground. However, it is evident that the project is moving forward, and a few days ago the two sections of tunnel were connected executed to date. The tunnel is expected to be completed in Aprilalthough the vehicles They will not be able to circulate through it until the end of the year. Let’s hope that from now on there will be no more outages and the rest of the problems will also be mitigated. In Xataka | There is an extensive system to avoid being cut off in the 48 km underground of the M-30. It’s time to renew it

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