wrong

We’ve been looking for aliens the wrong way for decades. The solution could be in the dust of the Moon

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It is possible that we are looking for the wrong traces of extraterrestrial civilizations. According to a study published recently by Oxford astrophysicist Brian C. Lacki, the mistake has been in looking for active technological signatures. That is, signals derived from extraterrestrial technologies that have been emitted directly. These signals are lost over time. On the other hand, technological signatures that passively act on the light of a star are easier to detect. And the best thing is that, if you can’t find them, you could always search in the middle of the lunar regolith. This all sounds very crazy, but it actually makes sense. Active or passive signatures? That’s the question. Traditionally, search projects for extraterrestrial civilizations, like SETIhave focused on the detection of possible radio signals coming from their technologies. These are not signals emitted on purpose so that we can find them, but rather the result of their own technological activity. The problem, according to Lacki in his study, is that, if they have followed an evolution similar to ours, they may not be broadcasting on the radio for more than 100 years. We ourselves have been replacing emissions in this range with fiber optics or satellites with directed emissions and very little “noise” that can reach “intergalactic gossip.” What leads us to think that they continue century after century using the same technologies? They may continue to emit, but no longer in radio waves that disperse into space. The Oxford astrophysicist proposes changing this position by searching for passive technosignatures. That is, signatures derived from the interaction of smart technologies with starlight. three types. There are three types of passive technosignatures: obscuring, flashing and diffusing. The former act in a similar way to an exoplanet passing in front of its star. When a large object, such as an artificial satellite, passes in front of a star, it temporarily obscures it. This could be confused with an exoplanetbut the idea is to look for concealments with unconventional shapes, that do not resemble anything known. In the case of flashing signatures, they would be those produced by devices with mirrors aimed at concentrating the star’s light. As if they had their own solar plants. At some point, these types of mirrors could generate flares observable from Earth. Finally, the diffusion signatures would spread the light in all directions, so that a fainter change would be observed, in the form of a color modification in the light spectrum. What if they are no longer there? If it is already difficult to find other intelligent civilizations, it would be even more difficult to find one that is contemporary with ours. We may simply find technosignatures of a civilization that has already died. In that case, or even if the technologies have simply been abandoned for another reason, there would no longer be intelligent beings in charge of maintaining the devices, so their orbit would end up shifting and they could collide with each other. If this happens, it is possible that very small fragments will be generated, which this scientist calls technograins. They are so small that the star’s gravity is not able to attract them any more than the stellar winds push them away. Therefore, they would end up swept away from their neighborhood and become a cloud of dust that our solar system could eventually encounter on its journey through the galaxy. The Moon comes into play. If all of the above occurs, Lacki considers that it could be that some of that dust settles on the Moon, where there is no wind nor are there geological processes that alter the surface, so it could remain for a long time. Therefore, for him, one way to look for technosignatures would be to inspect the lunar regolithlooking for dust that appears to have a technological origin. That, perhaps, could lead us to some intelligent civilization that has gone unnoticed by us. In short, according to the curious perception of this scientist, when trips to the Moon become more common than anecdotal, we could have an easier time finding technosignatures. Of course, for this, fewer telescopes and more sieves. Images | Leo Visions (Unsplash) In Xataka | TRAPPIST-1 was the most promising solar system to search for life. Now our joy is in a well

something is wrong with the relationship between the sea and the atmosphere

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We are in the middle of June and it doesn’t seem like it, but the western Mediterranean is burning. And no, it is not an exaggeration: we are talking about a marine heat wave with peaks of surface anomaly greater than 5 degrees in specific areas. It is what experts call in technical jargon, a gigantic problem. Especially, facing autumn. A ticking time bomb. The great temptation when we see this type of data is to plot a direct line between sea temperature in June and DANAs in October. But it would be a mistake. The mechanism exists, of course. However, the matter is a little more complex than we might think. This is because the overheated sea is not a forecast of how much autumn rain we are going to suffer: it is a gauge of the ceiling of intensity that these rains can reach. The effect of an anomalously warm Mediterranean is to charge the atmosphere with water vapor and thus raise the amount of water that a DANA can precipitate. But, and this is crucial, the trigger is atmospheric. It is useless to have a charged atmosphere without a mass of cold air at altitude that is detached from the general circulation. What’s new? What is genuinely new is not that the Mediterranean is hot. It is, in fact, from 2022 on a sustained basis. What is new is that we have had a marine heat wave since May. That is, long before the historical calendar and still very far from the warmest moment (August). Furthermore, whether we want to see it or not, El Niño is just around the corner and, although we hope not to receive its wildest impacts, the heat it will bring to the world makes experts very worried. Why is it relevant? The data is clear. The Mediterranean basin heats up around 20% faster than the global ocean average and is trailing a streak of unprecedented records: 18 of the 20 highest daily values ​​since 1982 were recorded between 2023 and 2024 (with a maximum of 28.15 °C on August 10, 2024). The memory of the DANA of Valencia is still fresh and the certainty that the situation is getting worse It is a slab for the national climate conversation. Are we going to get worse? It’s pure physics: a warmer sea increases evaporation and the water vapor content of the atmosphere (at a rate of 7% more vapor for each degree). The best example is Storm Daniel which, as the researchers showedit would have been much more unlikely without climate change. That is why it is advisable to be precise and not take things out of context. The current scenario is problematic because if a DANA forms on the Mediterranean coast this autumn, it will have more fuel available to discharge more intense rains than with a cold sea. If it is not formed, nothing has to happen. Image | Copernicus In Xataka | We already know exactly how much climate change was to blame for DANA in Valencia (and the figures are devastating)

We have been thinking for decades that plastic recycling was worth something. Maybe we were wrong

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That the plastic recycling system is broken is an open secret. But it is only little by little that we are realizing the dimension of the problem. The American association Center for Climate Integrity (CCI) published the year 2024 a report on plastic recycling. In it, they attacked the plastics industry, which they accused of having promoted the recycling of these materials even while knowing of the poor technical and economic feasibility. A difficult task. Recycling plastics is not an easy task. In our daily lives we use a wide variety of materials of this type, each one with certain functional and chemical characteristics. They all end up in the same container, the packaging, but from there it is necessary to separate each type of plastic to proceed to recycling when possible. It is not always possible. Disparate data. According to Ecoembes data, in 2024, 589,885 tons of plastic packaging were recycled in Spain, although NGOs such as Greenpeace cast doubt. According to GreenpeaceIn other years, the difference between the plastic recycling rate declared by Ecoembes (89.2%) and that estimated by the NGO itself (34.8%) is notable. It should be noted that it is still higher than the world average of 9% estimated by the OECD. According to the reportfigures like these are just a reflection of an impossibility: effectively recycling plastics is out of our reach. Not only from an economic perspective but also from a technological point of view. Single use. However, the report emphasizes an accusation: even knowing this impossibility, the industry promoted the idea that recycling was possible and viable to pave the way for single-use plastics like the ones we use in packaging. “They knew that if they focused on single-use (plastics) people would buy and buy,” explained to Guardian Davis Allen, CCI researcher and co-author of the report. Another point of view. The reaction of the industry did not take long to arrive. The American Chemistry Council, in a statementnoted that “American plastic manufacturers are investing billions of dollars in better, innovative products and technologies that separate, capture and recycle larger quantities and more types of plastics.” They allege that the “erroneous report” made reference to obsolete technologies and that it represents a misleading characterization of the industry and the present capacities for recycling plastics. “As is typical, instead of working together toward real solutions to plastic waste, groups like CCI choose political attacks over constructive solutions,” protested Matt Seaholm, president and CEO of the Plastics Industry Association, in a statement also collected by Guardian. Be that as it may, California took legal action in the matter. Will we make it? We may never achieve an efficient system of recycling that we can apply to the plastics of our daily life. In fact, the UN Global Plastics Treaty has failed again and again. But perhaps one day we will be able to treat this waste so that its waste does not contaminate our environment. One of the big bets In this sense, it is the discovery of enzymes capable of decomposing plastic polymers, breaking these chains to convert them into harmless molecules. It is undoubtedly a great promise that is getting closer and closer, but it is still far from being able to solve the problem. Although time is not what is left over. Pollution caused by microplastics is already a reality. These wastes have appeared in the most remote places on Earth, a sign of the great reach of these contaminants. Furthermore, we know very little about the potential impacts on health and the environment of this waste. In Xataka | I’ve always been curious about what they did with the yellow containers: so I followed one In Xataka | “In 200 years, archaeologists will search through our trash and find a terrible image of ourselves”: the dirty reality of what we throw away Image | Krizjohn Rosales *An earlier version of this article was published in February 2025

Hubble made us believe that this exoplanet was impossible. James Webb just explained why we were wrong

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In 2014, the exoplanet WASP-94A b was discovered, a hot Jupiter with an anomalous amount of oxygen and carbon in its atmosphere. The first observations pointed to hundreds of times more of these two gases than in the atmosphere of the Solar System’s Jupiter. This did not fit with standard models of planetary formation. It could be that there is some error in the models. However, according to what has just been verified with the James Webb Space Telescope, the problem was rather that the right telescope was not being used. Closer observation has shown that oxygen and carbon levels are actually much lower, consistent with known physics. Also, as a tip, something very curious has been discovered: that the planet has rocky clouds during the day that disappear when sunset arrives. A very useful transit. The authors of a study recently published in Science They took advantage of a transit of the planet in front of its star to study its atmosphere with the James Webb telescope. Previously, observations were made with the Hubble telescope. With it, the light spectra coming from the atmosphere could be analyzed and, with them, their composition could be established. However, since it was not a telescope capable of distinguish clouds from the rest of the atmospherethe calculations were an average of the gases of everything together. Said by one of the authors of the studywith Hubble the result was something like looking through a foggy window. Now, after giving the window glass a good look, they have been able to see exactly the composition of both the atmosphere and the clouds. Tidal lock. This exoplanet is tidally locked. This means which takes the same time to orbit its star as it does around itself. The result is that it always has the same face facing the star, so on half the planet it is always day and on the other half it is always night. It’s something like what happens to us on Earth with the Moon, which always has a hidden side for us. Despite having perpetual days and nights on each face, on this type of planets you can distinguish between sunrise and sunset, depending on the flow of gases in the atmosphere. The limit at which cold gases from the night side pass to the day side is considered the dawn of the planet, while the limb in which the opposite occurs is sunset. Different compositions. When observing the planet in full transit, the day side could not be seen, since it was looking towards the star. On the other hand, the James Webb has been able to capture the emissions from the two limits with the night side, considered sunrise and sunset. In this way, he has been able to verify two important pieces of information. On the one hand, what we mentioned: the levels of carbon and oxygen in the atmosphere are only five times higher than those of Jupiter. It is something that corresponds to other hot Jupiters and does not defy known physics. On the other hand, it has been seen that on the sunrise side there are clouds composed of silicates. That is, rocky clouds. However, these dissipate until they disappear on the evening side. Thanks to this duality, it has been possible to explore the pure atmosphere, with hardly any clouds, in the area of ​​the planet close to sunset. Unknown causes. The authors of the study do not know what causes this strange behavior of the clouds. However, they have two hypotheses. The first would be something similar to the process that gives rise to fog on Earth. The clouds would form in the darkness on the night side, then enter the intense heat of more than 1,000 degrees on the day side. The substances that make up the clouds would boil and the clouds would vaporize throughout the day, disappearing completely at night. Then, on the night side, the process begins again. The other hypothesis, on the other hand, suggests that there may be intense winds on the planet that are dragging the clouds into the interior of the planet and taking them out of sight by sunset. And now what? These scientists are already studying other hot Jupiters. At the moment, they have already detected two others with the same distinctive cloud cycle: WASP-39 by WASP-17 b. There is nothing like a good sample to properly study any scientific phenomenon. The more planets that are detected with the same circumstances, the better the reasons can be clarified. Image| John Hopkins In Xataka | The James Webb has broken another historical record: a supermassive black hole older than expected

“We recognize that we have done things wrong.” Peugeot apologizes for the PureTech and presents the engine that wants to make us forget it

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Peugeot has decided to close one of the most uncomfortable chapters in its recent history. The lion brand gathered the motoring press in Madrid a few days ago to do two things at the same time: apologize for PureTech engine problems and introduce your substitutethe new Turbo 100, a block designed from scratch that is in fact already available. Bad reputation. For years, the PureTech 1.0 and 1.2 gasoline engines that the Stellantis Group installed in brands such as Peugeot, Citroën and Opel have had a considerable bad reputation for two of their most common breakdowns: their oil dipped strap deterioration and excessive oil consumption. Now Peugeot has come forward and publicly acknowledged that it was wrong. “We recognize that we have done things wrong,” admitted those responsible at the press event, according to collect I amMotor. And, above all, that They took too long to respond to clients and workshops. Figures. In Spain alone, around 500,000 units of these engines were sold, adding the three affected brands, and more than five million were manufactured throughout Europe. Furthermore, Spain is more affected than other territories by how things go for Peugeot, since as they mention Our colleagues at Motorpasión, Stellantis produces up to 14 models here in its plants in Vigo, Figueruelas and Villaverde. The brand closed 2025 with more than 81,000 cars sold in our country, so regaining trust is a priority for the company. Issues. On the one hand, the timing belt deteriorated due to chemical aggression, because on short, daily city trips (3 to 5 kilometers), the fuel mixed with the oil, swelled the belt and ended up releasing fragments that clogged the oil pump, which led to quite serious breakdowns. On the other hand, in the first generation PureTech (2014 to mid-2018) the repeated cycles of cold and heat accumulated carbon in the piston rings, which increased oil consumption. As the Stellantis engineers explained, the determining factor was not the total kilometers of the car, but the “quality” of those kilometers. Between the lines. Peugeot insists that this was not cost cutting. Its engineers denied that controls were eliminated to save and they remembered that “non-quality in the end is very expensive”, alluding to what extended guarantees now cost. The real failure, according to the brand, was in testing protocols that did not take into account the intensive urban use that a good part of the drivers in Spain, Portugal, France or Italy do. The wet belt, by the way, was chosen around 2010 because it was then a technically sensible solution, being quieter and with less friction than a chain, and useful for balancing the internal pressures of a three-cylinder engine. A decision that other manufacturers madeincluding Japanese (like Honda, although in a much more conservative way, until it turned out that it was not a good idea). The new engine. Here enters the Turbo 100presented by Fabien Gouzonnat, Director of Engine Development in Europe at Stellantis, and Vincent Jaquier, Engine Project Manager at Peugeot. At first glance it looks similar to the PureTech, because it had to fit in the same cars, but inside it is something else. In fact, the brand states that 70% of all the components that make up the engine are completely new and of the above the only thing they say is preserved is screws and some gaskets. The most notable change is that it dispenses with the belt and adopts a silent and maintenance-free distribution chain throughout the life of the car. And not just the chain. The Turbo 100 is a 1.2 three-cylinder engine with 100 HP and 205 Nm that debuts technology that has hitherto been unusual in high-volume gasoline. It works with a Miller cycle, direct injection at 350 bars and a variable geometry turbo (the first that Peugeot uses in a mass-produced gasoline engine). To reduce oil consumption, the pistons have been completely redesigned, with an internal cooling gallery and reinforced segments, as well as a new oil separator with a more resistant membrane. The brand assures have reduced mechanical wear up to 80%. To validate it, he says that he has subjected the block to more than 30,000 hours of bench tests and more than three million kilometers in real conditions. The guarantees. The other front is customer trust. New cars with the Turbo 100 extend the usual coverage up to 8 years or 160,000 km through the Peugeot Care program, as long as maintenance is carried out on the official network. For those who already have a PureTech, there are a web tool that reimburses for repairs paid between January 1, 2022 and December 31, 2024, providing the invoice for the repair and the three previous maintenances. And if the engine has not failed, the Check Plus certificate (free) covers up to 10 years or 180,000 km, even for second-hand cars or those with maintenance carried out in independent workshops, as long as they can be accredited. And now what. The Turbo 100 is already available in the Peugeot 208 and 2008, and serves as the basis for the 110 and 145 HP hybrid versions that are fitted to the 308, 408, 3008 and 5008, in addition to being extended to the rest of the group’s brands. It’s clear that Stellantis is making a monumental effort to eliminate the footprint left by its PureTech engine. Time will tell us if this new engine lives up to its promise. Cover image | Xataka and Stellantis In Xataka | Europe promised them a happy time by turning off 2G and 3G. He did not take into account that there are 64 million cars that need it

We have been searching for extraterrestrial life for decades. According to these astrobiologists, we have been doing it wrong all this time

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We are very used to hearing that someone has found possible signs of life in space. Then life is never found, but the trail seems to be there. All of these findings often end up being false positives, something astrobiologists are more than familiar with. However, According to a study just published in Nature Astronomy, They could be overlooking false negatives and that would be serious. Pass life long. What the authors of this study point out is that false negatives could be more common than we think. That is to say, many of the times when it is clearly concluded that there is no life in a place in space, it could be that it did exist, but it had been passed by without being detected. The causes. There could be three reasons why these false negatives occur. On the one hand, no traces of life are preserved. That is, it exists or has existed, but has not left a detectable trace. It could also be that this fingerprint is difficult to detect. Or, perhaps, that the methods used to detect it have limitations. Along these lines, the authors of the study give an example. Let’s imagine that there is a living being that, through its metabolic reactions, generates some gas that is understood as a trace of life. Maybe oxygen or methane. But let’s also imagine that there is a geological activity in that place that captures that gas from the environment. I wouldn’t have time to measure it. Therefore, the detection of life would have to be covered from other points. The risks. There are two main risks of not paying attention to false negatives. On the one hand, instruments that would help find even more traces of life would be deprioritized. If we do not find anything that justifies its development, we limit the possibilities of continuing searching. On the other hand, if life is not adequately searched for, resources from other planets where such life is found could be exploited. We would destroy it before we even knew it existed. Solutions. These scientists believe that searching for patterns using artificial intelligence could be an option. If the usual methods have not worked so far, perhaps we should ask an algorithm to detect patterns that have gone unnoticed to find new search paths. Along the same lines, it would also be necessary to study the terrain better and pay attention to anomalies. For example, if an unconventional type of oxidation is detected on a planet, inexplicable with what we know on Earth, it could be that it was associated with some form of life. It may not look like the oxidation carried out by terrestrial living beings, but who says it has to be the same? You have to think outside the box. Combine different types of work. In short, these scientists consider that to adequately search for life it is necessary to combine laboratory experiments with modeling and field work. But, above all, it is important to change the questions we ask ourselves. What if it has already been found? In 2019, a former NASA scientist told in an article for Scientific American that, according to himhis agency found life on Mars, but accidentally destroyed it. Supposedly, it all happened in the 1970s, in an experiment that was part of the Viking mission. This consisted of depositing nutrients in the soil and checking if gases typical of microbial decomposition were produced. Then, to ensure that it was not a coincidence, they would repeat the process, but adding a substance lethal to living organisms to the soil. In that case, gases should not be produced. And no, they were not produced, so there was something alive generating the gases. It was great news, but NASA did not publish that result, because when trying to replicate the experiment it came back negative. In science it is very important to replicate the results, so they concluded that it must have been a false positive. However, this former member of NASA, Gilbert V. Levin, believes that they destroyed life unintentionally and that is why they could not replicate it. This is no longer an anecdote. Most likely, they would not have found life. However, this story shows that we are always more predisposed to false positive than false negative. The focus would have to be changed a little. Maybe then we will finally find some life beyond our own planet. Images | Eric Erbe and Christopher Pooley (illustrative image of E.coliit has nothing to do with the study)/ Brett Ritchie (Unsplash) In Xataka | Life on Earth underwent a spectacular change 540 million years ago. We have a new explanation why

‘The Mandalorian and Grogu’ has started off on the wrong foot

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Seven years after ‘The Rise of Skywalker‘, ‘Star Wars‘ returns to theaters with ‘The Mandalorian and Grogu’, the first film in the franchise since 2019. The reception of the first critics and even the first screenings for fans is being, at best, very lukewarm. Right now, Disney needs a smash hit to revitalize the franchise, and early viewers seem to be simply shrugging their shoulders. Lazy notes. With nearly 120 reviews counted before its May 22 premiere, ‘The Mandalorian and Grogu’ it stands at around 60% on Rotten Tomatoes. That score places it in the same range as ‘Attack of the Clones’ (62%), although still above what is considered the great fiascos of the franchise: ‘The Phantom Menace’ from the prequel trilogy and ‘The Rise of Skywalker’ from the Disney era. Of course, as always on Rotten Tomatoes, opinions are debatable, but it is significant that a film that was going to function as a oxygen tank for the franchise has such a lukewarm reception. What do they say? All the reviews agree on common points: the film is entertaining, but it does not justify a return to the cinema of the saga. Or in other words: we are facing an extended episode of the series. There is talk of a nostalgic walkof the most boring installment of the franchisethat the film is essentially two episodes from the spliced ​​series. One of the most noted problems is that his commercial hook, Pedro Pascal, has ended up turning against the series: the Mandalorian never takes off his helmet, and most of the action scenes are performed by a stuntman. Why Disney needs the Mandalorian. Disney comes from a complicated 2025 at the box officewith the failures of ‘Snow White’ and ‘Elio’, and Marvel’s proposals (”Captain America: Brave New World’, ‘Thunderbolts’ and ‘Fantastic Four’) performing less than expected. According to experts, the excess of series and movies designed for Disney+ has eroded the cultural value of Marvel, Star Wars and Pixarwhich has led to falls such as loss of 700,000 subscribers in the first quarter of 2025. Resurrect ‘Star Wars’. The strategy is now very clear: fewer films, more impact. Marvel’s imminent releases are the new Spider-Man movie (in co-production with Sony) and the long-awaited return of the Avengers. ‘Star Wars’ is betting on this ‘The Mandalorian & Grogu’ (2026) and ‘Starfighter’ (2027), starring Ryan Gosling and directed by Shawn Levy. For now, perhaps, the strategy has been frustrated (although the box office may respond as Disney hopes, in a new chapter of the renewed divorce between critics and public: After all, ‘The Rise of Skywalker’ grossed more than a billion; and there are cases of films like ‘The Last Jedi’, loved by critics, hated by fans). The key problem with ‘The Mandalorian’. When Grogu was still Baby Yodaconquered the internet at a very specific moment: with the inauguration of Disney+, in the days around the pandemic. But the phenomenon was not repeated neither in successive seasons nor in series like ‘The Book of Boba Fett’ or ‘Ahsoka’. The franchise has been trying to disassociate itself from the Skywalker family for years, and ‘The Mandalorian and Grogu’ could be a good solid step, although the film’s plot revolves around Jabba the Hutt’s son. That is, the surnames in the usual tiny galaxy. Another sign that the franchise does not know how to expand without resorting to the usual tropes. Given what we have seen, ‘Starfighter’ has an even more relevant challenge before it than performing at the box office. In Xataka | Disney needs to solve the biggest crisis in ‘Star Wars’ history. And he’s held on to Baby Yoda to get it

We have been going to the Moon the wrong way for decades if what we want is to save fuel

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When you travel to the same place many times, little by little you learn which are the best routes. You don’t just need to know the shortest path. It is also good to locate the one with the most gas stations, the best road or the most beautiful landscapes. It all depends on your tastes and needs. If the trip is made in space, it is important to find the shortest path; but, above all, the main need is to locate the one that represents a greater fuel savings. We hope that in the future humans will be able to travel regularly to the Moon, but it would be very expensive and unviable to wait until then to find the best path through trial and error. Therefore, an international team of scientists has developed the formula that calculates the ideal path. Spoiler: it is not any of the ones that have been seen so far. Biggest savings so far. The study, carried out by an international team of scientists and directed from the University of Coimbra, points to a saving in delta-v of 58.80 m/s. This measure refers to the amount of effort necessary to carry out an orbital maneuver. In other words, the total change in speed needed to carry out said maneuver. The lower the delta-v, the better, since a high gear change means more fuel consumption. In the case of the complete trip from Earth to the Moon, the delta-v is 3,342.96 m/s. It may seem that reducing that figure by less than 60 meters per second is not much, but we must keep in mind that A single meter per second already represents a great waste of fuel. Therefore, the results obtained in this study are very positive. Theory of functional connections. When you are going to calculate the trajectory between the Earth and the Moon you need to leave the Earth’s orbit, with a certain speed and position and reach that of the Moon, also with specific characteristics. All those specific parameters are restrictions. When we are in a place as wide as space, there can be many different paths. An infinite number of them. Therefore, to locate them, simulations must be carried out. The problem is that, no matter how powerful the simulators are, if the restrictions are not reduced a little, the possibilities remain endless. This is where the theory of functional connections comes into play. This, basically, consists in changing the approach of the formulas so that the conditions are already included. Said with a more earthly analogy, if we want to find the best route from Madrid to Barcelona, ​​we can analyze absolutely all the roads in Spain or look only for the best option among the roads that start in Madrid and end in Barcelona. With this theory of functional connections you achieve just that. The restrictions are not eliminated, but are included directly in the mathematical approach. With Artemis II there was a moment when connections were lost Much fewer simulations. By changing that approach, more simulations can be done. No time is wasted simulating paths that do not leave Madrid and end in Barcelona. For this reason, the authors of this study have managed to go from 280,000 simulations to more than 30 million. This makes it easier to find an optimal route. A stop along the way. The optimal route includes a stop along the way, right at the Lagrange point L1, a place between the Earth and the Moon in which the gravitational attraction of both objects is compensated, so that the effect is similar to the absence of gravity. The ships could remain there as long as necessary without losing communication with Earth. In the case of Artemis II, for example, there was a point where connections were lost. That wouldn’t happen here. Finally, once everything is ready and the orbits are aligned correctly, the second part of the trip could be carried out, heading to lunar orbit. Better near the Moon. Previous simulations that looked similar to this one included entering this trajectory on a near-Earth branch. However, with this research it has been seen that fuel savings are better if done on the opposite side, closer to the Moon. The cheapest way so far, but not the cheapest possible. The authors of the study acknowledge that this is the cheapest path that has been calculated so far between the Earth and the Moon, but not the cheapest possible. And, in their calculations, they have taken into account the gravitational attraction of the Moon and the Earth, but not that of the Sun. If this were added, savings could also be improved, but the launch window would be restricted. That is, there would be fewer possible days to carry out the launches. That would make logistics difficult, so for now, the cheapest option so far has been chosen, but not the cheapest possible. That alone is a great advance. Image |Rfassbind In Xataka | We have not yet colonized the Moon and we have already filled it with garbage: there are even abandoned golf balls

If Europe wants to bet on its agriculture, it is doing it wrong

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In the last decade, the European Union has lost three million agricultural holdings. That is almost 25% of all those that existed in 2013. And it is curious because, in its last cycle alone, the Common Agricultural Policy is spending 387,000 million euros. What are we spending all that money on? A poorly posed question. I recognize it. When one sees the enormous amount of money that the CAP moves and its central role in the Union’s debates, one tends to assume that this “silent” transformation of the European field is taking place. despite of Brussels policies. However, when we look at the data, doubts arise. According to the European Court of Auditors and the Commission20% of the beneficiaries take around 80% of the funds. To the extent that the CAP distributes direct payments based on hectares, we can say that those 20% are the large landowners. In Spain, for landing the datathe 1% that receive the most help concentrate 28%; 10%, 62%; and 20%, 79%. It is a scheme that strongly encourages concentration. And it shows. Continuing with the Spanish case, the country has lost 180,000 farms in the last 15 years. Only between 2020 and 2023, 12.4% were lost. In this he has had a lot to see about the pandemic and the Ukrainian Warbut everything takes on a new prism when we realize that macro agricultural holdings grew by 6%. The result is that that 20% that accumulates 79% of the CAP represents 7% of the agricultural area. We are seeing it in the crown jewel of the Spanish countryside: the olive grove. As Datadista and Greenpeace explained, the accelerated entry of investment funds has disrupted the sea of ​​olive trees. We are moving from a traditional dry-land olive grove to a super-intensive hedgerow olive grove on irrigated land. But… is this a problem? To answer this question, it is best to look at the Netherlands, the European “crystallization” of what is at the end of the trend that drives the CAP. Netherlands is second (or third, depending on the year) agri-food exporter in the world and it is in a territory smaller than Galicia, with 1.81 million agricultural hectares and only 52,106 farms. That is to say, its productivity per hectare is crazy. For this reason, the concentration of the CAP is also extreme: 1% takes 40% of the funds. The problem is that it is not environmentally sustainable: between 2022 and 2024, nitrogen emissions caused an unprecedented political crisis. Something that, with the slurry ponds either the crises of the Mar Menorwe are also seeing in Spain constantly. And now what? That is the central question. Because this CAP lasts only until 2027 and just now we are starting to discuss what we want for the future. Considering how quickly things have changed in recent years, that future may be completely different from anything we know. Image | Rob Mulder In Xataka | In California, the funds discovered that there is no investment more profitable than farmland. Now it’s Spain’s turn

Two men thought it was a good idea to lend their houses to a North Korean laptop farm. It went wrong

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Teleworking has accustomed us to a very comfortable idea: if someone delivers work, attends meetings and responds to messages, perhaps it doesn’t matter too much where they do it from. The problem appears when that distance becomes an advantage to hide identities, move money and enter companies that believe they are hiring a legitimate professional. North Korea has been exploiting precisely that rift. And the case of two men convicted of hosting laptops in their homes shows the extent to which the plot could rely on domestic infrastructure. Two men condemned. Matthew Isaac Knoot, of Nashville, Tennessee, and Erick Ntekereze Prince, of New York, have been sentenced in the US to 18 months each in prison for their role in fraudulent schemes involving remote IT workers linked to North Korea. according to the Department of Justice. The house as a piece of the plot. The mechanism was more domestic than one might imagine. Companies shipped corporate laptops to American addresses because they believed the contracted workers were there. Once received, the computers were housed in those homes and configured with remote desktop applications installed without authorization. This allowed the fake workers to operate from abroad while, to the companies, the connection appeared to come from an address within the United States. What did each one do?. Prince, according to official information, facilitated at least three North Korean IT workers to obtain remote employment in US companies between June 2020 and August 2024, and used his company Taggcar Inc. to fraudulently supply “certified” workers, despite knowing that they were outside the US and using false or stolen identities. Knoot, for his part, operated a laptop farm from his Nashville residences between July 2022 and August 2023. Money, companies and damages. The Justice Department maintains that the two schemes together generated more than $1.2 million for North Korea and affected nearly 70 U.S. companies. In the Prince case, the companies paid more than $943,069 in salaries to IT workers linked to the file. In Knoot’s case, the payments exceeded $250,000. More than labor fraud. The US justice system presents the sentences as part of a specific line of action against facilitators located in the US. The note itself highlights that these are the seventh and eighth convictions of “laptop farmers” obtained in the last five months within their efforts to interrupt North Korea’s illicit generation of income. It is an important nuance: the focus is not only on those who connect from abroad, but also on the local network that makes the operation viable. Expansion into Europe. As we have seen in the pastthese cases are also present outside the United States. The Record discovered in April 2025 an investigation by Google Threat Intelligence Group according to which North Korean operatives had increased their activity in Europe following US police actions against laptop farms and financial networks. At the center were job searches linked to the United Kingdom, Germany and Portugal, in addition to the use of local facilitators to support the alibi of a work presence in the corresponding country. AI and fake identities. One of the most current layers of this story is not only in the laptops, but in the ease of building increasingly credible profiles. BISI points out that North Korean operations combine stolen identities, manipulated professional profiles and AI tools capable of writing localized CVs and cover letters. In the Old Continent, platforms such as Upwork and Freelancer are usually used, in addition to Telegram. The consequence is obvious: detecting the fake candidate can become much more difficult before the company even ships the equipment. What started with laptops housed in private homes ends up having something much bigger than a criminal conviction. The companies were not attacked from outside in the classic sense, but ended up opening the door to workers they believed to be legitimate. So everything seems to indicate that in these times it is no longer enough to protect servers, credentials or repositories, but rather to review the processes that we consider normal, such as the hiring of personnel. Images | Xataka with Grok In Xataka | The ‘vibe coding’ promised to democratize software. Your first gift is 5,000 apps with open sensitive data

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