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

June 5, 2026 by usatoday24

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

June 3, 2026 by usatoday24

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

May 25, 2026 by usatoday24

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

May 20, 2026 by usatoday24

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

May 19, 2026 by usatoday24

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

May 19, 2026 by usatoday24

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

May 9, 2026 by usatoday24

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

We thought that domestication shrank dogs’ brains forever. Now we know we were wrong

May 2, 2026 by usatoday24

When the first wolves began to approach human settlementsthey signed an evolutionary contract that would change their species forever. They gained easy food, warmth and protection, but in exchange they had to give up their brains, which have been reduced in size since we began to domesticate them, as science has pointed out. But this is changing now. From more to less. that the animals domestic have smaller brains than their wild ancestors is something already well known, but the “when”, the “how” and above all the “why” of this phenomenon were between two questions. But now a new study published HAL Open Science has managed to put a key date on this transformation, revealing that the brain “shrinkage” of dogs was already fully established in the late Neolithic. How it has been seen. To understand what happened inside the head of man’s best friend, the team of researchers did not limit itself to measuring the skulls with a tape measure, but used CT to analyze 22 prehistoric skulls dating from the Mesolithic to the late Neolithic in Western Europe, comparing them with 185 modern dog skulls, and using as a reference a 3D model of a wolf skull from the 19th century. The results. Here they were quite forceful when they saw that the Neolithic dogs already had an amazing 46% reduction in volume endoraneal compared to wolves. According to the data, these prehistoric French dogs had what we could call “miniature brains”, as a consequence of undergoing an evolutionary adaptation to new roles in agricultural settlements. And, by not having to hunt in nature, defend vast territories or be on constant alert against predators, the parts of the brain dedicated to extreme survival, which consume a lot of energy, simply ceased to be necessary. There are more culprits. Although this story sounds perfect, biology is more complex and that is why domestication is not the only factor highlighted here. Here, at do phylogenetic analyzes Comparing dogs to other wild canids, scientists found that older dog breeds fall within the “normal” brain size ranges expected for their body size. In fact, they suggest that there are ecological factors that can cause brain reductions even greater than domestication. The best example here is the raccoon dog, whose brain experiences drastic reductions linked to its hibernation periods to ‘save energy’. The script twist. If the story ended in the Neolithic, we would have an animal with an increasingly smaller brain without any type of limit. But here a recent study suggests that the modern dogs bred in the last 150 years They have relatively larger brains than their ancestors. That is, the downward trend has reversed. To understand this, we must keep in mind that humans have stopped using dogs solely as basic guardians or shepherds, and have begun to require them to perform more complex cognitive tasks, such as obeying orders, assisting humans with disabilities, drug detection, and other functions in our society. And it already shows. This has not only changed the size, but also the internal architecture of the brain, as seen in the MRIs performed on 85 dogs of different breeds that revealed abysmal differences between “primitive” and modern breeds. For example, dogs that are trainable have a much larger cut, and it makes sense because this is the area responsible for learning and decision-making. On the contrary, the most primitive and ancient races retain an expanded amygdala, which is the region linked to the processing of fear, instinct, and rapid survival responses. Some qualities that are essential to be able to hunt and respond to any type of threat. Images | Pauline Loroy In Xataka | We have been using our pets to relieve our anxiety. And now the stress is on them

“Experience never deceives; only our judgments are wrong”

April 23, 2026 by usatoday24

When in 1482 Leonardo da Vinci wanted to offer his services to Ludovico Maria Sforza sent him a letter in which he basically presented himself as an engineer especially useful on the battlefield. Only at the end, almost in passing, does he mention his skills as an architect, sculptor, and painter (in that order). The letter It is written to capture the attention of Sforza, an aristocrat more concerned with wars than the arts, but it still reveals something valuable about Da Vinci: although today we remember him as a painter, he saw himself as a man of science. In fact, he left notes that make him one of the great precursors of modern science. There are even those who consider it “the first scientist”. Who was Leonardo Da Vinci? I know, in 2026 that question seems like a truism. Everyone knows who Leonardo da Vinci was, just as we all have a (more or less vague) idea of who Beethoven, Newton, Vang Gogh, Galileo, Alexander the Great or Cleopatra were, to name just a handful of historical figures who have ended up becoming popular icons. However, it is one thing to place Da Vinci in a historical framework or cite his most famous paintings and another to peer into his enormous intellectual complexity, the same one that he allows to be glimpsed in a calculated way in the letter to Ludovico Sforza and in a much more clear and detailed way in his note books. Beyond the brushes. In his mirror writing notebooks, Da Vinci leaves an enormous number of designs that anticipate by centuries what would be the helicopterhe tank or even the submarine; but he also speaks on topics as varied as morality, theology, psychology, geology, anatomy, hydraulics, aesthetics… and that among a long, long etcetera. Some time ago the engineer Eduardo García de Zúñiga (1867-1951) helped us navigate that intellectual tidal wave bringing together a large part of the aphorisms written by Leonardo. The result can consult in the Miguel de Cervantes Library and it is interesting (among other issues) because it reveals something about Da Vinci: although he wrote profusely on topics such as aesthetics or morals, a large part of his annotations focus on purely scientific issues. And that includes everything from notes on geology and anatomy to reflections of an epistemological nature in which he reveals how he understood knowledge and the way to achieve it. Why is it important? Because the first (the notes on his observations) reveal Leonardo’s curiosity and intellectual acuity. The second (the epistemological ones) tell us about something more important: in the 15th century, even before the birth of Galileo, Da Vinci looked at the world with the eyes of a scientist, one who distrusted inherited authority (breaking with scholasticism) and advocated verifying knowledge based on experience. Hence there are those who consider it a pioneer of science. Reviewing your notebooks. Between his syllogisms There are many who point in that direction, including the one who heads this article: “Experience never deceives. Your judgments only deceive when it promises effects that cannot find their cause in our experiences.” What does Da Vinci want to tell us with that phrase? That our great crutch to know the world is experience, direct observation, not inherited knowledge that cannot be verified. “Whoever argues claiming authority does not apply ingenuity, but rather memory,” he emphasizes. Does that mean that we should deny the wise men who preceded us? At all. The key is not to accommodate ourselves to the detriment of rigorous observation, a critical spirit and empirical experimentation. Does it tell us anything else? Yes. Leonardo’s notes are full of reflections that insist on the importance of verification. Of all, the most popular may be “Wisdom is the daughter of experience”, but it is not the only one. In another part of his handwritten notebooks, we read: “Vain and full of errors seem to me the sciences that are not born from experience, mother of all certainty (…). Neither their origin nor their middle, nor their end pass through any of the five senses.” “The true sciences are those that experience has made penetrate through the senses, imposing silence on the arguers and not nourishing their researchers with dreams; those that, on the first known principles, proceed successively and with true unity to the end.” And in case there were still doubts, Da Vinci leaves us advice that is totally valid in 2026: “Flee from the precepts of speculators whose reasons are not confirmed by experience.” Images | Wikipedia In Xataka | Da Vinci’s last secret was not in his paintings or notes, but in his family: a direct link with Barcelona

For decades we have been told that seafood does not feel pain when boiled. We were seriously wrong

April 17, 2026 by usatoday24

An action that can be quite common in the world of gastronomy and cooking in general is that of literally boil the lobsters and the crabs while they are alive. Something that was quite accepted, since it was thought that these animals were not aware that they were being boiled and did not even feel pain. But this is changing radically, although it does not transfer to kitchens. What we knew. This idea that the animals did not suffer any type of pain is something that could be doubted (a lot), since when you put them in a pot of boiling water they begin to have great shakes. But this is something that was pointed out as a mere reflex, but that did not have any type of awareness of the pain. A new study. A team from the University of Gothenburg has pointed out that this is not the caseand they have done so by focusing on Norwegian crayfish or lobsters. And to demonstrate that this is so, they have simply given him analgesics that humans take, such as aspirin (although it is no longer as prevalent due to its analgesia) and even local anesthetics such as lidocaine that is used in humans, for example, when they are going to give stitches to a wound. In this way, once the lobsters were anesthetized, they were placed in boiling water again and their movements, which were supposedly a reflex, were seen to be drastically reduced. What does it mean? Here logic tells us that if the animal’s behavior were a simple reaction due to the stimulation of a nerve, an analgesic should not affect it and would have to be generated in the same way. But the fact that drugs that block our own pain also work in crayfish suggests that there is more than a simple reflection when it comes to putting them in the boiling water, but they are really suffering. The ethical problem. The fact that it was thought that a crustacean with these characteristics could not be aware of pain was based on the fact that they have a very simple nervous system, so boiling them alive had no influence on animal well-being. But now researchers call for reflection and reopen the debate about whether we really should continue recommending this type of practices within the culinary world. This is not the first time this has been seen, since other studies analyzed the crabs through electric shocks given to them when they passed through a specific area. In this way, the crabs learned that they should not go through the area that gave them an electric shock, demonstrating that they did have awareness of this unpleasant experience and also memory. Now, with evidence of response to painkillers, the lobster’s “insensitivity” argument appears to have its days numbered. The legislation. Today, in many countries it is not considered that these practices are prohibited, as it is punishable, for example, to physically harm a dog or a cat. But the truth is that in some countries they are trying to adapt to the new reality, such as the United Kingdom, which recognizes lobsters, crabs and octopuses as sentient beings. Besides, in New Zealand This includes a requirement that animals going through the pot be declared desensitized through techniques such as extreme cooling or electrical stunning, to prevent them from being alive and conscious before being cooked. But the problem is that in much of the world it is still completely legal to cook them alive. Images | Monika Borys In Xataka | Batch cooking is taking off for a very simple reason: if you want to eat well, you can’t trust yourself.

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