wrong

The aid seemed the only way to sell electric cars. Germany is demonstrating that we were wrong

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Electric car sales do not take off without state aid. And it has logic if we take into account that we are talking about a technology that forces the driver to Make some adaptation And, according to what cars we buy, force him to plan your trips. The electric car has many advantages. In Spain, with current prices and rates, an electric car can be much cheaper That one of combustion shortly time. In fact, The more trips and kilometers dothe car comes out. To this we must add the advantages Undoubted for day to day such as the absence of vibrations, of noise, the comfort of having the entire torque to a throttle pedal … but they are advantages that the client has to discover and that it is normal that it does not encourage it when the disbursement will be of tens of thousands of euros. To foster change, states have focused on giving purchase aid. It is a good way to lower the price and leave it at a cost closer to combustion models, especially when electric were sensibly more expensive than gasoline or diesel. They are decisions for which the reference countries have opted in the electric car market. He did it Norway, he did (and he does) China And Germany did it. And the German case showed us that without purchase aid, Electric car sales are deflated… or deflated. Because they have grows again. What if we have been looking at the wrong place? Direct aid to purchase At the end of 2023 justice forced Germany to withdraw aids to the purchase of electric cars. The reason is that funds had been diverted to combat the crisis derived from the coronavirus to the promotion of the electric car. Without destiny for that money, the government had preferred to reinvest it in the game of electric mobility. For justice, this was illegal and therefore I ordered the aid to immediately withdraw. Overnight, aid fell to the purchase that extended to all cars up to 65,000 euros. Last year, in 2024, a reduction in subsidies was already expected but buyers could expect a mattress of 4,500 euros in cars of up to 40,000 euros and 3,000 euros in which a price of between 40,000 and 65,000 euros appears. The help was complemented by manufacturers with 2,250 euros and 1,500 euros, respectively. That is, savings in the first case could be up to 6,750 euros and in the second of up to 4,500 euros. Figures similar to those we see in Spain with the MOVES III PLANrecently reimputed until the end of the year or exhaust the funds available. Last year, the fall in electric car sales was considerable. In its first year of direct aid to the purchase, Germany enrolled 27.4% less electric cars. A blow to European accounts with the main electric car market by volume falling from 524,219 tuition from 2023 to 380,609 units enrolled in 2024. By market share, the German electric car fell from 18.4% to 13.5%. However, everything has changed in these first months of 2025. They collect in Motorpasion than the 17% of cars Enrolled in Germany are electric. Compared to the month of March of last year, 35.5% have been grown and the trend indicates that it will continue to grow. It is very good news because they lack direct aid to the purchase of cars of this type. What the State is doing is to encourage the purchase of this type of fleet cars. Companies can deduce up to 40% of the value of the car in the purchase of new cars. A decision that has triggered sales since company vehicles reflect 67% of new car registration in Germany. The strategy is not new in Europe and focuses on the importance of aid beyond lowering the price of cars. In Norway, they stood out that if they have made the electric car Your best selling technology It has been because for years they have given themselves constant subsidies related to the property of the electric car. Not paying some taxes or road toll have been definitive attractive for implementation. Yes indeed, 1.8 billion euros have been raised. Belgium has been the other great country where the electric car has exploded in sales in recent months. In Belgium they already exceed 30% quota electric car market. Last year, to February 2024, they exceeded 20% market share and in 2022 they barely exceeded 8%. The secret is in the aids that, again, are given to companies. Depending on income, a company can be deduced up to 100% of the electric car fee. The percentage will fall over the years but prevent maintaining this economic incentive until 2031. In Bloomberg They explain that in a country where the company car is usually used as an incentive when changing work, promoting the purchase of this type of cars is key to popularize them and reach sectors that did not expect to make the leap for a few years (or did not expect it at all, as one of those interviewed in the article recognizes). The strategy contrasts with the one we have been carrying so far in Spain. Our country has also joined the delivery of purchase aids but, in addition to not being direct at the time of signing the contract, Each extension It has been a birth. The suspension for two months In the last extension of the Moves III Plan it has been the best example. Photo | Volkswagen In Xataka | The electric car is sweeping so much in China that the natural step is already raised: stop calling it “electric”

West believed that mines and conventional artillery were the past. Ukraine has shown that they were wrong

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They have been Several occasions in which the conflict after the Russian invasion in Ukraine seemed Go back to the pastat an era where technology did not dominate the battlefield, but the human through it. The effect of what has happened to east of Europe begins to have its echoes on several nations of the old continent. Conventional artillery and mines, for decades considered obsolete, have seen A resurgence That nobody seemed to glimpse, and now everyone wants to rearm. A return to the past. As we said, the conflict in Ukraine has radically reconfigured Western understanding about The modern warrevealing the validity of weapons that for a long time were forgotten as vestiges of the past. Antipersonnel minesheavy artillery and non -guided ammunition have reappeared as key elements In a type of war that NATO and European armies had stopped planning: the large -scale land war. For years, Western powers imagined the conflicts of the 21st century as technological, rapid and surgical clashes, starring reduced units and high precision weapons systems. It happens that the Ukrainian realitywith their stagnant fronts and prolonged fighting For territorial control, those assumptions have denied sharply. The Treaty of Ottawa and Las Mines. In fact, one of the most visible effects of this doctrinal turn has been the decision of several European countries to abandon the Ottawa treaty of 1997, the same that prohibited the use, production and sale of antipersonnel mines. Who is it? Finland was the last In reverting his adhesion, adding to Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, who had already announced their departure. These nations, all neighbors of Russia or in their area of ​​geopolitical influence, are actively preparing for undermine its bordersin an attempt to contain a possible Moscow military offensive. The reasons are clearly clear: the Use of mines in Ukraine It has demonstrated its effectiveness not only to stop advances, but to channel enemy troops to areas where they can be faced with greater guarantees of success. It is a territorial defense tactic that resurfaces in a conventional war context, precisely when it was believed to be overcome. Artillery and unburgated ammunition, the resurgence. While the guided missile systems provided by NATO face problems in the face of the Russian capacities of Electronic interferencetraditional artillery, with simple and cheap projectiles, has charged New prominence. These ammunition, not depending on electronic signals, are immune to blockages or technological sabotages. In addition, combined with modern surveillance tools (such as drones that identify real -time objectives), they have become extraordinarily lethal. Ukraine, in fact, has taken advantage of this synergy, adapting old technologies to the new battlefield. The result has been a war that advances very little in terms of territory, but that consumes huge amounts of projectiles and requires a sustained production that Europe was not prepared to assume. Europe and industrial career. On the other sidewalk, the paradigm shift has exposed the fragility of war production capacities in Europe, although that is not quite news when the old continent has already talked about rearming. A report by the Royal United Services Institute criticized European governments for Trust blindly in which the private sector would solve the manufacturing needs of ammunition without having offered them incentives or favorable regulations. This omission has had serious consequences: according to General Christopher CavoliSupreme Comandante Allied with NATO in Europe, Russia is on the way to accumulate projectile reserves three times higher to those of the United States and Europe together. He imbalance is alarmingespecially considering that the Ukrainian conflict does not show short -term resolution signs and that the current levels of ammunition consumption are unsustainable without an industrial restructuring. Russia’s mirror. In this regard and According to CavoliRussia currently produces 250,000 artillery projectiles per month, which leads it to build that arsenal three times greater than the United States and Europe. Not just that. Cavoli’s testimony underlines a crucial point: while Russia is perceived in the West bogged down In a wear war, its defense machinery He has managed to adaptgrow and, in some aspects, strengthen in full conflict. Moscow has been recovering its arsenals on all fronts (from ammunition to armored vehicles and troops), which strongly contrasts with the logistics and production difficulties faced by their adversaries. The estimate of Cavoli points to an annual manufacture of 1,500 tanks by Russia, in front of the 135 produced by the United States. In the last year, Russian troops would have lost Approximately 3,000 tanks9,000 armored vehicles, 13,000 artillery systems and more than 400 air defense systems, but would be completely replaced, keeping their land projection capacity intact. Planning errors. Experts like Paul van Hooft, from the Think Tank Rand Europe, They explained to Insider that this lag is a direct consequence of three decades of strategic planning focused on asymmetric wars. Since the September 11 attacks, NATO designed its military operations thinking of insurgencies, terrorism and irregular forces, where neither heavy artillery nor mines seemed to have practical utility. That vision led, according to the analyst, to the dismantling of traditional arsenals and the abandonment of terrestrial war doctrines, especially in Western Europe. However, the current conflict demands precisely opposite: territorial defense, sustained occupation of broad areas and classical deterrence capacity. The balance between the future and the past. Mark Cancan, from Center for Strategic and International Studies, stressed that prolonged wars, once stabilized the front lines, make weapons such as artillery and mines not only useful, but dominant. While drones, artificial intelligence and other innovations continue to perform An important roledo not replace the volume of fire or logistics resistance that allow sustaining an offensive or defending a position for months. In this regard, Cancan warns against excess confidence in futuristic war visions, many of them promoted by startups technological ones that compete to attract funds from the new defense budgets. Faced with this, the evidence seems to show that, at least for now, the war remains a matter of volume, physical resources and conventional abilities well managed. Ironically, if … Read more

After two catastrophic failures, we believed that Spacex would not risk with the next starship. We were wrong

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Starship’s next flight will be one of the most tense in the history of the rocket. Not only because the last two releases will end in paths explosions and with deviated airplanes to avoid the rain of rubble. Also because it will be the first time that Spacex reuse a rocket. Zero-Touch reflight. In addition to a 123 meters high mole, Starship is the first rocket designed to be quickly reusable. Spacex’s idea is that Starship takes off, lands and throws himself again after a few hours, as if it were a commercial plane. The company has partially advanced in this Objective of “Zero-Touch Desflight” or relaunch without intervention. The first stage of the rocket, the 33 -engines Super Heavy propeller, has landed in the arms of the launch tower three times: Booster 12 in flight test 5, Booster 14 in flight test 7 and Booster 15 in flight test 8. It was planned that the second stage of the rocket, the six -engines Starship ship, would make its first landing attempt during flight 9. To do this, the earth would orbit and re -enter the atmosphere until they perch on the arms of the second launch tower; Already finished in Starbase, Texas. However, the last two starship exploded at 8 minutes of takeoff For a defect in a redesign recent. A second -hand super heavy. The expected thing was that Spacex was taken calmly to flight 9 to compensate for the last failures, but the company has just announced a surprising decision. The next launch, scheduled for mid -April (if the Federal Aviation Administration of the United States is approved), will be done reusing the booster 14 of flight 7. This propeller first took off on January 16, 2025 and, after separating from the Starship ship, returned to the launch base to become the second Super Heavy that Spacex has captured with the arms of the Mechazilla tower. Of the 33 Raptor engines that you will wear during your second launch, 29 are already used engines. Another rocket that lands and takes off. The only orbital rocket with demonstrated capacity for propulsive landing is the Falcon 9 of Spacex. Specifically, its first stage, which usually lands in an autonomous barge in the ocean after throwing satellites or spacecraft. A few weeks later, you are ready to reuse (Generally, in Starlink missions). The second rocket to get it could be Starship, also from Spacex. Not in the “Zero-Touch reflight” mode, but after a restoration process and changing some engines, but it is a first step. And in fact, it is a step that nobody else has achieved apart from Spacex. The company that is closest is Blue Origin, who tried unsuccessfully on the opening flight of the New Glenn rocket. In China, Landspace is also achieved with his Zhuque 3 rocket. There will be no second capture. The bad news is that Spacex will not try to capture the Booster 14. The rocket, which has just passed some ignition tests on land, will merit in a controlled way in the Gulf of Mexico to test a more pronounced attack angle during the re -entry, which in the future will allow you to perform other flight profiles. Anyway, all eyes will be put in the Starship 35the third ship of the “Block 2” version. Its two predecessors exploded shortly after separating from the Super Heavy propeller, both for a flight of propellents due to excessive vibrations in the engines area. Starship 33 disintegrated after a fire and Starship 34 lost control after the explosion of an engine. The investigation of flight 8 is still open, so FAA has not yet given its authorization for flight 9. Even so, we should not take long to see it, taking into account that the rocket is almost ready and the renewed political power of Elon Musk It has already allowed accelerating the procedures in the previous releases. Image | Spacex In Xataka | Elon Musk has said that Mars will be part of the United States. It is an unusual affront to the outdoor space treaty

The EU wants to corner the privacy of WhatsApp and Signal with rear doors. In France the play has gone wrong

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The National Assembly of France vote On March 20, a fundamental issue for the privacy of its citizens. One that put into play the confidentiality of their conversations in messaging applications such as WhatsApp or Signal. Rear doors. As they point out In EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation), the French proposal was disturbing. The objective was to force messaging platforms such as WhatsApp or Signal to create “rear doors” that allow hidden access to private conversations. The proposal is part of measures with the argument of avoiding child pornography (sexual Child abuse material, CSAM). We are waiting for you in territory s Do you like Samsung? We have a new specialized medium in Samsung and its products with tricks, offers, tutorials and all news about the brand. Go to territory A for mass surveillance. The law proposal raised a spectacular tool for mass surveillance. One who already tried adopt in the United Kingdom in 2019 and that would allow security agencies to join encrypted chats without their participants getting tale. Terrible for privacy, but also for security. The threat not only affected our privacy, but the security of these applications. The experts They criticized Already in 2019 the proposal and They warned that it could serve to introduce systemic vulnerabilities or create tools that many would end up abusing. The French organization La Quadrature du Net (LQDN), which defends the fundamental freedoms of the digital world, He urged a mobilization Against this “drug law” that among its options included this theoretical creation of rear doors. Of that, nothing. Fortunately for privacy defenders, French legislators voted against said proposal, allowing these platforms to continue to continue operating with end -to -end encryption that protects the confidentiality of these communications. A difficult victory. As indicated in the EFF, this victory was not easy, and only came after popular pressure, expert comments “and the support of civil society.” Even so, they warn, the pressures will follow to try to activate measures that mining the privacy of our communications, “perhaps repaired, or put in full speed through quieter legislative moments.” That is also the danger: that these laws end up being approved in a deceptive way and as part of broader and more generic laws. Blissful chat control. Last September the Presidency of Hungary of the European Union Council recovered the proposal of the so -called Chat Control, that is, the end -to -end encryption elimination. There was a first attempt that was rejected, but during the summer the threads began to be moved for review, the called chat control 2.0 that is in development. The new proposal relaxes the terms. Chat Control 2.0 is still worrying. The proposal Published by the Presidency of Poland of the Council would make the scan of these “voluntary” conversations and would be classified as preventive. The experts They believe That this proposal is a step in the right direction to protect the right of European citizens to maintain their private digital correspondence. The Government of Spain wants rear doors. Fernando Grande-Marlaska, Spanish Interior Minister, is one of the great defenders of the rear doors. In a 2023 document he presented how it is “imperative that we have access to the data.” There are many other European countries in favor of this type of measures, and as explained in the activist organization ChatControl.EU “Created by Patrick Breyer, of the German Pirate Party,” the risks to privacy are important. Image | Nathan Dumlao In Xataka | A rear door 30 years ago has compromised all US safety. Europe wants to make the same mistake

We were wrong about why Mars is red

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The reddish color of Mars is perceived with the naked eye. Perhaps by association of red with the blood, the Babylonians will link him with Nergal, his god of war, something that the Greeks and Romans also did by calling him Ares and Mars. As for why it is a red planet, we have news. Mars is oxidized. For a long time it has been known that the characteristic reddish tone of Mars is due to the presence of iron oxides in the dust on its surface. A New international study that combines data from the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA with laboratory experiments suggests that these iron oxides were formed in the presence of water long before what was believed. A surprisingly wet story. Until recently, it was thought that the predominant iron oxide in Mars was hematite, a mineral that can be formed with little or no presence of liquid water on the surface, provided there is an oxidizing agent in the atmosphere. However, the New observations and laboratory analysis They show clear indications of water in the spectral firm of the Martian dust. This finding indicates that ferrihydrite, an iron oxide with water molecules integrated in its structure, is responsible for the unmistakable red color of the planet, showing that Mars has a more humid story of the established. What is ferrihydrite and why it matters. Ferrihydrite is a badly crystallized and iron ore that is rapidly formed in the presence of fresh water and with moderate oxidation levels. Its structure retains water molecules or other hydroxyl groups inside, so that it leaves a water footprint even under drier subsequent conditions. This feature contrasts with the hematite, which is anhydra and much more stable when there is no liquid water around. Therefore, Ferrihydrite’s discovery implies that in the past of Mars there were episodes with relatively abundant liquid water. The methodology. To get to this conclusion, the researchers combined measurements of several probes and rovers of the ESA (Mars Express and Trace Gas Orbiter) and NASA (Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Curiosity, Opportunity and Pathfinder) with laboratory experiments. These experiments consisted of creating simulated Martian dust mixing ferrihydrite with ground basalt in particles a hundred times finer than a human hair. Then, they measured the optical properties of these samples in the same way that the instruments on Mars do, confirming that the ferriidrite explained better the spectral firms of the red planet. A red planet with secrets to reveal. On Earth, ferrihydrite is usually transformed over time into more crystalline phases (such as Goetita or Hematite) if the temperature and water availability conditions allow it. Mars is extremely cold, dry and exposed to a very little dense atmosphere. These conditions hinder the transformation and favor that the ferrihydrite is kept as is, retaining its “water seal” despite the billions of years after it was formed. The image of Mars as an arid and reddish planet has not changed with this study, but our understanding of its past yes. The confirmation of an oxidation phase in the presence of water indicates that the planet had more humid periods and with the possibility of hosting living organisms. Image | ESA/DLR/FU BERLIN/G. Michael, A. Valantines In Xataka | Bombard the poles with nuclear weapons or build a giant magnet: the most reposted ideas to terraft Mars

We have been thinking that the recycling of plastics worth something. Maybe we were wrong

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That the plastic recycling system is broken is an open secret. But it’s just little by little we are realizing The problem dimension. The American Center for Climate Integrity (CCI) association published last year A report on plastics recycling. It lashed out at the plastic industry, which they accused of having promoted the recycling of these materials even knowing the low technical and economic viability. A difficult task. Recycling plastics is not an easy task. In our day to day we use a wide variety of materials of this type, each with certain characteristics, functional and chemical. All end in the same container, that of the containers, but from there it is necessary to separate each type of plastic for proceed to your recycling When possible. It is not always possible. Disgusty data. According to Ecoembes data, in 2022 they were recycled in Spain 708,596 tons of plastic containers, although NGOs like Greenpeace question. According to Greenpeacethe difference between the plastics recycling rate declared by Ecoembes (89.2%) and the one estimated by the NGO itself (34.8%) is notorious. It should be noted that it is still over the world average of 9% estimated by the OECD. According to the reportfigures like these are just the reflection of an impossibility: effectively recycle plastics is out of reach. Not only from an economic perspective but also from the technological point of view. A single use. However, the report emphasizes an accusation: even knowing this impossibility, the industry He promoted the idea that recycling was possible and viable to facilitate the path to single -use plastics such as those we use in the containers. “They knew that if they focused on the (plastics) of a single use people would buy and buy,” explained to The Guardian Davis Allen, CCI researcher and co -author of the report. Another point of view. The industry reaction soon arrived. The American Chemistry Council, In a statementhe pointed out that “American plastic manufacturers are investing billions of dollars in better innovative products and technologies that separate, capture and recycle greater amounts and more types of plastics.” They claim that the “wrong report” refers to obsolete technologies and that is an equivocal characterization of the industry and the capacities present for the recycling of plastics. “As is typical, instead of working together towards real solutions for plastic waste, groups such as CCI choose attacks at the political level instead of constructive solutions,” protested Matt Seaholm, President and Executive Director of the Plastics Industry Association, in statements also collected by The Guardian. Will we achieve it? We may never achieve An efficient system of recycling that we can apply to the plastics of our day to day. But perhaps we are one day capable of treating this waste so that their waste does not contaminate our environment. One of the Great bets In this sense, it is the discovery of enclosures capable of decomposing plastic polymers, breaking these chains to turn them into harmless molecules. It is undoubtedly a great promise but nothing guarantees for now that it does not result in a chimera, only time will say it. Although time is not what about. Pollution caused by microplastics is already a reality. These waste has appeared in the most remote places on Earth, a sign of the great reach of these pollutants. It is also very little that we know about the potential impacts on health and the environment of these waste. In Xataka | I have always been curious about what they did with yellow containers: so I have followed one In Xataka | “Within 200 years, archaeologists will seek in our garbage and find a terrible image of ourselves”: the dirty reality of what we throw Image | Krizjohn Rosales *An earlier version of this article was published in February 2024

We thought that innovating was the way but we were very wrong

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Recently reflected on the future iPhone 17 Air. Something hides this phone that I do not understand, since trying to sell an iPhone simply thinner as the main novelty of 2025 does not finish quadrar. Nor does the Galaxy S25 Edgean ultradelgated S25 future that, according to the photos, will have a hardware even lower than that of its brothers. The point is that, a few years ago, we imagined that mobiles would not have ports and would be very futuristic. None of this has happened. We have the same as in those years we dreamed, but with Less Bevel and Best hardware. I am not sure where the mobiles will go in the coming years, but I am quite clear where they will not go. Ports and buttons elimination. If something is making clear the industry is that this future iPhone “without buttons or ports” (We talked about him in 2018agüita) cannot be further from reality. In fact, 2024 was the year that showed us that we love the buttons, moving the industry to add a camera control that does not work well on any phone, but that provides that extra button. Something similar happens with the ports. We have been dreaming of a phone without ports for years, and we cannot be further from this reality. A mobile without ports is not so easy to introduce the public. In fact, Xiaomi already tried with him Mix Alphaa conceptual mobile that was presented in 2021 and which we did not know anything again. Your fast charging system would be chaos (It is already with cables CDifferent loads C, fast -owned fast charging protocols, etc.), the connection to the car would only be possible in cases of having an auto/wireless carplay Android, and the PowerBanks industry would have to fully migrate to MAGSAFE type loaders. Biometry to the face ID. There was a time when manufacturers obsessed with biometry. In fact, Samsung was the first company to introduce Iris reading on a phone. Years later, we have 90% of the phones taking a 2D photo with the camera and using this photo as a biometry system. Google also tried, for only one year, with the facial reader of the 4 xl pixel. It took a single generation to back down, forget about facial biometry for a while, and recover it years later with 2D camera. The rest, we leave it to Apple and Honor, the only companies that bet on full 3D facial recognition and much safer. Implement these systems requires extra cameras and Tof sensors. They are not especially expensive technologies, but it has important commitments for the terminal design. Innovative screens no, thanks. A few years ago, mobiles with 3D screen wanted to consider as the future. In fact, there are manufacturers like Nubia who still try on tablets such as Nubia Pad 3D. Beyond experiments of this type the market has left something clear: it wants “normal” screens without this technology. Something similar happens with folding mobiles. Although we see them as something new, they have been in the market from 2019and no brand is getting them to be mainstream. There was also talk that, little by little, this technology would be cheaper. The reality is that no and that, to equal price against traditional phones, Users continue to prefer the latter. Here you have an extensive and detailed list of technological trends that were anticipated as “the future of mobile phones” but that, until 2025, have not managed to consolidate or have been forgotten, based on analysis of experts and documented cases. Surprises in design, either. We usually complain that manufacturers repeat design and do not innovate. The reality is that, every time there is a breaker project in design, it fails. LG was the one who ventured the most a few years ago, with a LG G5 Modular that failed to take off in sales. Nor did the LG Wingwith its rotating screen. ARA also failedGoogle’s project to create a modular mobile that didn’t even see the light. The one of Google killing things It is not something new, but in 2016 they seemed clear that a mobile has to look like a mobile if you want to sell. In short, no matter how much we weigh (and bored), the near future of the telephone will continue to go through hardware improvements, increasingly deep integration of AI and few surprises. At least, until someone manages to punch on the table to tear down the pillars that have been holding this industry for years. Image | Xiaomi In Xataka | Mobile phones are stagnant in terms of innovation. There is an explanation

We thought the tablets were falling into oblivion. We were wrong

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2023 was a simply terrible year For the tablets market. They sold one 20% less of tablets that in 2022, and is a segment in which the AI ​​is not expected to work as a sales incentive, unlike the mobile phones. No one was saved, not even Apple, with a year -on -year drop of 19.8%. Given the numbers, it was easy for 2024 to be a more positive year (when everything goes wrong, you can only go better). And indeed, This has been according to Canals. World shipments grew 9% year -on -year. Recovery signs. The tablets market remains far from 2020, the year in which it reached one of its historical peaks. The subsequent years were falling, and 2024 has been the first year since 2020 in which growth is experienced. According to Canals, we are entering the product renewal cycle, as well as in some recovery in the demand of tablets. According to Canalys sources, 2025 is expected to be a fairly solid year, with sustained growth throughout the different quarters. Offers and subsidies. Countries like China, with important subsidies for electronic productswill extend their programs by 2025. In others, as in Japan, government initiatives focused on the educational field are expected to help boost the sale of tablets. On the manufacturers side, some as honor have introduced strong sales packages (telephone + tablet, thus telling the tablet as sale, even if you only pay the phone) in countries such as the United Kingdom, and the rest of the Chinese brands are expected to expand Its presence in emerging countries. Cake distribution. There are not too many novelties in regards to who sells more tablets worldwide. The answer for years is clear. Apple Apple: Market share of the 38.6%annual growth of 5.3%. Samsung: Market share of the 18.8%annual growth of 8.2%. Lenovo: Market share of the 7.3%annual growth of 29.3%. Huawei: Market share of the 7.1%annual growth of 12.0%. Xiaomi: Market share of the 6.2%annual growth of 73.1%. Image | Xataka In Xataka | BEST TABLETS IN QUALITY PRICE. Which to buy based on use and recommended models

We are wrong about the origin of sunburn

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We all know that if we spend a lot of time exposed to the sun without protection we will burn The skin becomes red, hot and inflamed and hurts with a simple touch. Then it peels off and for days we can barely touch each other. That’s clear, we don’t need science to explain it to us because practically all of us have experienced it at some point. However, we were wrong about the origin of those sunburn. We have always thought it was due to DNA damage. That’s what the textbooks say. Now, however, an international team of scientists has shown that, in reality, they are the RNA damage those that give rise to that unpleasant effect. These researchers, coming from the University of Copenhagen and Nanyang Technological Universityin Singapore, they carried out their experiments both in mice as in human skin cell cultures. This is very important, since not everything that is studied in mice can be extrapolated to humans, but cell cultures can help understand the effects on our species. With both types of experiments they observed that the response to RNA damage is much faster. At least, it is the one that seems to be closely related to sunburn. It may seem that this does not give us any interesting information. What does it matter if it’s DNA or RNA? Sunburns hurt just the same! And yes, that’s true, but this seemingly trivial fact It can help us a lot in the future. DNA or RNA? DNA is the instruction book of an organism. It contains all the information about who we are and what we need to stay alive. Our DNA contains the instructions to synthesize insulin when glucose builds up in the blood or to help us sleep through melatonin when night falls. They also include data about the color of our eyes or the way our hair grows. Everything we are is in DNA. All our cells have the same DNA, but not all DNA is used in all cells. For example, the gene with the instructions to synthesize insulin is in the cells of the eye, but it is not necessary there. It will never be used. Yes, it is necessary in the cells of the pancreas, since it is the organ that is responsible for synthesizing it. It is used there. This use of a specific gene is what is known as gene expression. The gene turns on where and when it is needed. In this case, in the cells of the pancreas (where), when glucose accumulates in the blood (when). Differences between DNA and RNA. Credit: Sponk (Wikimedia Commons) We already know what DNA is. Something more or less immutable. It can undergo mutations, but it remains more or less fixed throughout our lives. On the other side we have RNA. This is another nucleic acid. DNA is deoxyribonucleic acid and RNA is ribonucleic acid. It differs in the presence of a different sugar within the molecule: ribose In the case of RNA and deoxyribose in the case of DNA. There are many types of RNA: transfer RNA, ribosomal RNA, messenger RNA… Each one has a function, but in this case we are going to focus on the messenger, since it is the one mentioned in the study of sunburn. We have already seen that DNA is used only when and where it is necessary. This use consists of using the information contained in a gene to build a protein, which will carry out the desired function. These proteins are synthesized in cellular organelles called ribosomes. But there is a problem. Ribosomes are unable to read DNA. said very roughly speaking, It is a language they do not understand. They understand the language of messenger RNA. Therefore, when a gene is to be expressed, its information is transcribed into messenger RNA. Like when we translated a page from an instruction book that was in English into Spanish so that our grandmother knew how to use the washing machine. That is the function of messenger RNA. With this well learned, we can move on to the next thing. What does all this have to do with sunburn? Sunburn is caused by exposure to the Sun’s radiation. Specifically, ultraviolet raysespecially type B (UVB). This generates DNA damage, it is totally true. In fact, these DNA damages can accumulate and eventually lead to a melanoma. None of that has changed. However, we usually think that sunburns are that first warning that DNA has been damaged and, in reality, it turns out that it has not. It is the messenger RNA the one who gets upset. How UVB affects ZAK signaling pathways to cause sunburn symptoms. (Lind et al., Molecular Cell, 2025) After reading the literature and carrying out several experiments, the authors of the study that has just been published thought that sunburn could be related to a protein called ZAK-alpha. This is involved in the response to something known as ribotoxic stress. That is, when a failure is detected in the messenger RNA, this protein starts the immune system to attack the cells in which this damage is found, so that the altered messenger RNA not translated on the ribosome. If that happened, you would get failed proteins and could be dangerous. This immune system response also launches an inflammatory response. The skin turns red, becomes hot, swells… What does it sound like to you? Indeed, sunburn! This entire cascade of reactions to ultraviolet radiation was detected in human skin cell cultures. But what would happen in a living organism? The scientists tried to genetically modify a group of mice so that the gene with the instructions for synthesizing the ZAK-alpha protein was not present. If there was no ZAK alpha, when the mice were exposed to ultraviolet B radiation They did not experience burns. On the other hand, with ZAK-alpha intact they did. What is the use of knowing all this? The authors of the research believe that this new … Read more

Why what we understand as “normal” development in children could be wrong

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Image source, Getty Images photo caption, Due to the immense variety of components that affect the growth of a human being, it is very difficult to define something as “normal.” Item information Author, Samuel Forbes and Prerna Aneja Author’s title, The Conversation* January 14, 2025 For parents, caregivers and teachers, it is often tempting to base our understanding of a child’s development on what we believe is “normal.” We often do it without thinking, when we describe a child as “doing well” in one subject and “falling behind” in another. Whenever we make this kind of comparison, we have some kind of mental reference point in our heads: for example, a toddler should be able to climb furniture at age 2. Increasingly, child development researchers argue that the same is true in their field, the study of how behaviors and skills such as language develop. Many of the studies that claim to investigate child development, whether implicitly or explicitly, claim that their findings are universal. There may be many reasons for this. Sometimes there is a temptation to exaggerate conclusions, sometimes it can be the way readers or the media interpret the findings. The result is that what has been found in a group of children is then taken as the standard, the criterion against which future research is compared. Academic biases Image source, Getty Images photo caption, Most of the existing academic research on child development comes from Western countries. Most research on child development comes from wealthier Western countries, particularly the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, and France. Chances are, if you’ve heard of childhood development milestones, they occurred in one of these countries. This is because it can be difficult to conduct basic research on child development in developing countries, as colleagues and reviewers will ask or demand comparisons with Western populations to put findings from these regions in context. Of course, without realizing it, these colleagues and reviewers have established Western children as the norm. Complex environments Image source, Getty Images photo caption, Most academic studies on child development have been carried out in developed countries, and do not take into account development in other cultures. But is it fair to make these comparisons? One of the complicated aspects of child development research is that it occurs in a cultural and social context from which it cannot be separated. But this context is often confusing. Differences in physical environment, parenting styles, location, climate, etc. interact to shape children’s growth. In addition to these differences, there are also individual variations. These can be, for example, curiosity, shyness and neurodiversity, which can frame the way a child shapes their own learning environment. Take the field of childhood motor development: the study of how children learn to move. Many parents in particular may be familiar with charts showing when they can expect their child to sit, crawl, stand and run. The existence of these graphs makes it seem quite universal, and a child’s motor development is often judged in this way. This makes sense. Early research was concerned with finding out what was normal, and it makes sense to try to support children who might be at risk of falling behind. The time and order investigated then gave rise to the norms and scales that we still use today. Image source, Getty Images photo caption, Studies have standardized the stages of development, without taking into account that the environment affects each individual differently. Is something like the timing of motor development universal? It’s easy to imagine it could be. When there are no physical or cognitive barriers, we all learn to sit and stand, so at first glance it seems fair to say that it could be. But it turns out that the context in which children develop plays a very important role even in something as seemingly universal as this. In countries and cultures where babies routinely receive firm massages from their caregivers, such as in Jamaica, motor development accelerates. It is clear that a norm developed in one culture may not translate well to another. Beyond the rules Image source, Getty Images photo caption, Many times, research has no way to incorporate key information such as the social and cultural context of the children it studies. Clearly, the problems highlighted above are not unique to motor development. In areas such as language development or social development, the cultural component is even more pressing. There is simply no way to understand these elements of child development without also understanding the context in which they take place. Each child develops within a context and, no matter how normal our own culture may seem to us, There is no objective, context-independent standard with which we can compare other children.. That is, we should accept the disorder. If we think of normal child development as something that just happens, researchers miss understanding the dynamics of development itself. But worse, educators and caregivers may not realize that development is something we can act on, and they miss the opportunity to create change. Image source, Getty Images photo caption, Each child develops uniquely, and it is through that understanding that better results are achieved. An important part of viewing child development as intertwined with culture is that it not only means collecting data from other cultures, but involving local communities and research perspectives. Understanding communities means listening to them, empowering them and giving them space to have a voice. Moving beyond a Western-centric understanding of child development will not only benefit researchers and lead to more accurate science, but will hopefully benefit everyone who works with children around the world. *This article was published on The Conversation and reproduced here under the creative commons license. Beam click here to read the original version. Samuel Forbes is Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Durham and Prerna Aneja is a Lecturer in Psychology at the University of East Anglia. Subscribe here to our new newsletter to receive a selection … Read more

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