years

We have been putting bananas in red fruit smoothies for years. Science says it’s just what we shouldn’t do

by

Although it will always be a better option to eat whole fruit, smoothies and fruit shakes are a good way to eat healthyespecially in the heat of summer. When preparing them, it is time to experiment and try different mixtures and combinations of flavors. However, according to a study from the University of California Davisthere are combinations that are best avoided. In their case, they refer to bananas and red fruits. The key is in the flavanols. So much the banana like the red fruits They are very healthy. The first is especially rich in potassium, fiber and B vitamins. Forest fruits are rich in vitamin C and antioxidants such as flavanols. Precisely, it is with these that the problem arises. And, as these scientists saw in their study, bananas contain an enzyme called polyphenol oxidase that prevents the flavanols from red fruits from being absorbed. First experiment. These scientists carried out several experiments to reach these conclusions. In the first, 8 volunteers participated, who were given a red fruit smoothie or a capsule with flavanols. In both cases, when blood samples were taken, it was seen that the levels of flavanol metabolites had increased. This indicates that your body was metabolizing them to extract their benefits. However, when the process was repeated by adding banana to the smoothie, the results were very different, as the blood levels of flavanol metabolites were much lower. In search of the culprit. The guilt of polyphenol oxidase is not a suspicion. This was confirmed in a second experiment, in which a banana and red fruit smoothie was left at room temperature. After an hour, flavanol levels had greatly decreased. However, when the process was repeated with bananas that had this enzyme inhibited, they remained intact. Even separately. In another experiment, participants were given a smoothie made only of berries, followed by one made only with berries. banana. Again, the levels of flavanol metabolites decreased. It seems that polyphenol oxidase acts even when both fruits are put together in our stomach instead of in our blender. There are limitations to the study. This research took place in 2023 with only 8 participants. It’s a tiny sample size, so it can’t be considered very conclusive. Furthermore, all participants were men, so it is still not a representative sample of the entire population. The authors themselves indicated at the time that it would be necessary to carry out the study with more participants. At the moment, they have not done so. They have continued researching in the area of ​​flavanols, but not in relation to the drawbacks of mixing banana and red fruits. Although they have focused on the need to properly choose the fruits we consume. For example, recently published an investigation which concluded that eating five pieces of fruit and vegetables is not enough to achieve the adequate dose of these antioxidants in one day. You would have to choose the best options. Don’t despair either. If you love the combination of banana and red fruits, don’t suffer. It’s not dangerous at all. Simply, according to this study, flavanols are not extracted in the best possible way. You can resort to other additional sources and the problem would be solved. In any case, if for you banana is a dispensable complement, it may be better not to consume it with red fruits. Both fruits are very healthy, but the best option, based on this research, would be to eat them at two different times of the day. Image | Magnificent Xataka | The Spanish cherry had been dreaming for years of a scenario that has just come true: opening the doors of China

We have been believing for decades that the Great Pyramid was built at one time. The latest analysis places it more than 20,000 years earlier

by

(Fortunately) the world is full of monuments as ancient as they are impressive, but few, very few, are comparable to the Great Pyramid of Giza. Almost 140 meters high, thousands of years old and an immortal testimony to the power of Ancient Egypt. It has such magnetism that every year they visit it millions of people arrivals from all over the world. But… What if we have been wrong about its origins for decades? What if instead of becoming 2,500 BCas we have always believed, rose up ago more than 20,000 years? What if Pharaoh Cheops was not its true promoter, but simply renewed it? All those questions have been left by launching a new (and controversial) study. What has happened? That Egyptology has just been shaken by unusual news in modern archaeology: a study that has turned upside down the dating (and origins) of the Great Pyramid of Gizaone of the most iconic monuments not only in Egypt or Africa but on the entire planet. Until now, experts agreed that the monument was built in the time of Khufu, around 2589-2566 BCbecoming one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and the tallest structure in the world for 3,800 years. For Alberto Doninian Italian engineer from the University of Bologna, that estimate falls short. Very short. In fact, he has published a study in which he traces the origins of the pyramid back to more than 20,000 years. What dates do you handle? After analyzing several points of the pyramid, Donini has come to the conclusion that the reference date to talk about its origins should be another: 22941 BC That is, their calculations indicate that the structure is around 24,900 years old. Before continuing, it is important to clarify one detail: its analysis does not seek to set specific dates, but rather to establish a time frame for the construction of the monument. What does that mean? That, in reality, what Donini has done is calculate that there are 68.2% probability that the period of construction of the pyramid is framed in a window that extends between 38,903 and 10,979 years ago. The calculation of 24,941 years would therefore be a simple arithmetic mean that serves as a reference. If instead of talking about antiquity we talk about calendars, this means that, according to the estimates of the Italian engineer, the most famous structure in Giza was probably built between 36878 and 8954 BC What is it based on? Donini’s work is not controversial only because of its conclusions. It is also because of its methodology, the calculation system it has used. Its main tool is Relative Erosion Method (REM), a formula that dispenses with documentary sources to be based fundamentally on what the rocks say. Literally. What the REM does is analyze the erosion of the pyramid blocks to, based on their level of wear, date them. Said like this, it sounds simple, but what the engineer has done is somewhat more complex: he selected 12 different points spread across the base of the Great Pyramid and then compared their different levels of erosion, looking at aspects such as the holes and cavities opened in the rock by rain or the roots of plants and the natural wear and tear caused by wind, sand and the constant passage of people. And has that been of any use? Yes. The analysis has yielded a disparate range of dates. At one of those twelve points, the REM suggested an estimated age of 5,708 years. In others the estimate was 17,955, 30,375 or even more than 50,000 years. It may sound strange considering that we are talking about a single monument and it is logical to think that all its blocks have been there for the same amount of time, but many factors influence erosion: from the position of each stone, which determines its exposure to wind and rain, to its mineral composition. It’s still a strange thing, isn’t it? Yes. And no. It is true that the engineer obtained very different dates, but this is explained by another peculiarity of the Great Pyramid. The monument did not always have the appearance we see today. In it 1303 AD The area suffered an earthquake that affected the white limestone blocks that originally covered the structure. That material was later reused in buildings in Cairo. Although it may sound like an archaeological tragedy, it offers experts like Donini a real opportunity. The reason? They now have blocks that have been exposed to erosion almost since the construction of the Great Pyramid and others that have only been exposed to erosion for 675 years, when the earthquake left them bare. This contrast partly explains why when applying the REM method Donini obtained such a broad time frame, the same one that later led him to propose an antiquity of 24,941 years. Issue settled, then? No. The study has only served to stir up the debate. And it is more than understandable if we take into account several keys. First, the dating turns upside down everything we thought we knew about one of Egypt’s most famous monuments. Among other things, he questions whether Pharaoh Cheops was its main architect and slips that he could have limited himself to reforming it. Furthermore, Donini’s study has another handicap: it is preliminary and has not been peer-reviewed, which heats up the debate (even) more. He himself has admitted that REM calculations are influenced by factors that must be handled with caution, such as the variability of erosion processes or the wear and tear that mass tourism may have had on certain parts of the base of the pyramid, altering the calculations. Images | Wikipedia, Alessandro Zanini (Unsplash) and 2H Media (Unsplash) Via | 3D Games In Xataka | Egypt is creating a new tourist mega-destination. There are those who see it as a threat to the oldest monastery in the world

We have been cooling homes for decades with increasingly expensive machines. The Persian method has not consumed a single watt for 2,500 years

by

For decades, air conditioning has been the great response to heat. The more the temperatures rose, the more powerful the machine we installed was. However, more than 2,500 years ago, in a city in the Iranian desert, someone proposed an idea completely different: Maybe the problem was not how to cool a house, but how to build it so that it never got too hot. The heat has a new enemy. The planet is going through an escalation of unprecedented temperatures and the buildings are starting to pay the bill. Glass facades turn offices and homes into veritable greenhouses, concrete accumulates heat for hours and cities radiate energy at night. absorbed during the day. The consequence is an increasing dependence on air conditioning. According to the United Nations Environment Programme, cooling systems already consume about 20% of all the world’s electricity, a figure that will continue to grow as heat waves become more frequent. The Persian redesign. In the heart of the Iranian plateau is Yazda city where summer temperatures easily exceed 40 ºC and where survival was never a question of comfort, but engineering. There appeared one of the most sophisticated passive cooling systems ever conceived: he badgirknown as a wind catcher. His approach was radically different from the current one. Instead of combating the heat once it had entered the house, the architecture itself took care of it. to capture the fresh airexpel the heat and maintain a habitable interior without consuming electricity. Yazd The “Persian method”: a way of thinking. At first glance, a badgir It looks like a tall, decorative chimney jutting out from the rooftops. In reality, it is a carefully calculated system to take advantage of two natural phenomena. On the one hand, it captures the air currents that circulate several meters above the ground and channels them towards the interior. On the other hand, even when the wind hardly blows, it acts as a solar chimney: Hot air rises through the tower and, as it escapes, creates a depression that draws cooler air into the building. In many homes, this flow also passed over underground water tanks or connected channels. to the qanatsfurther increasing the cooling effect. A bâdgir in Yazd A city designed for the climate. The truly extraordinary thing about Yazd is that the badgir It did not work in isolation. It was part of an architectural ecosystem where each element fulfilled a function. The thick adobe walls slowly absorbed the heat. The inner courtyards they created microclimates protected from the sun. The qanats They transported groundwater from the mountains and helped cool the air. There were even the yakhchalenormous structures capable of manufacturing and preserving ice for months in the middle of the desert. The result was a city designed to work with the climate, not against it. Yakhchal in Yazd And the air conditioning arrived. During the 20th century, much of the Middle East and other warm regions embraced imported architectural models that had little to do with their climatic conditions. Concrete replaced adobe, glass facades replaced solid walls and passive solutions were giving way. to mechanical systems. Many badgir they were abandoned due to the lack of maintenance, due to the entry of dust or insects and, above all, because the air conditioning offered an immediate response. The problem is that it also moved energy consumption to the center of the equation and made cooling a permanent necessity. The irony of the West. As many wind towers fell into disuse in Iran, their principles were beginning to reappear discreetly in other parts of the world. Between the end of the seventies and the mid-nineties, thousands of modern versions of wind sensors in British public buildings. Shopping centers, hospitals and schools incorporated ventilation systems inspired by those ancient designs. In the United States, the Zion National Park visitor center was able to drastically reduce the need for air conditioning thanks to passive cooling strategies based on the same concept. Today architects and engineers they resort to simulations by computer to optimize a technology that was born centuries ago simply by observing how the wind moved. The future may not be in more efficient machines. Contemporary architecture begins to take on an idea that for decades was relegated to the background: the building is also part of the air conditioning system. Recent regulations in countries like uk They prioritize shade, natural ventilation and reduction of solar gain before resorting to mechanical solutions. Exterior blinds, slats, vegetal covers, materials with high thermal inertia or patios return to gain prominence. Even those who defend the use of air conditioning agree that these measures can significantly reduce energy consumption. The big lesson: don’t repeat the same mistake. The history of the Persian method and its badgir It does not prove that we should give up air conditioning. prove something much more uncomfortable: For decades we have tried to solve heat by adding machines to buildings that, in many cases, were designed as if the climate did not matter. The Persians followed the opposite way more than two millennia ago. Before thinking about how to cool a house, they thought about how to build one that needed to be cooled as little as possible. Perhaps the most revolutionary technology to face the next heat waves is not a new machine, but recover an old idea that had been waiting for centuries on the rooftops of the desert. Image | Mohammad Hosseini, Diego Delso, Pastaitaken, Dinkun Chen In Xataka | In 2020, a Chinese billionaire bought the most expensive and luxurious home in London. Then his nightmare began. In Xataka | In 1972 Italy wanted to put an entire city in a one kilometer building. Half a century later he is still paying the consequences

The oldest human remains in Antarctica are more than 200 years old. The problem is that it doesn’t make any sense.

by

In 1912, the British explorer Robert Falcon Scott He arrived at the South Pole convinced that he would be the first to set foot on it. There he found an unexpected surprise: a tent with the Norwegian flag and a letter from Roald Amundsen They showed that someone had been more than a month ahead of him. The history of polar exploration is full of “firsts” that, with the passage of time, have ended up being revised. The remains that should not be there. Antarctica has never had a permanent population. When humans arrived on its shores, it was already a continent too cold and isolated to be inhabited without modern technology. That is why it is so disconcerting that the oldest human remains found there belong to a deceased woman. between 1819 and 1825just when the first documented explorations of the continent were just beginning. A half-buried skull. The discovery occurred in 1985, when the Chilean biologist Daniel Torres Navarro found a skull partially buried on Yámana beach, Cape Shirreff. Years later they appeared other scattered bonesincluding a femur, which probably belonged to the same person. Analysis suggests that she was a young woman, possibly of Chilean origin, whose death occurred sometime between 1819 and 1825. The chronology turns the discovery into a puzzle. The problem is not only who that woman was, but when she died. The first confirmed observation of Antarctica is usually attributed to the Russian expedition of Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen in 1820. If the dating of the remains is correct, the woman lived exactly during the period in which the first expeditions were just beginning to approach the continent. This temporal coincidence makes it extremely difficult to explain how he ended up in one of the most inhospitable regions on the planet. The first Russian expedition to Antarctica (1819-1821) The hypotheses and the mystery. Researchers are considering several possibilities. The first suggests that he could be part of a group of seal hunters from the 19th century who abandoned it after his death. The second proposes that she died on board a ship, was buried at sea (as was common then) and that the currents, together with scavenging birds, They would later disperse their remains to the beach where they were found. None of these explanations have been proven and, four decades after the discovery, new remains have still not appeared that would allow us to reconstruct what happened. The alternative. While that enigma remains open, another study invites us to review another of the great certainties about the continent. Researchers at the University of Otago maintain that Polynesian sailors, and in particular the explorer Hui Te Rangiorathey were able to reach the Antarctic waters already in the 7th century. The hypothesis is supported by Maori oral traditions which describe a frozen ocean, large masses of ice and a dark, fog-covered landscape, descriptions that some specialists consider compatible with the Southern Ocean. Between legends and archaeological evidence. The authors of the study make it clear that these traditions do not constitute a definitive demonstration that the Maori ever contemplated Antarctica. However, they do question the idea that the history of the continent began exclusively with European expeditions of the 19th century and claim the role of indigenous traditions in the reconstruction of the great oceanic explorations. If this interpretation ends up being confirmed, the first human contact with the southern tip of the planet would be more than a thousand years ago to what usually appears in history books. Two investigations that force us to look with different eyes. The two studies They speak of very different times, but they converge on the same conclusion: we still know surprisingly little about the first human contacts with the most isolated continent on Earth. One suggests that Polynesian navigators could have arrived much earlier than previously believed. The other remembers that the oldest human remains found there belong to a woman whose presence remains extraordinarily difficult to explain. Two centuries after his death, the biggest mystery is not who he was, but why he appeared on the only continent where, quite simply, no one expected to find it. Image | US Embassy, Bourrichon In Xataka | The map of Antarctica has been made for decades. And yet we just found something that changes what we knew about her. In Xataka | Antarctica was practically the last corner of the Earth immune to touristification. That’s ending

It’s been 20 years since we saw its last episode but audiences have not fallen, and 5.9 million viewers continue to watch it every month

by

On July 6, 2006, Antena 3 broadcast the last episode of ‘There is no one who lives here‘. Two decades laterthe comedy by Alberto and Laura Caballero gathers a monthly average of 5.9 million unique viewers in streamingon platforms like Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, Atresplayer and Movistar+with peaks of 8.8 million and a cumulative audience of 10.4 million in the last year. The consulting firm ranks it as the most viewed content in the OTT market in six of the last twelve months. The distribution of that audience between platforms says a lot about where the series is growing today. Prime Video leads with 2.2 million viewers and Netflix follows closely with 2.1 million, ahead of Atresplayer (0.9 million) and Disney+ (0.7 million). The study also wonders about the reason for this sustained success: 37.2% of the viewers surveyed say that the series “disconnects, entertains and never tires”, compared to 15.7% who appeal to nostalgia and 12.9% who consider its plots valid. 72.4% already saw it in its original broadcast, but more than a quarter discover it now. Before being a phenomenon in streamingthe Desengaño 21 building had already achieved marks that were difficult to match. Throughout its 93 episodes, it brought together more than 40 million unique viewers, and its most viewed episode was close to 8.4 million on average with a 43.1% screen share. From that same creative tandem was born ‘The one that is coming‘, which is still broadcast and shares its catalog and number of viewers with its predecessor. There is a very simple logic behind this success, beyond the quality of the series. An already known title saves on marketing and comes with proven success, at a much lower cost than original production. It is the reason why classics like ‘Friends’, ‘The Office’ or ‘Seinfeld’ continue to boast multimillion-dollar licenses: continue to attract people. Added to this is the unequivocally local component of ‘No one lives here’, which after television went to reruns on TDT, especially on FDF, before making the leap to the streaming. And from there, generation after generation continues to be hooked on our most Bruguera series. In Xataka | This remake of a classic on Prime Video is the science fiction premiere of the summer: ‘The Matrix’ or ‘Cyberpunk 2066’ owe it all

We have been believing for years that women live longer because of their lifestyle. Science has a much deeper explanation

by

If we take a look at the World Bank’s global statistics, there is an unbreakable pattern that repeats itself in practically every country in the world: Women live longer than men. Conventional wisdom often dismisses this phenomenon with a quick response based on lifestyle or “men take more risks.” And although there is some truth in this, the scientific reality is much more complex. Because? To understand female longevity, We must focus on the DNA that we have in all our cells. Something very basic is that women have two X chromosomes, while men have one X chromosome and one Y chromosome. A fundamental difference, because that second X chromosome in women acts as a kind of backup. This means that if a gene on one X chromosome suffers a mutation or is damaged, the female body can turn to the healthy copy on the other chromosome. Men, however, play a single card, since if their only X chromosome has a defect, there is no plan B. In addition, this chromosome is vital because it houses a large number of genes related to the immune system, which gives women a more robust response to infections. It goes further. Genetics is not everything here, but the body has an ace up its sleeve, which are the mitochondria, which are nothing more than the “power plants” of our cells. These organelles are inherited only maternally and, as proposed in 2007sexual differentiation has a direct biological cost for men, translating into lower mitochondrial function and, therefore, greater cellular oxidative stress that accelerates aging. The hormones. Beyond genetics and mitochondria, we must mention sex hormones, which are in very different proportions between sexes. Estrogens, for example, are the main female sex hormones that, in addition to regulating the reproductive cycle, act as a powerful antioxidant shield. Among its effects stands out maintaining the flexibility of blood vessels, reducing “bad” cholesterol and preventing inflammation. This largely explains why the incidence of cardiovascular disease in women is significantly lower before menopause. In the man. On the other side of the coin we have testosterone. Although it is crucial for the development of muscle and bone mass, high levels of this hormone in men are historically associated with increased cardiovascular risk at an early age and long-term depression of the immune system. The evolution. Someone may fall into the idea that this system is something exclusive to humans, but evolutionary biology shows us otherwise. Here, a 2025 study analyzed 1,176 species and the results revealed that in mammals, females live on average 13% longer than males. The reason lies in reproductive strategies and the biological wear and tear derived from male sexual competition, such as fights over territory or mating. However, it was seen that andIn birds, males live 5% longer; since in the avian world, males usually have two identical sex chromosomes (ZZ) and females have different sex chromosomes (ZW). Furthermore, in many bird species, parental care is shared or falls to the male, which reduces their risk behaviors. Human behavior. Of course, biology does not operate in a vacuum and genetic and hormonal factors must be added. the behavioral gap and social. For example, the consumption of toxic substances has a greater prevalence in men, being associated with cancer, cirrhosis or respiratory diseases. But, as we have said before, testosterone is also linked to a greater propensity to take risks, which translates into higher mortality rates from traffic accidents or cases of violence. On the other hand, women suffer from “invulnerability syndrome” which causes them to seek preventive medical services much more frequently. Men tend to postpone visits to the doctor until diseases are in more advanced stages, making treatment difficult. In addition, women tend to build stronger social and emotional support networks, a factor directly linked to greater survival in old age. Images | Age Cymru In Xataka | 5 minutes of sleep, 2 of exercise and half a serving of vegetables: the macro study that supports a great longevity ‘hack’

After 40 years in the Galician sea, the radioactive drums are in a critical state of deterioration. The solution may be worse than letting it be

by

“There is no life down there.” For decades it was almost a legend among activists and oceanographers: a giant landfill, with hundreds of thousands of radioactive drums, abandoned in the abyssal plain of the Atlantic. The problem is that there was life and they were killing it. A little less than 300 nautical miles from Cape Fisterra in Galicia – just over 500 kilometers – the Nodssum Project, which is already on its third expedition, has sounded the alarm. Far from the myth, French scientific missions They located thousands of barrels, went down with manned submarines, photographed leaks and measured radionuclides above what was expected. 220,000 barrels They only found a thousand. The rest, some 100,000 tons of nuclear waste, lay at the bottom and was carried away by the currents, its contents scattered. Now, with just over 3,500 barrels located, it is concluded that they are suffering from an “advanced state of deterioration”, according to researchers from the Center National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS). A cemetery under the Atlantic. Where does all this come from? The drama began in 1946. And until the early 1990s, British, Dutch, Belgian, French and other European ships continuously dumped low- and medium-level radioactive waste at the bottom of the Atlantic. They are concentrated in an area of ​​about 10,000 square kilometers, at a depth of 4,000–5,000 meters. It is, without hot cloths, the third largest landfill of canned nuclear waste known on the planet. Inside there are no fuel rods, but rather civil and military nuclear waste: sludge, gloves, laboratory equipment, medical remains, resins, contaminated scrap metal, encapsulated in cement or tar to withstand the pressure of the deep ocean. When the landfill began to be mapped, they did not even document 1% of the total. To date, just over 3,000 barrels have been located, identified with the autonomous robot UlyX and high-resolution sonar. A longliner and a lot coraxe. The They came between two freighters that were dumping garbage to the Atlantic Trench. The press took notice and that practice bounced around in newspapers around the world. The protests had an effect, because the European body in charge of controlling this waste declared a moratorium on discharges. Moratorium that is still in force today. The first NODSSUM-I campaign focused on making the invisible visible. since a decadethe expedition has been expanding the mapped area to about 140 square kilometers, with densities of about 20 drums per square kilometer and more than 3,350 barrels cataloged. The great novelty came with the manned submarine Nautile, which made it possible to directly observe the state of the barrels at more than 4,000 meters deep. It was then that the real state could be noticed. Barrels in the last. Corroded surfaces, colonization of anemones, open cracks in dents and leaks of encapsulating material – with tar and cement overflowing – in some containers, in addition to the detection of radionuclides above what was expected. The sea salt is slowly eating away some brass lacking the necessary security. The expedition has taken 345 samples of sediment, about 5,000 liters of water and specimens of abyssal fauna (fish, amphipods, small crustaceans) to analyze them in the laboratory with precision one hundred times greater than that of the instruments on board. To date, no “anomalies” have been found in the sediments and, although the radionuclides are below legal limitsthey do exceed all previous estimates. Rescue them… or leave them where they are. The current objective is to contain the threat. Can 200,000 drums be removed from the bottom of the Atlantic? Technically, yes; Politically, economically and in terms of risk, things get complicated. The Nuclear Safety Council insists on a clear message: the Galician and Cantabrian coastal waters do not show significant levels of radioactivity, below the limits set by Spanish and European regulations. And Spain does not even have responsibilities, since it did not dump waste into the Atlantic trench. In fact, the problem goes beyond the astronomical cost: many barrels are so degraded that they could disintegrate in the lifting process. If deterioration continues, will there be greater problems resulting from bioaccumulation? How does it affect the abyssal food chain? This is exactly what you are looking to answer. At the same time, we are trying to study this deep habitat full of organisms adapted to a darkness that now coexists with an 80-year-old nuclear legacy. Images | BNG (by Wolcott Henry), Flickr (owned by Tomas Vazquez) and Campagne NODSSUM, CNRS, Flotte oceanographique française. In Xataka | 800 meters deep in a 175 million year old rock: Germany’s solution to nuclear waste In Xataka | The big problem with nuclear energy has always been its waste. Russia can now recycle them up to five times

Musk said. Two years later, it is very deep with its prototype of a mobile phone with AI

by

In October 2024, Elon Musk appeared at an election rally in Pennsylvania, and there stated that “The idea of ​​making a mobile phone makes me want to die” because it was “a lot of work”, but then he added that “if we have to make a mobile phone, we will do it.” And that’s what seems to be happening. Prototype in progress. As indicated in The Wall Street JournalSpaceX has shown some investors a prototype shaped like a mobile phone, but designed to change the way we interact with AI. The design would be thinner than that of an iPhone, it would run on its own operating system and would integrate technology from xAI, Musk’s artificial intelligence company. The tycoon, yes, denied such rumors in Reuters a day later. The chip is made by Qualcomm. Although SpaceX controls a good part of its entire technological ecosystem, there will be necessary alliances here for a good set of components. The most important of course is the SoC, which according to WSJ will currently be manufactured by Qualcomm. They may release it, they may not.. The company has warned investors that the project is in a very early phase, which means that the design of some of the components will end up changing if the idea finally materializes. Of course: it is not even certain that the device will ever be manufactured. Starlink as a mobile operator. SpaceX indicated at the end of June that is preparing the launch of a mobile data service that would take advantage of its Starlink platform. This satellite internet service already allows internet access, for example in rural areas, but Gwynne Shotwell, president of SpaceX, indicated to investors that it is considering launching a traditional mobile operator service. More and more rumors. Although Musk denied the news, rumors about a potential mobile device are accumulating. In February Reuters indicated that SpaceX was preparing “a mobile device connected to its Starlink satellite internet constellation that could compete with smartphones.” This mobile phone would not only take advantage of said service, but also xAI’s AI model, Grok, thus reinforcing the ecosystem proposed by Elon Musk with his companies. Apple has too much power. In WSJ they indicated that Musk had already considered creating his own smartphone in the past although he also showed his reluctance about it. The main reason for making your own mobile: become independent from an Apple which according to Musk has too tight control over third-party apps like X. Go for the super app. The underlying idea of ​​the device is not so much to have your own mobile phone as to have a way to boost a potential super app. This idea has been considered for a long time by Musk’s company, which here is trying to have an “application for everything” as is the case with WeChat or AliPay in China. The difference is the role of AI in this device, which would be central to the entire experience. SpaceX is not alone in the AI ​​hardware race. Attempts to propose alternatives to current mobile phones have been underway for some time, but for now this “gadget with AI” that manufacturers aspire to is still not working out. Both the Humane AI Pin like the Rabbit R1 They failed completely in the market, but now there are several companies with that ambition: Go with your glasses and OpenAI with its mysterious device in collaboration with Jony Ive They are two good examples. It remains to be seen what the result of these efforts is, because for now one thing is certain: the smartphone remains unrivaled. Image | Heisenberg Media In Xataka | Apple and OpenAI repeat the bet that sank Humane and Rabbit: screenless wearables in a world addicted to TikTok

We have found a fossilized excrement and now we know that in the driest desert in Asia 4,000 years ago there was a forest

by

China has a few deserts, but there is one that stands out for its aridity: in the Tarim basinin northwest China, rain round 20 millimeters a year. Seeing a landscape of dunes and rocks so barren that it seems lunar, it is difficult to think that there were rivers, wetlands and poplar forests there 4,000 years ago. And yet, as a study just showedthere was. The key to everything was in the people who lived there in the Bronze Age. More specifically, in the fossilized excrement of their animals and the remains of charcoal from their bonfires. The discovery. The research team analyzed coprolites of multiple species of animals from Xiaohe culture sites and also charcoal left over from their bonfires. From here they obtained two pieces of information directly: what trees they used as fuel and what their animals ate. Or what is the same: what plants and trees were in the area. What is clear is that of all desert in the Bronze Age, nothing. Why is it important. The research team proposes that this prehistoric community already practiced a sedentary way of life from the early phases of occupation of that area, which includes livestock farming. The resources offered by that wetland (fishing, aquatic plants, grasses) were sufficient to maintain that town in that territory, without the need for agriculture. From an environmental point of view, the study provides first-hand information on what the Tarim landscape was like four thousand years ago, before aridification transformed the region. The Tarim has been characterized due to an extremely dry climate since the beginning of the Pliocene, although during the Holocene it experienced frequent fluctuations between dry and humid periods. This information is essential to model past climate change and thus better predict possible changes in Central Asia. Context. The Xiaohe culture occupied the Tarim Basin between 2050 and 1350 BC. C. and we know her above all for their mummiesfound in the desert during the 20th century with peculiar wool and leather outfits. However, we knew more about how they buried their dead than about their organization, relationship with the environment and their economy. In detail. The analysis revealed that 54% of the identifiable charcoals corresponded to poplars and willows and 18% to tamarisks, all of them flora typical of riverbank forests. These species are fast growing and regenerate easily, suggesting that the community exploited the forest in a more or less sustained manner for centuries. Considering the few remaining poplar trees, the team proposes that the landscape was organized into three zones: the riverine forest, riverside scrub, and beyond, the desert. The remains of feces preserved pollen grains and phytoliths that allowed us to reconstruct both the diet of the livestock and the nature of the landscape: 83% of all that pollen came from the cattail, an aquatic plant that has historically been used as food, fiber, and even as construction material. In the case of sheep poop, the percentage rose to 99%, a figure so high that the team explains that it is probably because the animals ingested the pollen by drinking water laden with it or by breathing the air during flowering. Yes, but. The first limitation to consider is that it is not always possible to know with certainty which animal each excrement comes from and that is not a trivial matter: not knowing how to differentiate between a sheep, a goat or a camel can be a great condition on its use. On the other hand, the large presence of cattail pollen may be misleading: this plant produces large quantities and resists degradation well, so the real landscape could have had more diversity than the data suggests. The question that remains unresolved is whether the Xiaohe people grew food from the beginning or not. Current evidence suggests not, but not finding them doesn’t mean they didn’t exist. In Xataka | Homo sapiens arrived in China 5,000 years earlier than we thought. And that changes what we believed about their culture. In Xataka | We have found tools from 300,000 years ago in China. And they turn what we believed about the paleo diet upside down Cover | Adaptations in ancient oasis woodlands of the hyper-arid Tarim Basin, Northwestern China: charcoal and coprolite analyzes

2,200 years ago, the Earth’s magnetic field collapsed. Some wine amphorae recorded it with unprecedented precision

by

Finding some ceramic at a site is a fairly common occurrence, but in archeology the context is almost everything: this way you can discover from the Roman legions took away their vices there where they were going 1,800 years ago they were already used as piggy banks. Or even strange movements of the Earth. It’s what has happened in three sites in Jerusalem, where 24 pieces of ceramic have functioned as a kind of millennia-old compass record. The discovery. A research team from Tel Aviv University, Ariel University and the University of California, San Diego has managed to obtain geomagnetic information from 17 handles of wine amphorae from the island of Rhodes and seven jugs made there in Jerusalem, more specifically from the sites of the City of David, the Jewish Quarter and the Givati ​​parking lot. What makes them special are two things: on all of them the names of the potter and the supervisor of that year’s production appeared. There is another surprising fact from the analysis of the pieces: reveal that between the years 206 and 156-155 BC the Earth’s magnetic field lost more than 30% of its intensity. The scientific explanation. When clay is fired at high temperatures, the iron-containing minerals it contains are oriented according to the magnetic field that exists at that moment and when they cool, they stay that way forever… or until they are heated above the Curie temperature. If they are heated some time later in a laboratory under certain controlled conditions, it is possible to obtain the signal and intensity of the magnetic field from the time of manufacture, which is known as “archaeointensity analysis.” Why is it important. Because the ceramic pieces revealed that the magnetic field weakened much faster than estimated with current models. On the other hand, because magnetism offers an alternative to radiocarbon to date ancient objects and structures with a precision that carbon cannot always offer. Already there were studies that they affirmed it, but this confirms it for the Hellenistic era. Context. The starting ceramics are stamped handles of amphorae made on the island of Rhodes between the 3rd and 1st centuries BC. In the Hellenistic period, these amphorae circulated throughout the eastern Mediterranean, loaded with wine or oil. Greek amphorae they used to have engraving the name of the potter and the annual official who supervised production, called the eponym. This administrative custom turns the Rhodes amphorae into a chronological instrument of incredible precision: it is possible to date pieces with a time deviation of less than one year, something that is rarely seen in archaeology. In detail. Collaterally, this finding also has implications for the acra fortressa building that the Seleucid king Antiochus IV ordered to be built around 167 BC to control the city during the time of the Maccabees and whose exact location has been one of the most lively debates in archeology in Jerusalem for decades. In 2015, at the Givati ​​car park site, a team of archaeologists discovered part of a defensive ramp that they associated with Accra. The problem is that one of the vessels found in its structure belongs to a ceramic type that does not appear until after 130 BC, that is, decades after when Antiochus IV ordered the construction of the fortress. If the ramp were part of the original Acra of 167 BC, the vessel in its foundation would have to date from before that date, not later. Furthermore, its magnetic intensity fits with a manufacture from the end of the 2nd century BC. C. What does this mean? That ramp may not belong to the original Accra structure. Yes, but. The study concludes that a jug found under a defensive ramp in the Givati ​​car park is too recent to be linked to the original construction of the Accra fortress. But that information does not resolve anything: the ramp could have belonged to a later renovation phase or the jug could have been placed there later. On the other hand, Previous investigations in the Levant They already pointed to a drop in the magnetic field between 220 and 160 BC, and this finding supports it with unprecedented precision. Even so, 24 vessels are an insufficient sample to consolidate the curve on a regional scale: more samples are needed from more sites. In Xataka | A cargo sunk in a Swiss lake 2,000 years ago confirms it: the Roman legions did not deprive themselves of anything In Xataka | The most polarizing and divisive scientific debate of the moment has to do with wine. With one 1,700 years old Cover | Israel Antiquities Authority and Toa Heftiba

Log In

Forgot password?

Forgot password?

Enter your account data and we will send you a link to reset your password.

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

Log in

Privacy Policy

Add to Collection

No Collections

Here you'll find all collections you've created before.