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We have been hearing for years that plastic is safer than wood. Jordi Cruz does not agree (and it seems he is right)

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Science has spent decades studying what happens with E.colithe Salmonella and company when they touch the wooden, plastic or metal boards that we use in the kitchen. It is an old (and we thought unsolvable) fight, but the famous chef Jordi Cruz has spoken. He said it on TikTokbut since the ways of distributing content on the Internet are capricious, he has also said so in tens of websites. The question is whether what he said makes sense. What does Jordi Cruz defend? In essence, Cruz has commented your prints on three cutting board materials (plastic, metal and wood). Furthermore, it has gotten wet: for him, the best option is wood. As explainedwhile plastic is filled with grooves where bacteria accumulate and metal destroys the edge of the knife, wood has “natural antibacterial and antimicrobial” properties, where bacteria “get between the fibers and end up dying.” The controversy has been enormous, of course. A curious debate. That “clear” comes from the fact that for years it has been said that wood is the material that “accumulates the most bacteria”, in contrast to “non-porous” plastics that can be put in the dishwasher (and can be cleaned more easily). It is logical that seeing a famous chef say that wood is the best has made many put your hands on your head. However, Cruz is not as off track as we might think. What the evidence says. From the very beginning (the pioneering studies by Dean Cliver at the University of Wisconsin in the 90s), research they have been giving us back the same image: There is no evidence that plastic is inherently safer than wood. Appropriate (hard and closed-pore) and well-preserved wood creates a hostile environment for many bacteria. The problem is that. Wooden boards are not only more expensive, but require maintenance. And if we are not going to give it to them, plastic with all its problems is safer. Although not totally sure, of course. That is to say: the most dangerous boards are the old, scratched and poorly washed ones. The material does not matter, what is important is its state of conservation. And then? Some time ago, food safety experts stopped focusing on the material and began to look for strategies that would try to reduce the main risk derived from the tables: cross contamination. A good example of this are the recommendations of the North American USDA. For the Agency, both wood and other “non-porous” surfaces are acceptable for things like meat and chicken. Their main recommendation is another: use a table for raw meats and a different one for ready-to-eat foods (in addition to always cleaning them with hot water and soap; and subjecting them to periodic disinfection). In Europe the recommendation is similar and, in fact, he adds that although there may be more or less appropriate materials depending on the use, “in domestic kitchens the priority is hygiene and not the specific material.” What do the chefs say? What Jordi Cruz says (that a wooden board is best as a “main board”) is a general consensus between chefs and gastronomic influencers. However, it is common to restrict them to chopping cooked vegetables, fruit, bread and produce. On the other hand, also it is common to use plastic with meat and raw fish. Or what is the same, for “dirty uses.” Sometimes we get stuck in absurd debates. And this is a good example: the public debate has dedicated a lot of effort to establishing the idea of ​​”bad wood/good plastic”, when the important thing is to use several boards, assign them fixed uses and clean (and replace them) when necessary. Image | Garden House | The Anthill In Xataka | To the question of whether ultra-processed foods are as bad as we have been told, science still has no clear answer

We are facing the greatest threat to livestock farming in 30 years

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As I write this, the Military Emergency Unit is deploying to Collserola to try to contain the African swine fever epidemic that has already left 14 dead wild boars and threatens bring the entire Spanish pork sector to a historic crisis. Right now, while the Generalitat finishes the tests on the 39 livestock farms in the area, more than 80 UME operatives (together with the Rural Agents and the Civil Guard) are sweeping the natural park between Barcelona and Cerdanyola del Vallès. Thirty years later, this animal disease is back. What has happened? On November 26, in the vicinity of the campus of the Autonomous University of Barcelona in Bellaterra, two dead wild boars were found. The tests by the veterinary services of the Generalitat of Catalonia left no room for doubt: the African swine fever virus was back on the peninsula. It was the first positive in Spain since November 1994. After notification to the Ministry of Agriculture, confirmation of the positives by the Central Veterinary Laboratory of Algete (Madrid) and the implementation of the control device, the Department of the Generalitat found four other bodies more in the same area. Given the confirmation of the outbreak, the Government requested intervention of the UME hunting control unit. Aren’t we overreacting a little? That’s what it might seem like. After all, African swine fever does not affect humans and is relatively localized among wild pigs in a specific natural park. The question that many ask is whether it is really necessary to mobilize one of the elite units of the Spanish army for 14 dead wild boars. And the answer, I’m afraid, is yes. Although it is a strictly zoonotic disease (and, indeed, does not affect humans) it has mortality and morbidity levels close to 100% among domestic pigs. That is, it is a disease that “can kill all the pigs on a farm after a few days of fever, coughing and bleeding.” And the world takes it very seriously. To the point that “the appearance of a single case of plague causes preventive blocking of pork exports.” There are more than 20 countries that, to begin with, they do not accept regionalization and, therefore, the veto of Spanish pork exports is en bloc and immediate. Among them are Japan or Mexico. The Ministry of Agriculture is in negotiations with them, but shipments are stopped. We must not forget that it is leader in pork export within the European Union and ranks third worldwide in production. The arrival of African swine fever (however predictable it could be) is a catastrophe for the sector. And for Spanish foreign trade in general: China, which imports 20% of Spanish pork and which has just signed a historic agreement precisely on pork with the presence of the Kings, is very pending of what is happening in Catalonia (and the possible expansion of the virus). We must not forget that the arrival of the plague to Spain in the 60s (through Portugal and its African colonies) led an international isolation of the Iberian pig for more than three decades. And now what? The first thing is to “clean” Collserola. That is why the deployment has been so rapid and large. But afterward, it will be time to identify the origin of the outbreak (Councilor Òscar Ordeig has pointed to contaminated food as the main suspect, but it is still not clear) and, above all, we will have to reflect on hunting and veterinary controls. Because, as I said before, this is not a surprise. In 2014, reports were already saying that the virus was rampant across Europe’s eastern border; but it wasn’t until 2020 when he jumped to Germany also through a wild boar. The German country was, by the way, at that time the largest pork producer in the EU. Since then, the virus has already appeared in 15 EU countries (Germany, Bulgaria, Croatia, Slovakia, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic, Romania, Belgium and Sweden). Just these last two They have managed to eradicate it again after the application of draconian control measures. Now it’s our turn and we have a lot at stake. Image | Oscar in the middle | Jonathan Kemper In Xataka | In a country with almost as many pigs as people, the worst that can happen is that investment funds take over

In 1973 a German dreamed of exploiting Lanzarote. 50 years later no one has been able to move the ruins of his monster

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Of all the ghost architectures and abandoned to their fate in Spain, few like the shadow that rises in a unique place in the Canary Islands. Its history begins in the early seventies, at a time when Lanzarote was opening up to international tourism in the heat of expansive urban planning, laws favorable to foreign investment and a climate of economic optimism that seemed to have no limits. And then a “visionary” arrived. A hyperbolic dream. In that context, the German businessman Erick Becker imagined a gigantic tourist complexmade up of five hotels, an aparthotel, more than twelve hundred bungalows and a capacity for four thousand people. The emblematic piece, the Náutico hotel (renamed over the years as Atlante del Sol), was to be the gateway to an urbanization in German capital that saw Lanzarote as an ideal territory to attract European visitors. The legislation of the time, headed by the Strauss Law of 1968encouraged German investment in developing countries and helped direct a flood of capital towards the Canary Islands that found an apparently perfect opportunity on the island. However, the choice of location would prove to be a major mistake. Tourism against the landscape. The Rubicon coast It had virulent waves, constant winds and rugged geography without a beach or adequate access. In those decades, Lanzarote’s infrastructure was fragile, and the area even lacked a road that connected the place with the inhabited centers. Despite this, the project moved forward in fits and startsraising the main structure of the hotel before the oil crisis of 1973 paralyzed the European economy and brought with it a promotion that would never open its doors. Since then, the unfinished mass was abandonedconverted into an unused concrete skeleton that began to hint at the ghostly silhouette that would mark its future. Abandonment, illegality and law. After the abandonment of the project, the Atlante del Sol was suspended in a legal limbo that the subsequent evolution of Canarian urban planning ended up resolving against it. The Island Management Plan of Lanzarote from 1991a pioneer in the protection of the island territory, reclassified the area as rustic land for natural ecological protection, nullifying the urban character it may have had under the regulations of the 1950s and 1960s. With the passage of time, the area was also incorporated into the Natura 2000 Network as a Special Bird Protection Area, reinforcing its ecological value and further shielding its non-urbanizable nature. In parallel, Spanish and regional legislation chained new land laws in 1976, 1990, 1998 and 2007, which consolidated environmental regulations. much more demanding than existed when the original license was granted in 1972. Final blow. The Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands made it clear in 2016 that this old license was invalid operational, because an unfinished work loses any right protected by obsolete regulations when subsequent laws come into force. In essence, what may have been legal in the 1970s ceased to be legal decades ago. Added to this was a determining fact: the property it was never finished nor to be used, and its current state (absolute ruin, no services, no access and no technical possibility of becoming operational equipment) prevented it from being considered a heritage work. The court concluded that reviving a license from 1972 was as inappropriate as pretending that the island had not changed in fifty years. That ruling legally sealed the fate of the hotel: either remain abandoned or be demolished. The ghost and watchman hotel. With the passage of time, the Atlantean of the Sun It went from being a frustrated project to becoming a strange element embedded in one of the natural spaces most beautiful and unique of Lanzarote: the natural pools from Los Charcones. There, between the wind, the volcanic rock and the crystalline puddles, the abandoned hotel took on a disturbing, almost sculptural presence. For tourists who discover the area, the semi-ruined structure has become part of the landscapean example of beauty in decay that contrasts with the serenity of natural pools. For others, it is an open wound, a reminder of the speculation of the seventies and the urbanism that was promoted without paying attention to the physical reality of the territory. Chaos tourism. His inaccessibility (the absence of roads continues to be one of the main limitations today) has kept it outside the conventional tourist circuit and has contributed to its degradation. The wind, saltpeter and abandonment have turned the building into a dangerous shell, used occasionally as an improvised shelter by campers since the seventies, especially at Easter, when entire families came to occupy the windowless rooms applying minimum standards of coexistence. The picture is as unusual as it is revealing: a hotel that never opened turned into a sporadic camp for those seeking a unique experience in an isolated place. Between memory, business and protection. Over the decades, different owners tried to recover the building’s destiny, either by giving it tourist use or transforming it into healthcare facilities. Among them, the company Hipercan Don Jersey SL tried to reclassify the land to convert the hotel into a social and health center, claiming that the 1972 license was still valid and that the reform would allow the municipality to be provided with a new public service. But the administrations maintained a firm position: Yaiza already had sufficient equipment, the property was in ruins and the land belonged to a protected natural space whose ecological value should prevail about any intervention. The courts confirmed this position repeatedly. Neither the heritage argument, nor the intention to reconvert the building, nor the appeal to old investments managed to reverse a situation that had been legally closed for decades. Even if there was a will to rebuild, the cost of rehabilitation would be exorbitant. And if demolition were chosen, the operation (valued at more than one million euros) would require facing considerable technical and environmental obstacles. Uncertain future. In recent years, the discussion about the future of the Atlantean Sun has regained … Read more

Yes, the Strait of Gibraltar is “about” to disappear. Within 50 million years, specifically

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In recent days, we have been able to see some voices that pointed to an almost apocalyptic event in our country: the Strait of Gibraltar this “about to disappear“, making two continents come together. The image in this case is quite powerful: the Mediterranean turning into a salt lake or completely disappearing before our eyes because its water intake would be cut off. However, when geologists say ‘soon’, they don’t mean next week. The reality. This new wave of fear over this fact arises as a result of a publication in the magazine Geology which is undoubtedly fascinating. In this case, geologists have used the capacity of supercomputers and 3D geodynamic models to see that under Gibraltar there is a subduction zone that right now she is ‘asleep’ and could wake up at any moment. The study, led by João C. Duarte together with researchers from the University of Mainz, addresses one of the great debates in plate tectonics: is the Gibraltar subduction zone dead? The discovery. For years science has pointed out that the sinking of the oceanic lithosphere under the Gibraltar Arc had stopped. However, the authors have applied new computer simulation techniques with the 3D ‘gravity-driven’ model to be able to reproduce the evolution that the western Mediterranean will follow where this strait is located. This is something fundamental, since the ancient models had us quite limited, but with technology you can see the processes over millions of years. The result of what was seen is quite clear: subduction is not dead, but is in a period of ‘rest’ or ‘silence’. Although the model believes that at some point this is something that will be activated or unblocked again. The future of the Atlantic. Something that must be clear is that the oceans are not static, but rather follow what is known as the Wilson Cycle. According to this model, the Atlantic is a young ocean that is expanding right now. But like everything in this life, it is doomed to die, just as happened in the past with the Tethys ocean, which is the ancestor of the Mediterranean Sea. However, for this to occur, subduction zones need to be activated where the tectonic plate sinks under another. breaking plates. The problem is that breaking a tectonic plate to start this subduction process is mechanically very difficult. The solution proposed by this team is that this area already exists in the Mediterranean, and its effect will spread to the west, crossing the Strait and invading the Atlantic. This is something that would give something called the ‘Atlantic Ring of Fire’, analogous to the famous Pacific beltcharacterized by volcanoes and earthquakes. When will this occur? This is where the important nuance comes in that must be taken into account when we talk about something in geology happening ‘soon’. According to this simulation, the current phase of inactivity will last for some time yet. But not a few days, but the propagation of subduction towards the Atlantic will gain traction in 20 million years and the development of the new subduction system can be delayed up to 50 million years. Saying that the Strait is “about to disappear” based on this study is like saying that the Sun is about to go out because it has “only” fuel left. 5 billion years. It is true on the scale of the universe, but irrelevant to our daily lives. Why it is important. Beyond the time it will take for this to occur, this model demonstrates how subduction zones can migrate from dying oceans like the Mediterranean to expanding oceans like the Atlantic, helping us understand how the Earth has been shaped throughout its history. Images | Malcolm Ketteridge In Xataka | Cádiz has decided to prepare for something that has happened five times in 7,000 years: its destructive potential justifies it

In the midst of a race towards immortality, China believes it has found a way for us to live 150 years: with grapes

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Aging is the objective that a good part of society has right now with different diets to look younger, ‘anti-aging’ treatments or even cocktails that promise this (although our biology has a fairly clear limit). Now, China is targeting a biotechnology company that affirms be developing a pill capable of prolonging human life to 150 years. A simple grape. A priori it seems that it has nothing to do with human aging, but we are quite wrong. The Shenzhen biotechnology company claims to have identified in its seeds a compound called procyyanidin C1 (PCC1) which achieves the effect that many want and has a great antioxidant effect. Zombie cells. To understand how this supposed miracle compound works, we must first talk about the enemy of aging: senescence cellular. As time goes by, some of our cells stop dividing, but they do not die. They remain in a state of limbo, accumulating in the tissues and secreting inflammatory substances that damage neighboring cells that are not so lazy and continue dividing. These cells that do not want to die is what known as ‘zombie cells’ because in the end there are quite a few parallels. As. Once taken into account, this is where PCC1 comes into play, which is nothing more than a natural flavonoid. Where the interesting begins is in a key study published in Nature Metabolism where it is pointed out that PCC1 acts as a senolytic agent. This means that it has a fairly important selective capacity to act on the cells that are bothering us the most. Specifically, at low doses, PCC1 inhibits the toxic substances emitted by zombie cells, but at high doses it kills them without harming healthy cells. And up to this point everything is quite solid, since it has been scientifically proven. There are ‘buts’. The scientific basis that the Chinese laboratory uses for its claims comes almost exclusively from animal models to whom this substance was applied. In this way, the researchers achieved several things by applying PCC1 on old mice: Reduce the load of senescent cells in vital organs. Reverse motor dysfunctions, making the mouse have more strength and better balance. Increase life expectancy between 9 and 60%. The big ‘but’ we found is that it has only been tested on mice and not on humans. And given this we can ask ourselves something quite simple: why are we skeptical about the claim of 150 years in humans? There are several reasons to be so. The first of them is that saying that because a mouse lives 60% longer, a human will live 60% longer is also a biological fallacy. The metabolism of mice and humans is not similar at all, and that is why there are drugs that, although they have worked in a mouse, have failed in humans. we are not equal with the mice. That’s why we don’t age in the same way. Although it is true that humans have senescent cells that are related to aging, we are much more complex. Aging involves genomic instability, telomere shortening, mitochondrial dysfunction, and stem cell exhaustion. That is why cleaning the ‘zombie cells’ could improve health in old agebut it is unlikely that on its own it will make us exceed the current biological limit of our species. This is also added to the fact that to date there are no published clinical trials that support the safety and effectiveness of using this compound in the human body. That is why, in conclusion, we can conclude that PCC1 is a very important finding to identify a door to therapies that make us age better. But talking about extending life to 150 years undoubtedly presents many doubts, since surely this ‘Chinese pill’ will not make us immortal overnight. Images | Maja Petric Daniel Franco In Xataka | Not all brain cells age at the same time: we have found a “hot spot” of aging

A Chinese startup claims to have created its own TPU to compete with NVIDIA. The only problem is that it is three years late

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A Chinese startup called Zhonghao Xinying (known internationally as CL Tech) has come to the fore with a bold promise. The company claims to have developed an AI chip that not only circumvents Western intellectual property restrictions, but also outperforms NVIDIA’s A100 chip. Which is very good, but also a little bad. Chana arrives. The chip in question has been named “Chana”, and according to SCMP we are dealing with a GPTPU (General Purpose Tensor Processing Unit). Unlike NVIDIA GPUs, aimed at accelerating AI workloads, this is an ASIC, that is, an application-specific integrated circuit designed from the ground up for neural network workloads. promise. According to Zhonghao Xinying Chana, it offers up to 1.5 times the performance of the NVIDIA A100 based on the Ampere architecture. Not only that: it achieves that performance with 30% lower consumption. The startup highlights that the computational cost per unit would therefore be less than half of that offered by the A100 chips. A little history of the company. Behind Zhonghao Xinying is Yanggong Yifan, an engineer formed at Stanford and the University of Michigan. He worked on the development of several generations of Google TPUs and also on the development of Oracle chips, and in 2018 founded this startup in Hangzhou together with Hanxun Zhengan engineer who worked at Samsung for several years. They were joined by other engineers from Microsoft, Oracle, NVIDIA, Amazon and Facebook, they indicate. on Baidu. We are therefore faced with several of those cases of “boomerang talent” with Chinese engineers who are forged in the US and then return to China to create solutions for their own industry. Solutions that do not depend on the West. Yanggong affirms that its chip features “fully self-controlled IP cores, a custom instruction set, and a fully in-house computing platform. Our chips do not rely on foreign technology licenses, ensuring long-term security and sustainability from an architectural perspective.” But. Although the achievement is striking, it is necessary to put it in perspective. The NVIDIA A100 is a 2020 AI GPU, and even with the improvements that this Chinese startup promises, its performance is, for example, far from H100 chips with Hopper architecture that appeared in 2022. Not to mention of the latest Blackwell Ultra chipswhich are currently NVIDIA’s greatest exponent in terms of AI chips. There are also no details about who makes the chip, and one of the candidates it would be SMICwhich has 7nm technology. They are very far away, and they have another problem. The technical achievement of these engineers is certainly notable, but everything indicates that they are still far from what NVIDIA and its competitors are achieving. like AMD or Google with its recent TPU Ironwood. There is another element that works against them: Chinese manufacturers continue without having direct access to the most advanced photolithography on the market, and although it also there is progress from Chinese manufacturers in that sense, competing is certainly complicated without access to the most advanced technologies. Pressure. In 2024 the company achievement revenues of 598 million yuan (73 million euros) with a net profit of 85.9 million yuan, but in the first half of the year the income was only 102 million yuan and had losses of 144 million yuan. The firm has reached an agreement with its investors by which it will have to go public at the end of 2026, or else it will be forced to buy back shares. The financial pressure is therefore notable for the company, which must demonstrate in the coming months that its roadmap is truly competitive. In Xataka | China was no longer supposed to be able to get its hands on NVIDIA’s most advanced chips. Until he found a shortcut in Indonesia

Samsung has been gradually shaping its super high-end range for years. And the result is the triumph of the S25 Ultra for another year

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The verdict of the jury of the Xataka NordVPN Awards 2025 has been clear. In a year where competition has been fierce in the premium segment, with Apple renewing its commitment to iPhone 17 and Chinese brands like Alive or Oppo pushing the limits of photography, there has been a traditional winner: The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra has won gold in the most coveted category. Prima facie, may seem like a conservative decision. And the Galaxy S25 Ultra is not a disruptive mobile; It doesn’t make a huge leap in performance or photography. However, his victory responds to a reality that we verified during our analysis: a perfect balance. It is not a victory resulting from chance or a specific success, but the culmination of a strategy that the Korean firm began five years ago. While other manufacturers lurched in search of wow effect every twelve months (and even less), Samsung decided that its ‘Ultra’ surname already had a defined identity: the super high-end customer is not looking for experiments—faster charges, sensors with better numbers, higher capacity batteries—but rather certainties. The Galaxy S25 Ultra has not reinvented the wheel, but has made it roll better than anyone else: these are the technical and experience reasons that make it the king of 2025. Something with which I can’t agree more. When the screen matters (and a lot) If you have used a Galaxy S24 Ultrayou know the pain. Those rectangular corners that dug into the palm of the hand were the price to pay for having the largest and most spectacular screen. With the Galaxy S25 Ultra, Samsung has smoothed over that roughness. It’s not just that the corners have been softened: it’s that the phone has lost a few grams. It may seem like a smaller figure on paper, but in the hand, the difference between one and the other is very noticeable. Maintaining the 6.9-inch screen and 5,000 mAh battery while reducing weight (and a little thickness) is the kind of change that justifies the award. Of course, perhaps after saying goodbye to those corners he has lost one of his identifying marks at first glance: now he looks like the rest of his younger brothers. That does not mean that it is at this point that the maturity of the concept is appreciated: it took Samsung years to correct the course from those curved screens, beautiful, but not entirely comfortable. The S25 Ultra is the recognition that usability must come before pretty aesthetics, even in the premium segment. And if that means sacrificing the visual identity of the extinct ‘Note’ in favor of ergonomics, then too. On the other hand, the anti-reflective treatment of its predecessor already seemed like a game changer. This year, it is maintained, and its screen is also improved with more mature brightness management. They are one of those small details that matter: I don’t need 6,000 nits if I have a panel that eliminates reflections and it offers me very pure blacks in broad daylight. This panel does not seek to win on the technical sheet, but on experience. And there is a technical detail that we often overlook but that makes a difference in everyday life: visual fatigue. Although Samsung remains conservative with PWM Dimming (492 Hz vs. 2,000+ Hz for the Chinese competition), the panel calibration and automatic brightness management in One UI have reached an exquisite point. Let’s not forget that we still have a real Quad HD+ resolutionsomething that many rivals they have sacrificed dropping to 1.5K to save battery or increase the refresh rate. Samsung has not made that sacrifice, and it is appreciated. Power without anxiety and mature chambers It was easy for Samsung to deliver high-end performance: the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 has given way to a Snapdragon 8 Elite who plays in another league. Although in synthetic stress tests the mobile can suffer considerable throttling, in real use – editing video or playing demanding titles like ‘Genshin Impact’ – this drop in theoretical performance is imperceptible. Samsung has prioritized system stability over raw benchmark numbers: I confirm that it is the right decision for a productivity device. My biggest fear was that the power of the new chip would eat up the battery, the reality has been the opposite. Getting to the end of the day with half the battery is possible: Samsung has shown that optimization can improve autonomy. Now, it goes without saying that to continue winning our super high-end award, the South Korean will have to join the new trend in batteries: those of silicon-carbon. This year it has not been, but next 2026 forces Samsung to take the leap that other manufacturers are experiencing. And what if it becomes notable: mobile phones with 7,000 mAh batteries and more are flooding the Android market. In the photographic field, this is where the philosophy of refinement is most noticeable. Do you miss a radical change in camera hardware? Sometimes, although if you value consistency more, not so much. The Galaxy S25 Ultra solved the Achilles heel of its predecessor: the ultra wide angle. By raising the resolution to 50 MP with a new sensor, this camera finally does not clash with the rest. Furthermore, the recording in LOG and AI noise removal are quite useful tools for content creators. An aspect in which it approaches the high level of the iPhone in video recording. No, it is not the most exciting camera of the year, but it is one of the few that does not leave you lying around: whatever photo you want to take, it offers very consistent results. Samsung has got the point of its photography. A software to match Finally, part of the prize is also for the Android software: Gone are the days of Touchwiz as well as the first versions of One UI that did not achieve the promised user experience. One UI 7 has turned AI from a curiosity into a complete tool suite; and in … Read more

We have been searching for dark matter for 90 years. Now a Japanese man believes he has found his “fingerprint”

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Since Fritz Zwicky suggested the existence of dark matter in 1933, the reality is that it has been one of the great ghosts of modern physics, generating many debates about its existence. The little we know indicates that this matter is there because we see how its gravity pushes galaxiesbut we have never been able to see it or touch it. It is invisible. Or at least, that’s what we believed until now. And to ‘see’ this matter you have to be a true superhero, since it does not emit, absorb or reflect light. Something that makes it completely invisible to telescopes around the world. But it is not something that is a small part of what surrounds us, but which makes up 85% of the total matter in the universe. But now there is hope to have more information about this great mystery of physics thanks to a study Professor Tomonori Totani of the University of Tokyo claims to have found the first direct evidence of this elusive substance. He has not seen it directly with his own eyes, but he has detected the “smoke” of his gun: a very specific gamma ray signal emanating from the halo of our own Milky Way and that eerily coincides with theoretical predictions of how dark matter behaves. A large amount of data. To understand the discovery, you have to look at the sky with gamma ray eyes. Totani has used a total of 15 years of data accumulated by NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (LAT). But the important thing was undoubtedly knowing where to look: in the galactic halo. That is, the ‘quiet’ outskirts of the Milky Way, excluding the galactic disk to avoid interference. What he found when cleaning the background noise was surprising: an excess of gamma rays with a very specific energy peak, located at 20 billion electron volts (20 GeV). The importance. So far so good, but… Why is it important? Basically, because it doesn’t fit what we would expect from normal astrophysical sources, like pulsars or supernova remnants. However, it fits like a glove for the WIMP theory. This is a theory that basically suggests that dark matter It is made up of WIMPs (Weakly Interacting Massive Particles). According to physical models, when two of these particles collide, they annihilate each other, releasing a cascade of energy in the form of gamma rays that would be detected in the universe now. And that is their conclusion: the detected signal is compatible with WIMP particles that have a mass of 500 times that of a proton. This would, therefore, be the fingerprint that gives the most information about dark matter, although it does not stop there. The shape is not a point on the map, but a soft, spherical halo that surrounds the galaxy, just as dark matter is distributed in the cosmological simulations that physics has made. The same goes for consistency, since the signal persists even when different background models are used and other known sources of noise in the universe are removed. There are precedents. This isn’t the first time someone has yelled “Eureka!” In the past, excess gamma rays have been detected at the Galactic Center (known as GCE), but the scientific community has tended to think that this signal comes from undetected millisecond pulsars, rather than dark matter. The key to Totani’s study is that he has looked where no one was looking in such detail. By moving away from the center and analyzing the diffuse halo, it is where he has found a much cleaner signal that does not invite so many doubts about its origin. There are still doubts. The study itself admits that the calculated cross section (the probability of interaction) is higher than the upper levels established by the observation of dwarf galaxies, which are often used as scale for dark matter. This means two things: either our models of the density of dark matter in the Milky Way are incorrect (which is possible, since there is a lot of uncertainty in the profile of the halo), or we are looking at a new and unknown astrophysical phenomenon that mimics dark matter. A great mystery. If this finding is confirmed, we would be facing one of the greatest discoveries in physics of the 21st century. It would confirm that dark matter is composed of particles that we can detect (and not primordial black holes) and open a new door for physics. go beyond the standard model. But as we say, this still needs to be verified by a second laboratory such as the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory (CTAO) that may have the ability to detect these gamma ray spectral lines. Image | A. Schaller (STScI) In Xataka | Exactly 100 years ago we began to understand how the world works. Quantum physics has radically changed our lives

Europe has been closing refineries for 10 years. Now even a fire in Nigeria raises the price of diesel

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Diesel prices in Europe have once again set off alarm bells. In a matter of days, the market has experienced a sharp rebound that cannot be interpreted as a one-off shock, but rather as the symptom of a fragile energy system that, in the face of a global chain of incidents, has left the continent without defenses. A chain of critical interruptions. The immediate origin is in a succession of stoppages in refineries and international tensions. According to the Financial TimesEuropean operators reacted with concern after several facilities in Kuwait, the United States and Nigeria were forced to stop or reduce production due to fires or technical problems. These interruptions coincided with already very low inventories and with demand that remains stronger than expected. Adding to this instability was the announcement that United States sanctions against the two largest Russian producers, Lukoil and Rosneft, will come into effect immediately. As the British media explains, these measures will block any operation related to the international assets of both companies, including refineries that still indirectly supply the European market. Only the Bulgarian Lukoil refinery has received a temporary exemption until 2026. The scenario is even more complicated with the fall of Russian crude oil. According to Bloombergits price has fallen to the lowest level in more than two years, just when large Asian buyers have paused purchases due to the entry into force of sanctions. In addition, the EU has also sanctioned Russian refined products that arrive re-exported from India or Türkiye, a flow that had served as an indirect way to compensate for the lack of European diesel. An extremely vulnerable market. Europe has lost refining capacity over the last decade. According to data cited by the Financial Timesthe continent has closed about 400,000 barrels per day since 2024. This reduction means that it is increasingly dependent on imported fuels and a global market that has become more volatile and unpredictable. The European industrial crisis amplifies this problem. Based on data from the petrochemical industry, high energy costs and Asian competition have caused massive closures of plants in the Netherlands, Germany and the United Kingdom. This industrial deterioration also affects the infrastructure linked to fuel processing. For analyst Benedict Georgethe result is clear: “European prices are much more sensitive to any disruption because Europe has closed many refineries in recent years.” A tense world. Although the price of diesel has skyrocketed, the global crude oil market presents a paradox. The International Energy Agency foresees a record surplus in 2026powered by the increase in OPEC+ production and for the rebirth of the American offshore. However, this future abundance is not alleviating current tension. As Bloomberg points outthe market remains trapped between sanctions, fears of specific shortages and sudden changes in global flows. Added to this is a particularly delicate geopolitical context for Europe. The peace plan proposed by the United States for Ukraine has generated a “diplomatic storm” in Brussels and kyiv for their apparent alignment with pro-Moscow positions. This diplomatic uncertainty – which affects sanctions, energy and continental security – adds pressure to an EU that already depends on abroad to guarantee its diesel supply after two years of war. A direct hit. Europe faces a structural problem: it has little of its own refining capacity, low inventories and a growing dependence on imports. Every global incident reaches the European consumer almost unmuffled. And this directly affects Spain for three reasons: Spanish transport depends mainly on diesel. Trucks, logistics vans, buses and much of rural transport continue to use diesel. The escalation is transferred to the prices of goods. Food, imported products, construction materials… Everything that moves by road becomes more expensive when diesel does. Price spikes are amplified. Being a net importer, Spain especially suffers from international volatility. The rapidity with which diesel has risen shows that Europe “has no margin”: each shock becomes a direct blow for consumers and companies. For a standard 55 liter tank, filling a diesel car is already around 79 euros, while with 95 gasoline the cost is close to 82 euros, according to current average prices. Is there relief in sight? In the short term, analysts cited by Financial Times They believe the rebound could moderate during the winter months, when refineries avoid scheduled shutdowns to maximize production. But they warn that the market will remain “vulnerable to any disruption.” In the medium term, the perspective is contradictory. On the one hand, the International Energy Agency anticipates a global surplus in 2026 and an increase in production in both the United States and OPEC+. On the other hand, Chinawhich has purchased more than 150 million barrels for reserves— could stop its acquisitions at any time, releasing an excess capable of sinking global prices or further tightening the chains if it decides to continue accumulating. The warning of a weak system. Europe faces uncomfortable evidence: it has built a fragile energy system at a time of maximum global tension. The combination of refinery shutdowns, sanctions on Russia, diplomatic tensions and loss of industrial capacity has left the continent exposed. As the London media summarizes, “inventories are extremely low and demand is better than expected.” An explosive mixture. While the world navigates between a future surplus and constant geopolitical crises, the present shows that any spark – a fire, a sanction or a diplomatic disagreement – ​​can reignite the European diesel market. And Europe, for now, appears to have few tools to prevent the next shock from hitting even harder. Image | FreePik Xataka | The world is heading towards an oil surplus: the US responds by filling the Gulf of Mexico with platforms again

the science behind a geological risk that repeats itself every 1,200 years

by

Although the tsunamis seem like effects that are reserved for the Japanese coasts, the reality is that Spain He also has many ballots to suffer an event of this magnitude on our coasts. Cádiz is one of the locations with the highest risk of suffering a tsunami in Spain, and the authorities wanted to verify that the emergency and response systems they work in case this type of event occurs at any time. In order to verify this, the authorities carried out a drill in mid-November in which the ES-Alert systemseveral schools and all emergency services. And given this great display, the question is mandatory: what are the chances of a tsunami occurring in Cádiz? Cádiz is at the center of this simulation because it is the area with the greatest danger from tsunamis in the country, due to the history behind it and the seismicity of the Azores-Gibraltar area. For this reason, the Junta de Andalucía has prepared a Emergency Plan for the Risk of Tsunami (PEMA) and has chosen Cádiz for the largest tsunami simulation carried out in Spain. Because. In the past, geological records indicate that at least five large tsunamis have occurred in the Gulf of Cádiz in the last 7,000 years. All of these associated with megaearthquakes at the plate boundary between Africa and Eurasia. Added to this is the historical reference: the tsunami linked to the Lisbon earthquake of November 1, 1755which completely flooded Cádiz and part of the Andalusian coast with waves of several meters in a matter of dozens of minutes. The paleoseismology works of the CSIC and several universities place the recurrence interval of these events between 1,200 and 1,500 yearslong enough to be socially forgotten, but too short to be ignored in risk planning. This places the southwest of the peninsula as one of the most exposed areas in Europe to tsunamis, despite the fact that the “perceived risk” on the street has historically been very low. And this is precisely something that has been analyzed in the layers of sand and marine remains left inland and that gives us information about what happened thousands of years ago. Although logically always with a time frame that is approximate. Why now. The fact of doing the simulation in this month of November may make us think that scientists have found evidence that a large tsunami is coming to Cádiz, but nothing could be further from the truth. What is happening in this case is that a risk that has been known for a long time and for which, until now, hardly anything had been tested on a large scale, is being taken more seriously. That is why this scientific evidence that tells us about the real risk that exists in this case on the coast of Cádiz has been transferred to the regulations. In 2015, the Basic Planning Guideline for Civil Protection against the Risk of Tsunamiwhich recognizes the Gulf of Cádiz as a critical area where the expected wave height exceeds 0.5 meters. A framework that is not limited to pretty maps, but defines decision guidelines according to magnitude and location of earthquakes, chains of command, warning protocols and response time objectives, with the National Geographic Institute, AEMET and the future SINAM network as input sensors. What has been simulated. In this case, Cádiz has simulated an earthquake with an approximate magnitude of 7.5-7.6 to the southwest of Cape San Vicente, very similar to the one in Lisbon in 1755 and which generates a tsunami that points directly to the western Andalusian coast. In this scenario, the propagation models estimate between 45 and 60 minutes from the activation of the alert until the arrival of the first wave from Cádiz, which in practice is the clock with which Civil Protection works. The objective of the exercise was to virtually save as many people as possible in that one-hour window: horizontal evacuation to non-flood areas, vertical evacuation to high floors, beach and port rescues, protection of cultural assets and management of damaged buildings were tested. On paper, all this already existed in manuals and maps; What was missing was to see how a real city behaves when a tsunami warning sounds in the middle of a work morning.​ Images | Matt Paul Catalano In Xataka | There are scientists deliberately causing earthquakes in the Alps and they have a good reason for it

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