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115,000 years ago, Neanderthals were already obsessed with ‘seasonal cuisine’. The evidence is in a cave in Murcia

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For a long time, the evolutionary narrative has told us a story of superiority in which the Homo sapiens He survived because he was smarter, more adaptable and above all because he was capable of long-term planning. At his side were the neanderthalswho were seen as a group of opportunistic hunters who lived from day to day without planning anything. But science has been committed to rewriting this history for years. The Spanish case. 115,000 years ago, long before our species set foot on the Iberian Peninsula, Neanderthals already inhabited the Cave of the Planes in Cartagena and even collected shellfish to feed themselves. But they did not do it in any way or at any time, but rather they had a perfectly designed collection calendar. This is the conclusion to which a team has arrived where the University of Burgos and the International Prehistoric Research Center of Cantabria participated, without the need for a time machine, but ‘only’ needed an analysis of oxygen isotopes. How they have done it. Here the researchers analyzed the remains of shells of two very specific species, such as the Phorcus turbinatus popularly known as caracolillo, and the Patella ferruginea. The interesting thing about these is that, as the mollusks grow, the carbonate in their shells traps oxygen isotopes whose proportion varies depending on the temperature of the sea water at that exact moment. By analyzing these layers, scientists found an authentic “prehistoric thermometer”, achieving unprecedented resolution, as they discovered the exact time of year in which the mollusk was collected and consumed. The results. What was seen is that 78% of the consumption of these mollusks occurred in the coldest months, between November and April. On the contrary, during the summer, consumption plummeted to a mere 5%. And here the question is practically obligatory: Why did Neanderthals prefer to go into the coast in the middle of winter to search for shellfish? The answer suggests that during winter and autumn, due to their reproductive cycle, these mollusks have more meat, a better texture and, therefore, a better flavor. But also, by avoiding summer, Neanderthals avoided the rapid decomposition of food due to heat and, much more importantly, they avoided the feared “red tides” that were a proliferation of toxic microalgae that make shellfish poisonous during the warm months. The inferiority complex. The truly important thing about this study is not the discovery that Neanderthals ate shellfish, but rather the irrefutable demonstration that they carried out planned seasonal harvesting. Until now, it was thought that the ability to understand annual cycles and diet planning was a consequence of a cognitive advantage of our species, but now we see that Neanderthals were more advanced than we thought. Images | Marc Tremblay wirestock at Magnific In Xataka | A mixture of 4,000 kilometers: we have the first detailed map of the coexistence between Neanderthals and Sapiens

Almost 2,000 years ago a man died with a mysterious case while fleeing Pompeii. We finally know his secret

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Get in the situation. It’s any day of any month and you are at home doing something when suddenly you hear screams in the street. You look out the window and see people running away in terror. Not only that. In the distance you see how the ash and burning rock rise from a volcano that both you and the rest of your neighbors thought were immersed in unalterable lethargy. What would you do in the face of such a scenario? something similar They lived 1947 years ago the Pompeians. Now we finally know what one of the unfortunate people who did not manage to save himself did: hold on to your briefcase of doctor. When Vesuvius woke up. The ruins of Pompeii were discovered long ago several centuries and archaeologists have been unraveling its mysteries for decades, trying to know above all what happened that fateful August 24, 79 AD (some versions speak of October) in which Vesuvius erupted and condemned the city of Campania, along with other towns such as Herculaneum, Stabia and Oplontis, asphyxiated under a layer of ash. However, despite all the research and rivers of ink that have flowed on the subject in recent years, the ruins of Pompey continue to retain their ability to surprise us. A figure in Ortho dei Fuggiaschi. One of the corners that has aroused the most fascination is the Ortho dei Fuggiaschithe ‘Garden of the Fugitives’, where we have found the remains of some 13 victims of Vesuvius. The reason is very simple: thanks to the method archaeologist molding Giuseppe Fiorelli20 centuries later, their corpses continue to starkly reflect the desperation of those men, women and children who tried to save themselves while their city was eclipsed by a dense rain of ash and lapilli, the walls collapsed and Vesuvius spewed pyroclasts. We knew that the victims who ended up perishing in the Ortho dei Fuggiaschi were probably seeking refuge, we also have a fairly precise idea of What were your last moments like? before dying. Thanks to Fiorelli’s plaster mold method we can even visualize the scene. The big question is… Can we go further? Who were those people? What did they do? What did they do before leaving their homes on the run? They are fascinating questions. Especially because, before perishing, some victims of Vesuvius they left us clues about your routine. There are cases, for example, in which the scene suggests that the victims were carrying jewelry and coinswhich leads us to think that they were trying to keep their most valuable possessions safe, perhaps so as not to lose them. Perhaps to start a new life in an impulse not so different from the one we would have today. Clinging to the medicine cabinet. Now researchers have discovered another story in it Ortho dei Fuggiaschil. More than 70 years after the first excavations and thanks to the use of To be more precise, scientists have identified a small box of organic material with metal parts and a series of instruments “compatible with a medical kit.” For example, a slab of slate that could have been used to make medical or cosmetic substances and surgical instruments. The x-ray and tomography examination has also shown a cloth bag with bronze and silver coins and a mechanism with a toothed wheel that allowed the box to be closed. Those responsible for the site stand out Furthermore, the study was carried out without putting the molds at risk. The decline of a doctor? That is the hypothesis with which the researchers work, who believe that the briefcase gives us a clue as to who the person who died next to him was. “He was probably a doctor, a victim of the tragedy while trying to escape, taking with him some of the tools of his trade,” he explains in a statement the Archaeological Park of Pompeii, which insists that the instruments located inside the case provide us with “a valuable and rare clue about his profession.” “2,000 years ago there were people who were not limited to practicing medicine during office hours, but were doctors at all times, even when fleeing the eruption, which was thwarted by the pyroclastic cloud that reached the group of fugitives who were trying to leave the city through Porta Nocera,” reflect Gabriel Zuchtriegel. “This man took his instruments with him to be prepared to rebuild his life elsewhere thanks to his profession, but perhaps also to help others.” Images | Pompeii Archaeological Park In Xataka | 2,000 years later, Pompeii continues to reveal fascinating things: the latest is a blue room for unknown uses

Starlink has been ruining astronomers’ nights for years. Now it turns out that their launches are leaving their mark on the climate

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Much has been said about the great light pollution that generate the Starlink satellites from SpaceX. However, not so much has been said about something that, if we think about it, is much more evident. Air pollution derived from launches. Any space launch, in fact, can generate this type of contamination. However, satellite trains require such a large number of launches that it is not unusual for them to be of particular concern to scientists today. 15,000 satellites and counting. A team of British and American scientists has carried out Recently a study brought this problem to the fore and predicted what the effects could be in the short term. This investigation indicates that there are currently around 15,000 telecommunications satellites in orbit, more than 10,000 of which belong to SpaceX. This represents three times as many satellites as in 2020 and the worst thing is that the number continues to increase. As a consequence, according to the simulations of these researchers, by 2029, these satellites could account for 40% of the atmospheric pollution derived from space activity. Also have calculated that by then this sector will be releasing around 870 tons of soot into the atmosphere annually. It would be more or less the same amount released by all cars in the United Kingdom, so action must be taken as soon as possible. Launch and reentry problems. The two key points at which these trains of satellites will put our planet’s climate on the ropes are launch and re-entry. With the first, a large amount of black carbon. These are fine carbon particles that come from the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels. Regarding reentry, it mainly releases aluminum oxides. The satellites must be changed every 5 years. Later, when orbital conditions are favorable, this re-entry can occur, the price for which for the planet is also very expensive. The effects. Black carbon is harmful to the Earth’s climate on two levels. On the one hand, the particles that make it up have a great capacity to retain the heat of the Sun. That is why they play a very important role in the global warming of our planet. On the other hand, they can affect cloud formation in two different ways. Sometimes they prevent their formation, causing droughts, and other times they trigger extreme rainfall. Regarding aluminum oxides, can damage the ozone layerwith all the harmful effects that this entails. The place matters. The main problem with the release of these polluting substances is that it occurs in the highest layers of the atmosphere. The contamination at this height, if space activity did not exist, would be residual. However, the launches deposit that black carbon there, which remains for 2 to 3 years, retaining heat and affecting the clouds. That is why black carbon derived from space activity is estimated to have a much greater effect on the climate than that of ships, cars or power plants, for example. What is to come is very dangerous. It is said that Elon Musk wants to launch a million satellites into space. This is possibly an exaggerated figure. But it is clear that SpaceX has enormous objectives set. In fact, already It is even looking for launch platforms outside the United Statesbecause in his native country there is no room for such ambition. To all this we must add that other companies have increasingly ambitious objectives with their own satellite trains. This is, for example, the case of Amazon with Leo. The situation can become very worrying if alternatives are not sought, such as less polluting fuels for launches or more durable satellites that require fewer re-entries. Science will probably take us there at some point; but, in the meantime, the consequences for the planet will become worse and worse. We have time to solve it, but we must act now. Images | Gwendolyn Kurzen In Xataka | In 2018, Elon Musk put his own car into orbit. Eight years later it is still circling the Earth

Europe has been a spectator of robotaxis for years. Madrid has just decided that it is okay

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The robotaxis They have already landed in some cities around the world, but their use is still testimonial. Even more so in Europealthough everything indicates that soon we will be talking more and more about this type of vehicles. In fact, just as they count In Expansión, in Madrid we are going to see the very first pilot test in December of autonomous taxis with the main VTC platforms on the market. It will be the first real-scale pilot test of the European Union. What has happened. In the last quarter of this year, the Community of Madrid will launch the first EU robotaxis pilot project with real passengers. Uber, Cabify and Bolt will participate in the initiative, although the call is open to more companies with which it is already negotiating. The test will start in Madrid capital and two other municipalities yet to be confirmed, with routes in previously defined and controlled areas. Just like share From the middle, the initial fleet will be between 50 and 100 vehicles with level 5 automation, that is, without the need for a human driver at the wheel. Why is it a milestone? Until now, no European city had launched a project of such magnitude. The only previous experience in the EU was a very limited test in Zagreb with just two vehicles. The rest of the world is years ahead, and the fact is that Waymo already operates about 3,000 autonomous cars in American cities such as San Francisco, Los Angeles or Phoenix and has accumulated more than 20 million journeys. in Chinacompanies such as Apollo Go (Baidu), Pony.ai and WeRide have more than 5,500 vehicles in circulation. Europe, on the other hand, had not yet taken the step. How the pilot will work. According to share From Expansión, in a first phase, the vehicles will have a human supervisor on board whose function will be to monitor the automated driving system and inform users about the technology. After a few weeks, and depending on the data collected, we will move on to the driverless phase. To do this, the user will reserve the car from their mobile phone, access the vehicle with their phone and arrive at their destination without anyone in the driver’s seat. Among the vehicle manufacturers that could participate are Jaguar, the Stellantis group and the Chinese brand Arcfox (of the BAIC group). From the media they indicate that the technological operators will be already established companies such as WeRide, Baidu, Pony.ai or Waymo. Legislation. The General Directorate of Traffic has been working since 2015 in a legal framework for automated vehiclesand the Community of Madrid has promoted the creation of the Office for Vehicles and Automated Mobility (OFVA). The pilot has, in this sense, the mission of collecting real usage data to then lay the foundations for future legislation on autonomous transport in Spain. The protocols include specific training for police, firefighters and emergency services. Anabel Díaz, vice president of Uber for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, counted to Expansión that Madrid has “the opportunity to be at the forefront of Europe.” Deployment in Europe. A few months ago, Lyft announced an alliance with the Chinese Baidu to launch robotaxis in the United Kingdom and Germany throughout 2026. Uber, for its part, already has agreements with more than 18 autonomous driving companies globally. Europe is rapidly becoming the next battlefield for autonomous transportation, and the large platforms know that whoever arrives first with regulatory muscle will have an advantage. And now what. The success of the test will depend on whether the data collected is sufficient to build a solid regulation, that users show reasonable acceptance of the technology, and that the companies that intend to participate want to continue investing in the technology. Uber has already indicated that plans to make large investments in this field in Madrid. All eyes are now on the project, as Spain could become a reference laboratory for robotaxis, like the rest of the European capitals that are already on the eve of landing the technology. We’ll see how everything turns out. Cover image | Amy Dugiere In Xataka | China has been boasting about its driverless robotaxis for years. Until more than 100 have stood at once in Wuhan

In Japan there is no doubt that they live worse than 30 years ago. Houses are literally getting smaller.

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The demographic crisis that drags Japan comes long. In 2024 we say that it is the great challenge of the nation, the same one that we could summarize with one fact: if we continue like this, By 2531 all its inhabitants will have the same last name. That’s why we have seen all kinds of ideas and proposalssome with more common sense than othersbut all with the idea of ​​raising birth rates and combating aging. Now there is another fact that aggravates the situation even more: the houses are smaller. The house shrinks. The data is official and comes from a study that is carried out every five years in the nation. The average housing space in Japan has reached its lowest level in 30 years, with an average of 90 square meters at the end of 2024three square meters less than the 2003 peak, according to the government study. The change reflects a trend towards reduction in the size of homes, evident in the last five years. Additionally, in both single-family homes and multi-family units, including rentals and condominiums. Multifamily, in particular, average only 50 square metersfive less than what the government considers adequate for two adults in urban areas. It’s the economy, friend. They counted on a report in Nikkei that the increase in construction costs, which has shot up 30% since 2015 in the country, is the main driver of this reduction of space in homes. To keep prices affordable and protect their profit margins, builders are downsizing homes, a practice known as “hidden price gouging.” Not only that. In addition, land prices in popular residential areas are also on the rise, which further aggravates the situation. This increase in prices has reduced the demand for larger, more expensive, personalized homes in favor of smaller, cheaper units. Impact on quality of life. It is another of the legs that slips from the problem. The reduction in living space creates discomfort, especially in small homes. For many people, like a 50-year-old woman who lives in a 30-square-meter apartment with her husband, the situation is described as suffocating. Even single-person homes, which They represent 38% of households according to the national censusare often considered too small for a comfortable lifestyle. And then there are young people, who face greater barriers to accessing larger homes, with prohibitive prices even on the second-hand market. Young people and birth rates. All this leads to what we indicated at the beginning. The reduced living space and the impossibility of purchasing larger homes discourage young couples from, for example, starting families, exacerbating the already worrying drop in the birth rate. Housing policies alone do not seem sufficient to reverse this trend, and experts such as Masayuki Takahashi emphasize that The key is to increase salaries in a sustained manner. During the period of high economic growth in Japan, rising wages allowed more people to access spacious housing, something that is not the case today. The elderly and housing. The housing problem goes much further. In fact, every time More seniors in Japan face difficulties renting housingeven if they have financial means. Cases like that of an 88-year-old man in Tokyo, who, with more than 100 million yen in savings after planning to sell his apartment, experienced multiple rejections for not being able to provide an emergency contact under 70 years of agea common requirement among homeowners in the nation. After four months of searching, he managed to find an apartment, but the case reflects a broader problem. Rent and the veto for older adults. According to 2020 census data, Japan had 6.7 million single-person households with residents aged 65 or older, accounting for 12% of the total. By 2030, it is estimated that this number will reach 8 million. Again, even though there are approximately 9.3 million of vacant homes, landlords’ reluctance to rent to seniors is a significant obstacle. In August 2025, the Ministry of Infrastructure published a survey specific about owners of the akiya which revealed that approximately 60% of these properties were inherited, with more than 70% built before 1980, and that more than 70% show signs of deterioration or damage. Reasons? 66% of landlords expressed reluctance to accept older tenants, in a ministry survey. The main fear: the risk of death of the tenant alone of which we have talked beforewhich can require costly cleanups and require reporting to future tenants for three years. This situation is worsened by the increasing loneliness of older people and the lack of close family members throughout the nation. Ultimately, and with official figures and data In hand, it does not seem that the housing problem in Japan has improved for three decades. In reality, and sticking to those numbers, houses are literally smaller and more expensive, both to buy and to rent. a problem that we see in many other nationswhere the practice of downsizing in homes to maintain competitive prices ends up affecting the stability of the real estate market and the residents’ own quality of lifewith special emphasis on the case of young people and the elderly. A version of this article was published in January 2025 Image | Ted McGrath In Xataka | Japan has known for many years the secret to cleaning dust less frequently at home In Xataka | If you thought that living in Japan was already a luxury, wait until you see the latest house signed by Aston Martin

Sony has been aiming for the best noise cancellation in headphones for years. Now he wants to aim for something else: luxury

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One of the companies that is most committed to sound is Sony. It makes all the sense in the world considering the company’s history and they have just presented their new model of over-ear headphones. These are the Sony 1000X The Collexion, headphones apart from the WH-1000XM6 For a few months now, they have been betting on sound quality, comfort and something as palpable as it is, at the same time, intangible: luxury. Are expensive headphones always better than cheap ones? Hand finished with noble materials It seems unbelievable, but ten years have passed since the Japanese company launched the MDR-1000X. They were the first generation of what would later be renamed the WH-1000 that have given the company so much success (especially the XM3 and XM4) and, to celebrate the event, Sony wanted to look back to create your 1000X The Collexion. In terms of design, they are very similar to the WH-1000XM6, but with finishes that are reminiscent of those MDR-1000X with synthetic leather wrapping the headphones (and not just the pads). Speaking of the pads, Sony assures that they have redesigned both the part that covers the ears and the headband with a highly padded material designed so that we can wear them for hours and hours without them bothering us. But where the Japanese want to show that luxury is in the finishes. To start, the materials. All we see is faux fur and metal. Plastic is far from the rest of the family to opt for this metal that has brushed parts and others polished with a mirror effect. Furthermore, it is not just any polish, since something that they wanted to make clear during the presentation is that they are all hand finished and with several layers so that the Sony logo and the connectors between the headband and the headphones themselves have a shiny finish. At a design level, it is evident that this attempt to call for luxury that the Japanese are looking for is fulfilled, with a telescopic system to adapt the headphones to more head sizes that does not reveal their moving parts or rails. Apart from this, there is also a redesign inside the capsules to eliminate dead spaces. With this, they have managed to pass from a width of 45.4 mm on the XM6 to 40.1 mm on these The Collexion. The main idea in the design of this model is that they “resonate” with you, that they are a functional accessory, but an almost fashionable accessory with that exterior of synthetic leather, metal and with a much more premium finish. Regarding the weight, it remains at 320 grams. Sound with old acquaintances and new technologies Headphones do not live on design alone and you need a sound to accompany them. During the presentation, Sony wanted to clarify something: the XM6 series continues to be the spearhead in terms of noise cancellation. The 1000X The Collexion has 12 earcups to capture ambient sound, and the Japanese company is aiming for active cancellation comparable to its main line of headphones. In the sound part, things change. The interior redesign has also been used for a new custom diaphragm unit with which they aim to achieve greater separation between instruments and voices, as well as richer high frequencies to, in general, offer a richer sound. It supports Hi-Res Audio Wireless LDAC, a 10-band equalizer and is the first headphones with DSEE Ultimate technology that uses AI to “decompress” digital music signals. It’s something they do in real time to, according to Sony, restore the lost details and dynamic range of the songs. To round out the software section, the 360 ​​Upmix function has three modes (game, music and cinema) to create spatial audio. And regarding autonomy, Sony says up to 24 hours on a charge. Launch and price of the Sony 1000X The Collexion Given the features, it’s time to talk about the price. As we say, Sony aims at a different segment than the one they already have covered with the WH-1000XM6 that move around 350 euros and these 1000X The Collexion will arrive for 630 euros. They will be available this May and, in addition to the redesign of the headphones, the box now looks like a bag with a magnetic closure that accompanies that premium “package”. In Xataka | The best quality-price Bluetooth headphones: which one to buy for your mobile in 2026

He wrote several bestsellers on productivity. Eight years later he denies it: “Our definition is broken”

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Cal Newport He has been obsessed with productivity for decades. And yes, ‘obsessed’ is the word: a Georgetown computer science professor does not publish three books in less than five years if he does not have an almost unhealthy fixation with the subject. In a very short time, he became one of the most recognized ‘gurus’ in the field and his works (‘Deep Work‘, ‘Digital Minimalism‘ either ‘A world without email‘) could be found in airports around the world. Then one day, suddenly, saw the light. What if it’s all a huge joke? Newport doesn’t say it exactly like that, of course. But, as you will see immediately, It’s in the subtext of everything he says. in recent times. Because under the idea that it is only moving from ‘individual advice’ to ‘structural diagnosis’, there is something else: a basic problem. What really is productivity? As Newport explainsin the factory or in the field, productivity was measurable and easily comparable. Henry Ford, to give the most obvious example for an American, was able to justify the enormous investments that his continuous assembly lines required because they had figures and data. The problem is that the world doesn’t work like that anymore. In the mid-20th century, knowledge workers began to become the most powerful workforce and measuring their productivity is much more elusive. And, to solve it, organizations resorted to a shortcut: If I see you working, I assume you are being productive. Or, to use Newport’s wordswe have used a definition of productivity that is no longer “the use of visible activity as a rough approximation to useful effort.” And then the pandemic arrived. For our expert, COVID was the turning point. life anxiety, the exhausted workerschained zoom calls, silent resignation…the world had been focused on ‘perform being busy‘ and suddenly there was no one looking at you. Suddenly, nothing we did made sense. But as behavioral psychology has taught us, when something we usually do stops working, our first reaction is not to stop doing it. It means doing it harder, more often, with more insistence. These six years have shown us that it was a dead end. And what do we do? For Newport, the answer is clear and is based on three principles: do less things, work at a more natural pace and obsess over quality, value and excellence. If what we do has become a malicious proxy that only ends up burning us, we have to stop doing it. Newport calls it ‘slow productivity’ because, as he said, he is obsessed with productivity; but also because, deep down, it is still in the same scheme. Because, after all, who can decide to work less? As Vivian Song denounced“Newport barely holds those who design the culture of overwhelm accountable.” EITHER, in the words of Joshua Kim“‘slow productivity’ is less a work strategy than a marker of privilege.” The interesting thing about all this is the diagnosis, the recognition (from the very heart of the management publishing industry) that what we do does not work. Now we have to take the problem seriously and find a solution that really works for everyone. Image | Andreas Klassen In Xataka | “Doing nothing” is a great technique to improve your productivity. Neuroscience is clear

Schwarzenegger continues training every day at 78 years old and the fascinating thing is that he is right

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At 78 years old, the seven-time Mr. Olympia and the most famous cyborg in the history of cinema continues to faithfully attend his appointment at the gym, as Schwarzenegger acknowledges in an entry on his personal blogwhere he explains that even on days when he has less energy he goes to exercise, something that sums up pretty well with the phrase: “No matter the pain, no matter the weight, every day I achieve a victory.” It’s a reality. His mentality, forged in the golden age of bodybuilding, might seem like the eccentricity of a Hollywood star who refuses to age. However, behind Schwarzenegger’s weights and pulley machines lies one of the most robust physiological truths of modern medicine: strength training starting at age 70 and 80 is not an aesthetic whim, It is a medical necessity. Falling into the stereotype that sport is for young people who want to show off having a good body on the beach is real nonsense, because playing sport literally becomes the next prescription for all the benefits it entails. And logically being more or less old here does not at all condition entry to a gym, as science recognizes us. Inactivity weighs more. To reach old age in better health, you don’t have to invest a lot of money in super expensive supplements or creams to keep your skin firm. And there is a widespread belief that the loss of functional capacity and weakness are inevitable consequences of getting older, but here the National Institute on Aging from the United States is blunt about it: in the vast majority of cases, physical inactivity weighs much more than biological age itself in this deterioration. One of the great silent enemies of middle age is sarcopenia, which is the gradual loss of muscle mass and strength, and which literally correlates with both quality and life expectancy. And to correct it, the only treatment we have at hand is to do strength training adapted to each person profile, directly improving our ability to perform such everyday tasks as getting up from a chair, walking to the supermarket or carrying shopping bags. It’s never too late. Another of the great myths that we also have on the table is that you are too old to start exercising, but here the scientific literature reminds us that it is false, since starting late is still (very much) worth it. Here, a study that grouped 121 randomized trials with 6,700 participants showed that progressive strength training improves muscle strength and functional capacity in older people. This resulted in an improvement in autonomy by significantly improving their walking speed and their ability to climb stairs autonomously. Besides this, a recent systematic review of the Polytechnic University of Madrid on training in older people reported that traditional strength training can achieve improvements in knee extension strength of up to 46%. That percentage, in clinical practice, is the difference between needing a walker or walking on your own. Beyond the muscle. Strength work is also important for bone formation and combating osteoporosis by reducing several cardiometabolic risk factors. Besides, the Heart Foundation points out that strength work, added to balance and mobility training, is vital to protect against falls. It is not something minor, since in people over 70 years of age a fall is not an accident, but rather it is one of the most serious clinical problems that can drastically reduce life expectancy. Added to all this is that exercise has been shown to help regulate sleep, improve mood (reducing stress and anxiety) and even protect cognitive function. Adapted. There is no need to try to emulate Schwarzenegger’s youth records to obtain these benefits, but current medical guidelines agree on a minimum effective dose that is very affordable for almost everyone. In this case, for a person over 70 years old, a reasonable guideline supported by evidence is to train strength at least 2 days per week. But here you should always adapt the exercise to each person and start with a gentle exercise and gradually increase it. Although you don’t just have to be with the dumbbell in your hand, it should be combined with balance routines, joint mobility and some aerobic work. Images | Wikipedia Victor Freitas In Xataka | We have been debating for years whether it is better to go to the gym in the morning or in the afternoon. Physiology finally has the answer

Tesla’s solar roof was going to revolutionize this segment. Ten years later it pivots to manufacture lifelong solar panels

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A decade ago Elon Musk seemed capable of anything, and many of us believed that had another revolution in his hand with Solar Roofthe Tesla solar roof that revolutionized conventional installations to camouflage them with the roofs of our houses. Their goal was to install 1,000 of these solar roofs every week by the end of 2019. The reality: there are about 3,000 solar roofs in total, and the company has decided to pivot to survive. Now it is a much more conventional company that may achieve the success that its original version never came close to. Promises and realities. The deployment of the “solar roof” proposed by the Tesla subsidiary It has been an operational failure. In 2016, the promises of performance combined with sustainable design and architecture (tempered glass tiles that generated light) were very striking. Ten years later, the product represents a residual fraction of Tesla Energy’s income, and the company has decided to surrender to the evidence. They will do what others were already doing: manufacture traditional solar panels mounted on existing roofs. Complex installation. Tesla’s big mistake was not in the panels themselves, but in the physics of the construction itself. A conventional roof is installed in a couple of days, but the Solar Roof required weeks of work for an ultra-skilled workforce. Being made up of hundreds or thousands of small individual tiles, installers had to make multiple electrical connections in an environment exposed to environmental conditions. Costs skyrocketed. Thus, a single failure could render an entire section unusable, and to make everything perfect the installation costs were high: about $106,000 before incentives, when putting solar panels on a conventional roof costs about $50,000 less. Payback is achieved in about 15-25 years, compared to 7-12 for conventional panels. In a lawsuit from several clients was revealed that in some cases the price of the installation ranged from 72,000 to 146,000 dollars. Difficulties everywhere. These types of projects proved to have many obstacles. For example, the different geometries of the roofs or their shadows. There was also the fact that Tesla tried to control the entire installation process with its own personnel, but labor shortages were a bottleneck that delayed deliveries. A reasonable (but late) decision. In early 2026 Tesla launched its new solar panel, the TSP-420which makes use of a new optimization system based on 18 energy zones. Among other things, this panel solves a problem that affected the inverter architecture of Solar Roof panels. It is a much more reasonable strategy, especially since it is much more profitable and faster to install a standard panel on a roof than to do so with Solar Roof’s original proposal. It is curious that the power generation business has not worked out for him, but yes do it that of storage with their Powerwall. Musk once again promises the (perhaps) impossible. At the Davos conference, Elon Musk announced that Tesla had as its objective create 100 GW per year of solar panel manufacturing capacity in the United States. For this purpose, the purchase of solar panels and cells is proposed. worth 2.9 billion dollars to the Chinese company Suzhou Maxwell Technologies. Too many promises. The goal seems once again exaggerated. Global solar installations in the United States in 2023 reached 32 GW, and Musk aims to reach 100 GW by the end of 2028. He would have to triple the total installed capacity that there was three years ago, and do it at a frenetic pace without any problems. We have heard this story before. The challenge seems too colossal even for the tycoon, and reminds us of the promise that he himself made in 2016. It was then that he assured that his solar roof would end up costing less than conventional roofs with traditional solar panels. He also said that the SolarCity Solar Gigafactory would produce 10 GW per year. Neither of those two promises came true. In Xataka | Mexico has a brutal potential for solar energy: at the moment it has begun to exploit it with agrovoltaics

After more than 20 years using Microsoft Office, I have switched to LibreOffice. Now I realize everything I’ve missed

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After more than two decades of unwavering loyalty to Microsoft Word, a couple of years ago I made the leap to LibreOffice. This change was not something I had planned, but rather a spontaneous decision born of frustration and fatigue. It happened one day after formatting my PC, at which point I decided to take the step and install LibreOffice. Below these lines I tell you what my experience has been like in case you are also considering something similar. 20 years of Word and Excel are exhausting For practically my entire life with computers, Microsoft Word has been my inseparable companion. I have installed it religiously on every new version of Windows, from XP times to current versions. I have witnessed its evolutionits interface changes, its sometimes controversial ribbon, and how little by little it was integrating with the cloud. I also spent some time using the web version of Office, one of the methods to have it for freewhich although I found it useful for simple tasks when I was away from home, always seemed like a decaffeinated version of its older brother. It’s fine to get by, but when you need all the features, there is no color. LibreOffice, download, install and that’s it Everything changed a few weeks ago. My PC was beginning to show symptoms of fatigue, slowness, and some random errors that made me suspect that it was time for a format. I started using it on Windows 10 before its end of support, since I had Windows 10 and 11 on different computers to stay up to date with everything that happens in Microsoft systems. So I proceeded with the formatting, installed Windows 10 again and quickly installed everything I had before and without bloatware. And that’s when I stopped to think: Do I really want to go back to Office, go through the hoops of having a Microsoft account linked, keeping track of the subscription and a thousand other moves just because I like Word? It is incredibly comforting to use free, comprehensive, open source software like LibreOffice I was honestly tired, so that It was my turning point. to opt for LibreOffice once and for all. And I know that I don’t discover anything new to those who have been using it for a long time, but this change tasted so good to me that I wanted to share it through this article. Other colleagues too They have taken this leap and explained it. LibreOffice was not unknown to me. I had tried it occasionally in the past and it had always seemed like a decent alternative, but inertia and the comfort of sticking with the familiar had kept me in the Microsoft ecosystem. This time, however, I decided to give it a serious chance.. I downloaded the latest version and installed it. The process was surprisingly easy compared to what I was used to before: download, install and go. No product keys, no linked accounts, no subscriptions. A refreshing sensation. My main work tool is the word processor, so LibreOffice Writer was my first stop. The interface, although different from Word, was quite intuitive to me. Yes, there are notable differences, but after a couple of days of continuous use, my workflow was almost as efficient as before. It should be noted that It is a very complete tool. All the functions that I usually use in my work were there: track changes, paragraph styles, spell check, page numbering, indexes… Even some options that in Word are hidden in submenus were more accessible here. It is true that the transition was not perfect. Some old DOCX documents opened with minor differences, but nothing I couldn’t fix in a few minutes. Writer saves by default in ODT format, but can export directly to PDF or save in DOC or DOCX format if you need to share documents to other users who use Office. I’m not a spreadsheet expert, but I need something reliable to organize information, create simple graphs, and occasionally apply a formula. Therefore, Calc has pleasantly surprised me. The transition from Excel was even easier than from Word. The basic formulas work practically the same, the creation of graphs is intuitive and, for my level of use, I have not missed anything at all. What I value most about LibreOffice is the feeling of freedom it gives me. It’s incredibly reassuring to use free, comprehensive, open source software like what you offer, which doesn’t rely on renewable subscriptions or constant connections to cloud services. During these years of intensive use I have not experienced any crashes or loss of information. Furthermore, another notable aspect is its lightness. LibreOffice starts noticeably faster than Office and consumes much less system resourceswhich is always appreciated. Regarding the interface, I must admit that At first I found it a bit cumbersome.. Unlike the Office ribbon, LibreOffice presents a jumble of features that can be overwhelming for a newcomer. However, as the days go by and you become familiar with its layout, you begin to appreciate having all those possibilities in view. Now that I’ve gotten used to it, I find it even more efficient to have direct access to so many features without having to navigate through multiple tabs like in Office. LibreOffice is not perfect. It has its quirks, and during this time I’ve dealt with things like opening DOC and DOCX documents almost always ending up in a bad modification of the document structure, although this is something that it has already been solved. However, for daily professional use it more than meets the requirements. The transition requires a bit of a learning curve and some patience, but the freedom you gain is worth every minute invested. After 20 years with Microsoft Office, I can say that LibreOffice is not only a viable alternative, but it will become my default tool from now on. In Xataka Basics | Microsoft 365 for free: how to get free Office on your PC … Read more

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