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Science had been looking for an alternative to laboratory mice for years without success. Until he found the moths

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In the world of science, the mouse has been for decades the undisputed king of the laboratory. However, it is an expensive, slow and, above all, ethically complex reign. That is why we have been looking for alternatives for years, and the answer may not be in a silicon chipbut an insect that you have probably seen eating the wax of a beehive. The advance. This is what researchers at the University of Exeter have arrived at, who have achieved a milestone that promises to change the rules of the game in the fight against superbacteria: They have genetically “hacked” dinner moth larvae to function as real-time biological indicators. The most impressive thing is that they even have a very visual indicator: they shine when you get sick and go off when the medicine is working correctly. The biological traffic light. The study, published this week in Naturedetails how the research team has achieved what seemed impossible: applying tools of genetic editing advanced these moths with unprecedented precision. And I know this is very important, since using insects to model human diseases had limitations, but this team has combined two key techniques. The techniques. The first of them is the system PiggyBac to be able to insert genes that produce fluorescent proteins into these moths, so they have basically gone from having larvae to biological “neon lights.” In this way, if bacteria or fungi are injected, fluorescence makes it possible to monitor the infection in vivo under the microscope. In addition, the famous technique was also included CRISPR-Cas9 to deactivate specific genes in the insect’s body. This is a tremendously positive thing, as it allows scientists to manipulate the larva’s immune system to see how it reacts to different pathogens, mimicking complex human conditions. The key data. The bottom line is that the modified larvae allow us to see if an antibiotic is working in real time. The indicator we have is fluorescence, which if it decreases indicates that the bacteria is dying from the antibiotic and the larva is surviving. All this in a visual, fast and cheap way. Why the moth. It may sound strange to compare a moth with a mammal such as the mouse, which may be more like us, but the Galleria mellonella He has an ace up his sleeve: your body temperature. Unlike the fruit fly, these larvae can breed and survive comfortably at 37°C, the average human body temperature, which is crucial because many human pathogens only activate their virulence genes at that temperature. Furthermore, their innate immune system is surprisingly similar to that of mammals in terms of structure and function of phagocytes, the cells that literally ‘eat’ pathogens that enter the body. Furthermore, with this animal model the use of 10,000 mice per year in the United Kingdom alone can be avoided. Against the clock of the resistance. The context of this advance is not trivial, since we are facing a race against the resistance of bacteria to our antibiotics. We need at this moment test thousands of new compounds fastand doing it in mice is a brutal bottleneck both because of the time it takes and the ethical questions that arise. On the other hand, these transgenic larvae allow for massive screening. Instead of waiting weeks to see results in mice, scientists here can test hundreds of compounds in larvae and get immediate visual readings on toxicity and efficacy. Images | Wikipedia Kalyan Sak In Xataka | Researchers removed Instagram and TikTok from 300 young people to see if their anxiety decreased. The results speak for themselves

Researchers have discovered “lost continents” from 4 billion years ago

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The idea we have of the early Earth involves a huge ball of incandescent magma and conditions incompatible with life. The problem? That there are no rocks from 4.3 billion years ago to confirm this consolidated theory. What we do have are some microscopic crystals called zircons. And zircons are telling a different story, according to this study by a research team at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. published in Nature. What zircon says. Regarding the behavior of the Earth’s surface, geology valued two ideas for that period known as Hadean: that there was a plate tectonics where one plate sinks under another or that the Earth had a kind of stagnant lid, a rigid and hot surface where heat only escaped through large columns of magma. Well, neither one nor the other, both: zircons leave evidence of an Earth that already had oceans, liquid water and a crust that alternated both systems. John Valley, the University of Wisconsin-Madison geoscientist who leads the study explains that “There were about 800 million years of Earth’s history in which the surface was already habitable, although we have no fossil evidence and we do not know when life first emerged.” Why it is important. Because they determine that the Earth did not choose a single model, but rather that both processes took place at the same time in different places. Of course, it was not a stable plate tectonics like the one that exists today, but rather it had violent and short episodes of sliding of the edges of one plate under another (subduction) that coexisted with large jets of magma that rose from the interior of the Earth. This discovery is key to understanding how the Earth’s surface moved, the formation of continents and life. On the one hand, without tectonics, the felsic continental crust that floats on the mantle and makes up the lands on which we live would not exist. On the other hand, plate tectonics regulates the climate and recycles nutrients, so knowing when it started working helps understand when the Earth became a place compatible with life. How they analyzed it. The John Valley team analyzed the popular zircons from Jack Hills (Western Australia). These sand-sized minerals are a kind of time capsule, housing the only direct record of Earth’s first 500 million years. They were looking for chemical “fingerprints” that would reveal where and how they were formed, for which they used technology WiscSIMS high resolution. They then compared the results of the analysis with other zirconiums from the Hadic Eon found in Barberton (South Africa). Each one told a different story. Surprises in the “DNA” of the mineral. 47% of oceanic zircons had high levels of Uranium compared to Niobium, indicating that they formed in subduction zones where ocean water sinks into the mantle. On the other hand, the South African zircons show that they were born from virgin rock from the planet’s interior, confirming the classic ‘stagnant lid’ theory by which the Earth’s first solid surface was rigid and immobile. Or what is the same: while in Australia the crust sank and created protocontinents, in what is now South Africa the Earth behaved differently, with a rigid and stagnant crust. That is, the early Earth was a mosaic of tectonic styles. The Earth did not go from being hell to what it is today overnight, but rather it was a hybrid process and generated the necessary conditions for life sooner than we thought. In Xataka | We know it as “the red planet”, but 3.37 billion years ago Mars was almost as blue as Earth In Xataka | 4.5 billion years of Earth’s history, summarized in a spectacular video map Cover | Tomáš Malík and Javier Miranda

keep your prices intact for more than 20 years

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There are two almost unquestionable realities: that almost everything is made in China and that everything has gone up in price (except the televisions). However, these two maxims go hand in hand with the mundane lighter, the one we use to light birthday candles, the barbecue or even a cigarette… to who still smokes today. Because the bulk of global lighter production is no longer manufactured in China, it is concentrated in a single city. And that city has achieved something very difficult: maintain the price of a lighter in one yuan (about 12 euro cents at the exchange rate) for more than two decades. The resistance. Large brands such as BIC, Clipper or Zippo have localized and more or less dispersed production: the French BIC has in France its main plant for Europe, in the United States for the North American market, for South America has plants in Brazil and its large plant in Mexico; the catalan Clipper manufactures in Spain, China and India and Zippo boasts of being “Made in USA” while almost all of its production is in Bradford, Pennsylvania. It doesn’t matter, they are an absolute minority. Where Christ lost the lighter. 70% of world production is in Shaodonga city in Hunan province (China). Which started at the end of the 20th century as a wandering industry in search of low costs came to stay in Shaodong, turning it into a highly specialized technology giant that exports to more than 120 countries. According to XinhuaShaodong produces more than 100 billion lighters a year, with data from 2023. The People’s newspaper details (the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China) that in 2022 Shaodong supplied 3.52 billion lighters to the entire world. With this enormous production volume they have managed to keep the manufacturing price almost stagnant for more than 20 years thanks to automation. Why most come from China. The short answer is economies of scale. A lighter essentially requires metal parts, plastic, pressurized gas and an ignition mechanism, more than 30 parts and various techniques such as flame control and ignition intensity. For a few cents it is only profitable if you produce millions a day in a concentrated industrial ecosystem made up of by 87 companies where you have everything you need nearby. Yang Zhiyong, design engineer of the largest local lighter producer in Shaodong synthesize How has the evolution been: “Before, 1,000 workers were needed to produce a million lighters manually, now with automation the same production is achieved with just a few people. (…) Thanks to automation and technical improvements, we have managed to reduce costs to a minimum.” Specifically, from 0.1 yuan to 0.015 yuan. And yes, he acknowledges that his iconic one-yuan lighters are still lucrative. One lighter, one yuan. Lighters are small and technically simple gadgets (although everything has its secret and its room for improvement and innovation), but there is a trick to the fact that the retail price of disposable lighters has remained unchanged despite the competition and the increase in prices of materials and labor: industrial innovation and economy of scale. In 2002 was founded Shaodong Lighters Association to unify the industry, encourage innovation and standardized pricing in a collaborative, win-win approach. Because lighters are small, but their market is big. There is room to surprise and innovate. To stay at the forefront of the industry, the municipal administration has created an institute for smart manufacturing technologies and local companies are exploring new markets, especially in developing countries. Likewise, there are companies that strive to give a twist to the design of the lighter, providing a functional and cultural touch. In fact, Yang explains “These culturally influenced designs have found a receptive market in Europe and Asia,” Yang said. They have a plan B. Rising raw material costs, global competition and stricter environmental regulations may sooner or later lead the industry to migrate to other cheaper regions such as Southeast Asia. In this case, Shaodong aspires to sell knowledge: product development, training and after-sales services. In Xataka | The rare earth capital of the world is making gold thanks to them. And it is also being poisoned In Xataka | China was the great polluter of the planet: now it is emerging as the first “electrostate” in history Cover | Julius Drost

Florida has an iguana problem and the coldest winter in years, so it has euthanized more than 5,000 frozen iguanas

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In the Iberian Peninsula we are having one of the winters with more rainfall in recent yearsbut in the United States they are not exactly having a mild winter either. New York has arrived register colder than in Antarctica and not even the state of the sun has been saved: Florida has broken a cold record of more than 100 years. Thus, Miami or West Palm Beach have fallen below 0°C, something that It hasn’t happened since 1909. This extreme cold literally freezes the iguanas. And that has made it very easy for the Florida authorities to “euthanasia” 5,195 specimens Florida has a serious problem with iguanas. As happens in Spain with the catfishes either in Italy with blue crabs (among other parts of the Mediterranean), the United States has invasive species like the Asian carp, which bothers it so much that They have come to electrify the riversor the iguana, which mainly affects southern Florida. In addition to biodiversity problems derived from introducing an outside species into an ecosystem, altering the trophic chain or that its feces are natural carriers of salmonellais that they constitute a real danger to infrastructure: they build burrows up to 24 meters deep, damaging sea walls (a 1.8 million dollar problem in West Palm Beach), building foundations and even blackouts. Not to mention the risk that an iguana falls from a tree to the head or the hood of your car. Friendly reminder that iguanas can come to measure two meters long and weigh more than 13 kg. It’s raining iguanas. Literally. You probably read the above with surprise because, well, from time to time a little bird falls, but a tremendous iguana is less common. The iguanas They arrived in Florida in the 1960s. and since then they have moved quietly through courtyards and canals. The Sunshine State has a subtropical climate and iguanas are cold-blooded reptiles, but for much of the year, they adapt. But winter comes, especially a winter as cold as this one, and the iguanas are stunned by the cold. They are ectothermic speciesthat is, their body temperature is strongly determined by the environment (they do not generate their heat, as mammals do), so they freeze. This cold stunning affects internal processes such as metabolism, breathing or heart rate. And this is what leads them to fall from trees because they are in standby and lose their grip. A chance to get rid of them. So the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) has taken the opportunity to implement executive order 26-03which temporarily allows anyone to pick up one of those cold-stunned green iguanas without needing a permit to bring it to authorities. In the first two days of February, Residents brought 5,195 copies. Subsequently, they were sacrificed following American Veterinary Association guidelines (AMVA). Or from a technical point of view, they “euthanized” them. Animal welfare vs pest control. According to the FWCnon-native reptile species such as green iguanas or Burmese pythons are only protected by animal cruelty laws. The procedure is known as “euthanasia” insofar as the method of death must be irreversible, rapid and painless. Precisely at that moment in which they are lethargic is the moment considered the most humanitarian to act. In Xataka | The coypu, one of the 100 most harmful invasive species in the world, is at the doors of Barcelona In Xataka | The US has such a big problem with Asian carp in its rivers that it has decided something extreme: electrocute them Cover | Mason Jones

We have been experiencing a great war between the Xbox and the PlayStation for 25 years. And that’s wonderful: Crossover 1×38

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The clear things and the thick chocolate: I’m from Xbox. I have been almost always, although my first real console was the original PlayStation. Then, for various reasons, I decided to try the original Xbox and loved it, and have ended up owning all of its successors. But that doesn’t stop me from knowing that Spain is a country of Play. I respect and accept it, but what I also value is that this “console war” continues to be so active, because that competition not only allows us some fun and laughter with friends – “Do you really have an Xbox!?!?” – but above all because it has allowed both evolve amazingly. And precisely that war between the Xbox and the PlayStation we talk about in this installment of Crossover, in which both Jose and I We talk about our experiences and the history of these platforms accompanied, of course, by Jaume, who moderates and as always asks the right questions. Thus, we review the birth of the first PlayStation and Xbox and how that completely changed a market that previously seemed dominated by Sega and Nintendo. The latter has never directly entered into competition with Sony and Microsoft, and has chosen a different path and in which it has certainly done extraordinarily well. But what is clear is that the evolution of the Xbox and the PlayStation marked us all and in that review we talk about all those decisions, how each of the generations fared and what the future may hold for us. The final question, “Who won the console war?”may have a valid answer for the current moment, but the best of all is that we are facing platforms that are absolutely alive and that are preparing the most interesting news in the short term. Not only of them, of course, also with promising projects like the Steam Machine. Meanwhile, whether you are from Xbox or Play, we have a single message. Long live video games. On YouTube | Crossover In Xataka | There is brutal competition for our attention. And there is someone losing that battle in a bloody way: the consoles

Mercadona and the white label had been setting the course for supermarkets in Spain for years. Until the “ultra low cost” arrived

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When we Spaniards go out shopping we value above all two factors. The first, proximity. The second, the price. Even above the quality. It is not at all surprising if we take into account that we come from a inflationary crisis and there are items of common consumption (cocoa, coffee either eggs) who have experienced a real storm in recent months. The chains know how much they are risking with each euro and have acted accordingly. For example with a bet on the white label that has been especially good to Mercadona. There is, however, another strategy that has been gradually making its way into the world. retail Spanish, one also focused on prices, but that does not rely on white label or short assortment: supermarkets “ultra low cost“. “Ultra low cost“? Exact. It sounds somewhat far-fetched (almost, almost cacophonous) but that is the label that best defines certain supermarket chains that have focused their strategy basically on product discounts. double digit. After years of inflation and with costs becoming a decisive factor When families decide where to shop, most chains try (to a greater or lesser extent) to be competitive in prices. In fact in the rankings Cheaper stores usually include brands such as Alcampo, Family Cash or Aldi. In the case of super “ultra low cost“The price is, however, more than just a front on which to compete. It represents the great differentiating factor. And it is to such an extent that it conditions the approach, the offer and the way the chain operates. In a recent article, Five Days reviewed the billing data of two relatively young firms that fit this pattern: Sqrups and Primaprix. What differentiates them? That in a sector (that of supermarkets) in which it seemed that everything had been said, with Mercadona expanding your domain and the white label gaining market sharethe “ultra” chains low cost“have found an alternative path of growth. Their strategy involves offering items from recognized brands (nothing from Hacendado, Deliplus, Auchan or similar), but with surprisingly low prices. As an example, Sqrups boasts of offering its customers “significant discounts” that move between 30 and 80%. How do they work the miracle? With your business model. More like its supply model. Unlike most supermarket chains, they supply surpluses that are left ‘off the hook’ or have no place on the shelves of companies such as Carrefour, Eroski, Mercadona or Hipercor, among others. These are surplus stocks, items that do not quite work, merchandise that has been left out of the circuit due to a change in packaging or not meeting presentation standards… In short, items in good condition that manufacturers need to liquidate and cannot (or want) to distribute through ‘conventional’ chains. Their destination ends up being Sgrups or Primaprix, where they add to a catalog marked by rotation, speed and discounts. But… How do they do it? “Large international brands usually have surplus stocks in their warehouses, left over from promotions (Christmas, summer, events…), from new launches or simply products with a much lower price in one country than in another. At Primaprix we travel throughout Europe hunting for these opportunities,” details the companywho remembers that he opened his first store in Madrid in 2015 and in just ten years he has built a network of 260. Sgrups’ explanation is similar. “We recover products that, under normal conditions, distribution throws away,” clarifies its general directorRaúl Espinosa, who boasts that thanks to its discounts the chain sells products with prices much lower (50-80%) than those on the market. The company ensures that its assortment comes from three sources: “production surpluses, image changes and quality control.” It also incorporates “short-dated” products. “In the last year we have rescued more than 26 million products, preventing them from being destroyed and giving them a second chance for consumption,” the company specifiesborn ago just over a decade and that works with food, but also drugstores, stationery and hygiene items. The big question: why? Because this formula has allowed them to connect with a part of the market and expand in a sector, that of retail Spanish, in which a small number of brands have been expanding their dominance. “Companies like Sqrups or Primaprix break the differentiation with the rest of the operators thanks to this supply model,” explains to Five Days Javier Pérez de Leza, good knowledge of the sector. “Mercadona, Lidl or Aldi have dedicated themselves to a type of discount that leaves room below, because the price trend is upward. You can be much cheaper than all of them, although with risks.” What risks? One (fundamental) is the pressure that operators in the sector can exert to reduce the surpluses that these chains feed on, although it is not the only limit that the model of companies like Primaprix faces. Relying on stocks makes it very difficult to guarantee the continuity of an ever-changing assortment. Furthermore, the fact that customers encounter different products every so often may increase their interest in visiting stores but also complicates such basic issues as logistics. What do your accounts say? That neither of the two chains are doing badly at all. Primaprix data we know them also thanks to Five Dayswhich a few days ago revealed that during the 2024 financial year the company had a turnover of 347 million euros. Maybe it’s far from billions from Mercadona, but it represents a year-on-year growth of 24%. If we look further back, the company’s sales quadrupled between 2020 and 2024, a period during which it went from managing 110 stores to 245. Now it is on its way to 300 establishments. The key: your business modelwhich is nourished by the surpluses accumulated in the warehouses of large manufacturers. Your catalog is completed with purchases you make in other countries, looking at prices, discarded items despite being completely suitable for consumption, or products that will expire soon. A bet not very different from what fashion or furniture outlets have been making for years. They are merchandise (many … Read more

23 years later, Western Europe’s largest swamp is completely full

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When in the mid-1950s, someone thought about building a dam in one of the driest areas of Portugal, the criticism was very simple: make a reservoir in Alquevassimply absurd: “it will never be filled.” And that prejudice meant that (for more than fifty years) the project was put in a drawer. But, at the end of the century, the Portuguese country decided to take it back and its floodgates closed in 2002. What happened next showed that those critics had no idea. A huge work of engineering. Of course, the skepticism was well founded. ‘Alqueva’ means precisely ‘fallow land’, ‘desert’. But that did not mean that it was meaningless, quite the opposite: that a much greater ambition was needed. And that’s what they did: with a total capacity of 4,150 hm³ and a surface area of ​​250 km², it not only regulates the Guadiana. It provides water to supply the consumption network (200,000 inhabitants), to produce energy (520 MW) and to irrigate hundreds of thousands of hectares (130,000, it seems). It is the largest reservoir in Western Europe. A monster that now has to be unpacked. That is what is striking, that had to unpack. Not because it’s the first time: between 2010 and 2013 he did it on several occasionsbut the deep drought of recent years meant that there was no fear that it would not happen again. Although it is happening: these days, Alquevas has been draining at the rate of an Olympic swimming pool every two seconds. Is there much left to do? Although seeing the monstrous Alquevas reservoir full it is inevitable to think about what more projects are still to be done, the truth is that we do not have much room for maneuver. The majority of “easy” reservoirs are already built and most of those that could be built would have great technical, social and economic problems to carry out. So we will have to go a little further: think about how we approach this possible “new normal” if it ever occurs. Image | Ceinturion In Xataka | Andalusia anticipates the storm and has already canceled in-person classes and activated the UME. The doubt is placed on the workers

We have been searching for the origin of life in hot puddles for years. Bennu has shown that radioactive ice works just as well

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When the capsule OSIRIS-REx mission landed in the Utah desert in September 2023, NASA knew it had a treasure on its hands. We are talking about a bit of black dust that was collected millions of kilometers from Earth and that was about to rewrite one of the most important chapters of science: the origin of life. What we knew. Until now, the predominant theory regarding the origin of life told us that for “cook” all the basic components of life, such as amino acids, heat and liquid water were needed to make a kind of hot chemical soup. However, science has just flipped the script: the bricks of life They are not only formed in heatbut they can be born in the most extreme cold and under gamma radiation. And that completely changes our understanding of how we got here, and also of the possible presence of life in any corner of the Universe. The importance of Bennu. Definitely is the protagonist of this whole story, and it is nothing more than an asteroid of about 500 meters in diameter which functions as a fossil from the early solar system. But the most interesting thing is that it is approximately 4.6 billion years old, the same age as the Earth, although, unlike our planet, its surface has not melted or been drastically altered by geological processes throughout its ‘life’. And little by little we are learning more about this asteroid thanks to the samples brought by OSIRIS-REx that had already been confirmed in preliminary analyzes an unusual abundance of carbon, nitrogen, water and organic compounds. But what the team led by Penn State University has now found goes one step further. The surprise. This same team, when analyzing the isotopic composition of the amino acids present, especially glycine, came across a chemical signature that did not fit with the classical theory of formation in hot water. A radioactive freezer. Until now, we thought that amino acids in asteroids were formed primarily through aqueous alteration processes: ice melts from heat, liquid water interacts with rock, and voilacomplex organic chemistry. However, science now suggests that liquid water is not necessary for amino acids, an essential molecule of life, to form. Simply from simple ice they can arise without much problem. And there are many of these in the universe. The catalyst. The other important factor in this formation was the energywhich in this case came from gamma radiation emitted by radioactive elements that were abundant in the early solar system. And the energy could not come from thermal heat, since this process occurs in icy environments, long before the asteroid was compacted or heated enough to have liquid water. This explains why we found amino acids both in asteroids that underwent a lot of water heating and in those that remained “drier” and colder. Life, it seems, is more stubborn than we thought and can begin to develop in the most hostile conditions of the vacuum of space. An increasingly complex menu. But we are not just talking about simple molecules, since analyzes of Bennu samples have identified a variety of compounds. Among these is tryptophan, which is an essential amino acid, much more structurally complex, and vital for terrestrial life. Besides, DNA and RNA components have been detectedin addition to ammonia and amines, surpassing in richness many samples of famous meteorites such as that of Murchison. Backlash to Panspermia. If amino acids can easily form in irradiated ice grains in the solar nebula—before the planets even formed—it means that these “ingredients” are spread throughout the solar system. The fact that Bennu, a B-type carbonaceous asteroid, is packed with these compounds reinforces the idea that Earth didn’t have to produce all the components of life itself. A constant shower of asteroids and meteorites during the late intense bombardment could having “sown” our planet with a pre-made deep space biological starter kit. That is why in the end looking at a grain of Bennu dust is looking at ourselves. Or, at least, to the chemical great-great-grandparents who made us here today. Images | NASA Hubble Space Telescope In Xataka | NASA has just announced that this large asteroid has a 1% chance of impacting Earth. That’s not normal

Ten years ago, we were afraid of fast charging. The 10,000mAh batteries are going the same way

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The world of smartphones is divided in two: a Chinese market betting on gigantic silicon-carbon and some “traditional” manufacturers who do not dare to take the leap. This weekend, the controversy was sparked by YouTuber Marques Brownlee, after publishing a video that has surpassed one million views in less than 24 hours. what has happened. “The problem with smartphone batteries”is the title of a video that has spread like wildfire among the community tech. In it, he explained some of the problems that silicon-carbon batteries supposedly suffer from, a technology that China is betting on to boost the capacity of its phones. above 10,000mAh. The problems. Silicon-carbon batteries are not a new technology, but they have been starting to be implemented in smartphones for just two years. During this time, there are several concerns on the table. Possible swelling due to the expansion of silicon: with each charge, a battery contracts and expands. Silicon can triple its volume, generating greater internal stresses in the battery. At the same time, there are fears that this expansion-contraction cycle could cause cracks and leaks in the battery. Need for reinforcement in battery compartment (such as small steel cages) to contain swelling. Long-term reliability not yet demonstrated in smartphones. Yes, but. Concerns about whether silicon-carbon batteries are safe or not are legitimate. Just as, back in the day, we were worried that a mobile phone with “fast” charging like the OnePlus 3 in 2016 (those times when Dash Charge was 30W) could explode. Today there are already mobile phones with 120W. The first commercial mobile phone to incorporate this type of battery was the Honor Magic 5 Pro in its Chinese version. No cases of the slightest problem have been reported to date in its more than two years of life. Manufacturers do not go crazy. Manufacturers are more than aware of the possible dangers that these types of batteries can have, and equip their phones with specific chips to control the charge in real time if excess heat is detected. Some brands, like Honor, go so far as to create microscopic tunnels in their batteries so that lithium ions can reduce chemical friction. Because yes, although carbon silicon batteries are called that, they are not made of pure silicon, they are a natural evolution of lithium batteries themselves. It’s not that easy. The next challenge after the introduction of silicon-carbon batteries has been to take advantage of their ability to store greater energy in a smaller size to achieve barbaric capacities: 7,000mAh, 7,500mAh, 10,000mAh. Energy densities notably higher than those that large manufacturers, such as Samsung, Apple and Google, currently mount in their high-end phones. Here an extra degree is added to the uncertainty: not only do we have more modern and not so tested batteries, but we also have capabilities that make their behavior even more unpredictable. Go deeper. The war for high-capacity batteries adds, apart from doubts about their reliability on the part of some manufacturers, logistical and economic challenges. They are more expensive batteries, and some manufacturers They are not taking them out of China yet. for that same reason. Added to this is that although the spec sheet tells us about milliamp hours, the main measure to determine the energy capacity of a battery is watt hours (Whr). Europe does not like batteries with more than 20 Whr, and they require longer and more expensive transport and authorization protocols. If the RAM crisis threatens to skyrocket the price of smartphones, thinking about incorporating significantly more expensive batteries does not seem like a viable plan to maintain the current margins of large manufacturers. Image | Apple In Xataka | We already know why mobile phones with 6,000mAh are not arriving in Europe: there is a clear person responsible

the minimum dose of exercise that science points to changing the health of those over 60 years of age

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In the 1980s, gerontologist Robert N. Butler launched a phrase that has become in a mantra of modern medicine: “if exercise and physical activity could be packaged as a pill it would be the most widely prescribed and beneficial medication for the population.” Forty years later, science has stopped treating that phrase as a metaphor and turned it into a mathematical calculation. The ROI of the force. Until now, we knew that sport was healthy, but data on its direct clinical profitability were lacking. The GENUD research group, led by José Antonio Casajús, published in Experimental Gerontology at the end of 2025 one of the strongest evidence to date. The essay, carried out with 123 people over 80 years oldprescribed a treatment of three weekly supervised exercise sessions for six months. The clinical results were clear: improvements in functional capacity, reduction in frailty and increase in quality of life. But the data that has aroused the interest of health managers is economic. The conclusion here was that while the cost of the intervention was only 164 euros per person, The savings to the system exceeded 1,000 euros. The clinical squat. If exercise is the ideal drug, clinical evidence points to the squat being the most important active ingredient here. Many studies have precisely validated this movement, which can mean the world to some people, not as a gym exercise but as a diagnostic and treatment tool. Biomechanics is key. Why is the squat so important to medicine? First of all because it is an exercise that demands more on the hip extensorsvital for an elderly person to be able to get up from a chair or bed without help. But in addition, it also activates the quadriceps and plantar flexors more. At the metabolic and cardiovascular level, the impact is systemic. The venous compression that occurs during the squat increases venous return and cardiac output, acting as a natural pump that combats orthostatic hypotension. Even in post-stroke patients, fast squats have been shown to activate the injured rectus femoris, correcting asymmetries and improving postural control. How long. You don’t have to work hard, since a recent study showed that a program of just one minute a day, that is, about thirty seconds of squats and thirty seconds of push-ups, is enough. This is something that was seen with prescription by primary care physicians, improving physical performance in patients over 60 years of age with excellent adherence at 24 weeks. Anti-cancer effect. Beyond the effect on adults, important implications of physical exercises in pediatric cancer have also been seen. This was evidenced by Carmen Fiuza-Luces, from the Physical Exercise and Pediatric Cancer group, who directs the “La Aceleradora” project of the Unoentrecienmil Foundation. And contrary to the belief of having “absolute rest” when you have cancer, the evidence shows that exercise during treatment of pediatric solid tumors It achieves what no drug can. For example, it reduces the side effects of chemotherapy, protects the heart from the toxicity of the treatment or prevents atrophy in sick children. The problem is not the drug. The problem with prescribing exercise in consultation is lack of knowledge about the ‘dose’ that should be given. Just as a doctor does not say ‘take an antibiotic’ without a clear duration and frequency, the same thing happens with sports. You can’t say ‘do sports’. In these cases, exercise requires a dose in the form of frequency and duration, the intensity that must be personalized to each patient and, above all, monitoring with adaptation to the patient’s pathology. Looking for the front door. The Health and Sports Working Group of the Collegiate Medical Organization, coordinated by José Ramón Pallás, is pushing for integrate exercise into the National Health System as a therapy equivalent to drugs. The goal is for the “3 sets of 10 squats” recipe to be as official and binding as any blood pressure pill. In this way, science has done the numbers and all that remains is for the administration to make a move. Images | Victor Freitas In Xataka | Neither 10,000 steps a day nor killing yourself in the gym: the “sweet spot” of exercise according to science is 30 minutes

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