zone

The intestine has a “Goldilocks zone.” And if we often defecate outside it, we must pay attention.

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Pooping is a thermometer of gut health. So much so that in Australia they encourage employees do your things at work. It is a moment that we can even take advantage to read or to do infinite scroll on mobile (even for share the site where we are pooping), but also one we should pay more attention to. The reason is that the time and frequency are details that say a lot about our long-term health. Cause or consequence? Over the years, different research has been carried out on the importance of defecation as such, but also on the ideal time to do itits frequency and the shape, size and texture that they should have the depositions. Studies have been carried out that linked the constipation with a higher risk of infections and diarrhea chronic with neurodegenerative diseases. However, these observations were made in subjects who already had a disease, so it was necessary to find out if the intestinal problem was a cause or a consequence. Since science is not done alone, a team from Institute for Systems Biology took the lead in answering that question. The study. In it studyresearchers Sean Gibbons and Johannes Johnson-Martinez analyzed the clinical, genetic, microbiological and lifestyle variables of 1,400 healthy adults. Something that the subjects had to detail was the frequency of bowel movements, which would be classified as follows: Once or twice a week – Constipation. Three to six times a week – Low frequency. One to three times a day – Normal frequency. More than three times a day – Diarrhea. “Goldilocks Zone”. Researchers found that people who reported eating a high-fiber diet, exercising regularly, and being well hydrated had good bowel movements. In a display of scientific humor, they baptized this “the Goldilocks zone,” which is a bowel movement frequency of between one and two bowel movements a day. That is the point at which, according to researchers, the balance between the microbiome and physiological markers is optimal. Therefore, the optimal frequency is between one and two times a day, but this is not always the case and when there is an imbalance that is when problems begin within us. Ideal stool shape: type 3 and 4 More serious than it seems. Johnson-Martinez comments that “if feces remain in the intestine for too long, microbes use up all the available dietary fiber, something they normally ferment to produce short-chain fatty acids that are beneficial for health. If this happens, the ecosystem changes and begins to ferment proteins, which generates various toxins that can reach the bloodstream.” Those byproducts of protein fermentation leaked into the bloodstream, such as p-cresol sulfate and indoxyl sulfate, pass to the kidneys, being associated with markers of worse kidney function… constipation. If, on the other hand, diarrhea occurs, the feces practically do not pass through the intestine, causing clinical parameters related to liver damage. That is to say: with constipation, the kidneys suffer. With diarrhea, the liver. Snitch. Gibbons comments that chronic constipation, which we have just seen what effects it produces, has been associated with neurodegenerative disorders and the chronic progression of kidney diseases. What remains is to define whether this abnormality in intestinal movement is an early warning of a chronic disease or organ damage. Now, the study also explores how this frequency of intestinal movement is also related to the anxiety and depressionrelating mental health to bowel movements. The researchers comment that it has been possible to link the frequency of bowel movements with all body systems and how it is something that can be a risk factor in the development of chronic diseases. Their hope is that medicine will take bowel movements seriously to “optimize health and well-being, even in healthy populations, based on bowel movement frequency.” And something interesting is that, if we do not have any problem, we should neither hold back the urge nor force it, because we artificially reduce and increase the time that the feces are in the intestine. Study the feces. There is an important detail that must be taken into account: having a frequency other than once/twice a day may be normal. The problem is when it becomes chronic. That’s when we should ask ourselves what is happening. There may be a health problem, but also that we have a diet low in fiber from fruits and vegetables. It is logical, but food and our lifestyle It is something inseparable from our feces. Plus, keeping an eye on them from time to time is not a bad idea because it is a free gut health test. Also you can scan your poop with an app that analyzes it thanks to AI. The time matters. Being in the “Goldilocks zone” is relevant, but previous studies have also explored the idea that when we poop is relevant, too. Studies carried out in 2020 and 2022 They related circadian rhythms to gastrointestinal activity. At night, intestinal activity decreases significantly, but during the day, especially after waking up or eating, there is greater mobility. An optimal time is half an hour after waking up, since the colon is activated after a night’s rest, but defecating later than that moment does not mean that something is wrong because there is some flexibility in the matter. Images | Cabot Health, Bristol Stool Chart, Sincerely Media In Xataka | Everest has become a dumping ground for feces. Solution: that all climbers carry theirs in bags

Exact time left for Earth in the habitable zone before ocean collapse

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For as long as humanity has been aware, it has wondered when and how the end of the world will come. Far from apocalyptic prophecies, science has a much more calculated, cold and inevitable response, since it is clear that the Earth has an expiration date, or at least its capacity to host life as we know it does. It has been calculated. A classic study published in the magazine Astrobiology In 2013 by researcher Andrew Rushby, he calculated the “habitability window” that our planet has left. The magic number, popularized from these physical and climate models, is around at 1.8 billion yearswhich is the average value that we find in the range between 1,750 and 3,250 million years. The problem is that this date is not entirely real, since within 1.8 billion years there will be no type of life on our planet, but for human beings and complex life the expiration date is much earlier. The culprit. To understand how scientists arrived at the figure of 1.8 billion years, we must look at the Sun. And, like any star of its type, our Sun is subject to a process of stellar evolution that means that, as it consumes its nuclear fuelits core contracts and heats up, causing the outer layers to expand and, therefore, its luminosity does not stop growing. Here Rushby’s team did not make a simple random prediction, but rather their methodology consisted of combining models of this evolution of solar brightness with parameters of the greenhouse effect and the energy balance of the Earth. What they were looking for was to calculate the exact moment at which the Earth will leave the so-called “habitable zone.” A little further. The habitable zone is that orbital strip around a star where temperatures allow the existence of liquid water on the surface of a rocky planet. But as the Sun becomes brighter and hotter, that fringe moves toward the edges of the solar system, while the planet does not move from its orbit. And that is a problem. All this means that when the Earth crosses the inner limit of this zone, the increase in solar radiation will trigger a runaway greenhouse effect, similar to what Venus suffers today. The effects of this will be the evaporation of the oceans, which will contribute to the greenhouse effect, trapping heat even more and accelerating the process until the Earth loses its liquid water irreversibly. And with it life. Different types of life. It is crucial to differentiate what “habitable” means in astrobiological terms versus what we consider “habitable” in our daily lives. A very important fact is that the Earth is approximately 4.545 billion years old, and life in its simplest forms emerged surprisingly early about 3.7-4.3 billion years ago. With all this we mean that the end of life will be staggered, starting with affecting complex life like us, which are extremely fragile to thermal variations. This makes the authors emphasize that the conditions for animal and human life will be greatly lost before reaching those 1.8 billion years. The last to die. The Apocalypse of 1.8 billion years refers to the last breath of the planet. In that final scenario, when the oceans are evaporating, only the most resistant extremophile microorganisms will be able to survive in isolated niches such as pockets of groundwater at very high temperatures before facing total extinction. Looking to the future. At this point, one might wonder what point it is to calculate exactly when the oceans will dry up eons from now if humanity today has more pressing problems. And the answer lies in the search for other planets, since by perfectly understanding how the “window of life” evolves in our solar system, astronomers have tools to apply to exoplanets that we are discovering thousands of light years away. In this way, knowing how long a planet’s habitability lasts depending on its host star helps us know where to look. We may find a planet in the “habitable zone” of its star, but if calculations reveal that it has only been there for a few million years, it is likely that complex life has not had time to evolve yet. Images | Javier Miranda In Xataka | Ryan MacDonald, astronomer, on the future of the Earth: “The death of the star is not the end, but the beginning of a new chapter”

In 1967, Ebro moved to the Free Zone of Barcelona. 69 years later, we have seen how Ebro once again manufactures cars in it

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Entering the 500,000 square meters that the Ebro Factory plant in Barcelona occupies is, in large part, a visit to the origins of the brand and its deep connection with the Catalan capital. The same naves and corridors that In 1967 they saw the last Ebro vehicles leave to become later at Nissan Motor Ibérica. In 2026, the factory that opened its doors in the Barcelona Free Trade Zone almost 70 years ago, manufactures vehicles again (and not just assembly) with the Ebro logo on its grille. Ebro has just opened its facilities to the press for the first time, and we have been able to see first-hand what it is like to manufacture a car. What we have found is a factory full of welding robots, automated parts supply lines and state-of-the-art assembly lines that They look more to the future than to the past. A plant with many stories The old Nissan factory closed on December 31, 2021 after 41 years of activity. The cessation of activity left some 2,500 workers on the streets. Three years later, Ebro confirmed his reindustrialization plan of the plant returning its activity. And he did it, to a large extent, with the same workers he had. Of the almost 2,000 employees that the company currently has, nearly 1,000 employees who work here today They were already with Nissan. Of them, about 400 are product engineers, 200 process engineers and 200 welding and assembly line specialists. These employees know every hallway, every corner and, according to those responsible for the factory, they have played a leading role in the start-up of the plant. The factory occupies 500,000 m2 Our guide throughout the visit was Paco DuranDirector of Production Control and Logistics. According to what he said, he himself started at this same plant in 1998, when the Nissan sign still hung on the door. When the Japanese stopped production he spent some time at Stellantis. When Ebro started his reindustrialization plan, he returned to what he considered his Alma mater. Durán is, in all likelihood, the person who best knows how these facilities work. Nissan veterans like him helped design each booth of the new assembly line based on the years of experience that the assembly of Japanese cars gave them. They knew exactly what had worked before and what had failed. That muscle memory acquired by years of automobile production has weighed more than any manual and has contributed to the Ebro Factory will start walking in record time. First as an assembly center, and now as the only Ebro manufacturing plant in Spain and Europe, in which the Spanish brand already manufactures four models with welding, painting, assembly and quality control processes. Barcelona outside and inside There is a very curious detail in how this factory is designed. It is inspired by Barcelona and the two rivers (the Besós and the Llobregat) that frame it. Being called Ebro, it makes sense. Like these rivers, the entire flow of supplies flows from mountains to sea. It is not the only inspiration that Ebro engineers have borrowed from Barcelona when designing it. The interior of the factory has the same structure as the streets of Barcelona Its interior is arranged in streets perpendicular to each other, well-defined islands, without intersections that block the passage or flows that collide with each other. The reference is the Cerdà Plan of 1859who created the orthogonal grid so characteristic of Barcelona that it ordered the Eixample of Barcelona. An urban model that is still a reference in half the world. A small Barcelona within an icon of Barcelona’s industrial past. Under this spatial arrangement, the materials enter at one end of the factory and advance in line to the other, without setbacks or countercurrents. As Durán explained, this flow “towards the sea” reduces errors, improves response times and, as an added advantage, facilitates the evacuation of the plant in case of emergency. The plant works on two levels. All the assembly of the different components occurs on the ground, while the automatic transports of parts and bodies circulate suspended in a complex logistics system that takes the bodies from one section to another without interrupting the assembly work below. To give us an idea of ​​the magnitude of this aerial infrastructure, the equivalent of three days of production of components and bodies was circulating above our heads at all times. 696 meters of line and 20 cars per hour Since November 2024, the factory operated with the M0 assembly line, in which the cars arrived from China semi-assembled and the rest of the parts were assembled at the Ebro factory. However, the heart of the visit, and the new jewel in Ebro’s crown, is the M1 assembly line. There are 696 meters, 97 work stations and a cycle of 160 seconds per vehicle. That is, each operator has that time to assemble the elements assigned to that station. The body is welded in a 23,000 square meter warehouse with more than 150 robots. Around 95% of this process is fully automated. There the floor, sides and roof are welded until forming what is called the Body-in-Whitethe empty structure of the car before receiving any paint or components. From there it travels by air to the painting area which, for safety reasons due to the chemical agents used there, we were not able to visit (we needed PPE and additional protection). In this section, the car chassis go through degreasing baths, paint is applied through cataphoresis and an anti-corrosion treatment. Afterwards, the already painted bodies fly back to the assembly area, but not before disassembling the doors, which travel in parallel, to improve the workers’ access to the interior. Something that caught my attention was that all the cars I saw on the assembly line were Ebro S700 red in color (the Red Blood Stone, to be more exact). When we asked Paco Durán about the reason, he explained to us that instead of responding to color … Read more

If you thought the blue zone in your city was expensive, wait until you see what it costs to moor a yacht at the Formula 1 GP in Monaco

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The Monaco Grand Prix is, by far, the most glamorous career of the Formula 1 World Championship. Not so much because of the fact that each of its curves keeps a memory of the most successful drivers, but because of the enormous showcase of luxury and opulence when celebrating with one of the most exclusive ports in the world. Not everyone can access the most exclusive spaces at the Monaco GP. Beyond the VIP stands, the real epicenter of luxury It is on the yachts moored in front of the circuit. The mooring of a superyacht during that weekend costs a real fortune, only affordable for the richest in the world. In fact, not even the world’s great fortunes, such as Jeff Bezos, They have a guaranteed position among the privileged few who can afford to watch the race of Formula 1 from the deck of your superyacht. Three million for a front row seat During the week of the Grand Prix, Port Hercule stops being a normal port and becomes a meeting point for the greatest fortunes on the planet and their yachts. Whether you like Formula 1 or not is secondary. The week before the Grand Prix, the parade of enormous superyachts begins, such as the Symphony by Bernard Arnault, founder of LVMH, who take positions highlighted in the Monegasque port. The specialized medium Yacht Harbor estimated that the 2017 test brought together yachts valued at more than 2,000 million euros in Port Hercule. Kismet superyacht, 122 meters long However, not having your own yacht is no excuse for not enjoying a front row seat at sea to enjoy the only Championship race that can be seen from the deck of a luxurious superyacht. Yacht rentals during the race test week skyrocket. The portal of boat rental luxury Cecil Wright offers those types of services and allows you to rent the Kismeta true floating mansion for the modest price of three million euros for one week. While on the streets of Monte Carlo the single-seater engines make the most of their performance, inside the Kismet Up to 12 guests can be accommodated in eight suites. The yacht is equipped with every detail so that guests only have to relax in its Balinese-inspired spa, which includes a hammam, sauna and cryotherapy chamber, waterfall shower and chromotherapy bathtub, gym and yoga studio. One of the covers of Kismet In addition, it allows you to experience all the excitement of the race from any of the jacuzzis on its luxurious decks, and all of this is attended by a crew of 36 people. “Parking” at a Monaco GP Once you have rented the right superyacht to blend in with billionaires and royalty, all that remains is to find a mooring for the yacht. Kismet. Port Hercule is the only port with adequate depth for mooring superyachts of that category. This port offers about 700 berths, but the most sought-after place is the so-called Trackside Zone, where the boats are located next to Quai des États-Unis, Quai Jarlan and the first two positions of Quai U. That is, in the mooring line closest to the circuitwhere the single-seaters pass just a few meters from these yachts. According to the table of Port of Monaco ratesthe price of the mooring is calculated based on how close it is to the runway and the length of the superyacht. Docking a yacht in the port of Monaco during the race ranges from 5,668 euros for a yacht of less than 19 meters in the Port of Fontvieille area, the furthest and without vision of the track, to tripling its price as we get closer to the track, with a mooring price of 16,087 euros for the same 19-meter yacht. Mooring Zone 1 is at the end of the tunnel straight, just when the cars must brake. Passing mooring zone 2, from which you can see the chicane of the Pool areato the Trackside Zone (zone 1) implies a price increase of 25.7%. During the Monaco Grand Prix, mooring a superyacht like the Kismet122 meters long, in the Trackside Zone (zone 1) It can cost around 160,000 euros only for docking during Grand Prix week. Its high price is justified because its proximity turns the Trackside Zone into a kind of floating stand. The yachts are in front of one of the most recognizable parts of the track, right where the cars leave the tunnel and launch towards the Nouvelle Chicane area, one of the classic images of the Monaco Grand Prix. It is a point where the drivers must reduce their speed to follow the curve and face the Pool section, so the millionaires see them pass at a slower speed and the single-seaters can be seen in more detail. Without a doubt, the most millionaire form of watch a formula 1 race. In Xataka | Madrid has been fighting for its F1 Grand Prix for years. Ozempic’s rich heirs also want a Grand Prix in their town Image | Flickr (CaterhamF1)

We just discovered a new island in an oceanic “danger zone”

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In February 2026 the SWOSan international team of 93 science professionals, embarked on the icebreaker Polarstern from Germany’s Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) toward the northwest Weddell Sea with a mission: study what the flow of water and ice was like in the Larsen Ice Shelf to determine its influence on the planet’s ocean circulation. Neither more nor less. However, a strong storm forced them to seek shelter, changing the course of the expedition. What they found when they turned aside was an island of solid rock that did not appear on the maps. There is a new island on the map. The island is in the northwest of the Weddell Sea, in the vicinity of Joinville Island, near the Danger Isletsan area that fulfills what its name promises: it has dense ice, part of which is hidden beneath the surface, and the navigation conditions are extreme. Its dimensions are approximately 130 meters long, 50 meters wide and it rises 16 meters above sea level, more or less like the Polarstern, whose length measures 118 meters. Despite being a full-fledged island, the island had no name or coordinates nor did it appear in international cartographic databases in the area, vaguely defined as “a danger zone for navigation”, as explains Simon Dreutterfrom the AWI Bathymetry section. The few charts that hinted at its existence did not even locate it well (deviation of one nautical mile, about 1.85 kilometers). Although it doesn’t have a name yet at the SCARYes, we know how to place it on the map. Why is it important. From a geological point of view, this finding shows that although we are immersed in space exploration, there are still corners of our planet to discover. World cartography is incomplete and the Wedell Sea is precisely one of the territories with the most candidates to harbor surprises: it has difficult access and little data coverage, in addition to the interpolation systems that generate bathymetric maps such as the IBCSO can literally erase unregistered objects physically, as the entity itself warns. Simply put, the island may have remained invisible for decades simply because no ship had boarded it with the right tools. Its discovery is also a reflection of the retreat of sea ice in the region since 2017, attributed to warming surface waters. The retreat of the ice has made a previously impenetrable area navigable, which raises the question: was the island always there or has it emerged recently? From a biological point of view, it is a virgin laboratory: its flora and fauna are completely unknown, which constitutes a magnificent opportunity to understand adaptation to that environment. Context. The Weddell Sea is a key piece of global ocean circulation. That is where the Antarctic bottom waterone of the densest and coldest masses of water on the planet. This mass of water feeds the bottom currents of all oceans and regulates the exchange of heat and carbon on a planetary scale, as documented in oceanographic literature. Altering its dynamics, as is happening due to the retreat of the Larsen Ice Shelf, has consequences that spread thousands of kilometers. The SWOS expedition was designed precisely to quantify these changes and so far what they have discovered is how much the thickness of the ice varies: up to four meters on the western continental shelf, where the tides compress and deform the ice, and just five feet to the east, where it comes from the Ronne and Filchner ice sheets, which are subject to less pressure. Antarctic bottom water is formed in the Antarctic Ocean as a result of the cooling of surface water in polynyas.Wikipedia How they discovered it. That storm that forced the Polastern to seek refuge in the shelter of Joinville Island. It was then that Simon Dreutter detected an anomaly in the charts and went up to the bridge. There he saw what looked like an unusually dirty iceberg. Like it was a rock. Approaching with caution, always keeping at least 50 meters of water under the keel to minimize the risk of hitting ice, the team confirmed that it was an island. The ship surrounded it at a distance of about 150 meters and took the opportunity to map both its seabed (with a multibeam echo sounder) and its orography using a drone. They already had the first elevation model of the island. What’s going to happen now. Once the official naming process is complete, the team will publish the coordinates of the island and all that information will be incorporated into the International Bathymetric Chart of the Southern Ocean and international nautical charts, so that its existence will no longer surprise anyone again. As a curiosity, due to maritime tradition, whoever discovers such a geographical feature has the privilege of proposing the name in a process that can last months. Beyond the name, the island opens up a new scientific range: rock samples will determine its lithological composition and age and biological studies will help understand how Antarctic ecosystems respond to climate change. In Xataka | A century ago Denmark built an island to defend its capital. Now it is full of tourists and is sold for ten million In Xataka | China prepares a pilotable “floating island” for marine exploration: for whatever reason, it resists nuclear explosions Cover | Alfred Wegener Institute / Christian Haas

expand the SER zone to Sundays and beyond 9 p.m.

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Parking on the streets of Madrid will be more complicated and more expensive. This is what can be deduced from the modifications introduced in the Sustainable Mobility Ordinance, which regulates traffic in the city. With the latest changes, the city government team has approved the extension of regulated parking services to new neighborhoods and the possibility of extending hours, including Sundays and holidays. What is the SER zone? He Regulated Parking Service (SER) is the measure applied by the city of Madrid to control surface parking in certain neighborhoods. The aim is to facilitate parking for residents and put certain obstacles in the way of outsiders to guarantee the rotation of the space. It is a system that we see in many cities in Spain for especially stressed areas where there is a high volume of cars parked on the street or where there is a large influx and residents have problems parking. In the case of Madridis characterized by: Green spaces: parking for up to two hours. It’s where you pay the most. Blue spaces: parking for up to four hours. Intermediate price. Blue and green spaces: long-term parking of up to 12 hours. Where you pay the least. Cars with an ECO label pay half and Zero emissions cars park for free with no time limit. Cars without a tag cannot park outside their neighborhood. The hours are from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Monday to Friday and Saturdays from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. In August and on December 24 and 31, hours end at 3:00 p.m. On Sundays and holidays the service is not active and, therefore, you can park without a time limit and completely free of charge. What has been approved? On March 24, The Plenary Session of the Madrid City Council approved some modifications to the city’s Mobility Ordinance. It has been reflected that vehicles without a label (DGT badge A) They will be able to circulate through its streets (the initial plan went through ban its circulation already in 2025) and some changes in the SER zones of Madrid. These changes will make parking on the streets of the capital more difficult since the SER service will be extended to new neighborhoods in the coming years and the door opens for the hours to also be extended, including Saturdays and Sundays. According to the Madrid City Council“the initiative responds to the need to guarantee the availability of parking for residents in neighborhoods that concentrate intense commercial, cultural, sports, tourism and leisure activity, causing a high influx of visitors. With the extension of the Regulated Parking Area (AER), as established in article 49.1 of the current WHO, the aim is to balance the availability of parking for residents with the necessary rotation on public roads.” More neighborhoods. The changes in the regulatory text do not confirm the extension of the SER zone to more neighborhoods but do open this possibility “whenever the neighbors require it”, in the words of the council. In total, if the projects go ahead, the service would be extended to 18 new neighborhoods spread across six districts. Those responsible assure that 51,819 parking spaces would be created to be distributed among the districts of Fuencarral-El Pardo, Latina, Carabanchel, Usera, Ciudad Lineal and Puente de Vallecas. In order to expand the SER service, it will be necessary to have the agreement of the district board that will make the decision after consulting neighbors and associations. The calendar goes through the following extensions: Before December 31, 2029: neighborhoods of Peñagrande (Fuencarral-El Pardo), Valdezarza (Moncloa-Aravaca), Opañel and San Isidro (Carabanchel), and Costillares (Ciudad Lineal). Before December 31, 2035: Valverde (Fuencarral-El Pardo) Lucero, Aluche, Los Cármenes and Puerta del Ángel (Latina) Puerta Bonita, Abrantes, San Isidro, Opañel and Vista Alegre (Carabanchel) Zofío and Orcasur (Usera) Pueblo Nuevo, Quintana, Concepción (Ciudad Lineal) and San Diego, Palomeras Bajas and Numancia (Puente de Vallecas) The big exception will be Moratalaz, whose councilor has managed to get an amendment approved so that the SER service cannot be extended to this neighborhood. Longer. But, in addition to the fact that payment for parking will be extended to more neighborhoods if the district boards approve it, it will also be possible to extend the number of hours in which this service is active. Among the modifications, the possibility has been included that on days when a high demand for parking is expected or at specific times, the district Government Board may extend the hours beyond 9:00 p.m. from Monday to Friday and 3:00 p.m. on Sundays. They can even activate this regulated parking system on Sundays and holidays. The Madrid City Council points out that these extensions will be punctual and cannot be extended “in a fixed manner.” Therefore, “special situations that require temporary extension” will have to occur. However, there is no limit to the number of times in which this new protocol can be applied. Photo | Madrid City Council and Quique Olivar In Xataka | The secret of the perfect pedestrian neighborhood is more than half a century old and is hidden behind one word: Woonerf

a low emissions zone for yachts

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There’s something counterintuitive about seeing a superyacht moored in a luxury port under the Mediterranean sun, and thinking it’s doing nothing. Actually, yes it is doing it: is polluting…and a lot. Monaco has just taken a step towards making this have consequences, with a measure that is very reminiscent of something we already know in cities: low-emission zones, but adapted for yachts. ​The Yacht Club of Monaco, through the Superyacht Eco Association (SEA Index), has announced the first air quality certification specific to superyachts. It is not exactly a Low Emissions Zone like the one restricts car access pollutants to the center of Madrid or Barcelona, ​​but something more similar to an environmental label: the yachts that pollute the least get better conditions and benefits exclusive in the Monegasque marina. Those who pollute the most are left without them. ​The invisible problem For years, the debate about the environmental footprint of superyachts focused almost exclusively on the CO₂ these luxury vessels generate during the miles sailed. However, the biggest problem is not so much the pollution emitted when they are traveling on the high seas, but when they are moored in port. A superyacht of more than 76 meters in length moored in port can consume up to 2,000 liters of diesel per day only to maintain air conditioning and the onboard systems while docked, with an electrical demand of 255 kW at anchor and 238 kW docked dedicated solely to auxiliary services: air conditioning, kitchens, spas, swimming pools, lighting or the boat’s stabilizers do not turn off when the boat stops moving. Furthermore, if they did not do so, the salt from the sea would quickly damage the noble woodsfabrics and skins that decorate its interior, causing an even bigger bill. keep going the generators to keep all of this running while the yacht is in port is approximately equivalent to air conditioning consumption of more than 100 homes medium-sized operating at the same time, all to provide service to a single boat 24 hours. ​An environmental label for yachts. In the cities, the DGT label determine if your car can circulate through certain areas at certain times, during pollution episodes, or they allow you to park at a discount. In the ports attached to the SEA Index, the certification fulfills a similar function: yachts with three stars or more have access to exclusive benefits at the Yacht Club of Monaco and in the associated ports of the Mediterranean. The difference is that, in this case, the yacht is not prohibited from entering the marina, but rather those who pollute the least are rewarded with benefits. ​As specified in the statement Upon presentation, the system scores each yacht from one to five stars by evaluating the nitrogen oxide and ultrafine suspended particles generated by each yacht, and then grouping them into a single final rating. Three stars represent the standard level of a medium modern yacht, while four or five stars are reserved for vessels with more advanced technologies and more sustainable engines. Why are ports part of the problem? The initiative makes a lot of sense if you look at what is happening in the ports of the Mediterranean. In Marseille, sea vessels became the main source of pollution of the city in 2020, representing 53% of the total, ahead of car traffic. According to a report of Transport & Environmentcruises in European ports increased their polluting emissions by 18% in 2022 compared to 2019, with Barcelona the most polluted port of the continent that year. These gases and particles directly affect residents, port workers and anyone who lives near a marina. As pointed out Pierre-Charles Maria of AtmoSud: “Air quality is not just an environmental concern; it is a fundamental public health issue. It is not just about staying ahead of regulations, but about improving air quality in coastal areas for the benefit of residents, mariners and ecosystems.” In Xataka | The difficult part has not been building an 80-meter, $200 million yacht. It has been taken to the sea without destroying it Image | Unsplash (Zoe Jackson)

there was a “hybrid zone” of 4,000 kilometers

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For years we had a fairly clear narrative in our minds of what had happened to our ancestors. The specific story is that the Homo sapiens They left Africa, met some Neanderthals somewhere in the Middle East, had a couple of chance encounters of hybridization pulses and they continued on their way to conquer the world. A change. However, a massive new study that just appear on the bioRxiv preprint server suggests that that picture is too simplistic. They were not specific meetings, but rather a continuous interaction throughout a huge “hybrid zone” which spanned from the Near East to Central Asia and Europe. To get here, the study has analyzed an unprecedented amount of ancient DNA to draw the most detailed map to date of how we intermingled with our extinct cousins. and the result It is a gradient of miscegenation which extends for almost 4,000 kilometers. Lots of volume. The study has not been limited to a few bones that have been found in isolation, but has used computer simulations and a data set of 1,264 paleogenomes. Something that corresponds to thousands of individuals older than 10,000 years. Your conclusion. The Neanderthal DNA patterns that we carry today in our genetic material They are not well explained by “isolated pulse” models, but rather the symmetry found between the genomes of Europe and Asia indicates that there was prolonged contact. In this way, as modern humans expanded out of Africa, which is what we know as Out of Africa, about 60,000 years agowere pushing a demographic frontier. On this advance front, gene flow was moderate but constant. That is why it was not a one-day event, but a long geographical process. The how. To understand this you have to look complementary studies which suggest that the key is in spatial gradients. To visualize the concept, we can imagine a wave that advances as if they were the Sapiens who were moving and encountering the Neanderthals. But the key is that Neanderthal ancestry is not uniform. This means that the first sapiens in Europe had a high level of Neanderthal DNA, but later expansions, such as the arrival of Neolithic farmers from Anatolia, they “watered down” that Neanderthal heritage, especially in Europe, creating a notable difference with the populations of Asia. This is where the study presented in 2026 confirms that only a model of persistent expansion with gene flow can explain why we find signs of interbreeding almost 4,000 km from the point of origin in the Near East. When did it happen? This is where things get interesting when crossing the data with other recent studies, like the one published in Nature in 2024. And although the area was large, the time window was critical. Analysis of more than 300 early human genomes points to a “single window” of major hybridization between 47,000 and 43,000 years ago. This excludes previous theories that suggested multiple, very ancient pulses. And to go a little further, there was a moment, when our species was securing its dominance in Eurasia, when the barrier between species blurred across a huge geographic swath. A map of interactions. What this body of research suggests is that the hybrid zone encompasses almost all of the Neanderthal sites known as Western Eurasia, so it implies geographically extensive interactions. However, as is often the case in science, caution must be maintained. This study has yet to undergo a full review and has limitations in that it is based on demographic assumptions and that it does not model the natural selection that we have in the genetic world. Even so, the image is increasingly clear: we are not the result of one species that replaced another suddenly. We are, in part, the result of a long border of contact where, for millennia, the line between “them” and “us” was much more blurred than we thought. Images | Marc Tremblay In Xataka | Humans are evolving live on the Tibetan plateau. And understanding what happens there will be essential in space

force the United States out of its comfort zone

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If today we were asked which country is leading the race for artificial intelligence, the most immediate answer would probably still be the United States. And it wouldn’t be an occurrence. For decades, the country has set the pace for technological innovation and a good part of the digital tools that we use daily come from their large companies. However, that leadership is no longer as incontestable as it once was. The board begins to move and there is an actor who is closing distances at a speed that is difficult to ignore. That actor is China. The question is no longer whether China competes, but how it got here. How a country identified for years as the world’s factory, associated with mass production and cheap labor, has become a benchmark for innovation and technological vanguard. In a new video from Xataka’s YouTube channelour colleague Francisco Franconi analyzes this process in detail and puts figures, context and nuances to a phenomenon that we are seeing develop almost in real time and that can alter the balance of power in the global technology sector. China is no longer just the world’s factory: it is building its own path in AI “China should be years behind the United States in the development of AIs. It is a fact, since between 85 and 95% of the global market of chips used in this sector belong to Nvidia,” explains Franconi. The data is key, but it does not explain everything. The race for artificial intelligence is not only played in the field of semiconductors. There are other structural factors that are equally determining, and one of them is energy. The video delves into the enormous energy gap that separates both countries and why this aspect is crucial to understanding Chinese progress. As Franconi points out, energy “is necessary to build chip factories, supercomputers and processing centers. Without it there is no industrial growth.” To contextualize this statement, the analysis uses data from the International Energy Agency that helps to measure the real scope of this advantage and its direct impact on industrial and technological development. Another of the axes of the video is resilience. Specifically, China’s ability to adapt and continue moving forward despite the sanctions and restrictions imposed by the different US administrations. Franconi focuses on the repeated limitations that affect NVIDIA, but also examines the case of Huawei and the role that startups such as deepseek in this new scenario. Talent appears as another of the fundamental pillars of this career. “A relevant fact is that China has a greater number of graduates in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, but the most shocking fact is that 50% of the world’s AI researchers are of Chinese origin“says Franconi. A figure that helps understand why the Asian country is gaining weight so quickly in development and research in artificial intelligence. The video also covers the current ecosystem of language models competing in the market and offers a clear snapshot of the position that China and the United States occupy in this technological race. An analysis that leads to our colleague’s conclusions about where this global pulse is heading and what implications it may have in the medium and long term. You can see now the full video on the Xataka YouTube channel. And, of course, we invite you to leave your comments both there and on this article. Images | Xataka In Xataka | Huawei is coming back. And not everyone is prepared for what is coming

whether Galicia is in its zone or not

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When on Monday, October 20, Pedro Sánchez advertisement that “the Government of Spain will propose to the EU to end the seasonal time change”, he did not suspect that he was about to reopen a much more arcane and unmanageable debate: that of Galicia and its time zone. And the Galicians are good when the subject is brought up to them. A historical claim. Internet is full of examples of this proverbial Galician anger. As they say, until 1940, Galicia (and, by extension, peninsular Spain) was in the zone of the United Kingdom and Portugal. It was a “temporary” measure that became permanent. And the consequences are more noticeable in Galicia because due to its geographical position it has very late sunrises in winter and extremely late sunsets in summer. “A scientific aberration.” In what we have been doing for centuries, the Galician Nationalist Bloc has promoted again and again the proposal of place Galicia in the same zone as Portugal. What’s more, in 2016, all the Galician parties asked that Spain returned to Greenwich zone. Without much success, really. And, despite the fact that it has been defended and studied a lot, the national response It’s been a permanent no. Because? Let’s go in parts, because this has a nutshell: during the Second World War, practically all of the countries of Western Europe changed time zone. In some cases, it was because of the invasion of Nazi Germany, yes; In others, it was a (more or less) voluntary decision by the different countries. Be that as it may, one after the other, they all switched to Berlin time. However, that is not what is striking. After all, in war situations, exceptional measures are taken. What is really striking is that, after the War, none of those countries returned to their previous zone. Not just Franco’s Spain, no: everyone. And the explanation, although it may not seem like it, is much more solid than it seems. But let’s talk about time zones… When in 1912 is celebrated the ‘Conférence internationale de l’heure radiotélégraphique’ and the 24 time zone system was approved, the lecturers turned to a very specific (and very useful) astronomical phenomenon: the fact that noon is stable throughout the year. That is, noon occurs almost every exact twenty-four hours and, therefore, establishing the time of each place in the world (adopting the time zone) turned out to be something really simple and revolutionary. Satisfied, they returned to their countries aware that they were making history. The whys were very clear… Although the First World War meant that the international time convention was not ratified by its members until 1919, everyone seemed convinced. After Versaillesthe different countries began to progressively unify their schedules. It didn’t really affect us. Spain was on the Greenwich meridian since January 1, 1901, like most European countries, under the Meridian conference of 1884. But there were many countries that did have to make important changes. After all, having a different schedule for each city (as was the case until then) made everything much more complex than necessary. “Normalizing” and “standardizing” the time was a key element for the desired ‘boom’ in rail transport, airships and incipient aviation: coordination costs were beginning to be unaffordable. Martin Olalla Martin Olalla …but people had other ideas. Despite rationalist optimism, the greatest experts knew that none of this was a magic solution. In 1844, the “father of spindles” Sandford Fleming had already said that, “The adoption of correct principles of time reckoning will not change or seriously alter the habits to which they are accustomed. They will not lose anything of value. The Sun will rise and set and regulate all social usages. (…) People will get up and go to bed, start and stop working, have breakfast or dinner at the same current time intervals, and our social habits and customs will not change.” And, indeed, people continued doing their thing. The problem is that this “his” consisted of something strange: suddenly, we began to realize that societies did not establish their schedules around noon, but around dawn. The most curious thing that almost all the countries in Europe discovered when changing to the Berlin time zone is that, in reality, what they were doing was adapting the civil time to the one that citizens actually had. That’s why no one went back to the old spindle: because it works better. Martin Olalla How does it work better? The best way to summarize it is with a phrase: “in winter, when it is daytime in Ourense, in Madrid, or in Barcelona; it is not daytime in London.” In fact, it is even daytime in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. This does not depend on the time zone, it depends on the fact that the sun illuminates the spherical surface of the Earth. Does it work better for all of Spain? During autumn and winter, yes. Without any doubt. In spring and summer, things are not so clear. During these seasons, the sun hits much less obliquely and this means that the sunset fits much better with the time zones. The result is that the imbalance that we carry causes nightfall in Galicia much later than would be “normal” or desirable. This is a real problem, of course. But since the central issue is the variability with which the sun affects these areas, it is also not clear that introducing an extra time zone for Galicia (in the portuguese way) or for the Balearic Islands (as has also been claimed) will solve all the problems. I would trade one problem for another — let’s remember that Portugal has been one of the countries least open to eliminating the time change. But in addition, it would generate many coordination problems and very few comparative advantages. Image | MrMingsz (Wikimedia Commons) In Xataka | The war that ended at two different times: the time change has been giving Spaniards headaches for almost a century

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