<![CDATA[EL PAÍS]]>https://english.elpais.comThu, 30 Apr 2026 14:39:39 +0000en1hourly1<![CDATA[Genetics reveals that the fall of the Roman Empire shaped Europe’s population]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2026-04-29/genetics-reveals-that-the-fall-of-the-roman-empire-shaped-europes-population.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2026-04-29/genetics-reveals-that-the-fall-of-the-roman-empire-shaped-europes-population.htmlWed, 29 Apr 2026 15:27:50 +0000For centuries, along the entire northern border of the Roman Empire, local inhabitants coexisted with Roman citizens and their slaves, as well as the legionaries who guarded the Roman Limes, the imperial frontier. But there is no evidence that they mixed extensively. However, everything changed with the fall of Rome: a study of bodies buried in some 20 cemeteries in Germania shows that, without the rule of lex romana, local inhabitants, citizens, slaves, and legionaries began to intermingle. The study, published in Nature, also describes the families of these groups, their life expectancy, and the prevalence of orphanhood among young children at the beginning of the Middle Ages.

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]]><![CDATA[Gibraltar’s monkeys eat dirt to purge the junk food tourists give them ]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2026-04-26/gibraltars-monkeys-eat-dirt-to-purge-the-junk-food-tourists-give-them.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2026-04-26/gibraltars-monkeys-eat-dirt-to-purge-the-junk-food-tourists-give-them.htmlSun, 26 Apr 2026 04:00:00 +0000In nature, the Barbary macaque has a nearly vegetarian diet based on fruits, tender leaves, roots and an insect here and there. But on the Rock of Gibraltar, they also eat chocolate cookies, ice cream cones, M&M’s and potato chips. The result? A study published in Nature shows that the monkeys are eating dirt to purge the sugars, fats, and dairy products from this junk food tourists give them.

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]]><![CDATA[Amud 7, the Neanderthal baby who shows they developed faster than modern humans]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2026-04-15/amud-7-the-neanderthal-baby-who-shows-they-developed-faster-than-modern-humans.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2026-04-15/amud-7-the-neanderthal-baby-who-shows-they-developed-faster-than-modern-humans.htmlWed, 15 Apr 2026 15:52:54 +0000Neanderthals and Homo sapiens were more than just sister species. Differing by only a few dozen genes, they had sex and produced offspring repeatedly — a fact that, for some researchers, even calls into question how distinct they truly were. Yet a detailed analysis of the remains of a Neanderthal baby shows that from a very young age, they were already different, at least in their bones. The study, published in Current Biology, also suggests that Homo neanderthalensis children developed at a faster rate than Homo sapiens. The harsher environmental conditions they faced may explain this crucial difference.

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]]><![CDATA[From the nighttime lights of the rich to the blackouts caused by crises, this is how satellites capture ‘the heartbeat of society’]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2026-04-08/from-the-nighttime-lights-of-the-rich-to-the-blackouts-caused-by-crises-this-is-how-satellites-capture-the-heartbeat-of-society.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2026-04-08/from-the-nighttime-lights-of-the-rich-to-the-blackouts-caused-by-crises-this-is-how-satellites-capture-the-heartbeat-of-society.htmlWed, 08 Apr 2026 16:16:47 +0000Light pollution continues to increase. This is nothing new; Earth’s nights have been getting brighter for some time now. But a new study published in Nature, which confirms this trend, has also found that artificial light is receding in parts of the planet. In some areas, this is due to conflicts or crises, such as in Ukraine, Syria, or Venezuela. But in others, such as Europe, thanks to technological transition and increased awareness of the damage this pollution causes to ecosystems and humans themselves, the night is recovering.

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]]><![CDATA[The threat of the ‘Komsomolets’: A Soviet nuclear submarine has been leaking radiation from the seabed for four decades]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2026-03-28/the-threat-of-the-komsomolets-a-soviet-nuclear-submarine-has-been-leaking-radiation-from-the-seabed-for-four-decades.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2026-03-28/the-threat-of-the-komsomolets-a-soviet-nuclear-submarine-has-been-leaking-radiation-from-the-seabed-for-four-decades.htmlSat, 28 Mar 2026 04:00:00 +0000When it entered service in 1983, it was the pride of the Soviet Navy. The Komsomolets, or K-278, was the only one of its kind, with a double titanium hull that allowed it to dive to greater depths than any other submarine. Its plutonium-fueled nuclear propulsion system made it self-sufficient for years. And along with a dozen conventional torpedoes, it carried two nuclear warheads. On April 7, 1989, while sailing in the Norwegian Sea, a fire broke out in compartment 7. The fire spread to nearby compartments through the ventilation pipes, forcing the submarine to surface, only to sink shortly afterward near Bear Island in Svalbard. Forty-two crew members died, most from the frigid water; only 27 survived. Now, at a depth of 1,667 meters, the Komsomolets poses a threat from the bottom of the sea, according to a new study.

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]]><![CDATA[Electrodes connected to the brain allow two people with paralysis to type with their minds]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2026-03-17/electrodes-connected-to-the-brain-allow-two-people-with-paralysis-to-type-with-their-minds.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2026-03-17/electrodes-connected-to-the-brain-allow-two-people-with-paralysis-to-type-with-their-minds.htmlTue, 17 Mar 2026 14:25:27 +0000Little by little, science is getting closer to fulfilling the dream of empowering those who cannot empower themselves. With the help of artificial intelligence, machine language, algorithms, and a wealth of technology, neuroscience is bringing us closer to the day when people with spinal cord injuries can walk; when people with Parkinson’s disease no longer experience mental freezes; when those who have lost sensation can feel touch again; or when those who have lost their sight can once more perceive light. Now, American neuroscientists have designed a brain-machine interface (BCI) that allows users to communicate by typing on a keyboard using only their minds. As detailed in the scientific journal Nature Neuroscience, they have successfully tested it on two patients with paralysis, who have managed to type at high speed and almost flawlessly. There are only two of them, and the system is still in its early stages, but it brings that dream a step closer.

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]]><![CDATA[Ants trapped in amber reveal what diminutive life was like millions of years ago ]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2026-02-27/ants-trapped-in-amber-reveal-what-diminutive-life-was-like-millions-of-years-ago.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2026-02-27/ants-trapped-in-amber-reveal-what-diminutive-life-was-like-millions-of-years-ago.htmlFri, 27 Feb 2026 15:01:26 +0000Although there are many amber stones containing a single creature, there are fewer that include two or more, as is the case with a pair of mosquitoes trapped in amber 130 million years ago which tell us that, back then, males also sucked blood. Even more extraordinary is when several organisms can be seen interacting, either eating the other, acting as a parasite, or cooperating. The new edition of the scientific journal Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution examines not one, but six of these stones in which scenes of life millions of years ago have been frozen in time.

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]]><![CDATA[The largest genetic map of cancer in cats opens the door to treatments shared with humans]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2026-02-20/the-largest-genetic-map-of-cancer-in-cats-opens-the-door-to-treatments-shared-with-humans.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2026-02-20/the-largest-genetic-map-of-cancer-in-cats-opens-the-door-to-treatments-shared-with-humans.htmlFri, 20 Feb 2026 10:24:37 +0000Cats, along with dogs, are the animals that spend the most time with humans. They share spaces, routines, and even illnesses. They are exposed to almost all the same environmental stressors that induce tumors in people. However, unlike what happens with dogs, cancer research in felines is very limited. Now, a huge study published in Science, using hundreds of tumor samples, has obtained the most complete oncogenome of the domestic cat. Among its findings, two are closely related: cats and humans suffer from almost the same types of cancer, and this opens the door for the possibility that advances in the fight against cancer in one species could be applied to the other.

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]]>Osmancan Gurdogan<![CDATA[A bacterium frozen 5,000 years ago has been found capable of standing up to super-pathogens]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2026-02-17/a-bacterium-frozen-5000-years-ago-has-been-found-capable-of-standing-up-to-super-pathogens.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2026-02-17/a-bacterium-frozen-5000-years-ago-has-been-found-capable-of-standing-up-to-super-pathogens.htmlTue, 17 Feb 2026 11:32:56 +0000It has been named Psychrobacter SC65A.3 and was found buried under meters of ice in a cave in Romania. It had been entombed for some 5,000 years and, despite this, appears to be resistant to a dozen modern antibiotics. Its discoverers have also found that it inhibits the growth of other bacteria, including some of the most difficult-to-treat pathogens. The research, published in the scientific journal Frontiers in Microbiology, delves into its genetics to explain how a bacterium can be both drug-resistant and a potential antibiotic against others.

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]]>Mauritius <![CDATA[Brain implant restores vision to a man blinded by an optic nerve injury]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2026-02-03/brain-implant-restores-vision-to-a-man-blinded-by-an-optic-nerve-injury.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2026-02-03/brain-implant-restores-vision-to-a-man-blinded-by-an-optic-nerve-injury.htmlTue, 03 Feb 2026 13:14:19 +0000At Christmas 2018, Miguel Terol suddenly lost sight in his right eye. Six weeks later, he felt something strange in his other eye. He went to the emergency room, and while waiting there, he felt his vision dimming. Frightened, he started shouting, “I can’t see, I can’t see!” At the hospital, he was diagnosed with non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION), a sudden loss of vision caused by a lack of blood flow to the optic nerve. “It’s a type of stroke that affects the eyes,” Terol explains. His neurologist told him about an experimental trial at the Miguel Hernández University (UMH) in Elche. In June 2022, in the midst of the pandemic, they opened his head to place a tiny 4x4 millimeter implant with 100 microneedles in his visual cortex, in the back of his neck. They were trying to stimulate the cortex to reproduce visual perceptions. Although the trial was intended to validate the technology, he regained enough vision to perceive light, detect movement, identify objects, and even read large characters on a screen. It was unexpected. And although it’s just one case, it will serve as the basis for testing it with others.

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]]><![CDATA[Penguins are bringing forward their breeding season due to warming temperatures]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2026-01-24/penguins-are-bringing-forward-their-breeding-season-due-to-warming-temperatures.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2026-01-24/penguins-are-bringing-forward-their-breeding-season-due-to-warming-temperatures.htmlSat, 24 Jan 2026 04:00:00 +0000Every year, penguins are returning earlier to the nesting grounds where they lay their eggs and raise their chicks. This isn’t a phenomenon limited to a single colony; it has been observed in dozens of colonies and across three different species. On average, they have returned two weeks earlier, but in some cases, by almost a month. This places these birds among the living beings that have most significantly altered one of life’s fundamental patterns: raising the next generation. The authors of the research, published January 19 in the Journal of Animal Ecology, relied on the deployment of dozens of cameras with built-in thermometers. This allowed them to identify a clue to what is happening: an accelerated increase in temperature. What they don’t yet know is whether the penguins are adapting to or being overwhelmed by climate change.

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]]><![CDATA[Science seeks keys to human longevity in the genetic mixing of Brazilian supercentenarians]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2026-01-06/science-seeks-keys-to-human-longevity-in-the-genetic-mixing-of-brazilian-supercentenarians.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2026-01-06/science-seeks-keys-to-human-longevity-in-the-genetic-mixing-of-brazilian-supercentenarians.htmlTue, 06 Jan 2026 17:24:58 +0000Life expectancy in the countries with the greatest longevity, such as Japan, Italy, and Spain, hovers around 84 years. But some people live for another 30 years or so. Spaniard María Branyas, for example, lived past 117. These are the supercentenarians. And not only do they live longer, but, as was the case with the Catalan woman, they rarely reach the end suffering from cardiorespiratory problems, Alzheimer’s, or cancer, just with the ailments typical of such advanced age. Science is searching for the secret to their extreme longevity from many angles.

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]]>Flavio Tin<![CDATA[There is as much life left to discover on planet Earth as that which is already known]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2026-01-01/there-is-as-much-life-left-to-discover-on-planet-earth-as-that-already-known.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2026-01-01/there-is-as-much-life-left-to-discover-on-planet-earth-as-that-already-known.htmlThu, 01 Jan 2026 16:08:07 +0000Carl Linnaeus, the Swedish scientist who dedicated his life to cataloging the living things known in his time (he died in 1778), classified some 12,000 species. In 2017 alone, 17,044 were described. And science has been discovering and describing similar numbers for at least a decade. Contrary to what was believed, the rate of cataloging new species is not slowing down, but rather accelerating in almost all the taxonomic groups into which life is organized. Moreover, according to a study published in Science Advances, there are as many species left to discover on Earth as those that are already known. The problem is that many of the new organisms are classified as endangered as soon as they are discovered.

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]]><![CDATA[Magnets in their heads: How some animals guide themselves using the Earth’s magnetic field]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2025-12-27/magnets-in-their-heads-how-some-animals-guide-themselves-using-the-earths-magnetic-field.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2025-12-27/magnets-in-their-heads-how-some-animals-guide-themselves-using-the-earths-magnetic-field.htmlSat, 27 Dec 2025 04:00:00 +0000Alpine newts are born and live as larvae in puddles, ponds and streams. After metamorphosis, while still young, they leave the water and spend almost the entire year in the dense, humid forests of Europe. But when mating season arrives, they return to the same body of water where they were born. To assess their sense of direction, some were taken up to 26 miles (42 km) from their place of birth. And they made their way back home in a straight line, without any problems, despite being only 4.7 inches (12 cm) long.

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]]>Andreu Esteban<![CDATA[The Iberian Peninsula is rotating clockwise, scientists report]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2025-12-16/the-iberian-peninsula-is-rotating-clockwise-scientists-report.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2025-12-16/the-iberian-peninsula-is-rotating-clockwise-scientists-report.htmlTue, 16 Dec 2025 16:31:21 +0000The fact the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa are coming together has been happening for hundreds of thousands of years. But how this is taking place — the way the upper part of the Earth’s crust is moving — follows a path that is still being defined. New data shows that the land that today forms Spain and Portugal is rotating from east to west, in a clockwise direction. The tectonic plates on which both sides of the Strait of Gibraltar rest are moving closer together and compressing a little more each year. The very long-term consequences will be enormous: the Mediterranean will once again become a closed sea, Africa and Europe will be joined to the west, and what is now southern Iberia will either face the Americas or will have merged with the area of Ceuta, a Spanish exclave in North Africa.

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]]><![CDATA[The Roman Empire’s ‘road map’ is twice as extensive as previously thought]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2025-11-06/the-roman-empires-road-map-is-twice-as-extensive-as-previously-thought.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2025-11-06/the-roman-empires-road-map-is-twice-as-extensive-as-previously-thought.htmlThu, 06 Nov 2025 17:09:53 +0000Alongside the legions, the miliaria marked the power of the Roman Empire. Placed every mille passus or Roman mile (1,478.5 meters), these cylindrical or rectangular stone markers punctuated the Roman roads, much as kilometer posts do on highways today.

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]]>Mosaik<![CDATA[Chinese scientists discover the DNA secret behind the naked mole-rat’s astonishing longevity]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2025-10-09/chinese-scientists-discover-the-dna-secret-behind-the-naked-mole-rats-astonishing-longevity.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2025-10-09/chinese-scientists-discover-the-dna-secret-behind-the-naked-mole-rats-astonishing-longevity.htmlThu, 09 Oct 2025 19:24:05 +0000There is an iron law in nature: the larger a species, the longer its members live. That’s why whales outlive elephants, and elephants outlive lions. Very few animals defy this rule. Humans have circumvented it thanks to culture. But there is a small animal that laughs in its face. Given its size, the naked mole-rat (Heterocephalus glaber) shouldn’t live more than two years, yet they often approach 40. What’s more, they age healthily, without typical age-related diseases such as cancer, neurodegenerative disorders, or arthritis. Now, a study published in Science points to four mutations that make their DNA repair system exceptionally efficient.

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]]>blickwinkel / Alamy Stock Photo<![CDATA[The secrets to longevity of Catalan woman who died at 117: ‘Study me, learn from me’]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2025-09-24/the-secrets-to-longevity-of-catalan-woman-who-died-at-117-study-me-learn-from-me.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2025-09-24/the-secrets-to-longevity-of-catalan-woman-who-died-at-117-study-me-learn-from-me.htmlWed, 24 Sep 2025 18:09:32 +0000María Branyas Morera was born on March 4, 1907, in San Francisco, less than a year after the earthquake that destroyed the city. When World War I broke out in 1914, her father died of tuberculosis on the ship bringing the family back to Spain. As a child, she witnessed the 1918 flu pandemic. During the Spanish Civil War, she worked as a nurse on the Republican front alongside her husband, a doctor. She witnessed World War II, the moon landing in 1968, the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the turn of the millennium, and in 2020, she overcame a Covid infection. Over all those years, she lost her parents, her siblings, and even — the cross that most painfully affected her — her son. In 2023, she became the oldest living person on the planet. During the final years of her life, and until shortly before her death in August of last year, a group of scientists took several samples from her. Their results, recently published in Cell Reports Medicine, reveal the keys to her longevity.

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]]><![CDATA[Heat waves in rivers increase four times faster than atmospheric heat waves ]]>https://english.elpais.com/climate/2025-09-23/heat-waves-in-rivers-increase-four-times-faster-than-atmospheric-heat-waves.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/climate/2025-09-23/heat-waves-in-rivers-increase-four-times-faster-than-atmospheric-heat-waves.htmlTue, 23 Sep 2025 10:10:13 +0000As anyone who lives near one knows well, when the heat hits, rivers serve as a climatic refuge. However, this is beginning to change. By studying the impact of heat waves since 1980 on more than 1,400 rivers, American researchers have discovered that these extreme events are increasing at a rate four times greater than that of atmospheric heat waves. The work, published in the journal PNAS, is based on data from the United States, but European experts believe the phenomenon is global. The impact of these heat waves does not remain limited to the river.

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]]>Joe Sohm/Visions of America<![CDATA[Two of the deadliest mosquitoes have thrived thanks to their ties to humans]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2025-09-18/two-of-the-deadliest-mosquitoes-have-thrived-thanks-to-their-ties-to-humans.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2025-09-18/two-of-the-deadliest-mosquitoes-have-thrived-thanks-to-their-ties-to-humans.htmlThu, 18 Sep 2025 19:29:29 +0000The slave trade shows how, at times, history returns to slap the present in the face. Between the 16th and 19th centuries, some 15 million Africans were torn from their homes in a triangle that linked Africa, European traffickers, and the American colonies. Aboard those slave ships also traveled mosquitoes of the species Aedes aegypti.

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]]>Kellys Portillo<![CDATA[Rodents spread across the globe thanks to their thumbnails, study finds]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2025-09-17/rodents-spread-across-the-globe-thanks-to-their-thumbnails-study-finds.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2025-09-17/rodents-spread-across-the-globe-thanks-to-their-thumbnails-study-finds.htmlWed, 17 Sep 2025 14:37:08 +0000Tetrapods, living beings with four limbs — a group that includes humans — use their arms and legs to interact with their environment. They use their limbs to move, chase or escape, feed or fight, and reproduce. In mammals, reptiles, birds, and to a much lesser extent amphibians, their extremities end in keratin-rich structures. These take the form of claws, hooves, or nails. It had long been assumed that rodents had claws. But no: a large study published in Science shows that this is true for only four of their digits. On the fifth — the thumb —most have a nail very similar to that of humans. For the authors, this different big digit helped them conquer the planet.

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]]><![CDATA[Octopuses have a favorite arm for each task]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2025-09-11/octopuses-have-a-favorite-arm-for-each-task.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2025-09-11/octopuses-have-a-favorite-arm-for-each-task.htmlThu, 11 Sep 2025 15:49:25 +0000More than the vault, the real torture for children in gym class is having to perform coordination exercises: for example, moving one arm vertically while making a circular motion with the other. The human brain ends up getting confused. But octopuses can do a different thing with each of their eight arms or legs. A study published in Scientific Reports also shows how they reserve certain limbs for specific tasks. The authors of the research conclude that, based on their results, “the octopus is a very tactile animal – it’s more tactile than visual”

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]]>Chelsea Bennice <![CDATA[‘Messor ibericus’: The ant that lays eggs of two different species]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2025-09-04/messor-ibericus-the-ant-that-lays-eggs-of-two-different-species.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2025-09-04/messor-ibericus-the-ant-that-lays-eggs-of-two-different-species.htmlThu, 04 Sep 2025 16:39:06 +0000With the first warm days of spring or summer, after the initial rains, frenzy breaks out among the ants. Virgin queens go in search of one of the many males of their species, who, in a synchronized manner, also leave their colonies. During this nuptial flight, they mate with as many males as they can, storing their sperm. It will be the only time in their lives that they do so. Back in their colony, they will use it to produce new queens, a few males, and an army of workers for years. This is what most of these hymenopterans do.

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]]><![CDATA[Closely sown corn plants communicate to defend themselves]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2025-08-24/closely-sown-corn-plants-communicate-to-defend-themselves.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2025-08-24/closely-sown-corn-plants-communicate-to-defend-themselves.htmlSun, 24 Aug 2025 04:00:00 +0000Corn plants whisper messages to each other to defend against their enemies. When they are very closely planted, they release a volatile substance that induces their neighbors to produce chemicals that halt their growth, but activate their defenses against plagues. And that’s not all — they also modify the soil’s microbiota, leaving a defensive legacy that preps the immune system of the next generation of plants. This discovery, published in Science, opens the door to the use of the plant’s own components as pesticide.

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]]>DJ Claassen<![CDATA[The Mayan civilization experienced 44 years of drought in its last two centuries]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2025-08-13/the-mayan-civilization-experienced-44-years-of-drought-in-its-last-two-centuries.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2025-08-13/the-mayan-civilization-experienced-44-years-of-drought-in-its-last-two-centuries.htmlWed, 13 Aug 2025 18:34:15 +0000After centuries of prosperity, the Mayan civilization began to decline in the 8th century CE, collapsing completely over the next two centuries. They abandoned their cities — with their pyramids, stadiums, ceremonial plazas… and their fields, sustained by hydraulic engineering as ingenious and advanced as that of their contemporaries, the Arabs.

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]]><![CDATA[Scientists find microplastics in semen and ovaries]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2025-07-02/scientists-find-microplastics-in-semen-and-ovaries.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2025-07-02/scientists-find-microplastics-in-semen-and-ovaries.htmlWed, 02 Jul 2025 07:07:28 +0000As a consequence of decades of living in a plastic-filled society, plastic is now everywhere. Once degraded to the size of microplastics (particles smaller than five millimeters), plastic has reached the Arctic, the Mariana Trench, the Himalayas, the atmosphere, our food, and even our bodies. Now, Spanish researchers have confirmed that it has also made its way into human reproductive fluids: where the egg develops and in semen. They were able to identify up to a dozen different types of plastic, albeit in low concentrations. It is still not known what impact they might have on sperm or oocytes and their ability to create life.

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]]>Clouds Hill Imaging Ltd.<![CDATA[Bright city lights are bringing spring forward and pushing autumn back]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2025-06-16/bright-city-lights-are-bringing-spring-forward-and-pushing-autumn-back.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2025-06-16/bright-city-lights-are-bringing-spring-forward-and-pushing-autumn-back.htmlMon, 16 Jun 2025 17:30:57 +0000Streetlights, neon lights, and LEDs in shop windows are confusing plants: in cities, spring arrives several days earlier than in the countryside, and autumn is also delayed by almost two weeks. Research published in the scientific journal Nature Cities shows how light pollution acts like the Sun, accelerating fundamental processes in plant phenology, such as budding and leaf fall. Researchers believe that city lights are altering plant life, the consequences of which are yet to be determined.

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]]>Artur Debat<![CDATA[A dinosaur’s last supper: Gut of a 100-million-year-old sauropod sheds light on its diet]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2025-06-09/a-dinosaurs-last-supper-gut-of-a-100-million-year-old-sauropod-sheds-light-on-its-diet.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2025-06-09/a-dinosaurs-last-supper-gut-of-a-100-million-year-old-sauropod-sheds-light-on-its-diet.htmlMon, 09 Jun 2025 18:50:11 +0000Ever since the first dinosaur fossils were discovered, scholars have maintained that sauropods — the largest of them all — were herbivores. This was supported by logic, knowledge of food chains, the shape of their teeth, the length of their necks, and their size and slowness, which would have made it difficult for them to chase other animals. But there was little direct evidence, such as coprolites (fossilized feces) or, even rarer, cololites (fossilized gut contents). That is, until now: a team of researchers details in the journal Current Biology the discovery of the cololite of a young sauropod that lived in what is now northeastern Australia. In its stomach was its last meal — a varied diet of conifers, ferns, and leaves from early angiosperms, the first flowering plants. They also observed that it barely chewed its food.

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]]><![CDATA[The Dead Sea Scrolls were written earlier than previously thought, according to AI]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2025-06-05/the-dead-sea-scrolls-were-written-earlier-than-previously-thought-according-to-ai.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2025-06-05/the-dead-sea-scrolls-were-written-earlier-than-previously-thought-according-to-ai.htmlThu, 05 Jun 2025 10:15:07 +0000There are just over 1,000 of them, many of them fragmented, and they have been a puzzle for decades. Now, an artificial intelligence system has dated 100 of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the oldest texts in existence for both Jews and Christians. Trained with a few scrolls dated using the carbon-14 technique, the new machine has placed the date of their writing to between 50 and 150 years earlier than previously thought. In a paper published in the journal PLOS One, the creators of this AI believe that its combination of traditional paleography (the study of ancient texts) and radiocarbon dating could solve the puzzle and order the remaining hundreds, which would shed light on one of the founding moments of two of the great human cultures.

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]]>MediaNews Group/Los Angeles Daily News via Getty Images<![CDATA[Should we wipe out the pests now that we can?]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2025-05-26/should-we-wipe-out-the-pests-now-that-we-can.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2025-05-26/should-we-wipe-out-the-pests-now-that-we-can.htmlMon, 26 May 2025 11:08:43 +0000Felicola (Lorisicola) isidoroi is a creature that is probably either extinct or on the verge of being so. In the past, it must have been present throughout most of the Iberian Peninsula, but the last time scientists encountered one was in 1997. For biologists, this represents a loss of biodiversity. For everyone else, it’s just another bug. Felicola (L.) isidoroi is a louse that lives by sucking blood. Its unique feature is that its only host is the Iberian lynx. Specific to the most endangered feline on the planet, it shared the latter’s path to extinction until humans decided to save the feline, but not its parasite.

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]]>Science History Images / Alamy Stock Photo<![CDATA[Adolescent capuchins kidnap the offspring of howler monkeys out of boredom]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2025-05-19/adolescent-capuchins-kidnap-the-offspring-of-howler-monkeys-out-of-boredom.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2025-05-19/adolescent-capuchins-kidnap-the-offspring-of-howler-monkeys-out-of-boredom.htmlMon, 19 May 2025 16:45:59 +0000A group of teenagers, a lot of free time, and little oversight from their elders. Great things can emerge from this scenario, but it’s also the ingredients for a series of tragic events in paradise. On Jicarón Island (Panama), within Coiba National Park, a dozen babies were torn from their mothers’ hands, dying days later amid the neglect and curiosity of their captors. The behavior observed among a group of white-faced capuchins (Cebus capucinus imitator) is extraordinary: the kidnapped monkeys were babies of another species, Panamanian howler monkeys (Alouatta palliata coibensis). It would seem like teenaged mischief if it weren’t for the fact that all the kidnapped monkeys died within a few days. The authors of this discovery can only find one explanation for a behavior with no obvious benefits or biological meaning: something very similar to boredom.

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]]>Brendan Barrett / Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior<![CDATA[Sea of plastic: Global study finds thousands of microparticles even in the Mariana Trench]]>https://english.elpais.com/climate/2025-04-30/sea-of-plastic-global-ocean-study-detects-thousands-of-microparticles-even-in-the-mariana-trench.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/climate/2025-04-30/sea-of-plastic-global-ocean-study-detects-thousands-of-microparticles-even-in-the-mariana-trench.htmlWed, 30 Apr 2025 15:55:29 +0000Plastic is like air. Vital to modern societies, it’s everywhere. But once its useful life ends, as sunlight, wind, and erosion break it down, it ends up in the ocean. Its supposed buoyancy, supported by some studies, led to the belief that the biggest problem was on the surface. However, a new study published in Nature, drawing on hundreds of sampling stations placed at various depths, reveals that microplastics are now omnipresent — from beaches to the high seas, from the surface to the ocean’s deepest layers. Researchers have also discovered that the carbon in these polymers is becoming part of the ocean’s natural carbon cycle, with consequences that remain unknown.

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]]>ÓSCAR CORRAL<![CDATA[Mathematics discovers that rose petals are found to contain a unique geometry]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2025-05-02/mathematics-discovers-that-rose-petals-are-found-to-contain-a-unique-geometry.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2025-05-02/mathematics-discovers-that-rose-petals-are-found-to-contain-a-unique-geometry.htmlFri, 02 May 2025 18:34:08 +0000Nature and humans have different solutions for dealing with flat surfaces in a world that is three-dimensional. Among plants, the uneven growth of their leaves or their tissue causes the appearance of curvatures that relieve tension, without which they would break. An example is the wrinkling of lettuce at its edge.

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]]>prescott09<![CDATA[Mind blanking: Study shows how the brain ‘sleeps’ when it goes blank]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2025-04-25/mind-blanking-study-shows-how-the-brain-sleeps-when-it-goes-blank.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2025-04-25/mind-blanking-study-shows-how-the-brain-sleeps-when-it-goes-blank.htmlFri, 25 Apr 2025 12:19:55 +0000The mind is not supposed to stop working, even unconsciously. It is not easy to leave it empty. However, there are times when it suddenly goes blank; when there is no way to recover the thread of what we were saying; when whatever was previously in our head cannot be recovered even as a vague thought or idea. Now, several researchers have put together everything that is known about this phenomenon and argue that, in these cases, there is a specific and distinct pattern of brain activity that resembles what happens when we sleep. According to these experts, these mental lapses have to do with changes in the excitability of various areas of the brain and are inevitable.

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]]>SOPA Images<![CDATA[One-sixth of the planet’s cropland has toxic levels of one or more metals]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2025-04-17/one-sixth-of-the-planets-cropland-has-toxic-levels-of-one-or-more-metals.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2025-04-17/one-sixth-of-the-planets-cropland-has-toxic-levels-of-one-or-more-metals.htmlThu, 17 Apr 2025 19:29:13 +0000The first 30 centimeters of soil are the foundation of life. This foot-deep slice of the pedosphere is the vital space for most plant roots. When roots go deeper, it’s to anchor the plant, not to nourish it. Within this narrow band, bacteria, fungi, nematodes, and countless other microscopic organisms form the so-called biological crust, which in turn supports the larger life forms above. Now, a review of thousands of studies — and many more soil samples — reveals that this same 30-centimeter layer also contains toxic concentrations of metals in agricultural soil used to grow the food humans eat. The massive study, published Thursday in Science, estimates that up to 17% of farmland worldwide contains excessive levels of one or more metals and metalloids.

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]]>Zu Sanchez Photography<![CDATA[Study of over 1,000 sites suggests inequality emerged long after agriculture]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2025-04-15/study-of-over-1000-sites-suggests-inequality-emerged-long-after-agriculture.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2025-04-15/study-of-over-1000-sites-suggests-inequality-emerged-long-after-agriculture.htmlTue, 15 Apr 2025 16:07:59 +0000It must have been Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778), the philosopher and one of the fathers of the Enlightenment, who was one of the first to link the emergence of wealth disparities — both moral and material — with the development of complex societies. This was an argument explained in his Discourse on the Origin and Basis of Inequality Among Men.

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]]>fmajor<![CDATA[Bonobos communicate using a universal principle of human languages]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2025-04-04/bonobos-communicate-using-a-universal-principle-of-human-languages.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2025-04-04/bonobos-communicate-using-a-universal-principle-of-human-languages.htmlFri, 04 Apr 2025 09:32:38 +0000Although their respective lineages diverged millions of years ago, bonobos and humans share 98.7% of their genome (the same as chimpanzees). Bonobos — which are endangered, with fewer than 20,000 remaining in the protected forests of the Democratic Republic of the Congo — are known for their remarkable ability to communicate, even with humans. Now, research published in Science shows that they combine their vocalizations in a way that mirrors how humans put words together to form sentences, enabling them to communicate more complex messages. This ability was once thought to be unique to humans.

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]]><![CDATA[Budgies' brain reveals the secrets of human speech]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2025-03-19/budgies-brain-reveals-the-secrets-of-human-speech.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2025-03-19/budgies-brain-reveals-the-secrets-of-human-speech.htmlWed, 19 Mar 2025 16:58:16 +0000Several bird species are capable of imitating human speech. Some songbirds, corvids, and parrots also produce vocalizations to communicate. But how they do this and whether they do so in a similar way to humans has been a mystery. Now, a study with budgerigars published in Nature has begun to unravel the mystery: they have a series of neurons specifically dedicated to activating their vocal organs. Some of these neurons are so specialized that they control the intonation of their songs or the pitch of their calls. They accomplish this with a different part of their brain, but otherwise, the mechanism is the same as in humans.

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]]>Christopher Auger-Dominguez<![CDATA[Ceramics reveal the boundaries of Western Europe’s first state]]>https://english.elpais.com/culture/2025-03-17/ceramics-reveal-the-boundaries-of-western-europes-first-state.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/culture/2025-03-17/ceramics-reveal-the-boundaries-of-western-europes-first-state.htmlMon, 17 Mar 2025 17:25:01 +0000While in the East, Egypt was entering its Middle Kingdom, Hammurabi was building the Babylonian Empire, and the Minoan culture of the First Palaces was flourishing in Crete, Western Europe was still emerging from the Neolithic era — except in the southeast of the Iberian Peninsula.

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]]><![CDATA[A world without butterflies: The alarming decline of a vital species]]>https://english.elpais.com/climate/2025-03-07/a-world-without-butterflies-the-alarming-decline-of-a-vital-species.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/climate/2025-03-07/a-world-without-butterflies-the-alarming-decline-of-a-vital-species.htmlFri, 07 Mar 2025 10:53:58 +0000With just one month left until spring, Rob Wilson resumed a routine he has followed since 2018: on the last weekend of February, he ventures into the countryside near Colmenar Viejo in Madrid, where he lives. From then until the end of summer, sometimes on his own and sometimes accompanied by his colleague Juan Pablo Cancela, he takes the same walk each time — from the nearby stream to the mountain — in search of butterflies. While not enough time has passed for his observations to have scientific validity, Wilson has noticed a decline in the number of lepidopterans. The rare species are particularly scarce. His observation mirrors a global trend. In Spain, Europe, the United States, and other regions with reliable data, the landscape is the same: a world with fewer and fewer butterflies.

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]]><![CDATA[Mammals, birds, and reptiles evolved complex brains through different paths]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2025-02-13/mammals-birds-and-reptiles-evolved-complex-brains-through-different-paths.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2025-02-13/mammals-birds-and-reptiles-evolved-complex-brains-through-different-paths.htmlThu, 13 Feb 2025 21:16:34 +0000Butterflies, pigeons, and bats have one thing in common: they fly. Common sense might suggest that, despite belonging to different families, they share a common winged ancestor on the tree of life. However, their closest ancestor is an ancient, worm-like creature that did not even have wings. This is a clear example of evolutionary convergence, where vastly different species have independently evolved the same solution (wings) to solve the same problem (flight). A similar phenomenon has occurred in the brains of birds, reptiles, and mammals. According to three studies published in Science, their grey matter has evolved to perform complex functions, using different neural paths and circuits to reach the same destination.

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]]>Fernando García-Moreno<![CDATA[The mysterious death of the ancient priestesses who wore 270,000 seashells]]>https://english.elpais.com/culture/2025-02-13/the-mysterious-death-of-the-ancient-priestesses-who-wore-270000-seashells.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/culture/2025-02-13/the-mysterious-death-of-the-ancient-priestesses-who-wore-270000-seashells.htmlThu, 13 Feb 2025 19:06:53 +0000There is nothing like it in the archaeological record: more than 20 human remains in a circular burial, all women, with those at the center surrounded by thousands and thousands of small white beads, likely once part of their clothing.

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]]><![CDATA[Whale songs follow the laws of human languages]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2025-02-07/whale-songs-follow-the-laws-of-human-languages.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2025-02-07/whale-songs-follow-the-laws-of-human-languages.htmlFri, 07 Feb 2025 09:42:54 +0000“Humpback whale songs are the most complex acoustic display in the animal kingdom,” says Ellen Garland, a marine biologist at the University of St Andrews in the United Kingdom. Only males sing, and their vocalizations can be heard thousands of miles away. The males within each population sing the same song, but periodically learn new tunes from other populations — sometimes up to 8,700 miles away — replacing their own. “This achievement is found in no other animal, except humans,” says Garland.

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]]>Auscape<![CDATA[How the physic laws of the San Fermín crowds could prevent stampedes]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2025-02-05/how-the-physic-laws-of-the-san-fermin-crowds-could-prevent-stampedes.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2025-02-05/how-the-physic-laws-of-the-san-fermin-crowds-could-prevent-stampedes.htmlWed, 05 Feb 2025 19:34:23 +0000Every July 6, at 10 a.m., Pamplona’s municipal police open the town hall square to crowds that move freely until around half an hour before the chupinazo, the rocket signaling the start of Spain’s world-famous San Fermín festival, also known as the Running of the Bulls. At that moment, the crowd seems chaotic, but a new study published in Nature reveals that it actually follows fluid dynamics, with circular movements formed by increasingly larger subgroups orbiting in 18-second cycles. Physicists have found that the San Fermín crowd adheres to Newton’s third law, offering insights into crowd behavior that could potentially help prevent tragedies in large gatherings.

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]]>Eduardo Sanz<![CDATA[Ants’ collective intelligence exceeds that of humans ]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2025-01-12/ants-collective-intelligence-exceeds-that-of-humans.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2025-01-12/ants-collective-intelligence-exceeds-that-of-humans.htmlSun, 12 Jan 2025 04:00:00 +0000There are only two animals capable of transporting an object so large that it can only be moved by cooperating: humans and ants. And not every species in the Formicidae family is capable of such a feat. Just 1% are able to work in teams to move a T-shaped object through two narrow doorways placed close together. The experiment is a standard of computer science and artificial intelligence, but a group of entomologists utilized it to compare the cognitive abilities of insects and people, both individually and in teams. Under equal conditions, ants perform better than us in collective intelligence.

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]]><![CDATA[New research suggests the Moon may have formed very shortly after the Earth]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-12-18/new-research-suggests-the-moon-may-have-formed-very-shortly-after-the-earth.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-12-18/new-research-suggests-the-moon-may-have-formed-very-shortly-after-the-earth.htmlWed, 18 Dec 2024 18:15:52 +0000Although the Moon still holds many mysteries, there are two aspects of its origin that seem to be generally accepted by scientists: the satellite was born as the result of the collision between the Earth and a protoplanet they have called Theia. This is only a hypothesis, but several clues, such as the discovery of material from another planet in the Earth’s mantle, support it. The other thing on which there is relative consensus is that this collision must have happened somewhat before the 4.35 billion years that some of the lunar rocks brought back by the Apollo missions are aged at. However, a group of geophysicists maintain that the story was different: the Moon was formed up to 180 million years earlier than previously thought, shortly after the formation of the Earth.

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]]><![CDATA[The longest journey of a humpback whale: Male travels over 8,000 miles to mate]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-12-11/the-longest-journey-of-a-humpback-whale-male-travels-over-8000-miles-to-mate.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-12-11/the-longest-journey-of-a-humpback-whale-male-travels-over-8000-miles-to-mate.htmlWed, 11 Dec 2024 17:14:00 +0000Humpback whales are among the animals that travel the longest distances. They follow a pattern: they spend their mating and breeding season in the warm waters near the equator, and then travel thousands of miles to the icy seas of the Arctic and the Atlantic or the North Pacific or, in the southern hemisphere, those around Antarctica. There they feed on anchovy fry, herring or sardines or, in the Antarctic Ocean, on krill, a tiny shrimp-like crustacean. However, a group of marine biologists has reported in the scientific journal Royal Society Open Science the longest journey made by a specimen of this species that did not follow the pattern. A male sighted in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of Colombia, was seen again near Zanzibar, in the Indian Ocean, some time later. There are over 8,000 miles between the two locations, both known mating areas. This migration exceeds by almost 2,500 miles the greatest distance recorded so far by these cetaceans.

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]]><![CDATA[Oldest-known remnants of archery in Europe discovered in Spain’s Bat Cave ]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-12-05/oldest-known-remnants-of-archery-in-europe-discovered-in-spains-bat-cave.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-12-05/oldest-known-remnants-of-archery-in-europe-discovered-in-spains-bat-cave.htmlThu, 05 Dec 2024 14:56:35 +0000Much has been written about the Cueva de los Murciélagos (the Bat Cave, in Albuñol, on the coast of Granada province). For a few years in the 19th century, it was Spain’s main source of natural nitrogen as a fertilizer (due to the guano of the bats that hung from its ceilings). Inside the miners thought they saw galena, a mineral rich in lead, in some reddish veins in the rock and went in to extract it. But above all, it was a cemetery, a necropolis that was later found to be very old. They removed almost everything: the 70 bodies that were there, the funerary objects and the offerings that accompanied them, most of which ended up sliding further down the cave, littering the path to the cavity, or as souvenirs in the homes of local residents. In 1867, a lawyer and archaeologist from Almería, Manuel Góngora y Martínez, who was also a professor at the University of Granada, went to the town, recovering everything he could by buying it from the locals or extracting it from the cave itself. Most of that material ended up in the National Archaeological Museum, but not all of it. Now, a century and a half later, a team of archaeologists has found the oldest-known remnants of archery in Europe in the waste dumps of the failed mine. According to a paper published in Scientific Reports, they found arrows still with their feathered fletching and tips made of olive wood or braided tendon strings, a technique modern archers still employ.

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]]><![CDATA[First ice-free day in the Arctic Ocean could come before 2030]]>https://english.elpais.com/climate/2024-12-03/first-ice-free-day-in-the-arctic-ocean-could-come-before-2030.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/climate/2024-12-03/first-ice-free-day-in-the-arctic-ocean-could-come-before-2030.htmlTue, 03 Dec 2024 14:52:44 +0000Since 1979, when satellites made it possible to measure its extent faithfully, the Arctic Ocean has been losing almost 80,000 km² (30,888 m²) of ice every year. The amount is equivalent to the land mass of the U.S. state of Maine and this has been happening for nearly half a century. In 2023 the Arctic ice sheet reached an all-time low, and the four major lows have all occurred in this century. Some time ago, scientists modeled when the first year would come in which, at the end of the summer, there would be nothing but sea. More recently, researchers calculated that the melt would occur one September in the next 20 years. Now, scientists who have been studying the region for over a decade have modeled and estimated when the first ice-free day in the Arctic will occur.

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]]><![CDATA[Footballers to compete in 50°C heat at 2026 World Cup, study warns]]>https://english.elpais.com/climate/2024-11-28/footballers-to-compete-in-50c-heat-at-2026-world-cup-study-warns.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/climate/2024-11-28/footballers-to-compete-in-50c-heat-at-2026-world-cup-study-warns.htmlThu, 28 Nov 2024 16:38:52 +0000The 2022 World Cup was held in Qatar between November and December, with many matches scheduled at night to avoid the extreme heat. The next World Cup, set for 2026, will take place in Canada, the United States, and Mexico, between June and July. However, a biometeorological report published in Scientific Reports warns that many of the venues in 2026 face a high risk of excessive heat. In three of the venues, extreme heat stress could persist well into the afternoon, potentially reaching temperatures of up to 50ºC (122ºF). In the context of climate change, the report’s authors argue that measures will be needed to protect players from decreased performance or, in the worst case, health issues. Looking ahead to 2030, the World Cup will be held during the summer in countries like Morocco, Portugal, and Spain, which are also known for their high summer temperatures.

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]]>Dan Mullan<![CDATA[Only the south remains for African elephants]]>https://english.elpais.com/international/2024-11-15/only-the-south-remains-for-african-elephants.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/international/2024-11-15/only-the-south-remains-for-african-elephants.htmlFri, 15 Nov 2024 12:30:46 +0000In Botswana, at the southern tip of Africa, there are about 130,000 elephants. In neighboring Zimbabwe, another 82,000. In Namibia, Zambia and South Africa there are, combined, another 60,000. That sounds like a lot, but the African elephant is disappearing. A study using data from 1964 published in the scientific journal PNAS shows how in most of the continent, populations of pachyderms have shrunk, surviving only in protected areas.

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]]><![CDATA[Men and women in the Middle Ages suffered from the same diseases and risk of dying]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-11-14/men-and-women-in-the-middle-ages-suffered-from-the-same-diseases-and-risk-of-dying.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-11-14/men-and-women-in-the-middle-ages-suffered-from-the-same-diseases-and-risk-of-dying.htmlThu, 14 Nov 2024 13:45:09 +0000Women in modern societies live about five years longer than men. Even in extreme conditions, girls outlast boys. The so-called gender survival paradox is completed when statistics show that women tend to have more illnesses than men, but a longer life expectancy. Although the paradox has not been resolved, science is beginning to point to genetics and biology. It has not always been like this. The study of the bones of hundreds of people who lived in medieval London, published in the scientific journal Science Advances, shows that, in those times, amid famines and several plague epidemics, both women and men had a similar morbidity and mortality risk. The authors of this work suggest only one possible explanation: in a patriarchal society, cultural factors that favored the men of London society won out over biology.

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]]>MOLA<![CDATA[Drunk butterflies and inebriated elephants: Animals also consume alcohol]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-11-01/drunk-butterflies-and-inebriated-elephants-animals-also-consume-alcohol.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-11-01/drunk-butterflies-and-inebriated-elephants-animals-also-consume-alcohol.htmlFri, 01 Nov 2024 20:28:04 +0000The Bicyclus anynana butterfly, native to East Africa, derives part of its diet from fermented nectar of a palm known for producing high levels of alcohol. Across the globe in North America, American waxwings have been observed flying erratically and colliding with objects. Necropsies of some of these birds revealed atrophied livers, likely from consuming overripe, fermented berries. In laboratory studies, male and female flies from various Drosophila species have shown shifts toward more solitary or promiscuous behavior when exposed to ethanol.

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]]><![CDATA[Turkey earthquakes displaced the Earth’s crust by hundreds of miles ]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-10-18/turkey-earthquakes-displaced-the-earths-crust-by-hundreds-of-miles.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-10-18/turkey-earthquakes-displaced-the-earths-crust-by-hundreds-of-miles.htmlFri, 18 Oct 2024 16:22:43 +0000The earthquakes that struck southeastern Turkey in the early hours of February 6, 2023, followed by a second one at noon the next day, have prompted scientists to reevaluate what they know about seismology. According to research published in Science on Thursday, these two earthquakes displaced the Earth’s crust hundreds of miles from their epicenters, affecting not only the friction zone but also shifting the entire Anatolian plate westward. Though the movement was just one centimeter (0.4 inches), this represents nearly half of the plate’s average annual drift. For seismologists, the events have exceeded what could have been expected based on the existing models used to predict seismic risk.

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]]>Halil Fidan<![CDATA[Humans have killed off 600 bird species, annihilating their role in nature ]]>https://english.elpais.com/climate/2024-10-04/humans-have-killed-off-600-bird-species-annihilating-their-role-in-nature.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/climate/2024-10-04/humans-have-killed-off-600-bird-species-annihilating-their-role-in-nature.htmlFri, 04 Oct 2024 18:44:17 +0000Human expansion increases at the expense of other members of the animal kingdom. The case of birds is one of the most dramatic: some 600 species have become extinct in the last 130,000 years, according to a new study published Thursday in the journal Science.

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]]>Natnan Srisuwan<![CDATA[Everest grows more than the rest of the ‘eight-thousanders’ thanks to a river that lightens its weight]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-09-30/everest-grows-more-than-the-rest-of-the-eight-thousanders-thanks-to-a-river-that-lightens-its-weight.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-09-30/everest-grows-more-than-the-rest-of-the-eight-thousanders-thanks-to-a-river-that-lightens-its-weight.htmlMon, 30 Sep 2024 18:07:29 +0000Mount Everest is growing by a few millimetres every year. This is hardly surprising, as the entire Himalayan mountain range is doing so. Dinosaurs still roamed the Earth when the collision of the Indian and Eurasian plates began to raise it. But the world’s highest mountain is between 238 meters (compared to K2) and 822 meters (compared to Shishapangma) taller than the other eight-thousanders. Now, Chinese and British geologists believe they have found the reason for this geological anomaly. According to the scientific journal Nature Geoscience, the Arun River, which runs around the mountain, is eroding its base, lightening its mass and raising it higher than its neighbouring peaks.

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]]>Luca Galuzzi<![CDATA[Artificial intelligence helps uncover 303 new geoglyphs in Nazca desert]]>https://english.elpais.com/culture/2024-09-24/artificial-intelligence-helps-discover-303-new-geoglyphs-in-nazca-desert.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/culture/2024-09-24/artificial-intelligence-helps-discover-303-new-geoglyphs-in-nazca-desert.htmlTue, 24 Sep 2024 10:37:01 +0000With the help of an artificial intelligence (AI) system, a group of archaeologists has uncovered in just a few months almost as many geoglyphs in the Nazca Desert (Peru) as those found in all of the last century. The large number of new figures has allowed the researchers to differentiate between two main types, and to offer an explanation of the possible reasons or functions that led their creators to draw them on the ground more than 2,000 years ago.

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]]><![CDATA[Scientists call for global action on microplastics, now found in more than 1,300 species ]]>https://english.elpais.com/climate/2024-09-19/scientists-call-for-global-action-on-microplastics-now-found-in-more-than-1300-species.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/climate/2024-09-19/scientists-call-for-global-action-on-microplastics-now-found-in-more-than-1300-species.htmlThu, 19 Sep 2024 18:54:57 +0000Barely visible to the eye, microplastics are found in the sea, rivers and lakes, as well as the ice at the poles and in the most distant land on the planet. They are often confused with marine plankton, and enter the food chain. Humans have been eating, drinking and even breathing plastic for decades. Only 20 years ago, a group of scientists introduced the term microplastics for the first time. On Thursday, these same researchers published a new review in the journal Science on what they have discovered since then. Their findings are so alarming they have called for urgent global action to reduce microplastics.

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]]>Patrick Pleul<![CDATA[Mediterranean marine life nearly disappeared when it became a dead sea]]>https://english.elpais.com/climate/2024-08-30/mediterranean-marine-life-nearly-disappeared-when-it-became-a-dead-sea.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/climate/2024-08-30/mediterranean-marine-life-nearly-disappeared-when-it-became-a-dead-sea.htmlFri, 30 Aug 2024 18:45:49 +0000During World War II, German submarines took advantage of a peculiar aspect of ocean physics to pass through the Strait of Gibraltar unnoticed by the British army. The crafts set on entering into the Mediterranean rose to shallow waters, turned off their engines and allowed themselves to be carried by the current. Those who wanted to cross over to the Atlantic descended to deeper waters to be similarly swept out in silence. They were making use of the waters’ density difference. The higher salt concentration of the Mediterranean waters causes objects to sink, while the waters of the Atlantic, less rich in sodium chloride, makes them float higher. This exchange between the sea and ocean, a vital relationship for the Mediterranean, was cut off six million years ago, causing, according to a new study published in Science, the almost total death of its marine life. By the time the passage between the two bodies of water reopened, the biodiversity of the Mare Nostrum had changed forever.

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]]>Giuseppe Fallica<![CDATA[Genes reveal centuries of inbreeding, pathogens and isolation in a medieval community in northern Spain]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-08-28/genes-reveal-centuries-of-inbreeding-pathogens-and-isolation-in-a-medieval-community-in-northern-spain.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-08-28/genes-reveal-centuries-of-inbreeding-pathogens-and-isolation-in-a-medieval-community-in-northern-spain.htmlWed, 28 Aug 2024 19:34:23 +0000In the necropolis of Las Gobas, in the northern Spanish town of Treviño, in Burgos province, 42 bodies were recovered that had been buried between the 7th and 11th centuries. The individual whose body was tagged as Number 29 had three children. One of them died as a newborn or was stillborn, another did not survive the age of four, and the third died young but had offspring, a child who died before his seventh birthday. The extent of this family drama is known thanks to the analysis of ancient DNA.

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]]><![CDATA[Dolphins are no longer helping out fishers]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-08-22/dolphins-are-no-longer-helping-out-fishers.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-08-22/dolphins-are-no-longer-helping-out-fishers.htmlThu, 22 Aug 2024 16:00:36 +0000During the golden age of whaling, there was a whaling station in Twofold Bay in south-east Australia. But the fishermen did not have to go far to hunt for the cetaceans; a pod of orcas did the job for them: while some of the orcas rounded up the whale — right whales, the occasional humpback and even blue whales — pushing them towards the shore, others would swim towards the land, jumping and splashing in the water to attract the attention of the whalers, who only had to get into their boats to harpoon the animal. Once caught, they would leave the whale in the water for a day, giving the orcas time to eat the part of the prey that interested them: the tongue. The next morning, they would retrieve the animal to boil it and turn it into oil. In 1930, when oil had long since been replaced by petroleum and the whaling station was abandoned, the last of Twofold’s orcas died, and with it one of the rare relationships between humans and animals not based on killing the other.

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]]><![CDATA[New mystery at Stonehenge: The six-ton altar stone traveled over 435 miles from northern Scotland]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-08-14/new-mystery-at-stonehenge-the-six-ton-altar-stone-traveled-over-435-miles-from-northern-scotland.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-08-14/new-mystery-at-stonehenge-the-six-ton-altar-stone-traveled-over-435-miles-from-northern-scotland.htmlWed, 14 Aug 2024 17:16:30 +0000It was the main element of the Stonehenge complex that remained to be identified. Construction at the site began just under 5,000 years ago and the outermost megaliths, the so-called sarsen stones, came from a nearby quarry, some 25 kilometers to the north. The inner circle, the one with the blue stones, came from much further away, from the Preseli Mountains in Wales, a distance of some 250 kilometers (155 miles) from Stonehenge. Considering that what the Romans would later call Britannia was in the middle of the Neolithic period, even with many technological limitations the distance was enormous. At the center, at some point during its erection, its creators placed an enormous blue rock as an altar. For years there has been debate over its origin. Now, by combining sophisticated scientific and mining techniques, researchers have been able to date it and, more importantly, to pinpoint its origin: it came from the Orkney Basin, at the northern tip of present-day Scotland. How, and why, did they go there to look for an enormous stone? How, and why, was it transported to the south of what is now England? The lack of definitive answers adds to the mystery surrounding Stonehenge.

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]]>Wirestock<![CDATA[Arid areas have as much diversity as jungles and forests]]>https://english.elpais.com/climate/2024-08-09/arid-areas-have-as-much-diversity-as-jungles-and-forests.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/climate/2024-08-09/arid-areas-have-as-much-diversity-as-jungles-and-forests.htmlFri, 09 Aug 2024 12:36:34 +0000Even the dictionary associates aridity with sterility and barrenness. But this is a human invention, as demonstrated by the existence of millions and millions of plants hidden in the deserts. The reality in nature is that the trait diversity of plants in arid zones is twice as imaginative as that of plants in more humid regions. A study by a hundred scientists published in the prestigious journal Nature, with data from hundreds of species from the driest regions of the planet, has revealed that the variety of forms, solutions and responses of plants in these extreme conditions far exceeds that of species in humid areas.

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]]><![CDATA[How eyed sewing needles facilitated the expansion of early ‘Homo sapiens’]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-07-01/how-eyed-sewing-needles-facilitated-the-expansion-of-early-homo-sapiens.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-07-01/how-eyed-sewing-needles-facilitated-the-expansion-of-early-homo-sapiens.htmlMon, 01 Jul 2024 15:52:14 +0000A hole in a bone awl must have been one of the great drivers of human expansion in its beginnings. For hundreds of thousands of years, early hominid species did not need much shelter; the climate in most of Africa made it unnecessary. However, as they expanded further north, the fossil record shows how they became sheltered. No clothing has been preserved, but an increasing number of tools to make it have been found. At first, they were simple flakes to tear off and cut the hides, but later awls and burins emerged to make holes in them and sew them. But the truly great innovation, led by Homo sapiens, was eyed needles. With them, the first humans not only dressed to protect themselves even better from the cold; needles also allowed them to use the garments as a form of expression, as a culture.

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]]><![CDATA[The mystery of the last mammoths: Neither the climate, nor human hunting nor genetics explain their extinction]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-06-28/the-mystery-of-the-last-mammoths-neither-the-climate-nor-human-hunting-nor-genetics-explain-their-extinction.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-06-28/the-mystery-of-the-last-mammoths-neither-the-climate-nor-human-hunting-nor-genetics-explain-their-extinction.htmlFri, 28 Jun 2024 18:40:47 +0000About 9,200 years ago, when the ice had retreated for several millennia from most of the northern hemisphere, a herd of woolly mammoths — no more than 10 — were isolated in the far north of Siberia. The melting of ice raised the waters and what was previously connected to the continent became an island, today called Wrangel. It was the last refuge of this imposing animal. Being so few, the laws of evolution condemned them to be wiped out. But the study of their genome shows that the group overcame the profound inbreeding, and grew bigger: in just 20 generations, there were 300 mammoths, a number that would have given them a decent shot at survival. However, just as they had mysteriously thrived for 6,000 years after disappearing from the rest of the planet, they mysteriously vanished. Now, a genetic analysis of two dozen Mammuthus primigenius has provided clues about what could have happened to them, but it does not solve the mystery.

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]]><![CDATA[Tolerant monkeys that shared shade after a hurricane increased their life expectancy]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-06-26/tolerant-monkeys-that-shared-shade-after-a-hurricane-increased-their-life-expectancy.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-06-26/tolerant-monkeys-that-shared-shade-after-a-hurricane-increased-their-life-expectancy.htmlWed, 26 Jun 2024 15:32:36 +0000In 2017, Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, killing thousands of people. It entered from the southwest, first destroying Cayo Santiago, a small island that is home to hundreds of rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta). For almost a century, they have been studied by biologists from all over the world. After the disaster, scientists found that these monkeys — one of the most violent primate species — had become more tolerance towards others and less aggressive. Now, in the second part of this work, published in Science, researchers have shown how animals that became more tolerant by sharing their main resource — the shade — have increased their life expectancy by almost 50%.

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]]><![CDATA[Chimpanzees take their own antibiotics]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-06-21/chimpanzees-take-their-own-antibiotics.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-06-21/chimpanzees-take-their-own-antibiotics.htmlFri, 21 Jun 2024 12:50:31 +0000A few weeks ago, it was learned that researchers had seen an orangutan applying a poultice with leaves from a medicinal plant to a serious wound on its face. Now, thousands of miles away, on another continent, it has been revealed that another great ape — the chimpanzee — uses a range of plants, from leaves to tree bark, to treat its ailments. The analysis of these plants, some commonly found in traditional medicine, has shown that most have antimicrobial properties, while a third have anti-inflammatory properties. The authors of the work believe that great apes may one day help humans discover new drugs.

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]]><![CDATA[Humans and climate change drove the woolly rhino to extinction]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-06-19/humans-and-climate-change-drove-the-woolly-rhino-to-extinction.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-06-19/humans-and-climate-change-drove-the-woolly-rhino-to-extinction.htmlWed, 19 Jun 2024 19:28:35 +0000It was what the military calls an encircling maneuver. After 2.5 million years thriving throughout Eurasia, the woolly rhinoceros (Coelodonta antiquitatis) retreated further and further east and further and further north, as they fled the unfavorable climate. The species was then finished off by Neanderthals and modern humans. In the end, when the Ice Age had passed and the planet was entering the present era, only a few remained in the extreme northeast of Siberia. They did not make it across the Bering Strait to America; they became extinct earlier. Now, the modeling of that retreat has made it possible to apportion the blame: climatic swings created their deathbed and human hunting put the nail in the coffin. The authors of the new study believe that four of the five remaining rhino species are also on the same highway to extinction. But they have a few ways out left.

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]]>aleks1949<![CDATA[Elephants address one another with name-like calls]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-06-10/elephants-address-one-another-with-name-like-calls.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-06-10/elephants-address-one-another-with-name-like-calls.htmlMon, 10 Jun 2024 16:31:37 +0000Elephants don’t just trumpet. That sharp sound, like that of a trumpet, could be compared to a human’s cry to alert or warn others. But elephants also emit a range of low-frequency harmonic sounds, such as murmurs, that are specific to each animal. Now, assisted by an artificial intelligence system, a group of researchers has demonstrated that elephants use specific sounds to call each member, as if they were calling them by name.

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]]><![CDATA[The largest genome on the planet is found in a small fern ]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-06-06/the-largest-genome-on-the-planet-is-found-in-a-small-fern.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-06-06/the-largest-genome-on-the-planet-is-found-in-a-small-fern.htmlThu, 06 Jun 2024 18:47:42 +0000The tree of life offers many things, but a fern — which may seem like a not-too-complex organism — has turned out to be the living being with the largest genome. It grows in New Caledonia, an island in Oceania that’s part of overseas France. And, if the 160,750,000,000 base pairs of its DNA could be placed on top of each other, they would reach a length of about 300 feet… 50 times longer than human DNA. The recent discovery raises new questions about how much genetic material can be stored in cells and about the lack of correlation between complexity and genetics.

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]]>POL FERNANDEZ<![CDATA[Humanity has altered the circle of life of the planet’s rivers]]>https://english.elpais.com/climate/2024-05-31/humanity-has-altered-the-circle-of-life-of-the-planets-rivers.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/climate/2024-05-31/humanity-has-altered-the-circle-of-life-of-the-planets-rivers.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 10:07:45 +0000Life in rivers is changing. The rate of decomposition of the organic matter in rivers and streams is being disrupted by the increase in temperature and the greater availability of nutrients. Using canvas (the kind used by painters), hundreds of scientists have measured the rate at which plant debris degrades in more than 500 waterways on six continents. In addition to achieving a standard and valid method for the entire planet, the authors of this enormous research have detected the global patterns by which the carbon present in leaves and other plant residues is released into the atmosphere in the form of CO₂ or is trapped at the bottom of lakes and seas that meet rivers. The former pathway accelerates climate change, the latter helps slow it down.

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]]>Amarjeet Kumar <![CDATA[Humans are one of the species that spend the most amount of energy on having a baby]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-05-16/humans-are-one-of-the-species-that-spend-the-most-amount-of-energy-on-having-a-baby.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-05-16/humans-are-one-of-the-species-that-spend-the-most-amount-of-energy-on-having-a-baby.htmlThu, 16 May 2024 19:04:31 +0000A group of scientists has calculated the metabolic cost of reproduction, and humans are one of the species that spends the highest amount of joules (the basic unit for measuring energy) on having children.

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]]>Matt Hunt<![CDATA[The first worldwide oasis map lays out an uncertain future, human expansion, and the exhaustion of sources ]]>https://english.elpais.com/climate/2024-05-12/the-first-worldwide-oasis-map-lays-out-an-uncertain-future-human-expansion-and-the-exhaustion-of-sources.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/climate/2024-05-12/the-first-worldwide-oasis-map-lays-out-an-uncertain-future-human-expansion-and-the-exhaustion-of-sources.htmlSun, 12 May 2024 03:40:00 +0000They represent a mere 1.35% of the planet’s surface, but some of human civilization’s greatest achievements were only made possible by oases. Without them, the first humans who left Africa, the ones who built the Silk Road that connected Europe and Asia in ancient times, would have had a much harder time. These islands of water supported certain historical processes, like the slave trade between sub-Saharan Africa and imperial Rome, the invasions of the West by the Asian East and the expansion of Islam. Now, a group of scientists has created a world map to observe two parallel processes of which, in a near future driven by climate change, only one could remain: while some of these green spaces are expanding due to human intervention, others are shrinking from the desert’s advance. In the time, between the two, experts are clear on one thing: the future of the oases is uncertain.

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]]><![CDATA[Rakus, the first orangutan seen healing a wound with a medicinal plant]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-05-03/rakus-the-first-orangutan-seen-healing-a-wound-with-a-medicinal-plant.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-05-03/rakus-the-first-orangutan-seen-healing-a-wound-with-a-medicinal-plant.htmlFri, 03 May 2024 12:11:19 +0000Fibraurea tinctoria is a climbing plant found in the jungles of Southeast Asia. Many of the local communities use it as a medicinal herb to treat various diseases such as diabetes, malaria and digestive problems. Modern science has found that it contains diterpenoid furans, which have antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and fungicidal properties. The plant also has high concentrations of two alkaloids, particularly protoberberine, the origin of berberine, a compound that is easy to find in parapharmacies and which has been called nature’s Ozempic. Now, for the first time, researchers have seen a male orangutan create a poultice with the leaves of F. tinctoria to treat a wound under his eye. The animal chewed the leaves and applied the poultice to his face: a few days later, the ulcer had closed and in two months the scar was barely visible.

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]]><![CDATA[Earth’s protective sky is at least 3.7 billion years old]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-04-25/earths-protective-sky-is-at-least-37-billion-years-old.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-04-25/earths-protective-sky-is-at-least-37-billion-years-old.htmlThu, 25 Apr 2024 11:46:27 +0000In southwest Greenland, surrounded by ancient ice, lies the Isua Greenstone Belt. It is the best-preserved rock formation of the Eoarchean era. In these rocks, according to some questioned studies, the first signs of life were recorded 3.7 billion years ago. Now, a group of scientists claims to have found in the same place, and dating back to the same era, the most primitive signal of the Earth’s magnetic field, a kind of dome that protects the Earth and all the life it houses from outside radiation.

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]]><![CDATA[China’s big cities are sinking]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-04-19/chinas-big-cities-are-sinking.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-04-19/chinas-big-cities-are-sinking.htmlFri, 19 Apr 2024 14:00:59 +0000All of the major Chinese cities are experiencing subsidence (sinking over time) to some extent. This process has been ongoing for years, with recent satellite data revealing an accelerated sinking rate of several millimeters to one centimeter per year. This sinking is attributed to both natural geological factors and human activities, particularly the excessive depletion of aquifers. The rapid urbanization in China in recent decades seems closely linked to the accelerated pace of subsidence in the region. Approximately 300 million urban Chinese are witnessing the ground sinking beneath their feet.

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]]><![CDATA[Bonobos can be equally or more violent than chimpanzees ]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-04-13/bonobos-can-be-equally-or-more-violent-than-chimpanzees.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-04-13/bonobos-can-be-equally-or-more-violent-than-chimpanzees.htmlSat, 13 Apr 2024 09:25:23 +0000For decades, there has been a dichotomous image of the two primate species closest to humans: chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) are very aggressive, and violence forms the basis of their social relationships, while bonobos (Pan paniscus) are the peaceful cousins who settle almost all their disagreements with sex and caresses. However, the observation of several communities of both species over thousands of hours shows that things are more complex: male bonobos go as far as tripling the aggressions made by chimpanzees when the aggressor is another male.

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]]>Getty<![CDATA[First European farmers practiced ritual killing used today by the mafia]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-04-11/the-first-european-farmers-practiced-a-ritual-killing-used-today-by-the-mafia.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-04-11/the-first-european-farmers-practiced-a-ritual-killing-used-today-by-the-mafia.htmlThu, 11 Apr 2024 12:13:43 +0000They must have still been alive when the two women were placed in the silo, imprisoned between grinding stones. They were placed face down, with their legs bent backwards, a slip-knotted rope running from their necks to their ankles. They suffocated themselves: as they tired, they would have extended their legs and were thus strangled. This is the conclusion reached by a group of scientists, including forensic experts from the Institute of Legal Medicine in Paris, after studying a burial site in the Rhône Valley in southeastern France dated to between 6,000 and 5,500 years ago, during the European Neolithic period. By reviewing other sites of the same period, they have found that this practice was common among the first European agricultural communities, finding similar sacrifices both in the east of the continent and in northern Spain. This form torture is known by an Italian word, incaprettamento. It is one of the Mafia’s most brutal methods of killing even today.

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]]><![CDATA[Industrialization began in Britain a century before the Industrial Revolution]]>https://english.elpais.com/international/2024-04-05/industrialization-began-in-britain-a-century-before-the-industrial-revolution.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/international/2024-04-05/industrialization-began-in-britain-a-century-before-the-industrial-revolution.htmlFri, 05 Apr 2024 13:32:10 +0000History books date the beginning of the Industrial Revolution to the second half of the 18th century in England and Wales. As a milestone, they place at its altar the steam engine devised by James Watt between 1763 and 1775. But the accumulation of millions of census records made over two decades by historians at the University of Cambridge (UK) will force the rewrite of manuals and encyclopedias: As early as the 17th century, English people engaged in agriculture ceased to be the majority in favor of other occupations, such as manufacturing or services. Before the Industrial Revolution, there had already been a revolutionary change in the make-up of the labor force.

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]]>Samuel Griffith<![CDATA[Need for critical minerals threatens Africa’s great apes]]>https://english.elpais.com/climate/2024-04-04/need-for-critical-minerals-threatens-africas-great-apes.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/climate/2024-04-04/need-for-critical-minerals-threatens-africas-great-apes.htmlThu, 04 Apr 2024 11:19:02 +0000A total of 178,816 great apes, 34% of those left in Africa, live in areas that are near a mine or close to one that is planned to open. The most affected populations are in the western and central regions of the continent, where the majority of chimpanzees and western gorillas are concentrated. Many of the mines are for what are known as critical minerals, due to their key role in the green energy transition.

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]]>Kimberley Hockings<![CDATA[Polar ice melt caused by climate change is slowing the Earth’s rotation]]>https://english.elpais.com/climate/2024-03-27/polar-ice-melt-caused-by-climate-change-is-slowing-the-earths-rotation.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/climate/2024-03-27/polar-ice-melt-caused-by-climate-change-is-slowing-the-earths-rotation.htmlWed, 27 Mar 2024 17:21:04 +0000The melting of polar ice caused by climate change is affecting the rotation of the Earth. The redistribution of the now liquid frozen masses could be slowing the planet’s spin on its axis, as if it were a skater extending his or her arms. The phenomenon, which joins others affecting the Earth’s movement, such as the slowdown in the core, will have an impact on timekeeping, increasing the lack of synchrony between universal and atomic time.

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]]>Sebnem Coskun<![CDATA[Science fails to solve mystery of brains preserved for more than 12,000 years]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-03-19/science-fails-to-solve-mystery-of-brains-preserved-for-more-than-12000-years.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-03-19/science-fails-to-solve-mystery-of-brains-preserved-for-more-than-12000-years.htmlWed, 20 Mar 2024 00:05:00 +0000Bones, teeth and even nails or hair are the main witnesses of the past. Soft tissues, internal organs, muscles, tendons and skin do not stand the test of time and decompose. Faced with this reality, a group of archaeologists and paleontologists have compiled a sample of thousands of soft body parts which shows that the brain is the best preserved of all. In a third of the cases, it is not clear how the brain has been able to endure up to 12,000 years. Researchers believe that there is something in the gray matter that acts as a preservative.

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]]><![CDATA[Fear arises from chemical changes deep in the brain]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-03-14/fear-arises-from-chemical-changes-deep-in-the-brain.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-03-14/fear-arises-from-chemical-changes-deep-in-the-brain.htmlThu, 14 Mar 2024 23:45:20 +0000Without fear, the evolution of life would have been impossible. Any threat triggers states of alarm that protect through two alternative reactions, flight or fight. Present throughout human history, in advanced modern societies the situations in which it appears are reduced to extremes such as personal violence (rape, robbery, kidnapping) or collective violence (war, civil conflict). In people with post-traumatic stress disorder, this dread often reappears even when there is no longer a threat. Now, a group of scientists has discovered what happens in the brain to cause the distress to return. In the future, this could be the basis for a drug therapy against fear.

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]]>Spitzer Lab, UC San Diego<![CDATA[Menopause explains female whales’ longevity ]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-03-13/menopause-explains-female-whales-longevity.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-03-13/menopause-explains-female-whales-longevity.htmlWed, 13 Mar 2024 17:13:55 +0000Very few female mammals go through menopause. For centuries, it was assumed to be unique to humans. But so far in the 21st century, up to five different species of whales have been discovered living well beyond the end of their fertility. All are odontocete cetaceans (who have teeth instead of baleen) and, like humans, spend their time in social groups that consist of several generations. The link found among these dozens of marine animals renders their connection to human beings all the more evident: they live longer to help the group, and spend the extra time taking care of their grandsons and granddaughters.

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]]><![CDATA[The mystery of brown pandas revealed: Their color is due to a mutation]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-03-05/the-mystery-of-brown-pandas-revealed-their-color-is-due-to-a-mutation.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-03-05/the-mystery-of-brown-pandas-revealed-their-color-is-due-to-a-mutation.htmlTue, 05 Mar 2024 16:33:39 +0000In 1985, the first brown panda was observed. The animal was so unique it sparked many wild explanations: it was a fake, its fur was stained, it was a strange case of albinism, it had a genetic alteration. In the end, it was classified as a subspecies of the panda bear Ailuropoda melanoleuca. The animal was called the Qinling panda, because it was found in this mountain range. Now, a fur analysis of two Qinling pandas and the genome of 227 pandas, all black and white except these two, has identified a mutation in a gene that affects their pigmentation, a gene which is inherited from their parents. It is estimated that there are only 100 brown pandas left today.

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]]><![CDATA[Scientists discover new protein involved in our sense of touch ]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-03-01/scientists-discover-new-protein-involved-in-our-sense-of-touch.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-03-01/scientists-discover-new-protein-involved-in-our-sense-of-touch.htmlFri, 01 Mar 2024 19:47:40 +0000The skin is the human body’s largest organ. A person’s skin can take up two square meters, weigh up to 11 pounds and be as thick as one centimeter, in the soles of the feet, or as thin as .02 inches, in the scrotum. It is the interface through which we humans relate to our environment, allowing us to sense everything from cold to burns, shocks to shapes. In the skin’s three main layers, particularly the epidermis, there are more than 11,000 proteins, the majority with functions that are yet to be discovered. Now, a group of researchers has discovered one, called ELKIN1, which seems to be essential to our sense of touch, the least-studied sense. Without ELKIN1, we might not be able to feel a caress from our loved ones.

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]]><![CDATA[The Antarctic Circumpolar Current closed millions of years after the continent froze]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-02-27/the-antarctic-circumpolar-current-closed-millions-of-years-after-the-continent-froze.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-02-27/the-antarctic-circumpolar-current-closed-millions-of-years-after-the-continent-froze.htmlTue, 27 Feb 2024 21:02:37 +0000The planet’s main marine current, which today keeps Antarctica thermally isolated from the rest of the planet and protects all the ice the continent houses, closed much later than previously believed. That is the main conclusion of research that studied the fish skeletons and the size of sand grains from the past to affirm that the loop of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) was closed 14 million years ago, at the earliest. This immense current of water, the driving force of all ocean circulation, largely determines the global climate and is currently feared to be weakening.

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]]><![CDATA[Whale song is no match for ship noise ]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-02-21/whale-song-is-no-match-for-ship-noise.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-02-21/whale-song-is-no-match-for-ship-noise.htmlWed, 21 Feb 2024 20:01:12 +0000About 50 million years ago, the ancestors of whales — which also gave rise to the modern-day cow — left life on land and returned to the sea. With them, they took with them their system for producing sound, which is not unlike that used by humans.

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]]>Karim Iliya<![CDATA[The ancient inhabitants of northern Iberia carefully buried their children with trisomy 21]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-02-21/the-ancient-inhabitants-of-northern-iberia-carefully-buried-their-children-with-trisomy-21.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-02-21/the-ancient-inhabitants-of-northern-iberia-carefully-buried-their-children-with-trisomy-21.htmlWed, 21 Feb 2024 18:21:21 +0000More than 3,000 years ago, a new group of people arrived in the Ebro Valley. They came from the north and brought new funerary rites with them. They didn’t bury their dead, they cremated them. But the excavation of several sites in recent decades has found very young children buried under the floor of houses. From their bone analysis, it was suspected that they had some form of skeletal pathology.

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]]><![CDATA[Great apes are pranksters too]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-02-14/great-apes-are-pranksters-too.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-02-14/great-apes-are-pranksters-too.htmlWed, 14 Feb 2024 19:48:15 +0000Like humans, great apes are ticklish, they laugh and play. And it has now been confirmed that they also tease each other. The study of interactions within groups of bonobos, chimpanzees, orangutans, and gorillas shows that some, especially the juveniles, pull the adults’ hair, tap them on the back and run away, or stand directly in front of an adult with their faces almost touching. For the authors of this new study, the fact that hominid species, including humans, share the ability to joke, indicates that 13 million years ago, when their lineages diverged, this dimension of humor already existed, and it would indicate that teasing had, and still has, an enormous evolutionary role.

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]]><![CDATA[The ants that defeated the lions]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-02-03/the-ants-that-defeated-the-lions.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-02-03/the-ants-that-defeated-the-lions.htmlSat, 03 Feb 2024 23:06:00 +0000This is an ensemble film in which ants protect trees from huge elephants and receive shelter in return. In the shade of whistling thorns (a kind of acacia tree), the lions stalked zebras, their favorite prey, which meant that they did not need to attack the imposing buffaloes, which lived peacefully in this part of the African savanna. But a few years ago, another species of ants called lion ants arrived in Kenya’s Ol Pejeta reserve and turned the whole ecosystem upside down. After the new arrivals exterminated the native ants, the acacias were left without their protectors, the pachyderms destroyed them, and the big cats lost the parapet from which to ambush zebras, which they can no longer hunt. Ultimately, in this story, the losers are not so much the kings of the jungle as the buffaloes, which have come to represent almost half of the lions’ diet.

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]]><![CDATA[Families are shrinking, thinning out, and becoming more vertical]]>https://english.elpais.com/society/2024-01-14/families-are-shrinking-thinning-out-and-becoming-more-vertical.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/society/2024-01-14/families-are-shrinking-thinning-out-and-becoming-more-vertical.htmlSun, 14 Jan 2024 17:16:01 +0000All around the world, families are shrinking. A girl born in 2024 will have hardly any siblings or cousins. At the same time, families are becoming increasingly vertical, so she will know all her grandparents and most of her great-grandparents. If current trends continue, that child herself will only have one child or perhaps not any children at all. By the time she is 35, her kinship network will be the smallest in modern times. And when she passes away, at a ripe old age, she will probably die alone. According to a recent study, such are the consequences of the dynamics that demographers have been observing and have projected between now and the end of the century. The researchers do not doubt that the family — no matter how different it may be in the future — will continue to perform the functions of shelter and support that it has been fulfilling since the beginning of human evolution. But they add that it is necessary to strengthen the institutions and functions of public assistance where they exist and, in most countries, to begin to build them up.

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]]>picture alliance<![CDATA[Research indicates that gut flora are linked to children’s cognitive development]]>https://english.elpais.com/health/2024-01-14/research-indicates-that-gut-flora-are-linked-to-childrens-cognitive-development.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/health/2024-01-14/research-indicates-that-gut-flora-are-linked-to-childrens-cognitive-development.htmlSun, 14 Jan 2024 16:19:09 +0000With each new study on bacterial flora, the idea that there are two entities in every body gains traction: on the one hand, there’s the human being, and on the other, the person’s microbiome. It is a good thing that the two get along well. Recent work has shown the connection between certain intestinal bacterial profiles and mental health, even identifying the types of bacteria associated with depression. But if there are some microbes behind mental illnesses, do others favor better cognition? That is what the scientists who studied the relationship between the cognitive abilities of hundreds of children and the microbiota in their tummies suggest.

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]]>New York Daily News<![CDATA[Fossilized reptilian skin sheds light on how animals conquered the Earth]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-01-11/fossilized-reptilian-skin-sheds-light-on-how-animals-conquered-the-earth.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-01-11/fossilized-reptilian-skin-sheds-light-on-how-animals-conquered-the-earth.htmlThu, 11 Jan 2024 18:51:43 +0000In the Carboniferous, a geological period from 359 to 298 million years ago, four-limbed tetrapods began to come out of the water. Researchers have now discovered 289-million-year-old skin that once belonged to an amniote, a fully terrestrial animal. This tissue still preserves several of its layers, and based on its patterns, with scales and protuberances, everything indicates that these creatures had an epidermis similar to that of lizards. This innovation was key for amniotes, the ancestors of reptiles, birds and mammals, to conquer a whole new territory, the continents.

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]]>MICHAEL DEBRAGA<![CDATA[Mini-brain cells created from human fetal brain tissue]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-01-08/mini-brain-cells-created-from-human-fetal-brain-tissue.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-01-08/mini-brain-cells-created-from-human-fetal-brain-tissue.htmlMon, 08 Jan 2024 22:34:38 +0000They are about the size of a grain of rice, but they are breaking new ground in research into the final frontier, the human brain. Dutch researchers have successfully created mini-brains capable of sustained growth from parts of the tissue of a human fetus. The study showed how these organoids included several cell types and expanded following a structure formed by proteins, also generated internally. This research offers a new way to study the functioning of the brain and, when appropriate, pathologies such as cancer in the organ that contains the human mind.

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]]>CENTRO PRINCESA MÁXIMA<![CDATA[The oldest bacterial structures that filled the planet with oxygen have been discovered]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-01-04/the-oldest-bacterial-structures-that-filled-the-planet-with-oxygen-have-been-discovered.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-01-04/the-oldest-bacterial-structures-that-filled-the-planet-with-oxygen-have-been-discovered.htmlThu, 04 Jan 2024 19:28:35 +0000The first half of the history of life on Earth was written by bacteria. And for millions of years they did so without the need for oxygen, which was absent from the atmosphere at that time. Now, the oldest structures that some of these microorganisms used to fill the planet with gaseous oxygen (O₂) have been discovered. A species from about 1.75 billion years ago already had something similar to vesicles called thylakoids that allowed them to increase their ability to photosynthesize. These thylakoids are still present in the planet’s cyanobacteria, algae and plants that convert sunlight into chemical energy.

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]]><![CDATA[Chimpanzees and bonobos remember their friends after decades apart ]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2023-12-19/chimpanzees-and-bonobos-remember-their-friends-after-decades-apart.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2023-12-19/chimpanzees-and-bonobos-remember-their-friends-after-decades-apart.htmlTue, 19 Dec 2023 21:12:45 +0000Despite having gone 26 years without seeing her sister Loretta and her nephew Erin, Louise recognized them in the photographs that researchers showed her; she stopped to look at her family. Like Louise, other bonobos and chimpanzees also demonstrated strong social memory. Pioneering work shows that members of both species remembered members of the groups to which they had belonged long ago. Their memory was deeper if the valence of the relationship was positive, that is, if they were friends. According to the study’s authors, this ability, which the animals share with humans, forms the basis of complex societies.

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]]>Fiona Rogers<![CDATA[The large height difference between the sexes suggests that in northern Europe boys were fed better than girls]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2023-12-11/the-large-height-difference-between-the-sexes-suggests-that-in-northern-europe-boys-were-fed-better-than-girls.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2023-12-11/the-large-height-difference-between-the-sexes-suggests-that-in-northern-europe-boys-were-fed-better-than-girls.htmlMon, 11 Dec 2023 20:23:42 +0000From a tall father and mother, the study of genetics predicts tall children. But it’s not so simple. At least 697 genetic variants are related to height, and that’s not all. Beyond one’s genes, the environment, and particularly diet, can affect the final result of one’s phenotype. Now, a complex study also points to the impact of culture and cultural practices. Its authors investigated the measurements of the first Europeans to engage in agriculture at the beginning of the Neolithic period, which took place between 8,000 and 7,000 years ago. Their research, supported by data from the remains of over 1,200 humans, indicates that people who lived in northern Europe were taller than Mediterranean people. And the study turned up something even more intriguing: the difference in size between men and women was much smaller in the south. Evidence is still lacking to confirm the theory, but all indications point to northern boys having been fed better than their female counterparts.

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]]><![CDATA[The Chapman-Silverman event, the most intense geomagnetic storm ever recorded brought auroras to the Sahara]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2023-12-06/the-chapman-silverman-event-the-most-intense-geomagnetic-storm-ever-recorded-brought-auroras-to-the-sahara.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2023-12-06/the-chapman-silverman-event-the-most-intense-geomagnetic-storm-ever-recorded-brought-auroras-to-the-sahara.htmlWed, 06 Dec 2023 21:29:56 +0000“At dawn on Sunday this beautiful celestial phenomenon appeared, with the masses making a thousand comments about its radiance. Despite the northern lights having been studied extensively, none of the astronomers have been able to specify the causes of their appearance. However, this time, there is no shortage of those who have said that it presaged the death of the dynasty of D. Amadeo and great gunpowder festivals in the next spring,” said a brief from El Eco del Bruch on February 11, 1872. The text from the Carlist newspaper referred to a series of dawns seen the previous Sunday, 4 February. The editor took advantage of the impact it had on the people to attack Amadeo I, the king installed by the liberals. Now, 151 years later, the review of hundreds of historical records like this one has made it possible to estimate the intensity of the phenomenon that caused such a spectacle. The review’s authors have called it the Chapman-Silverman event, and, they say, it was the most intense ever recorded.

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]]>E. Gibson<![CDATA[Mosquitoes trapped in amber 130 million years ago show that males also sucked blood]]>https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2023-12-05/mosquitoes-trapped-in-amber-130-million-years-ago-show-that-males-also-sucked-blood.htmlhttps://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2023-12-05/mosquitoes-trapped-in-amber-130-million-years-ago-show-that-males-also-sucked-blood.htmlTue, 05 Dec 2023 15:41:48 +0000Some 130 million years ago, the place that is now Lebanon was very different. Back then, the land was located in the northeast of Gondwana, one of the two supercontinents that existed at the time, and was surrounded by the Tethys Sea. Unlike Lebanon’s current Mediterranean climate and landscape, the region was filled with tropical forests of auracarians and other conifers, such as the extinct Cheirolepidiaceae. The resin from one of these trees trapped two absent-minded mosquitoes and now, millions of years later, scientists have discovered that the insects sucked blood, something that only females do in current species. Why male mosquitoes stopped doing it remains a mystery.

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