Scientists have finally created what might be the only thing that can get meatheads to eat their veggies: protein lettuce.

By literally shooting pig genes into the chloroplasts of lettuce and tobacco cells, an international team of researchers were able to grow produce that contained the animal protein myoglobin, they report in a new study published in the journal Frontiers in Plant Science.

Is this the pathway to the next ridiculous protein-infused snack? (We’re looking at you, protein popcorn.) Not quite. Instead, the scientists say their findings could pave the way to weaning ourselves off of environmentally-destructive meat.

“Our study demonstrates, for the first time, that higher plants can stably produce myoglobin, one of the key proteins responsible for many of meat’s desirable properties,” study lead atuhor Alexia Groff, a plant biotechnology researcher at Imperial College London, told ScienceAlert. “This is very relevant at a time when the demand for sustainable food production platforms is greater than ever.”

To combine pig genes with plant DNA, the researchers used a machine called a biolistic particle delivery system, or a “gene gun.” The nickname is apt: it works by firing microscopic metal particles covered in genes into their target. (Biolistic, by the way, is a portmanteau of “biological ballistics.”)

The target, this time, were the chloroplasts of lettuce and tobacco seedlings. Because of their “bacterial ancestry and their high number of copies per cell,” Groff explained in a statement about the work, “chloroplasts are generally much better at making large amounts of protein than the cell nucleus.”

Their genetic bullets hit the bullseye. In followup tests, the seedlings showed they had incorporated the pig DNA into the chloroplast genome. When the plants grew into adulthood and produced seeds, their offspring still possessed the transferred genes.

In all, the lettuce and tobacco plants yielded about 800 mg and 810 mg of myoglobin protein per kilogram of their dry weight. That’s ten times less than beef, but because growing plants is far more efficient than raising animals, the tradeoff could be worth it.

“Plant cultivation is far more resource-efficient than livestock production; consequently, plant-derived myoglobin could achieve protein yields per hectare that rival — or even potentially exceed — those of animal agriculture,” the authors wrote in the study, “whilst also benefiting from substantially lower water use and greenhouse gas emissions.”

If this gets adopted at scale, these protein-infused plants could be dried up and be used to bolster the protein in plant-based meats.

Other researchers caution that the food still needs to be proven safe to eat and sustainable to produce, but are optimistic about the findings.

“This an important advance on earlier plant and algal research.  Demonstrating stable myoglobin production in plant chloroplasts, including in an edible crop, raises the possibility of using plants as scalable, low-input production platforms alongside microbial fermentation,” Rodrigo Ledesma-Amaro, director of the ICL’s Bezos Center for Sustainable Protein, said in a statement. “In the longer term, this could diversify how and where these ingredients are produced.”

More on lettuce: Trump’s Explosive Diarrhea Scandal Is Getting Worse and Worse

The post Scientists Genetically Engineer High-Protein Lettuce appeared first on Futurism.

In terms of demoralizing the federal workforce and demolishing the public sector, Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency was a success.

In terms of actually saving money, though — its ostensible raison d’être — it was a dismal failure.

Musk vowed to slash $2 trillion in government “waste and fraud.” Then he lowered that target to $1 trillion, and behind the scenes reportedly promised Trump to save just a tenth of that figure. In the end, DOGE boasted on its website’s “Wall of Receipts” that it had saved around $215 billion — peanuts compared to its original promise.

But the actual amount of spending it slashed may be even lower than that. In a sweeping audit, the Government Accountability Office looked through the $110 billion that DOGE claimed it saved between January and July 2025, and found a trail of staggering incompetency that let loads of supposedly saved money fall through the cracks. That framing, though, could be too generous to Musk and his pimple-faced lackeys. You could also take the view that DOGE, in all likelihood, was deliberately cooking the books.

Per the GAO’s new report, released this month, DOGE claimed it terminated 13,476 contracts, but nearly 2,000 of them weren’t actually terminated. Spending-wise, about $27.4 billion of the purported savings came from these contracts that DOGE botched the terminations of.

The clumsy — or deceptive — bookkeeping didn’t end there. The receipts “includes leases identified for termination before [the group] was established,” the report states, as quoted by The Washington Post. And 108 of 264 of the leases it claimed it nixed “were already in process for termination.”

In all, the GAO found that over half of DOGE’s claimed $61 billion in contract savings couldn’t be verified or came from contracts that weren’t actually terminated. Similarly, 96 percent of the savings that it claimed came from grants couldn’t be verified by the accountability office, either.

Last August, an investigation by Politico found that of the $52.8 billion that DOGE had claimed to save by cancelling contracts at the time, its actual savings were closer to just $1.4 billion. To calculate how it saved money, DOGE dubiously used the maximum spending limit listed on the contracts it axed, figures that in practice are much higher than what the government ends up spending.

At the time, government procurement expert Jessica Tillipman told the outlet that the practice was akin to “taking out a credit card with a $20,000 credit limit, cancelling it and then saying, ‘I’ve just saved $20,000.'”

More on Elon Musk: Columbia Economist Baffled as to Why the Masses Aren’t Rising Up Against Elon Musk

The post Elon Musk’s Efforts to Cut Spending in the Government Were So Incompetent That It’s Shocking, Internal Analysis Finds appeared first on Futurism.

A protein called TRAILshort may act as a central immune brake that limits T-cell responses and CAR-T therapy. Cancer cells can weaken the immune system by producing a protein that prevents its most important defenders from attacking. Mayo Clinic researchers have identified how this protein works, revealing a possible target for treatments designed to improve [...]

Fatigue, troubles du sommeil, brouillard mental… Vous l’avez certainement constaté ces dernières semaines, la chaleur met notre corps et notre cerveau à rude épreuve. Récemment, des chercheurs ont alerté sur une conséquence méconnue des fortes chaleurs : le déclenchement ou l’aggravation de...

When you read the newspaper, does it read you back?

On Thursday, USA Today Co — formerly known as Gannett, the publisher of its eponymous newspaper USA Today— announced that it was partnering with the AI surveillance firm Palantir to monetize and gain “actionable intelligence” on its audiences, Nieman Lab reports.

The largest newspaper publisher in the nation’s partnership was revealed in its second quarter earnings call. After extolling Palantir’s AI-powered platform, USA Today CEO Mike Reed said that it would allow the paper to “build a common intelligence layer” on the data it collects on its readers.

“Every visit, every session, and every moment of attention creates a signal,” Reed told investors Thursday morning, as quoted by Nieman. “When we connect those signals, they become actionable intelligence that allows us to engage users more effectively and monetize those relationships faster and at much greater value.”

The optics of partnering with Palantir — a company that provides military targeting software and wields a vast surveillance panopticon — are undeniably touchy. It’s worked hand in hand with ICE, secretly providing the agency a tool that scours citizen’s Medicaid and other government data to create a map of people it could potentially deport. It also supplies the Israeli military with an AI battlefield decision-making tool that can analyze enemy targets for elimination.

Still, it’s unclear how much more invasive the USA Today’s partnership will be compared to the routine data gathering and audience analysis that websites typically perform. One example of what Palantir’s platform could do, according to president of USA Today Media Kristin Roberts, was automatically identify partnerships to make money through affiliate links.

“Historically, much of our commerce business has relied on manual processes to connect affiliate opportunities with our content,” Roberts added.

It’s the latest deal Palantir has struck with media outlets as they struggle to bring in traffic from search engines in an increasingly AI-dominated web ecosystem. It’s also partnered with Axel Springer, the publisher which owns Politico, Business Insider, and the German newspaper BILD. Thomson Reuters’ partnership in particular is a case study in the dangers of letting online brands act as data brokers: 404 Media found that the Reuters publisher had supplied personal data to ICE, and some employees are protesting its $125 million deal to sell the agency voter data.

USA Today, it’s worth noting, has spent the past few years shoving AI into its operations and ruthless monetizing its content. It was caught using the tech to generate parts of its articles, and published automated sports stories that served up heaps of targeted gambling ads.

More on privacy: Flock Is Losing Dozens of Contracts as Controversy Grows

The post USA Today Partners With Palantir to Gain “Actionable Intelligence” On Its Audiences appeared first on Futurism.

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On August 9, 2011, Apple overtook ExxonMobil to become the world's most valuable company for the first time. Many such milestones followed.

(via Cult of Mac - Your source for the latest Apple news, rumors, analysis, reviews, how-tos and deals.)

Des dents d'un noir profond, entretenues pendant toute une vie. Au nord du Vietnam, des crânes vieux de 2 000 ans viennent de livrer la recette : du fer, des tanins végétaux, et plusieurs semaines de patience. Une pratique esthétique que l'on croyait bien plus récente, et qui n'a jamais...

Turtle Beach PlayTrek 2-in-1 Case for Nintendo Switch 2: review

The Turtle Beach PlayTrek 2-in-1 makes a good first impression. It’s quite sleek for a large Switch 2 carrying case, and also rather stylish. This is thanks to the dark grey color and the surprisingly elegant suede strip that runs around it, offset to the right. It features subtle blue and orange stitching, a nice detail and a nod to the color coding of the Joy-Con 2 controllers.

The material of the entire unit also impressed me with its ruggedness. The shell of the main compartment feels solid, too, with only a slight amount of flex. As for the detachable travel case on top, I appreciated the small rubber strip that runs along its back edge, as it provides a little more durability and protection when opening it up. What’s more, the entire case is pleasingly light and slender, which is all the more impressive considering what it’s designed to carry.

The zips are similarly well-made, with a reasonably long string and a thin plastic topper that’s easy to grip. However, I did find them a little awkward to open at times, as the lids of both the travel case and main compartment have a tendency to sag inwards, slightly obscuring the teeth. This is a minor issue, though, and not one that’s likely to frustrate.

It’s quite versatile in terms of storage. As mentioned, and as the name suggests, there are two elements to the PlayTrek 2-in-1. The first is the travel case, which is attached via hook-and-loop fastening. This feels quite strong, so I wasn’t worried about it detaching unintentionally. The case houses the console and up to 14 game cards, courtesy of the elastic slots attached to the screen protector flap. The inner part of the lid features zipped netting for storing other accessories, such as cables and the like. There’s no carrying handle, though, which is an oversight.

The fit for the console is very snug, and the case itself is thin all over with next to no extraneous bulk. This makes it great for tucking into a backpack, like the best Nintendo Switch 2 accessories. However, it isn’t a hard shell; it flexes quite readily, so I wouldn’t be confident stacking anything heavy on top of it.

By contrast, the main compartment feels sturdy. The sides can bend inwards quite easily, but the same isn’t true of its corners, so I wouldn’t be concerned if it were subjected to outward forces.

Inside there are inserts for the console, the dock, the Joy-Cons, the charger, and a large gamepad, such as the Switch 2 Pro Controller. I managed to fit the GameSir G7 Pro here instead, which is one of the best Nintendo Switch 2 controllers you can buy, with ease. The fit was snug and secure, as it was for all the other parts. Nothing moved out of place when I threw the loaded case up and down and spun it upside down several times.

The mold material is also just about soft enough to prevent scratching or marking the items within. However, during the course of my test, the glue adhering one side of the mold base to the bottom of the case failed, coming loose.

Obviously this was disappointing, although it’s possible I got unlucky with my particular unit. Regardless, it at least suggests some quality control issues. Despite the failure, I wasn’t too concerned that this would compromise the security of my contents: the other side of the base remained affixed, and since it sits tightly within the compartment, I wouldn’t be worried if all the glue came unstuck.

There are two straps adorning the main compartment. There’s a small carrying handle with a soft neoprene cover that’s very soft and comfortable in the hand. It provides just enough slack, although it's quite tight, which makes it awkward to move out of the way when accessing the main compartment and detaching the travel case; the handle slid out of one of its buckles accidentally on numerous occasions. On the other hand, this tightness does help to pin down the travel case on top, adding an extra layer of security to the hook-and-loop fastening.

The shoulder strap is a typical affair, with its nylon design and plastic karabiners. It's a small shame these and the buckles aren’t made of metal, but I guess this helps to keep the weight down. Fortunately, the karabiners are very solid, which can make them a little tough to remove, but this is a price I’m willing to pay for the security they offer in return.

The length of the strap is adjustable to a reasonable degree, although it could perhaps offer more slack to more easily accommodate taller users. The padded cover over the adjustment buckle is a little thin and lacks the cushioning of the neoprene carrying handle, but I still found it sufficient to prevent the strap digging into my skin.

At $50, the PlayTrek 2-in-1 is a reasonable price for such a feature-filled carrying case. It also has the quality to match, aside from the aforementioned issue with the inner mold. And since it’s cheaper than Nintendo’s own counterpart, it’s a compelling alternative.

Turtle Beach PlayTrek 2-in-1 Case for Nintendo Switch 2 review: Price & specs

Price	$49.99 / £39.99 (about AU$70)
Dimensions	5.83 x 12.60 x 7.99in / 148 x 320 x 203mm
Weight	1.78lbs / 809g
Number of game card slots	14
Compartments	7
Handle	Yes
Color	Grey

Should I buy the Turtle Beach PlayTrek 2-in-1 Case for Nintendo Switch 2?

Scorecard

Attributes	Notes	Rating
Design	Light and bulk-free, while still providing enough protection. The travel case is a bit too soft, though.	4 / 5
Storage	There’s plenty of room for your entire gaming setup, which is all the more impressive given its slender form.	5 / 5
Value	It’s not exactly cheap, but it’s cheaper than Nintendo’s equivalent, yet has more features and storage space.	4.5 / 5

Buy it if…

You want versatility
With its detachable travel case and space for your Switch 2 and its accessories, this really is the all-encompassing solution for transporting your setup.

You want to keep the bulk down
It’s relatively slender and pleasingly light without being too flimsy.

Don't buy it if…

You want a tough travel case
The detachable travel case isn’t as solid as many others, which is a shame.

You want an unfussy handle
The strap handle is awkward to move out of the way when opening the main compartment.

Turtle Beach PlayTrek 2-in-1 Case for Nintendo Switch 2 review: Also consider

Nintendo Switch 2 All-In-One Carrying Case
As Nintendo’s official carrying case, you’d imagine the quality would be high here. And indeed it is, but it’s more expensive than the PlayTrek, yet less solid and with fewer features. There aren’t as many game card slots, and there’s no detachable travel case. Read our full Nintendo Switch 2 All-In-One Carrying Case review.

How I tested the Turtle Beach PlayTrek 2-in-1 Case for Nintendo Switch 2

I tested this case for a few days, storing the Switch 2 in the travel case compartment, as well as in the main compartment along with the dock, Joy-Cons, and a large controller.

I carried the case around, via both the handle and the shoulder strap, and regularly removed and replaced the handle to test how easy this was. I also tested the zips thoroughly by opening and closing them repeatedly.

I threw the case up and down and spun it upside down several times to test both the hold of the detachable travel case and the hold provided by the inner molds of the main compartment.

• Read more about how we test
• First reviewed: July 2026

Apple is already making plans for its third-generation foldable iPhone, with launch expected as early as 2028, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.


Writing in his latest "Power On" newsletter, Gurman said the first foldable iPhone is about to get what he called the device's first "truly revolutionary design change" this year, and that Apple already has a roadmap extending two generations beyond it. A second-generation model is planned for 2027, Gurman says, with a third version following as early as 2028.

The third-generation foldable will apparently feature slightly larger displays on both the inside and the outside compared to its predecessors, though he did not provide specific screen sizes. The first foldable iPhone is expected to launch with a 7.8-inch inner display and a 5.5-inch cover display, so any increase would build on those dimensions. This is the first report to lay out plans for a third-generation model, extending Apple's foldable roadmap a year beyond where it previously stood.

The first foldable iPhone is expected to arrive this year with an ultra-thin design, Touch ID instead of Face ID, the A20 chip, C2 modem, and the moniker "iPhone Ultra," at a price around or above $2,000. The second-generation foldable, meanwhile, is reported to have already received the go-ahead for development, according to the Weibo leaker known as "Digital Chat Station," who said the "‌iPhone Ultra‌ 2" project has been formally approved and will likely reuse the first-generation model's display. That model is expected to launch in fall 2027 alongside the 20th-anniversary iPhone.



This article, "Foldable 'iPhone Ultra 3' Rumored to Feature Larger Displays" first appeared on MacRumors.com

Discuss this article in our forums

Apple is re-evaluating the Apple Watch lineup and considering a host of radical new designs, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.


In today's edition of his "Power On" newsletter, Gurman compared plans for the Apple Watch's evolution to the "revolutionary design change" that the foldable iPhone represents. It will be "something that transforms the product for a new era." Apple's industrial design team has reportedly been "exploring a broader rethink of its smartwatches" for some time, with several directions under evaluation.

The company is apparently taking the resurgence of fitness bands without screens and smart rings seriously. As a result, the company is considering new Apple Watch-style devices with no display, as well as new Apple Watches with different types of screen and various new sizes.

Apple has also contemplated giving the Apple Watch a round display, but Gurman cautioned that such a device is unlikely to be released. The company has also considered introducing new premium variants designed to sit above the Ultra and Hermès models, alongside even more affordable options in addition to the Apple Watch SE.

The company has not yet settled on a direction for the product line, but it is said to be "determined to reinvent the lineup in response to growing competition." It also plans to make its wearables more AI-focused, with ambitious long-term plans to revamp the Health app.

Gurman believes that the Apple Watch revamp "could be as significant as the iPhone's transformation from a slab design into a foldable device." Apple purportedly hopes to reinvigorate its Wearables, Home and Accessories segment, which has struggled to generate growth over recent years.
This article, "Apple Watch Rethink Could See Debut of Round Model, Screenless Fitness Tracker, and More" first appeared on MacRumors.com

Discuss this article in our forums

Mercury is the smallest planet in the Solar System, but most of the distance from its centre to its surface passes through metal. NASA puts the radius of Mercury’s metallic core at about 2,074 kilometres, compared with a planetary radius of 2,440 kilometres. That is roughly 85 per cent of the planet’s radius.

The percentage needs reading carefully. It describes radius, not volume, and it does not mean the remaining 15 per cent is all crust. NASA estimates that Mercury’s combined rocky mantle and crust are about 400 kilometres thick. There is also evidence that part of the core remains molten or liquid, which helps explain how such a small world still generates a magnetic field.

I find the surface consequence more revealing than the ratio itself. As Mercury lost interior heat, the planet contracted. Its rigid outer shell had to fit around a slightly smaller interior, so parts of the crust broke and were pushed over neighbouring ground. The result is a global population of long, curved cliffs that record the cooling of the planet below them.

A small planet built around a large core

Mercury’s bulk density is second only to Earth’s among the planets. Yet Earth gains much of its density from the intense pressure produced by its greater mass. Mercury is genuinely rich in metal for its size.

Its internal arrangement is not simply a solid iron ball wrapped in stone. Measurements of Mercury’s gravity, rotation and magnetic field from NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft indicate a layered interior, including a metallic core that is at least partly liquid. The exact composition and boundaries of those layers remain subjects of active modelling.

The reason Mercury ended up with so much metal is also unsettled. Proposed explanations have included the loss of rocky material during an early collision, extreme heating near the young Sun and formation from unusually metal-rich starting material. None has closed the case by itself. The core size is measured far more securely than the story of how it formed.

Cooling turned contraction into cliffs

Materials generally contract as they cool. On Mercury, that gradual loss of interior heat reduced the planet’s volume enough to deform its outer shell. Because the crust could not slide neatly into a smaller sphere, compression forced blocks of rock up and over one another along thrust faults.

Planetary geologists call many of the resulting landforms lobate scarps. “Lobate” describes their rounded, lobe-like shape, while a scarp is a steep slope or cliff produced by fault movement. These are not mainly cliffs carved by rivers, waves or glaciers. They are the surface expression of crustal shortening.

The scale can be hard to read in spacecraft photographs with no trees or buildings for comparison. NASA reports that the largest scarps extend for hundreds of kilometres and rise more than 1.5 kilometres in places. A traveller approaching one would face a landform longer than many terrestrial mountain ranges, even though Mercury’s entire diameter is only 4,880 kilometres.

MESSENGER found a larger contraction than expected

Mariner 10 revealed Mercury’s great scarps during three flybys in 1974 and 1975, but it photographed less than half the planet. MESSENGER changed the picture after becoming the first spacecraft to orbit Mercury in 2011.

Using global photographs and topographic measurements, the mission team mapped almost 6,000 ridges and scarps. A 2014 analysis concluded that Mercury’s radius had decreased by as much as seven kilometres as the interior cooled, a substantially larger contraction than researchers had inferred from the incomplete Mariner 10 coverage. NASA’s global map of those structures shows them spread across the planet rather than confined to one basin or hemisphere.

Seven kilometres is small beside Mercury’s present radius, about three-tenths of one per cent. Across a whole planet, however, that change is enough to build thousands of faults and folds. The cliffs are an accumulated record of strain, not evidence that the planet suddenly collapsed.

Some faults may be geologically young

The broad contraction began billions of years ago. The harder question is when it stopped, if it has stopped at all.

During MESSENGER’s final 18 months, the spacecraft flew lower and returned sharper images. Researchers identified small, crisp scarps that should not have survived for billions of years under constant impacts from meteoroids. A 2016 study interpreted some as younger than 50 million years, a short interval in planetary geology.

A later 2023 paper in Nature Geoscience, led by Benjamin Man, mapped small troughs called grabens on top of larger contraction structures. The researchers identified 190 examples they regarded as certain. They measured them at roughly 10 to 150 metres deep, generally less than one kilometre wide and tens of kilometres long.

The team estimated that the grabens were about 300 million years old or younger because continued impact debris would otherwise have softened or buried such shallow features. Their distribution was consistent with prolonged contraction and activity on the larger faults into geologically recent times.

This is evidence, not a direct measurement of a fault moving today. The 2023 result is one study, not settled consensus about present activity, and no seismometer has yet recorded a Mercury-quake. The careful claim is that the planet appears to have cooled and contracted for much longer than an old, small world might suggest.

BepiColombo is almost ready to take the next look

MESSENGER ended with a planned impact on Mercury in April 2015. The next orbital investigation is now approaching. According to the European Space Agency’s current mission schedule, BepiColombo’s European and Japanese orbiters are due to enter Mercury orbit together on 21 November 2026 and separate in December.

The mission carries a laser altimeter, cameras, a magnetometer, radio-science equipment and instruments designed to examine surface composition and temperature. Combining topography with gravity and magnetic measurements should improve estimates of the core’s structure and Mercury’s rocky shell. Higher-resolution surface observations may also reveal whether the smallest scarps and grabens are more widespread than MESSENGER could see.

BepiColombo will not make billions of years of cooling easy to reconstruct. It will give researchers a second global orbital dataset, collected with different instruments, for testing whether Mercury’s thin shell is still adjusting to the metal-rich world beneath it.

The cliffs make the interior visible

Mercury’s core cannot be photographed directly, and the planet’s surface gives few obvious hints of an interior that fills 85 per cent of its radius. The cliffs connect the two. Their lengths, heights, ages and fault geometry preserve part of the history of heat leaving the core and mantle.

That history is still incomplete. The measured contraction is real, the young-looking structures are real, and the possibility of present tectonic activity remains open. Mercury’s grey surface is not merely an old impact record. It is also the outer skin of a planet that has spent billions of years fitting itself around a slowly cooling core.

The post Mercury is the Solar System’s smallest planet, but its metallic core fills about 85 per cent of its radius, leaving a rocky shell so thin that cooling has crumpled the surface into cliffs hundreds of kilometres long appeared first on Space Daily.

Conheça a visão da Nough Studio para o futuro após o sucesso de Lies of P, um RPG Souls-like cheio de desafio e emoção.

O post Nough Studio revela detalhes do próximo jogo após sucesso de Lies of P apareceu primeiro em Blog do Edivaldo - Informações e Notícias sobre Linux.

El día del eclipse no será uno más para nadie y mucho menos para los científicos. Algunos estarán realizando observaciones para investigaciones y otros, como Ruth Lazkoz, harán divulgación en el sitio donde estén. La doctora en Física es catedrática en la Universidad del País Vasco, se ha especializado en el universo en expansión y ahora está interesada en “devolver a la sociedad” lo que le ha dado.

En los días previos, conversa con National Geographic España sobre la ciencia detrás de este fenómeno y pone el foco en un aspecto poco difundido: el rol de las estrellas.

Pregunta. ¿Cómo se explica que dos cuerpos tan diferentes en su tamaño y su distancia queden alineados y el más pequeño impida el acceso de la luz?

Respuesta. La clave es el tamaño angular de cada objeto. Podemos pensar como si tuviéramos un palo de escoba que barre de un lado a otro de la Luna y otro palo de escobar más larga de un lado al otro del Sol. La distancia que barres y la longitud del palo cuando las divides tienes el ángulo. La cuestión curiosa es que, aunque el diámetro del Sol es 400 veces más grande que el de la Luna, la distancia a la que está es 400 veces más que nuestra distancia con la Luna. Entonces son dos números que al dividirse nos dan el mismo ángulo. Es una coincidencia cósmica. Si la Luna fuera más pequeña o estuviera más lejos, ya no veríamos eclipses totales. De hecho, las mareas lo que hacen es alejar la Luna 4 centímetros cada año de la Tierra y en aproximadamente 600 millones de años no habrá más eclipses totales. Estamos viviendo una etapa privilegiada en la historia de la humanidad.

P. ¿Dónde lo verá?

R. Yo lo voy a ver en la meseta de Burgos, que es una de las mejores localizaciones porque clásicamente es un sitio en el que en verano no suele haber nubes, polución ni partículas como en zonas costeras, y la atmósfera es estable.

P. ¿Será una buena noche para hacer observaciones astrofísicas?

R. Yo solo voy a verlo a nivel de puro aficionado, pero voy a intentar hacer alguna actividad popular en el pueblo, Covarrubias (Burgos), para intentar acercar un poquito la ciencia. Más que nada explicar con cuerdas y nueces esta cosa de cómo la Luna se coloca delante, tapa al Sol y entonces no vemos su luz, pero sí vamos a ver la luz de las estrellas porque quedan detrás del Sol. He hecho mucha investigación pura y dura, ahora lo que me interesa es devolver a la sociedad lo que me ha dado y poder enfocar el interés público hacia un entendimiento del valor de la ciencia para que avance la humanidad y todos seamos más críticos.

P. ¿Qué recomienda para tener un buen sitio de observación?

R. El eclipse será tan bajo en el horizonte, que realmente hay que controlarlo en los días previos. Porque si te colocas en un sitio, aunque estés en un pueblecito sin contaminación, puede que no vayas a verlo si no te subes a un punto elevado. Tiene un componente de aventura de buscar cada uno su lugar.

P. El Sol es el gran protagonista, pero ¿qué fenómeno ocurrirá con las estrellas?

R. Vamos a ser capaces de ver estrellas que justo en ese momento están detrás del Sol por un efecto de curvatura. El Sol es una masa muy grande y densa, que produce una curvatura significativa a su alrededor del espacio-tiempo. Todas las partículas que tengan masa (un protón, un electrón, un balón de fútbol o una partícula de luz) tienen que seguir ese espacio-tiempo, o sea, el universo. A nivel divulgativo, podemos imaginarnos el espacio-tiempo como una sábana elástica y las partículas van pegaditas.

P. Es decir, ¿el Sol actúa afecta al trayecto de la luz de las estrellas?

R. Lo que va a ocurrir es que un rayo que sale de una estrella detrás del Sol va a sentir la atracción gravitatoria del Sol y va a ser una especie de ‘pozo’ por el que pasa esa partícula de luz. Entonces, envez de escapar del Sol en su trayectoria, se va a acercar. Será como tener un obstáculo en la carretera, esquivarlo y volver a la carretera. Pues la partícula de luz va a hacer a hacer algo así: sale intentando esquivar el Sol, el Sol la atrae un poco y al atraerla vuelve hacia una trayectoria que llega hasta nuestros ojos.

P. ¿Lo podremos observar cualquiera?

R. No, realmente esto solo podría observarse con un instrumento muy sofisticado. A nivel de calle no lo vamos a ver. A nivel Física, lo importante va a ser la cantidad de gente que consigue hacerse preguntas o interesarse por esta cuestión tan hermosa.

© Universidad del País Vasco

Cuando un árbol comienza a morir, algo inesperado puede ocurrir bajo el suelo. Sus raíces están conectadas a una red invisible capaz de transportar recursos entre distintos ejemplares.

Una caricia calma y el mismo roce sobre una quemadura duele. La diferencia no está en la piel: está en cómo el cerebro decide interpretar cada contacto que le llega.

A steady daily routine may quietly protect the body from pain, depression, and the damaging effects of disrupted sleep. A University of Missouri study suggests that a predictable routine may support physical and emotional health by helping the body keep time. Rather than focusing only on sleep, the researchers examined the broader pattern of activities [...]

Noctua is known for making high-end, high-quality fans and air coolers, which it has been doing for over 20 years, recently expanding into AIOs. However, it appears that there were a few questions regarding its PC case compatibility database, which some PC DIYers say don’t match the data from the manufacturer’s website. The company cleared this up in a blog post, saying that it has undertaken its own measurements and it has determined that 56 of the more than 100 cases it has tested showed significant deviation from the details officially listed online.

The company gave two diverging situations of inaccurate official measurements. The first one is when the case is larger than what is actually written, which would allow PC builders to attach a larger cooler. Noctua said that the deviations aren’t minor, either. For example, the NZXT H2 Flow case is listed as being compatible with a maximum 75mm CPU cooler height, but the actual case can accommodate an air cooler up to 79mm. There’s also the Thermaltake TR100, which is 2.7mm larger than what the Thermaltake website says, and the Corsair Frame 4000D, which gives you 10mm of extra clearance.

This is a good thing, as any cooler you bought based on their website’s measurement means that it will definitely fit, but Noctua said that this is a missed opportunity. That’s because you could’ve bought a larger cooler that delivered more performance in the same case.

On the flip side, the company warned that there were also some cases that were actually smaller versus the numbers in their specifications. It cited two examples — the Asus Prime AP201 and the Lian Li B4-mATX. The former is 1.7mm shorter while the latter is 3.5mm shorter than what’s listed on their specific product pages.

This could to be a major issue, especially if you bought items that fitted the available space exactly, based on the manufacturer’s measurements. It would mean that these parts would either be touching the case panels, or worse, not allow them to close at all. If that’s the case, you’ll have to spend extra effort to return either the part or the case and get something that fits better.

The safest solution to this is for you to buy the PC case before you shop for the remaining parts of your build. This is especially true if you’re looking at the best mini-ITX cases, as the tight tolerances mean that you don’t have much margin if the numbers aren’t accurate. But by having the case physically available and measuring it yourself, you’re at least confident that what you’re buying will fit. Alternatively, you can check out Noctua’s compatibility search page, with the clearances of the cases in its database verified by its team.

This compatibility tool will give you peace of mind when shopping for the best cooler and is useful for confirming measurements even if you end up buying from another brand. But this begs the question — are the variations between official and actual measurements limited to the air coolers? Or are the numbers for other components, like the GPU, PSU, and other key components also inaccurate? Noctua’s website only covers coolers, so you’ll have to rely on other pages (or your own measurements) if you want some confirmation of a case’s specifications and clearances for other parts like GPUs and PSUs.