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We live in a world governed by physical laws, and we are part of that world: consequently, we are also governed by physical laws, above genetic, psychological, social and other laws. Because physical laws also govern our behavior and our decisions, which are only certain arrangements of atoms.

However, not everything is so simple. The history of science has been, in large part, the history of the search for formulas that would substantiate these laws, that would perhaps make the universe more intelligible. Sometimes, however, We didn't realize that everything was much more complicated than it seems.

A bunch of equations

In the opinion of David Perezagua and Guillermo F. PeñasIn fact, this entire journey to decode reality can be summarized in 30 equations, as they refer in their book History of the world in 30 equations.

A pleasant and punctuated review of curiosities about humanity's attempts to understand the world, to reduce its complexity to fixed and universal rules (and to be simple).

In Xataka Science

The discoverers of the first laws of nature

In addition, to make reading more accessible and entertaining, in an open buffet style, each chapter of the book has been accompanied by one or more symbols that allude to the branch of physics discussed in it, allowing it to be read sequentially. either well depending on the topics that arouse the most interest in us.

An exciting journey through the letters and numbers that hold the secrets of the universe. The universe is chaotic and full of mysteries, but that has not stopped humans from trying to understand it over the centuries. Many of us take for granted the great discoveries that explain the how and why of the universe, from the famous Pythagorean theorem to Einstein's theory of relativity. But who were these great people and how did their discoveries change the world forever? In History of the world in 30 equations, David Perezagua and Guillermo F. Peñas, young scientific popularizers, embark on a fascinating adventure through science and history to present with closeness and audacity the thirty equations without which life as it is as we know it would be inconceivable.

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Books that inspire us: 'History of the world in 30 equations' by David Perezagua and Guillermo F. Peñas

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Xataka Science

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Sergio Parra

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Paleontologists from Yunnan University have found a unique dinosaur specimen in southern China: remains of a specimen of an oviraptorsaur sitting on a nest of eggs with fossilized hatchlings.

Specifically, it was recovered from rocks from the Upper Cretaceous, about 70 million years old, in the city of Ganzhou, in Jiangxi province.

Oviraptorsaurus

He oviraptorsaurus It is part of a group of bird-like theropod dinosaurs that thrived during the Cretaceous Period, the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, which spanned from 145 to 66 million years ago.

Specifically, the remains found belong to a large, probably adult, oviraptor crouching in a bird-like incubation posture over a clutch of at least 24 eggs. At least seven of these eggs They preserve bones or partial skeletons of unhatched oviraptorid embryos inside. The team also carried out oxygen isotope analyzes indicating that the eggs were incubated at high temperatures similar to those of birds.

Although some adult oviraptorids have been found before in nests of their eggs, embryos have never been found inside those eggs, as explained Shundong Bi, from Yunnan University and first author of the study describing the finding:

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A titanosaur is discovered that is 20 million years older than the oldest in Patagonia

Dinosaurs preserved in their nests are rare, as are fossil embryos. This is the first time a non-avian dinosaur has been found, sitting on a nest of eggs preserving embryos, in a single spectacular specimen.

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World's first dinosaur specimen found sitting on a nest of eggs with fossilized babies

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Xataka Science

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Sergio Parra

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In a recently published study in Nature Human Behavior, have made use of the exact location of every registered voter in the United States to measure partisan segregation at both a large scale and a hyperlocal scale.

The result is that a large portion of Democrats live in hypersegregation, with virtually no exposure to Republicans, in their residential environment. In other words: echo chambers not only take place on Twitter and other 2.0 environments.

Measurement with respect to one thousand nearest neighbors

To calculate partisan segregation, data containing information about each of the 180,735,645 voters registered in the United States as of June 2018. The data includes approximately 80% of the voting population, as well as the exact address of almost 75% of the adult population of the United States.

In the study, it was accurately measured the distance of each voter from his or her 1,000 nearest neighbors, something unprecedented until now because sociologists did not have such precise and individualized data, which has allowed the creation of a spatially weighted matrix of approximately 180,000,000,000 cells that takes into account the distance of each voter to their closest neighbors.

In this way, segregation can be measured at any arbitrary scale of geography.

Even Democrats and Republicans who live in the same neighborhoods they separate from each other:

This classification was also observed in a variety of geographies and contexts, not only in very rural or very urban places:

But Why are Democrats and Republicans so segregated? That is the next question that should be addressed beyond this investigation.

However, one thing we can advance, in order to open the way towards fruitful hypotheses, is that there is not simply a reproduction of racial segregation: Taking racial segregation into account and isolating it, you still see a lot of partisan segregation beyond ethnicity or skin color.

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Americans are so segregated that they even live apart in the same neighborhood

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Xataka Science

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Sergio Parra

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It is the oldest known example of magma from space, and is about 4.565 million years old. That is We are looking at a piece of material from space older than the planet Earth itself..

As if that were not enough, very little is done, in May 2020, in Adrar, Algeria.

Remains of a protoplanet

As revealed a new study published in PNAS, this chunk of space magma, called Erg Chech 002 (EC 002), likely originated in our early solar system from the crust of a protoplanet, a large rocky body in the process of becoming a planet.

EC 002 is an achondrite, a type of meteorite that comes from a parent body with a distinct crust and core, and its chemical composition reveals that it emerged from a deposit of partially melted magma in the crust of the parent body.

To date no object with similar spectral characteristics has been identified, just as they claim The researchers who carried out the study:

This meteorite is the oldest magmatic rock analyzed to date and sheds light on the formation of the primordial crusts that covered the oldest protoplanets.

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This meteorite found in the Sahara Desert in 2020 is older than our own planet

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Xataka Science

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Sergio Parra

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Transporting supplies has an associated cost depending on the distance traveled, the medium, the nature of the supply itself... which is why it is surprising to know that the supply chain more expensive today It barely has 388 kilometers.

Basically because it starts from the surface of the Earth towards the sky, until it reaches the astronauts who inhabit the International Space Station (ISS). Such cost is fundamentally due to gravity and the mass of what is sent: less than 500 grams can already cost more than 10,000 dollars.

Replacement parts

Sending a simple spare part to the ISS, then, is a real headache. The reason is that you have to overcome what is known as “escape velocity”, that is, the speed at which you can escape the gravity of our planet and enter space. Every gram, then, counts, and represents a huge cost of fuel.

In Xataka Science

The most economical way to send an object into space

As if that were not enough, when it comes to the ISS, the most expensive supply chain in history ends in the most exotic scrapyard in the world, as explained Peter H. Diamandis in his book The future goes faster than you think:

And since it may take months until it reaches the Space Station, a very significant part of the precious surface of the ISS is occupied by the cabinets necessary to store all the spare parts.

In Xataka Science

Despite all the technology available, normal pens are still used in space

For this reason, initiatives such as Made in Space, the first company that tries to solve this kind of problem by manufacturing a 3D printer that would work in space:

And this is the reason why, in 2018, when an astronaut broke his finger in the middle of an ISS mission, it was not necessary to request a splint from Earth and wait months for its arrival.

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The news

The most expensive supply chain in history only has an extension of 388 kilometers

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Xataka Science

by
Sergio Parra

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In 2010, Japanese scientists on Expedition 329 of the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program's Expedition (IODP), through nearly 6,000 meters of seawater, lowered a drill.

The drill bit sank in pelagic clay, a recent study reveals, bacteria emerged from the sediments that managed to revive.

Several geological eras later

The study results, published in Nature Communications, point out that very few bacteria were found, barely between 100 and 3,000 per cubic centimeter. But by feeding them, most of them revived.

In fact, they doubled in number every five days (E. coli bacteria in the laboratory double in about 20 minutes), increasing their numbers up to ten thousand times.

Surprisingly, most microbes were, like us, oxygen-breathing forms. In fact, the sediment from which they were extracted was full of oxygen, but what they were missing was food.

In Xataka Science

Everything that falls on you when you take a hot shower

Based on all the evidence—the tight quarters, lack of feeding, and rapid resuscitation—researchers believe it is likely that most of the bacteria in this depleted sediment have been alive but dormant for at least 100 million years. These microbes, protected from radiation and cosmic rays by a thick layer of ocean and sediment, had survived several geological eras. And the only observable side effect is that they reproduced a little more slowly.

In Xataka Science

All this life is what fits at the end of the period of this sentence.

Recall that 70 percent of the Earth's surface is covered by marine sediments, whose microbial residents represent between one tenth and one half of all the microbial biomass on Earth. That is There are plenty of Methuselah microbes down there waiting to be discovered. (and reanimated).

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Closer to immortal bacteria: they have been resurrected after spending 100 million years on the seabed

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Xataka Science

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Sergio Parra

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Eating high-calorie foods is usually a way to cope with sadness or a bad day in general, especially if we are talking about chocolate or junk food.

However, studies suggest that They are other kinds of diets those that favor the mood of people with depression.

Mediterranean diet

A meta-analysis published in 2019, in which a total of 45,000 patients are analyzed in 16 studies, suggests that a correct diet can reduce depressive and anxious symptoms. The effect seems more important in women.

In Xataka Science

How to use stoicism to face the uncertainty of the pandemic

Apparently, it is the Mediterranean diet that allows a greater reduction in depressive symptoms (at least there is a correlational link), as suggested the next study published in BMC Medicine.

In it he compared the effects of three diets:

1. a Mediterranean diet with extra virgin olive oil (1 liter per week)
2. a Mediterranean diet with nuts (30 grams per day)
3. a low fat diet.

In Xataka Science

Having children only increases your happiness if you can pay the bills (and up to 10 years of age).

After studying a total of 7,447 people, randomly divided into three homogeneous groups of about 2,500 participants, it was concluded that in the second diet, that of nuts, there was an inverse relationship compared to the control group with a reduction in 20-30 % of the risk of depression. However, when it came to a group of patients with diabetes, then there was a 40 % reduction in the risk of depression.

Eating certain very sugary or high-calorie foods can make us feel better at a given moment, if we are having a bad time. However, Abusing this strategy is similar to having found a button that provides happiness.. As you will see in the next video, it is better not to press that button (too much):

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Food that makes you happy, food that makes you unhappy (especially if you are a woman)

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Xataka Science

by
Sergio Parra

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