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There are already many people who have put up the Christmas tree, the colored lights also shine in the streets... however, Some complain that Christmas seems to come earlier and earlier.

The good news for those who enter "Christmas mode" so prematurely is that they seem more sociable and are happier, too. The pandemic, in fact, has brought forward the decorations.

Christmas in pandemic

Today's Christmas can appear in our stores from November 1, since Christmas items replace Halloween products. At this point, we're used to the ever-expanding holiday season, but that's usually only seen in retail spaces eager to make the most of seasonal spending.

However, this year it has also reached many homes earlier, with news of decorations that were already placed on Halloween.

The festive tone has become a way to add joy and warmth to the gloom of pandemic restrictions. Christmas decorations bring back happy memories, and psychologists already suggested in a study than those who put up their decorations early They are happier than their peers and seem more sociable.

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Chocolate is the enemy of dogs, and at Christmas the risk of ingestion increases

Because, according to the study, those who put exterior decoration in their homes can use the exterior of their home to communicate attachment and possibly to integrate into the social activities of a neighborhood.

Without a doubt, here we can find echoes of testimonies of soldiers in the trenches during the First World War, which viewed Christmas rituals on the Western Front as a connection to normality.

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Pandemic at Christmas: it is suggested that those who put up their Christmas decorations earlier are happier and seem more sociable

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Sergio Parra

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It is not a fragment of Frankenstein's monster, of Mary Shelley: Inanimate matter can be animated with a simple spray. The spray contains particles of iron, polyvinyl alcohol and gluten, which combine with water to form sticky magnetic skins or 'M-skins'.

Thanks to the magnetic properties of the aerosol, ordinary objects such as origami paper and cotton thread have been brought to life, according to A study published in Science Robotics.

Millirobots

The researchers captured images of the 'millirobots' rolling, swimming and walking, but they also performed tasks with a more relevant purpose: simulated biomedical procedures. Robotic catheters navigated narrow blood vessels and egg-shaped capsules delivered medications to the stomachs of live rabbits.

This is the magic of this spray, which proposes a minimalist approach to building milirobots by coating inanimate objects with a magnetic bonding compound spray. As seen in the video, the real object of this experiment is to create milirobots capable of entering the arteries or the stomach, and removing blockages thanks to movement, or releasing medications:

This approach allows covering a variety of one-dimensional objects with a thin enough film such as to preserve the original size, morphology and structure of objects while providing a performance of up to hundreds of times its own weight. Under the activation of a magnetic field, milirobots can demonstrate a variety of locomotor skills.

In addition, the magnetic film of the milirobots can be reprogrammed and disintegrated at any time. The liquid begins to disintegrate after about eight minutes in a strongly acidic environment (pH 1), but its durability lasts up to about 15 minutes if an additional layer of PVA is added. while if the iron particles are replaced with nickel particles it could remain stable for even more than half an hour..

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An aerosol has been designed that turns inanimate materials into mobile insect-scale machines

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Charles Percy Snow, in his famous conference On “The Two Cultures”, he expressed it forcefully: «What do you understand by mass, or by acceleration? It is the scientific equivalent of Can you read?

That we see in the media intellectuals who are as scientifically trained as they are in everything else may be, for the moment, an entelechy: the minimum we should demand is that intellectuals who embrace pseudoscience be portrayed as anti-intellectuals. Because they don't base their opinions on evidence, basically..

Politically accepted nonsense

It is not about censoring ideas, or even avoiding exploring heterodox scientific ideas. The point is to consider deeply anti-scientific statements as uneducated, as the physicist emphasizes. Alan Sokal in his book Beyond intellectual frauds:

It would be better to imagine a continuum where well-established science (for example, the idea that matter is made up of atoms) is at one end; Next would be cutting-edge science (neutrino oscillations, for example) and dominant but speculative science (string theory); then, much further, bad quality science (N rays, cold fusion), and at the end, after a long journey, pseudoscience.

If you defend pseudosciences such as homeopathy, if you attack vaccines, if you suggest that 5G causes harm and a long list of ideas widely disseminated in the media, you should automatically be classified as an unread, uninformed, uneducated person, or perhaps even fanatical about some sectarian movement.

In Xataka Science

The “most important factor” of misinformation in English about the coronavirus is Donald Trump

Again, it must be emphasized that these ideas can be expressed with the same joy as Miguel Bose publish your nonsense about the coronavirus on their networks. There is no need to censor. What we have to do is conveniently label, criticize, and, above all, question the media that encourages such characters and the institutions that elevate them to the category of intellectual, wise, or even political.

Yes because Among politicians we can find a certain percentage of functional illiterates. (that is, magufos) who have even directed ministries linked to science, such as Health. In the following video you can see some of the most scandalous cases. Cases that, perhaps when we consider science as an indistinguishable part of general culture, will not take place again:

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If an intellectual embraces pseudoscience or nonsense, he is not an intellectual (and even less should he be a politician).

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Two lost notebooks Charles Darwin, one of which contains the iconic 1837 sketch of the Tree of Life, have been stolen and Cambridge University Library is asking for help to locate them.

In January 2001, the notebooks disappeared. But it is now, after an exhaustive search, that it can be confirmed that they have probably not been lost, but rather stolen.

Evolution Day

The call to find the notebooks It was released this November 24, coinciding with what is commonly known each year as 'Evolution Day', which recognizes the anniversary of Darwin's publication of The origin of species, November 24, 1859.

As explained Jessica Gardner, University Librarian and Director of Library Services:

This public appeal could be instrumental in bringing the notebooks back safely, for the benefit of all, and I would ask anyone who thinks they can help to get in touch. We would be very grateful to hear from any staff, past or present, members of the book trade, researchers or the general public, information that could assist in the recovery of the notebooks.

The image of 'Tree of Life' It is part of one of Darwin's handwritten notebooks. The notebook in question is stored in a custom-made blue box, along with a second similar notebook, where Darwin develops his theory in terms of geographical distribution, the origin of humans and classification by descent.

Darwin sketched his ideas around an evolutionary tree in the summer of 1837, having recently returned from his trip around the world aboard the HMS Beagle, more than two decades before publishing a more developed tree of life in The origin of species.

The content of the manuscript of the two notebooks, fortunately, was previously digitized, including the Tree of Life sketch, and is available at the Cambridge Digital Library.

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Charles Darwin's iconic sketch of the tree of life and help is requested to locate it

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The concept that the poor are poor because they deserve it or that they are somehow unworthy dates back to Victorian times.

However, according to this recent study on food poverty, these attitudes are still alive today, and are a very important part of How those who receive a benefit from social security are perceived.

Poor unworthy

According to the study cited, people consider or tend to consider that the poor are lazy, that they are not trying hard enough to alleviate their own difficulties, which makes them less deserving of help.

The idea of the deserving and undeserving poor is linked to our understanding of the causes of poverty: whether it is the result of “agency” or “structure.” Agency refers to the actions of an individual, while structure is the external forces that may have led to an individual's poverty.

If we are in the second case, then many people consider that the poor do not deserve help, as exemplified this tweet:

For example, if people with financial problems spent money on conspicuous or considered services, such as a streaming service or a manicure service, it was understood that they did not deserve help to feed their children. Or if they did not buy cheap and abundant food, they were considered to be somehow They did not manage their resources well and they deserved their situation. However, perhaps poor people are not so battered that they need to vent in one way or another, or have they not received enough support to manage their resources more intelligently?

It is something similar to when, in a Spanish television debate, a debater pointed out that an activist politician: "You are too fat for the hunger you are experiencing" (when in reality it is precisely the poor who are the most obese because they eat cheaper and more caloric food).

In Xataka Science

Losing purchasing power not only affects your health but also your life expectancy.

Poor people are usually born with various burdens, even at a neurochemical level, just as if they had been affected by a virus. They have less self-control, less tenacity, less intelligence, less ability to thrive, generally speaking; And furthermore, this is not so much a question of poverty itself as of inequality. So, in the debate over whether someone is responsible for their situation or not, we should at least be aware of it, as I elaborate in the following talk given at the BCNspiracy TALKS 2020:

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If it is perceived that the poor are poor because of their responsibility, we tend to believe that they do not deserve our help.

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The European middle class is already falling behind compared to the middle classes of emerging markets, such as China or India, and this trend, along with others, will be accelerated by the coronavirus pandemic.

As a society we must be prepared to face all these changes that are already coming, and not conceptualize them as a series of catastrophes without a solution, but as a series of opportunities to make evolutionary breakthroughs using lateral thinking. That is the main thesis of this book. Mauro F. Guillén, 2030. Traveling towards the end of the world as we know it.

Opportunities

Forecasting the future, there is no doubt, is an enterprise doomed to failure. But we can take into account some trends to guide us. And that is what this book aspires to be: a compass.

2030: Traveling to the end of the world as we know it (No collection)

RRP on Amazon €18.95

Marked by economic, sociological and technological data, this compass, then, allows us two things: face the next decade with a little less fear and surprise for what is to come. And two: do it with a more resilient and constructive spirit.

For this reason, the book has also been a source of inspiration in Xataka Ciencia in order to produce entries such as The number of patents does not stop growing, but it does so especially in China either Leapfrogging: when a society makes a technological leap by skipping stages.

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Leapfrogging: when a society makes a technological leap by skipping stages

There was a time when the world was clearly divided between prosperous economies and backward economies. Many children were born, there were more workers than retirees and the aspirations of people who wanted to be part of the middle class consisted of having a car and a house. It was enough for companies to operate in Europe and the United States. It was paid with cash. And we expected the rules that governed our lives to be stable and predictable. But the world, pandemic through, has changed, and those rules are no longer valid.

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Books that inspire us: '2030. Traveling towards the end of the world as we know it', by Mauro F. Guillén

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Our conception of romantic love could not be more trite, nor could it be more overflowing with pleonasms and tautologies, and endless inaccuracies, hunches and intuitions that contradict six decades of scientific literature.

However, there are intuitions or simple physical manifestations that have been corroborated. Like the neurophysiological changes that take place in a brain in love.

Neuroimaging

Stephanie Cacioppo, a psychologist at the University of Chicago who has studied the neuroscience of romantic love for the last decade, explains that the process involves several complex changes, particularly in the brain's reward system.

More specifically, in a review from 2012 From the scientific literature on love, Lisa Diamond and Janna Dickenson, psychologists at the University of Utah, found that romantic love is most consistently associated with activity in two brain regions: the ventral tegmental area (VTA) and the caudate nucleus.

These areas play an essential role in our reward pathway and regulate the neurotransmitter dopamine. In other words, during the early stages of love we miss your loved one because he or she makes you feel so good.

In Xataka Science

Why can't you buy my love for money?

In fact, simply thinking about your partner not only makes you feel good, but also can buffer pain, stress and other negative feelings. A study, for example, has shown that women in love do better on cognitive tasks after being subliminally told their lover's name.

These neural patterns of romantic love appear to be universal across genders, cultures, and sexual orientations. Romantic and platonic love, for example, may be associated with unique neural signatures. And studies show that the neural processes in charge of sexual attraction and desire can occur alongside and sometimes overlap with those that regulate romantic love, but they are largely different from them.

Be that as it may, it seems that finding someone special in our lives is a safe and stable source of happiness, although we are not very good at choosing a partner, on many occasions. Maybe we need help. Big Data + machine learning algorithms in order to find your perfect match. The one that suits you. And, furthermore, the offer will not be as limited as now (basically the people who live in your neighborhood or just beyond), but total (humanity). You can learn more about it in the following video:

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Thinking about your partner can dull pain, stress and other negative feelings.

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In China they have hardly used credit cards: they have gone from cash to mobile phone payment via QR codes.

Perhaps this is one of the most recent cases of leapfrogging, which describes when a society progresses technologically but not linearly, but abruptly, skipping natural stages. In Africa there is another surprising case with ebooks.

African ebooks

Although it may sound counterintuitive, rapid progress does not take place in the most developed regions, but in the least developed ones. This happens because in more developed countries and regions, citizens are tied to a certain way of thinking or doing things, so it is more difficult for them to let go of the past.

In Xataka

This is how China is making credit cards obsolete

But as explained Michael Hannan in This studio Regarding structural inertia, in less developed countries and regions, people adapt better to new radical changes, which offers a better observation point on the future.

A surprising and paradigmatic case, it's the ebook. In the most modern societies, its implementation is slow because users still find incentives for physical books. But what happens in a place where there are hardly any physical books? The same as in a China without credit cards.

For this reason, Africa could become, according to Mauro F. Guillen in his book 2030, the world's first ebook reader, in the same way that it is already at the forefront of mobile payments. Snappflify, for example, is a South African company that has become the largest educational content platform on the continent and already serves almost 200,000 students.

In Xataka Science

Companies that do not adapt to technological changes end up disappearing (if they do not receive protection)

For its part, worldreader, a San Francisco NGO, offers free access to a library of ebooks to schools in any developing country.

In rural areas, without coverage, it offers an integrated solution that includes solar panels, USB hubs, LED lights, e-book readers and access to the digital library.

Thanks to the magic of Leapfrogging, then, contentants like the African could receive aan unprecedented cultural and intellectual shock, suddenly, and in a few years; the equivalent of the shocks of thousands of years that the West received with the 38 most disruptive books for culture and science:

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Leapfrogging: when a society makes a technological leap by skipping stages

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Sergio Parra

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One of the first authors to imagine a kind of robot, this time made of meat, was a woman: Mary Shelley. His Frankenstein Monster (1823) addressed the fear of a Faustian pact with Promethean echoes. Eighty years later, another woman conceived another mechanical robot but made of wax at a time when plastic or steel did not yet exist: Handcuffs are made to order, of Alice W. Fuller (1895).

The first robot considered as such, and in the real world, would arrive a little later: in 1939. Its name was ELECTRO.

ELEKTRO, the first android

ELECTRO, this is the nickname of the first robot in history and was conceived by Westinghouse Electric Corporation. Elektro was two meters tall, weighed 120 kg, could walk by voice command and say 700 words (thanks to a 78 rpm phonograph). In addition, he smoked cigarettes, blew up balloons, and moved his head and arms.

Joseph Barnett, an engineer at Westinghouse Electric Corporation, used cutting-edge technology to create this first humanoid

Its body consisted of a steel gear and cam skeleton, and its photoelectric "eyes" could distinguish red and green light. Its brain consists of 48 electrical relays that function like a telephone switchboard.

Elektro was on display at the New York World's Fair in 1939 and returned the following year with its companion sparki, a robot dog that could bark and sit.

Elektro participated in films such as: Sex Kittens Go to College from the year 1960, and appeared in the newspaper comic strip The Amazing Spider-Man. In 1992, the dance band Meat Beat Manifesto produced the song "Original Control (Version 2)" which included fragments of Elektro's monologues, quoting lines such as "I am Elektro" and "My brain is larger than yours."

An Elektro robot was seen in the November 24, 2019 episode of Mr.Robot , located in a Queens Museum storage room that was near the site of the Original 1939 and 1964 World's Fair.

It is currently owned by Mansfield Memorial Museum. In 2013, Elektro was displayed at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn.

Someday, perhaps, we will be surrounded by robots made of atoms, or maybe bits (given our tendency to dematerialize the world). Be that as it may, perhaps we will disappear, engulfed by a new way of life or a viral conception of exponential reproduction. That's enough for another science fiction story, like the one I'm telling you here:

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This was the first robot in history and could say up to 700 words out loud and smoked cigarettes

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In 2016, the number of patents filed in the United States was three times higher than those registered in 1995. In other words, it is good news for Americans.

However, the number of new patents (mechanical devices, composite materials, new medicines, etc.), in that same period of time, the figure for India was 7 times higher. And China's figure was 72 times higher..

More startups

For decades, the United States Patent and Trademark Office has been the world's most important agency dedicated to protecting innovation, but this could change in a few years, as it predicts Mauro F. Guillén in his book 2030: Traveling towards the end of the world as we know it:

The clash also takes place between companies. Those that come from emerging markets are getting larger every day, while European and American companies are reducing in size, with some notable exceptions, such as technology companies. But even within the technology sector, Chinese and Indian companies are growing, not only because of the size of the population they serve, but also because there are more connected people using their digital services.

Because in China and India there are already more users of broadband, social networks and mobile payments than in the United States. And this gap is not going to stop increasing..

Alibaba is a larger company than Amazon, Didi has just taken over Uber's operations in China and India boasts of employing more technicians and engineers in the information technology sector than the United States.

In Xataka Science

In 2023, China will have an Internet of Things satellite constellation with 80 satellites

The world is changing more and more rapidly. The middle class has stagnated, or even shrank, in Europe and the United States, but is growing wildly in China and India. Within a decade, the differences will begin to be abysmal. We will have to start learning languages, or even move to another country.

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The number of patents does not stop growing, but it does so especially in China

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Sergio Parra

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