The debate surrounding nuclear power can create the false impression that it is an obsolete sector, one where progress has stagnated and advancements have stalled. But the reality is far from that image. The nuclear sector is one of the areas where there has been significant interest in innovation for years, particularly after accidents like Fukushima, the advance of climate change, and the apparent slowdown in the renewable energy sector.

The Universe is expanding faster and faster. But astronomers still don't know exactly why. Now the DES (Dark Energy Survey) collaboration has taken another step towards solving this enigma. For the first time have published results These measurements combine data from the two main sources available for measuring the expansion of the Universe: the clustering of galaxies and how they deflect light through gravitational lensing. The analysis provides more precise estimates of the Universe's composition and brings scientists closer to solving this puzzle.

The young aspiring mathematician took notes with impeccable care. He knew his German friend would also appreciate it. He didn't know it yet, but that classmate sitting next to him in geometry class would eventually become one of the most brilliant minds of the 20th century: Albert Einstein. Sherlock Holmes had John Watson, Don Quixote had Sancho Panza, and Einstein always had Marcel Grossmann by his side, the faithful companion who not only shared his notes but also became a key figure in the development of a theory that would change our understanding of the universe. "Those notes were my salvation," Einstein explained.

Some problems are so complex and ambitious that they can only be addressed through interdisciplinary collaborations between different research teams. The Synergy grants awarded annually by the European Research Council aim precisely to foster synergies between various teams, enabling them to tackle these challenges. The projects selected in the latest call for proposals span diverse categories, from sociology and governance to molecular biology and cancer. Only 66 proposals were ultimately selected, among more than 700 submissions from institutions around the world. Two projects led by Catalan institutions, which aim to better understand the workings of the Sun and the expansion of the Universe, are among the winners.

Thanks to signals from the merging of two pairs of black holes, scientists at various gravitational wave detectors have determined that these celestial bodies, from which not even light can escape, can rotate in unprecedented ways. The collaboration between the LIGO, Virgo, and KAGRA observatories recently presented these new results in the journal The Astrophysical Journal Letters. "These results demonstrate the extraordinary capabilities of gravitational wave observatories," explains Gianluca Gemme, spokesman for the Virgo collaboration.

It couldn't be the year of quantum mechanics without the Nobel Prize in Physics also being awarded to the progress made in this field of physics over the last hundred years. Thus, the Swedish Academy of Sciences has awarded the prize to John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret, and John M. Martinis of the University of California, for their discovery of the macroscopic quantum tunneling effect and the quantization of energy in an electrical circuit. "It's fantastic to be able to celebrate that quantum mechanics has yielded many surprises in its hundred years of existence and is the basis of our technology," remarked Olle Eriksson, a member of the Nobel Prize Committee in Physics.

This Saturday, September 20, Saturn's main satellite, Titan, will cast its shadow on the ringed giant. It will be the last time it will do so for the next 14 years. These eclipses are extremely rare and only occur for a few months every fifteen years or so, when Titan's orbit aligns it with the Sun and Saturn. From November 2024 to October 2025, eclipses occurred every sixteen days. However, we will have to wait until 2038 to see the Saturnian satellite cast its shadow again on this fascinating world, the second largest after Jupiter and the only ringed one visible from Earth. This strange periodicity of eclipses is mainly due to the high inclination of Titan's orbit with respect to the planet's orbit around the Sun.

By analyzing gravitational waves from the merger of two black holes located 1.3 billion light-years away, scientists from the international LIGO collaboration (from the English laser interferometer gravitational-wave observatory) have been able to prove a theory developed by Stephen Hawking more than forty years ago. The British physicist, who died in 2018, hypothesized that the black hole resulting from the merger of two matter-guzzling black holes would necessarily be larger than the sum of the sizes of the two originals.

"Wake me up when September ends," sings Billie Joe Armstrong in one of the songs on the album American idiotby the punk-rock band Green Day. In this song, the singer pays tribute to his father who died one September day. The fact is that this month, like the song itself, has a melancholic quality for many people: the holidays are coming to an end, summer is drawing to a close with the days getting shorter, and everything returns to its harsh routine, which provokes an unconscious desire for October to arrive quickly. Fortunately, we can heal the nostalgia for times past, even if only partially, with a night sky filled with diverse and interesting offerings.

A physicist trying to develop a theory of everything straddling two antagonistic planets. This is the starting point ofThe dispossessed, by Ursula K. Le Guin, a science fiction classic in its most humane, political, social, and vindictive aspects. Le Guin is one of the genre's greatest exponents, known for her feminist and environmentalist views, always seeking utopias in previously unexplored corners.

A film doesn't need to have a big budget to be original and groundbreaking. Beyond the two infinite minutes, by Japanese director Jun Yamaguchi, is a clear example. With only two screens, one showing what will happen in exactly two minutes, and the other showing the corresponding past, a comic vaudeville-style plot is created. After the initial childish play, the characters quickly discover the obvious applications this can offer, leading us to a completely absurd ending, yet one that is typical of the genre.

There are films that arrive too early and it is not until thirty years after their release that the public comes to understand them as they were conceived. This is the case of Starship Troopers, by Dutch director Paul Verhoeven, known for other science fiction films such as Robocop and Total Recall.

Just a few days ago, Amazon announced plans to build a gigantic data center in the state of Indiana, United States. This computing center will be dedicated to training artificial intelligence systems with the goal of simulating the human brain. The electricity bill will be expensive, as this complex will consume approximately 2.2 gigawatts of electricity—enough to power an entire city.

Among all the meteor showers that occur throughout the year, the Perseids, more commonly known as Tears of Saint Lawrence, are the most popular. On the one hand, because they occur at a time of year when it's best to be outdoors at night to observe them. On the other hand, because it's the most frequent meteor shower, which can reach up to 200 objects per hour with speeds exceeding 50 kilometers per second.

Short story collections don't come in handy. This is a maxim in the publishing world that many authors try to overthrow. Ted Chiang is one such exponent in the science fiction genre. Throughout the eight stories contained in The story of your life and other stories, the American author of Chinese origin elegantly transports us to completely plausible and familiar environments, sometimes magical, always incorporating a component of criticism and reflection on our place in the Universe and the future of our society.

The population's contribution to global warming is unequal and depends largely on its income.

In the latest edition of the Ultra Pirineu mountain race, more than 1,300 runners gathered in the Cadí mountain range to cover more than 100 km of distance and 6,600 meters of elevation gain. Extremely demanding events like this make us question the limits of the human body, as well as the role that physiology, nutrition, and rest play in achieving good athletic performance and, in general, enjoying a healthy life.

How would history have changed if the Soviets had landed on the Moon before the Americans and the space race had spread throughout the solar system? This is the premise from which For all mankind, a series created by screenwriter and producer Ronald D. Moore, known for having participated in other space series such as Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica and can be seen on AppleTV+.

The Universe is expanding, and it's doing so ever faster, although astronomers don't quite know why. To find out, a team of cosmologists from the University of Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier and the University of Geneva have put the current model of the Universe predicted by Einstein's own theories to the test. The results, published in the magazine Nature Communications, indicate that the theory of general relativity, which the German physicist developed more than a hundred years ago, may be insufficient to accurately describe the evolution of the universe. "We have enough evidence to believe that Einstein's theory is not definitive," says Isaac Tutusaus, a Catalan cosmologist at the University of Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier and co-author of the study.

Summer nights are the shortest of the year, but also the most pleasant for observing the night skies.