Hello! This Monday begins Future Congress, with the American linguist Noam Chomsky and the German filmmaker Werner Herzog as star guests.
This time we will focus on the theme of the metaverse, with the enormous challenges it entails in times of social unrest and mental health problems worldwide.
In this edition: the mammal that does not age and may be key to fighting cancer, the impact of the use of social networks on young people at the brain level and the formula for success of the Argentine artist Bizarrap.
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1
THE WORLD CUP AND THE VICTORY OF “ARGENTINA, 1985” AT THE GOLDEN GLOBES
This week, Argentina, 1985, a film about the trial of the trans-Andean Military Junta, won the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film.
As expected, actor Ricardo Darín did not miss the opportunity to make a nod to the World Cup recently won by the Albiceleste in Qatar.
Darín is the protagonist of the film with his interpretation of prosecutor Julio César Strassera and climbed the podium in Los Angeles with director Santiago Mitre, to receive the award.
Although he began his speech in English (“I am very proud of this award; I love them”), then said he would speak “a few words in Spanish for my people.”
“For all the people of Argentina, after the World Championship, this is a great joy, I love you, bye,” said the actor, and then throw a kiss to the audience and leave.
2
SOCIAL MEDIA USE LINKED TO BRAIN CHANGES IN TEENS
The New York Times has published a long story on an issue that should concern many parents: how social networks affect their children.
The article cites a study developed by neuroscientists at the University of North Carolina, who performed successive brain scans on students between 12 and 15 years old, a period in which brain development is especially rapid.
The researchers found that kids who regularly check their social networks around age 12 showed a different trajectory, in which their sensitivity to their peers’ social rewards increased over time. Teens with less participation in social media followed the opposite path: a declining interest in social rewards.
“Teens who typically check their social networks show quite dramatic changes in the way their brains respond, which could have long-term consequences well into adulthood, and in some ways lay the groundwork for brain development over time,” one researcher said.
You can read the full note here.
3
THE FORMULA FOR THE SUCCESS OF BIZARRAP, THE MOST LISTENED TO ARGENTINE ARTIST IN THE WORLD (AND THAT CAUSES A STIR FOR A NEW SONG WITH SHAKIRA)
Shakira made news this week for her hints against her ex-partner and father of her children, the footballer Gerard Piqué, in the context of a new song she published with the Argentine Gonzalo Julián Conde, better known as Bizarrap.
He is a 24-year-old producer and DJ who was the most listened to Argentine in the world on the Spotify platform in 2022 (he ranked 49th globally), a neighborhood boy who learned to make music in a self-taught way and has become a benchmark of the urban music scene.
Conde has more than 16 million subscribers on YouTube, songs with Residente, Nathy Peluso, Nicky Jam and Nicky Nicole, and some videos that accumulate more than 300 million views, but he does not sing, because his thing is “the tracks”.
The young man from Ramos Mejía, a peripheral town of Buenos Aires, began his career just doing sessions where he played the music, and a guest, the lyrics.
“I like to work at the same time with the artist who comes to the studio. I’m not one to prepare the beat before. I prefer to talk, to see what situation he is in. And then I give my point of view and say, ‘With me I think you should do this kind of song,'” he told Forbes magazine about his creative process.
4
THE MAMMAL THAT DOES NOT AGE AND MAY BE KEY TO CANCER TREATMENT
The naked mole rats, wrinkled, almost hairless rodents with prominent teeth coming out of their mouths, who live in Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia could be key to improving human health, among other reasons, because they almost never develop cancer, a disease that one in two human beings has the possibility of contracting, the BBC reported this week.
These animals possess a mix of extraordinary characteristics that intrigue zoologists and medical researchers around the world. Despite their small size – they measure between 7.6 and 33 cm – naked mole-rats live an average of 30 years, compared to two years for normal rats. In addition, they are resistant to chronic diseases, including diabetes, and have an intriguing reproductive system.
Immune to aging and pain, these strange creatures have long fascinated scientists. And now, research reveals they may hold the key to understanding a variety of human disorders, such as cancer and aging.
According to one theory, naked mole-rats have a particularly effective form of an anticancer mechanism called cellular senescence, an evolutionary adaptation that prevents damaged cells from dividing uncontrollably and turning into cancer.
Another theory suggests that naked mole-rats secrete a complex “super sugar” that prevents cells from clumping together and forming tumors.
You can read the full note here.
5
10-METER DINOSAURS DOMINATED CHILEAN PATAGONIA 70 MILLION YEARS AGO
A group of researchers discovered in Patagonia an extinct species of dinosaurs, relatives of current birds, which reached 10 meters in length and a ton in weight, and that dominated the food chain of the southern tip of our world 70 million years ago, the University of Chile reported this week.
This is revealed by a study developed by Chilean and American researchers, from fossil pieces rescued in various paleontological campaigns between 2016 and 2020, near Torres del Paine National Park.
The finding is the southernmost fossil record of “theropod” dinosaurs – the same order of dinosaurs as the popular species Tyrannosaurus rex or Velociraptor – and is a key piece to understand what fauna inhabited the extreme south of the world near the end of the Age of Dinosaurs, 66 million years ago.
“One of the main characteristics of the dinosaur found is that its body was probably completely covered with feathers, had curved claws on its legs, and contained an elongated snout with multiple small teeth, quite peculiar,” said Jared Amudeo, a researcher at the Paleontological Network of the University of Chile.
And now, we say goodbye until next time. Let’s continue enjoying the summer, also in Santiago, where these days there are fewer people and walking on the street can be friendlier than at other times.
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Have a nice weekend!
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