A year has passed since the first confirmed case of a ‘strange disease’ that the Government of China located for the first time in the province of Hubei: COVID-19.

Twelve months later, the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the pathogen that causes this disease, has claimed the lives of more than one million 417 thousand people and has infected more than 60 million around the world, according to data from the University Johns Hopkins.

This month, the first signs that the world may soon have an effective tool to fight the pandemic came with the publication of results from Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca , which showed that their doses against the new coronavirus work at different percentages.

And while these results offer hope for the end of the pandemic, there are those who think about when the next could come … yes, pandemic. One of those people is Bill Gates.

The Microsoft co-founder this month started a series of podcasts with actress Rashida Jones (which you can listen to on this link ) called Bill Gates and Rashida Jones Ask Big Questions.

In his first podcast, Gates estimated that the next pandemic to hit the world may be quite close. “If we do well, it will come in 20 years, but we have to assume it could come in three years,” he said.

Gates assured that if this were to happen, the next pandemic will have a less destructive effect than that caused by COVID-19 thanks to the experience of recent months.

“Most countries will respond like Australia and South Korea, with extensive testing and quarantines. Our testing tools will be much better. We will not be so stupid on that occasion,” he added.

Every time a report is published on the level of innovation in European countries, Spain appears as the student who receives the report card and a “needs to improve” is reflected. Last November, the European Union published the “European Innovation Scoreboard” (EIS for its acronym in English) and Spain is a “moderately innovative” country.

However, the latest EIT Awards 2020 granted by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology, the center in charge of promoting excellence in higher education, research and innovation within the European Union, has made it clear that Spain innovates.

“Spain was one of the countries with the most representation among the finalists in the EIT Awards”, explains to this newspaper Andreu Climent, Ramón y Cajal researcher at the ITACA Institute of the Polytechnic University of Valencia and founder of Corify.

Indeed, one of those finalists and ultimately the winner of the EIT Award 2020 is Climent himself with his medical project Corify. “In Spain we are innovators”, he points out as soon as he receives the recognition of the European institute.

“It is true that we are not a country where there are many facilities, among other things because all this requires many resources and it is difficult to get them,” he points out.

His latest work started ten years ago in a study between the Polytechnic University of Valencia and the Gregorio Marañón Hospital in Madrid. Now, Corify Care, as the startup born from this research is called, gives a new impetus to its journey.

“Many resources are required, because in the end the research phase, being complex and expensive, is almost the cheapest of all,” says Climent. One of its funders is the EIT itself, which now adds 50,000 euros more with the award, “We have managed with private capital to start part of the development, although we need more funds,” he details.

The work of Climent and the entire Corify Care team focuses on curbing cardiac arrhythmias.

This pathology affects more than 10 million people in Europe and statistics indicate that one in three adults will suffer an arrhythmia throughout our lives. “In Spain there are about a million people who suffer from chronic cardiac arrhythmia,” says the recent winner of the EIT Award 2020.

A figure that may be small, but in which “our health system spends more than a billion euros a year just on hospitalizations and maintenance of people with a pathology that, on top of that, dividing their life expectancy by two”, he adds.

The main problem is that for more than half of the patients there is no effective treatment. Patients transition between drugs, defibrillations, and multiple invasive interventions, and in approximately 50% of cases without success.

There are a large number of cardiac mapping systems on the market, but the vast majority are invasive and require introducing catheters into the heart before knowing if the treatment will be effective.

The work of a decade of the team led by the Spanish researcher is reflected in a technology that only by recording 128 electrocardiogram signals and with a 3D reconstruction of a patient’s camera, «is capable of reconstructing the volume inside the patient as if we could see the heart and see what is happening within it, “he detailed to this newspaper.

“We are the only company in the only company that has the patents and that has developed that technology. This allows us, for the first time, to be able to teach clinicians what is happening in the heart without inserting a catheter or without the need for surgery.

At the moment, the Corify Care device is being tested in several Spanish hospitals and is also being tested and awaiting validation at Stanford (United States).

There are a large number of cardiac mapping systems on the market, but the vast majority are invasive and require introducing catheters into the heart before knowing if the treatment will be effective.

However, the interventions are complex, expensive, not without danger, and can only be offered to a very small number of patients (3-5%), and what is worse, their long-term efficacy rarely exceeds 65%.

“I like the application of engineering within in biology and we have always been working very closely with patients,” says Climent. “When you are working in the operating room you realize how sometimes up to half of cardiac surgeries are not effective and patients have to repeat the surgery without it working.

You realize that technology is needed, that before making the decision to introduce a patient to an operating room, it can help a clinician to see if it will work.

Now, they are awaiting clinical validation in 2021, “but we need to be audited by regulatory agents.” So they do not wait for approval “until the end of 2021 or the first half of 2022,” he says.

Being an astronaut renowned with space missions in the Discovery and the International Space Station has not served the Minister of Science and Innovation, Pedro Duque (Madrid, 57 years old) to lead the A gency European Space (ESA, its acronym in English), a position for which he announced his candidacy last July.

The Spanish minister has not managed to gather the necessary support against the Austrian Josef Aschbacher, current head of ESA’s ground observation programs, who has taken advantage of the minister.

The name of the Austrian candidate, engineer by profession and doctor of natural sciences,It has been circulating for days among the specialized press of the sector and has even reached social networks, although the Agency maintains that the process is still open.

“The ESA will not reveal any details until the process is closed,” said sources from this body. Although the final decision will be known tomorrow, at the end of November the evaluation committee decided to “nominate” Aschbacher, which already indicated the preferences of this intergovernmental organization dedicated to the research and development of space programs.

The representatives of the 22 countries that make up it will be in charge of voting tomorrow for the new general director who will replace the German Jan Wörner, in office since 2015 and whose mandate ends in June next year. However, the current head of the Norwegian space agency already congratulated the Austrian yesterday on Twitter.

With this blow to Duque and Spain, the third international defeat of the Government in this type of candidacy is certified . Before that, there was already the defeat of the Minister of Economy Nadia Calviño to preside over the Eurogroup, and Arancha González Laya resigned to opt for the position in the World Trade Organization.

In his Twitter account, the president of the Popular Party, Pablo Casado, said that given the information that points to Aschbacher as the next director of the Agency, “Spain continues to lose international weight with the Government of Sánchez.”

resident Andrés Manuel López Obrador presented on Thursday the ethical guide for the transformation of Mexico, a document designed to, he said, strengthen the values ​​in the country.

“It is a similar document, although in light of the new times, to the document that Alfonso Reyes drew up at the time, the moral primer,” he added.

The committee in charge of preparing the document is made up of Jesús Ramírez Cuevas, spokesman for the Presidency; José Agustín Ortiz Pinchetti; Verónica Velasco Aranda; Pedro Miguel Arce Montoya; Enrique Galván Ochoa, and Margarita Valdez González.

In this regard, Ramírez Cuevas pointed out that monitoring of this document is not mandatory.

“The adoption is voluntary. This document is a reference, it is not a law, it is not a norm; it is a document for debate and reflection,” he stressed.

These are the 20 principles and values ​​set out in the guide.

1. Respect for difference . Let’s avoid imposing ‘our world’ on the world of others.
2. Of life. There is nothing more valuable than life, liberty and security of people.
3. Of dignity . No one should be humiliated.
4. Of freedom . Peace and freedom are inseparable. No one can be at peace without freedom.
5. Of love . Love of neighbor is the essence of humanism.
6. Of suffering and pleasure . There is no greater joy than the happiness of others.
7. From the past and from the future . Those who do not know where they come from hardly know where they are going.
8. Of gratitude . Gratitude is the greatest virtue of a good person.
9. Of forgiveness . Forgiveness liberates whoever gives it and whoever receives it.
10. Of redemption . Evil must not be faced with evil.
11. Of equality . Good law must moderate opulence and destitution; there can be no equal treatment between unequals.
12. Of the truth, the word and the trust . Do not lie, do not steal, do not betray.
13. Of the fraternity . To be fraternal is to make the problems of others your own.
14. Of laws and justice . Outside the law, nothing; above the law, nobody. All for reason and law; nothing by force.
15. On authority and power . Power only makes sense and becomes virtue when it is put at the service of others.
16. From work. There is no greater satisfaction than having a job and enjoying it.
17. Of wealth and the economy. The richest is not the one who has more, but the one who is more generous.
18. Of the agreements . The commitments are fulfilled.
19. From the family. The family is the main social security institution in Mexico.
20. Of animals, plants and things . By taking care of water, air, land, plants, animals and things, we all take care of ourselves.

How will the guide be distributed?
López Obrador stressed that the document will be printed “in a considerable quantity” as it will be distributed to the more than eight million older adults who receive government support.

“So that they are the ones who, voluntarily in their free time, can transmit and analyze with their children and grandchildren what is said in this guide,” he added.

The Bitcoin and other digital currencies tumbled on Thursday, a fall likely stoke speculation about the durability of the boom criptomonedas.

The digital currency falls 10.94 percent, to 17,273.16 dollars, this at 7:48 am in Mexico City.

The Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index fell more than 6 percent at one point.

“There is a massive overbuying of conditions and they are heading for a correction,” said Vijay Ayyar , head of business development at Singapore-based crypto exchange Luno. “So I don’t think it’s unusual, frankly.”

Even with the pullback, bitcoin has gained more than 100 percent this year and was until recently approaching the record high of $ 19,511, set in 2017.

Cryptocurrency fans point to purchases by retail investors, institutions and even billionaires , as well as seeking hedging against the weak dollar from the pandemic, as reasons the boom may last.

Skeptics argue that the famous volatility of the cryptocurrency heralds a repeat of what happened three years ago, when a bubble burst in spectacular fashion.

Some see signs that retail investors are concentrating to take advantage of momentum and make quick profits.

Concerns about the possibility of stricter U.S. cryptocurrency rules, as well as profit-taking, help explain the price drop in most major digital assets, said Ryan Rabaglia, global head of operations at OSL brokerage. Hong Kong.

“It is also not unusual to see a short-term pullback after periods of significant and accelerating advances as traders look to take profits, before settling back when volatility subsides,” he said.

“Once the dust has settled, we will go back to business as usual, with all the medium and long-term bullish indicators there.”

Proponents of digital assets indicate that the current attention on cryptocurrencies compared to three years ago is different, due to growing institutional interest, for example, from companies like Fidelity Investments and JPMorgan.

This week, Van Eck Associates has released an exchange-traded Bitcoin note on Deutsche Boerse Xetra. In October, PayPal announced that it would allow its customers to access cryptocurrencies.

There is also noise around ethereum, the world’s most widely used blockchain, which is going to undergo a network upgrade that would allow it to process a similar number of transactions to Mastercard and Visa . The change to the new system could curb the supply of ether, whose price has quadrupled so far this year.

Luno’s Ayyar pointed out that he expects bitcoin to stabilize and reach all-time highs. But that would be followed by a bigger drop in the cryptocurrency, he noted.

The economy of Mexico grew 12.1 percent in the third quarter of 2020 compared to the previous quarter, according to revised figures of the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) published Thursday.

The data is slightly better than the timely estimate reported by the agency in October, when it pointed out that the advance of the Gross Domestic Product in that period had been 12 percent.

The ‘rebound’ seen in the economy between July and September is the best quarterly advance in the Inegi records and comes after the worst contraction in the country’s history.

As a point of comparison, the closest figure to this figure is the growth of 3.2 percent in the third quarter of 2009, when the Mexican economy was recovering from the global crisis of a year earlier.

The figure also represents, in the quarterly comparison, a halt to a five-quarter streak with contractions, including that of the April-June period, when the economy fell 17.1 percent due to the effects of containment measures to combat the spread of COVID -19.

It may interest you: How long will the strong weight last?

In its annual comparison , the GDP had a contraction of 8.6 percent, according to data from Inegi.

Pandemic factor
The development of the pandemic is precisely the point to observe in the current quarter for the Mexican economy, since the return of more states in the country to impose restrictive measures on non-essential economic activities could slow down the recovery.

Data such as the Global Index of Economic Activity (IGAE) , which functions as a ‘monthly GDP’, show a slowdown in the country’s economy.

On the other hand, the job creation figure shows a recovery, after more than 1 million formal jobs were lost during the harshest months of confinement. In August, more than 92 thousand jobs were created; in September, about 114 thousand, while in October a historical record of 200 thousand 641 jobs was registered, this according to figures from the Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS).

With this, in three months around 406 thousand jobs have been created.

It may interest you: Can the pandemic bring down the recovery?

Domestic consumption can also help sustain the economic recovery, with events like El Buen Fin , the sales program that this year was extended from four to 12 days.

The expectation of the Confederation of National Chambers of Commerce, Services and Tourism (Concanaco-Servytur) was to match the sales of 118 billion pesos in 2019. According to the Federal Consumer Prosecutor’s Office (Profeco), that amount was not only matched , but surpassed although the final data have not yet been confirmed.

However, this inertia may be slowed by the advance of the pandemic in the country. Chihuahua and Durango returned to red, the maximum alert level, at the epidemiological risk semaphore for COVID-19, and six other entities (Aguascalientes, Mexico City, Coahuila, Querétaro, Nuevo León and Zacatecas) are close to passing to this phase, the Ministry of Health reported last Friday.

According to the health authorities, only essential economic activities are allowed at red traffic lights, a provision seen during the National Day of Healthy Distance.

However, one piece of news that could sustain the recovery of the Mexican economy would be the start of vaccination campaigns against the new coronavirus.

That possibility was opened with the publication of results from Pfizer, a company with which the Government of Mexico has a pre-purchase agreement for up to 34.4 million vaccines of its two-dose-per-person regimen.

The pharmaceutical company has already requested the emergency authorization of its injection, which is 95 percent effective, from the United States Food and Drug Administration, whose decision could be known on December 10.

Speaking about Pfizer , Marcelo Ebrard , Secretary of Foreign Relations, explained Tuesday that the start of vaccination in Mexico “is imminent” and pointed out that the doses from the pharmaceutical company could reach the country within a period of five days.

Tesco Express, Farmfoods and ToolStation: three extremely useful stores to for your different needs.

If you’ve run out of formula for your baby at 10pm, you head for Tesco Express. If you want amazingly priced food for your family budget, you go to Farmfoods. And if you need tools for your job, or you want to channel your frustrations through a DIY project, ToolStation is where you go.

If you’re fed up of fumbling around on your phone and looking at out of date opening times, don’t worry. We’ve created a comprehensive list of the opening times (including Christmas opening hours) for Tesco Express, Farmfoods, and ToolStation. For many of us, Covid-19 has stretched our finances, and we’re more keen to save than ever. We’ve put together some tips and useful links for saving as much money as possible at each of these stores.

Let’s dive right in, and explore the opening times and available discounts at Tesco Express, Farmfoods and ToolStation.

What are the opening times for Tesco Express?

According to Opening Times, the opening times for Tesco Express are:

• Monday to Friday: 6am-11pm
• Saturday: 6am-11pm
• Sunday 6am-11pm

The opening times for Tesco Express over the festive period are, as a guide:

• Thursday 24th December: 6am – 10pm
• Friday 25th December: Closed
• Saturday 26th December: 8am – 10 pm
• Thursday 31st December: 6am – 10pm
• Friday 1st January: 8am – 10pm

(Always check your local Tesco Express store to confirm exact hours).

What should you buy at Tesco Express and not at FarmFoods?

Tesco Express is a smaller offshoot of a big Tesco superstore, meaning that it sells most of the things you need for life. There are some things you simply can’t get at Farmfoods, despite its wonderfully low priced frozen foods.

Run out of baby formula or nappies at 10:45 pm? You go to Tesco Express. Is your toddler screaming their head off because they lost their seventeenth dummy in two weeks? You go to Tesco Express. Do you need emergency batteries, a pair of tights, or menstrual pads? That’s right, you go to Tesco Express.

More importantly, you go to places like Tesco Express if you’ve got a splitting headache and need painkillers, of your child has a fever and you’ve run out of Calpol. With its 11pm closing hours and 6am opening times, Tesco Express is there for you in an emergency.

However, you should be aware that Tesco Express is likely to cost more than a main Tesco store, and a budget supermarket chain like Farmfoods. This is because Tesco Express is smaller, and less likely to sell the mainstream bargain foods that a bigger Tesco would.

Getting hold of reduced food at Tesco Express

That’s not to say that you can’t get any bargains at Tesco Express. In fact, Tesco Express is one of the best places to go if you want to get food that is reduced on the day. Holly Smith, a woman dubbed the “coupon queen” by the Daily Express, because she was able to bag her Christmas dinner for less than £5, suggests looking out for yellow ‘reduced’ labels at supermarkets like Tesco, especially on days like Christmas eve. Most supermarkets will close for the two days following Christmas eve, so you can get some huge discounts on items such as fruit, veg and fresh meat with the ‘use by’ dates of the 24th, 25th and 26th of December, as these have to be sold or removed from sale. You could even pick up a fresh turkey for a couple of pounds if you time it just right. According to Holly, you don’t even need to wait around by the reduced aisle, which is likely to be very busy. Simply look for fresh products with the relevant ‘use by’ dates and politely ask staff if what you have in your basket can be reduced. Nine times out of ten, they will reduce it on the spot.

Last minute shopping

Tesco Express is also the perfect store for those of us who do things at the last minute. Of course, no one means to end up buying their Christmas presents at 10:30 pm on Christmas Eve, or a birthday gift for their spouse the morning of, but life is busy and it ends up happening. Tesco Express is where you can grab anything from a warm pair of gloves to a nice perfume, depending on what promotions they have on.

Tesco also has a fantastic list of Christmas essentials that you can grab at Tesco Express stores. It’s especially useful, because we always seem to forget one thing that we need for Christmas.

Saving money at Tesco Express

If you’re planning on shopping at Tesco Express, make sure to use a Tesco Clubcard. Tesco has recently brought back their Clubcard Prices promotion, which offers Clubcard holders discounts of up to 50% on a large range of items. Although savings aren’t huge, if you’re shopping at Tesco anyway, it’s a no-brainer.

As well as cheaper prices, the Tesco Clubcard allows you to collect point, which are put onto vouchers. You can spend these vouchers in-store, from filling up petrol. They can go even further when you use them with Tesco’s reward partners, which include breakdown cover, and treats like days out and eating out.

To acknowledge the impact of Covid-19, Tesco Clubcard have extended their Clubcard vouchers for 6 months, updating expiry dates to customers have the chance to enjoy them.

What are the opening times for FarmFoods?

According to Opening Times, the opening times for FarmFoods are:

• Monday – Friday: 8am – 8pm
• Saturday: 8am – 7pm
• Sunday: 10am – 4pm

The opening times for FarmFoods over the festive period are:

• Thursday 24th December: 7am-6pm
• Friday 25th December: Closed
• Saturday 26th December: 10am-4pm
• Sunday 27th December: 10am-4pm
• Monday 28th December: 7am-8pm
• Tuesday 29th December: 7am-8pm
• Wednesday 30th December: 7am-8pm
• Thursday 31st December: 7am-8pm
• Friday 1st Jan: Closed

You can check the exact location of your local FarmFoods branch, using the Opening Times branch locator

What should you buy at Farmfoods and not at Tesco Express?

FarmFoods is the queen of affordable frozen foods, and you would certainly be better off buying most frozen items from here, rather than Tesco Express .

Rather than buying fresh fish or meat at Tesco express, you could save by buying these items frozen from FarmFoods.

For example, a 1kg pack of Farmfoods Frozen Chicken Breast fillets (£2.99) is less than 60% cheaper than the Tesco equivalent (£5.00).

Not only this, but Farmfoods frozen chicken breast fillets will stay fresh in your freezer for months, which allows you to save both time and money. The average UK family wastes around £13 of food a week, which is £13 you could put towards your other family needs by buying frozen food and ensuring it stays fresh in the freezer.

Farmfoods also came in cheaper than Tesco Express for basics such as bread and milk. An 800g loaf of own brand Farmfoods bread is fifty pence, whereas an 800g loaf of Tesco bread is fifty-nine pence.

Saving money at FarmFoods

Farmfoods doesn’t offer rewards on the same level as a Tesco Clubcard, but you may well balance this out by cheaper spends at FarmFoods. Farmfoods does offer a free savings card, which allows you to put money aside for your Farmfoods shop

Farmfoods will also send you special offers, discounts and exclusive deals if you sign up with them. You’ll also get up to 10% off in welcome vouchers when you join Farmfoods.

Why frozen food could be a better option for your family

Some people are put off by the idea of frozen food, but did you know that frozen vegetables actually retain more nutrients than fresh? This is because frozen vegetables are as fresh as the day that they were frozen, unlike vegetables which are left in a warehouse for several days, before being sold in-store. When you think of how often you’ve bought vegetables and they’ve rotted in the fridge because you forgot about them, frozen vegetables do seem like a really good option for saving money and avoiding waste.

Not only that, buying frozen food allows you to budget for a longer period of time, as you know everything will stay fresh. You could buy in bulk and plan your meals for two weeks, avoiding impulse buys at more expensive convenience stores. If you know exactly what you’re going to cook every night, and that it is fresh and available, you’re more likely to stick to your budget.

What are the opening times for Toolstation?

According to Opening Times, the opening times for ToolStation are:

• Monday to Friday: 7am – 7pm
• Saturday: 7am – 7pm
• Sunday: 9am – 4pm

The opening times for ToolStation over the festive period are:

• Thursday 24th December: 7am – 4pm
• Friday 25th December: Closed
• Saturday 26th December: Closed
• Sunday 27th December: 9am – 4pm
• Monday 28th December: 9am-5pm
• Tuesday 29th December: 7am – 8pm
• Wednesday 30th December: 7am – 8pm
• Thursday 31st December: 7am – 4pm
• Friday 1st January: 10am-4pm

You can check the exact opening times of your local ToolStation branch, using the Opening Times branch locator.

Getting the best deals at ToolStation

ToolStation is a real wonderland for all those DIY enthusiasts out there, as well as those who need to stock up on supplies for their trade or business. It’s also a good place for some last-minute, discounted Christmas presents. We’ve done some research and put together a list of some great deals at ToolStation, for this Christmas and beyond.

O’Keeffe’s Gift Pack Packs

£11.98 at ToolStation (Amazon price 14.99)

A range of moisturising products for extremely dry and cracked skin. O’Keefe’s say: “The highly-concentrated formulations have been developed to provide both instant relief and long-lasting results. And this multipack has everything you need”

Triton T80 Easi-Fit Electric Shower

£79.98 at ToolStation (was 139.98)

This electric shower is significantly reduced, and you can get it with free deliver from ToolStation.

Stanley Cushion Grip Screwdriver set 10pc

£18.10 at ToolStation (was 26.64)

Cushion grip set with slotted and Pozi screwdrivers in various sizes. Designed with magnetic tip, chrome plated bar, soft grip handle and smooth domed head. Tip identification on handle.

You can search more useful ToolStation deals at LatestDeals.co.uk, and check ToolStation’s clearance offers

How DIY helps your mental health

It’s been a difficult year for everyone with the Covid-19 pandemic, and many of us are anxious about the future. If we’ve been furloughed or unable to go in to the office for work at various point, we may have lost structure and purpose that was important. Finding a focused, creative project is a great way of keeping a routine going even when you’re stuck at home, and it can really boost your mental wellbeing.

Crafting and creating – even if it’s replacing the door handle on your bathroom with a different one, or painting your wood floorboards a glossy white to cheer them up – is proven to lower mental distress.

How DIY enhances your child’s development

Engaging in DIY projects with your kids is also fantastic for their healthy development. Most importantly, doing an activity together helps you bond with your child, as you are giving them your full attention, and the step-by-step process of the DIY gives them a soothing routine. We can buy our kids any toy in the world, but what they really want is our time.

DIY projects are fantastic for developing your child’s fine motor skills, neural development, problem solving, and concentration skills. Creative activities like DIY projects also help children express and process their emotions, as they learn to work through and overcome challenges in a task.

DIY projects also help develop your child’s basic mathematics and science skills, and instils an instinctive interest in these subjects as a natural part of the world and how we engage with it. Through DIY, they will discover new concepts and techniques, which will benefit them in their future studies. Children love to ask “why?”, and DIY projects are the perfect, practical activities to open up these questions and find answers.

DIY Projects for 2021

If you’re inspired to try some DIY projects, here’s just a few ideas to keep you busy in 2021.

Make your own spice rack

Got too many spice jars in your cupboards, and some scraps of wood lying around? This might be the perfect opportunity to create your own gorgeous spice rack! Even if you never really use the spices, it’ll look good and free up some space in your kitchen, which will itself help with your mental health.

Make a macrame plant hanger

Ideal Home has a great set of instructions for making your own macrame plant hanger out of cord. You can also pick up some discounted cord at ToolStation.

Paint your floorboards

If your floorboards are looking a bit grimy and grim, why not transform them with some paint? Painting your floorboards white can really cheer up the place, and make it look brighter. You can grab some discounted gloss paint (for the finishing coat) at ToolStation too.

We’ve now run through the opening hours for Tesco Express, Farmfoods and ToolStation and given you some tips on how to save money and make the best use of the products in each store. We hope you get to make the most of every discount, and have a great shopping experience.

Astronomers have long been after priceless prey . One that would allow them to study the Big Bang like never before, but that keeps slipping away, hidden in galaxies.

These are primordial magnetic fields, arising in the early Universe and which have the potential to provide an entirely new way of studying the first moments of creation. It’s a tough hunt, as those magnetic fields mix inextricably with those of the galaxies themselves, including our own. It is hard but not impossible.

Now, a team of researchers from the University of Cambridge has managed to take an important step on the path that leads to that detection. Their findings have just been published on ” Arxiv.org “. “We have not yet solved the puzzle,” says Sergio Martín Alvarez, the first author of the article, “but we are opening that door.”

Magnetic fields are believed to play an important role in star formation within galaxies. Our Milky Way, without going any further, is home to several different types of fields. Some, the best known, come from stellar explosions, others are generated by the activity of black holes.

But there could also be, mixed in with the rest, primordial magnetic fields, coming directly from the period of rapid cosmic inflation that took place just fractions of a second after the Big Bang.

Now, how do I find them? Until now, no one has been able to differentiate these ancient fields from the others, but Martín-Alvarez and his colleagues say they have found a way to do it.

To do this, the team of researchers made a model of a galaxy similar to the Milky Way that included both the primordial and the most recent magnetic fields. And they discovered that ancient fields seem to be able to survive in time, becoming practically immortal, and also becoming stronger and stronger, much more than previously thought.

“I was very surprised that they were able to survive,” says Martín-Alvarez. Now, to find them we have to look for things that telescopes can measure.

According to the study, primordial magnetic fields appear to be more concentrated towards the galactic center , while those from stars and black holes are more evenly distributed. The researchers believe they will soon be able to tell astronomers what exactly they should look for to locate them.

The implications of this work can be enormous . If the primordial magnetic fields in a galaxy can be measured, it would, in principle, be possible to measure the primordial magnetic field of the entire Universe. “Something,” says Martín-Alvarez, “that we didn’t think was possible.”

If these ancient magnetic fields were finally detected, it would be possible to understand the Universe much better , and at the same time give a new impetus to particle physics.

It is, in effect, a new cosmological window through which to observe the Big Bang, and also a new puzzle for Physics, since it would be necessary that in the primitive Universe there had been some kind of unusual event that is unknown today. allowed the creation of those magnetic fields so early.

Buy, reform and sell. Those three steps make up a real estate trend with which you can achieve up to 30% profitability by investing in old apartments.

The pandemic has impacted sales prices per square meter, but it has also led to savings that many are now trying to take advantage of by investing in housing. And, within the real estate market, renovating flats in poor condition with the intention of reselling them is a growing business that increasingly attracts the interest of more investors.

“Profitability shoots up when you buy a flat, renovate it and sell it. It is an upward strategy “, says Enric Jiménez, director of Property Buyers, a company that advises its clients to invest in the real estate market. According to the expert, the entire operation should last a maximum of six months and leave between 15 and 30% of gross profit margin.

“The strategy is to act as a small developer and give value to a property with a reform that lasts a couple of months,” says Jiménez, who warns that the most common is to obtain returns slightly higher than 15% gross .

“At least I am looking for a 30% to sell,” says Antonio Muñoz, a private investor who currently rents eleven renovated apartments in Madrid, Valencia and Barcelona. Its objective is to acquire two-bedroom homes in areas where couples of young professionals live with or without children.

Once he buys the property, Muñoz undertakes a reform of up to 40,000 euros to give it added value. “I put fiber optics, paint it, install plugs with a USB connection and even prepare an area to work,” he says.

Its objective is to rent at least 4% gross per year on the combined price of the purchase and the reform. However, the investor also considers disposing of their properties when an attractive offer appears.

In fact, it has sold three apartments already renovated to obtain liquidity and explore new opportunities.

“At Property Buyers we have been operating for ten years and we have never seen so much interest in investing in housing as now,” says Jiménez.

This situation is due to a post-lockdown context that mixes three factors: a high level of savings, lower prices per square meter, and a historical low-interest environment that allows mortgage credit to flow easily. At the end of November, the daily price of the Euribor hovered around the negative territory of -0.482%.

In the third quarter, the average price per square meter in Madrid was 2,856 euros, almost 6% less than the 3,033 in the first quarter , according to data from the real estate consultancy Tinsa.

Between the first and the third quarter, the price per m2 in Valladolid fell by 13.9%, in Pamplona by 11%, in Malaga by 8.1%, in Zaragoza by 7.9%, in Valencia by 6.6 %, in Seville 5.6%, in Barcelona 4.3% and in Bilbao 3%.

Meanwhile, household savings stood at a record 22.5% of disposable income at the end of the second quarter, according to the INE. “With the onset of the pandemic, there was a kind of technical stoppage and now we see a very lively market because the idea that prices have fallen drastically floats, although the reality is not so”, says the expert.

The second-hand market is broader than that of new construction. However, it is difficult to find used homes in large cities that are ready for resale without the need for renovation. This situation can be used by the investor to significantly increase the value of the property and turn it into a more liquid asset .

“Offering improved homes through renovations increases the possibilities of buying and selling”, says Andrea de la Hoz, senior consultant at Tinsa’s research service.

The expert focuses on trying to improve the energy efficiency of the property, an element that increasingly weighs more in the purchase decision.

“The value of a renovated home is increased by increasing its qualities and energy efficiency, the latter translates into savings in the medium and long term,” he comments on how one of the simplest improvements that can serve to differentiate the property of others.

“After several decades of use, the houses need to avoid becoming obsolete in the market,” he concludes.