Without drinking water and with about 40 degrees in the shade. It is not a town in the African desert. They are the inhabitants of 160 towns in the northwest of Salamanca and the south of Zamora who have been like this for almost three weeks, when they received the notice that the water coming out of the tap was contaminated with pesticides.

Twice a week, without fixed days, a tanker truck arrives at the fronton of Saldeana, one of the affected towns. And around him several neighbors with carafes are concentrated.

Resigned, they tell how they live these days, with a population tripling, due to their children, grandson and nephews who come from Bilbao, San Sebastián, Madrid, Barcelona or Salamanca capital to spend a few days in town.. More people than ever and hotter than ever, too. And with tap water not suitable for human consumption.

The number of neighbors affected? Well, although there is no official calculation, taking into account the census and the increase experienced by these populations in summer, the figure between the two provinces can reach around 50,000 people.

Álvaro Vega opens the family bar on these dates. When she found out that she had to prepare the coffees and make the ice in the machine using the water from carafes, “she almost gave me something,” she confesses.

It is not for less. The whole daily routine gets very complicated and it is not easy to get used to. Aitor Apraiz, his wife, Irma García, with their three children, their parents and his brother's family spend three weeks of their vacation here, like every year, and they admit that they have had to throw away the food, already made, in more of an occasion.

“I put the lentils to soak the day before and then I cooked them with the tap water, without realizing it. So, when I fell, well I threw them all away. You're not going to risk it…”, says Apraiz, a cook by profession and in charge of helping his mother-in-law prepare meals in the summer.

Well no, you're not going to risk it. Although from the health center they give a message of tranquility. “For this water to affect health, continuous and long-term consumption is needed. In addition, with levels of contamination much higher than those we have at the moment. And, in any case, the manifestations in health would be in the very long term,” replies the doctor who consults in the towns of the area once a week and prefers not to appear with his name.

The origin of the water contamination is in the pesticides that are used in the agricultural exploitations that reach the flow of the Tormes river due to the drag effect of the rain.. The problem has been detected in the La Almendra reservoir on the Tormes, which is located between the municipalities of Salamanca and Zamora.

All the towns of the Cabeza de Horno commonwealth drink from the waters of the reservoir and from there came the health alert, which reached the mayors of the affected charro municipalities.

The statement signed by the president of the Commonwealth of Cabeza de Horno on July 20 warned that the value registered in the water for pesticides was 0.062 micrograms per liter, above the 0.5 micrograms per liter allowed and, much higher at 0.03 that is established for the herbicide metolachlor.

In addition, in the same statement, they acknowledge that despite the adoption of preventive and special measures at the Drinking Water Treatment Station (ETAP) “they have not been able to correct the incident” in its entirety. And it is that at the beginning of this year a royal decree came into force that revised the presence of metolachlor admitted in water for human consumption, which fell from 0.1 micrograms per liter to the current 0.03 micrograms/l, as a ceiling.

Julia doesn't understand anything about metolachlor, but she does understand bread and sweets. He has been “all his life” in charge of the bakery and hostel in Aldeadávila de la Ribera, another town with contaminated water. She is 80 years old and this story brings back distant memories to her. Or not so far.

“What if I remember when there was no running water!? Of course, how can I not remember. We had to go wash at the well, so yeah. Life has changed a lot in 30 or 20 years.”

So this setback in the comforts assumed in your business translates into “a lot of work, a lot more work.”

“Now, we go with the car full of 25-liter canteens to a pillar where water runs and is good. The pharmacists here have analyzed it and they have told us that yes, we can use it. and so we are. They already say that there is little left, that things are going very well,” says Julia.

Recent water measurements give residents of the affected municipalities cause for hope. The problem is close to being solved, because metolachlor levels have dropped to 0.035 micrograms per liter, close to 0.03, which is the permitted limit.

The water cistern arrives at Saldeana. A quarter of an hour has been advanced, but people are already waiting with their bottles. Some bring them in wheelbarrows, others in the trunk of the car. It's eleven in the morning on a Friday. There are people, yes. For a town with less than a hundred registered inhabitants, this is a festival.

“When does it come back here again?”, the neighbors ask Francisco Sistiaga, the driver of the truck that bears the sign of the Fire Department and the Salamanca County Council, who are the ones that provide this service.

In three or four days he will return with the 28,000 books from his tanker truck, which started at seven in the morning and with which he hopes to travel between eight and ten towns. “I do about 200 kilometers a day. Anything”. He usually ends at five or six in the afternoon, “with the cool,” he says ironically.

While the neighbors make quick and wet relays to place their bottles on the truck's taps, Sistiaga is concerned about how the journalist is going to headline this information.. *”Pon, the tails of the water. That would be a good title,” the man suggests (and we listen).. It has been three weeks providing water for drinking and cooking to the villages in this corner of the province of Salamanca.

With less humor is Pedro Martín Casado, mayor of Saldeana. The situation is prolonging and the mayor has his neighbors in mind, especially vacationers. “They pay for the water service all year round and now, when they come to town to enjoy their vacations, they can't use it.”

He also wants a 2,000-liter mobile deposit to be installed in the town “that the Provincial Council has placed in neighboring municipalities, such as Barruecopardo,” says Martín Casado. And if, in addition, they informed him better and in a more timely manner on how the water measurements are evolving, then he could better understand what is happening and explain it better to his neighbors, as he confesses.

He has tried with letters to those responsible, in Cabeza de Horno, but they come to tell him that they do not know more than what he tells him. Thus, he has to settle for the “one day to the next” notice of the arrival of the tanker truck in Saldeana. He is also confident that the situation will return to normal in a short time.

But, let no one feel sorry for the residents of Saldeana and its surroundings. There is no drinking tap water, but at night you can sleep, because it refreshes. Although the last heat wave has held the thermometers above 20 degrees longer than usual once the sun has set, in the end, the degrees fall below that minimum threshold to reach a restful rest.

The pleasant weather is noticeable every night on the terrace of Álvaro's bar, where he debates passionately about the trifles of a life without drinking water. And it is that there is a question that has divided the town: brushing the teeth with tap water or with water from the carafe.

“Overall, if you're going to spit it out,” say some. “Yeah, but you have part of it,” respond others. Everyone, of course, while they drink their beer, because you can't drink it like water…. And there is no discussion there.

2023 is an excellent year to observe the Perseids because, during the maximum, the Moon will be in the new moon phase and it will not be an impediment. The best time to observe them is at dawn from Saturday 12 to Sunday 13 August, but since the end of July they have been able to see some. We just need a place protected from artificial light, a cloudless sky and a little patience.

HOW TO OBSERVE THE PERSEIDS

This month of August will be very favorable for the observation of the Perseids since its maximum occurs very close to the new moon (which will take place on the 16th).. Therefore, contrary to what happened last year, this time the moonlight will not be an impediment to see shooting stars.

The radiant of the Perseids OAN (IGN)

The number of Perseids observable per hour is highly variable.. In a very dark place and with the radiant high above the horizon, it can exceed a hundred. However, the number of meteors observed per hour can vary very rapidly as the density of rock fragments varies in the area of space traversed by the Earth, therefore concrete predictions about a specific number of meteors depending on the day and time are difficult to obtain. perform and are usually affected by high uncertainty.

WHEN IS THE BEST TIME TO SEE THE RAIN OF STARS

The highest activity of the Perseids (measured in number of meteors per hour) will be reached at dawn from Saturday 12 to Sunday 13 August. The best times to see the most and brightest meteors are from dusk until 3 or 4 in the morning. It is when the edge of the waning Moon has not yet risen and when the constellation of Perseus is already high on the horizon.

Although the radiant of this shower of stars is in the constellation of Perseus, it is not necessary to know the constellations, nor is it essential to look towards Perseus, to see the Perseids. Shooting stars can appear anywhere on the celestial vault, although they all seem to come from that point called the radiant.

Perseids have been seen from July 23 to August 22, approximately, but it must be taken into account that the full moon took place on August 1, so the last days of July and the first days of August were not especially favorable for your observation. Until the 22nd, there will be the best conditions to observe a greater number of meteors.

From where to see the Perseids

The number of observable meteors per hour looking towards the zenith may exceed one hundred, under optimal conditions, that is, observing on the nights of maximum activity, with the constellation of Perseus high above the horizon, without a moon, without clouds and without Light pollution. In other not so ideal conditions, the location of the observer is what determines, to a large extent, the number of meteors observed: it is always preferable to monitor the area that is clearest of clouds and the one freest from light pollution.

The fact is that, with each passing day, it is more and more difficult to find very dark places and almost all peninsular observers will be located in areas with appreciable light pollution.. It is therefore convenient to get as far away from the cities as possible because their lights pollute the sky up to hundreds of kilometers away.. Therefore, from a reasonably dark place on the Peninsula, we should not expect to see more than a couple of dozen meteors per hour.

WHAT ARE SHOOTING STARS

First of all: shooting stars are not stars. They are particles or small fragments lost by comets. Indeed, as comets describe their orbits around the Sun, they spew into space a trail of gases, dust, and debris (rocky materials) that remains in an orbit very similar to that of the parent comet.

Each periodic comet, throughout its repeated orbits around the Sun, thus forms a ring in which innumerable fragments are found.. When the Earth, in its orbital motion, encounters one of these rings, some of the rocky fragments (meteoroids) are caught by its gravitational field and fall at high speed through the atmosphere, forming a meteor shower.. Friction with atmospheric gases calcines and vaporizes meteors that appear bright for a fraction of a second, forming what we popularly call shooting stars.

The Perseids occur when the Earth reaches the trail left by the Swift-Tuttle Sky&Telescope/RB

The height at which a meteor becomes bright depends on the speed of penetration into the atmosphere, but it is usually around 100 kilometers. However, the high brightness and the great transverse speed of some meteors cause a spectacular effect, causing the illusion in the observer that they are very close.. Meteoroids with a mass of less than a kilogram are completely calcined in the atmosphere, but the largest and most dense (rocky or metallic consistency) form meteorites: calcined remains that fall to the ground.

ALSO INTERESTING

This Perseid meteor shower is created when, as every year around this time, the Earth, on its path of translation around the Sun, crosses an area populated by the rocky fragments thrown by the periodic comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle when visiting this region every 133 years.

The Perseids were particularly active in 1992, the year Comet Swift-Tuttle passed close to the Sun.. The next approach of the comet to the Sun (perihelion) will be in the year 2126.

The Perseids are visible from the entire northern hemisphere in high summer. The speeds of these meteors can exceed 50 kilometers per second (180,000 kilometers per hour).. Their high activity, together with favorable weather conditions for viewing during the boreal summer, make the Perseids the most easily observable and the most popular meteor shower.

In order of importance of their activity, on average, the Perseids constitute the third meteor shower that occurs in the year. Both the Quadrantids (visible in January) and the Geminids (in December) tend to generate more meteors per hour.. Although they show a more irregular behavior, the Leonids (in mid-November) are usually as spectacular as the Perseids.

Due to the proximity of the maximum of this meteor shower to August 10, the feast day of the Spanish martyr who was burned on a grill in Rome in the year 258, the Perseids are also called 'Tears of Saint Lawrence'.

Rafael Bachiller is director of the National Astronomical Observatory (National Geographic Institute) and academic of the Royal Academy of Doctors of Spain.

The James Webb Space Telescope has followed Hubble's observations of the most distant star detected in the very distant universe, in the first billion years after the Big Bang.

Webb's NIRCam (Near Infrared Camera) instrument reveals that the star Earendel, discovered by Hubble in 2022, is a massive B-type star, more than twice as hot as our Sun, and about a million times more luminous.

Earendel is located in the Arc of Dawn galaxy and is only detectable due to the combined power of human technology and nature through an effect called gravitational lensing.. Both Hubble and Webb were able to detect Earendel due to its lucky alignment behind a ripple in space-time created by the huge galaxy cluster WHL0137-08.

The galaxy cluster, located between us and Eärendel, is so massive that it warps the fabric of space itself, producing a magnifying effect, allowing astronomers to peer through the cluster like a magnifying glass, NASA reports.

While other features in the galaxy appear multiple times due to gravitational lensing, Earendel only appears as a single point of light, even in Webb's high-resolution infrared images.. Based on this, astronomers determine that the object is magnified by a factor of at least 4,000 and therefore extremely small: the most distant star ever detected, observed 1 billion years after the Big Bang.

The previous record holder for the most distant star was detected by Hubble and observed around 4 billion years after the Big Bang.. The astronomers did not expect Webb to reveal any companions to Eärendel, as they would be close together and indistinguishable in the sky.

However, based solely on Eärendel's colors, astronomers believe they see hints of a cooler, redder companion star.. This light has been stretched by the expansion of the universe to longer wavelengths than Hubble's instruments can detect, so it was only detectable with Webb.

Webb's NIRCam also shows other remarkable details in the Arc of Dawn, which is the largest galaxy yet detected in the first billion years of the universe.. Features include young star-forming regions and older established star clusters as small as 10 light-years across.

On either side of the wrinkle at maximum magnification, which runs through Earendel, these features are reflected in the gravitational lens distortion. The star-forming region appears elongated and is estimated to be less than 5 million years old.

The smaller dots on either side of Eärendel are two images of an older, more established star cluster, estimated to be at least 10 million years old.. Astronomers determined that this star cluster is gravitationally bound and is likely to persist to this day.. This shows us what the globular clusters of our own Milky Way might have looked like when they formed 13 billion years ago.

The astronomers are currently analyzing data from Webb's NIRSpec (Near-Infrared Spectrograph) instrument observations of the Dawnbow and Earendel galaxy, which will provide precise composition and distance measurements for the galaxy.

Since Hubble's discovery of Earendel, Webb has detected other very distant stars using this technique, though none as far away as Earendel.. The discoveries have opened up a new realm of the universe for stellar physics and a new subject for scientists studying the early universe, where galaxies were once the smallest detectable cosmic objects. The research team is hopeful that this could be a step towards the eventual detection of one of the first generations of stars, composed solely of the raw ingredients of the universe created in the big bang: hydrogen and helium.

First days of vacation, sun and…. a cold sore.

How do you come into contact with the herpes virus?

“The first contact with the culprit of this infection, which in most cases is the herpes simplex virus 1 (Hsv1), occurs at a young age.. Young children are infected by adults who kiss them, unaware that they are about to have cold sores or recovering from a recent relapse,” explains Stefano Veraldi, professor of the Clinical Dermatology course at the University of Milan Bicocca.

“After primary infection, generally asymptomatic in children, the virus “retreats” to the nerve ganglia closest to the site of infection, where it remains latent.. Occasionally, it can reappear and give rise to relapses that manifest in the so-called “fever of the lips”, that is, cold sores,” adds Veraldi..

Is it contagious?

“The time frame in which the virus can be transmitted is short because, once the vesicles appear, the virus immediately returns to the nerve ganglia,” says Professor Veraldi, “contagion can only occur when the virus is replicating active, through direct contact with the serum of the vesicles on the skin or mucous membranes. In addition, it is only possible to infect individuals who have not yet had contact with the virus, generally children, especially the youngest, between 3 months and 3 years of age'.

What favors relapses

“A small deficit in the immune defenses is enough for the virus to reactivate. It can occur in moments of stress, for example after a trip, a flu, and at this time especially after excessive exposure to sunlight”, says the professor.

How it manifests itself: symptoms

“Almost everyone has been in contact with the herpes simplex virus 1, but only a few people get cold sores, which appear mostly on or around the lips,” explains Veraldi..

“The first warning sign is a sensation of tingling and discomfort in the lips. In general, if they are not touched and inadequate creams are not applied, in a few days these two lesions tend to dry out with the formation of scabs.. When they fall off, the skin goes back to the way it was before, without marks or scars,” he adds..

“As for children, although the primary infection does not usually give striking symptoms, sometimes a herpetic stomatitis can appear, with small ulcers, especially on the gums, which can be accompanied by fever, swollen gums, irritability, increased lymph node size and loss of appetite,” he says.

cold sore treatment

“Cold sores usually heal on their own a week after the appearance of the blisters,” explains the expert.

“To speed up healing, products that help dry out the lesions are sometimes used, such as astringent gels or antiviral creams, which are only useful if they are used at the first symptoms.. Healing times can be prolonged if inappropriate creams or home remedies are used, making the situation worse. People who often have recurrences are sometimes offered preventive treatment with antivirals. A rare complication is bacterial superinfection of the blisters, which requires specific antibiotic treatment,” he concludes.