General

The latest comScore report offers a rather curious: Spain, immersed in one of the most serious economic crisis of the environment and has never enjoyed an especially advanced in terms of technological development, leads the ranking of smartphone penetration in Europe.

The number of people with smartphone and tablet has increased by 70% in one year. In addition, the growth of tablet users has increased almost 11% in one year, exceeding 4 million users. When a Spanish goes to Europe, he meets a funny feeling to see how the majority of users in other countries carry terminals usually much older than yours: the absence of subsidies results in a park in which the renewal takes place much more slowly.

Behind the phenomenon are, first, the persistence of handset subsidies models in the competitive dynamics of the operators, much longer than in other countries, and secondly, the defendant " bandwagon effect "or classic herd behavior Spanish consumers. Typically, in a time when most operators now seem to be abandoning the policy of handset subsidies, would expect a gradual harmonization of the European market, although such developments usually takes some time to show.

Meanwhile, Spain, aided by the demonstration effect of being the country that hosts the already established Mobile World Congress, may be becoming a kind of test market for mobile technology: an email from a former student a few years ago told me how a great company of his country decided to launch its application in Spain and investing heavily in attracting users, precisely because the Spanish leadership in smartphone penetration in your environment, and the fact to be considered as a test market for Latin American countries certain aspects, such as communication policies. Obviously, a case can not be taken as indicative of a trend, but the arguments presented by my former pupil not without a sense.

The market sharing between the two main platforms in our country shows an increasing penetration of Android, which is now coming to a growing 60% versus 10% decreasing iOS, which gives our largest market homogeneity that exists in many other countries. In the United States , for example, iOS accounting for 39% and has grown almost three points from the previous year, while Android owns 52% with a decrease of 1.4% from last year. The cast has its consequences on development commitments: in Spain, prefer the Android segment can theoretically help get faster penetration, but it is a decision not without commitments: iOS segment demographic strata is representative of most purchasing power, traditionally identified with an affinity greater technology.

In any case, it is curious to see our country in a leadership position in this type of topics. And that comes in part from a competitive dynamic between operators, especially ...

The twins are essential to understanding the influence of heredity and environment in development. A study in mice has shown how the experience changes the brain. The animals, genetically identical, are born equal but soon become differentiated. It is the emergence of individuality.

Francis Galton coined the terms "nature and nurture" to explain the effects of heredity and environment . Since then the debate continues as fruitful.

For each trait of a living being, to what extent does the environment and to what extent genes influence? In the end things are clear: how good food we have, one can measure four meters. Likewise, if someone never hears about, not learn the language . We need a genetic endowment and environment in which develop.

Galton was also a pioneer in twin studies. If we can control one of the variables, we study the influence of the other. Two twins have identical genetic endowment. We can therefore attribute the differences between them to environmental factors.

Human twins are a fantastic source of information. Twins But other animals. Specifically, what are the strains of mice. If you have a strain of mice identical, we can rule out the effects of genetics. The strains of genetically identical mice have become an essential tool in the investigation. How do you get?

Cage design

The way to achieve a strain of genetically identical mice is crossing them with sister brother for generations. Over 20 generations of sib mating is achieved strain in which practically all genes are equal. When reaching the 150 crosses generations, are considered 100% homozygous. The mice were mated in real factories. , Over 450 strains of mice and 230 rats.

The first part of the development of a living being is independent of the activity. That is, the genes are expressed automatically. Reached a certain maturity, in the case of mammals even without being born, development is mediated by genes but also for the activity. That is, early on, the atmosphere begins to influence.

In this study , scientists placed a group of genetically identical mice in a cage with all sorts of attractions. The mice moved freely and could play with multiple toys. The mice had a radio frequency RFID tag so that all their movements were recorded.

Even in identical twins reared together, there is always observable differences that reflect the influence of individual responses. These differences are manifested in brain neuron development.

40 identical mice reared together showed behaviors that were diverging over time. Some more than others explored. There is an area of the brain called the hippocampus where new neurons in adult form, called neurogenesis. The results showed that mice had greater more active neurogenesis.

Although a common environment and identical genes, mice showed highly individualized behavior patterns, reacting to its environment differently.

These differences were associated with differences in the generation of new neurons in the hippocampus, a brain region that supports learning and memory.

The results suggest that the experience influences aging of the human mind, that an enriched environment promotes the development of individuality

These results are consistent with those of the famous study of taxi drivers in London have to know all the streets of his city, taxi drivers have a larger hippocampus than usual.

Maybe someday we finish solving the equation heritage-friendly. The use of twins is an essential tool.

The iOS version of Bang With Friends has been removed from the Apple App Store and thus, for now you can download. The Cupertino still have not provided the reasons for the withdrawal from the service and have said they will work to resolve the problems.

Just a week ago, my partner Asier talked about Bang With Friends , a service quite explicit name that was available through Facebook and as an application for iOS and Android dispostivos on to confess how Facebook contacts would be willing to have a loving foreplay. The mobile client is launched, just last week, and without much explanation , this disappearing over iOS: Apple has withdrawn Bang With Friends from the App Store.

And what is the reason for the recall? Why Apple has withdrawn Bang With Friends from the App Store? Just 10 days is the time that has elapsed since Bang With Friends came to the Apple App Store until it has been withdrawn by the Cupertino (and that the application has already been reviewed in its time and was given the green light for publication) . the reason that has led to this situation, really, is not yet known but such cases are not new and previously, have withdrawn applications that do not meet the standards set by Apple.

Indeed, with the idea of saving some obstacles, the application reached the App Store under the name of BWF to avoid using Bang With Friends but from the service are not yet able to explain the reasons beyond saying that work by solving any problem and restore the application in the App Store as soon as possible.

So what? Did Apple has realized what the application is and has retracted his decision? As I mentioned, Apple has not said anything about it and, for now, only from BWF have been the only ones to comment on this news but, although the name of the application to be so explicit, this in the background is very simple and innocuous merely married a couple of profiles that have recorded some interest in each other in the application. It would therefore be strange to think that using the word bang is the trigger but the truth is that it is better to wait until things are clarified.