Today I'm talking about the Geological Museum of the Barcelona Seminary, a treasure located in the center of Barcelona. It is little known. I myself was unaware of it. And this is despite having visited a lot of museum centers in the country. In some texts you will read that it was born in 1874. No, that is not correct. Its seed was sown much earlier: in 1818. It was an initiative of Bishop Fèlix Torres Amat, who wanted the natural sciences taught in seminaries and religious schools to be explained with plants, animals, fossils... That first center had an original title: Museum of ancient and precious things from the same province. It was located in the Seminary building which was on the Rambla dels Estudis. It was a natural history cabinet, made up of donations from collectors and more modest contributions from students, seminarians, and missionaries. Yes, it was common here, and in other parts of Europe, for missionaries to become infatuated with some piece from the land where they preached, be it masks, fabrics, necklaces, musical instruments. And they would take it without hesitation, as if it were a free souvenir.The biologist Joan Barrull, curator of vertebrates at this museum, is in charge of managing the collection and the exhibition hall. He also offers guided tours there. Barrull has set up an interesting replica of a small natural history cabinet, made from a mishmash of pieces that have no relation to each other, as was the case in the early days of the museum. The pieces were stored in different corners of the center and were completely undocumented. Variety is one of the essential elements of any collector's cabinet, and this one is no exception. Thus, we find a plastic gorilla, a stuffed squirrel, a coconut crab, a giant clam that was used as a baptismal font... There are also glass jars with animals insidea liquid that must be formaldehyde or alcohol: a salamander, a newt, a loach, a snake... "I've tried to open the lid of these jars, but I can't; the years have hardened the screw," Joan Barrull explains to me. "Our museum started out very eclectic. Like the Darder Museum in Banyoles and many other natural history museums", he says. He uses the our because he feels it is his own: he dedicates a lot of hours and passion to it. Later, under the leadership of Father Jaume Almera – you see this is about religious figures – the museum turned towards paleontology. Almera was a great defender of experimental science. Explaining the lesson was not enough for him: it was necessary to go out into the field and collect samples. Furthermore, he created the geological map of the province of Barcelona and collected numerous fossils.Enric Aragonès, a scientific collaborator of the museum, also accompanies me, who explains to me that during the civil war some "unknown people" threw practically all the pieces out the window. During the war conflict, a marble bust of the prestigious doctor and geologist Carles de Gimbernat was also lost. Mostly the library, everything was destroyed. The religious character of the institution had something to do with it. And, of course, the museum had to start all over again.In the museum there are pieces to entertain for hours and hours. We find fossils from the Alcover and Mont-ral site, an almost complete sirenian from Montserrat, an enormous mastodon from Polinyà... and many fossils and ichnofossils (footprints left by organisms that have fossilized). The jewel of the room is a cabinet full of holotypes (unique and original specimens, which serve as a reference to name a new species).which serve as a reference to name a new species).We enter the reserve areas, where books and various curious pieces are kept. I am surprised to see a fisherman's handle in a room crowded with publications. And a whole human skeleton. Well preserved, and standing upright, inside a closet all to himself.The museum is very strict when accepting donations. Francesc Carrasco, deputy director, a specialist in sea urchins from the Eocene epoch, tells me: "If someone brings me a fossil and says 'I've never seen this!; it's not enough to accept it.' They must be paleontologists specialized in each field." And the date and place where each item was collected must be known. "Four directors have passed through," Francesc Carrasco tells me. "In so many years? That's few, right?" I say. "It's because they are lifetime positions," he replies. And he recites them like someone saying a team's lineup: "Almera, Batallé, Via, and Calzada." Now Calzada is very old and hardly comes. Will the new director be Francesc Carrasco? That is decided by the archbishop of Barcelona (after consultation)."As I leave the museum, I notice a sign that says: "Reverse box". Yes, this is a very original museum, in that regard too. At the end of the visit, depending on your degree of satisfaction, you pay what you want. The system is already quite common in plays. But I had never seen it in a museum. The sign is also in English. I didn't know it's called Honor box. It is a great honor that we have this museum in Catalonia.A building by Elies RogentTo access the Geological Museum, you must pass through some of the corridors of the building that houses the Seminary of Barcelona, the Conciliar, because it is the fruit of the Council of Trent (1545-1564), where the creation of seminaries for the training of priests was established. Today there are fewer aspiring priests than in previous years. But they are well cared for. Walking around, I see a ping-pong table. It is a good resource for spending leisure hours. The Seminary building, where the Museum of Geology has been located since the end of the 19th century, was designed by the prestigious architect Elies Rogent, author of the main building of the neighboring University of Barcelona.

"Antarctica is a good sentinel of climate change", says Rafel Simó, a researcher at the Institute of Marine Sciences (CSIC), who has been to this virgin, fragile, and silent area of the planet several times to conduct research with the Hespérides, a ship managed and crewed by the Spanish Navy. –Wouldn't it be logical for a research institution to do it?–. "And it shows that climate change is accelerating", he assures. "It is also a window into the past climate: deep continental ice contains trapped bubbles from the atmosphere of the last million years", he emphasizes. «In Antarctica there is practically no green, but there is a lot of life. It is marine life. It may seem a paradox that in such a hostile place there is great biodiversity», says Rafel. When we think of the animals of this remote continent, we immediately get the image of penguins, but there are many more: orcas, whales, seals... and an infinity of fish, all of them fed by microscopic plankton. "It is beautiful to see how life adapts to an extreme environment", says Simó, who knows the Juan Carlos I Antarctic Base very well. –And why isn't it named after Josefina Castellví, who directed it? Simó highlights some positive things that are happening in this far south: the Antarctic Treaty, an international agreement signed in 1959 that establishes that Antarctica must be used only for peaceful purposes and scientific research. –"It's a geopolitical miracle in the midst of the Cold War", he says– and that some of the data collected are hopeful, such as those that say the ozone layer hole is closing.As soon as I enter CosmoCaixa, I head to the space dedicated to Josefina Castellví (1935-2026) and research in Antarctica. There is the module-laboratory where Castellví worked, and many others, including Antoni Ballester, the driving force behind the base. I see a lot of equipment that is noticeably old –— I don't like the word 'antiquated'. Most are for microbiology, to analyze the chemical composition of water and its organisms.The director of CosmoCaixa, Valentí Farràs from Cardona, former director of CaixaForum Barcelona, accompanies me. He explains to me that after it fell into disuse, this laboratory –a container made in Tarragona– was repatriated: yes, it made a round trip to Catalonia, and CosmoCaixa "welcomed" it.Before showing me how the origin of the universe is explained here, Valentí indicates the origin of this museum that opened its doors in 1980. "First we opened it to schools and universities for them to test it," he explains. In the beginning it was called the Science Museum of the Social Work “la Caixa”. It occupied a building from the early 20th century, by Josep Domènech i Estapà –some called him, with malice, "Domenech the bad", in contrast to Domènech i Montaner–, which had housed a shelter for blind women, characterized by an innovative pedagogy. Later it became the Science Museum and since 2004, after a major expansion, CosmoCaixa. Today it is a giant of scientific dissemination for all ages, a must-visit. It is a museum to go to for a few days because in one "you won't finish it". "Hold on!", says one girl to another. They are playing at trying to hold their palms out for as long as possible on a large block of ice. Next to them, one of water's curiosities is explained: its three states –solid, liquid and gaseous– can coexist simultaneously at 0.01 degrees. Not so in Antarctica, where water freezes below zero degrees (approximately -1.8 °C) because it is salty.Another curiosity about water that catches my attention is shown in an experiment. We approach it and an educator says to a series of students: "See? Water is not continuous." There is a stream of water that forms a bridge and is illuminated with stroboscopic light, which allows it to be seen broken down into drops.We enter the so-called flooded forest. It is hot, 26 °C and 80% humidity and it's raining –it's rather drizzling– every quarter of an hour. Of course: we are "in" the Amazon rainforest, specifically in the Santarém region. I watch an anaconda move slowly. "It eats two rabbits every fifteen days. It's a slow-digesting animal," says Valentí. Suddenly, my host looks at his mobile. It's not that he wants to ignore me. He wants to show me the number of people visiting the museum. It's a "tracker" that is constantly updating. "There are 1,410 people." It's more or less as if the entire population of Puigverd de Lleida –even very old people, who only leave the house occasionally–, were attending CosmoCaixa.I stop in front of a fossilized skeleton of a woolly mammoth, of considerable size. They made good use of many things from the mammoth: the skin for clothing, the body for food or for making tools. "If they explain it to you, you remember it; if you experience it, you learn it. This is the basis of CosmoCaixa," remarks Valentí. "Accompanied by educators, knowledge is consolidated," he adds as I review the names of great female researchers that fill a wall. The first, Hypatia of Alexandria, philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician (4th century AD). Of course, Josefina Castellví is not missing.

Next to the Portal de Porrera, formerly the only carriage access to the now-disappeared medieval walled enclosure, there is a beautiful sundial. It is the largest in the town and one of the largest in Catalonia. One of its curiosities is this text: "You who are looking at me pay good attention to what I tell you, this has great meaning (...), if you don't understand what I say you will go to Salamanca". It refers to the University of Salamanca. Back then (19th century) it was quite far from here!

A good way to grieve is to gather memories. When, a few months ago, my father, an architect, died, rummaging through documents, I learned that the lineage of architects who preceded him was much more extensive – and notable – than was said at home.The lineage has ended (for now). None of the seven siblings have dedicated themselves to architecture. The industrial engineers lineage on my mother's side (Cornet) has also become extinct, one of whom directed the Maquinista Terrestre i Marítima.Among the buildings preserved from the lineage of architects of my father, Vil·la Urània stands out, the work of my great-grandfather Magí Rius (grandfather of my grandfather, Magí Romaní Rius). Magí Rius Mulet built it when he was thirty years old. He had not yet reached his professional peak.Vil·la Urània is one of the oldest and most beautiful houses in the Barcelona neighborhood of Farró. It is single-story and slightly elevated (to access it, you have to climb eight steps), which gives it a temple-like air. It has a few ornamental details in the neoclassical style. It was built in 1868 – the year of the Glorious Revolution–, precisely the date on which Josep Comas i Solà was born: I will tell you about it now. The house was commissioned to Magí Rius, Comas i Solà's father, but he lived there for a short time because he died young. His son, the astronomer, inherited it and named it Vil·la Urània, in honor of the muse of astronomy. He lived there until his death, in 1937.I visit Vil·la Urània accompanied by Ricard Martínez, a great astronomy enthusiast, who presided over Aster, Barcelona Astronomical Association, for a few years. "As a child, Comas i Solà already looked at the sky. His hobby became his profession. He did good work on the planets Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars (he thought he had observed a volcanic eruption on Mars; we now know it was a dust storm). He had an enormous capacity for work. He took many photographs, and where photography couldn't reach, he made drawings," says Ricard. And he adds, with a smile: "There are astronomers who have been terrible drawers"."He was very keen on looking through the telescope from the roof of this house, where he spent hours and hours. He made several discoveries: eleven asteroids – including Hispània – two comets...", details Ricard, while we have a coffee at Vil·la Urània. It is now a café-restaurant. "He had a great capacity for communication. He gave many lectures and often appeared on the radio. Before graduating in physical-mathematical sciences, he was already collaborating with La Vanguardia –l’ARA did not exist yet–. He wrote for the Godó newspaper regularly throughout his life. He also published articles in numerous foreign magazines. And he promoted the so-called Festes del Sol (Sun Festivals), which have been revived at Vil·la Urània."

I suppose the miller's mill, in Balaguer, was called that because the person who operated it was left-handed. And I suppose that when he went to school, as a child – if he went at all – the teachers must have wanted to correct his "anomaly", without success.

Today I visit the science place closest to my home. And despite that, I had never set foot there. It is located on Carrer de la Llum – yes, they have given it a tailor-made name – in Cerdanyola del Vallès, bordering Sant Cugat, where I have lived for many years.

The traffic light we are waiting to turn green contains LED lights made with rare earths. When we call dad or waste time watching videos on social networks of boys falling –and getting hurt, but in the background you can hear people laughing, without any empathy– we use a mobile phone that is made, in part, of rare earths. When we have an X-ray, rare earths are involved and save thousands of photographic films. If we need to have prostate surgery, the laser (thanks to rare earths) does the job.What are rare earths, however? They are a series of chemical elements essential for today's technology. "They belong to the group of critical minerals, the market of which is mainly controlled by China. They have high economic interest and are in a situation of supply risk," explains the curator and former director of the Museum of Geology Valentí Masachs, Joaquim Sanz. "The first rare earth element to be discovered was yttrium, in the 18th century, and the last, promethium, in 1945. Before, all minerals were called earths and these chemical elements rare earths because their usefulness was not known and they rarely appear concentrated in deposits, which complicates their exploitation," emphasizes Joaquim. Now we do know what they are for. And they have so many uses! So, they are neither earths nor rare.This is one of the many things learned in this magnificent geology museum located at the Escola Politècnica Superior d’Enginyeria de Manresa. It is the UPC's geology museum. Students and professors of the degree in mineral resources engineering and their recycling are fully involved. They conduct workshops and guide school visits, and exhibit the results of their research.Pedagogy is part of the essence of the museum. Professors who bring students there, from 5 years old to university age, find it easy. Worksheets also help –for different ages– which are available to everyone at www.geomuseu.upc.edu."If the consumption of non-renewable resources continues to grow indefinitely, these resources will run out, and future generations will have nothing profitable left on Earth," states David Parcerisa, a doctor of geology and museum curator. "We need to investigate how to improve the recycling rate of minerals. For example, copper, whose recycling is not 100% efficient, and we still need to extract it. Copper is used to make electric cables that light bulbs, for our car to run... It's one of the most prized metals, also by thieves and the military industry (bullets are made from it)," says Joaquim Sanz when we are in front of radioactive minerals –uranium, thorium, and radium. They are found inside a display case protected to prevent them from being exposed to radiation. On the other hand, you can touch a meteorite the size of a hand. It is the so-called Toluca meteorite; it was found in this locality in Mexico. David invites me to bring a magnet close to it. And it certainly attracts it! This meteorite is 93% iron.The most successful room in the museum is tiny. It has two display cases where a few minerals, rocks, and fossils are exhibited. I press a switch and the samples appear illuminated, thanks to a long-wave ultraviolet lamp that I just turned on. Of course, they are fluorescent minerals. The calcite from Franklin, for example, is dressed in a reddish hue.Next I press another button and... How beautiful! The Mexican calcite takes on an intense pink color thanks to the short-wave ultraviolet light I have turned on. And when I turn it off, the light continues to be seen for a few seconds. It is phosphorescent.At the museum, also find minerals that have fallen into disuse. For example, mercury, which was once the king of thermometers. It is prohibited to use it due to its toxicity. "If it is thrown into the sea, the fish –who don't know it's toxic– they eat it, of course. And we, by eating fish, ingest small doses of mercury," says Nor Sidki Rius, a mining engineer and curator of mineralogy at the museum, who also accompanies me.The museum is not just about minerals. It is also about paleontology, which is actually also a discipline of stones: fossils. The most spectacular element in this area is a large fossilized mammoth tusk. "This tusk was discovered in 1957 during quarrying work on the Manresa hill of Puigberenguer. The extraction work was carried out by Valentí Masachs, a geologist recognized who years later would make this museum a reality and would be its first director", explains Josep Biosca, curator of paleontology. I leave the museum enriched with a few experiences, such as having seen the difference between phosphorescence and fluorescence. Don't miss the opportunity to visit it; it's very different from classic geology museums!Beyond the exhibition halls

The activity of the Valentí Masachs Geology Museum goes beyond the exhibition halls. It organizes visits where geology is the protagonist, not only in the field but also in the city of Manresa itself. The museum has designed an itinerary that allows you to know what rocks some of the building facades in Manresa are made of; it explains what type of stone they are (sedimentary, magmatic...), their origin... Some even have fossils embedded in them (in the limestones of Sant Vicenç de Castellet). Some come from Finland or Brazil. In addition, many school visits combine a visit to this museum with other visits, such as the Manresa Museum of Water and Textiles, the Can Font Water Centre, or the Cardona salt mines.

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It makes perfect sense to dedicate a chapter ofA country of science at the Casa de Convalescència of the Hospital de la Santa Creu, located in the Raval, a stone's throw from the headquarters of ARA. It is the headquarters of the Institut d’Estudis Catalans (IEC), whose Section of Sciences is very powerful. Catalans associate the IEC, our national academy, especially, with Catalan and its normative dictionary, the DIEC. But under the shelter of this more than centenarian entity (it was founded in 1907 by Enric Prat de la Riba), very diverse scientific research has been carried out on topics as varied as the biogenome, the Romanesque Pyrenees or migrations and diversity.

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In the scientific field, it is often risky to confirm the authorship of an invention. There have been –and still are– as many disputes as you like between a scientist or a team of scientists and others over who has been the inventor of something. Therefore, I prefer to be cautious and say that the magnificent book I have in my hands, which for a long time has been known as the first scientific popularization book in Catalan, is probably the first scientific popularization book in Catalan. This publication, which is located at the Documentation Centre of MNACTEC (National Museum of Science and Technology of Catalonia), is titled Noves científiques (Novas científiques, says the original). It is written by the politician, economist, textile technician, and great science popularizer Ferran Alsina, in pre-normative Catalan. Reading it, I find a few stumbling blocks: ab (with), aixís (so)... After a while, I get used to it.

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They chartered a train for the occasion. That August 30, 1905, the railway left Barcelona's França station at six in the morning and returned to the city very late, at night. The reason for the trip was to be able to see the total solar eclipse from the new Observatory of the Ebro, in Roquetes.

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For a long time, watches have been in decline, on wrists, in public buildings, and in so many other places. Mobile phones tell the time and, of course, they have sentenced them to death. But not entirely. There are survivors. One of the oldest that continues to tell the time is found on Barcelona's Rambla dels Estudis, on the facade of the headquarters of the Royal Academy of Sciences and Arts. This is an entity that deals with the research and dissemination of sciences and their application to technology and the arts. It is located in a building renovated by Josep Domènech i Estapà, who, in addition to being an architect, had scientific interests: he presided over the Astronomical Society of Barcelona.At the beginning of the industrial era, in full preparation for the Universal Exhibition of 1888, the Academy felt obliged to give the official time to all Barcelonians: there were quite a few public clocks, but they went their own way. When the radio began to "tell" the time signals, the Academy's clock – which obtained the time through astronomical observations – began to lose followers. Now, with updated instrumentation, it gives the time with an accuracy of a tenth of a second.Today we jump to the era when the watch began to become widespread. There were few of them. Trams still ran in Barcelona. Some said that Barcelonians only put their hand in their pocket for two reasons: one, to pay for the tram, and the other, to adjust the time on their watch in front of the Academy of Sciences and Arts.And it wasn't just Barcelonans who came to the Academy to set clocks. Some visitors did too. When a ship arrived, the boatswain would walk the entire Rambla carrying the ship's clock or clocks, to set them to the exact time. It was important not only for knowing the time but also for calculating longitude and following the course. If you go to La Rambla, in front of the Academy of Sciences and Arts, you will see that the clock on the facade says: "Official Time". It is flanked by two sculptures: on the left, one of the scientific genius, with a compass in hand; and on the right, one of the artistic genius, holding a small sculpture. These two winged geniuses were commissioned from the sculptor Rafael Atché, author of the Columbus statue, located at the other end of La Rambla. The Academia building, which also houses the Poliorama theatre, is crowned by two domes. One was dedicated to astronomy and the other to meteorology. But when lighting arrived in the city, a darker place was sought for observation and the Fabra Observatory was built, on Tibidabo. I visit the headquarters of this center accompanied by Jordi Isern, who is its president. Jordi is an astrophysicist and works on the final stages of the life of stars. He is an gentleman from Empordà, with exquisite manners. When he was young, he left his native Llançà to come to Barcelona to study physics. "If you study, you can stay here," his father told him. He was diligent... and he stayed. La Rambla, now gutted by construction work, was the landscape of his youth. He remembers mythical characters who used to stroll, like a woman who had a stuffed rat on her back."The Academy has 75 full members, elected by co-optation: among them. At 80 years old they become emeritus." Jordi will be emeritus in four years. "The Academy was born in 1764, during the Enlightenment. It was first called Conferencia Physycomatemática Experimental". Jordi explains it to me as we climb up to the upper floor, where there is a wooden spiral staircase that leads to the top of the building. George Orwell narrates in his book Homage to Catalonia the difficulty of climbing this staircase loaded with a rifle, during the May Events. The one on the facade is not the only unique clock in the center. The one by the Swiss watchmaker Albert Billeter, from 1869, also stands out, marking the position of the Earth, the Moon, the Sun, and some planets. It is enormous. He made it for the Senate, but the Senate did not want it because it was too expensive. The clock is located next to the assembly hall, which is double-height. In this assembly hall, I need to talk about another Albert (who is also a foreigner): Albert Einstein gave a lecture here in 1923 on his topic: the theory of relativity. "How is it that you have King Charles III in a prominent place?", I ask. "The current building is the result of the renovation of the building constructed in 1761 to house the public chair of mathematics. Charles III ceded the building to the Academy shortly after, once this chair disappeared", explains Jordi. When, during the Civil War, some uncontrolled people wanted to take it away, the meteorologist Eduard Fontserè, who was a member of the Academy, exclaimed: "Don't take it away! He is one of us. He is the one who expelled the Jesuits!"."The first photograph of CataloniaThere are a lot of treasures at the Academy of Sciences and Arts. Books stand out, of course. One of the most prized objects is the camera with which the first photograph in Catalonia was taken, in 1839. It took them 20 minutes to take it. There was a music band to celebrate it! "The photograph was lost...", explains Jordi Isern. And he makes an enigmatic pause: "Because they auctioned it off to pay for the camera". Anyway, a reproduction of the photograph is preserved.

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"Eoooo! Eoooo!", I say out loud to see if it echoes. And it certainly does! "I used to teach computer science in this chapel", says Sergi Girona, who studied for his degree – and doctorate – in computer science at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC). Luckily, the professor had a microphone (but the naughtiest students would sometimes sabotage his lesson: they’d make a radio station’s voice audible instead of his).

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"What is it? A hotel? Offices? A convention center? A large archive?", many who walk around the Barcelona Biomedical Research Park, dedicated to research in biomedicine and health sciences, must be asking themselves. It is a building that is worth looking at. Elliptical in plan and with a sloping roof, its facade is made of wooden slats, which act as sun filters. Designed by architects Manel Brullet and Albert de Pineda, it has a large open interior courtyard that "maximizes" natural light.Gone are the days when a large part of the research in this country was carried out in prefabricated modules and basements without sunlight. It is pleasant to work here, three steps from Barceloneta beach. "It is an inspiring place to do science. Scientists really enjoy coming here," comments Reimund Fickert, Director of Communication and Institutional Relations of the Park.Every time I visit, what I see most are refrigerators and freezers. Of course, almost all samples from the experiments that are done have to be preserved. I don't doubt that if the power goes out, they have energy autonomy. Not like in my house – and in other homes – where when the power goes out, you curse having so many peas and frozen fish from a while ago. Jordi Camí, Director General of the Park, an expert in neuroscience and scientific policy, is guiding me. As we walk, Camí expresses his concern about AI. "In the world of science, AI is a real tsunami. We cannot foresee all the consequences it will have. Humans are 'bad' at making predictions," he comments. "The technological side will become increasingly important." Camí notes that the major research challenges, in almost all fields, are the ethics and regulation of AI.Meanwhile, I spot in the distance a couple paddleboarding in the sea. It's the most primitive navigation system, from before the sail. And suddenly, I return to reality, and some of the possibilities that are opening up –and are already being implemented– with AI come to mind: the analysis of medical images, which allow detecting signs of cancer, fractures..., the review of "scientific literature", the design of experiments... The paddleboarding couple has now disappeared. There are no athletes in the sea.The wave of the Olympic Games pushed the initiative for this research park, but it was not easy to get it off the ground. The project met with political reticence and took years to become a reality: it became operational in 2006.

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Yes, there are still farmhouses in Barcelona, even though it is one of the most densely populated cities on the planet. One of my favorites is the one behind the National Museum of Art of Catalonia. It is not excessively old – it is more or less a century old – but it contains most of the ingredients of any farmhouse: a dovetailed door, a sundial on the facade, with the phrase Progredior ultra retro non referar (We move forward, we do not return to the past). There are no longer any poultry or pigs. Inside, elements of peasant life are still preserved, such as a series of hollowed-out pumpkins that served as containers for water and wine. "This farmhouse was built as a livestock pavilion for the 1929 International Exposition," Jaume Pàmies Pagès, a geographer who has worked at the Barcelona Botanical Garden for years, explains to me. Previously, he had worked as an environmental educator, mountain guide, forest ranger, and gardening teacher. The ground floor is opened to the public on special occasions, when there is an activity: workshops, talks... Normally, the gardener and the volunteers of the Association of Friends of the Botanical Garden use it to store the tools for the vegetable garden that occupies part of the so-called Sot de la Masia (a large hole from an old quarry). This garden produces seeds of traditional native varieties and some exotic ones, but all non-hybrid. "We cultivate, reproduce and conserve varieties that the modern world has been displacing, such as the black pea (typical of the north of the regions of Solsonès and Berguedà), the Tiurana chili pepper, the white eggplant and the queen mother broad beans –says Jaume–. It is our grain of sand for the conservation of biodiversity", he adds..The farmhouse has also preserved a wood-burning stove. On the coldest days they light it to heat the large room. They burn wood from garden trees that have had to be cut down (they have fallen in a storm, they have died, it has been necessary to thin their bases...). "I like it when, early on a winter day, as I walk up the stairs from the MNAC to the Lluís Companys Olympic Stadium, I see the chimney smoking and even smell the wood smoke," comments Jaume.

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Tired of his boat being stolen and left abandoned on the other side of the lake, its owner put an anti-theft system into practice: he made a hole in it, which he plugged with a stopper when he sailed, and took the stopper home with him. And he left the boat full of water near the lake. In the Ivars pond, the cement boats were the same as the wooden ones. The explanation is quite simple: they were built with a plaster mold made from a wooden boat. Eduard Ribes, guide of the Ivars and Vila-sana pond, tells me this next to one of these boats. It is the jewel of Cal Sinén, an old farmhouse from 1910 located on the edge of the pond, which has been redone – with its exterior walls of rammed earth – and now houses an information center that explains, with texts and images, a lot of stories about the pond, from before and now. In the past, it housed hunters."Cement boats were preferred by hunters. Because they are heavier than wooden ones, when they fired the shotgun they moved less; and luckily it was so, because the waterline is high", Eduard explains to me, who spends time removing Florida turtles from the lake, "pets" that many, tired of having to take care of them, have "thrown" at him. They are invasive species, which gobble up toads, frogs, snakes... He also removes American river crabs, which eliminate European crabs (yes, European crabs – and so many other things– feel harassed by Americans).

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Of all the surgical instruments on display at the pharmacy I am visiting today, the one that impacts me most is a saw. Doctors used it to amputate. Since there was no anesthesia (patients were often given a few drops of ether, and that was it!) operations had to be done as quickly as possible. The most prestigious surgeons were the fastest.This collection of surgical instruments – very varied: some curved ones stand out, such as scissors, which are clearly not hairdressing scissors – is one of the elements that most catches the eye in the pharmacy – now a museum – of the old Santa Caterina hospital, in the center of Girona. In baroque style, like the entire building, the pharmacy also preserves mortars, scales, and a large quantity of pots (vases and jars). The jars are empty, of course, but they say what they contained. One says "belladonna", a substance that dilates the pupils. Some high society women used it because they said it made them more beautiful.Walking through the pharmacy takes me on a journey to the 18th century, when epidemics like cholera, plague, smallpox, malaria... were frequent, and to the 19th century, when tuberculosis and respiratory diseases reigned. The pharmacy was also active throughout the 20th century, but the diseases are now more similar – in reality, almost the same – to those we know today, although new ones have appeared, even epidemics, like covid. The one that has never been absent, of course, is gastroenteritis, which those of us outside the medical field call a tummy ache.The pharmacy, formed by two spaces (the sales area and the back room, where the laboratory was), is the great treasure of this hospital. But there is more. For example, the magnolia courtyard, a place of peace that gives access to a good part of the dependencies of the old hospital, including the pharmacy itself. The walls are lined with sgraffiti, which are not from the era when the building was constructed, but later, from 1928. What a delight the courtyards of Girona are! And how beautiful when the Flower Time arrives. A third treasure: the chapel, essential to any hospital. If the doctors didn't arrive, God did the rest, even if it meant taking the patient to the other world. It is certainly a large temple. In this way, both the sick and the entire congregation of the neighborhood or the city could attend mass (the pharmacy also served the population). The chapel, desacralized, is today an auditorium named after Josep Irla, who presided over the Generalitat in exile for many years. It is the seat of the Generalitat of Catalonia in Girona. Given its dimensions, a few years ago one of the largest paintings in Catalonia was installed there: The Great Day of Girona, by Ramon Martí Alsina. It is about 5 meters by 10 meters.

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"Was Gaudí the one married to Gala?". "Is there a McDonald's in here?". No, it's not a joke: these are some of the questions that visitors to the Sagrada Família have asked Tate Cabré. Also – it must be said – many others have asked her pertinent questions, which denoted a high cultural level. Tate Cabré is a tourist guide – and a journalist – and leads a lot of groups to the Sagrada Família. Her specialty is Modernism.

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In Spanish they are called the three « h «. I write it in Catalan and you will translate it yourselves. Footprints, eggs and bones. They are the three elements of great value that have been found in the paleontological site of Fumanya, in Berguedà. It is an exceptional site. Now you will see it. "Here there were above all what we popularly call « long-necked dinosaurs «, that is, titanosaurs", explains Bernat Vila, geologist and paleontologist specialized in dinosaurs and macroevolution of the fossil record.Everything that has been found here has given us a lot of information about the sizes, how they walked, how they reproduced, how they grew, or where the dinosaurs grazed in this territory. They are the last dinosaurs that lived in Europe, disappeared due to the extinction at the end of the Cretaceous. "The approximate length of their torso, that is, the distance between the hind and front legs, has been calculated at about three meters. And they were about 11 meters long," specifies Bernat. "Counting the neck and tail quite horizontally," I ask him. "Yes." "Its foot was about seventy centimeters long and the sole of the foot was padded to support the weight of the body," he specifies. "The skull was relatively small and pointed, and they had small, pencil-shaped teeth that they used to tear up vegetation. They had front legs shorter than the hind legs. They walked by moving both legs on one side at the same time and then those on the other," explains Bernat Vila, who dedicated a lot of hours to excavating and studying this site. Today we take a trip seventy million years back. This area was a muddy plain near the sea, which stretched for hundreds of kilometers to the west, and inland there were shallow lakes and riverbeds that often dried up. Over millions of years, that sea gradually retreated. Dinosaur footprints were imprinted in the mud and, once dried, a layer of materials was deposited until they were solidified into rock.We are at the permanent exhibition of the Dinosaures Fumanya Interpretation Centre. When the building didn't exist, eggs and bones ended up at the Catalan Institute of Paleontology, in Sabadell. The most logical thing was for them to return. And so it was. To achieve this, Alba Boixader, head of the Cercs Mines Museum, to which the Dinosaures de Fumanya Interpretation Centre depends, put pressure: "I would have chained myself to the bridge of the Baells reservoir if they hadn't returned them," she says as we admire a fossilized titanosaur skin.

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Although we put numbers to the universe, it is very difficult to get an idea of its dimensions. It contains more than 100,000 million galaxies like ours. And in our galaxy, the Milky Way, there are more than 100,000 million stars. The Earth is 4,500 million years old. If the first hominids are from a million years ago, it is clear that humans arrive at the last instant. These are some of the numerous megadata disseminated by the Montsec Astronomical Park that confirm what we already knew: we are insignificant. And to top it all off, the universe, which began almost 14,000 million years ago with the Big Bang, is expanding. Yes, it is being observed that the most distant galaxies are getting further and further away. I'm traveling to one of the places in the country with the darkest sky ––although, it must be said, a little light from Balaguer, Lleida, Zaragoza, the metropolitan area, etc. arrives at night–: Montsec. I'm going to the Montsec Astronomical Park, not to the Montsec Observatory, located a few kilometers away, but much higher up, where the largest telescope in Catalonia is located, named after Joan Oró, considered one of the founders of organic cosmochemistry, a discipline that studies the origin and evolution of organic molecules in space. Oró was very popular in Catalonia in the 80s and 90s of the 20th century. I'm saying this especially because if you go there it's easy to put the wrong location: Montsec Observatory. You have to put Montsec Astronomical Park. The Montsec Astronomical Park –by the way, driven, among others, by Joan Oró– is the main attraction of Àger, along with paragliding (people come from all over the world to do it). Previously, it was the Collegiate Church of Sant Pere d'Àger, located at the top of the municipality, half in ruins –it was bombed during the Reapers' War and during the First Carlist War, in 1835–, although it has been extensively restored. Don't miss going there, though. This astronomical park is very, very educational. It wanted to pay tribute to Maria Assumpció Català, an astronomer, athe first doctor in mathematics from the University of Barcelona, who decisively pushed for Spain to join the European Space Agency, naming one of the main telescopes after him. In addition, permanent exhibitions have been set up there. I will visit them later, I think. As soon as I arrive, a documentary screening is about to begin, in a large dome 12 meters in diameter. I put on a pair of 3D glasses they offer me. I am surprised –positively– there is only one empty seat left. Someone has had an unforeseen event, be it a fever, the death of a relative... Or perhaps tiredness? It is more likely the latter than that all tickets except one have been sold. I am really enjoying the documentary Voyager, about the automatic probes Voyager I and II that explored in the 70s and 80s the gas giants: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. An especially fascinating episode is an electrical storm on Jupiter. When the projection ends, surprise!: the dome opens and we see the real sky. One of the stellar moments of the visit is the observation of the firmament. We can see it every day, if there are no clouds. But doing it accompanied by a crowd of people who are interested in it, and having the explanations of the guide, David Rabanal Nogués, is infinitely better. David has a laser in his hand, which makes a beam of light that reaches up to 200 meters (to give us an idea, a distance slightly greater than the height of the Sagrada Família), and he points out planets, stars, and some of the 88 constellations.stellar "You already know that the stars barely move. What moves is the earth. Throughout the year, the stars change places because we are moving. This is one of the facts that show that the earth is round", says David. And then he pretends to threaten the group with the laser. "I hope that among all of you there are no flat-earthers!", he says with a smile. There are deniers of scientific certainties, like a temple, infiltrated where you would never expect.

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Under the rotating metal dome that protects a precious telescope, located at the top of an old manor house in the heart of Vic, it is a devilishly hot day. Of course: it's the peak of midday. I notice a few dents on this dome, painted a color that mixes grey (from the fog, so typical of Vic – there's less of it now than before–) and blue (from the sky). These dents were caused by a strong hailstorm. There are also some caused by a bombing that took place at the end of the Civil War.

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