During the summer, thousands of people go out to enjoy nature, from walks in forests or along a river to excursions in some of the country's natural parks. And yet, although many, being prepared, might put a small first-aid kit with mosquito repellent, disinfectant, or gauze in our backpack to deal with small unforeseen events, few think about the much less obvious risk that lies behind such a common and seemingly harmless gesture as picking a bunch of wildflowers or tasting some berries, which in some cases can end up in the emergency room.

Catalonia –and Europe– is experiencing an unprecedented summer, with extreme temperatures that have exceeded 45 degrees in some parts of the country and a historic record of heat-related deaths has been reached. According to data from the Daily Mortality Monitoring System (MoMo), only in the month of June, 218 deaths attributable to extreme heat were recorded, a 300% increase in cases compared to the same period last year. And although these official data do not publish a breakdown by gender, previous epidemiological studies indicate that women die more than men from this cause.

Even in the middle of the morning, activity at the fishermen's guild of Blanes is frantic: a coming and going of boxes full of anchovies and sardines, and mullets and other fish, arriving at this Girona fish market for auction. Unaware of this hustle and bustle and sheltered under the piers, about forty individuals rest, impassive, in enormous water tanks. Some have been there for a short time and are recovering, waiting for their moment to come. Others are already prepared and will return to the sea soon.

In the laboratory of Tomàs Marquès Bonet coexist all kinds of monkeys and primates. Some are human; others are made of Lego pieces, origami, wood, crochet, plastic, and hang among shelves and computers full of the code that contains the essence of life. From a corner, Floquet de Neu, a unique accident in nature, observes the scene, attentive, and concentrates, better than any scientific article, the story of its owner, this Icrea researcher, professor, and chair at Pompeu Fabra University.

Little could they imagine that their research on the role of freshwater ecosystems in the climate crisis would end up becoming an epic and risky adventure into the unknown. In 2022, a small group of Catalan researchers embarked on an expedition in the purest Shackleton style to the heart of the Aral Sea. What decades ago had been the fourth largest freshwater lake in the world and one of the main climatic regulators of Central Asia, is today a desolate desert of sand and salt, a vestige of one of the greatest environmental disasters caused by human action. 

Hormones have often been used to explain any discomfort in women. But, according to psychiatrist Gemma Parramon Puig, head of the psychiatry section at Vall d'Hebron Hospital, this perspective has hidden another reality for decades: a medicine built by taking the male body as the standard and biases that have delayed diagnoses, medicalized social problems, and made women's health invisible. In "It must be the hormones (Vergara), argues that incorporating the perspective of sex and gender is essential for better medicine.

The Josep Carreras Research Institute (IJC) suffered "significant deficiencies" that "have led or may lead to irregularities" in the financial management of 2023, under the direction of cancer researcher Manel Esteller. This is the conclusion of theFinal financial control report made by the Generalitat after ARA revealed the transfers of money and impersonations at the research institute during Esteller's tenure.

It is called Mycoplasma pneumoniae and, despite being very simple, this small bacterium with only 680 genes could play a key role in fighting lung cancer, the type of tumor that causes the most deaths each year worldwide: nearly two million. I'researcher Luis Serrano and its team, at the Centre for Genomic Regulation in Barcelona (CRG), have spent years studying this microorganism and genetically modifying it to strip it of its ability to cause disease. Now they want to turn it into a kind of Trojan horse capable of releasing drugs against tumor cells only in the lung.

On June 26, 2000, then-U.S. President Bill Clinton appeared before cameras worldwide to announce a historic milestone: humanity had just obtained the first draft of the human genome, "the most wonderful and important map ever produced by humankind." Beside him were his British counterpart, Tony Blair, a handful of scientists, and representatives from Celera Genomics, the private company headed by geneticist Craig Venter that had competed to sequence our DNA before anyone else.geneticist Craig Venter who had competed to sequence our DNA before anyone else.

The fact that her uncle contracted HIV and died from the complications of the infection when she was still studying biology at university finally pushed Gemma Moncunill (Barcelona, 1981) to want to dedicate herself to research on the immune system and infectious diseases. “I had always been fascinated by the complexity with which the body was capable of defending itself, or how vaccines could train defense cells”, recalls this researcher, with a generous smile and sparkling eyes.

For years, research on the human microbiome has focused almost exclusively on the gut. But there are also millions of microorganisms – especially bacteria, but also fungi and viruses, and yeasts – lining the vagina. Although they have not been studied until recently and, therefore, little is known about them, recent studies are beginning to shed light on how this ecosystem is key to women's health and can affect conditions such as endometriosis.

When Meg Lowman (New York, 1953) began climbing trees in the 1980s, hardly anyone studied forest canopies. That world suspended among the branches was, in large part, an unknown territory. Forty-five years later, this American ecologist is considered one of the pioneers in forest canopy research.

That you, reader, are now reading this article or that, while you read it, there are beings as fantastic as whales crossing the Mediterranean or tritons splashing in streams of Montseny surrounded by beeches, firs, holm oaks and oaks is thanks to a history of microbial promiscuity forged over millions of years, including viral infections.

It's not even 9 AM and in the classrooms of many schools in Catalonia, thermometers are already climbing above 27 degrees, despite being in a week of relative climate respite. This is the case at Institut La Sedeta, located in the Gràcia neighborhood of Barcelona, where since mid-May they systematically exceed 30 ºCin most areas of the center every day. During heat peaks, they have even reached 35 and 36 ºC, and the high humidity of the Catalan capital further exacerbates the feeling of suffocation experienced by students and teachers in the building.

It is one of the most iconic animals on a European scale and surely one of the most representative and studied amphibians in the world. And yet, until now it was unknown that common salamanders (Salamandra salamandra) have a very special property, not at all common in nature and invisible to the human eye: under ultraviolet light they are fluorescent.

Almost a decade after closing the shop she had in Sant Andreu, Barcelona, Pilar still frequently meets neighbors in the neighborhood who stop her to remind her, gratefully, that they have half their house set up by her. "It was the family business, of electricity and spare parts, which I gradually transformed into decoration," explains this cheerful 70-year-old woman.

Much more than an endemic species, the Ibiza wall lizard (Podarcis pityusensis),which has inhabited Ibiza and Formentera and the surrounding islets for millennia, is a living cultural and identity symbol, as well as a key piece of the island ecosystems. And yet, it is being erased from the territory. In fact, the situation it is in is so critical that the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has placed it on its red list in the category ofendangered.The reason for this extreme situation is that an invasive snake, the horseshoe snake (Hemorrhois hippocrepis),which arrived hidden in ornamental olive trees imported from the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa in the 2000s, has already spread across 90% of Ibiza's territory, and is devouring most specimens of lizards. Now, moreover, and worryingly, the snake has made the leap to Formentera and many of the nearly 40 surrounding islets, where unique populations of this small lizard live.

Despite affecting half of the world's population and being experienced by all women, little is known about menopause. This is explained by the fact that, historically, it has been underestimated and understudied both from scientific research and also from a clinical perspective. And yet, despite being a natural stage in women's lives that usually occurs around the age of 50, it has an important impact on the health of their tissues and organs, and is associated with an increased risk of developing diseases such as cardiovascular, neurodegenerative, metabolic, and bone diseases.

Space is a continuous symphony of melodies, even though, unfortunately, we cannot hear them from Earth. For a couple of decades, however, space telescopes have allowed us to hear for the first time the unique songs emanating from the hearts of stars, which tell us what has so far been invisible to science and human knowledge: the inner life of these celestial bodies, fundamental building blocks of galaxies and the Universe, and true factories of the materials we are made of. As astrophysicist and science communicator Carl Sagan said, "we are all stardust."

A few days ago, humanity returned to the Moon fifty years later and broke the record for the furthest manned journey in space. NASA's Artemis II mission successfully took four astronauts, three men and one woman, to the far side of our satellite. The next major milestone will be a new human moon landing, which, if all goes as planned, will happen in early 2028. From that moment on, with missions every six months, a permanent lunar base will be built, which should be completed by 2029-2030. The conquest of the Moon will be joined by that of Mars. Various space agencies have announced that they have plans to send manned missions and at some point, also, to establish permanent habitable human communities.