They say that Archimedes, the great Greek engineer and physicist from Syracuse, said: “Give me a place to stand and I will move the world.” Although he was referring to the law of the lever, the image it generates in our brain is so powerful that we metaphorically refer to it in many other human situations where a problem needs to be solved that could be approached with the right data and tools. This is how we scientists who dedicated ourselves to human genetics felt during the 90s, in the full effervescence of the Human Genome Project. This year we celebrate the 25th anniversary of the publication of the first complete draft of the human genome, the instruction manual that explains what humans are like and which marked a before and after for biomedicine.

For fourteen years, Conchi Merino has risen early to care for 5,435 animals of 170 species—and countless ants!—the inhabitants of the CosmoCaixa Flooded Forest, a space that recreates the habitat of the Amazon rainforest, threatened by agricultural, livestock, and mining operations. The guest of honor is Nut the capybara, a giant rodent that inspires passion among the 45 school groups that visit this jungle every day. It is likely that the capybara rivals Snowflake the Great Kiskadee and Ulysses the orca as one of Catalonia's most iconic animals.

That life is full of coincidences and that it's about knowing how to seize them is something Tomàs Marquès Bonet (Barcelona, ​​1975), one of the world's leading experts in primate genomics and evolution, knows well. Although he wanted to dedicate himself to studying bats and Pyrenean frogs, he ended up at IBM performing banking transactions and learning to program. A few years later, life presented him with an opportunity to return to science, which he seized by writing a computational thesis at Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) comparing humans and chimpanzees. And so, it all began again. Since then, Marquès, a professor at UPF and ICREA researcher, and head of the comparative genomics group at the Institute of Evolutionary Biology (IBE UPF-CSIC), has dedicated himself to the molecular study of primates to learn about humans as a species. He argues that the genomes of our closest evolutionary relatives are key to understanding human biology. Also to combat the illegal trafficking of these animals and help their conservation.

In this report, we present a selection of the award-winning images from the tenth edition of the Bioimágenes competition, the biological photography contest organized every two years by the College of Biologists of Catalonia. This year, the competition brought together 396 photographs of astonishing quality, divided into six categories encompassing students of all levels—primary, secondary, high school, vocational training, and university—as well as teachers and other members of the public. Each category has two prizes, in addition to special awards for photomicrography and research photography, underwater photography, and the ARA newspaper prize, dedicated to images with a photojournalistic approach and documentary value. With this exhibition, the College wishes to recognize the talent and curiosity of all participants, as well as the work of the jury and the support of the collaborators. A celebration of life seen up close, through lenses that capture what often escapes our notice. The winning image of the ARA newspaper's special prize – which can be seen at the top of the report – was for a minimal yet powerful scene, with the author's personal vision and the ability to capture the plasticity and beauty of the animal, without losing the documentary and reportage sense.

Humans are rational beings. We have the capacity to identify relevant information for decision-making; to evaluate different pieces of information and choose the one we consider most reliable; and, when faced with contradictory clues or evidence, we can weigh them to ultimately choose the best option.

As a child, she spent a lot of time on a small island, Harakka, located opposite Helsinki, a nature reserve where her mother worked. And there, Iida Turpeinen (Helsinki, 1987) delighted in observing nature and scientists in action, even when they were collecting plankton samples and rescuing injured birds.

Giraffes are one of the most iconic animals of the savannah. Their long necks, tall, twisted legs, and the unique pattern of spots and colors in their fur leave no one indifferent. They can grow to over five and a half meters tall, making them the tallest animal in the world. To pump blood to their heads, their heart, which weighs 11 kilograms, generates a pressure three times that of a human heart. Their tongue is also prodigious: it can measure up to half a meter in length and allows them to surgically pluck tiny acacia leaves from among very sharp thorns.

It's summer time, beach time. We swim, but we're not used to looking at other organisms that live in the sea, although we are aware that if we walk on the rocks with bare feet, we should be careful with sea urchin spines, and if we see something transparent floating, we know that it's most likely not a plastic bag, but could be jellyfish.

Manta rays are oceanic animals that live in the open sea and in tropical climates and usually measure about 3 meters in wingspan. Although a few years ago it was a very rare phenomenon, More and more giant manta rays are arriving on the Mediterranean coastsThis is baffling marine biologists, who are trying to figure out what these animals are doing in Catalonia, Valencia, and Murcia, and even in other countries, such as Italy and France. Civil Protection sources point out that the lifeguard ordered the swimmers to leave the water.

In nature there are several examples of animals impostors They manage to fool their predators thanks to their physical appearance. As their names indicate, the bee fly and the ant spider pretend to be what they are not in order to survive: the first earns respect with its colors and the second appears to be harmless. However, research confirms that one of the queens of mimicry would be the blue fly. According to a study led by the Institute of Evolutionary Biology (IBE), the larvae of this insect are capable of developing a "mask" and a characteristic smell to coexist with termites.