When he was 24, J. Doyne Farmer walked into a casino with a hidden computer he had built himself. It was a digital computer he could use while walking, which he intended to use to demonstrate that physics allowed one to predict the roulette wheel's movements. "It was an adventure, and I did it because I like doing things that people think are impossible," he says. However, there was a second reason: he was a very poor graduate student and wanted to make money. He only partially succeeded: he was able to prove that it's possible to predict which number will come up, but he didn't become rich. Born in 1952 in the United States, Farmer trained as a physicist and is one of the founders of the Complex Systems group at Los Alamos National Laboratory, the laboratory that brought together physicists, biologists, and economists to rethink how complex systems work, and the same center where atomic bombs were produced during World War II. An expert in chaos theory, he is a pioneer in computational prediction. He advocates applying to economics the same tools that physics uses to understand hurricanes, ecosystems, or turbulence. He was the founder of Prediction Company. He is currently the director of the complexity economics program at the Institute for New Economic Thinking at the University of Oxford. Farmer argues that, while he was able to predict roulette wheel movements and models can be created to try to understand the financial market and improve economic models, we cannot move through time, nor is it predictable or predetermined.

Does time truly exist, or is it merely a perception? What is the origin of time? Why do we perceive time only in one direction? Can plants foresee the future? What happens to our brain when we think about the future? Is the future entirely determined by the present? Can we make predictions? Is immortality possible? At what point in human evolution did we become aware of time? Why do we say that every living being is a fossil?

For the past few weeks, TV3's weather forecast has included the city of Alghero, on the island of Sardinia, now part of Italy, which was once under the rule of the Crown of Aragon. 22.4% of the population speaks Catalan, a remnant of our ancestors' presence: this must be the reason why Catalan television is reporting the weather in that location. The initiative is commendable, as it informs viewers about the expansion of Catalans in the Mediterranean, something that, broadly speaking, occurred from the birth of James I (1225) and the reign of Peter the Ceremonious until the reincorporation of the Kingdom of Majorca into the Crown on December 13.

There is a commodity scarcer than water and more precious than gold: the time that eludes us. Everyone talks about it, everyone pursues it, but not everyone possesses it equally. In societies that advance and generate new rights, the right to time emerges with force. But who can truly exercise it?

A film doesn't need to have a big budget to be original and groundbreaking. Beyond the two infinite minutes, by Japanese director Jun Yamaguchi, is a clear example. With only two screens, one showing what will happen in exactly two minutes, and the other showing the corresponding past, a comic vaudeville-style plot is created. After the initial childish play, the characters quickly discover the obvious applications this can offer, leading us to a completely absurd ending, yet one that is typical of the genre.

Southern Europe is scorching with an unprecedented heat wave for June. From Barcelona to Lisbon, from Seville to Rome, many cities across the Old Continent are facing another week of high temperatures. This is the big topic of conversation on the streets, as tourists caught out by the heat wave try to survive the high temperatures. For the next few days—as explained by Xavi Segura and Àlex Sancliment— to yours forecast in itNOW–, thermometers will fluctuate little, and intense heat warnings will remain in effect, affecting virtually the entire country, with nighttime heat alerts also in effect.

When I lived in the regions and had friends in Barcelona who I could never meet up with because of the distance, I dreamed of the day when I could afford to settle in the capital and see everyone, meet up often and enjoy relaxed chats and meals. When I finally became a Barcelona resident, I discovered that the reality in the metropolis was not what I expected: here nobody has time to meet up, everyone has so much work, so many things to do, they are so busy that they cannot have a coffee or a snack, a drink or dinner. I have friends that I saw more when I had to take the train to meet them. Acquaintances that I even make up with from time to time by chance and we stop for a while on the street and talk about topics that we are passionate about, we exchange opinions, ideas, etc. In this way, in a hurry and bothering the pedestrians who bump into us. When we realize that we are late and we have to leave, we always say the same thing: we have to meet up! Yes, yes, we must meet, we have to organize something, come on, let's do it, yes, let's do it this time. But weeks, months, years go by! And we have not satisfied the desire to see each other properly again, a desire that seemed urgent. No, we have not met. In my particular case, the absurd situation of meeting acquaintances at conferences, festivals and literary meetings has arisen... on the other side of the world. I met a writer who lived two streets away from me... in Colombia! And although we got on well and shared a pleasant conversation, we have not seen each other in person again.