The start of summer 2026 arrives accompanied by unprecedented climatic severity in a large part of Western Europe. The seasonal change has coincided with a sudden escalation of temperatures that has forced the French meteorological service to decree the maximum alert level in the metropolitan region of Paris, where the thermometer today reached 38º and threatens to surpass historical records this week, more typical of desert latitudes.

One day, when Sergio was a teenager, he realized that his mother had aged. He hadn't seen those wrinkles on her face before. Time passed inexorably, without him being able to do anything to prevent it. For the first time, the idea that time in this world was finite struck him forcefully, even though his friends hadn't even bothered to think about it. When you are young, time seems static and infinite.Since that day, Sergio C. Fanjul (Oviedo, 1980) suffers from what is known as chronophobia, the fear of the passage of time. An experience that this astrophysics and journalism graduate has captured in essay form in the book Cronofobia (Arpa, 2025), in which he also explores a society that he believes suffers from the same ailment as him: “There are many problems, not only in dealing with dying, but with aging and the fear of the future. The acceleration of time makes us become patients of nostalgia,” he assures.If we stop to think about it, there are billions of people who have preceded us and nothing remains of their passage on earth. Fortunately, we know some names that have achieved something important, but not much more. There are even figures like Shakespeare or Cervantes, who are often little more than a name, perhaps even a pseudonym of another person.This feeling, according to Fanjul, makes many people uncomfortable. “We are very hungry for transcendence and to overcome death compared to previous societies”, he assures. The author believes that societies used to be more communal and more connected with their town and family, so when you died they knew they would live on in others. On the other hand, today's individualistic society makes us feel that if we die, the world ends.The fear of death is inherent to the human condition. “That is why a large part of our culture is related to beliefs and religions that help us understand why on earth we are here for such a limited time,” Fanjul continues. During his research, he has even met people who cannot bear the idea of not having existed before being born.In fact, chronophobia is not easy to digest. He himself admits that he spends every day calculating the years lived and those that, if all goes well, he has left until he reaches death. Even when he goes on vacation, he spends his time calculating how much time has passed and how much is left to finish them. “The idea often strikes me that time has slipped through my fingers, this feeling of 'that's it, this party or dinner is over,' and I think that when I die I will have the same feeling after a lifetime,” he reflects.'Tempus fugit'

But, what is time really? Augustine of Hippo said that he knew what time was, but that if you asked him, he couldn't explain it. "This is the feeling we all have: we function with time, we make an appointment with someone, days and weeks pass, but no one can explain to you what it is," says Fanjul. Many theories have been developed, and the author explores them throughout the essay. Those he likes best are the externalist ones, that is, those that say that past and future are real at the same time, that everything is happening at the same moment. “We are a consciousness that goes through different moments and now we perceive what we live in this moment in time, but at the same time we are being born, living our childhood, old age, and even dying,” he continues. For him, this theory comforts him: “It means that, even if you die, your whole life will be happening and will be eternal, happening all at once,” he clarifies.Be that as it may, as we get older, time passes by faster and faster, and it seems we can do nothing to prevent it. Many studies have been done on this and it is known that for children and young people everything is new, and therefore their brain must always be processing information. This is how time passes more slowly for them. As one stops learning new things and being surprised by things, time begins to accelerate. “If you notice, when you travel the first few days pass slowly, because you have to explore the city. On the other hand, the last ones, when you already know everything, start to get faster and faster,” he points out.However, many people live trapped by nostalgia for the past. For Fanjul, this feeling is very characteristic of our times, when future prospects are very unpredictable. “Between totalitarianism, the climate crisis, and the advance of technology, young people do not see a clear future and look back,” he considers. In fact, the author believes that we live in a society that is both youth-loving and youth-hating: “Youth is idolized and desired, but young people are also considered “useless” and things are not made easy for them,” he criticizes. Finally, the author points out that many philosophers, like the Stoics, have preached that happiness is neither in the past nor in the future, but in the present. Therefore, the ideal way to learn to live in a world where time slips through our fingers is to seize the moment and have a life rich in experiences. "But not the ones they sell now, which are going to a trendy restaurant, but small, enriching everyday things, like being with the people you love, walking, resting, eating well, and taking care of yourself. This makes life more pleasant and time slows down a bit more," he concludes.

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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.

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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?

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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.

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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?

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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.

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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.

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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.

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