In the historic Down House, the house where Charles Darwin lived for 40 years in Kent, England, there was a space that was key to developing the theory of evolution that would bring the English naturalist worldwide fame. And it's not the table where he wrote The Origin of Speciesbut rather his garden. There, Darwin spent hours conducting small experiments with plants, such as the so-called Darwin's orchid or Christmas orchid, from Madagascar. It is a very particular species, with an extraordinarily long nectary, over 20 centimeters. The scientist predicted the existence of an insect capable of reaching the hidden nectar. The butterfly would be discovered decades later, confirming an intuition based solely on botanical observation.

When they told him that The Sleeping Garden (Univers/Espasa) fit perfectly among the novels of healing fiction (Healing fiction), Carla Gracia Mercadé (Barcelona, ​​1980) didn't know much about what she was being told. "I wrote the book I needed, a refuge I went into when things were bad," the writer explains. Evocative and full of beauty, Gracia's fifth novel is the story of a woman living on autopilot with a latent grief until she goes to the Empordà to awaken a dormant garden. Iris will find in the plants a home and a peace of incalculable value, but to get there she will have to decide who she wants to be.

The divide between the two Barcelonas caused by the housing crisis is becoming increasingly profound, accelerating the gentrification of some neighborhoods and the depopulation of others. This is confirmed by the latest report from the Federation of Neighborhood Associations of Barcelona (FAVB), entitled SOS HousingThe study, which found that in 2024 there were more than 600 large speculative housing developments underway in the Catalan capital, affecting more than 11,800 homes, mostly involved families forced to leave their homes due to the expiration of their rental contracts. These developments are part of "the typical operation of buying an entire building, evicting the residents, and renovating to sell at luxury prices," spokespeople stated. The study combines official data (from the Catalan Housing Agency, the Barcelona City Council, and the Barcelona Metropolitan Area) with fieldwork conducted with neighborhood associations. The spokesperson for the FAVB Housing Commission, Jaume Artigues, explained that between the first and second halves of last year, speculative housing developments increased from 477 to 619. Of these, the vast majority (568 transactions) were intended for sale: 30% after new construction and 70% subsequently. In total, according to the report, between 2016 and 2024, approximately 75,000 rental contracts expired without renewal, affecting some 180,000 residents.

One day, many of us forgot what it was like to live outdoors, surrounded by forests and woodlands. Now we are far from the shades of green and the sounds of nature, a world we replaced with asphalt and neon lights, traffic jams and endlessly ticking clocks. And, along the way, we forgot all the teachings that nature offered us. Even what the plants taught us, who, as Zen masters, for centuries had helped us find the path to healing, both physical and spiritual.

Witches certainly existed in Tiurana, a small municipality in the far east of Noguera, bordering the borders with Alt Urgell. This is confirmed by its own toponymy, which has identified the town for decades.Witches' era, a place very close to the hermitage of Sant Ermengol. In this era, experts say, one can find a wide variety of medicinal plants, the same ones that wise women used in ancient times to prepare their medicines.

Barcelona and Madrid have been suffering from a housing bubble for two years, according to a new study. The causes include several factors, from population growth due to the arrival of immigration and the lack of public and private housing construction to the cheapening of credit and the entry of speculative investors.

This spring, walking through the streets and squares of Girona, it is easy to notice that in parks and garden areas, grasses and leafy plants grow, some more than a meter high, forming urban oases of wild vegetation Very lush with flowers of all colors. These are areas that until now the City Council, as is the case in most large cities, usually mowed as soon as the grass grew taller than a foot, assuming that the so-called weeds They are ugly and an eyesore. But in the current term, the Department of Climate Action has approved a pilot project to allow all this vegetation to grow naturally to assert its aesthetic and ecological value for the city. Provided, of course, that it doesn't bother or hinder the mobility of citizens.

Ana Crespo (Santa Cruz de Tenerife, 1948) has been president of the Royal Academy of Exact, Physical, and Natural Sciences of Spain since 2024. She is the first woman to hold the position since the institution was created 177 years ago.