The hygrometer and the hygrograph serve to measure the same thing – humidity – but they are not synonyms. The first records humidity at a specific moment and the second over time. This same distinction is found in many other devices, such as the barometer and the barograph, the thermometer and the thermograph. The incorporation of time as a measurement variable represented a revolution, because it allowed the evolution of several phenomena to be studied. It was especially important in the field of meteorology: continuous records made it possible to identify cycles, compare observations, and better understand and predict the weather. These two instruments are located in a showcase dedicated to Eduard Fontserè at the Faculty of Physics of the University of Barcelona (UB). They are part of this faculty's collection of instruments, which consists of about 600 pieces. There are items related to optics, mechanics, electricity, magnetism, thermodynamics, fluids, astronomy, meteorology... Many of the instruments come from the laboratories and classrooms of the Faculty. Both the displayed hygrometer and hygrograph date from the late 19th century. They have clockwork mechanisms, pens, and cylinders covered with paper. They are the direct ancestors of current data acquisition systems; only the technology has changed. Joan Manel Hernàndez, professor in the department of condensed matter physics and curator of this splendid collection, acts as my host and guide. Pili Mateo, a cultural and heritage technician at the UB, also accompanies us, reminding me of the existence of the UB Virtual Museum, where these pieces and many others are housed. In addition to scientific instruments, the online platform (museuvirtual.ub.edu) contains information and images of works of art, documentary and bibliographic collections, natural science collections, and architectural heritage.The origin of the collection of physics apparatus can be traced to the development of physics cabinets in the 19th century. The designation "physics" in a sense similar to the current one was not established until that century. The first treatises date from the late 1900s, when physics began to be associated with the experimental method. Before that, it was referred to as "natural philosophy". Fontserè is not only honored with this display case, but also with his name on the Faculty's Sala de Graus. He was fundamental in the history of Catalan science, the main driving force behind modern meteorology here, founder of the Meteorological Service of Catalonia in 1921. He also worked in astronomy, seismology, and earth physics, and promoted meteorology based on systematic observation and rigorous data collection. Among his contributions, the Elemental Atlas of Clouds, translated into several languages, stands out. Furthermore, he was one of the main promoters of an astronomical observatory on Tibidabo: the Fabra Observatory. He did so many things! He had time to do them: he lived for 100 years.I have the privilege of going down to a warehouse where there is a string of instruments stored. I notice some rudimentary computers. The screens are cathode ray tubes. They resemble old black and white televisions. Despite their size, they had much lower power and memory than a current mobile phone. "I enjoy playing instruments," reveals Joan Manel. He dedicates himself to cataloging, researching... Practically alone. "Now I have managed to get an intern for two hours a day," he says. The history of instruments is also the history of progress in the ability to measure. Over time they have gained sensitivity, precision, and automation. Today a student can record hundreds of measurements with digital sensors, whereas before they had to read them one by one on a graduated scale and write them down by hand in a notebook.The materials have also changed: before, brass, wood, and glass were used, and often the cables were covered in colored silk. There was a clear intention to make precise and beautiful objects. Today they are much more powerful and precise, but beauty has ceased to be of interest. Plastics, aluminum, and electronics predominate.We leave the warehouse and go to see the star piece: a Grubb telescope, an Irish company, one of themost prestigious in the world for large astronomical telescopes during the 19th and 20th centuries. It is inside and, therefore, does not work. After all, seeing the sky from Barcelona's Diagonal – an area with significant light pollution – is of little interest.

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.

It couldn't be the year of quantum mechanics without the Nobel Prize in Physics also being awarded to the progress made in this field of physics over the last hundred years. Thus, the Swedish Academy of Sciences has awarded the prize to John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret, and John M. Martinis of the University of California, for their discovery of the macroscopic quantum tunneling effect and the quantization of energy in an electrical circuit. "It's fantastic to be able to celebrate that quantum mechanics has yielded many surprises in its hundred years of existence and is the basis of our technology," remarked Olle Eriksson, a member of the Nobel Prize Committee in Physics.

A physicist trying to develop a theory of everything straddling two antagonistic planets. This is the starting point ofThe dispossessed, by Ursula K. Le Guin, a science fiction classic in its most humane, political, social, and vindictive aspects. Le Guin is one of the genre's greatest exponents, known for her feminist and environmentalist views, always seeking utopias in previously unexplored corners.

Following a technical problem, paraglider Peng Yujiang ended up sucked into an updraft that carried him to an altitude of 8,598 meters, according to Chinese media. Guangming DailyDespite that unprecedented journey, the freezing process he experienced, and the lack of oxygen he suffered for several minutes, he was able to land safely because he never lost consciousness. All this happened on Saturday in the mountainous region of Qilian, in northeast China, and the videos recorded by the 360-degree camera attached to the paraglider are capturing headlines in the international media and videos on social media. But how was it possible for him to reach so high and return alive?