Barcelona hosted the ConnectAI Industry Congress this week, on Wednesday the 28th and Thursday the 29th, at CosmoCaixa, with a clear ambition: to transform artificial intelligence into a truly useful tool for Catalan industry, or, as the organizer put it, "a lever for competitiveness." Far from futuristic speeches or pyrotechnic demonstrations, the congress, sponsored by Ayesa, LC Pack, Orange Empresas, and Amphos21, was conceived as a forum to discuss practical applications, efficiency, and impact, with the explicit aim of moving "from fascination to action." ConnectAI, held in the Catalan capital—which the organizers champion as the country's industrial and technological epicenter—brought together companies, research centers, government agencies, and technology providers under three major cross-cutting themes: industry, technology, and knowledge. It also brought together more than 700 companies from the Catalan technology industry, represented by clusters such as water, the packaging, energy and the digital industry. The common thread throughout all the sessions has been the idea that AI is not an end in itself, but a lever for transformation to address very specific challenges in day-to-day business.

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.

Fossils are witnesses to the past and essential pieces for scientific dissemination. They allow us to understand evolution, the history of the Earth, and the existence of already extinct species, such as the mammoth. An animal that coexisted and interacted with humans for thousands of years, it is essential to know more about it now that our planet is facing great challenges that inevitably recall the conditions suspected to have contributed to its disappearance, such as the climate crisis or human action.