Catalonia is one of the territories with the most clinical trials active in the world. In 2025 it participated in 5,768 studies, which catapulted it to seventh place in the world ranking, according to the BioRegion of Catalonia Report. The United States, with 38,218 trials underway, and China, with 17,321, led the list of countries.

Watching a child is hypnotic. You look at them closely and often see things in them that you recognize yourself in. And when you see something you don't recognize, you marvel, thinking where they must have gotten it from. One day, your young son told you: "Death has entered me and I don't know what's wrong with me, but today it's not leaving me."

Everyone remembers how The PISA tests revealed the low level of our students in mathematics or reading comprehension. These tests also revealed a low level in science, but few talk about this, even though Catalan students' knowledge of biology, technology, and earth sciences is eight points below the Spanish average and that of OECD countries. In this same vein, the basic skills tests administered by the Generalitat (Catalan government) in sixth grade show that science receives the worst scores of all subjects. In the last year evaluated, 2025, science is the only subject with a failing grade. No other subject has such poor results. Catalan children know more English than physics or geology.

The launch of the first artificial satellite by the Soviet Union on October 4, 1957, had a positive effect on science education in the United States. The fear provoked by the success of the rival superpower led to the promotion and funding of science education at all levels. Even Darwin's theory of evolution, sidelined by pressure from influential religious groups, regained its place in high schools. It was the Sputnik moment.