The Minister of Business and Labor of the Generalitat, Miquel Sàmper, boasted last week about an achievement that seems unimaginable not only from Catalonia, but from anywhere in Europe: "We are at a similar level to the United States or China" in the development of deep technology, he assured. This is the quantum industry, one that seems to be part of futuristic fiction, but which is already doing business in the Principality.

In the office ofEva Miranda (Reus, 1973), you're welcomed by a sea of ​​rubber duckies of different sizes and outfits; a very curious orange plush toy; and a suspiciously Newtonian plastic apple. In the background, blackboards are covered in mathematical formulas, indecipherable to those outside the field. A professor at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia and a member of the Center for Mathematical Research, she has been distinguished as an ICREA Academia member and has received the most prestigious international awards. Her research focuses on the areas of geometry and topology, the study of shapes, and their interactions with mathematical physics.