Making a person control a prosthesis with their brain, developing implants capable of interacting with nerve tissue, or identifying patterns in brain activity using artificial intelligence. All of this is no longer science fiction: in many places around the world, the scientific community is striving to achieve a better brain-machine connection that, on one hand, deepens the knowledge of the most complex organ in the human body and, on the other, improves people's lives. Catalonia wants to be part of this neurotechnological race on a European scale, and the Government has chosen Cerdanyola del Vallès as a reference hub.

The conversation about artificial intelligence has focused mostly on the product. ChatGPT (OpenAI) or Claude (Anthropic) have become ubiquitous on users' devices; and, with them, in the social conversation. Like all technological disruptions of the scale that is assumed for AI, however, widespread adoption is the key to any significant advance. This adoption is among the fields of study of Marta Serra-Garcia, a Catalan economist and professor of economics and strategy at the Rady School of Management at the University of California - San Diego specialized in behavioral economics, who has studied public trust in AI. Serra-Garcia receives ARA at the Ciutadella campus of the Pompeu Fabra University, where she studied and where she has returned to participate in the European Meeting of the Economic Science Association, organized by the center's department of economics.

The brain, despite the years and resources dedicated to studying it, still holds many mysteries. And this is due, in large part, to its extreme complexity, with tens of trillions of neurons and synaptic connections that control everything that happens in the human body. Among the scientific voices that have set out to build an easier relationship with the nervous system, that of the Catalan Eduard Masvidal (Tarragona, 1992) stands out. This postdoctoral researcher at the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2) has focused his research on how new materials and microelectronic technology can help treat neurological disorders as widespread as Parkinson's or epilepsy.

Reducing emissions, generating energy, and obtaining fertilizers, and above all, continuing to research. These are the three functions of the new biogas plant that the Director General of Agriculture and Livestock, Rosa Altisent, presented this Monday at the facilities of the Institute of Agrifood Research and Technology (IRTA) in Constantí (Tarragonès), Mas Bové. It is the first biogas plant in the entire State at a public research center, and this characteristic should foster knowledge about this energy generation system, which, although it has been used for a long time, has gained more interest in recent years, partly due to the price hikes caused by the war in the Middle East, one of the areas where the most fertilizers in the whole world are produced.

One of the many ways in which public universities in the State try to attract talent and entice high-level researchers to develop their research here are the Ramón y Cajal contracts. This program from the Ministry of Science and Universities has served for 25 years as a tool for the beneficiaries researchers to eventually obtain, after a few years, a stable job position. However, this objective of ending up with a stable position is what various researchers are now denouncing is at risk.