Humboldt and Darwin belonged to different generations and their approaches to the study of nature differed. However, they had something in common: their lives were shaken up and changed course after their respective journeys, which marked the starting point of their fruitful scientific careers.

From the seventeenth century on, problems in physics became the object of careful study. The expeditions were made to acquire otherwise unobtainable data, needed to study specific problems in physics.

In the late eighteenth century, the Spanish Crown, like other monarchies, began promoting expeditions which, as well as laying claim on the territories visited, compiled studies and catalogues of their natural resources. On their return, however, most members of these expeditions met with misunderstanding and neglect by the very institutions that had promoted the mission.

Between 1716 and 1717, Joan Salvador i Riera, an apothecary from Barcelona and Antoine de Jussieu, a professor of botany at Le Jardin du Roi in Paris, travelled the roads of Spain and Portugal, sometime by calash, sometimes on mule back, to make «botanical observations». This article provides a brief overview of the Salvador family and a glimpse of the journey made by these two naturalists.

Popular science finds itself in a new scenario where a shortage of information has been replaced by abundant and often freely available knowledge sources. Although often produced by amateurs, such information may be of a similar or even better quality than that produced professionally. Consequently, there is greater collaboration between professionals and amateurs, making it more difficult to distinguish between them. 

The KNP (Kruger National Park) is not another one of the thousands of protected areas in the world: 260 km long, more than two million hectares, 900 km of fence,

A slow yet extremely reflexive writer We have to recognise it: without Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913), Darwin may have never published The Origin of Species. Retired in his house in Down,

English physicist and writer Charles Percy Snow (1905-1980) sometimes asked representatives of the so-called «traditional culture» – humanism for him – if any of them could explain the second law

Every journey, even the most trivial, has an element of discovery, both in terms of discovering the outside world and the traveller’s self-discovery. For some travellers, however, discovery is the very purpose of their journey, and history has witnessed their widely ranging objectives, ingenuity and deeds.

In 2003, European Union (EU) countries devoted an average of 1.9% of their GDP to research and technological development (RTD), while the USA and Japan were closer to 3%. The

[caption id="attachment_14152" align="alignleft" width="200"] Photo: Jorge Wagensberg[/caption] We all feel interdisciplinary thinking is necessary, but very few people actually practise it. It is commonly regarded as productive, but it is always

Alliaceae is a subspecies of the genus Allium. Some of them are used as food or condiments. These plants have evolved to develop different protection mechanisms against predators, insects and microorganisms.

You will have probably heard about the Mars One project, a Dutch private initiative that aims to establish a permanent settlement on Mars. The news has had a strong impact

If we turn our gaze on the past of medicine we will immediately see how medical diagnoses –the terms identifying illnesses– are arbitrary and change over time. After all, diagnoses

My thingy (a smartphone) is not smart. Versatile and fast, yes; intelligent, not at all. It controls a lot of routines and no reasoning. That is not intelligence.

[caption id="attachment_14099" align="alignleft" width="200"] Mala farma. Cómo las empresas farmacéuticas engañan a los médicos y perjudican a los pacientes. Ben Goldacre. Paidós. Barcelona, 2013. 364 pages.[/caption] Finally, a book explaining the

The curious and primitive aspect of Triops is certainly noteworthy. In fact, it has been under consideration by zoologists for a long time. If we compared fossils with currently living

Our contributor Jaume Benaiges located documental evidence of a tragedy in the Pauls parish archives, not knowing they were part of a series of victims previously attributed to man-eating carnivores. Events took place in the massif of Els Ports and turn out to be difficult to evaluate 150 years later.

  The last two decades have witnessed the widespread use of genetic testing in courtrooms, to identify criminals from biological remains, determine paternity or identify corpses. Less is known, however, about

In recent decades, oncohematology has witnessed major advances in cancer treatment and survival. The toxicity associated with classical chemotherapy, and the need to improve the efficacy and tolerance to treatment,

From the perspective of public health intervention, there is no better weapon than one which can prevent disease transmission or onset. Within the field of infectious diseases, vaccines have become the weapon that can control many of them.