Mercedes Maestre was a republican doctor who developed exceptional activism for social reform and the right to health.

ABSTRACT At the beginning of the atomic age, Francoist Spain launched an expensive project to develop, research and use nuclear energy. Scientists, the military and high-ranking officials in the administration mobilised to materialise a technoscientific dream with an international scope. The modernity of nuclear science

The end of the Civil War also ended a period of scientific and cultural development, which had taken place during the Republic. Scientists and intellectuals who had been part of academic life, and often political life too, were faced with the choice of staying in Spain or going into exile abroad after the Francoist victory.