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Posted Sunday, Feb. 29, 2004; 15.48GMT
More earthly is the science of Cristina Casadevall, a student at Barcelona’s Narcís Monturiol Institute. Three years ago Cristina was watching TV with her mother, eating walnuts, when she wondered if anyone had ever thought of a use for the world’s nutshells. After thousands of hours of experimenting with various shells and resins as part of a physics and chemistry project, she came up with a material she’s called Ecocarcris. “It’s made from treated shells of various nuts combined with a resin,” says Cristina, now 18 and in the early stages of starting a business to produce her patented product. Its most practical use, given its flexibility and acoustic and thermal insulating properties, may be in buildings in lieu of more expensive cork or chipboard. She explains that, like her product, its name is a composite, from the Spanish words for ecological, shells, recycling and, of course, Cristina. Her teacher, Manuel Belmonte, says one of its attractions is that the main ingredient is a factory waste. “I marked her project 11 out of a possible 10,” says Belmonte.
One thing Spaniards know how to produce is a show. Barcelona ’92 was one of the best Olympics, not just for sport but for the way the city was reorganized around the Games. Now Madrid is bidding to host the 2012 Games, and Valencia has already beaten the competition for the 2007 America’s Cup challenge. Madrid’s recent 23rd Arco contemporary art fair featured 275 art galleries, more than half of them foreign. In the south, the new museum named for Malaga’s most famous son, Pablo Picasso, is drawing big crowds. Barcelona is soon to embark on 141 days of international fun, games and dialogue in Forum 2004, an event jointly organized and funded, in a rare gesture of togetherness, by the Barcelona city council, the Catalan government and the central government, starting May 9. The 30-hectare Forum site on the city’s waterfront has as its centerpiece a huge triangular glass-clad building with a 3,200-seat auditorium. Concerts, conferences — even a campsite for 1,200 children from 16 cities around the world — will have three main themes: sustainable development, peace and cultural diversity.
More prosaically, Spain easily leads Europe in housing construction, and its 17 car and truck factories last year made just over 3 million vehicles, behind only France and Germany in Europe, and seventh worldwide. On a tastier note, Spain’s recent olive harvest will press to about 1.5 million tons of oil — never mind that this is almost double its E.U. subsidy quota.
For one final indicator of just how far the nation has come, consider the humble prawn, which inspires near-religious fervor in national cuisine but which in outsiders’ eyes has typically been lumped with so many other stereotypes of Spain … bullfights, sangría, hooded Holy Week processions. Now a group of scientists at the University of Alicante—in a joint E.U.-funded project with colleagues in Germany and Finland — has found that the prawn can do more than adorn paella. They have shown that vegetable seeds — onions, tomatoes, beans, peppers and others—when encapsulated in a polymer made from discarded prawn peelings have a shorter germination time, are more vigorous and are less vulnerable to attack from pathogens. It’s not revealed how many peeled gambas have been scoffed in the name of science, but the project pretty much encapsulates modern Spain: working with Europe, growing strongly, resistant … and still with a big appetite for life’s pleasures.
With reporting by Jumana Farouky/London, Samuel Loewenberg and Jane Walker/Madrid and Dolly Mascareñas/Mexico City
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Divide And Conquer [Mar. 1, 2004]
Basque terrorist group ETA throws a "message bomb" into the Spanish general-election campaign
Death Coast [Dec 2, 2002]
After an aging tanker sins off Spain, a vast slick of fuel oil destroys beaches, wildlife and fishermen's dreams. Could this disaster have been prevented?
They Came To Reign in Spain [Sep. 27, 2002]
You wait for a major sporting competition to come along, and three show up at the same time.
A Meeting Of Minds [Jul. 15, 2002]
European Union leaders meet in Seville to look for common ground on everything
Gaudí Mania [Apr. 26, 2002]
The work of controversial architect Antoni Gaudí is getting a fresh look as Spain marks the 150th anniversary of his birth
Bust In Madrid [Dec. 21, 2001]
A well-established al-Qaeda cell may have been directly involved in planning the U.S. terrorist attacks
Madrid: Living la Vida Loca [Nov. 12, 2001]
Madrileos like it late, loud and lively in their multitude of bars and restaurants
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