Twenty-five years ago, Pompeu Fabra University embarked on a new adventure: doing research and teaching in the field of health and life sciences. Today, it is celebrating this anniversary in the context of a rapidly changing world, in which artificial intelligence has permeated all areas of knowledge and the health of the planet is at stake.

It has been a quarter of a century of exploring life from every possible perspective, without ever losing sight of biology and medicine. In a stimulating and fruitful ecosystem, the Department and Faculty of Medicine and Life Sciences have dedicated themselves to research and to training professionals who understand the full scope of the meaning of health, which involves not only the absence of pain, but also care, prevention and method.

In this issue of the magazine, we will review the 25-year history of the Faculty of Medicine and Life Sciences and hear from two medical students who balance their studies with elite sport.

We have also sought to highlight the connection between caring for the body and caring for the environment. To this end, some of this issue’s feature stories and interviews address the challenges of today’s society from different points of view. For instance, we explore the potential of data to reveal things that cannot be seen with the naked eye or to be a tool for discovering and designing strategies that can impact everything from the most precise research to city governance.

To tackle the challenges of planetary well-being, engineering and the humanities are also converging on the use of artificial intelligence, a subject that several experts write about in this issue. We aim to make a virtue of diversity to get the most out of having a wide range of starting points, backgrounds and perspectives.

And lest the future overwhelm us, we have set aside a space for art, which will always be a refuge. Because art is that space that encourages the deepest reflection, prompting us to rethink how we live and function. It is a stimulus to spark creativity, which will always be the driving force behind research and, ultimately, knowledge.