For millions of years, nature has basically been getting by with just a few elements from the periodic table. Carbon, calcium, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, phosphorus, silicon, sulphur, magnesium and potassium are the building blocks of almost all life on our planet (tree trunks, leaves, hairs, teeth, etc.). However, to build the world of humans — cities, healthcare products, railways, aeroplanes and their engines, computers, smartphones — we need many more chemical elements.

The clocks at the Can Balasc biological station slowed down at 11 am on November 25. At that time, a multidisciplinary group gathered in this privileged forest space located in the heart of the Collserola Park to reflect on time. Several people from the worlds of science, art, design, philosophy, poetry and history, among others, stopped to question the accelerated pace of life and contrast it with the extensive and cyclical experience of nature.