qiv

Except the marriage (i.e. the constitution) came into place way after Franco; and the Catalans approved it with a humongous majority!

Well, do you think it is worse than stationing four thousand police officers in cruise ships in the port of Barcelona? The Spanish government is determined to not let this happen. Period. Fortunately (and to make things more complicated) the parliament did not revoke the Catalan autonomy.

Well, the region grows better than almost any Spanish region (except maybe the metropolitan area of Madrid) and they saved their banks when the crisis hit them first ;-)

No, the central government is as petty as it gets. For instance when the Canaries banned bull fighting a long time ago there was no problem, but when the Catalans did it recently the ban was overthrown by Spanish courts. Don't get me wrong, the Catalans did not bann it because it is not part of "their culture" or because it is cruel, they just did it to piss off Madrid :-)

Also now for the referendum, the central government sent four thousand police officers in cruise ships to the port of Barcelona to prevent voting. Does not seem particularly grown up to me neither ...

I have a Junghans solar powered radio controlled watch. Plainly black, but it's made from space shuttle grade ceramics and it's only nerdy once you talk about it ;-)

I also thought about it, but I do not see people flocking to synthetic biology. I have the feeling they are further from big breakthroughs, but this might just be my environment ...

I am a physicist in biology (so take these with a grain of salt) and CRISPR is arguably the most exciting development there. This technique allows to edit DNA based on guiding RNAs which can be readily synthesized in contrast to DNA binding proteins required for targeted editing before. What's more the same technology can be used to adjust gene regulation too. These techniques are not only giving basic research a big boost, but also making many new treatments possible.

Another hot topic are organoid bodies and organs-on-a-chip. These are experimental systems where stem cells are turned to grow into structures similar to embryos or organs that allow the study of development and facilitate drug testing etc.

Thirdly, advances in sequencing made it possible to study what kind of bacteria live symbiotically within and on us. The composition of this so called microbiome seems to widely affect body and mind.

Finally, in my personal field, the simulation of how "simple" cells build complex structures and solve difficult tasks, the most exciting development is GPGPU :-)