Text written in Basque and translated automatically by Elia without any subsequent editing. SEE ORIGINAL

Close up: Collection of the season

Seasonal collection of interviewees from the Up Close section.

HUGO MAYOR: Hi, I'm Hugo Mayor, Ikerbasque researcher. It is necessary
to be curious about our profession in order to find answers to the questions we ask.

JABIER THE KNIFE: From a young age I loved physics, biology too; but I loved that mathematical description of the physical processes that take place in the world. Then I felt the vocation from the beginning.

ANNICK LARUELLE: Hello, I am Annick Azalelle, researcher at Ikerbasque; this particular French melody denounces my Belgian origin. I’d say I’m already a little Portuguese. I
investigate game theory and social selection. Social selection explores the mechanisms of collective decision-making, that is, what are the best rules to unite people’s desires.

THE FELIX BRIDGE: When I was a child, I didn’t want to be a doctor. When I was a kid, I wanted to be a footballer, if I could be a Real player, or a machinist. But then I decided to go into medicine, I’m very satisfied, and it’s true that for me it’s more than a profession.

MIREN CAJARAVILLE: Hello, I am Miren Cajaraville, Professor at the Faculty of Science of the UPV/EHU, and I lead a research group, the research group Cellular Biology in Environmental
Toxicology. The basic research we carry out serves to empower knowledge. On the other hand, we do applied research; I think it is very useful to know the effects of pollutants. You'll remember the Prestige spill. How this affected the coast at the time of the accident, how it affected fish living in the sea or molluscs on the coast.

XABIER RUBIO: What I like the most and what fills me the most is working with animals. To know things about them and to follow them in some way, and to learn and see their habits, to see them alive in nature. That's what I like the most.

FROM ONINTZE SALAZAR: Hello, I am Onintze Salazar, meteorologist and I work in Euskalmet. First we need to know that it is a prediction, a prediction, a probability. Meteorology, the atmosphere, follows the theory of chaos and, according to the theory of chaos, predictions cannot be made with 100% reliability. They cannot be done today, and they cannot be done. What we are achieving over the years is making better and better predictions.

XABIER AGOTE: It is well understood that we need to take care of the terrestrial architecture. And perhaps this architecture of the sea or this typology of the sea, created by our ancestors and developed over the centuries, has all been forgotten. The sea has always been farther away from us; on the other hand, as we have built ships of wood, they have had a short survival, and we have been left with very few clues. That is the importance of our work.

ARANTXA ARANBURU: I am Arantxa Aranburu, PhD in geology, university professor. This socio-economic evolution that we have today would not exist if these natural raw materials - whether they are coal or the exploitation of various materials - did not exist, and all this depends on geology.

MANUEL CARREIRAS: My name is Manuel Carreiras, Scientific Director of the Basque Center On Cognition Brain and Language. We are investigating the differences between the brains of bilingual and monolingual people in terms of information processing.

URTZI AYESTA: I would mention the usefulness of research in relation to a society on two levels. On the one hand, the result of the investigation itself. In this respect, we should say that what we do has no direct application, at least not in the short term; but in the long term, it can be very important or decisive for the economic situation of a country.

ROBERTO URIBEETXEBERRIA: Hello, I am Roberto Uribeetxeberria, PhD in Engineering and Professor and Researcher at Mondragon Unibertsitatea. Entrepreneurs are increasingly demanding researchers, and we live in a highly competitive world where research brings added value to the product, something that will not happen without research. And we cannot compete with other countries. So it is being valued more and more, but I think it should and will be valued even more.