The Canfranc Laboratory is located eight hundred meters underground, in the Aragonese Pyrenees, where scientists from eleven countries strive to unravel the secrets of the universe. This Spanish research space, the second largest underground facility in Europe, is led by Veigueño Carlos Pena. Yesterday, he held a conference in his hometown council to bring this “gem” closer to the younger ones and arouse their scientific curiosity. He said, “Science is fun, it’s an adventure, because what we scientists do is play with nature. And the scientific advocacy is not in cities, it’s for those who say ‘I want to understand that’.”
His show, titled The Universe We Can’t See, is part of the School and Communication Forum and was followed by a group of students from the Institutes of Navia and Vegadeo. Peña Garay, who has focused his scientific career for more than two decades on knowledge of neutrinos, conquered the youth with a kind and interesting discourse to address complex issues such as the aforementioned neutrinos or dark matter. Both issues are the subject of research at Canfranc, an ideal setting, he said, because “the mountain allows experiences to be shielded from external noise and enforces a kind of cosmic silence.”
“In the lab we are trying to understand what dark matter is, which we only know is matter and that it is dark,” he said. “It’s six times more abundant than what we formed, but we don’t know what it is.” Garay, at that time defended the main role that matter plays in the universe.
Pina Garay, a theoretical physicist by training, was convinced of the positive role the pandemic has played in scientists’ appreciation and also emphasized the importance of obtaining stable funding for projects. At Canfranc, they ensured that over the next ten years, something “cool” that allowed them to embark on projects such as leading the Spanish contribution to the construction of a large telescope, seventy meters in diameter, which will allow us to see inside the stars.
