{"id":2124,"date":"2025-05-21T10:42:24","date_gmt":"2025-05-21T08:42:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ull.es\/portal\/noticias\/2025\/05\/21\/ana-crespo-y-john-mather-mirar-lo-invisible\/"},"modified":"2026-10-26T08:48:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-26T07:48:15","slug":"ana-crespo-y-john-mather-mirar-lo-invisible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ull.es\/portal\/noticias\/en\/2025\/05\/21\/ana-crespo-y-john-mather-mirar-lo-invisible\/","title":{"rendered":"Ana Crespo and John Mather: looking at the invisible"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ana Mar\u00eda Crespo and John Mather have left an indelible mark on their respective fields. Crespo, a pioneer in the study of lichen symbiosis, has championed a patient science, attentive to the invisible and profoundly human. Mather, Nobel laureate in Physics, has led discoveries that have redefined our understanding of the cosmos and continues to lead some of NASA's most ambitious projects, such as the James Webb Space Telescope.<\/span><\/p>\n

To mark this academic distinction, we spoke with both of them about science, vocation, public universities, and the profound meaning of observing what has always been there. From roots to stars, their stories remind us that research is, above all, a way of being in the world.<\/span><\/p>\n

Pulling the thread: science as a way of life\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

There are scientific careers that, beyond their discoveries, tell a story of vocation, identity, and return. Ana Mar\u00eda Crespo de las Casas's is one of them. An internationally renowned biologist, the first woman to preside over the Royal Academy of Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences of Spain, and a specialist in a microscopic world that very few know, but on which we all depend: the world of lichens. Her history with the University of La Laguna symbolically comes full circle with her investiture as an honorary doctorate, a recognition that connects with that moment when, as a young teenager from Tenerife, she had to leave for Madrid to study Biology, a degree that did not yet exist on her island.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Hers is a story of science, yes, but also of affection. It's a story of a childhood marked by admiration for a scientist grandfather, of a vocation that took shape in the everyday, and of a gaze that, from a very early age, focused on the small, the seemingly insignificant. Crespo was always drawn to detail: the insects in the garden, the threads of her grandmother's embroidery, the texture of a tree's bark. All of this unknowingly led her to a field of study that demands patience, precision, and an uncommon sensitivity to discover universes where others only see blemishes.<\/span><\/p>\n

As a child, Ana would glance at the University of La Laguna building. It awe-inspiring. It fascinated her. That building, which she could only imagine from the inside, became for her a symbol of something greater: knowledge, the future, possibility. Science has been for her a fine, invisible thread, one she began to follow from a very young age. From those first stirrings of curiosity, she has followed that thread with unwavering dedication, weaving with it a whole life devoted to observing, thinking, and sharing.<\/span><\/p>\n

A sense of wonder at the natural world awakened in her from a very young age. \u201cIt must have been my grandfather\u2019s fault,\u201d she admits, recalling the figure who instilled in her the value of knowledge. By the age of seven or eight, she was already lost in musings about Mars and other \u201crather outlandish\u201d ideas, she remembers with a laugh. She observed, read, and imagined. From the stones on the path to the stars, everything could spark her questions. That restless child felt that the world was whispering mysteries in her ear, and she wanted to hear them all.<\/span><\/p>\n

She grew up surrounded by intellectual and emotional stimulation. In her family, study and curiosity were a natural part of daily life: her mother had studied in La Laguna, and her sister would follow in her footsteps. Books, conversations at home, the example of her elders\u2014everything prepared the ground for science to take root in her. Although, upon finishing school, she still considered other options. She was drawn to architecture\u2014"I still love it"\u2014and thought about pursuing it. But during her pre-university studies, something decisive happened: biology classes ignited a new spark. The life that pulsed in the minuscule, in the invisible, began to pull at her inner thread more strongly than blueprints or structures. Ana felt that this was her path. And she decided to follow it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Studying Biology meant moving to mainland Spain. In the late 1960s, the University of La Laguna didn't offer that degree. For a 17-year-old, leaving the island was no small decision. With a suitcase full of dreams, she set off for Madrid. The initial excitement soon gave way to a sense of unease. "The break, when I left, was terrible," she confesses. The young woman who longed to explore new horizons also discovered the weight of displacement and the sharp pain of homesickness.<\/span><\/p>\n