"Understanding the world" is the leitmotiv of the Empíric festival, that for the first time is being celebrated with the goal of bridging the gap between Science and Humanities. For more than one week, different activities (talks, debates, exhibitions, poetry performances, etc.) will take place around the city of Cerdanyola to promote a fruitful exchange between both disciplines.

Empíric will be open on Saturday 12th November 2022 at the experimental hall of the ALBA Synchrotron. Caterina Biscari, director of the ALBA Synchrotron, will participate in a roundtable with writer Martí Domínguez, moderated by Salvador Macip, where the connections between science and literature will be explored. The opportunities and dangers of Internet will also be analysed by writer Belén Gopegui and Carme Torras, chaired by journalist Mariola Dinarès.

This new festival will continue the whole week by offering different activities in other areas of the city like the library or the Parc Tecnològic del Vallès, ending on Sunday 20th November 2022.

By taking part of the Empíric Festical, "we open ALBA to be closer to the city, showing that there are no barriers between Humanities, Arts and Science, which are all expressions of the human creative capacities", says Caterina Biscari, director of the ALBA Synchrotron.

Empíric is organized with the support of the Fundación Española para la Ciencia y la Tecnología. The ALBA Synchrotron is part of the of the Unidades de Cultura Científica y de la Innovación (UCC+i) of the FECYT and has received support through the FCT-21-17088 project.

The first element in the optics, the horizontal prefocusing mirror (HPM), located inside the optical hutch, is used to absorb about half of the power of the synchrotron light and provides a first horizontal focus of the beam.