Opening the event, Teresa Vallés, the Dean of the Faculty of Humanities at the UIC, spoke of the importance of academic debating opportunities like the Forum, which “has the same general purpose as that of higher education: to train people who find out the reason of something, who have critical minds — capable of seeking out the essential nature of things — and, thirdly, a keen interest in life and the strength of purpose to continue to seek it out”.

David Jou was introduced by Bernat Torres, also a professor in the Faculty of Humanities, and gave a highly methodical presentation of the reasons why the world — the whole universe — is as it is, and has such a strong relation with the individual, with each one of us. Using a variety of facts and huge numbers, Jou explained, “Not all celestial bodies are capable of supporting life, only those stars that are approximately like the sun: that are midway through a ten-billion-year life span". Jou went on to explain that there could well be life in another universe, but — as far as we know — it would require such a host of factors as to render it ultimately impossible. At the same time — Jou continued — these facts tell us of the strong relation between our existence and the existence of the whole universe in its current condition. He said, "There are close links between people and the cosmos, occurring on both the biological and the cosmological scale”, although “in order to describe the internal universe of a person, we find we need much more information than is needed to describe the exterior universe, the interaction between neurons being much more varied and complex than that which exists between the billions of galaxies”.

The UAB professor concluded by encouraging attendees to participate in this year’s forum, because “interaction with our environment is fundamental”. As happens every year, the UIC’s UNIV Forum will take place in February, when the different teams will have the opportunity to present their papers and the winners will be able to participate in the international phase, organized for the Istituto per la Cooperazione Universitaria (ICU), and held in Rome at the Pontificia Università della Santa Croce during Holy Week.