That was precisely the feeling I had when I read about the work developed by GTechPlasma, a spin-off of the Institute of Plasmas and Nuclear Fusion of Instituto Superior Técnico, which is developing a graphene-based material capable of drastically reducing the radar signature of drones and military aircraft.

According to Bruno Soares Gonçalves, co-founder of the company, estimates point to this material being able to reduce the radar signature of an F-16 to levels comparable to those of a bird. If this capacity is confirmed on an industrial and operational scale, we are not facing a simple laboratory innovation. We are facing a technology with enormous strategic potential for Portugal and Europe.

What impresses me most is that this story brings together practically everything we so often say we want for our country: scientific research of excellence, internationally protected intellectual property, deep-tech technology, connection between universities and companies, industrial production in Portugal and applications in strategic sectors with high added value.

The technology makes it possible to produce customised graphene materials through plasma, controlling their properties at the atomic level. In addition to the absorption of radar and electromagnetic radiation, there are potential applications in hydrogen storage, rare earth separation and even uranium. The machine developed is patented in the United States, Japan and Europe, while industrialisation is expected to advance through Plasmaphene, in Vila Viçosa.

And here again arises a question that I have asked in many of my articles: how many extraordinary companies and technologies are being born in Portugal today without the country itself truly realising its value?

We write daily about tourism, house prices, football and political controversies. All of this is part of the national reality. But while we discuss the immediate, there are Portuguese companies developing drones, satellites, artificial intelligence, space technology, advanced materials, energy and solutions that could become critical for European strategic autonomy.

I have written about TEKEVER, about ICEYE Portugal and about the growth of the Portuguese space economy. Now we find another piece of this new technological Portugal at GTechPlasma. These are not isolated events. They begin to form a pattern.

Our biggest challenge may no longer be to prove that we have talent. The talent exists. The investigation exists. Companies are starting to emerge. The real challenge is to create capital, industrial scale, marketing capacity and a national strategy that prevents these technologies from disappearing, being sold too soon or growing in other countries due to a lack of conditions in Portugal.

We should not exaggerate a technology before it has fully proven its industrial and operational capacity. But we cannot continue to discover through the international press what is most extraordinary within our own borders.

Perhaps Portugal is much closer to the world's technological frontier than we ourselves imagine.

The problem is that, too often, the world seems to discover this before we do.