English language challenges

I think that learning a new language it's a challenge for all of us, but also it's a requirement for a lot of things.

The english it's a important tool that help us in a lot of ways, thought this year i've been realized that in career the english is essential (like in all the areas, I think), the scientific world makes new discoverements day to day, and we need communicate this discoverements, because another researcher could be doing the same discoverement in another part of the world, so the knowledge must be globalized, and how we do this? how we achieved that every person can understand our information? throught the english.

My experience learning english at my university it's good, I mean, it could be better, like I've said in others posts, I hate writing blogs, because I think that the blogs made me write things of me and I don't like doing that. Besides, the professorship it's so monotone, I don't say that the teacher it's that haha but the program of the subject english it's (for me) badly done, if the classes were more interactive, if we have more talking sessions, that would be better.  

about the experience, in general, it's target is satisfy, I suppose, but at the expense of force the students to write things that, maybe, they don't want to write, or things that they don't want to say. 

The topics of the blogs are general, I mean they don't aim to personal things, but they do it anyway.

In the future the course shouldn't force the students to make things that they don't want to do, things that disturb the students, in my opinion, there's a lot of other activities, more inclusive, where students can learn english in a way more comfortable.

It's so boring sit and write in a computer, or any other technology tool, the majority of my days I arrive to my home and I use my computer, I think that I don't need another computer here, It's more fun interact with my classmates, talk to them, ask things that I want to ask and they want to response, maybe make a little friendship, who knows.

Outside the english class, I use english for read some scientific articles, the majority of the music that I listen it's in english so that's another thing where I use the english, mmh, to read things in general, I think that everyday I do something related to english. 

System education

Hi, today in this blog I have to talk about the system education in my faculty, I have never thought in this, simply I think that it's good.

About my subjects, my career is conformed for a basic cycle based in science, mainly chemistry, basic knowledge of science that the four career in my faculty has to know for a good performance in their respective careers.

the first two cycles of my career

The academic load, according to me, is hard, we have a lot of evaluations and we always have to prepare a lot for each one.

The duration of the studies in the faculty are eleven semesters, these semesters are composed of: four semesters of the basic cycle that I mentioned, four semesters of the degree cycle, in this cycle each career focuses on their discipline, the subjects are much more specific for each career, and finally, three semesters of the professional cycle, in which we must externalize our work a bit, I mean to work with the environment, although in my case, in biochemistry that is a bit more difficult due to the intense research that leads to the race. In any case, in the professional cycle, we must study some subjects, but the main activity is the title memory, better known as thesis.

Regarding the structure of the faculty, although it is not as big as other campuses of other universities, I like it. The faculty has two main buildings in which are the offices of the academics, and their laboratories, also in these buildings there are some multipurpose laboratories and administrative offices such as secretariat of studies. In addition, it has a bioterium, a cozy cafeteria, a library, a sports court, a kind of dining room, mmh and different spaces of green areas distributed by the faculty.

Finally, the teachers that I have met are very good, they are always in their offices ready to answer my questions. Most of them work with power points, they just come to the room, project their computer and start talking, it's a very useful tool because writing everything on the board takes a lot of time. We also have an online platform called u-courses in which teachers can tell us things, upload our grades, we as students can open forums, it's very interactive.

boring holidays

Hello, in this post I will talk about the holiday season.

the holiday season is, for me, the most boring season of the year, there is usually nothing to do, I stay at home watching a series, movies, sometimes playing a video game, but I feel that all that time is time lost. Instead, I would like to spend time on something productive, learn something new, study. In most of my summers, there are a few weeks in which I study but it's not 100% efficient because I'm not under the same pressure that I'm during the rest of the year, in fact, I am not under any pressure.

I think that the time we have to go on vacation is a lot, that is, three months, one quarter of the year, without doing anything, it's too much.

Next summer I will most likely stay in Santiago for the month of December and January, except for the end of the year parties, there I'll travel to my family's house. But in the rest of the time, I'll stay working in the lab, because I can dedicate myself every day to do it, I won't have to worry about my other subjects.

In February, as the laboratory closes, I'll have to go to Temuco, most likely in that month my family will go on vacation to someplace where there is sea so I will stay at home, I hate the sea, I load the salt that has, the waves that don't leave you alone, I hate the summer weather, the crowds of people, so the best thing is that I stay in the house, besides, I take care of my cat and spend time with him.

If I had the opportunity, I would go to the Torres del Paine, as well as to the national parks of the country. I've been wanting to go for a long time but my family doesn't like those things. With whom to go? mmh while it's someone who is a good company, it's fine.

everyday and not so everyday drugs: benefits and dangers

Drugs are very common in our society, every day we consuming drugs and we don't think about that, when we drink a coffee, a tea, etcetera. Basically, A drug is any substance that, when inhaled, injected, smoked, consumed, absorbed via a patch on the skin, or dissolved under the tongue, causes a physiological change in the body.

There are different mechanisms of reaction of drugs, mainly drugs act at the level of the central nervous system, some drugs block the release of neurotransmitters to the synaptic cleft, which results in an inhibition of the neurotransmitter effect, this mechanism is common in drugs used to reduce pain. On the other hand, other drugs release more neurotransmitters or inhibit their reabsorption, increasing and/or prolonging the effect caused by the neurotransmitter. 

Under this concept, three common terms are defined within this context, tolerance, dependence, and abstinence. When one habitually consumes a type of drug, the body begins to need higher and higher doses in order to feel the same effect, this is known as tolerance. When one consumes the same drug for a prolonged time, the body becomes accustomed to remain under the effects of the drug, this is known as dependence. As the organism becomes accustomed to receive certain doses of the drug from time to time, when the organism is not supplied of the drug, it undergoes a set of physical and psychic alterations that appear in a person when it leaves abruptly to take a substance to which it is accustomed or addicted.

When someone is involved with these terms in relation to a drug, their life can be complicated a bit. the individual will try to get the substance of interest by whatever means is necessary, leaving aside his family, studies, work, and his life in general. This is one of the biggest risks related to drug addiction, because everything that someone has achieved collapses because of this addiction.

but not all drugs are harmful, or at least not in small amounts. We know that there are some substances that we consume daily, and are considered drugs, such as coffee, tea, chocolates, candies in general, and so on. these substances produce a pleasant effect in our body, but do not have a high degree of addiction, allowing us to enjoy its effects without major complications. Of course, in its right measure.

Another benefit of drugs is their use in health, many drugs are used to decrease the pain that some diseases cause, or to reassure some patients who need to be calm, an example close to me is my grandmother, she has arthritis and osteoarthritis, his hands, arms, and feet always hurt, but some time ago he began to use marijuana milk, and his pains have diminished, many other people use the same products to achieve similar effects.

As for me, I tried some drugs, but I do not want to talk about me in the post jej, and I don't know someone addicted to a drug of abuse.

The effects of drugs are very variable, depending on the type of drug (stimulant, depressant, etc), depends on the amount consumed, but to mention a few, mmh could be the instability that causes in the motor system a lot of alcohol in the blood, or the inhibition of hormones in charge of regulating the urge to go to the bathroom, producing excessive desire to go to the bathroom. The cigarette has very negative effects on the body, due to its large number of chemicals, it is capable of producing different diseases, mainly cancers, but also degeneration of the retina, diabetes, dysfunction in sexual activity, and so on.

In my faculty, the use of drugs to study different effects is very important, especially for the pharmacy career.
In society, I believe that the subject of drugs is a taboo subject, but less and less, it would be better for people, in general, to be informed about the effects of drugs, their risks, and benefits.

Post graduate studies

Hi, today I have to talk you about post graduate studies, I'm a little young to think about that but I have to do it.

Like I said in my last blog, I don't have a idea about the post graduate studies that I'll do, but I know that I have to do one. 

The University of Chile has a program in which you can postulate to a master in fourth grade of your undergraduate studies, to start this master in fifth year, simultaneous to your last year in the undergraduate school, and then you have to do one thesis, for both program! I think that is so beneficial, because you save a lot of time. Considering that, I want to do the master of biochemistry of University of Chile, with the specialization "biochemistry of proteins and biotechnology", I think that this master will give me a lot of knowledge in the area of proteins, how they work, their folding, how to purify them, etcetera. 

About my PhD studies, I don't know, I think that it will depend of my interests about certain research. Actually, I'm interested on chronic diseases, cardiovascular diseases, this themes are related with the metabolism, so, at the molecular level, I have to study the metabolic machinery of the cell, like the mitochondria. Considering that, a possible PhD can be the PhD on biomedical sciences of the faculty of medicine, or the PhD in biochemistry of the faculty of chemical sciences and pharmacy, but, like I said, I don't know.

The place of my post graduate studies is even more uncertain, I mean, I want to do the master in this

university, but the place of the PhD is uncertain, maybe here, maybe abroad, I don't know, but I know

that my post graduate studies must be full-time study, because I think that is more efficient.

My future job

Hi, today I'm gonna talk you about my future job.

if everything goes well, I'll be a biochemist, and I want to work as a researcher and teacher at the university, obviously, I want to work in a laboratory, learn and apply a lot of biochemical techniques such as western blot, capillary electrophoresis, HPLC, confocal and electron microscopy, different stains, different cell lines, polymerase chain reaction, chromatography, centrifugation, spectrophotometry, flow cytometry, immunoprecipitation, crystallography X-ray, fluorimetry, and so on.

To apply all these techniques to different areas, I'm now very interested in chronic diseases, cell stress, cell metabolism, mitochondria, endoplasmic reticulum coupling with mitochondria, skeletal muscle, mitochondrial fission and fusion, and other things like those.

Obviously, my work would be indoor, sometimes I need the working environment to be sterile so as not to contaminate the reagents or the cell cultures, therefore it would be impossible to work outside.

About travel, I hope I can and have to travel a lot for my work, science is something that unifies the world, many times what is being discovered in one country is also being discovered in another and people have no idea, it is very important that there is a good scientific diffusion, both of the scientific world and among non-scientific people, therefore, I would like to travel to congresses, meetings, symposiums, workshops, and other activities that allow me to learn more, but I would also like participate in activities of scientific diffusion that allow the public to learn what science is doing, and the importance it has.

Glial exosomes promote axonal regeneration.

The salary doesn't worry me much, I know that Chile doesn't allocate a lot of money to research, but for me, it's enough to do what I like, in addition, I could eventually work outside the country, other countries devote much more money in science than Chile.

And finally, on my postgraduate studies, I want to apply to the master's degree in biochemistry mentioning proteins from the University of Chile, the university has a very good program which allows me to apply to the Magister in the fourth year, and to finish my undergraduate course at the same time that I do the magister, with a single thesis! it's fantastic. About the PhD, I'm not sure, maybe I want to do a doctorate in Chile, maybe abroad, that's a little uncertain at the moment.

Teased nerve fibers from peripheral nerves at different stages of degeneration immunostained using antibodies against neurofilament (red), a myelin protein (green) and collagen (blue).

About my hobbies

Hi, today I'm gonna talk to you about my hobbies.

Most of the people have hobbies, these common activities define people, like "yeah, the guy that loves skiing", or something like that, my point is that hobbies are important, because basically determine a little part of us.

Respect to me, I have some hobbies.

1. Study. I love learning things, understand how the things happen, I think that I have this hobby since that I start studying, is important to me because study makes me a better person, someone more educated, scholar, etc. Besides, the studies can carry someone very high, I hope things like that for me.

2. Watch movies. The world of the movies is so amazing and endless, I remember that I started loving movies when I was to Spiderman, in 2002. Movies are important to me because sometimes sit and watch a movie allows escape a little of our reality.

 When I was a kid, I loved playing video games, first, I had a play station 2, a Nintendo Wii, and different computers, I spent whole days playing. I'm also karateka, I'm a black belt in Shotokan karate, from fifth grade I train, but I left it behind because I moved to Santiago.

I would never have of hobby mmh something boring, or something bad, I don't like things that hurt others.

In the future, I'd love to have these hobbies: travel to many countries, go to many science congresses, participate in some animal rescue organization, etc.