A city/country you would like to visit

Travel around the world is the most typical dream for everyone, and I'm not the exception. After traveling across Chile, from north to south, I think that a place I have to know is Greece. I have been seeing pictures of the wonderful landscapes of this country, and one of the places I liked the most was a little island called Mykonos. It is part of the Cyclades, lying between Tinos, Syros, Paros and Naxos, another greek islands. It's famous for the cosmopolitan atmosphere, its vibrant nightlife, its magnificent beaches and the architecture, a fantastic place to visit someday. 

   

Besides going to this paradise, I would like to visit the historic places of Greece too. My next stopping place would be Athens, one of the world's oldest cities, with its recorded history spanning over 3400 years. It was a centre for the arts, learning and philosophy, home of Plato's Academy, Aristotle's Lyceum and birthplace of democracy, and home of two UNESCO world heritage cities: The Acropolis of Athens and the medieval Daphni Monaestery. In conclusion, a country full of historic and beautiful sites that everyone should visit.

 

My blogging experience

Personally, it is hard for me to write about me, sometimes it isn't simple to find my likes and dislikes, however it was a good experience to write this blog because it made me think about things that we usually don't consider, like our favorites books or the microscopic world, and it allowed us know a little about our classmates too. Also, I think that this was an interesting way to learn english using technology and tools like this page where we could write our own blog, this things facilitate the learning.

My writing skills have developed a lot after this blog because when I didn't remember some word or expresion, I had to search them, and doing that made me learn the things I searched,

In the future I would like to include musical tastes maybe, I could write a lot about that and I think my classmates too, because we are listening to music practically all day, in our trips to university or our free time, and there are many different styles so it could be an interesting topic to write about.

From the invisible to the visible world and back

Nanotechnology is the area that studies matter in dimensions between 1 and 100 nanometers. On this measurements materials show other features and applications, in addition to which are known. In other words, nanotechnology means engineering of complex machines, materials and circuits built atom by atom or molecule by molecule.

The importance of pharmaceutical nanotechnology for therapies with drugs resides on the possibilities to deliver drugs of low molecular weight as well as macromolecules like peptides, proteins and genes, in a localized or guided manner to certain tissue of interest.

Lately, there have been investigations about controlled drug release's nanodevices, that can be used on therapies against breast cancer.

Until now, the work has focused in cellular essays with some positive results that could open new ways to improve the efficacy of some drugs used on this therapies.

The principal novelty of this nanodevices is that the molecule that covers it not only controls when the drug is released, it controls where is released too, directing the drug to some specific cells.

I chose this technique because breast cancer is the more lethal tumor among women worldwide, then, investigations aimed at identifying new therapies or improving which are known are a field of intense activity, and as a future pharmacist is part of our work to give wellness to people.

However, it is necessary the increase of the regulations in order to assure the safety of nanoparticles, it is considered that the toxicity, epidemiology and bioacumulation of fabricated nanomaterials are so far to be studied; in spite of this, the application of nanotechnology in healthcare and for development of personalized medicine appear to be hopeful.

The most enjoyable subject thus far...

I think the most enjoyable subject thus far for me is "the pharmacist action"; I like this subject because it bring us closer to our career and what we'll do as healthcare professionals.

In classes each one of us is part of a group, and each group have four activities during the semester. I started with "pharmaceutical terminology", where we learned about basic concepts used by professionals in this area. My second activity was to visit two places where the pharmacist works, we visited "El Carmen" hospital and Fresenius Kabi, a laboratory; in my opinion it was the most interesting activity because we saw professionals in action, with pros and cons, but after this I think I love my career, even more. The third activity was prepare a debate with issues related with pharmacy, obviously! My group debated about the pharmacist's responsability in medication errors, during the preparation we had to search a lot of information and I learned about chilean rules, things that I didn't know. Now we're in the last activity, where professionals of this university that work in dfferent areas talk to us about their experiences and the workplace for pharmacists.

In the teaching activities there are teachers and coordinators, because this is a new subject in the carreer as I know, and we are approximately 30 students in class, a good number of people for a good class.

Expert you admire

Nikola Tesla was an inventor, physicist and electrical, mechanical engineer who made a great contribution to the field of technology with his design of the modern alternating current (AC) electricity supply system.

He was born on July 10th, 1856 in Smiljan, modern-day Croatia, where he lived until 1884 when he emigrated to United States (where he died on 1943) to work for Thomas Edison. There were differences between Edison and Tesla; while the first was introducer and defender of the direct current (DC), and made a fortune with this idea, Tesla was convinced that the alternating current (AC) was a better solution, and his objective was get free, wireless energy for everyone. Actually, we still use AC in our time, 150 years later, because it imposed above direct current. In fact, what Tesla thought was better, but he needed Edison to implement his idea. 

Edison denied his support, but asked Tesla if he could redesign and improve the inefficient DC generators of his company, offering him a big amount of money. Tesla did it, but Edison never paid; after that Tesla gave up and founded his own company in 1886: "Tesla Electric Light & Manufacturing". He didn't convinced the investors so he started to work with George Westinghouse, at the same time he built his famous "Tesla coil".

He made a lot of discoveries, he was a fascinating character that is worth knowing, but after reading about him, I think the history and people like Thomas Edison were very unfair with him, he never received the recognition he deserved for all his achievements and his exceptional mind.

About books and films

One of the things I really enjoy is watch movies, horror movies specially, but lately I have seeing other kind of films, classics like "A Clockwork Orange" or "Modern Times" of Charles Chaplin.

"A Clockwork Orange" is an interesting movie in my opinion, it shows how violence alters behavior and feelings of Alex, the protagonist. He's unable of sizing the damage he makes, in one of his crimes he's caught and detained, and to obtain freedom faster he decides to take a new treatment, which will turn him into a harmless person, who can't be violent but can't defend himself too. Finally, it is assumed that Alex is cured; in this point, personally, I prefer the book's end because it shows to the reader not only Alex's end, if not his friends' end too.

Another book I really enjoyed was "Perfume: The Story of Murderer", which is about a young man, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, who has a privileged smell, and from his birth it's surrounded by strange events, for example the fact of that each person who leaves behind dies, strangely. Thanks to his smell and ability, he achieved work with a perfumer, Giuseppe Baldini. He taught Jean-Baptiste technical methods to make perfumes, and the protagonist learns, but later he starts a macabre plan, becoming a murderer of women which fragances were irresistible for him. In my opinion, this is a fantastic story, and the movie is really similar to the book so I recommend both of them, the book first, obviously.

To end, the most recently book I read was "Misery" by Stephen King... it's the first book of him that I read, but I really want more, he can keep your attention through the whole story, he's really the master of horror!

 

Your favourite piece of technology

Actually, I considerer I don't know much about technology artifacts, because everyday appear new pieces of technology! Anyway, I think my favourite piece of technology is my cellphone; my parents gifted to me my first cell when I was 10, in Christmas. Then, the cellphone was very modern, it could take pictures and had a color screen, and I was very happy! Now, I compare it with my actual phone and there are many differences! It's incredible how faster technology proceeds, my old cell had keys and my actual cell has a tocuh screen, in addition to a good camera, conncetion to wifi and a thousand apps I can download.

In my opinion, cellphones are a very useful tool, because it enables us to be connected with our friends and family all the time, for example, when I go out I can call my parents so they'll know I'm fine. Also, the searching of information or something than we need is really quick, and it's practically accessible to everyone. Personally, I use my cell the whole day, to see my marks and study material in Ucursos app, to check my e-mail or simply to have fun in my social networks.