English 4, Post 4: 'Themed Free Post [II]'

Today, I'm going to take the chance of this "themed free" entry to recommend a music band that I recently found. The name of the band is "Pigeons Playing Ping Pong" an extremely weird name, for sure, but I like it, it is catchy in some way. But what I like the most of them is the genre of music that they compose, a kind of a mix of funk, blues, and rock that every time I listen to it makes me want to move my body. If you don't believe me thus far, here you have some of their songs, go ahead and feel the rhythm yourself:

King Kong: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMOx20vqpfU&ab_channel=PigeonsPlayingPingPong. 

Oceans Flow (Live):  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpEut44gJjo&ab_channel=PigeonsPlayingPingPong-Topic

Melting Lights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Smpn6dQGQx8&ab_channel=PigeonsPlayingPingPong

Investigating a little bit about them I found that they are active since 2009 but released their first album, titled Funk E P in 2010. Nowadays, they have 5 studio albums and 1 live album (which I consider the best because the songs have long sections of improvisation that are really cool). 

Current members of the band are mentioned below:

• Vocals, Guitar: "Scrambled" Greg Ormont
• Vocals, Guitar: Jeremy Schon
• Vocals, Bass: Ben Carrey
• Drums: Alex "Gator" Petropulos

Well, that's all I had to say today, I wish that you liked my  "music recommendation" and who knows, maybe they'll become one of your favorite bands. 

English 4, Post 3: 'Themed Free Post - Carrer Related

Today I'm going to talk about a very interesting paper (scientific article) that I read not so long ago, as part of an evaluation activity of an elective class called "new nano and micrometric size vehicles for biological applications" and I will try my best to summarize the paper as much simple as I can. 

So the title of the paper is "Exosome-mimetic nanoplatforms (EMNs) for targeted cancer drug delivery" and all the investigation developed in it was aimed to solve a big problem of anticancer therapies: the non-selective reaching of the drugs to tumoral tissues. 

Some kinds of cells are capable of secreting extracellular vesicles and one type of these vesicles of a nanometric size is called exosomes. What is important about these exosomes is that someones had tumor-homing properties and can be loaded with anticancer drugs, these two properties made them a pretty valuable technology to develop anticancer drugs but unfortunately, they are not exempt of safety problems (adverse effects) and bad production yields. 

So the proposal of the scientists was to develop a platform that was pretty similar to exosomes but safer and easier to produce, using lipids and proteins that are present in exosomes. And to summarize, they managed to develop this technology and called it "Exosome-mimetic nanoplatforms". Of course this is not a reality in anticancer medicine yet, but it is an important advance in the nanomedicine field and who knows, maybe in a couple of years we'll see this technology applied. 

Link to the article: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12951-019-0517-8 

English 4, Post 2: 'The best concert'

I haven't gone to a lot of concerts in my life, mainly because concert tickets prices are too expensive here in Chile, but one exception was a concert of one of my favorite bands of all time, Pearl Jam. The concert took place at the "National Stadium" in Ñuñoa on November 4th of 2015.

Pearl Jam is a rock band that was formed back in the 90s during the "grunge era" of rock music. Initially, they were 5 members, but today they are 6. Current members are mentioned below:

Vocals and rythm guitar: Eddie Vedder.
Lead guitar: Mike McCready.
Rythm guitar: Stone Gossard.
Bass: Jeff Ament.
Drums: Matt Cameron.
Keyboard: Boom Gaspar.

The atmosphere during the show was incredible, all the people were enjoying the music and singing along with the band, it was just amazing. I can't describe exactly with words what I felt in that particular moment, it was a kind of pure ecstasy, I guess. But not everything could be great, because the next day I had a chemistry test, and my mark was not particularly good (hahaha).

English 4, Post 1: 'A country you would like to visit'

There are a lot of countries I would like to visit, Asian and European countries mostly, but if I have to choose only one I would visit Japan, because I'm a big fan of videogames, especially of Japanese role playing games (JRPGs) such as Final Fantasy or Shin Megami Tensei among others and Japan is, basically, the birthplace of videogames. Also, I enjoy a lot watch anime and read manga.  

Japan is a very beautiful country with amazing landscapes and cities that I would like to visit if I go to there, but of course, only after visiting all kinds of videogame, anime/manga shops to buy a lot of things that I'd like to own.

Japan is also known for its culture that has customs and traditions so different from our occidental culture. For this last reason, I don't think that I would like to live in Japan, because they are pretty known for their strict rules about the work, the law, etc. So I think that I will not be very comfortable with that cultural shock.

Post 8: A subject you enjoyed studying

Over the years I have studied a lot of subjects and attended a lot of classes, so there have been many subjects that I would say that I enjoyed studying (English being one of those hahah). But if I have to choose one, I would go with Organic Chemistry. Study different types of chemical compounds, how to synthesize them, performed practice activities in the laboratory, use chemistry reagents, and so on... When I remember all the things that I have learned about Organic Chemistry I can say, for sure, that I enjoyed studying it. However, some things kind of "ruined the experience" a bit for me, for example, the tests and the exceeding amount of time that I had to study in order to achieve good marks.

It is kind of funny because before I studied Organic Chemistry I knew very little about it, so I didn´t know what I was facing, but looking back to it, I am happy, because I can say that, finally I enjoyed studying it.

Post 7: An expert / person in your field that you admire

I can not say that I admire someone in my field. In fact, I do not know a lot of experts or famous pharmacists. But, what I can say for sure is that I have a lot of respect for some of the pharmacy teachers that have taught me throughout these years in the faculty. I can mention professor Mario Rivera or professor Javier O. Morales of whom I've had the opportunity to read some of their "scientific publications" better known as "papers" and have a glance at what they have investigated and contributed to the field of pharmacy. But, aside from that, I have to emphasize the good way in that they manage to pass their knowledge to us, students. Unfortunately, I don't know much about their personal lives, so I can't be able to provide a biography of them. 

I have mentioned two out of many teachers that I've had over the years, however, there are many others that taught me so much and I will always be grateful to them.

Post 6: How can your mayor make the world a better place?

Drugs (including vaccines) are one of the most important technologies nowadays, they take a very important role in health care systems, because they allow humanity to prevent, cure, and diagnose different illnesses that in another way could be mortal to us. It is for this reason that the existence of professionals who have great knowledge about drugs are needed in this world, to contribute in every aspect of the "drugs chain", from their discovery and development to their administration to the patients. Thus, we pharmacists can guarantee the efficacy, safety, and quality of pharmaceutical products and contribute to the world's health. 

I think that any of the fields that a pharmacist can work and develop itself may contribute to this objective, whether it be a clinical pharmacist or a drugstore pharmacist, etc. So, in any of the fields that I could end up working in the future, maybe I will also contribute to this task.