The use of Technologies within Physical Anthropology

Along with the advance of scientific knowledge, the advance in the sophistication of technologies helps us to obtain more accurate data in relation to the specific question we are trying to resolve. In physical anthropology this is no exception, and technology is a very important point inside the discipline. Along this year we have the opportunity to work with a variety of new and old technologies that aim to resolve the problems derivate from the inherit process of obtaining the data. Also the use of informatics technologies helps to the process of data management, and comparison between samples.

In this year we have the opportunity to use calipers and spreading caliper for take measurements of the skull for the Physical Anthropology subject, this with the objective of comparing the different populations, assuming that in some point the craniofacial morphology has a genetic correlate. This two are basic and some sort of simple instruments for take measurements with millimeter specificity. Along with this, and in the same subject, we use an osteometric board for take measurements for the length of long bones, in other things to estimate the total length of the individual, using different formulas taken from a specific population.

In Statistic we learn how to use a statistical software called SPSS (now called PASW), this with the objective to learn how to manage data and how to compare and take significant results from it. Although we learn this in a specific subject, this knowledge has served us to all the other ones, because in the most of them we have to use quantitative data, and we have to know how to manage it. In the bioinformatic subject we learnt how to use informatics tools specifically how to obtain DNA sequence from the web, and how to manage this data. Along with this there is software that compares the sequence or search similar sequence: using these tools in a good way you can reconstruct the evolutionary trend of a specific gene.

In conclusion, technologies are a very important point inside physical anthropology, both for taking the measurements and to manage and compare them between populations. The actual trend is to obtain even more sophistical instruments for taking the measurement (like digital calipers), and more sophistical software for even more numerous data and to relate them to more variables that explain the results. This with the final objective to be more accurate with the measurement and to be able to rely more in the final results of an investigation.

Sacrifice: bringins evolution and religion together?

Many links have been made between religion and science or, actually, have tried to make. In this specific article, the link is made through sacrifice; in our conception, a very irrational and savage practice. In this sense, Sarah Coakley, in his inaugural lecture in Cambridge, critics the Girard conception about sacrifice; in specific the base upon his theory is made, that is to say, that the conflict is provoked because we humans desire the same things. She starts on the base of evolutionary theory.

His conception of sacrifice is made thanks to the collaboration with Martin Nowak, professor of biology and mathematics at Harvard University. They start on the basis of a new principle in evolution: the co-operation, in other words, the advantage of fitness given to other individuals in deterioration of his own. This principle is much related to the results of others scientist, like Lynn Margulis, in which the evolution of eukaryotic organisms is originated by a process of symbiosis. The radical argument, for this to be a totally new hypothesis in evolution, is that the individual advantage cannot explain the process of co-operation.

Coakley made is essential point in that in the history of evolution you can read along a principle of co-operation, a line of sacrifice. Finally Coakley hope that these concepts of co-operation and sacrifice will bring evolution and theology together starting on the basis that this two operate in parallel worlds.

What to do / Where to go in Santiago

I was born in Santiago, in the J.J. Aguirre Hospital. In my early childhood we lived in a lot of places, renting or living with close relatives. Then my parents were able to bought his own house in Puente Alto, there I was bred and I been living there almost all my life.

You can visit a lot of places with historical and cultural content, like “la moneda”, a lot of museums and parks. Depending of your particular interests you can visit some of them.

For a tourist, the choice is more complex; because you have to think that a lot of places he/she can visit in his/her own country, for that reason it must be places with a unique thing. If you like to do outdoors activities those places, in my opinion, are Santa Lucia and San Cristobal hills, there you can walk and spend a relaxing time. If you like museums, good choices are Bellas Artes or the National Museum of Natural History. In the Bellas Artes museum you can visit a lot of expositions, permanents or temporal, just like the National Museum of Natural History.

Music

Music is a very important part of my life; I can't imagine how my life would be without it. I like every kind of music, and actually I pass through several changes of styles through my whole life; in my childhood I listen to Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and music linked to the agro metal style, also I listen to the music that my sister and father does, especially The Beatles. After that I began to focus my attention on classic rock, with bands like Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin among others. In that time I also began to play some music with my friends; I was the bass player.

With some friends we started a band called “Back in Purple”, in which we played covers of Deep Purple and AC/DC. My interest of music grew exponentially as also my knowledge of it. I found out that music can generate every kind of emotions, with a good mix of lyrics and melodies, you can make people feel anything; I also discovered a great quantity of bands which you can’t put it straight forward into a style, that kind of bands that move between genres and mixes different sounds: something called fusion. That is the kind of music that in the present calls my attention.

If I have to talk or to decide about my favorite band, without doubt I choose The Beatles. I began to listen to them by influence of my father and older sister. They have a record of them, the first one I ever listen: it was A Hard Day’s Night. Then I began to search all of the records and I love every one of them, especially the ones who were recorded before 1965; they show a more risked music, with great mixes of sound.

Transantiago, Before and after

Based on my own experience, Transantiago system has actually worked very well, however, I had little experience on the yellow buses system. I remember I had to take just two routes in that time; the 100 and 636. The buses were in a terrible state, with a lot of seats without their backs; in one word, the state of those buses was worse of the actual ones. However, I always had to take just one bus to go everyplace I wanted, and now I had to do a lot of combinations to reach my destination; in that sense, the past system was better and more “comfortable” (considering the poor condition of the buses).

When I started university I began to use the Transantiago more frequently; it was the first year it was implemented. I had to put on the crowd and the long wait for the bus to come. I had to get out of my house one and a half hour before the start of the class to arrive on time. In definitely those were the more stressing moments, and the worse ones of the period Transantiago has been set on motion. Now it only takes my one hour to get to the university, and in some hours the buses are not crowded at all. The waits had been reduced in a very significantly way.

In order to make it a more effective bus system, I think that to evaluate first the principal problem is the better way to do it. As I see it, currently the principal problem is the long waits on the bus stop. To solve this, I thing is necessary a system that involve a mayor number of buses and a schedule more accurate and of knowledge of everyone

A country I would like to visit

When I was a little boy the nature always call my attention. I liked to watch the T.V. programs of animals and exotics places surrounded by beautiful landscapes. I thought that see that things directly, without a screen in the middle, should be definitely an incredible experience.

In my youth I listen about a place call Galapagos Island, I heard that it was one of the places with the most biodiversity of the world, with an incredible number of endemic species. Although I listen that a very important scientist went there and uses the place, and the species on it, like and example of his theory of evolution: it was Charles Darwin.

Actually it’s not a country by itself but it’s formed by a number of islands, which constitute an archipelago; it’s located in front of the Ecuador coasts and is part of this country. It was declared a national park, mainly to maintain the conservation and to avoid the deterioration of the place. If I went there I would like to visit the main islands and watch and take pictures of all the animals, especially of the giant turtles and iguanas. Also I would like to go diving and see whales, swordfish, sea turtles and another species; I thought that it should be a very great experience.

My first term

In general the last term was a pretty good one. First of all it was the first semester of the specialization that I chose, that mean basically that the subjects that I took were of critical interest for my career, and also pretty interesting for myself. Luckily I passed everything and I didn't have to take the second exam.

We started to play football with a couple of friends in a more regular way in the weekends or every time we were able to. Those were the times that I felt relax and forgot about everything related with my studies. With my family organized a couple of football games between the young ones and the more adult ones; finally we ended in a tie (one win for each). In fact those were pretty entertained matches, however the more adult ones always ended up with a couple of oxygen tanks in their hands.

I began to play bass again with my old school band, following the kind of music that we played in our high school time. In that time we were a Slipknot tribute, in the last term we started to play some Mushroomhead songs. In there I was able to play with my new bass that my sister brought to me from his travel to my aunt's house in Los Angeles; it respond very well, with some very dark low notes, and clear high ones.