Christmas

Christmas is usually a happy time for me.

I don’t fall too much in that craziness of buying presents for everybody, I tend to prefer creating some little things made by myself. Because these gifts have more significance to me than something bought, maybe a bit carelessly, just to fulfill the giving frenzy which ends up in a meaningless shopping urge.
On the one hand, I’m not very good at choosing presents, because I never can remember those things I found before and thought they would be a great gift for this or that person. On the other hand, I do enjoy browsing stores and finding out appropriate tokens of my friendship.
This year because I didn’t have a lot of time and I had a little bit extra money, I didn’t do any gifts myself. For those closer to me, I think I did find the right items. Conversely, I don’t have anything for those others who aren’t so close but to whom I also would like to give a little to remember me and to express my appreciation… will I still be able to make up for that? Maybe with a little delay…

What makes us happy during Christmas is not all this “what money can buy” thing, but with who and how you spend your time in these days. So many people are saying this, but we are again and again falling for the easiest path of consuming, buying, ready-made, pseudo-almost-perfect, must-haves, must-dos…

At the end of my twentieth decade, this will be my first Christmas out of my house, away from my hometown and my friends and even my broader family. Thankfully, I won’t be away from my parents and sister, new friends and partner, but unfortunately it will also be the first time we won’t have my brother to sing some Carols to. It has been a big tradition in my family to sing Carols every night at Christmas time and my brother was the biggest fan.

Hope you have a very Merry Christmas!

(We’ll be enjoying the beautiful Lancashire landscape
that you can see in this picture.)

Helen Keller

Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it.
Helen Keller

I didn't even want to add any comments to this quote. However, for those of you who don't know who Helen Keller is, I have to say she was a very special person. Very soon in her life she became deaf and blind and she overcame it as no one.

See this link at Helen Keller International for a very short account of her life:

http://www.hki.org/about/helenkeller.html
or read excerpts of the book "The Story of My Life" available at Google Books and from where I took the above picture of her at the age of seven:

http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&id=m84QQ-_VE5sC&dq=helen+keller&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=_J4HKLEi2L&sig=cCuGcBa9YPez6L9_kkZ-OiULvUA&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=9&ct=result#PPA21,M1

Rain...

Rain!
British weaher sucks!
– one and a half hours delay due to a windscreen wiper breakdown in the train?
– is that possible?
– yes, I learnt it the hard way!
People wanting to go home. People losing flights, losing other trains, losing their patience.
People getting tired and stressed out right before the beginning of a new week…

In memoriam to Francisco Caldeira Cabral - my grandfather

My grandfather’s 100th birthday was commemorated this weekend (26th Oct 2008).

I admired him greatly as a child. As my mother recalls it, I gave my first baby smile to him and later made my first “free” footsteps towards him on the day he received the Honoris Causa at the University of Évora, my hometown. This was about a month before my first birthday (31st Jan 1980).
He passed away a couple of weeks after his 84th birthday (10th Nov 1992), I was thirteen by then and this was my first disillusion – when I realized that my grandfather and grandmother could not be eternal as I thought. Though, I knew, they weren’t young they had both such vitality and grace that one would be led to believe that age couldn’t catch up with them.
I didn’t have the chance to share a lot of moments with them because they were busy people and they lived in Lisbon. Five years later, when I did live at my grandmother’s house she was only a shadow of the woman she was when he was alive, however I was still able to learn a few things from her. These are the disadvantages of being the 25th grandchild, but I can still remember him, which my sister – the 28th grandchild and almost 10 years younger then me – can’t.
As a note I should add, especially to myself, that this will be the fate of my own children, and even more of my nephews, if either of them come to exist.

I was quite pleased with the commemorations happening this weekend and would like to leave here the link to a website created by one of my cousins:

http://proffranciscocaldeiracabral.portaldojardim.com/

there, a lot of information about his life and work is available and some testimonies can also be found. I should stress the one made by the current president of the IFLA (International Federation of Landscape Architects) last Saturday, which, besides being the only one in English for now, was very moving.

http://proffranciscocaldeiracabral.portaldojardim.com/depoimentos/depoimento-dr-diane-menzies/

Is this magic or is it just chemistry?

You can find a few funny chemistry videos in YouTube – I’ll list some of those in another post.
Yet, I found a series of videos which were recorded during a class and which I think are really worth it, though they all sum up to over an hour. They are called Dr. Jim's Chemistry Magic Show and you can watch them by using the links below.

Dr. Jim's Chemistry Magic Show

Really interesting and funny class of chemistry...

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=33E00870A52853EC

Save who?

I please beg your attention to this mui nobre (very noble) cause.
Though it seams just another pledge for someone missing, ill or in a death threat situation, it is not.

This is a very special cause for me because it is related to a tradition deeply rooted in my home country. Its sustainability is fundamental for our development as well as the protection of our culture, preservation of our ecosystems and to circumvent desertification. Furthermore, it also impacts on worldwide environment, so please watch the short movie and then browse through the website to know a little more about the place from where I come from:

http://www.savemiguel.com/

Lets save it!

What are the odds??!! My houses in the UK...

This is my third number 7 house since I'm in the UK.
What are the odds for that?

My first number 7 was a Portuguese friend's house, were my sister had been staying for a few moths before I came.
The second one was the university house I then shared with my sister until June. We were very lucky to have found it, because it was a three bedrooms house just for the two of us. Moreover, the bedrooms were quite big and we also had a living room, and all that for a very nice price.
The third 7 is the house where I’m living now with my boyfriend. It’s very small and we struggle to fit in all the things we own, but it’s cosy and we have the backyard as well, though tiny too.

Well, I could say that it makes my life simpler because it’s easier to remind, but in spite of my slight number dyslexia I don’t find it that hard to memorize my own addresses…
I really find it bizarre!

Jazzers and Classical Music, a funny version of “When the Saints..."

Do jazzers know classical music? Of course, most of them know it quite well. Lots of them even start learning classical music before going into jazz, even nowadays. Others discover classical music later, after becoming musicians, and sure they can’t deny its appeal.
This question may sound a bit nonsense, because I hope most of you will know this already and won’t expect such an odd statement from me.
However, I believe there are lots of people (and not only young people) who still think classical music is dull and tedious. You may recognise some very beautiful or powerful lines, often used in adverts, you may even be able to name them, but you probably never heard the whole piece. I myself am awful at naming music, even when I know it quite well, so that’s absolutely not my point here. What I feel is that we all could benefit from becoming more aware of what classical music is.

All this gibberish just to present you with a very funny version of “When the Saints…” by Louie Armstrong and Danny Kaye, where they unravel a whole list of names of classical composers – very good duo indeed!

Zita Martins and her findings on the origin of life

One of my colleagues from my first university course back in Portugal is now a Research Associate at Imperial College:

http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/people/z.martins

Zita Martins has been studying meteorites for a few years now and seems to have found good evidence that they really contain amino acids and even nucleobases which might have had a major role in the establishment of life on Earth. Her team was able to prove that the samples were created out of the Earth because of enrichment in C13, as she explains in a very recent interview to channel4:

http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/science_technology/basis+of+life+comes+from+stars/2286077

Or as published earlier in:

http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/science_technology/amino+acids+found+in+meteorites/1780047

In parallel, there have been some recent changes in the believes of what made up the primordial soup. These apparently invalidate the studies which lead to the most common explanation that amino acids were created in the early Earth’s environment.
This allied to the confirmation that meteorites could have brought life’s building to Earth seem to indicate that live here had an alien origin.

For me this continues to bring up the same question, either here or out there, why suddenly some complex molecules formed? These findings might show that life is not an exclusive of Earth, however they don’t prove it. Because it still might be the case that only Earth had the proper environment for the development of life as we know it, though the building blocks might have come from abroad. Without knowing how those building blocks first came to being we have no idea how they got into the asteroids and whether other life forms might exist.

Just to make it very clear, I’m not an apologist of alien life forms, but neither do I deny their existence. Anyway, for me it is quite interesting that this was proven. I’m also very proud that it was done by someone I know and whom is not saying it just for the money or fame, it’s because the research has lead to this conclusion.
I feel the universe is too big for us to be the only life forms in it; however I don’t feel a bit worried if we somehow descend from other life forms. I believe there is a high probability that the differences and the distances are huge.

Cátia Moreso - One of the best voices in Portugal

Yes, she is one of the best voices in Portugal nowadays.

Check her at the final of the 1st Lyric Singing Contest held by the Portuguese Rotary Foundation, where she got the 2nd place plus the public prize:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ioTfbAJ0nQ
and also from the same contest:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKYHUzrUM4Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oyrtc_rZtqI

I meet Cátia in the symphonic choir Lisboa Cantat, where I’ve been singing since the end of 1999… unfortunately, she left the choir a long time ago and I myself have been absent for over a year now, first to finish my MSc thesis and then because I’ve moved to the UK…

I’ve been singing all my life, first with my mother, my older brother being a very special listener, and then in a few choirs. I don’t really like singing alone, but I love the choir effect – not just many people singing at the same time, but singing different things together.

In my hometown I grew up with the Eborae Music Association, first in the children’s choir, then the youth choir and finally the polyphonic choir. This Association was created to bring back to knowledge and increase awareness of the 17th century Évora Cathedral Music School and has now become the Regional School of Music.
http://eborae-musica.org/

When I moved to Lisbon to begging my undergraduate studies I took part, for a couple of year, of the recently revived choir of my university – Universidade Técnica de Lisboa.
http://www.utl.pt/page.aspx?idCat=132

Then came an opportunity to sing the Carl Orf’s Carmina Burana with Lisboa Cantat, indeed a very special concert in a very special place… and I haven’t quit them since then. This allowed me to sing big master pieces: Mozart’s, Verdi’s, and Braham’s Requiem, as well as one from a Portuguese author – Eurico Carapatoso; Haydn’s The Creation; Prokofiev’s Oktober Cantata; part of Borodin’s Polovtsian Dances; Portuguese folk songs arranged by Lopes-Graça and Carrapatoso; and many more.
http://www.lisboacantat.com/

The story of stuff

My sister sent me an email with a link to an interesting video… you can watch the original version and see The Story of Stuff website at: http://www.storyofstuff.com/

But you can also find it in youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucMJ32-xp64
or also with portuguese subtitles at:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3412294239230716755
(for both links there might been some problems with sound synchronization)

I found it interesting and think it might help raise conscientiousness about some of the problems our societies are facing nowadays. However, I don’t agree with everything they say.

Of course I cannot approve the almost random use of the words “toxics” and “chemicals”. And I find that some things are obviously exaggerated, not only the chemical part, but that doesn’t mean there are no grounds for the claims made.

For me, the main things to remember are:
the explanation of externalities - very simple and effective
the origins of the shopping race - very enlightening
the emphasis on the linearity of the process and the need to transform it.

I believe that one of the major problems we face is in fact this last one. We need to realize that we live in a finite world with finite resources. Money doesn’t grow on trees and therefore we have to be very careful when trying to apply economic theories which are clearly based on the assumption that economic growth is limitless.
We are told that we are becoming richer each day, but the concept of richness depends on how you definite it – this isn’t a new idea to anyone I hope. But I feel this is a chief issue, and it seams some people are finally trying to include other factors that money alone in the way we perceive a country’s wealth. However as the video points out, companies are getting much heavier than governments, uplifted by the globalization of markets, leading to the conclusion that our world is run by companies not governments. And so if companies continue to command us and their solely purpose is to strive for money this will carry on as a vicious circle of exploitation of our minds, bodies and all the surroundings.
I’m not saying that money is bad, or progress is bad, or any of that. I’m just saying we have to make an effort to understand how we can create a virtuous circle which allows us all to achieve some kind of equilibrium between us and between us and the world we live in.

Don’t just give in to the work – watch TV – shop scenario they describe.

Have you ever came across a weirder guy than this?

I almost forgot this one... glad I jotted down some things in my shopping list, which I just found…

A few weeks ago, I was shopping at ASDA and I saw the weirdest guy ever! I will try to describe the character, and you’ll tell me if you can even begging to imagine:

1 – shaved head
2 – long black beard, up to the middle of the chest
3 – white sports cotton jacket, with zipper and very small blue line at the bottom
4 – black shorts
5 – bluish-purplish, strange flashy though strong colour, loose trousers
6 – black socks, over the trousers
7 – leather open sandals

!!!!! I almost took my mobile phone to take a picture, but thought that was too much… I can add that I wasn’t able to have the slightest hint on the guy’s nationally or origin, only that he didn’t seem British, not that that’s important (I’m also a foreigner here, and in fact everywhere), but sometimes it helps getting a clearer picture…

The crazy world in which we live in!

Recipes

I have a culinary vein which I believe is associated with my chemistry vein…

I tend to invent something each time I cook, and that’s what I would like to be able to do in chemical synthesis – however I feel I’m too old now to be able to achieve that in regards to my chemist side…

Today, I did something innovative and that reminded me that I could share my culinary inventions through here also.
It is important that I start writing down these creations arising on the spur of the moment, because I never do the same thing twice and sometimes I forget what I did…

So here goes what I tried today with a picture of the final result…


Stuffed butternut squash

Ingredients:

1 medium butternut squash
1 large onion
1 tin or 400 g of cooked chick peas
1-2 large mushrooms (like Portobello or 6-8 if smaller)
Linen seeds
Grated cheese
Fresh coriander
Salt and pepper
Portuguese Moscatel wine (or Port or Martini)

Method:

Cut the squash in half lengthways, remove the inside (this maybe a little difficult because the squash is quite hard) and cut it in small bits. The seeds can also be used, if you like. Roughly mash the chick peas, and cut the onion and the mushrooms.

Stir-fry the onion with the salt, pepper and coriander. As soon as the onion starts to become transparent, add the squash. Then add the mushrooms when the squash becomes yellowish and shortly after the chick peas. Pour in the liquor/wine, check the seasoning and add the linen seeds.

Stuff the squash halves with the stir-fry, add some granted cheese on top and toast in the oven for a while.

Serving suggestion: Serve the stuffed squash with Basmati rice.

Find this recipe and a courgette curry also my creation in portuguese at:
http://www.rituais.net/RITUAISDENUTRIÇÃO/AssuasReceitas/tabid/96/Default.aspx
[procurar na secção vegetariano - caril de courgettes e abóbora recheada]

Molecular structure on a mail stamp?

I've been meaning to write some new posts, but haven't found the time...

However; I want to spread the news about a stamp competition held by the Portuguese mail company, CTT, where a stamp with the active centre of an enzyme is on the top of the list.


Check it through the link above and vote for it if you'd please.

The stamp was designed by Nuno Micaelo (former ITQB PhD student) and the image used is a representation of the molecular structure of the CotA-laccase from Bacillus subtilis. The structure of this enzyme, important for many biotechnological applications (for example: in the pulp and paper industry), was determined at ITQB in 2003. The CotA-laccase is the object of study of many research projects at ITQB.
For those of you who read Portuguese, see more information about this stamp in:
http://blog.irrequietos.com/blogs/ciencia_em_portugal/.

Vote for science, vote for progress; though other themes like animal rights have several proposals on the top 20, unfortunately, I find most of them quite dull.

Conjugated polymers

A few weeks ago, I submitted an abstract for the Annual Research Conference held by the Faculty of Science and Technology of the University of Central Lancashire where I've started a PhD a few months ago. Because the research field I'm working on has quite a few interesting and exciting applications, and because I don't really have any new results yet, I will be presenting a general poster on conjugated polymers.

I first entitled it "Can we really make flexible/foldable flat screens and solar panels?" and tried to make a very general approach, because there aren’t many chemistry students here. However, my supervisor didn’t agree with the catchy title, because he said it was misleading for we aren’t going to build flat screens or solar panels. Well I might agree, but from the abstract I think it was pretty clear that we weren’t. Anyway, though I think the final abstract is a bit hard to chew for a general audience, even if scientific, or even for chemists I would like to share it with you:

Conjugated polymers for plastic optoelectronics

Traditionally, polymers have been used as insulators; however, in 1977, Shirakawa, MacDiarmid, and Heeger made a discovery that changed this conception. They discovered that doping of polyacetylene with electron-acceptor compounds greatly increased its electrical conductivity to levels comparable to that of metals. For this breakthrough, and the development of the field of conducting polymers, these scientists were awarded the 2000 Nobel Prize in chemistry[1,2,3]. This opened the door to a new area called plastic electronics, which combines the optoelectronic properties of semiconductors with the mechanical properties of plastics[4]. A wide range of hi-tech applications are possible: light-emitting diodes for display technologies and solid state lighting, organic solar cells and transistors, memory modules and circuits, nanotechnologies, sensors, batteries and capacitors, bio-applications, etc.
Structural variations in such polymers and their functionalization allow the tuning of their electronic and photophysical properties. Synthesis of novel conjugated polymers and model oligomers, as well as studying how structure relates to electronic properties and functions are key points for the development of new materials and devices.
This project will be devoted to the design, synthesis, and study of novel pi-conjugated systems mainly based on fluorene- and thiophene-based conjugates. Academically, we will focus our research on understanding how the structure of synthesised materials affects on their electronic properties. Industrially we will look on the potential of their use in particular applications, mainly focusing of light-emitting diodes, transistors and photovoltaics.

[1] H. Shirakawa. Angew. Chem. 2001, 40:2574.
[2] A. G. MacDiarmid. Angew. Chem. 2001, 40:2581.
[3] A. J. Heeger. Angew. Chem. 2001, 40:2591.
[4] Conjugated Polymers. T. A. Skotheim and J. R. Reynolds, Eds. 3rd Ed. Vols. 1, 2. CRC Press: Boca Raton, 2007.

Education

I was thinking of doing this blog in English, but today I read a text called "the screen generation" from a known Portuguese writer that I would like to stress out and share.
This text is about the school nowadays. I think things in Portugal are really getting out of hand. I know in the UK there are also a lot of issues with young people’s misbehaviour. While in the UK I think it happens mainly in the streets and as group behaviour, in Portugal this comes up much more often during classes and in the school environment.
I will try to give an idea of what the text says, in a few sentences. One of the central issues is that only people who haven’t been attentive to the school settings can be shocked by the recent events occurring in Portugal, when a video of a student girl harming a female teacher appeared on TV. The question here, says the text, is much deeper. No one wants to admit that there is a violence problem in schools but now there is undisputed evidence. The author then points out that the reason for this is a much wider lack of education of the youngsters. And she points the finger strait at TV. In her opinion the hours passed in front of the TV create a lack of character in young people giving them the idea that they can take everything for granted. No rules are needed, no hard work; life can just be a pleasure avenue. The writer finishes saying that schools are used for everything except education and homes are used for everything except to learn how to behave.

A Geração do ecrã por Alice Vieira, Escritora

Desculpem se trago hoje à baila a história da professora agredida pela aluna, numa escola do Porto, um caso de que já toda a gente falou, mas estive longe da civilização por uns dias e, diante de tudo o que agora vi e ouvi (sim, também vi o vídeo), palavra que a única coisa que acho verdadeiramente espantosa é o espanto das pessoas.

Só quem não tem entrado numa escola nestes últimos anos, só quem não contacta com gente desta idade, só quem não anda nas ruas nem nos transportes públicos, só quem nunca viu os 'Morangos com açúcar', só quem tem andado completamente cego (e surdo) de todo é que pode ter ficado surpreendido.

Se isto fosse o caso isolado de uma aluna que tivesse ultrapassado todos os limites e agredido uma professora pelo mais fútil dos motivos - bem estaríamos nós! Haveria um culpado, haveria um castigo, e o caso arrumava-se.

Mas casos destes existem pelas escolas do país inteiro. (Só mesmo a sr.ª ministra - que não entra numa escola sem avisar...- é que tem coragem de afirmar que não existe violência nas escolas...)

Este caso só é mais importante do que outros porque apareceu em vídeo, e foi levado à televisão, e agora sim, agora sabemos finalmente que a violência existe!

O pior é que isto não tem apenas a ver com uma aluna, ou com uma professora, ou com uma escola, ou com um estrato social.

Isto tem a ver com qualquer coisa de muito mais profundo e muito mais assustador.

Isto tem a ver com a espécie de geração que estamos a criar.

Há anos que as nossas crianças não são educadas por pessoas. Há anos que as nossas crianças são educadas por ecrãs.

E o vidro não cria empatia. A empatia só se cria se, diante dos nossos olhos, tivermos outros olhos, se tivermos um rosto humano.

E por isso as nossas crianças crescem sem emoções, crescem frias por dentro, sem um olhar para os outros que as rodeiam.

Durante anos, foram criadas na ilusão de que tudo lhes era permitido.

Durante anos, foram criadas na ilusão de que a vida era uma longa avenida de prazer, sem regras, sem leis, e que nada, absolutamente nada, dava trabalho.

E durante anos os pais e os professores foram deixando que isto acontecesse.

A aluna que agrediu esta professora (e onde estavam as auxiliares-não-sei-de-quê, que dantes se chamavam contínuas, que não deram por aquela barulheira e nem sequer se lembraram de abrir a porta da sala para ver o que se passava?) é a mesma que empurra um velho no autocarro, ou o insulta com palavrões de carroceiro (que me perdoem os carroceiros), ou espeta um gelado na cara de uma (outra) professora, e muitas outras coisas igualmente verdadeiras que se passam todos os dias.

A escola, hoje, serve para tudo menos para estudar.
A casa, hoje, serve para tudo menos para dar (as mínimas) noções de comportamento.

E eles vão continuando a viver, desumanizados, diante de um ecrã.

E nós deixamos.

In Jornal de Notícias, 30.3.2008

In my opinion TV isn’t the only problem, or in fact not the real problem. On the one hand there is a general lack of respect for authority figures amongst younger populations, which I think is widespread all over the world. And this problem has been growing for a few generations now. On the other hand there is also an increasing distance between people and a general lack of human contact, which adds up to the rest. Anyway this a far too complex theme to be discussed in a such a short space (and this post is already far too long). There are too many responsibilities and at the same time no ‘one’ to blame.

The 1st

To start off this blog I would like to invite you to navigate trough a very interesting website:
http://www.senseaboutscience.org.uk/
This is the website of a UK charity – or as we’d say in Portuguese “associação sem fins lucrativos” (“non profit association”) which I find much more appropriate because it has a wider meaning.
I find they are doing a very positive work on gathering information for the general public about science and scientific facts. Especially they aim to untangle the pseudo-scientific claims which grow like weeds nowadays and make unaware buyers spend money on expensive and ineffective junk.
They’re the “good science” defenders, which I find to be a very welcome and long time needed action! Though I myself never was much of an activist, I might just become one for this purpose.

Have fun, becoming an aware customer and citizen.