Comenius: Young European contributing to a better future: Productos

Year 2050 -our carelessness

RENEWABLE ENERGY IN SPAIN

PRESENTACIONES EN GRUPOS INTERNACIONALES ACERCA DEL RECICLAJE

ILUSIONES ÓPTICAS

ENCUESTA: ¿CUÁL CREES QUE HA SIDO EL MAYOR INVENTO DE LA HISTORIA?

DESGLOSE Y ANÁLISIS DE RESULTADOS

CONCLUSIONS

To carry out the survey we have chosen a sample of 100 people classified by age so that the number of the people polled according to age is proportional to the number of Spanish inhabitants of the same age. Moreover, we have tried that the sample were the best example possible, by choosing people belonging to different socioeconomic background.

In general:

35% of the people polled think that the best invention of humanity is the electricity, 12% choose the wheel, 10% the Internet, compared with the 8% that prefer domestic appliances, 7% the fire, 6% the writing and 4% the telephone.

Other inventions chosen by minorities are medicines, running water, the language, the printing press…

It is amazing to see how inventions as primitive as the fire or the wheel coexist with others , relatively recent, as electricity or even as a new as the Internet.

By sexes:

The main difference between men and women lies in the second election, which is the Internet for men and domestic appliances for women, probably due to the traditional education received for a long time when men did not help with the housework.

By age:

Between 10-30

It is strange to see that the people polled aged 10-30 have chosen the electricity, the wheel, the writing, the telephone or the fire better than the Internet, which appears with the lowest percentage of all the choices, providing that they belong to a generation born in the technology age, although considered in a different way, that may be the reason, that it is not an invention for them, as it is part of their lives in a totally natural way.

Between 30-50

Between 30-50 the electricity doubles the Internet, which does acquire prominence in this case. Medicines, the wheel, and other inventions such as the printing press or the washing machine are important too.

Between 50-70

Between 50-70, maybe due to the subject of education mentioned before, electric appliances follow closely the electricity, and the same happens for the people aged more than 70.

More than 70

For the people who are more than 70 electricity is the most important invention, being chosen by half of them and followed by electric appliances. This group of people may value especially these two inventions because they know how life was without them, something that the other generations can’t even imagine.

By age and sex:

Between 10-30: the most important invention has been electricity, with a higher percentage among boys. The wheel has the same importance for boys and for girls, and whereas girls prefer technologies, such as the Internet and the telephone, boys prefer the writing.

Between 30-50: people choose mainly the electricity and another common invention is the wheel. Medicines are more important for women while for men Internet and the writing are more important.

Between 50-70: In this group of people it is striking that men do not consider electricity as one of the main inventions, they think fire is more important. However, women still value the electricity and domestic appliances, because when they were young they did not have these comforts.

In the group of people age more than 70, more than 50% of men consider the electricity as the most important invention, and women think that electricity is as important as electric appliances because they have improved their quality of life dramatically.

Ciéntíficos Nacionales

SANTIAGO RAMÓN Y CAJAL

He was born in Petilla de Aragón (Navarra) in 1852. He went to primary school in Jaca, secondary school in Huesca and then, he studied Medicine in Zaragoza. He was a Spanish doctor specialized in microscopic histology and anatomy.

His research was focused on the nerve tissue. In 1889 he showed the conclusions of his studies about the nervous system to the Anatomy Society of Berlin, proving that each neuron is an independent cell in its structure and functionality, and that the nerve cells aren’t connected to one another by continuity (Camaillo Golgi’s theory), but by contiguity.

He had to overcome great difficulties to make this discovery. The nerve tissue, observed under the microscope, seems like a tangled system of filaments and cellular bodies. This made him think of a group of interconnected neurons, which make up a reticle. However, his conclusions were called into question. Despite his short means, he managed to deepen in the study of neurons. In order to analize the structure and organisation of the nerve tissue, simplicity was the key: He started to study the embryo’s nerve tissue, because it is easier to understand than an adult’s. Besides, he progressed the Golgi’s way of colouring the neurons, getting better results.

He detected that the neurons are not interconnected but independent. Between them, there is an interneuronal vacuum that he called ‘’synaptic gap’’.

He won the Nobel Prize of Medicine in 1906, shared with Camillo Golgi, for discovering the mechanisms that govern the morphology and the connective process of the nerve cells, theory that he called ‘’neuron doctrine’’.

Ramón y Cajal died in Madrid in 1934.

SEVERO OCHOA

He was born in Luarca (Asturias) in 1905. Thanks to Santiago Ramón y Cajal he became interested in Biology. He studied in Málaga and then he took up Medicine in Madrid but he never worked as a doctor; instead, he studied Biochemistry and Muscle Physiology.

He studied the enzymes of the glucosis and fermentation in Germany.

In Plymouth, he studied B1 vitamin and other aspects which have to do with metabolism.

In 1940 he moved to the USA where he spent most of his life. His experiments in Pharmacology and Biochemistry, especially in enzymes made him win the Bewberg Medal in 1951. He investigated the glucide and fatty acid metabolism. He discovered a new enzyme that takes part in Krebs’ cycle and the green plants’ fixing process of CO₂. But most of his work focused in the high energy phosphates involved in biochemical reactions.

In 1955, Severo Ochoa discovered and isolated an enzyme from a bacterial cell: the “Eschericha Coli” that is known as RNA-Polymerase. Its function is to synthesize the RNA, molecule required in the protein’s synthesis. With this enzyme, from an adequate substratum of nucleotides (their basic elements) Ochoa got RNA’s synthesis in a laboratory for the first time. The following year Arthur Kornberg, an American biochemist showed that the DNA synthesis needs another polymerase enzyme for this chain.