1. University of Puerto Rico<br />Cayey Campus<br />Jessica Diaz Rivera<br />RISE Program<br />Seminars Essay<br /> quot;
Scientific knowledge is in perpetual evolution; it finds itself changed from one day to the next.quot;
-Jean Piaget. The important thing in science is to obtain new facts to discover new ways of thinking about them. In science it is not important to know only about one area, but to expand our horizons to acquire knowledge in different areas in the future this will help us to understand many facts. One way that can help us to take advantage and to learn more about different areas in science is to assist to different conference or seminars. Attending a conference provides an opportunity to learn from experts, share ideas with others, and identify new knowledge and techniques in my field. It will be very useful to practice another language and all its scientific terms. Is a world that gives us opportunities to meet new people who can help us to have new experiences in our lives. This way you learn more in depth about the different opportunities that the universities can offer you in the field of science. This semester I assist to different conferences from different universities.<br /> One of the conferences that I assist was about DNA Damage Sensing and Repair- a Look at the Role of Genome Stability in Cancer Progression-From Gene to Protein, given by Dr. Patrick Brandt from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He started mentioning his study that involves telomeres and prostate cancer at the end of DNA single strand. Chromosomes begin to degrade and cancer cells have short telomeres, and he used prostate samples. At Chapel Hill, new drugs for cancer are being developed like CTP-11 and SN-38 is the active drug. Some side effects include diarrhea, malnutrition and dehydration. Bacteria are the ones that activate the drug; using B-Glucs from the bacteria eliminates side effects. He wants to create drugs to help to repair DNA damage in human body. After his short explanation he talked about what a PhD serves for. With a PhD you can be a research professor in academia, bench scientist in industry developing new drugs or therapeutics, science policy expert working to change the way the public understand science, or using your scientific knowledge in business. He also mentioned tips for being an effective graduate student. These are to choose your lab wisely, take ownership of your project, read papers and ask questions, have curiosity and passion, do not let discouragement let you down, and hard work. To conclude the conference, he presented some opportunities that students have to do research during summer. <br /> Another conference was about A Process for Microbial Hydrocarbon Synthesis Metabolic Engineering of Bacteria for Sustainable Production of Fatty-acid Derived Products given by Dr. Brian Pfleger and Dr. Andy Greenberg from the University of Wisconsin. A chemical engineer studies with how enzyme works. They use synthetic biology to approach their goals. There are many source of energy, most of them (35%) comes from oil. From gas, a 20% is used as energy source of energy source and a small percentage of 2% comes from hydrocarbon material. Only 1% comes from renewable energy such as solar, wind, and geothermal. The 6% that comes from nuclear is used to provide electricity for all us. Dr. Brian has been working with sustainable chemical production. The challenge is to cut fossil fuels by 30% by converting one billion tons of plant (cellulosic) biomass to bio-fuel per year. Biomass is composed of cellulose and plant materials such as crops, grasses, and trees. At the University of Wisconsin, they have what it is called the Great Lakes Bio-energy Research Center. Their mission is to improve biomass, create pretreatments, and improve conversion, sustainability, and technologies. A step forward for creating a better energy fuel is synthesizing hydrocarbons. Hydrocarbons are more easily separated from water, than ethanol or other alcohol that are currently being used. There is a resemblance between fatty acids and biomass. By combining biomass to sugar, he converts sugar into hydrocarbons. Computer engineering is a field that contributes to chemical engineering. Computers are used to search DNA sequences and look for a specific gene. From that step, it is up to biologists and chemical engineers to study proteins and DNA using plasmids. <br /> Evolution and Biology of Sex, a conference given by Sehoya Cotner a professor in the University of Minnesota that teaches evolution and biology of sex classes. This is a way to make the courses interesting mixing biology and themes that students like it. She starts the class asking to the students what they want to know about sex. Some of the questions they answered were: Are the humans the only that have sex for pleasure?, Why do Why do we choose the mates we do?, What sets humans apart from other animals?, and What purpose does homosexuality serve?. Dr. Cotner answered all this questions with data. Statistically women select their mates based on genes, quality, and the best match for them. In contrast, the male select their mates based on quantity or amount. This class could help the students to know about biology in a way that they like it, and also to answer all their doubts about sex biology. Also, she mentioned that when women are ovulating they are more attractive. The combination of science and sex that Cotner did was a perfect way to the students to learn in a different perspective. <br /> The key to assist to different conferences is to apply the scientific knowledge in other perspective in our lives. This was very helpful because students can put in practice the English language. You can develop new skills listening the conferences and applying them in the future. Also you have a lot of opportunities to have knowledge about different universities, the fields that they offer and research programs. Attend conferences helps to define our future in science field. <br />