I'm doctor in medicine

Yes, I finally made it! It's almost one month since I defended my PhD dissertation. It all happened the 2nd of November 2005 at the Oude Academiegebouw of the University of Groningen.

The main goal of my arrival to the Netherlands was achieved almost six years later. I know it took a little longer than expected, but it was not a easy task. Anyhow, it is quite an achivement as for any other science researcher.

The subject of my thesis project was to improve the clinical use of a technology to only assess the blood perfusion in living tissue, which is called laser Doppler perfusion monitoring (LDPM). In my case, I proposed and tested alternative operational methods to increase the reproducibility of the measurements performed for diagnosys purposes. For a more boring description read the book.

From now, I am a doctor in medicine but don't call me "doc". Thanks :)

Dutch weather

Dutch weather is famous in Europe as being terribly bad and changing. It is true, I confirm it. However, this sort of weather allows you to truly enjoy atmospheric phenomena. For instance, this morning on the way to work I have enjoyed of one the most beautiful rainbows I have ever seen in 30 years. It was a complete rainbow so strong that it had a second rainbow showing all the colors as well. Again, I regret not having my digital camera with me. Using Google I have found a photo of a rainbow that looks alike. Awesome!

$100 Laptop

It's a dream come true, but it won't be marketed in the "first world". This is an excellent and beautiful piece of technology only meant for developing countries. There is more information and pictures at the official website:

The $100 laptop is being developed by One Laptop per Child (OLPC), an independent, non-profit association based on the "constructionist" theories of learning pioneered by Seymour Papert and later Alan Kay [...] Its founding members are AMD, Brightstar, Google, News Corporation, and Red Hat, all of whom have funded both OLPC and the MIT Media Lab.

The proposed $100 machine (see the picture) will be a Linux-based, full-color, full-screen laptop that will use innovative power (including wind-up) and will be able to do most everything except store huge amounts of data. This rugged laptop will be WiFi-enabled and have USB ports galore. Its current specifications are: 500MHz, 1GB, 1 Megapixel.

Although I support this fantastic idea, I foresee it would not take a long time before we can get those laptops from the black market or something. Many pople will pay more than $100 to get one and those children and their parents ain't stupid either not to sell it. This is how "our" capitalist world actually works. What a shame.

Copia este libro, por David Bravo

Ya sé que no es muy típico de mi publicar dos veces en un mismo día en este blog, como tampoco lo es que lo haga en castellano. No puedo dejar pasar esta oportunidad para hacer publicidad de una de las obras de divulgación mas importantes del 2005. Copia este libro por David Bravo Bueno explica de forma amena y bien documentada qué es el canon por copia privada de música y el abuso que hace la SGAE imponiéndolo a los consumidores.

Recomiendo que leas el libro. Aunque el formato impreso es muy difícil de encontrar, existe una versión en PDF (y otros formatos) y, ahora también, una versión web.

¡Abre los ojos!

Meditation increases brain cortex thickness

My good friend Nasshh may be right after all. He practises reiki for more than a year and says that it has "some effects" on oneself difficult to explain. Because of he, I have grown some interest on oriental medicine and practises. I've decided to sign in to a Yoga course to learn meditation because it may help me to control the beast inside me... just kidding :P

Seriously, today I've found this article that describes a study in which it has been found that Buddhist Insight meditation may produce an increase of brain mass in the cortex. All this with only 40 minutes of meditation per day. Researchers found that most of the stimulated regions are in the right hemisphere. Interestingly, the stimulated cortical regions are related to sensory, auditory, visual and internal perception. I will get the article soon to learn the nitty-gritty details.

Before I join a meditation course, I need to know what sort of yoga fits my wishes... I can't do most of the contortionist postures :D

Next stop, Venus

Today, I had to wake up early, about 2am, and drove for about 30min. I attended the live broadcast on ESA TV of the launch of the Venus Express satellite. The event took place at the SpaceExpo in Noordwijk (the Netherlands). Before the launch, we got a very intersting presentation of what Venus Express is and what are its objectives.

The name "Express" of this probe makes reference to the short time that has taken from the concept to the launch. It all hapened in about 3 years, thanks to the work previously done for its cousin satellite Mars Express. These two satellites share many structural and functional details.

The blast off happened at 4.33h CET. The Soyuz-Fregat rocket lifted "effortlessly" the Venus Express to a parking orbit. In this circular orbit the Fregat orbital vehicle accelerated the satellite and pushed it off the orbit in direction to Venus. About 5 months from now, Venus Express will arrive its destination.

The main objective of Venus Express is to study the atmosphere and surface of Venus. There are lots of secrets hidden under the dense Venus atmosphere. It is so thick that on the surface there is a pressure of about 90 bars, thats like diving thousand meters in the see. But the pressure is a minor detail because the temperature of about 450 ºC (as hot as a pizza oven) could turn you into ashes in a few of minutes.

Venus Express is not the first satellite to visit Venus. Russian and USA satellites and probes have tried to unveil Venus secrets since early 70s. The most important contribution was from the Magellan satellite launched by NASA in early 90s, which provided us with impressive radar images of Venus surface. however, the Venus Express mission has some remarkable aspects:

• It is the first ESA mission to Venus.
• It has taken a fairly short time from the mission concept to launch. This is why it is called "Express". This could be achieved by reusing much of the Mars Express design.
• The mission will make intensive use of the new ESA antenna located at Cebreros (Ávila, Spain).

Go Venus Express, go.