GATACA, Frank Thilliez

This is the best novel that I've ever read. I have to say that I am not fond of reading but this book, because it is related with themes of Biology, I found it very interesting and pleasant to read. GATACA, together with "La Síndrome E", are two novels that complement each other very well, and it worth to read both of them (although I only read GATACA). 

The novels narrate different topics but it is important to know first both main chacracters: Lucie Hennebelle and Franck Sharko, both already on " La Síndrome E". Before reading the book, I looked for some information about Lucie and Franck and what they had in common. Both novels are about different topycs but if you only read GATACA, the characters are related and they know each other, and without this information, you can't understand the plot at all. Anyway, it is very advisable to read GATACA, I like it a lot and prove to me that the science I like the most is Biology.

GATACA narrates some murders, that apparently the have no connection between them, but during the research, all the loose ends fall into place. The first murder is just at the beginning of the book. An infanticide is murdered in his car. Then, during the investigation of this man, there is found the body of a biology student in the cage of a chimpanzee, that it seemed to be killed by one of the animals, in the center where she was preparing her thesis about laterality (the preference to use one side more than the other in humans and animals). Afterwards, while Lucie was in a crack on the top of a mountain, she found a Neanderthal family that was killed by a Cro-Magnon. Grégory Carnot, a child murderer, was found dead in his cell (he committed suicide). And finally, a doctor who studies genetics is brutally murdered in his home, in presence of an autistic boy.

Both characters are completely shattered by the terrifying events that they've experienced in the past ("La Síndrome E"), but they follow the tracks of the murders and solve the case. 

Anybody can imagine why the murderer did these horrible things and how is related with all the tracks of the case until you read the book. Laterality, inverted pictures, the unknown gene of the violence, the victims.... What did the have in common?

**For those who have any knowledge about Biology, the title of the book is related with the four nucleotides the compose a DNA sequence: G (guanina), A (adenina), T (timina), C (citosina).

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News3

World's Oldest People Are Genetically Superior

http://news.discovery.com/human/genetics/worlds-oldest-people-are-genetically-superior-141112.htm

Researchers have studied the genomes (a full set of chromosomes; all the inheritable traits of an organism) of 17 “supercentarians” (people over 110 years of age) and conclude that they have special genes that promote longevity. Lifestyle choices (smoking, alcohol consumption,...) don’t seem to matter much for those who want to reach that ages, according to a study, because they don't differ between centenarians and “Controls” (younger people who served as comparisons). Some people aged 100+ still enjoy a glass of wine, a cigar or other indulgence, although most indicate that they do it in moderation.

The researchers suspect that super old people may have "a rare protein-altering variants that attribute them longevity. These rarities should produce different proteins from ordinary people with protective effects against diseases.A possibility for the fountain-of-youth source is a gene called TSHZ3, found in genomes from subjects aged 98–105 years old. An interesting finding is that one of the supercentarians had a terrible heart disease. Some people with this disease keel over from sudden cardiac death. That didn’t happen to this woman, who reached an old age. The researchers report that there is a 19% lifetime incidence of cancer in the world’s oldest people compared to 49% in normal population. The scientists concluded that supercentarians are very rare and their genomes could hold secrets for the genetic basis of extreme longevity.”

VOCABULARY:

Elusive

Keel over

Ripe

Which Is More Important: Talent or Hard Work?

Most people think that hard work is better than talent because it is the key to success. But I think that talent is better used appropriately. I mean, if you have natural talent in any subject, you must take advantage of it and you must exert yourself as well. I'm sure that this combination of talent and work hard will improve their skills and will lead them to success. 

I don't considere that I have any talent but I've worked hard to achieve everything what I've got, that it's a lot. I have dedicated lot of time and effort at school and at music to reach the level and experience that I have, but people who knows me says that I have talent to do what I do. So I think that maybe I have a little talent combined with my effort.

Unfortunately some people who have natural talent don't work harder than people who hven't got it and they always have worked hard. Talented people miss a lot because they make no effort in anything what they do. I think that the success of these people is thank to their natural talent and not thanks to their improvement.

I think that practice doesn't make the perfection, it hepls a lot but it's no enough to reach the perfection. However if you practise and have talent you can almost achieve  the perfection.

So as I said, neither talent nor hard work is more important than the other, but the combination of both can guarantee the true success.

Places I’d like to visit

I would like to visit some countries/cities when I finish my career. I don't really think that I am an adventurer but there are lots of places interestings for me that I would like to go. But it's a shame that I wouldn't go to all these places because I won't have the necessary time to visit all of them. Although there are two countries I would like to visit before I start a job: Australia and Island.

Since I was a child I always wanted to go to Australia and visit the Great Barrier reef because it is a beautiful place and there are many sea species that it is intresting to know about them. I also wanted to visit Uluru and Sydnay because they are opposite places. Uluru has a very interesting story about the Aborigenees and Sydney is the modern society. It's quite good to compare these two worlds.

Then I want to see, at least once, the northen lights in Island. I've seen lots of images and videos of them but I think that it is not the same.

There are some more places I really want to visit but I'll tell them another day...

News2

Scientists Find Water In The Atmosphere Of A Distant Exoplanet

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http://www.forbes.com/sites/ericmack/2014/09/24/scientists-find-water-in-the-atmosphere-of-a-distant-exoplanet/

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/09/water-discovered-in-a-small-warm-exoplanets-atmosphere-for-first-time/

The author of the text informs us that an international team of scientists has detected water vapor in the atmosphere of an exoplanet four times bigger than Earth, with a mass 26 times that of our planet and is in the constellation Cygnus, a about 124 light years. It is the smallest planet on which scientists have described the chemical components of its atmosphere.

This discovery was led by a university professor (University of Maryland) and a group of astronomers, experts on exoplanets, and was published in the journal "Nature".

The planet is called HAT-P11b (comes from the acronym of Automatic Telescope Network Hungarians HAT) and astronomers have been able to detect water vapor thanks to observations from three different telescopes of NASA, and the method of transmission spectroscopy, which studies a peculiarity of the light when a planet passes in front of its star. They saw that the material of the atmosphere of the exoplanet absorbs some of the light from its star and it makes that the world seems bigger. The chemical elements in the atmosphere may leave a 'footprint' on light that detect telescopes . With these prints can infer the composition of the atmosphere.

It also informs us that the exoplanet temperature is quite high, but this planet, which probably has a rocky core, has the atmosphere composed mostly of hydrogen and, even without clouds, there are marks of water vapor, a prior factor to life  but not sufficient.

Finally the author concludes that this find of water vapor and hydrogen in the atmosphere of exoplanet HAT-P 11b is not only a great job, but it also suggests that astronomers' ideas about how planets are formed and the theory of the core accretion, seem to be true for other planetary systems as well as for ours.

A person that I admire

I've always admired Stephen Hawking because for me he is the smartest person in the world. He was born the 8th of january of 1942 in Oxford. When he was 21, while he was studying at the Oxford University, doctors diagnosed him ALS. Most of people in his situation give up and wait for their death. ALS has worsened his status with the step of the years, until he is almost completely paralyzed, and now he is forced to communicate through a voice generator apparatus. It is true that Hawking had lived more than doctors an experts expected, but he decided to fight against his illness and the doctors diagnosis. He continued studying and now he is 72 years old and he is a great theoretical physicist, astrophysicist, cosmologist and science communicator. He is still doing conferences about astronomy and physics but essentially he has helped a lot in studies of the Univers. He has done lots of new discoveries of the Univers and of Physics, but I think that he would be better without his horrible illness. 

Most of people have to learn about him and move forwards to achieve their goals.

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Learning to play a musical instrument- why I like it and why it is good for me.

For me music is a method to get away from the school and from the day-to-day. It's interesting and funny for me learning to play a musical instrument because I love music and I want to improve my knowledge. I have played the guitar since I was 10 and I have improved a lot. And I am still improving. I take advantage of my experience to play some songs I like and then to play the electric bass, too. I first played it in the last year HNMPL Musical and I enjoyed so much that I wanted to start learning how to play it.

Also I have played the fiscorn for five years and I am still playing it. It is a very difficult instrument to play because I have to blow a lot to play it. When I started playing it I had a lot of difficulties (and I still having them). But I improved a lot and because of that I’ve played many times with the cobla, and now with a Band (Banda Municipal de Figueres). 

I can play the trombone too. Blowing is the same skill that in fiscorn but then I had to learn how the stick works. It’s very difficult to choose the correct position. I’ve play the trombone for less than a year but I will improve on it.

In the future I will put in practise all these skills that I’ve learnt (and that I will learn), and I hope to have success in music world.
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News

New Material May Help Us To Breathe Underwater and Improve Fuel Cells

http://www.33rdsquare.com/2014/10/new-material-may-help-us-to-breathe.html

Danish scientists have created an element with the property to capture and accumulate high quantities of oxygen. This ingenious material may liberate oxygen anytime and anywhere when needed.

But this fact does not surprise professionals, given that many substances react to oxygen, either wine, food .... What is special about this new substance is that it is not like previous and thanks to that, it has that great quality of storing and releasing oxygen where it pleases.

The researchers compare this material with sponges and affirm it doesn't lose the capacity with its prolonged use. In order to achieve off oxygen they have to apply heat or subject it to a low pressure. Now experts are investigating whether the light will also release oxygen to the material, which would favor the field of artificial photosynthesis.

The essential element that attributes to its great new material properties is cobalt. Researchers know that all living things need a certain quantity of metal in their body to absorb oxygen, which explains that they weren't surprised with this material.

The new substance absorbs faster or slower speed depending on environmental conditions. Therefore there are different versions of the new material that are specific to a given condition.

Finally, Christine McKenzie, responsible for the study, concludes by numbering some utilities such as helping patients with a lung problems, replacing the heavy equipment for a few grams of this new material. Or even also to prevent divers carrying air containers and change them by this substance.

 I found this article very interesting and quite easy to understand. Therefore I think it is a good article and this is a great discovery for science and diving in general.

VOCABULARY:
Chemisorption
Vacuum
Prospect

Testing on animals-Good or bad?

I'm going to write about the topic of testing on animals because I love them and I'm not sure if all that experiments that test with animals are necessary at all.

Something positive on testing on animals is that scientists can look for a cure for both animals and human illnesses. I think that in this exceptional ambit, testing on animals is good to advance at important topics like cancer or genetic engineering. Experts can advance a lot using on animals their possible cure, that is to say move forward in medical investigation. At least scientists don’t test on humans as much as they do with animals. I’m sure that they have a reason to do that but I don’t think that these cures react equally in animals that in humans.

The cons are that these tests are cruel to animals. I think that everything that is harmful to animals is immoral. And then I’m sure that testing on animals for cosmetics it’s really unnecessary, there must be other methods to make them.

My conclusion is that the only positive thing, as I said, is that scientists use animals to achieve an effective cure to some severe diseases.

What's music for me?

For me music is my pation, my favourite hobby. I play the guitar, the fiscorn and the trombone. I enjoy playing songs with the guitar. I like to interpretate sardanes and music for orchestra/band with the fiscorn. And I like playing some songs with the piano, although I haven't done any class of it. I am very hopeful to play all these instruments because I love music.
To improve with these difficult instruments I have to practise a lot but I don't care because I enjoy doing it.
I play in La Banda Municipal de Figueres since this past summer. We are working in a project and we have played in some events like La Acústica this past summer.
I am very excited to be a member of that young band and to belong to a cobla, La Castellonina. It is the music school's cobla and it has to progress with all the members. It's amazing when I have to play in an event because I'm not nervous, in fact I enjoy it.
If I want to go to a professional cobla (although I have already played in a professional one, Els Rossinyolets) I have to study more and more to impress them. I hope that it can be as early as possible!!!

My pets

In general I love all the animals because I think they are our friends. But in this post I'm going to talk about my pets. I have a dog, Blacky, and three turtles. I had three birds, but they died because of hot. One day, one of the turtles fell from a second floor. I was very sad because I thought that it was dead. But it wasn't and it still alive. 

I have my dog since I was 9. Normaly I take care of Blacky and I walk it. When it was a puppy, it was black and for this reason its name's Blacky. Blacky is very playful, bushy, loving but very nervous. It seems a hairball that moves from side to side. Sometimes, when I want to play with Blacky but it doesn't want, it groans to me, but I know that Blacky loves me and I stop bother it. I love It too.

1st Term Reflections

I like very much this first term because we had done lots of new activities in our blog and we had learnt a lot with a different methode that maybe had taught us more easily the tasks that we had to do. It was very conforting to learn this way. We had practiced to do writtings and to use our imagination. I think we could have done more songs to learn more vocabulary and pronunciation skills, although we had learnt with the blog tasks. And the projects seem very interesting.

The Murders in the Rue Morgue

The narrator was in Paris and met Monsieur Dupin in a library while they were searching for the same book. Both lived together in a flat. One day they were reading the newspaper and saw that there were two terrible murders. The corpses were Madame L'Espanaye and her daughter.The room of the murders was  locked with the key inside and the windows were closed. Mr. Dupin asked the witnesses and they all said that the deep voice was of a Frenchman and the other, the shrill one, everyone said  had a different language. Nobody  agreed. As Mr. dupin was investigating, he came to the conclusion that the murderer had to be very agile and fast, and it wasn't human. The narrator was astonished with his partner. Finally Mr. Dupin solved the mistery and the murder was an orang-outang from the island of Borneo that was owned by a French sailor.

I liked this book very much because I love mistery books although I don't read frequently. In my opinion I think that Sherlock Holmes and Watson are inspired in these characters because Holmes is like Dupin: had a diferent vision of things regarding other people, and Watson is like the narrator because they admire their partners and learn from them.

The Rue Morgue Speaking

My favourite horror film

FREDDY VS. JASON

My favorite horror film is Freddy vs. Jason. Normally when I watch horror films, I try that the movies are not bloody, but with this and the whole saga of Freddy's movies I made an exception for being classics of cinema.

Freddy narrates that he is trapped in Hell, because the citizens  have forgotten him over time, because the adults have kept the current generation of teenagers ignorant of Krueger's existence, leaving him powerless to return to their nightmares. He manipulates Jason under the guise of his mother, to begin killing the children, hoping that the fear of the murders will bring his powers back. But when Freddy returns to nightmares,  realizes that Jason will not stop killing and stealing his potential victims. Freddy then discovers Jason's fear of water and uses it to pull him into a nightmare of his drowning as a child. Finally, Jason won holding Freddy's severed head. Freddy's head winks at the audience and laughs.

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My world: My favourite song

Back in black

My favourite song is Back in Black from AC/DC. It's a fantastic song because it has a good rhythm and it makes you feel with a lot of energy and there are great guitar solos. I know this song because a friend likes this group too and showed it me. The song is a tribute to Bon Scott (the lead singer of the group), who had recently died, expressing in the lyrics of the song that the group returns but is in mourning. When I understood the true message of the song made ​​me like even more, because Bon Scott was a great group leader.

Back in black LYRICS AC/DC

CAN YOU SCARE US?

THE GOTHIC NOVEL

The gothic novel was invented almost single-handedly by Horace Walpole. Walpole's novel was imitated not only in the eighteenth century and not only in the novel form, but it has influenced the novel, the short story, poetry, and even film making up to the present day. The first Gothic Novel was The Castle of Otranto, that contains essentially all the elements that constitute the genre. It was first published on 1764.

THE PSYCHOLOGICAL HORROR STORY

The Tell-Tale Heart is about an unnamed narrator who lives with an old man with a diseased eye. Finally he decides to kill him.  The crime is carefully checked and the corpse is dismembered and hidden under the floorboards of the house. The police arrived to the house and the murderer rates himself, imagining the old man's heart has been put to throb under the floorboards.

Edgar Allan Poe was an orphan with a troubled childhood who became America’s first great lyric poet, the inventor of the modern detective story, a pioneer of science fiction, and the master of the macabre. Poe became the first internationally influential American writer. In 1841, before the word “detective” had entered the English language, Poe published the first modern detective story “The Murders in the Rue Morgue.”  In this tale, Poe established the prototype future mystery writers would follow. He wrote romantic poems, tales of terror and science fiction.

SUSPENSE

Alfred Hitchcock is the master of the suspense. His characters were blonde girls and masked murderers. He used the subjective camera to reveal a character’s vision.

COMIC RELIEF

Comic relief is the inclusion of a humorous character, scene or witty dialogue in an otherwise serious work, often to relieve tension. Comic relief usually means a releasing of emotional or other tension resulting from a comic episode interposed in the midst of serious or tragic elements in a drama. I remember an example of comic relief in The Exorcist when the girl throws up over the priest.

What makes me happy, sad or stressed?

Music is the thing that makes me happiest. Any kind of music, classical music, modern music, rock... When I am happy I want to play it with my instruments: the guitar and the fiscorn. Or I try to remember the lyrics and sing it.

I feel sad when I watch a sad film or sad series. I try not to cry watching these films or series. To stop being sad I change the channel and I take a comedy or whatever that makes me laugh.

Every time that I have lots of exams or projecsts during the week I feel very stressed. Listening to music is the solution for fighting stress.

Gabriel (Chicho)

MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES

I did the test of multiple intelligences and the result was this graphic. I agree with most of the results, except with the picture smart, the word smart and the number smart. So I wanted to do the test again to make the results that I wanted but I didn't because it was supposed to be honest with the test of this graphic and I think that I was. Then at home I took the test again and the result was very different. It was more like the result that I want.

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My hero

My hero is Marc Timón i Barceló, who lives in Castelló d'Empúries. He studied in la Escola Municipal de Música Antoni Agramont. Marc is my hero because he is a writer, a journalist, a pianist, an interpreter of the tible in la Cobla Sant Jordi(one of the best cobles in the world), and a composer of soundtracks and sardanes at only 33 years old.He is very simpathetic, friendly and forthcoming. He won more than ten awards among all the things that he does. I admire him because I wold like to be as succesful as he is, get as many prizes like him and devote my life to music.

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ANIMAL IN YOU

PERSONAL OPINION

I did the animal test and the results were at first the penguin, later the beaver and finally the owl. I am disagree with the first result because the careers that there were I think that they weren't related with my personality. Then I didn't know which option choose because both were quite similar and they could be true. But finally I chose the owl because I thought that it was the correct option for me and my future careers. 

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