¿How much sugar is contained in your drinks?

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An image is worth a million words...¿have you ever wondered how much sugar is contained in your drinks? On the left I attach a powerful image that will show you how much. Just look at the redbull can!!!

Usually, I do not re-post entries I write in the blog in Spanish I write; however the power of this image make that worth. Few weeks ago I run into a HBO´s documentary named The Weight of a Nation (link). You will find there several interesting facts if you are interested on giving a look into it. Won´t regret it!

Global warming and global dimming: Same cause, opposite effects; joint strike

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http://facstaff.uww.edu/travisd/pdf/jetcontrailsrecentresearch.pdf

Calentamiento global y oscurecimiento global: Misma causa, efectos opuestos; un golpe conjunto al planeta 

Global dimming is a concept not often used in global warming research carried from an engineering perspective. Both are caused by the increase in air pollutants (greenhouse gases). How? Imagine the air pollutants are like small mirrors, which in one direction reflect the sun radiation before it reaches the earth surface, and on the other direction reflects back the heat released by the earth surface. The latter increases the earth surface temperature, and the former cools down the earth surface. Thus, to the profane eye, if the emission of pollutants were reduced, the global dimming would decrease its power as countermeasure against global warming (see the Fig. on the right). In conclusion, one would say, let´s pollute more! Unfortunately, the situation is not that simple because of several reasons.

The Brew Masters´ lessons on how to turn an engineer into a researcher

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http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/brew-masters-chicha-videos/

¿Cómo convertir a un ingeniero en un investigador?

How to turn an engineer into a researcher? It is one of the challenges that advisors face when receiving an engineer into their research lab. Such is not an easy task, because most engineers, at least from my region, are used to solve problems following standardized procedures, empowered by their empirical knowledge. On the other hand, researchers are to eventually develop the standardized procedures that are to be used by engineers; however, their main task is to seek behind and beyond. Few days ago I expressed those words to a friend, who immediately asked me: How would you turn an engineer into a researcher? Well, I think the first step is to answer the following question:

What do I like?

Sustainable development. Dung beetles in Australia: The contribution from Dr George Bornemissza

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http://www.dungbeetle.com.au/

Escarabajos peloteros en Australia: La contribución del entomólogo Dr. George Bornemissza

If there is someone to blame on my interest in multicolored scientific and travel magazines, such person is my mother. Somehow, she managed to teach me how to read at an age of four, inducing me to investigate into the wonders of nature, at a time when the only sources of information were some magazines and chrome albums that used to arrive to my country a year (and maybe more) after its release. (*To youngsters: I am not that old; technology has simply advanced faster than you can imagine). I remember, back in 198something, when we were at the exchange store were we used to get secondhand magazines and chromes for my album (which I still own!), my mom showed me a chrome on the "dung beetle"; I did not know the meaning of dung back then, and had not understood its importance on sustainable agriculture, until today, when the Nat Geo show "Insectmania" reported some of the outcomes of the 1966-1986 CSIRO Dung Beetle Project.