UN Periodico English No.1 - Special Issue: Science and Technology

2 Industry

Fungus Production: a profitable business for farmers

5 Health

15 Agriculture

UN students and professors work to reduce maternal and infant mortality

Garden Snail: plague, but also business

21 Innovation

Applications for movable devices, desktop and web

http://www.unperiodico.unal.edu.co • un_periodico@unal.edu.co Bogotá D.C. - Colombia • September, 2009

Published by Universidad Nacional de Colombia • ISSN 1657-0987 • www.agenciadenoticias.unal.edu.co

Special Issue: Science and Technology

Discovered secrets of dangerous tiny bug that causes leishmaniasis Two investigations at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, pioneers in the world, make progress upon the way this tiny bug, which causes leishmaniasis harms the immune system. The first article explains how the parasite

attacks cells and prevents them to suicide as mechanism of defense. The second article develops an alternative treatment that promises to cure and immunize the victim.

Page 12

New gauge to find out the gestational age

A new species of fish increase the natural patrimony

A new and simple method to value gestational age at birth, never described before, is being developed by investigators at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. The work deserved the first place at the Fifth Latin American Congress of Neonatology.

The discover and recent cataloguing of new a species of fish, collected at the river basin from the Caquetá River, lagoon “El Vaticano,” feeds the greatest, oldest and most complete collection in the country, located at the Natural Sciences Institute from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia.

4

22

2

Industry Mushroom production with agro-ecological methods is an excellent alternative for Colombian farmers, nutritional and economical security. Thus is been demonstrated by the UN Palmira, where they produce

Oyster Mushrooms, Pleurotus Ostreatus, an edible mushroom of high demand for international markets.

Fungus Production:

a profitable business for farmers

september, 2009

www.agenciadenoticias.unal.edu.co

Jairo Mosquera, employee at the UN Palmira, promotes the business next to students and alumni.

In a space of 8 by 14 they are producing 5 tons of oyster mushroom, a much desired mushroom in the market for its nutritional and medicinal properties and for having protein percentages that vary from 30 to 40, turning it into a unique mushroom able to replace meat in the human diet. Additionally it owns substances that turn it into a mushroom with anti-tumor properties and a generator of defenses for the organism without sugars, reason why its consumption is apt for diabetics.

“We bought one kilogram of oyster mushroom for 8 thousand pesos and after the production process, we turn it into 4 million pesos, which if we do the math, with 5 tons, we will be talking about 40 million pesos every month. This could be perfectly done by our farmers, who at the moment are economically and socially threaten,” assured Mosquera, who’s in charge of the Meat, Fruit and Vegetable Technology Labs.

Jairo works in hand with two graduated students and three undergraduate students at the UN Palmira, who already have a legally set up company with Invima registry; however, as they say, “because of the social character the University is given us” they wish to trespass knowledge and the way of working with mushrooms to the Colombian farmers, so they can benefit. “To give farmers this kind of technology and raise their quality of life and the country’s situation,” expressed members of the Technical–Scientific Committee, as they named themselves.

The substrate from which the mushrooms inoculate is composed by cane bagasse, a very affordable product in Valle del Cauca; residues of corn and beans harvests, among others. Soon after is the fermentation process where sugars are degraded to prevent the growth of other fungi. At this moment, they also do a chemical balance of nitrogen, carbon and pH. “It is an added value because these are produced without any chemicals that’ll affect the environment

and therefore increase the production costs,” expressed the Technical-Scientific Committee.

The next step is the inoculation and fluctuation of the mushrooms. “Among these two phases, the mushroom appears and starts feeding it, growing hung in plastic bags. After a month and one week length reaches its ideal size. Afterwards fructifies every 20 days, for five times,” assured Jairo Mosquera.

This project was selected by the National Service of Learning (SENA) in Palmira, for its innovating and social components. With this, members and now businessmen from the UN Palmira hope to trespass their experience to interested and turn the production of oyster mushroom into a profitable business for many Colombians.

This experience will be shared by members of the Technical–Scientific committee during the University Week, which will take place September 21st to the 25th at the University campus.

Executive Director: Carlos Alberto Patiño Villa Editor-in-Chief: Luz Adriana Pico Maffiold – lapicom@unal.edu.co Associate Editor: Nelly Mendivelso Rodríguez – bnmendivelsor@unal.edu.co Associate English Content Editor-Translator: Juliana Ariza – mjarizaf@unal.edu.co Editorial Committe: Jorge Echavarría Carvajal, Egberto Bermúdez, Paul Bromberg, Alexis de Greiff, Fabián Sanabria Art Editor: Ricardo González Angulo Copy Editor: Verónica Barreto Riveros Photography: Víctor Manuel Holguín, Andrés Felipe Castaño Journalists: Félix Enrique Blanco, Catalina Suárez Amazonia: Harrison Calderón Bogotá Magda Páez, Patricia Barrera, Carlos Andrey Patiño, Elizabeth Vera, Francisco Tafur Manizales Carolina Cardona, Ángela Betancourt, Fanny Pedraza Medellín Doris Gómez, Elizabeth Cañas, David Calle, Gimena Ruiz Palmira Laura Fuertes, Marcela Rangel Printing: CEET, Casa Editorial El Tiempo Expressed opinions are those of the authors alone and don’t compel or compromise principles by the Universidad Nacional de Colombia or politics by the UN Periódico.

Web Page: http://www.unperiodico.unal.edu.co Phones: 316 5348 - 316 5000 ext. 18384 / Fax: 316 5232 Edificio Uriel Gutiérrez Carrera 45 Nº 26-85, piso 5º. Bogotá - Colombia ISNN1657-0987

Industry

3

Following coffee steps

Honey from four different zones of the country (Santander, Cundinamarca, Boyacá and Magdalena) are analyzed in the laboratory to determine its properties and differentiate them, as well as observing and handling of the beehive.

“The samples show different profiles. When they get grouped by region it’ll be possibly to prove the diversity of germs, which will be of great impact,” as explained by Judith Figueroa, micro-biologist at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Breeding, who assures this information will help producers acquire the quality label.

prepares to export honey The country prepares to export a quality label similar to the Colombian coffee. Investigators at the

Universidad Nacional de Colombia analyze various types of honey from several regions to take the first step towards the quality registry.

Antecedents During 2005 the Ministry of Agriculture called the productive sector and the academy to develop joint projects with milk, fruits, and honey, among other foods. Three areas of the University got together in order to formulate the project: The ICTA, that’s done daily tests of honeys; the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Breeding, through microbiology; and the Faculty of Sciences, through Guiomar Nattes, biologist who investigates bees.

As explained

by Martha Quicazán, chemical coordinator from ICTA, “besides establishing the technical and scientific tools for the beekeepers to know their honey properties and origin, and consumers to get to know where the honey comes from, production date, lot number, and a full report of beneficial properties.”

According to Professor Consuelo Díaz, from ICTA, “we are characterizing the honey, so the producer can request a quality seal. This is a delayed process because it must happen through a knowledge process, a characterization of different points of view, a qualification to improve practices, and the beekeepers must work like a company, a productive nucleus, if they want to accede to the quality label.”

Guarantee of origin This is a geographical indication applied to an agricultural product, whose quality or characteristics are due essentially to the geographic place where it is produced, transformed, and elaborated.

This qualification is used to protect certain foods produced in a determined zone against other producers in different zones who would want to take advantage of the good reputation that has positioned the original product.

www.agenciadenoticias.unal.edu.co

Advances

Colombia

september, 2009

Not only the flavor, texture, and aroma classify Colombian honey as one of the best in the world.

The bee product has anti-bacterial properties with a high potential to counteract diseases. This is being demonstrated by investigators at the Universidad Nacional, who advance in the search of a guarantee of origin for Colombian honeys directed to exportation.

In order to determine its characteristics and analyze the honey production in different regions of the country, specialists from the Institute of Science and Food Technology, ICTA, from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia used a tool named “electronic nose,” which consists of sensors that perceive different compounds, and allow to obtain a unique digital fingerprint to compare and characterize honey.

4

Health At the moment of birth, age starts being a key factor in the human life, not just as a mathematical referent that allows foreseeing old age or projecting the future, but as an indicator of risk factors, factors that affect health and prognosis, especially in the newborns.

For such reason, as answer to some diseases suffered by babies at birth and related to their time of life, investigators at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, validated a new indicator of gestational age at birth, named Talla Menos 10 (Size – in centimeters – Minus 10).

This allows a fast calculation of the gestational age at birth, facilitates description of risks and treatment on time to avoid health problems in the new born.

In the world of medicine, there are several methods to know this, such as the ultrasonography, tables and calculations from the last period. Nevertheless, as the research director Santiago Currea says, they are all vague and complex, and in some cases they require a very personal and qualified intervention for its application.

“The method we are describing is susceptible to be applied by personnel with a basic formation. Besides it is going to allow in peripheral areas, to obtain a very approximate calculation of the gestational age, useful to qualify risks in children to undertake treatment or take them to centers of greater complexity,” said the professor.

The pediatric graduate students who participated from the research were Adriana Cuenca, Juan Carlos Herrera, Edna Catherine Guzmán, Karen Ruíz and special intern Angélica Chantré.

Minus 10

september, 2009

www.agenciadenoticias.unal.edu.co

The new gestational gauge – awarded at the Fifth Latin American Congress of Neonatology for contributions in the area – is very simple: consist of measuring the baby, express it in centimeters and then subtract 10. That is to say, if the new born measures 52 centimeters when applying the indi-

The new gestational gauge – awarded in the Fifth Latin American Congress of Neonatology, for its contributions in the area – is very simple: consists of measuring the baby, express it in centimeters and then subtract 10. That is to say, if the new born measures 52 centimeters, when applying the indicator, would give us 42, this is the number of weeks of the gestation.

New gauge

to find out the gestational age

A new and simple method to value gestational age at birth, never described before, is being developed by investigators at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. The work deserved the first place at the Fifth Latin American Congress of Neonatology.

cator would give us 42, this is the time of gestation.

The normal gestational age is 40 weeks. When there’s a preterm birth, risks for the new born increase.

For example if someone is born at 32 weeks of gestational age, is more prone to suffer a disease called hyaline membrane disease, which is a developmental insufficiency by structural immaturity in the lungs and the patient may have the necessity to receive mechanical ventilation. This also has metabolic and circulatory risks of adaptation to the outside life.

Therefore, a child with these characteristics would be quickly sent to a place where he/she can receive integral attendance, with specialized attention for the respiratory deficiency and, in general, all risks.

Post mature births – those that go beyond the 42 weeks – also present some complications. For example, they share with the premature risk of hypoglycemia. “All these facts turn the calculation of gestational age at birth into something really important,” assured the UN professor.

The last menstruation, he explained, is the oldest method known to recognize the gestatio-

nal age, but it has error factors, for example, a bad count from the mother may take you to believe there’s longer time than in the reality is. “Sometimes, an implantation bleeding presents, which creates a false impression of a menstruation that happens 4 weeks after the fertilization,” explains Professor Currea.

Similarly, he added, the ultrasound is very useful, but needs to be practiced in a series way since the beginning of gestation. “This generally doesn’t include all mothers, because it is a very expensive resource, not affordable for everyone,” he said.

Another existing method is the table to calculate gestational age, among them the Ballard and Capurro, which, according to the investigator present complexity, require some special training, are expensive and have some rank of vagueness.

Work Base The study worked with 848 children from the Maternal–Infant Institute of Bogotá. Based on a German publication named Treatment of Prenatal Pathology, the investigator studied tables from Dr. Lula Lubchenco, who is considered a

historical landmark about gestational age calculation and the risk coming from this estimate.

“The book falls into our hands and when examining her data table, I identified an interval that stayed among which is called percentile 50 of size and the gestational age. I measured this interval and found out it was 10.

Then, we plot and by subtract 10 to this number, stature agreed almost with absolute superposition to the gestational age,” explained Professor Currea.

This is how the test stage in Colombian children started. The result was very coincident. When we subtracted 10 to the size and then plot this against the gestational age, there was strong correlation.

We also did, as well, a correlation index with a statistical test called Pearson Test, which gives minus 1 and 1 values. “Our study gave a correlation value of +0.72. That is to say, we have 7 eights of correlation, which is considered very high,” said the UN investigator.

This is how; based on results from these tests, the new gauge to value gestational age was born,never described before by literature. The idea is to start extending its use to lend the opportune attention to newborns.

Health

5

The alarming number of mothers and newborn deaths in the country may be reduced by implementing a strategy: pursuit of the mother and her child during the postnatal period. Thus, demonstrates a study by the Prenatal Maternal Academic Group from the Faculty of Nursing at the UN, which takes place at a location in Engativá, Bogotá.

Experiences at the Engativá and La Victoria Hospitals With the participation and direction of professors Carmen Bernal, Brunilde Goether, Luz Mery Hernández, Yolanda Munévar and professor Pardo, students from last semester have worked, for over four years, with mothers whose childbirth was treated at the Engativá Hospital and, recently, at La Victoria Hospital. Near 839 women from 1, 2 and 3 strata (Colombian system of classification by economic status) have benefitted from it.

The monitoring work realized every semester begins with a biological, psychological and socio– cultural valuation of the mother and her new born child, complemented with revision of their clinic history at the time they leave the hospital.

All these is done to analyze risk factors that must be watch.

When a mother is discharged from the hospital, previous instruction and a medical card, including information about alert signs to act immediately, are given to her. Later, by means of phone calls or home visits in special cases, the work team continues guiding the mother.

Two phone calls are done: one to the third day, when most of the major problems about breastfeeding appear; and another one to the eight day, when most infections can be detected, infections in the mother (reproductive system and breasts) or

in the child (belly button) as problems of jaundice, hypoglycemia or hypocalcaemia in newborns.

According to the information given by the UN group, in the case of mothers, postpartum bleedings are the event requiring the greater attention for being one of the main causes of mortality. “Although hemorrhages usually happen the following hours to the childbirth, in some cases these take place during postpartum period,” says Professor Pardo.

The most frequent problems are related to breastfeeding, which are susceptible to improve at home.

In children, the most common problems are the jaundice (yellowish discoloration of the skin due to increase levels of bilirubin in the blood), that although is controlled by exposing the minor to the sun, if not watched, it may trigger serious complications of the central nervous system. Likewise, hypoglycemia problems for the account of an inadequate supply frequency on premature babies and/or low weight, and those with great weight and size for their gestational age, a situation that in these cases may also be lethal if

not addressed opportunely.

This monitoring is done with the consent of mothers who for the most part, accede to the service. The group also looks to determine causes for which some mothers refuse to receive orientation or just provide false contact information. The current evidence according to Professor Pardo, aims to the impersonal and sometimes aggressive treatment they receive from personnel at the health centers, which predisposes them before any professional in the area.

For this reason, the student’s participation is given positive results.

Like wise, at the Hospitals of Engativá and La Victoria is been possible to determine the influence of popular myths about mother’s health and their children at the postpartum period. Although some traditional care is beneficial, the belief that mothers should not go out to avoid “cold getting into their bodies because this can deteriorate their reproductive health,” results to be self defeating, when assistance to postpartum controls is the key tool to determine any negative variation about the mother’s or the child’s health.

september, 2009

Annually more than 500 women die in Colombia, during pregnancy and postpartum periods.

In the world the number exceeds 500,000 cases per year. The paradoxical thing is that most causes from the deceases are in their majority, avoidable. To that extent, mother’s training respecting warning signals that should be meet immediately days after the birth, may contribute to the reduction of these rates. That is the bet a group of students and professors at the Faculty of Nursing from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia is worked for since 2004.

In head of Patricia Pardo, associate professor at the Faculty of Nursing and director of the Prenatal Maternal Academic Group, opened a line of work named “Monitoring the mother and her newborn during the postpartum period,” which aims to implement a strategy of health promotion and disease prevention addressed to the mother and her newborn baby. The idea is to involve the family as a support group and promote practices of care congruent with their culture and healthy life styles.

According to the monitoring team of maternal and postnatal deaths from the National Health Institute (INS), during 2001 the highest number of maternal deaths in Colombia was registered, with an approximate figure of 700 cases, most of them by account of postpartum bleedings, absolutely avoidable, considering the technical and medical advances at the time.

For that reason, monitoring and guidance of mothers is essential. Pardo explains that, taking into account that mothers leave increasingly rapid the hospital after childbirth, it is important that in the eight days following the birth they receive some type of attention and guidance about what to expect during this period.

www.agenciadenoticias.unal.edu.co

Students and professors Work to reduce maternal and infant mortality

6

Innovation The mobilization problems in the capital, the increasing reduced area of new homes, and the need to add healthy practices in the routines of people,

are some of the circumstances that motivated David Andrés Cañón to design a folding bicycle, in order to improve the quality of life among users and served him as degree project as well.

David’s interest stared while he was in his third year of Industrial Design and during one of his undergraduate classes he explored the characteristics from the metallurgical industry. Then, David started to work on a bicycle prototype with Rockville Company, that for twenty years is been dedicated to manufacture bicycles and since 2003 penetrated into the development of special model bicycles (the ones to fold and tricycles for disable people).

Rockville manager, Hugo Chaparro, explained that the company searched for support form various universities, including the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, to base their new developments on rigorous information.

He’s always thought that in Colombia there’s no advance in the bicycles field, which is a disadvantage, given the characteristics of growing cities such as Bogotá, where users of bicycles abound.

Finally, when David decided to initiate his degree project, he already had some work advanced: he knew the industry and the consumer needs. Then he enforced the project with the support of the

Design Workshop at the Faculty of Arts from the UN, and in general with the expert collaboration from the Design School. Thus, his folding model started and today is another alternative in the market, because is available for $390,000 Colombian pesos. The students are the main niche that looks to benefit from David’s proposal given the advantages give by its use in the matters of mobility, portability and quality of life.

David’s bicycle resists a load up to 120 kilos and folds during an average of 18 seconds, has six speeds and weights 10.7 kilograms.

It was presented by Rockville Company last July 24th during an event summoned in Medellín, by the National Federation of Retailers, Fenalco, for the business people in the bicycle sector.

The design of this original bicycle is a key piece for David’s portfolio, which he’s consolidating nowadays to apply for a Master’s program in Automotive Design in Milan. Then, as he indicates, his design has opened many doors that allow him to see a promising future, once he’s received his professional title.

september, 2009

www.agenciadenoticias.unal.edu.co

Student Proposal A bicycle to ride, fold and load

Science and technology

7

According to geologists at the UN in Bogotá

56 billion barrels of petroleum, underneath Colombian’s feet A new study by the Universidad Nacional de Colombia revealed the availability of 56 billion barrels of petroleum underneath the Colombian’s feet. The study used

up-to date data from 21 sedimentary basins in the country.

There might be more black gold than we know!

www.agenciadenoticias.unal.edu.co

that is to say, the percentage of oil that can be effectively extracted from an oilfield.

“For example, it is estimated that the Eastern Flats have 316 billions of petroleum barrels, but when considering the previous factors, we could expect 20 billion barrels,” explains the scientist.

Petroleum: a hidden treasure, slippery, vital for world’s economy; a resource that runs out and of which is foretold in the case of Colombia, in less than a decade will be a little left to extract from the traditional oil wells if there isn’t an aggressive exploration. These are the facts for new discussion and reflection.

Source: Geologist Carlos Alberto Vargas Jiménez.

september, 2009

by the American Petroleum Institute in the US, to determine the in-situ resource of sedimentary areas. The Monte Carlo method was used to make statistical estimations and to approximate complex and expensive mathematical expressions to be evaluated. The exercise threw results of a great potential to find petroleum in the 21 basins studied.

According to Vargas the estimate done by the Monte Carlo method offered values of 10, 50 and 90 per cent of probabilities, and average possibilities of oil resources. These values are affected by geological risks, which means the uncertainty associated to the presence of oil systems and the own recovery of the oil finding,

AFP

“Typically the most flourishing sedimentary basins in Colombia have been the ones located at the Valle Superior and Valle Medio in the Magdalena, the Eastern Flats and more recently, Sinú-San Jacinto, Valle Inferior del Magdalena, Caguán-Putumayo and the Catatumbo,” says Várgas Jiménez, doctor of earth sciences.

On the contrary, sedimentary basins as the ones located in Guajira, Tumaco, Chocó, Amazonas and the Eastern Mountain have had limited or no oil development. According to the geologist is due to factors as the few occurrence evidences, the jungle density, social conditions and that the oil doesn’t arise as it does in other basins.

“The Colombian Pacific is basically unexplored. Companies that settle there do it mainly for the mining and forestall resources. The other basins have many possibilities, but detailed information about them is very limited,” says the investigator.

The first task was to review, update and complete information about each basin and its technical aspects. To do this, it was necessary to turn to the national cabinet of the Hydrocarbon Direction from the Ministry of Mines and Energy, and other sources like the ANH, universities, etc.

Once the data consolidated, all these got incorporated to a standard formulation received

AFP

There are 9 billion oil barrels more the country could count on, if compared to the most optimistic numbers given by the Mines and Energy Ministry that in 2002 estimated the reserve at 47 billion barrels to be found.

The study was done by the Earth Sciences Department at the UN and lead by Geologist Carlos Alberto Vargas Jiménez. It originated from an update of sedimentary basins in the country, with a technical team from the National Agency of Hydrocarbon (ANH) in 2007, the historical analysis of the national oil production and the application of modern statistical techniques.

The researcher assures that the innovative part of the investigation comes with new variable analysis ignored in similar studies. “With ANH we took considerations of technical character and evaluated everything, all the geological context, but we still needed to know what could be the oil potential in 21 of the 23 sedimentary basins in Colombia,” Vargas says.

But, where could it be more oil than the estimated by the Ministry and the oil sector companies? At the systematic study of sedimentary basins, something that no other company did before.

8

Innovation

Lab experiment from the ICTA at the UN

New Mayonnaise made of Bovine Blood

A revolutionary product is being cooked at the laboratories of the Institute of Science and Food Technology (ICTA) from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia.

september, 2009

www.agenciadenoticias.unal.edu.co

It is about a mayonnaise done with bovine’s blood, which has a higher nutritional flavor and is cheaper to produce, than the conventional product.

Could you imagine serving your salty potatoes or sandwiches with a mayonnaise made of animal’s blood? Just like the pepitoria (rice with domestic goat’s blood) and the morcilla (blood pudding) embellishing typical dishes from some regions of the country, the new dressing tries to become part of the Colombians taste and their shopping basket.

Although is still on experimental stage the result of the mayonnaise creation is been quite satisfactory at the moment. Its consistency and color are similar to the conventional mayonnaise. Besides, it owns a higher nutritional value because the bovine plasma owns rich levels of protein, and is cheaper.

The creator of the novel idea is Ana María Rozo, a student at the

specialization program from Science and Food Technology Program of the Chemistry Department at the Faculty of Sciences from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. She works at the Guadalupe refrigerator for the Frigodán Company, and based her idea to develop a product which will aid the company to commercialize plasma resulted from the bovines sacrifice.

“They drink the blood, process it and create the plasma to supply the meat industry. The mayo proposal arises to expand its commercialization. This has been implemented in other countries, but is the first time we use it in Colombia as dressing,” says the specialist.

For over a year ago Ana María works in the mixture of a conventional mayo but adding the new

ingredient. “The original dressing recipe is based on modified starches which are replaced with plasma, whose properties are similar. As it comes in liquid form, we simply add it to the formula, but by portions, because a complete substitution shouldn’t be done due that is a substance coming from blood, so it tastes iron. Therefore we only replace one per cent of the initial starch,” explains Rozo.

Control tests for the dressing During the next couple of weeks, the student will perform some organoleptic tests for the development of the new dressing based on bovine plasma. These,

are an analysis done to determine the qualitative values of certain products (smell, taste, color and texture).

Up to this moment, technical tests have been favorable: the appearance is identical to the conventional mayo, that is to say, white and thick, not red and liquid, as you may think. The organoleptic tests are necessary to determine acceptance among the public and if to find out if flavor is approved.

“The tests will be done with sensorial panels in which consumers will savor the new mayonnaise and will compare it to the traditional one. Thus we will know if they like it or not and if they notice differences between them. This is our biggest concern, because we already got the appearance,” says Rozo.

Ecology

9

UN Student analyses toxins from choral serpents

Study to improve anti–ophidic serums Toxins evolution from choral serpents was the research done by Miguel Ángel Fernández Niño, last semester student at the biology program

Main victims In Costa Rica, one of the importer sources for anti–ophidic serum, accidents by choral bites are scant and annual reports do not reach over 10 victims.

Due to the size and disposal of their eyeteeth, when choral serpents inoculate poison, this usually remains at subcutaneous level. The toxin gets distributed in other body regions by lymphatic and sanguineous ways, reaching to the neuromuscular unions. Here, the toxins block the union between neurons and the motor end plate.

As a result of the synaptic level actions various muscle paralysis triggers, entailing to symptoms that usually depict this kind of poisoning: fall of eyelids, ophthalmoplegia, diplopia, dysarthria and generalized muscular weakness.

Nevertheless, the main consequence is the paralysis of the intercostal muscles that participate in the breathing process. This ef-

fect may cause death.

Children are the main victims of choral serpents and it has been demonstrated by statistics that this is due mainly to their bright and colorful body, Fernández said.

So far the investigation is in the experimental stage, at molecular level in animal models such as pigs and rabbits.

september, 2009

Toxin evolution in serpents, the case of post–synaptic alfa neurotoxins, from the micrurus genre in Colombia. That is to say, toxins in choral serpents, trying to explain the evolution or the poison scheme.

Fernández based his work on the genetic characterization, organization analysis, codification, and the relation between choral serpents and others, such as cobras, bambas and marine serpents, all these di-

rected to glimpse at their evolution.

Another factor analyzed by the student, who did a socialization of his graduation work, was the functional modifications by the poison, to explain what makes it more compatible or not, to a certain prey.

“Chorals are selective towards their prey. Some, only eat mousses, others only fish and that selectivity directs the poison. This is another reason why there are different types of poison,” Fernández explained.

“When you make and anti– ophidic serum, you have to keep on mind the food consumed by each serpent. It is not the same to prepare an anti–ophidic serum for a serpent that eats fish, or worms, or mammals, because the effects for each kind of bitten individual are different,” added.

According to Fernández the study is directed to improve anti– ophidic serums, specially the ones from choral serpents because, he adds, the serums imported from Costa Rica and Brazil aren’t very effective here. “Tests in these countries are done with mousses and other species that can not totally neutralize the venom activity,” he explained.

www.agenciadenoticias.unal.edu.co

and guest at the Biodiversity day from the Instituto de Ciencias Naturales (Natural Sciences Institute) at the UN in Bogotá.

10 Ecology

Investigation by undergraduate biology student

Weather affects mutualism between fig tree and wasp: Pegascopus bacataensi The wasp known as Pegascopus Bacataensis exists if the Ficus Andícola tree exists, but there is a third element involved: climate, which affects their mutualism relationship.

september, 2009

www.agenciadenoticias.unal.edu.co

According to a study by Laura Abril, UN biologist, the weather changing, is modifying the way these two species relate. The fig trees are a common tree in the country, even in the streets of Bogotá; it is also a vital species for the sustainability of the forests.

“We are seeing that climate exerts control on the population of wasps, who are the ones in charge to pollinate figs. Before, we thought the tree was the only one who put conditions so that the wasp could use its fruits and reproduce, and the one who also avoided demographic explosions of the insect. But the study demonstrated that abrupt atmospheric changes of nowadays, pressure wasps’ reproduction,” says Abril who’s studying Masters in Science program at the UN. For this particular investigation, they analyzed the effect of the intense hailstorm –that lash Bogotá, on September of 2007–, had on wasps and figs. They proved that this type of tiny wasp drastically re-

duces their population according to abrupt temperature changes.

According to Laura, the amount of insects emerging from the small fruits (where they reproduce) is smaller. The amount of eggs is reduced and also less flowers that the insects can pollinate.

What are the effects? Fewer wasps, means less possibilities for the tree to reproduce. Fewer trees mean fewer possibilities for the wasp to survive.

Professor Carlos Sarmiento, expert in systematic of insects and consultant of the graduation project, says that the investigation is generated international interest, due to novel and worrisome data about the climate effects on com-

mon mutualism systems in nature.

“In the tropical forests, the fig is a tree that predominates. They give fruit all year long; it doesn’t have cycles like other fruit trees.

At the forest, this is important because many invertebrates survive with the fig’s fruits, while the other fruits scarce,” explains Sarmiento.

Laura Abril adds that there’s no need for long displacements to do this type of investigation, at the same campus from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia and other areas from the city, the student made the necessary analysis for her study.

She did the sampling of trees, one month at a time, followed by the phonologic rate (relation among

climate and live beings) from the fig, the flowering and the fruits. She also took morphologic measures from the wasp, which doesn’t exceed two millimeters’ length.

At the end of this stage, the goal is for another student to investigate effects of pollution on this mutualism relation in particular.

“In biology we see that there is much interest from young people to search about these subjects. What I do, is show them possibilities, I stimulate them to be proactive. Today isn’t enough to have a graduate diploma. They should bring together a strong resume, starting with an undergraduate program with relevant investigations, like this one,” says Professor Sarmiento.

Ecology

11

First program of its type in the country

A new plan to consume and conserve the Colombian Slider

Residents of the Colombian Caribbean Region elaborate monuments and dedicate lyrics to the Hicotea turtle (Colombian Slider), but also consume it, without discrimination. An innovating management

plan oriented to the sustainable use of the species mainly threaten by the excessive exploitation will avoid extinction. This plan is done by the lead work of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia and ordered by the Ministry of Environment.

ones are females, due to the popular belief that its meat is more nutritious. This, deeply affects the reproduction which in turn affects the total number of eggs each turtle lays.

“Today many big turtles caught at the seizures won’t exceed 29 centimeters in length, but villagers and the registry indicated that in the past, females were much bigger. Off course, one bigger turtle means a higher number of eggs,” adds Argenis Bonilla.

Soon, the Universidad Nacional de Colombia will give to Corporaciones Autónomas del Caribe (Autonomous Corporations of the Caribbean) an official document of the plan, that looks forward to improve management, sustainable use and conservation of both subspecies of Hicotea turtle. The plan also condenses work by other universities from the coast and official records of Corporations, but above all the work by the communities.

Leaded by the UN, the management plan is oriented to a sustainable use and conservation; looks for the communities to take control of the ecosystems that surround them and vindicate their knowledge, to obtain balance of nature.

www.agenciadenoticias.unal.edu.co

gists wasn’t only to measure turtles, they had to carry out surveys and get into the reality of villagers in remote places of the Colombian Caribbean, because it is, in conjunction with them that the strategy plans to stop the illegal animal commerce and provide a sustainable use. In other words, to serve as sustenance for the population of the region, but still conserving the ecological balance.

In order to develop the plan, the UN strengthen bows with investigators Jaime de la Ossa from Universidad de Sucre, and Vivian Páez, from Universidad de Antioquia. These experts contributed, providing deep biological information about the Hicotea and a vital approach to both subspecies' management plan.

The main threats to the turtle populations were detected according to their own development stage: the broods are sacked for the local consumption, the newborns are hunt to sell as pets in the cities and the female adults are commercialized for the consumption of their meat in coastal cities and Bogotá.

One of the most worrisome evidences is that among adult Hicotea turtles, the most hunted

september, 2009

Villagers, who consume the Hicotea turtle exceed imagination to catch their preys. Turned into amphibians, hide their faces behind masks of leaves, walk in waters of bogs and search patiently in the vegetation. However, they complaint and noticed that the turtles scarce year after year.

For investigator and director of the Biology Department, Maria Argenis Bonilla the situation is clear: it is impossible to ban the hunt of the Hicotea turtle, because this animal is part of the idiosyncrasy of many communities in the Caribbean. Its meat is the only source of nutritious food for thousands of people, extremely poor. “We have to propose strategies of use and not disuse of the Hicotea, that’ll allow a long term persistence of it, in spite of local consumption.”

It is also clear that an important threat to the turtle’s population is the high demand in coastal and inland cities, which is caused an illegal traffic of both subspecies that inhabit the Colombian Caribbean and the Bajo Atrato (mouth of the Atrato River): the Trachemys callirostris callirostris and the Trachemys venusta venusta, respectively.

There are plenty of conservation plans for endangered species in the country, but the management plan oriented to the conservation and sustainable use of the Hicotea is innovative. Why? Because sets out strategies for the direct use of animals and human consumption, at the same time it looks for alternatives of non−use (indirect use) that allow preservation. Unlike other plans that concentrate in the conservation per se, just like the Tapir, the Gray Titi (from the family of Callitrichidae) or the Manatee.

The management plan for the Hicotea involves, not only experimented biologists, but also undergraduate and graduate students. From diverse approaches each population’s dynamics were considered: their reproduction, distribution, ecosystems, threats, and a new ingredient for the biologist: the social surroundings where the turtle lives.

The work done by UN biolo-

12 Science and technology

september, 2009

Interrupted suicide Above understanding the disease, Professor Marcela Camacho tries to comprehend how the Leishmania adapts to the macrophage (remember, immune system cell).

The Leishmania is a unique story within the parasites world; it gets in a compartment inside the macrophage (parasitophorous vacuole) and disables it. Why? Camacho, director of the Biophysical Lab from the International Physics Center associated to the UN, has the answers.

“We study the electric properties (electrophysiology) of the three concentric membranes located within the infected cell: the one from the macrophage, the parasitophorous

The electrical play

of Leishmania

The sagacious tiny bug who causes leishmaniasis takes advantage of its great size to alter electrical charges from cells of the immune system. When slowly destroying their defensive capabilities, in which suicide is a key mechanism to shield the organism, they easily lodge in the body. Thus stated by a pioneer study for world-wide sciences.

to put it inside frog eggs, have gone Macrophage cell infected with leishmaniasis ahead. So far, chloride currents have been found.

“We have Parasitophorous gone after those vacuole membrane Macrophage chloride channels cell membrane Channels of chlorine, that allow the parpotasium and calcium have been found asite to live within (-) in preliminary research. an acid and very When making contact hostile environwith the Leishmania parasite its positive charge becomes ment inside the more negative respecting the outside. macrophage. What this chlorine does is to compensate the proton entrance –positive charge– to maintain electro–neutrality inside the Leishmania parasitophorous parasite’s membrane (+) vacuole environParasite’s genetic materials is ment, where the been extracted and there are proofs of which it contains chloride currents, parasite lives,” exwhich generate positive charges able to adapt to the acid environment generated by the macrophage cell. plains Camacho.

She adds that Hypothesis The parasite, by its great size, deactivates the defense mechanism of the macrophage cell, which are cornered. they’ve cloned This provokes the cell to send the wrong signals to the rest of cells of the immune system. chloride channels of Leishmania and vacuole and the one from the par- a mechanism by which the parasite preliminary studies indicate those asite. From the last membrane we causes the macrophage doesn’t start are the ones they want to find. At this study ionic channels,” says Camacho. apoptosis. moment, the UN biophysicists are This investigation is unique in trying to get those channels in other its type and doesn’t compete with cells, to perform functional studies.

The Leishmania, other investigations about leishmaThe electro physiologist techa big invading balloon niasis in the world. Each finding of niques allow to study, in real time, the group is another contribution the ionic channels. What they want Dr. Camacho indicates that oth- to understand is how the infection to the science, which is given them er two membranes studies, the para- impacts the macrophage membrane, international recognition.

Precisely, one discovery is re- sitophorous vacuole and the parasite its electrical properties, and if inside lated to electrical properties from itself, require more demanding re- the parasitophorous vacuole are ionthe macrophage membrane which, searh in its way of being developed. ic channels that facilitate, somehow, according to the research results, is However, at this point there are in- the parasite adaptation. altered by the Leishmania presence. teresting findings.

But beyond all these findings “We must isolate the vacuole there’s a less complex explanation, The most evident electrical change is that the cell becomes more negative, and this is even harder. We’ve found which apparently, is what inactivates inside her chlorine, potassium and the defense mechanisms of the cell. in relation to the outside.

Normally, the macrophage pro- calcium channels. The last one Leishmania lives in a great compartduces oxidant radicals and Nitric comes from the membrane of the ment, which could only jeopardize the Oxide, which is like atomic bombs endoplasmic reticulum (membrane internal operation of the macrophage. against invaders, explains Camacho. network) of the macrophage,” says “We have the theory that the sysIf this attack doesn’t work, the cell the scientist. tem allows the macrophage to alert The study of the Leishmania being cornered by the giant vacuole, kills itself and the invader, like a kamikaze, in a process named apoptosis. membrane hasn’t been possible yet, which causes to send wrong signals to What is peculiar about this, is that all but is in progress. Other analyses, other cells. It is as we inflate a balloon this strategies don’t work against the have gone ahead in which genetic inside a room up to the point where material from the parasite is removed people inside it get blocked because Leishmania. The parasite seems to the balloon took all the space.” protect the cell so According to traditional literait doesn’t commit ture, the decline of Nitric Oxide in suicide. the infected cell is caused by the When anadamage of the enzyme that generlyzing the electriates it, but Camacho ensures that cal properties of there’s a different reason: “Simply, apoptosis macthe enzyme is cornered, located at rophages and the wrong place and cannot send the infected maccorrect signal.” rophages with So far, the UN biophysicists are Leishmania, some finding a group of chloride channels variation is evithat at the beginning are indispensdent. The infected able to the parasites survival. At the one has more of a end this may become therapeutic negative charge (it Leishmaniasis, focus of study in La Guajira. At this targets that could turn to be the is hyperpolarized), stage the condition may receive a timely treatment.

Leishmania’s heel.

Photo courtesy of INS

www.agenciadenoticias.unal.edu.co

Leishmania is a rare and aggressive bug that defies science, because gets inside human cells and turns off their defenses. Its action generates skin, mucous and internal organ injuries and its damage is so severe that deforms the affected organs. If not treated on time the leishmaniasis, as the disease is called, may cause death.

This parasite is always been thought from the jungle, nevertheless, today is a threat for cities’ population as it crossed the forest to threaten non–traditional regions for the disease.

Marcela Camacho, Doctor in Cellular Physiology from the University of London, and expert on Schistosome (parasite species), examines the secrets of the dangerous parasite with a pioneer investigation for the approach.

The investigator has a clear hypothesis of how the Leishmania biophysically attacks: “It doesn’t have to do with being shrewd, but is about being a big parasite that corners the macrophage defenses, the immune system from the cell where the parasites who enter the body, lives.”

Her experience tell her that investigation about leishmaniasis must be a high priority issue in the country, because it is an emergent disease that, even thought was controlled for many years, since 2003 turned to become a serious public health problem. Numbers prove it.

Up until last May, according to the record by the Monitoring System of Epidemiology from the National Health Institute (INS), 3,793 people got infected in Colombia with three different kinds of existent leishmaniasis (skin, mucous and visceral).

There’s an ample prevalence of the skin one, with 3,747 cases. The most worrying fact is the increase of infected victims in regions that historically are not focus of the disease such as Huila, Tolima, Cundinamarca and Santander, among others.

During 2008, the INS notified 9,549 infected victims of leishmaniasis, from which 9,436 people were infected by skin leishmaniasis, which is 98,8 per cent of cases; 83 cases were infected by the mucous form (0,8 per cent), and 0.33 by the visceral form (0,4 per cent).

According to the Attention Guide of Leishmaniasis by the Social Protection Ministry, starting in 2003 a substantial increase in the number of cases by the skin form was observed, in all departments from the country, excepting the San Andrés Archipelago and Providencia.

In agreement with the Subdivision of Monitoring and Control of Public Health from the INS, it is estimated that in Colombia exist around 10 million people at risk, mainly in rural regions. That is why, there’s a special reason to study and attack Leishmania.

Science and technology

13

The first pharmaceutical sciences doctor in the country takes promissory steps towards finding a therapeutic and alternative treatment against skin leishmaniasis. Chemical substances from native plants have showed their great capacity to attack the parasite without affecting the life of nearby cells and, at the same time, immunizing the patient for lifetime.

Healing Substances

Zanthoxyllum quinduense

Raputia heptaphylla stem

The botanical alternative

against leishmaniasis

Infected cells (no treated) considerably increase the number of parasites. Meanwhile Photos courtesy of the Immunotoxicology Research Group, from the Faculty of Sciences at the UN.

icine for treatment against malaria, leishmaniasis and the Chagas disease, but without considering the immune-modulating function that Professor Delgado is trying to apply.

“Their main components are metabolites, which are isolated substances, from the limonoids and coumarin. This last ones, alkaloids of different types (furanoquinolínicos, acridónicos, indólicos, fenantridínicos),” explains the scientist.

The isolated metabolites have an ample range of biological activity when they enter the human body.

According to the substituent type own by the main ring, which is the isolated structure, there’s a variable range of activity.

Lucy Delgado says that now-

adays the Leishmania affection is mainly treated with antiparasitic pentavalente salts, which are intramuscularly injected. These are administered to patients for as long as 20 days.

“It is a very painful treatment which causes severe secondary effects. There are reports of death associated to a sudden Hepatotoxicity.

Although they are effective, it’s also been demonstrated that some resistance to the medicine is being developed by some parasitic stumps,” says the expert.

Delgado emphasizes that the disease, like many others, not only depends on the microorganism that attacks, but also depends on the immune resistance from the attacked human body.

the treated cells diminish it.

Within the kindness of the project, favorable results are starting to discern in order to achieve a prophylactic therapy that not only controls the temporary affection, but also develops an immune response to control the parasite before a probable new affection enters.

The young investigator thinks this therapy will be less expensive for the Country; in addition, she is certain that secondary effects will not appear, as opposed to the traditional treatment.

A clear message is shown by the UN Immunotoxicology Lab: that popular medicine and Ethnobotany will continue being an endless resource of new molecules for the control of many and different infectious pathologies, says Lucy Gabriela Delgado.

september, 2009

Coy explains that preparations with leaves and crusts from these species are used by traditional med-

Esenbeckia alata leaves

www.agenciadenoticias.unal.edu.co

PhD Lucy Gabriela Delgado searches an alternative therapy for the leishmaniasis treatment, at the Immunotoxicology Lab part of the Pharmacy Department at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia.

The goal is to determine what substances can destroy the parasite without jeopardizing the infected cell’s life and, at the same time, boost it so it treats remaining parasites.

Promising results are starting to discern in the preparation of an antibiotic or anti–parasite with additional immune–modulating properties.

The work consists of exposing the infected cells from human volunteers or animals, to compounds extracted from some plants. These are characterized and classified by the Organic Chemistry Group part of the Chemistry Department and leaded by Professor Luis Enrique Cuca.

The scientists look for plants in the fields, extract the necessary material to take it to the laboratory, divide and classify their compounds, synthesize them and, those that seem promissory, are semi–synthesize (meticulous analysis) to attack the leishmaniasis.

According to the Chemist Carlos Coy, the molecularly characterized native plants that turn to be promissory for Professor Delgado’s work are the Esenbeckia alata, the Raputia heptaphylla and the Zanthoxyllum quinduense, from the Rutaceae family, considered endemic in Colombia and still without a common name.

It is known that the Esenbeckia alata is a medicinal shrub whose ecology is varied; its aerial parts are used as febrifuges, a substance that makes disappear or diminish fever and is also used as insecticide. With the Raputia is been possible establishing the presence of secondary metabolites (chemical compounds) which act as chemical–taxonomical markers that present interesting biological activities.

All these, are found in the country, mainly in Cundinamarca, Chocó, Sucre, Cauca and Nariño, but they are also native from Peru, Ecuador, Brazil, Mexico, Costa Rica, Guyana and Venezuela.

The vegetable material is macerated until turning it into an extract that takes concentration to the emptiness in a rotavapor. This

compound with pharmacological potential there.

leaves the chemical

14 Agriculture

Taxonomic revision of parasitoids at the UN

Meteorus insect could boost to control plagues When producers of the famous fiction film Alien created this monster as the main character, they probably had some terrestrial inspiration. Wasps from the

september, 2009

www.agenciadenoticias.unal.edu.co

Meteorus genus are born and grow within organisms of certain caterpillars, eat their interior, and then are born to life, but not without first leaving their host in agony. A student of the Master in Sciences Program at the UN makes a taxonomic revision of these parasitoids. The surprise is that there are more species within this genus.

“My project is the taxonomic revision of a parasitoid wasp: the Meteorus. It is named as such, because when they finish their development phase as larvas, they form a hanging thread; hence a suspended receiver that has a meteor form and from which the adult wasp emerges,” explains the young Biologist Helmuth Aguirre Fernández.

The student at the master’s program adds, the importance of the investigation is that it may be used to control plagues in several cultures, such as potatoes. During their caterpillar stage butterflies and moths are voracious consumers of leaves, which bring significant losses for farmers.

Like in the film, where Alien (extraterrestrial) introduces its eggs in humans to proper life, thus the Meteorus wasp acts. The wasp inoculates the caterpillar with eggs.

Inside, during the larva stage, it starts eating the caterpillar until it is death or agonizing. Then, turned into wasp, breaks the skin of its host and goes to the light.

One of the most important findings of the investigation is that the number of Meteorus genre significantly extended. It was believed that in Colombia only two types existed, but then the taxonomic revision observed samples around the country and proved there are at least 50 species.

“Because they are very small insects and morphologically very complex to observe, taxonomy is

very difficult. To know what species are and how to separate and differentiate them is very difficult. What we do with Professor Carlos Sarmiento is to visit the greater amount of collections within the country and also abroad, including the US. The idea is to contrast the known species to material from Colombia,” said Aguirre Fernández.

The way these wasps attack the caterpillars (enemies of potatoes, cassava, vegetables and fruit cultures) awakes the interest of the agricultural sector, for the possibility to naturally control plagues.

Helmuth affirms that the distribution of some species tends to be very precise, and this is an aspect to analyze thoroughly. By knowing this is possible to establish what species may be used to control plagues, for example at the Bogota’s Savannah or template climates.

“The idea is for this project to become a start point to keep exploring the taxonomy and ecology of the Meteorus. Some people are interested to mount offspring from these parasitoids to control specific species. For example, one of my peers wants to create a small company that produces these parasitoids, in order to control plagues in flowers,” Aguirre says.

Although the relation caterpillar–Meteorus is cruel, it is an example of natural control which interests investigators and farmers, for the biological aspects involved and for preservation of cultures.

Agriculture

15

Garden Snail:

plague, but also business The garden snail Helix aspersa is a plague, but at the same time is business. To determine the genetically

tive populations may become endogamy, of little genetic variability, which affects the product quality.

Indeed, the research at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia wants to clarify the subject through the genetic characterization of the animal. For this reason a workshop will take place on October 9th to present such project to the heliciculture sector and all the interested entities; at the same time they will ask for key information to actively participate and allow to make samplings of snail beds.

“According to data from the Agriculture and Environment Ministry, there are only 18 licenses to rise garden snails but is estimated there could be around 13 thousand snail farmers in the country. Hence the importance of this work,” affirmed the researcher at the Institute of Genetics.

The scientist explains that in Colombia, Helix aspersa became a plague due to the environmental conditions. In Europe snails adapt their reproduction cycles to the climatic seasons; this causes reproduction tips to stop during the cold season.

In Colombia, instead, the climatic stability makes reproduction constant and defined cycles don’t exist. The garden snails may be found at 600 meters or 2,600 me-

ters above the sea level; some have been even found at the Sierra Nevada (Snowy Mountain) in Santa Mata.

Another factor for its fast propagation in the country is the lack of natural predators, as they do have in Europe. All these factors are part of the investigation leaded by Professor Úrsula Ramírez. It is expected that the information will aid to have a better environmental management of the animal, without affecting families who live of this business.

september, 2009

The Ministry of Environment, Housing and Territorial Development asked to the Institute of Genetics from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia to develop an investigation aiming to generate accurate information about the distribution and generic diversity of a particular animal in the country, as much in natural means as in captivity. Úrsula Ramírez, investigator and professor at the UN Bogotá, assures that there is a polemic in the country about the use of Helix aspersa, due that for one side became a plague that finishes with natural ecosystems moving other species of native snails, but is also a source of economic income for many families.

“Apparently this snail arrived in the country 30 years ago. It is original from Europe, where is highly consumed and is a high gastronomy product. But in Colombia the culture didn’t work out and people released the species in the wild.

Today is considered that the Helix aspersa lives in 50 percent of the national territory,” says Ramírez.

Colombia prohibited the importation of the mollusk due to the damage it causes to natural environment and cultures. Snail farmers assure that this is brought them problems, because the cap-

www.agenciadenoticias.unal.edu.co

variability of this European species, will be vital to improve plans of environmental management, without affecting those who profit from the small animal.

16 Science and technology

Muffins and alfajores

with iron

Claudia Gómez, Alexandra Hidalgo and Bárbara Sánchez are the creators of the delicious products. They are alfajores, a traditional confection found in some

Latin American countries, whose basic form consists of two round sweet biscuits joined together with a sweet substance and covered with sugar. The alfajores and muffins are done with chocolate but what makes them so special is that besides of being delicious, they feed intelligently because have high contents of iron.

According to Resolution 288 of 2008, that establishes the statutory requirements for nutritional facts and labeling that foods must fulfill when packaged for human consumption, foods containing 20 per cent or more of the daily requirement of a certain nutrient should be denominated as “high in,” also other synonyms may be used such as “rich in.” However if the food contains 10 per cent of the daily requirement of a certain nutrient, then it may be named as “good source of.”

The alfajores and muffins idea began as part of a project in the line of development of functional projects from fourth year of the Nutrition and Dietetics career at the Universidad Nacional de Co-

lombia. “The idea is to work in those alfajores and cookies and then distribute them at the Tunjuelito locality. This is the project we have, but it may vary a lot. At the moment, what is being fortified the most are the drinks but we believe a child would eat much easily a cookie filled with arequipe or a muffin with chocolate, than a yogurt,” says Alexandra.

The idea from the three students is not that crazy, if you keep on mind that lack of iron among the country’s population is a public health problem due that more than 50 percent of people suffer from it. Besides, you can’t find in the market any fortified or functional alfajores.

“We decided they were going

to be muffins and alfajores because the derivatives of the cereal allow to add nutrients easily, then we can add iron but also other elements such as folic acid”, says Alexandra.

The fact that cereals tolerate in a better way the additions doesn’t mean working with iron is been easy, in fact, the young students had to cook many times the valuable cookies and little confections so that the iron wasn’t noticeable. This was one of the most difficult tasks: to avoid all metallic residual flavors.

Although the students developed this project as part of their class, the deepening line from the University works close to the District for consultancies in the food subject, so the alfajores and muffins idea may very well prosper.

september, 2009

www.agenciadenoticias.unal.edu.co

Laboratory of Photogrammetry “In this Laboratory, tools for research are applied, especially at the Routes, Transportation and Geotechnical Research Group, for urbanism works, works of urban infrastructure pursuit and urban and regional development,” explained Eugenio Duque Escobar, professor and investigator at the UN Manizales and coordinator of the Photogrammetry Lab. According to Duque Escobar, “photogrammetry or photo-interpretation means the measurement of the relief and terrain based on aerial photographs that should have some special mechanisms to measure displacement according to the photographs angle.”

Among the academic programs part of this Laboratory are the Geology, Civil Engineering, Geodesic Engineering and Architecture.

Besides, there’s another option to choose this as an elective credit for programs such as Industrial Engineering, Electric Engineering and Electronic Engineering.

At the moment the Laboratory has 25 tables, one for each student, where stereoscopes of mirrors are located. This is a useful instrument to observe in three dimensions: aerial, vertical photographs

Support to road projects like Anillo Centro Sur and the Aeropuerto del Café (the Coffee Airport)

are some of the geotechnical evaluations done at the Laboratory of Photogrammetry from the UN in Manizales, as part of the extension and investigation work developed by the Institution in agreement with different organizations from the region. or even photographs. The stereoscopes of Pocket (with which field works are done) and the Faraday Bar (with which measures and planimeters are taken) are also there.

“When we do works of Photogrammetry, we basically with the increasing part of the eyeglasses of the stereoscope, that allow us to make increases work varying from three to six times more; and with the Faraday Bar with which measurements and adjustments by relief are done, as measurement by vertical and horizontal displacements take control”, said the Lab Coordinator.

Pretty soon the Photogrammetry Lab hopes to extend its lesson, included at the Civil Engineering curriculum, to the Engineering careers in the Bogotá and Medellín campuses.

Science and technology

17

Student’s creation High fiber symbiotic yogurt

than 12 hours in the culture process, sweets made of fruit and a lot of patience to experiment, were the necessary ingredients to, after more than 7 intents, obtain the yearned yogurt.

The result is a product with very good body. A dense yogurt with fruit and fiber (supplies 28 per cent of the required daily fiber), and with flavor that has nothing to envy to the ones currently sold at the market. The other strength was precisely that one, the kiwi flavor, thus this isn’t a popular fruit in the market.

“At the beginning we sinned because we thought of a product with many functional properties, then we thought to make it low calories, with iron and with fiber to help the intestinal transit, but at the end we had to land the product and try a single niche of market that would be the children. This allowed us to take off some functionality, and leave it only with fiber, pre and pro–biotics, this product will be unique in the market,” said the nutritionists.

september, 2009

“We arrived at the yogurt after realizing that juice boxes only provided water and fruit contributions, while the yogurt contributes calcium and there are higher caloric and protein contents,” assured the student.

Camilo and Sindi are students of the developing functional path, part of the Development of Nutritional Foods, from the school of Dietetic Nutrition at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. They are in fourth year, but already are business people, “the company’s idea is been raised, we know how much would be the opening investment, the fixed capital and the marketing strategy. We still lack small details, such as the name. We don’t want this idea to remain as a class exercise or to be stored in the fridge. We want this to contribute to the population, to students (5 to 12 years old)” says Camilo.

Crude milk that is pasteurized afterwards, bifid of high viscosity (lactic acid bacteria that allows adding texture) and more

www.agenciadenoticias.unal.edu.co

The first idea wasn’t the yogurt but juice boxes or cookies. “We wanted a high fiber product that could contribute to the community, we wanted to contribute to the nutritional part, but also something to commercialize,” remembered Camilo Roa Bohórquez and Sindi Delgado, while reconstructing all the creative process.

18 Environment Experts at the UN contribute to agro–industrial development

Jathropa

curcas to be used

as fuel would be cultivated in Cotové The shrub known as the Barbados Nut and scientifically classified as Jathropa, may become one of the most important fuel sources in Colombia for the

profitable production of biodiesel.

september, 2009

www.agenciadenoticias.unal.edu.co

According to investigators at the Colombian Corporation of Farming Investigations, Corpoica, in the country we are just beginning to recognize the properties of this plant cultivated in India, China, Egypt, Cuba and semi–arid climates, for the soil rehabilitation and cover formation.

For this reason and during the ‘First Seminary of Agrarian Investigations, Science for Teaching,” organized by the Farming Faculty at the UN Medellín, the investigator of Corpoica, Luis Fernando Campuzano summoned his peers to integrate themselves at the UN Medellín.

“The investigation covers different components such as genetics, agronomy, agro–industrial and socioeconomic. Within the agroindustrial field we want to take advantage of the strength that the Universidad Nacional de Colombia offers, including the Equipment and Machines for Harvests Research Group,” he said.

What it is being processed is the possibility of “Jatropha to be cultivated at the Farming Center of Cotové at the UN (located in Santa Fe de Antioquia). So far we are in negotiations,” said Fernando Álvarez, professor at the Faculty of Farming Sciences.

The Jatropha Curca seed contains up to 50 percent of the oil used as lubricant for jewelry watches and aviation. According to literature, the production of biodiesel reported is of 2,400 to 2,700 liters by hectare and according to and explained by the Corpoica manager, Colombia looks to intensify the cultures of this plant.

“What we’ve done is to structure a program for the improvement

of genetics, agronomy, agro–industrial and post–harvest fields in order to define main aspects such as, the variety or genetic material to be seeded and how the agronomic handling will increase the yield. In the end, what we need to know is how the relation among benefit and cost of the biomass, to produce biodiesel in the country”, the investigator of Corpoica explained.

The investigations related to this adaptable wild plant are added to the search of energy sources in Colombia. The expert explained that within the Program Investigation of Agro–energy in Colombia, two groups have been defined: the production of ethanol and the production of biodiesel. The first one is already producing biomasses such as sugar cane and other alternatives being investigated like the sugar beet.

“At the moment, the African palm is the leader species as supplier of biomass for the production of biodiesel, but other alternatives like the Jatropha and the castoroil plant exist; and alternatives in other countries like oilseed rape, soya, the sunflower and cotton, also exist. In our case, as a tropical country, we have to find the most pertinent biomasses for the biodiesel production”, the investigator of Corpoica explained.

On the other hand, the UN Professor highlighted that the main idea is to contribute to the development of investigations related to new energy alternatives in Colombia. For this purpose, a proposal of 6,100 million pesos was submitted to the Ciien (Center for Investigation and Innovation of Energy).

The alliance, which engages investigators from the UN Medellín, Epm, Corpoica, Cenicafé and the Universities of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo in Brazil, represent an strategic work and generation of knowledge.

Environment

19

Found in the Colombian Pacific

New Platanillo species New species from the Heliconiaceaes, known plants known by the name of Platanillo, was

Heliconias’ leaves have been traditionally used to wrap, conserve foods and transport snacks.

Their rhizomes are used for horticultural, nutritional or medicinal uses. Some of their parts are macerated and applied as dressings to fight rheumatism and high blood pressure, among other diseases.

This family of plants owns a single genus and close to 210 species, distributed equally through the American Tropic. Although, and according to the investigators, you may find a few of them in Indonesia, New Guinea and other South Pacific Islands.

“From the 210 species, Colombia owns nearly half of them,

www.agenciadenoticias.unal.edu.co

Colombia, a richer country in Heliconias

50 of them can’t be found at any other part of the world. The other species are shared with Venezuela, Brazil, Ecuador, Costa Rica and Panama,” mentioned Professor Betancur, who’s also curator for the National Herbarium in Colombia.

He added that the new species may be threaten because of the zone it grows at, since this one presents an increase of deforestation and alteration, caused by the location of a main highway that communicates the Chocó department to the rest of the country. In fact, the species has been located in the vulnerable category.

The Heliconias are located at different landscapes in the country are one of the most beautiful plant groups that live in natural ecosystems; their colorful and exuberant beauty of inflorescences turns them into a potential commercial product for national and international markets.

Additionally, they play an important ecological role within ecosystems: they live in forests and open ambiances such as pastures, highway and river borders, where they act as pioneers for the natural process of vegetal regeneration.

These plants grow rapidly and help towards the restoration of degraded ground. The majority of them are important because their location is well distributed, which increases the wealth of species. They are also a source of nectar for birds, such as the hummingbird.

“The different length and size of these plants adjust to the hummingbird tips: straight, parabolic and sigmoid. Here, situates the importance of co–evolutionary relationships among hummingbirds, the Heliconia and other vegetal and animal species. This fact increases their scientific value in the tropical forests,” affirmed both authors of the book named “Heliconias, Blazes of the Colombian Jungle.”

september, 2009

The Platanillos or Heloconiaceaes have a new member of the family: the Heliconia Samperiana, a medium size plant of almost 4 meters high, just discovered in the Colombian Chocó, 10 kilometers away from the road that takes to Tadó and Pereira. Its distribution is restricted to Valle del Río San Juan and the region known as Selva Pluvial Central, located in the same department.

As assured by W. John Kress from the Smithsonian Institute and Julio Betancur, from the Natural Sciences Institute from the UN Bogotá, authors of the discovery. The Platanillos belong to the family of Heloconiaceaes and to the order of Zingiberales, a natural group of Monocotyledons plants (one single embryonic leaf), characterized by the exuberance of their growth and the showy and colorful inflorescences.

The specie was baptized by the curators, as Helicona Samperiana, to honor the director of the National Museum of Natural History from the US and previous secretary of the Smithsonian Institute located in the same country: Cristián Samper, a recognized Colombian botanical and ecologist graduated from Universidad de los Andes. Samper has dedicated most of his life to the knowledge and conservation of the natural resources from the Tropic.

Since 1993, W. John Kress and Julio Betancur are responsible for the scientific knowledge of the Heliconias and have contributed to the knowledge about national biodiversity.

found in the Colombian Pacific by investigators from the Washington Smithsonian Institute and the Natural Sciences Institute from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia in Bogotá. The new specimen excels by its inflorescence and attractive red color.

20 Environment

X–Rays of the Caribbean Sea taken at the UN New contributions to the scientific community were done by UN investigators at the Medellín campus, through variable

september, 2009

www.agenciadenoticias.unal.edu.co

analysis of related climatic phenomena: the sea swell and winds that affect the oceanic, terrestrial and atmospheric behavior in the Colombian Caribbean.

The Oceanography and Coastal Engineering Group from the Faculty of Mines at the UN Medellín developed an investigation named “Atmosphere, ocean and land interaction processes in the Colombian Caribbean,” with the purpose to explain average relations, conditions and extreme events that arise in the Caribbean Sea context, at space levels (local, regional and global), and temporary levels (diurnal, seasonal, inter–annual and inter–decade).

By means of element analysis such as the influence of winds in the sea swell, navigation effects and incidence of temperature changes, among others, they constructed a “mapping” of changes and phenomena occurring in the coasts, expecting to contribute to its conservation.

According to Gladys Bernal Franco, research director, the study took control of two approaches: “First, wave reconstruction, from models that included extreme events and integration of information sources (re–analysis). Second, the analysis of oceanic dynamics, that is to say, more in the ocean and in the atmosphere than in the Earth, from four variables: winds, superficial temperature of the sea, salinity and sea level.”

Among the results stands out the generation of more reliable series of waves and, through its description, an understanding about

what happens to the sea swell during phenomena like El Niño or La Niña. “What happens in the Colombian Caribbean depends on the time of the year, for example during the months from December to May, the waves are much more intense than during La Niña times; however, during the period from June to November, the sea swell is much more intense at El Niño times,” said Bernal Franco referring to the findings of the research.

According to Carlos Alberto Andrade, professor of Physical Oceanography at the Naval School in Cartagena, studies realized by the National Navy and other institutions found that sea levels are raising and the ascent ramp is accelerating due to the heating suffered by the sea surface. In fact, the investigator said “tropical storm days are expected as time passes and the planet warms up.”

Another result has to do with the development of a database with information about different international organizations that study various marine, oceanic and meteorological phenomena of applicability in different areas of knowledge, such as marine biology or port engineering.

The Oceanicos Group will

provide to Regional Corporations an academic document that reunites results about the ocean interaction, atmosphere and land in the Colombian Caribbean, and that will serve as planning tool for those who realize direct intervention into the community.

“If we understand the ocean’s behavior in different variables during seasonal times, the extreme phenomena and how those impact the coasts, the corporations who handle coasts or economical activities will benefit from this knowledge,” added Gladys Bernal Franco.

According to numbers given by Contraste Magazine from Universidad Tecnológica de Bolívar, the Caribbean zone presents poverty indexes of 56.7 per cent income, whereas those from the country add 49.7 per cent income, which means that about 1,516,656 people live under poverty conditions.

It is why, by means of the research finds, economical activities from the zone such as fishing, navigation and sea culture, among others, may benefit through a better planning and a preventive action to the different phenomena affecting the coast.

Innovation

21

Second preview of software at the Faculty of Engineering

Applications for movable devices, desktop and web

Games, systematization of small companies, information about organizations, business solutions, and gym guides, among others, are part of the software pre-

product that offers a nice interface with the user. An interface of easy use and intended to optimize specific systems in the sales area, to achieve a better use of the resources it offers.

ADV solutions is designed to serve points of sale (POS) as support

provides the user a variety of options and routes to make easier the use of the massive transportation system in Bogotá, named Transmilenio. According to Rigoberto Sáenz among all its functionalities is the search for the easiest route between two stations, information

towards the inventory and sales handling with the integrity of a local data base, reporting to the administrator by means of email. It was created by Ángel Ricardo Rodríguez, Jhon de la Pava, and Jhon Jairo Rojas.

Guía Transmilenio is an application for mobile devices that

about services, stations, and free shuttle busses. Carlos Lindado, Plinio Romero, José Forero, and Ricardo Reyes collaborated in the creation of this application.

ELEDU (Educative Elections) is a software product designed for schools to execute the student vote

in organized, fast and secure ways, offering benefits for the school administrators and students, innovating voting ways for each establishment and facilitating the election of student representatives.

Advertising Information System is a new web system that allows Eucol S.A. clients to consult the current state of their advertising, such as location, publishing dates, and even photos of the final draft, as explained by León Suárez, designer of the original application next to Diego Montoya, Daniel Camilo Sánchez and Sebastián Kassner.

As they argued, the software is administered through a web platform that incorporates administrative tasks, backups and publication of advertising. Tasks are assigned to different roles and therefore make easier the communication between Eucol and its clients, said León Suárez.

Future Workers 1.0 was designed by Fernando Apolinar, Fredy Carvajal, Andrés Eslava, Carlos Rodríguez, and Felipe Cadena. They wanted to optimize the selection and the hiring process by a company. The program basically stores a data base of vacant positions and candidates, for example by means of this system, they can filter information to choose the most apt people for a particular position, explained Fernando Apolinar.

september, 2009

“This is a projects’ software preview of application prototypes that many students from seventh semester of Systems Engineering do. These, are the final works of the line with the main purpose of developing new software,” explained Mario Linares Vásquez, professor at the Department of Systems and Industrial Engineering.

Among all projects is the Gym– Team Routineaware, a program designed for one complete management in the process of systemization of affiliate’s information at sport centers, including medical, sports history and assignment of exercise workouts. GYM–TEAM ROUTINEWARE™ is the answer to those sport centers that look for a competitive advantage and added value for their old and new clients.

The application allows creating a routine to follow by the affiliate according to its personal needs.

Xnash is an RPG game in which 4 different races exist: (Water, Air, Earth and Fire) and for each race there’s a masculine and feminine character in the game. Each one of these races owns 10 different activities. The game develops following a history and the purpose is to find the fifth race. Being multiplayer is the main feature of this game, due that allows playing through a TCP /IP or Internet connection.

ADV Solutions is a software

www.agenciadenoticias.unal.edu.co

view organized by students of Software Engineering II, at the first floor hall of the Engineering Building.

22 Ecology The discover and recent cataloguing of a new species of fish, collected at the river basin of the Caquetá River, lagoon “El Vaticano,” feeds the greatest, oldest and most complete collection in the country located at

the Natural Sciences Institute from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia.

september, 2009

www.agenciadenoticias.unal.edu.co

Pterygoplichthys weberi is a fish species found at the Caquetá region on August, 2004 by investigators of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. It was recently described as a new species pertaining to the Siluriformes order, Loricariidae family by Jonathan W. Armbruster and Lawrence M. This one, as others collected since the 30’s from last century, rest in the Natural Sciences Institute which has been nationally and internationally recognized as leader in the Ichthyology area.

The Group of Fish Research is part of the ICN at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, integrated by students and leaded by Ichthyology Professors goes to the field, picks up material, brings it to the lab and does all processes for conservation which, includes washing, cleaning, separating in bottles and alcohol conservation.

“For a couple years we’ve tried to describe our species,” explained José Iván Mojica Corzo, collections curator.

By international rule the specimen must be held as reference for the species. In this case, the fish that rests in the Institute is the isotype or material that describes the specimen and works as a reference material.

When new species are declared, a scientific publication to register characteristics of it and distinguish among others must be done. However, given the amount of specimens that rest at the Fish Collection of the Natural Sciences Institute, collected through national geography, new species may appear; species that have never been described for the international science.

In order to describe a species as new, is necessary to have great experience and taxonomic knowledge, which is what lab professors at

the Ichthyology Laboratory do, assume with commitment the task to be with students from the start and the beginning of their work.

goon in the world: two of them, here at the ICN and four of them at Harvard University,” said Professor Mojica.

To show of

National Reference

Fish’s specimens from most of the country rest at the Institute; although their work is focus on fresh water fish, they also have marine fish from the Caribbean and the Pacific. Nowadays they preserve a collection of approximately 16,000 lots of fish from different areas of the country, which corresponds approximately to 1,300 species of Colombian fishes.

Whose ever been at the Laboratory would find the oldest fish in evolution: the pulmonary fish, named as such because unlike the others breathes thru lungs.

Also, species collected since 1930 at the Chapinero and Tunjuelito River may be appreciated; for this reason they have authority to speak about species that at some time inhabited these zones.

The most important fish collections in Colombia were done at the end of the XIX century and the beginning of the XX century, when American and European investigators came and practically sampled all the basins from rivers such as Magdalena, Cauca, San Juán, Atrato and Baudó, all these specimen units remain in foreign collections.

Professors at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia and other universities may come to analyze and examine the material by virtue of inherent activities to their master or doctorate programs.

Students from public and private schools may also come to the Institute, previous authorization, to observe the collection.

“We have fish considered extinct. There are only six specimens of the Fatty Fish from the Tota La-

The greatest and oldest fish’s collection in the country is located at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. According to Professor Mojica, there are regional collections such as the ones located in the Universidad de Antioquia, Universidad del Valle, Tolima and the Humboltd Institute which have been created by the students dynamic, which has passed through the Natural Sciences Institute and gone out spreading knowledge into different regions and institutions.

And this is because the Lab politic isn’t just to have specimens stored as trophies to show to guests. The scientist’s job is to provide tools to students of master and doctorate programs, so they can perform comparisons of material in different zones.

The Lab has organized and catalogued the material under universal classification standards, for that reason is easy to know how many species are at the Orinoco and the Amazonas basin or Caquetá River.

For that reason the Natural Sciences Institute is a reference to other national entities –such as the Ministry of Environment– and national and international research institutes. The Lab is also contributed recently to the knowledge of fish’s diversity in the country, with important publications such as the Regional Catalogue of Amazonia Fish, Catatumbo River, Ornamental Fish from the Orinoquia, Fish from the Colombian Amazonia and the Red Book of Fresh Water Threaten Species in Colombia.

High-priority actions For Professor José Iván Mojica and for the investigative team known in Colciencias as the Group for the Conservation and Biodiversity of Neo–tropical Fish, the priority is to realize a complete inventory of Colombian species, as well as the formulation of protection and conservation initiatives for continental fish in Colombia’s seas and rivers.

“For example, one of their priorities is to generate conservation politics and alternatives at basins from rivers such as Magdalena, where there are unique species in the world that must be preserved. Like the lined catfish whose currently included in the list of threaten species and in the ‘critical danger’ cathegory as a result of overfishing and environmental deterioration of the river basin.”

Likewise, Mojica explained the necessity to get into unexplored zones where is been impossible to enter or work, like in the Mitú River, Vaupés, Inírida, Piedemote Amazonico and other rivers from the Pacific slope.

“Even thought the Fish Collection at the ICN is national and internationally recognized as the greatest and most important collection in the country, we still have the challenge and institutional commitment to quickly advance towards the knowledge of national species before the alteration processes, all aquatic ecosystems in the country are suffering from. Many species from our national and natural patrimony may disappear without even getting to know them,” explained the scientist.

Maintaining a biological collections such as the ICN one, from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia is what allows national and foreign scientist to deepen scientific knowledge about biodiversity and to find and describe new species such as the Pterygoplichthys weberi.

A new species of fish increase the natural patrimony of the UN

Ecology

23

Caverns Exhibition

Journey to the center of the Earth

The exhibit is been prepared a couple months ago jointly between the Patrimony and Museums System (SPM), the Natural Sciences Institute, the Faculty of Sciences at the Universidad Nacional (Earth Sciences Department, Group of Geomorphology and Fluvial Processes –speleology path–, Biodiversity and Conservation Group) and Espeleocol (Colombian Espeleology Association).

Supported by specimens’ collection of insects and arthropods, as much as particular formations of limestone from these underground ecosystems, the main goal of the exhibition is to show to the visitor the richness of Colombian caverns. It looks also to highlight the speleological activity from the country, whose goal is to study nature, the origin and formation of caverns and the fauna that lives within.

It is indeed thanks to the Espeleology that we know now the amount of caves and caverns that exist in Colombia. Since 1998, these investigators have visited

more than 100 caves in Antioquia (at the river basin of Rio Claro) and the departments of Boyacá, Santander, Tolima, Huila and Cundinamarca.

The caverns are underground ecosystems that for a long time have been completely forgotten and whose conservation is now subject of the environmental public agenda, due to the effort of geologists, biologists, doctors, topographers and anthropologists, among other professionals reunited at Espeleocol. Such professionals have been working with the support of the ‘Investigation Group of Geomorphology and Fluvial Processes, Speleology path; and the Earth Sciences Department and the Biospeleology path at the Natural Sciences Institute (ICN); both from the Faculty of Sciences at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia.

Thus, ‘Caverns: history of the speleology in Colombia’ is a photographic exposition that, among others, illustrates the versatility of the underground ecosystems ex-

plored in the country throughout years. The exposition introduces the karst systems, the present fauna in them and its rocky formation.

According to Camilo Sánchez, museologist at the Patrimony and Museums System and who’s in charge of the assembly, the emphasis of the exhibition is to once reveal the long and exiting way that must be crossed up to arriving to the cavern, once there, show all the biological and geological richness in it.

The exhibition initiates at the first floor of the Claustro, where you first find the moment when the team of investigators starts their journey from Bogotá; and continues with the situations they go through until the arrival to a little town where the cavern is located. Then, you see the contact with local guides, who take them to the site, show them where the cave is and initiate scaling, rappel or whatever is necessary to accede in it.

“In the assembly, all the previous adventure goes illuminated, but the entrance to the cavern, located in the second floor, and its interior will be very dark, as much as we thought to give visi-

tors, helmets with a light so they can use them when entering and make everything more vivid. Once inside, they find animals that live there and the final part is like the great vault of the cavern, which will be a gigantic space where all bats bring the visitor closer to the fauna of these ecosystems,” affirms Sánchez.

And he adds, “the most difficult part of the assembly is been, for example, to darken the room, for what we used black panels and fabrics. The unknown characteristic of the subject has complicated things a bit more, although for us is been very good to find out that there are a lot of caverns in Colombia. This is a very nice story.”

The SPM team spent around fifteen days to finish the assembly, among helpers are mounting professionals, graphic designers, public monitors and museologists. The system expects that this exhibition constitutes itself and for visitors as a true adventure to the center of the earth, through fantastic underground landscapes, very soon exposed to the light of the Claustro de San Agustín.

september, 2009

Bats and stalactites accompany them. The reason: ‘Caverns: history of the speleology in Colombia,’ the most recent exhibition

by Claustro de San Agustín.

www.agenciadenoticias.unal.edu.co

By these days, the Patrimony and Museums System at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia is working in a dark room, surrounded by hammers, drills, scaffolds and pictures that may surprise anyone.

24 Publications Agencia de Noticias de la Universidad Nacional The Universidad Nacional de Colombia’s News Agency is the informative portal on the web through the one all information about the Institution’s activity is shared, emphasizing on investigation, discoveries and developments of science and technology.

However, along this space other aspects of University happening are highlighted, such as encounters, seminaries, conferences and administrative facts among others.

Created in August, 2006 the News Agency is positioned itself as one of the news sites most visited in the internet world. Just in a short time is become a forced page of consultation by media, students, academic and scientific sector, and generally for those who have some restlessness about high level acade-

mic and scientific activity, not only in Colombia but around the world.

Besides the web site’s Agency, not only shows to the world labor done by its research groups, students and professors, that day after day, with their discoveries look to transform the world and provide added value to all kinds of Colombian products. The work team behind the News Agency is composed by 14 journalists, photographers, news editors, webmasters, graphic designers, political scientists and language interpreters who handle an extensive sources agenda.

The internet is a tool of first order for the modern world and the Universidad Nacional de Colombia couldn’t be foreign to it, being the number one superior education institution in the coun-

try, the greatest research center and one of the main centers of thought in Colombia and South America. These aspects justify the Agency’s existence beyond all doubt, about an information portal and the history that’s been done in the last three years.

The Agency’s web site, in addition, not only shows to the world the work of research groups, students and teachers whom, day to day, look for to transform the world and contribute added value to Colombian products. The highest number of visitors the Agency’s experienced was last April with 73,273 visitors.

Last semester news produced by the Agency covered 299,049 square centimeters in press, 182 internet publications, had 251 television appearances and 335 radio appearances.

Número1 - www.agenciadenoticias.unal.edu.co/matices

Matices. Stories behind investigation Historias detrás de la investigación

The stories stringed together by a scientific procedure are almost always fogged behind the final results. But because science is neither black nor white, but filled with shades, Unimedios created a new publication that compiles in chronicle format the hand–woven about the challenge to do science at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. Matices. Stories behind investigation, is the name of a series of records with innovative design inviting the reader to discover science, from back to front.

Its goal is to transport university and community to the stories born around research processes

by UN professors and students.

The stories are written in a simple “sometimes colloquial” language and are illustrated by more than 40

CLAVES PARA EL DEBATE PÚBLICO Bogotá, Colombia, agosto de 2009, número 28

www.agenciadenoticias.unal.edu.co

EDITORIALES UNIVERSITARIAS El rostro del saber académico en la sociedad moderna

full color photographs. Stories are based on emotions, perspectives, successes, errors, anecdotes, frustrations and other aspects, which in their great majority are always omitted at the time of telling about the scientific task. Beyond results, Matices tries to show the scientist and demystify the lab’s man perception, with the thick glasses and the white coat, that doesn’t allow in sensitivity.

Matices includes interviews to specialized academic sources involved in the subject, but also written sources and official data.

Matices is a monthly publication circulating over 3,000 copies and may also be seen by visiting: http://historico.agenciadenoticias.unal.edu.co/matices/

En cuevas y cavernas,

Historias detrás de la investigación Número 2 - www.agenciadenoticias.unal.edu.co/matices

investigadores hallan

verdaderos tesoros

Historias detrás de la investigación

Proyecto Alta Guajira,

Número 3 - www.agenciadenoticias.unal.edu.co/matices

una “piedra” en el desierto

Historias detrás de la investigación Número 4 - www.agenciadenoticias.unal.edu.co/matices

La UN le “saca la leche”

Historias detrás de la investigación Número 5 - www.agenciadenoticias.unal.edu.co/matices

a la tecnología

Con c ienc ia se moldean terrones de arcilla

Historias detrás de la investigación Número 6 - www.agenciadenoticias.unal.edu.co/matices

Lecciones de Ultratumba Una prótesis

Empanamatic:

Historias detrás de la investigación Número 8- www.agenciadenoticias.unal.edu.co/matices

60 empanadas por minuto

colombiana

Historias detrás de la investigación

Historias detrás de la investiga

Número 9 - www.agenciadenoticias.unal.edu.co/matices

que le dio la vuelta

al mundo

Historias detrás de la investigación Número 10 - www.agenciadenoticias.unal.edu.co/matices

Historias detrás de la investigación Número 11 - www.agenciadenoticias.unal.edu.co/matices

E l Zafire: Un laboratorio c i e n t í f i c o en medio de la selva

Buzo científico de la UN lidera esponjoso proyecto “gringo”

La huella genética de los wayúu

Claves for Public Debate The mass media unit, Unimedios from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia started editing and publishing, since May, 2007, the series Claves (Keys) for Public Debate, a document whose purpose is to evaluate topics about education, science and technology, as much in Colombia as in Latin America and the world.

Throughout this period, the series has treated topics such as graduate education, accreditation, university financing, network’s visibility, university’s welfare, science and technology indicators of the region, double degree and univer-

sity’s desertion, among other basic topics related superior education.

These documents build an art–state from each one of addressed topics and constitute a useful consumption for the public politics, to enrich discussion about fundamental topics towards development of society in an environment where every time the possession of knowledge prevails with greater force.

Unimedios, publisher of the series, indicates that Claves for public debate is open to all discussions to construct a developing way for the country, starting from

Artistic attributes by students and professors are raised, and it is also a space for problematic discussion and for showing the positive face of the University and its members.

It’s also a place for alumni, men and women that aren’t directly linked to the University but for their performance are greatly heighten the Institution’s name.

Through its pages, benefits for the community are shared as a fundamental part of its social responsibility towards society.

Carta is a bridge between knowledge manifestation and members of the same Institu-

tion. It is a space to show the diverse facets of knowledge, with a simple language understood by all publics.

It is a monthly publication, circulating over 20,000 copies, targeting members of the University (students, professors and administrative staff) at all campuses in the country. Some copies are also sent to selected academics, social communicators, journalists and decision takers from other institutions.

To get a taste of Carta Universitaria, visit http://www.cartauniversitaria.unal.edu.co/

a central theme: education and its entire dimension, given its value as the most effective tool to achieve progress.

The series are a monthly publication, circulating over 3,000 copies. The target publics are all the decision takers –in the Executive and Legislative branches– the key opinion leaders (media directors, columnists and journalists) and all the academic body in the country.

If you are interested to consult the different documents from the series, visit: http://www.agenciadenoticias.unal.edu.co/index. php?id=48

Número 47 Septiembre de 2009

Este egresado de La Universidad Nacional de Colombia es uno de los padres del Diseño Gráfico en el país.

De su mente brillante han surgido algunos de los logotipos más impactantes de la publicidad nacional.

Dicken Castro

UNA MARCA

Andrés Felipe Castaño/Unimedios

Universidad Nacional de Colombia . Unidad de Medios de Comunicación - Unimedios http://www.cartauniversitaria.unal.edu.co . carta_un@unal.edu.co . ISSN 0122 2929

En esta Carta:

Páginas 2 y 3

Angélicas del arte

Páginas 4 y 5

Música de Cámara en Manizales

Páginas 12 y 13

Andrés Almeida/Unimedios

Balance Feria del Libro

Andrés Felipe Castaño/Unimedios

Valledupar busca sede UN

Andrés Felipe Castaño/Unimedios

Life at the inside of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia is extremely attractive. At each one of its faculties, institutes and premises take place many academic events every day. Culture, science, economy, politics, arts, engineering and sports are central topics which the community participates of, with extreme attention.

Since September 2004, the Universidad Nacional de Colombia is published Carta Universitaria, a tabloid newspaper that registers the institution’s task in all scopes, stands out the production by all the research groups and the distinctions obtained by their members.

Víctor Manuel Holguín/Unimedios

september, 2009

Carta Universitaria

Páginas 14 y 15