High-Tech n' Bio-Anthro!!!!

I study Physical Anthropology, and in my career (as many others in Science), we use a lot of different methods and technologies to investigate about the topics that you're interested. Some people could think that because we're in Social Sciences Faculty, we don't use high-technologies in our research, although that's completely false. Biological Anthropology deals with both the social behavior and the biology of people (it is a biosocial science), so we also combine both methods from Social Sciences and from Natural Sciences.

Biological anthropologists are interested in human evolution, our origins as primates and modern humans and even our diversity in the past and today. We carried out our investigations traditionally on the skeletal remains of people from the past but also on the biological characteristics of living people, including their genetics markers and morphological traits. So using one or another technology and method, will depend on the interests and focus of the researcher. For example, the people interested in how humans evolved from earlier life forms, can look at our closest relatives; the primates (they include us (Homo sapiens), the apes, the monkeys, and prosimians such as the lemur) in order to get insight about the evolution of our genome, our morphology or even our ethology. These people (called primatologists), usually do a lot of filedwork in remotes jungles or in zoos with small captive colonies to study primates. Because of that they utilize mainly technologies to record the behaviour of our nearest phylogenetic relatives such as video cameras, sound recorders, etc. In other hand, the people interested in the biology and life of past populations and cultures, use the techniques of archaeology to uncover the skeletal remains of our ancestors. These physical anthropologists are called bioarchaeologists and often use metrical instruments to measure the human remains,and then compare the results between the individuals of the same arcaheological site or between different populations (that could be from diferent times and/or geographic places). Those investigators interested in the evolution of hominids (paleoanthropologists), utilize technologies that are more related with geology and chemistry. As an example, they use techniques to extract bone and tooth proteins for stable isotope analysis, bone mineral and tooth enamel for oxygen isotope measurements, as well as proteins for characterization and sequencing, In this way, they use stable isotope ratio mass spectrometers and a variety of peripheral devices for the analysis of light stable isotopes in both organic and inorganic material. They also use techniques to date their samples (14C, Potassium-Argon dating, etc).
Finally, the biological anthropologists gather on living populations falls into several overlapping categories. Evolution and biosocial variation are underlying themes in studies that deal with nutrition, child growth, health in societies, the genetics of human populations, and adaptation (adjustment) to the environment. As I said before, the techniques will depend of the investigation theme; those interested in anthropological genetics will pick technologies such as PCR, electrophoresis, bioinformatics (DNA aligment, sequencing, phylogenetic analysis, etc). The researchers interested in growth and adaptation could use a variety of technolgies as biomechanicals analysis of bones, differents measuring equipment, etc.

As a summary it's posible to say that because most of the biological anthropologists have a good background on osteology, the basic technologies of investigation are related to this field. In this sense, a well-equipped bioanthropological laboratory should be suitably for the processing, conservation, and analyses of osteological materials, with facilities including: fume hood, osteometric equipment, microscope, 3-D digitiser, digital camera, ageing and sexing casts, graded sieves, sample preparation and conservations materials, and comparative specimens (both human and faunal). Some equipment that could be add to have a first-class laboratory, are for example CT scans, laser scans, radiograph machines, electron-microscopes, etc.

In this year I've study several subects that teach me new methods to analyze human biological data and the techniques to obtain it; so I will describe some of them. The firts thing that I have to say is that we always use computer statistical packages to analyze our results and data (It's the main analysis technology. Well, this term I'm studying Physical Anthropology II and the goal of this subject is to teach us knowledges about human osteology such as how estimate sex, age, ancestry, body mass, height, etc. from skeletal remains. To get this information we use many technologies; because we need to measure, we use osteometrics boards to measure long bones, Verniers caliper to measure teeth, some craniometric data, etc, and just yesterday I learned how to use a spreading caliper to take another type of craniometric results. I'm studyng this semester Bioinformatics, and it's basically the creation and advancement of databases, algorithms, computational and statistical techniques, and theory to solve formal and practical problems arising from the management and analysis of biological data. So I learned a lot of how to use computer programas such as (Blast, MEGA, etc), to study DNA sequeneces and also how to use the genome databases available on the web. This term I also learned more about how to utilize microscopes in Histoembriology, and I watch with this instruments many histological cuts from many parts of the human body. In Genetics, I learned how to do a electrophoresis and also how to prepare cells and chromosomes to watch them in a microscope. I guess I learned many other techniques but I'dont remeber them right now. Anyway, I hope to learned more techniques the next semester such as PCR (polymerase chain reaction is a technique to amplifly a single or few copies of a piece of DNA across several orders of magnitude, generating thousands to millions of copies of a particular DNA sequence), RFLPS ( restriction fragment length polymorphism, refers to a difference between two or more samples of homologous DNA molecules arising from differing locations of restriction sites, and to a related laboratory technique by which these segments can be distinguished), and others genetic techniques as mtDNA analysis, Snps, etc. I also would like to learn about geometric morphometrics that is the statistical analysis about exactly where the parts of the organism are with respect to each other. The geometric morphometric tools combine morphometrics (geometry of organisms), computer science, and modern engineering to focus on information from the actual locations of points on or inside organisms, in order to understand the patterns of shape variation in the biological organisims. It's important to say that geometric morphometrics use several tools to produce data, and Microscribes and 3D digitizers are one of the most important technologies on this field. 3D Digitizers represents the next step in morphometric data collection, because now the physical anthropologist can collect landmark data by simply moving a stylus tip to the landmark location and pressing a button. This data is transferred to the computer via USB cable and can be imported into any program for further analysis to include 3D Spatial Reconstruction. There are many other technologies and techniques that I'd like to learn, but I think that I had write too much so I prefer to finish.

In concusion, it's posible to say and easy to realize reading what I wrote above, that technologies are incredible important in Biological Anthropology. Although the methods, techniques and technologies will differ depending on the focus of the researcher. For me biological anthropology is just the study of human variation and evolution in time and space, so it's more a focus than a collection of specific thecniques or technological aproaches to the human phenomenon. That would explain the diferent methodologies and technologies utilized. In fact that's support by the wide range of jobs and academical positions that physical anthropologists have; they can be found in departments of anthropology, anatomy, biological sciences, human biology, zoology, and in medical school departments, and also in combined departments of sociology and anthropology or social sciences. That's one of the reasons why I like Bioanthropology; it's s profession that's stimulating and satisfying and there's also the enjoyment of scientific research, with endless questions and discoveries to be made using new technologies, to answer old questions such as -: " Who am I? or Where did we come from?".

Films n' Cinema

I love films and movies, and for me they're one of the greatest inventions ever. I've seen many movies throughout my whole life, so for me it's difficult to even imagine my life without films. I also like going to the cinema but this term I haven't gone for a while, because my university duties. In other hand, this term I can't rent DVDs because, the store that use to provide the movie rent service, went bankrupt. So, this semester has been very "poor" about movies and films, because I haven't seen many new films. I don't have a favourite movie, because there are too many films that I like, no matter the genre. Although one of my favourites ones, is "Barry Lindon". It's a period film by Stanley Kubrick loosely based on the novel The Luck of Barry Lyndon. It recounts the exploits of unscrupulous 18th century Irish adventurer Barry Lyndon, particularly his rise and fall in English society. Another film that I like is "Snatch". It's is a crime film by British writer and director Guy Ritchie. The film is characterized by an assortment of colourful characters, including Mickey O'Neil (Brad Pitt), Russian-Uzbek ex-KGB agent Boris 'the Blade' Yurinov (or Boris the Bullet-Dodger) (Rade Šerbedžija), professional thief-gambling addict Frankie "Four-Fingers" (Benicio del Toro) and bounty hunter Bullet-Tooth Tony (Vinnie Jones). This film is very hard to explain, but in short it's about a bunch of different people who are trying to obtain a diamond which is worth a whole lot of money.

The same situation that I explain before about choosing favorites movies, happened to me when I have to chose a director. There're too many good directors, but I have to admitted that I like a lot Kubrick's works. I like the obsessive and perfectionist nature of his films, that I think reflected his personality. I also like the visual style of his films and specially the meticulous attention to details. Kubrick was an American director, writer, producer, and photographer that made around just 13 movies, but in my opinion the most of them are masterpieces (he won several Oscars and prizes for his films).

Finally, I can say that movies are a fundamental part of my life and of our time. Many of significant moments of our lives are related to films, scenes, soundtracks, etc. so since Lumiere's brothers first films, we're united forever with the "big screen".

Mammoth remains from the Russian permafrost offer up rich bounty

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/oct/11/mammoth-find-herders-climate-change


15 years ago, a reindeer herder called Vasily Ivanovich who lived in Russia's remote Yamal peninsula (a wide and wild place in the frozen tundra of north-west Siberia), found a mammoth tusk. After that great discovering, several other mammoth remains have been found in that area, becoming that isolated place in a special area for scientists interested in the evolution and extintion of the woolly mammoths. In May 2007 another reindeer herder found the corpse of a perfectly preserved female baby woolly mammoth (which he named Lyuba,to honor his wife).

Today the mistery of the disappearance of mammoths 9700 years ago is still unsolved. The only thing that is clear, is that they dissapeared at the end of the last Ice Age. Some experts pointed the climatic change as the guilty of the mammoth extinction, although others added to that explanation the "human factor" -: "Two reasons. First a changing environment. Second humans." answered Romanenko ( mammoth specialist and senior scientist from the geography department of Moscow State University)when he was asked about the reason that caused the mammoths death.

Sadly, nowadays the lasts remains of the mammoths (and the answers that they carried about their own mysterious extinction) are in dangerous. The mammoths aren't jsut interesting scientific issues, they're also a big business; every year teams of professional collectors (or fosil's thieves) scour the tundra by boat and/or helicopter, looking for mammoths remains to sell. Because of that and climatic change, a lot of remains of this incredible creatures have been lost forever.

I think that's important to protect those remains because they're a way to get insight about the misteries of the last Ice Age. Studing mammoths you could answer a lot of traditional questions about the paleoclimate, the evolution of mammoths (and their phylogenetic relationships), their ecological relationship with humans, etc. Maybe in the closest future with the DNA technologie, we might clone a mammoth (because we're already able to do it), helping us to understand the past of this animal, and also an important part about our natural history.

Sports

I love sports! and there're several sports that I like. Maybe it's because I've practiced and watched sports my whole life. The first sport I did (when I was around 5 years), was swimming. I swam for many years, but when I moved to my nowadays house I leave it. Then I started with Karate and I practiced it for around 6 years, but when I entered in the university, my academic duties force me to leave it. For one year I didn't do any sport at all (just some football matches the weekends), so I gain weight. At that time I felt heavy, slow, lazy, etc. so I decided to start doing sports again. I did some weight lifting at university gym, but I thought that it was boring. After that I began runnig and I truly love it (Actually it's the sport that I'm doing at the present time, although I have a Knee injury right now). In other hand, I'm a fan of a lot of sports either such as football, rugby, basquetball, etc. I also liked the car racing because when I was a child I watched the races with my dad every sunday (mostly the F1, but also NASCAR, Rally, etc.)
I consider myself a mix between a fitness freak and sports fan. I say this because when I could I practice sports (specially on holydays), but I also love to watch football or other ballsports on the TV. I prefer to practice single sports because you don't depend on anybody else than yourself, though I prefer to watch group sports (I don't know why).
I admire many athletes from diferent disciplines such as Ramon Dekkers on Muay Thai, Manny Pacquiao on Box, Steven Gerrard, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Fernando Torres and Alexis Sanchez on Football, Emanuel Ginobili on basquetball, etc. The list could continue for many pages but one the athletes that I admire the most in the last time is Usain Bolt, who's the fastest man on earth ever!. For many people fight sports should be banned, but for me they're great and an incredible exposition of bravery, mental power and hability.
I can't imagine my life without sports, because for me sports are very important: they're funny, they keep you healthy and they're an esential part of my life.

Santiago

I was born in Stgo and I lived here the most of my life. Although that doesn't mean that I know Stgo very well; actually I think that I just now a little bit of it. Maybe one of the reasons because I don't know too many places in Stgo is because I lived the most of my life in Colina, a little town in the north of Stgo. In this sense, I've never felt as truly "santiaguino", and actually I often use the expression -: "Im going to Stgo", when I want to say that I will go to the city. Nevertheless I don't feel as "peasant" either , because I know stgo better that the persons that come from other regions. So I think I have some kind of an identity issue with this.
However , if your're a tourist or foreigner I think that there're several places to visit and many things to do in Stgo. For example you should visit or do a tour starting in the San Francisco Church (built in the 16th century), one of the oldest architectonic buildings of the city. Afterwards, you could visit the Government Palace ( "La Moneda") and the museums that belong to it. Then a tourist should visit the the "Plaza de Armas" and some national monuments and atractions such as the Cathedral, the city Hall of Santiago and the the Central Post Office. Near those places you could try some chilean typical street foods such as “completos”, “motes con huesillo”, “sopaipillas”, etc. The trip could continue towards Santa Lucia Hill (the exactly place where Pedro de Valdivia founded the city), a small hill in the center of the city that is famous for its architecture and views. If you prefer the museums I recommend without any doubt the "museo chileno de arte precolombino", where you'll find an amazing institution created in order to conserve, study and diffuse the artistic legacy of the pre-columbian people of all America. Finally, I'm sure that the long walk will give to everybody a huge appetite and the best places to eat excellent chilean dishes are in the "Mercado Central". In other hand, If you end the walk thirsty you should try "La Piojera" and their traditionals drinks as the "Terremoto", "chicha", "pipeño", etc.

Music

I remember that Nietzsche said something like "life without music is a life without sense" or that "life without music is an error". I really agree with those words, because for me music is one of the greatest things (and unbeliebe phenomenon) in the world and I also think that it's one of the things that distinguish human form other organisms. Of course there're other animals that use sounds to comunicate between them, but we (as human beings) interprete that fact as music. Only humans use sounds as an art and as a way or medium to create and comunicate their feelings, thoughts, etc. Although it's important to remember that music (and it's creation, performance, significance, and even its definition) vary according to culture and social context. Actually some kinds of music are for some people just noise and for others incredible music.
I heard music almost everyday, manly when I'm walking or travelling in the city. At those moments, i feel that music makes my travels shorter and funnier. I also heard music in other contexts, and always the power of music is evident. No matter what kind of music is, for me it always creates an atmosphere that could be good, bad, fun, etc. Because of that, I like almost every kind of music, because it depends of the context if I like a music or not. In may daily life I heard music such as metal, hip hop, jazz, classic, reggaeton, reggae, ethnic, rock, etc.

Transatiago

The Transatiago system started in 2007 and it was design to be one of the greatest projects of the "Concertacion's" governments. However, it didn't work well maybe because it was designed and implemented too fast because of political reasons.

Before the implementation of this public transport system i didn't travel too much by bus, because i lived near my school, so i don't think that i have a lot of "micro amarilla" culture. Anyway, if I compare the new and the older system, I see some positive things; the older system polluted more than the new one, and nowadays there aren't robberys against the drivers, because the new system doesnt use cash to pay. In other hand when Transantiago began, the people (me included) used to wait (and wasted) a lot of time a the bus stop, and the routes were terrible designed (I really think that the people that created the system have never been on a bus!!). I said that because the transantiago system eliminated some routes that used to have many buses because they go to popular places , and created new ones that went to no man's land.

In my opinion the main thing that should be change in the transatiago system is the time between buses of the same route. For example, sometimes the buses pass all together and the people have to wait (and waste!!!) a lot of time to take the next bus. So it's really necessary to have a "schedule" for the buses in each bus stop. Although, I'm a pessimist person and i don't believe that the things would be better, though it could.....maybe if we buy some japanese robots-bus drivers that are nice, quite, fast, etc ...haha i'm getting mad....

A COUNTRY I WOULD LIKE TO VISIT

I would like to visit many places in the world, however if I have to chose one I think I would like to visit Egypt. I would like to go there because this country has an amazing culture and history that begins nearly the 10th millennium BC. This long history is reflect on the millions of archaeological remains that are spread in the whole country. Egypt is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia. Today Egypt is one of the most populous countries in Africa and the Middle East, although the great majority of the population live near the Nile river (the truly heart of this nation), the only place where you can find agricultural land. About half of Egypt's residents live in urban areas, with most of them spread across the cities of Cairo and Alexandria

As I said, the Nile Valley was home of one of the oldest countries of the world. So Egypt is widely known and famous for its ancient civilization and some of the world's most famous monuments, including the Great Sphinx and the pyramids of Giza. Other famous places are the city of Luxor (that contains numerous ancient artifacts), the Valley of the Kings and the Karnak temple. Other things that are famous in this country are the wall paintings done in the service of the Pharaoçhs (for example Tutankhamen or Ramses II) and their monumental tombs. Egypt is widely regarded as an important nation of Northern Africa and the Middle East.

I would like to do many things in Egypt, but the principal one would be logically visiting all the museums that contain the ancient remains of this country. In the same way, I’d like to visit the great ancient architecture that was developed thousands of years in the past. I also would like to try the Egyptian food that has also a history that goes thousand of years back into the past. Some archaeological excavations have found that the workers that made the pyramid used to eat bread, beer and onions. Nowadays, Egyptian cuisine has as its mainly ingredients legumes and vegetables that came from the crops of the Nile valley (though the cities that are near the coast cook their dishes with fishes and sea food).

I would like to go to Egypt just to know more about the incredible culture and ancient remains that are there, and because I truly think that this country influenced in several ways the western culture. Although, if somebody invites me to work in Egypt in something related to physical Anthropology, it would be a dream became true.

My First Term

On the whole I think that the last term was a pretty good one. I said this because in general the classes were interesting, I learned a lot of new knowledges and subjects, and I also had some time to hang out with friends and to spend time on my own. At the beggining it was a little bit difficult to start the term, but once I got into the swing of things it wasn't too hard.

The last term I learned a lot of interesting new subjects because it was the first term of the specialization in Physical Anthropology. Anyway, if I have to choose, there's one subject that I prefered more than the others: Physical Anthropology I. This subject was taught by Rodrigo Retamal who is a Physical Anthropologist with a master degree in Biostatistics. I liked that subject because it was interesting and fun, and because I felt I learn a lot about the basis of osteology and the basic of skeletal identification. Although I don't wanna be a forensic anthropologist or a osteologist, I really liked this subject because it's one of the fundamentals knowledges that every physical anthropologist should know (I learned how to estimate sex, age, stature, etc. through the skeletal examination.

The last term I didn't have many free time, but when I had some of it I enjoy it much as I can. As I said before, I had fun with friends going to bars, parties, pubs, etc. and I also spent some time on my own reading books, sleeping or just resting. In other hand, I had to face some challenges the last term, most of them related with the finals exams of my career. However, at the end everything was fine and I succeeded in my exams.

Well that's all; the last term was fun and interesting and I really hope to continue learning interesting subjects the next term of my career.

My blogging experience

This is my first time writting a blog, and honestly at the begining I thought that this experience was really a waste of time and another "ridiculous english homework". Although, throughout the experience of writting the blog, I started to like it . Sometimes it was little bit boring, but the most of those situations occured when I was tired and stressed because the University duties. But when I had enough time to write what I wanted, I truly enjoyed it (I really think that what I'm saying is easily seen through the increasing extension of my posts; sometimes I wrote more than the necessary ; ) ). The only thing that I' didn't like, was to wrote about myself every time, it's very selfish and self-centered. That's hard for me and I can't stand that!, because I've never used to write about myself every week before.

I believe that this experience helps me to improve my english, and specially my writting skills. I've never written in english so much as now, so I really think that writting a blog is very good way to practice your english habilities, mostly the ones related to writting as I said before. In other hand I think that blogging in the English class (I mean specifically at english classes) is one of disadvantages of this method, because I really believe that we could work in our blogs at home (and the corrections could be send by e-mail), so we could have more hours to practice another english habilities such as talking or listening at the classes. However, I still think that writting a blog is an excelent way to practice your english-writting skills.

My ideal Job

My ideal job would be working at a University or research center related to bioanthropological investigation. I would like to investigate about our origins as a natural species, and about our biological current diversity, actually I aspired to investigate the genetic bases and history of human present diversity. Although, it's a too big goal, so I'd to focus my job in America. More especifically, I'd like to answer a difficult question -: When, how, and who came to America before the european arrived (more exactly conquest)?. I'd also like to compare the answer with results from other countries, regions, continents, etc.

I'm very interested in studying people (and past inhabitans of our continent) using anthropological genetic methods, because the genetic information of these persons may provide us new insights in order to understand the migrations patterns that occured thousand years ago, and to increase our understanding about the H. sapiens history. More specific questions that I'd like to answer are-: who were the first humans that arrived to america?, how was South America colonized?, was there a different population group with distinct physical traits that didn't give rise to present day amerindian populations?, etc.

To get a job as the one I wish, I'll study a lot and I obviouslyneed to get first a Phd in biological anthropology or human genetics . So I have to get many technical skills related to genetic investigation (specially in populations genetics and ancient dna methods). I'm not worry about that, because I believe that my career would give me the basic skills, knowledges and habilities to apply with good qualifications to a post-graduate program.

I think I'd be good at a job with the characteristics that I said, because I really love the things that I want to investigate, I have some kind of obsesion to know the origins of people and animals. I also love cultural and natural history and biology, so I think I won't have any difficulties to learn that subjects. Finally, I think I'd would good at this job because I'm a very perseverant person (specially in the things that I like), and because I love the main subject of my research: America.

The speech of Ken Robinson

After the I heard the speech of Ken Robinson, I thought for some minutes about some things he said. I really agree with him in some ways and I also found interestings (and sometimes funny) his ideas and thoughts. As he said, I also believe that the current educational system is wrong, because the main objective of this system is to produce people trained principally in the areas or subjects that are usefull for the economic system, who is one of the responsibles of the present educational systems ; it's a vicious circle because the economic system affects the educational one, who is the responsible for educate people and because this systems is heavily influence by the economics forces and interests, it trains people to produce and consume more and more, in order to keep the hegemonic political and economic system; to preserve the status quo. So, this tends to generate marked inequality between the careers, works, etc. that aren't useful directly to the system (arts, literature, phylosophy, social sciences, etc.), and the careers more related to it, such as economics, businnes, managment, etc who're best paid and looking by the public opinion.
I also agree with him, when he talked about the current situation of the education. It's very different than some decades before. Nowdays, it's very difficult to get a job, and a degree isn't a job insurance anymore. Because if that, today you have to study more years. Moreover, because a lot of people don't have the money to study, they have to ask for some loans. So they can't study what they want because the same rules that are working in the economic system are leading the educational one, so it's almost esential to study a well-paid career, to get a good job, in order to pay the loan that you have because you wanted to study, to have a better life, to buy a big car, etc etc. It's a terrible no-end story... and I' dont wanna participate of it...

Future

It's hard to think about future when you're taking the finals exams of the term (the only the thing that you want, is to survive and then to rest). Anyway, if I have to write about my future just playing, there are some things that I would like to be doing...

In the future, i would like to be studing in a graduate school a master or a Phd. I really like my career, so for me it would be a truly pleasure to study more about the issues that I found interesting and to do the research that I want. I would like to do this post-graduate study in Europe (preferably in the UK or Germany) rather than other places, because I think that the education is great there, and because there a lot of countries in a very small continent and the travel services are very good, so you can travel a lot and meet different persons and cultures. Personally talking, I imagine myself living alone, but having fun with friends. I don't wanna be married soon... or ever so if i have a romantic relationship, it would be something relaxed and to spend great times.

In conclusion, I just want to be studing abroad a post-graduate study in biological anthropology (I hope get a scholarship), and living alone and traveling a lot. I don't want to many things; I don't want a big car (Actually I prefer bikes), or a big house. I had never imagine myself being a rich business guy, worried just for money... I prefer to be just a more a quiet guy, doing what he likes and living in an simple way of life. My ambitions are more academic: I want to be good in my job, and to do excellent and interesting researchs.

The best in my area

In my opinion there are several biological anthropologists that could be the best in their specific research areas. In the investigation of Ancient DNA, i'm sure that the best one is Svante Pääbo. He didn't study anthropology, but his research and investigation focus are bioanthropological issues or are related to this field.

He was born in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1955. He studied many things at the Uppsala University such as History of Science, Egyptology and Russian. But at the the end, he decided to study medicine at the same University. He earned his PhD from 1986, and then he did post-doctoral studies in the Zürich University (Switzerland) and in Berkeley (USA). Since 1997, he has been director of the Department of Evolutionary Genetics at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig (Germany). This institute is one of the top ones in the bioanthropological research in the whole world. He had received several Prizes in his career, including the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (the highest honour awarded for a researcher in Germany). In 2007, Pääbo was named one of Time Magazine's 100 most influential people of the year.

I think he's the best in his area, because he was one of the pioneers in using and creating Ancient DNA methods ( He began his run of discoveries in 1985 when he isolated DNA from a 2,400 years old egyptian mummy). He developed methods for the retrieval of DNA sequences from archaeological and paleontological remains. More specifically, he has been continuously improving the criteria necessary to support the authenticity of DNA sequences retrieved from ancient specimens.

He used the same techniques that he developed, to elucidate the evolutionary history of humans, hominids and pleistocene mammmals. For example, he and his team are studying DNA sequences from Neanderthals, ground sloths and cave bears . In a collaborative project with other laboratories, he used techniques to the reconstruction of the Neanderthal genome (one of the greatest works in bionathropology ever!)

He had also compare DNA from human, chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans in order to understand our similarities and differences, and to gain a better understanding of the origin of H. sapiens and our closest relatives. In August 2002, Pääbo's department published findings about the "language gene" (FOXP2), that has been found damaged in persons with language disabilities.

I really admire Pääbo because many reasons; he's the best in his area, he developed several new methods, he found amazing new discoveries, and every year he published a lot of papers, works and investigations that helps us to understand the origins of our species, and to get insight what means to be human.

My carrer

I study Physical Anthropology, It's one of the fields of anthropology (basically the study of human beings throughout time and everywhere in the world). Physical Anthropology is also known as biological anthropology or bioanthropology, because this discipline has a strong biological background that is combine with a cultural perspective. Physical anthropology studies the human and hominid evolution, analysing both biological (morphological, genetical , etc.) and cultural (behaviours, traditions, etc.) variations, through our own natural history and in different cultures. In this sense, a bioanthropologist studies the boundary between biology and culture (That's why we're not human biologists or cultural anthropologists; that's the difference).

Biological Anthropology has many sub-branches such as paleoanthropology (the study of the fossil record of hominids and their relatives),human ecology (the study of human adaptations and its relationship with the enviroment), osteology (the study of skeletal material), forensic anthropology ( the analysis and identification of human remains in crime scenes), bioarchaeology (the study of human remains that come from archaeological contexts), primatology (the study of primates), paleopathology (the study of ancient diseases), molecular anthropology ( it's the use of molecular analysis to determine evolutionary links between , modern and ancient populations, different peoples and cultures, as well as between contemporary primate species), etc.
I really like my career and as I said before (in another post), I can't imagine myself studying anything else. I like all the sub-branches to, but specially the ones that are related to the study of ancient human populations: bioarchaeology, paleopathology, molecular anthropology (particularly ancient DNA analysis), etc. I would like to specialize myself in the study of the biology of the ancient cultures, combinig the traditional morphometrics methods, with the molecular ones, in order to reconstruct the prehistory of our country. For example, one of my main interest areas, is the research of the genetic and biological relationships between ancient cultures.

Photograph

My favourite photograph is about my family, more specifically about my Dad's familiy. In that picture, there's my Oma (grandmother), my dad, his sister, his brother, my cousins and my family (my mom and my two brothers). In this picture we were laughing and smiling because we were so happy, and we were at my Oma's house in the country. The day when this picture was taken, my Oma turned 84. Although our happinnes that day, months after this picture, my granma died, and my relatives started fighting for the inheritance. That's the main reason why I like this photograph, because in this picture we were all togeteher and happy before we began struggling just for money and material things. After my Oma's death, my relatives stopped talking each other for years. I really like this photograph because it shows better times (talking about my familiy relationships). However, the last year we visited my dad's relatives, and it was very exciting and emotional. I remember we couldn't stopped talking about the days when my Oma was alive...

My last vacation

Last summer I went to the south of Chile, more exactly to Pto. Varas (I went to this city for many summers and I really love it). I went there because I have relatives in that city. My cousins live there so I have a place to stay free for all the vacations. I traveled on bus with my older brother Stephan for around 12 hours long. You can think that it's a long trip, although in the past the travel took more than 15 hours, so for me it was really fast and not too long. Anyway, my vacation was really great because I did a lot of funny things, and I'll never forget when my cousins, my brother and I, climbed a high rock (circa 4mts.) near the LLanquihue lake, and we jumped into the water. I felt that I was flying and in the moment when I went through the water surface, I was truly happy and excited.

We did many other things last summer, such as camping, dancing, playing music and sports, etc. Another thing that was specially meaningful for me, was when I saw and talked again with all the friends that I've done in the past in that city. I met them in my other trips to Pto. Varas, and it was really excelent to had fun with them again; we made bonfires, played the guitar and drank beers and wine.

My favorite piece of technology

There isn't any doubt about wich piece of technology is my favorite; my notebook. I wanted a notebook for a lot of time, but i didn't have enough money to buy one. However, the last Christmas my Dad gave me a big surprise; he bought a brand new notebook for me.
I really like my notebook because I do a lot of things with it. It's really useful for university works and duties. In other hand, I also use it to listen music, to read books, to play computer games, among any other activities.
My notebook is very important for me, because I have a lot of significant data on it. I have all the university's works that I've done all these years, a lot of pictures of my friends and relatives, useful softwares, etc. It's a little strange and hard to think my life without my notebook and internet, because I'm really utilize my notebook for almost everything related to University and for many things in my personal life. This is quite frighting, because less than a year ago, i didn't have a notebook, and my life was good and normal, but when I started to use my notebook, I created a need, that now is essential for me.
Because of that I take care much for my notebook; If I lose or break my notebook, I don't know what I would do. Actually, I'm writting this in my notebook so it isn't difficult to show that I'm truly a notebook junkie.

My best friend

My best friend is Phil and he's Canadian (his mom works at the Canadian Embassy in Chile). I met him when I was around 6 years old. He was walking near my house and my brothers and I were playing soccer. 'cause we're only 3 -and it's a little difficult to play a soccer match with just 3 players-, I said to him: Hey you, wanna play soccer?. He answered yes, and we played for 2 hrs. Then and 'cause I lost the game, we started a fight. After that we didn’t see each other for 4 years, when we met again in a karate academy. There was where our friendship begins. I have a lot of memories about the many things that we did together, but the dearest one, were all the nights when we stayed around a bonfire talking, laughing, drinking n' enjoying the life. Another good memory that I have with him, was when we went to Chiloe just with our backpacks and a little money.
Sadly, two years ago he went to Canada to study Asian studies at the Univérsite de Montréal, I don't see him too much, but we always talk when we can by Skype. He come to Chile just for few weeks per year, usually when is winter in his country (I always say that he's like a migratory bird). When he is at Chile, I try to have fun with him much as I can, so we go to a lot of parties, beaches, concerts, pubs, clubs, etc. I really think that he's my best friend 'cause two main reasons. First, we have a lot of common hobbies n' ideas (we're crazy about similar things) , for example we both love to play the bass or reading good books, and second, I can talk with him with the same interest and enthusiasm as always, no matter how many time has been since the last time that we saw each other.

Short presentation

Hi, my name is Thomas Püschel R. and I'm 21 years old. Although I was born in Stgo., my family is from Frutillar, so I lived there several years. However, when I was 5, we moved to Stgo. because my dad's work. Anyway, I live in Colina, so the change from the country to the city wasn't too hard, because my house's courtyard is large and I have a lot of different trees, flowers, crops, dogs and cats. (I actually have 2 dogs; Kika the golden retriever and Maxi the labrador puppy).

I study physical anthropology at the University of Chile and I really love it ( I can't imagine myself studing anything else). Physical anthropology or biological anthropology, is the branch of anthropology that studies basically the human biological evolution and the complex connection between human biology and culture. In this sense, physical anthropology studies humans with a strong biocultural perspective. This discipline has many sub-branches, like primatology (the study of primates), paleoanthropology (the study of the fossil record of hominids and their relatives), human ecology (the study of human adaptations and its relationship with the enviroment), osteology (the study of skeletal material), forensic anthropology ( the analysis and identification of human remains in crime scenes), paleopathology (the study of ancient diseases), bioarchaeology (the study of human skeletal remains that come from archaeological contexts), etc. I like them all, but the branches that I prefer the most are bioarchaeology and paleopathology.

In other hand, my hobbies are basically playing the bass and reading. I also enjoy playing soccer and chating with friends. My preferences about music and literature are very diverse. For example, I like Rock, Metal, Classic, Funk, Grunge, some Hip Hop, etc., so I prefer to say wich bands or singers I like rather than explain what kind of music I enjoy.

Well, that's all! Now you know a little more about me.