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Will we ever… speak faster than light speed?

The light speed is about 300.000.000 m/s and it means that the light can make the transatlantic journey between London and New York more than 50 times in a second. With speed like that the questions is: why there is any interest in find a faster than light comunication? Well, maybe in the Earth we could have enouth with 300.000.000 m/s but in the deep-space the messages travelling at the speed of light are too slow yet. 

All that means that it is impossible send messages faster than the light speed without braking the laws of physics. But presently there are some workaround wich hold the promise of Superluminal communication. 

So far, it is not long ago really interests us to develop superluminal messages because it was not necessary for us. We do not have problems if we want to send messages to the Mood (it takes them 1,3 seconds) or if we call someone on the other side of the world. But if we travell further, for example to Mars, we start to have some problems. In Mars messages take 12,5 minutes to arrive at light speed. And the farther you go more problems with communication. For example, to comunicate with Alpha Centauri, our closest star-system, it wouls take more tha four years for each message to be delivered. 

Accordins to Einstein's theory of relativity nothing can go superluminal because the speed of light is a universal constant. If we could discover a way to around this limitation we would be violating the laws and we should make a rethinking of basic physics. 

Today, almost all comunications in space are conduncted using radio waves which travel at the speed of light. We are also developing the optical laser communication. We may not be able to increase the speed of transmission but we can increase the volume of information to transmitte in a second by increasing the bandwidth of the spectrum. 

Perhaps in a future we might find a way to make the speed of the messages seem quicker without interfere in the relative theory. Now we know that this theory allows for things like wormholes that can be explain as warps in spacetime. Other routes have been considered, for example the quantum entanglement, a property which means two particles can share properties regardless of the distance between them. So it means if you change one of them you also change the other and get instantaneous communication. 

If superluminals communication were possible it would have implications for space missions. Sometimes we must wait several minutes to realize that have been a problem in one of our satellites and the comunication is not simple. So nowadays superluminal communication is not possible and it exceeds the limits of scientific possibilitys. 

I have found this new very interesting. Since few years ago we are trying to develop a way to send messages and receive messages as fast as can possible. At moment we always we have encountered with the time barrier and the Einstein's theory od relativity. Without it all our physics laws will not have any sense. And the question there can be: and why try to find somthing that destroy all what we know?

Well the true is that it is the way that the science works. Based on create new theories that including all the thing that we know and when we find somthing new that is not agree whith what we know we must refute the theory and find a new one. 

Sometimes our intentions are who try to destroy a theroy to find a new one which can help us to get what we want. In this case our necessity to find out new ways of live or new places to live are what push us to discover a communication faster that the light speed. 

Anyway we also have found things in the space, like the wormholes, that the Einstein's theoty doesn't works in it. But the problem is that we aren't able to know how wormholes works or what they are. 

The idea of a ney way of comunication, find other worlds to live, new ways of life or simply the idea of the time is not new for us. The films are who have been showing us and who have been inventing and proposing futurist theories. Films are who have been showing us the problems and the paradoxes with which scientists face today (always with a little of fictions because they are just movies). For example, the last I have seen: Interstellar. In there you can find the idea of new dimensions beyond the our idea of the sapce and time (I have to say that it is an amazing film!).

The thing is that our idea of the world and our way to undesrtand it is only our. I mean that the way we know the world and how the thing work are only human ideas that have been invented by humans. All of them can work for us and for what we know until now but, why they must be tha same in the rest of the space? Why they must be true? The porblem is set out like many others. We will be able to find the solution? 

Tanzania

This second term Andrea and I have make an oral presentation about Tanzania. This country is in the est of Africa. We should talk about one conty where the offical lenguage was the English and we had to explais how are the culture, the people or what can you visit in there. 

The tru is that at the beginig of the project I knew practically nothing about this country and at the end I really like to go to Tanzania. I have discover this country and I love the places and landscapes that it has. In Tanzania there are a lot of natural reserves where you can see all kind of different wild animals. Another thing I love of this country is that Tanzania has all kind of natural landscapes: you can find, forest, jungles, savannah, volcanos, beaches and and even snowy mountains in the middle of africa.So I think Tanzania is a really a nice place to go and from this point on it forms part of my list of countries to visit!

There is the video of our oral presentation. Hope you like it!

Where to spend a gap year?

listen to ‘Where to spend a gap year?’ on audioBoom

"La isla mínima"

One month ago I saw a film that I really liked. I'm talking about La isla minima. This film was shoot in Spain and was directed by Alberto Rodríguez. I decided to watch it because it was recomended to me by someone who knows a lot about cinema. I just saw the film the day before Los Goya, where the film triumph and it can give ten prizes including the important as the best film, the best director, the best script and the award for the best actor. 

La isla minima is set in 80s Sapain, just after the Franco era and the step to the democratic transition. Juan and Pedro are two homicide cops from Madrid. They both are ideologically opposed and have different methods to do the things. They both are punishe to go to a forgotten town in the middle of the Marismas del Guadalquivir to investigate and solve the disappearance  and the murder of two teenagers sisters during the town festival. 

All the young people from the town want to leve the field where they live and go to de city to find a job. In the village there are some strike that threatening the rice harvest and it dificult the investigattion. While Juan and Pedro are trying to solve the case they discovered that there are more girls missing and there are a huge trafficking of drugs. 

Juan and Pedro should work together if they want to solve this strange case that is not normal in a village like this. Their methods every time would be more similar and they both will be face their past, their present and their future because the only thing that is important is resolve the terrible murder.  

The place, the actors, the music, every scene, the setting... all is good in this film!

I really like the film and I enjoyed it a lot. It is a police thriller that keeps you in tension during the 105 minutes that it takes. I consider that one of the most important things of the film is the place where it take places. The Marismas del Guadalquivir is a very nice place but when you transform it in the place where some horrible facts have took place, it's the perfect site and it becomes a lonely, empty and full of secrets and mysteries place.

The film is very, very, very good setting on the time. All the characters and costumes are interpreted in a perfection way. And this is an important fact that gives more credibility to all the movie. All happens in a time when in Spain there was a very big and important change: the coutry went from a dictatorship to a democracy. And it is also refelct in the main characters Juan and Pedro. They are two police that have a very different way to think, differents past and, for that, a different methods. All this differences are discovered and they create distrust in the other. But at the end the only thing that have importance is resolve the case. 

I would like to coment one fact that is show in the film very well and it is important to undertand all the crime. I'm refering to the necessity of the women of the era to scap from the rural area and go to the big citys to have the possibility to be someone and running away from a place that nobody cares about them. 

Finally I think that the only thing I left to say is that you will do very well in watch this film. I recommend it and I hope you will like as much as it liked to me.

Visit to the university

Few days ago we went to the open house at the UdG with the school and tow weeks before we also went to UAB aopen house. 

In this way we can see how are the universities and we can know about the differents careers that we could do there. I think this kind of activities are well think because future students can know more about how the universities work, how are the classes or what is studied in ech site. 

In each university you can listening to all degrees that the university offers. You can go to the science faculty, the engineering one or whatever you want. Every hour you can go to a different conference and in there you can listening to in what consist and what is do in it. If you don't want to go any conference you also can go to visit the classrooms, the laboratories, the outskirts or if you want you can visit the cafeteria. 

For example in the UAB there are a lot of differents shops and facilities near the university. This is because if you study there you are a little of from Barcelona, the city, and because of that the university gives you establishments like stationary shop, gyms or places where study lenguages. This is important because a lot of students live in university campus and in this way they can combine their studies with other activites like sports. 

In my opinion UAB is a good place to do your degree. In there you have a lot of comforts and all what you need. Further there are a lot of diffrents degrees to chose. Another thing that I like is that the different faculties are near each other so you can meet people who are studing different things. 

When we were to UdG open house we visited the different buildings where are make each degree. Unlike UAB in Girona there are some building that are separate and each one is from a different specialty. Like in the UAB you can go to listening to conferences about what interest you more and make a guided visit. (You can also visit the cafeteria too)

I have not decided what to study yet so I can't know where I will study. But although I liked very much UAB, the UdG sorprised me. Before to go I thought that I would not like this very much but the true is that at the end is not so bad and it is a nice place to study. Maybe there are less people and is more peaceful than the UAB but I don't care much about it. 

I'm sure that my mother prefers to have me near house and keep me in Girona but...who knows?

My football team

My favorite sport is football and I played it since I was a child. I really like this sport and I enjoy it a lot, too. This year I'm playing in the women's team from St. Pere, where I lived. I've been playing there the last years because is near my hause and I don't have to do very large displacements to go to train every week and I like the team, too, so at the moment I don't see any problem to have to change the team! 

Last year we get the became the winners of the Firts Catalan league and we had the opportunity to play the Catalonia Cup. We did well and we  managed to be in quarterfinals, then the level was so high but we  did our best and the true is that we went more far than we think at the firs. 

Apart to play the Catalonia Cup we also got the rise of categori and this year we are playing in the preferred league. This league has a high level and who gets up have the opportunity to play in the national legaue that it is played throughout the country. 

Because of the level of the league this year we are training three days a week instead two how we used to. Also we have to go further than the last year to play our matches. Maybe this two things are the worst about this football season, because I have all the days of the week busy and also the weekends because to play out of home we have to spend the all day to go and play. Even if I like go training because I can desconnect from exams and school day and I like go playing matches, all it takes me a lot of time for my studies or and it plans me my weekends. For example I can't go party because I have match next day or I can't meet with my friends as much as I like. Anyway as I see it I use my time better and I organize myself better to have time for everything. 

Returning to the football season my team is duing very well this year. It is the first time that we play in this league and the opponents are better than the last year. Every match is important to us and in every match we need to play 100% if we want to get somthing, and sometimes it's not enough. But we work very hard during the week and we have come to be the first during the first lap. Now we go 3th and we still having chance to stay first again. 

At firts of the football season our firts goal was keep on the category and I think that we are solve this very well. I hope we can returned to the first position and while we have possibilities we are going to figth for it! 

Some changes

Now we are just in the middle of the school year and I'm going to tray to explain what I think about the change from ESO and how I have live it. (Maybe I will talk about more or less the same at the end of the school year because I would like to talk about all the year in general). 

I remember last year, our last year of ESO. Personally I was very clear that next year I would continue in school. I think that 4th of ESO is one of the best years in school because you already knows everybody, you form part of the group of "older", the teachers treat you differently, you can start to choose some subjects and finally you make the trip of the end of year! (we went to Berlin and was extremely good!) But you also know that at the end of the year most of you classmates are going to take different paths and it makes you want to enjoy more the year.

When the end of the course is nearly we should to start to think about the next year and decided what to do and, in my case, what subjects I'm going to do next year. I decided study scientific baccalaureate even if I liked the other one too.

I remember that all the teachers warned us about how hard was baccalaureate and you have to work a lot. Precisely I remember one day last year when the heads of school explained us about how was baccalaureate and how it works. After the talk I remember a lot of my friend  were very frightened because of the talk and they didn't imagine something as hard as was shown. Anyway I think that all the fears were away because they are actually studing it. 

The true is that at the beggining I was a little, not afraid, but intrigued. I already knew that I should work hard but I also had the curiosity because, apart of the teachers, some students told us that there were a very big change and everybody noticed that. 

Finally I can comprove it: and yes, there is achange from ESO, all the warnings were true. I think that the biggest one is that you should to work very hard and you should to work a lot. Also you should to be very constant in your work because it is not enough working the week before exams. I think another change that I can have notice is that the exams are made by more lessons, you have more thing to study than in ESO. The reason is because now you should finish the books if you want to be preparate for university entrance exam. 

But not all are bad things and I think that it's not very vry difficult go well in baccalaureate. It only depends on you and at the moment I think that I'm going quite well, so it's mean that baccalaureate is not impossible as some say! 

5-Second Rule

Probably ever you dropped somthing of food on the floor you have use the 5-soconds rule. It's a known rule that says that when any food falls, if it has been less than five seconds in the ground, then you can take it and eat it without any risk. We all have followed this rule (or sometimes we only apply when no one is arround to watch it) but there is the 5-seconds rule really exist? 

Well, everybody knows that science is there to answer the important questions about life, but occasionally there are grups of scientifics who works to answere this kind of questions that sometimes they interest us more than how is our genome.  

According to the Aston University researchers the food that has been picked up few seconds after falling on the floor is less likely to contain bacteria than when it is there for a longer time. Researchers found up to 10 times more bacteria on food that had been down 30 seconds than the food had been down 3 seconds. 

I think that this time we can say that the myth is confirm and we should take our food fast because bacteria is not the kind of seasoning we were hoping for. 

But the scientifics are not satisfied so quickly and they went to research more proves. 

The researchers also discovered that the composition of your food can help in bacteria growth. Dry food, like cookies or chips, the particles don't completely settle onto the surface, but in moist food, like pasta or candy, can make almost 20 percent more surface contact and accumulate more bacteria in less time. 

"If it's dry, let it fly; if it's wet, not your best bet"

And there is another important fact that can make your food more prone to attract bacteria. The food that contains more salt and sugar exhibited little signs of bacteria. 

But the experiments dind't finish there. They comprove that bacteria can sorvive more time in hard flooring than on carpet and hardwood floors transfer more germs to your food than fabric surfaces. 

So if you think that your floor is enouth clean only because you can't see the bacteria that live with us you are completely wrong. And I have another piece of informatio: your keyboard is more filthier than the toilet seat. 

How you can see, science is not always as far of our day a day as we sometimes think and it can resolves another kind of important questions, too.

Ullals

The last 2nd of May I could go to a meeting with one of the authors that has written tha book Ullals. I'm part of the Reading Club of my high school and Ullals is the last book that we read. The authors of the book are Salvado Macip and Sebastià Roig. 

Salvador Macip is a doctor and now he is working in England as a part of the laboratory of the University of Leicester and before he had been working in the hospital Mount Sinai in New York. He could't come to the meetig. Sebastià Roig can because he life near Castelló, in Figueres. He is a journalist an writer. 

What join together them was their love about science fiction books, their love about comics an their love about science fiction films. Sebastià Roig explained us that they met because he was the only subscriber of one magazine where Salvador Macip wrote. Then the magazine stopped published and they started to collaborate together. Two of them liked write and they started  science fiction book together. It cost them a lot because they didin't know how to continue and it took them a lot of time to finish the book. When they finally finished it, they wanted to wrote another one. By chance, Sebastià Roig listened in he news about one weird case just in the Alt Empordà. Som adolecsences had reported the reformatory where they had scaped because they where battered in there. So Salvador and Sebastià decided to start a book based in this real facts. Of corse, they have invented some thing about the story, too. 

The main character is Vincent, a teenager boy that have behavior problems and problems with drugs. They parets, like every summer, bring them to a reformatory, but this time all wolud be different than other years. In the reformatory he have to work hard if he wants to eat some food that in addition it is disgusting. Vincent has to obey if he don't want to be punish, but he only wants to scape and go home. 

It's no eassy: the house is in the middle of the forest, away from civilization, and what is more, they are not alone in the forets. All the forest is infested by some kind of monsters. This monsters atacks every night the house and for this, in the morning, Vincent and his tow other partners have to build a protecction wall. 

Vincent trys to scape a lot of times but he is always discovered by people of the house. He trys to scape with his tow partners but they are discovered again. Finally, one night that the monsters are about to enter, Vincent takes  advantage of the caos of the situation and with his fried can scape to the forest. They are very tired because of the days in the house where they were battered and they have to follow differents path to save them. Only one of them can get out of the forets, but...which of them? (sorry, I don't like to explain the end of the books)

I think that can meet with the writer of the book that you have just read is a great experience because you can ask all the questons that you can have after finish a book. You can know more about the characters and you can know how was the book wrote, in what was inspired, because happened some tihings... And moreover it is an experience that only few people can have. 

Sebastià explained to us that there was the ideo to make a film of the book. They had the acots and the plot but unfortunately they could't find enouth money to do.

-There is the trailer-