Changes to your study programme

I remember the first time I'm enter this university, I was excited of everything. the first time we did Laboratory techniques I was fascinated wearing the lab coat and all the Laboratory instruments.
Think about what can be change of the university and my career in this moment it's a bit difficult, because I've been here for only 8 months and I have not seen the university completely, but if we compare with other universities always will appear something to change.

The university provides a good training in chemistry, mathematics, biology and everything in general and the teachers are good, some are boring because only talk and don't do a dynamic class but always are Willing to help, so if we talk about quality i think we are in one of the best.

Talking about the infrastructure, i think it have the basics, laboratories are well and do they work, we have and library and Computer room available all day. But many things can still be changed, for example, the lab can renovate his facilities such as furniture, instruments, etc. It could be create a casino to not depend on the faculty of dentistry, amongs other.

About changes of my career i don't know much about it, because i'm only in the second semester and i haven't had any food engineering subject yet, but the center of food engineering students was talking about change the actual subject of administration, so i think there are many things that will change in the future.

In these years we can see everyday appear new technology devices that make study easier, so everytime and every generation will talk about changes that can be done and the work of the university will be adaps to this new eras If it want to continue to be considered one of the best.

English language challenges

What i think about learn english at university? In this moment lots of ideas come to my mind. I remember the Qualifying test at the beginning of the first semester, the time when the blogs system was introduced and I was worried because i didn't have idea about what write, the exposition we did about something related with our career and the final exam. In the second semester i think it's was different because make blogs was easier and record videos was fun.

The use of blogs was a new activity for me, because in school i made letters, posters, videos, I read books but never try using a web page.
at first was complicated because I did not know how start the blogs and what to write , but little by little it was becoming in something easy and fast to do.
in this moment i think the difficulty consists in use diferent verbs and ways to express an idea.

I know i have to fix lots of aspects about my english, like the pronunciation, Speak fluently for long periods and hear correctly what others say. if i have to think in ways to solve this come to my mind....try to talk and practice with other person frequently. To do this I could try pay for a course or travel to a foreign country with English as main language(If the possibility appears).

Honestly I'm very surprised about the frequently I use english outside University, when i use internet and search specific thing the mostly time appear in english, when i play videogames they are in english, when i read the information of food, supplement and everything in general are in english. The only thing that has not been presented is talk with an english speaker directly.

Summer holidays

I think we are in a special moment, because the year is ending, we are flooded in exams, everyday appear new activities to do, christmas is near and all this happens in only 31 days, so talk about holidays sounds like something near and far at the same time.

When i think on holidays comes to my mind sleep and wake up late, play video games for hours, go to swim when the day is hot, visit some friends to spend the time, travel through Santiago to know new places, eat delicious food that only appear on summer like watermelon, cantaloupe, "pastel de choclo", "humitas", go to the beach and eat sea food and fresh fish, go to the cinema in family or with friends, etc.

That's what i do the past years, but now it's different because I'm thinking in add new plans and activities like get a jobs and save some money, that because i have new expenses, my father recommended me a course to travel to USA and work for a month, but i'm not sure to accept, that because the course is in january and i finish the semester a mid january.

In this moment,  my family are talking about where we can go on holidays, it's a funny story that repeat every years because my father wanna go to the beach, my mother to the south, my big sister wanna travel abroad and my little sister complains about everything, in my case i think i'm happy going everywhere and know new places. The funny of the story is that in the end we use the opcion f "None of the above".

I remember the holiday of 2012, because was famous for the end of the world, the plan this year was go to "villarica" and spend the holidays there, but the day before we go, my father arrived from work and in the dinner says "Pack your bags, we're going to mexico".

Addiction: From coffee and tea to drugs of abuse

Honestly i don't know much about drugs of abuse, but i think every kind of drug will be a drug of abuse, If you go beyond the limits. So I'm going to talk about caffeine.

Caffeine is a bitter-tasting alkaloid that block the adenosine receptors; the adenosine is a nucleotide that one of its characteristics is to stimulate the sleep, so we can conclude that caffeine inhibit the sleep.

Well about drugs i used caffeine and alcohol, but a hard drug i'm not sure, once time ago with my friends in a party I tried marijuana, but i don't know if marijuana it's a hard drug. I remember that I vomited and the next day I still did not feel well, also remember that my friends had their eyes almost closed, they did not talk coherently, they laughed 5 minutes for nonsense and walked in a weird way.

It's complicated talk about benefits of drug, cause i think everything is good in an acceptable portion. For example drugs as alcohol and caffeine are good to enjoy with friends or work more efficiently for a moment, but excessive use may lead to dependence, gastritis, diarrhea, convulsions in the case of caffeine and heart problems, damage neurons, among others, in the case of alcohol.

Examples of withdrawal symptoms can be mood swings, depression, irritability, amongst other. I don't know a person with drugs abuse, but that can be because i'm not  a very worried person about other, so maybe i'm closer to someone and I do not realize their condition.

The only impact on the career that comes to mind is to create food with dangerous additives for people or in the future certain chemicals become illegal by new research.

Post-graduate studies

If i have to decide a postgraduate course, it will be Magister of management, quality and food safety, because i think it will help me a lot to find a good job, and honestly I find it interesting.

Why I want to do this magister?, It's for many reasons, one of this is because i think it will help me to work in many places like Food exporters, Quality management of companies, work in food processing, amongs other.
another reasons it's because i think is very interesting this magister and i can complement this with lots of areas like Health, safety, administration, among other.

When I saw the study plan, I was interested in the following subjects: Course of Systems of Management of the Quality; Course of Microbiology, Hygiene and Food Safety and Course on Food Safety Management Systems. I found this subjects intersting and think will help me lots when I start to work.

Where I want to study?, do a magister in a foreign country sounds very attractive and if the opportunity appear I'll take it without hesitation, but I think i'm going to do a magister in Chile, because travel to another country and pay the magister it's very expensive.


I think the more comfortable way to study is the classic, go to the place where it be taken and do it as school, although another alternative sounds good, i prefer take a course an concentrate on this.

Your Future Job...

 Think about  a specific job it's a bit difficult, because I have not decided yet and the options presented are varied.

I think it would be interesting to go the way of research,  also I think it would be interesting to start my own company, another option can be to work in a big company like "Soprole" and recently I started thinking in working for the ministry of health as an public servant.

It's depends, if i work as a public servant i think it will be like an supervisor, doing regulations to companies to keep the requirements.

I think it will be mostly indoor, because all the regulation should be do in the companies of the country, may be outdoor when i have to travel to other countries for special occasions like research of a determined food, learn new ways of food regulation, among others.

Honestly I think will be very interesting travel a lot, besides the work i think the mere fact of traveling do everything more interesting.

It's complicated talk about salary, because everyone will say you need a lots of money, but I think all the jobs are good if you enjoy what you do, little by little you will start to understand the money is not the most important think, and do what you want will make you feel satisfied.

I
n this moment I'm studying food engineering, so in the fourth year i will have a degree in food science, in this moment i not decided if i want another major.

Digressing about music: songs, dances, melodies, groups, films...

The kind of music i like the most.......It's difficult to choose, because when i think about it, lots of ideas come to my mind. For example I usually listen "rock", there are also times when I like listening music as the "Jazz" and even in occasions I finished listening to "classical music", I think it depends on my mood.

Since I was a child I like the guitar, because I used to imagine playing songs from "green day", "the beatles", "System of a dawn", among others. I remember when I was 15, I enrolled in a school course where I learned songs as "yesterday", "hey june", etc. But because of the time this was done I could not continue to attend.

Now I think the best instrument is the piano, because I find it versatile, one can learn and play any kind of songs with a piano.

Today I hear groups like "the beatles", "queen", "attaque 77" also I usually listen to covers from video games that make independent people. But the most time I listen to all kinds of music without great preferences.

More than one type of music, I will talk about groups that I tend not to listen, at least not with the same frequency, this is because I haven't a particular preference, when I was a child I used to listen bands like "tronic", "prisoners", "SKAP ", " Linking park ", etc.

If it is about film music, I could mention the Disney classics like Tarzan with "son of man" two worlds, "The Jungle Book with " I wanna be like you ", " The Bare Necessities ", amongst other.

Our Amazing Human Body: ... Our Smart Brain et al.

If i have to decide a substance, it will be the  testosterone hormone. Because this hormone is implicated in a lot of process in the human body.

In men, testosterone plays a key role in the development of male reproductive tissues such as the testis and prostate, as well as promoting secondary sexual characteristics such as increased muscle mass and bone and growth of body hair. In addition, testosterone is essential for health and wellness as for preventing osteoporosis.

Gonadotropins stimulate the testes in men and ovaries in women for reproduction. Beginning in the brain, the hypothalamus releases hormones to trigger the secretion luteinizing or LH hormones. In men, the LH is received in the testicles and ordered him to Leydig cells produce testosterone. The ovaries produce most of testosterone in the female body.

Testosterone is an androgen, cyclopentanoperhydrophenanthrene steroid derivative, having 19 carbon atoms, a double bond between C4 and C5, an oxygen atom at C3 and a hydroxyl radical (OH) C12. Its formula is C19H28O2.

As i said before, one of the illness of having abnormal amounts of testosterone is the "Osteoporosis". that is a disease affecting bones. the bone is less resistant and more fragile than normal, has less resistance to falls and breaks relatively easily after trauma, causing fractures or microfracturas.

Another example of testosterone deficiency is hypogonadism, which is a failure in hormone production may be by a problem in the testes or pituitary gland. can cause: erectile dysfunction, fatigue, decreased muscle mass, among others.

To maintain stable testosterone, you can perform the following activities: high intensity exercise, losing weight, eating foods with zinc and vitamin D, reduce stress and sugar in the diet, etc.

Your best holidays OR concert ever

I'm going to talk about the holiday when I went to "villarica".

This holiday was this years "2016", in the last weeks of february. More exactly two weeks of relax, do nothing, eat tasty local food and travel to different places doing tourism.

On this holiday were 5 people. My father, my mother, my two sisters and me. And as a plus we decided to go with two dogs.

In these two weeks we made a lot of activities like going to the beach and lagoons of different sites, visit the villarica mountain and explore, take a tour inside an ancient cave, visit several craft fairs, go walking in the morning with dogs and eat many kinds of food in different parts.

I think this was the best holidays, because we travel as a large group of people and we include our pets. Also we did lots of activities and we travel to many places.

I'm a little sad, because i think we needed more time to enjoy this holidays in their maximum.

A country you would like to visit.

If i have to decide a place to go, It would be Ecuador, more specific "the Galapagos Islands".
Talk about what I like in particular is a bit difficult, because it is a combination of factors making it attractive to me, such as climate, the location, the activities that can be done, what can be learned about animals, etc.

The Galapagos Islands is an archipelago of 19 islands highlighting Isabella and Ferdinand islands where most people live, the islands were declared a World Heritage Site, The region was home to Lonesome George, the last specimen of the giant turtle of Pinta, Galapagos is known for its numerous endemic species and the studies of Charles Darwin that led him to establish his theory of evolution by natural selection, amongst other.

If I had the chance to go to the Galapagos Islands I would like to see animals like penguins, turtles, birds, etc. other activity I would like to do is visit its various tourist attractions as "the Galapagos National Park", "the Charles Darwin Research Station", etc. And in the end, I would do is relax on its beaches.

I would like to live in the Galapagos Islands in my last years, because I think it would be a nice place to live and spend my last years of life.

My blogging experience

Now I can say I have enjoyed this activity, but I have to confess at first i thought it would be a boring work, but with the time i started to think that write blogs and search about the teacher blog was very funny.


In this moment i think my ability has grown if i compare the start of this activity, because at first was difficult think about what i would write  in the blogs, but in the third and fourth blog i realized that i can write and think in better ideas for the blogs.

I think next semester focuses on practice, improve the way develop ourselves with other people who speak English.

Honestly I would write about biotechnology, because i'm very interested in this subject and all related, other interesting subject to write can be the macrospace, the life in other planets, the creation of artificial life, new sources of energy , among others.

From the invisible to the visible world and back...

I will talk about the nanotechnology and its use in the fields of food.

Nanotechnology has many applications in the field of food as the detection and elimination of pathogenic microorganisms in food, improve food production by increasing the mechanical and
thermal resistance, extend the shelf life of food by implementing this technology in packaging , etc.

I think that nanotechnology will have in the future a great importance, not now, because in these moments are just discovering and implementing their uses, but in the future we can see the results and the difference that will mark nanotechnology in food.

I chose this topic because I think is very relevant to the future, in  aspects of human life like food, health, production of goods, war, etc. I learned about nanotechnology because in school my biology teacher told me about it.

The advantages would be that could improve the quality of life of people in a way never seen before, and could end the same way with the creation of weapons of destruction on a large scale that would fit in a pants pocket.

The most enjoyable subject thus far ...

The subject i choose is "Introduction to food engineering", because I feel that is one of the most fun classes.

I usually pay attention to the class because it is quite dynamic, especially the different people who come each week to talk about his life (food engineers talking about their work experience).

The importance of this subject is quite remarkable, because as its name says "introduction to food engineering" explain and teach us about our career and how will be our work in the future. In class we are more or less about 45 people, some have left for various reasons, but we are still several.

What makes this class be fun, is the combination of many factors like the teacher and his way to run the class, the time in which it is taught (about 5 pm) because it is generated in a more relaxed atmosphere and finally the various activities that take place every week.

I think the class combines theory and practical work, but it is mostly theoretical. The only practical work we have done is the creation of ricotta cheese, everything else is mainly create and deliver reports and presentations.

Person or Expert you admire

I want talk about Richard Dawkins, who is an important scientist in the field of the evolutionary biology.

Richard Dawkins born in 1941,Kenya. Is a British evolutionary biologist, ethologist, and popular-science writer who emphasized the gene as the driving force of evolution and generated significant controversy with his enthusiastic advocacy of atheism.

With eight years he left Kenya to England, and graduated in Zoology at Balliol College, Oxford University, where he earned a master's degree and doctorate. For two years he was Professor of Zoology at the University of California, Berkeley, and after his return became professor of Understanding of Science at Oxford University. He has been editor of several scientific journals and advisor to many others, in addition to developing documentaries for the BBC. He has received numerous honors and awards.

  He is the author of books and zoological disclosure volutiva especially biology. Self-declared atheist, humanist and skeptic, has also written about religion.

He wrote lots of book about evolutionary biology like "The Selfish Gene"(1976), "The Blind Watchmaker"(1990), "The God Delusion"(2006), "Evolution: The Greatest Show on Earth"(2009) as my favorites.

I like the way of thinking that has Charles dawkins, especially the way it relates to religion and quotations and examples he uses in his books.

About pets, love and friendship...

Is difficult choose only one of my pets, because They are special on their own. In my case i have three dogs. Their names are: "Candy" the older one, "Gabo" the middle one and "Manolo" the youngest.

the history of these three are similar because all of they were mix dogs, the first in arrive was "Candy" the story of she goes back to one day when I was 10 years and I was in school, it was tuesday and my mother was in the fair and she saw an old woman giving away puppies in a baby carriage, my mother loves pets so when she saw the puppies all of these were male and energetic, except a small female, my mother said "she was shy and cute" so when I arrive to my home we have a new pets.

The next one is "Gabo" he arrived to our house three years after "Candy" he was found by my young sister when she was returning of school, it was in the street. My sister saw this puppy and decided adopt it. she asked to my father first and he was agree.

The last one is "Manolo" it arrived the last years his story is.... my younger sister one day arrived with a friend to the house and they was carrying a little puppy she said " we are searching for someone who take care of this puppy, so for a time it will live here" i remeber this day because was the day of " simce de lenguaje" . he lived with us for a week as a refugee dog but then was decided we will adopt it because we loved it.

"Candy" is very cute and loving dog, "Gabo" is a good dog, loves go to walk and play and "Manolo" as a puppy is very energetic and loves play with toys.

A photograph you like

I'm not the kind of men who take pictures frequently, so when i do this is for moments that I think are special.

This picture was taken from me in my last vacation. the story of this image originated one day, when I woke up and saw my father making the preparation to go walk with our pets. 

After preparing the dogs, he began to look for something in the car, so he left alone the dogs. curiously the dogs stayed like statues waiting for my father, as if they knew they would come out to walk, this was really surprising, usually don't have a good behavior. So  I took this picture because I knew that there wouldn't be another opportunity like that.

Human Evolution Timeline

1. About 800,000 years ago, fire  was controlled by early humans.
2. About 4 million years ago most early human species became bipedal.
3. The Homo Habilis used to live in Eastern and  southern
  Africa.
4. About 12,000 years ago, humans managed to control the growth and breeding of some  plants and animals.
5. The sahelanthropus tchadensis  is the earliest human species from the timeline.

1. What's been the role of climate change in the development of humans?

The climate change has an inportant role, because we can see in the timeline that in warm climate the amount of species are few, but when the climate become cool, the number of species increase in a drastically way.

 2. In your opinion, what is the most significant milestone for the human evolution? Why?

I think is the fire, because with fire the man changes important process of their life like their feed, their covert, their hunt and lots of other aspect of life.

3. Which early human species was thought to be the first to use tools made from stone?

the austrolopithecus africanus

4. Who were the first human species to travel to and live in Europe? When?

the first specie to lived in europe, was the Homo heidelbergensis, and was around 200,000-700,000 years ago.

5. Which species survived for the longest time? For how long?

the longest specie was the homo erectus, around two million years.

About books and films

I remember my favorite book when I was 13 years old, It was "Ingo y Drago". It's  about a little boy who find a egg in his garden and decided to take care of this, from the egg born a little dragon, the book tell us about the life of the boy and the dragon in their story, until the dragon is gone flying and never returns.

I think the importance of this book remains in the message we can find in it. The message I found was the experience of be a father, if we compare the little boy as a father and the dragon as his child, we can put in the place of the little boy, who sees how your child grows and then leaves the house.

The first time I read it was when i was 12 years old and I remember I read it for almost a year.

I recommend this book for children, because i think It is a good and entertaining book, very recommend for small children.



The favorite film i will choose is "the hobbit".  The film is about the adventures of Bilbo bolson and his travel with Thorin and 12 dwarves, they seek to regain the throne of the dwarves of the dragon Smaug.

the appeal of the movie "hobbit" is its ability to bring us into a fantastic medieval world, where everyone can enjoy a good plot with good effects movie.

I saw the movie trilogy that began in 2012 and ended in 2014.

I recommend this trilogy because it is a great saga, that people who like medieval times and fantasy will enjoy without knowing the Lord of the Rings.

Your favourite piece of technology

If i have to choose a technology device, i may prefer the smartphone, it’s a wise decision,  if we think in all the performance we have in a small thing. We can replace the TV to watch news, the radio that in his time it was sacred, now is on the reach of the hand.  We have internet easy and convenient way, it have calculator, clock, alarm clock, and one of the most important thing to my. “Video games”,  especially emulators of old video game devices, who I’m a big fan.

In these days, we can find children of 8 years old with the latest model of smartphone, but the curious thing is I received my first cell phone when I was 15 years old.

I always asked to my parents "when i'm going to have my own cell phone?" and they told my "It isn't the moment". I obtained my first cell phone in Christmas, I was so happy and the next day we went to the beach and i swam with the cell phone in the pocket of my swimsuit and the cell phone was spoiled.

To my the smartphone have lots of performance, It's my link to the university and my friends, it help me when i'm boring, it allow me to save my music and games, keep up with the activities, do works in hard moments, etc.

If someone ask me "how much i use my cell phone", I will answer "the only time I don't use my cell phone is when I'm sleeping".


The reason why i like my smartphone is because his versatility and his portability, if I say another thing, will be repeat the previous.

Honestly I don't imagine a world without a smartphone, because If we live in a world of progress, we will arrive to a object who will do all what do the smartphone, I think in a world like this a device with this characteristics is necessary.

Why did you choose your career?

When i was in primary school. i wanted to be a scientific, i always imagined me like a man in a lab coat, who is  working  with chemicals, making dilutions, using scientifics instruments, etc.

When i was in high school, I still had no clear what I wanted to do. when I finished school, I liked history, so dreamed of being a politician or a historian like that appeared in the history chanel, I liked biology, I imagined as a marine biologist in the Antarctic investigating new species,i liked the chemistry, so my dream of be an scientific in lab coat was still alive and i liked  physics, where I was looked like an astronomer in the north.


When I finally have to choose. I decided to study biotechnology, but the score did not give me, so for one week I had to investigate other career where i could enter. I could enter any university to study biotechnology, but my goal was to study for a degree at the University of Chile. after searching I found the career of food engineering and this surprised me, because the career has a lot in common with biotechnology.

I have spent two months in University, so I think that little by little I'm getting used, at first it was difficult because one must face the unknown, one must know new people, one must get used to a new system. I have to do a trip 10 times longer than when i was in school. But I think when time pass, I'm going to adapt to the University life

After University I would work at first in any company, my first goal is to get experience ,then my next step would be save money to finally succeed in creating my own company, that would be my dream job, be the owner of a company, where I put the first stone.

Getting to know each other....

Hi, my name is Dario Cruces i’m 18 years old and i born in Chile, In my family we are 5, my parents my two sister and me. My father is Ruben Cruces he is 41 years old and works in the airport as a mechanic, My mother is Cecilia Castro she is 41 years old and she is a housewife, my older sister is Francisca Cruces she is 22 years old and she is studying commercial engineering in the U. Central and my younger sister is Katherine Cruces she is 15 years old and she is studying in the school Alicante del Rosal.

My parents met at age 17, they went to the same school together in La Reina, after a year of dating, my older sister was born. at first we lived in the house of my grandmother but at birth my youngest sister was decided that we would go to a new home, that way was as we moved to maipu my current residency.

I studied at the school Alicante del Rosal, where I met good friends and I spent good times. Now I am studying food engineering at the University of Chile.