Two investigations at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, pioneers in the world, make progress upon the way this tiny bug, which causes leishmaniasis harms the immune system. The first article explains how the parasite attacks cells and prevents them to suicide as mechanism of defense. The second article develops an alternative treatment that promises to cure and immunize the victim.

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

Page 12

Discovered secrets of dangerous tiny bug that causes leishmaniasis

Discovered secrets of dangerous tiny bug that causes leishmaniasis

Special Issue: Science and Technology

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

Industry Health Agriculture InnovationFungus Production: a profitable business for farmers

UN students and professors work to reduce maternal and infant mortality

Garden Snail:plague,but also business

Applications for movable devices, desktop and web

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New gauge to find out the gestational age

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

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

A new species of fish increase the natural patrimony

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Jairo Mosquera, employee at the UN Palmira, promotes the busi-ness next to students and alumni. In a space of 8 by 14 they are pro-ducing 5 tons of oyster mushroom, a much desired mushroom in the market for its nutritional and me-dicinal properties and for having protein percentages that vary from 30 to 40, turning it into a unique mushroom able to replace meat in the human diet. Additionally it owns substances that turn it into a mushroom with anti-tumor prop-erties and a generator of defenses for the organism without sugars, reason why its consumption is apt for diabetics.

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

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

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

and therefore increase the produc-tion costs,” expressed the Techni-cal-Scientific Committee.

The next step is the inocula-tion and fluctuation of the mush-rooms. “Among these two phases, the mushroom appears and starts feeding it, growing hung in plastic bags. After a month and one week length reaches its ideal size. Af-terwards fructifies every 20 days, for five times,” assured Jairo Mos-quera.

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

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

Fungus Production: a profitable business for farmers

Mushroom production with agro-ecological methods is an exce-llent alternative for Colombian farmers, nutritional and econo-mical security. Thus is been demonstrated by the UN Palmira, where they produce Oyster Mushrooms, Pleurotus Ostreatus, an edible mushroom of high demand for inter-national markets.

Executive Director: Carlos Alberto Patiño VillaEditor-in-Chief: Luz Adriana Pico Maffiold – lapicom@unal.edu.co Associate Editor: Nelly Mendivelso Rodríguez – bnmendivelsor@unal.edu.co

Associate English Content Editor-Translator: Juliana Ariza – mjarizaf@unal.edu.co Editorial Committe: Jorge Echavarría Carvajal, Egberto Bermúdez, Paul Bromberg, Alexis de Greiff, Fabián SanabriaArt Editor: Ricardo González Angulo Copy Editor: Verónica Barreto Riveros Photography: Víctor Manuel Holguín, Andrés Felipe Castaño

Journalists: Félix Enrique Blanco, Catalina Suárez Amazonia: Harrison Calderón Bogotá Magda Páez, Patricia Barrera, Carlos Andrey Patiño, Elizabeth Vera, Francisco Tafur Manizales Carolina Cardona, Ángela Betancourt, Fanny Pedraza Medellín Doris Gómez, Elizabeth Cañas, David Calle, Gimena Ruiz Palmira Laura Fuertes, Marcela Rangel

Printing: CEET, Casa Editorial El Tiempo

Expressed opinions are those of the authors alone and don’t compel or compromise principles by the Universidad Nacional de Colombia or politics by the UN Periódico.

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

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Industry

Not only the flavor, texture, and aroma classify Colombian honey as one of the best in the world. The bee product has anti-bacterial properties with a high potential to counteract diseases. This is being demonstrated by investigators at the Universidad Nacional, who ad-vance in the search of a guarantee of origin for Colombian honeys di-rected to exportation.

In order to determine its char-acteristics and analyze the honey production in different regions of the country, specialists from the In-stitute of Science and Food Tech-nology, ICTA, from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia used a tool named “electronic nose,” which consists of sensors that perceive dif-ferent compounds, and allow to ob-tain a unique digital fingerprint to compare and characterize honey.

Advances Honey from four different

zones of the country (Santand-er, Cundinamarca, Boyacá and Magdalena) are analyzed in the laboratory to determine its prop-erties and differentiate them, as well as observing and handling of the beehive.

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

ers acquire the quality label.

Following coffee steps

Colombiaprepares to

export honeyThe country prepares to export a quality label similar to the Colombian coffee. Investigators at the Universidad Nacional de Colom-bia analyze various types of ho-ney from several regions to take the first step towards the quality registry.

Antecedents During 2005 the Ministry of

Agriculture called the productive sector and the academy to develop joint projects with milk, fruits, and honey, among other foods. Three areas of the University got together in order to formulate the project: The ICTA, that’s done daily tests of honeys; the Faculty of Veterinary

Medicine and Animal Breeding, through micro-biology; and the Faculty of Sci-ences, through Guiomar Nattes, biologist who in-vestigates bees.

As explained by Martha Quica-zán, chemical coordinator from ICTA, “besides establishing the technical and sci-entific tools for the beekeepers to know their honey properties and or-igin, and consum-ers to get to know where the honey comes from, pro-duction date, lot number, and a full report of benefi-

cial properties.”According to Professor Con-

suelo Díaz, from ICTA, “we are characterizing the honey, so the producer can request a quality seal. This is a delayed process be-cause it must happen through a knowledge process, a character-ization of different points of view, a qualification to improve practices, and the beekeepers must work like a company, a productive nucleus, if they want to accede to the qual-ity label.”

Guarantee of origin

This is a geographical indi-cation applied to an agricultural product, whose quality or char-acteristics are due essentially to the geographic place where it is produced, transformed, and elab-orated.

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

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New gaugeto find out the gestational ageA new and simple method to value gestational age at birth, never described before, is being develo-ped by investigators at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. The work deserved the first place at the Fifth Latin American Congress of Neonatology.

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

For such reason, as answer to some diseases suffered by babies at birth and related to their time of life, investigators at the Universi-dad Nacional de Colombia, valida-ted a new indicator of gestational age at birth, named Talla Menos 10 (Size – in centimeters – Minus 10). This allows a fast calculation of the gestational age at birth, facilitates description of risks and treatment on time to avoid health problems in the new born.

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

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

The pediatric graduate stu-dents who participated from the research were Adriana Cuenca, Juan Carlos Herrera, Edna Cathe-rine Guzmán, Karen Ruíz and spe-cial intern Angélica Chantré.

Minus 10

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Similarly, he added, the ultra-sound is very useful, but needs to be practiced in a series way since the beginning of gestation. “This generally doesn’t include all mo-thers, because it is a very expen-sive resource, not affordable for everyone,” he said.

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

Work Base

The study worked with 848 children from the Maternal–Infant Institute of Bogotá. Based on a Ger-man publication named Treatment of Prenatal Pathology, the investi-gator studied tables from Dr. Lula Lubchenco, who is considered a

historical landmark about gesta-tional age calculation and the risk coming from this estimate.

“The book falls into our hands and when examining her data table, I identified an interval that stayed among which is ca-lled percentile 50 of size and the gestational age. I measured this interval and found out it was 10. Then, we plot and by subtract 10 to this number, stature agreed almost with absolute superposition to the gestational age,” explained Profes-sor Currea.

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

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

This is how; based on results from these tests, the new gau-ge to value gestational age was born,never described before by li-terature. The idea is to start exten-ding its use to lend the opportune attention to newborns.

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

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Health

Annually more than 500 wom-en die in Colombia, during preg-nancy and postpartum periods. In the world the number exceeds 500,000 cases per year. The para-doxical thing is that most causes from the deceases are in their ma-jority, avoidable. To that extent, mother’s training respecting warn-ing signals that should be meet immediately days after the birth, may contribute to the reduction of these rates. That is the bet a group of students and professors at the Faculty of Nursing from the Uni-versidad Nacional de Colombia is worked for since 2004.

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

According to the monitor-ing team of maternal and post-natal deaths from the National Health Institute (INS), during 2001 the highest number of ma-ternal deaths in Colombia was registered, with an approximate figure of 700 cases, most of them by account of postpartum bleed-ings, absolutely avoidable, con-sidering the technical and medi-cal advances at the time.

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

Experiences at the Engativá

and La Victoria Hospitals

With the participation and di-rection of professors Carmen Ber-nal, Brunilde Goether, Luz Mery Hernández, Yolanda Munévar and professor Pardo, students from last semester have worked, for over four years, with mothers whose childbirth was treated at the En-gativá Hospital and, recently, at La Victoria Hospital. Near 839 women from 1, 2 and 3 strata (Colom-bian system of classification by economic status) have benefitted from it.

The monitoring work realized every semester begins with a bio-logical, psychological and socio–cultural valuation of the mother and her new born child, complemented with revision of their clinic history at the time they leave the hospital. All these is done to analyze risk fac-tors that must be watch.

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

Two phone calls are done: one to the third day, when most of the major problems about b r e a s t f e e d i n g appear; and an-other one to the eight day, when most infections can be detected, infections in the mother (repro-ductive system and breasts) or

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

According to the informa-tion given by the UN group, in the case of mothers, postpartum bleedings are the event requir-ing the greater attention for being one of the main causes of mortal-ity. “Although hemorrhages usu-ally happen the following hours to the childbirth, in some cases these take place during postpar-tum period,” says Professor Pardo. The most frequent problems are related to breastfeeding, which are susceptible to improve at home.

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

not addressed opportunely. This monitoring is done with

the consent of mothers who for the most part, accede to the ser-vice. The group also looks to de-termine causes for which some mothers refuse to receive orienta-tion or just provide false contact information. The current evidence according to Professor Pardo, aims to the impersonal and sometimes aggressive treatment they receive from personnel at the health cen-ters, which predisposes them be-fore any professional in the area. For this reason, the student’s par-ticipation is given positive results.

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

Students and professorsWork to reduce maternal

and infant mortality

The alarming number of mothers and newborn deaths in the country may be reduced by im-plementing a strategy: pursuit of the mother and her child during the postnatal period. Thus, de-monstrates a study by the Pre-natal Maternal Academic Group from the Faculty of Nursing at the UN, which takes place at a lo-cation in Engativá, Bogotá.

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oInnovation

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

Rockville manager, Hugo Chaparro, explained that the com-pany searched for support form various universities, including the Universidad Nacional de Colom-bia, to base their new develop-ments on rigorous information. He’s always thought that in Co-lombia there’s no advance in the bicycles field, which is a disad-vantage, given the characteristics of growing cities such as Bogotá, where users of bicycles abound.

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

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

David’s bicycle resists a load up to 120 kilos and folds during an average of 18 seconds, has six speeds and weights 10.7 kilograms. It was presented by Rockville Com-pany last July 24th during an event summoned in Medellín, by the National Federation of Retailers, Fenalco, for the business people in the bicycle sector.

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

Student ProposalA bicycle to ride,

fold and load

The mobilization problems in the capital, the in-creasing reduced area of new homes, and the need to add healthy practices in the routines of people, are some of the circumstances that motivated David Andrés Cañón to design a folding bicycle, in order to improve the quality of life among users and served him as degree project as well.

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Science and technology

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

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

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

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

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

On the contrary, sedimentary basins as the ones located in Gua-jira, Tumaco, Chocó, Amazonas and the Eastern Mountain have had limited or no oil develop-ment. According to the geologist is due to factors as the few occur-rence evidences, the jungle den-sity, social conditions and that the oil doesn’t arise as it does in other basins.

“The Colombian Pacific is basically unexplored. Companies that settle there do it mainly for the mining and forestall resourc-es. The other basins have many possibilities, but detailed infor-mation about them is very lim-ited,” says the investigator.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Source: Geologist Carlos Al-berto Vargas Jiménez.

According to geologists at the UN in Bogotá

56 billion barrels of petroleum, underneath Colombian’s feet

A new study by the Uni-versidad Nacional de Colombia revealed the availability of 56 billion barrels of petroleum underneath the Colom-bian’s feet. The study used up-to date data from 21 sedi-mentary basins in the country. There might be more black gold than we know!

AFP

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

Although is still on experimen-tal stage the result of the mayon-naise creation is been quite satisfac-tory at the moment. Its consistency and color are similar to the conven-tional mayonnaise. Besides, it owns a higher nutritional value because the bovine plasma owns rich levels of protein, and is cheaper.

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

specialization program from Sci-ence and Food Technology Program of the Chemistry Department at the Faculty of Sciences from the Uni-versidad Nacional de Colombia. She works at the Guadalupe refrigera-tor for the Frigodán Company, and based her idea to develop a product which will aid the company to com-mercialize plasma resulted from the bovines sacrifice.

“They drink the blood, process it and create the plasma to supply the meat industry. The mayo pro-posal arises to expand its commer-cialization. This has been imple-mented in other countries, but is the first time we use it in Colombia as dressing,” says the specialist.

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

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

Control tests

for the dressing

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

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

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

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

Lab experiment from the ICTA at the UN

New Mayonnaise made of Bovine Blood

A revolutionary product is being cooked at the laboratories of the Institute of Science and Food Te-chnology (ICTA) from the Univer-sidad Nacional de Colombia. It is about a mayonnaise done with bovine’s blood, which has a higher nutritional flavor and is cheaper to produce, than the conven-tional product.

Innovation

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Ecology

Toxins evolution from choral serpents was the research done by Miguel Ángel Fernández Niño, last semester student at the biology program and guest at the Biodiversity day from the Instituto de Ciencias Naturales (Natural Sci-ences Institute) at the UN in Bogotá.

Toxin evolution in serpents, the case of post–synaptic alfa neu-rotoxins, from the micrurus genre in Colombia. That is to say, toxins in choral serpents, trying to ex-plain the evolution or the poison scheme.

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

UN Student analyses toxins from choral serpents

Study to improve anti–ophidic serums

rected to glimpse at their evolution. Another factor analyzed by

the student, who did a socializa-tion of his graduation work, was the functional modifications by the poison, to explain what makes it more compatible or not, to a certain prey.

“Chorals are selective towards their prey. Some, only eat mouss-es, others only fish and that se-lectivity directs the poison. This is another reason why there are dif-ferent types of poison,” Fernández explained.

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

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

Main victims

In Costa Rica, one of the im-porter sources for anti–ophidic se-rum, accidents by choral bites are scant and annual reports do not reach over 10 victims.

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

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

Nevertheless, the main consequence is the paraly-sis of the intercostal mus-cles that participate in the breathing process. This ef-

fect may cause death.Children are the main victims

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

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

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oEcology

Investigation by undergraduate biology student

Weather affects mutualism between fig tree and wasp:

Pegascopus bacataensiThe wasp known as Pegascopus Ba-cataensis exists if the Ficus Andícola tree exists, but there is a third ele-ment involved: climate, which af-fects their mutualism relationship. According to a study by Laura Abril, UN biolo-gist, the weather changing, is modifying the way these two species relate. The fig trees are a common tree in the country, even in the streets of Bogotá; it is also a vital species for the sus-tainability of the forests.

“We are seeing that climate ex-erts control on the population of wasps, who are the ones in charge to pollinate figs. Before, we thought the tree was the only one who put conditions so that the wasp could use its fruits and reproduce, and the one who also avoided demographic explosions of the insect. But the study demonstrated that abrupt at-mospheric changes of nowadays, pressure wasps’ reproduction,” says Abril who’s studying Masters in Sci-ence program at the UN.

For this particular investiga-tion, they analyzed the effect of the intense hailstorm –that lash Bogo-tá, on September of 2007–, had on wasps and figs. They proved that this type of tiny wasp drastically re-

duces their population according to abrupt temperature changes.

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

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

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

mon mutualism systems in nature. “In the tropical forests, the fig

is a tree that predominates. They give fruit all year long; it doesn’t have cycles like other fruit trees. At the forest, this is important be-cause many invertebrates survive with the fig’s fruits, while the other fruits scarce,” explains Sarmiento.

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

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

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

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

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

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First program of its type in the country

A new plan to consume and conserve the Colombian Slider

Residents of the Colombian Caribbean Region elaborate monu-ments and dedicate lyrics to the Hicotea turtle (Colombian Slider), but also consume it, without discrimination. An innovating management plan oriented to the sustainable use of the species mainly threaten by the excessive ex-ploitation will avoid extinction. This plan is done by the lead work of the Universidad Na-cional de Colombia and ordered by the Ministry of Environment.

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

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

It is also clear that an impor-tant threat to the turtle’s popula-tion is the high demand in coastal and inland cities, which is caused an illegal traffic of both subspecies that inhabit the Colombian Carib-bean and the Bajo Atrato (mouth of the Atrato River): the Trache-mys callirostris callirostris and the Trachemys venusta venusta, re-spectively.

There are plenty of conserva-tion plans for endangered species in the country, but the manage-ment plan oriented to the con-servation and sustainable use of the Hicotea is innovative. Why? Because sets out strategies for the direct use of animals and human consumption, at the same time it looks for alternatives of non−use (indirect use) that allow preser-vation. Unlike other plans that concen-trate in the conservation per se, just like the Ta-pir, the Gray Titi (from the family of Cal-litrichidae) or the Manatee.

The manage-ment plan for the Hi-cotea involves, not only experimented biologists, but also undergraduate and graduate students. From diverse approaches each population’s dy-namics were considered: their re-production, distribution, ecosys-tems, threats, and a new ingredi-ent for the biologist: the social sur-roundings where the turtle lives.

The work done by UN biolo-

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

In order to develop the plan, the UN strengthen bows with in-vestigators Jaime de la Ossa from Universidad de Sucre, and Vivian Páez, from Universidad de Antio-quia. These experts contributed, providing deep biological infor-mation about the Hicotea and a vital approach to both subspecies' management plan.

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

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

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

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

Soon, the Universidad Nacio-nal de Colombia will give to Cor-poraciones Autónomas del Caribe (Autonomous Corporations of the Caribbean) an official document of the plan, that looks forward to improve management, sustain-able use and conservation of both subspecies of Hicotea turtle. The plan also condenses work by other universities from the coast and official records of Corporations, but above all the work by the com-munities.

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

Ecology

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oScience and technology

Leishmaniaparasite’s membrane

Parasitophorousvacuole membrane

When making contactwith the Leishmania parasiteits positive charge becomes

more negative respecting the outside.

Parasite’s genetic materials isbeen extracted and there are proofs of which

it contains chloride currents,which generate positive charges able

to adapt to the acid environment generated by the macrophage cell.

Channels of chlorine,potasium and calcium

have been foundin preliminary research.

Macrophagecell membrane

Hypothesis The parasite, by its great size, deactivates the defense mechanism of the macrophage cell, which are cornered.

This provokes the cell to send the wrong signals to the rest of cells of the immune system.

Macrophage cell infected with leishmaniasis

(-)

(+)

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

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

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

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

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

Up until last May, according to the record by the Monitoring System of Epidemiology from the National Health Institute (INS), 3,793 people got infected in Colombia with three different kinds of existent leishma-niasis (skin, mucous and visceral). There’s an ample prevalence of the skin one, with 3,747 cases. The most worrying fact is the increase of in-fected victims in regions that histori-cally are not focus of the disease such as Huila, Tolima, Cundinamarca and Santander, among others.

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

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

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

Interrupted suicide

Above understanding the dis-ease, Professor Marcela Camacho tries to comprehend how the Leish-mania adapts to the macrophage (re-member, immune system cell).

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

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

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The electrical play of Leishmania

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

vacuole and the one from the par-asite. From the last membrane we study ionic channels,” says Camacho.

This investigation is unique in its type and doesn’t compete with other investigations about leishma-niasis in the world. Each finding of the group is another contribution to the science, which is given them international recognition.

Precisely, one discovery is re-lated to electrical properties from the macrophage membrane which, according to the research results, is altered by the Leishmania presence. The most evident electrical change is that the cell becomes more negative, in relation to the outside.

Normally, the macrophage pro-duces oxidant radicals and Nitric Oxide, which is like atomic bombs against invaders, explains Camacho. If this attack doesn’t work, the cell kills itself and the invader, like a kami-kaze, in a process named apoptosis. What is peculiar about this, is that all this strategies don’t work against the Leishmania. The parasite seems to protect the cell so it doesn’t commit suicide.

When ana-lyzing the electri-cal properties of apoptosis mac-rophages and infected mac-rophages with Leishmania, some variation is evi-dent. The infected one has more of a negative charge (it is hyperpolarized),

a mechanism by which the parasite causes the macrophage doesn’t start apoptosis.

The Leishmania,

a big invading balloon

Dr. Camacho indicates that oth-er two membranes studies, the para-sitophorous vacuole and the parasite itself, require more demanding re-searh in its way of being developed. However, at this point there are in-teresting findings.

“We must isolate the vacuole and this is even harder. We’ve found inside her chlorine, potassium and calcium channels. The last one comes from the membrane of the endoplasmic reticulum (membrane network) of the macrophage,” says the scientist.

The study of the Leishmania membrane hasn’t been possible yet, but is in progress. Other analyses, have gone ahead in which genetic material from the parasite is removed

to put it inside frog eggs, have gone ahead. So far, chlo-ride currents have been found.

“We have gone after those chloride channels that allow the par-asite to live within an acid and very hostile environ-ment inside the macrophage. What this chlorine does is to compensate the proton en-trance –positive charge– to main-tain electro–neu-trality inside the parasitophorous vacuole environ-ment, where the parasite lives,” ex-plains Camacho.

She adds that they’ve cloned chloride channels of Leishmania and

preliminary studies indicate those are the ones they want to find. At this moment, the UN biophysicists are trying to get those channels in other cells, to perform functional studies.

The electro physiologist tech-niques allow to study, in real time, the ionic channels. What they want to understand is how the infection impacts the macrophage membrane, its electrical properties, and if inside the parasitophorous vacuole are ion-ic channels that facilitate, somehow, the parasite adaptation.

But beyond all these findings there’s a less complex explanation, which apparently, is what inactivates the defense mechanisms of the cell. Leishmania lives in a great compart-ment, which could only jeopardize the internal operation of the macrophage.

“We have the theory that the sys-tem allows the macrophage to alert being cornered by the giant vacuole, which causes to send wrong signals to other cells. It is as we inflate a balloon inside a room up to the point where people inside it get blocked because the balloon took all the space.”

According to traditional litera-ture, the decline of Nitric Oxide in the infected cell is caused by the damage of the enzyme that gener-ates it, but Camacho ensures that there’s a different reason: “Simply, the enzyme is cornered, located at the wrong place and cannot send the correct signal.”

So far, the UN biophysicists are finding a group of chloride channels that at the beginning are indispens-able to the parasites survival. At the end this may become therapeutic targets that could turn to be the Leishmania’s heel.

Leishmaniasis, focus of study in La Guajira. At this stage the condition may receive a timely treatment.

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

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

The goal is to determine what substances can destroy the parasite without jeopardizing the infected cell’s life and, at the same time, boost it so it treats remaining parasites. Promising results are starting to dis-cern in the preparation of an antibi-otic or anti–parasite with additional immune–modulating properties.

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

The scientists look for plants in the fields, extract the necessary ma-terial to take it to the laboratory, di-vide and classify their compounds, synthesize them and, those that seem promissory, are semi–synthe-size (meticulous analysis) to attack the leishmaniasis.

According to the Chemist Car-los Coy, the molecularly character-ized native plants that turn to be promissory for Professor Delgado’s work are the Esenbeckia alata, the Raputia heptaphylla and the Zan-thoxyllum quinduense, from the Ru-taceae family, considered endem-ic in Colombia and still without a common name.

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

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

Healing Substances

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

Esenbeckia alata leaves Raputia heptaphylla stemZanthoxyllum quinduense

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

“Their main components are metabolites, which are isolated sub-stances, from the limonoids and coumarin. This last ones, alkaloids of different types (furanoquinolíni-cos, acridónicos, indólicos, fenant-ridínicos),” explains the scientist.

The isolated metabolites have an ample range of biological activity when they enter the human body. According to the substituent type own by the main ring, which is the isolated structure, there’s a variable range of activity.

Lucy Delgado says that now-

adays the Leishmania affection is mainly treated with antiparasitic pentavalente salts, which are intra-muscularly injected. These are ad-ministered to patients for as long as 20 days.

“It is a very painful treatment which causes severe secondary ef-fects. There are reports of death as-sociated to a sudden Hepatotoxicity. Although they are effective, it’s also been demonstrated that some resis-tance to the medicine is being de-veloped by some parasitic stumps,” says the expert.

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

Within the kindness of the proj-ect, favorable results are starting to discern in order to achieve a pro-phylactic therapy that not only con-trols the temporary affection, but also develops an immune response to control the parasite before a probable new affection enters.

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

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

The vegetable material is macerated until turning it into an extract that takes concentration to the emptiness in a rotavapor. This leaves the chemical compound with pharmacological potential there.

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

The botanical alternative against leishmaniasis

Science and technology

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oAgriculture

When producers of the famous fiction film Alien created this monster as the main character, they probably had some ter-restrial inspiration. Wasps from the Meteorus genus are born and grow within organisms of certain caterpillars, eat their interior, and then are born to life, but not without first leaving their host in agony. A student of the Master in Sciences Program at the UN makes a taxonomic revision of these parasitoids. The surprise is that there are more species within this genus.

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

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

Like in the film, where Alien (extraterrestrial) introduces its eggs in humans to proper life, thus the Meteorus wasp acts. The wasp inoculates the caterpillar with eggs. Inside, during the larva stage, it starts eating the caterpillar until it is death or agonizing. Then, turned into wasp, breaks the skin of its host and goes to the light.

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

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

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

The way these wasps attack the caterpillars (enemies of pota-toes, cassava, vegetables and fruit cultures) awakes the interest of the agricultural sector, for the possibil-ity to naturally control plagues.

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

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

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

Meteorus insect could boost to control plagues

Taxonomic revision of Taxonomic revision of parasitoids at the UN

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Agriculture

The garden snail Helix aspersa is a plague, but at the same time is business. To determine the genetically variability of this European species, will be vital to improve plans of environmental management, without affecting those who profit from the small animal.

The Ministry of Environment, Housing and Territorial Develop-ment asked to the Institute of Genetics from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia to develop an investigation aiming to gener-ate accurate information about the distribution and generic di-versity of a particular animal in the country, as much in natural means as in captivity.

Úrsula Ramírez, investigator and professor at the UN Bogotá, assures that there is a polemic in the country about the use of Helix aspersa, due that for one side be-came a plague that finishes with natural ecosystems moving other species of native snails, but is also a source of economic income for many families.

“Apparently this snail arrived in the country 30 years ago. It is origi-nal from Europe, where is highly consumed and is a high gastrono-my product. But in Colombia the culture didn’t work out and people released the species in the wild. Today is considered that the Helix aspersa lives in 50 percent of the national territory,” says Ramírez.

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

Garden Snail: Garden Snail: plague, but also business

tive populations may become en-dogamy, of little genetic variability, which affects the product quality.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Muffins and alfajores with iron

Claudia Gómez, Alexandra Hidalgo and Bárbara Sánchez are the creators of the delicious prod-ucts. They are alfajores, a traditional confection found in some Latin American countries, whose basic form consists of two round sweet biscuits joined together with a sweet substance and covered with sugar. The alfajores and muffins are done with chocolate but what makes them so special is that besides of being delicious, they feed intelligently because have high contents of iron.

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

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

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

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

“We decided they were going

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

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

Although the students devel-oped this project as part of their class, the deepening line from the University works close to the Dis-trict for consultancies in the food subject, so the alfajores and muf-fins idea may very well prosper.

Laboratory of Photogrammetry

Support to road projects like Anillo Centro Sur and the Aeropuerto del Café (the Coffee Airport) are some of the geotechnical evaluations done at the Labora-tory of Photogrammetry from the UN in Manizales, as part of the extension and investigation work developed by the Institution in agreement with different organizations from the region.

“In this Laboratory, tools for research are applied, especially at the Routes, Transportation and Geotechnical Research Group, for urbanism works, works of urban infrastructure pursuit and urban and regional development,” ex-plained Eugenio Duque Escobar, professor and investigator at the UN Manizales and coordinator of the Photogrammetry Lab.

According to Duque Escobar, “photogrammetry or photo-inter-pretation means the measurement of the relief and terrain based on aerial photographs that should have some special mechanisms to measure displacement according to the photographs angle.”

Among the academic programs part of this Laboratory are the Ge-ology, Civil Engineering, Geode-sic Engineering and Architecture. Besides, there’s another option to choose this as an elective credit for programs such as Industrial Engi-neering, Electric Engineering and Electronic Engineering.

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

or even photographs. The stereo-scopes of Pocket (with which field works are done) and the Faraday Bar (with which measures and pla-nimeters are taken) are also there.

“When we do works of Photo-grammetry, we basically with the increasing part of the eyeglasses of the stereoscope, that allow us to make increases work varying from three to six times more; and with the Faraday Bar with which mea-surements and adjustments by re-lief are done, as measurement by vertical and horizontal displace-ments take control”, said the Lab Coordinator.

Pretty soon the Photogramme-try Lab hopes to extend its lesson, included at the Civil Engineering curriculum, to the Engineering ca-reers in the Bogotá and Medellín campuses.

Science and technology

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Student’s creationHigh fiber symbiotic yogurt

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

“We arrived at the yogurt af-ter realizing that juice boxes only provided water and fruit contribu-tions, while the yogurt contributes calcium and there are higher calor-ic and protein contents,” assured the student.

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

Crude milk that is pasteur-ized afterwards, bifid of high vis-cosity (lactic acid bacteria that allows adding texture) and more

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

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

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

Science and technology

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oEnvironment

Jathropa curcas to be used

as fuel would be cultivated in Cotové

Experts at the UN contribute to agro–industrial development

The shrub known as the Barbados Nut and scientifically classified as Jathropa, may become one of the most important fuel sources in Colombia for the profitable production of biodiesel.

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

For this reason and during the ‘First Seminary of Agrarian Investi-gations, Science for Teaching,” or-ganized by the Farming Faculty at the UN Medellín, the investigator of Corpoica, Luis Fernando Campuza-no summoned his peers to integrate themselves at the UN Medellín.

“The investigation covers dif-ferent components such as genet-ics, agronomy, agro–industrial and socioeconomic. Within the agro-industrial field we want to take advantage of the strength that the Universidad Nacional de Colom-bia offers, including the Equip-ment and Machines for Harvests Research Group,” he said.

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

The Jatropha Curca seed contains up to 50 percent of the oil used as lubricant for jewelry watches and aviation. According to literature, the production of biod-iesel reported is of 2,400 to 2,700

liters by hectare and according to and explained by the Corpoica manager, Colom-bia looks to inten-sify the cultures of this plant.

“What we’ve done is to struc-ture a program for the improvement

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

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

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

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

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

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Environment

Found in the Colombian Pacific

New Platanillo speciesNew species from the Heliconiaceaes, known plants known by the name of Platanillo, was found in the Colombian Pacific by investigators from the Wash-ington Smithsonian Institute and the Natural Sciences Institute from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia in Bogotá. The new specimen excels by its inflores-cence and attractive red color.

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

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

The specie was baptized by the curators, as Helicona Sampe-riana, to honor the director of the National Museum of Natural His-tory from the US and previous secretary of the Smithsonian Insti-tute located in the same country: Cristián Samper, a recognized Co-lombian botanical and ecologist graduated from Universidad de los Andes. Samper has dedicated most of his life to the knowledge and conservation of the natural resources from the Tropic.

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

Colombia, a richer country in Heliconias

Heliconias’ leaves have been traditionally used to wrap, con-serve foods and transport snacks. Their rhizomes are used for horti-cultural, nutritional or medicinal uses. Some of their parts are mac-erated and applied as dressings to fight rheumatism and high blood pressure, among other diseases.

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

“From the 210 species, Co-lombia owns nearly half of them,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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X–Rays of the Caribbean Sea taken at the UN

New contributions to the scientific community were done by UN inves-tigators at the Medellín campus, through variable analysis of related climatic phe-nomena: the sea swell and winds that affect the oceanic, terres-trial and atmospheric behavior in the Colombian Caribbean.

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

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

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

Among the results stands out the generation of more reliable se-ries of waves and, through its de-scription, an understanding about

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

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

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

The Oceanicos Group will

provide to Regional Corporations an academic document that re-unites results about the ocean in-teraction, atmosphere and land in the Colombian Caribbean, and that will serve as planning tool for those who realize direct interven-tion into the community.

“If we understand the ocean’s behavior in different variables dur-ing seasonal times, the extreme phenomena and how those im-pact the coasts, the corporations who handle coasts or economi-cal activities will benefit from this knowledge,” added Gladys Bernal Franco.

According to numbers giv-en by Contraste Magazine from Universidad Tecnológica de Bolí-var, the Caribbean zone presents poverty indexes of 56.7 per cent income, whereas those from the country add 49.7 per cent income, which means that about 1,516,656 people live under poverty condi-tions.

It is why, by means of the re-search finds, economical activi-ties from the zone such as fishing, navigation and sea culture, among others, may benefit through a bet-ter planning and a preventive ac-tion to the different phenomena affecting the coast.

Environment

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Innovation

Applications for movable devices, desktop and webGames, systematization of small companies, infor-mation about organizations, business solutions, and gym guides, among others, are part of the software pre-view organized by students of Software Engineering II, at the first floor hall of the Engineering Building.

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

Among all projects is the Gym–Team Routineaware, a program designed for one complete man-agement in the process of system-ization of affiliate’s information at sport centers, including medical, sports history and assignment of exercise workouts. GYM–TEAM ROUTINEWARE™ is the answer to those sport centers that look for a competitive advantage and added value for their old and new clients. The application allows creating a routine to follow by the affiliate ac-cording to its personal needs.

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

ADV Solutions is a software

Second preview of software at the Faculty of Engineering

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

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

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

Guía Transmilenio is an ap-plication for mobile devices that

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

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

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

in organized, fast and secure ways, offering benefits for the school ad-ministrators and students, inno-vating voting ways for each estab-lishment and facilitating the elec-tion of student representatives.

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

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

Future Workers 1.0 was de-signed by Fernando Apolinar, Fredy Carvajal, Andrés Eslava, Carlos Rodríguez, and Felipe Cadena. They wanted to optimize the selection and the hiring process by a com-pany. The program basically stores a data base of vacant positions and candidates, for example by means of this system, they can filter in-formation to choose the most apt people for a particular position, ex-plained Fernando Apolinar.

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The discover and recent cataloguing of a new species of fish, co-llected at the river basin of the Caquetá River, lagoon “El Vatica-no,” feeds the greatest, oldest and most complete collection in the country located at the Natural Sciences Institute from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia.

Pterygoplichthys weberi is a fish species found at the Caquetá region on August, 2004 by investi-gators of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. It was recently descri-bed as a new species pertaining to the Siluriformes order, Loricariidae family by Jonathan W. Armbruster and Lawrence M.

This one, as others collected since the 30’s from last century, rest in the Natural Sciences Institute which has been nationally and in-ternationally recognized as leader in the Ichthyology area.

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

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

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

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

In order to describe a species as new, is necessary to have great ex-perience and taxonomic knowled-ge, which is what lab professors at

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

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

To show of

Fish’s specimens from most of the country rest at the Institute; although their work is focus on fresh water fish, they also have ma-rine fish from the Caribbean and the Pacific. Nowadays they preser-ve a collection of approximately 16,000 lots of fish from different areas of the country, which corres-ponds approximately to 1,300 spe-cies of Colombian fishes.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

National Reference

The greatest and oldest fish’s collection in the country is loca-ted at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. According to Pro-fessor Mojica, there are regional collections such as the ones loca-ted in the Universidad de Antio-quia, Universidad del Valle, Toli-ma and the Humboltd Institute which have been created by the students dynamic, which has pas-sed through the Natural Sciences Institute and gone out spreading knowledge into different regions and institutions.

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

The Lab has organized and ca-talogued the material under uni-versal classification standards, for that reason is easy to know how many species are at the Orinoco and the Amazonas basin or Ca-quetá River.

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

High-priority actions

For Professor José Iván Moji-ca and for the investigative team known in Colciencias as the Group for the Conservation and Biodiversi-ty of Neo–tropical Fish, the priority is to realize a complete inventory of Colombian species, as well as the formulation of protection and con-servation initiatives for continental fish in Colombia’s seas and rivers.

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

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

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

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

Ecology

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Caverns ExhibitionJourney to the center of the Earth

By these days, the Pat-rimony and Museums System at the Universi-dad Nacional de Colom-bia is working in a dark room, surrounded by hammers, drills, scaf-folds and pictures that may surprise anyone. Bats and stalactites accompany them. The reason: ‘Caverns: his-tory of the speleology in Colom-bia,’ the most recent exhibition by Claustro de San Agustín.

The exhibit is been prepared a couple months ago jointly between the Patrimony and Museums Sys-tem (SPM), the Natural Sciences Institute, the Faculty of Sciences at the Universidad Nacional (Earth Sciences Department, Group of Geomorphology and Fluvial Pro-cesses –speleology path–, Biodi-versity and Conservation Group) and Espeleocol (Colombian Espe-leology Association).

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

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

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

The caverns are underground ecosystems that for a long time have been completely forgotten and whose conservation is now subject of the environmental pub-lic agenda, due to the effort of geologists, biologists, doctors, to-pographers and anthropologists, among other professionals reunit-ed at Espeleocol. Such profes-sionals have been working with the support of the ‘Investigation Group of Geomorphology and Fluvial Processes, Speleology path; and the Earth Sciences Depart-ment and the Biospeleology path at the Natural Sciences Institute (ICN); both from the Faculty of Sciences at the Universidad Nacio-nal de Colombia.

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

plored in the country throughout years. The exposition introduces the karst systems, the present fau-na in them and its rocky forma-tion.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ecology

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

Its goal is to transport univer-sity and community to the stories born around research processes by UN professors and students. The stories are written in a simple “sometimes colloquial” language and are illustrated by more than 40

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

Matices includes interviews to specialized academic sources in-volved in the subject, but also writ-ten sources and official data.

Matices is a monthly publica-tion circulating over 3,000 copies and may also be seen by visiting: http://historico.agenciadenoti-cias.unal.edu.co/matices/

Claves for Public DebateThe mass media unit, Unime-

dios from the Universidad Nacio-nal de Colombia started editing and publishing, since May, 2007, the series Claves (Keys) for Public Debate, a document whose pur-pose is to evaluate topics about education, science and technology, as much in Colombia as in Latin America and the world.

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

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

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

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

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

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

If you are interested to con-sult the different documents from the series, visit: http://www.agen-ciadenoticias.unal.edu.co/index.php?id=48

Carta UniversitariaLife at the inside of the Uni-

versidad Nacional de Colombia is extremely attractive. At each one of its faculties, institutes and prem-ises take place many academic events every day. Culture, science, economy, politics, arts, engineer-ing and sports are central topics which the community participates of, with extreme attention.

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

Matices. Stories behind investigation

EDITORIALES UNIVERSITARIAS El rostro del saber académico en la sociedad moderna

PARA EL DEBATE PÚBLICOCLAVES

Bogotá, Colombia, agosto de 2009, número 28

Número 47Septiembre de 2009

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

En esta Carta:

Dicken Castro

UNA MARCA

Este egresado de La Universidad Nacional de Colombia es uno de los padres del Diseño Gráfico en el país. De su mente brillante han surgido algunos de los logotipos más impactantes de la publicidad nacional.

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Historias detrás de la investigación

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Historias detrás de la investigación

Número 2 - www.agenciadenoticias.unal.edu.co/matices

La UN le “saca la leche” a l a t e c n o l o g í a

Historias detrás de la investigación

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

En cuevas y cavernas, investigadores hallan

verdaderos tesoros

Historias detrás de la investigación

Número 4 - www.agenciadenoticias.unal.edu.co/matices

Proyecto Alta Guajira, una “piedra” en el desierto

Historias detrás de la investigación

Número 5 - www.agenciadenoticias.unal.edu.co/matices

Lecciones de Ultratumba

Historias detrás de la investigación

Número 6 - www.agenciadenoticias.unal.edu.co/matices

U n a p r ó t e s i s colombiana que le dio la vuelta

al mundo

Historias detrás de la investigación

Número 8- www.agenciadenoticias.unal.edu.co/matices

E l Zaf i re : Un laboratorio c ientíf ico en medio de la selva

Historias detrás de la investigaciónHistorias detrás de la investigación

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

Empanamatic: 60 empanadas p o r m i n u t o

Historias detrás de la investigación

Número 10 - www.agenciadenoticias.unal.edu.co/matices

Buzo científico de la UN l idera esponjoso proyecto

“gringo”

Historias detrás de la investigación

Número 11 - www.agenciadenoticias.unal.edu.co/matices

g e n é t i c a de los wayúu

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

It’s also a place for alumni, men and women that aren’t di-rectly linked to the University but for their performance are greatly heighten the Institution’s name. Through its pages, benefits for the community are shared as a funda-mental part of its social responsi-bility towards society.

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

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

It is a monthly publication, circulating over 20,000 copies, tar-geting members of the University (students, professors and adminis-trative staff) at all campuses in the country. Some copies are also sent to selected academics, social com-municators, journalists and deci-sion takers from other institutions.

To get a taste of Carta Univer-sitaria, visit http://www.cartauni-versitaria.unal.edu.co/

The Universidad Nacional de Colombia’s News Agency is the informative portal on the web through the one all information about the Institution’s activity is shared, emphasizing on investi-gation, discoveries and develop-ments of science and technology. However, along this space other aspects of University happening are highlighted, such as encoun-ters, seminaries, conferences and administrative facts among others.

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

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

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

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

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

The Agency’s web site, in addi-tion, not only shows to the world the work of research groups, students and teachers whom, day to day, look for to transform the world and contribute added value to Colom-bian products. The highest number of visitors the Agency’s experienced was last April with 73,273 visitors. Last semester news produced by the Agency covered 299,049 square cen-timeters in press, 182 internet publi-cations, had 251 television appea-rances and 335 radio appearances.

Agencia de Noticias de la Universidad Nacional