Science Week! 

As the late philosopher and scientist himself, Isaac Newton, said, we stand on the shoulders of those who came before us. But as the world evolves, so are our theories that we keep challenging with different analysis and experiments. Science is really cool, isn’t it?

Ask me anything that doesn’t talk about science. We revolve around it and it revolves around us and hey, I’m talking about the moon! Oh, speaking about this big of a diameter celestial object, did you know that if we dig deeper into its information, apart from the fact that Neil Armstrong was the first person to land on this rocky sphere, its presence is beyond what we can imagine –  it is the very reason for climate and tides. I told you, science is just around the corner and in every room of Alkor.

The Science Week 2021 at Alkor took place in and outside the campus from November 1th until 16th. There was a range of hands-on opportunities that students got to experience and cross-curricular workshops to participate in. We were lucky enough to be able to learn more about nanotechnology, form the most perfect circle there is, attend a course on ‘la danza de las membranas’ or the dance of the membranes, and know the wonderful world of mad chemistry.

We all love technology and during this day and age, it is as essential as food and water. Mobile phones, for example, are more than just a tiny gadget you attach yourself with. This great invention, when viewed through a microscope, has a big city inside its screen. They are formed by tiny RGB (red, green, blue) leds, which were explained to be laid out in different ways depending on the phone brand. This was explained to second year students by researcher Antonio Garcia Martín.

One of activities that struck the students has got to be the performance of multi-colored umbrellas in the open air, dancing to the rhythm of music, imitating the behavior of biological membranes that simulate different molecules involved in the process. This was part of the longest-running scientific dissemination event organized by the Faculty of Biological Science of the University of Complutense Madrid.

Some other dynamic sessions talked about the reduction of CO2 emissions, and solar energy, which we thought were timely and must be put on the table. Via online, third year students got the chance to visit the concentrating solar field, the high-flux solar simulator and the solar photocatalytic reactor.

These interesting topics and activities have been such a good reminder that science is behind everything that we see and touch! It is also a way to remember that we need to keep our minds open for bigger possibilities, you might not know, you’ll be the next scientist or inventor of the world!