Post 10: Blogging Experience

Hi everyone! This is my last post. The experience of being a blogger was fun! I developed my writing skills and learned some vocabulary. Maybe, the principal warring was the word extension, but most cases I was developing an idea and surprise! The limit has been over. I expect this post will not be an exception.

The post’s themes was great, except for the one that I have to write about a scientist or a paper. I did not understand it! My favourite post was about a TED talk, because I have to listen first, and then try to summarize all the ideas.

For the next instance, I would like to write about something real, telling a story, or even, write a paper about my thesis (with the real data, I hope). Another theme that can be very interesting is “facing the real English” like the first web test. Day a day, I must to search papers and information, but if someday I have to live in an English country, I would like to be prepared on the real life.

I will miss my blog (only a little). For now, I cannot say, “oh God, I have to write about my life on the internet! My blog!”

Post 9: A country I'd like to visit

Hi everyone! I have to write about a country I’d like to visit. It’s hard to choose one country, I prefer to write about a continent! I’ve always been attracted to Africa, because it’s a place where you can do anything you want.

Africa is well known about its nature; many people go into a safari and meet a wild experience. I’d like to meet a lion or an elephant, but I concern about the impact of a safari on a natural park. Indeed, Africa is a fragile ecosystem, where a minimal injury can cause an unrepairable damage.

The social issues is another characteristic that I’d like to experience in Africa.  This is the poorest continent, and a great part of the children is undernourished. My profession is related to feeding people, so I want to contribute to eradicate hungry of this continent.  

You can notice that Africa get two opposite sides: nature and poor. Someday, I want to travel to Africa and enjoy its wonderful natural marvels. At the same time, I’d like to meet the Africans,  and build a better place to live. 

Post 8: a career-related article

Hi everyone! I have to write about an article related to my specialism. Physiology is a specific knowledge! My research deal with plant stress, so I will try to explain an article that describe plant mechanisms to avoid the stress. 

“Photoprotection in plants: a new light on photosystem II damage” is a review article, written in 2011 by Shunichi Takahashi and Murray R. Badger, both from the Australian National University. 

Under certain circumstances, the leaves receive a lot of radiation, and they can be expose to photoinhibition. This problem leads to a minor photosynthetic capacity, thereafter, it will reduce yield (the principal variable on plants). 

Takahashi and Badger explains different mechanisms to avoid photoinhibition: the photoprotection. The most important mechanisms are:

- Paraheliotropism (Fig 1a): some plant species can move their leaves, to intercept less radiation. If the leaves are vertical, the radiation exposition will be minor. 

- Epidermis pigments (Fig 1c): some pigments in the leaf epidermis can serve as screen, so the chloroplasts will be expose to a minor radiation.

- ROS scavening (Fig 1d): This is a detoxification mechanism, because it works when the photoinhibition just begins. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are molecules that are produce by photoinhibition.  Ascorbate can eliminate these molecules, and avoid more damage.

As I said, this article is important because summarize all known plant mechanisms about photoinhibition. You can find this on http://libgen.org/scimag4/10.1016/j.tplants.2010.10.001.pdf 

Figure 1. Photoprotection mechanisms. Takahashi and Badger, 2011.