Third chapter of Scientific Dialogs in Qué Pasa magazine
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La Tercera newspaper and its online magazine Qué Pasa published the third chapter of Scientific Dialogs.
Read the press release here: Cells are like the “bricks” that support every living being. They give origin to the shape, create materials for the “building” the body will be, and they move in certain specific ways that will give birth to every organ. Biology and physics have a lot to say about this embryonic development process since they are the mechanical forces that act in these cellular migratory movements. All this knowledge allows us to know more about how we are formed, but also, how the body cure wounds or how cancer spreads. The reason is that there is also cellular movement in both processes. The third chapter of Scientific Dialogs is about what we previously mentioned. It was named “Embryonic Development; How a human being is formed” in which Miguel Concha, Professor of the Medical Faculty of University of Chile and Researcher of the Biomedical Neuroscience Millennium Institute (BNI) and Millennium Nucleus Physics of Active Matter, converse with Physicist María Luisa Cordero, Alternate Director of the Millennium Nucleus. “We talked about how the embryo is formed starting from one cell, the mechanical forces’ role in this process, the mother cells role and its potential use in the current medicine, the ethical aspects that raised when we talk about the embryonic development manipulation, and, of course, the experimental work that we do in the physics of active matter area”. Concha, says. Concha is an Associate Researcher of the Millennium Nucleus and he is performing, through simulations, an interdisciplinary work along with other physicists, due to the contribution physics is making to the biology area. “It was very interesting to be part of this. I value the fact of being able to communicate the science we make to the general public. Is a need and an obligation to do it since, as scientists, we have a social role that we must assume actively”, says Miguel Concha. An idea that María Luisa Cordero, from the Millennium Nucleus, share: “Is not always easy for a scientist to find the space or the time to spread science. We complain about the people’s lack of interest, but we are responsible to spread out the knowledge we generate. This is our contribution. I hope it gets to a good amount of people and they can be interested as much as us”.
