Addictions

When I was in high school, I wanted to be a psychiatrist. One of the reasons were addictions, I thought it was fascinating that a substance or object could have such an impact in someone's behaviour that people end up losing friends, loved ones, and life over said addiction.

To understand addictions we need to remember something we all seek: joy. We want to be happy, we want to feel joy. And in order to do so, our brain releases certain hormones into our nervous system. The most well-known "happy" hormones are endorphin and serotonin. What it's interesting is that these hormones don't care about the "source" of happiness. So sex, being in love, doing sports, eating chocolate, listening to music we like, dancing, and addictions are all equal in chemical therms. Our brain knows they come from different sources, but once it's happy (full of endorphins) it doesn't care. Because being happy is great and it's a good thing that we seek happiness, right?

That's why addictions are harmful. Our brain likes endorphins, and it will start to demand its daily dose of them, and the addiction is an easy, safe, proven way of getting them. Why would someone spend time and effort with loved ones or doing sports if a substance gives him/her an instant result?

The line between being passionate about something and being addict might be blurry sometimes, and that complicates the issue. We're not machines, we're humans. We have will, we have the ability to choose. That's one of the reasons I wanted to study addictions when I was younger: it's an incredible balanse between science and power of will.

A post-graduate study

There are many foreign universities that have Master's Programs and further studies in environmental sciences. I know the University of Humboldt in Berlin has a Master's in Renewable Energies, a friend of mine wants to go to Tel Aviv (Israel) for a degree in political sciences with an environmental approach. Also, there's Paulina Aldunce, a professor of our Faculty who's an agronomist that did a Master's in Sociology afterwards. So there are many options out there and said options aren't restricted to our field as pure engineers, maths and technology.

The one I'm interested the most nowadays is a Master's named Development, Environment and Cultural Change, at the University of Oslo in Norway. I believe those three elements are very tightly together, as poor countries suffer the most with environmental hazards, and a cultural change (such as usage of cleaner technologies) comes along with the technologies and the economic factors that influence development in countries, cities and neighbourhoods. So a Master's blending those three aspects is quite appealing.

Norway as a country also has many things on this area as well. For instance, all of the electricity produced in the country comes from hidropower and bioenergy, and electric cars are very common. And the regulations for house heating are very strict as well, so no energy is released and wasted, but it stays indoors.

And who knows, if luck is on my side and we don't destroy ourselves with a nuclear war first, I'd like to seek a job over there and see what's available.

My dreamjob

In this era of social media and streaming, many science-related projects and organisations have gone online to promote what they do and to teach people about science and technology. In particular, NASA has done some live streamings from the International Space Station (ISS), where the astronauts answer questions people posted on Twitter or Facebook, and also talk about northern lights, climate change or related topics that they've been able to spot from space.

And I would like to be up there and be that person in the ISS answering those questions.

Today, there are many scientists, physicists and even biologists who have gone up there to do research or to test instruments, it's not "so" elite as it was back in the 70s. Of course, it's still a lot of work, both intelectual, mental and physical in order to get selected by the NASA and go to space, but it's easier.

There are many planned missions as well to do longer trips to colonise Mars or Jupiter's moons, and who knows...maybe they need an engineer in natural resources to figure something out, so I may find a place at NASA. And considering the humongous distances between Earth and Mars, I have plenty of time to do that scene from "2001: A Space Odyssey" I've always dreamt of.