A new version of the Puerto de Ideas Antofagasta Science Festival was inaugurated this Friday in the Huanchaca Ruins amphitheater.
The Argentine biologist and expert in chronobiology, Diego Golombek gave an interesting conference focused on sleep.
“How much should we sleep? There is a consensus here that is taken internationally and the latest consensus figures are that a minimum of seven hours per night is recommended for adults, eight hours per night for adolescents and nine hours per night for boys and girls. The bad news is that we do not reach those minimums, not only do we not reach those minimums but we sleep less and less,” said the expert.
“According to anecdotal data, we could conclude that we are sleeping approximately one hour less than 50 years ago and two hours less than 100 years ago,” he added.
In that sense, he said that “there are many enemies of sleep.”
“The number one enemy of night sleep is stress, anxiety, any technique that vos have to reduce stress or anxiety is welcome to sleep better,” he explained.
Golombek maintained that another factor “to fear” is light. “No one goes to sleep alone these days. The cell phone screen, the tablet are not innocent, these lights emit in a color the wavelength that tends to bluish green and that turns out, by chance, to be the light that most stimulates the biological clock.
Furthermore, the scientist asked the questions “What do we do with sleep socially? What do we do with sleep policies? Understanding how to improve the lives of the population.”
“Sleep is very important for this. It wakes us up, puts us in a better mood, makes us more productive, we get sick less, etc. “There are plenty of sleep policies within our reach, some surprisingly simple and cheap,” he said.
Port of Ideas Antofagasta
On Saturday the 20th, the day began at 10:00 a.m. with a new “Dialogue between deserts”, titled Epic Journeys in History, in the Workshop Room of the Paseo por la Ciencia located in Site Zero of Puerto Antofagasta. There, archaeologist Lautaro Núñez, anthropologist Carlos Chiappe and historian Soledad González will guide us on a journey through time along the amazing roads of the desert.
Then they highlight the activities of scientists and thinkers from various parts of the world, such as the Uruguayan neuroscientist Mauro Costa Mattioli, who will give the conference After the secrets of memory where, at 12 noon in the Museum square, he will address the latest scientific studies on Alzheimer’s treatments. For his part, the Italian psychoanalyst Luigi Zoja will star in the activity titled The Decline of Desire, at 3:30 p.m. on the same stage.
Also at 3:30 p.m., in the Eloísa Díaz Room of the Paseo por la Ciencia, biologist Cristina Dorador will talk about Microbial love, delving into how the body’s microbiota is transformed in emotional relationships between couples. At the same time, in the Adelina Gutiérrez Room, the Argentine scientific journalist Federico Kukso will talk in Dinosaurs at the end of the world, with the geologist Manuel Suárez about the great advances and paleontological discoveries in Chile and Argentina.
On Sunday, at 12:30 p.m., French anthropologist Nastassja Martin will star in the activity Believe in Beasts. There she will address her dramatic experience after being attacked by a bear while studying a village in Eastern Siberia, raising reflections on the complex relationship between humans and nature. At the same time, in the Museum Square, the Nobel Prize in Physics Andre Geim will talk about his innovative work with graphene, a material that he managed to extract from graphite, with extraordinary properties, useful for various technological applications.
For his part, the marine archaeologist Diego Carabias, in the Adelina Gutiérrez room at 12:00, will give the talk Little forgotten things under the sea, where he will delve into the work of underwater archaeologists and other specialists who investigate the material remains of the past that lie on the seabed and that allow us to unravel unknown aspects of history. Then, at 3:30 p.m., Luis Chavarría, astronomer and representative of ESO in Chile, will analyze in Building the largest telescope in the world the technical challenges involved in the construction of the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), a huge telescope that will allow us to observe details never before seen. seen before in the universe.