Vol. 109 No. 2 (2013)

Resumen: La malaria o paludismo continúa siendo una enfermedad que afecta a millones de personas, principalmente en países en vías en desarrollo, siendo especialmente devastadora en niños menores de cinco años y mujeres embarazadas. Dado el incremento del número de cepas resistentes a los tratamientos antimaláricos clásicos, la última línea de defensa la constituye las terapias basadas en combinaciones de artemisina. Sin embargo, ya han sido detectadas resistencias a este fármaco en el sureste asiático. El presente artículo pretende mostrar los retos a los que se enfrenta la comunidad científica investigando en malaria para el desarrollo de nuevas terapias.
Palabras clave: Malaria, resistencias, antimalárico, Plasmodium, estudios fenotípicos.
Abstract: Malaria continues to be a disease that affects millions of people, mainly in the developing countries, being especially devastating on children under five and pregnant women. Due to the widespread of resistance to the classic antimalarial therapies, artemisinin-combination therapies are the last line of defence. However, resistance to these molecules has been already detected in the South-East Asia. This article aims to show the challenges that the antimalarial community is facing to develop new therapies.
Keywords: Malaria, antimalarial, resistances, Plasmodium, phenotypic screening.

Nowadays, there is a great interest to develop new microdevices that mimic mammalian olfaction system to carry out reliable trace chemical analysis of gas mixtures. Among the components of these “electronic noses”, zeolites and other nanoporous materials could play a crucial role due to their specific adsorption and catalytic properties. This paper deals with the design, simulation and fabrication of silicon microcantilevers modified with zeolites. In a step further, their deployment as mass sensors for nitroderivate- explosives detection has been successfully attempted. Some examples on o-nitrotoluene sensing at low ppm level highlight the benefits imposed by the use of zeolites as molecular recognition elements.

Keywords: Microfabrication, microcantilever, explosive detection, zeolites, fluid-structure interaction

A brief résumé on the life and scientific work of Julio Palacios, one of the great figures in Spanish science is introduced; his work can be framed within physics, chemistry, mathematics and biology.

Keywords: Chemistry, physics, quantum mechanics, X-ray, biology.

Puzzles and games can be a useful teaching resource to learn chemistry. This article shows an example of this fact, with an acrostic to learn named organic reactions.

Keywords: Acrostic, puzzle, named reactions, organic chemistry, chemistry teaching.

Resumen: La combustión de una mezcla de sustancias tras añadir una porción de ciertos líquidos es un tipo de experiencia bastante espectacular pero que ya aparece descrita en distintas publicaciones. En este artículo se expone la consecución, novedosa, de una combustión de una mezcla de sustancias sólidas simplemente al añadir varios componentes en polvo.
Palabras clave: Combustión, fuego, reacción exotérmica, catalizador, oxidación y reducción.
Abstract: The combustion of a mixture of substances after adding a portion of certain liquid is a type of experience quite spectacular but it already appears in various publications. This paper describes the achievement, innovative, of the combustion of a mixture of various substances simply by adding more powder components.
Keywords: Combustion, fire, exothermic reaction, catalyst, oxidation and reduction.

The available material of an informative and/or educational nature, with various resources (experiments, problems, exercises, teaching units, etc.), is abundant on the web. This section recommends sites of interest and initiatives of different kinds.

Resumen: La biogénesis es una cuestión pendiente de respuesta por la ciencia actual y un tema apasionante por sus derivadas sociales y filosóficas. Dado que la vida tal como la conocemos tiene una base química, ésta ciencia ha jugado un papel esencial en la investigación de cómo los seres vivos surgieron en nuestro planeta. Este viaje a los orígenes ha llevado al nacimiento de nuevas ramas como la química prebiótica y la química de sistemas. En este artículo realizaremos un recorrido histórico y conceptual por la química de los orígenes de la vida.
Palabras clave: Abiogénesis, química prebiótica, química de sistemas, autocatálisis, origen de la vida.
Abstract: How life begun on Earth is one of the frontiers of modern science, with strong social and philosophical implications. In the interdisciplinary approach to the biogenesis issue, the chemistry plays a central role. Also, the research in biogenesis leads to the emergence of the new branches prebiotic chemistry and systems chemistry. In this paper, we briefly review the chemistry involved in the study of the origins of life.
Keywords: Abiogénesis, prebiotic chemistry, systems chemistry, autocatalysis, origins of life.

This paper explains how a fact of great media impact, as holding a conclave for the election of the Pope of the Catholic Church, can be used to increase the motivation for the study of chemistry. In particular, the information about the preparation of “fumata” white or black, anecdotally associated to a conclave, can be used to discuss issues about formulation (in Spanish and other languages), the difference between organic and inorganic substances, the characteristics and applications of smoke generators and the phenomenon of combustion. It also highlights a brief reflection on the relationship between science and religion, often a concern for a large number of students of different educational levels.

Keywords: popular science, smoke generator, chemistry and everyday life, science and religion

Resumen: En este artículo se pretende resaltar la importancia de los productos naturales en el mercado farmacéutico mundial y el papel fundamental que juegan en la búsqueda de nuevos fármacos en la actualidad. La gran efectividad de estas estructuras privilegiadas, viables como puntos de partida o cabezas de serie y biológicamente comprobados, puede explicarse mediante un razonamiento basado en la evolución del genoma y de las proteínas implicadas.
Palabras clave: Producto natural, bioactividad, estructura privilegiada, descubrimiento de fármacos, dominios proteicos.
Abstract: This article aims to highlight the importance of natural products in the global drug market and the key role they play in the search for new drugs today. The great effectiveness of these privileged structures, viable starting points or seeded and biologically tested, can be explained by reasoning based on genome evolution and proteins involved.
Keywords: Natural product, bioactivity, privileged structure, drug discovery, protein domain.