Vol. 9 No. 2 (2021): Ambiens Techne et Scientia México

In this second issue of 2021 where we continue with the global epidemic of the Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (calling the disease COVID-19), we mentioned in our previous issue the sad news of the sudden death of Dr. Alberto Florentino Aguilera-Alvarado, founding member of our Editorial Board and dear friend. We accompany his dear wife, Dr. María Irene Cano-Rodríguez, also founder of this journal and who is the Treasurer of our Network for Environmental Quality Analysis in Mexico, RACAM, in this difficult situation.

In the next month of September 2021, a well-deserved tribute will be held to Dr. Alberto Florentino Aguilera-Alvarado, by his Alma mater where he was the former Director of the Faculty of Chemistry and one of the founders of the Graduate Program in Chemical Engineering. We attach the allusive poster to the tribute.

Dr. Aguilera was a distinguished student of our Faculty of Chemistry at UNAM where he studied to obtain the Master's Degree in Chemical Engineering and his thesis was done with Dr. Jorge Ramírez-Solís. Below is his academic record of the UNAM General Directorate of Libraries:

There are so many experiences of his life so full and full of professionalism, honesty and chivalry that in this issue we will be presenting different facets of his life.

 Alberto Florentino Aguilera-Alvarado and María Irene Cano-Rodríguez

Therefore, in this presentation we want to remember him as a friend, as a colleague and as one of the pillars of chemical engineering in Mexico.

Our first contribution of this second issue is the tribute of the Aguilera-Cano Family, Mrs. Dr. María Irene Cano-Rodríguez, the young Alfredo Aguilera-Cano and the young Alejandra Aguilera-Cano, to her beloved husband and beloved father. The second is from one of his colleagues at the University of Guanajuato who read his profile in the tribute of September 2021. The third and subsequent are topics related to the work of the authors and dedicated in honor of Dr. Alberto Florentino Aguilera Alvarado.

 Rest in peace

 Dr. Alberto Florentino Aguilera-Alvarado

and we reiterate our deepest condolences to Mrs. Dr. Cano-Rodríguez and her two children, as well as to all of her colleagues, friends, students, and family.

In this issue, again, the remaining five contributions include the social, artistic, economic, and natural sciences, as well as engineering. The second of them gives information that allows to elucidate perhaps one of the many 'whys' of this pandemic: The indiscriminate use of chemical substances such as tetracyclines, antibiotics that are used without control, especially in China and that have altered the ecological balance. They are allowing viruses - like SARS-CoV-2 - to get out of control. We had already had a warning with mycotoxins^[1] in the 60s of the twentieth century when half of the turkeys^[2] in England died, but we did not learn the lesson and we continue on that path that can lead to the extinction of 'Homo sapiens'. Our first contribution points out these wrong paths that human beings take without thinking about the consequences of changing, supposedly, to improve ourselves: drying lake basins, using agrochemicals, among many more wrong paths against our home, planet Earth. In Mexico they say "the third is the charm" and if we do not take care of ourselves and our planet, "the third will be the charm".

Welcome to this forum of fraternal and sororal networks:

Network for Environmental Quality Analysis in Mexico

 and

 International Network of Environmental Sciences

from the Faculty of Chemistry of the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

The editor-in-chief

[1]              Mycotoxins such as aflatoxins (Aspergillus flavus, a micro-fungus that grows mainly in grains)

[2]              These animals come from Mexico, a gift to the world, and its name is guajolote, the Nahuatl name of this bird (Meleagris gallopavo L.), meaning big jester (huey = big, xólotl = jester) from Don Luis Cabrera's posthumous dictionary of aztequismos published by Colofón, S.A., in 2002