Alexandra Ozorio de Almeida - Editor in Chief
Letter from the Editor | 306
At a crossroads
The eastern Amazon is no longer a carbon dioxide sink and is now a source of this greenhouse gas, according to a recently published study. Confirming previous, less comprehensive data, the research sought to measure the carbon balance in areas of the Amazon suffering varying levels of deforestation, wild fires, and climate change. The results... View Article
Letter from the Editor | 305
No census
Every 10 years, IBGE researchers visit every household in Brazil to carry out the national census, collecting demographic and socioeconomic data on the country’s inhabitants. Brazil’s first census took place almost 150 years ago, at a time when one of the questions was whether the individual was free or enslaved. It is the main source... View Article
Letter from the editor | 304
A bleak outlook
On January 15, 1951, Brazilian President Eurico Dutra passed Law 1310, establishing what was at the time called the National Research Council (CNPq). The law’s first article outlined the council’s purpose: “to foster and stimulate the development of scientific and technological research in all fields of knowledge.” Almost six months later, on July 11, CAPES... View Article
Letter from the editor | 303
Education is not a privilege
One of the lasting impacts of the novel coronavirus pandemic relates to an essential area for all nations: education, which is fundamental to the future of developing countries like Brazil. In addition to the already high number of 1.3 million children and teenagers not enrolled in education in Brazil, a further 4 million students have... View Article
Letter from the editor | 302
Principles and decisions
Viruses are simple but sophisticated organisms. They have no efficient mechanism for correcting genetic errors that occur during replication, meaning that changes to their genome are incorporated into future generations. These mutations can be harmless, or they can make the virus more efficient—which is all the more undesirable when humans are the hosts. A year... View Article
Letter from the editor
Stolen heritage
Illegal fossil extraction is poorly reported and a more common problem than you would think. Developing nations whose soils are rich in prehistoric records often suffer from limitations such as insufficient security and oversight, leading to increased smuggling of valuable artifacts, which frequently end up in the hands of private collectors or even in museums.... View Article
Letter from the editor | 300
Numbers
With the second most COVID-19 deaths in the world, Brazil has already surpassed 200,000 victims of the disease. The figure could be much lower if preventive measures proven to be effective were more widely followed, such as social distancing, the use of masks, and strict hygiene practices. It is equally undeniable that the number could... View Article
Letter from the editor | 299
Take care
Surgeon Angelita Habr-Gama has dedicated her career to developing treatment strategies that aim to prevent rectal cancer patients from needing to have the organ removed. The results of research carried out by her group since the 1990s were published last month, showing that patients need not undergo a proctocolectomy if the tumor regresses completely after... View Article
Letter from the editor | 298
Encouraging prospects
In February of this year, when we were putting together the March issue, the first official record of SARS-CoV-2 infection in Brazil was confirmed. We had no idea what the future might bring. Our first article on the topic, “The Novel Coronavirus in Brazil,” reported on the disease’s arrival and described the other types of... View Article
Letter from the editor | 296
Legal subjects
The idea that children are individuals who deserve the same rights as adults, as well as other specific rights based on their inherent vulnerability, is a recent one. Previously seen as belonging to the family or the State, the notion that they deserve particular attention grew in popularity as we learned more about childhood development,... View Article
Letter from the Editor | 294
The plague and the pain
It is no surprise that pandemics have a significant impact on the population’s mental health. The fear of contagion and death, the immediate impact of an economic downturn, the stress of confinement, the burden of having to take on tasks that used to be shared by multiple people, and worrying about the future have all... View Article
Letter from the Editor | 293
The challenge of immunization
Less than four months after China notified the WHO that it had identified a cluster of pneumonia cases “of unknown cause,” potential vaccines for the novel coronavirus had already begun human testing. One of the first companies to start phase 1 clinical trials (in humans) was Chinese biopharmaceutical firm Sinovac Biotech, with which the Butantan... View Article
Letter from the Editor | 292
Crucial numbers
Little is known about viruses. Existing on the boundary between the living and the nonliving, they are found in all environments where there is life. Their effects on living beings can be beneficial, harmless, or capable of triggering devastating epidemics, such as Ebola, Zika, and now, SARS-CoV-2. Although the number of species is estimated in... View Article
Letter from the editor
Journalism during a pandemic
On March 20, the Pesquisa FAPESP offices closed and the team began working remotely. The April issue was completed in the midst of a rush to establish new working processes involving videoconferences, content-sharing platforms, and cloud storage. The May edition, meanwhile, was planned and executed from a distance, with only the journal’s photographer, Léo Ramos... View Article
Letter from the editor
A challenge for science
In May 1919, when the H1N1 pandemic known as the Spanish flu was slowing down, the journal Science published an article titled “The Lessons of the Pandemic.” In the article, American sanitation engineer and epidemiologist George A. Soper wrote: “The most astonishing thing about the pandemic was the complete mystery which surrounded it. Nobody seemed... View Article
Editorial
Women and Science
Modern science and its remarkable advances are closely associated with the ideas and research of men. Although this perception is not entirely accurate, it is also not incorrect. Like all human activity, science is a part of our current social structure, which is undoubtedly based on a male perspective. Londa Schiebinger, a professor of the... View Article
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
Pesquisa Fapesp, 20 years
n 1963, a report by the Royal Society on the emigration of scientists sparked a public debate over so-called brain drain. Half a century later, international mobility among scientists is still an object of debate fueled by reports and studies. Initially restricted to people with a background in science and technology, the term currently covers... View Article
Letter from the editor | 286
Evangelicalism and politics
In 1872, the year of the first Brazilian census, almost the entire population of the country defined themselves as Catholic (99.7%). One hundred years later, the proportion had changed, but only slightly, to 91.8% in 1970. Since then, official statistics show, the decline has accelerated: in 1991, the total was 83.3%, and in 2010 it... View Article
Letter from the editor | 284
Journalism for science
In October 1999, the Notícias FAPESP newsletter became the Pesquisa FAPESP journal, expanding the mission for scientific dissemination begun four years earlier by the foundation from which the publication gets its name. Two decades later, the need and desire to inform the public about science produced in Brazil and in the state of São Paulo... View Article
Letter from the editor
Fortune and chance
Science evolves in a nonlinear manner. Subject to mishaps and chance, its path is much more lively and interesting than one might presume. Frequently, there is a good story behind important discoveries. One of these stories happened one hundred years ago and had Brazil as its stage. In 1919, Albert Einstein was not yet the... View Article
Letter from the editor | 283
Brains on the move
In 1963, a report on the emigration of scientists by the British scientific academy The Royal Society triggered what would come to be known as the brain drain debate. The origin of the term is attributed to then Minister of Science Lord Hailsham, who accused the USA of “parasitizing British brains.” Half a century later,... View Article
Letter from the editor | 282
Technology Purchase
Five years ago, the Brazilian government signed a purchasing contract for a batch of military jets from Swedish company Saab. This month, the first model of the new generation Gripen E fighter is scheduled to take off from the city of Linköping, Sweden, to begin its flight test campaign, the last stage before delivery in... View Article
Letter from the editor | 281
Too much plastic
Versatility is one of the many useful characteristics of plastic, which can be used in a range of applications in place of glass, wood, paper, metal, and natural fabrics, making it ubiquitous in modern society. Global plastic production was 2 million tons in 1950, and reached around 400 million tons in 2016. It is the... View Article
Letter from the editor | 280
The horizons of science
Man’s arrival on the Moon captured the public imagination better than any other scientific or technological achievement in the modern era. The feat seemed so unattainable that, to this day, conspiracy theories abound that the entire event was faked by the US government in the midst of a space race against the Soviet Union. Believe... View Article
Letter from the editor | 279
Brazilian paleontology on the rise
Argentina and Brazil are home to some of the oldest dinosaur fossils ever discovered. With a long history in paleontology, Argentina has thoroughly explored a geological layer in the provinces of San Juan and La Rioja that dates to the first stage of the Upper Triassic period (between 237 million and 227 million years ago),... View Article
Letter from the editor
Brains and births
The Biobank brain collection is a direct beneficiary of the University of São Paulo’s link with the city’s postmortem investigation service. The collection, which includes over 3,000 specimens donated by relatives of people subject to an autopsy, is a valuable contribution to research on aging, enabling advances in fields such as Alzheimer’s disease. Psychiatric disorders... View Article
Letter from the editor | 276
Knowledge for all
The journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, published by the British Academy of Sciences, is the oldest scientific journal in the world. It was founded in 1665 and sold at 1 shilling per copy with the aim of presenting an overview of new discoveries in natural philosophy. Started as a personal project by the... View Article
Letter from the Editor | 275
From neural networks to artificial intelligence
In the early 1990s, researchers from São Paulo submitted research proposals to FAPESP on artificial neural networks, a relatively unknown field at the time, in which computer systems simulate the human central nervous system. The objective is to develop algorithms that recognize patterns, allowing the machine to “learn.” Artificial intelligence (AI) first emerged in the... View Article
Letter from the editor | 273
Advances in Alzheimer’s research
One of the benefits of the University of São Paulo’s link with the city of São Paulo’s postmortem investigation service is the Biobank brain collection for studies into aging. The 3,000 specimens, donated by relatives of people who were subject to an autopsy after their death, are a highly valuable contribution to research, enabling advances... View Article
Letter from the Editor | 272
The role of museums
Images of the Brazilian National Museum in flames shocked the world. The 200-year-old institution, based in a former imperial palace, was home to plants and animals collected during nineteenth-century expeditions throughout Brazil, mummies and minerals gathered by the Portuguese royal family, prehistoric fossils and meteorites, and artifacts of extinct indigenous peoples. A collection of inestimable... View Article