International issue | February 2004

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Cover

Atoms for doing calculations
Brazilian physicists in the worldwide race in search of the quantum computer

S&T Policy

Cattle ranching

The advance of the cattle herds

The bovine functional genome project will widen Brazil's competitive advantage in the international beef market

Mega Science

Network of life

Software permits the integration of data banks with information on plants,animals and microorganisms

environment

Protection for biodiversity

Biota-Pará Project draws up list of species threatened with extinction

Science

MEDICINE

Restored heart

Results from the first transplants using stem cells in Brazil usher in the prospect of using this technique against cardiac arrest, one of the main causes of death in the world

Genomics

On the trail of a vaccine

Brazilians sequence the genome of the bacterium that causes leptospirosis and request patents for twenty-four proteins

Paleontology

Under the palm trees

A biology teacher and a farmer take part in the discovery of a vast deposit of dinosaur fossils in the interior of Maranhão

Physics

The genesis of DNA

Mathematical model describes the competition between molecules that made it possible for living beings to emerge on Earth

Biochemistry

Pitomba versus pests

Protein extracted from the fruit eliminates fungi and borers

Botany

Long life for pernambuco wood

Seeds of the plant are preserved for a year and a half, six times more than used to be thought

Ecology

Shadows over the forest

Clouds of smoke from forest clearing fires block out 20% of the light from the sun, reduce rainfall and cool down the Amazon forest

ethology

Monkeys that almost speak

Typical of the Atlantic Rain Forest, the woolly spider monkeys have a singular form of communication

Oceanography

Oasis in danger

Biologists plan the repopulation of the coral reefs, one of the richest environments in the world, threatened by excessive fishing

Technology

Software

The computer's voice

Linguists and engineers from Unicamp formulate a speech system with a Brazilian accent

Steel Making

Lucrative marriage

A fourteen-year partnership between the university and the company CSN has brought in some US$ 85 million for the company

Materials engineering

Extra toughness in the air

Unprecedented product gives more resistance to the wingtip lights of Embraer's aircraft

Chemistry

Cachaça without any mystery

Compared with whiskies, the Brazilian drink has fewer aldehydes, substances that are responsible for hangovers

Biotechnology

Hormone on the market

Small company teams up with Brazilian pharmaceutical industry to produce a medicine against dwarfism

Materials Science

Rubber medicine

Material made from the latex of the rubber tree closes ulcers and rebuilds the esophagus and the eardrum

Humanities

Popular culture

Villa Lobos's backwoods trunk

Researcher organizes collection of tunes, ballads, poems and parodies that were in the composer's collection

Anthropology

The album of the patriarchal family

Thesis brings together the conflicting visions of Nelson Rodrigues and Gilberto Freyre on the Brazilians' household upbringing

Scenic Arts

Dario Fo

A study, now transformed into a book, shows how the Italian dramatist guarantees the perenniality of the political theater

History of art

The Gothic in the tropics

A pioneering study in Brazil analyzes the work of the German xylographist Dürer that is stored in Rio de Janeiro