Issue # 79 _ September 2002

Cover

The saint in the window: Yet another myth of glass

S&T Policy

Development

Partnership Consolidated

Profile of FAPESP's investments in 2001 reinforces commitment to transferring knowledge to the productive sector and public bodies

FAPESP

Letter to researchers

Here is the full text of the letter sent by FAPESP's scientific director to the researchers

history

CNPq's 50 years

Book recovers part of the history of Science&Technology in Brazil, between 1951 and 2001, based on the testimony by the Council's 20 presidents

Investments

Agency for innovation

Finep completes 35 years and consolidates its role in support of R&D&E

Science

Astrophysics

Where stars are born

Unprecedented mapping detects 150 nurseries in the Southern Hemisphere

Chemistry

The triumph of the left-handed

Study by Unicamp explains how amino acids organize themselves at the moment of the formation of proteins in any living being

Medicine

Heart attack - What causes or prevents it

In Brazil, the risk of a heart attack is five times greater amongst smokers, and falls by almost half with moderate consumption of alcohol

Physiology

Losing beat

Failure in terminals of neurons keep the heart speeded up

Genetics

Fine sieve

Fiocruz test detects slight infections of schistosomiasis

cattle raising

Liquid solution

Joint use of hydrating agent and diuretic fights intoxication by ammonia in cattle

toxicology

Altered functions

Experiments with animals attest to the possibility of changes in sexual behavior that may occur during gestation as an effect of pesticides and antiallergic drugs

evolution

When snakes had paws

Polemics over serpents shows how organisms can acquire or lose apparently essential characteristics

environment

In the oven's mouth

Burning eucalyptus to produce charcoal releases irritating and cancerous substances

BIOLOGY

Cleaning up the bottom of the sea

Team from Unicamp reveals the way of life of the cleaner-fish

Ecology

Wealth in danger

Shortage of large animals may reduce the diversity of species in regenerating forests

Technology

Health

Radioactive seeds against cancer

Ipen masters the technology for manufacturing capsules containing iodine-125 for the treatment of prostate tumors

Materials Engineering

Tough for all tests

Unicamp gets together with a company to develop a process that turns gear boxesmore resistant

Food

Nutrition as a defense

A company from the State of Ceara develops products based on the relationship between nutrients and immunology

Astronomical instrumentation

A vision of space

INPE researchers build a telescope to capture x-rays and cosmic gamma rays

Humanities

ETHICS

Critique of pure reason

A book by the North American inventor of the H-bomb, Edward Teller, and a biography on the Russian Andrei Sakharov, discuss the limits of morality within scientific discoveries

Book

The Arab who changed the West

A study on Avicenna reveals the geniality of the thinking that brought philosophy to Western countries

Anthropology

An inverted Sheherezade

Awarded the Érico Vannucci Prize for 2002, the researcher Betty Mindlin has for years been collecting indigenous myths and transforming them into books