{"id":163678,"date":"2013-10-05T17:44:50","date_gmt":"2013-10-05T20:44:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/?p=163678"},"modified":"2015-02-11T13:28:19","modified_gmt":"2015-02-11T15:28:19","slug":"the-birds-of-the-amazon-and-the-science-of-sao-paulo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/the-birds-of-the-amazon-and-the-science-of-sao-paulo\/","title":{"rendered":"The birds of the Amazon and the science of S\u00e3o Paulo"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"One

Zig Koch<\/span>One of the\u00a0new species, a\u00a0scythebill called the\u00a0arapa\u00e7u-de-bico-torto<\/em>Zig Koch<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

The cover story on page 6<\/a> of this fourth 2013 international\u00a0issue of the magazine Pesquisa FAPESP<\/em> reports\u00a0on the simultaneous description of 15 new species\u00a0of birds in the Brazilian Amazon in scientific articles published\u00a0in June, 2013 in a special volume of Handbook of the\u00a0birds of the world<\/em>, a fundamental reference work for professional\u00a0and amateur ornithologists. The work represents an\u00a0extremely important Brazilian contribution to the understanding\u00a0of biodiversity and, at the same time, signifies the\u00a0greatest discovery in Brazilian ornithology in at least 140\u00a0years. Eleven of the new species described are endemic to\u00a0Brazil, and four of them are also found in Peru and Bolivia.\u00a0Together, they represent a nearly 1% increase in the known\u00a0biodiversity of birds in Brazil, today totaling almost 1,840\u00a0species of birds, a number second only to that of Colombia,\u00a0which has approximately 1,900 species.<\/p>\n

Usually, the scientific discovery of new species is published\u00a0in specialized journals rather than in books. However,\u00a0in this case, the importance and singularity of the body of\u00a0information described led the authors to decide to gather\u00a0their material together in the 17-volume collection Handbook\u00a0of the birds of the world<\/em>. Each species has been described\u00a0in a scientific article identical to what would normally\u00a0be published in a peer-reviewed academic journal.\u00a0Although birds are the most studied vertebrates in biology,\u00a0ornithologists say that there is still much to be learned\u00a0about them. And Brazilian museums contain many specimens\u00a0from different biomes including the Amazon forest\u00a0that will certainly be described in the coming years.<\/p>\n

Those who like prospective studies, or just\u00a0enjoy dreaming about the future, will find a\u00a0wealth of raw materials from which to imagine\u00a0possible scenarios in the panorama of scientific\u00a0research in S\u00e3o Paulo over the next ten years,\u00a0given the new list of 17 Research, Innovation\u00a0and Dissemination Centers (RIDCs) announced\u00a0by FAPESP in May 2013. Of course, there are\u00a0always uncertainties and imponderable interventions\u2014in addition to the possibility of economic\u00a0and political changes\u2014which would lead\u00a0to unforeseen paths in the mists of what\u2019s to\u00a0come. But, with this proviso, the $680 million\u00a0to be invested in these centers over the next\u00a011 years, $370 million of which will come from\u00a0FAPESP and $310 million will be provided in\u00a0the form of salaries paid by the host institutions to the researchers and technical personnel\u00a0involved, will without a doubt substantially\u00a0contribute to the future structure and major\u00a0thrust of scientific knowledge production in this state within a decade.<\/p>\n

These centers focus on research in such diverse\u00a0areas as neuromathematics and mathematics\u00a0applied to industry, neuroscience and\u00a0neurotechnology, the development of new\u00a0drugs and cell therapies, inflammatory diseases\u00a0and obesity, biomedicine, new glass and\u00a0ceramic materials, optics and photonics, computational\u00a0science and engineering, studies\u00a0of metropolitan areas and studies of violence,\u00a0to name a few, all being developed in the decentralized,\u00a0exciting research environment\u00a0in the state of S\u00e3o Paulo. This creates a rich,\u00a0multifaceted profile for the state\u2019s science and\u00a0technology sector, in line with the major trends\u00a0in international research, and simultaneously taking into account local idiosyncrasies that\u00a0must be understood and overcome (such as\u00a0the contemporary phenomenon of violence).\u00a0All RIDCs must, first and foremost, work to\u00a0remain at the cutting edge of knowledge. And,\u00a0secondly, the centers must be intrinsically committed\u00a0to creating knowledge, to generating\u00a0innovations derived from this knowledge that\u00a0can be effectively used by society, and to disseminating\u00a0this knowledge and these innovations\u00a0to society. This is the role of the RIDCs\u00a0in the best policies to increase Brazil\u2019s scientific\u00a0culture.<\/p>\n

Note that these centers will initially hire\u00a0535 researchers from S\u00e3o Paulo and 69 other\u00a0countries, a respectable team for a notable\u00a0effort to increase and broaden the impact of\u00a0Brazilian science developed in the state of S\u00e3o\u00a0Paulo. More details are in the report that begins\u00a0on page 28<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Enjoy!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The birds of the Amazon and the science of S\u00e3o Paulo","protected":false},"author":82,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[158],"tags":[],"coauthors":[373],"class_list":["post-163678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editorial-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/82"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163678\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163678"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=163678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}