{"id":216580,"date":"2016-05-02T18:31:17","date_gmt":"2016-05-02T21:31:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/?p=216580"},"modified":"2016-05-02T18:31:17","modified_gmt":"2016-05-02T21:31:17","slug":"land-of-new-ideas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/land-of-new-ideas\/","title":{"rendered":"Land of new ideas"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Forum

Kay Herschelmann \/ FWF<\/span>Forum held during breaks at the Berlin conferenceKay Herschelmann \/ FWF<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

from\u00a0Berlin*<\/em><\/p>\n

On November 8 and 9, 2015, scientists, politicians, and business executives gathered in Berlin for an international competition and conference, both testaments to the fact that Germany\u2014among the\u00a0 world\u2019s foremost producers of science and technology\u2014is expanding its role and promoting innovative efforts of other countries to help resolve problems that affect the world as a whole.\u00a0 The gatherings, organized by Falling Walls, a foundation established in 2009 with support from the German Ministry of Education and Research, coincide with the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall to emphasize the necessity of breaking down the barriers that stand in the way of science.\u00a0 Little Sun, a portable solar lamp sponsored by the foundation, shows that this goal can be achieved.\u00a0 Created by artist Olafur Eliasson and engineer Frederick Ottesen, the sunflower-shaped lamp is now being used by 200,000 Africans without access to electricity.\u00a0 Other barriers, however, are proving more resistant.\u00a0 A conference attendee from Bangladesh pointed to gender differences, for example, and the obstacle they pose to development in poorer countries.<\/p>\n

The November meetings in Berlin helped mold \u201cthe future vision of Europe\u201d on a foundation of international cooperation, explained Minister of Education and Research Johanna Wanka at the opening session of the conference.\u00a0 By giving creative researchers (in the presence of business executives and government representatives) a voice, the competition and conference could be integrated with other efforts to strengthen the sciences in Germany supporting international cooperation agreements with research institutions, and\u00a0 incentives for U.S.-based German scientists to return to their country.\u00a0 With the support of Chancellor Angela Merkel, a physicist by training, investment in sciences and innovation has increased steadily, from approximately \u20ac9\u00a0billion (R$35 billion) in 2005 to \u20ac14.4\u00a0billion (R$57 billion) in 2013.\u00a0 The Research and Innovation Pact has promoted incentives for university reform, the creation of new research centers, and development of collaborative projects with private companies.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am an example of the internationalization of German science,\u201d claims Marcos Lana, an agronomist from the state of Santa Catarina, now at the Leibniz Center for Agricultural Landscape Research in M\u00fcncheberg, where he has been since 2009.\u00a0 In collaboration with the Brazilian Center for Ethanol Technology (CBTE) in Campinas, Lana now coordinates a project on subsistence agriculture in a semiarid interior region of Tanzania.<\/p>\n

\"The

GERARD MALIE \/ AFP<\/span>The fall of the Berlin Wall, 1989: inspirations for scienceGERARD MALIE \/ AFP<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

Lana was one of four Brazilians among the 100 finalists to present their work at the fifth edition of the Falling Walls Lab competition.\u00a0 Participants had only three minutes to present their projects and convince the jury that they were working on something truly relevant.\u00a0 A great diversity of research was presented.\u00a0 A researcher from Israel demonstrated a technique for detecting the risk of autism in one-month-old infants through their response to sound stimuli, while another involved a prototype of a water filter to be used in shantytowns in India.\u00a0 Some projects were of a more conceptual nature, such as the use of artificial muscles, or nanocompounds for detoxifying drug addicts.\u00a0 Voicing the difficulty faced by most of the innovators that had gathered for the event, Joshua Lee of the University of Alberta, after demonstrating his gene-repair technique, explained that he was \u201clooking for financing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The evening began with a presentation of the jury\u2019s selection of the three best innovative ideas by researchers and students up to age 35, from 40 countries.\u00a0 These included a device for early detection of risk of premature birth during gestation developed at the Zurich Polytechnic School, a technique for detecting prostate cancer metastasis devised at the University of Alberta, and a method for producing hydrogen through a chemical reaction of water and aluminum developed at Israel\u2019s Technion Institute of Technology.<\/p>\n

On the following day, the Falling Walls Conference brought together senior scientists and business executives to address topics of global importance.\u00a0 Before an audience of 700 people, Saskia Sassen, a sociology professor at Columbia University in New York, spoke about transformations underway in the world\u2019s great cities caused by migration and the gentrification of neighborhoods previously occupied by the poor who now reside in peripheral areas.\u00a0 In an informal exchange where the speakers explained their ideas in forum discussions between the official presentations, Sassen raised the following question: \u201cWhat if the waves of refugee migrations represent more than just a temporary phenomenon, and mark the beginning of a new historical stage where land is lost because of war, the expansion of agriculture, or desertification?\u201d<\/p>\n

Approaching the stage, June Andrews, professor at the University of Stirling in the UK, asked, \u201cWho wants to live to age 90?\u201d\u00a0 Seeing a number of hands raised, Andrews informed the audience that half of all people age 90 or more suffers from dementia, a condition marked by the gradual decline of physical and mental abilities.\u00a0 She then argued for practical and urgent measures to help those with dementia\u2014those who, according to her, \u201cfind themselves in a place they don\u2019t recognize, or can\u2019t understand what people are saying.\u201d<\/p>\n

Physicist Andrea Accomazzo, one of the directors of the European Space Agency, remarked that Rosetta, the European space probe that landed on a comet in November 2015 after a 10-year voyage, might have marked the beginning of a new era of space exploration.\u00a0 \u201cWe might have to leave this planet someday,\u201d she suggested.\u00a0 Accomazzo is not alone in this way of thinking.\u00a0 Just the day before, a Chinese researcher, one of the Falling Walls Lab finalists, had proposed initiatives to create an artificial environment for human habitation on the moon, where plants would provide the necessary oxygen for life.<\/p>\n

* The reporter traveled to attend the conference at the invitation of the Falling Walls Foundation<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A conference in Germany promote innovative proposals from other countries ","protected":false},"author":17,"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":[166],"tags":[243],"coauthors":[5968],"class_list":["post-216580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-policies-st-en","tag-innovation"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216580","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\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216580\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216580"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=216580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}