{"id":577344,"date":"2026-04-28T11:39:39","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T14:39:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/?p=577344"},"modified":"2026-04-28T11:39:39","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T14:39:39","slug":"versatile-scientist-henrique-lins-de-barros-studied-everything-from-magnetic-bacteria-to-santos-dumont","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/versatile-scientist-henrique-lins-de-barros-studied-everything-from-magnetic-bacteria-to-santos-dumont\/","title":{"rendered":"Versatile scientist Henrique Lins de Barros studied everything from magnetic bacteria to Santos-Dumont"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Mast Collection<\/span>The researcher during his last visit to MAST, Rio de Janeiro, in April 2024Mast Collection<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

After giving up studying engineering to pursue a degree in physics and a master’s and doctorate in atomic physics, Henrique Gomes de Paiva Lins de Barros, from Rio de Janeiro, never imagined that his research would one day lead him to the murky waters of Rio’s lagoons, where he would search for bacteria that might provide clues about the origin of life. Much less did he think he would end up writing screenplays for films or be considered a leading expert on the Brazilian inventor Alberto Santos-Dumont (1873\u20131932). Recognized for his achievements in all these fields and several others, Lins de Barros died on September 27, at age 78.<\/p>\n

“His career embodies the interdisciplinarity of the history of technology and science,” says physicist Geraldo Cernicchiaro of the Brazilian Center for Physics Research (CBPF) in Rio de Janeiro, the institution with which Lins de Barros was affiliated since 1976. “He was interested in the orientation and movement processes of bacteria, but also of aircraft. He could talk about literature, history, and various other fields of knowledge. A polymath, he used to say.”<\/p>\n

The apartment in Copacabana where he grew up was frequented by physicists such as C\u00e9sar Lattes (1924\u20132005). His father, Henry British (1917\u20132000), who had a degree in electrical engineering and served in the Brazilian Navy, was one of the founders of the CBPF in 1949, as part of an initiative led by Lattes and fellow physicist Jos\u00e9 Leite Lopes (1918\u20132006).<\/p>\n

Before applying to study physics, he even considered becoming a musician, following in the footsteps of his uncle Nelson. Physics appeared to be the most viable alternative, despite Lattes’s playful discouragement, who told a young Lins de Barros that everything he himself had achieved was not worth a single Mozart symphony (see<\/em> Pesquisa FAPESP issue no. 138<\/em>).<\/p>\n

He completed his undergraduate and master’s degrees at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), and his PhD at the CBPF in 1978. A short grainy film showing bacteria “swimming” along the lines of a magnetic field was all it took to steer his career toward biology.<\/p>\n

Together with CBPF researcher Darci Motta (1944\u20132022), he formed a group to search for these magnetic bacteria in the lakes of Rio de Janeiro. What they found was beyond their expectations. “They discovered a multicellular magnetotactic organism\u2014Magnetoglobus\u2014that had never been observed before. It was not a colony or a group of bacteria, but an organism,” says Daniel Acosta-Avalos, a physicist at the same institution. Magnetotactic refers to bacteria that are not only magnetic, but move by following magnetic fields.<\/p>\n

In recognition of the importance of their findings, a 2024 article in PLOS Biology<\/em> honored the Brazilian group by naming these bacterial consortia after them. The one named after Lins de Barros, Candidatus Magnetoglobus debarrosii<\/em>, is found in the USA.<\/p>\n

Fernanda Abreu, a microbiologist at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) and a member of the group, recalls that Lins de Barros described Magnetoglobus as the “missing link of multicellularity,” representing an element of the transition from prokaryotic (unicellular) to eukaryotic (multicellular) organisms. “These bacteria may be of great importance in understanding the evolution of life,” he explained.<\/p>\n

And not just life on Earth. Greigite, one of the minerals Lins de Barros helped identify as an iron sulfide crystal produced by these bacteria, was recently found in traces on Mars. Structures similar to the magnetite and iron sulfide nanocrystals of magnetic bacteria had already been found on the ALH 84001 meteorite in 1985, which led Lins de Barros, cited with his group by the Science<\/em> article describing the discovery, to joke that there was a \u201cMartian in the lake,\u201d recalls Acosta-Avalos.<\/p>\n

Lins de Barros\u2019s interest in the pioneering Brazilian aviator Santos-Dumont arose when he needed to spice up his physics classes. He had the idea of using the balance of forces in an airplane, remembering his childhood fascination with aircraft and watching them from his apartment window. When he learned about the inescapable dispute over who was the first to fly\u2014Santos-Dumont or the American Wright brothers (Orville, 1871\u20131948, and Wilbur, 1867\u20131912)\u2014he decided to investigate the matter further.<\/p>\n

His research deepened after he got in touch with Santos-Dumont\u2019s family. “When I opened the first album, I realized I was holding something very special. More than 10,000 clippings from various newspapers around the world reporting information about the life of Alberto Santos-Dumont,” he wrote in a statement preserved by physicist Ricardo Magalh\u00e3es, current director of the Santos-Dumont Cultural Institute (ICS-D), of which Lins de Barros was a founding member.<\/p>\n

“Henrique Lins de Barros used his skills as a physicist to give a scientific perspective on what Santos-Dumont did,” says Magalh\u00e3es. In his many lectures and books, Lins de Barros argued that the Brazilian inaugurated the twentieth century and aeronautics by circling the Eiffel Tower in his aircraft in 1901.<\/p>\n

The physicist had a chance to experience the difficulties faced by Santos-Dumont when he assisted pilot Alan Calassa in the successful construction of a replica of the 14-Bis in 2005. “When he saw that I had used reverse engineering to build a replica from the photos in his book, he said: ‘I thought someone might scrutinize what I wrote, but not measure the photos with calipers!’\u201d Calassa recalls.<\/p>\n

Out of concern for preserving the historical records of science, Lins de Barros also dedicated some of his time to science communication. He served as director of MAST (1992\u20132000), worked at the Museum of the Environment at Rio\u2019s Botanical Garden (2014 and 2015), and helped train a new generation of museologists and science historians.<\/p>\n

“At MAST, he played an important role in building archives of work by Brazilian scientists. We now have more than 70 scientists represented,” says Marcio Rangel, the museum’s current director. “He was brilliant. When he explained things, we were captivated,\u201d says Rangel, who was supervised by Lins de Barros during his undergraduate research in 1993.<\/p>\n

After retiring from the CBPF during the COVID-19 pandemic, the physicist remained active at home, together with his wife of 54 years, anthropologist Myriam Moraes Lins de Barros. He drew, painted, produced music, and wrote fiction, with the same drive that led him to write the screenplay for the film O homem pode voar <\/em>(Man can fly), directed by Nelson Hoineff in 2006.<\/p>\n

While hospitalized for 40 days with pneumonia and an aneurysm in July this year, he gave copies of his book of short stories, Minto, logo existo<\/em> (I lie, therefore I am; Dial\u00e9tica, 2023), to everyone who came to visit him. After being discharged, he was recovering well at home when he suffered a massive heart attack.<\/p>\n

He is survived by his wife Myriam, his daughters Monica, a biologist, and Flavia, a geographer, and four grandchildren. His son Daniel passed away in 2011. Daniel, whose twin brother Roberto died four days after they were born prematurely in 1972, had disabilities caused by a brain injury. He was a source of great pride for Lins de Barros and was frequently in the audience at his father’s lectures.<\/p>\n

The story above was published with the title “The polymath physicist<\/strong>” in issue 357 of November\/2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The physicist, who died at age 78, also dedicated himself to science communication and the history of science","protected":false},"author":740,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","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":[1348],"tags":[235],"coauthors":[4572],"class_list":["post-577344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-obituary","tag-physics"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577344","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\/740"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=577344"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577344\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":577349,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577344\/revisions\/577349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=577344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=577344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=577344"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=577344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}