Science
for
Brazil
ScienceForBrazil.com celebrates the achievements of Brazilian science, identifies research opportunities and funding for foreign scientists working in Brazil, and profiles technology innovation in the academic, public policy, business development and commercial arenas.
Does Brazil hold keys to global “Plant Plague”?
A sinister plant disease with the power to destroy farmers’ livelihoods named “the Ebola of olive trees” is on the march across Europe during 2018; yet the same bacteria could for decades have been affecting coffee plantations, orange groves and other high value crops in Latin America. In fact some of the science now needed …Continue Reading
Where’s my Puppy? Digital Lost and Found
CROWDPET: “Have you seen Smudge”? In cities around the world, lamp-posts and park railings are regularly festooned with piteous messages – often written in heart-rendingly childish script – attached to faded photographs of cherished but lost family pets. Cats, dogs, escaped parrots, even the occasional anaconda. Missing pet flyers are a global tug on humanity’s …Continue Reading
Biopiracy fear incites Pharma “Dutch Disease”
It’s been half a millennium since European visitors first came to Brazil, in pursuit of its mineral and agricultural riches. Jesuit missionaries also discovered huge wealth in the “drogas do sertão” or back-country remedies such as sarsaparilla, guaraná, or urucum, all widely used in early medicine. Fears that foreign “biopirates” were stealing these riches – …Continue Reading
Scientist puts venture capitalists under microscope
Private Equity Bay (Pebay): It’s normal for scientific research and business to inhabit parallel but quite distinct worlds, with investors only showing much interest in innovators once they’ve developed marketable products. Many a would-be scientist entrepreneur has waited nervously for a venture capitalist to “run the slide rule” over his or her ideas. But now …Continue Reading
On-time trains need “Digital Fat Controller.”
CFlex: Spend five minutes with any railway enthusiast and you’ll discover his (or very occasionally her) real obsession is with scheduling, logistics – and “making the trains run on time.” Indeed, the runaway global success of the 70 year-old Thomas the Tank Engine children’s book and toy franchise, features stories that hinge on the restoration …Continue Reading
Brazilian Biofuels ‘to cut global CO2 emissions by 5%’
Brazil’s world-leading ethanol fuel industry has the potential to substitute almost 14% of global oil consumption, in the process reducing global emissions of carbon dioxide by as much as 5.6% by 2045, so breathing new life into the race to meet the climate change targets laid down in the Paris Climate Accords. The forecast comes …Continue Reading
Genomics Beefing up Cattle Ranching
Deoxi Biotecnologia: Already the world’s largest exporter of beef according to the USDA, Brazil is preparing a hi-tech leap into the future of ranching through the introduction of genetically modified livestock that build extra muscle fibre. For almost a century Brazilian ranchers have been crossing European strains of beef cattle with Nelore stock from India, …Continue Reading
Postgraduate job market looks to startups
Brazil might be enjoying the dubious privilege of a “full employment recession,” yet two years into its worst-ever economic downturn, the creation of new high-quality jobs remains a priority in an economy where unskilled posts in industry or agriculture have traditionally predominated. Startups play a significant role in creating value-added employment opportunities for the more …Continue Reading
Farmers’ Hi-Tech Eye in the Sky
XMobots: For a nation of continental dimensions with poor roads or land communications but extensive agriculture, mining and energy infrastructure projects, drones or Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) are the natural choice for cost-effective monitoring across Brazil. For instance, geologists and environmental consultants charged with measuring and monitoring US$13.4 billion worth of ecological damage to the …Continue Reading
Diamond Class Innovation
CVDVale: A world leader in diamond production during the 17th and 18th centuries, for well over a century Brazil has languished far behind the mines of Africa. Although a resurgence of natural diamond mining is unlikely, innovative production of synthetic diamonds for use in the dental health, oil, mining and automotive industries could now bring …Continue Reading
Researching in Brazil
Brazil’s best-known scientist, the veteran nuclear physicist José Goldemberg, in September 2015 took office as the president of the São…Read more