University of São Paulo: New dossier of “Revista USP” analyzes Science and Technology in Brazil bicentennial

In recent decades – one could even say in the last hundred years – science and technology have found a development practically unprecedented in human history. These were transformations that determined the paths that global society has taken in recent times, even in the midst of wars, recessions and pandemics – such as the one we are still facing. Advances are sensitive. But there is still much to conquer – and also to question. “The scientific and technological transformations that shake the economies and societies of advanced and developing countries question long-established practices, opening up a range of questions that touch on the basis of science, in the way it is produced, in its methodologies, reach and relationships” , says Glaucus Arbix,USP Magazine . This number 135 of the publication, edited by the Superintendence of Social Communication (SCS-USP), closes the special tetralogy conceived in honor of the bicentennial of the Independence of Brazil. Previously, dossiers on Economy, Culture and Society and Politics were published ( read more about the magazine’s special issues on the bicentennial at the end of this text ).

This dossier on S&T addresses, in its eight articles, themes that, in various ways, are tangential and even point directly to the role of the university in the scientific and technological development of a nation – in this specific case, Brazil. As the journalist Jurandir Renovato, editor of Revista USP, states,in its editorial, “the science that is produced today in Brazil is the exclusive result of the commitment of the university”. And this commitment is explicit in each of the magazine’s articles, such as “Innovation, science and the places of the university”, by Guilherme Ary Plonski, professor at FEA-USP and director of the Institute of Advanced Studies (IEA) at USP; “Challenges of a research university and its relationship with Brazilian science”, by José Eduardo Krieger, professor of Genetics and Molecular Medicine at the Faculty of Medicine of USP; or “Financing science and research infrastructure in times of crisis”, by Fernanda De Negri, coordinator of the Center for Research in Science, Technology and Society (CTS) at the Institute for Applied Economic Research (Ipea).

In addition to these texts, essential reflections are added, such as the one made on issues of climate and sustainability, by Professor Paulo Artaxo, from the Institute of Physics at USP; on governance and priorities of Brazilian science, by Sergio Salles-Filho, professor at the Department of Scientific and Technological Policy at the Institute of Geosciences at Unicamp; and the one that outlines an important panel on the development of science in Brazil over the last 200 years and its social impacts, by Hernan Chaimovich, Professor Emeritus of the Institute of Chemistry at USP, and Paulo Alves Porto, also from IQ-USP.

The common thread of the dossier texts, in addition to the outstanding role of academia, is the challenge of doing science of excellence in the country, how to overcome this challenge and how to offer results that revert to the various spectrums of society.

In this sense, Glauco Arbix’s vision is clear: “The current explosion of knowledge, which occurs and is perceived in a profoundly unequal way among countries, is only in its beginning. Even with the difficulties inherent in Brazil’s backwardness, science and technology (S&T) that are articulated globally point to the construction of a new level of knowledge generation”, he says in the presentation of the dossier.

In addition to the dossier on Science and Technology, issue 135 of Revista USP also features the Texts, Art and Books sections. Read the new issue of Revista USP here .

Four ways of thinking and interpreting 200 years of Brazil
This new issue of Revista USP on Science and Technology closes a tetralogy that started earlier this year, designed and organized by SCS-USP precisely to reflect on the 200 years of Brazil’s Independence in its most diverse aspects. The inaugural issue of the series, magazine 132 , brought a dossier on the economy in the country in the last two centuries – mainly in its first hundred years of existence, as an independent country –, and was organized by the professor of the Faculty of Economics, Administration and Accounting from USP (FEA-USP) Hélio Nogueira da Cruz. the next numberdedicated itself to reflecting on Culture and Society in Brazil over the last 200 years and its most relevant aspects for the formation of a national identity. This dossier was organized by sociologist and professor Maria Arminda do Nascimento Arruda, former director of the Faculty of Philosophy, Letters and Human Sciences at USP (FFLCH-USP) and current vice-rector of the University. The dossier dedicated to understanding and explaining Politics in Brazil in the last two centuries – a challenging task in itself –, in Revista USP 134 , was in charge of professor and political scientist José Álvaro Moisés, from the Institute of Advanced Studies at USP (IEA-USP).