Seed's inaugural edition of the State of Science explores the current scientific landscape and its emergent hotspots—along with the motivations and ambitions of the individuals charting its future.
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- Emergent Science City
Natal, Brazil
Sidarta Ribeiro
- Age: 37
- Occupation: Research Director of the International Institute of Neuroscience of Natal Edmond and Lily Safra
- Why I Do Science: Science provides a unique combination of freedom and rigor. As a scientist I have the opportunity to investigate nature in a quantitative manner and to change the world around me. And as the leader of a neuroscience group comprising post-docs, students, and staff I get to do it all: design and perform experiments, mentor students, write papers, interact with peers, and talk to the public. Among the few things I don't like are red tape and writing grants that may never be funded. Right now, in fact, I am working on a grant for the IINN-ELS, where our vision is to promote social improvement for poor communities through science and education. These goals require money, of course. My own ambition is to unravel the neural mechanisms underlying the cognitive role of sleep and dreams.
- Person I'd Most Like to Meet: Nelson Mandela
- Scientist I'd Most Like to Meet: Frans de Waal
- When I Was Little, I Wanted to Be: A magician
- What's on My Nightstand: The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind by Julian Jaynes
- Population: 789,896
- GDP Per Capita (PPP): $9,700
- Type of Government: Federal Republic
Natal is the capital of the northeastern state of Rio Grande do Norte, one of the poorest in Brazil. The state contributes less than one percent to the country's GDP, and the illiteracy rate in Natal is nearly twice the national average.
But this city has now become the grounds for a bold new experiment that will test whether science can leverage economic and social transformation for the region. The International Institute of Neuroscience of Natal (IINN), built on hilly farmland 20 kilometers outside the city proper, incorporates a 25-lab research building, a free health clinic, and a school for children ages 11 to 15. The so-called "campus of the brain" is envisioned as the first of a series of Max-Planck-like institutes scattered across Brazil, the beginnings of a renaissance for the country's scientific research.
Brazilian-born Duke University neuroscientist Miguel Nicolelis first conceived the IINN in 2003 as a means of reversing the brain drain from his homeland. By 2007, Nicolelis and two fellow Brazilian scientists at Duke had raised $25 million toward the project, a sum matched by President Inácio Lula da Silva after he visited the campus last August. (President "Lula" has been so impressed by Nicolelis' efforts that he recently tapped the neuroscientist to create a science curriculum for some 354 new national technical high schools.)
Plans for the IINN to scale up to a 5,000-student school and build additional lab space, a larger health center, a sports complex, and an eco-park highlight an important dimension of Natal's development: the idea that science advances only by fostering social involvement, by extending out from the ivory tower into the community. It also follows the "science park" trend: Ultimately the IINN will form the kernel of a 1,000- to 2,000-hectare biotech park for energy, IT, and pharmaceutical businesses. As Nicolelis and Lula put it in a February editorial, "This giant of the tropics has finally awakened." —Maywa Montenegro
Emergent Science City: Natal, Brazil
Posted November 20, 2008
Originally appeared in Seed 19