SCIENCE-LATIN AMERICA: Intergenerational Power Struggles

By Mario Osava Reprint | | Print |

Mario Osava

ANGRA DOS REIS, Brazil, Sep 7 2006 (IPS) - “He lacks grey hairs,” argued the head of a Latin American scientific association when he blocked the promotion to the board of his institution of a young colleague who had won awards for his contributions to medical science.

This is just an illustration of the intergenerational power struggle in the scientific world, said Israel Vega, an Argentine researcher who took part in the meeting of young scientists organised by the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS) during its Sep. 2-6 general conference in Angra dos Reis, a Brazilian resort 150 km from Rio de Janeiro.

For the first time, TWAS incorporated the meeting of talented young researchers in the conference that it holds every three years.

The gatherings of young scientists (under 40) draw researchers from the region where the TWAS conferences are held, from a different field on each occasion.

Twenty-nine researchers from seven Latin American countries, selected from more than 130 who signed up for the meeting of young scientists, presented their research in the field of biology. The next meeting of young researchers, from central and south Asia, will be held in Pakistan, parallel to the next TWAS conference.

Researchers from Latin America recognised the importance of the initiative, but some criticised the “lack of communication” and rigid separation between the (largely grey-haired) members of TWAS and the younger scientists, as if they produced a different kind of research.

The intergenerational power struggles in academia and scientific associations tend to be accentuated by the fast pace at which science evolves and the emergence of “new frontiers” of knowledge in which young people are often at the forefront, Vega told IPS.

The academic world is “very hierarchical,” commented one of his female colleagues.

Vega presented a poster of a study on the use of a cyanobacterium that evolved for millions of years, as a bioindicator of water pollution.

His fellow Argentine researcher, Victoria Mendizábal, is concerned about the declining attention given by the “central countries” to scientific activity in Latin America and the Caribbean, as higher priority in terms of aid and cooperation is given to Africa, the world’s least developed region.

In the World Academy of Young Scientists (WAYS), for example, Latin Americans are underrepresented in proportional terms, said Mendizábal, the regional director of the organisation, which was founded in 2003 in Hungary. That underrepresentation is also seen in other international organisations, she said.

The negative effects of the “graduation” of Latin America and the Caribbean to the status of a region that does not need so much support from the “central countries” include a decline in scholarships and support for specific projects, and the exclusion of the region’s students and researchers from the system of “subsidies for reinsertion for graduates returning to their home countries,” she told IPS.

To overcome these disadvantages, Mendizábal and several of her colleagues have begun to discuss ways to exert pressure on international bodies in defence of a stronger Latin American presence in scientific forums, and of maintaining the flow of aid from rich countries.

Latin America is not homogeneous, she underlined, noting that there are very poor countries like Paraguay and Surinam, and that endemic poverty exists even in the most developed countries, like Argentina and Brazil.

Furthermore, this is a region of abundant natural resources and great biodiversity, which require intense specific research, said Mendizábal, who brought to Angra dos Reis a study on “the two sides” of cannabinoids, psychoactive compounds extracted from the marijuana plant.

While these compounds generate addiction on one hand, they also block brain receptors, which means they could be used in treating addictions caused by other drugs, like cocaine, said the Argentine researcher.

Another demand set forth by the young scientists is the need to facilitate imports of research equipment and material like reactive chemicals, which are indispensable ingredients that are not produced at a national level and are often too costly and complicated to acquire abroad, due to bureaucratic obstacles, said Brazilian researcher Stevens Rehen.

Rehen has not personally faced age-related obstacles in his career. He is already president of the Brazilian Society of Neurosciences and Behaviour – despite his lack of grey hair.

The regional conference of young scientists was, in his opinion, an excellent initiative that gave rise to a meeting of “impressive diversity” of researchers and proposals, and to a productive exchange of ideas. He and colleagues from Mexico, for instance, decided to begin working together in his area of expertise.

The study presented by Rehen at the conference is unintelligible to laymen: “mosaicism and aneuploidy in the human brain”.