Contribuição à organização da pesquisa em Química e os desafios da interação com outras áreas do conhecimento

This article provides some aspects that allow making a current reading of the situation of the Brazilian Chemistry that permit us considerate it as a strategic area. They are still presented some initial proposals related to the organization of the research as well as to win the challenges of the relationship with the other areas of the knowledge.

Geração do conhecimento através da especificação de produtos químicos

Technological innovation connects competitiveness and knowledge. In Brazil, knowledge is mainly concentrated in the universities which undertake R&D. This article aims to show the importance of Brazilian university extension activities, which transfer knowledge to society, contributing, in the case of the chemical sector, to a reduction in the country's total trade deficit of around US$8.5 billion, which is result of the importation of innumerable products. On the other hand, developed countries are resorting to technical barriers, which impose documentation and regulations based on testing products for conformity with standards. This demands a technical and scientific infrastructure, concentrated in the universities.

La biologia del racisme

El racisme és una xacra que afecta a totes les societats. És un concepte que apliquem a contextos diferents, des de la discriminació en funció de l'origen personal, que deduïm a partir de la fesomia, fins a l'aversió, i que sovint es veu reflectit també en sentiments de superioritat cultural i moral. Parlar de racisme, però, presenta una paradoxa atès que en la població humana no hi ha races en el sentit biològic de la paraula [...].

La biologia està de dol

Aquest estiu ens han deixat tres grans científics que van centrar la seva recerca en l'origen i el funcionament de la vida: Francis Crick, codescobridor de l'estructura del DNA; Edward Lewis, pioner en la recerca de gens que controlen el desenvolupament embrionari, i Joan Oró, que va estudiar els orígens de la vida [...].

Biologia química: uma estratégia moderna para a pesquisa em produtos naturais

This paper presents an overview of the Natural Products Research in Brazil in the last five years (2002-2006), and also discusses how some relevant aspects of the Chemical Biology area could create new research opportunities and challenges for the natural product chemists. In addition, some aspects of the scientific policies and their impact on current projects are discussed.

Construindo o conhecimento através de projetos de trabalho: uma experiência no curso de química da universidade estadual de Santa Cruz

In this work, we describe a pedagogical experiment using work projects in chemistry undergraduate programs in general chemistry and inorganic chemistry courses making learning more dynamic and consolidating the link between students and the external community. We highlight as fundamental outcomes the improvement in the learning process and, above all, the active participation of the students in investigation and problem-solving activities.

A produção do conhecimento sobre o ensino de química nas reuniões anuais da Sociedade Brasileira de Química: uma revisão

This paper discusses the Brazilian academic production on Chemical Education. The main source of information is the annual meeting of the Brazilian Chemical Society (RASBQ) covering the period 1999-2006. All the papers presented by the Division of Chemical Education of the RASBQ were reviewed to permit a discussion about the development of the area in Brazil. This bibliographical revision comprises the following aspects: year of presentation, Brazilian region and institution of production, scholastic level encompassed by the study, the kind of academic work (or research type) and thematic focus of the study.

D-aminoácidos em biologia: mais do que se julga

It is still frequently referred, even in reference text-books, that the D-enantiomers of amino acids are not present in living organisms, which is not right. In the present revision/informative paper we describe a large number of D-amino acids that are present in all forms of organisms, from bacteria to human beings, in the free state, in peptides and in proteins, and give a short overview of their characteristics, physiological interaction and roles.

Polissacarídeos da biodiversidade brasileira: uma oportunidade de transformar conhecimento em valor econômico

A brief comment about general characteristics of polysaccharide was presented. Brazilian trade of polysaccharides was obtained from the "Ministério de Desenvolvimento, Indústria e Comércio Exterior" - Brazil. A list of these products was prepared and their price and amount analyzed in the period of 1998-2007. Some chemical properties and application of polysaccharides from our biodiversity was described. In this review they were classified by origin, in vegetal (exudate, seed, fruit, seaweed), animal and bacteria source. There is a trade deficit that can be reverted if part of the accumulated scientific knowledge was used to promote the national economic development in the field.

A gestão do conhecimento aplicada à reciclagem de componentes automotivos através do tratamento das informações contidas em documentos de patentes

This article evaluates the technologies adopted for recycling and reuse of automobile components, through the analysis of patents documents. The automobile batteries recycling is the main topic, followed by the automatic disassembly of vehicles, tires recycling and polyurethane recycling. None document approached recycling of steel and aluminum or ceramics products. The reduced number of technologies for the recycling of the polymeric compounds (including polyurethane) indicates that a bigger number of research and inventions must be elaborated in the next years, aiming at to the reduction of costs of processes and adequacy to the more restricted environmental legislation.

Químico-Biologia Quantitativa: um novo paradigma?

Disconcerting environmental problems, for which no solutions exist yet, appear daily. Despite this, many believe countries such as Brazil, biologically rich and not yet belonging to the First World, should be restricted to collecting information. Counteracting this opinion, that precludes rationally influencing the environment, we have sought to better understand the language of nature based on Quantitative Chemo-Biology. This multidisciplinary endeavor tackles a range of issues from basic questions such as the origin of life, to more urgent problems such as mapping the chemical and biological diversity of specific regions. We believe this is the right way to prepare younger generations to deal with the unpredictable future.

Avaliação do conhecimento sobre periodicidade química em uma turma de química geral do ensino a distância

This work describes the software Quiptabela, suggests a teaching activity, and analyses responses of general chemistry students from the Biological Sciences distance course at the Federal University of Tocantins. The software was described according to its educational potential, featuring the creation of dozens of charts or tables correlating physicochemical properties of the elements, being Brazilian, and free distribution. The teaching activities suggested analyzed students' ability to create and analyze tables and charts correlating the properties of chemical elements. Some 41% of students tested could define the term "periodic", but failed to use the concept to explain and differentiate changes in mass or atomic radius with the atomic number of elements.

Química Nova Interativa - QNInt - o portal do conhecimento da SBQ: conectando ciência e educação

The Química Nova Interativa (QNInt) portal was launched in 2009 by the Brazilian Chemical Society (SBQ) to offer free quality content for broad audiences. QNInt provides peer-reviewed articles from SBQ journals on science & society, chemical concepts, classroom activities and educational research. With 3,000,000 visits, QNInt also offers a unique library of interactive molecules. In the International Year of Chemistry QNInt served for distributing pH kits and registering data from IUPAC's Global Water Experiment, yielding Brazil the largest share of the global pH data set. The portal performance makes QNInt a valuable resource for connecting science to education.

Explorando produtos naturais microbianos nas fronteiras da Química e da Biologia

The chemistry of natural products has been remarkably growing in the past few decades in Brazil. Aspects related to the isolation and identification of new natural products, as well as their biological activities, have been achieved in different laboratories working on this subject in the country. More recently, the introduction of new molecular biology tools has strongly influenced the research on natural products, mainly those produced by microorganisms, creating new possibilities to assess the chemical diversity of secondary metabolites. This paper describes some ideas on how the research on natural products can have a considerable input from molecular biology in the generation of chemical diversity. We also explore the role of microbial natural products in mediating interspecific interactions and their relevance to ecological studies. Examples of the generation of chemical diversity are highlighted by using genome mining, mutasynthesis, combinatorial biosynthesis, metagenomics, and synthetic biology, while some aspects of microbial ecology are also discussed. The idea to bring up this topic is linked to the remarkable development of molecular biology techniques to generate useful chemicals from different organisms. Here, we focus mainly on microorganisms, even though similar approaches have also been applied to the study of plants and other organisms. Investigations in the frontier of chemistry and biology require interactions between different areas, characterizing the interdisciplinarity of this research field. The necessity of a real integration of chemistry and biology is pivotal to finding correct answers to a number of biological phenomena. The use of molecular biology tools to generate chemical diversity and control biosynthetic pathways is largely explored in the production of important biologically active compounds. Finally, we briefly comment on the Brazilian organization of research in this area, the necessity of new strategies for the graduation programs, and the establishment of networks as a way of organization to overcome some of the problems faced in the area of natural products.