Brazilian neuroscientist Miguel A. L. Nicolelis taps into the chatter of neural populations to drive robotic prosthetics. Now he hopes to tap the potential of his country's population by building them a network of science cities
Credits: Cristobal Corrall Vega (Jinn Health Clinic)
Building a Future On Science
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19 At the Campus of the Brain site in Macaíba, construction is continuing and a billboard announces, “Here begins the future of science in Brazil.” Miguel Nicolelis
18 Jatropha curcas , a tropical plant whose seeds can contain more than 40 percent oil, is a popular raw material for biodiesel manufacture in Asia. The IINN-ELS project includes plans for an adjacent biotech park, which will partially support the institute’s operation... Miguel Nicolelis
17 An auditorium on the Campus of the Brain site is named for pioneering Brazilian aviator Alberto Santos Dumont. The nonprofit association formed to run the IINN-ELS and similar institutes that Nicolelis hopes to create in Brazil, is also called the Alberto Santos Dumont Association for the Support of Research (AASDAP)... Cristobal Corral Vega
16 Brazil’s education minister Fernando Haddad (left) also visited the IINN-ELS in 2007. Here, he is receiving a tour of the facilities by Nicolelis. Sidarta Ribeiro
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15 Brazil’s president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva ( center ) visited the IINN-ELS facilities in August 2007. When he met with the school faculty, they gave him a tee shirt designed by students... Ricardo Stuckert/PR, Brazilian Presidential Press Office
14 A new research building on the Macaíba campus site has 25 laboratories and is equipped for work with primates, which Nicolelis uses in his work on robotic prosthetics. Cristobal Corral Vega
13 Arts classes at IINN-ELS schools are intended to foster creativity. Cristobal Corral Vega
12 Nicolelis emphasizes that the educational arm of his project is not intended to create a nation of scientists. “We are trying to create a generation of citizens capable of leading Brazil,” he explains... Cristobal Corral Vega
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11 Nicolelis believes that learning scientific methods and principles improves critical thinking skills in general. Cristobal Corral Vega
10 Ongoing teacher training ensures that teaching methods are up to date. IINN-ELS school staffers are also working with the Ministry of Education to create a science curriculum for 354 new national technical high schools... Cristobal Corral Vega
9 The IINN-ELS schools emphasize hands-on scientific inquiry in classes and provide high quality equipment. Cristobal Corral Vega
8 A school in Natal with 600 middle-school-aged students is one of two established by the IINN-ELS. The second, in Macaíba, has 400 kids enrolled. In collaboration with local schools, the children attend classes in science and art twice a week at the institute sites... Cristobal Corral Vega
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7 A new IINN-ELS health clinic in the farming community of Macaíba, 20km from Natal, is located on a 100-hectare site where the main “Campus of the Brain” is being built... Cristobal Corral Vega
6 Sidarta Ribeiro ( left ), scientific director of the institute, was a postdoctoral fellow in Nicolelis’ lab at Duke in 2003 when they had the idea to create a network of high-caliber research institutes in Brazil... Cristobal Corral Vega
5 Hindiael Belchior, a graduate student at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, is one of a dozen Ph.D. candidates pursuing studies at the IINN. Research at the Natal laboratory facility includes studies of Parkinson’s disease-like states induced in rodents... Cristobal Corral Vega
4 Natal’s illiteracy rate above age 15 is 21.5 percent, double the national average. Life expectancy is nearly 4 years less than in São Paulo, Brazil’s largest city. Cristobal Corral Vega
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3 Natal is the capital of Rio Grande do Norte, an underdeveloped state in Brazil’s northeast that contributes less than one percent of Gross Domestic Product. Nicolelis believes that the institute’s transformative influence will be most visible in Natal, and that the region is where such change is most needed... Cristobal Corral Vega
2 Nicolelis, 46, observing the activity of rodent brain cells as the animal goes about its normal activities. Nicolelis has pioneered techniques for eavesdropping on hundreds of individual neurons at once through implanted electrodes... Cristobal Corral Vega
1 A laboratory and office building in Natal, Brazil, was the first facility opened in 2005 when Miguel Nicolelis ( right ) and his collaborators established the International Institute of Neuroscience of Natal... Cristobal Corral Vega
