Exact and Earth Sciences / and Chemistry

Familiarity with materials

Igor Zolnerkevic

New life: new devices will allow the Pelletron to operate at maximum energy

38 SPECIAL USP AT 80 Teams work with new materials, biological molecules and clean energy generated via nuclear fusion

t is difficult to walk through the University of ISão Paulo (USP) Physics Institute and not no- tice, in the work of researchers and the many devices they use, the influence of physicist Mário Schenberg (1914-1990), one of the most important Brazilian scientists of the 20th cen- tury. His political and scientific activities were critical in founding the institute and in its in- ternational reach, on which he did not work officially—Schenberg was removed from his position at USP by the military regime in 1969, one year before the institute was inaugurated. On December 3, 2014, 100 years after his birth, a tribute to him brought together some former students, such as physicist Ernst Ham- burger, a USP professor emeritus and one of the pioneers in Brazilian science communica- tion. “Schenberg was a professor with a very broad intellectual outlook,” said Hamburger. sar e Eduardo C

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Wataghin in Brazilian Air Force aircraft with equipment to measure cosmic rays at altitude, in 1940

“In the early 1950s, he realized that elec- first assistants were engineers who had Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to Cecil tronics would form the basis of future recently graduated from the Polytechnic Powell. The team of , another technology and used his political influ- School, who he had convinced to switch student of Damy, designed and built two ence to convince USP to purchase an to physics: Schenberg, Paulus Aulus Pom- new nuclear particle accelerators, consid- IBM computer and set up a solid state peia and Marcelo Damy de Souza Santos. ered cutting-edge technology in the 1950s physics laboratory.” Among the students Pompeia, Damy and Wataghin did and 1970s. The second was the Pelletron of Schenberg’s students were physicist a series of experiments to detect cos- accelerator, which is still in use today in Adalberto Fazzio, current dean of the mic rays—subatomic particles resulting the Physics Institute. Physics Institute and coordinator of one from the collision of atomic nuclei com- of the principal atomic and molecular ing from space with those in Earth’s at- A LOT OF ENERGY physics research groups in . Taking mosphere. The discovery that particles The Pelletron recently underwent up- advantage of the meeting, the research- called were created in a series grades to allow the group of researchers ers presented their latest results in areas of cascading collisions in the sky had a led by physicist Rubens Lichtenthäler such as nanotechnology and spintronics, strong impact on the international sci- Filho to create exotic atomic nuclei, one a new subfield of electronics (see Pes- entific community even in the 1930s. of the current frontiers of nuclear phys- quisa FAPESP Issue No. 192). “Wataghin’s choice was perfect,” recalls ics. In order to study even more energetic Schenberg was one of the members of Silvio Salinas, a physicist at USP and a subatomic phenomena, IF-USP research- a first exceptional class of physicists re- Brazilian expert in theoretical statisti- ers have been participating in interna- cruited by the Ukrainian physicist Gleb cal mechanics, a field that he originally tional collaborations at more powerful Wataghin. In 1934, Wataghin was a pro- studied under Schenberg. “At the time, particle accelerators for years. One ex- fessor and researcher in Italy when he studying cosmic rays was the best way ample is the group led by physicist Ale- accepted the challenge of coming to Bra- to search for new elementary particles.” jandro Szanto, who is working on data zil and founding the physics department Damy coordinated the construction of analysis and the design of new instru- sar of the recently inaugurated USP School the first large electron accelerator in Bra- ments for experiments at the LHC, the e of Philosophy, Literature and Science zil and founded research most powerful accelerator in the world,

(FFCL). One year later he published, centers in various Brazilian research insti- located on the French-Swiss border and Eduardo C 2 as sole author, the first article by a USP tutions. One of his students, the physicist run by the European Organization for P US physicist in an international scientific César Lattes, had played a fundamental Nuclear Research (CERN) (see Pesquisa IF- 1 journal, Physical Review, on the thermal role in the discovery of a new particle, the FAPESP Issues No. 177 and 213).

properties of elementary particles. His pion, which was the source of the 1950 Schenberg stood out from Wataghin’s Photos

40 SPECIAL USP AT 80 other students because of his mathemati- augurated in 1962 thanks to Schenberg’s cal abilities. His international fame, in- initiative, as well as the introduction of cidentally, comes from just two articles graduate programs at the institute in the written in 1940 in the United States, one 1970s, in the decades that followed, new Theoretical with George Gamow and the other with laboratories and theoretical groups work- Subramanyan Chandrasekhar. The two ing in various fields appeared: from un- physicists and articles formed the pillars of the theory precedented manipulation of quantum of astrophysics, whose results are used light particles, to the physics of gas and mathematicians even today by astronomers to understand dust particles in the atmosphere that in- want to the death of massive stars. Schenberg fluence global climate change, and rang- dedicated most of his career to math- ing from the application of physics to understand ematical physics methods and the rela- medicine and the characterization of new tionships between quantum mechanics, materials and biological molecules, to the essence electromagnetism and the general theory the search for clean energy generation of relativity, making original attempts to through nuclear fusion (see Pesquisa of simple unify these theories. These objectives are FAPESP Issues No. 164, 217 and 214). things and similar to those of current USP theoreti- The USP Physics Institute in São Car- cal and mathematical physicists who, in los was established in the 1960s at the ini- of complex addition to seeking the essence of the tiative of physicist Sérgio Mascarenhas, simple and fundamental, venture into who saw the potential for physics of ma- systems like multidisciplinary research to attempt terials to transform technology. In his to understand complex systems such as laboratories, unprecedented states are human language human language (see Pesquisa FAPESP used, in which matter is cooled to close Issue No. 210). to absolute zero, and new quantum phe- Experimental physics has diversified. nomena with the potential to revolution- From the first solid state and low tem- ize computing are explored (see Pesquisa perature physics laboratory at USP, in- FAPESP Issues No. 162 and 220).

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Radioactive Ion Beams: sole device in Southern Hemisphere helps scientists understand the reactions in supernova stars billions of years ago

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The Chemistry Department’s first home: the mansion at 463 Glete street, in 1927

The old laboratory created by Schen- Toma started his career at USP pur- became the CNPq Support Program for berg remains at the forefront, working suing his PhD under the supervision of Scientific and Technological Develop- with 11 other laboratories at the Physics John Malin, one of the North American ment (PADCT). “Since the PADCT, Bra- Institute, Polytechnic School and USP post-doctoral researchers on the team zilian chemistry has reached interna- Chemistry Institute (IQ) to develop mi- that came to work at the IQ in the early tional levels,” he affirms. croscopic technologies on the scale of 1970s, led by Canadian Henry Taube, Before that, according to Toma, the millionths of a millimeter, known as nan- who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry USP IQ was still very timid compared otechnology. “All of the descriptions of in 1983. Taube and his team worked at to its physicist colleagues. The Ger- the physical properties of nanoparticles USP for a few years, training Brazilian mans Heinrich Rheinboldt and Hein- developed at the IQ are developed at the students and starting new lines of re- rich Hauptmann started the chemis- IF and Poli,” says Fazzio, who coordi- search in Brazil through a joint program try program within the FFCL in 1935, nates the collaboration together with between the CNPq and the National setting up improvised demonstration chemist Henrique Toma from the IQ. Academy of Sciences (NAS), which was laboratories in the amphitheater of the the brainchild of chemist Carl Djerassi, School of Medicine. The FFCL Chemis- FERMENTING famous for synthesizing one of the mol- try Department was housed in the man-

Together with chemist Koiti Araki, To- ecules of the first generation of oral con- sion on Alameda Glete from 1939 to 1965 P ma is coordinating a nanotechnology traceptives. The program was supported when the chemistry departments of the NI/ US laboratory that has already produced a by FAPESP. One of the post-doctoral FFCL, the School of Biochemical Phar- A TEV

molecule that spontaneously organizes researchers accompanying Taube was macy and the Polytechnic School trans- S US I

to form a thin film used as a sensor to Simon Campbell, who later discovered ferred their laboratories to what is now ASS IC monitor the quality of wine, and a new the base substance of Viagra. called the Chemistry Complex, a set of 2 A

type of nanoparticle that connects to en- “We learned how a team of top chem- interconnected buildings on the Butantã MÍLI A zymes used in biotechnology chemical ists worked,” says Toma. After the suc- Campus that now houses the IQ, estab- E F O D

processes, allowing the enzymes to be cess of the CNPq/NAS program in São lished in 1970. R V CE controlled by magnetic fields, thus in- Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, the country’s Today, the researchers work with A 1 creasing the efficiency of their reactions chemists called for implementation of a equipment that allows them to employ

(see Pesquisa FAPESP Issue No. 60). similar program on a larger scale, which different techniques, such as computer Photos

42 SPECIAL USP AT 80 simulations and spectroscopy, in experi- chemist Vanderlan Bolzani, heads a nat- and respiratory diseases in the munici- ments involving almost all of the chemi- ural products center at the São Paulo pality of Cubatão, São Paulo State. One cal elements in the periodic table. The State University (Unesp) Chemistry In- of Bechara’s former students, Cassius team of chemist Claudimir do Lago, for stitute in Araraquara. Stevani, is currently studying the same example, is developing miniaturized Modern Brazilian biochemistry grew chemical reactions to understand how chemical analysis techniques that could due to another initiative, the Bioq/ bioluminescent fungi generate light, one day permit detailed blood tests with FAPESP program, which financed the knowledge that could lead to the man- a single drop. stays of visiting professors and research ufacture of chemical sensors for environ- Other groups of researchers are syn- projects from 1970 to 1978. The propos- mental pollution (see Pesquisa FAPESP thesizing luminescent substances out als were evaluated by a Issues No. 92 and 168). of rare earth elements, and plastics and committee that includ- Many other research gels with therapeutic properties for use ed biochemist Marshall groups grew and mul- in prosthetics and bandages for medical Nisenberg, a Nobel Prize tiplied after the Bioq/ applications. Teams at the IQ, the USP winner in Medicine and A chemistry FAPESP program, such São Carlos Chemistry Institute and the Physiology in 1968. It was as those led by the dis- Chemistry Department at the Riberão through the support of group makes ciples of biologist and Preto School of Philosophy, Science and Bioq, for example, that the biochemist Francisco Languages and Literature (USP) develop team led by Walter Colli, luminescent Lara: Rogério Meneghi- projects with a focus known as green a biochemist at the IQ, substances and ni, Walter Terra and Hu- chemistry, attempting to make industrial discovered and described go Armelin. Meneghini processes more economical and less pol- the sugar molecules that gels for use in discovered important de- luting (see Pesquisa FAPESP Issues No. help Trypanosoma cruzi, tails about the structure 86, 161, 83, and 190). the organism that causes prosthetics and function of DNA, Chagas disease, to install while his colleague Sér- PROTOZOA AND GENES itself in human cells. and bandages gio Verjoski continues FAPESP initiatives strengthened chem- This program also sup- to explore the activity istry research in São Paulo during the ported chemist Giuseppe of thousands of genes same period in which the CNPq/NAS Cilento, who developed on diseases such as pros- program was active. Inaugurated in 1967, pioneering experiments tate cancer (see Pesquisa the Natural Products Chemistry Labora- on the chemical generation of light FAPESP Issue No. 74). Terra and his col- tory became internationally known due by living organisms. Years later, in the leagues uncovered the relationship be- to the biochemist Otto Gottlieb, who led 1980s, one of Cilento’s former students tween the biochemistry of insects that the laboratory until 1990. Gottlieb was and IQ professor, biochemist Etelvino transmit diseases to humans and agricul- nominated for a Nobel Prize twice for his Bechara, helped prove that chemical tural pests. Armelin studies the chemis- discovery of a class of plant substances reactions caused by free radicals from try involved in the growth and life cycle with anti-inflammatory properties called industrial pollution were responsible of animal cells. neolignans. One of Gottlieb’s students, for the increase in cases of anencephaly Mari Cleide Sogayar, one of Arme- lin’s former students, coordinates the Cellular and Molecular Therapy Center (NUCEL). Her team developed micro- capsules that drastically increase the chances of success of pancreas cell trans- plants in diabetic patients (see Pesquisa FAPESP Issue No. 182). Transferred in 2012 from the IQ to the USP School of Medicine, NUCEL is now housed in a building built next to the University Hos- pital, with the objective of becoming an international reference center in transla- tional medicine. One of Sogayar’s young collaborators at NUCEL, the post-doc- toral researcher Ana Claudia Carreira, who completed her PhD with Verjovski in 2006 and is already considered a 1A level researcher by CNPq, is searching for new therapies using biopharmaceuti- cals and stem cells. The new generation 2 of excellence appears to be guaranteed. n Mycena fera: mushrooms shine all the time, but are seen only in the dark

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