Those who have been selected will receive an endorsement letter this Thursday and have until the August 31 to send their complementary documentation through the online application form. The final selection will take place in September at the headquarters of the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies during the meeting of the Senior Committee which coordinates the project.

The selected names are: Adriano de Cezaro, André Mascioli Cravo, Ayu Majima, Eduardo Almeida, Gonzalo Iparraguirre, Helder Nakaya, Ignacio Amigo de la Huerga, Julia Buenaventura, Luca Simeone, Maísa Fonseca, Marius N. Müller, Nikki Moore, Nikolaos Stamatakis, Samuel Sojinu, Sergio Giardino and Valtteri Arstila.

Of the 16 candidates, ten are foreign, four are women, nine are related to USP (due to their education or current job), eight have the humanities as their field of study, five the biological sciences and three the exact sciences.

The rigidity and dynamics of laws will be the theme of the 3rd Intercontinental Academia (ICA), scheduled to take place in March 2018 in Singapore and March 2019 in Birmingham, under the organisation of the Institutes of Advanced Studies of the University of Birmingham and Nanyang Technological University.

The IEA-USP will indicate a researcher to the final selection process stage, to be conducted by the organisers. In case of approval, the Institute will cover the costs of airfare, while accommodation and on-site expenses will be paid by the hosts. To apply, candidates must send and e-mail to ica_iea@usp.br until August 6 with the following documents and information, all in English:

• Summary of their interests in the theme, their expectations and a presentation of the project that explains how they can contribute to the Intercontinental Academia;
• Updated resume.

Arts and design building at the Nanyang Technological University

The focus is on people who are in their early / mid-career, up to 15 years of doctoral completion, and who conduct research in academia, industry, the third sector, or other organisations. Everyone must be fluent in English, able to explore ideas on the subject outside their field of study and challenge global leaders in their fields of expertise.

“Laws: Rigity and Dynamics”

Assuming that the concept of laws has different meanings in different contexts, cultures and individuals, the organisers want to provoke reflection, analysis and comparison to elucidate the origin of laws and the tensions between them. 'Whether examining laws devised by humans, natural laws or the evolution of theory emerging from chaos and complexity into laws, there is potential for intense interactions between the disciplines and insight arising from that,' they argue.

The program

The ICA is an initiative of the University-Based Institutes for Advanced Study (UBIAS), a network that brings together 36 institutes of advanced studies from universities of all continents. Created to foster networking research and the formation of new leaders in science, each edition of the program brings together young researchers who highlight in their areas and countries to work together on interdisciplinary paradigm shift research, guided by some of the most important names of knowledge in the world. Always with two immersion meetings, each on a different continent, the ICA should have an end product as the result of the studies, such as a book or a course.

The IEA-USP and the Institute for Advanced Research of the Nagoya University (IAR) were responsible for the first edition of the ICA, which had the first phase held in April 2015 in São Paulo and the second one in Nagoya in March of last year. As a result of the activities and research, a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) on the theme "time" is about to be launched.

The second edition focused on human dignity and was organised by the Israel Institute for Advanced Studies of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and by the Center for Interdisciplinary Research (Zentrum für interdisziplinäre Forschung - ZiF) of the University of Bielefeld, with meetings in March and August, 2016. The IEA-USP sent researcher Akemi Kamimura to participate.

Photos: Institutes' websites

The role of institutes for advanced study (IASs) based at universities, the preservation of their academic autonomy, the guarantee of funding, and the increase of their influence on the global scientific agenda were the main themes debated at the Directors' Conference of the international network of University-Based Institutes for Advanced Study (UBIAS), held from November 4 to 6. The event was hosted by the Maria Sibylla Merian Institute for Advanced Studies in Africa (MIASA), located at the University of Ghana, in Accra.

The IEA/USP, one of the founding members of UBIAS, was represented by director Roseli de Deus Lopes and former director Guilherme Ary Plonski, currently a senior professor at the Institute. The gathering marked the 15th anniversary of the network, created at a meeting promoted by the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies (FRIAS) in October 2010.

Relevance

Plonski, who has already coordinated UBIAS's steering committee for three years, considered the conference very well-organized and relevant for the following main reasons.

• It was the first event of its kind held in Africa, reinforcing the global nature of the network. In the Americas, the milestone occurred in 2018. In Oceania, the last continent yet to be covered, it will happen in 2027.

• During the first two days of activities it was possible to delve into crucial themes in a rapidly transitioning world, such as knowledge production in the so-called Global South (with particular emphasis on Lopes' participation) and the challenge of boosting IASs by adding intersectorality to the basic characteristic of interdisciplinary studies and research.

• The quality of interactions between leaders of member institutes has strengthened ties that encourage collaborative actions over the next two years.

Global South

The theme of the first session of the conference was "Knowledge Production in the Global South: The Role of IASs in Shaping Regional and Global Research Agendas." According to Lopes, one of the speakers, the importance of IASs lies in the fact that they are spaces for independent, interdisciplinary, and risk-tolerant research with the time and freedom to cross scientific boundaries.

However, she observed that transposing the socioeconomic divide between the Global North and the Global South to the context of knowledge production can lead to distortions in the evaluation of the scientific contribution of developing countries. Feminist and decolonial intellectual currents consider that this results in the marginalization of scientific perspectives from the Global South, which has been called an epistemic injustice, with theories from the North being seen as universal.

Lopes cited several factors that prevent the fair participation of developing countries in international epistemological frameworks: the advantage of countries with English as their native language, the high cost of publishing in high-impact journals, restrictive criteria for measuring impact, barriers arising from compliance requirements in South-South collaborations, and unequal access to intellectual property and data.

Given these obstacles, she recommended three actions to the IASs: sharing legal models, ethical data governance, and microfinancing prior to granting research scholarships for South-South and South-North collaborations.

It is not enough for researchers from the Global South to participate in the international research system. They also need to be involved in setting the agendas of this system by proposing questions and methods, Lopes stated. Another need is the redefinition of scientometric criteria for evaluating preliminary, multilingual, and politically relevant results, she added.

From the perspective of the integration structure of researchers and research institutions from countries in the Global South, Lopes sees three levels to be considered: 1) agendas based on regional issues but with global reference points; 2) plural epistemologies and multilingual knowledge; 3) infrastructures for recognition and scaling up.

Some examples for level 1 are the resilience of tropical megacities, bioeconomy and biodiversity, and informal economy platforms. For level 2, Lopes mentions integrating the knowledge of indigenous peoples/traditional communities into academic methods and considering the translation of results into multiple languages ​​as part of academic activity. Open access to datasets produced in the Global South and fair evaluation of public policy labs, prototypes, and multilingual results apply to level 3.

Maria Sibylla Merian Institute for Advanced Studies in Africa (MIASA), located at the University of Ghana, in Accra.

Contributions of the IASs

Lopes said that there are characteristics and functions that only IASs can provide for encouraging inclusion in the international agenda: the offering of an interdisciplinary environment for experimentation by researchers and small research groups, and acting as a multifaceted bridge connecting universities, civil society, and the public and private sectors.

During the conference, Lopes and the directors of four other IASs were chosen to form the UBIAS Coordination Team. The concrete proposals for the network that she presented in the first session of the program somehow already foresee part of her future role in the team. They include the creation of a circuit of co-sponsored research stays at IASs in the Global South, the implementation of a multilingual platform with open access to abstracts and methodologies, public policy laboratories based on research results, mobility and microfinance programs, and a registration system for open methodologies and prototypes.

Intersectoriality

The sixth session of the conference was themed "Advancing the Advanced Institutes: Intersectorality Practices Around the World." Intersectorality was explored as a key path to growth in the complex social context. According to the organizers, IASs occupy a delicate position, oscillating between the pursuit of knowledge and being the link that unites the university and the wider world in which it is embedded.

Plonski participated in the session by presenting two IEA/USP initiatives involving Brazilian indigenous peoples, demonstrating that intersectorality is a regular practice of the Institute. One initiative was the appointment of indigenous leaders Arissana Pataxó, Francy Baniwa, and Sandra Benites as holders of the Olavo Setubal Chair - Transversalities: Art, Culture, Science, and Education in 2024. They developed the program "Caminho da Cutia: Territories and Knowledge of Indigenous Women." Computer scientist Claudio Pinhanez, a visiting professor at the Institute from May 2023 to May 2025, led his projects of applying digital technologies and artificial intelligence to produce tools for the use of Guarani and Nheengatu languages ​​in the digital environment by the peoples who speak them.

In addition to the sessions in which Lopes and Plonski were speakers, four other sessions took place throughout the conference. They had the following themes:

• AI and the Future of Knowledge Production;

• University-Based IASs, Institutional Autonomy, and Academic Freedom;

• IASs Impact;

• Funding Institutes of Advanced Study.

Trajectory of the IEA/USP

The launch of the book "Advanced in What? The Pioneering Trajectory of the Institute of Advanced Studies of the University of São Paulo" also took place during the conference in Accra. It is the English version of the work that narrates the trajectory of the IEA/USP from its creation until 2023. The publication was presented by Plonski and Lopes, who brought copies for all the participants of the meeting. "We talked about the motivation, the production process, and the structure of the work. The book launched by our Institute is the pioneer among the publications associated with the 15 years of UBIAS, an opportune moment to take stock of the past and strategically rethink the continuity of the network," commented Plonski.

Photos: Guilherme Ary Plonski

Roenneberg: "It seems like they (universities and governments) are trying to eliminate the humanities."

The existence of "biological clocks" is increasingly being accepted by the scientific community. The study of core temperature - or the arterial blood in the central regions of the body - is one example of how chronobiology is discovering how, when and why the brain and hormones are modulated by natural cycles. The interaction of organisms with the environment has been giving clues to many scientific discoveries and this shows that many scientific facts can not be studied in isolation but require a broader context.

The dialogue between different kinds of knowledge, or what academia calls interdisciplinarity, has been identified as a method to revolutionize teaching and research in the future. The theme took a full day of discussions during the programme of the Intercontinental Academia (ICA).

The workshop In Search of Interdisciplinary Dialogue, sponsored by the Waseda Institute for Advanced Studies (WIAS), at Waseda University, was held on March 14, in Tokyo, with the participation of speakers coming from different fields of knowledge.

Till Roenneberg, a professor of chronobiology at the Institute of Medical Psychology of the Ludwig-Maximilians University (LMU), has been invited for the opening lecture due to his diversified education, which includes physics, medicine and biology.

For Roenneberg, science needs more than interdisciplinarity. He sees a "tragic development" taking place especially in universities and governments around the world as they are guiding their research under the monetary focus, which leads them to forget the importance of the humanities.

"It seems like they are trying to eliminate the humanities because there is an idea that apparently this field does not bring much money or many students to the institutions. This is the worst direction we could take. There is a crisis in the way we deal with the humanities and we should change it," he said.

Brussels Atomium.

Roenneberg compared the currently practiced interdisciplinarity with the Brussels Atomium. Composed of interconnected spheres, the steel structure is a kind of giant wheel that provides a unique view to visitors.

“These spheres are incredibly proud to belong to a network. But what they do, though connected, is to stay in the same place. In fact, they only connect in order to stay in the circle. This is not interdisciplinarity. But interdisciplinarity today comes down to this," he said.

For Roenneberg, the UBIAS network, which brings together 34 institutes for advanced studies linked to universities, has enabled the realization of interdisciplinary science. In his view, the biggest advantage of these institutes in relation to other research institutions is that they have contact to the international community while maintaining the link with the academic community and the university environment.

For the biologist, every academic endeavor is related to human beings, and all that relates to humans is linked to basic biological and psychosocial motivations. "In my opinion, besides food and reproduction, humans also seek to reduce their anxiety and get rewards or social approval through behavior. That is what makes us exist."

To reduce anxiety and gain social approval, Roenneberg says that people turn to religion or science. However, the theoretical, philosophical and experimental knowledge that leads to scientific knowledge is full of arrogance and, thus, there is no understanding among scientists.

"This is shameful, because we know that we need others to be critical with ourselves and with our own thinking. It is also to overcome this that we need philosophy and the humanities," he said.

On the other hand, there is no way to replace the brain. The world's data become accessible thanks to the brain, which turns data into information. In this case, it refers to memory and expectations. As an example, Roenneberg showed a laboratory experiment using ducklings. The animals repeatedly go up and down a kind of slide in search for food and social interaction.

"One might think that the ducklings are sliding and chasing each other for fun. But the truth is that they are in a nerve-racking looping for food and social interaction, as these animals can not live alone. They are like people playing slot machines and seeking resources that can never be achieved," he said.

So everything can be a matter of narrative, summarized Roenneberg. Disciplinary knowledge as physics, culture, biology and others, also have to do with narratives, he said. "Apparently, the disciplines have nothing to do with people. But in fact they have profound impact on us for all the knowledge that is produced returns to humanity." Scenes of the atomic bomb, the concentration camps and attacks on the World Trade Center in New York were shown at this point of the lecture.

Modern life, science and religion

Another "subtle" example with enormous impact on humanity was the advent of artificial light, he said. He cited the experiments of Jürgen Walther Ludwig Aschoff  (1913 - 1998), a German physicist, biologist and behavioral physiologist who built underground bunkers to investigate the relationship of daily habits of people and the incidence of sunlight. Alongside other scientists he was one of the founders of chronobiology by inaugurating the research on circadian rhythms. The circadian clock (or cycle) is the period of approximately 24 hours which is the basis of the life cycle of almost all living beings. So it is a cycle influenced by variations of light, temperature, tides and winds, day and night.

In the first weeks living in the bunkers people were still in contact with the outside world. Then they remained inside the shelter, allowed to use artificial light according to their internal rhythms of waking up, sleeping and eating, for example. After studying the cycles of sleep, body temperature, urine output and other physiological and behavioral issues, the researchers concluded that what regulates the time schedule and peoples' lives is an endogenous clock that varies due to light and darkness. This discovery helped to understand the source of many health problems related to aging, sleep disorders and symptoms called jet lag, such as nausea, irritation, fatigue, insomnia, constipation and other physiological discomforts.

"Sleep in the pre-industrial era was regulated by sunlight. People would stay awake when there was light outside and slept when the day ceased. But now, with the electric light, we are always in an indoor environment which is just a little illuminated if compared to what would be offered by an external environment. And at night, at home, people do almost never run out of light. There is insufficient light during the day and too much light at night," said Roenneberg.

"We have created a short circuit in our brain at the cost of more people getting sick. People victimized by what we call social jet leg smoke more, drink more coffee, suffer more from depression and metabolic problems," said the scientist.

The consequence of living out of the circadian clock sync brings not only individual losses. The direct and indirect costs resulting from sleep disorders and problems related to the biological clock represent 1% of the gross domestic product (GDP) of countries, something like US$ 185 trillion in the European Union, US$ 173 trillion in the United States and US$ 103 trillion in China.

Science can also not ignore the method of hypotheses, Roenneberg said. "We must not become conceited. A molecular biologist once said she did not need hypotheses to investigate the gene and what it does. But nature is not a set of Lego pieces. Scientific information is generated by many abstract steps involving different methods and machinery. Scientific research depends on a chain of steps that need to be checked and one can not do this without hypotheses. The hypothesis is necessary to make sure that we are not going in the wrong direction. And for that we need the humanities," he emphasized.

Another warning: science must overcome the male mentality that still prevails in academia, Roenneberg said. "Boys like huge toys and maybe this explains our taste for large and expensive machines. But if we continue to invest in expensive machines we will process more and more data that we can not analyze properly. Therefore, we should invest in young brains able to discover intelligent mathematical strategies to analyze networks of genes and brain cells, for example," he said.

The professor also warned about concepts related to religion, science and knowledge in an environment that is increasingly related to science. "Science is becoming a new religion. Take the Salk Institute as an example: a beautiful building that looks like a temple. We must not confuse things. Even to deal with this we need the humanities and perhaps the religious to tell us what religion actually is. After all, we have to respect the ideas and advancements in science. But at the same time, we should try a litte "disrespect" in order to prove them wrong," he finished.

Physicist Tadashi Takanayagi, from the Kyoto University's Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics (YITP), said that a good analysis model for these conceptions are black holes, a metaphor for the analyses of 3D-realities from the observable information on 2D-surfaces, with the help of the Holographic Principle. The professor spoke during the Physics Workshop of the second phase of the Intercontinental Academia (ICA), on March 9.

Theoretical physicist Tadashi Takanayagi

He explained that the Standard Model, a traditional approach of particle physics, works perfectly for three forces of matter: electromagnetism, strong interaction (nuclear power) and weak interaction (beta decay, neutrino). But it does not describe the action of the fourth force (gravity). "In the microscopic field, gravity behaves completely different from the other three forces."

This difficulty led to the String Theory, according to Takayanagi. As the strings rapidly vibrate, they give rise to heavy particles. As they vibrate slowly, they produce light particles. "With this approach, the theories on matter are consistent with the unification of the four forces: the open string describes electromagnetism, and the strong and weak interactions; simultaneously, the same string describes gravity when closed."

To check whether the String Theory is true, it is necessary to find a phenomenon that can only be explained by it, Takanayagi said. Some aspects of black holes are good cases for research, especially from the microscopic point of view: "We want to use a theoretical microscope to enlarge a black hole and see what is inside."

He said that this concern eventually resulted in the development of the Holographic Principle, "one of the most important advances in this theoretical field in the last 20 years."

The concept of spacetime is defined by a four-dimensional coordinate system (x, y, and z for space, and t for time). The Einstein's General Theory of Relativity considers this concept. "The question is whether this description system of spacetime is real and if it is the best framework for understanding the universe."

Perhaps the analysis of very microscopic structures indicates that space is emerging, and maybe even time is emerging, warns Takanayagi. For him, this kind of consideration leads to the idea that spacetime is equivalent to the information of matter.

Once that massive objects form a black hole, the information in it is not accessible to outsiders. The amount of non-accessible information is called entropy, explains the physicist, adding that the String Theory can solve the problem by playing the role of a microscope to extract information from the black hole. "Among the massive particles there are open strings and one can extract their behavior information. This makes it possible to explain the entropy of the black hole."

Takayanagi showed the formula that defines the amount of entropy of a black hole, proposed by Jacob Bekenstein and Steven Hawking, and stressed that one of its terms, represented by the letter A, corresponds to the surface area of the black hole.

"This is not common. If we observe any matter agglomerate (gas, liquid or solid), entropy is proportional to the volume, not to the surface. But the information seems to be on the surface of a black hole. This is similar to what happens in an hologram, where a 3D-image is encoded on a 2D-surface, but the mechanism is totally different, just an analogy. "

Takayanagi said that physicists Gerard 't Hooft and Leonard Susskind have conjectured that the gravitational theories are equivalent to microscopic theories of "a certain matter" on its border.

According to him, this idea is quite popular and intuitive, but the String Theory proposes something beyond that. He commented that in 1997 Juan Maldacena proposed that the Holographic Principle must be understood as a Gauge / Gravity Duality in the String Theory, meaning that there is an equivalence between gravity (closed strings) and matter (open strings).

At the same time, the Holographic Principle states that spaces can emerge from matter in gravity. Gravity would function as a series of sieves with different frame sizes, allowing the passage of information according to the granulation accepted by each sieve, said Takanayagi.

Toy model

He said that physicists use a toy model to express the hidden information in a black hole: a white dot or a black dot (similar to 0 or 1 in computers). The information unit based on these dots (or "coins") is called one qubit.

For the whole system it must be considered that possibly both the white dot and the black dot are inside and outside the black hole, with a 50% probability for each occurrence. "It follows that if within the black hole there is a white dot then out of it there will always be a white dot (and vice versa). If we can not look inside the black hole, then we can not know the outside of it (hidden information, for example)."

This phenomenon is called quantum entanglement and it is said that "the interior and the exterior are entangled." The amount of "coins" (or qubits) is called entropy of the entanglement (Sent), which measures the amount of hidden information.

Thanks to holography, it appears that the entropy of the black hole is equal to the entropy of the entanglement. In fact, Takanayagi adds, the entropy of the entanglement is equal to the area of any surface, even without any black hole. The formula that Takanayagi proposed with Shinsei Ryu in 2006 implies that spacetime consists of qubits of information.

The Holographic Principle states that the spaces in gravity emerge from matter (or information). In the String Theory, the holography allows us to say that the gravity in the 3D-universe is equal to the matter in the 2D- spacetime. In the gravity of the 3D-Universe spacetime can expand, contract and even be created. Considering the matter in the 2D-spacetime, spacetime is not dynamic, but matter can change and be created.

Biochemist Hernan Chaimovich, a professor at USP's Chemistry Institute (IQ), has accepted the invitation of the Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Aldo Rebelo, to become president of the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq).

Chaimovich was the deputy director of the IEA-USP from 2006 to 2009 and is currently a member of the Scientific Committee of the Institute for the Intercontinental Academia. He coordinates FAPESP's Research Center for Innovation and Diffusion (CEPIDS) and is the deputy president of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences (ABC).

Born in Chile, Chaimovich has graduated from the Faculty of Pharmaceutical and Chemical Sciences of the Universidad de Chile and holds a PhD in Biological Sciences from USP. He holds post-doctorates both from the University of California and Harvard University, and conducts research in biochemistry with emphasis on physical chemistry, focusing on the study of Biomimetic Systems, particularly micelles and vesicles structure, and enzyme and micellar catalyses.

Throughout his career, he has been actively working in national and international science politics, being member of several scientific councils and holding a number of executive positions. At USP he has been provost for research, director of the IQ, head of Department of Biochemistry, and has participated in the creation of the interdisciplinary course in Molecular Sciences, which he has coordinated. Chaimovich has been the president of the Brazilian Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (SBBq) and of the InterAmerican Network of Academies of Science (IANAS), and has been deputy president and director of the International Council for Science (ICSU).

Although the workings of the circadian clock in complex, multicellular organisms has been the object of research for a long time, studies on the biological rhythms of microorganisms are rather recent. In a conference at the Intercontinental Academia (ICA) addressing the main theme “Time,” on April 22, Takao Kondo spoke about the progress he has achieved in this field with experiments involving prokaryotes – unicellular organisms lacking some organelles and a nuclear membrane.

Kondo is professor of Biological Sciences at the University of Nagoya (Japan) and member of the Scientific Committee of the Institute for Advanced Research (IAR) at the ICA. He is known for having been the first scientist to reconstitute a circadian clock in vitro, laying the foundation for numerous discoveries on the molecular basis of biological rhythms.

At the conference, Kondo presented the results of experiments that he carried out to demonstrate the occurrence of circadian clocks in the Synechococcus elongatus cyanobacterium – a unicellular photosynthetic bacterium, similar to blue-green algae, which is at the base of the food chain in marine environments. According to Kondo, “cyanobacteria are the simplest organisms that display circadian rhythms.”

A QUESTION OF GENETICS

Kondo’s great headway was to identify a group of genes – known as kaiABC – that controls the Synechococcus’ circadian clock. He explained that the phosphorylation and dephosphorylation cycles of the protein encoded by the trio of Kai genes – KaiA, KaiB and KaiC – act as regulators of the biochemical mechanism that times the daily rhythms of cyanobacteria.

Phosphorylation is the metabolic process of adding a phosphate group, donated by an ATP (a molecule that stores energy), to a protein. Dephosphorylation, in turn, is the removal of a phosphate group.

The dynamic addition and removal of phosphate, catalyzed by the kinase and phosphatase enzymes, inhibits or activates the expression of a gene, i.e., its encoding in a protein. That is why it is one of the main mechanisms for regulating proteins.

The discovery of the role of the Kai genes in the metabolism of Synechococcus cleared the way for the in vitro reconstitution of the circadian clock of cyanobacteria. Toward this end, Kondo mixed the trio of Kai proteins with an ATP molecule in a test tube.

The incubation confirmed the hypothesis that, in the presence of these four elements, the 24-hour cycles of cyanobacteria occur autonomously, even in the absence of external “time cues,” such as the alternation of light and dark.

The experiment showed that the processes of phosphorylation and dephosphorylation of the three Kai proteins are interconnected and generate a threaded cycle of protein activation and inactivation. Kondo noted that the oscillation of the gene expression of these proteins acts as the time stamp of the Synechococcus’ circadian clock and that “the state of phosphorylation of KaiC is the central component of this system.”

According to Kondo, the circadian rhythms generated by the oscillation of KaiC act as a molecular timer that regulates the entire metabolism of cyanobacteria.

MECHANICAL CLOCK

Kondo compared the circadian cycles of the Synechococcus to a mechanical timekeeping system: “The Kai protein clock is designed much as a grandfather clock.”

He said that the oscillation between the phosphorylation cycle of KaiC and the gene expression of KaiA and KaiB resembles the mechanism of the pendulum: as the escapement transmits timekeeping to the clock’s hands, the pulses generated by Kai proteins transmit temporal signals to the cell, performing the fine adjustment of vital processes that depend on synchronization with external factors.

He also drew attention to the accuracy of the biological rhythms of cyanobacteria. “Nature imitates art. The circadian clock of the Kai protein seems to have been designed by a master watchmaker,” he concluded.

Photo: Leonor Calazans/IEA-USP

Roenneberg spoke of the causes and effects of this syndrome at the conference Circadian Behavior and Sleep in the Real World, held on April 21 as part of the program of the Intercontinental Academia (ICA) on the issue of “Time.”

According to the professor, social jet lag can be defined as a discrepancy between internal body rhythms and external environmental rhythms. It is very similar to what happens when a traveler crosses several time zones in succession: the sudden changes lead the body clock (which is adjusted to the time of the place of departure) to conflict with the local clock.

Unlike ordinary jet lag, however, the effects of which are transient, social jet lag is chronic, forcing individuals to fight systematically against their own biological clock in order to cope with the demands of everyday life – and this include ever-longer working hours and greater difficulties to reconcile professional and personal life.

“Everything in our body is controlled and organized by the circadian system. The circadian system, in turn, is not organized by the social clock, but rather by the clock of the Sun, by the clock of light & dark. So there will always be a discrepancy between what society wants us to do and what, under the conditions of modern life, our body wants us to do,” noted Roenneberg.

Some people compensate this discrepancy between biological and social rhythms by extending their period of activity and reducing their period of repose. According to Roenneberg, those who suffer from social jet lag are generally early risers who remain active until late at night to cope with their daily commitments. In the end, however, things don’t add up for them: they sleep less than eight hours a day and are therefore chronically sleep-deprived.

One can measure this “negative sleep balance” by comparing the pattern of their circadian behavior during weekdays, governed by the social clock, and during their free days, governed by their biological clock. “If we measure the difference between both patterns, we will obtain a quantifiable measure of what we call ‘social jet lag’,” said the professor.

The afflictions of modernity

The negative sleep balance is at the root of many afflictions of modern society, especially those related to metabolic problems. “The greater the social jet lag, the greater the likelihood of becoming obese, developing diabetes, using drugs, smoking to relieve stress, and drinking alcohol to slumber off when one is not yet ready to sleep,” warned Roenneberg .

The implications of social jet lag also extend to the realm of behaviors. According to the chronobiologist, one of the first qualities that disappear when someone sleeps too little is social competence: “You become a true psychopath if you don’t sleep enough.”

For him, the social jet lag syndrome is associated with the idea that sleep keeps us from becoming more productive: “People tend to sleep one hour less in order to remain active for one hour more. Yet, sleeping does not mean ceasing to be active, but rather preparing the body and the mind for activity.”

He explained that simple math underlies this statement: “If someone sleeps one hour less, depriving himself of 1/8 of his sleep period, he only gains 1/16 in terms of activity. On the other hand, his efficiency is reduced by about 1/20.”

The result, he said, is a vicious cycle – one that has become endemic in the United States. “You lose efficiency, so you have to work more and more; to work more, you have to sleep less; and by sleeping less, you lose efficiency.”

In his assessment, the widespread use of alarm clocks is evidence that overall people sleep less than they should. “What is the fundamental issue underlying the use of an alarm clock? That we have not completed our biological sleep period! Otherwise, we would need no help to wake up,” he warned. “We must change our attitude toward sleep,” he added.

Chronotypes

In addition to propelling social jet lag, the modern lifestyle also contributes to an extreme expression of the so-called chronotypes – the classification of individuals according to the preferences of their body regarding the time they perform daily activities such as sleeping, waking up, working out and exercising the mind.

There are two main chronotypes: the “morning people,” who sleep and rise early, and reserve the night period to sleep; and the “evening people,” who prefer to sleep and wake up late, even if that means dedicating part of the day to sleep.

Roenneberg said that, in terms of their circadian behavior, these two chronotypes are growing farther and farther apart because of how the patterns of exposure to natural light are changing in the modern age.

According to him, throughout the course of evolution, our biological clock was synchronized with a light/dark cycle regulated by exposure to sunlight: “The environment in which we were synchronized during the last thousands of years was one of much light during the day and no light at all at night. The morning and evening chronotypes existed, but the distance between them was not significant.”

However, the dissemination of electric lighting and the habits of modern life have imposed different levels of exposure to solar and artificial light. Indeed, the luminous signals that help synchronize internal body rhythms and external environment rhythms are being minimized.

Roenneberg used the ICA’s own dynamics as an example: in daytime, when people should normally be exposed to the Sun, participants were confined indoors, with little natural light; at night, on the other hand, when the body should be in the dark, they were exposed to a prolonged period of artificial light. “We are darkening the day and illuminating the night. And this light is increasingly turning us into evening people,” he said.

According to him, exposure to artificial light at night would hardly make a farmer become an evening person, because, when working outdoors, under the Sun, he would signal to the biological clock that sunlight, stronger and natural, was the real light. “It is the contrast between light and dark that synchronizes our biological clock, making us sleep from 10 pm to 6 am,” he said.

In Roenneberg’s view, unlike what is commonly thought, being an evening person does not imply any type of pathology. “There is no innate timing of the circadian clock,” he explained, pondering that sleeping and waking up later is “a natural reaction to the environment where one lives, a normal way for the circadian clock to synchronize a body that is not being sufficiently exposed to light.”

The Senior Committee that coordinates the Intercontinental Academia (ICA) has completed the final stage of the selection process of the 13 young researchers who will participate in the pilot-project initiative. The result is the composition of a plural group, which includes the geographic diversity and the dialogue between East and West pursued by the ICA's creators for this first edition. Among the scientists there are representatives from three continents and seven countries: Germany, England, Finland, Japan, China, the United States and Brazil.

The selection began in the Senior Committee Meeting held in September 2014 at the Institute for Advanced Study in Freiburg (FRIAS), when the first names were chosen. In order to ensure the participation of young researchers from different countries, cultures and academic traditions, the decision on the other scientists was postponed until there was time for new candidates from other regions of the world to sign up.

The process was resumed in the 3rd Meeting of Directors of University-Based Institutes for Advanced Study (UBIAS) - a network which brings together 34 institutes for advanced studies based in universities around the world, to which the ICA is bound. During the event, held in November 2014 in Taipei, there was agreement on the appointment of four new candidates, all from Asia. The process was finalized in February 2015, when the last two researchers were chosen.

INTERCONTINENTAL ACADEMIA

Synthesized in the concept 2+2+2, the ICA is an international academic cooperation project which aims to bring together two institutes of UBIAS from two different continents to develop, over two interdisciplinary workshops, a joint research focused on a cross-thematic topic.

Synthesized in the concept 2+2+2, the ICA is an international academic cooperation project which aims to bring together two institutes of UBIAS from two different continents to develop, over two interdisciplinary workshops, a joint research focused on a cross-thematic topic.

PARTICIPANTS

	América
	André Mascioli Cravo - Brazil A psychologist graduated from USP, where he also received his PhD in neurophysiology and did a post-doctoral internship at the Medical School. Cravo is a professor for cognitive neuroscience at the Math, Computing and Cognition Center of the Federal University of ABC (UFABC).
	Eduardo de Almeida - Brazil A biologist graduated from the University of Minas Gerais and a PhD in entomology from Cornell University. Almeida is a professor of the Department of Biology at USP’s Faculty of Philosophy, Letters and Sciences of Ribeirão Preto (FFCLRP).
	Adriano De Cezaro – Brazil A mathematician graduated from the Federal University of Rio Grande (FURG), PhD in mathematics by the National Pure and Applied Mathematics Institute (IMPA) and postdoctoral fellow at the Computer Science Institute of the University of British Columbia. Cezaro is a professor at FURG’s Mathematics, Physics and Statistics Institute.
	Helder Nakaya - Brazil A biologist graduated from USP, where he also received his PhD in biochemistry and molecular biology. Post-doctor from Emory University. Nakaya is a professor at the Department of Clinical and Toxicological Analysis of USP’s School of Pharmaceutical Sciences (FCF), and at the Department of Pathology of Emory University‘s School of Medicine.
	Marius Müller - Brazil (in spite of being German, USP is supporting him at the ICA) A biologist graduated from the Christian-Albrechts-University and PhD in marine biogeochemistry from the Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences. Müller is a post-doctor from the Oceanography Laboratory of Villefranche-sur-mer and from the Institute of Marine Studies of the University of Tasmania. He is a post-doctorate fellow at USP’s Institute of Oceanography (IO).
	Nikki Moore - United States A bachelor of Arts from Baylor University and master in History, Theory, and Art and Architecture Criticism from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Moore is a doctoral student in art history at Rice University.
	Asia
	Norihito Nakamichi — Japan Graduated from the Faculty of Agriculture of the Nagoya University, where he also received his PhD in the same area. Nakamichi is an associate professor at the Institute of Biomolecules Manufacturing (ITBM) of the Nagoya University.
	Kazuhisa Takeda — Japan A bachelor in literature from the Reitaku University that has obtained his PhD in area studies from the Sophia University. Takeda is an assistant professor of the Institute for Advanced Study and a researcher at the Institute of Latin American Studies, both at Waseda University.
	Saitya Das — India A bachelor in letters (English language) from the Gauhati University that has obtained his PhD in semiotics and structure philosophy from the Jawaharlal Nehru University. Das is a post-doctor in philosophy of literature from the Unit of Philosophy Training and Research of the Université de Marc Bloch Strasbourg 2. He is a professor at the English Studies Center of the Jawaharlal Nehru University.
	Christian Hein — Taiwan A bachelor and a doctor in English and German comparative literature from the University of Hannover. Hein is a professor at the Languages Center of the Free Arts College of the National Taiwan University.
	Liu Yangyang — China A bachelor from the Nanjing University that holds a PhD from the University of the Southwest, both in China. Yangyang is an associate professor at the Department of Psychology of the Nanjing University.
	Europe
	Boris Roman Gibhardt — Germany A bachelor of general and comparative literature, history of art and musicology from the Johannes Gutenberg Mainz University that has obtained his PhD in general and comparative literature from Free University of Berlin. Gibhardt is a professor for art history at the University of Bielefeld and a visiting researcher at the Institute for Advanced Studies / Interdisciplinary Research Center at the same institution.
	David Gange — UK A historian graduated from the Trinity College at the University of Cambridge, where he also obtained his PhD in history and was a post-doctoral fellow. Gange is a senior professor of modern history at the University of Birmingham.
	Eva von Contzen — Germany A bachelor of English and Classical Art from the Ruhr-University Bochum that holds a PhD in theory of English medieval narrative. She has been a junior visiting researcher at the Institute for Advanced Study of the University of Freiburg (FRIAS). At the Ruhr-University Bochum she is currently a professor for culture, literature, and medieval and ancient English language.
	Valtteri Arstila — Finland A social scientist graduated from the University of Turku, where he has also obtained his PhD in philosophy. Arstila is a researcher of the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Philosophy at the University of Turku.

According to astrogeophysicist Luiz Gylvan Meira Filho, former visiting professor and currently member of the IEA’s Environment and Society research group, humanity is entering a period when it is difficult to predict what might happen, “because in the last 800,000 years the concentration of atmospheric CO₂ never exceeded 280 parts per million (ppm), and we have now reached 400 ppm.”

Meira Filho, who is one of Brazil’s leading experts on climate change and international climate negotiations, talked about the time scales of climate and of climate change in his conference at the Intercontinental Academia on April 22. For him, climate change should be seen in the context of time and treated as an urgent issue, “but not in the sense that something catastrophic may happen tomorrow or next week.”

During his exposition, he presented several graphs extracted from the 2014 Climate Change Synthesis Report prepared by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

CO₂ Concentration

According to Meira Filho, the “proxy data” (data collected by paleoclimatologists from natural records of climate variations, e.g., stomata, phytoplankton and paleosoils) allow us to analyze the history of climate over a very long time. “In the very distant past, there have been concentrations of CO₂ higher ​​than the current 400 ppm. Three and half million years ago, it was 200 ppm and between that time and 800,000 years ago, CO₂ concentration often reached 400 ppm.”

However, when we observe a shorter period of time, up to 800,000 years ago, and also consider three astronomical variables that affect climate (orbital obliquity, orbital eccentricity and the precession of Earth’s axis), “we find that we are in a period when the concentration of atmospheric CO₂ should reach a maximum of 280 ppm; it never reached 300 ppm in the last 800,000 years.”

It turns out that very recent history, as verified by measurements at the top of the Mauna Loa volcano in Hawaii, shows that CO₂ concentration was 320 ppm in 1970 and reached 380 ppm in 2005. According to Meira Filho, measurements at Mauna Loa began in 1958 and, at that time, already exceeded the 280 ppm typical of the pre-industrial period. “Nowadays, we don’t need to read scientific journals; the daily newspapers tell us that levels have reached 400 ppm.”

“This increase was caused by man. It is relatively simple to measure and apply the scientific method to find that CO₂ concentration is increasing. And, by analyzing several hypotheses, we can conclude that this is due to the burning of fossil fuels.” For Meira Filho, this conclusion is supported by the fact that there are no natural processes that burn fossil carbon in significant amounts. Even volcanic activity releases relatively small quantities of CO₂.

The greenhouse effect

He explained how the greenhouse effect derives from excess CO₂ in the atmosphere: “Our planet receives energy from the Sun and radiates part of it back into space in the form of infrared radiation, which acts as a cooling mechanism to maintain the thermal balance of the Earth’s surface. There has to be an equilibrium, otherwise the planet will heat up or cool down. CO₂ absorbs infrared radiation, unbalancing the system and causing the greenhouse effect, which warms the surface of the Earth.”

According to him, climate is determined by the absorption of electromagnetic energy from the Sun in the visible spectrum. “This does not occur uniformly, because tropical regions receive more energy than the polar ones. This difference in energy deposition causes the movements of the atmosphere and the transfer of energy. The oceans are also involved in the process. This is how climate models and their dynamics came about.”

From the point of view of science, the greatest dilemma has been the fact that climate change as reported in the newspapers cannot be observed: “In geophysics and astrophysics, we usually can’t apply the scientific method of laboratory experiments; things have to be done piecemeal. The beginning of this story has been solved, with the finding that the increase of atmospheric CO₂ is due to emissions caused by man. The result, i.e., the impact on the climate, is harder to explain.”

Numerical models

What scientists have been doing for years is “to improve the numerical models so as to predict weather a posteriori, that is, to predict today how climate evolved over the last century.” This job requires increasingly powerful supercomputers. However, according to Meira Filho, the physics behind it is very simple and uses “well-known and very stable laws of conservation of mass, energy (first law of thermodynamics) and momentum (Newton’s law). They are written in the form of differential equations with respect to time; we take a numerical quantity at a certain point in time, integrate the variants numerically and find the value in the future.”

“These models have been significantly improved, to the point of being able to estimate rather accurately how climate evolved over the last 100 years vis-à-vis how it actually developed. Once this is simulated in a computer, we can easily change the procedures to take into account increased atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases and see what happens.”

Future scenarios

The result is the realization that we must reduce the emission of greenhouse gases to control the rise in temperature. He showed graphs with four possible scenarios for 2100: 1) increase of 3.5 °C in the average temperature of the planet’s surface as early as 2100 and a trend of sharp increases in the following centuries if the emission of greenhouse gases continues to grow at the current rate; 2) increase of 0.5 °C if all emissions cease now; 3) increase of up to 2 °C (agreed at the UN Conference on Climate Change in December 2009 in Copenhagen), provided all countries concur to lower their emissions accordingly at the conference that the United Nations will hold in December in Paris; 4) increase of up to 3 °C if decisions adhere only to what was defined in Copenhagen.

According to Meira Filho, the climate system has essentially two memories: the first one has to do with the fact that greenhouse gases remain in the atmosphere for different periods (ten years for methane and more than 100 years for nitrous oxide; in the case of CO₂, the decrease is related to the level of biological activity on the planet); the second memory concerns the slow warming movement of the oceans, governed by maritime currents, which are relatively slow.

The permanence of gases

The combination of these two memories leads the maximum effect on climate change of methane to take place 20 years after the emission, and of carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide, 40 to 50 years. “This means that if we want to stabilize temperature in 2100, we have to stabilize emissions by 2050 and this depends on the industries and the infrastructure that are being planned today. Hence the urgency of dealing with the problem.”

Meira Filho concluded with a warning based on another scientific methodology: “If we look at this scenario using the concept of phase space and if we place in the coordinates of a multidimensional space one of the important variables that describe the climate system over time, the conclusion we reach is that we have already entered a phase space that we have never occupied in the last 800,000 years. This is scary, to say the least. We are in uncharted territory and this brings risks to the continuity of life.”

Hideo Iwasaki presents papers on the interface between science and art during the biology workshop.

Synthetic biology is a new approach to bioengineering. It involves modeling and the construction of organisms at the molecular scale, or the redesign of parts, devices or natural biological systems. It is a technology that seeks specific objectives through an intentional design. Instead of evolutionary pressures, the world of the living beings becomes a product of design choices. Through a fast progress, it has generated expectations to produce new biological applications in medicine, agribusiness, genomics, energy and other areas.

"It is a field that offers a new insight on how to relate to life. Its rapid advancement has resulted in many scientific and philosophical debates because it produces advances that lead to some exaggerations. Therefore, synthetic biology causes interest in some designers and artists involved in biotechnology," said biologist and artist Hideo Iwasaki, from the Waseda University, at the Biology Workshop of the second day of the Intercontinental Academia (ICA).

Grossmann and Iwasaki debating.

Martin Grossmann, former director of the IEA-USP and member of the Senior Committee for the ICA, chaired the debates of Iwasaki's presentation and drew attention to the unusual union between biology and art. According to Grossmann, Iwasaki has innovated with the presented theme, a mix of science, technology and design.

Coordinator of the Laboratory for Molecular Cell Network & Biomedia Art at Waseda University, Iwasaki talked about the work of the Synthetics Aesthetics, an experimental project run by the University of Edinburgh and Stanford University. In 2010 the most renowned synthetic biologists, artists and social scientists gathered to explore collaborations focused on the conception, construction and understanding of the living world.

At the time, Iwasaki developed the project "Biogenic Timestamp" in partnership with Oron Catts, from the Aalto University of Helsinki. The work was defined by the microbiologist as a "critique to the hype of synthetic biology, a provocation on the link between the scale of geological time and the biological one."

They worked with tissue culture from cyanobacteria, a group of bacteria that obtains energy by photosynthesis and is among the most primitive forms of life. The community was applied to a computer board, which has undergone the action of these organisms to date. The work was exhibited in Austria and Japan. According to the creators, the experiment shows that the bacteria are able to internalize our technologies and creations, and modify them as they please.

Engineering principles applied to the complexity of living systems: biology transformed into a new design material.

Another project, no less surreal by Western standards, is inspired by a relatively ancient habit in Japan, which is to create monuments in memory of insects, snails, plants, various objects and even the spirit of sperms.

Iwasaki showed that in some medical and research institutions, such as the Department of Human Sciences at the Waseda University, there is the habit of annual celebrations held in honor of animals used in experiments. In zoos there are funeral ceremonies for animals that have died. In 1971 a monument was created to honor the spirit of sperms.

Iwasaki thought of a memorial for artificial cells. "I am a microbiologist, so I can finally pray for the bacteria we use in experiments," he compared.

“The memorial service for synthetic cells” is the name of the technical and artistic work by Iwasaki, which will be displayed during the Kenpoku Art Festival 2016, a great show that dialogues with nature and art, incorporating science and technology. It is held in six cities in the northern Ibaraki Prefecture.

According to Iwasaki, his work is scientifically "stimulating, because it forces to think what life is in fact." The two projects that the scientist presented at the workshop seem to handle different things, but they actually "deal with the issue of time and how humans are involved with life," he said.

He cited a paper on the establishment of a bacterial cell from a chemically synthesized genome. "There is no common sense among scientists to answer if it is a living organism or a type of synthetic life. So I see that each one's subjective criterion of what life is is required for this kind of judgment," he added.

Photos: IAR/Nagoya

syntheticaesthetics.org

Group photo on the first day of the ICA's second phase.

The activities of the Intercontinental Academia (ICA) have started in Nagoya. This second stage, to be held from March 6 to 18, continues the work begun in 2015, in São Paulo. Thirteen young researchers are preparing an online course on the subject "Time." The Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) will be available for free on a virtual platform, possibly Cousera.

The opening ceremony, held on March 7 at the Nagoya University, was chaired by Hitoshi Sakakibara, and had the participation of the institution's president, Seiichi Matsuo. Further attendees were Martin Grossmann, former director of the IEA-USP and member of the Senior Committee for the ICA, Carsten Dose, executive director of the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies (FRIAS) and General Secretary for the ICA, and Hisanori Shinohara, director of the Institute for Advanced Research (IAR), co-organizer of the project and host of its second phase in Nagoya. After the welcome remarks, the research team conducted an acquaintance tour on the Higashiyama campus.

Physicist Hideyo Kunieda, advisor and vice president of the Nagoya University, gave the opening speech. He highlighted the motto of the University of São Paulo, "Sciencia Vinces" (Latin for "conquer by science"), drawing attention to the importance of this message to the present day. By presenting an overview of the research conducted at the Nagoya University, Kunieda stressed out the fact that six professors of the institution have recently been awarded the Nobel Prize. Kunieda was in São Paulo participating in the first phase of the Intercontinental Academia from April 17 to 29 last year, and gave a lecture on the theme time in astronomy.

Physicist Hideyo Kunieda presenting an overview of the research conducted at the Nagoya University.

Award-winning research

Ryoji Noyori won the Nobel Prize in 2001 and Osamu Shimomura in 2008, both in Chemistry. Also in 2008, professors Makoto Kobayashi e Toshihide Maskawa shared the award in Physics with Yoichiro Nambu, from the University of Chicago.

In 2014, another Nobel in Physics for the Nagoya University: Isamu Akasaki and Hiroshi Amano shared the award with Shuji Nakamura, from the University of California in Santa Barbara. The white LED, popular for being an economical source of light, was a creation of this trio of scientists.

Kunieda drew attention to the fact that some studies take decades to get to be a relevant invention. Hence the importance of young researchers to build the future. "But the role of a great mentor is also important," he said.

Attracting young talent is among the Nagoya University internationalization strategies, according to Kunieda. The institution promotes student symposiums, offers short and medium-term courses, short and long-term visits, exchanges between researchers, cooperative agreements and other actions.

Among the innovative projects of the Nagoya University there is the Center for Integrated Research of Future Electronics (CIRFE), whose research has resulted in savings of 7% in electricity costs in Japan, and the Institute of Innovation for Future Society, focused on applied research involving several areas.

Intellectual courage

Martin Grossmann thanked whoever has contributed to bring the ICA to life. The project of gathering young researchers from around the world to a work that lasts a whole year was released in 2012 during a meeting of the UBIAS Steering Committee held at Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Advanced Study, in New Delhi.

Martin Grossmann, former director of the IEA-USP and member of the Senior Committee for the ICA.

Grossmann remembered the master classs given by Professor José Goldemberg, former president of USP and current president of the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP), during the first meeting of the ICA, in São Paulo. Goldemberg was asked what a young researcher profile should be to meet the challenges of career and the university of the future. "They should be aggressive," he said.

Grossmann pointed out that the meaning of "being aggressive" in the world of science could be translated to "being bold" or "having intellectual courage", which coincides with the motto of the Nagoya University: "cultivate the intellectual courage."

Interdisciplinary approach is fundamental to the university of the future, according to Grossmann, speaking of the research at the IEA-USP. "To listen to the others, even if from different disciplines, is fundamental to the advancement of science," he said.

"How can a network of young researchers have some relevance when there is a secular institution like university? The answer is to promote research and interdisciplinary encounters that allow to associate science, culture and technology," said Grossmann.

Facilitating interdisciplinary dialogue

"The Nagoya University has been playing a leading role and giving decisive support for the activities of the UBIAS," said Carsten Dose. "This is a leading institution on a global scale and, therefore, to be here in the second phase of the ICA is a privilege."

Carsten Dose, from the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies (FRIAS) and General Secretary for the ICA.

Dose recalled the origins of the ICA and the UBIAS network, thanked the hospitality of the host university and the partnerships that enabled all the activities. "The ICA reminds us of what is essential for our institutions, which is to bring together young researchers in a work that facilitates dialogue between different disciplines and different countries," he said.

He remembered the advantages of having institutes for advanced studies related to universities, because these units have bases for producing science more freely, in a way that conventional institutions can not.

In a direct message to the young researchers of the ICA, Dose said he wanted "ambition" to be maintained, as well as the search for "new ideas to make the ICA keep advancing."

The IAR in expansion

Hisanori Shinohara presented the principles, activities and structure of the IAR. "We work with a small staff, as required by the modern institutions, but we intend to expand during my management, not only in terms of human resources but also in terms of budget," he said.

Hisanori Shinohara, from the IAR-Nagoya, presenting the Institute's activities

Shinohara highlighted that the principles governing the IAR are reporting research excellence produced at Nagoya University and the IAR to the academic community, giving substantial support to research excellence and promoting the independence of prominent researchers.

The academic advisory board of the IAR has 13 members, including the six scientists that have been awarded with the Nobel Prize. The institute currently has six research projects in progress. It seeks to encourage and promote informal interdisciplinary activities, promote meetings between young researchers and renowned academics, promote research exchanges with international institutions and manage a research fellowship program.

Biologist Regina Markus spoke to participants of the Intercontinental Academia (ICA) about the relationship between melatonin, a hormone that regulates sleep, and the activation of the immune system, during the conference Stop, Stop, Stop… A Necessary Pause in the Flow of Time, held on Sunday, April 26.

Markus, who is member of the IEA-USP’s scientific committee for the ICA, focused on the temporal organization of biological cycles influenced by variations of light, and particularly on the Theory of Immune-Pineal Axis, developed by her research group at the Chronopharmacology Laboratory of the Institute of Biosciences of the University of São Paulo, which she heads.

According to this theory, when attacked by a pathological agent – e.g., a virus, fungus or bacteria – and has to defend itself quickly, the body forces a temporary halt of its circadian clock, which is responsible for synchronizing internal rhythms and the external environment. During this pause, the regulation of diurnal and nocturnal biological functions becomes secondary and gives way to an innate immune response.

Markus presented a series of experiments conducted in vitro (in the controlled environment of the laboratory) and in vivo (in tissues from living organisms) in her laboratory, which show that the temporary halt of the circadian clock is possible thanks to the two-way communication that exists between the immune system and the pineal gland, located in the central region of the brain and responsible for synchronizing body rhythms and the so-called light/dark cycles.

Under normal conditions and if the body is not under threat, when night falls darkness stimulates the pineal gland to produce melatonin. The hormone, known as “hormone of darkness” or “sleep hormone,” enters the bloodstream and tells every cell that it is night, paving the way for a state of drowsiness. In contrast, at dawn, the increasing intensity of light inhibits the gland and the production of melatonin ceases, allowing the body to awaken and become active for the day.

This hormonal mediation between body and mind regulates the biological clock, enabling the organism to make the necessary adjustments to maintain the 24-hour life cycles.

A PAUSE IN TIME

However, in the presence of an external threat, the melatonin production is altered and the fine tuning between biological rhythms and ambient light is interrupted.

To reach this conclusion, Markus hypothesized that the functions of the “hormone of darkness” go beyond regulating sleep and extend to defending the organism – or, more specifically, to acting as a blood-brain barrier (the chemical mechanism that filters what can reach the brain).

The barrier acts as a gate; when closed, it prevents leukocytes (the body’s defense cells) in the bloodstream from migrating to healthy tissues and generating an undue immune response, which Markus calls “spurious inflammation.”

Markus explained that melatonin is a key element in the functioning of this barrier: the hormone inhibits the permeability of the cell layer of blood vessels, preventing leukocytes from unnecessarily traversing to tissues.

However, if pineal receptors receive information that an infectious agent has entered the body, the gland blocks the synthesis of melatonin. In the absence of the hormone, the blood-brain barrier opens and allows the immune cells to pass from the bloodstream to the injured tissue. This creates the necessary conditions for the body to react quickly to the threat of a pathogen, and is the first phase of the innate immune response.

On the other hand, if melatonin levels in the blood are reduced, then the regulation of the light/dark cycles is compromised and the body cannot synchronize internal rhythms with daytime and nighttime.

According to Markus, that is why the biological clock becomes misadjusted when we are sick. “During the first stage of the immune response, the body needs to stop in time to recover. This is what happens when we have a cold and cannot sleep at night, but are sleepy during the day.”

Photos: Leonor Calasans/IEA

Directed by Rafael Urban and Larissa Figueiredo, the film has been edited by João Menna Barreto. Cinematographer Jessica Candal Sato completes the team. The idea of the documentary is to synthesise the spirit and the activities of the ICA. The full academic, social and cultural programme of the event was attended by the four filmmakers, who interviewed the creators of the project.

The Intercontinental Academia is a project of the University-Based Institutes for Advanced Study (UBIAS), a network that brings together 36 institutes for advanced study of universities from all continents. The IEA-USP and the IAR-Nagoya have hosted the first edition. The phase held in Brazil was part of the Global Networks of Young Researchers program of the Olavo Setubal Chair of Arts, Culture and Science, based on IEA with the support of Itaú Cultural. The second phase, held in Japan last March, will also be reported by a documentary. Alexandre Rogoski, João Castelo Branco are Renata Corrêa have been responsible for the footage.

In the assessment of Renato Janine Ribeiro, Minister of Education, the university of the future should be conceived in terms not only of training for specific careers, but also of comprehensive cultural development to broaden and diversify people’s worldview. He spoke on this issue at a workshop with participants of the Intercontinental Academia (ICA) held on the morning of Friday, April 24.

Janine, who is also member of IEA’s scientific committee for the ICA and coordinator of IEA-USP's Research Group The Future Inquires Us, stressed that his exposition was not an official speech as minister, but a utopian exercise aimed at reflecting on what the university might become in the next forty or fifty years.

For him, the main issue to consider when imagining the university of the future is the need to go beyond professionalization: “We must think of a higher education system more concerned with sharpening minds to help them understand reality better.”

The professional life of many graduates from some of the most popular university courses in Brazil attest the need for change. According to Janine, nearly 20% of medical school graduates do not go on to become doctors. “This should set off an alarm signal, because students devote six years to a very difficult and very specific course and then leave everything aside,” he noted.

The situation is more worrisome in law schools. The minister said that although data are not accurate, most graduates do not pass OAB’s bar exam and, therefore, do not practice law. The same pattern is repeated in management courses and many others. “We are convinced that we have to change our curricula to offer broader university courses.” The first step toward this, he pondered, is to revamp the agendas of the universities and prepare them for changes that are already underway, two of which he underlined: diminishing social inequality and increased longevity.

EQUALITY

Recalling ideas of French thinker Alexis de Tocqueville, “a shrewd observer of the 19^th century political scene,” Janine said we are moving into an increasingly egalitarian world, in which social inequalities will not disappear but will lose their old justifications, a world that will see significant advances in the rights of those who were formerly excluded from it.

“Looking at the past 250 years, one can see that equality has indeed increased in terms of social justice, freedom and diversity, with greater inclusion of women and other groups historically discriminated against,” he said.

Social mobility in Brazil over the past decade would be example of this. Janine recalled the well-known images of the social pyramid and lozenge: in 2005, Brazilian society could be represented by a pyramid: a base made up of 100 million people in conditions of great poverty and misery, the so-called D and E classes; the mid-range, corresponding to the C class, had 50 million people; and at the top were the 40 million that constituted the privileged A and B classes.

By 2010, the pyramid had given way to a diamond-shaped lozenge: the base was reduced to 50 million people; the mid-range doubled in size to encompass 100 million people; and the top richest gained momentum, rising to 50 million. “In five years, 25% of the population in extreme poverty joined the C class, acquiring lower middle class status.”

If society is becoming more egalitarian, Janine reckoned, one can assume that access to university will tend to become a universal right. “If we hope get close to providing higher education to everyone that wishes, the university will have to be different: it cannot continue to focus on professional training, but must provide an overall cultural education that gives meaning to people’s lives,” he concluded. The university will become part of the life of every citizen and an expression of the education required for a person achieve personal and professional fulfillment in life.

In his view, Brazil is already moving toward broad access to higher education, although it is still far from reaching the ultimate goal. He cited some data to support his point of view: in 1968, when he became a Philosophy undergraduate, Brazilian universities had approximately 100,000 students. In 2003, the number was already slightly more than 3 million, and today it exceeds 7 million, or 20% of the population in the 20-29 age bracket. “When a country reaches the 15% tier, it ceases to be elitist in terms of access to higher education. Thus, we are currently no longer an elitist nation. We still have a long way to go, to be sure, but we have progressed,” he said.

LONGEVITY

The second transformation mentioned by Janine refers to the exponential increase in the population’s life expectancy. According to the minister, we are moving toward a time when to live 100 years will no longer be an exceptional feat and will become commonplace. “In this new world, the choices you make when you’re 20 cannot determine the results you will obtain when you’re 60,” he warned.

For Janine, increased longevity brings up the question of openness to changes, which are likely to become more frequent as age advances. That’s because people that live longer remain in the labor market for a longer period and will have more time to change their professional career.

“Currently, we deem it more important that you remain true to the profession you studied than faithful to your partner. But we live in a world where changes happen and are normal. People will change their identity several times throughout their life, and this includes changes in occupation and jobs,” he said.

The new scenario on the horizon imposes a more flexible university system, the minister explained, capable of preparing students to shift from one area to another, without this being seen as a sign of failure or immaturity. He questioned the current mindset that sees the withdrawal from a university course as a personal failure. “Why? Life goes on. You have to accept the idea of change. A college degree cannot dictate one’s future life and need not be a definitive professional milestone.”

THINKING A NEW MODEL

To explain the model of the university of the future he has in mind, Janine used as an example the project of an experimental interdisciplinary humanities course that he developed for the University of São Paulo, but was never implemented.

The course was divided in four semesters, the first of which would have “Modernity” as its central theme: the disciplines would revolve around the emergence of the modern age and would discuss above all rationalism, relying on authors like Descartes, Durkheim and Max Weber. The perspective of the visual arts and literature would also be included, with analyses of novels centered on problematic heroes, such as Don Quixote and Madame Bovary, which represent  “the shadow, the dark side of Modernity,” he said.

The second semester would offer disciplines centered in anthropology and in antiquity, and would establish a counterpoint to modernity. The third would include disciplines enabled students to discuss post-modernity, focusing on contemporary thought and on critiques to modern thinkers.

According to Janine, the course was designed to offer students different views on the same subject. Sociology, for instance, is concerned with studying the flaws of modernity. Anthropology is averse to modernity and does not believe in progress and in a hierarchy of cultures. And Political Science tends to believe that the world can be better if it becomes more rational, which is what modern thinkers assume.

“The courses would not be mere expositions of content, but different lenses through which to see social phenomena. Students would learn to analyze events from the most appropriate perspective. There is no single universal lens.”

He said that, much like the university of the future, the course would broaden people’s worldview. “We must become cultural and scientific polyglots; we must know the different areas and disciplines and how to integrate them,” he said.

In addition to Janine’s conference, the ICA program includes two others sessions that discuss the theme “University:” a master class on the 80^th anniversary of the University of São Paulo, with former president José Goldemberg, which took place on April 20, and a debate with university presidents and education experts about the future of the university, held on the afternoon of Friday, April 24.

Photo 1: Leonor Calasans/IEA
Photo 2: Marcos Santos/Jornal da USP