In an interview with El Mostrador’s editor-in-chief, Héctor Cossio, the scientist highlighted that nanotechnology helps generate more and better wind and solar energy and create systems to store this energy. “There are also other developments, such as helping to make gas filters, which are tremendously complex, because gases are small molecules. We can also help improve our soils and waters. We can help desalinate water, but also remove lead, arsenic and heavy metals.” The scientist said that to advance in this area in Chile it is necessary to secure resources with long-term programs and train people in science and technology. “If we want Chile to help improve the climate situation, we need Trust with a capital T, and the funding to be there,” she concluded.
National Science Prize winner Dora Altbir highlighted on Sunday at Puerto de Ideas the potential of nanotechnologies to combat global warming.
The director of the Center for the Development of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (CEDENNA) and academic at U. de Santiago made these remarks during a conversation with El Mostrador’s editor-in-chief, Héctor Cossio, after giving a presentation titled “The revolution of the infinitely small”, reflecting her 30 years of experience in the field.
There she discussed innovations such as a cell phone battery that can be charged in one minute, its equivalent for charging electric cars, a device to detect a heart attack in advance, and an augmented reality contact lens.
In the interview, Altbir also discussed other topics such as manufacturing packaging to improve the preservation of foods like salmon, the manufacture in China of nanotechnology machinery (such as sensors for mining) from designs made in Chile, and the contribution of nanoscience to medicine, especially cancer treatment.
More generally, she also addressed low public and private investment in science in Chile, the scarce presence of scientists in Chilean companies and women’s participation in research.
Technological revolution
Nanoscience has meant a true revolution in the scientific world. When materials are at sizes of millionths of a millimeter (nanometers), their behavior can be very different from their behavior at larger sizes.
Multidisciplinary work on systems at this scale has allowed the novel properties materials exhibit at nanometric sizes to become precursors of many applications that are only beginning to be explored.
In her presentation, Altbir spoke about their origin, inviting the audience to learn about some applications and to discuss the potential benefit nanotechnology offers our future, as well as the challenges it poses for its best use.
Environment
Regarding the environment, Altbir highlighted that nanoscience offers “lots of opportunities. In the field of energy sources, they help generate more and better wind and solar energy and create systems to store this energy,” she said.
“There are also other developments, such as helping to make gas filters, which are tremendously complex, because gases are small molecules. We can also help improve our soils and waters. We can help desalinate water, but also remove lead, arsenic and heavy metals,” she explained.
The scientist said that to advance in this area in Chile it is necessary to secure resources with long-term programs and train people in science and technology.
“If we want Chile to help improve the climate situation, we need Trust with a capital T, and the funding to be there,” she concluded.
Public and private funding
Altbir also addressed the issue of funding, both public and private, saying that “knowledge and trust” are lacking.
“On the one hand, Chile has one of the lowest investments in science among OECD countries. The OECD average investment in science and technology is 2.2% of GDP, and we have 0.34%.”
In addition, in other countries there is strong private investment besides that of the State.
“Here that private investment is very, very small. We need an increase in private investment, but also in state investment. We have to convince both that without science our country will not move towards development. And if we want to solve our problems and have a higher GDP that allows us to address all the other problems our country has, we have to approach science with a different structure,” she said.
Added to this is where scientists work. Altbir noted that in Chile 95% of researchers with PhDs work at universities, while in other countries 50% work in companies.
“We have practically no researchers in companies, and as long as that does not change, companies will always innovate in processes, but not in technology.”
She added that in the public sector “scientists are not trusted to take on certain positions” and expressed her hope that PhDs will be not only in the ministries of Science and the Environment, but also in others such as Public Works (“because there are new materials we can use that give much better results”), Education and even municipalities.
“PhDs can contribute in many places, not only universities. Chile is losing that potential; we can do much more,” she added.
Science and gender
Altbir also addressed the presence of women in science, having previously stressed that “science has no gender.”
“I believe diversity is very important in science. For example, in nanoscience this means we need chemists, physicists, biologists, mathematicians and engineers to reach a result through different perspectives. We used to look at science in a single-discipline way, and that view is changing,” she said.
In this regard, the academic considers it important to incorporate more women. She said that at CEDENNA some 160 students take part every year, half of them women, alongside some 70 PhDs, where female participation drops to 25%.
The scientist called for an end to sexist teaching in schools, where girls are offered cooking and dance workshops and boys football and carpentry, or where certain colors are said to be “for boys” and others “for girls”.
The future of nanotechnology
Finally, for a science that is barely 40 years old, the best is yet to come, in the scientist’s words.
“It is said that in the next five to ten years, 50% of medical treatments will be based on nanotechnology,” she said, in areas such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
She also mentioned a nasal cancer detector, which detects four to five types of the disease at an early stage.
Asked about the work of the Constitutional Convention, she said science needs specific government policies beyond the Constitution, with long-term budgets in parallel work.
