Abstract

GONZALEZ MARTINEZ, Constancio. Basic Research. Research in Physiological Sciences: Biochemistry, Biophysics, Molecular Biology and Physiology.  Some prior considerations. Educ. méd. [online]. 2004, vol.7, suppl.1, pp.41-50. ISSN 1575-1813.

This article is a transcription of a conference addressed to a group of colleagues from Latin America at the end of January 2004, in the Instituto Carlos III (Madrid). Its main purpose was to conjugate some general ideas on scientific research with known facts on the socioeconomic reality of Latin American countries.  In the initial part of the talk I put forward a definition of research, emphasizing the great value of considering the teleology of biological phenomena for the advance of biological sciences. A succinct consideration of the importance of Good Laboratory Practices, especially if there is not a tradition of research, drove my talk to the presentation of some basic data on the socioeconomic situation of the Latin American countries. In the second half of the conference my efforts were directed to incite our Latin American colleagues to demand from their politicians, and to justify in front of their fellow citizens, the necessity of implementing a program on scientific research as a national priority. Such demand should be justified on the basis of the recognition that research represents a way to correctly use the intellectual capital of the citizens of every country and a mean to profit from free international resources, that research is a source of culture, contributing to the national identity of any given country, and finally, on the fact that research is an activity that generates wealth. I concluded my talk pointing out that basic research, and therefore research in physiological sciences, is assembled so tight with basic research that they conform a unique reality.

Keywords : Basic research; good laboratory practices; gross national product; bureaucracy; research priorities.

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