We are going to take over the world!


Seed Media has just announced the formation of Scienceblogs Brazil, to meet all of your needs for science in Portuguese. It looks good, and some of the posts have been translated into English, so even those of us with limited language skills can browse part of it.

There is no word yet if the “Most Popular” and “Most German” sidebar lists will soon be accompanied by “Most Brazilian”, which would definitely arouse some interesting associations with hot wax fantasies. I shall use all of my immense clout to urge that it be made so, immediately.

Comments

  1. DGKnipfer says

    I believe I will have to direct all of my Azorian friends here. They’ll love it.

  2. CarlosT says

    Very cool. I’m from Brazil, but my Portuguese is untutored, especially in comparison to my English, because I left when I was six and was consequently never exposed to it in an academic setting. This will be a great source for daily reading of high level Portuguese.

    And the science content will probably be good too.

  3. fred_magyar@yahoo.com says

    Thanks PZ! Great Stuff!

    I will now have to spend less time on your blog and more time there. There are only so many hours in day you know.

    But it seems that the scientists there are just as irreverent, LOL!

    Catalisadores Inorgânicos e a Origem da Vida

    Category: Ciência do Solo • Pedologia • origem da vida
    Posted on: março 13, 2009 2:41 PM, by Ítalo M. R. Guedes

    Por Elton Luiz Valente

    Mas algumas coisas podem ser presumidas com certo grau de confiança. Por exemplo: o que faltou no experimento de Urey e Miller para que o processo pudesse dar pelo menos mais um passo a diante? A resposta que me parece óbvia é a presença de um catalisador. Pelo que se sabe, Urey e Miller não pensaram nisso, não colocaram lá um catalisador primevo, inorgânico, comum ao ambiente terrestre de todos os tempos.

    Existem diversos catalisadores inorgânicos na natureza. Os íons, por exemplo, desempenham bem esse papel. Mas, no meu entendimento, para catalisar as reações entre substâncias orgânicas, principalmente aquelas que promoveram a gênese dos primeiros colóides que deram origem às células primitivas, é preciso um catalisador inorgânico mais poderoso. Nós da Ciência do Solo conhecemos bem estas ‘entidades’, lidamos com elas todos os dias. São as Argilas, ou Argilominerais. Se alguém aí insurgir em protesto, dizendo que eu estou querendo elevar míseras argilas à categoria de Deus, ‘o promotor da vida’, eu digo que não é isso, mas que assim seja! Amém!

    My quick and dirty translation:

    But there are some things we can assume with a reasonable degree of confidence. For example: What was missing in Urey and Miller’s experiment, that would allow the process to be taken at least one step further? The answer, that to me seems obvious, is the addition of a catalyzer. As far as is known Urey and Miller didn’t think of this and did not add any inorganic catalyzer, such as were commonly found in the primitive environment of the earth.

    There are many inorganic catalyzer found in nature. Ions, for example, can serve well in this regard. According to my understanding, in order to catalyze the reactions between organic compounds, especially those that became the precursors of the first colloids that would give origin to the primitive cells, it is necessary to have a more powerful catalyzer.

  4. Paulino says

    In this traditionally Catholic and now Pentecostal beleaguered country of mine, all scientific manifestations are more than welcome. Also it is nice that the world gets to knows more about us other than football (soccer), carnival and waxy pubic torture! :)

  5. Fernando Magyar says

    This part got cut off:

    We in the Earth Sciences know these entities well, we deal with them on a daily basis. They are are the clays and the minerals associated with them. Lest someone suggest in protest that I might be trying to raise these simple clays to the category of God, I say this is not so, but so be it! Amen!

  6. DaveH says

    I have a question:

    What’s Portuguese for “Is cold air cleaner than warm air?”

    Is it just my browser settings, or has the NYT “news” not changed for about 6 months?

  7. NiceBrazilian says

    I was truly amaze that the third assimilated country of the SciBlog overmind was Brazil. Not to devalue my own country, but there are lots of others countries that are more “traditional” in the whole sciences thing ( England and France, for instance).

    But I will enjoy the blogging as much I enjoy the english SciBlog, for sure!

    So, to everyone who can understand Portuguese, enjoy! You know, the Brazilian SciBlog will have waay more semi-nudity…. =]

  8. says

    Dear PZ and commenters,
    As one of the new Brazilian ScienceBloggers I really appreciate all the positive comments and wishes. Our country really needs more science, science education and science popularization. As to the post commented by #8 and others, one of our best qualities is humor and irony, especially towards pseudoscience and fundamentalism. By the way, Ciência do Solo should be translated as Soil Science, not Earth Science. And for #13, the sentence tranlates thus:
    “O ar frio é mais limpo que o ar quente?”

    And visit us!!

  9. Fernando Magyar says

    Italo @ 15

    Re: Earth vs Soil Science

    Thanks for the correction, I should not have made that mistake. Especially since I have some Brazilian Agronomists in my extended family.

    Earth science would be Geociencias.

  10. says

    One of the greatest things of the internet it is the fact that thousands of languages are at a click of distance. In the last few years, web language diversity has increased. It is a great thing to keep all our languages alive, and to share them to the world.

  11. MikeInLondon says

    So do the women in Brazil, I wonder, go into a salon and ask for a Minnesotan?

  12. Fernando Magyar says

    MikeInLondon @ 22

    So do the women in Brazil, I wonder, go into a salon and ask for a Minnesotan?

    LOL! I have to send this to my girl friend who hails from Michigan, she once told me about the time she unsuspectingly walked into a salon and was treated to her first Brazilian, she wasn’t quite ready for it at the time.

  13. eddie says

    Thanks for that Fernando. I am just now reading the part of Dawkins’ The Blind Watchmaker in which he describes Graham Cairns-Smith’s work on clay catalysts. If some such had been added to Miller and Urey’s ‘cauldron’ who knows what might have crawled out ;-)
    Also, wouldn’t the US equivalent to a brazilian be a washingtonian? I thought it was a deforestation metaphor.
    I guess I ought also to apologise for my joke about keyhole caesarians.

  14. Fernando Magyar says

    Also, wouldn’t the US equivalent to a brazilian be a washingtonian? I thought it was a deforestation metaphor.

    Just so long as no Bush is ever elected to office ever again. That would be a good deforestation metaphor.Though instead of removal by wax I think tar and feathers might be more appropriate ;-)

  15. siMon says

    We are going to take over the world!

    are you dreaming ? i saw you only have a few followers less than 200. I guess your carrier as biologist will end up soon, next year the latest. They are all boring to read your post, it is nonsense, only mad men and frustrated one are your devotee.

    you might take over the world if you join Kim Il Sung !

  16. Janine, Ignorant Slut says

    Posted by: siMon | March 18, 2009

    We are going to take over the world!

    are you dreaming ? i saw you only have a few followers less than 200. I guess your carrier as biologist will end up soon, next year the latest. They are all boring to read your post, it is nonsense, only mad men and frustrated one are your devotee.

    Simpering Simon, I had no idea you had inside knowledge of the workings of UMM. I would have though you never been to college, just going by your sparkling use of english.

  17. simon says

    life is short and vulnerable, you might get killed by a heart attack next week or a cancer next month.

    how many more bloods do you want to sacrifice to your gods ?

  18. Feynmaniac says

    Simon,

    Don’t you know you’ve been selected to play Survivor: Pharyngula?!

    Looks like Barb is out this round, but you might be next. Prepare for the next immunity challenge!

    **Awaits incoherent rambling about blood, penis, anus, and feces.**

  19. says

    If you get a Most Brazilian box, maybe someone could also fix the Most German box (whatever that’s even supposed to mean, I guess “Most Recent German posts”) because it’s been stuck for weeks. On the blogs that is, it’s fine on the front page.

  20. DLC says

    Whoa. Simon’s reading comprehension stinks.
    To elucidate: PZ was referring to SEED magazine’s Scienceblogs collective. (ooh collective.. I said a dirty word!) They (Scienceblogs) have bloggers in the United States, Canada Germany and now Brazil. Probably England too, but I don’t read all the scienceblogs, just a few.

    As for brazillian science bloggers.. Cool!
    do we also get the Rio beach babes ?

  21. Angelo says

    Random fact about Brazil.
    We call our president Lula. That’s squid in english.

    How cool is that?