ABSTRACT
National scientific communities have emerged in Latin America during the twentieth century, under a cloud of tension between the need to join the international scientific community and the desire to achieve an independent voice, i.e., autonomy in the definition of their role and interests. The state of science in the region is highly inconsistent. In some countries there are government-supported laboratories and research teams which command international recognition. In others, the essential infrastructures of education and training are lacking. Often funding is meager and insufficient to maintain even the minimum scientific capability. There are not enough researchers to respond to government programs. Scientists are discouraged by the lack of incentive and poor conditions of work. At the same time, there is widespread criticism that much scientific work is trivial, and the ideology of ‘applied science’ with which pressure is often exerted on the scientific community, often masks and consolidates mediocre research capacity.
