ABSTRACT
Science has developed in Latin America in a very heterogeneous way, varying from country to country and from discipline to discipline. While bio-medical sciences developed in almost every country (and in some cases in very significant directions), other disciplines, like physics, mathe matics and astronomy, were significant only in some countries. Physics and its associated research began to develop at an early stage at the University of La Plata in Argentina, with the contributions of German scientists, and later in Mexico, where Manuel Sandoval Vallarta was particularly impor tant, and Brazil, where Gleb Wataghin is a dominant figure. Physiology was another area of developing research, as were biochemistry and, to a lesser extent, molecular biology at a later stage. These were the three areas that produced Latin America’s Nobel Prize winners in science - Bernardo Houssay, Luis Leloir and Cesar Milstein.
