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Science in Argentina
阿根廷的科学发展

Cristina the alchemist
炼金术士克里斯蒂娜

Argentina is trying to build a scientific establishment
阿根廷正努力打造一个科学机构

SOUTH AFRICA is not the only middle-income country which aspires to join the world's scientific powers.
南非并不是唯一渴望加入世界科学强国的中等收入国家。

Argentina would like to as well.
怀有同样渴望的还有阿根廷。

The place is proud of its three Nobel science prizes—the largest haul of any Latin American nation—even if the most recent was awarded in 1984.
曾经三次荣获诺贝尔科学奖，但即使最后一次获奖发生在1984年，阿根廷仍然以此为傲，因为这是任何拉丁美洲国家都无法比拟的成就。

But many researchers fled in the 1990s, when budgets were slashed. Now the government is trying to attract them back, and to encourage younger talent to consider a scientific career.
但在20世纪90年代，预算大幅削减，许多研究人员抽身而去。如今，政府正在努力将其吸引回国，并鼓励青年人才以科学为职业。

When Néstor Kirchner, the predecessor and late husband of the current president, Cristina Fernandez, took office in 2003, Argentina was spending just 0.41% of its GDP on research and development.
前总统内斯托尔·基什内尔于2003年上台，当时阿根廷在研究和开发上的投入仅占其GDP的0.41%。

Now, that figure is 0.64%.
如今的投入占到0.64%。

Kirchner raised researchers' salaries, launched a scheme to repatriate departed scientists and gave tax breaks to software companies.
基什内尔总统提高了研究人员的工资，推出召回离国科学家的方案，允许软件开发公司享受税收上的优惠。

Ms Fernandez followed suit by creating a science ministry and putting a biologist, Lino Barao, in charge of it.
费尔南德斯夫人也相继建立起科技部，并任命生物学家巴拉尼奥为部长。

She also increased grants to firms that try to develop new products.
她还提高了给新产品研发公司的拨款。

Many of the Kirchners' critics were sceptical, seeing the ministry either as a political marketing ploy or as a soft touch for lobbyists seeking unjustified subsidies.
许多针对基什内尔的批评家们持一种怀疑态度，他们认为科技部既是一种政治营销策略，又会被那些寻求不正当补贴的说客轻易利用。

But the strategy seems to be working.
然而整个策略却似乎正在发挥作用。

With help from the Inter-American Development Bank the government has, since 2004, lured back 854 expatriate scientists.
2004年，在美洲开发银行的帮助下，阿根廷政府总共将854名移居国外的科学家吸引回国，

It has done so by providing new laboratories and equipment for them, moving their families, and forking out extra money for their salaries.
为他们提供新的实验室和仪器，安置其家人，分拨额外资金作为他们的酬劳。

As a consequence, according to Dr Baraao,
根据尼奥教授所说，

Argentine researchers have published 179 articles in leading journals in the past decade, compared with just 30 in the 1990s.
之后阿根廷的研究员们在过去的十年里发表在前沿期刊的文章就有179篇，而90年代却只有30篇。

Most of the returners are academics. But commercial science has benefited, too.
大多数归国人员都是学术派，但商业科学却也从中受益。

Indear, a joint public-private biotechnology-research centre based in Santa Fe, recently worked out how to transfer a gene for drought resistance from sunflowers to crops such as maize, soyabeans and wheat.
总部位于圣达菲的一家公私合营生物技术研究中心Indear，近日研发出如何将向日葵中的抗旱基因转移到玉米大豆及小麦等农作物上，此举可将旱地产量提升至40%。

That can increase yields in droughts by up to 40%. And the government has also doled out 54m in grants for the development of products that include coagulant factors to treat haemophilia,
同时，政府还发放5400万美元开发包括发凝血因子在内的产品，

transgenic cattle which secrete valuable hormones in their milk, and better ways of probing for oil deposits.
以治疗血友病，研究分泌珍贵激素的转基因奶牛，以及提高石油储备的勘探技术。

Help for high-tech innovation comes in other forms, too.
对高科技创新的扶持还不止这些。

The state offers, for example, to pay the cost of patenting inventions in foreign jurisdictions and of hiring lawyers to defend those patents.
例如，政府会为在海外司法审批的发明支付专利申请费用，并出钱雇佣律师为之辩护。

It also acts as a headhunter for information-technology firms seeking employees with PhDs, and will pay part of the salaries of such recruits.
同时还为信息技术公司充当猎头，搜寻有博士学历的员工，并支付其部分薪金。

None of these programmes has faced allegations of corruption.
所有的项目都没有发生有关贪污的起诉。

Whether all this activity will have the effect of stimulating high-tech industry, as Ms Fernandez hopes, remains to be seen.
然而，整个方案是否会像费尔南德夫人希望的那样推动高科技工业的发展，还得拭目以待。

Argentine scientists are happy to take taxpayers' money but according to Luis Dambra, a professor at the IAE business school in Buenos Aires, they look down their noses at the idea of actually getting their hands dirty by going into industry.
花着纳税人的钱让阿根廷的科学家们十分高兴，不过布宜诺斯爱丽丝IAE商学院的路易斯·丹布尔教授认为，进入工业领域就是自降身段的说法让科学家们嗤之以鼻。

Mr Dambra, though, says industry is equally to blame.
尽管如此，丹布尔先生表示工业同样应该被斥责。

In 2009, only 21% of Argentine R&D was paid for by the private sector, compared with 44% of Brazil's.
2009年，阿根廷研发领域仅有21%的费用是由私营部门支付，相比巴西就达到了44%。

Firms that might recruit academic scientists often do not see the point.
那些有可能聘请学术科学家的公司却总是忽略了这一点。

Even those that do may struggle to accommodate people with a non-commercial background into the business world.
即便那些看到这一点的公司也可能争抢着将非商科背景的研究员安置在商业领域。

Attitudes can change, of course.
当然，态度看法总是发生变化的。

In the 1980s many British academics were as snobbish about commerce as Argentina's are now.
19世纪80年代，许多英国学者看待商业的态度和今天的阿根廷人一样不屑一顾。

These days, Britain's top universities are gung-ho for spin-outs and the revenue they can provide. But it takes time and consistent policy to make such changes and Argentina is notorious for sudden alterations in the political weather.
而现在英国的顶尖大学都在为其所能提供的额外产物和收益而狂热。但是这些转变都需要长久的时间和一贯的政策才能得以确保，而阿根廷却因为在政界中风云突变而名声狼藉。

That makes the country a perilous place to invest, whatever the current climate.
无论现阶段状况如何，整个国家都成了投资者的危险之地。