area a partícula que mudou o Brasil

Science Graffiti Wall Area

The Particle that changed Brazil

The seemingly abstract figure that dominates this area of ​​the ‘Science Graffiti Wall’ is at the origin of the formation of a modern Brazil, in which science was - as, perhaps, it’s never been again - part of a nation project. The two small scratches (‘risquinhos’) seen in the image represent one of the most important discoveries of physics of the last century and, as a consequence of that, were founded in Brazil, institutions of research and financing for science.

The horizontal ‘risquinho’ is the trajectory left on a special photographic plate by the Pi Meson, responsible for keeping protons and neutrons 'glued' to the atomic nucleus. This particle was predicted theoretically in 1935 by the Japanese physicist Hideki Yukawa (1907-1981). For the 10 years that followed, the search for this then mysterious piece of matter brought together the brightest minds of physics at the time. The vertical ‘risquinho’ is the particle in which the Pi Meson 'becomes' (decays): the muon, the 'heavier' cousin of the electron.

Despite the efforts of several groups around the world, the discovery of Pi Meson - today, pion - was obtained in 1947 by the team of HH Wills Laboratory, University of Bristol (United Kingdom), with decisive participation of the Brazilian physicist César Lattes (1924-2005). The article with the results is in the prestigious research journal Nature from May 24 that year.

The year after, Lattes, in co-authoring with the American physicist Eugene Gardner (1913-1950), detected Pi Meson in the 184-inch synchrocyclotron at the University of California at Berkeley. It was an important discovery not only from the scientific point of view, but also a political one, because according to historians of science, it launched a new way of doing physics: particle accelerators.

In Brazil, a campaign - bringing together scientists, military, artists, journalists, businessmen, bankers, etc. - publicly promoted the achievements of Lattes, who at that time would become 'our hero' of the Nuclear Era - a major geopolitical transformation world-wide, and of which Brazil became a part. This campaign led to the founding of the Brazilian Center for Physics Research (CBPF) in Rio de Janeiro (RJ) on January 15, 1949, as well as the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) and the Higher Education Improvement Coordination (Capes), key institutions of the entire infrastructure of administration and financing of scientific research in Brazil.

Lattes’ deeds were undoubtedly important. Modest, however, when asked if he would do it all again, he replied: "I did my best. I was impacted by history. "Lattes had seven nominations for the Nobel Prize in Physics.

"I did my best. I was carried by history.”

- César Lattes -

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