科技

　　Science in Argentina

　　阿根廷的科研

　　Cristina the alchemist

　　炼金术士克里斯蒂娜

　　Argentina is trying to build a scientific establishment

　　阿根廷努力打造一个科研机构

　　SOUTH AFRICA is not the only middle-income country which aspires to join the world's scientific powers (see article).

　　和南非一样， 阿根廷不仅是一个中等收入国家同时也寻求在世界科学研究领域的地垃。

　　Argentina would like to as well. 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.

　　这里的人们都以曾获3次诺贝尔奖为殊荣- 这是拉美国家里所获该奖最多的- 即便最近的1次是在1984年。

　　But many researchers fled in the 1990s, when budgets were slashed.

　　可是在90年代，因为预算削减，很多科研人员都流失了。

　　Now the government is trying to attract them back, and to encourage younger talent to consider a scientific career.

　　现在阿根廷政府正试图吸引人才回归，同时鼓励那些有天赋的年轻人投入科研生涯。

　　When Néstor Kirchner, the predecessor and late husband of the current president, Cristina Fernández,

　　克里斯蒂娜.费尔南德兹是现任总统; 她的亡夫同时也是前任总统内斯托?基什内尔，

　　took office in 2003, Argentina was spending just 0.41% of its GDP on research and development (R&D). Now, that figure is 0.64%. (Brazil, by comparison, spent 0.95% in 2003 and 1.18% in 2009.)

　　在2003年就任的时候，阿根廷的科研费用只占了总GDP的0.41%， 而现在则是0.64%.(以巴西为比照，2003年是0.95%，而2009年是1.18%)

　　Kirchner raised researchers' salaries, launched a scheme to repatriate departed scientists and gave tax breaks to software companies.

　　基什内尔提高了科研人员的工资，还启动了一个旅外科学家回归计划，同时减免了软件公司税收。

　　Ms Fernández followed suit by creating a science ministry and putting a biologist, Lino Bara?ao, in charge of it.

　　费尔南德斯夫人延续了该政策并建立了科技部还委任了一位生物学家利诺?巴拉尼奥为部长。

　　She also increased grants to firms that try to develop new products.

　　同时对于研发新产品的公司，她还增加了相应的政府补贴。

　　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.

　　许多基什内尔的政治评论家对此政策持怀疑态度，认为这个部门不是个政治秀就是政客们捞取黑钱的把戏。

　　But the strategy seems to be working.

　　但是实际上这个策略似乎行之有效。

　　With help from the Inter-American Development Bank the government has, since 2004, lured back 854 expatriate scientists.It has done so by providing new laboratories and equipment for them, moving their families, and forking out extra money for their salaries.

　　自2004年开始，在泛美银行的帮助下，通过提供新实验室和设备，帮助家庭落户，支付额外的工资补贴等方式，吸引了854名旅外科学家回国。

　　As a consequence, according to Dr Bara?ao, Argentine researchers have published 179 articles in leading journals in the past decade, compared with just 30 in the 1990s.

　　据巴拉尼奥博士称，在去年10年中，阿根廷科研人员在学术期刊上发布的论文达到了179篇, 而在90年代仅有30篇。

　　Most of the returners are academics. But commercial science has benefited, too.

　　虽然大多数回归的都是理论研究学者，但是应用科学也同样受益。

　　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. That can increase yields in droughts by up to 40%.

　　一所位于圣达菲的公私合营的生物科技研究所Indear,最近提出了通过转基因技术把向日葵的抗旱性移稙到玉米，大豆和小麦上，这样在旱季可以增产40%。

　　And the government has also doled out $54m in grants for the development of products that include coagulant factors to treat haemophilia, transgenic cattle which secrete valuable hormones in their milk, and better ways of probing for oil deposits.

　　同时政府已投入5.4亿美元在诸多产品研发领域，包括治疗血友病的凝血剂，产奶里富含荷尔蒙的转基因牛，还有油床勘探技术等。

　　Help for high-tech innovation comes in other forms, too.

　　对于科技创新，科技部给予多种多样的扶持形式。

　　The state offers, for example, to pay the cost of patenting inventions in foreign jurisdictions and of hiring lawyers to defend those patents.

　　比如，对于在国外的专利发明的成本费用以及雇佣律师保护专利的费用，都予以国家补助。

　　It also acts as a headhunter for information-technology firms seeking employees with PhDs, and will pay part of the salaries of such recruits.

　　科技部也扮演猎头角色并为那些信息科技公司寻找拥有博士头衔的雇员，同时为这些雇员支付部分薪水。

　　None of these programmes has faced allegations of corruption.

　　目前在这些项目里还没发现有贪污现象。

　　Whether all this activity will have the effect of stimulating high-tech industry, as Ms Fernández hopes, remains to be seen.

　　这些措施能否如费尔南德兹夫人所期望那样促进高科技行业的发展，还有待观察。

　　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.

　　但据一位来自布宜诺斯艾利斯商业管理学院的教授刘易斯.邓波拉称，阿根廷的科研人员都心安理德地拿纳税人的钱，却又自命清高不愿意真正进入产业领域。

　　Mr Dambra, though, says industry is equally to blame.

　　然而邓波拉也声称产业界同样也担负责任。

　　In 2009 (the latest year for which data are available), only 21% of Argentine R&D was paid for by the private sector, compared with 44% of Brazil's. Firms that might recruit academic scientists often do not see the point. Even those that do may struggle to accommodate people with a non-commercial background into the business world.

　　在2009年（最新可用数据）阿根廷的研发支出只有21%是来自于私人资本，而巴西则是44%. 但那些可能雇佣理论科研人员的企业总是忽略这些，即使那些想把非商业背景人才引入商业领域的企业也为此犹豫不决。

　　Attitudes can change, of course.

　　当然，态度总是可以改变的。

　　In the 1980s many British academics were as snobbish about commerce as Argentina's are now.

　　在90世纪80年代许多英国研究学者和现在的阿根廷一样都自命不凡。

　　These days, Britain's top universities are gung-ho for spin-outs and the revenue they can provide.

　　而现在，英国的顶尖学府都热衷于分拆和赚钱。

　　But it takes time and consistent policy to make such changes and Argentina is notorious for sudden alterations in the political weather.

　　但这些改变都是需要时间和政策的持续性，而阿根廷最让人诟病的就是政策的摇摆不定。

　　That makes the country a perilous place to invest, whatever the current climate.

　　无论现在的情况是怎样，这些因素将恶化阿根廷的投资环境.