S C I E N C E   A N D   T E C H N O L O G Y

• Cuba: new educational crusade
February 2, 2007
THE new millennium imposes its challenges. It proposes a different look at the unresolved issues in humanity’s history, and the challenges of yesteryear are a reality that do not fade away but make their demands on those who play a leading role in this new stage.

Climate changes alter the Earth
• 30% of the world’s species at risk
February 2, 2007
PARIS. — Scientists believe that if temperatures rise by two degrees Centigrade during this century – which is very likely – climate changes will put 30% of the planet’s species in extreme danger of becoming extinct. Health, infrastructure, availability of fresh water and harvests in many regions will also be affected by the warmer climate, which will have a negative impact worldwide if that level of temperature is exceeded. The effects of these changes are already visible, and demonstrate the consequences of human activity over the last 30 years, according to experts who met in Paris.

• 2006, the 6th hottest year in history
January 5, 2007
PLANET Earth is going down the wrong road, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the UN agency that measures the variables of the weather on a planetary scale. According to recently published studies from that institution, 2006 has registered as the 6th hottest year in history, fundamentally due to the uncontrolled emission of greenhouse gases by the principal industrialized countries. If to that we add the indiscriminate felling of forests – in the knowledge that trees trap CO2, carbon dioxide, one the main polluting gases – then we are faced with a fairly uncertain picture in terms of prospects for improvement.

• First face transplant, one year later
December 7, 2006
PARIS (PL).— Isabelle Dinoire, the French woman whose face transplant operation shook the world last year, continues to recover satisfactorily and plans to return to work in 2007, it was learned here. Despite her explicit desire not to appear in the media, the scientific interest surrounding her case has prompted its evolution to be followed, at least in the most discreet manner possible.

• First clinical trials against cervical cancer
November 15, 2006
IN 2007, the clinical trials phase is set to begin for the first Cuban therapeutic vaccine against cervical cancer, associated with the most common of the human papilloma virus (HPV-16), which has been developed by specialists at the Center for Genetical Engineering and Biotechnology in Havana. This form of cancer is the second highest cause of cancer deaths amongst women throughout the world, although in some developing countries it is the first. In Cuba, there is a high incidence of the disease.

• Cuban rice fields: alternative habitat for some 100 species of birds
November 14, 2006
ALMOST 100 species of aquatic birds use the island’s rice fields as an alternative habitat in the face of a reduction and degradation of natural wetlands.

• Key Challenge For The 21st Century
Planting 140 billion trees in 10 years
November 14, 2006
QUALIFYING climate change as the main threat to planet Earth in the 21st century, a United Nations meeting in Nairobi, Kenya called for the immediately planting of one billion trees in what would be an essential step in confronting a global disaster.  The United Nations Climate Change Conference, held in the second week of November in this African capital, affirms that all can participate in this practical step, which would contribute to reducing the negative impact of global warming on the Earth’s atmosphere.
 
• Cuban biotechnology working for healthcare
November 14, 2006
Cuba’s potential in carrying out projects to develop therapeutic vaccines against a variety of diseases are currently on display at the 2006 Havana International Biotechnology Congress which was underway at the close of this edition. Health Minister José Ramón Balaguer and Concepción Campa, director of the Finlay Institute – both members of the Political Bureau of the Party – presided over the opening of the event, which brings together almost 600 participants from 40 countries.

• Cuba generalizes hip replacement implant
October 13, 2006
“A year and a half ago, I was in a wheel chair. Now, a week after my surgery, I can stand up and walk,” says Dolores Marcheco, who cannot contain her excitement. She received a hip replacement at the Frank País International Orthopedic Science Complex in Havana as part of a program for this technique that has been developed in Cuba over the last seven years. And to demonstrate that she is not exaggerating, the 77-year-old woman got up from her bed, with help from her son, Armando Hernández...

• Cuba generalizes hip replacement implant
October 10, 2006
“A year and a half ago, I was in a wheel chair. Now, a week after my surgery, I can stand up and walk,” says Dolores Marcheco, who cannot contain her excitement. She received a hip replacement at the Frank País International Orthopedic Science Complex in Havana as part of a program for this technique that has been developed in Cuba over the last seven years.

• Cuba Has Reduced Ozone Emissions
September 27, 2006
Havana, September 21 (RHC-ACN)-- Cuba has been strictly complying with the Montreal Protocol, fulfilling its commitments to lower ozone emissions into the atmosphere.

• 17 trees to make one ton of pulp
September 27, 2006
RECYCLING paper saves entire forests, given that 17 trees, each one of which could take 20 years to grow, have to be felled in order to produce one ton of pulp. Moreover it does not contaminate the environment and saves energy.

• Restorative vision operations in Cuba have changed their lives
September 27, 2006
CIUDAD VICTORIA, Tamaulipas.— José Juan Pineda knows what it’s like to have to bear all kinds of nicknames alluding to the strabismus he was born with; 26 years have not been enough to get used to all the verbal abuse heaped on him from strangers and acquaintances alike, children and adults, and even professionals.

• Cuba applies new technologies in hip and knee prostheses
September 21, 2006
NEW hip prosthesis technologies are being applied in medical facilities and in 2007 the generalized introduction of new knee technologies is expected, stated Dr. Rodrigo Alvarez Cambras, who chaired the recently concluded International Orthopedics and Traumatology Congress at the Plaza America Convention Center in Varadero, which was attended by 300 delegates from 10 countries.

• Climate Change Threat to Pacific Ocean Mangroves
September 21, 2006
NAIROBI/APIA/HONOLULU – (UNEP).— Action is needed to conserve mangroves in the Pacific amid concern that rising sea levels, linked with climate change, are set to drown large areas of these precious and economically important ecosystems.

• Bush’s restrictions have forced more than 300 universities to cancel their exchange programs with Cuba
September 19, 2006
AS the U.S. government continues to choke off exchange between U.S. and Cuban students and educators, it is cynically proposing to spend $10 million for what it refers to as “education and exchanges.”

• Cuba to Show-off Vet Products in Panama
September 6, 2006
Havana, Sep (Prensa Latina).— Cuba will demonstrate its progress in veterinary products and their standard application practices at an important event to be held in Panama, the country s representatives to the event reported Monday.

• New Cuban minister of informatics appointed
August 31, 2006
THE Council of State of the Republic of Cuba has appointed Commander of the Revolution Ramiro Valdés as the new minister of informatics and communications, replacing Ignacio González.

• Tropical storm Ernesto expected to hit southeastern Cuba
August 28, 2006
TROPICAL storm Ernesto could hit some parts of southeastern Cuba today, which is why the country is closely following its evolution.

• 760,000 higher education graduates
August 7, 2006
CUBA has become a grand university and the 760,000 higher education graduates attest to that. This figure was reached this year after innumerable efforts by the government to guarantee the function of academic institutions during the most difficult years of the Special Period.

• EVERY SQUARE METER OF CUBA RECEIVES 5KWH OF SOLAR ENERGY
The sun is a strategic ally
July 14, 2006
EMIR Madruga, manager of ECOSOL, considers solar energy a fundamental strategic element for sustained development.
- "Six wonderful months of solar energy"

• Graduation of South African doctors trained in Cuba
July 12, 2006
PRETORIA, July 10.—The first group of 22 Doctors of Medicine, South Africans trained in Cuba, graduated today in this city, according to a source from the Ministry of Health. The new professionals completed their five-year course and did their internship and examinations in South Africa.

• First liver transplant in Cuban pediatric hospital
July 4, 2006
THE first liver transplant in a Cuban pediatric hospital has been performed by a team of specialists from the William Soler Hospital in Havana on a 13-year-old girl from the eastern province of Granma, suffering from hepatic cirrhosis for which a transplant is the only treatment option.

• 12,000 dead... and it’s not news!
July 3, 2006
IF four buildings – four twin towers for example – full of boys and girls, killing 12,000 were destroyed, surely it would not occur to anyone to argue against that terrible news being the lead story on all news broadcasts, all front pages.

• One million graduates from the Youth Computer Clubs
"We are on our way," says Fidel
June 26, 2006
PRESIDENT Fidel Castro was presented with a painting alluding to the recent figure of one million graduates from the Youth Computer Clubs, by Julio Martínez Ramírez, first secretary of the Young Communist League during the Cuban TV Informative Roundtable program on June 23.

• U.S. blockade makes Internet access expensive
June 22, 2006
IN 2005, Cuba paid more than $4 million to be able to connect to the Internet via satellite, given that connectivity by undersea fiber optic cable is prohibited under the 40-year-plus U.S. blockade, said officials at the Ministry of Information Science and Communications (MIC).

• UNESCO literacy award for “Yo, sí puedo”
June 20, 2006
PARIS, June 19 — Cuba’s Latin American and Caribbean Pedagogical Institute (IPLAC) has received the UNESCO 2006 Ray Sejong Literacy Award for its promotion of a literacy campaign, the institute reported.

• YES I CAN DO IT
Two million illiterate people learn to read and write with Cuban method
June 14, 2006
SEVERAL days of discussion on the global policies of literacy during the International Seminar on Literacy and Post-literacy Policies and Programs that recently ended in Havana came to a categorical conclusion: we cannot stand idle while the number of illiterates on the planet continues to grow and governments decline to take appropriate measures.

• Cuban doctors aid more than 1 million Pakistanis
May 17, 2006
THE Cuban Medical Brigade in Pakistan is ending its cooperation effort in that Central-Asian country having attended to more than 1.7 million patients, of whom 49.1% were women. At the farewell event, Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, first deputy foreign minister, described the work carried out by these health professionals as a heroic humanitarian feat.

• Cuba, Venezuela and Bolivia to inaugurate joint trade fair
May 17, 2006
CUBAN, Venezuelan and Bolivian companies are to participate in the 1st International Fair of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) and the People’s Trade Agreement (TCP), set for May 25 and 26 in the Bolivian city of La Paz.

• Cuban doctors reduce infant mortality in Honduras
May 17, 2006
"DOCTOR, a woman’s coming in who can’t deliver!" Maydelín Fernández González heard through her window in Vado Ancho, Danlí, Honduras. The "messenger" had run ahead of robust men who took turns transporting the hammock where a woman lay, dying with her baby inside her.

• Cuba to acquire new laboratories for genetic medicine
May 12, 2006
CUBA is to acquire 12 new laboratories for genetic population studies, announced Doctor Beatriz Marcheco, director of the National Center for Genetic Medicine, during the TV and radio "Roundtable" program attended by President Fidel Castro.

• Cuba has highest number of children with electronic hearing implants
May 11, 2006
THE application in Cuba of minimum-access surgery for cochlear implants has enabled 53 children – 18 deaf-mutes and 35 deaf – to have partial hearing, providing them with a means of communication that empowers their development and improves their quality of life.

• Cuban and Chinese experts evaluate the use of biotechnological products in cancer therapy
May 10, 2006
THE use of biotechnological products in cancer therapy was analyzed by close to 50 experts and officials from scientific institutions in Cuba and central and provincial bodies in China at a recent seminar in Beijing organized by the Biotech Pharmaceutical joint venture and the Cuban embassy in China.

• Much can be learned from Cuba in the immunization field
May 9, 2006
DR. Lea Guido, representative of the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) in Cuba, praised the vaccination model developed in Cuba and affirmed that the rest of the world has much to learn from the island in the area of immunization.

• Cuba working to use anti-cancer therapies in early stages of disease
March 28, 2006
CUBAN scientists, whose field studies of therapeutic vaccines for the treatment of cancer have demonstrated encouraging results, have begun to work toward applying these therapies in the early stages of the disease.

• AMERICAN-STYLE REPORT
March 22, 2006
THE State Department Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs on March 1 released its not very eagerly-awaited 2006 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report during a lengthy press conference offered by its chief, “blonde” Assistant Secretary Anne W. Patterson.

• One million enrolled in the Youth Computation Clubs
March 8, 2006
AT the end of the upcoming Youth Computation Club course in June, one million students will have enrolled in this program, guaranteeing that informatics is becoming a powerful scientific, economic and political force for Cuba, affirmed President Fidel Castro at the event celebrating the 15th Anniversary of the Central Palace of Computation and the inauguration of 300 new centers of this type throughout the country.

• Primary heath care cornerstone of the national health system
March 7, 2006
PRESIDENT Fidel Castro participated in the 9th International Seminar on Primary Heath Care (PHC) that is in session in Havana’s International Conference Center.

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