Activities
Reaching Out to Society Programme
Human Microbiome
The human body, an extraordinarily complex ecosystem, is home to trillions of microorganisms ranging from bacteria, archaea, fungi, viruses and protozoa, collectively known as the microbiota. The microbiome refers to all the genomes of the communities of microorganisms that coexist in the human ecosystem. The intricate interaction between these microorganisms has a huge impact on the development, health and overall well-being of the individual. Co-evolution over generations between the microbiota and its host results in the establishment of host/host interactions that beneficially or adversely affect metabolic functions and the immune system. Various factors, including genetics, the environment and age, influence the composition of the microbiota/microbiome throughout the host's life. The study of the human microbiome is particularly important given its potential relationship with various human diseases. This is a rapidly developing area of research that relies heavily on new technologies such as metagenomics.
Understanding the relationship between microorganisms and their human hosts will open up new opportunities for innovative approaches in medicine, ranging from personalised treatments to preventative strategies.
A compreensão da relação entre os microrganismos e seus hospedeiros humanos abrirá novas oportunidades para abordagens inovadoras na medicina que vão desde tratamentos personalizados até estratégias preventivas.
From Human Intelligence to Artificial Intelligence
The path from understanding human intelligence to artificial intelligence reveals a remarkable journey marked by curiosity, and scientific and technological innovation that presents itself with limitless possibilities. At the centre of this transition is the ambition to simulate, replicate and even improve on the remarkable cognitive faculties that define the human intellect. From the dawn of computing to the advent of neural networks and machine learning, the incessant quest to replicate human-like intelligence in machines has been a desire of scientists and testifies to the capacity of human ingenuity. This path bridges the gap between the natural and the synthetic, reshaping our understanding of cognition, problem-solving and the very essence of what it means to be intelligent. The applications of AI already range from biomechanics, especially aimed at producing equipment for people with motor problems, to the most diverse areas, from chemistry to the environment, providing knowledge and independent bio-analyses. This Cycle aims to help increase participants' awareness of the impact of this powerful technology on human life. Let's embark on this fascinating exploration together, tracing the milestones, challenges and transformative impact on the society of the future.
Towards a Culture of Open Scientific Data
In this cycle of conferences, we will present the concept of "Open Scientific Data" and its benefits for promoting various aspects of scientific quality. We will examine the life cycle of scientific data and identify essential resources and tools for establishing and maintaining a culture of openness, honesty and transparency. In the context of quality assessment, we will discuss strategies for improving the reproducibility of results, using techniques grounded in Open Data Culture. Finally, we will address the role of citizens in science, exploring various opportunities that are already underway or in development.
The Future of the Oceans
Throughout history, the oceans have been a source of mystery and inspiration for humanity, a means of subsistence and scientific progress. They sustain life on Earth and offer countless opportunities to boost sustainable development in various fields. The sustainable exploitation of marine resources can feed a growing global population and boost the bio-products industry, including bioplastics and biofuels. The oceans represent a promising source of clean energy using technologies based on wave and tidal energy. The digitalisation of the oceans, using advanced monitoring and data collection systems, can enable more effective management of marine resources and a more accurate understanding of the circulation of ocean currents and ecosystems. The oceans play a crucial role in regulating the global climate, acting as an important carbon sink. However, this process has led to ocean acidification, which negatively affects marine life and impacts its distribution.
Continue reading the introduction to the cycle in the detailed programme
Water
Water is a precious resource that sustains all forms of life on Earth, from microorganisms to complex organisms like humans. Recognising the importance of water as an irreplaceable resource and support for life, maintaining ecosystems and various human activities, is fundamental to taking measures to conserve and protect water resources to guarantee a sustainable future for human beings and the planet. This cycle aims to draw attention to the vital role of water and the need to conserve, protect and rationally utilise this resource without which life is not possible. We are certain that, aware of the fundamental role of water in life on Earth, we will be able to fight for a world where water continues to guarantee the survival of all living beings.
Challenges for Science in Contemporary Society
Science, through knowledge, plays a decisive role in the progress of society, contributing greatly to economic development and social well-being.
Through science, new solutions are created for emerging and threatening problems, such as the recent SARS-CoV-2 pandemic outbreak, which led to the rapid mobilisation of the scientific community, whose capacity and commitment enabled the discovery of new vaccines that, after two years, have prevented millions of deaths.
However, science, on which human survival depends, needs to be understood by society not only in terms of what it can legitimately expect from it but also in terms of understanding its limits (or whether there are limits) when it comes to creating knowledge.
Society needs to know the values and practices of science that are capable of generating new knowledge that will hopefully contribute to a better informed, fairer and happier society. Such practices involve financial costs that are justified because science constitutes, through the discoveries it generates, a global public good of which we are all potential beneficiaries and which society must audit in an exercise of true scientific citizenship.
In fulfilment of its mission, the Instituto de Altos Estudos da Academia das Ciências de Lisboa promotes a broad and plural reflection on the role of science in contemporary society through dialogue between researchers and thinkers from various scientific fields and the participants in the Conference Cycle - Challenges of Science in Contemporary Society.
O ciclo “Desafios da Ciência na Sociedade Contemporânea”, organizado pelo Instituto de Altos Estudos como parte do programa “Ao Encontro da Sociedade”, recebeu cobertura do Diário de Notícias.
Interfaces Ciências-Humanidades
Responsabilidade Social da Ciência
Knowing More – Understanding Better Programme
A Arte do Azulejo em Portugal
A arte do Azulejo, uma das grandes especificidades do património artístico português – tanto em Portugal como no mundo onde fez valer a sua influência -, é antes de mais uma manifestação de grande projeção cenográfica. Este Ciclo pretende mostrar, mais uma vez, como se processou a sua relação viva com a arquitetura (religiosa e civil), através de efeitos decorativos integrais, sempre sugestivos e quase sempre diversificados.
Trata-se de uma linguagem artística cuja projeção na vivência quotidiana se tornou, desde o século XV até aos nossos dias, de grande impacto visual e com força caracterizadora da construção, fosse ela erudita ou vernácula. Podemos avaliar esse efeito como um verdadeiro «contentor de memórias e afetos acumulados», como diz a historiadora de arte brasileira Dora Alcântara, grande estudiosa da azulejaria luso-brasileira, a qual vê na criação azulejar «uma sinalização viva das nossas mais profundas raízes identitárias».
Embora fosse durante muito tempo considerada uma «arte menor», de efeito exclusivamente decorativo, a verdade é que a linguagem do azulejo empregou muitas vezes os melhores artistas, os que tinham maior formação erudita (caso de António de Oliveira Bernardes, um genial pintor de óleo e fresco que, na viragem do século XVII para o XVIII, se dedicou sobretudo à azulejaria e nos legou obras absolutamente prodigiosas).
Passada a fase em que esta manifestação artística esteve menorizada face às ditas «artes maiores», os estudos de referência de José Queirós, de Vergílio Correia, de Reynaldo dos Santos e, sobretudo, de João Miguel dos Santos Simões, no século passado, muito contribuíram para o seu definitivo reconhecimento.
Sim, a arte cerâmica, de simples matéria frágil pintada e cozida, tem sempre sabedoria e engenho para se multiplicar em efeitos visuais diversificados e que assumem fortíssimas concatenações estéticas cheias de memórias e afetos. Esse é um dos milagres da arte portuguesa.
Diversidade Cultural, Desenvolvimento e Direitos Humanos
Em dezembro de 1948, a Assembleia Geral das Nações Unidas adotava e proclamava a Declaração Universal dos Direitos Humanos (resolução 217 A III). Esta declaração da ONU, composta por 30 artigos, representa um ideal comum a atingir por todos os povos e nações a fim de que todos os indivíduos e todos os órgãos da sociedade, tendo-a constantemente no espírito, se esforcem, pelo ensino e pela educação, por desenvolver o respeito desses direitos e liberdades e por promover, por medidas progressivas de ordem nacional e internacional, o seu reconhecimento e a sua aplicação universais e efetivos, tanto entre as populações dos próprios Estados-membros, como entre as dos territórios colocados sob a sua jurisdição.
Decorridos 75 anos após a publicação da Declaração Universal dos Direitos Humanos, o objetivo deste Ciclo de conferências sobre Diversidade Cultural, desenvolvimento e direitos humanos consiste em promover uma reflexão ampla e abrangente sobre o tema dos direitos humanos. São interpeladas várias áreas do conhecimento como História, Filosofia, Direito, Literatura e Medicina, de modo a propiciar um diálogo enriquecedor e estimulante. Abordar-se-ão as origens históricas dos direitos humanos, seus fundamentos filosóficos, bases legais, expressões literárias, bem como questões emergentes de saúde e de cidadania que passam pela qualidade da educação e da formação. Neste sentido, este Ciclo pretende contribuir para a apropriação pela sociedade de um tema fundamental, promovendo a diversidade cultural e o conhecimento dos princípios e práticas de uma cidadania comprometida com os direitos de toda a família humana. Porque hoje como ontem o respeito dos direitos humanos permanece o “fundamento inalienável da liberdade, da justiça e da paz no mundo”.
Music and Poetry in Portuguese Culture
Music and poetry are as inseparable as music and language because all languages also have their characteristic intonations - the music of language. In archaic Greek, verse was both a linguistic and a musical reality: "The Greek word had a fixed body of sound, a musical will of its own" (Georgiades). Originally, there would have been only one system of acoustic communication (Rousseau), which only later split into music and articulate language. Bringing the two together again and again, as if in the desire to recover this lost unity, has been a common feature of all cultures since time immemorial. That's why the repertoire of sung poetry is so vast, so diverse and so rich in invention - spanning historical eras and manifesting itself in multiple genres, forms and social practices.
This cycle deals with this valuable legacy in Portuguese culture.
The Tree
The tree, as a biological organism, is a fundamental element for life on Earth. For this reason, throughout human life, the tree has been the subject of reflection by philosophers and theologians and the object of research by scientists. The decisive role that the tree and other representatives of the plant world have played in human nutrition and health since antiquity cannot go unremarked, whether by providing direct food and therapeutic products or by providing material and foundations for the discovery of new ingredients and/or therapies. Examples include traditional medicine using parts of plants, including trees, widely documented in Chinese treatises, by Dioscorides and Garcia de Orta, among others. It is impossible not to find the tree in works ranging from literature to the arts, where it has been a source of particular inspiration. This cycle will focus on the tree, which is responsible for the ecological balance of the earth and man's physical and spiritual well-being.
Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development | IYSSB 2022 – UNESCO
Discovery of the DNA: impact on health, water quality, nutrition and food security
At a time when scientists are urged to develop high technologies, a question immediately arises – What technology can be developed/improved without the contribution of basic sciences? It is impossible to run without putting one´s feet on the ground. Likewise, it is impossible to develop new and reliable technologies without the knowledge derived from basic sciences, including the basic principles underlying the different technologies. However, the universal access to the discoveries made by basic sciences, to new and promising technologies and to the desired progress towards sustainable development, equity and well-being, is far from being achieved.
Considering the need to emphasize the role of basic sciences in technology development and it’s seminal contribution to human development and well-being, the Institute of High Studies of the Academy of Sciences of Lisbon will address the impact of the DNA double helix elucidation, one of the greatest scientific discoveries honoured by the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1962. When this research was performed, no one could imagine what would be the impact on diverse scientific domains, generating the knowledge necessary for the development of technologies relevant to Human health, Agriculture, Biodiversity, Food security, Nutrition and Water quality. This meeting aims at bringing together scientists to illustrate how basic sciences contribute to emerging technologies with impact on sustainable development and human well-being.
Encerramento Ano 2023/24
Enquanto Presidente do Instituto de Altos Estudos da Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, aproveito este momento em que encerramos as atividades do ano académico 2023-2024 para exprimir o meu profundo agradecimento a todos e a cada um de vós. Dirijo-me em particular aos nossos estimados coordenadores e conferencistas por tornarem possível os ciclos de conferências dos programas Ao Encontro da Sociedade e Saber mais Conhecer melhor e ao Diário de Notícias pela cobertura jornalística que deu às nossas iniciativas.
Everyone's presence throughout the different sessions demonstrates our commitment to exploring the critical role and transformative power of science and the humanities in shaping society.
We discovered how scientific advances improve our lives, promote innovation and confront us with global challenges.
On the other hand, we have realised how the knowledge we acquire or remember is not just an intellectual activity but has immense potential to promote positive change in communities.
Throughout this year we have learnt that science is not limited to the walls of laboratories and research institutions and that culture is part of and reinforces the common good.
Both sciences and humanities are intertwined with our daily lives, shaping the decisions we make and the world we live in.
From climate change and renewable energies to health innovations and technological advances, science and the humanities are key to a future in which humans can live longer and better without jeopardising the planet and the lives of future generations.
As we conclude these programmes, let me encourage each of you to use the knowledge you have acquired and turn it into sharing and action.
May this sharing of knowledge awaken/reinforce the spirit of curiosity and critical thinking in everyone, whether student, professional or concerned citizen.
Supporting scientific research, getting involved in local initiatives and defending evidence-based policies that prioritise the well-being of society, ultimately has the power to make a difference.
Let's take the spirit of these seminars with us and continue to champion the cause of science and the humanities for society, remembering that both have the power to transform lives, solve global challenges and shape a better future for all.
Together we can build a future where science and the humanities thrive and society flourishes.
Once again, I would like to thank you for your commitment and active participation and for being agents of change.
No próximo ano 2024/2025, a partir de 15 de setembro, embarcamos numa nova jornada Ao encontro da Sociedade que transcende fronteiras, disciplinas e limitações.
We will continue to harness the power of science and culture and the sharing of knowledge, convinced that we will contribute to a more literate society capable of building a better future for each and every one of us.
I wish everyone a safe and happy return.
Many thanks,
Maria Salomé Pais
President of the Institute of Advance Studies
