Science and technology
Main article: Brazilian science and technology
The country is also a pioneer in the search for oil in deep water, from where extracts 73% of its reserves. Uranium is enriched at the Resende Nuclear Fuel Factory, mostly for research purposes (as Brazil obtains 88% from its electricity from hydroelectricity[260]) and the country's first nuclear submarine will be delivered in 2015 (by France).[261] Brazil is one of the three countries in Latin America[262] with an operational Synchrotron Laboratory, a research facility on physics, chemistry, material science and life sciences. And Brazil is the only Latin American country to have a semiconductor company with its own fabrication plant, the CEITEC.[263] According to the Global Information Technology Report 2009-2010 of the World Economic Forum, Brazil is the 61 world's largest developer of information technology.[264]
Brazil also has a large number of outstanding scientific personalities. Among the most renowned Brazilian inventors are priests Bartolomeu de Gusmão, Landell de Moura and Francisco João de Azevedo, besides Alberto Santos-Dumont,[265] Evaristo Conrado Engelberg,[266] Manuel Dias de Abreu,[267] Andreas Pavel[268] e Nélio José Nicolai.[269] Brazilian science is represented by the likes of César Lattes (Brazilian physicist Pathfinder of Pi Meson),[270] Mário Schenberg (considered the greatest theoretical physicist of Brazil),[271] José Leite Lopes (only Brazilian physicist holder of UNESCO Science Prize),[272] Artur Ávila (the first Latin American winner of Fields Medal)[273] and Fritz Müller (pioneer in factual support the theory of evolution by Charles Darwin).[274]
Transport
Terminal 3 of the São Paulo–Guarulhos International Airport, the busiest airport in the country.
Main article: Transport in Brazil
Brazilian roads are the primary carriers of freight and passenger
traffic. The road system totaled 1.98 million km (1.23 million mi) in
2002. The total of paved roads increased from 35,496 km (22,056 mi)
(22,056 mi) in 1967 to 184,140 km (114,419 mi) (114,425 mi) in 2002.[276]The first investments in road infrastructure have given up in the 1920s, the government of Washington Luis, being pursued in the governments of Getúlio Vargas and Eurico Gaspar Dutra.[277] President Juscelino Kubitschek (1956–61), who designed and built the capital Brasília, was another supporter of highways. Kubitschek was responsible for the installation of major car manufacturers in the country (Volkswagen, Ford and General Motors arrived in Brazil during his rule) and one of the points used to attract them was, of course, support for the construction of highways. With the implementation of Fiat in 1976 ending an automobile market closed loop, from the end of the 1990s the country has received large foreign direct investments installing in its territory other major car manufacturers and utilities, such as Iveco, Renault, Peugeot, Citroen, Honda, Mitsubishi, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Hyundai, Toyota among others.[278] Brazil is the seventh most important country in the auto industry.[279]
Brazil's railway system has been declining since 1945, when emphasis shifted to highway construction. The total length of railway track was 30,875 km (19,185 mi) in 2002, as compared with 31,848 km (19,789 mi) in 1970. Most of the railway system belonged to the Federal Railroad Corporation RFFSA, which was privatized in 2007.[280] The São Paulo Metro was the first underground transit system in Brazil. The other metro systems are in Rio de Janeiro, Porto Alegre, Recife, Belo Horizonte, Brasília, Teresina and Fortaleza.
The country has an extensive rail network of 28,538 kilometres (17,733 miles) in length, the tenth largest network in the world.[281] Currently, the Brazilian government, unlike the past, seeks to encourage this mode of transport; an example of this incentive is the project of the Rio–São Paulo high-speed rail, that will connect the two main cities of the country to carry passengers.
There are about 2,500 airports in Brazil, including landing fields: the second largest number in the world, after the United States.[282] São Paulo-Guarulhos International Airport, near São Paulo, is the largest and busiest airport with nearly 20 million passengers annually, while handling the vast majority of commercial traffic for the country.[283]
For freight transport waterways are of importance, e.g. the industrial zones of Manaus can be reached only by means of the Solimões- Amazonas waterway (3,250 kilometres (2,020 miles) with 6 metres (20 feet) minimum depth). The country also has 50,000 kilometres (31,000 miles) of waterways.[281]
Coastal shipping links widely separated parts of the country. Bolivia and Paraguay have been given free ports at Santos. Of the 36 deep-water ports, Santos, Itajaí, Rio Grande, Paranaguá, Rio de Janeiro, Sepetiba, Vitória, Suape, Manaus and São Francisco do Sul are the most important.[284] Bulk carriers have to wait up to 18 days before being serviced, container ships 36,3 hours on average.[285]
Water supply and sanitation
Main article: Water supply and sanitation in Brazil
Among the challenges is the still high number of poor Brazilians living in urban slums (Favela) and in rural areas without access to piped water or sanitation; water scarcity in the Northeast of Brazil; water pollution, especially in the South-East of the country; the low share of collected wastewater that is being treated (35% in 2000); and long-standing tensions between the federal, state and municipal governments about their respective roles in the sector.
Health
Main article: Health in Brazil
The Albert Einstein Hospital in São Paulo is one of the most well-known health units in Brazil.
According to the Brazilian Government, the most serious health problems are:[289]
- Childhood mortality: about 2.51% of childhood mortality, reaching 3.77% in the northeast region.
- Motherhood mortality: about 73.1 deaths per 100,000 born children in 2002.
- Mortality by non-transmissible illness: 151.7 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants caused by heart and circulatory diseases, along with 72.7 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants caused by cancer.
- Mortality caused by external causes (transportation, violence and suicide): 71.7 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants (14.9% of all deaths in the country), reaching 82.3 deaths in the southeast region.
Education
Main article: Education in Brazil
Classroom in the main campus of the University of Campinas, São Paulo
According to the IBGE, in 2011, the literacy rate of the population was 90.4%, meaning that 13 million (9.6% of population) people are still illiterate in the country; functional illiteracy has reached 21.6% of the population.[292] Illiteracy is highest in the Northeast, where 19.9% of the population is illiterate.[293]
Higher education starts with undergraduate or sequential courses, which may offer different options of specialization in academic or professional careers. Depending on the choice, students can improve their educational background with courses of post-graduate studies or broad sense. To attend a higher education institution is required, by Law of Guidelines and Bases of Education, completing all levels of education suited to the needs of all students of teaching kindergarten, elementary and medium, provided the student does not hold any disability, whether physical, mental, visual or hearing. Of the top 10 universities in Latin America, eight are Brazilian, according QS World University Rankings.[294]
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