NEWS910 27 MAY 2022 • VOL 376 ISSUE 6596 science.org SCIENCEPHOTO: © LUCAS LACAZ RUIZ/LATINPHOTO.ORGC
arefully stowed away in a locker,
Evlyn Novo keeps a collection of
framed plaques honoring her time
as a researcher at the Brazilian Na-
tional Institute for Space Research
(INPE). Novo joined the institute
as a young remote sensing special-
ist in 1975 to work on a pioneering
effort to use satellite data to moni-
tor deforestation in the Amazon. Over her
career, she helped INPE develop into one of
the flagships of Brazilian science—a global
leader in watching tropical forests from
space. For every 5 years Novo spent at INPE,
she received a commemorative plaque hon-
oring her service. She was looking forward
to getting the 10th one.
But with only 2 years to go until that
milestone, Novo, 69, has come to a heart-
breaking decision: She has lost faith in theinstitution’s future and will retire from INPE
by the end of this year. “I don’t want to be the
one to turn off the lights,” she says.
INPE is in decline, and Novo sees it
everywhere. A few years ago, the office lights
often stayed on until late at night at INPE’s
main campus in São José dos Campos, near
São Paulo, where staff and students ana-
lyzed remote sensing data, built satellites,
and modeled weather and climate. Today,
the institute struggles to pay its electricity
bills. Potholes pepper the campus streets and
sidewalks are broken. They are the physical
symptoms of a much larger institutional cri-
sis marked by sharp budget cuts, a shrunken
staff, and relentless attacks by Brazilian Pres-
ident Jair Bolsonaro and his supporters. “Itis a climate of total dismay,” Novo says.
Other sectors in Brazilian science are back-
sliding, too. A faltering economy and shifting
political priorities have led to steep cuts in
funding for science at many universities
and federal research institutions. But INPE’s
downfall has been particularly painful to
watch, many say, because of its international
prestige, its role in protecting the Amazon,
and the way Bolsonaro has added insult to in-
jury by trying to discredit the institute’s work.
Today, Brazil’s monitoring programs for
deforestation and wildfires are imperiled,
the supercomputer that runs climate models
is aging and unreliable, and INPE’s satel-
lite development program is on hold, lack-
ing funds to advance planned missions and
launches. A beacon of Brazil’s scientific prow-
ess has become a symbol of science’s struggle
for survival there, in an underfunded andIt was a source of pride for decades. But Brazil’s National Institute for
Space Research is rapidly losing funding, brains—and hope.
FALLING STAR
FEATURES
By Sofia Moutinho
and Herton Escobar