Interview with physicist Marcelo Gleiser

Abstract

Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro´s government deepens even more the disdain for knowledge, which has been manifested since the election campaign. In the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic, while the world is relying on scientific research in the hope to find a cure, Bolsonaro, as a typical negationist, intensifies his crusade against universities and science by rejecting data analysed through methods and protocols and ignoring worldwide medical research and guidance. Financial interests of large economic groups, religious obscurantism, the country´s vast social inequality, a profound disregard for life and negationism are some of the characteristics of “bolsonarism”, which is currently making Brazil agonize. In order to discuss the attack on science and scientists, we interviewed Brazilian physicist and astronomer, Marcelo Gleiser, full professor of Natural Philosophy, Physics and Astronomy at Dartmouth College in Hanover, United States, and winner of the 2019 Templeton Award. In the interview, Gleiser speaks about the importance of the dialogue between faith and science; about the role of research associations at the present time; states that the scientific cultural model must change and become less Eurocentric and more pluralistic; declares that Brazil is experiencing a tragedy caused by religious obscurantism and affirms that the new generations will laugh a lot at ours, in which many people still believe that the Earth is flat.