Abstract
Further developments in the 1980s led the Cuban scientific system to its maturity, allowing it to achieve striking results in various fields and to demonstrate its substantial autonomy. The physics sector was profoundly reorganized. Nuclear physics and technology acquired pre-eminence thanks to the decision to build a nuclear power plant provided by the Soviet Union. Other sectors were also reorganized, and surprising results were reached in the completely new field of superconductivity. But the most enduring results were achieved with the development of a self-reliant field of biotechnology, just as it was emerging worldwide, and without any aid whatsoever from the Soviet Union. As always, this initiative, strongly supported by Fidel Castro, was prompted by the emergent demands of the health system after the typical third world diseases had been practically eradicated. Interferon technology was learned and quickly reproduced and mastered in the early 1980s through contacts with American and Finnish specialists. Soon after, recombinant DNA technologies were independently developed. In the late 1980s a large industrial scientific complex was built which soon started producing and commercializing Cuban-made medicines and vaccines.
Cuba’s achievements in social development are impressive given the size of its gross domestic product per capita. As the human development index of the United Nations makes clear year after year, Cuba should be the envy of many other nations, ostensibly far richer. [Cuba] demonstrates how much nations can do with the resources they have if they focus on the right priorities—health, education, and literacy.
[Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the United Nations, April 11, 2000]
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
The phenomenon of superconductivity, discovered by Kamerlingh Onnes in 1911 in Leiden, consists in the electric resistance of certain materials vanishing to zero, and the magnetic field being expelled, below a characteristic critical temperature of a few degrees above absolute zero (−273 °C), precisely below the liquefaction temperature of helium (4 K, that is −269 °C). Work on superconductivity had therefore been reserved to laboratories that had liquid helium, a very expensive refrigerant, at their disposal. In 1986 G. Bednorz and A. Müller broke the temperature barrier, discovering a compound with higher critical temperature (35 K, −248 °C, which was, however, still below the liquefaction temperature of nitrogen, 77.35 K, or −195.80 °C). For this discovery, they were awarded the Nobel Prize. Less than 6 months later, Chu and his collaborators reached a critical temperature above 90 K, a temperature higher than the liquefaction temperature of nitrogen. Further progress has reached critical temperatures of 150 K.
- 2.
One of the most visible examples of this was the creation in 1981 of a Faculty of Nuclear Sciences and Technologies (FCTN) next to the main campus of the University of Havana, and later of the Higher Institute of Nuclear Sciences and Technologies (ISCTN), for the purpose of teaching degree courses in nuclear physics and radiochemistry. This meant that an elite group of physicists, chemists and engineers with a different and more specific profile was being trained.
- 3.
After its early autonomous Third World and non-alignment policy, in 1975 Cuba surprised both Moscow and Washington by returning into the African arena, which Che and his guerrillas had left suddenly ten years before. Castro’s decision to intervene militarily in Angola to support the MPLA in the defence of Luanda was so resolute that it took by surprise Brezhnev’s intention of a substantial rapprochement with the United States. Without any Soviet logistical support, the fearless Cuban expedition allowed Agostinho Neto to route the assault on the capital and proclaim the independence of Angola. Further Cuban reinforcements led to the historical defeat of the South African army in the six-month long battle at Cuito Cuanavale in 1978–79 and to South African withdrawal from Angola. As Nelson Mandela declared upon his visit to Havana in 1991, the defeat of the racist army at Cuito Cuanavale by a largely black army destroyed the myth of its invincibility and greatly contributed to the subsequent end of apartheid, and was “a turning point for the liberation of our continent and my people”.
- 4.
In other systems, for example Italy, biology students take only a one-semester course in physics, in Cuba they do four semesters of physics.
- 5.
Interferons are proteins made and released by host cells. They trigger the protective defences of the immune system aimed at the eradication of pathogens or tumour cells.
- 6.
Vaccination in Cuba, which begun as early as in 1962 under the National Immunization Program (NIP), considerably reduced the infectious disease burden contributing to elimination of diseases such as: poliomyelitis (1962), diphtheria (1979), measles (1993), pertussis (1994), and rubella (1995) (Reed and Galindo 2007). It is worth noting that the current vaccine schedule targets all Cuban children for immunization against 13 diseases with 11 vaccines, eight of which are produced by the country’s Scientific Pole.
- 7.
Curiously enough, Clark had also initially begun working in 1946 in Houston with 22 employees in a carriage-house of a donated family estate, equipped with research laboratories for biochemistry and biology, then moved to the estate grounds, and converted to a clinic.
- 8.
Dengue fever is a disease caused by any one of four related viruses transmitted to humans by mosquitoes. It can cause severe flu-like symptoms and in severe cases can be fatal. Dengue has emerged as a worldwide problem only since the 1950s. With more than one-third of the world’s population living in areas at risk for infection, the dengue virus is a leading cause of illness and death in the tropics and subtropics. As many as 400 million people are infected yearly. There is no vaccine or medication that protects against dengue fever.
- 9.
“Cuban-made interferon reaches out for world markets”, Newswatch, March 17, 1986: 3.
- 10.
A colony-stimulating factor is one of a number of substances secreted by the bone marrow, that cause stem cells to proliferate and differentiate, forming colonies of specific blood cells. The function of the immune system depends in large part on interleukins. This is a generic term for a group of secreted proteins from white blood cells that stimulates their activity against infection and may be used to combat some forms of cancer. A monoclonal antibody is an antibody produced by a single clone of cells (‘hybridoma’) grown in culture, capable of proliferating indefinitely to produce unlimited quantities of identical antibodies (in contrast to polyclonal antibodies that are made from several different immune cells).
- 11.
“U.S. finally will let SmithKline market Cuban meningitis vaccine”, Wall Street Journal, July 23, 1999.
- 12.
Reid-Henry (p. 66–67) discusses an interesting comparison of the practices of research and clinical testing in the case of this vaccine adopted by Cuba and by Norway.
- 13.
In 1927 a former Instituto Finlay had been created in Havana.
References
Arés Muzio O, Altshuler E (2014) Superconductivity in Cuba: reaching the frontline (Baracca A, Renn J, Wendt H, eds) 2014:301–306
Baracca A, Fajer Avila VL, Rodríguez Castellanos C (2014a) A comprehensive study of the development of physics in Cuba from 1959 (Baracca A, Renn J, Wendt H, eds) 2014:115–234
Baracca A, Renn J, Wendt H (eds) (2014b) The history of physics in Cuba. Springer, Berlin
Bravo E (1998) Development within under-development: new trends in Cuban medicine. Editorial José Martí/ElfosScientiae, Havana
Cantell K (1998) The story of interferon: the ups and downs in the life of a scientist, World Scientific
Cooper RS, Kennelly JF, Orduñez-García P (2006) Health in Cuba. Int J Epidemiol 35(4):817–824
de la Fuente J (2001) Wine into vinegar: the fall of Cuba’s biotechnology. Nat Biotechnol 19:905–907
Elderhost M (1994) Will Cuba´s biotechnology capacity survive the socio-economic crisis? Biotecnol Dev Monit. 11:13-22
Evenson D (2007) Cuba´s Biotechnology Revolution. MEDICC Rev 9(1):8–10
Feinsilver JM (1993) Healing the masses. Cuban health politics at home and abroad. University of California Press, Berkely, CA
Feinsilver JM (1995) Cuban biotechnology: the strategic success and commercial limits of a first world approach to development. In Peritore and Galve-Peritore
Giles J (2005) Cuban Science: ¿Vive la revolution?. Nature, 436:322–324
Health in the Americas. 2012 Edition. Country Volume Cuba. Pan American Health Organization
Lage A (1990) The monoclonal antibody program of the cuban institute of oncology and radiobiology. Eksp. Onkol. 12(6):26–30, 64
Lantigua Cruz A, González Lucas N (2009) Development of medical genetics in Cuba: thirty nine years of experience in the formation of human resources. Rev Cubana Genet Comunit (internet). 3(2):3–23. http://bvs.sld.cu/revistas/rcgc/v3n2_3/ Accessed March 15 2016
Peña Y, Perera A, Batista JF (2014) Immunoscintigraphy and radioimmunotherapy in Cuba: experiences with labeled monoclonal antibodies for cancer diagnosis and treatment (1993–2013). MEDICC Rev 16(3–4):55–60
Peritore NP, Galve-Peritore AK (eds) (1995) Biotechnology in Latin America: politics, impacts and risks. Scholarly Resources, Wilmington, DE
Reed G, Galindo MA (2007) Cuba’s national immunization program. MEDICC Rev 9(1):5–7
Reid-Henry S (2010) The Cuban cure: reason and resistance in global science. University of Chicago Press, Chicago
de Sousa Silva J (1989) Science and the changing nature of the struggle over plant genetic resources: from plant hunters to plant crafters. PhD Thesis. The University of Kentucky, Lexington. United States
de Sousa Silva J (1995) Plant intellectual property rights: the rise of nature as a commodity. In Peritore ad Galve-Peritore 1995:57–68
Starr D (2012) The Cuban biotech revolution. http://www.wired.com/2004/12/cuba/ Accessed March 15 2016
Thorsteinsdóttir H, Sáenz TV, Quach U, Daar AS, Singer PA (2004a) Cuba. Innovation through synergy. Nat Biotechnol. 22 (Supplement) December: 19–24
Thorsteinsdóttir H, Quach U, Daar AS, Singer PA. (2004b) Conclusions: promoting biotechnology innovation in developing countries. Nat Biotechnol. 22 (Supplement). December: 48–52
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Baracca, A., Franconi, R. (2016). The Decisive Leap in the 1980s: The Attainment of Cuba’s Scientific Autonomy. In: Subalternity vs. Hegemony, Cuba's Outstanding Achievements in Science and Biotechnology, 1959-2014. SpringerBriefs in History of Science and Technology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40609-1_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40609-1_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-40608-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-40609-1
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)