When it comes to little countries against big ones, or little shops against evil corporations, or science against the government it reminds me of David and Goliath biblical myth.

David and Goliath: 13th century Jewish illustration from France.

This time I would like to refer to the last scenario: science and government, and how things get along in Chile, my homeland.
It never stops surprising me, how science manages its way through every day. Despite of the several problems that Chilean science may have, on the last few months I’ve been watching a new renaissance of the Chilean science thanks to young scientists and their innovative ideas that are making their way to be great ideas one day, because they are involving the government, slowly and quietly… very straight forward, uh?.

Lately I’ve been involved in a pretty new scientist Chilean organization called RedCiencia, the biggest web based scientific plattform in South America which groups Spanish-speaking scientist from all over the world and promotes funding opportunities, jobs, news, updates and a very interesting column made by me (hahaha! – it’s in Spanish, sorry!) supported by CONICYT (National Comision of Scientific and Technological Research). There, I’ve been a silent (and far away) witness of this continuous process that I will call the David and Goliath myth, the little kid standing in front of a giant.

A few days ago, one of the junior scientists and executive director from RedCiencia, Cristián Hernández sent a letter to a big newspaper in Chile, he got published and got lots of support. Believe it or not, this time the media covered this initiative and promoted it. It will be so good for the future, for the future meeting Encuentros 2010 that has been planning, and for the things, that we as scientist are thinking to do and for the future of the science in Chile.

There are so many things that have to be done and so many others that we would like to do, but they are not always “aligned” with the government agenda. As I see it, this was one David’ point against Goliath!!.

I know, it will be lots of work to make science in Chile, but most of us want to do it, and I think it is fair to give it a try!