Superinteressante and Fantástico win the 2024 IMPA Award.
The magazine Superinteressante and the TV Globo program Fantástico are the big winners of the 7th edition of the IMPA Journalism Award . The report “In search of true randomness” , by journalist Leonardo Caparroz, published in Superinteressante, came in first place in the Mathematics category, and “ Clinical studies with Car-T cells bring hope to Brazilian cancer patients ” , by Mônica Reolom, Ana Carolina Raimundi and team, was chosen as the best publication in the Science Communication category. This edition of the competition had 184 entries from 18 states.
Based on the story of a lottery fraud case, "In Search of True Randomness" explains that computers cannot generate truly random numbers. To obtain truly random numbers, computer science transforms the chaos of nature into numbers, and this is what guarantees your digital security. The article presents, in an interesting and understandable way, the mathematical difficulties involved in pseudo-randomness in computing.
The exciting Fantástico report, " Clinical studies with CAR-T cells bring hope to Brazilian cancer patients, " sensitively addresses a new therapy against the disease. Quick, lasting 30 minutes, the innovative treatment, currently under testing, aims to replace other, longer methods of curing the disease with more side effects. The proposal is to eliminate the disease using the patient's own immune cells, genetically modified. CAR-T gene therapy is generally used as a last resort by doctors. The report followed cancer patients who underwent this promising treatment for six months. The authors of the report also include Gleison Barreto, Eduardo González, Lúcio Rodrigues, Emílio Mansur, Francisco Gomes, André Nascimento, Felipe Peixe, Gentil Junior, Gutemberg Benites, Marcos Barcarrollo, André Alaniz, and Fernanda Chaves Reis.
In the Mathematics category, "Calculus of the Future ," by Andrea Freitas da Conceição from Canal Meio, came in second place. The text shows how mathematics is a promising field, essential for the new economy, capable of training well-rounded professionals to work in areas ranging from artificial intelligence to oil and gas.
In third place was “ What is calculus – and how it caused the greatest dispute in the history of mathematics ”, by Maria Clara Rossini, from Superinteressante magazine. The article explains what infinitesimal calculus is – also called differential and integral calculus – and how it provoked an intellectual battle between Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz.
In the Science Communication category, “The Amazon decolonizes its past,” authored by Talita Bedinelli from the Sumaúma platform, came in second place. The work followed the steps of a team of archaeologists from the Amazon Revealed in Terra do Meio project in Pará. Through observation of the work, interviews with archaeologists and local residents, it showed how archaeology can work in partnership with communities to reconstruct a past forgotten in history books.
Adriana Farias, from Folha de S.Paulo, received third place for her article “Project drills into the Amazon's subsoil to study climate evolution in the forest . ” The special report addresses the Trans-Amazonian Drilling Project, whose objective is to study the origin and evolution of the Amazon and the climate of tropical South America. The report includes photos, infographics, and a step-by-step explanation of how this type of science works and how the curation of collected sediment and sedimentary rock samples is carried out, revealing millions of years of the biome's history and past climate changes.
The winners were selected by a jury of scientists and journalists, comprised of the Director-General of IMPA, Marcelo Viana, the President of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences (ABC), Helena Nader, and journalists Sabine Righetti, researcher at Labjor-Unicamp and founder of Agência Bori, and Raphael Gomide, coordinator of IMPA's Press Office.
The novelty of the 7th IMPA Journalism Award lies in the awards ceremony, which will take place during the National Mathematics Festival on September 7th at Marina da Glória in Rio de Janeiro. The journalists awarded 1st place in each category are invited to participate in the roundtable discussion “Mathematics and science are news!” – a conversation about the importance and challenges of science communication in Brazil. During the event, the journalists will also discuss the investigative process behind their winning reports.
Honorable Mentions
As in previous editions, the jury selected four articles to receive Honorable Mention. In Mathematics, the selected reports were “Entropy: the limit that the universe imposes on file compression ”, by Bruno Vaiano, from Superinteressante, and “News, shopping and neo-Nazism: Brazilian websites that teach Portuguese to AIs” , by Bruno Romani, Marcos Muller and Lucas Almeida , from Estadão.
In the Science Communication category, honorable mentions went to the episodes "The Terror of Dams ," by Meghie de Sousa Rodrigues and Pedro Ferreira de Belo, from the Ciência Suja Podcast, and "The Chip War," by Gian Luigi Sofio and Felipe Tomaz Santana, from Fantástico, on TV Globo.