The most important aspects of science and technology in Argentina are concerned with medicine, nuclear physics, biotechnology, nanotechnology, and several fields related to the country's main economic activities.
Benefiting from Latin America's highest literacy rates since shortly after President Domingo Faustino Sarmiento made primary education universally available in the 1860s and 1870s, Argentine researchers and professionals at home and abroad continue to enjoy a high standing in their fields. Argentine Bernardo Houssay was the first Latin American awarded with a Nobel Prize[2] in sciences. Formed in a National University, Houssay went on to establish Argentina's National Research Council, a centerpiece in Argentine scientific and technological development, fifty years on.[3] Many other Argentines have contributed to scientific development around the world, though sometimes having to emigrate to do so. Probably for that, the Argentine education is referred as the Latin American docta[4] (in Spanish: La docta Latinoamericana), which originates from the Latin docta (learned).
This country, with its high level of multiculturalism[5] and ample natural resources, has seen its share of instability and lost many of its most talented professionals over the years. Yet it continues its commitment to cultivate the most educated work force possible and, recently recovering from years of malaise, education and scientific training is still a work in progress - as in other Latin American countries and, indeed, the world.
