infocus #4 December 2006 Electron Microscopy in Latin America

DOI: 10.22443/rms.inf.1.14

There are many countries in Latin America and huge differences between them. So I must have been slightly crazy to propose writing an article on electron microscopy in Latin America. Just as it would be unwise to write on the cuisine of Europe with an implicit assumption that it is all the same, so this may be an unwise enterprise that will lead people to imagine that there is homogeneity across a hugely diverse continent. Despite the diversity, as far as electron microscopy is concerned it will be convenient to group the countries. In the first group are Brazil,Mexico and Venezuela. These are the countries in which microscopy is well developed. The next group includes Chile, Costa Rica, Argentina, Cuba (although, as always, Cuba is one of a kind) and perhaps Peru, Ecuador and Colombia. In these countries electron microscopy is carried out by a small number of people. To the best of my knowledge, there is no electron microscopy worthy of the name in the remaining countries and they form the third group.