Carta Das Editoras Convidadas

Abstract

Dear readers,This issue was inspired by the realization that historians of science in Brazil have paid scant attention to the history of our oceans and to policies about them. Which is not to say that oceans and seas have not traversed the fields of history, politics, and scientific research in Brazil, in its neighboring countries, or in Portugal, as illustrated by the articles presented in this volume.Oceanic research became firmly established worldwide at the turn of the twentieth century, with the exploratory voyages of the British Challenger and the German Gazelle. Around the same time, the field was institutionalized through "infrastructural experiments" -to borrow the words of Robert Kohler in his Landscapes and labscapes -starting with the 1872 foundation of the eminent Stazione Zoologica in Naples and followed by other initiatives, like the Biologischen Anstalt Helgoland, a model endeavor that in 1892 blended research, instruction in marine biology, and the fishing industry. An entire generation frequented these spaces of knowledge and power; one representative was Hermann von Ihering, who was thus able to produce the first and last of the countless studies that grounded his histories of the origins of the Atlantic Ocean, discussed in these pages by Maria Margaret Lopes and Irina Podgorny. These spaces also gave rise to a new tradition in training, research, and the shaping of international policy, as demonstrated by the studies of Helen Rozwadowski in The sea knows no boundaries. The Portuguese re-created models and founded marine laboratories, which is where Maria Fernanda Rollo, Maria Inês Queiroz, and Tiago Brandão begin what is a historical approach to the analysis of oceanography, from its role as a strategic option in the national science policy adopted by Portugal's Estado Novo, through the growing technical and scientific complexity of the field as of the 1970s. Interests in marine space brought commercial sea fishing together with ichthyological research in Argentina at the turn of the twentieth century, according to Susana García, who examines the ways naturalists have worked to compile and process fishermen's observations and empirical experiences. Another space where innovative research was fortified and where the field gained power -won by women too -was the Oceanographic Institute of the University of São Paulo, whose process of institutionalization is addressed by Alex Gonçalves Varela, with a focus on 1940s Brazil.Covering a broad span of time, the articles in this issue investigate knowledge production, navigation instruments, mythological sea creatures, controversial historical figures, exploratory journeys, the appropriation of resources, geopolitical interests, and institutions. Following GUEST EDITORS' NOTEhttp://dx