RADIO HABANA CUBA Hello and welcome to Breakthrough, our weekly Science, Technology and the Environment update. I am Arnaldo - Arnie - Coro, RHC's Science Editor, and today I'll tell you more about the National Science and Technology Forum, a grassroots movement that has helped our country a lot to cope with many difficulties associated with the US blockade against Cuba.
BREAKTHROUGH
Report on Science, Technology & the EnvironmentFor broadcast Sunday, August 12 & Thursday, August 16, 2001
Written and narrated by Arnaldo "Arnie" Coro, RHC's Science Editor
The National Science and Technology Forum has evolved during the past 15 years into what is now a powerful and well-organized movement that has among its ranks scientists, engineers, technicians, skilled workers, farmers and even homemakers! Their common goal is to solve a wide variety of difficult problems, and then make the solution found freely available for use by all who might need it... Here is an example: Vilda, a homemaker, has developed a whole line of low-cost food preservation technologies, from drying fruits with solar energy to producing a delicious mixture of food seasoning that does not spoil and does not require refrigeration... Vilda, a nice lady in her early sixties, was presented with one of the National Science and Technology Forum yearly awards for her excellent and well-documented research, and now her book of recipes has also been published...
But Vilda is not the only example of very interesting and worthwhile achievements by the Science and Technology Forum participants. A mechanical engineer working for an industrial plant in Camaguey province developed a complete technology to recycle the costly crankshafts of the big Diesel trucks used for picking up the sugar cane during the harvest season. Instead of having to buy a new crankshaft worth no less than five hundred dollars, the trucks' engines are now fitted with the recycled crankshafts that -- according to the documents filed by the author and approved by the Mechanical Committee of the Science and Technology Forum -- are providing excellent service at a cost that is one-tenth of replacing the original part. As a matter of fact, the recycled crankshafts last even longer because of the special hardening process that is given to it by the new technology.
There are many other examples of how this grassroots movement is providing practical solutions to many technical problems and its altruistic approach, of making all the newly acquired knowledge freely available to all who may need this know-how, from one end of the country to the other.
This year's National Science and Technology Forum annual event will take place in December, and the forum's analysis and discussions to select the most relevant contributions to science and technology have already begun. This is a process that starts at the workplace and continues all the way up to the National meeting, and those whose research findings or contributions are selected at the National event receive a lot of recognition by their fellow Cubans.
From Havana, this was another edition of Breakthrough, RHC's Science, Technology and the Environment update. I am Arnaldo - Arnie - Coro, RHC's Science Editor now wishing you excellent reception of our next show.
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