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Editorial

It is better to be almost certain than precisely wrong.

Enrico Fermi - Italian Physic - Nobel Prize in 1938

Since its inception in 1936, REM has helping to fill in the existing gap in Brazilian mining publications. This gap occurred due to the reduced number of schools dedicated to this field of knowledge. The Chinese boom generated a tendency to create more schools dedicated to this field. Now that this boom as cooled, it is still unknown what the impact of these new schools will be on Brazilian and world science.

This economic instability generates a scenario where the newly schools are rapidly having difficulty in obtaining the necessary subsidized credit for research, which could turn them into just knowledge repeaters.

It serves us well to remember at this time what Francisco Luís da Silva Campos wrote: To transmit accumulated knowledge, investigate and discover new thruths, and train generations in the art of thinking and kuse of reasoning - these are the essential functions of a university.

Perhaps the word "divulge" is missing in this definition, which would very well complete that which was written by Silva Campos. In the book "Comunnicating Research" by J. A. Meadows and translated by Briquet Lemos, there is mentioned that the mathematician Gauss, performed his scientific works only as a response to his most deepest impulses, and for him, that these works would someday be published for instructing others was a totally secondary preoccupation [...]. And the book completes this information with the fact that shortly after his death, discovered was just how much of 19th century mathematics had been envisioned or anticipated by Grauss before the year 1800. And that if he had divulged what he knew, it is very well possible that mathematics would be half a century or more advanced than it is today.

During the 80 years of existence, REM has understood the importance of increasing the divulgence of this knowledge through articles. With the increased velocity that the virtual world provides, REM has decided to continue with the printed version of its journal (REM - Revista Escola de Minas) and add to it, a virtual digital journal (REM-International Engineering Journal), increasing the divulgence of mineral science.

Thus, we are certain that we are almost certain.

Prof. Jório Coelho
Editor-in-Chef Doctor Engineer by Polytecnique Institute of Lorraine-France
Retired professor of Federal University of Ouro Preto - School of Mines-Department of Geology
E-mail: editor@rem.com.br
35400-000 - Ouro Preto - BR

Publication Dates

  • Publication in this collection
    Apr-Jun 2016
Escola de Minas Rua Carlos Walter Marinho Campos, 57 - Vila Itacolomy, 35400-000 Ouro Preto MG - Brazil, Tel: (55 31) 3551-4730/3559-7408 - Ouro Preto - MG - Brazil
E-mail: editor@rem.com.br