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Introductory Note (Nota de Presentación)

Ciencia al Día Internacional emerged from the need to fill a gap in the dissemination of science and technology for the Spanish speaking community. Ciencia al Día Internacional is published electronically through a Web (World Wide Web) site where experts in different areas of Science and Technology present the results of their research and their ideas in an accessible way. Areas covered by Ciencia al Día Internacional include the basic sciences, engineering, politics, history and philosophy of science, as well as education, health, etc.

Our intent in declaring the language of the publication as Spanish is to make scientific and technological information accessible to the Spanish speaking community. This community has traditionally had poorer access to high quality scientific material, and also fewer chances to publish their work in their own language.

This publication is hosted by the Department of Computer Science of the University of Chile. The publication is made possible by the dedication of scientists, journalists, and engineers who belong to the Editorial Board and dedicate their time and effort to insure the high quality of the published material.

This a publication has been and will continue to be free of charge both for the authors, who are not required to pay page charges, as well as for the readers, who are not required to pay subscription charges to visit our Web site or read or print the articles.

Through the different sections of Ciencia al Día Internacional, such as Questions and Answers, Science in Practice as well as others that we are continually creating as our capabilities expand, we hope to reach a broad readership, including experts in their different fields, students at different levels, and the public at large interested in science and technology. We are interested in showing, not only examples of our colleges’ scientific results, but also how they are obtained, what social and practical factors enable or hinder their research, and how the knowledge obtained is applied. In other words, our goal is not only to transmit data and technologies but also to show the scientific endeavor as a process, to awaken the interest for Science and its methods, and to encourage a critical thought in any field of knowledge.

Each article is reviewed by experts in each field and by members of the Editorial Board to ensure a high quality and originality of the material. Although our e-zine is published in Spanish, articles in other languages will also be published provided they are submitted with an accompanying Spanish translation. We hope to eventually publish all articles both in Spanish and in English, although the official language of Ciencia al Día Internacional will remain Spanish. This will give both our e-zine, as well as the authors an expanded audience and will help bridge the existing gap in the perception that industrialized nations have of the scientific and technological developments in Latin-American countries.