Perspectives in Biology and Medicine

THE ALPHA-HELIX EXPEDITION IN THE AMAZON: A SPECIAL CASE FOR INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATION M. BRUNORI ANDJ. WYMAN* Scientific expeditions have in the past played a very important role in the conception and development of basic ideas in biology. The classic example is the voyage of the Beagle. This was a one-man affair. Later expeditions have mostly involved a group of experimental scientists taking advantage of the unique conditions provided by some remote area. Our understanding of the biochemistry and physiology of oxygen transport has profited greatly by several such expeditions. The Amazon Basin is one of these areas, and the Alpha-Helix expedition, which wejoined in 1976, was indeed a unique experience of international scientific collaboration . The Amazonas was chosen for comparative studies of the respiratory function of blood in view of the very large variety of species of fish and other aquatic animals that populate this huge river (more than 2,000 species have been described by zoologists in the past); even more important , the change in the habitat that occurs as a result of the alternation of the dry and rainy seasons—and the corresponding change in the water level (up to 10 m)—have created special living conditions, involving hypoxic waters, that have demanded a great deal of adaptation on the part of the aquatic organisms. The results of biological evolution at work are easily seen in the great variety of forms, shapes, and functions that have been described and are still easily observed. Suffice it to recall that this area has a number of species of both water-breathing and air-breathing fish, which have attracted the curiosity of respiratory physiologists since the earlier expedition of Carter, Beadle, and Willmer [I]. The Alpha-Helve expedition of November—December 1976 was ""Institute of Chemistry and CNR Center of Molecular Biology, Faculty of Medicine, 1 University of Rome "La Sapienza," Rome, Italy.© 1986 by The University of Chicago. AU rights reserved. 0031-5982/86/2932/$01.00 S138 I M. Brunori andJ. Wyman · Expedition in the Amazon headed by Dr. Austin Riggs from the University ofTexas, who gathered a group of 22 scientists from the United States and other countries, including Brazil, Denmark, England, Italy, and Norway. A considerable number of the participants had either collaborated with or visited people in the Rome Group, and indeed the expedition was in some ways a consolidation and a continuation of the scientific collaboration that had been actively established in previous years. This endeavour became an exciting reality as a result of several interrelated factors that occurred in a cooperative manner. The most important of these was, without doubt, the enthusiasm and the curiosity of the participants, starting with our "chief scientist," A. Riggs, and including among others J. Bonaventura and R. W. Noble. Another essential element was the availability of a unique floating facility, the research vessel Alpha-Helix, administered by the Scripps Institute of Oceanography in San Diego. The Alpha-Helix may in some way be considered a creation of the great molecular physiologist Dr. P. Sholander, unfortunately now dead, who inspired and convinced the National Science Foundation to undertake the considerable financial burden of operating the ship. Finally, the international collaboration of the Brazilian government, and, in particular, the cooperative support of Dr. W. Estevam Kerr (of the Insituto National de Pesquisasa), Dr. P. E. Vanzolini (of the University Museum in Säo Paulo), and Commander Manoel Perez, on board with us, were absolutely essential for the success of the expedition. Because of all this, the expedition in the Amazonas was a complete success, an exciting scientific endeavour that led to the acquisition of an enormous amount of new quantitative information on the respiratory functions of blood in a large number of species of fish and other aquatic organisms. On board there were different and complementary skills, from zoology to immunology, from physical chemistry to marine biology, from physiology and biochemistry to ecology. The ship was beautifully organized and included basic equipment (even a cold room) that was more than satisfactory to carry out scientific work when anchored in the Rio Solimoes, 200 miles west of Manaus, in the middle of the Amazonas. Some special and sophisticated...