biology

Sidarta Ribeiro

Sidarta Ribeiro is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Sidarta Ribeiro rather than just read about it. In short: Sidarta Tollendal Gomes Ribeiro (Brasília, April 16, 1971) is a Brazilian neuroscientist, writer, science communicator, and deputy director of the Brain Institute at Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN), which he joined in 2008 as full professor. Sidarta is the author of The Oracle of Night: The History and Science of Dreaming, his fifth book (released in English on August 17, 2021), and a contributor…

Key takeaways

Sidarta Ribeiro belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Sidarta Ribeiro to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Sidarta Ribeiro from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Sidarta Tollendal Gomes Ribeiro (Brasília, April 16, 1971) is a Brazilian neuroscientist, writer, science communicator, and deputy director of the Brain Institute at Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN), which he joined in 2008 as full professor. Sidarta is the author of The Oracle of Night: The History and Science of Dreaming, his fifth book (released in English on August 17, 2021), and a contributor for Folha de S.Paulo, Brazil´s largest newspaper. Member of the Latin American Academy of Sciences (ACAL) since 2016, he is associate editor of the journals PLoS One, Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience and Frontiers In Psychology - Language Sciences. He is a member of the Council of the Sociedade brasileira para o Progresso da Ciência (SBPC), the Steering Committee of the Latin American School for Educational, Cognitive and Neural Sciences [1] and the Center for Research, Innovation and Education in Neuromathematics (NeuroMat).[3] He served as secretary of the Brazilian Society of Neuroscience and Behavior (SBNeC) in the triennium 2009-2011 and was a member of the Brazilian committee of the Pew Latin American Fellows Program in the Biomedical Sciences between 2011 and 2015.

Academic degrees Bachelor of Biological Sciences by Universidade de Brasília (1989–1993) Master's in Biophysics by Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (1994) Ph.D. in Animal Behavior by Rockefeller University (1995–2000) Postdoctoral research in Neurophysiology with a "Pew Latin-American Fellowship in the Biomedical Sciences" at Duke University (2000–2005)

Fields of research Sleep, dreaming and memory Immediate genes and neuroplasticity Vocal communication in birds and primates Symbolic competence in non-human animals Computational psychiatry Neuroscience applied to education Psychedelics and drug policy

Awards Medical Innovation Award: Innovation in Diagnostic Medicine Category, Abril & Dasa, 2018 SUS Award Best Published Paper Category, Ministry of Health (Brazil), 2017 Celso Furtado Award, Ministry of National Integration (Brazil), 2017 Latin American Research Award, Google, 2017 “Exemplifying the Mission of the International Mind, Brain and Education Society, International Mind” Award, Brain and Education Society (IMBES), 2014 Trip Transformadores Award: "Sleep" Category, TRIP Editora, 2007 Pew Latin American Fellowship in the Biomedical Sciences, Pew Foundation, 2001 Guimarães Rosa Award, Radio France Internationale, 1996

The Oracle of Night In his book The Oracle of Night: The History and Science of Dream, Sidarta Ribeiro starts from the questions "what are dreams and what is their role in the evolution of human consciousness?" To answer, he articulates several narratives: the biological evolution of sleep and oneiric phenomena, the cultural history of dream interpretations and their social functions, psychological and psychoanalytic investigations and theories, and recent discoveries of neuroscience. Biology, history, anthropology, studies of mythology, religion and art are combined in this work, accessible to laymen willing to a careful reading of passages of a more strictly scientific nature. Based on a large and diverse body of evidence, the author unfolds the vision suggested in the book's title: that dreams are a "probabilistic oracle" in which memories are rearranged to predict and rehearse possible futures, anticipating risks and opportunities. The Oracle of Night describes dreams as an essential feature in the evolutionary process that made Homo sapiens an exceptionally versatile and inventive animal – a resource that needs to be rediscovered in this historical moment of great challenges for the future of the planet and the human species.

Gathering neuroscientists in Natal In the 1990s, Sidarta Ribeiro and fellow neuroscientists Claudio Mello, Sergio Neuenschwander, Antonio Pereira, Cecília Hedin-Pereira, Claudia Vargas and Mário Fiorani, began the repatriation project that gave origin to the International Institute for Neuroscience of Natal (ELS-IINN), founded by Sidarta Ribeiro, Miguel Nicolelis and Claudio Mello in 2003. This initiative was promoted by the public sector, with decisive support from the Ministries of Education and Science. As a consequence, the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN) undertook the creation of a world-class neuroscience research center in Natal as part of its strategic plan for future development. In order to implement the project in a solid manner, the university engaged since 2008 in a major recruitment effort, publicized internationally in venues such as Nature and Science magazine, to recruit a group of faculty with international training in some of the most prestigious research centers in the world. The group currently includes 18 faculty duly selected by public contests: Adriano Tort, Antonio Pereira, Maria Bernardete de Sousa, Claudio Queiroz, Diego Laplagne, Draulio de Araujo, Lia Bevilaqua, Katarina Leão, Kerstin Schmidt, Marcos Costa, Martin Cammarota, Richardson Leão, Rodrigo Pereira, Sandro de Souza, Sergio Neuenschwander, Sidarta Ribeiro, and Tarciso Velho. On May 13, 2011, Sidarta Ribeiro took part in the inauguration of the Brain Institute (Instituto do Cérebro - ICe), together with Ivonildo do Rego and Angela Paiva, former and current Presidents of UFRN, academic leaders, faculty, technicians and students. On July 26, 2011, the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo published an article reporting the split between Miguel Nicolelis and the faculty of UFRN recruited for the Natal Neuroscience project. The main reason cited for the split was the lack of access of the University’s faculty to the equipment at IINN-ELS. This information was confirmed by Science magazine. An article in the Brazilian magazine Piauí further clarified that the faculty exodus from the ELS-IINN was caused by widespread dissatisfaction with Nicolelis’ management.

Works

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Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Sidarta Ribeiro

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Sidarta Ribeiro claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Sidarta Ribeiro before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Sidarta Ribeiro ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Sidarta Ribeiro

In research: Sidarta Ribeiro appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Sidarta Ribeiro in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Sidarta Ribeiro is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1971 births, Academic staff of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazilian biologists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Sidarta Ribeiro outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Sidarta Ribeiro in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Sidarta Ribeiro means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Sidarta Ribeiro out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Sidarta Ribeiro in simple terms?

Why does Sidarta Ribeiro matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Sidarta Ribeiro?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Sidarta Ribeiro.