Bolivia has had 190 Presidents in 150 years of independence. Seven out of 10 of its poverty-stricken people are illiterate, and yet the country has eight ‘liberal’ universities for the privileged few, generally those of European descent. This frustrating formula is carried over into science: research is confused, geared to foreign backers and largely unrelated to the needs of the people. John Hutton, from the Department of Clinical Biochemistry at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, visited Bolivia on a Nature writing fellowship.
