In discussing AIDS drug prices, Derek Lowe notes that:

I've known some pretty good Brazilian scientists, but the country isn't up to being able to discover and develop its own new ones. (Very few countries are; you can count them on your fingers.)

I'd never thought about this, but I imagine it's true. There's a reason that so many countries send students to the US (and the UK, and few other places) for their education. I recall a chapter in one of Feynman's autobiographies, in which he described the state of physics education in Brazilian universities. It was basically rote memorization, with no apparent comprehension of the actual meaning or applicability of the formulas. It would be interesting (and sad) if that remains the case.