Campinas
Yellow fever killed 10%+ of the population in the 1890s. Rebuilt around UNICAMP (~10% of Brazil's indexed papers, 1,200+ active patents, 47,000 alumni jobs). Viracopos handles ~40% of Brazil's air cargo imports. Brazil's self-proclaimed capital of science and technology.
Campinas grew rich on coffee and nearly died from yellow fever. In the 1870s, the city was São Paulo state's largest, with over 30,000 residents and coffee plantations that fed European demand. Then yellow fever epidemics between 1889 and 1897 killed an estimated 4,000 people—over 10% of the population—and triggered mass flight. Like corn blight devastating a genetic monoculture, the disease exploited a city dependent on a single commodity with no fallback.
The State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), founded in 1966, rebuilt the city through niche construction—creating entirely new economic habitats where none existed. UNICAMP consistently ranks among Latin America's top universities; its research output accounts for approximately 10% of Brazil's indexed scientific papers. The university holds over 1,200 active patents and has generated over 47,000 formal jobs through alumni companies. The Brazilian Synchrotron Light Laboratory (Latin America's only synchrotron) and CPQD (Brazil's telecom research centre) anchor a research ecosystem that earned Campinas the title of Brazil's capital of science and technology.
Campinas' 1.2 million residents (3.2 million metro) inhabit Brazil's third-largest economic region. The founder effect of UNICAMP's research culture spawned adaptive radiation across telecommunications, biotech, and manufacturing: Samsung, Bosch, Toyota, and 3M all operate major facilities. Viracopos International Airport handles approximately 40% of Brazil's air cargo imports, functioning like mycorrhizal fungi—the underground network that connects visible organisms to resources they cannot reach alone, linking Campinas' manufacturers to global supply chains.
The agricultural legacy persists in transformed form. The Agronomic Institute of Campinas (IAC, founded 1887) developed the coffee varieties that allowed Brazil to maintain its position as the world's largest producer. The same research culture that improved coffee now drives genomics and biofuels research. Campinas demonstrates ecological succession through disturbance adaptation: an ecosystem destroyed by disease rebuilt around a different energy source—knowledge rather than monoculture—while retaining the agricultural research DNA that connects present to past.