In August 2010, over 70 outstanding early-career scientists from the UK and Brazil came together in a remote location near Itatiba in São Paulo state. On the agenda was an extraordinarily diverse range of research topics, including biofuels, brain plasticity, the mathematical modelling of opulations and disease, science journalism, quantum ntanglement, and the effect of climate change on plant dvelopment. The meeting was the latest in the Frontiers of Science programme, which brings together future leaders in science from around the world.