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A bacterium hurting coral reefs in the Caribbean, a farmers strike in Colombia, and a tomb found in northern Peru.

ANTARCTICA

Rising water temperatures will reduce the extent of krill habitat in Antarctica, say researchers.

ARGENTINA

A robot has been created by scientists in Mendoza for watering gardens. The system uses a similar technology to that used to detect movement in video games and moves around the garden on three wheels.

80% of the Caribbean’s coral reefs have disappeared, thanks in part to a bacterial attack, says one researcher. Credit: Dolphin Discovery via Flickr.

The Argentine Council for Information and Development of Biotechnology (ArgenBio) celebrates ten years of continuous broadcasting about biotechnology. Its educational program “Why Biotechnology” has trained more than 13,000 teachers across the country and worked with public and private entities in developing biotechnology in Argentina and Latin America.

BRAZIL

The Boticario Foundation for Nature Protection has launched a campaign aimed at the general public to raise awareness about the endangered jaguar (Panthera onca) which inhabits the Pantanal (a wetlands shared by Argentina, Brazil and Bolivia).

CARIBBEAN

80% of Caribbean coral reefs have been lost for many reasons, one being the attack of a bacterium that kills the coral. Eugene Rosenberg, a scientist at the University of Tel Aviv, identified phages that can control the bacterial attack and recover reef health.

CHILE

A workers’ strike at the ALMA telescope in Chile’s Atacama desert has shut down astronomy work at the facility.

COLOMBIA

A farmers and truckers strike in Colombia demanding revamped agricultural policies has paralyzed highways throughout the country.

MEXICO

Scientists at UNAM have designed biomarkers to diagnose and prevent cirrhosis of the liver. The work was led by Carolina Guzman who won the L’Oréal-UNESCO-AMC Scholarship for Women in Science in the area of ​​Natural Sciences last year.

PERU

A tomb belonging to a priestess of the Moche culture has been found in northern Peru. The find confirms the belief that more than 1,200 years ago women ruled the region. Of the all the graves found so far by the Archaeological Program of San José del Moro, all have housed women.

URUGUAY

ATGen, a Uruguayan company, has developed a method that identifies the sex of the fetus before the seventh week of pregnancy. The technique consists of a simple analysis of DNA obtained from a sample of the mother’s blood.