Colombia
Coffee scientists convened in Armenia, Colombia last week to present new genetic findings to combat leaf rust, a devastating coffee plant disease caused by a fungus. Work was presented on developing new rust-resistant coffee cultivars and characterizing the proteins the fungus secretes.
Argentina
Latin America’s first positron emission tomography (PET) facility has been designed and built in Argentina by the Ezeiza Atomic Center. Find out how it works.
Spare is a tool that uses technologies and high-throughput sequencing to accelerate research in plant genomics and improve the production and quality of crops.
Brazil
German and Brazilian scientists are building a tower over 300 meters tall in the heart of the Amazon to retrieve data about the effects of climate change in the region. This tower will complement a similar tower already in operation in Siberia.
Chile
Chilean researchers are planting transgenic grapes resistant to two fungi that have caused significant losses to local wine producers.
Mexico
Mexico hosted the fourth Symposium on Biotechnology and Environmental Engineering . There, CINVESTAV scientists presented work on developing a biorefinery for fuels from organic waste and the development of fuel cells assisted by bacteria to generate energy.
Two independent teams of scientists, one from MIT and one from the Estudios Superiores de Occidente in Mexico are pursuing the same goal, to obtain water at lower costs. The first uses the properties of graphite to filter water and the second vaporization and subsequent condensation.