Using cassava to produce electricity in rural Colombia, teasing apart Chile’s salmon virus, and new coral discoveries in Latin America.

ANTARCTICA An international team of scientists will study the melting of Antarctica’s Pine Island Glacier, which is currently melting at a rate of 6 centimeters per day. The team will measure glacier’s motion, map the bed of the glacier and explore the geology beneath the ice. ARGENTINA The National Institute of Agricultural Technology created a … Continue reading Using cassava to produce electricity in rural Colombia, teasing apart Chile’s salmon virus, and new coral discoveries in Latin America.

Engineering technology for health in Mexico, developing new food flours in the Dominican Republic, and biodiversity in Costa Rica

ANTARCTICA Brazil will rebuild the scientific base that burned down last year on King George Island in Antarctica. It will cover 4,500 square meters and include 17 laboratories for 64 people. ARGENTINA Researchers at the National University of Salta have developed low-cost solar water heaters for use by indigenous communities in the region. In addition, … Continue reading Engineering technology for health in Mexico, developing new food flours in the Dominican Republic, and biodiversity in Costa Rica

Fighting dengue in Paraguay, climate change in the Brazilian Amazon, and ancient microorganisms in Antarctica.

ANTARCTICA

A team of scientists has determined that a major cause of melting corresponds to the bottom of submerging ice shelves.

Climate change could raise the temperature in the Brazilian Amazon by six degrees and convert 45% of rain forest areas into savannah. Credit: WikiCommons.

Researchers drilling to the bottom of Lake Hodgson of Antarctica have found microorganisms that date back 100,000 years. DNA studies will soon determine whether these findings are an unknown species.

ARGENTINA

A University of Mendoza study has demonstrated the neuroprotective effects of progesterone and their possible application as treatment for Parkinson’s disease. This research was commended by the Society of Biology of the Cuyo.

A team of researchers from the Universidad Nacional del Litoral has isolated bacteria from infant feces and breast milk for use in probiotics. The team’s intention is to grow up these microorganisms to commercial quantities so they can be incorporated into the daily glass of milk in low-income schools.

Continue reading “Fighting dengue in Paraguay, climate change in the Brazilian Amazon, and ancient microorganisms in Antarctica.”

Photographing the expanding universe from Chile, Argentina inserts national anthem into a bacterium, and the journal Science highlights biodiversity in Latin America.

ARGENTINA

More and more Argentine scientists are following the lead of researchers that have used DNA to store texts, audios and pictures in sequences that were then inserted into bacteria. Scientists at the Universidad Argentina de la Empresa were able to store the first verses of the Argentine national anthem in a bacterium.

The Dark Energy Survey’s 750 megapixel DECam will map one eighth of the sky from Chile to see how the universe is expanding at an accelerating rate. Credit: Reidar Hahn/Fermilab.

A transgenic orange plant was developed at the UBA that is resistant to citrus canker caused by the Xanthomonas bacteria. This plant bears a frog gene that confers antimicrobial properties.

CHILE

The 750 DECam megapixel camera, part of the Dark Energy Survey (DES ) and installed in the Victor M. Blanco telescope in Cerro Tololo, Chile will map one eighth of the sky to find out why there is accelerated expansion of our universe. The DES officially started August 31.

A Chilean-German diving project is forming with the aim of exploring Antarctic waters to document wildlife.

COLOMBIA

A Colombian physicist is part of

Continue reading “Photographing the expanding universe from Chile, Argentina inserts national anthem into a bacterium, and the journal Science highlights biodiversity in Latin America.”

Giant African land snails are invading Latin America

by Ali Hendren

In 1988 at an agribusiness expo in Curitiba in southern Brazil, giant African land snails (Achatina fulica) were heralded as a promising new food source to replace smaller escargot snails. The introduction at the fair was so widely advertised and aggressively marketed that commercial breeders, cooperatives and even private homeowners began rearing the snails–endemic to eastern Africa–immediately with kits sold at the expo.

“The snails were supposed to represent social and economic progress for Brazil,” says Roberto Vogler, an Argentine scientist who studies the snails along the border his country shares with Brazil. “They were going to position the country as the world’s leading supplier of escargot.”

But a booming escargot market in Brazil never materialized. Many of the smaller producers had neither the means to properly process the meat nor the public demand to drive a now flooded market. Frustrated with their failed investment, operations were abandoned and snails were released into the wild in overwhelming numbers.

Today, the infestation has spread throughout Latin America–and not at a snail’s pace. They’ve invaded 24 of Brazil’s 26 states, spread through Venezuela and Colombia and have breached the borders of Paraguay, Argentina, Ecuador and Peru–posing both an agricultural and a public health threat. The snails are sweeping the continent carrying parasites and an appetite for most any crop.

The snails’ pace

On paper, the introduction of A. fulica for escargot farming in Brazil appeared promising. The snails are larger Continue reading “Giant African land snails are invading Latin America”

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

Brain controlled robotics in Argentina, talking about bats in Costa Rica, and outsourcing science research of Bolivia’s salt flats

ANTARCTICA

The West Antarctic began to form approximately 22,000 years ago according to a study recently published in the journal Nature. They found, while analyzing a block of ice two miles deep, that a part of the white continent was formed long before the rest of the continent.

Bolivian scientists are not happy that their government has outsourced to foreign researchers the study of extremophiles in the salt flats of Bolivia. Credit: Rabbit Hole via Flickr.

ARGENTINA

The South Atlantic, specifically the Gulf of San Jorge, will be studied jointly by Argentine and Canadian scientists, says the Ministry of Science and Technology of Argentina. The project will start in January 2014, will be done aboard the ship Coriolis II and require an investment of one million dollars.

For 10 years the Faculty of Agronomy at the UBA has been working with farmers in the municipality Daireaux, located 400 km from Buenos Aires. Through tax benefits, producers are encouraged to conserve soil and rotate crops in addition to adopting traditional farming practices in the area. The producers involved in the project have seen significant improvements in organic matter content and soil stability.

A group of scientists in Cordoba has created an innovative technology that allows people with physical disabilities to switch on the lights or lower the blinds in their homes through a system that decodes their brainwaves and transforms them into intelligible orders.

Continue reading “Brain controlled robotics in Argentina, talking about bats in Costa Rica, and outsourcing science research of Bolivia’s salt flats”

Costa Rica moves to close its zoos, coca and alcohol used in Incan human sacrifice, and Usain Bolt’s superhuman abilities.

ARGENTINA CONICET scientists have developed and field-tested potatoes resistant to Potato Virus Y (PVY), which causes losses of between 20% and 80% of the crop depending on the severity of the infection. Field tests concluded that there was no PVY infection in the genetically-modified plants, while among those not modified, the rate of infection was … Continue reading Costa Rica moves to close its zoos, coca and alcohol used in Incan human sacrifice, and Usain Bolt’s superhuman abilities.

Argentine astronomers and dwarf galaxies, surprising research into arsenic in soybeans, and Mexico develops new food packaging.

ARGENTINA Argentine astronomers are trying to explain the lack of dwarf galaxies in the universe. Though astronomical theory predicts the existence of thousands of dwarf galaxies–galaxies with a few billion stars compared with the Milky Way which has 200 to 400 billion–only a few dozen have been discovered. Astronomers in Cordoba have proposed the following … Continue reading Argentine astronomers and dwarf galaxies, surprising research into arsenic in soybeans, and Mexico develops new food packaging.

Studying climate change in the Amazon, cattle feed poisoning fish in Mexico, and seagulls still attacking whales in Patagonia.

ARGENTINA Argentina has created its first marine protected area south of the Falkland Islands. Seagulls continue to feast on Southern Right whales off Argentina’s Patagonian coast. One theory for the strange behavior is an overpopulation of gulls caused in part by the bustling tourism industry. CHILE A marine bacterium is being exploited for its antimicrobial … Continue reading Studying climate change in the Amazon, cattle feed poisoning fish in Mexico, and seagulls still attacking whales in Patagonia.

Combating diabetes in Argentina, Chile’s endangered Darwin’s frog, and measuring carbon sequestration in Mexico.

ARGENTINA Argentina’s Ministry of Science and Technology recently signed an agreement with the pharmaceutical company Sanofi to develop a program of primary prevention of type 2 diabetes, a disease with high prevalence in Argentina and Latin America but with few prevention efforts. The study will identify high-risk patients and incorporate nutrition education program and regular … Continue reading Combating diabetes in Argentina, Chile’s endangered Darwin’s frog, and measuring carbon sequestration in Mexico.

New birds and arachnids found in Brazil, Pascua-Lama gold mine contamination and delays, and leatherback turtle numbers rebound in Trinidad.

ARGENTINA Argentina is expanding its agricultural frontier at the expense of native vegetation in semiarid regions like the Cuyo and the Northwest. A group of scientists from the National University of San Luis studied these changes and determined the rise of the water table (with the rising risk of increased salinity) and the appearance of … Continue reading New birds and arachnids found in Brazil, Pascua-Lama gold mine contamination and delays, and leatherback turtle numbers rebound in Trinidad.

Brazil successfully clones a cow from a fat cell, great white shark research in Mexico and Peru finds more dead animals on its coasts.

ARGENTINA Only 800 hooded grebes–a bird living in Santa Cruz Patagonia–are left in the world. A science writer flies to Argentina to take a look. An Argentine researcher has published a study in PLoS ONE that explores empathy and its role in moral judgments. Read more on Eze’s blog here. Press release here. A study … Continue reading Brazil successfully clones a cow from a fat cell, great white shark research in Mexico and Peru finds more dead animals on its coasts.

The benefits of shade-grown coffee in Colombia, tackling superbugs in Costa Rica, and deforestation in Nicaragua

ARGENTINA The Argentine company Bioceres has partnered with French biotech company Florimond Desprez to produce, initially for the Argentine and Latin America market, the first transgenic wheat crop. The product could be available for planting in 2016. The crop will use the Hahb-4 gene, involved in the synthesis of ethylene, a plant hormone responsible for … Continue reading The benefits of shade-grown coffee in Colombia, tackling superbugs in Costa Rica, and deforestation in Nicaragua

An alpaca biotechnology center in Peru, combating Chagas disease in Latin America, and the effects of intensive agriculture in Brazil.

ARGENTINA The Pan American Health Organization has approved a drug manufactured in Argentina against the parasitic disease Chagas. Benznidazol will be produced by two private laboratories with additional government funding. It’s the first line of treatment for Chagas disease and cures 80-90% of cases, according to the WHO. Argentina’s Leloir Institute recently discovered an enzyme, … Continue reading An alpaca biotechnology center in Peru, combating Chagas disease in Latin America, and the effects of intensive agriculture in Brazil.

Endangered deer have rebounded in Patagonia, Chevron allowed to resume drilling offshore Brazil, and new research says Patagonia was a separate continent.

ARGENTINA More than 320 million years ago, Patagonia was a separate continent that collided into Gondwana at the same time as Chilenia—present day Chile, according to scientists from the University of Buenos Aires. After conducting field tests in paleomagnetism, the researchers concluded that the deformations found along the southwestern margin of the Gondwana continent were … Continue reading Endangered deer have rebounded in Patagonia, Chevron allowed to resume drilling offshore Brazil, and new research says Patagonia was a separate continent.