Scientists, patients and government entities in Argentina have reached an agreement to legislate stem cell therapies. The law “should address the scientific and therapeutic aspects of these cellular tools, always from a bioethical perspective, while guaranteeing the health protection of citizens,” stated Lino Brarañao, Argentina’s Minister of Science and Technology.
Uruguayan researchers have sequenced the genome of the Tannat wine grape. Credit: Jorge Alonzo via Flickr.
Recently, Argentina’s Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries passed a resolution for the evaluation of genetically modified crops like sugarcane and potatoes. This measure will allow two national institutions to progress in obtaining glyphosate tolerant sugarcase.
Argentine companies are working on breeding programs to increase protein levels in the soybean.
BOLIVIA
An international group of scientists led by Italian geographer Umberto Lombardo and Bolivian archaeologist José Capriles found in the Bolivian Amazon evidence of humans dating back 10,400 years. Their analysis concludes that hunter-gatherers settled there in the early Holocene. The work was published in the journal Plos One.
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.
ARGENTINA Argentina’s National University of Río Cuarto has developed an inoculant that hopes to improve sunflower growth under drought conditions. The technology consists of strains of the soil bacteria Bacillus pumilus (SF3 and SF4) and the endophytic (living in the plant) bacteria Achromobacter xylosoxidans (SF2) isolated from sunflowers under drought conditions. After fermenting these bacteria … Continue reading Pronghorns making a comeback in Mexico, pterosaurs in Brazil, and praying for dryland in Panama.
Peru’s threatened anchovy fishery, new dinosaur found in Argentina, and Antarctica’s mosquito problem. ANTARCTICA An invasive species of mosquito (Eretmoptera murphyi) has been found in Antarctica and has some scientists worried about its effect on the continent. The mosquito, brought over by tourists and researchers alike, could deposit large amounts of nutrients in the soil … Continue reading Thursday December 20
Villagers immune to rabies found in the Peruvian Amazon, Chile’s Very Large Telescope spots a spiral galaxy, and scientists strap a camera to a diving cormorant in Argentina. ARGENTINA Argentine scientists with the Wildlife Conservation Society have captured video of never-before-seen behavior from a cormorant diving 150 feet to the sea floor in search of … Continue reading Thursday August 2
An avian flu epidemic in Mexico, the ongoing cholera outbreak in Cuba and genetically-modified mosquitos to be released in Brazil ARGENTINA Argentina is planning on building a 173 square mile wind farm in Chubut province, Patagonia. The China Development Bank Corp. has offered a $3 billion loan to Generadora Eolica Argentina del Sur (Geassa) for … Continue reading Thursday July 12
