Smithsonian scientists and collaborators including the Panama Canal Authority confirm that native tree species performed very well in field trials and would be preferable to teak in the poor soils of the Panama Canal watershed.

A Brazilian company extends the use of a solid-state neodymium-doped laser to raise power levels and processing speed.

Stingless bees belong to Hymenoptera order, composed of social insect whose queens are capable of choosing the sex of their offspring. Only females are born from fertilized eggs, while males boast only maternal genetic material. However, queens might mate with males with whom they share a sex determination gene: in such cases, half the colony will be comprised of not-working males, as opposed to worker female bees. Research shows that, in order to save itself from collapse, the colony maims its own queen.

Brazilian researchers suggest that the combination of drugs that block a protein called PAF-R may increase radiotherapy's killing of tumor cells by one third. The experiments that proved the involvement of PAF-R in tumor repopulation were performed with human oral cancer cells and murine cervical cancer cells, in which radiotherapy is usually preferred.

Development of games prevents cognitive decline in elderly people. The study involved a control group and a third group of people who learned to play video games.

A new study by scientists from the Smithsonian, the Panamanian government and the US Environmental Protection Agency, among other institutions, concludes that conserving old-growth tropical rainforest is 'highly recommended' to prevent new outbreaks of viral and parasitic mosquito-borne diseases.