The ancestors of leaf-cutter ants swapped a hunter-gatherer lifestyle for a bucolic existence on small-scale subsistence farms. A new study at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama revealed that living relatives of the earliest fungus-farming ants still have not domesticated their crop, a challenge also faced by early human farmers.

The Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, will start the phase II clinical trials of a vaccine for schistosomiasis, called 'Sm14 Vaccine.' The initiative is one of the health research and development projects prioritized by the World Health Organization (WHO), aiming to ensure the access of populations from developing countries to public health tools based on cutting edge technologies.

In a paper published in Science this week, Philip M. Fearnside of Brazil's National Institute for Research in Amazonia explains how the country's environmental licensing is under threat from proposed laws and constitutional amendments. These have jumped into the forefront as anti-environment politicians rush to exploit the opportunity offered by Brazil's current political turmoil. Legislators are eager to stimulate the country's economy, as by removing environmental and social restrictions on proposed development projects.