The rising atmospheric concentration of CO2 is beneficial for the physiology of sorghum, an economically and nutritionally important crop grown worldwide. This is the conclusion of a study performed at the University of São Paulo in Brazil. The researchers found that when this plants were kept in a low-humidity environment, CO2 not only protected them against drought but also promoted a systemic adjustment in their metabolism that led their seeds to accumulate 60 percent more protein.

Researchers at the University of São Paulo's Bioscience Institute in Brazil, at Harvard Medical School and Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard in the United States, have shown that a gene called Jagged1, or JAG1 for short, could be a target for the development of new approaches to treat Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a genetic disorder characterized by progressive muscle degeneration.

Because of decreasing deforestation and emissions from forest fires in the Amazon, the amount of particulate matter, ozone, carbon monoxide and other atmospheric pollutants released by burning biomass has fallen by 30 percent on average in dry season in Brazil, Paraguay, Bolivia and Argentina. This improvement in the region's air quality may be helping to prevent the premature deaths of some 1,700 adults per year throughout South America, according studies made in Brazil, UK and USA.