News from Latin America

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 26-Jul-2025 01:10 ET (26-Jul-2025 05:10 GMT/UTC)

17-Mar-2015

Researchers describe 5 new species of marine invertebrates

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Brazilian researchers described five new species of ascidians, commonly known as sea squirts, ascidians are marine invertebrates that generally form permanently submerged colonies. Exotic molecules obtained from research on ascidians have been explored worldwide for use in combating cancer.

Journal

Zootaxa

Funder

São Paulo Research Foundation

7-Nov-2014

The Chilean abortion paradox: Even when prohibited by law, abortion rates decrease

MELISA Institute
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Over decades, the notion that restricting access to induced abortion is detrimental to maternal health has been widely accepted. Paradoxically, recent studies suggest that this may be an erroneous idea in Chile, a country where induced abortion is prohibited. Studies conducted in this country confirm a significant decrease in mortality and morbidity related to induced abortion.

Journal

Revista chilena de obstetricia y ginecología

5-Nov-2014

The female nose always knows: Do women have more olfactory neurons?

Publicase International
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Using a new method called isotropic fractionator, a group of researchers has found biological evidence that may explain the superior olfactory abilities that women have over men.

Journal

PLOS One

Funder

Fundação Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo à Pesquisado Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico, Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa de São Paulo

26-Sep-2014

Scientists discover new poison dart frog species in Donoso, Panama

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A bright orange poison dart frog with a unique call was discovered in Donoso, Panama, and described by researchers from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and the Universidad Autónoma de Chiriquí, both in Panama, and the Universidad de los Andes in Colombia.

Journal

Zootaxa

25-Sep-2014

Dunes reveal biodiversity secrets

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Environmental filtering -- not a host of other theories -- determines local plant diversity in one of Earth's biodiversity hotspots according to an article in the Sept. 26 edition of Science by Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute scientist Benjamin Turner and colleagues from the University of Western Australia.

Journal

Science

Funder

University of Western Australia, Paul Hasluck Bequest, Australian Research Council

25-Sep-2014

If trees could talk

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Peer-Reviewed Publication

More than 100 collaborators publish a major overview of what 59 forests in 24 countries teach us about forest responses to global change.

Journal

Global Change Biology

Funder

Harvard University, Smithsonian Institution

15-Sep-2014

Smithsonian scientists discover tropical tree microbiome in Panama

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Despite the fact that tropical forests are the most biodiverse terrestrial ecosystems on the planet, more is known about belly-button bacteria than bacteria on trees in the tropics. Smithsonian scientists and colleagues working on Panama's Barro Colorado Island discovered that small leaf samples from a single tree were home to more than 400 different kinds of bacteria. The combined sample from 57 tree species contained more than 7,000 different kinds.

Journal

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Funder

Canada Research Chairs Program, University of Oregon, Center for Tropical Forest Science, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada

9-Sep-2014

Discovery paves the way for a new generation of chemotherapies

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo
Peer-Reviewed Publication

In a collaborative study, researchers from the Brazilian Biosciences National Laboratory at the Brazilian Center for Research in Energy and Materials, the University of California in San Diego and the Technische Universität München identified a new mechanism to inhibit proteasomes, protein complexes that are a target for cancer therapy.

Journal

Chemistry & Biology

Funder

Sao Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP)

29-Jul-2014

Brazilian researchers identify RNA that regulates cell death

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers from the University of Sao Paulo have identified an RNA known as INXS that modulates the action of an important gene in the process of programmed cell death. In experiments on mice, they were able to effect a 10-fold reduction in the volume of subcutaneous malignant tumors. The findings were published in the most recent issue of the journal Nucleic Acids Research.

Journal

Nucleic Acids Research

Funder

Sao Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP), Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo

23-Jul-2014

An increase in temperature by 2050 may be advantageous to the growth of forage plants

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A 2°C increase in temperature around the world by 2050, according to one of the scenarios predicted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, may be advantageous to the physiology and the biochemical and biophysical processes involved in the growth of forage plants such as Stylosanthes capitata Vogel, a legume utilized for livestock grazing in tropical countries such as Brazil.

Journal

Environmental and Experimental Botany

Funder

São Paulo Research Foundation