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by Ricardo Muniz, FAPESP Rapid, cheap and accurate tests continue to be essential for epidemiological surveillance and for health services to monitor and contain the spread of SARS-CoV-2. Brazilian scientists have contributed to endeavors in this field by developing an electrochemical immunosensor that detects antibodies against the virus. The innovation is described in an article published recently in the journal ACS Biomaterials Science and Engineering In search of a novel diagnostic [...]

The process is associated with warming of the ocean subsurface resulting in a reduction of surface salinity due to the release of huge iceberg armadas from glaciers. The Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC), a system of ocean currents that carry warm water from the tropics into the North Atlantic and transport cold water from the northern to the southern hemisphere, is a fundamental mechanism for the regulation of Earth’s climate. The conveyor belt has collapsed in the [...]

Discovery by Brazilian researchers featured on cover of the journal Nanoscale is noteworthy because of possible applications in next-generation electronic devices. Certain materials at very low temperatures conduct electric current without resistance or losses. This property, known as superconductivity, was discovered in 1911 by Dutch physicist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes (1853-1926), who won the 1913 Nobel Prize in Physics for his research in the field. Even though more than a century has [...]

The strategy was tested at the Federal University of São Carlos. The conversion took place under ambient temperature and pressure conditions, which could enable methane, a potent greenhouse gas, to be used to produce fuel. A group of researchers has succeeded in converting methane into methanol using light and dispersed transition metals such as copper in a process known as photo-oxidation. According to an article reporting the study published in Chemical Communication s, the reaction [...]

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo A research group led by scientists at the University of São Paulo (USP) in São Carlos, Brazil, has identified a number of bioactive compounds in a marine sponge collected on Fernando de Noronha, an archipelago about 400 km off the coast of Brazil’s Northeast region. Some of the substances proved capable of killing bacteria that are resistant to currently available antibiotics, paving the way [...]

Researcheres tested the nanoparticles on human immune cells cultured in vitro and found that the chiral nanoparticles induced production of substances associated with an immune response even in the absence of an antigen. Vaccines can be made over 25% more effective by adding left-handed chiral gold nanoparticles as adjuvants, according to a study by an international collaboration in which Brazilian researchers took part. An article reporting the results is published in Nature. Three [...]

Rice lab’s RAMBO reveals unexpected influence on compound’s crystal lattice. Phonons are collective atomic vibrations, or quasiparticles, that act as the main heat carriers in a crystal lattice. Under certain circumstances, their properties can be modified by electric fields or light. But until now, nobody noticed they can respond to magnetic fields as well. Rice University scientists led by physicist Junichiro Kono and postdoctoral [...]

Impedance analyzer connected to DNA biosensor that can be used to detect genetic sequence from SARS-CoV-2. The challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic have stimulated innovation on several fronts. One is the development of low-cost methods of clinical diagnosis. Genosensors are a case in point. Based on nucleic acids that detect simple complementary DNA or RNA sequences, genosensors are biosensors that make possible mass testing for immediate and sensitive testing of genetic material. A [...]

The study could have applications in spintronics and quantum computing; it was conducted by an international collaboration and published in Nature; its first author is a researcher at the University of São Paulo. Pure quantum systems can undergo phase transitions analogous to the classical phase transition between the liquid and gaseous states of water. At the quantum level, however, the particle spins in states that emerge from phase transitions display collective entangled behavior. [...]