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When researchers studying spiders and scorpions at the Zoological Collections Laboratory of the Butantan Institute in São Paulo, Brazil, came across a few-millimeter-long spider wearing something resembling a pearl necklace, they knocked on the door of a colleague specializing in mites. Ricardo Bassini-Silva, a researcher and curator of the Acarological Collection at the same laboratory, quickly identified the “necklace” as mite larvae. Previously, there had only been one record of [...]

A genus of fungi previously considered a parasite of fungi associated with ants may actually have much more complex ecological functions. According to a study published in the journal Communications Biology and supported by FAPESP, one piece of evidence is that they appeared 18 million years before the ants with which they are associated today. The results are based on the analysis of 309 strains of the genus Escovopsis collected in eight countries in the Americas. By observing fragments of [...]

Researchers supported by FAPESP recorded lemon sharks (Negaprion brevirostris) preying on an invasive species, the jaguar cichlid (Parachromis managuensis), for the first time. This observation was made in Sueste Bay in March 2024. Sueste Bay is a well-known shark feeding ground in the Brazilian archipelago of Fernando de Noronha. The study was published in the journal Environmental Biology of Fishes. The event was considered unlikely because Sueste Bay is a sea inlet with saltwater, [...]

Beaches around the world are undergoing a process of “crushing” due to a combination of rising sea levels caused by climate change and urbanization in coastal areas. This phenomenon not only profoundly affects the biodiversity living on the sand, but it also harms activities such as fishing and tourism. Additionally, it makes coastal cities more susceptible to the advance of the sea. The warning was issued during the FAPESP Day Uruguay symposium, which began on November 13 in [...]

Researchers from the University of São Paulo (USP), in collaboration with the Federal University of Alfenas (UNIFAL), have identified high levels of toxic substances in plastic toys sold in Brazil. The study analyzed 70 domestically manufactured and imported products, making it the most comprehensive study ever conducted in Brazil on chemical contamination in children’s products. The results were published in the journal Exposure and Health. Supported by FAPESP (21/03633-0 and [...]

Planting trees is not enough. Although forest restoration efforts in the Atlantic Forest are advancing on a large scale, they are still unable to fully integrate replanted areas into the mosaic of native fragments. This is the conclusion of a study conducted in Brazil and published in the Journal of Applied Ecology. The first authors of the article were Débora Cristina Rother, a professor at the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar) in the state of São Paulo, and [...]

Brazilian researchers have developed a low-cost, portable biosensor that can quickly identify a protein whose altered levels are associated with psychiatric disorders, such as depression, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder. When it becomes commercially available in the future, it may contribute to early detection, which is essential for treating and monitoring patients' clinical conditions. The biosensor is the result of a partnership between researchers at the University of São [...]

A study published in the journal ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering and featured on its cover showed that a fraction obtained from lignin, an organic polymer responsible for the rigidity of plant cell walls, was able to improve the performance of nanoparticles with herbicide. The study was conducted by researchers from three research institutions in the state of São Paulo, Brazil: São Paulo State University (UNESP), the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), and the [...]

Amid the preparatory discussions for COP30, which also involve health-related topics, a study contributes to our understanding of the relationship between deforestation and the spread of malaria in the Legal Amazon. This region encompasses all nine Brazilian states in which the Amazon biome is found and was established by the federal government for regional development purposes. The study shows that intermediate forest cover with 50% deforestation increases human cases of the disease and [...]