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Anecdotal reports claim that the incidence of cancer in sharks is very low, but there is not enough data to confirm this estimate categorically. A study published in the journal Genomics, however, presents strong evidence of anti-tumor activity in the genome of the Shortfin mako shark, Isurus oxyrinchus. This large pelagic species, which can be as long as 4 meters, inhabits temperate and tropical seas worldwide. It is classified as endangered by IUCN, owing mainly to non-selective longline [...]

That biofuels can contribute to a cleaner global energy mix is widely accepted, but the net benefits of bioenergy in terms of mitigating greenhouse gases (GHG) are moot. Some argue, for example, that biofuels are not sustainable because the conversion of non-agricultural land to grow energy crops could lead to a significant initial decrease in carbon storage, creating what is known as a “biofuel carbon debt”. A study by a cross-border group of researchers published in Proceedings [...]

Researchers based in Brazil and the United States have completed the first-ever mapping exercise to profile the toxins produced by tube-dwelling anemones, or cerianthids, a family of marine animals belonging to the same phylum (Cnidaria) as sea anemones, jellyfish and corals. The analysis revealed that the toxins that can act on the nervous system, cardiovascular system, and cell walls, among other functions, paving the way to the discovery of novel medications. “Tube anemones and sea [...]

Secondary forests play an important part in carbon capture because they tend to absorb a larger amount of carbon than they lose to the atmosphere. However, the size and average age of these often abandoned areas where vegetation grows back were unknown until now. In a study recently published in the journal Scientific Data, a group led by two researchers at Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE) quantified these variables and found that the estimated carbon uptake by [...]

As well as causing significant harm to human health, air pollution also stunts the growth of trees, one of the very elements that can attenuate this typically urban environmental problem. Researchers at the University of São Paulo (USP) in Brazil have shown that atmospheric pollutants restrict tree growth and the ecosystem services provided by trees, such as filtering pollution by absorbing airborne metals in their bark, assimilating CO2, reducing the heat island effect by attenuating [...]

Antimicrobial and antifungal resistance, which describe the ability of bacteria and other pathogens to resist the effects of drugs to which they were once sensitive, is a major public health problem worldwide. A study published recently in the journal Nature Communications suggests that the solution may come from the tiny bodies of insects, or more accurately, from the microbiota that they host. This innovative hypothesis was first proposed by Brazilian and US researchers as part of a [...]

Brazilian researchers have identified signs of the existence of a giant exoplanet – 13 times more massive than Jupiter – orbiting a binary star system with one live star and one white dwarf. The exoplanet – a planet outside our solar system – is the first yet found that orbits an older binary in which one of the two stars is dead. The researchers, from the São Paulo Research Foundation, discovered the enormous planet using NASA’s Kepler Space [...]

The tropical forests of the Andes and Brazil’s Atlantic Rainforest biome are separated by almost 1,000 km of drier areas with open vegetation in the Chaco, Cerrado (Brazilian savanna), and Caatinga (Brazilian semiarid) biomes. Today, these tropical forests are not connected, but the fact that they share closely related species and lineages suggests that these biomes were connected in the past. For example, 23 rainforest bird species have been found in both the Andean and Atlantic tropical [...]