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Bees fed a solution containing one or more of the pesticides walked less, moved more slowly, and displayed fat body morphological changes. Credit: Graziele Luna A study conducted by Brazilian researchers affiliated with São Paulo State University (UNESP), the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar) and the Federal University of Viçosa (UFV) has shown how three pesticides widely used by farmers in Brazil—imidacloprid, pyraclostrobin and glyphosate—affect [...]

Optomechanical microcavities are extremely small structures with diameters of less than 10 micrometers (about a tenth of a human hair) inside which light and mechanical vibrations are confined. Thanks to their small size and to efficient microfabrication techniques that enable them to hold intense light energy and interact with mechanical waves, microcavities can be used as mass and acceleration sensors and in Raman scattering (a spectroscopy technique deployed to analyze materials, including [...]

A Brazilian study published in Nature Communications shows that human activities have directly or indirectly caused biodiversity and biomass losses in over 80% of the remaining Atlantic Rainforest fragments. According to the authors, in terms of carbon storage, the biomass erosion corresponds to the destruction of 70,000 square kilometers (km²) of forest—almost 10 million soccer pitches—or USD 2.3 billion-USD 2.6 billion in carbon credits. “These figures have direct [...]

As a professor of pediatrics and cellular and molecular medicine at University of California San Diego School of Medicine, Alysson R. Muotri, PhD, has long studied how the brain develops and what goes wrong in neurological disorders. For almost as long, he has also been curious about the evolution of the human brain — what changed that makes us so different from preceding Neanderthals and Denisovans, our closest evolutionary relatives, now extinct? Evolutionary studies rely heavily on [...]

Researchers at the University of Campinas's Chemistry Institute (IQ-UNICAMP) in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, have developed a template-free technique to fabricate cilia of different sizes that mimic biological functions and have multiple applications, from directing fluids in microchannels to loading material into a cell, for example. The highly flexible cilia are based on polymer-coated iron oxide nanoparticles, and their motion can be controlled by a magnet. In nature, cilia [...]

Incubated at the University of Campinas (UNICAMP) in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, and supported by São Paulo Research Foundation- FAPESP's Innovative Research in Small Business Program (PIPE), BIOinFOOD is a startup that is developing a rapid COVID-19 diagnostic test based on a patent application filed by students at UNICAMP's Genomics and Bioenergy Laboratory. The test is based on a biosensor consisting of a genetically modified brewer's yeast (Saccharomyces [...]

The White-lipped peccary (Tayassu pecari) is a boar-like hoofed mammal found throughout Central and South America. These animals roam the forest in bands of 50 to 100 individuals, eating a wide variety of foods. In Brazil’s Atlantic Rainforest, they prefer the fruit of the jussara palm Euterpe edulis. The jussara is very abundant in this biome, probably thanks to vast amounts of dung, urine, and soil trampling by peccaries as well as tapirs (Tapirus terrestris) and other fruit-eating [...]

In Brazil, researchers at São Paulo State University (UNESP) in Ilha Solteira have developed a film that can replace plastic in food packaging. The film is made from hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC) and bacterial cellulose scraps left over from industrial processing. Both raw materials are sustainable. They are combined to produce a biodegradable film of bacterial cellulose nanocrystals and HPMC. The product outperforms film made of HPMC alone. An article on the research project, [...]

For a caterpillar that lives surrounded by ants, there are two ways of avoiding attack: going unnoticed or offering the ants a sugary treat in exchange for protection. This is the main conclusion of a study funded by FAPESP (São Paulo Research Foundation) and published in Ecological Entomology. Based on chemical analysis of interacting plants, caterpillars and ants, researchers in Brazil affiliated with the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) and the University of Campinas [...]