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Researchers at the University of São Paulo's Luiz de Queiroz College of Agriculture (ESALQ-USP) and the Federal University of Viçosa (UFV) in Brazil have shown for the first time that bixin or annatto powder, a carotenoid pigment extracted from the seeds of the achiote or annatto tree (Bixa orellana), is not produced only in the seeds but also in other organs, and that the process intensifies in the plant's adult phase. The study is published in the Journal of [...]

A study led by Brazilian researchers and reported in an article published on January 11 in the journal Science shows that 82% of the more than 2,000 species of trees found only in the Atlantic Rainforest biome are threatened with extinction to some degree, while 65% of all 4,950 tree species present in the biome, including non-endemics, are endangered. This is the first time the degree of threat to all populations of all tree species in Brazil’s Atlantic Rainforest biome has been [...]

Entanglement is a property of quantum physics that is manifested when two or more systems interact in such a way that their quantum states cannot be described independently. In the terminology of quantum physics, they are said to be entangled, i.e. strongly correlated. Entanglement is of paramount importance to quantum computing. The greater the entanglement, the more optimized and efficient the quantum computer. A study conducted by researchers affiliated with the Department of Physics at [...]

Publication of a new map showing all the above-ground biomass in the Brazilian Amazon is good news in the context of the severe crisis afflicting the world’s largest contiguous tropical rainforest. Using airborne laser scanning and satellite imagery calibrated by field forest inventories and integrated by heavy-duty computer processing and machine learning, the map reflects the world’s largest survey of tropical forest biomass ever conducted. Results of the study are reported in [...]

In Brazil's North region, members of the population of red mangrove trees (Rhizophora mangle) do not often meet relatives from the South and vice-versa. However, occasional migrations via ocean currents between the two regions involving propagules, seeds adapted to seawater, enable populations to exchange genetic material and remain connected during their evolution. This is one of the conclusions of a study reported in the journal by Brazilian and Japanese researchers. Mangrove [...]

Tropical mountain ecosystems, including montane forests, are relatively little studied, yet they are home to significant biodiversity and provide important ecosystem services, such as water supply and participation in regulation of temperature and regional and global climate. The data available on mountain vegetation and its dynamics falls far short of what is needed to simulate with confidence its interaction with the atmosphere in response to climate change. A new study published in the [...]

An article published on July 31 in Nature Ecology & Evolution reveals that Luzio, the oldest human skeleton found in São Paulo state (Brazil), was a descendant of the ancestral population that settled the Americas at least 16,000 years ago and gave rise to all present-day Indigenous peoples, such as the Tupi.  Based on the largest set of Brazilian archeological genomic data, the study reported in the article also offers an explanation for the disappearance [...]

The worms that cause schistosomiasis (Schistosoma mansoni) are unusual in several ways, especially the fact that male and female adults must stay paired together throughout their lives for reproduction to be successful. Females may produce as many as 3,000 eggs per day. Approximately half reach the host’s gut or bladder. The rest are swept away via the blood to the liver and spleen, where they cause severe inflammation and liver cirrhosis, the main cause of mortality. Researchers at [...]

The Brazilian coast, especially in the South and Southeast regions, is already suffering from the impact of climate change, with increasingly extreme surface air temperatures and more frequent swings from heat to cold and back. This is one of the results of a study described in an article published in Scientific Reports. On the coast of Espírito Santo, Rio Grande do Sul and São Paulo states, the frequency of temperature extremes and heatwaves (several consecutive days with [...]