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PARIS - The Amazon rainforest is facing a barrage of pressures that might tip it into large-scale ecosystem collapse as soon as 2050, according to research published on Feb 14, which warns of dire consequences for the region and the world. The Amazon, which holds more than 10 per cent of the world’s biodiversity, helps stabilise the global climate by storing the equivalent of around two decades of emissions of planet-warming carbon dioxide (CO2). But stress from deforestation, [...]

BRASILIA - Brazil’s Institute for Space Research (Inpe) said on Wednesday that carbon emissions in the Amazon forest soared in 2019 and 2020 compared to the previous decade due to poor enforcement of environmental protection policies. The forest’s carbon emissions amounted to 0.44 billion metric tonnes in 2019 and 0.52 billion metric tonnes in 2020, compared to an annual average of 0.24 billion metric tonnes from 2010 to 2018, according to the Inpe study published in Nature [...]

A small icy world far beyond Neptune possesses a ring like the ones around Saturn. Perplexingly, the ring is at a distance where simple gravitational calculations suggest there should be none. “That’s very strange,” said Professor Bruno Morgado from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. He is the lead author of a paper published in the journal Nature in February that describes the ring that encircles Quaoar, a planetary body about 1,126km in diameter that [...]

WASHINGTON (REUTERS) - When the coronavirus infects cells, it not only impairs their activity but can also change their function, new findings suggest. For example, when insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas become infected with the virus, they not only produce much less insulin than usual, but also start to produce glucose and digestive enzymes, which is not their job, researchers found. "We call this a change of cell fate," said study leader Dr Shuibing Chen, who described [...]

This is something to get amped up about: a team from the Smithsonian Institute has discovered a new species of electric eel that can generate an electrical shock of up to 860 volts, the strongest of any known animal. Despite their misleading name, electric eels are actually naked-back knifefishes and are more closely related to catfish and carp than to other eel families. They can reach up to 2.5m in length and are the only fish capable of producing such strong electrical discharge via three [...]

Call it a shock discovery: DNA research has revealed two entirely new species of electric eel in the Amazon basin, including one capable of delivering a record-breaking jolt. The findings are evidence, researchers say, of the incredible diversity in the Amazon rainforest — much of it still unknown to science — and illustrate why it is so important to protect a habitat at risk from deforestation, logging and fires. “In spite of all human impact on the Amazon rainforest in the [...]

SAO PAULO, Sao Paulo (State) (AFP) - Brazilian scientists have developed a human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) vaccine and plan to begin testing on monkeys later this year, a sponsor institution said on Monday. Known as the HIVBr18, the vaccine against the virus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (Aids) was developed and patented by a team from the Medicine Faculty of the University of Sao Paulo, the Sao Paulo state Research Foundation (FAPESP) said. The scientists said that, at [...]