Environment Venezuela VENEZUELA 13/02/2020

Extinct giant turtle had horned shell of up to three meters

Exceptional specimens of the extinct turtle recently found in new locations across Venezuela and Colombia

The tropical region of South America is one of the world's hot spots when it comes to animal diversity. The region's extinct fauna is unique, as documented by fossils of giant rodents and crocodylians -including crocodiles, alligators, caimans and gavials - that inhabited what is today a desert area in Venezuela. Five to ten million years ago, this was a humid swampy region teeming with life. One of its inhabitants was Stupendemys geographicus, a turtle species first described in the mid-1970s.

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Environment Perú PERú 10/02/2020

El Niño contributes to insect collapse in the Amazon

Hotter and drier El Niño events are having an alarming effect on biodiversity in the Amazon Rainforest and further add to a disturbing global insect collapse

Hotter and drier El Niño events are having an alarming effect on biodiversity in the Amazon Rainforest and further add to a disturbing global insect collapse, scientists show. A new study focusing on the humble, but ecologically key, dung beetle has revealed for the first time that intense droughts and wildfires during the last El Niño climate phenomenon, combined with human disturbance, led to beetle numbers falling by more than half - with effects lasting for at least two years.

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Environment Argentina ARGENTINA 06/02/2020

An invasive flatworm from Argentina found across Europe

Citizen science reveals the presence of the flatworms in gardens in three quarters of metropolitan France

One of the consequences of globalization is the inadvertent human-mediated spread of invasive species. The presence of a new invader, named Obama nungara, is reported in France by an international team led by Jean-Lou Justine of ISYEB (Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France). This is the first study of this invasion, reported in an article published in the open-access journal PeerJ.

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Environment Brazil BRASIL 06/02/2020

Trees in the Amazon are time capsules of human history

Tropical trees reveal the impacts of native culture as well as the scars of colonial occupation

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Space Chile ATACAMA 05/02/2020

ALMA catches beautiful outcome of stellar fight

One star grew so large it engulfed the other which, in turn, spiralled towards its partner provoking it into shedding its outer layers

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), in which ESO is a partner, have spotted a peculiar gas cloud that resulted from a confrontation between two stars. One star grew so large it engulfed the other which, in turn, spiralled towards its partner provoking it into shedding its outer layers.

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Environment Panama PANAMÁ 30/01/2020

Jaguars could prevent a not-so-great American Biotic Exchange

Urban and agricultural development and deforestation along the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor might be generating a new passageway for invasive species adapted to human disturbance

For the first time, coyotes (Canis latrans) and crab-eating foxes (Cerdocyon thous) are occurring together. According to a recent study by researchers at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) and collaborating institutions, deforestation along the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor may be the reason why canid species from North and South America ended up living side by side in eastern Panama, far from their original ranges.

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Technology Spain ESPAÑA 30/01/2020

AEPD and CNIL award their data protection prizes to a team including researchers from IMDEA Networks

The award-winning article is “An Analysis of Pre-installed Android Software” by Julien Gamba, Mohammed Rashed, Abbas Razaghpanah, Juan Tapiador and Narseo Vallina-Rodriguez

The article, “An Analysis of Pre-installed Android Software” by Julien Gamba, Mohammed Rashed, Abbas Razaghpanah, Juan Tapiador and Narseo Vallina-Rodriguez, has received two prestigious awards this month: one from the Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD) and another from the CNIL (French Data Protection Authority) and Inria. The study has huge social impact as it reveals the privacy and security issues associated with pre-installed software on Android devices and their supply chain.

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Health Spain MADRID 29/01/2020

An international scientific consortium is launched to accelerate the development of comprehensive treatments against tuberculosis

The UC3M is coordinating the ERA4TB project, composed of more than 30 partners from 13 countries

Accelerating the development of antibiotics against all forms of tuberculosis is the objective of ERA4TB (European Regimen Accelerator for Tuberculosis), one of the largest European scientific projects in this area of research. This consortium, which includes a significant number of Spanish researchers, is being coordinated by the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M), led by GlaxoSmithKline Spain and is under the scientific management of the Pasteur Institute. With a team of more than thirty public and private organisations and a budget over 200 million euro, ERA4TB aims to radically transform the way in which new therapies are developed for the treatment of tuberculosis.

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Technology Spain MADRID 29/01/2020

Helicon plasma thruster for small space platforms

Within the framework of the European research project HIPATIA

Researchers from the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) and SENER Aeroespacial, alongside French and German scientists and technologists, will validate the performances and operation of a new electric space propulsion technology that could be used in various types of satellites or small space platforms: the Helicon Plasma Thruster (HPT).

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Social Sciences Panama PANAMÁ 14/01/2020

A bee’s-eye-view of Panama in the late 1800’s

Bees and their pollen reveal the environment of the first Cathedral on the American mainland, as do photos by preeminent landscape photographer, Eadweard Muybridge

In anticipation of Pope Francis’ 2018 visit to Panama, restoration workers discovered brittle, brown clusters—miniature chambers covered with gold leaf and paint—above the columns in the altarpiece of Santa Maria la Antigua Basilica Cathedral. Scientists at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) identified the clusters as orchid bee nests. Pollen from the nests, and 19th century photos of the city from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, provide complementary views of the crossroads of the continent just after the California gold rush and before the building of the Panama Canal.

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Space Chile ATACAMA 08/01/2020

The turbulent life of two supermassive black holes caught in a galaxy crash

400 million light-years away from Earth, in the constellation of Ophiuchus, two galaxies are crashing into each other and forming a galaxy we know as NGC 6240

An international team of astronomers used the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to create the most detailed image yet of the gas surrounding two supermassive black holes in a merging galaxy.

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Environment Panama PANAMÁ 03/01/2020

Why do some male bats have sticky, odorous arms?

The first clues only led to more questions. But now a new sleuth, Mariana Muñoz-Romo, described by a colleague as “probably the world’s expert on chemical communication in a bat species,” is on the case

Mariana Muñoz-Romo uncaps a clear plastic tube and waves it under my nose. The contents, a bit of dry, yellow paste called a forearm crust, collected from a male bat, smells vaguely like incense.

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Health Brazil SãO PAULO 30/12/2019

Novel genetic signature that can predict some kinds of breast cancer is identified

The discovery also contributes to a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms of pathological angiogenesis, the aberrant proliferation of blood vessels that occurs during cancer and other diseases

Researchers have identified a genetic signature with prognostic value for certain kinds of breast cancer. The discovery also contributes to a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms of pathological angiogenesis, the aberrant proliferation of blood vessels that occurs during cancer and other diseases.

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Technology Spain MADRID 19/12/2019

Deployment of 5G technology in drones and robots

Horizon 2020 research project coordinated by the UC3M

Scientists from Spain, Germany, France, Sweden and Taiwan collaborate on a technological cooperation project, coordinated by the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M), to study the economic viability of 5G telecommunications in two pilot tests with Artificial Intelligence (AI): one on the remote control of industrial robots and the other on the management of fleets of drones.

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Space Chile ATACAMA 17/12/2019

Astronomers discover earliest environment pollution in the Universe

Researchers have observed gigantic clouds of gaseous carbon more than a radius of 30,000 light-years around young galaxies

Researchers have discovered gigantic clouds of gaseous carbon more than a radius of 30,000 light-years around young galaxies using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). This is the first confirmation that carbon atoms produced inside of stars in the early Universe have spread beyond galaxies. No theoretical studies have predicted such huge carbon cocoons around growing galaxies, which raises questions about our current understanding of cosmic evolution.

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Environment Panama PANAMÁ 17/12/2019

The universe of fungi that inhabit plants

How do microorganisms influence seed survival in the forest?

When he first arrived at the research station on Barro Colorado Island (BCI) as a postdoctoral student, Camilo Zalamea never imagined that he would work in Panama for eight years. The Colombian botanist loves to observe things calmly and, as plants do not move around, they allow him to do exactly that. Now, in addition, he has fallen in love with microorganisms. Without them, he confesses, we cannot fully understand how forests work.

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Technology Spain MADRID 16/12/2019

A development kit to protect your data on the web

PIMCity - Building the next generation personal data platforms is a new EU-funded research project coordinated by Politecnico di Torino

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Space Chile CHILE 13/12/2019

ALMA spots most distant dusty galaxy hidden in plain sight

Because of their extreme behavior, astronomers think that these dusty galaxies play an important role in the evolution of the universe

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have spotted the light of a massive galaxy seen only 970 million years after the Big Bang. This galaxy, called MAMBO-9, is the most distant dusty star-forming galaxy that has ever been observed without the help of a gravitational lens.

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Space Spain CANARIAS 13/12/2019

Sources of light which appear and disappear observed in the sky

An international research team have discoved around a hundred very red light sources which appear and disappear in a short time interval

An international research team from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) and the University of Stockholm have discoved around a hundred very red light sources which appear and disappear in a short time interval, accordin to an article published in the Astronomical Journal.

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Technology Spain ESPAÑA 28/11/2019

5TONIC laboratory presents, together with SAMUR-PC and the UC3M, a revolutionary system for health emergencies based on 5G

The demonstration shows a personalized 5G 100% automatic system that allows to reduce the time of action in case of an emergency, minimizing errors

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. In eu dui non est venenatis lobortis. Donec iaculis iaculis turpis. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Aliquam vitae arcu. Maecenas justo tortor, eleifend sed, fermentum vitae, condimentum vitae, diam. Vivamus mattis, ligula vitae commodo vulputate, lorem tellus semper nulla, vitae cursus nunc eros ut massa. Curabitur velit pede, lobortis a, ultrices sit amet, suscipit non, erat.Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. In eu dui non est venenatis lobortis. Donec iaculis iaculis turpis. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Aliquam vitae arcu. Maecenas justo tortor, eleifend sed, fermentum vitae, condimentum vitae, diam. Vivamus mattis, ligula vitae commodo vulputate, lorem tellus semper nulla, vitae cursus nunc eros ut massa. Curabitur velit pede, lobortis a, ultrices sit amet, suscipit non, erat.

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Bodega Maires