News from Latin America

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 8-Jun-2025 08:09 ET (8-Jun-2025 12:09 GMT/UTC)

27-Nov-2017

Physicist assumes the possibility of vestiges of an Universe previous to the Big Bang

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo
Peer-Reviewed Publication

In an article published in General Relativity and Gravitation, Brazilian researcher proposes to eliminate the need for cosmological spacetime singularity and argues that the current expansion phase was preceded by contraction.

Journal

General Relativity and Gravitation

Funder

Sao Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP)

27-Nov-2017

Neuroimaging of soccer fans' brain reveals neural basis of ingroup altruistic motivation

D'Or Institute for Research and Education
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Study published in Nature's Scientific Reports journal reveals for the first time the brain functioning involved in altruistic motivation among soccer fans - a 'natural group' that shows strong bonds in real-life settings. The functional MRI study sheds light into the neural basis of prosocial behaviour of ingroup attachment.

Journal

Scientific Reports

Funder

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico, Agence Nationale pour la Recherche, Instituto D'Or de Pesquisa e Ensino

21-Nov-2017

Brazilian firm leads the application of synthetic diamonds in dentistry

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo
Business Announcement

A device developed by CVDVale allows for the reduction of noise and pain in the treatment of caries; the company is accountable for the world's first courses in ultrasonic dentistry and now wants to apply ultrasonic technology in orthopedic surgeries.

Funder

Sao Paulo Research Foundation - FAPESP

16-Nov-2017

New physical model explains the origin of Earth's water

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Objects scattered to the inner region of the Solar System by Jupiter's growth brought most of the water now found on Earth. Authors of an journal Icarus article describe a computational model which simulates the gravitational interaction between celestial bodies during the era of planet formation, also providing basis for the hypothesis of the dragging of water-rich "planetesimals".

Journal

Icarus

Funder

Sao Paulo Research Foundation - FAPESP

14-Nov-2017

Startups incubated by the University of Campinas create more than 28,000 jobs

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo
Business Announcement

Survey by innovation agency at one of São Paulo State's largest public universities identifies 485 active startups with aggregate annual revenue of more than R$3 billion.

9-Nov-2017

Star kills its 'congenial' to form together a dwarf-binary system, astronomers confirm

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Group of scientists in Brazilian universities and research institutions observe star demoted to white dwarf status because of companion. Star was pronounced dead once its helium core ended up exposed after it had a great part of its mass ejected by means of the gravitational interaction between both objects.

Journal

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

Funder

Sao Paulo Research Foundation - FAPESP

8-Nov-2017

Waste recycling by algae proposes a decentralized treatment system

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo
Business Announcement

Brazilian and Dutch researchers use single-cell algae to try to solve the problem of managing the waste generated by sewage treatment. The idea is to provide up to 10,000 dwellers with installations that achieve an effective reuse of organic matter, as opposed to the sludge-generating chemical compounds most commonly used.

Funder

Sao Paulo Research Foundation - FAPESP

6-Nov-2017

Revealed new target for development of antibiotics aimed at highly resistant bacteria

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Research for new treatment against resistant pathogens is one of the most important branches of the pharmaceutical industry -- in USA medical literature, there is a record of one bacillus-type bacteria resistant to 26 different antibiotics. Brazilian and French scientists show that inhibiting the interaction of two key proteins for cell wall elongation can be an effective strategy to kill bacteria of the bacillus type.

Journal

Nature Communications

Funder

Sao Paulo Research Foundation - FAPESP

1-Nov-2017

Time to rewrite the dinosaur textbooks? Not quite yet!

University of Sao Paulo Scientific Outreach Unit
Peer-Reviewed Publication

An international consortium of specialists, led by Max Langer from the Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil, and including experts from Argentina, Brazil, Germany, Great Britain, and Spain has re-evaluated the data provided by Baron et al. in support of their claim. Their results, presented in this week's edition of the journal Nature, show that it might still be too early to re-write the textbooks for dinosaurs.

Journal

Nature

1-Nov-2017

Pregnant women should be tested more than once for the presence of Zika

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Brazilian study that monitored women with confirmed Zika diagnosis detected the virus even after previous tests that pointed non-existent viral load -- the pathogen's intermittent presence in urine lasted for up to seven months. Scientist recommends that pregnant women who tested negative for zika to repeat the test at least twice, at intervals of a week.

Journal

Emerging Infectious Diseases

Funder

Sao Paulo Research Foundation - FAPESP