Mother's microbiome seems to protect baby cacao plants, a result with important implications for protecting the world's chocolate supply.

Brazilian researchers developed coating nanoparticles that are made of silver and silica with a layer of antibiotic. The silver and silica nanoparticles without ampicillin are highly toxic, but conventional ampicillin and ampicillin combined with silver were found to be equally safe. the same strategy could be used to combat other bacterial species that have developed resistance to antibiotics.

The question of 'Why so many species of tropical trees and other organisms' has challenged biologists for centuries. A group of 50 scientists from 12 countries think they have the answer.

In our solar system, an asteroid orbits the Sun in the opposite direction to the planets. It takes 12 years to make one complete orbit around the Sun. The asteroid with the retrograde co-orbit was identified by Helena Morais, a professor at São Paulo State University's Institute of Geosciences & Exact Sciences, in Brazil. In partnership with Fathi Namouni at the Côte d'Azur Observatory in France, Morais developed a general theory on retrograde co-orbitals and retrograde orbital resonance.

When both partners benefit from a relationship -- husband and wife or pollinator and flower -- the relationship is known as a mutualism. Sometimes partners do not deliver their side of the bargain while still reaping the rewards. Research done at the Smithsonian in Panama published shows that unless unfaithful partners are severely punished by the other member of the relationship cheaters may become more common.

Vines compete intensely with trees. Their numbers are on the rise in many tropical forests around the world. A new study at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama shows that lianas prevent canopy trees from producing fruit, with potentially far-reaching consequences for rainforest animals.

A group of researchers at the University of Campinas's Biology Institute (IB-UNICAMP) in São Paulo State, in collaboration with colleagues at the Agronomy Institute (IAC) and at the University of São Paulo's Chemistry Institute (IQ-USP), have discovered how chemical ripeners, which are analogous to plant hormones, act on the molecular level in sugarcane to increase sucrose storage in the plant.

Researchers at the University of Campinas's Gleb Wataghin Physics Institute (IFGW-UNICAMP) in São Paulo State, Brazil, have theoretically developed a silicon photonic device with a diameter of approximately 10 microns (μm), equivalent to one tenth of the thickness of a human hair, that would enable optical and mechanical waves vibrating at tens of gigahertz (GHz) to interact.