Technology Spain  MADRID 14/02/2019

Companies with more financial analysts produce more and better-quality patents

Research from the UC3M and the UAB

Long-term growth in profits depends significantly on firms’ investment in innovation activities. However, firms may not invest in innovation in an optimal way. Some distortions arise because the decisions as to whether and how to invest in innovation are not only affected by their long-term expected benefits but also by other considerations. A recent study conducted by researchers from the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M), in collaboration with the Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona (UAB), explores the role of financial analysts on firms’ innovation strategy and outcome. This study concludes that financial analysts can help companies to invest more efficiently in innovation and therefore produce a higher number of patents and of better-quality.

  
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Nutrition Perú  CUSCO 14/02/2019

Biocolonizer species are putting the conservation of the granite at Machu Picchu at risk

A study by the UPV/EHU-University of the Basque Country has evaluated the role of micro-organisms colonizing the Sacred Rock at Machu Picchu in its state of conservation

The UPV/EHU’s IBeA research group has used a non-destructive methodology to determine the role of specific algae, lichens, mosses, cyanobacteria, etc. that may be causing exfoliation and delamination, which are degrading the Sacred Rock of Machu Picchu, one of the most important symbols in the Peruvian archaeological city.

  
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Science Chile  CHILE 12/02/2019

Liberal sprinkling of salt discovered around a young star

To detect molecules in space, astronomers use radio telescopes to search for their chemical signatures – telltale spikes in the spread-out spectra of radio and millimeter-wavelength light

A team of astronomers and chemists using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) has detected the chemical fingerprints of sodium chloride (NaCl) and other similar salty compounds emanating from the dusty disk surrounding Orion Source I, a massive, young star in a dusty cloud behind the Orion Nebula.

  
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Nutrition Panama  PANAMÁ 05/02/2019

Testosterone results in male-like behavior of female golden-collared manakins

How flexible are bird brains in response to hormones?

You know you have detected a golden-collared manakin in the forest when you see a yellow-breasted bird performing acrobatics from sapling to sapling. The adult male does this kind of aerial dance to attract the females and mate, but it also seduces them with a peculiar call: the 'chee-poo'. In nature, this song is almost exclusive to adult males, the same as the courtship dance. They are a secret weapon to make the females fall in love.

  
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Health Brazil  SãO PAULO 04/02/2019

Oversized meals have been shown to be a factor in obesity

A study conducted in Brazil, China, Finland, Ghana, India and the United States found 94% of meals served in restaurants contain more than the recommended number of calories according to the UK’s National Health Service

Restaurants frequently serve oversized meals, not only in the United States but also in many other countries, according to a study conducted by an international team of researchers and supported by FAPESP.

  
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Nutrition Perú  PERú 28/01/2019

Scientists reconstruct ancient lost plates under Andes mountains

Reconstruction offers glimpse of how the Earth looked millions of years ago

The Andes Mountains are the longest continuous mountain range in the world, stretching about 7,000 kilometers, or 4,300 miles, along the western coast of South America.

  
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Health Mexico  MÉXICO 25/01/2019

Superpowered salamander may hold the key to human regeneration

Scientists at the University of Kentucky have assembled the genome of the axolotl -- the first step towards unlocking the secrets of regeneration with enormous clinical implications down the road

Regeneration is one of the most enticing areas of biological research. How are some animals able to regrow body parts? Is it possible that humans could do the same? If scientists could unlock the secrets that confer those animals with this remarkable ability, the knowledge could have profound significance in clinical practice down the road.

  
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Health Mexico  MÉXICO 25/01/2019

Increasing murder rate is erasing gains in life expectancy among Mexican men

The researchers found that the homicide rate for men in 2015 was 31.2 per 100,000 people, up from 20.4 per 100,000 in 2005 -- an increase of 53 percent

The murder rate in Mexico increased so dramatically between 2005 and 2015 that it partially offset expected gains in life expectancy among men there, according to a new study by a UCLA public health researcher.

  
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Science Spain  MADRID 22/01/2019

What atoms do when liquids and gases meet

Research from UC3M and Imperial College London

From the crest of a wave in the sea to the surface of a glass of water, there are always small fluctuations in density at the point where the air comes in contact with a liquid. Until now, it was thought that the atoms in these regions behaved as if they were in a "drum skin", based on the assumption that the surface tension between the two elements caused the water to be drawn taut like a drum and to act as such when disturbed. Although this is correct on larger scales, the assumption fails on smaller scales, according to various experiments and computer simulations carried out in recent decades. In an article recently published in Nature Physics, a group of mathematicians from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) and Imperial College London have come up with a new approach that solves this problem.

  
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Science Panama  PANAMÁ 21/01/2019

Surfer’s ear points to ancient pearl divers in Panama

A small bump in the ear canal of skulls from burials near the Gulf of Panama, may indicate that ancient coastal residents dove in icy waters to recover pearls and valuable orange Spondylus shells

While examining a skull from an ancient burial ground in a pre-Columbian village in Panama, Nicole Smith-Guzmán, bioarchaeologist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), was surprised to discover an example of surfers’ ear: a small, bony bump in the ear canal common among surfers, kayakers and free divers in cold climates. After inspecting more skulls, she concluded that a select group of male divers—perhaps looking for pearls and oyster shells coveted for jewelry making, may have lived along Panama’s Pacific coast long ago.

  
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Nutrition Spain  ALICANTE 18/01/2019

The uncontrolled expansion of blue crabs as an invasive species in the Mediterranean

Spread of this species is faster than research activity and efforts of management agencies

The American blue crab (Callinectes sapidus) is an invasive voracious alien species, with no known predators and with high fecundity and survival rates, that has spread throughout the Mediterranean. Since it appeared in the Ebro Delta in 2012, this crab native to the American Atlantic has expanded by sea, rivers and wetlands all over the region of Valencia. Its recurrence and continuous presence is a fact in our coasts.

  
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Science Chile  ATACAMA 14/01/2019

What 100,000 Star Factories in 74 Galaxies Tell Us about Star Formation across the Universe

PHANGS-ALMA given astronomers a much clearer understanding of how the cycle of star formation changes, depending on the size, age, and internal dynamics of each individual galaxy

Galaxies come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes. Some of the most significant differences among galaxies, however, relate to where and how they form new stars. Compelling research to explain these differences has been elusive, but that is about to change. The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) is conducting an unprecedented survey of nearby disk galaxies to study their stellar nurseries. With it, astronomers are beginning to unravel the complex and as-yet poorly understood relationship between star-forming clouds and their host galaxies.

  
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Science Uruguay  URUGUAY 10/01/2019

Female penguins are getting stranded along the South American coast

During the wintering period, the tracking data show that females reached more northern areas than males did

Every year, thousands of Magellanic penguins are stranded along the South American coast--from northern Argentina to southern Brazil--1,000 kilometers away from their breeding ground in northern Patagonia. Now researchers reporting in Current Biology on January 7 have new evidence to explain the observation that the stranded birds are most often female: female penguins venture farther north than males do, where they are apparently more likely to run into trouble.

  
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Nutrition Ecuador  ECUADOR 08/01/2019

Extraordinary treefrog discovered in the Andes of Ecuador

Despite being newly described, Hyloscirtus hillisi is already at risk of extinction

A new treefrog species was discovered during a two-week expedition to a remote tabletop mountain at Cordillera del Cóndor, a largely unexplored range in the eastern Andes.

  
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Space Chile  ATACAMA 04/01/2019

ALMA discover early protostar with a warped disk

This implies that the misalignment of planetary orbits in many planetary systems, including our own, may be caused by distortions in the planet-forming disk early in their existence

Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile, researchers have observed, for the first time, a warped disk around an infant protostar that formed just several tens of thousands of years ago. This implies that the misalignment of planetary orbits in many planetary systems, including our own, may be caused by distortions in the planet-forming disk early in their existence.

  
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Health Brazil  SãO PAULO 02/01/2019

Study may reveal how Zika causes brain damage

In a presentation on their Zika vaccine to the São Paulo School of Advanced Science in Vaccines, researchers described how it protected pregnant mice and fetuses

Researchers at the University of São Paulo’s Biomedical Science Institute (ICB-USP) in Brazil have found a molecule in pregnant mice that, when inhibited, causes a reduction in the effects of Zika virus on the nervous system of their offspring, including microcephaly.

  
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Science Chile  ATACAMA 21/12/2018

ALMA gives christmas comet its close-up

This and previous observations of comets confirm that they are rich in organic molecules and may therefore have seeded the early Earth with the chemical building blocks of life

As comet 46P/Wirtanen neared Earth on December 2, astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) took a remarkably close look at its innermost regions. ALMA imaged the comet when it was approximately 16.5 million kilometers from Earth. At its closet on December 16, the comet – one of the brightest in years — was approximately 11.4 million kilometers from Earth, or 30 times the distance from the Earth to the moon.

  
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Nutrition Portugal  PORTUGAL 21/12/2018

Warming warning over turtle feminization

Up to 93% of green turtle hatchlings could be female by 2100, as climate change causes "feminisation" of the species, new research suggests

The sex of turtle hatchlings is determined by temperature, and at present about 52% of hatching green turtles - one of seven species of sea turtle - are female. But a study by the University of Exeter and the Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre (Portugal) shows that in warmer temperatures predicted by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) scenarios, 76-93% of hatchlings would be female.

  
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Health Brazil  BRASIL 19/12/2018

Study may reveal how Zika causes brain damage

In a presentation on their Zika vaccine to the São Paulo School of Advanced Science in Vaccines, researchers described how it protected pregnant mice and fetuses

Researchers at the University of São Paulo’s Biomedical Science Institute (ICB-USP) in Brazil have found a molecule in pregnant mice that, when inhibited, causes a reduction in the effects of Zika virus on the nervous system of their offspring, including microcephaly.

  
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Science Bolivia  BOLIVIA 14/12/2018

3D-printed reconstructions provide clues to ancient site

The 3D reconstruction of Pumapunku not only shows possible configurations of what the site may have looked like, but also gives clues about the purpose of the building

Part of the ancient archaeological site of Tiwanaku, Bolivia, believed by Incans to be where the world was created has been reconstructed using 3D printed models of fragments of an ancient building. The results are presented in a study published in the open access journal Heritage Science.

  
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