Scientists working at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama tested a new technique: recruiting carrion-eating flies to detect mammals. This new method surpasses standard techniques, detecting more species than researchers could count along trails or photograph with hidden cameras.

Researchers at the University of São Paulo's Biomedical Science Institute (ICB-USP) in Brazil have discovered a new virus in a white-rumped sandpiper (Calidris fuscicollis), a migratory bird species captured in April 2012 in the Lagoa do Peixe National Park in Rio Grande do Sul State. The current evidence suggests that it is not a risk to humans. The discovery was published in PLOS ONE.

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.