Brazil

It can be lethal, it makes patients ill for weeks and there’s no vaccine against it. Cases of dengue fever, whose symptoms usually include high temperature, body ache and fatigue, have increased 30-fold in the last 50 years. The World Health Organization estimates that around 50 to 100 million people are infected yearly and 2.5 billion people live in risk areas. After a successful trial run in Australia, a promising development that uses a common bacteria to fight dengue is about to be tried in one of the most affected countries in the world – Brazil.  Read More

The state of Pernambuco in Brazil’s northeast is going to become home to the country’s first algal biomass plant, thanks to an agreement between See Algae Technology (SAT), an Austrian developer of equipment for the commercial production of algae, and JB, one of Brazil’s leading ethanol producers. The plant will produce algal biomass from natural and genetically modified strains of algae.  Read More

Blind people in São Carlos, a city in the state of São Paulo in Brazil, have had their lives made easier when they are out and about their city. The municipality has hooked up with Grupo Criar, a company specialized in traffic systems, to design the Busalert app to make it easier and more efficient to use the city’s bus network.  Read More

Brazil’s Edra Equipamentos has developed an eco-friendly ATM booth crafted from environmentally friendly raw materials. Instead of conventional, oil-derived resins, the walls and ceiling of the booth are built from a polymer derived from a combination of recycled plastic, such as PET bottles, and renewable sources, such as oilseed plants. A photovoltaic solar panel on the roof powers the booth’s LED lighting at night, while during the day natural light floods in through a clear “Solatube” system coated with a film from 3M that blocks more than 80 percent of infrared rays to help keep the interior cool.  Read More

Researchers at Butantan Institute in São Paulo, Brazil, have developed a powerful new anti-inflammatory to relieve hard-to-control pain. Initial tests have confirmed the efficacy of the medication, which is based on a protein found in the blood.  Read More

For its entry in the 2012 Solar Decathlon Europe, a group of Brazilian architects, designers, students and researchers has taken its cues from the native Tupi-Guarani people, one of the largest aboriginal nations in Brazil. Called Ekó House, the project scales up Ikea’s self-assembling concept and combines it with solar power, rain collection, natural lighting, a dry toilet and a system to turn sewage into garden fertilizer.  Read More

He's launched over the Grand Canyon. He's flown alongside traditional aircraft. He's even attempted to leap across continents. Now "Jetman" and all-around airborne lunatic Yves Rossy is giving us a tour of the beautiful Rio de Janeiro shoreline by way of his carbon fiber jet wing.  Read More

The major announcement of last week's Brazilian Motor Show in São Paulo was Kia's Soul Flex. Though it's the first Flexible Fuel Vehicle (FFV) from Korea, ethanol derived from sugar cane is 40% cheaper than gas in Brazil, so flex fuel vehicles make up 85% of new car sales. On top of the cheaper fuel, the Soul Flex gets a 44% improvement in fuel efficiency, with power and torque figures also a slight improvement compared with the existing petrol model. Scheduled to go on sale in Brazil early next year, the Soul Flex is able to run on 100% ethanol, 100% gasoline or an ethanol-petrol mixture.  Read More

THINK electric vehicles are heading south. Following on from plans to introduce its electric vehicle range in the U.S., the Scandinavian electric vehicle maker has now announced a deal with energy provider CPFL Energia to conduct a feasibility study on its THINK City EVs in the Brazilian market.  Read More