Although most of the terrestrial world is covered in trees, there are precious few vertebrates that make the canopy their home and subsist solely on a diet of leaves. Tree sloths are among the most emblematic tree-dwelling mammals. However, they are best known for their pokey demeanor rather than the fact that they spend the majority of their lives in trees munching leaves. But the slow motion...

Helthgauge.com - Flickr CommonsCHICAGO – 20 July 2016 – Tate & Lyle, a leading global provider of food ingredients and solutions, is pleased to announce the winner of this year’s Institute of Food Technologists Student Association (IFTSA) Developing Solutions for Developing Countries (DSDC) competition, McGill University. “Tate & Lyle is honored to be the new sponsor of this program,” said Sa...

By Wendy Anders Every year public school administrators in Costa Rica face a troubling school drop-out reality, both at the start of the school year and mid-year. This year has been no different, reported Radio Monumental yesterday, with close to 20,000 kindergarten - university public education students failing to return after the two-week mid-year break that just ended. According to Son...

Source: EurekAlert and University of Central FloridaAn international team of scientists has solved a case of mistaken identity and discovered a new species of venomous snake, according to a recent press release by EurekAlert. The newly discovered Talamancan Palm-Pitviper is a striking green-and-black snake living in some of the most remote regions of Costa Rica. The coloring is a characterist...

Source: UC Blue Ash College By Pete Gemmer Saving a damaged sea turtle nest along the coast of Costa Rica was among a few of the life-changing activities students enjoyed this summer as part of two study abroad trips hosted by the University of Cincinnati Blue Ash College. The Costa Rica Study Abroad trip was based on the Osa Peninsula, home to about 3 percent of the world’s biodiversity...

Wikimedia Commons 12 July 2016 – Continuing a series of ‘firsts’ regarding the selection of the next United Nations Secretary-General, candidates for the world’s top diplomatic post will this evening participate in a globally televised and webcast event in the UN General Assembly Hall, where they will take questions from diplomats and the public at large. Christiana Figueres, the candidate ...

Wikimedia Commons A group of Costa Rican schoolchildren now have species of tiny wasps named after them, thanks to research to identify the species led in part by a University of Guelph professor. Prof. Alex Smith, Integrative Biology, was part of a team discovering and describing forest wasps found in a remote location in northwestern Costa Rica. The team found 20 previously unknown spe...

By Jack Donnelly Mexico and Central America gained their independence from Spain on September 15, 1821. The news did not reach Costa Rica until October 11th, but Independence Day is still celebrated here on September 15th. Actually, there is a small movement to change the date, but the 15th is still the official holiday.   It took some time for the Central American countries to sort ...

Wikimedia Commons Bolivian writer Oswaldo Calatayud, the winner of his country's 17th National Novel Prize for his work "La Guerra del Papel" (The Paper War), says that the "ultra-tech" world has reinforced human loneliness. In an interview with EFE, the author explained that nowadays "there is little contact between people because technology intercedes in everything. Being on the cellphone...

By ESO/L. Calçada - https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso1624b/, CC BY-SA 4.0 Astronomers have discovered a planet even more exotic than Tatooine, from the "Star Wars" saga, with its two suns. This new extra-solar world is known as HD 131399Ab and is the first one to be found in a wide orbit around three stars, according to a study published Thursday in Science magazine. This fascinating...

Wikimedia Commons Peruvian scientist Marino Morikawa, who "revived" polluted wetlands in 15 days using nanotechnology, now plans to try to clean up Lake Titicaca and the Huacachina lagoon, an oasis in the middle of the desert. El Cascajo, an ecosystem of roughly 50 hectares (123 acres) in Chancay district, located north of Lima, began its recovery in 2010 with two inventions that Morikawa c...

        Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is one of the most dynamic technological areas in Costa Rica. It includes more than 900 companies, 95 percent of which are SMEs, becoming an interesting sector with important challenges related to international collaboration and partnership. Joining this strategic sector with national priorities and inter...

By Hanonimas - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons By Antonio Hermosin Can an android awaken human empathy and remedy loneliness? The maker of popularrobot 'Pepper', Kaname Hayashi - who is now working on a robot to play that role and aspires to make it a household name - certainly thinks so. Hayashi's Pepper was the first robot capable of interpreting human emotions and language, ...

Jairo Zelaya - Pixabay Commons The Cervantes Institute will celebrate, today Saturday, the Spanish Language Day, or "E-Day", in all its 22 centers across 17 countries worldwide. The event acknowledges the powerful presence of the world's second most spoken language_ with 472 million speakers_ after Chinese Mandarin. Now in its 8th edition, it will include activities for all ages in its cent...

Source: Echo CR Lecturer, inspirational author and communicator Ismael Cala has confirmed his participation at ECHO (Costa Rica), an event that brings together business leaders, entrepreneurs, revolutionaries and social activists who wish to get out of their comfort zone and seek new horizons as a community. For 72 hours participants will explore their curiosity through workshops, talks and...

El Educador YouTube Channnel Mexican teachers opposed to an education overhaul partially lifted their blockade of roads in the southern state of Chiapas to allow deliveries of gasoline, state oil company Pemex said Thursday. The number of service stations in Chiapas without fuel has fallen from 90 to 27, Pemex executive Jorge Martinez told Radio Formula. Members of Section 7 of the milit...

Source: TeenSmart The Carlos Slim Foundation on Tuesday presented its Health Awards to Costa Rica's TeenSmart institution, which informs young people about health risks, and to Mexico's Dr. Rafael Lozano Ascencio for his research linking disease with socio-demographic factors. Foundation executive director Ricardo Mujica presented the honors to the winners in the Exceptional Institution and...

Truth-out.org Mexico City, Jun 21 (EFE).- Clashes with security forces have not intimidated Mexican teachers opposed to what they see as unfair education reform and promise to continue their protests, even as the government investigates the clash between teachers and police in the southern part of the country that left at least eight dead. Leaders of the militant CNTE teachers union said th...

(Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica) - The Sloth Institute (TSI), located in Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica announces its collaboration with Toucan Rescue Ranch (TRR) to begin a Sloth Release and Education Program at TRR to enhance its Sloth Release and Education Program. TRR’s release site is located in Sarapiqui, Costa Rica, which is one-hour from their rescue center. This release site has 40 acres of rainf...

Source: GoFundMe Julie Lee Lambert, a highly esteemed science educator at Florida Atlantic University (FAU), is slowly recovering from a brain aneurysm that kept her hospitalized in Costa Rica for 49 days. As previously reported by The Costa Rica Star, Professor Lambert came to our country as an academic tourist to attend a conference. During her visit, she suffered a brain aneurysm that re...

Wikimedia Commons University of Cambridge Media Release - Have humans underestimated the intelligence of birds? A new study suggests one species of bird - the great-tailed grackle - may be able to learn to adapt its behaviour when faced by new challenges. The research, published in the Royal Society Open Science journal today, is the first to test the cognitive abilities of great-tailed gra...

Bull shark. Wikimedia Commons MIAMI, June 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The most 'fintastic' time of the year is back and making a huge splash! LA SEMANA DEL TIBURÓN (#semanadeltiburon) returns in its 28th anniversary and will keep viewers on the edge of their seat with all-new jaw-dropping and compelling stories about everyone's favorite marine predator. Featuring new research from Mexico, Florida...

Permacube Costa Rica San Isidro, Costa Rica - PermaCube Revolution is possibly the most practical solution to address the world’s food and water needs. Jim Gale, an eco community developer in Costa Rica, and his team have created a truly revolutionary system that assists with self reliance and abundance. The Permacube Revolution is open source so you can build it yourself, just sign up on ...

Source: GoFundMe Dr. Julie Lambert, a science educator at Florida Atlantic University (FAU) who suffered a ruptured aneurysm and fell into a coma during an academic visit to Costa Rica, has been approved to fly home aboard a commercial airline as long as she sits in the first class section with a nurse by her side. As previously reported in The Costa Rica Star, Professor Lambert is a passio...

Pixabay Commons UPeace and Veritas University Press Release -  San Jose, Costa Rica. The University for Peace worked alongside the Ombudsperson's Office of Costa Rica at the launch of the Second National Photography Contest, in Commemoration of the World Day of Peace, a day that is celebrated the 21st of September of every year. This event took place at the Roberto Sasso Sasso Auditorium wh...

Source: MSP Officers from the National Coast Guard Service of Costa Rica rescued a school of juvenile sharks estimated to have been born only a few days before getting caught in an illegal fishing net. The rescue took place in the Pacific Ocean, specifically in the Abangares maritime sector of the Gulf of Nicoya, province of Guanacaste. According to an official press release issued by the M...

Mayfair Games Mayfair Games, a renowned publisher of board and roleplaying games in the United States and United Kingdom, recently released a new educational title that prominently features Costa Rica and her biodiversity. The game, which is titled "Costa Rica: Reveal the Rainforest," is described by the publisher as follows:   Welcome to Costa Rica! This land is renowned for its r...

The United States today celebrates Memorial Day, and in Costa Rica the expat community often gathers to observe the men and women who gave their lives while serving in the dear Armed Forces of their country. Author’s Note: The use of the noun and adjective “American” in this Article conforms to the definition in Princeton’s WordNet: (A native or inhabitant of the United States), and the recomme...

Costa Rica National Theater Mural. Wikimedia Commons San Jose, May 29 (EFE).- Latin American cultural expression is being threatened by globalization and new technologies, which have serious consequences in that peoples are beginning to lose their separate identities, Silvia Rosa Martinez, a Peruvian expert in Intangible Cultural Heritage said. In an interview with EFE, the executive direct...

Dengue, Chikungunya, and Zika are spread by the Aedes aegyptie mosquito (Wikimedia Commons) By Michele McDonald George Mason University researchers are on the front lines of Costa Rica’s defense against the Zika virus. Bordered by Panama and Nicaragua, the Central American country could be a natural laboratory for George Mason researchers, who have partnered with their counterparts at Co...

Source: GoFundMe Important - A lengthy followup and update can be found here - After suffering a ruptured aneurysm during a conference in Costa Rica in April and later being put in a coma after several surgeries, a professor is stranded without the means to return to the United States. Associate professor of Science and Environmental Education Julie Lambert has spent the last six weeks in H...

Monument at Punta Querandí, Wikimedia Commons Buenos Aires, May 22 (EFE).- A small patch of land is the epicenter of a conflict to defend the rights of Argentina's original inhabitants against construction firms. Punta Querandi, a little "peninsula" in a river in the Buenos Aires provincial town of Dique Lujan, was isolated by the collapse of its only bridge and by the private neighborhoods...

Source: Google Google has not enjoyed the success it hoped to get from its Chromebook line of portable computers powered by the browser-centric Chrome OS, but that could change very soon. In a move that could eat into the market share of Android tablets, Google announced that Chromebooks will soon offer extensive support for Android apps; in fact, the Google Play store will be fully compati...

Conservationists from the Leatherback Trust, an international non-profit conservation organization that protects leatherback turtles and other sea turtle species from extinction, recently released rare drone footage of a female olive ridley swimming away from a beach in Costa Rica. The nesting event was filmed in Las Baulas National Park, located in the Playa Grande sector of the Guanacaste pro...

An emission nebula similar to N55. Wikimedia Commons Berlin, May 18 (EFE).- The European Southern Observatory on Wednesday released an impressive image of "stellar ornamentation," a peculiar pink and blue optical effect detected in a nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a galaxy some 163,000 light years from Earth. The ESO said in a communique that the detailed photo of the LHA 120-N55 neb...

By Matt Kendall Now in its sixth year, Nearshore Americas’ seminal conference Nexus attracted 150 attendees and close to 20 sponsors to the Le Meridien hotel in San Francisco, the first time this tech-centric city has played host to the event. Kicking things off to a flying start was a fascinating and insightful keynote speaker, Laura Chinchilla, former President of Costa Rica, who presented...

Jairo Zelaya - Pixabay Commons CURRIDABAT, COSTA RICA, May 12, 2016 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Costa Rican Trip has partnered with the Instituto Para Estudiantes Extranjeros (www.IPEE.com) as one to provide premium immersion Spanish language education, adding another facet to your vacation in Costa Rica. This education process is typically continued and enhanced online after your stay. For over ...

Black Star Line before the fire. Wikimedia Commons Late April was an unkind time for Afro Caribbean culture in Costa Rica. On April 29, a structural fire consumed the Black Star Line building in Limón, destroying an important symbol of the legacy left by Marcus Garvey in our country. Starting today, the good people of Limón will conduct a series of cultural and family events for the purpose...

Source: NASA Washington, May 9 (EFE).- The planet Mercury on Monday made its first transit of the Sun in a decade, an unusual event that NASA broadcast live on its Web page. For about 7 1/2 hours, Mercury was visible from Earth as a tiny black disc crossing in front of the fiery Sun, a spectacle recorded for the first time by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, a telescope launched in 2010. ...

The National Museum of Costa Rica, in conjunction with the community development associations of the Osa, Palmar and the Diquis Delta region, invite you to the 11th Festival of the Stone Spheres from May 13th to the 15th . The Annual Festival of the Stone Spheres is a cultural and festive event that celebrated the magnificent National Park of the Stone Spheres of Costa Rica, which is a UNESCO W...