MS. Growth, Development, Reproduction of Organisms

Quebradillas - On the beaches of this municipality, hermit crabs face a silent dilemma: there are not enough shells to protect their soft bodies. Faced with scarcity, many resort to pieces of trash as shelter. Now, a scientific and community initiative is turning to an unexpected tool to address the crisis: shells made with 3D printers.

San Juan, May 20, 2024 - Lorena Pachiardi, a ninth-grade student, created and developed a prototype of a low-cost prosthetic hand on a three-dimensional (3D) printer. The project was carried out as part of the “Seeds of Success” program of the non-profit organization Ciencia Puerto Rico (CienciaPR), which promotes STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education for girls in seventh through ninth grades in public, private and homeschoolers' schools around the island.

Forest fires, torrential rains, droughts and extreme heat affect the countries that supply the archipelago, forcing an increase in local production, according to experts.

On an island that imports 85% of what it consumes, seeing the shelves full of products in supermarkets, despite the fact that the last natural disaster was a year ago with Hurricane Fiona, does not hide an irrefutable fact: Puerto Rico is at the mercy of the ravages of climate change in the countries that supply it with food, agreed multiple voices consulted by El Nuevo Día.

A group of chemical engineering students at the Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico seeks to revolutionize the emerging field of 3D printing by developing a novel sargassum-based filament, which would not only allow the manufacture of all kinds of products for consumers, but would also give a use to the tons of this seaweed that congests the coasts of the island and that, in the future, could create a new economic sector and jobs.

"It was an accumulation of many things that lead one to find oneself in that black hole where one falls." This is how Juan Ortiz described his battle against depression during the COVID-19 pandemic. "The thing is that you are slowly falling and you don't realize that you are there," he added.