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.

The tool is part of an effort led by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Caribbean Climate Center

As part of an effort to educate about climate change, the USDA's Caribbean Climate Center developed the "Caribbean Climate Resilience" game, an interactive tool that shows the impact of climate on the region's agricultural industry.

Reaping the fruits of their work for the protection of the leatherback turtles, hawksbill turtles, and green sea turtles, and they are committed to continue recruiting volunteers for their initiatives.

Stopping the illegal hunting of sea turtles, the plundering of their nests and the theft of their eggs has been the goal of a group of friends from Maunaba who, since 2001, have been engaged in research on the populations of these endangered species and the alternatives to preserve them.

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.