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Dr. Carlos Javier Rivera-Rivera

Managing Editor

About Carlos Javier

Carlos has been in love with Nature ever since he can remember. He spent many days camping, snorkeling and otherwise exploring the tropical forests and seas of his native Puerto Rico. Adding passion to his love affair, he is now studying molecular phylogenetics, trying to uncover the intricate evolutionary processes that have shaped our DNA sequences. Knowing that communication is essential for any good romance, Carlos believes that the best way to communicate his love for Nature is by making the amazing world of research accessible to all.

Carlos Javier is the editor of 43 Breaks:

On where altruistic behaviour can be found in our brain

What neuroscience has found about the brains of “selfish” and “selfless” people? To understand what is really driving our behaviour, scientists need to look "under the hood": to observe the activity of our brain, and find tangible fingerprints of what incites us to act - our motives.

Feb 4, 2020 | 4 min read
Shuttle service for metastatic cancer cells

Cancer cells are able to spread from the primary tumor to distant sites, in a process referred to as metastasis. Recent discoveries highlight the role of white blood cells as teammates of metastatic cancer cells and their suppression as a new potential strategy to reduce metastasis formation.

Aug 7, 2019 | 3 min read
Carbonating the bottom of the ocean...and dissolving the seafloor with it

Dissolving minerals such as calcium carbonate can buffer the ocean from having its acidity increased. There are many examples in the geological record, where the spreading of bottom waters enriched in carbon dioxide helped dissolve minerals delivered to the seafloor and contained within deep-sea sediments.

Jul 22, 2019 | 3.5 min read
The happiness chemical that sits on top of our DNA

Serotonin is a chemical that can be found in many parts of our body, including the brain. People have described it as a happiness chemical, as it is strongly associated with mood. Farrelly and colleagues show in this elegant study that although we believed we knew most things about serotonin, it can still surprise us.

Jul 15, 2019 | 3.5 min read
A cup of green tea can solve many problems!

Tea is the second most consumed beverage worldwide. Apart from its delicious taste, it has many benefits for human health. A recent study suggests green tea extracts as a useful therapy for patients with colorectal cancer.

Jul 3, 2019 | 3 min read
Gene edited “superpigs” resist devastating disease

Genome editors are simple tools that allow scientists to make very precise changes to the genome of any organism. Here we present the use of these "gene scissors" to make pigs resistant to a devastating viral disease by removing a small portion of their genome and disrupting the key-lock interaction of the virus with its host.

Feb 13, 2019 | 4.5 min read