Investigación

On March 13, 1989, a powerful solar storm caused the entire power grid in the province of Quebec, Canada, to collapse, leaving millions without electricity. In just ninety seconds, a massive cloud of charged particles from a solar explosion struck Earth's magnetosphere, generating a geomagnetic storm that completely paralyzed the system. The outage was not due to a technical failure or overload, but rather to this intense space weather event.

Despite public policies like the REP and Single-Use Plastics laws, plastic waste management remains a significant national challenge. According to Fundación Chile, our country consumes nearly one million tons of plastic annually, with only a meager 8.5% being recycled.

To address this challenge, the University of Santiago (Usach) has partnered with the Juan Fernández Circular R&D project. Led by CircularTec and funded by ANID, the project’s goal is to treat plastic waste from a circular economy perspective and develop useful products for the archipelago’s community.

Lactose, a natural carbohydrate abundant and inexpensive in mammalian milk, is a widely used sugar in the food industry. However, its high incidence of intolerance in a large part of the population limits its use. This widespread intolerance leads to global surpluses with few industrial applications and significant accumulation issues.

Driven by high international demand, Chilean fruit growing has expanded steadily in recent decades. To maintain competitiveness, the sector has adopted intensive practices like higher planting density, aggressive pruning, and heavy fertilizer use.

Unfortunately, these practices have led to an increase in phytopathogenic fungal diseases, especially those affecting fruit tree wood. Such infections weaken the trees’ structure and significantly diminish their productivity.

When we think of galaxies, we often picture them as solitary, spinning disks of stars. However, the reality is far more intricate. Galaxies actually reside in cosmic neighborhoods called galaxy clusters, where hundreds of other galaxies are tightly bound together by gravity. These immense clusters typically feature a dominant central galaxy, which almost always hosts a supermassive black hole at its core.

At a treatment plant inauguration a few weeks ago, Ministers Carlos Montes (Housing and Urban Development) and Álvaro Elizalde (Interior) announced a new public policy: promoting the reuse of water from sinks, washing machines, and showers in new building projects to conserve water resources.

Ciudad Vagón is a replicable initiative from University of Santiago students that transforms unused urban spaces into vibrant, functional areas.

As the winner of the Estación Futuro challenge, the proposal emerged from an open innovation call. This initiative was a collaboration between the Innovation Center (CI) of the Faculty of Engineering (FING) and Metro de Santiago (the commissioning entity), operating within the Sinapsis Usach platform, part of the Directorate of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (Dinem). 

This research was led by Santiago Orcajo, a researcher affiliated with the Institute of Astrophysics of La Plata (Argentina). The study was conducted under the auspices of the Millennium Nucleus for the Study of Young Exoplanets and their Moons (YEMS), an initiative that convenes researchers from four Chilean academic institutions, including the University of Santiago de Chile (Usach).

Globally, Chile is the second-largest producer of Atlantic salmon, a highly nutritious and widely consumed species. Domestically, salmon farming ranks as the nation’s second most important industry after copper. Concentrated primarily in the regions of Puerto Montt, Aysén, and Magallanes, this sector significantly impacts the economy, society, and science, driving employment, technological innovation, and regional development.

During the second half of June, Fernando Carranza, a doctoral student in Anthropology at Tulane University (USA), spent two weeks collaborating with Dr. Javier Echeverría, a professor in the Faculty of Chemistry and Biology at the University of Santiago, Chile.

The visit was driven by Carranza’s interest in learning advanced analytical chemistry techniques to study archaeological artifacts. Specifically, he aimed to examine those that might contain remnants of psychoactive plants used in rituals by ancient Andean Amazonian cultures.