It's not the end of the world as we know it, at least not this year. Would-be doomsday heralds who stuck to the idea that ancient Maya astronomers had predicted the end of the world were sent back to the drawing board yesterday by an important announcement and finding by a team of archeologists in Guatemala. The Bribri indigenous people of Costa Rica are believed to be descendents of the Maya, ...

A veteran journalist and a Microelectronics researcher have launched Project Costa Rica 2050, a new initiative that seeks to plant the seed of scientific inquiry and a passion for technology among average Ticos. Ana Madrigal has been involved in journalism for the last 25 years, and Paola Vega obtained her Ph.D. in Microelectronics from a German university in Hamburg. Together they took to ...

Verdeate (Green Yourself) is a Latin American non-profit organization that uses a number of online and offline platforms to promote a series of nature conservation challenges. Many of the challenges are on a personal level, and they consist of specific actions that can reduce our carbon footprint. The idea is to promote green culture. The Charlas Verdes (Green Culture Lecture Tour), organized by ...

Author’s Note: This is the tenth item in a series of articles that touch on the subject of sustainable practices in Costa Rica. There is a high degree of science, innovation and street smarts involved in sustainability; if you happen to know of a good sustainability tip, please feel free to share it with The Costa Rica Star. Recycling materials is more important now than ever, particularly sinc...

Conservationists in Costa Rica are in a quandary over one endangered species' newfound appetite for another threatened species. According to a recent study, researchers have observed a perplex situation unfolding in Tortuguero National Park in the province of Limon: jaguars voraciously feeding on marine turtles arriving during nesting season. The study focuses on five species in Costa Rica:...

Author’s Note: This is the ninth item in a series of articles that touch on the subject of sustainable practices in Costa Rica. There is a high degree of science, innovation and street smarts involved in sustainability; if you happen to know of a good sustainability tip, please feel free to share it with The Costa Rica Star. A home located on the skirts of Mount Chirripo in the Southern Zon...

There were about 500 people assembled at the induction ceremony of Dr. Franklin Chang-Diaz into the Astronaut Hall of Fame at the Kennedy Space Center. When his name was introduced, a few Ticos in the crowd cheered and waived flags. He then received a greeting from President Laura Chinchilla, who spoke from Costa Rica via a satellite link provided by CNN Espanol: "Costa Rica has been an exc...

Bassariscus sumichrasti is a hard-to-spot little mammal that some people consider adorable and others dismiss as a big jungle rat. Those are the opinions of few Ticos, since this mammal is nocturnal, extremely shy, and only inhabits a small area of Costa Rica. What is interesting about cacomistles is that they are extremely dependent on their forest habitat and very sensitive to any environmental ...

Environmentally-conscious architects from the New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) are looking to finish their dream project in Costa Rica, and they are turning to social media and crowdfunding to see it come to life. The name of the project is "sLAB Costa Rica: Building a Recycling Center for Nosara", and it is one of the current listings at KickStarter, a crowdfunding web site that is ...

They are known as zompopas, and they are the bane of all farmers and gardeners in Costa Rica. There are a handful of leaf-cutter ant species in Costa Rica, Atta cephalotes and colombica being the most common. Along with the lovely yiguirros (Turdus grayi), they are one of the species that farmers pay close attention to, since they tend to signal the start of summer or green season in Costa Rica, w...

Government investigators in Peru have released a new explanation with regard to the sudden appearance of thousands of pelican carcasses in the northern coast of Peru. Evidence now points to starvation caused by overfishing. Jose Delgado Castro, the chief of the Forest and Wildlife Administration of the Lambayeque region in Peru explained that his team has investigated the carcasses and that the...

In a recent conversation with Radio Reloj 94.3 FM, the President of the Sea Turtle Conservation Program (PRETOMA in Spanish) explained that the number of Leatherback and Hawksbill sea turtles that massively arrive in Costa Rica during nesting season has been reduced by as much as 90 percent over the last two decades. Costa Rica has a number of measures in place to protect sea turtles, from legi...

Early rains and precipitation forecasts for the rest of the year will bring instability to the agricultural markets, with uncertainty for farmers and benefits to consumers in a number of produce items. Preliminary reports indicate that May will be a good month for shoppers who flock to the farmers' markets in Costa Rica, and climate change has a lot to do with it. A 2008 study by researchers at...

A massive avalanche down the western slope of Mount Everest disrupted the busy climbing season and injured a Sherpa guide. Eyewitnesses at the Everest Base Camp reported seeing a cloud of snow over Camp 1, which ended up completed buried by the icefall.  The plume of snow was estimated to have been ten stories tall. Warner Rojas, a mountaineer from Costa Rica who aims to be the first Tico a...

"When opportunities appear, take them. Don't vacillate. "Sometimes a route is not straight, you have to take turns." Such were the words of Dr. Franklin Chang-Diaz at the Lawrence Senior Center in Essex County, Massachusetts. Franklin Chang-Diaz, in addition to being a Distinguished Citizen of Costa Rica, is the CEO and founder of the Ad Astra Rocket Company -an aerospace enterprise that is wor...

One of the highlights of the annual Festival of the Stone Spheres in the Osa canton is watching the alignment of the Sun with three magnificent and mysterious spheres in the early morning hours. This is how journalist Andrea Solano Benavides of prominent news daily La Nacion described the mystifying event: It was 5:45 am and the Sun embraced the Osa canton to welcome a new day. A fiery sphere of...

The prized eggs of the sea turtles that massively arrive in the shores of Costa Rica to nest are often subject to poaching and trafficking. Thanks to efforts of Fuerza Publica officers assigned to the Matina canton of the Limon province, nearly 500 turtle eggs were rescued from the hands of three men traveling in a taxicab. The eggs were contained in two sacks concealed in the rear compartm...

The National System of Conservation Areas (SINAC in Spanish) has announced Operation Jaguar, an effort to capture those responsible for killing and dismembering a black Panthera onca (black panther or jaguar negro) weeks ago near Pejibaye de Cartago. At least 20 members of different environmental protection and law enforcement organizations will be involved in the search for the poachers, who h...

The National Seismologic Network (RSN) and the Observatory of Volcanic and Seismic Activity in Costa Rica (OVSICORI) have released reports on recent eruptions and other volcanic activity at the Poas and Rincon de la Vieja colossi over the last few days. The reports indicate that the activity in both volcanoes has been phreatic, meaning that it is related to underground water eruptions, not ...

Dozens of rescue workers have been involved in rescuing aquatic species from the Reventazon river since April 11th. On that day, ICE engineers and technicians changed the course of the river in order to accommodate their hydroelectric project, which will include a dam measuring 130 meters in height. The rescue area of operations in the river is about 820 meters and features strong currents. Bio...

“From an unlikely location, a place known for its peace and tranquility, for its marvelous ecosystems, and for a flowing lifestyle all here refer to as 'pura vida' or pure life emerges cutting edge technology." The message above welcomes visitors to BioTD, a tiny biotechnology firm located in Barreal de Heredia, in a nondescript industrial park. From this location, the scientists and techni...

It is a case of the proverbial pot calling the kettle black. When Costa Rica began construction of the Juan Rafael Mora highway parallel to Nicaragua's San Juan river in our northern border region, the Daniel Ortega administration was quick to claim that the road construction caused environmental damage to the river and filed a complaint before the Central American Court of Justice. Now ...

Author’s Note: This is the eighth item in a series of articles that touch on the subject of sustainable practices in Costa Rica. There is a high degree of innovation and street smarts involved in sustainability; if you happen to know of a good sustainability tip, please feel free to share it with The Costa Rica Star. Massive industrialized farming is a double-edged sword. On one hand it has...

"The longterm goal of SpaceX is to develop the technology necessary to make life multi-planetary, so to enable a self-sustaining civilization on Mars." Such were the words of Elon Musk, the co-founder of several successful and innovative ventures such as PayPal, Tesla Motors and SpaceX – the first commercial space exploration enterprise to achieve round-trip space flight, a feat previously rese...

A team of searchers and scientists from Costa Rica and Argentina will once again look for evidence of the crash of the TC-48, one of the most intriguing unsolved mysteries in the history of aviation. The events surrounding the tragic flight of the TC-48 were covered in greater length in a previous article by The Costa Rica Star. On November 3rd of 1965, a military aircraft from the Argentin...

Surf fishermen in Peru are worried about the high number of dolphins they are finding dead in the water and on the beach. According to statistics compiled by Peru21, an online news portal in the Andean nation, 2012 has been a deadly year for dolphins. About 3,000 dolphin carcasses have washed up on the beach since the beginning of the year, and some experts believe it may be related to increased s...

The University of Costa Rica (UCR) recently screened two documentaries that deal with significant environmental issues in our country. One film focuses on the impact of pesticides and other agrochemical products on the environment and subsequently on the health of human communities, while the other documentary looks at the legislative debate surrounding hydrocarbon gas exploration in Costa Ric...

Math does not have to be a boring subject of study limited to memorizing formulas and solving equations. According to Professor Edward Parra Salazar of the University of Costa Rica (UCR) – Pacific Region, mathematics is a discipline filled with interesting tidbits that can entertain and even stimulate other areas of learning. A new book by Professor Parra, entitled Sumario de curiosidades matemát...

It's mating season for the yiguirros (Turdus grayi) and their melodious songs are getting stronger, which means that the beginning of the rainy season is upon us. For the eight communities surrounding the Agujas river in the Garabito canton -including Quebrada Ganado, Cementerio, Puente, Quebrada Margarita, Las Castanas, Playa Bochinche, and Playa Agujas- the yiguirro songs used to be received ...

In several areas of our country, the electrical power grid and infrastructure pose a serious danger to monkeys, sloths, martillas and other arboreal creatures that either suffer tragic deaths or crippling injuries. According to two organizations dedicated to raising awareness and finding solutions to these grim situations, the statistics are ghastly. Nosara Wildlife Rescue explains that hun...

"When there is peace, the warlike man attacks himself" - that's Nietzsche, and his point is that there really is no peace. There's always some war, somewhere, with someone. And there are no winners or losers either... just those who are still around to fight another day. The quote above comes from "Buffalo Soldiers" -a film starring Joaquin Phoenix, based on a 1994 novel by American author Robe...

Finca Bellavista is a unique sustainable treetop community located in the Osa Peninsula. In the past, The Costa Rica Star has written about this unparalleled residential project, which has been getting a lot more attention lately. A recent visitor to Finca Bellavista was Tico journalist Sebastian Castro, who is one of the youngest feature reporters working at CNN. Castro is a graduate from ...

Author’s Note: This is the seventh item in a series of articles that touch on the subject of sustainable practices in Costa Rica. There is a high degree of innovation and street smarts involved in sustainability; if you happen to know of a good sustainability tip, please feel free to share it with The Costa Rica Star. The Cano Negro National Refuge is a protected area that takes up almost 10,00...

A recent expedition led by Rich Hoyer for Wings, Inc. -a renowned provider of birding tours worldwide- started quietly with only about 30 species on the first day. Outside of San Jose, Mr, Hoyer spotted only a few birds in the hotel gardens and a coffee farm; in fact, he spotted more diversity of butterfly species than birds. He was hoping to spot the ground-sparrow (Melozone or Cabanis biarcuatum...

There was a time, not long ago, that things were looking up for our wild feline species. In 2009, digital news daily Costa Rica Hoy reported that the population count of mammals in the Corcovado National Park was gaining density. This increase included ocelots (Leopardus pardalis), known in Costa Rica as manigordos (fat paw). In 2003, researchers from the International Institute of Wildlife Man...

Author’s Note: This is the sixth item in a series of articles that touch on the subject of sustainable practices in Costa Rica. There is a high degree of innovation and street smarts involved in sustainability; if you happen to know of a good sustainability tip, please feel free to share it with The Costa Rica Star. BAC San Jose, also known as BAC Credomatic, has launched an initiative whereby ...

Author’s Note: This is the fifth item in a series of articles that touch on the subject of sustainable practices in Costa Rica. There is a high degree of innovation and street smarts involved in sustainability; if you happen to know of a good sustainability tip, please feel free to share it with The Costa Rica Star. In a previous article, The Costa Rica Star looked at The Economics of Organic a...

An underwater colossus the size of our Miravalles volcano is moving towards our Central Pacific coast and causing earthquakes as it gets closer to the shores of Costa Rica. Three articles written by Carlos Arguedas and published in La Nacion on Sunday mention the results of years of oceanic and seismic research that culminated in theories posited by scientists at our National Seismology Net...

If you are planning on visiting our imposing volcanoes during Easter Week, the National Council on Emergencies (CNE in Spanish) wants you to take exercise extra caution. There are currently  five active volcanoes in Costa Rica now, and some have been acting up lately. The seismic and volcanic research departments at the University of Costa Rica (UCR) and the National University (UNA) are ke...

Author’s Note: This is the fourth item in a series of articles that touch on the subject of sustainable practices in Costa Rica. There is a high degree of innovation and street smarts involved in sustainability; if you happen to know of a good sustainability tip, please feel free to share it with The Costa Rica Star. EARTH University is a unique private institute of higher learning with campuse...