The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency stormwater management model was applied to a semi-arid urban micro watershed. The sub-catchment’s current features were modeled as scenario A, while the insertion of a set of LID technologies (rain barrels, bioretention cells, permeable pavement, and infiltration trenches) was represented as scenario B. A third scenario (C), considering only the most feasible LID technologies, was also modeled. All the scenarios were evaluated under two representative storm events (30 and 9 mm in two consecutive days, and 39 mm of rainfall in one day) occurred during the sampling performed in this study. Water quality was also simulated for a 30-mm storm event and compared against field assessment results after a real 30-mm storm event. Through the model, the inefficiency of current evacuation methods after 30- and 39-mm storm events was demonstrated. Simulation of scenario B showed that LID technologies could satisfactorily diminish peak flows generated by the selected storm events as well as runoff-conveyed pollution, while the realistic scenario allowed a lower but satisfactory hydrological performance and almost the same runoff quality than scenario B. This preliminary study could contribute to spread awareness about the benefits of LID technologies in semi-arid urban areas of the developing world.

En este escrito se da la noticia del escarabajo Cylindrocopturus biradiatus barrenando la base de las espinas de cladodios del nopal Opuntia robusta en el estado de Hidalgo, México y representa el primer reporte en esta especie de nopal. Durante el 2021 y 2022 se recolectaron cladodios con el síntoma de daño por el barrenador y se analizaron en el laboratorio de Entomología de la Universidad Politécnica de Francisco I. Madero. Observamos que las larvas durante su etapa no llegan a matar a la penca de nopal, pero sí limitan su desarrollo, así como, la producción de tuna silvestre y la formación de nuevos brotes vegetativos.

Minerals have played a fundamental part in prebiotic chemistry on Earth, catalyzing the synthesis of inorganic and even organic molecules, including macromolecules such as RNA or DNA. Minerals based on silica are some of the first inorganics to be found in very ancient mineral fossils. These minerals or even volcanic glasses rich in silica, such as obsidians (a naturally volcanic glass, which is in fact an igneous rock), play an important role as supporting materials for obtaining the silico-carbonates of alkaline earth metals (usually called biomorphs). This is because, in most radiolarians, diatoms, and foraminifera, their external shells are made up of silica (SiO₂). However, it has yet to be evaluated whether the silica contained in the minerals present in the prebiotic era of the Earth interacted with the chemical elements that were also present during that era. To evaluate whether obsidian participated in the formation of the first inorganic structures of pioneering organisms, this study aimed to synthesize calcium and barium biomorphs on igneous rock and to show that dissolved organic and inorganic molecules might have interacted with the molecules of obsidian, producing a plethora of shapes that mimicked the cherts of the Precambrian.

Life is the result of a complex network of chemical reactions and molecular interactions that arose on Earth once primitive minerals were able to self-assemble in a way that allowed them to self-reproduce and evolve. However, exactly how, where and when life first appeared on our planet is still unknown. In this article, we review various theories of geochemical evidence associated with the origin of life, which provide a fundamental, although often rudimentary, view of the emergence of early life on planet Earth.