JAMAICA WANTS BILLIONS IN INVESTMENT FOR DEVELOPMENT OF BIO-FUEL—06/10/13
The government of Jamaica wants to find $8 billion in investment capital to develop bio-fuels and reduce the island’s dependence on petroleum-based fuels. Phillip Paulwell, Minister of Science, Technology, Energy, and Mining, said if Jamaica could develop a bio-fuel energy source, the country could attract investors and create more jobs. Paulwell believes Jamaica can no longer rely on fossil fuels to meet its energy needs.

JAMAICAN GOVERNMENT WORKS WITH HACKERS TO IMPROVE CYBER SECURITY—06/11/13
Jamaica’s government has created an alliance with “ethical hackers” in order to upgrade the nation’s efforts to fight cybercrime. Ethical hackers are computer and network experts who attack security systems for the owners of those systems in order to find weaknesses that make the system vulnerable to attack. They then attempt to correct those problems and make the system stronger. Ethical hackers use the same methods as illicit hackers, but report the problems they find to authorities instead of taking advantage of them.

RESEARCHERS FROM U.S. EXPLORE DEEP REEFS IN CARIBBEAN—06/13/13
Researchers from the Smithsonian Institution in the United States have found at least one new species of fish in a deep reef near Curacao while working on a year-long project gathering information about temperature and biodiversity in the Caribbean Sea. The researchers are looking for the effects of climate change on the marine environment. The new fish species was found with a submarine at depths up to 1,000 feet off the southern coast of Curacao. Between 25 and 30 other specimens found in depths are being studied. The Caribbean is home to ten percent of the coral reefs in the world and some 1,400 species of marine mammals and fish.

EVENT HELPS CARIBBEAN STUDENTS FIND SCIENCE, MATH CAREERS—06/14/13
The first-ever Caribbean Excellence in STEM event began at the beginning of June 2013, with the aim of helping students find their way into technical careers. The event marked the start of an effort by the Caribbean Diaspora for Science, Technology and Innovation’s United Kingdom branch and Future Think, a social enterprise, to ensure that young people in the Caribbean communities in the UK have what they need to take advantage of job opportunities in science, technology, engineering, and math.