Diversification and specialization are central to complex adaptive systems, yet overarching principles across domains remain elusive. Vicky Chuqiao Yang, assistant professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management, and James Holehouse, a mathematical biologist with the Santa Fe Institute led a research project that has  introduced a general theory that unifies diversity and specialization across disparate systems, including microbes, federal agencies, companies, universities, and cities, characterized by two key parameters. The research team show from extensive data that function diversity scales with system size as a sublinear power law-resembling Heaps’ law-in all but cities, where it is logarithmic. Their theory explains both behaviors and suggests that function creation depends on system goals and structure: federal agencies tend to ensure functional coverage; cities slow new function growth as old ones expand; and cells occupy an intermediate position. Once functions are introduced, their growth follows a remarkably universal pattern across all systems.

A team led by Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) researcher Nitin J. Sanket has shown that ultrasound sensors and a form of artificial intelligence (AI) can enable palm-sized aerial robots to navigate with limited power and computation through fog, smoke, and other challenging conditions during search-and-rescue operations.

As published in Nature, researchers from Purdue University and Columbia University report a naturally evolved gene-editing system that can activate genes, offering an advantage over existing CRISPR gene-editing systems that merely find and cut DNA. The research includes two complementary studies, one examining the biological function of the system and the other revealing the molecular mechanism that enables it.

MIT researchers discovered that dendrites, cracks that harm the performance of solid-state batteries, can grow at far lower stresses than previously understood. The findings reveal why developing stronger solid electrolytes alone hasn’t solved the dendrite problem; more chemically stable materials will be needed to finally fulfill the promise of these batteries.

MIT engineers designed an ultrasound wristband that precisely tracks a wearer’s hand movements in real time and communicates the information to a robot or a virtual environment. 

Natural yeasts ferment anything sugary, including fruit, flower nectar and sugar water in a hummingbird feeder. In the first study to analyze the ethanol content of nectar in a range of species, UC Berkeley biologists fought off the birds and bees to collect samples. Nearly all contained ethanol. Hummingbirds can sip up to twice their weight in nectar daily, which could provide a dose equivalent to a standard alcoholic drink for a human.

A team of researchers led by the University of Pittsburgh demonstrated a programmable superconducting diode at the LaAlO3/KTaO3 (LAO/KTO) interface as the result of usiung conductive atomic force microscope (c-AFM) lithography.

A new study shows that contributions from both highly and casually active citizen scientists can be equally valuable and — in some cases — even complement each other.

Insects are cold-blooded, so they cannot survive extreme temperatures. Snow flies, however, remain active in below-freezing weather. New research shows these flies counteract cold with a combination of strategies. Snow flies also are less sensitive to pain associated with extreme cold. Study is the first to sequence the snow fly’s genome.

Penn Engineers have redesigned a key component of lipid nanoparticles (LNPs), the delivery vehicles used in mRNA vaccines, to steer mRNA toward lymph nodes while reducing off-target accumulation in the liver. The modified “aroLNPs” delivered at least tenfold less mRNA to the liver than the lipid used in the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, while preserving strong immune responses. The advance could enable more precise, lower-dose vaccines and expand the potential of mRNA therapies for cancer and autoimmune disease.