Microbiomes, the communities of microorganisms that live in and around us, play a vital role in everything from human health to soil fertility and climate regulation. But studying these tiny life forms, especially outside the human body, presents a major challenge: how do scientists share complex data across such a wide range of environments and disciplines? To help solve this problem, a team of nearly 250 researchers from 28 countries has developed a new set of guidelines called STREAMS.

MIT engineers developed artificial tendons that could connect robotic skeletons and biological muscle tissue. Made from tough and flexible hydrogel, the tendons could be used in various bio-hybrid robots.

In a study published in Nature Chemistry, Rutgers chemist Yuwei Gu and a team of Rutgers scientists have shown that by borrowing a principle from nature, they can create plastics that break down under everyday conditions without heat or harsh chemicals.

Princeton researchers have developed a diamond-based quantum sensor that reveals rich new information about magnetic phenomena in spaces smaller than a wavelength of light. Their new technique uncovers magnetic fluctuations beyond the reach of existing instruments and provides key insight into quantum materials such as graphene and superconductors — opening a new way to study condensed matter physics.

Flight is a rare skill in the animal world. Among vertebrates, it evolved only three times: in bats, birds, and the long-extinct pterosaurs. Pterosaurs were the pioneers, taking to the skies more than 220 million years ago, long before early bird relatives such as Archaeopteryx appeared, around 150 million years ago. While scientists have a detailed fossil record that sheds light on how birds’ brains evolved for flight, the same story for pterosaurs has been far less clear. Until now. In a new study published in Current Biology, an international team now reveals how pterosaurs evolved the neurological structures required for powered flight. 

With the help of newly identified bones, an enigmatic 3.4-million-year-old hominin foot found in 2009, is assigned to a species different from that of the famous fossil Lucy providing further proof that two ancient species of hominins co-existed at the same time and in the same region.