Whether considering squishable apple tissue or resilient tree trunks, researchers say that plants "build" their parts using only four ingredients. Precise measurements of plant tissue strengths show that they vary across three orders of magnitude. How do plants so effectively use the same four building blocks to manufacture materials with such widely varying strengths?

Scientists made a virtual microbe, complete with dozens of interconnected cell functions. But it wasn't easy. Their creation could be used in two important areas of research.