Harvard's Wyss Institute specializes in designing new materials and devices that mimic patterns found in living things. Their latest contribution was inspired by the versatile material found in insect cuticle, which is strong and flexible, yet remarkably lightweight.

Recent research from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST) continues to highlight how evolutionary theory influenced scientists to foolishly conclude that DNA in organisms not used to code for proteins (termed “non-coding” DNA) is useless “junk.” A press release highlighted an OIST scientist’s paper published in Nature Communications that identified

Within the past 20 years or so, dozens of papers have been written regarding the human microbiome. Microbiota inhabit a variety of niches in the human body, with the gut being the primary location. Remarkably, “The human gut has the highest known cell densities of any microbial habitat on Earth.”¹ The number of microbiome cells number into the trillions for a single person.

How would you do if someone spun you around every few seconds all day long? Marine algae repeatedly get tossed about in coastal surf, and they cope quite well. Researchers want to find out how. The latest set of experiments has revealed built-in machinery that helps these single-celled creatures thrive amid the turbulence.