A study led by Princeton researchers has revealed how bacteria navigate obstacles to ensure cohesive group movement. The finding has implications for understanding the general processes of collective migration, from cancer cells responding to chemical stimulus to wildebeest moving across the savanna.

The Department of Energy has granted $2 million over three years to Braskem America, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and Princeton University to develop plastic that can be recycled perpetually, reducing waste and pollution from single-use plastics.

Deploying a technique that promises to supercharge the development of biofuels, researchers at Princeton University have found a way to make yeast cultures glow when producing next generation fuels that could power cars and airplanes.

A new study from Princeton University shows how the brown anole lizard solves one of nature’s most complex problems — breathing — with ultimate simplicity. Whereas human lungs develop over months and years into baroque tree-like structures, the anole lung develops in just a few days into crude lobes covered with bulbous protuberances. These gourd-like structures, while far less refined, allow the lizard to exchange oxygen for waste gases just as human lungs do. And because they grow quickly by leveraging simple mechanical processes, anole lungs provide new inspiration for engineers designing advanced biotechnologies.

Strains of microbes like yeast and E. coli can be engineered to produce useful chemicals and fuels, and can produce more fuel more efficiently by working together. The problem is that when grown together in co-cultures, the fastest-growing strain often outcompetes the others, causing the community to break down and stop chemical production. Now, Princeton researchers have discovered a new way to stabilize co-cultures of microbes using light. By engineering the faster-growing strain to respond to light, the researchers can control its growth using light pulses, stabilizing the community as a whole and optimizing it for chemical production.