Two therapsid clades, dicynodonts and cynodonts, independently acquired and developed an endotherm-like thermoregulation during the Late Permian period, that probably helped them to survive the major global climate and environmental fluctuations of the end-Permian.

Two optically transparent substrates enable the exploration of the ecophysiology and spatiotemporal organization and activities of bacteria and fungi within heterogeneous soil-like environments.

Tropical land use makes most soil animal groups shift to 'fast' energy channel and restructures soil food web at community level, but this change is buffered by earthworms at ecosystem (energetic) level.

The intracellular location of a key sulfur compound, dimethylsulfoniopropionate, was identified in microalgae and its subsequent uptake by marine bacteria was quantified using a combination of secondary-ion mass-spectrometry techniques.

Cells use two interdigitated biosynthetic pathways that can be regulated independently to produce diverse bioactive sterols.

Warming and altered precipitation reduce the growth rates of alpine soil bacteria by 40-90%, and the growth of ~70% taxa is influenced by antagonistic interactions between factors.

A new high-resolution approach to probing tooth chemistry shows real potential to uncover changing rainfall patterns and environmental conditions during human prehistory.

Metabolomics and stable isotope labelling studies of virulent Mycobacterium tuberculosis reveal a de-centralised metabolic network able to utilise various amino acids as nitrogen sources to a better extent than ammonium.

The long mandibles were gradually replaced by more flexible trunks in the evolution of proboscideans.

The capacity for symbiosis between photosynthetic microalgae and early diverging lineages fungi was demonstrated with microscopy and stable isotope exchange of carbon and nitrogen.