Comment in 2019

The growth of advanced, custom microscopy has outpaced commercialization, with biologists unable to benefit from these developments. We propose a complementary model for access based on shareable, traveling and configurable microscopes, with potential benefits for biologists, developers and the community.

Single-particle techniques offer an unprecedented opportunity to understand the role of structural variability in biological function. They also call into question the meaning of ‘a structure’ and its relevance to function.

Whole-body energy expenditure is the summed metabolic activities of tissues and, to remove the influence of body size, ratios of energy expenditure to body mass are often applied but can generate spurious differences. In 2011, a group of experts proposed adoption of ANCOVA for the analysis of metabolic rate but, seven years later, analyses based on ratios remain the most frequent. We discuss some of the barriers to adopting better analytical procedures.

We propose a network of national imaging centers that provide collaborative, interdisciplinary spaces needed for the development, application, and teaching of advanced biological imaging techniques. Our proposal is based on recommendations from a National Science Foundation (NSF)-sponsored workshop on realizing the promise of innovations in imaging and computation for biological discovery.

The PLUMED consortium unifies developers and contributors to PLUMED, an open-source library for enhanced-sampling, free-energy calculations and the analysis of molecular dynamics simulations. Here, we outline our efforts to promote transparency and reproducibility by disseminating protocols for enhanced-sampling molecular simulations.

Microbiomes play critical roles in ecosystems and human health, yet in most cases scientists lack standardized and reproducible model microbial communities. The development of fabricated microbial ecosystems, which we term EcoFABs, will provide such model systems for microbiome studies.