President Obama has awarded 12 researchers the National Medal of Science. 11 inventors also received the National Medal of Technology and Innovation. Those are the highest government honors bestowed upon scientists, engineers and inventors.

This year's event marks the 50th presentation of the National Medals of Science, first awarded in 1963 by President John F. Kennedy.   The recipients received their awards at a White House ceremony.

A new kind of pterosaur named Eurazhdarcho langendorfensis was a flying reptile from the time of the dinosaurs, according to scientists from the Transylvanian Museum Society in Romania, the University of Southampton in the UK and the Museau Nacional in Rio de Janiero, Brazil. 

The fossilized bones come from the Late Cretaceous rocks of Sebeş-Glod in the Transylvanian Basin, Romania, which are approximately 68 million years old. The Transylvanian Basin is known for its many Late Cretaceous fossils, including dinosaurs of many kinds, as well as fossilized mammals, turtles, lizards and ancient relatives of crocodiles. 

Sociologists have settled an important debate - namely, do women really want a man that does housework. The answer is 'no', according to an important new paper which found that married men and women who divide household chores in traditional ways report having more sex than couples who share the women's work.  

figshare, a Digital Science portfolio company, has announced a new partnership with open access publisher Public Library of Science (PLoS) to host the supplemental data for all seven PLoS journals, as well as provide a widget that will enable PLoS users to view data in the articles in the browser alongside the content. 

 figshare provides a free way for researchers to publish, share and get credit for their research data, hosting videos, datasets, graphs, figures and images. By partnering with figshare, PLoS can host data accompanying their publications, making the data easier to access for future use. Through figshare's new widgets, users will also be able to visualize the research objects within the browser. 

A new paper outlines the many pitfalls associated with simulation methods such as Monte Carlo algorithms and other commonly used molecular dynamics approaches.

If a numerical model simulating 25,000 generations of evolution within computers is to be believed, Cornell University engineering and robotics researchers may have discovered why biological networks tend to be organized as modules – a finding that will lead to a deeper understanding of the evolution of complexity.

And they say it will help evolve artificial intelligence. Robot brains with the grace and cunning of animals? What could go wrong?