An artist’s impression of what an active galactic nucleus might look like close up. The accretion disk produces the brilliant light in the center. The broad-line region is just above the accretion disk and lost in the glare. Dust clouds are being driven upward by the intense radiation. Credit: Peter Z. Harrington

Mysterious features seen in light emitted from active galactic nuclei may be due to partial obscuration by dust clouds. Many large galaxies have a bright central region called an active galactic nucleus (AGN), powered by matter spiraling into a supermassive black hole...

Extracellular vesicle-like metal-organic framework nanoparticles are developed for the intracellular delivery of biofunctional proteins. The biomimetic nanoplatform can protect the protein cargo and overcome various biological barriers to achieve systemic delivery and autonomous release. Credit: Zheng Lab/Penn State

A biomimetic nanosystem can deliver therapeutic proteins to selectively target cancerous tumors, according to a team of Penn State researchers. Using a protein toxin called gelonin from a plant found in the Himalayan mountains, the researchers caged the proteins in self-assembled metal-organic framework (MOF) nanoparticles to protect them from the body’s immune system...

Planarian flatworm adult stem cells known as neoblasts can be clustered based on their gene expression profiles (left panel). A neoblast subpopulation termed Nb2 expresses the cell membrane protein TSPAN-1 (center panel, a representative Nb2 cell with TSPAN-1 protein shown in green and DNA in blue). Nb2 neoblasts can repopulate stem cell-depleted animals (right panel, representative animals at different time points after Nb2 single-cell transplants). Credit: Sánchez Alvarado Lab

Researchers at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research have captured the one cell that is capable of regenerating an entire organism...

This is an artist’s illustration of a potentially habitable exomoon orbiting a giant planet in a distant solar system. Credit: NASA GSFC: Jay Friedlander and Britt Griswold

Researchers have identified 121 giant planets that may have habitable moons. Their work will guide the design of future telescopes that can detect these potential moons and look for tell-tale signs of life, called biosignatures, in their atmospheres. Since the 2009 launch of NASA’s Kepler telescope, scientists have identified thousands of planets outside our solar system, which are called exoplanets. A primary goal of the Kepler mission is to identify planets that are in the habitable zones of their stars, meaning it’s neither too hot nor too cold for liquid water – and potentially life – to exist.

Terrestrial (rocky) p...