An artist’s rendition of the galaxies Akira (right) and Tetsuo (left) in action. Akira’s gravity pulls Tetsuo’s gas into its central supermassive black hole, fuelling winds that have the power to heat Akira’s gas. Because of the action of the black hole winds, Tetsuo’s donated gas is rendered inert, preventing a new cycle of star formation in Akira. Copyright : Prime Focus Spectrograph Project

Supermassive black hole winds in a newly discovered class of galaxies are so energetic they suppress future star formation. An international team involved in the SDSS-IV MaNGA (Sloan Digital Sky Survey-IV Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory) project is studying ~10,000 galaxies near Earth...

What our Milky Way might look like to alien astronomers: This image of NGC 2683, a spiral galaxy also known as the “UFO Galaxy” due to its shape, was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. Since trying to find out what the Milky Way looks like is a bit like trying to picture an unfamiliar house while being confined to a room inside, studies like this one help us gain a better idea of our cosmic home. Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA

Astronomers find missing mass in the hydrogen halo that surrounds our home galaxy. Sometimes it takes a lot of trees to see the forest. In the case of the latest discovery made by astronomers at the University of Arizona, exactly 732,225...

Left: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the heart of a patient after a heart attack. Right: key. 1: left ventricle, 2: left atrium, 3: right ventricle. The major heart muscle surrounds the left ventricle, and healthy muscle appears black on MRI. After an infarction, the necrotic portion of the heart appears white on MRI after injectino of a contrast agent. Credit: CNIC

Scientists at CNIC have discovered a new mechanism of action of metoprolol, a drug that can reduce the damage produced during a heart attack if administered early. Rapid administration of metoprolol during a heart attack directly inhibits the inflammatory action of neutrophils. The reduced inflammation translates into a smaller area of damaged tissue in the post-infarcted heart...

The South Indian frog Hydrophylax bahuvistara is shown. Credit: Sanil George + Jessica Shartouny

Mining host defense peptides found in skin mucus. A component of the skin mucus secreted by South Indian frogs can kill the H1 variety of influenza viruses, researchers from Emory Vaccine Center and the Rajiv Gandhi Center for Biotechnology in India have discovered. Frogs’ skins were known to secrete “host defense peptides” that defend them against bacteria. The finding suggests that the peptides represent a resource for antiviral drug discovery as well.

Anti-flu peptides could become handy when vaccines are unavailable, in the case of a new pandemic strain, or when circulating strains become resistant to current drugs, says Joshy Jacob, PhD, associate professor of microbiology and immunology a...