Image of the HST GOODS-South field, one of the deepest images of the sky but covering just one millionth of its total area. The new estimate for the number of galaxies is ten times higher than the number seen in this image. Credit: NASA / ESA / The GOODS Team / M. Giavalisco (UMass., Amherst)

An international team of astronomers, led by Prof. Christopher Conselice, University of Nottingham, have found that the universe contains at least 2 trillion galaxies, 10X more than previously thought. Astronomers have long sought to determine how many galaxies there are in the observable universe, the part of the cosmos where light from distant objects has had time to reach us...

Artist’s rendition of the Odin spacecraft in orbit. Credit: SNSB

Completing its 16th year in orbit, a small Swedish astrophysics and aeronomy satellite named “Odin” has proven that it is still capable of carrying out important observations of space. The spacecraft has lately observed ammonia (NH3) emissions from an astronomical radio source known as Sagittarius A* (Sgr A* for short) at the center of the Milky Way galaxy.

Odin was launched on February 20, 2001 with the aim of studying the depletion of the ozone layer in the atmosphere and searching for water and oxygen in interstellar space. With a mass of about 250 kg, the spacecraft has dimensions of 2.0 x 1.1 meters (3.8 meters when fully deployed in orbit). The satellite is equipped with an advanced radiometer using a 1...

The researchers caution that maintaining high levels of fitness through physical activity will not entirely eliminate or cure age- or Alzheimer’s disease related decline, but it may slow down the decline. NeuroscienceNews.com image is for illustrative purposes only.

Older adults who experience good cardiac fitness may be also keeping their brains in good shape as well. In what is believed to be the first study of its kind, older adults who scored high on cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) tests performed better on memory tasks than those who had low CRF. Further, the more fit older adults were, the more active their brain was during learning. These findings appear in the journal Cortex...

While typical embryonic stem cells (left) are unable to make tissues like the placenta, which allow the embryo to communicate with the mother, blocking a microRNA unleashes the potential to make these extra-embryonic tissues (red cells, right). (Lin He image)

UC Berkeley researchers have found a way to reprogram mouse embryonic stem cells so that they exhibit developmental characteristics resembling those of fertilized eggs, or zygotes. These “totipotent-like” stem cells are able to generate not only all cell types within a developing embryo, but also cell types that facilitate nutrient exchange between the embryo and the mother For now, the new stem cell lines will help scientists understand the first molecular decisions made in the early embryo...