-ray Transient and variable Sky (EXTraS) project tagged posts

1. photograph of large clonal colonies of cochlear progenitor cells formed from single cells and converted into high purity colonies hair cells (magenta) with intricate hair bundles (cyan). Credit: Will McLean, Ph.D.  2. Newly formed cochlear hair cells contain intricate hair bundles with many stereocilia (critical for sensing sound) and other components that are critical for proper function and neural transmission. (Credit: Will McLean)

Researchers discover a drug combination that can regenerate hair cells. Within the inner ear, thousands of hair cells detect sound waves and translate them into nerve signals that allow us to hear speech, music, and other everyday sounds. Damage to these cells is one of the leading causes of hearing loss, which affects 48 million Americans...

Background subtracted pulsed fractions of the 0.42 s signal as a function of energy for the 2013 (black circles) and 2014 (red squares) pn data. Credit: Israel et al., 2016.

A team of European astronomers has discovered a new pulsar in a variable ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX) known as NGC 7793 P13. The newly found object is the third ultraluminous X-ray pulsar detected so far, and also the fastest-spinning one. ULXs are point sources in the sky that are so bright in X-rays that each emits more radiation than a million suns emit at all wavelengths. Although they are less luminous than active galactic nuclei, they are more consistently luminous than any known stellar process.

NGC 7793 P13 (also known as XMMU J235751...