More HumanCells than Galaxies exists in the Observable Universe

How many galaxies are there in the observable universe? How many cells are there in the human body? We know both of these numbers must be really big.

Which is bigger? No one has counted all the cells and all the galaxies one by one, so any number will be an estimate.

Continue reading the main story Related Coverage An artist's impression of the distant galaxy CR7. Scientists say light from the galaxy has been traveling to us for 12.9 billion years.

Traces of Earliest Stars That Enriched Cosmos Are SpiedJUNE 17, 2015 The farthest confirmed galaxy observed to date was identified in this Hubble image of a field of galaxies.

Astronomers Measure Distance to Farthest Galaxy YetMAY 5, 2015 In a paper published in 2013, Eva Bianconi of the University of Bologna in Italy and her colleagues outlined a method for estimating the number of cells in a "Standard human being," which they defined as a 30-year-old weighing 154 pounds, standing 5 feet 7 inches tall, and possessing a body surface area of 20 square feet.

Astronomers pointed the Hubble telescope at a portion of the sky of known size, counted the number of galaxies they could see, and then multiplied to estimate the number of galaxies in the observable universe.

Even using the highest estimate for galaxies and the lowest estimate for human cells, there are at least 800 billion more cells in your body than there are galaxies in the known universe.

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Bullet Trains with Ultra Speed of 500km/hr

China has announced that's it's developed new technology that will help its bullet trains reach an ultra-fast 500 km/h.

So what's a permanent magnet synchronous traction system? It's basically a motor that uses permanent magnets rather than a magnetic field created by windings of the rotor to propel the train forward.

Unlike the Maglev system, the train remains in contact with the track, and so is still subject to the effects of friction.

The new traction technology was developed by CRRC Corp, the country's largest train maker, and has been in development for close to 12 years, according to China Daily.

In 2011, the team installed a lower power 190-kilowatt version of the new traction system on trains running on Subway Line 2 in Shenyan, in the Liaoning province.

Today's bullet trains are mostly powered by alternating current asynchronous motors, a traction system that was developed back in the '70s. Jia Limin from Beijing Jiaotong University, and head of China's high-speed railway innovation program, told China Daily that the upgrade will reduce electrical configuration and could also reduce electrical consumption.

We'll wait until the new train speeds are verified before we get too excited, but we're always fans of anything that makes train travel faster and more efficient.  

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Injectible Electronics could Treat Paralysis

Ultimately the methods pioneered by Lieber and his colleagues could lead to new ways to treat neurodegenerative diseases and paralysis, as well as mapping out the brain in greater detail than ever before.

The team brought together by Lieber is made up of internationally renowned physicists, neuroscientists and chemists, and he thinks the technique could make a huge difference in the future.

Once injected, the miniature scaffolding is able to unfurl itself and melds with the existing brain tissue - the neurons apparently look at the new

mesh as a friendly support rather than something alien to the body.

From there, individual neurons can be both monitored and stimulated through a small connection to the brain.

The group of scientists Lieber has brought together are trying to solve a long-standing neuroscience mystery: exactly how the activity of individual brain cells lead to larger cognitive powers.

Because the new mesh is 95 percent free space, and made of very soft and flexible silk, the brain tissue is able to comfortably rearrange itself around it.

"I think it's great, a very creative new approach to the problem of recording from large number of neurons in the brain," Rafael Yuste, director of the Neuro­technology Centre at Columbia University in New York, told Nature.com.
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Gravity Lights: No batteries

Although many of us take for granted the fact that we can simply hit a switch and be flooded with artificial light, around one billion people in the world still live without electricity.

This means a lot of people are relying on dangerous and expensive kerosene lamps to provide them with light to study, work and cook after dark.

This kinetic energy then powers a drive sprocket and polymer gear train that lights up the LED as it goes.

Once the weight gets to the floor, the light goes out and you need to repeat the process, but each pull provides you around 20 to 30 minutes of light, depending on how high you lift the weight up in the first place.

The team is now crowd-funding the second version of GravityLight on Indiegogo, with the hope that they can raise US$199,000 in order to make their light brighter, longer-lasting and easier to use.

GravityLight will be initially targeted to families in developing countries, with an initial focus on Kenya, and the team is hoping to provide local jobs by creating and selling the lights over there.

Of course, the best thing about gravity is that it's free, so once the initial investment has been made, the lights literally cost nothing to run.

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A Millipede that Glows

 Not seen for nearly 50 years, the small, blind millipede Xystocheir bistipita, was recently rediscovered in the foothills of San Luis Obispo, California by entomologist Dr Paul Merek of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute.

Analysis of Xystocheir bistipita's DNA revealed that the millipede actually belonged to a different genus, Motyxia - the only genus of bioluminescent millipede in the western hemisphere.

The identity-challenged millipede was then renamed Motyxia bistipita.

The researchers ranked the light intensity and toxicity of all the millipedes in its newly acquired family and found that M. bistipita is pretty dull and less toxic compared to its mountain-dwelling cousins, which are larger and much more luminous.

The brighter the millipedes were, the more cyanide they contained, which suggests the millipedes at higher elevations use bioluminescence as a forewarning to predators.

M. bistipita has very few predators - so why does it still glow in the dark? Unlike fireflies that glow because of an enzymatic reaction that converts a pigment called luciferin into a new compound that emits light, bioluminescence in millipedes is caused by the reaction of a photoprotein that uses magnesium and molecules that contain oxygen.

"After we sequenced them we were able to place the millipede on an evolutionary tree with other bioluminescent species of Motyxia," says Marek.

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Newest Member of the Homo Family: Australopithecus deyiremeda

They combine both Human and apelike features...

This no doubt in the world of evolution suggests that they were an early ancestor of Homo sapiens ie the human generation which has existed for only but 200, 000 years approximately.

Researchers have confirmed that a new hominin ancestor lived in Ethiopia between 3.3 and 3.5 million years ago, at the same time as the 'Lucy' species, Australopithecus afarensis.

"The new species is yet another confirmation that Lucy's species, Australopithecus afarensis, was not the only potential human ancestor species that roamed in what is now the Afar region of Ethiopia during the middle Pliocene," lead author, Yohannes Haile-Selassie, from the Cleveland Museum of Natural History in the US, said in a press release.

"Current fossil evidence from the Woranso-Mille study area clearly shows that there were at least two, if not three, early human species living at the same time and in close geographic proximity." The new species was identified from a series of teeth and jaw bones that were discovered in 2011 in the central Afar region of Ethiopia, just 35 kilometres from the remains of 'Lucy', one of the most complete hominin skeletons ever discovered.

The lower jaws were also far more robust then jawline of A. afarensis, leading the researchers to classify the remains as a new species, which they've called Australopithecus deyiremada - deyiremada is taken from words that mean "Close relative" in the language of the Afar people.

The team then looked at the sediment on the remains, and used radiometric dating and palaeomagnetic data to work out when the new species lived.

150527134040 1 900x600Yohannes Haile-Selassie/Cleveland Museum of Natural History "This new species from Ethiopia takes the ongoing debate on early hominin diversity to another level," said Haile-Selassie.

"Some of our colleagues are going to be skeptical about this new species, which is not unusual. However, I think it is time that we look into the earlier phases of our evolution with an open mind and carefully examine the currently available fossil evidence rather than immediately dismissing the fossils that do not fit our long-held hypotheses." The challenge now is convincing the skeptics that A. deyiremada is indeed a separate species to Lucy - something that's pretty difficult given that we don't know much about how our ancestors looked or behaved.

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A Fish that Flies (Mobula Ray's)

Mobula is a genus of ray in the family Myliobatidae. Their appearance is similar to that of manta rays, which are in the same family. 

 source: Wikipedia

These marine animals, which are often referred to as devil rays because their heads have two horn-like points, can soar through the air for up to a few seconds at a time before belly-flopping back to their watery home.

Scientists propose that it could be a mating ritual, a way to feed, or just a fun activity, but no one is certain, yet.

Octavio Aburto, an assistant professor at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, came upon a giant swarm of thousands of these flying devil fish near the Gulf of California in 2011.

Most of the mind-blowing photos you'll see here were taken during that encounter by Aburto with the International League of Conservation Photographers.

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Sitting Does Damage Your Body

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If you're anything like us, you've spent at least 80 percent of your day sitting down so far.

Sitting on a bus on the way to work, sitting at your desk, sitting at lunch... well, you get the idea.

Unless you've been living without the Internet for the past five years, you'll be well aware by now how bad that it is for you.

Created by animator Duncan Elms for Australian news program 60 Minutes, this is one of the best summaries of the research we've seen so far, and also helps to explain why something so seemingly innocent can potentially trigger such broad problems, such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

Along with the usual suspects of weight gain and back pain, the animation explains how, as soon as you sit down, the enzymes that break down fat drop by 90 percent, and your insulin effectiveness and good cholesterol levels drops.

Sitting also makes blood clots more likely to form in your brain, and people with desk jobs are twice as likely to suffer from heart disease than those with active jobs.

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The waters of Lake Michigan are so crystal clear that you can see all of its secrets laid bare from the sky.

Despite how inviting the perfect blue water looks, don't be deceived, it's still only around 3 degrees Celsius.

One of the coast guard pilots, Charlie Wilson, told NPR that it's "Fairly common" to see a wreck from the sky, but "Not in the numbers we saw on that flight".

They've since shared their images on the US Coast Guard Air Station Traverse City Facebook page, calling the event "Shipwreck Sunday".

Some of the wrecks they spotted were well known, including the remains of the James McBride, photographed below, which sank in shallow water during a storm on 19 October 1857.

Lake-michigan-shipwrecks vert-172f028979b49270e3d2c5332e26dde2bcbd307d-s700-c85US Coast Guard Air Station Traverse City 11159957 451769294989741 2938430622155184893 nUS Coast Guard Air Station Traverse City Also in shallow water was the well known wreck of the Rising Sun, photographed in the top image, which went down in 1917 - thankfully all 32 people on board at the time were rescued.

These wrecks were all photographed near Sleeping Bear Point northeast along the shoreline to Leland, the US Coast Guard reports.

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Chile's Volcanic Eruption Created Lightening

Earlier this week, Chile's Cabulco volcano started erupting for the first time in 43 years, spraying dust and ash at least 15 kilometres into the sky, and causing the evacuation of up to 2,000 local residents.

Thankfully there have been no casualties or serious injuries reported, but the volcano has put on one hell of a show, producing a breathtaking display of volcanic lightning with its second eruption and blasting out red-hot rocks and lava.

You can marvel at the power of nature in the incredible time-lapse footage below.

What causes volcanic lightning? As Bec Crew wrote for ScienceAlert last month, this eerily beautiful phenomenon is triggered when giant ash clouds spew out of a volcano's mouth: "As the individual ash particles make contact and rub against each other, they produce enough static electricity to convert into bursts of lightning." This ash cloud has since caused flight cancellations as it blows across South America, and has produced a plume that can be seen from space.

The below infrared image was taken by the Suomi NPP satellite on 23 April.

1696v1 20150423-Calbuco web NASA's Terra satellite also snapped a natural-colour photo of the ash plume, below: calbuco tmo 2015113NASA And there have been no shortage of amazing Earth-bound images across Twitter.

Calbuco Volcano erupts in nearby chile! Hopefully no serious casualties.

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A Second Brain in Guts

Okay, so your second brain isn't really a brain at all.

It's more of a 'brain' that happens to live in our stomach and helps regulate an amazing number of feelings and emotions.

Known as the enteric nervous system, this is the mechanism behind all those "I'm going with my gut on this", "I'm having a gut reaction", and "I had a gut-wrenching experience" phrases that have become so much a part of our everyday parlance.

You probably already know that we have a whole lot of neurons - nerve cells that form the basis of our central and peripheral nervous systems - in our spine, but did you know that we have the same number lining the long tube of our gut? The complex make-up of our gut means it's able to create intense cravings - why do I suddenly need a cheeseburger immediately? - without even communicating with our actual brain, says Vanessa Hill in the latest episode of BrainCraft.

It's not just the neurons packed into our stomach that pretty much tell us what to do, says Vanessa - the buzzing microcosm inside is also busy exerting its influence.

Called the microbiome, this colony of bacteria is determined by many factors, such as how old you are, where you live, what you eat, and even how stressed-out you are, and it can communicate with our central nervous system to control everything from how anxious you are about a particular task, to how likely you are to approach things with Kimmy Schmidt levels of positivity.

We're only just now figuring out the extent of its influence over us.

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