Mapping the Milky Way

A National Geographic article today discusses the creation of a new, “best” map of our home galaxy.  A lot of time and effort has been put into creating this map and some new discoveries have come about in the process, namely that it appears our galaxy may only have two major arms as opposed to four which was the previous assumption.  Of course the reality of the whole thing is, that being inside the galaxy, it is pretty much impossible to know for certain exactly what it looks like.  But still, why not try and figure out what we can right? 

 

(from National Geographic)

Sweet Gene

I love sugar very very much.  In fact not only have I been described by myself and others as a sweet tooth but also as an absolute candy junkie.  That being said, what does this have to do with science?  Well Evan sent me an article this morning from Science Central News regarding a new study that is linking the sweet tooth that many people have to a specific gene called GLUT 2.  Cool, I’ll by it, especially because genes seem to play a ton of other important roles in our lives (some kind of crappy like my lack of facial hair growing ability).  Now I wonder if scientists can find a gene that links to my near addiction to Doritos.