MilkyWay@Home: Mapping the Galaxy

The Whirlpool Galaxy (M51) (Sloan Digital Sky Survey)

Tens of thousands of home computers, a fraction of their time and computing power donated by volunteers just like you, are aiding scientists in a massive effort to map the Milky Way galaxy.

Specifically, the MilkyWay@Home project seeks to create a highly accurate three dimensional model of the Milky Way galaxy using data gathered by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.

Imagine a future Google Earth for the entire Milky Way.

In all, since the beginning of the project, more than 45,000 individuals from 169 countries have donated computer power, with some 17,000 currently active contributors.

(For related information, see also this much earlier article on the similar Cosmology@Home, and this one on SETI@Home.)

Fascinating!

Library Friends Fund New Storage Building

Once again the Haysville Community Library Friends of the Library have exceeded all expectations. After an amazing year of accomplishments, they’ve done it again.

The library’s critical shortage of storage space has been transcended with a single bold gesture: the generous donation of a new storage building to house essential but space-consuming materials (replacement shelving, furnishings and decorations for special occasions, spare parts, books for the numerous fundraising book sales, etc.).

Early this afternoon, the completed building was delivered and placed. The Friends of the Library have come through for Haysville once again.

Primordial Soup 2

Hydrothermal Vent (Yale University)

A week ago we mentioned the new paper published recently in the journal BioEssays which argues rather conclusively that deep-sea thermal vents and not “primordial soup” can better explain the origins of life. (See Primordial Only Yesterday’s Soupe du Jour.)

Astrobiology Magazine offers an excellent quick review of the concept in No Soup for You.

Thermoacidophiles at Deep Sea Vent (US Department of Energy)