Saturday, November 14, 2015

THE BEAVER/MILKY WAY COMMONALITY

You will recall from a previous factoid that castoreum from beaver anal glands is used to make raspberry flavoring for candy, pastries, and the like. If the thought of using beaver anal secretions in your recipes really, truly, bothers you, then there is another potential source of raspberry flavoring, although it is a little harder to obtain.

Astronomers have been searching the heart of the Milky Way Galaxy with radio telescopes in an attempt to locate amino acids--the basic building blocks of life on earth. While they have not yet found them, they did ascertain that the center of the galaxy contains large amounts of ethyl formate. Ethyl formate is the compound which gives real raspberries their delightful flavor. In addition, if smelled instead of consumed, it has the aroma of rum.

In short, the center of the Milky Way would probably be a delightful place to be, with the flavor of raspberries and the odor of rum. However, it is approximately 100,000 light years, or about 588,000,000,000,000,000 miles (945,000,000,000,000,000 km), away (which is far).

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