A collection of radio telescopes that spans thousands of miles and is remotely operated from central New Mexico has measured a span of 66,000 light-years (one light-year is equal to 6 trillion miles) from Earth across the Milky Way's center to a star-forming area near the edge of the other side of the galaxy. The Albuquerque Journal reported that astronomers say they hope to measure additional points around the galaxy to produce a map — the first of its kind — over the next decade. Alberto Sanna of Germany's Max-Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy said in a news release that using the Very Long Baseline Array, which is remotely operated near Socorro, allows astronomers to "accurately map the whole extent of our galaxy."

Dogs alert when you pay attention to them

In a new study, researchers in Britain monitored dogs' facial expressions — particularly the muscle that raises the inner part of the eyebrows and makes their eyes look bigger — while a person was either paying attention to them or turned away, sometimes holding food and sometimes not. The dogs were much more expressive when the person was paying attention, but food didn't seem to make a difference, according to the study.

Plant gets tougher when attacked

If plants could be stars in a cowboy film, the scarlet gilia would be one of the meanest wildflowers west of the Mississippi. Drought can't always stop it. Shade won't faze it. And when mule deer and elk start grazing on it, it comes back bigger and stronger. Biologists call outlaw plants like this the overcompensators. In a study in the journal Ecology, scientists showed for the first time that in an experiment, damaging some plants set off a molecular chain of events that caused them to grow back bigger, and produce more seeds and chemical defenses simultaneously.

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