I got two hours of sleep a day, which is not enough, although four hours would be sufficient. In order to get more sleep this time I'm going to try to reduce the amount of air-traffic control communication that I have to do, so that I'm not constantly on the radio. NOVA: Your last flight lasted a little over six days.
Alpha and beta glucose differ in stereochemistry at one single carbon. In the alpha-form, a bulky group is in a so-called axial position, and in the beta-form, the group is in a more favourable equatorial position. These different positions lead to different bonds in polysaccharides, giving rise to a need for different enzymes to digest them.
Glucose like other sugars can exist in a straight chain form or it can loop back on itself and become a ring. If the hydroxyl group on the first carbon atom points down when the ring is formed alpha glucose results and if the hydroxyl group points up the result is beta glucose.