Every time I visit the Nexus I'm overcome with guilt that I haven't given enough back. The Nexus played a big role in introducing me to much of what today I would regard as the most fascinating and worthwhile stuff in the world. And it isn't even solely hyperspace I'm thinking about here, I've always regarded hyperspace secondary to these other things you've shown me, viz. that all around me, as well as part and parcel with me, and yet sometimes/somehow just beyond the evidence of my senses, there are all sorts of strange things taking-place I'd never given much thought to: things like reactions, biosynthetic pathways, covalent bonds and orbital configurations; vital expressions such as those embodied in alkaloids, in phase transitions and recrystalizations. Looking through my inbox on here recently was really a trip down memory lane. I came across a friendly nudge, for example, from one of our more prolific sages, it was from a few years ago and it read something like: "brother, you've got to stop going nuts on the forum, there's nothing you can extract from your own urine!" I was going a little nuts that summer, what can I tell you? The point of all this is that it feels pretty good thinking I might finally have something to share that could be of interest to you all.
But first I need to get there... Recently, I've taken more of an interest in organic synthesis, which, I know, is off limits (and rightfully so) on the Nexus. But I should clarify that what I mean by synthesis here (biosynthesis?) isn't the type of thing we'd find in the Rhodium Archives or PiHKAL or something like that, (that stuff is just scary to me, Naphtha is already gross enough, thank you), rather that whole phenomenon of which I am sure most of you are already aware wherein we might, for example, extract the enzymes from phalaris, the same way these dudes isolated them from cereal leafs (cysteine? phosphate? they can't be any worse than NaOH or HCl!). Of course I understand that this is already old territory, and that I have no idea what I'm talking about. I also understand that all my nonsense could be rightfully smacked down in a second by anyone with the slightest bit of knowledge about it at all. But even still, you can't blame a man for dreaming, can you? Dreaming after some futuristic tek involving: tryptophan decarboxylase, N-methyltransferase, and dash or two of some common dietary supplements like Sam-E and P-5-P to round the whole thing off? And, from the tiny bit I can understand in all of this, it wouldn't even necessarily have to be anything as precarious as phalaris enzymes one used anyways. That is, hop on KEGG or the host of other sites like it, list after list of what all sorts of plants/organisms/etc. might do to your average everyday OTC amino acids. Maybe instead of dropping the bone on a sep funnel, one gets an agar broth capable of indicating the decarboxylation or methylation of amino acids on the part of the benign Mycobacterium you've started growing on it from a few drops of grocery store milk. Of course, no one should really do any of this and no one will, it's just interesting to muse after it all, isn't it? I mean, I apologize if it is all starting to sound too synthy, but imagine the possibilities working with decarboxylase and methyltransferase: "Do I start with L-Tryptophan today, or L-Phenylalanine? Should I go crazy and bust out the hydroxylase, methyltransferase that, and really try something interesting?" Anyways... You guys get it, it's old news and there is probably ten threads on it already, all of this was merely a long way of getting to thing I came across that might actually be interesting to you.
I feel kind of stupid now, having riffed on all that was besides the point, but maybe it's because I don't even want to speculate on this one:
So... How cool is that? Am I mistaken in thinking that's pretty cool? Am I mistaken in supposing there could be any relation at all between the n-dimensionality of hyperspace and the observed phenomenon that part of the pathway our brains take in metabolizing the spirit molecule involves the macroscopic equivalent of walking through walls? Here's some little computer simulation of the phenomenon (at the level of the electron, whereas apparently, the dehydrogenase of tryptamine works at the level of the proton):
I don't know, there seems something vaguely hyperspace-like about that to me. Well, I hope you found all this as interesting as I did. And on an unrelated note, check out the Ulam Spiral. For those of you who might not know what that it is already, read about it here. I'm sharing it on account of SWIM telling me they paid a visit to hyperspace staring directly into that thing (which, in many ways I suppose, embodies the mysteries of mathematics in pure image) and that it paid big dividends.
EDIT: Much better (10 Gigapixel!) Ulam here, although the internet is full of them.
But first I need to get there... Recently, I've taken more of an interest in organic synthesis, which, I know, is off limits (and rightfully so) on the Nexus. But I should clarify that what I mean by synthesis here (biosynthesis?) isn't the type of thing we'd find in the Rhodium Archives or PiHKAL or something like that, (that stuff is just scary to me, Naphtha is already gross enough, thank you), rather that whole phenomenon of which I am sure most of you are already aware wherein we might, for example, extract the enzymes from phalaris, the same way these dudes isolated them from cereal leafs (cysteine? phosphate? they can't be any worse than NaOH or HCl!). Of course I understand that this is already old territory, and that I have no idea what I'm talking about. I also understand that all my nonsense could be rightfully smacked down in a second by anyone with the slightest bit of knowledge about it at all. But even still, you can't blame a man for dreaming, can you? Dreaming after some futuristic tek involving: tryptophan decarboxylase, N-methyltransferase, and dash or two of some common dietary supplements like Sam-E and P-5-P to round the whole thing off? And, from the tiny bit I can understand in all of this, it wouldn't even necessarily have to be anything as precarious as phalaris enzymes one used anyways. That is, hop on KEGG or the host of other sites like it, list after list of what all sorts of plants/organisms/etc. might do to your average everyday OTC amino acids. Maybe instead of dropping the bone on a sep funnel, one gets an agar broth capable of indicating the decarboxylation or methylation of amino acids on the part of the benign Mycobacterium you've started growing on it from a few drops of grocery store milk. Of course, no one should really do any of this and no one will, it's just interesting to muse after it all, isn't it? I mean, I apologize if it is all starting to sound too synthy, but imagine the possibilities working with decarboxylase and methyltransferase: "Do I start with L-Tryptophan today, or L-Phenylalanine? Should I go crazy and bust out the hydroxylase, methyltransferase that, and really try something interesting?" Anyways... You guys get it, it's old news and there is probably ten threads on it already, all of this was merely a long way of getting to thing I came across that might actually be interesting to you.
I feel kind of stupid now, having riffed on all that was besides the point, but maybe it's because I don't even want to speculate on this one:
--From Wikipedia.
So... How cool is that? Am I mistaken in thinking that's pretty cool? Am I mistaken in supposing there could be any relation at all between the n-dimensionality of hyperspace and the observed phenomenon that part of the pathway our brains take in metabolizing the spirit molecule involves the macroscopic equivalent of walking through walls? Here's some little computer simulation of the phenomenon (at the level of the electron, whereas apparently, the dehydrogenase of tryptamine works at the level of the proton):
EDIT: Much better (10 Gigapixel!) Ulam here, although the internet is full of them.
