So this article
caught my eye in the little NPR feed box (thanks paul!)

It's about chiral (right/left handed) amino acids and a theory on why it is that most things on earth tend to consist of the left-handed forms...

Anyway it's totally geeky, but it made me think of a chemistry lecture in college... we were learning about chirality. And I think we were talking about how lactose (the sugar in milk) has R and L forms. And as I remember it, one of them is totally toxic, but the other is not. And they are the same molecule, just but the atoms are arranged in mirror image.

Ok but to the point, the prof said that Lewis Carroll (who wrote Alice in Wonderland) was also a brilliant scientist. And that in "Through the Looking Glass" there's a part where Alice tells the cat not to drink the milk "in the mirror" b/c it will make him sick. A reference to the R/L chiral lactose.

I dunno, I always thought that was neat.

Ok but I just got totally distracted by the news feeds. I checked out boingboing which I'd never even heard of, and they have some guy who makes molecular models out of balloons. Like a huge DNA balloon animal... God, the last thing I need is more ways to waste time online!!

p.s. new user song- Gone Daddy Gone, covered by Gnarls Barkley