As part of a clever little blogmeme, the lovely Miss Meriko sent me a series of interview questions. I'm trying my darndest to avoid working on this packaging project for my graphics class, so what better reason to answer her queries?

What's your favorite molecule, and why?

I haven't got a favorite molecule in particular, but my favorite type of molecules are chiral molecules, also called enantiomers or "mirror molecules". Enantiomers are chemically identical, all the same atoms stuck together with all the same types of bonds, but since certain chemical bonds happen in such a way that they can be in clockwise or counterclockwise position in relation to each other, these types of molecules exhibit the property of chirality: they are right- or left- handed - mirror images of each other.

Naturally occurring amino acids (proteins), sugars and nucleic acids (DNA) all exist only as right- or left-handed forms. The left-handed form of glucose, for example, is still sweet like natural glucose, but it's undigestible - your body can't metabolize it. Lots of drugs are made with either the left-handed or right-handed isomer of a chiral molecule. If you get a formulation that isn't pure - if it has too much of the wrong isomer - you sometimes end up with negative (or at least undesired) effects like with "bad acid" (It's not speed in your LSD you damn hippie! it's just too much of the wrong enantiomer!) Thalidomide is also a chiral drug - one enantiomer had anti-nausea properties that cured morning sickness, the other caused terrible birth defects. A glitch in the manufacturing process meant too much of the wrong enantiomer, and wham - flipper babies.

Lately, our friends the drug companies are separating out and patenting enantiomers of different drugs: Nexium? Prilosec? Same thing. Same effect. Prilosec is a racemic mixture of R- and S- omeprazole, meaning it's a 50/50 mix of the right- and left-handed forms of the molecule. But the drug's patent expired in 2001, so they just re-released it as Nexium, with only one of the enantiomers, and patented it until 2014, with the same purple-pill packaging. Patients (and inattentive doctors) just go for the new "improved" purple pill, and pay twice as much for what is essentially the same drug. Ka-ching! Score one for AstraZeneca!

Anyway. There are lots of interesting properties of chiral chemicals which I will surely bore you to tears describing any further. I first got interested in them in high school after reading Martin Gardner's Annotated Alice books containing his deconstructions of the mathematical and scientific logic in Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. I was fascinated by the idea of mirror-image chemicals, ones that do one thing in our "natural" world, but have "looking glass" artificial counterparts that do something totally different. The book is an incredibly interesting and even an easy read (and he does a much better job of making math and science sound cool than I do). I highly recommend it if you haven't read it yet.

Dr. Johansen geeked out on o-chem a little too much there. Deep breath. Next question.

Tell me about the best meal you've ever had.

Also a hard one. I think it's a multi-way tie between the first time I ate at Vij's in Vancouver after the opening of the first art show I was ever in, ordering all the appetizers at once (goat cheese fondue!) at the Palace Kitchen in Seattle, the dinner M and I had at St. Orres' in Gualala on one winter evening a little over two years ago for our almost-anniversary, lunch at the (sadly) now-defunct Empanada Parlor in Austin with Kyra and Justin, and all the times we got really drunk and Johnny and/or Heather decided to experiment in the kitchen with a) dynamite, b) deep fried chocolate plantain wontons or c) duck leg confit. All different circumstances and all different food, but they have a few distinct things in common. Each time was a new adventure, an experiment, a discovery - a new combination of flavors that I never would have thought to put together myself. Each place had a special ambiance that made the meal transcend the ordinariness of just another good meal. Each time was a meal shared - not just eaten together with, but shared - with good friends. I don't have nearly enough of those transcendent food experiences, these days, especially now that I lack the disposable income to splurge on good meals out and all my friends live a thousand miles away or more.

Your pictures seem to capture more of people than the meat on their bones. When you're looking through the lens of a camera at a person, what do you see?

I'm trying to keep their eyes in focus. I always fuck that part up. I think anything else is subconscious - I always get a little surprised when the film comes back.

What's the name of the best movie you have never seen?

2001. I've probably seen it in its entirety, but never in order, and never for longer than 20 minutes at a time. I always fall asleep.

What's your favorite dream?

I'm riding a ferris wheel with a friendly group of three-foot tall sentient Oreo cookies. We are hanging out, enjoying the nice summer evening, having a marvelous time, when the carnie stops the ride and makes the cookie I'm riding with get off the ride. Then he makes it leave because it's not a real Oreo cookie. It's a Hydrox cookie! I've been trying to analyze that one for years and I still can't figure out what it means.

Would you like to be next person in the interview chain? Send me a comment, I send you questions, you blog and the chain goes on...