Isn't it Fe-ic...

CAUTION: extreme nerdiness ahead

ok, you were warned...

last night i learned something that was actually interesting in my adv. inorganic class. i doubt anyone else will find it as cool as me, but-- oh well. we had the assignment to read a journal article and be prepared to discuss it in class. i had skimmed through it but didn't actually read the whole thing, so i missed some of the details. it had to do with developing photosensitizers being used to treat certain types of tumors. being an inorganic class, we mainly dwelled on the symmetries of 3 different metalloporhyrin molecules. porphyrin is a basic structure that is present in all kinds of enzymes and biomolecules. it looks like this:

the point is, all those double bonds happen to be conjugated (meaning every other one, double, single...). so it has the capacity to absorb tons of light energy, especially visible light. thats why its in molecules like chlorophyll, b vitamins, hemoglobin, etc. the hole in the middle is occupied with various metals depending on what it is. so when all that energy is absorbed, it has to go somewhere... it just so happens that it is just enough energy to turn triplet oxygen (safe) into singlet oxygen (not so safe... it can cause cell damage, like sunburns).

from a medical standpoint, this is huge. tumors are being treated by essentially raising the levels of porphyrins in the persons body then using fiber optics to target the tumor and give it a really nasty sunburn from the inside, causing it damage, and hopefully death. pretty amazing if you ask me...

but what caught my attention last night is this: there are medical conditions that cause people to have excess porhyrins in their bodies, usually the type without the metal ion in the middle. sometimes they tend to concentrate in the skin and can cause a person to sunburn very quickly. Their bodies are always trying to find more metal ions (like iron in hemoglobin) to insert into the porhyrin ring to reduce these effects. another compensatory effect is growing excess hair in an attempt to sheild the skin from light. these people would likely become nocturnal.

wait-- lemme get this straight.

they only come out at night....

looking for bloody iron....

or they're reeallly hairy...

sounds like vampires and werewolves to me!!

i dont know if my professor meant to share this with us the week of halloween or not, but the irony was not lost on me! i love learning about the roots of our holiday traditions and how they get slanted over centuries. and since halloween is one of my very favorites, this was too cool. hope you all have a great holiday weekend!! watch out for those little blood-suc-- um, i mean... precious children!!