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[Tomby]

[Puzzle] - #240 - Silver - [Circles Set] - Elucidate

[oliverkeers13]

Does it say:

[WolverineFan]

Re: [Puzzle] - #240 - Silver - [Circles Set] - Elucidate

[erekose]

They're exactly the same as your ones, right down to the shiny packaging and limited edition 0.5 printing. I got there yesterday and basically watched the cards get carried into the store, there was some kind of picures and writing inside the boxes but I coulden't get a close look. Anyway, none of mine were new ones

[Mikeyj]

Are we talking something like this?. I've got some experience of less complicated ones and can identify functional groups. I know someone who can deal with more complex stuff too. When it says elucidate I presume we have to identify the molecule. Anyone know what Adrian Hon's Dphil was on?

OK from his blog...neuroscience, specifically something to do with synaptic transmission...so perhaps a sensible place to start with smaller molecules would be the neurotransmitters (acetylcholine, epinephrine, serotonin, GABA etc) and if it's bigger with receptors and ezymes involved in synthesis. Large molecules are likely to be proteins, in which case we should be able to work out stretches of sequence and do some database searches.

*Mikeyj gleeful*

[tanner]

as its called "elucidate" which means illuminate or illustrate could it be a chemical that has some photo effect -- shrugs -- inks or light emitting or something?

but then the root "lucid" also aplies to thinking and brain activity -- im just not being very lucid am i ?

guess we'll wait and see --

[Mikeyj]

That would be a very elegant little link. Elucidate is horribly overused in this sort of context though, a disproportionate number of papers use elucidate or elucidation in the title...some people do it out loud in presentations as well, where it displays a simple lack of vocabulary. I much prefer "who'd have thought?", to which the audience can reply in chorus with "you don't say!"

[tanner]

photo sensitive cells in the eye (rods and cones) or visual cortex
or just "cortex"

or "neurons"/ "pyramidal neurons" maybe

same old "grey matter" and card is grey

[Scott]

hm. and here I see a pretty girl in a corset-dress.

[oliverkeers13]

I see a sad clown with wonky eyes.

[aleph13]

Could it be a topographical map of something? Yet another spot on Mars, perhaps?

[oliverkeers13]

Could be a monochrome picture of the stains in Adrian Hon's underwear!

[Leeravitz]

Yeah, not really my field, and I'm probably going to sound like a fool for stating the obvious on this one, but the first thing that springs to my mind on seeing the card is thermal resonancing of some sort. Generally, it'd be in graded lines of colour, but maybe, that would have given the game away as to what was being seen, so the card has become 'greyed out' to make matters trickier (or maybe it's silver, aptly enough). This would tie in with the 'light' references, I guess. So, I'm guessing it's the heat signature of something or other and we have to work out what it is. Does that sound vague enough to you lot?

[othuum]

Looks like a vertical section through an alpha helix to me - possibly DNA?

Probably not a Ramachandran plot as you would require axis to determine the phi and psi angles to know what protein it was.

[toongoon]