Discovery & Invention, Period 5, 30 Jan '08

[offthelisthero.livejournal.com]

"I can't teach class today, I have a headache," Mohinder - this time wearing the more traditional white coat - said, holding a straight-face for a few seconds. "Or rather," as he put a small bottle of pills on the desk he was leaning against, "Today we'll be looking at pain relief."

"We're all wired to feel pain," continued Mohinder. "An individual warning system, without which our lives would almost certainly be much shorter. Alleviating pain takes one of three major pathways - inhibiting nerve endings at the pain site, numbing the central nervous system or local anaesthetics."

Mohinder went on to briefly touch on pain medications in general, before turning and sketching out a chemical formula on the board behind him, still talking. "Salicin was discovered as the active ingredient in willow bark, developed into salicylic acid, which was converted into sodium salicylate, before modification by a German chemist finally produced aspirin."

Looking back at the class Mohinder said, "This included testing of the experimental drugs on the chemist's father - now considered something completely unethical. You have salycilic and acetic acid on your desks, and also coats and goggles. Be sure to wear them when you use the equipment in front of you to prepare aspirin."

[OCD is up]

Comments

Re: Talk to Mohinder #4 [details NFB please]

[my-names-max.livejournal.com]

Max hung around after class until everyone had left so she could talk privately to Mohinder.

"So, is it considered unethical everywhere to test on people without their consent?"


[Radio can broadcast that Max stayed to talk to Mohinder, but please keep the details of the discussion NFB. Thanks.]

Re: Talk to Mohinder #4 [details NFB please]

[offthelisthero.livejournal.com]

"I can't speak for everywhere, but generally? Yes. It's one of the reasons the pharmaceutical industry is heavily regulated," Mohinder replied. "Whether there are exceptions to that - well, I would hope not."

Re: Talk to Mohinder #4 [details NFB please]

[my-names-max.livejournal.com]

"Do you think the government would ever fund secret locations to conduct testing that the general public wouldn't know about?" Max asked.

Re: Talk to Mohinder #4 [details NFB please]

[offthelisthero.livejournal.com]

"Without specifics? I think it would be harder for a government to maintain the necessary secrecy than a private company," said Mohinder. "They would need a powerful motivation to attempt it."

Re: Talk to Mohinder #4 [details NFB please]

[my-names-max.livejournal.com]

Max nodded. "Um... so what would you say if I told you that there was such a place where I'm from?"

Re: Talk to Mohinder #4 [details NFB please]

[offthelisthero.livejournal.com]

Mohinder was looking at Max a little carefully. "I'd ask how you knew about it, given what you mentioned about secrecy."

Re: Talk to Mohinder #4 [details NFB please]

[my-names-max.livejournal.com]

Max paused for a moment. She was a little hesitant to reveal her secret to a teacher, but she felt like she could trust Dr. Suresh.

"I was one of the experiments."

Re: Talk to Mohinder #4 [details NFB please]

[offthelisthero.livejournal.com]

"Were - are you all right?" asked Mohinder. He paused, then, considering her words, "I'm glad to hear that sentence is in the past tense."

Re: Talk to Mohinder #4 [details NFB please]

[my-names-max.livejournal.com]

"Well, I have some feline DNA in me which gives me excellent reflexes and eyesight," Max said, not mentioning the unfortunate side effect of going into heat a few times a year. "I escaped about eight years ago, a few months before The Pulse."

Re: Talk to Mohinder #4 [details NFB please]

[offthelisthero.livejournal.com]

"Foreign DNA blended with human... May I ask if was introduced before or after you were born?" Curiosity sometimes got the better of Mohinder. "And I take it the Pulse is one of our timeline differences."

Re: Talk to Mohinder #4 [details NFB please]

[my-names-max.livejournal.com]

"I don't really know the details," Max admitted, "but I think the cocktail was injected into the embreyo. And then they had surrogates to carry the babies to term."

She swallowed hard. It was awkward to talk so openly about this. "Yeah, the Pulse was a terrorist attack in June of 2009. Wiped out all the power on the Eastern seaboard and pretty much killed all of the technological infrastructure in the country."

Re: Talk to Mohinder #4 [details NFB please]

[offthelisthero.livejournal.com]

"That sounds..." And there were a lot of words Mohinder could have filled that sentence with, but he settled on, "Incredibly risky. If the state of genetics is anything similar to that of my world."

"I take it New York is gone." The city might as well have a target painted on it. Mohinder watched Max closely. "Was June 2009 that long ago for you?"

Re: Talk to Mohinder #4 [details NFB please]

[my-names-max.livejournal.com]

"Eight years ago," Max said. "I was nine when we escaped and the Pulse hit. So I was... born, for lack of a better word, in 2000."

She shrugged. "I'm not sure what New York is like. I was in California."

Re: Talk to Mohinder #4 [details NFB please]

[offthelisthero.livejournal.com]

"If it's been that long, are you still running?" Mohinder looked up, puzzled. "Fandom's a long way from California."

Re: Talk to Mohinder #4 [details NFB please]

[my-names-max.livejournal.com]

"Manticore wants us back," Max said. "I can't imagine they were thrilled about losing a dozen of their genetically enhanced soldiers."

She sighed. "I saw video footage of what looked like another X5, that's my designation, in Virginia. So I drove cross-country to check it out and ended up here. The principal told me I could enroll in classes."

Re: Talk to Mohinder #4 [details NFB please]

[offthelisthero.livejournal.com]

Mohinder filed away the name of the organisation, Max might be from an alternate world but it might not be that alternate.

"Not what you were expecting?" Mohinder asked, mouth quirked. "Have you found your fellow X5?"

Re: Talk to Mohinder #4 [details NFB please]

[my-names-max.livejournal.com]

"Not one bit," Max admitted with a small smile. "And, no, not yet."

Re: Talk to Mohinder #4 [details NFB please]

[offthelisthero.livejournal.com]

"Better or worse? Or just weirder?" It was Fandom, weirder always had to be an option.

Re: Talk to Mohinder #4 [details NFB please]

[my-names-max.livejournal.com]

"All of the above?"

Max chuckled. "It's better because I don't have to worry about anyone from Manticore finding me, it's worse because I know my brothers and sisters are still out there and they don't have the amenities I have here and it's weirder because I can talk to people about being genetically enhanced and they barely bat an eye."

Re: Talk to Mohinder #4 [details NFB please]

[offthelisthero.livejournal.com]

"The island does seem to have some kind of homing beacon for the unusual," Mohinder said, smiling. "Or else fate has a truly bizarre sense of humour."

"Have you been able to contact your family since your arrival?" he asked.

Re: Talk to Mohinder #4 [details NFB please]

[my-names-max.livejournal.com]

"I don't really have a family," Max said. "The others that escaped with me... we split up for safety and I haven't been able to find any of them since."

Re: Talk to Mohinder #4 [details NFB please]

[offthelisthero.livejournal.com]

"I'm sorry to hear that," responded Mohinder. "Would you have heard if they'd been recaptured?"

Re: Talk to Mohinder #4 [details NFB please]

[my-names-max.livejournal.com]

"No. And I don't even know if they all actually escaped," Max said.

Re: Talk to Mohinder #4 [details NFB please]

[offthelisthero.livejournal.com]

"Yet you crossed the country because you thought you might find one. There must be records somewhere, paperwork seems an immutable part of bureaucracy."

Re: Talk to Mohinder #4 [details NFB please]

[my-names-max.livejournal.com]

"A lot of that got wiped out in the Pulse though."