Sorry for the gratuitous bump, but* I have a question to ask of the community... I'm looking for a simple and free/open-source art/drawing program that has layering like PS does. It can be as simple as MSpaint, (prefer it actually) as long as it has a layering tool.

I'm brainstorming about this image and I'm about to get serious about investigating and posting my findings. I think it is high time I did... It's been posted for something like six months now.

"Over scienceing" something has been mentioned before... Although I don't disagree, I can't help it. I am a scientist... I may not be what is referred to as "classically trained," but I am nonetheless. I see a puzzle, a mystery, one that might be able to work out for myself and I want to tackle it. It's FUN. It's also something as it turns out, might actually shed some light on the subject at hand.

Quote Originally Posted by Red Shirt View Post
What I really need is an oooooold library, like the ones I had growing up in the north east. The creepy kind with a national historic marker out front for "Secret Meeting Site for so and so" and the funny smelling basement.
Having moved "home" to New England, I now have access to those kinds of libraries again.


As a parting shot for the evening of some of my preliminary findings:

This:
towtm working copy1.jpg
Appears to be a Hydrogenated Isomer of the Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon Anthracene. It is derived from coal tar, used to produce red dye and it is an organic semi-conductor.

This:
towtm working copy3.jpg
Appears to be the amino acid Proline.
Proline is an α-amino acid, one of the twenty DNA-encoded amino acids.
Proline and its derivatives are often used as asymmetric catalysts in organic reactions.
Can anyone here read/translate (what I think is) Kanji?
towtm working copy2.jpg


*Not so gratuitous after all. Turns out I had more to say than I realized.