Chapter 39-3 Chemical Reactions

[scbubba]

Interesting... As soon as I heard all the names my brain went "PEDs!", but it never occurred to me to wonder why Raydon had that combination of stuff just lying around. It'd be interesting to know what else they kept in stock. Were they kept as PEDs? Were they working on muscle wasting diseases? Were they trying to make super-buff superhumans? Or were they just a wholesaler that had all sorts of stuff? As an aside, bodybuilders use Preparation H too - they rub it all over themselves an hour or so before competition to try and look as ripped as possible.

I'll just leave this here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay_Are...y_Co-operative

[Storm]

Could the first drug Puck takes a Picture of in the office be this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megestrol_acetate

[skankyfish]

Could the first drug Puck takes a Picture of in the office be this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megestrol_acetate

Very good call. And of course the un-nerving part of that is "When given in relatively high doses, it can substantially increase appetite in most individuals, even those with advanced cancer, and is often used to boost appetite and induce weight gain in patients with cancer or HIV/AIDS-associated cachexia."

[Gnex]

I'm not a doctor, but I am a medical scientist specialising in medicines information. The four compounds taken from Raydon read to me like a recipe for an athlete to dope with:

Somatotropin - human gorwth hormone. Used medically to promote growth in people with deficiencies, or other metabolic disorders; also used by body builders to build muscle and get hyooge.
Aranesp (darbepoeitin alfa) - used to increase the number of circulating red blood cells. Medically it's used to treat anaemia, in sport it's very like what Lance Armstrong used to dope for the Tour de France.
Stanozolol - an anabolic steroid, used to increase muscle mass. Beloved of body builders.
Follistatin isn't used widely as a drug, although there's gene therapy in development. Again, it would promote muscle growth and strength.

All of those things have already been covered I think, but it's worth saying that taken as a whole, this is basically a bodybuilding stack. Someone taking all of these would likely be big, mean, tough, and have pretty great endurance. Sound familiar?

Also not sure if it has been mentioned yet. But when Puck first starts calling out drugs he says something along the lines of "Meg... Meges..."???

That led me to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megestrol which would further support the massive steroid theory.

Edit *** Storm beats me as I am typing it up! Good call!!! ***

[scbubba]

Could the first drug Puck takes a Picture of in the office be this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megestrol_acetate

Interesting that one of the things mentioned is that is "capable of decreasing circulating androgen and estrogen concentrations to castrate levels in both sexes and significantly lowering the expression of the androgen receptor (AR) and the estrogen receptor (ER) in the body".

Makes me think back to Tanya's autopsy on the Little One at Fort Irwin where she mentioned that development of sexual characteristics were not there (or diminished). That could be because the original Little One donors/hosts/people/??? where children. But this agent could have repressed sexual/reproductive development as the Little Ones "grew up"...

Good find!

[skankyfish]

Argh, I replied but quoted Storm's post, and the link in it got me mdoerated. i'm too impatient to wait to point out that the really interesting part of that to me is

"When given in relatively high doses, it can substantially increase appetite in most individuals, even those with advanced cancer, and is often used to boost appetite and induce weight gain in patients with cancer or HIV/AIDS-associated cachexia."

The ability to decrease circulating androgens is actually counter-intuitive, as it will antagonise the stanozolol. Maybe different cocktails for different special zombies? Megestrol acetate for the Little Ones and stanozolol for the Behemoths?

[Storm]

Interesting that one of the things mentioned is that is "capable of decreasing circulating androgen and estrogen concentrations to castrate levels in both sexes and significantly lowering the expression of the androgen receptor (AR) and the estrogen receptor (ER) in the body".

Makes me think back to Tanya's autopsy on the Little One at Fort Irwin where she mentioned that development of sexual characteristics were not there (or diminished). That could be because the original Little One donors/hosts/people/??? where children. But this agent could have repressed sexual/reproductive development as the Little Ones "grew up"...

Good find!

Definitely interesting, though I paid more attention to this part:
"Megestrol acetate is used mainly as an appetite stimulant in a variety of conditions and as an antineoplastic agent in the treatment of breast, endometrial, and prostate cancers.[7] When given in relatively high doses, it can substantially increase appetite in most individuals, even those with advanced cancer, and is often used to boost appetite and induce weight gain in patients with cancer or HIV/AIDS-associated cachexia."
...Explains their hunger, I guess... Didn't Skittles say that some of the Zets only wanted to eat?

[Witch_Doctor]

So, what happens when they don't get their fix?

[Witch_Doctor]

Didn't Skittles say that some of the Zets only wanted to eat?

Yes, but he was talking about the normal ones.

But here's another question. If the Inklings need this stuff to be strong then how are they able to turn others into Inklings? Are they able to synthesize this stuff on their own? Are they able to transmit the ability to synthesize these drugs to others? What about the extra arteries?

[Idgetman]

Not sure if anyone else theorized this but I am going to say Dr. William Issac Wallace is Skittles. Just a wild guess. He was the first one I thought of when they said his name.