apparently i'm going to be using the month of october to do some hard-core biochem research so i don't look like an idiot when i try to explain all my lovely fancy ideas about hemoglobin.  i made it harder on myself, i think, because the person/people explaining are research scientists and the person they are explaining to works in hematology...hmmm...maybe i should put some non-science person in the room with them so there is a valid reason for the explanations to be less technical (= boring and wordy and really requiring diagrams).  i can't imagine it would be interesting to read a bunch of overly technical science crap about how hemoglobin works normally and then how my people can manipulate it.  that's right!  manipulating hemoglobin!  my main plot point is that there are people who can either manipulate someone else's hemoglobin (and for god's sake, i'm going to start abbreviating it - Hb = hemoglobin) or interpret electrical/electrochemical impulses from some else's Hb.  so these fancy people can do things like "hear" thoughts in close proximity, change someone's blood to rust goo by oxidizing the iron in their Hb (or maybe stanch massive bleeding in an emergency), keep them from carrying oxygen in their blood (or increase the amount of oxygen if they're being helpful), speed up the breakdown of Hb to build up catabolites and make someone light-sensitive, cure sickle-cell anemia, maybe even rework some of their Hb so the iron is replaced with magnesium and turn it into chlorophyll so they can make their own sugars for nutrients.  farfetched, yes.  but it amuses me.  i just have to figure out how to make it not boring!!

anyway, maybe i will try to post some simpler explanations of the science-y aspects on here as i go and try to get it nano-ready.  it would probably help me clarify and keep unnecessary words out of my nano.  and i can't believe i'm already trying to keep words OUT of  my nano.  how silly of me!