Jim_Clemente: Actually, that is an issue I have discussed with the writers many times. It is why we changed the name of the drug we mentioned in Big Sea to Trilimide ( a made up drug). We do not want to give potential offenders any new ideas. Also, the kinds of things we focus on in the show are Behaviors that are intrinsic to that particular person. They are not the kinds of things they can change on a whim. Other shows may do that, but we stay away from forensics on Criminal Minds... Deliberately.

Via Criminal Minds Fanatic Blog

Explains why spending the past 5+ hours Googling and consulting a biomedical friend on 'trilimide' came up with nothing.

A real-life drug which actually fits the bill however is a type of anticholinergic known as scopolamine. Like 'trilimide', the drug's most common use is to allay motion sickness. There are records of scopolamine also being used to reduce parkinsonian tremors, uveitis and iritis (both inflammation of the eye).

Further Google searches cement the fact that the CM writers probably based their fictional 'trilimide' on  Colombia's 'Devil Breath' or burundanga. Burundanga is a street version of scopolamine which became a hot topic of chain e-mail rumors/hoaxes/urban legends a few years back, as duly noted by Snopes and Hoax-slayer. Victims often come in contact with the drug through ingestion or inhalation (when the drug is blown into the face). There are texts (my biomedical friend's textbooks really) which states that the drugs are even well-absorbed in the conjunctival (eye) membrane. Nasal insufflation itself already allows a faster onset of effect as compared to ingestion. Therefore, victims are treated to a double whammy of burundanga absorption. There's a video was made by VBS TV on burundanga :



The zombielike effects of the burundanga is often debatable (as is the problem with exaggeration when it comes to lurid horror urban legends). A consistent thread to victims' accounts is memory loss. Scopolamine is in fact an antagonist for the neurotransmitter acetycholine (Ach). Ach is vital in movement regulation (which explains scopolamine's use in movement disorders) and learning and short-term memory. Thus, inhibiting Ach affects the victim's ability to recall events at the point of drug assimilation into the body system.

Other known side effects of scopolamine are drowsiness (in recommended dosages) and amnesia (in sensitive individuals). At toxic doses, poisoned individuals could exhibit dry mouth, mydriasis (blurred vision), tachycardia, hot and flushed skin, agitation, delirium - as shown in the adage 'dry as a bone, blind as a bat, red as a beet, mad as a hatter'. Severe side effects include confusion, difficulty urinating, fast or irregular heartbeat, hallucinations, disorientation, mood or mental changes, trouble speaking and severe drowsiness. It is easy to see how bystanders might interpret several of these symptoms together as 'zombielike'.

The question remains if scopolamine actually makes one more vulnerable to suggestion. So far, I couldn't find any confirmation how the drug's mechanism of action would cause victims to be more likely to consent to a criminal's commands. After all, Ach inhibition should only affect the storage of new memories. There is still the possibility however that scopolamine affects the brain in other ways other than blocking acetylcholine.

Interestingly, scopolamine has actually been used as a truth serum in the past.

Now I can imagine those critters building a massive base inside of my dorm's walls whilst plotting revenge for my unprecedented interruption of their kitchen-raiding missions.

Original source: http://thefuuuucomics.tumblr.com

New pairs of wigglies!

Do you know that toe socks can prevent blisters to your toes by reducing the friction between them?

Aside from that, they are more comfortable and effective at insulating those toesies.

And yes, they let your toes wiggle all they want.

Shamelessly love them.

Good mood today for some caecilian factoids:

The poison of the golden dart frog (Phylobates terriblis), an alkaloid Batrachotoxin, is potent enough to kill 100 adult humans if it enters the bloodstream or is consumed.

The secretion from the Ecuadorian species Epipedobates tricolor has been adapted to create a pain killer called ABT-594 “epibatidine”, which is 200 times more potent than morphine. Its toxins is one of the most venomous among all frogs.

The cane toad, one of the more well-known 'psychoactive toads', secretes bufotoxins in small quantities from its skin. Bufotenin, a type of bufotoxin, is classified as a Class 1 drug alongside heroin and cannabis under the Australian law.

The Colorado River toad (Bufo alverius) however, is the only psychoactive toad species known so far to secrete both bufotoxin and 5-Me-O-DMT (a powerful psychedelic substance) in its skin and venom. The compound is extremely hallucinogen when vaporized by heat and inhaled in the form of smoke. An adequate dose for a normal, average-size adult is of the size of a match head.

Abnormal limb growth (ectromelia: missing limbs and ectrodactyly: extra limbs) is observable in frogs which had the parasitic flatworm Riberoria trematodes burrow into areas of the tadpole where limbs are developing. Cysts formed around the parasite can damage or disrupt normal limb development. Other hypotheses for this limb malformation phenomena of amphibian malformation include increased UV radiation (due to ozone thinning), exposure to high levels of nitrogenous fertilizers (runoffs from agricultural lands), attempted predation and cannibalism.

Antimicrobial peptides from frog or toad skin has been observed to inhibit HIV infection.The Australian red-eyed tree frog, Litoria chloris, has the highest levels of peptides. Source: Science Daily: Frog Peptides Block HIV in Lab Study

The Borneon Flat-Headed Frog is the only frog species known to be entirely lungless, fully depending on respiration through its skin. 

Lancelot Hogben developed the Bufo test (named after the toad species used, Bufo arerarum). It is a pregnancy test where a female frog is injected with the serum or urine of the patient. If the frog produces eggs in the next 24 hours, the patient is deemed pregnant. Similarly in the cane toad, injecting urine laden with hCG into the lymph glands of the male toad induces production of spermatozoa.






Additional links:
Discovery of the Purple Frog: Living Fossil (BBC News)

Aceh. Haiti. New Orleans. Sichuan.  Christchurch. Kashmir. 9/11.

It's the same. Waking one day, believing everything to be the usual when at one part of the world far away, life has changed in inexplicably, terrifying, unexpected ways.

On March 11th, Japan experienced an approximately 9.0 Mw scale earthquake off the coast of Sendai, Honshu in the Japan Trench. It is likely to be the largest earthquake to have ever hit Japan in its recorded history. Not long after, tsunami waves hit Japan's Pacific Coast, with even 10m-high tsunami waves flooding the Sendai Airport. At least 600 are dead with 300 bodies found in one of the worst-hit cities, Sendai. About 700 are  missing, according to the Tokyo Broadcasting System.

Tsunami alerts have been raised in Hawaii, California and Oregon.

Japan Incident Map of Earthquake and Tsunami