science week: chemistry

unfortunately, the one picture i managed to get of this girl's tattoos before she got off the train makes figuring out what they are difficult.  i'm not much of a chemist to start with, but it looks like a benzene ring on the right there with a couple added hydroxides and maybe an ammonia.  not sure what all that adds up to.  that thing on the left, who knows?  a fullerene with dangly parts maybe?  or, this could all just be another way for the cool kids to pick on nerds for having interest in nerdy nerdiness.

whatever it is, all i can say is i admire such blatant displays of devotion to a topic that normally doesn't get any love, at least in the level of detail and as publicly as above*.  regardless, we may have come far enough to see "i ♥ nerds" t-shirts on mta trains (though only once so far), but i have yet to see an

"i ♥ " 

despite how true it is--maybe because that molecule is bad for your ♥ (in case you're wondering just what the molecule is, try out this light reading).

* --  even if these aren't real chemicals and it is some sort of inside joke, it's so inside as to seem like a  public display of devotion.