Alpha-pinene
File sealed
The detectives are still writing this one up. The poster and the facts are below; the film and the interrogation room open soon.
Booking photographs
The suspect, from its real atomic coordinates. Drag to turn it. Height chart in nanometers, ruled every 0.05 nm. A pine needle is about seventy-five million times longer.
Rap sheet
- Answers to
- Alpha-pinene. Left- or right-handed; pines can’t agree which.
- Height
- 0.67 nm. Compact.
- Weight
- 0.23 zeptograms
- Build
- Two rings, one a cramped square of four carbons.
- Smell
- Warm, resinous, piney. Also: turpentine.
- Known for
- Making up 70 to 85 percent of turpentine.
- Habits
- Bark beetles breathe it in and turn it into a “gather here” scent.
- Associates
- Bornyl acetate and a hundred-odd other terpenes. A Christmas tree is a group job.
- Last seen
- A 5 mL tube marked PINE in the fridge at HQ.
of them in an ounce of fresh pine needles, give or take.
Pines vary. You’ve never seen one.
The poster on the street
This is the photocopied wanted poster for Alpha-pinene, No. 33. They were made for noticeboards around Boston, Cambridge and the rest of the east coast.
Found one? Scan its QR code with your phone. If you're a signed-in player, the sighting goes on your record with +1 XP.
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