Hydroxy-alpha-sanshool
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 0.1 nm. Stood beside a DNA double helix (2 nm across), it would come nearly to the top.
Rap sheet
- Answers to
- Sanshool, for short.
- Height
- 1.9 nm, stretched out. Has a kink.
- Weight
- 0.44 zeptograms
- Build
- A long chain with four double bonds, one of them bent, and a hook at the end.
- Habits
- Makes your lips feel like they’re buzzing, about 50 times a second.
- Marks
- Sets off the nerves that feel the lightest touch.
- Origins
- Not a pepper at all: the dried husk of a prickly ash, a cousin of citrus.
- Last seen
- A 5 mL tube marked SICHUAN in the fridge at HQ.
of them in an ounce of Sichuan peppercorns, give or take.
Peppercorns vary a lot. You’ve never seen one.
The poster on the street
This is the photocopied wanted poster for Hydroxy-alpha-sanshool, No. 48. 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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