Select Page

Captain Skellett has been seriously spoilt by her boyfriend today, who sent her the following –

So Delicious

And the chocolate is so tasty!!! If you’re from Aus or NZ, you can get ’em from Edible Blooms.

Now I work on the front desk, and I spend about an hour a day sorting mail and receiving packages from couriers, so when the courier walked through the door with this in his hand I had a bit of an eye-roll “argh, what do I have to do NOW” moment, and then he said “this is actually for you,” (yep, I’m on a first name basis with most of the couriers.) And I was all AW!!! Sweetest boyfriend ever!!!11one

This is not much of a post, I know, and I was fully intending to finish quite a chunky post tonight, but my brain has now been completely flooded with phenylethylamine (the love molecule) and dopamine (the rewards, nice-things and addiction molecule), and is really not working at all. It’s mostly just feeling smiley and singing love songs.

Man, these have GOT to be two of my favourite molecules. So addicted right now 🙂 Let’s make this slightly more scientific and dig the molecules in all their structural glory.

phenylethylamine - the love molecule

Ahh… a sensibly named structure. You could draw it just from the name. Phenyl group, ethyl group, amine group. Love it.

Dopamine

Drawing from my courses on molecular and drug design, I would say that the molecules bind to the receptors in a large positive pocket (attracting the negativity of the phenyl) and in a small negative pocket (attracting the positivity of the amine), and the two pockets are an ethyl group distance apart. The hydroxyl groups on the dopamine might also do some hydrogen bonding with amino acids within the pocket that are that way inclined. Sexy chemistry.