My first publication in the New York Times doesn’t have my name on it – but I’m proud of it nonetheless. It’s an Op-Ed about the dangers of P.S.A. testing that I penned for Dr. Richard Ablin, who discovered prostate specific antigen in 1970. The piece made it to the top of the “most e-mailed” list at the Times. Read it here.

Since 1955, Sasha has invented something like 200 new psychoactive drugs. He began his career as a chemist for Dow, making insecticides. Someone gave him mescaline, the active ingredient in peyote cactus, and he became intrigued. Soon he began manipulating the mescaline molecule to invent new compounds, many with similar effects.

Dow became disenchanted with Sasha’s work, which he was publishing regularly in scientific journals, so he struck out on his own. He set up a lab in the East Bay area of California where he has been working his magic ever since.

In the late 1970s, Sasha resurrected a forgotten molecule, MDMA, and figured out a relatively easy way to synthesize it. The drug gave him a powerful sense of connection with others, and it soon appeared in psychotherapists’ offices. Originally called Adam, the MDMA grew in popularity among young party-goers as Ecstasy. The federal government banned it in the mid-1980s, prompting a hiatus in all therapeutic MDMA research until just a few years ago. A resurgence of interest in medical MDMA has led to clinical studies in the U.S. and Europe for post-traumatic stress disorder.

For a long time, Sasha maintained a special relationship with the Drug Enforcement Agency. One of his best friends was a chemist at the agency, and Sasha had a license to work with schedule I drugs (the most restrictive category). He kept the DEA apprised of his work and they let him do his thing.

But in the mid-1990s that relationship ended. A few years earlier, Sasha had published PIHKAL, a book that narrates his relationship with his wife Ann – an integral partner in his work – and details his invention of new psychedelics and empathogens (the former term refers to drugs with LSD-like effects, the latter to MDMA-like drugs). The book contains brief recipes for synthesizing the drugs as well as reports from his and Ann’s experiences with them. The DEA stormed Sasha’s lab, and he subsquently decided to give up his license to work with scheduled substances. Then he continued devising new molecules that weren’t scheduled and published a second book of recipes.

The Shulgins’ first book has sold about 6o,000 copies, a huge number for a self-published work. At the Mind States meeting Sasha is something of a Gandalf figure – a revered and beloved wizard. Last night, the 50 meeting attendees gathered to wish him happy birthday. The cake was frosted with a drawing of one of the molecules he invented. Dave, from an L.A. band called the Insect Surfers, wrote and sang a song about carbon rings and methyl groups. An artist from New York, Joe Coleman, spontaneously sketched Sasha and Ann, and the meeting organizer, Jon Hanna, showed a video tribute. Sasha seemed touched and told many of his trademark corny jokes.

Sasha hopes to finish his third book by the end of the year. It’s a major work, a 2000-page compendium of psychoactive drugs with detailed references to human and animal studies. After finishing the book, he’ll head back to the lab. (Although his eyesight is poor, he’s still spry and he recently hired a helper who can manipulate glassware.) Ann says she’s going to lock Sasha in the lab and refuse to feed him until he invents some new molecules. During an interview the other day, Sasha outlined for me some of his planned creations. He has a long list of ideas he wants to test.

Sasha is deeply dismayed by the war on drugs and the ever-expanding list of molecules – many of his own creation – that are banned. As for his favorite drug, he says that, despite an estimated 4,000 psychedelic experiences, he likes a “nice inexpensive Zinfandel.” The birthday celebrants obliged, and the psychedelic godfather sipped it with eyes bright and smile beaming.

The main room measures about 20 feet square, enough space for a queen bed, a few chairs and a small table. Three sides are enclosed, with the fourth open to a view of Costa Rica’s Central Valley. The room sits in the wide crotch of the tree, and it’s solid. “It’s not going anywhere,” says Tommy. He’s right – there have been some pretty stiff gusts this afternoon and I haven’t felt the place sway an inch.

Below the bedroom to the left is a bathroom, with a lovely tiled shower that I shared with a large spider this morning.

[Well, I found out that only the main bedroom light and the hot water are solar. The outlets in the treehouse are wired to the grid, which went dead. I had arrogantly neglected to charge my computer earlier in the day, thinking I'd have juice whenever I wanted it. I'm finishing this post from handwritten notes.]

Lighting strikes nearby, and I jump. It was a doozy, ripping open the heavens. I’m beginning to wonder what would happen if the tree got zapped. That’s three big lightning strikes that felt like they were on top of me. Wow – that was REALLY loud.

Just as I’m thinking about climbing down and getting drenched, I hear Tommy. He’s come by to check on me. As the wind blows the rain into the treetop bedroom, he asks if I think he should enclose the fourth side. Nah, I say. The point of a treehouse is to commune with nature a bit, even in a storm. Or especially in a storm. He agrees but says less outdoorsy visitors don’t.

He tells me the treehouse started as fairly simple project – a platform, roof, and stairs. “Just a place to hang out for an afternoon and maybe bring a ladyfriend,” he says. Then he got ambitious and added the roof, walls, bathroom, and solar system. I notice later that thick stone walls support the utility room below the bathroom.

As he worked on the project, Tommy found a bunch of websites devoted to the apparently growing fad of building real residences in trees. “There are some serious treehouses out there,” he says. I think this one is plenty serious, and despite the howling wind and raging thunderstorm, I decide to stay.

On Saturday I met the lead actor in my favorite TV show, a science drama from Canada called ReGenesis. Peter Outerbridge plays bombastic (and highly sexed) biologist David Sandstrom, who runs a biotech investigations outfit that tackles the biggies – cloning, the fallout from the discovery of a gay gene, an outbreak of a reconstructed 1918 flu virus and so on.

Now in its third season, ReGenesis has yet to make it to the U.S. airwaves. But it can be downloaded off BitTorrent, which is how I watch it. This is illegal, but the show’s creator, Christina Jennings, gave me her blessing. She’s keen to build a U.S. audience for the show, which is seen in 110 countries.

Last summer, I wrote a short piece about the show for Science magazine. In it, I quoted Jennings and the show’s scientific consultant, University of Toronto protein researcher Aled Edwards, who vets every script for scientific plausibility.

So on my trip to Toronto last week to cover the American Society for Microbiology meeting, I called up the ReGenesis folks and, coincidence, they were giving a panel talk at the Subtle Technologies Conference, which brings together artists who dabble in biology as a medium. That’s a whole ‘nother story….

Peter was great – modest and charming. I guess being a big Canadian actor goes to one’s head less than being a big Hollywood actor. I chatted with him while he chain smoked those expensive Canadian cigarettes. He has an enormous head and a slender body – I guess that’s what the camera loves.

Turns out he began college as an aeronautical engineering student before the acting bug bit him. He’s built a ton of model rockets and if he ever starts making Tom Cruise money he’ll buy a trip to the space station.

I asked him if he knew what a bioinformaticist was before he began doing the show. He said, “No, and I still have no idea.” I tried to explain how bioinformatics is all about sifting for patterns in the oceans of genomic data.

Then I asked Peter for the phone number of Mayko Nguyen, the actress who plays the smokin’ hot bioinformaticist on the show. Peter cracked up and claimed he didn’t have her number – he’s 42 and married with a kid, while she’s 26 and single. “We don’t really do the club scene after work,” said Peter.

Ah well…next time…which will be in August. I’ve been invited to watch as season 4 begins filming. I’m almost as eager to see the ReGenesis set as I am to meet Mayko – the set is tricked out with real equipment, including a half-million dollar electron microscope donated by Zeiss. Now that’s smokin’!