#alcohol

#alcohol

Why Hangovers Hurt So MuchDrinking alcohol causes hangovers, and your favorite liquor is most likely to cause one because that's the liquor you drink too much of. Whether a liquor contains both ethanol and methanol may make a hangover even worse. Otherwise, the likelihood and severity of a hangover is due to your age, health, weight, and most of all, how much you drank last night. But how does alcohol cause so many ghastly hangover symptoms? It's pretty complicated, because alcohol interferes with many different biological functions, as explained by Judy Grisel in this TED-Ed lesson. It's all pretty unpleasant, and might even put you off liquor for a while. And that's the only sure way to prevent a hangover. This video is a followup to an earlier lesson about exactly what alcohol does in your body to make you drunk. -via Damn Interesting#hangover #alcohol #physiology #drinking

Hamsters Have an Epic Tolerance for AlcoholScientists have long known that hamsters have an affinity for alcohol. They will approach fermented fruit with an eagerness not seen in other species. Experiments show they can drink a lot more, adjusted for weight, than other species as well. Gwen Lupfer of the University of Alaska Anchorage gave dwarf hamsters alcohol to see how they tolerated it. They noted some surprising findings. 1. They didn't have to train the hamsters to drink alcohol, as with other animals and even humans. The hamsters took right to the drink. One hamster named Bacardi would even do tasks to get an alcohol reward. 2. The hamsters showed a great alcohol tolerance. They could ingest 7.5 g/kg without impairment. Lupfer said, "At 1 g/kg humans are too drunk to drive." However, they did not test the hamsters' driving ability. 3. That tolerance disappeared when the hamsters were injected with alcohol instead of drinking it. The scientists think the animals' digestive systems may have something to do with metabolizing liquor. Read more about hamsters and their drinking habits at Animalogic. -via Fark#hamster #alcohol

This Is a Water Bug-Flavored Wine CoolerOr is it a beer? I’m not sure. But let’s put aside, for the moment, the precise means in which this drink will leave you intoxicated. We’ll begin with your decision to drink a substance deliberately designed to taste like a particular species of Taiwanese water bug.How do they know what this water bug tastes like? Sora News 24 explains that this insect is known in much of East Asia has having a sweet flavor similar to that of shrimp. A vinter/brewer/distiller in Japan now offers that delicious water bug flavor as a drink that translates into “Insect Sour.” It has 5% alcohol, so you’ll need to knock back a few to feel the bug-like effects.-via Dave Barry | Image: PR Times#Japan #insects #alcohol

Ancient Pots Found In China Suggest That Humans Have Been Drinking Beer Since 9,000 Years AgoHow long have we been acquainted with alcohol? Turns out we’ve been acquainted with the beverage way before the dawn of some of the oldest civilizations in the world. Researchers have found ancient pots at a burial site at Qiaotou in Southern China. These pots are said to date back 9,000 years, and the microfossil residues found in these pots suggest that they were used to hold beer made of rice.Because these beer vessels were found near an ancient burial site, the researchers believe that the beer was used in ceremonies which honored the dead.The beer inside the pots were not the only ones that were deemed special; the pots themselves were special, too.The ancient pots were discovered in a platform mound, which was surrounded by a human-made ditch, based on ongoing excavations at Qiaotou. No residential structures were found at the site. The mound contained two human skeletons and multiple pottery pits with high-quality pottery vessels. As the study reports, these artifacts are probably some of “the earliest known painted pottery in the world.” No pottery of this kind has been found at any other sites dating to this time period.(Image Credit: Leping Jiang)#Alcohol #Beer #Fermentation #AncientChina #Culture #Archeology #BeerMaking #Rituals #Ceremonies #AncientCivilization

The Booziest Comet Ever! Comet 46P/Wirtanen has the Highest Alcohol Content of Any CometComet 46P/Wirtanen was nicknamed the "Christmas Comet" when it made its flyby of Earth back in 2018, due to its holiday timing and its bright green glow. Now, a new study shows why it has another reason for its holiday cheer: it's full of booze!"46P/Wirtanen has one of the highest alcohol-to-aldehyde ratios measured in any comet to date," stated cometary scientist Neil Dello Russo of Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory who studied the comet at the W.M. Keck Observatory on Manuakea in Hawaii, "This tells us information about how carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen molecules were distributed in the early solar system where Wirtanen formed."Image: Martin Stojanovski/Wikimedia Commons#comet #alcohol #Christmas #astronomy #WMKeckObservatory