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Tiny amounts of alcohol dramatically extend a worm's life, but why?

(PhysOrg.com) -- Minuscule amounts of ethanol, the type of alcohol found in alcoholic beverages, can more than double the life span of a tiny worm known as Caenorhabditis elegans, which is used frequently ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created Jan 20, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (18) | comments 13 | with audio podcast

Sex-deprived fruit flies drink more alcohol: New study could uncover answers for human addictions

Sexually deprived male fruit flies exhibit a pattern of behavior that seems ripped from the pages of a sad-sack Raymond Carver story: when female fruit flies reject their sexual advances, the males are driven ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Mar 15, 2012 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (13) | comments 8 | with audio podcast

Three-strikes law fails to reduce crime

California's three-strikes law has not reduced violent crime, but has contributed significantly to the state's financial woes by substantially increasing the prison population, according to a University of ...

Other Sciences / Social Sciences

created Feb 28, 2012 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (8) | comments 8

'Driving under influence' test inside car will check driver's finger

(PhysOrg.com) -- TK Holdings Inc., a subsidiary of Takata Corporation of Japan, manufacturers of safety belts and airbag modules, will partner with TruTouch Technologies to create an in-car detection device ...

Technology / Hi Tech & Innovation

created Sep 30, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast report

Fruit flies use alcohol as a drug to kill parasites

Fruit flies infected with a blood-borne parasite consume alcohol to self-medicate, a behavior that greatly increases their survival rate, an Emory University study finds.

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Feb 16, 2012 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (2) | comments 12 | with audio podcast

Physicists develop a method of detecting counterfeit whiskey using spectroscopy

(PhysOrg.com) -- Physicists Praveen Ashok, Bavishna Praveen, and K. Dholakia working together at the University of St Andrews in Scotland have developed a method for testing whiskey for authenticity using ...

Physics / Optics & Photonics

created Nov 02, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 3 | with audio podcast report

Football team success throws fall grades of non-athletic college males for a loss

(PhysOrg.com) -- College football bowl season is in prime time, and a new report card is in: Male grades drop relative to female grades when their college football team performs well during the regular season.

Other Sciences / Economics & Business

created Dec 30, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Key lessons from history on alcohol taxes

Steep rises in taxes on alcohol do not necessarily reduce consumption, according to research funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) into the history of intoxicants in 16th and 17th England.

Other Sciences / Economics & Business

created May 01, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 1

Wine experts' ratings may be a wash for many consumers

Not all wines are created equal; neither are all wine tasters.

Other Sciences / Other

created Mar 01, 2012 | popularity 1.5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Alcohol

In chemistry, an alcohol is any organic compound in which a hydroxyl group (-OH) is bound to a carbon atom of an alkyl or substituted alkyl group. The general formula for a simple acyclic alcohol is CnH2n+1OH. In common terms, the word alcohol refers to ethanol, the type of alcohol found in alcoholic beverages.

Ethanol is a colorless, volatile liquid with a mild odor which can be obtained by the fermentation of sugars. (Industrially, it is more commonly obtained by ethylene hydration—the reaction of ethylene with water in the presence of phosphoric acid.) Ethanol is the most widely used depressant in the world, and has been for thousands of years. This sense underlies the term alcoholism (addiction to alcohol).

Other alcohols are usually described with a clarifying adjective, as in isopropyl alcohol (propan-2-ol) or wood alcohol (methyl alcohol, or methanol). The suffix -ol appears in the IUPAC chemical name of all alcohols.[citation needed]

There are three major subsets of alcohols: primary (1°), secondary (2°) and tertiary (3°), based upon the number of carbon atoms the C-OH group's carbon (shown in red) is bonded to. Ethanol is a simple 'primary' alcohol. The simplest secondary alcohol is isopropyl alcohol (propan-2-ol), and a simple tertiary alcohol is tert-butyl alcohol (2-methylpropan-2-ol).

For more information about Alcohol, read the full article at Wikipedia.
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