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Real-World Synthehol In Development

Ada_Rules writes "Researchers at the Imperial College London have announced development of an alcohol substitute that has many of the same properties as the Synthehol from the series Star Trek, in that one will get a buzz from it but will not end up with a hangover. In addition you will have the option of getting immediately sober if you so desire it. Let's hope this is not the typical vaporware. It is not that I really want a drink of Synthehol, but with its release I assume Romulan Ale won't be far behind."

18 of 273 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Headache? by HornWumpus · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Ethanol does not metabolize into methanol.

    Further Smirnoff is perfectly fine Vodka.

    Anybody who spends more then about $US12 on a 750 of Vodka is just a moron who watches too much TV and believes what he sees on commercials.

    Save your money for booze where quality is harder to achieve. Vodka is just pure Ethanol and water.

    Some of the most toxic components of booze are leached out of the char in the barrels. If you must get drunk do it on clear booze for lesser hangovers.

    --
    John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  2. Re:Missing the point... by tyroneking · · Score: 2, Insightful

    ... but we're not all writers or rock stars.

  3. Better Profit Through Pharmaceuticals by handy_vandal · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "Prof Nutt and his team are concentrating their efforts on benzodiazepines, of which diazepam, the chief ingredient of Valium is one."

    In other words, let's invent another Happy Pill that will make big profit for Big Pharmco. And we'll call it an "alcohol substitute" because alcohol is well-known as the active ingredient in alcoholism, and you're in favor of a cure for alcoholism, right?

    Good thing they're not calling it a "Valium analog", what with Valium's well-known and deserved reputation for causing addiction, tolerance, and withdrawal.

    --
    -kgj
  4. Toxicity by hwyhobo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If it is ingested orally, then it will be metabolized in the liver. What about its toxicity? If it's the same or higher than alcohol, then the illusion of safety may in the end be detrimental to the health of the user.

    --
    End anonymous moderation and posting on /.
  5. Re:Not really by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    And this is the "we can just turn it off" part:

    “I’ve been in experiments where I’ve taken benzos,” said Professor Nutt. “One minute I was sedated and nearly asleep, five minutes later I was giving a lecture.

    I think we've seen this show before. It was called the 1950's and 60's.

    Can't sleep? Take a pill to sleep. Trouble waking up? Take a pill to wake up. Now you're really awake and agitated and jittery? Take a pill to calm you down.

    Be sure to wash those pills down with a nice distilled beverage of your choice and don't forget have a refreshing smoke.

  6. Re:No thanks, I'm drinking. by hitmark · · Score: 2, Insightful

    meh, just wait for the recipe to hit the net, and for someone to come up with a way to make it in a bathtub...

    --
    comment first, facts later. http://chem.tufts.edu/AnswersInScience/RelativityofWrong.htm
  7. Re:Missing the point... by popo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Was that completely depressing for anyone else?

    --
    ------ The best brain training is now totally free : )
  8. The Puritans won't like this. by plopez · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Or the Catholics. If you're going to have fun, the punishment must be built-in.

    --
    putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
  9. I'm not alone by 7-Vodka · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You know the first thing I'm gonna fucking do, is mix this shit in my rum and cokes while chewing some nicotine gum and smoking a fat joint.
    And I know I'm not the only one.

    --

    Liberty.

  10. What for? by bistromath007 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    To avoid a hangover with the real stuff, just stay hydrated. Not difficult.

  11. slip the antidote in his drink? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    The antidote for being drunk or the antidote for being obnoxious?

  12. Re:Headache? by Abcd1234 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    So I suppose, then, that you have a citation or two that demonstrates that alcohol plays on role, whatsoever, in the development of a hangover? I know I've never come across such a thing, which seems to suggest such a theory is *highly* unlikely, but hey, I could certainly be wrong.

  13. Re:Headache? by wizardforce · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Paracetamol is not better known as Tylenol, only a tiny proportion of the world population know paracetamol as Tylenol.

    Nonsense. Slashdot is a US centric site and here the brand name is Tylenol.

    Paracetamol is metabolized whether there is alcohol involved or not; Paracetamol is unhealthy for the liver regardless.

    both of them are bad for the liver. The combination of the two is worse than either of them by themselves. The maximum dose of Tylenol is cut in half if it is taken with a reasonable amount of Alcohol. SO the statement that taking Tylenol and Alcohol together is bad for your Liver is still true.

    --
    Sigs are too short to say anything truly profound so read the above post instead.
  14. Re:Headache? by 19thNervousBreakdown · · Score: 5, Insightful

    As someone who's drank practically every type of ethanol under the sun, from Busch beer to Johnny Walker Blue to fortified "wine" to home-brewed mead to gluten-free beer to Cristal to Everclear, in every combination imaginable, getting blackout drunk on nothing but neat Jim Beams all night or Guinness or a different drink every time, who's tried every hangover cure, multivitamins, aspirin, Vicodin, hair of the dog, bacon and eggs, a gallon of water before bed, drinking a large glass of water between every alcoholic beverage, you name it, I can say with the utmost confidence that the "impurities" have fuck-all effect on your hangover.

    Try evaporating all the alcohol out of the worst possible plastic-bottle booze, and drink the remains all the way down. You won't feel a thing. Now go raise your BAC to 0.25% with 100% pure lab-grade ethanol, drink a bottle of water between every serving, take a four Tylenol before bed, and tell me how you feel in the morning.

    You get hung over because you drank poison. The perfect hangover cure is morphine. Thread over.

    --
    <xml><I><am><so><damn>Web 2.0</damn></so></am></I></xml>
  15. Re:Actually, we do have safe alcohol substitute by Johnno74 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Did you RTFA?

    "The new alcohol is being developed by a team at Imperial College London, led by Professor David Nutt,"

  16. Re:Actually, we do have safe alcohol substitute by lawpoop · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I didn't read the article. Does the fact of whose doing the research really have any bearing on the fact that we do have safer alternatives to alcohol already?

    --
    Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
    -- Pablo Picasso
  17. Re:Actually, we do have safe alcohol substitute by Zouden · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Perhaps Professor Nutt knows a little bit more about drug safety and legislation than you. He knows there are safer drugs, yet he also knows that they're not going to be legalised anytime soon.

    --
    "A week in the lab saves an hour in the library"
  18. Re:Actually, we do have safe alcohol substitute by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    no, but the point is, David Nutt has TRIED to get the safer alternatives to be seen sensibly, and that's failed, so now he's trying something new.