So, what'll it be, Mister... The name's Bond.
Ionic bond. Taken, not shared. Hello and welcome
to The Lab, where we take your questions and
turn them into experiments every Sunday. My
name's Mitch and I'm Greg and today we're
going to be getting drunk in the name of science.
So study's actually show that it's really
hard when you're drinking to predict how drunk
you actually are, so we're gonna play with
that a little bit. We're going to be doing
something else. Oh yeah, we're gonna actually
also be seeing if can trick a breathalyzer
into thinking we're not drunk after we've
already had quite a bit to drink. And we're
gonna test some scientific theories about
whether or not you can sober up really quickly.
So we're essentially going to have a really
fast party. Test #1. To start, we want to
say that obviously we are here trying to have
a talk about alcohol as a chemical that enters
your body and is a poison and is something
that can be very addictive. So, we're not
condoning alcohol, but we're trying to, you
know, scientifically look at what it does
to our bodies as something that many people
in our society do it's a really strong custom
and part of our culture. On that note, cheers!
So, an interesting thing about beer that relates
to science is that Niels Bohr, who was a Danish
scientist, after receiving the Nobel Prize,
Karlsberg, a very famous Danish--Danish famish--brewery
actually opened a line of beer right directly
to his house on tap so that Niels Bohr after
receiving his Nobel Prize got to have beer
whenever he wanted. I feel like more people
who try to get Nobel Prizes if they knew that
was the reward. Mmm! Ah! Did you know that
a "butt" is a Medieval measurement--like B,
U, T, T, like my butt--is 126 gallons of wine?
Yeah, uh, did not know that. Oh, the oaky
texture is divine. Oh, it smells like a $4
wine, doesn't it? *burping* So, next up, we
have a Canadian delicacy known as the caesar.
Mmm! Tastes like Zoodles. It is like spicy.
Tastes like Zoodles. I'm feeling kind of tipsy.
Studies actually show that when you think
that you're the most drunk, your actual peak
drunkenness is 25 minutes after you actually
think that it is. So, I'm feeling very drunk
right now and so I'm worried about myself
in 25 minutes. Over here we've got sober,
feeling good, this is you know, where you
can and can't drive, and so we are going to
take our little action pieces and decide and
estimate where we are. Here's 0.09 because
I think that I couldn't drive. I think if
a cop stopped me right now, I'd be like, I'm
sorry, here's my jail time.Ithink I'll put
mine a little lower, like probably right on
0.08. *blowing into breathalyzer* 0.02! So
I actually was overestimating. That's how
careful I am. *blowing into breathalyzer*
0.03! Okay, so I'm at the feeling good section.
Yeah, do you feel good? I feel good. That's
true. But I mean, I would probably feel good
here too. I feel like if I was the government
of Canada, I would be like, lower that to
like 0.03. According to science, drinking
diet drinks with your alcohol will get you
drunk faster. And it does make sense and it
is true because what happens is the sugar
acts as a meal so it holds the alcohol in
your stomach for longer and your stomach actually
absorbs alcohol much slower than your small
intestine. So when you drink diet cokes, the
alcohol makes its way to your small intestine
faster, therefore where it is absorbed more,
so if you really, for whatever reason, want
to get drunk very fast, you do use diet cola.
Okay--this is too much to go on the internet.
I am so ashamed. Wait, everyone keeps talking
about the internet. What's the internet? I
like don't know what it is. Everyone's always
like, what's it like to have a job on the
internet and I'm like "what?" Did you know
that the British Navy actually found that
rum would stop their scurvy when they're at
sea? Did you know that? Do you believe that?
No. It was an interesting finding until they
realized it was actually the lime that they
were putting in their rum that was helping
to fight off the scurvy but they for the longest
time thought that the rum itself had some
magical ingredient. Oh, the British. *does
bad Cockney accent* Oh, that alcohol will
save you. Rum innite? This is one of my favourite
drink. Yeah, rum and coke. This is Mitch's
poison. Ohhh, Ah!!! *laughs* We're going to
do some vodka and coke, also known as a "voke".
OOOOH, that's university! One weird thing
about vodka is that it actually goes bad and
you're not supposed to keep it for more than
12 months. Really? Why do we feel this way?
We're obviously intoxicated at this point.
What is alcohol doing to us? Actually, alcohol
is slowing down our brain and our neuron's
responses... There are two different types
of neurons. Some are excitatory and some are
inhibitory. And so alcohol actually slows
down the excitatory neurons and stimulates
the inhibitory neurons. Now, normally those
inhibitory neurons help to guide your thoughts,
so that your brain isn't just being stimulated
crazily. But alcohol actually stimulates those
more, so you shut down a lot of the process
in your brain. You stop paying attention to
those external sources or noises around you
that your brain is really good at picking
up. You think a lot about nothing. Picture
this: Magic School Bus. Coming to Netflix.
And then like a weird live-action lizard running
up Julianne Moore's arm and it's like, "Get
in the bus." And it's like 2017. I would be
like *breathes heavily*. I have to pee pretty
bad. Are you at that point? I can explain
this. So, in our kidneys, it's really important
that you have your anti-dieuretic hormone
which re-absorbs water back into your body,
because you don't want to just get rid of
water, because water is what makes you live.
And so, alcohol binds to that anti-dieuretic
hormone and so when it binds to it, therefore
you don't re-absorb water back into your body,
you just piss it all out. That's why when
you go out to bars and you drink lots of beer,
you just pee all the time and therefore you
become dehydrated and therefore you become
hungover and therefore you have to pee really
bad right now, because alcohol's binding to
your anti-dieuretic hormone and that's why
you have to pee. Also, the most important
thing in the world is science. Girl, I'm gonna
whip out some diet--straight to the brain.
Straight to the small intestine. True. So
are you near blurred vision and speech, or
are you close to sad? I think that I'm probably
at 0.10 and I have zero idea what's going
on. Your turn! I think I'm probably 0.13.
You're drunker than me! *laughing* We should
pose with it like our baby. Tharr she blows!
*breathes in loudly* 0.08! If any cop were
to pull me over right now and was like "you
can go sir!" I'd be like "no, no, no, no!
You're protecting the people. Don't let me
go." Lower it Canada! I'm 0.08 as well. Consider
that in most places, 0.05 is the limit, so
we're actually over it. You can't really predict.
We've been so bad at not only predicting it.
I kind of thought we'd be like "oh, we're
always feeling good," but we're more drunk.
I honestly thought that we'd be like more
drunk but actually down here. So, one myth
I've come across on the internet is that peanut
butter can actually stop or hide the fact
that you're drunk. And another theory is that
if you suck on a penny, you can actually do
a breathalyzer test and the results will be
a lot lower than you think that they are.
Allegedly, the sodium in the peanut butter
binds to the ethanol in the alcohol and somehow
stops the breathalyzer from picking it up.
I think that the science for the penny...
It's just a rumour. Mmm, I love peanut butter.
Ew. I can't believe I'm doing this. How's
the penny? I'm sucking on the Queen right
now. This is so gross. I went down .01! Wow!
It went down! So mine may have gone down a
little bit, but it's still above the legal
limit. This did not make any drastic change
to what I was doing. I think a 0.01 change
is negligable enough that it doesn't necessarily
mean it could have been anything. It definitely
is not just from sucking on a penny. I would
still be in trouble and have a DUI--I would
be over the limit. Okay, so scientists have
shown that potentially honey could be the
cure for your drunkenness. And what they did,
is that actually got mice intoxicated. They
found out that when they gave mice honey and
certain ones not, the ones that got honey
were actually better able to perform specific
climbing tests better and were able to have
their dexterity be heightened. And so essentially
they were like "okay, honey maybe has done
some stuff to these mice", but they don't
know exactly why. So we are going to be the
first human subjects who clearly right now
are drunk. This is not okay though because
like mine's gone down by zero. It's like SO,
SO intensely full of glucose and sugar that
I actually think my body's like. Maybe these
mice were just like shocked. *gagging* I don't
think this is a reasonable way to sober up,
because you just feel sick. In the study,
the scientists argue that it increases otonomic
activity, kind of as if we were just saying,
like if a cop shows up at a party, and all
of a sudden you think, I know exactly what
to do. I'm only .01 down below of where I
was before and I feel like that would be a
natural progression from the wait. Mine stayed
the same. In this case it did not work. In
the meantime, it's time for THIS WEEK IN SCIENCE
TALK! So this week, we're hungover. A one-year-old
girl with leukemia has receieved modified
immune cells from a healthy donor, which has
put her cancer into remission. This type of
therapy has actually already been done on
an HIV patient in the past, where they took
healthy t-cells from another subject and put
them inside of him. This gene-editing technology
could be a glimpse into the future of medical
care. Soon scientists will be intimately studying
how 10,000 New Yorkers live their lives, where
they go, what they eat, how they grow, etc.
This will help to gain new bio-medical and
sociological information to help inspire new
groundbreaking studies. *singing* THIS DATA
WILL INSPIRE YOU. Swedish scientists have
discovered that high-intensity-interval-training,
or working out really hard for short periods
of time, offers the same endurance benefits
as longer, more time consuming exercizes that
are less intense. This really intense training
creates free radicals that break down calcium
levels, ultimately increasing the power of
muscle cells. Less gym time means more Zelda
time. Thanks again for watching another episode
of the Lab. Don't forget to follow us on Instagram
or Twitter, with our handles right here. We're
gonna go drink a bunch of water and sleep,
so subscribe to our channel and we'll see
you next week. Peace.
