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  • Alcoloholic :p

  • And I always thought the "glowing" feeling came from the alcohol itself. Guess I'm wrong!

  • why is synthetic alcohol bad?

  • @affablegiraffable Because synthetic alcohol isn't as radioactive. Obviously we need radiation. . . to um. . . well we must need it.

  • @affablegiraffable Most likely due to contaminants would be my guess. You can only purify so much, Plus there is always a chance something you didn't expect to get through. Whether this is the reason or not is just a guess, but it seems reasonable. I bet if you searched a bit you could turn up a paper or two on synthetic alcohol side effects.

  • @p4plus2 That sounds reasonableish but i kinda think that contamination would be a much bigger problem for nonsythetic alcohol

  • You are parody of Einstein

  • Can someone tell me what is wrong with make alcohol using synthetic ethanol?

  • @lawlzicle It'll kill you

  • @lawlzicle The reason the law says not to make alcoholic drinks with industrial ethanol is because then it could be made really cheap and people might get ripped off if it's not the "real thing." It's not any more dangerous than the kind we drink, but I think they require fermentation because it keeps the alcohol costs high and consumption rates lower.

  • @InsaneBurrito45 As the atoms decay they turn into different atoms, so when the last atom decays it dosent disapear it turns into a different element or elements.

  • Earth was created about 1.3 billion years ago, that's a lot of carbon 14 or it has been made sometime in the middle. Something to think about.

  • @mickycheese27 It was neither created, nor anything similar happened 1.3 billion years ago. It formed from lumps of rocks in a young Solar system and it happened around 4.6 billion years ago.

  • @endimion17 1.3 billion years ago, intelligent life appeared on earth, even though the earth was created 4.6 billion years ago, carbon 14 should've decayed long ago then...

  • @mickycheese27 C-14 is continuously replenished in the biosphere by the Sun.

  • @endimion17 How? Only UV Infra red light hit the surface of the earth (visible light too), how can it radiate carbon then?

  • @mickycheese27 Wikipedia: carbon-14

  • @mickycheese27 I think Earth was created more like 4.6 billion years ago.

  • Could'/Would the radioactivity in very old wines validate their age?

  • @ayrea that's the weird thing about infinity- if you had a number with infinite zeroes and a one and divided it, then the zeroes could still be infinite because infinity is not a set number- it theoretically doesn't exist.

  • Alcoloholic Drinks, got it prof!

  • ok .. 5000 years is a looooooooongggggggggggg time ~_~

  • I'm drunk right now! super powers, here I come!!! form of cirrhosis!!!

  • There is a missing "i" in the title: Periodc Table of Videos

  • It's illegal to sell non-radioactive beer here too!

  • Have you guys calculated the dose one would receive from a drink? I'd imagine it would be really small though.

  • @shredsledder69

    The more you drink, the bigger the value will become.

    But you will be too drunk to care if you ever reach a dangerous level of radioactivity.

  • All the best to the professor... His parkinson's is showing more. Not cool.

  • @krstcmjns The radioactivity in alcohol would have nothing to do with an increased correlation in cancer. This is because you would get significantly more radioactive carbon through your regular diet than through the consumption of alcohol.

  • @InsaneBurrito45 You consider something having no radioactive material when the uncertainty in your measurement becomes larger than the value you are measuring. In essence there likely is still a handful of radioactive atoms in the sample, but there are so few your measuring device is unable to give you an accurate reading.

  • @InsaneBurrito45 theoretically, once you get a number with infinite zeroes, then a one, when divided by two, you get zero.

  • @DactaDork

    theoretically, if you get a number, the amount of zeroes was not infinite.

  • im gonna go get me some radioactive alcohol

    at the counter:

    me: whats your most radioactive alcoholic beverage?

    server: surely you mean most alcoholic?

    me: no most radioactive i want to make sure its legit!

    server: i think someones already had too much alcohol for one day

    me: ????

  • I'm surprised ethanol is made from anything besides from plant materials and yeast. The process is so cheap. Even if the alcohol was made from hydrocarbons so long as none of the original materials existed in the final product there would be no difference than plant-yeast alcohol except the radioactivity pointed out in the video.

  • @Pyrolonn I agree, alcohol is alcohol as long as it's pure. I can see why they would use the ethanol from crude, though. When you distill crude you get many products, not just one, and it would be a shame to let them go to waste. One of the petrochemical (by)products created in distillation is ethylene. Hydrate the ethylene and you get ethanol; very cheap, just add water! Let nothing go to waste.

  • @Wufnu I looked this up on Wikipedia and you are correct it can be done but almost never is done. The ethene produced has many other industrial purposes. Interesting all the same.

  • err~~ It's good thing? wow! so interested! ^^

  • Poliakov vodka!

  • IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE JOKE

  • Very interesting.

  • You Mr. have just solvesd all the problems with Britians drunk idiots. They behave like idiots, because they all have radiation sickness, as the drinks contain radiation that is frying thier brains.

  • @SabretoothSnowMan Maybe one of the stupidest comments on youtube currently.

  • @SabretoothSnowMan Just one small problem with that theory...

  • @SabretoothSnowMan Wrong. We have Carbon-14 in our body at all times, it is not enough radiation to cause any harm. Although the term "radiation" is thrown around loosely, it is not as bad as people say. Radiation is all around us, only high amounts of it is dangerous.

  • Oh hell. My absinthe is radioactive!

  • Don't worry guys, I'll drink more and get rid of all that radioactivity.

  • Wow really, so if I drink enough in America I can have super powers?! To the market!

  • @spinseffing ...or you will glow in the dark!

  • @CommonRaven LoL =)

    No more radioactive than the food you eat, or the air you breathe.

  • There is a small mistake which could mislead listeners. The professor said something about the ethanol of alcoholic drinks should come from plants. Actually, the ethanol of alcoholic drinks does never comes from plants...it's the carbon inside the ethanol that should come from plants... because the ethanol is produced by the alcoholic fermentation process performed by yeasts using plant carbohydrates (containing the carbon) as the fuel.

  • @jorstube100 Semantics.

  • You forgot "Periodic Table of Videos" in the title!

  • i didnt even know one can get ethanol from crude oil...wiki: "Chemically pure ethanol may also be used to manufacture alcoholic drinks, e.g. Koskenkorva

  • I'll drink to that!

  • @silentelysium (and others). I should have explained that making industrial alcohol is often much cheaper than making ethanol by fermention in a fine wine. So dosing wine with industrial ethanol is a way of increasing your profits and cheating your customers. Therefore, preventing wine being sold with industrial alcohol is as much about protecting the consumer as it is about safety..

  • Why should it matter if the ethanol in the beverage is from petroleum? Ethanol from plants is the same as synthetic ethanol both structurally and chemically.

  • @silentelysium that like saying a 1987 car is the same as one six years newer.. as long as they have the same chassis , engine, paint code, etc etc etc. Even cars change the carbon. young to old can be determined. one is deader than the other. We donlt want to drink dead (oil) hence the word radioactive is taken out of context here. We can't drink "dead stuff".. carbon 14 verifies, at a minimum, human compatible.

  • @boxer3main I think you just tangled yourself into a very confusing knot with that answer. He just wanted to know what's the difference using either kind of alcohol if it's the same thing.

    You cannot date a car's age with radiocarbon dating, only stuff that is a plant or that has eaten plants in the past, and radiocarbon dating has a margin of error of about 80 years in average.

  • @silentelysium Ethanol is never 100% pure.. ethanol form industrial sources may contain substances which can be poisonous for example lab grade ethanol contains benzene which is a carcinogenic compound. Ethanol from plants wont have these poisons.

  • @InsaneBurrito45 The calculator keeps dividing down into decimal fractions of 1, but when we're talking about the number of atoms in a sample of matter, it is always an integer (whole number), usually a very large integer. In a small sample, say only a billion atoms, the calculator says you should have 0.46 atoms after 31 half lives. But you can't have half an atom; it's either 1 atom or 0 atoms. So, after 31 half lives, the chances are better than 50/50 that you have zero atoms of the isotope.

  • Comment removed

  • @InsaneBurrito45 I don't know why you are so confused- what you just said is exactly right.

  • moral: when going to a bar in europe, carry a gieger counter

  • 365 likes 0 dislikes

    the way it should be :)

  • Comment removed

  • @paronfisk Add KMnO4. If you smell vinegar, then it is ethanol. If it smells particularly bad, then it is methanol.

  • How do you test if its Methanol or Ethanol in your vodka without drinking it and getting sick? And how much Ethanol do you need to process 1 cl Methanol?

  • Would it register on a Geiger counter?

  • Alcolooholic XD

  • Booze made in japan? Too soon?

  • @kop4321 it hasnt been about 20 years yet but i still chuckled

  • @krstcmjns Btw, I'm only 16 so it's not like I know everything either. Alcoholic beverages is only slightly radiative. So are bananas, but they don't cause cancer. It's because ethanol is metabolized into acetaldehyde, a carcinogen, not because it is radioactive.

  • alcoloholic haha, love the prof!

  • talk about NagaSake

  • I wonder if it would it be possible to produce non-radioactive alcohol from plants raised in an atmosphere where the CO2 was entirely derived from petroleum...

  • @disorganizedorg

    Yes. Assuming that really is the only source of carbon, it's perfectly possible. Kind of ridiculous and expensive, but possible :)

  • @krstcmjns No

  • Would a Geiger counter be able to detect the radiation?

  • whats wrong  with crude oil ethanol?

  • Alcoloholic drinks is what the prof's been drinkin...

  • 0:50 Alcoloholic? :p

  • Wow, people are so scared of radiation when it's something naturally occuring in our own bodies and everywhere else. Cool stuff.

  • I personally am not satisfied until my Margarita is glowing with Cherenkov radiation.

  • @47f0 I second this notion.

    BLUUUU :3

  • Respond to this video... (cont.)

    "inerrancy of scripture." To simple minds there was no daylight between "inerrant" and "literally true." This sort of "fundamentalism" has more to do with the anti-science arguments of creationists than Miller's apocalypse. But perhaps that's what you meant by "and it's offshoots..."

    And I laughed at "a very incomplete data pool." Good one! 

  • @CommonRaven "Usher wasn't trying to contradict scientific findings"

    Fair enough. But depending on what you mean by "and it's resulting offshoots" I might disagree. The reaction to men like Fox, Socinus, and Lord Herbert - spurred by 19th century advance in science, textual criticism, and the demythologizing of the search for a historical Jesus - led other men, CC Laws and those like him, to define those "fundamentals" without which one cannot be called Christian, including the

    (cont.)

  • ive never heard about this before, very interesting

  • but you can mix natural alcohol and industrial alcohol together to cheat the tests?

  • Further, you can use isotopes, particularly stable isotopes of oxygen, to tell exactly where a particular bottle of alcohol has come from, since the isotopic composition of groundwater varies regionally. Fake bottles of single malt scotch whisky are detected using this method.

  • Just stick a geiger counter in the bottle, simple enough.

  • So cool

  • is there a layman's (normal person at home) way of testing this on the alcohol in your cupboard?

  • really interesting

  • Interesting but.... Is there really a problem with drinking alcohol derived from petroleum? Ethanol is Ethanol. A greater chance of contaminants perhaps?

    It just seems to me, the less radioactive your drink is, the better.... =\

  • @L00NGB00W I did some googling and what I found was that industrial ethanol is typically denatured by adding various chemicals (sometimes toxic ones) in order to make it unfit to drink. The reason behind this is that there are heavy taxes placed on alcoholic beverages. Also, it's apparently possible to produce illegal alcohol from industrial ethanol. So, by denaturing the ethanol, the producers avoid legal issues as well as taxation. Also, biological ethanol probably tastes better.

  • @CrakenX Thanks. So they make it inedible...=\

    Seems like a waste to me...but I suppose there are other uses for ethanol.

    "Also, biological ethanol probably tastes better."

    Perhaps... It might be nice to try a purely man-made beverage, Kind of like the alocoholic version of coca-cola.

  • @CommonRaven Bishop Ussher (1581-1656) wasn't a Millerite... (just sayin'...)

  • A question I'd like to ask is, isnt the core of the earth radioactive? if yes, how come alcohol made from oil isnt radioactive?

  • @helehole Hi, crude oil does not come from the earths core, it's found in the earths crust with in geological formations shaped like a bell.

  • Look at the name of the vodka at 0:22

  • I don't see the difference really. Ethanol is ethanol. I doubt the body cares whether there is 0.000% C14 or not.

  • another awesome video its a shame im going to somewhere else

  • I NEVER KNOW THAT!

  • @theslimeylimey

    yay 93 smart people liked ur comment... too bad the rest of the youtube population are complete retards and believe in god

  • @killer2611 To be completely fair, you can believe in god and still believe in that the Earth is far greater than 6,000 years old.

  • @SonOfNye how can somebody believe in two contradictory ideas at the same time? unless they believe in a deism god that set the universe in motion and said "fuck it" and hid in a corner to jack off, then that is a somewhat reasonable belief... but when we say "god", its usually referring to the catholic god that is suppose to give a shit about us.

    what dumb asses.

  • @killer2611 I'm merely pointing out the unfairness of your statement berating all those who believe in a higher power. And on a side note, if there is a god that set everything in motion and then "hid in a corner to jack off" as you so eloquently put it, I'd still be pretty thankful for that.

  • @killer2611 The beliefs are not contradictory.

  • @killer2611 Don't be so angry. I agree with you in principle but I'd rather take this advice from Friedrich Nietzsche: "This precept, however, give I unto thee, in parting, thou fool: Where one can no longer love, there should one—pass by!—"

    Saves you time, trouble and quality of life.

  • Radio...radioact....B U R P...hips..!

  • Where can i buy that bottle of vodka. I mean the one "Mendeleev".. Im dying to find out.. Please respond :)

  • @TheCoolboy140 Have you tried in liquor store ?

  • @30LayersOfKevlar We dont have that many kinds of Vodka In Denmark. Only like Cheep-Vodka,Smirnoff,Absolut vodka.. and so on.. Not those Unique special ones

  • @TheCoolboy140 Russia, I presume.

  • This should cook my liver

  • I found a website quoting five reasons for Identifying the origin of ethanol. Here are two of them:

    * It provides a means to use domestically derived synthetic ethanol to meet quotas and demands rather than imported ethanol.

    * It protects the interests of biomass producers and investors investing in bio-ethanol production.

    Here in the U.S., bio-ethanol is subsidized as a means to promote independence from oil imports (although we are a long way from achieving that).

  • @FlashFizz Unfortunately, ethanol from corn in the United States is an economic train wreck. (Ethanol from cane in Brasil is another matter.) Honestly the subsidies are more about paying off a valuable constituency -- farmers, esp. farmers in Iowa which is an important state in the presidential primary race. It is not environmentally sound and no way in 100 years will it replace imported oil.

  • Can you 'read' the radioactivity with a geigercounter?

  • Reminds be of the comment in New Scientist 25 years ago after the Chernobyl accident. The French had stopped buying British (Welsh) lamb because of the fallout that had landed on the Welsh hills. 'However', said New Scientist, 'the French have kept remarkably quiet about the fallout that has landed in the Champagne region' (I believe more fell in France than in GB) :-d

  • Ethanol is ethanol, no matter where it comes from or am I wrong? The molecules in the oil wells and oil industry and the molecules in your body don't care about what's happening around them so I don't really get it... I think I'd rather have non-radioactive ethanol so I won't be exposed to the insignificant amount of extra radiation and decay by-products. Even though I don't drink alcohol at all :p

  • Maybe I'm missing something here but why is ethanol from oil any worse than ethanol from plants?

  • @Quiksilver4eyes It's not that it's worse. It's something to do with fossil fuels, carbon emissions and all that I'd say.

  • @Quiksilver4eyes Industrial ethanol tends to be dried this can leave things like benzene in it, aromatic carbon compounds like benzene are known to be carcinogens.

  • @Quiksilver4eyes

    As far as I know you can't get pure ethanol with destilation, you can only get to about 98% purity. So do you want the other 2% to be benzene or dihydrogen monoxide?

  • @TimothyMass Dihydrogen monoxide? Not for me! I'll take hydrogen hydroxide...

  • @ThePeaceableKingdom Never mind, it's all water under the bridge :)

  • Is there any reason why alcohol from plants is preferable to alcohol from oil?

  • can anyone tell me where i can find some gallium

  • @DCking14682 Yes.

  • Short vid but contained a lot of information :)

  • Im slightly disturbed that having ethanol made from crude oil in my drinks is enough of a concern that there is actually a way to test for it...

  • So, Alcohol is either Radioactive (from plants) or Non-radioactive (From oil)? And Alcohol from oil? What? Interesting

  • @crusiatusblack Chemistry can turn oil into pretty much anything. But then chemistry can turn pretty much anything into anything else.

  • @bamboo4tameshigiri Yeah I kinda knew that, but thinking about alcohol made from Oil.. I never actually thought of that, quite weird actually... all the synthetic things we drink and/or eat :p

  • @crusiatusblack Did U know that 99% of all cosmetic creams and lipstick are made from petroleum crude oil (including all the high end "names"). A woman who puts on lipstick regularly, will annually ingests an average of 1kg of crude oil. Not to mention what's absorbed into the body through the skin.

    Her significant other will also ingest a bit by kissing "-)

    Soft drinks are very unhealthy, full of synthetic coloring and flavors. Diet are the worst because of artificial sweetener.

  • @trespire Oh my, that is also quite interesting to know. I knew about cosmetic materials being made from oil, however I did not know these numbers. annually ingesting an avarage of 1KG of crude oil, is just sick... I was always wondering for some experiment showing how much damaging materials go into diet soft drinks, those drinks (like a dark-colored drink I will not mention) are almost fully synthetic these days..

  • @crusiatusblack That "dark-colored drink" (!) and that likes of, contains 13 teaspoons of sugar per cup (200ml). I cant imagine that the glucose shock to the body can be good. This stresses the body's system to regulate glucose levels in our blood. And we wonder why there is so much diabetes.

    Aspartime irreversibly damages neurons even in minuscule amounts.

    All artificial sweeteners are aspartime based, no matter what commercialized name is used on the label, its the same compound.

  • @trespire snopes debunked the lipstick eating myth.

  • does this mean that everything i eat is radioactive?

  • @123resistance321 hmm, yes. but it's absolutely nothing to worry about--it really is a very, very small amount of radioactivity. And besides, we're already bombarded everyday by radioactivity from natural sources like the ground, cosmic rays, etc.

  • I'll sick as a dog in the morning.

    (/watch?v=0VnRdow_7fs)

  • Interesting Vid!!

  • lol 0:51 alcoloholic drinks

  • @nayrnayr93 He's talking about America so that's his impression of George W.

  • Hmmm NO radioactive Carbon in oil?!?! What would Schrödingers Cat think about that?

  • so, SAKE is radioactive now?

    -Sake is an alcoholic baverage from japan.

  • @MrDannyArcher Some alcoholic beverages are advertised as extra strong. Sake is now extra radioactive :P

  • yes, chemistry is fascinating, too sad I'm not so smart I can learn it and find it fun to learn it and learn it fast and easdy. no, god had to make me stupiter than that, why god, why?

  • I suppose there is no simplistic way to test is there... not many of have the ability to carbon date our vodka.

  • Comment removed

  • IM DRINKING RADIOACTIVE LIQUIDS NOW

  • Thanks Prof!

  • this was too short!

  • @BIGGGY305 I agree! Super interesting, but the interestingness is inversely proportional to the length. Jeez we're moaners lol :)

  • Freaking BRILLIANT.

  • this guy is certainly the einstein of our time... he's got the hair :P hehe

  • is this why when i get drunk i gain super powers?

  • @goddeh69 LMAO! Must be, because I feel the same way when drunk.

  • @goddeh69 I thought i was the only one

  • @goddeh69 no .... that is because your brain is letting some restrains from the body ( like from muscular fibers ) and also you get emotions more easly ( so in some cases you get adrenaline very easy so you go stronger )

    and no .... radiation is in fact bad for the human body ... but in waaaaaay larger amounts .... this amount is not even felt ..... but the toxicity of crude oil is more harmful than the radiation.... so C14 is preferred .

    hope this helps you understand drunkenness better :P

  • @goddeh69 yes

  • @goddeh69 LOL NICE

  • i don't get why they sell alcohol only with c-14 in america... is it becuase the crude oil is too precious?

  • @FFSray More like too toxic .

  • @FFSray Because alcohol [ethanol] is a by-product of crude oil refining, and may have trace amount of toxic substances, or other crude oil products left over from the refining process. So, when they distill off the ethanol from crude oil - you might get a tiny amount of benzene, methanol, propanol, etc. If they used this for drinking then the people drinking it would be poisoned by the impurities. Fermented alcohol, which has c14 has none of these problems.

  • @FPengu1n thank you very much