A Biologist's St. Patrick's Day Song

A 200-year-old Irish classic!

Lyrics:
In the year of our lord eighteen hundred and eleven
On March the seventeenth day
I will raise up a beer and I'll raise up a cheer
For Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Here's to brewers yeast, that humblest of all beast
Producing carbon gas reducing acetaldehyde
But my friends that isn't all -- it makes ethyl alcohol
That is what the yeast excretes and that's what we imbibe

Anaerobic respiration*
Also known as fermentation
NADH oxidation
Give me a beer

[CHORUS]

My intestinal wall absorbs that ethanol
And soon it passes through my blood-brain barrier
There's a girl in the next seat who I didn't think that sweet
But after a few drinks I want to marry her
I guess it's not surprising, my dopamine is rising
And my glutamate receptors are all shot
I'd surely be bemoaning all the extra serotonin
But my judgement is impaired and my confidence is not

Allosteric modulation
No Long Term Potentiation
Hastens my inebriation
Give me a beer

[CHORUS]

When ethanol is in me, some shows up in my kidneys
And inhibits vasopressin by degrees
A decrease in aquaporins hinders water re-absorption
And pretty soon I really have to pee
Well my liver breaks it down so my body can rebound
By my store of glycogen is soon depleted
And tomorrow when I'm sober I will also be hungover
Cause I flushed electrolytes that my nerves and muscles needed

Diuretic activation
Urination urination
Urination dehydration
Give me a beer

[CHORUS]

Happy St. Pat's

*Actually, this isn't true. While both anaerobic respiration and fermentation occur without the use of oxygen, anaerobic respiration utilizes the electron transport chain to generate ATP, while fermentation does not. My bad. I would have remembered that if I wasn't trying so hard to rhyme. A new corrected version is now up on my channel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6dzUO...

CHORDS:

Intro:
D DAG / bm A
D D A G / bm A G D
G D A G / G D G A
G D A bm / G D A D

Pre - chorus:
G D A bm / G D A

Chorus (Li-Diddly-I):
G D A bm A
G D A D

Verse:
D DAG / Bm A
D D A G / Bm A G D
G D A G / bm A
G D A bm / G D A D

• Category

  Music

[adi p]

Hi, What's the original on which this song is based?

[cadamole]

Well ... this is the original - but I did write it after listening to A LOT of Irish music, so it shares structural elements and chords with several different songs.

[Soroush Z.]

2:15 is not ethanol, it's propanal lol.

[cadamole]

@O0oSorousho0O, @iantan24 - good catch - not sure how that slipped through! - there's a new, corrected version on my channel

[kingdelamare]

You were great in The Social Network

[EverEvolvingApe]

I miss the old five-star rating system! A simple thumbs-up is not satisfying enough after watching this video!

[wak4410]

Great song, but it should really be a Guinness beside you!

[Purplebeard5]

What Program did you use to make this video behind you?

Thanks

[Hunter Richardson]

*teach

[Hunter Richardson]

Of course. Otherwise it wouldn't be a term. (Wikipedia knows!)

[Hunter Richardson]

That's what she said.

[Hunter Richardson]

And looks like Andy Samberg.

[Hunter Richardson]

I don't know what the hell this is all about, but I still like the song.

Compells me to look up the facts on Wikipedia.

[Hunter Richardson]

clip(dot)dj. Search for the song name.

[Allesandra Orozco-Newton]

Hahaha! This is absolutely amazing! Thank you for writing so many songs that actually display intelligence (well, except for the part of this one that is all about getting hammered :P) instead of ignorance( sexism, racism, obsession with material items, etc...). We need more music like this in the world. By the way, I can't stop listening to Good Radiation. It makes every day better. :)