It happens to be one of many Awesome ThinkGeek Shirts. If you are reading this post, then A) you’ve probably already heard of ThinkGeek, and B) there’s a good chance you know what the molecule on that shirt is.

If neither A) nor B) applies to you, though – that’s okay! Because I plan to discuss 1) what the molecule represents, 2) which school I think the shirt is poking fun at, and why it’s of personal interest to me, and 3) what the molecule has to do with schooling, anyway.

This will be fun…

1. I don’t like to beat around the bush. The molecule is ethanol.
Look, Wikpedia says so: I’ll just hope that you, dear reader, have taken a chemistry class at some point in time, and I just want to remind you that anytime you have a bunch of carbons and hydrogens with an -OH sticking off of it (like in the figure below), it’s often an alcohol of some sort. And the name of the alcohol will very likely end with the suffix “-ol.”

But I want to be really clear on something: the only alcohol you should actually consume (if you choose to consume alcohol) is ethanol. ETHANOL, people. Drinking methanol can cause permanent blindness, unconsciousness, and death. Forty percent of the methanol in the world is used to make formaldehyde, which is the stuff used to embalm dead people and pets and such. So that’s not what you want. Propanol is thought to be 2-4 times as potent as ethanol, so I don’t think you want to go the propanol route either. Just…stick to ethanol, if anything. You don’t want to be this guy:

Shoulda stuck to ethanol, man.

2. Look at this logo again:

Observe the bold, striking crimson inside the oval. See the golden leaves of some sort, hugging the oval tenderly. Note, if you will, the abundance of H‘s, and how the letters are connected by cute little lines.

Are you thinking what I’m thinking? Well, now look at this logo:

Observe the bold, striking crimson inside the shield. See the golden leaves of some sort, hugging the shield tenderly. Note, if you will, that the school represented is the most popular school worldwide that starts with the letter H, and how the letters of the motto are connected with cute little lines.

Am I wrong in thinking that the Awesome ThinkGeek Shirt above is inspired in some part by the logo for Harvard University? I think not. And, well…this tickles me to no end because I’m currently a PhD candidate at Harvard (I refuse to accept any cool points for this). And although some might think there’s irony in using the symbol of hoity-toity Harvard to make a play on alcohol…it’s not as ironic as you might think.

Ever heard of “work hard, play hard”? From what I’ve observed, Harvard students party like students at most other campuses. As an example, I point you to this list of 15 Harvard Drinking Games. Yeah, so, we’re not the most uncool school in the world, and we’re not unfamiliar with the world of alcohol consumption and the concept of beer blankets and whatnot. I mean, you watched The Social Network , right?

3. Let’s talk about higher education and alcohol consumption. For many young people, going off to college is their first time being completely out from under Mom’s and Dad’s thumbs, and with that comes self-discovery, all types of life lessons, and a ridiculous amount of drinking. Beer pong. Flip cup. You know what I’m talking about.

Coming soon to an Olympics near you.

A study out of the University of Florida and Texas A&M found some strikingly obvious facts about what influences students to drink:

1. Emotional status. A “bad day at work” or “boyfriend or girlfriend broke up with them” can impact a student’s drinking behavior, particularly in the direction of drinking more.

2. Monetary considerations. Excess cash means more drinks; less cash means fewer drinks. (Mind. Blown.)

3. Surrounding environment. If you’re with your best buddies, you’ll drink more. If you’re with a bunch of sketchy strangers who might slip something into your drink, you’ll drink less.

4. Drinking games. As I alluded to before, drinking games go with the college drinking scene like brooms go with Quidditch. One student participant gives a poignant explanation, in his own words: “this person says that they can do this many shots, well then I have to one up that. I cannot let that person out show me.” No, he’d never live it down if someone got drunker than him.

5. Other people. If someone buys a round of shots for everyone at the bar, you’re more likely to drink (direct effect). If you’re at a frat party where you know that drinking is the theme of the general environment, you’re more likely to drink (indirect effect).

In summary:

Stay nerdy

Koehrer P, Creuzot-Garcher C, & Bron AM (2011). Methanol poisoning: two case studies of blindness in Indonesia. International ophthalmology, 31 (6), 517-24 PMID: 22200859

Rajamani A (2012). Two cases of toxic methanol ingestion, one leading to brain death: case reports and a brief review. Critical care and resuscitation : journal of the Australasian Academy of Critical Care Medicine, 14 (1), 56-9 PMID: 22404063

Cascallana JL, Gordo V, & Montes R (2012). Severe necrosis of oesophageal and gastric mucosa in fatal methanol poisoning. Forensic science international, 220 (1-3) PMID: 22398189

Barry AE, & Goodson P (2012). Contextual Factors Influencing U.S. College Students’ Decisions to Drink Responsibly. Substance use & misuse, 47 (10), 1172-84 PMID: 22662910

In any case, I recently found myself in a position of song lyric uncertainty that ended up being extremely enlightening. Last year, the song “Like A G6” by the group Far East Movement was a huge hit in clubs. Since my classmates and I love to dance (hey, grad school can be fun!), I ended up singing along with this song, like, all the time…especially since one could interpret a “G6″ to be a private jet or a sixth-year grad student with strong hopes of finishing her Ph.D. Anyway, when it came time for me to exuberantly proclaim that I was “Sippin’ sizzurp in my ride!” I would just sing along and give a self-deprecating laugh because, obviously, “sizzurp” couldn’t be a real word, but we were all just yelling and having fun, so what was a missed lyric here or there?

But (to make a long story short), I found out that sizzurp is real, kids. I wasn’t mistaken about those lyrics. Sizzurp is an actual concoction that people drink as a recreational drug to have a good time… but it’s surprisingly dangerous, so I’m going to do a quick breakdown of sizzurp aka “purple drank” in this post.

As for what it means when this song talks about “gettin’ slizzard,” that’s anybody’s best guess, so leave a comment if you think you know.

1. What is sizzurp? Chances are, you may have at some point ingested all of the components of sizzurp without knowing it, but you probably had them separately. The formula for sizzurp is quite simple, actually:

While the soda and candy combination sounds like an innocent flirtation with diabetes, the recreational use of prescription cough syrup is not innocent at all. Prescription cough medicine contains codeine and promethazine, an opiate and an antihistamine, respectively. Since cough syrup often has purple dyes in it, sizzurp tends to be purple, and is perhaps more commonly known as purple drank.

2. What’s so bad about sizzurp? So, about those opiates and antihistamines: they’re no joke. Codeine, like its more potent cousin morphine, is frequently used to treat pain. While codeine can make people feel a sense of euphoria, it can also cause itching, vomiting, and constipation, which are definitively un-fun things. Most serious, though, could be the fact that codeine can cause hypoventilation, a potentially fatal inability to breathe properly. Abuse of codeine can lead to physical dependence on the drug, which comes with a whole host of nasty withdrawal symptoms once someone tries to stop using it.

Promethazine is the element of prescription cough syrup that you may not have heard of, but it’s just as dangerous as codeine, if not moreso. Promethazine is an antihistamine that is typically used to fight nausea and to induce sedation. In low doses, promethazine can enhance the effects of codeine, causing more euphoric feelings than codeine alone. However, high doses of promethazine can also cause potentially deadly central nervous system depression and hypoventilation, extreme weakness and drowsiness, and constipation.

My version of euphoria does not involve constipation.

3. Who uses sizzurp? Sizzurp was first conceived in Houston, TX, but has since spread in the form of song references throughout hip hop music. On a basic level, it can seem as though sizzurp is “glorified in lyrics by hip-hop artists and rappers.” Name a rapper and he’s probably mentioned purple drank at some point. The most prominent face of sizzurp is the rapper Lil’ Wayne:

“I’m not a rookie, I’m a pro…methazine fiend.”

“I’m used to promethazine, in two cups, I’m screwed up.”

” I’m like a turtle, when I sip the purple.”

 

The trendy princess of rap, Nicki Minaj (you know, the one who was just at the Kids’ Choice Awards over the weekend), has an affinity for the purple drank as well:

“…and when I come, they better lean like promethazine.”

 

And now I’m getting to my point: “sizzurp” aka “purple drank” aka “lean” should not be considered something that’s isolated to the big, bad rap community. Many of the rappers who are touting this drug have fans listening even more closely than I am, and they are very often in the suburban, middle-class demographic. Indeed, I think these two girls have proven themselves her Minajesty’s biggest fans:

They may not look a thing like these rappers who’ve died from sizzurp overdose:

But they clearly have access to rap music, just like the rest of suburbia does:

Maybe they're singing Lil' Wayne songs...?

I’m definitely not saying that hip-hop and rap music should be banned in any way;  First Amendment rights, rah rah rah, and all of that. But I do think it’s up to the listeners of any kind of music to think about the meaning of the words they’re singing. Especially if you have a kid or even know kids who have access to pop radio, see if they’re picking up on drug/alcohol references, and talk with them about the ugly sides of these topics…the sides that probably won’t be talked about in the songs.

Because whereas I can hear a song and think “Sizzurp? Sounds weird,” Google it, and see that it’s dangerous, I wouldn’t trust an 8-year-old Nicki Minaj fan to Google “sizzurp” and not think “Mmm, tasty!”

Karamatic R, Croese J, & Roche E (2011). Serious morbidity associated with misuse of over-the-counter codeine-ibuprofen analgesics. The Medical journal of Australia, 195 (9) PMID: 22060082

Page CB, Duffull SB, Whyte IM, & Isbister GK (2009). Promethazine overdose: clinical effects, predicting delirium and the effect of charcoal. QJM : monthly journal of the Association of Physicians, 102 (2), 123-31 PMID: 19042969

Peters R Jr, Yacoubian GS Jr, Rhodes W, Forsythe KJ, Bowers KS, Eulian VM, Mangum CA, O’Neal JD, Martin Q, & Essien EJ (2007). Beliefs and social norms about codeine and promethazine hydrochloride cough syrup (CPHCS) use and addiction among multi-ethnic college students. Journal of psychoactive drugs, 39 (3), 277-82 PMID: 18159781

Snooki - fighting the good fight?

Okay, okay, first things first — no one reading this should run out and grab the Smirnoff in the name of hematologic health. (If you’re of legal drinking age and want to do shots responsibly for some other reason, that’s your business.)

But it is worth noting the recent discovery that fruit flies like to get their buzz on (pun alert) to protect themselves against parasites trying to take up residence in their blood. While there’s quite a bit of difference between us and fruit flies, it’s definitely worth considering whether we or other organisms could derive similar benefits from alcohol consumption in the fight against certain blood-borne diseases.

Besides, if you get a little crazy on Thirsty Thursday and you have to explain your splitting headache to your boss on Friday, this post might give you a new excuse to try.

[But no, really, drink responsibly.]

There are a million reasons I can think of to pity fruit flies, but the latest one is this: certain types of wasps try to deposit their eggs in fruit flies’ babies, in hopes that the baby wasps will hatch and eat the baby fruit flies from the inside out, enabling a well-fed adult wasp to emerge. Here’s a visual, to make this sadder:

Sucks. Can you imagine how the fruit fly parents of that fruit fly larva must be feeling??? No, no you can’t.

But take heart, dear reader! Those fruit fly larvae are not as defenseless as they may seem. In fact, they’ve evolved for just such occasions. You know how those tiny flies start to hover around your fruit basket when it’s been out for more than a few days? Those are fruit flies, and their larvae often live off of rotting fruit that can have over 5% alcohol content due to fermentation.

Researchers at Emory University decided to put some larvae on a 6% alcohol diet, and others on a 0% alcohol diet. The larvae on the 6% alcohol diet survived wasp infection 60% of the time, while none of the larvae on a nonalcoholic diet lived once infected. In other words, baby fruit flies that are drunk out of their minds are way better at surviving attacks by parasites. Wasps are not adapted to the high alcohol content of rotting, fermented fruit, so when they try to lay their eggs in fruit fly larvae that have gorged themselves on 5% alcohol all day, those eggs just don’t stand a chance.

Since humans have not evolved to eat rotten fruit all day and detoxify that much alcohol, we probably shouldn’t run out and get hammered when we’re trying to avoid malaria. However, it could be in our interests for someone to look into the potential benefits of moderate alcohol consumption in fighting parasite infection…any volunteers?

Bottoms up!

Milan NF, Kacsoh BZ, & Schlenke TA (2012). Alcohol Consumption as Self-Medication against Blood-Borne Parasites in the Fruit Fly. Current biology : CB, 22 (6), 488-93 PMID: 22342747

If you’re in good enough shape to read this post then I’m sure you’re just fine, but…well, it’s worth a look to see what the latest research says about all that refined sugar and/or alcohol you just consumed.

1. You might not remember stuff. You would think that this is because of the alcohol, but actually, this one’s about the candy. New research in Behavioral Neuroscience shows that when people are on a high fat and refined sugar diet, they have significantly impaired hippocampal memory. This means that the people in the study had trouble forming new memories about their experiences…like what they had even eaten. Depending on how many Skittles you’ve been popping, there’s a chance you might not recall as much as you would have if you’d opted for tricks instead of treats.

2. You might have ended up in the hospital. I don’t mean from alcohol poisoning, although that’s certainly the case for some, but I’m referring to alcohol-related injuries. A recent data analysis exercise estimates that a whopping 21% of hospitalized injuries are attributable to alcohol. A heavy drinker with alcohol in his/her system is anywhere between 4 and 7 times as likely to end up in the hospital with an injury when compared to someone who hasn’t hit the bottle. “But I’m not a heavy drinker!” you say. Turns out, moderate drinkers suffer more injuries per hour with alcohol in their systems than heavy drinkers do, and the occasional binge definitely raises hospital injury risk.

3. You might have had a fight with your significant other. A study in New Zealand found that alcohol was involved in more than 25% of altercations between intimate partners. Women were more likely to report anger, fear, and severity of aggression while feeling victimized, and the perceived severity was significantly greater if the male partner had been drinking. However, men and women claimed approximately equal rates of being the victim or the perpetrator of the aggression. You see, when alcohol’s involved in lovers’ spats, nobody wins.

4. You might have kick-started your heart disease. I hate to scare you, but a science journal called Atherosclerosis probably knows what it’s talking about. Researchers in New York took mice and divided them into three groups: group 1 had two drinks per day, seven days a week (“daily-moderate” drinkers; blood alcohol content 0.07%); group 2 had seven drinks per day, two days a week (“weekend-binge” drinkers; blood alcohol content 0.23%); group 3 had no alcohol (same number of calories, though). While good and bad cholesterol levels rose in both drinking groups, bad cholesterol went up significantly more in the binge-drinking mice. And although the researchers induced atherosclerosis (clogging of the arteries of the heart) in all groups, the moderate-drinking mice actually had smaller atherosclerotic plaques than the no alcohol group; plaque volume was significantly greater in the weekend-binging mice.

Don’t kill the messenger, folks! But do be safe the next time you’re out having your candy- and alcohol-fueled party nights. Your memory/uninjured body/significant other/arteries will thank you.

Stay nerdy! And look way over to the right hand side of the site – you can like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and subscribe to our RSS. Everybody wins!

Francis HM, & Stevenson RJ (2011). Higher reported saturated fat and refined sugar intake is associated with reduced hippocampal-dependent memory and sensitivity to interoceptive signals. Behavioral neuroscience PMID: 22023100

Miller TR, & Spicer RS (2011). Hospital-Admitted Injury Attributable to Alcohol. Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research PMID: 22004026

Connor JL, Kypri K, Bell ML, & Cousins K (2011). Alcohol involvement in aggression between intimate partners in New Zealand: a national cross-sectional study. BMJ open, 1 (1) PMID: 22021745

Liu W, Redmond EM, Morrow D, & Cullen JP (2011). Differential effects of daily-moderate versus weekend-binge alcohol consumption on atherosclerotic plaque development in mice. Atherosclerosis PMID: 21930274