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Alcarelle Synthetic Alcohol Like Star Trek Synthehol
Is it possible to create a synthetic alcohol without the usual side effects? I wrote about this in 2006 (see Synthehol Sought By Psychopharmacologists) and now it's time for an update.
Yet Alcarelle finding its way into bars and shops is starting to look like a possibility. Seed funding was raised in November 2018, allowing Nutt and his business partner, David Orren, to attempt to raise £20m from investors to bring Alcarelle to market. “The industry knows alcohol is a toxic substance,” says Nutt. “If it were discovered today, it would be illegal as a foodstuff. The safe limit of alcohol, if you apply food standards criteria, would be one glass of wine a year.”
Ultimately, the aim isn’t for Alcarelle to become a drinks company, but to supply companies in the drinks industry with the active ingredient, so that they can make and market their own products. You would expect that the alcohol industry would view Alcarelle as its nemesis, but Orren says that industry players “are approaching us as potential investing collaborators”.
(Via The Guardian)
Synthehol is a science-fictional substitute for alcohol that appears on the Star Trek:The Next Generation television series. It allows drinkers to experience all of the enjoyable, intoxicating effects of alcohol without unpleasant side-effects like hang-overs.
David Nutt has long been developing a holy grail of molecules – also referred to as “alcosynth” – that will provide the relaxing and socially lubricating qualities of alcohol, but without the hangovers, health issues and the risk of getting paralytic.
(Crusher and Guinan at the ST:TNG bar)
Science fiction fans might also like to try alcohol reliever from Bad Medicine (1956) by Robert Shockley or perhaps powdered alcohol from The Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge (1970) by Harry Harrison.
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