This is a linkpost for https://www.bhauth.com/blog/food/butanol.html

ethanol

Alcoholic drinks are popular in most of the world. Excessive consumption of them is also a major public health problem. Bans have been attempted, sometimes successfully, sometimes unsuccessfully, but some people argue that alcohol plays a necessary role in social interactions.

Alcoholic drinks contain ethanol, which is metabolized to acetaldehyde, which is metabolized to acetate. In cells, ethanol is mostly unreactive (but can bind to receptors). Acetaldehyde reacts with lots of stuff, mostly reversibly but sometimes irreversibly. Small amounts of acetate are essentially irrelevant, mostly providing calories.

Acetaldehyde can inactivate enzymes by causing crosslinking. Large amounts of it are generally bad. We can separate out the effects of ethanol itself and acetaldehyde by looking at people who metabolize acetaldehyde slowly.

About 50% of people of Northeast Asian descent have a dominant mutation in their acetaldehyde dehydrogenase gene, making this [...]

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Outline:

(00:05) ethanol

(02:02) alternatives to ethanol

(02:23) ether

(03:38) butanol

(05:30) ethoxyethanol and butoxyethanol

(05:45) cyclic ethers

(06:57) oxane

(08:35) regulations

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First published:
December 20th, 2023

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/ni2sLHJDySErL3pGt/legalize-butanol

Linkpost URL:
https://www.bhauth.com/blog/food/butanol.html

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

[Linkpost] “Legalize butanol?” by bhauth

LessWrong (30+ Karma)