Dr. Nicholas Grahame and colleagues at Indiana University-Purdue University in Indianapolis have selectively bred mice that prefer drinking alcohol and apparently binge drink. Until now, other mice would choose water over alcohol. These inebriated mice are the first model of severe human alcoholism that not only models the blood alcohol levels, but also the behavior. Researchers are using these mice to try to understand the mechanisms driving the mice to drink and the pathology of alcoholism in the brain. The goal is to develop therapies to treat alcoholism in humans.
It is a good thing mice can't drive.
Source:
Jef Akst, The Scientist
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Fetal alcohol syndrome---where the developing fetus is exposed to high levels of ethanol in the womb---has far-reaching negative effects on neural development.
First it was cancer, then AIDS, now with the release of a new study showing once again the astonishing prevalence of a serious disease that gets meager attention in this country, one is forced to ask:
Cassio. ...O strange! Every inordinate cup is unblessed and the ingredient is a devil.
Iago. Come, come; good wine is a good familiar creature if it be well used; exclaim no more against it.
Let me make this clear, for like the millionth time: