Big Bang Theory

Where the Big Bang Theory Came From

The big bang theory is the result of two different approaches to studying the universe: astronomy and cosmology. Astronomers use instruments to observe stars and other celestial bodies. Cosmologists study the astrophysical properties of the universe.

­In the 1800s, astronomers began to experiment with tools called spectroscopes (also known as spectrographs). A spectroscope is a device that divides light into a spectrum of its component wavelengths. Spectroscopes showed that the light from a specific material, such as a glowing tube of hydrogen, always produced the same distribution of wavelengths unique to that material. It became clear that by looking at the wavelength distribution from a spectrograph, you could figure out what kind of elements were in a light source.

Meanwhile, Austrian physicist Christian Doppler discovered that the frequency of a sound wave depended upon the relative position of the source of the sound. As a noisy object approaches you, the sound waves it generates compress. This changes the frequency of the sound, and so you perceive the sound as a different pitch. When the object moves away from you, the sound waves stretch and the pitch goes down. It's called the Doppler effect.

Light travels in waves too, and astronomers discovered that some stars had more light falling into the red side of the spectrum than they expected. They theorized that this meant the stars were moving away from Earth. As the stars move away, the wavelengths from the light they emit stretch. They shift to the red end of the spectrum because that end has longer wavelengths. Cosmologists call this phenomenon the redshift. A star's redshift is an indication of how quickly it is moving away from Earth. The further toward the red end of the spectrum the light shifts, the faster the star is moving away.

In the 1920s, an astronomer named Edwin Hubble noticed something interesting. The velocity of a star appeared to be proportional to its distance from the Earth. In other words, the further away a star was from Earth, the faster it appeared to move away from us. Hubble theorized that this meant the universe itself was expanding.

Hubble's discovery led to a lengthy debate that still rages today: what exactly is the relation between a distant celestial body's velocity and its distance from the observer? Cosmologists call this relationship the Hubble constant, but no one agrees on what that relationship is. Hubble theorized that it was 464 kilometers (km) per second (sec) per megaparsec (Mpc). A megaparsec is a unit of distance equal to more than 3.08 x 10²² meters (or 1.9 x 10¹⁹ miles).

It turns out Hubble overestimated this number. That's because in Hubble's time, astronomical instruments weren't sensitive enough to measure the distance between the Earth and celestial bodies with accuracy. As instruments improved, scientists refined the Hubble constant, but debate over the actual value of the Hubble constant rages on.

Point Me At the Sky Different teams of scientists look at different celestial bodies while trying to determine the true value of the Hubble constant. Some look at young stars called Cepheid variables. Others look at supernovae. The result is that estimates for the Hubble constant vary from 53 km/sec/Mpc to 80 km/sec/Mpc [source: Cosmology Tutorial].

Location, Location, Location Important For Genes, Too

Science Daily (Aug. 30, 2008) — Cells become cancerous mainly because they lose control of their growth. To better understand how this happens, a new study at Ohio State University's Comprehensive Cancer Center looks at four genes that help regulate cell growth in embryos and that contribute to cancer in adult

The genes – E2f1, E2f2, and E2f3a and E2f3b – are generally believed to work together to help control cell proliferation, a belief that comes from experiments using only cells. Cancer researchers at The Ohio State University carried out several studies in an animal model to learn if it is also true in the body during development.

The scientists also hoped to learn why many organisms, including humans, have multiple E2F genes of this type, while other animals have just one copy.

Their study, published in the Aug. 28 issue of the journal Nature, shows that mice need just one of the four genes to develop from fertilized eggs through adulthood.

"We found that if E2f3a is present, the animals can develop normally through adulthood, even when all the other genes are absent," says study leader Gustavo Leone, an associate professor of molecular virology, immunology and medical genetics at Ohio State's Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Then came the real surprise. To learn if the E2f3a gene was doing something truly critical and different from the other three E2Fs, the scientists swapped it with one of the others – they replaced it first with E2f3 gene, then with the E2f1. Neither change made any difference; these "swapped" mice developed quite normally.

"If the E2F3a gene was doing something unique, replacing it with one of the others should prevent development," Leone says. "But the animals still developed just fine.

"We conclude from this that it is the gene's location in the genome, plus the timing and level of its activity, that makes it so important during development," he says.

But if just one of the genes is sufficient for development, why are the others needed?

"Organisms above insects have multiple E2Fs, and these findings don't tell us what the others are doing," Leone says. "We surmise that the other genes are required for adult survival under the stressful conditions in the wild. We are investigating that now."

Funding from the National Cancer Institute, the Department of Defense, a Pew Charitable Trusts Award and a Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Scholar Award supported this research.

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Adapted from materials provided by Ohio State University Medical Center, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

NEWS:THROAT CANCER INCREASE ...WHITE AMERICANS..

By Will Boggs, MD Tue Aug 26, 5:19 PM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The rate of throat cancer, or adenocarcinoma of the esophagus, has risen steadily among white Americans over the past 3 decades, according to a new report.
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Although the rates of adenocarcinoma among white women have been lower than among white men, the 335-percent increase in new cases among women over the last three decades has been almost as fast as the 463-percent increased rate among white men, Dr. Linda Morris Brown from RTI International, Rockville, Maryland told Reuters Health.

Brown and colleagues performed a detailed examination of the trends in esophageal adenocarcinoma rates among white individuals by sex, stage, and age using data collected by the National Cancer Institute's SEER (Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results) program.

Total esophageal cancer rates among white men increased steadily from 5.76 per 100,000 persons per year from 1975 to 1979, up to 8.34 per 100,000 persons per year between 2000 and 2004, the researchers report in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

In contrast, total esophageal cancer rates among white women remained constant. A 29-percent decrease in squamous cell carcinoma rates occurred at the same time as the 335-percent increase in adenocarcinoma, the researchers note.

The major risk factors for esophageal adenocarcinoma, and the condition that precedes this cancer - Barrett's esophagus -- are gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD -- chronic heartburn) and obesity, especially abdominal obesity, Brown pointed out. "Increases in the prevalence of these risk factors may have contributed to the upward trend in incidence."

Brown suggests that "primary prevention such as modifications in diet and physical activity and control of GERD symptoms may be able to slow this trend.

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ALCOHOL-MEDICINAL-ALCOHOL-ABUSE-PART III.

Contd:-

Concluding Part:III on history of alcohol:-

Before Christ:-

The Hebraic opinion of wine in the time before Christ was decidedly positive: wine is part of the world God created and is thus "necessarily inherently good," though excessive use is soundly condemned. The Jews emphasized joy in the goodness of creation rather than the virtue of temperance, which the Greek philosophers advocated.

As the Jews returned from the Babylonian exile (starting in 537 BC) and the events of the Old Testament drew to a close, wine was a common beverage for all classes and ages, including the very young; an important source of nourishment; a prominent part in the festivities of the people; a widely appreciated medicine; an essential provision for any fortress; and an important commodity, and it served as "a necessary element in the life of the Hebrews." Wine was also used ritualistically to close the Sabbath and to celebrate weddings, and circumcisions, and Passover.

Although some abstentionists argue that wine in the Bible was almost always cut with water greatly decreasing its potency for inebriation, there is general agreement that, while Old Testament wine was sometimes mixed with various spices to enhance its flavor and stimulating properties, it was not usually diluted with water, and wine mixed with water is used as an Old Testament metaphor for corruption.

During the Roman rule, which had conquered Palestine under Pompey, the average adult male who was a citizen drank an estimated liter (about a quarter of a gallon, or a modern-day bottle and a half) of wine per day, though beer was more common in some parts of the world.

Early Church:

The Apostolic Fathers make very little reference to wine, but the earliest references from the Church Fathers make it clear that the early church used wine in their celebration of the Eucharist, often mixing it with water according to the prevailing custom. The Didache, an early Christian treatise, instructs Christians to give a portion of their wine in support of a true prophet or, if they have no prophet resident with them, to the poor.

Clement of Alexandria (died circa 215) wrote in a chapter about drinking that he admires those who adopt an austere life and abstain from wine, he suggested the young should abstain from wine so as not to inflame their "wild impulses." But was also of the opinion that taking a little wine as medicine or for pleasure after the day's work is acceptable for those who are "moored by reason and time" such that they aren't tempted by drunkenness, and he encourages mixing water in with the wine to inhibit inebriation. He also says wine is an appropriate symbol of Jesus' blood.

Cyprian (died 258) rejects as "contrary to evangelical and apostolical discipline" the practice of some Gnostics, who used water instead of wine in the Eucharist. While still rejecting drunkenness, on the content of the cup he says, "The Holy Spirit also ... makes mention of the Lord’s cup, and says, 'Thy inebriating cup, how excellent it is!' [quoting a variation of Ps 23:5 (in the Hebrew numbering)] Now the cup which inebriates is assuredly mingled with wine, for water cannot inebriate anybody."

Basil the Great (died 379) likewise repudiated the views of some dualistic heretics who abhorred marriage, rejected wine, and called God's creation "polluted and who substituted water for wine in the Eucharist.

John Chrysostom (died 407) in a homily on 1 Timothy 5:23 stresses moderation and adds that the biblical passage in question is useful for refuting heretics and immature Christians who say there should be no wine. He emphasizes the goodness of God's creation and adjures: "Let there be no drunkenness; for wine is the work of God, but drunkenness is the work of the devil. Wine makes not drunkenness; but intemperance produces it. Do not accuse that which is the workmanship of God, but accuse the madness of a fellow mortal.”

The virtue of temperance passed from Greek philosophy into Christian ethics and became one of the four cardinal virtues under St. Ambrose and St. Augustine. Drunkenness, on the other hand, is considered a manifestation of gluttony, one of the seven deadly sins as compiled by Gregory the Great in the 6th century.

SPECIAL THANKS TO:-

- Hanson, David J. "History of Alcohol” Adapted from Preventing Alcohol Abuse: Alcohol, Culture and Control. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1995. Retrieved on 2005-09-18. (Author has relinquished copyright of this article and allowed its use for public domain purposes.) (Site is funded by the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States).

- Wikipedia.

Please post your comments:-

Next:- Alcohol-Medicinal

NEWS:PARTIAL LUNAR ECLIPSE

Partial Lunar Eclipse to Fall Saturday AFP

" :

Never Gets Old ...

Aug. 14, 2008 -- People across the world will have the chance to see a partial eclipse of the moon on Saturday.

In a lunar eclipse, the Sun , Earth and moon are directly aligned as the moon swings into the cone of shadow cast by our planet.

Observers on Earth will see a moon that is partly light and partly dark, with hints of color that depend on terrestrial conditions.

Lunar eclipses are visible wherever the moon is above the horizon. This one will be best seen from most of Africa, Eastern Europe, central Asia, India and the Middle East.

From Western Europe and the United Kingdom, the moon will rise during the eclipse.

It begins at 2:23 p.m. EDT, when the moon enters the lightest part of the Earth's shadow, the penumbra. Soon after, the moon will have a slight yellowish hue.

It enters the darker part of the terrestrial shadow, the umbra, at 3:36 p.m.

Maximum eclipse occurs at 5:10 p.m., when more than 80 percent of the visible side of the moon will be within the umbra and the remainder within the penumbra.

The moon leaves the umbra at 6:44 p.m., and the eclipse finishes when it exits the penumbra at 7:59 p.m.

During the eclipse, the moon lies in front of the stars of the constellation of Capricornus, with the planet Jupiter to its right.

Unlike an eclipse of the sun, a lunar eclipse is safe to watch and needs no special equipment.

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ALCOHOL-MEDICINAL-ALCOHOL-ABUSE-PART-II.

Contd:-

Early Modern Period:-

During the early modern period (1500-1800), Protestant leaders such as Martin Luther, John Calvin, the leaders of the Anglican Church, and even the Puritans did not differ substantially from the teachings of the Catholic Church: alcohol was a gift of God and created to be used in moderation for pleasure, enjoyment and health; drunkenness was viewed as a sin.

In spite of the ideal of moderation, consumption of alcohol was often high. Intoxication was also inconsistent with the emerging emphasis on rational mastery of self and world and on work and efficiency In the sixteenth century; alcohol beverage consumption reached 100 liters per person per year. In Coventry, England, the average amount of beer and ale consumed was about 17 pints per person per week, compared to about three pints today; in Valladolid, Spain, and Polish peasants consumed up to three liters of beer per day.

Swedish beer consumption may have been 40 times higher than in modern Sweden. English sailors received a ration of a gallon of beer per day, while soldiers received two-thirds of a gallon. In Denmark, the usual consumption of beer appears to have been a gallon per day However, the production and distribution of spirits spread slowly. Spirit drinking was still largely for medicinal purposes throughout most of the sixteenth century.

A beverage that clearly made its debut during the seventeenth century was sparkling champagne. The credit for that development goes primarily to Dom Perignon, the wine-master in a French abbey. Around 1668, but it took another century before becoming popular, only after its problem of bursting bottles was solved.

The original grain spirit, whisky and its specific origins are unknown but the distillation of whisky in Scotland and Ireland has been done for centuries. The first confirmed written record of whisky comes from 1405 in Ireland; the production of whisky from malted barley is first mentioned in Scotland in an entry on the 1494, although both countries could have distilled grain alcohol before this date.

Distilled spirit was generally flavored with juniper berries. The resulting beverage was known as jenever, the Dutch word for "juniper." The French changed the name to ‘genievre,’ which the English changed to "geneva" and then modified to "gin." Originally used for medicinal purposes, in 1690, England passed "An Act for the Encouraging of the Distillation of Brandy and Spirits from Corn" and within four years the annual production of distilled spirits, most of which was gin, reached nearly one million gallons.

The dawn of the eighteenth century saw the British Parliament pass legislation designed to encourage the use of grain for distilling spirits. In 1685, consumption of gin had been slightly over one-half million gallons but by 1714 it stood at two million gallons. In 1727, official production reached five million gallons; six years later the London area alone produced eleven million gallons of gin. However, the peak in consumption was reached seven years later, when the nation of six and one-half million people drank over 18 million gallons of gin. And most was consumed by the small minority of the population then living in London and other cities.

While drunkenness was still an accepted part of life in the eighteenth century, the nineteenth century brought a change in attitudes as a result of increasing industrialization and the need for a reliable and punctual work force. Problems commonly associated with industrialization and rapid urbanization were attributed to alcohol, also urban crime, poverty and high infant mortality rates were blamed on alcohol, although it is likely that gross overcrowding and unemployment had much to do with these problems.

Over time, more and more personal, social and religious/moral problems were be blamed on alcohol and not only would it be enough to prevent drunkenness; any consumption of alcohol was to be seen as unacceptable.

Colonial America:-

From the beginning. alcoholic beverages played an important role in Colonial America, The Puritans carried more beer than water on the ‘Mayflower,’ as they departed for the New World. While this may seem strange for Puritans viewed from the modern context, it should be understood that drinking wine and beer at that time was safer than water - which was usually taken from sources used to dispose of sewerage and garbage.

Their experience showed them that it was safer to drink alcohol than the typically polluted water in Europe. Alcohol was also an effective analgesic, provided energy necessary for hard work, and generally enhanced the quality of life. Both in England and in the New World, people of both sexes and all ages typically drank beer with their meals.

As importing a continuing supply of beer was expensive, the early settlers brewed their own. However, it was difficult to make the beer they were accustomed to because wild yeasts caused problems in fermentation and resulted in a bitter, unappetizing brew. To maintain an adequate supply for traditional beer, hop seeds were imported from England, in the meanwhile, the colonists improvised a beer made from red and black spruce twigs boiled in water as well as ginger ale.

According to its alcohol content, beer was designated X, XX, or XXX, TheY also learned to make a wide variety of wine from fruits. They additionally made wine from such products as flowers, herbs, and even oak leaves. French vine-growers were brought to the New World to teach settlers how to cultivate grapes.

They adhered to the traditional belief that distilled spirits were aqua vitae, or water of life. However, rum was not commonly available until after 1650, when it was imported from the Caribbean. By 1657, a rum distillery was operating in Boston. It was highly successful and within a generation the production of rum became colonial New England's largest and most prosperous industry. Almost every important town from Massachusetts to the Carolinas had a rum distillery to meet the local demand, which had increased dramatically.

Rum was often enjoyed in mixed drinks, including flip. a popular winter beverage made of rum and beer sweetened with sugar and warmed by plunging a red-hot fireplace poker into the serving mug. Alcohol was viewed positively while its abuse was condemned. Increase Mather (d. 1723) expressed the common view in a sermon against drunkenness: "Drink is in itself a good creature of God, and to be received with thankfulness, but the abuse of drink is from Satan; the wine is from God, but the drunkard is from the Devil." This Old World attitude is likewise found among the early Methodists (John and Charles Wesley, George Whitefield, Adam Clarke, Thomas Coke, and Francis Asbury) and Baptists (for instance, John Gill and John Bunyan)

Christianity and alcohol:-

In the first 1,800 years of church history, Christians consumed alcoholic beverages as a common part of everyday life and nearly always used wine in their central rite — the Eucharist or Lord's Supper. They held that both the Bible and Christian tradition taught that alcohol is a gift from God that makes life more joyous and that overindulgence, leading to drunkenness, is a sin.

In the mid 1800s, some Protestant Christians moved from this historic position of allowing moderate use of alcohol (sometimes called moderationism) to either deciding that not imbibing was wisest in the present circumstances (abstentionism) or prohibiting all ordinary consumption of alcohol because it was believed to be a sin (prohibitionism).Today, all three of these positions exist in Christianity, but the historic position remains the most common worldwide.

SPECIAL THANKS TO:-

- Hanson, David J. "History of Alcohol” Adapted from Preventing Alcohol Abuse: Alcohol, Culture and Control. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1995. Retrieved on 2005-09-18. (Author has relinquished copyright of this article and allowed its use for public domain purposes.) (Site is funded by the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States).

- Wikipedia.

PLEASE POST YOUR COMMENTS:-

ALCOHOL-MEDICINAL-ALCOHOL-ABUSE.

Alcohol is Alcohol

It’s Not What You Drink, But How Much You Drink That Counts

If You Choose To Drink, Drink Responsibly

Alcohol is Alcohol.
It would be apposite to know something about Alcohol’s history, as claimed, is it really beneficial if consumed in moderation, if so, than how does one define moderation, in terms of quantity and also before learning more about alcoholism and its abuse undertaken all over the world.

The brewing of alcoholic drinks is common in many civilizations, reflecting upon their cultural and religious traditions, sociological conditions as well as geographical location. Historically, alcoholic beverages have served as sources of needed nutrients and have been widely used for their medicinal, antiseptic, and analgesic properties.

ANCIENT PERIOD

While no one knows when beverage alcohol was first used, the discovery of late Stone Age beer jugs has established the fact that intentionally fermented beverages existed at least as early as the Neolithic period cir. 10,000 B.C; as stated by Patrick (1952, pp. 12-13), and it has been suggested that beer may have preceded bread as a staple (Braidwood et al, 1953; Katz and Voigt, 1987);

Egypt

Wine clearly appeared as a finished product in Egyptian pictographs around 4,000 B.C. (Lucia, 1963a, p. 216).Osiris was worshiped throughout the entire country. The Egyptians believed that this important god invented, beer and wine, both were deified and offered to gods. Cellars and wine presses even had a god whose hieroglyph was a winepress.

They made at least 17 types of beer and at least 24 varieties of wine. Alcoholic beverages were used for pleasure, nutrition, medicine, ritual, remuneration and funerary purposes. The latter involved storing the beverages in tombs of the deceased for their use in the after-life (King, 1947, p. 11; Darby, 1977, p.576).

Numerous accounts of the period stressed the importance of moderation, and these norms were both secular and religious Though Egyptians warned against taverns (which were often houses of prostitution) and excessive drinking did not generally appear to define inebriety as a problem.

Babylon

Beer was the major beverage among the Babylonians, and as early as 2,700 BC they worshiped a wine goddess and other wine deities. Babylonians regularly used both beer and wine as offerings to their gods. Around 1,750 BC, the famous Code of Hammurabi devoted attention to alcohol. However, there were no penalties for drunkenness; in fact, it was not even mentioned. The concern was, fair commerce in alcohol.

China

The earliest evidence of alcohol in China is wine jars from Jiahu which date to about 7000 BC. This early drink was produced by fermenting rice, honey, and fruit. A variety of alcoholic beverages was used in China since prehistoric times. Alcohol, known in Chinese as Jiu was considered a spiritual food rather than a material (physical) food, and extensive documentary evidence attests to the important role it played in the religious life.

In ancient times people always drank when holding a memorial ceremony, offering sacrifices to gods or their ancestors, pledging resolution before going into battle, celebrating victory, before feuding and official executions, for taking an oath of allegiance, while attending the ceremonies of birth, marriage, reunions, departures, death, and festival banquets.

India

Alcoholic beverages in the Indus valley civilization appeared in the Chalcolithic Era. These beverages were in use between 3000 BC - 2000 BC. Sura, a beverage distilled from rice meal, was popular among the Kshatriya warriors and the peasant population. The use of these beverages was well defined within specific social contexts.

The Hindu Ayurvedic texts describe both the beneficent uses of alcoholic beverages and the consequences of intoxication and alcoholic diseases. Most of the peoples in India and China have continued, throughout, to ferment a portion of their crops and nourish themselves with the alcoholic product.

Greece

While the art of wine making reached the Hellenic peninsula by about 2,000 BC, the first alcoholic beverage to obtain widespread popularity in what is now Greece was mead, a fermented beverage made from honey and water. However, by 1,700 BC, wine making was commonplace, and during the next thousand years wine drinking assumed the same function so commonly found around the world: It was incorporated into religious rituals, it became important in hospitality, it was used for medicinal purposes and it became an integral part of daily meals.

As a beverage, it was drunk in many ways: warm and chilled, pure and mixed with water, plain and spiced. (Raymond, 1927, p. 53).While habitual drunkenness was rare; This appears to result from their rules stressing moderate drinking, their praise of temperance, intoxication at banquets and festivals was not unusual. An exception to this ideal of moderation was the cult of Dionysus, in which intoxication was believed to bring people closer to their deity (Sournia, 1990, pp. 5-6; Raymond, 1927, p. 55).

By 425 BC, warnings against intemperance, especially at symposia, appear to become more frequent. Xenophon (431-351 BC) and Plato (429-347 BC) both praised the moderate use of wine as beneficial to health and happiness, but both were critical of drunkenness, Hippocrates (cir. 460-370 BC) identified numerous medicinal properties of wine, which had long been used for its therapeutic value. Later, both Aristotle (384-322 BC) and Zeno (cir. 336-264 BC) were very critical of drunkenness.

Among Greeks, the Macedonians viewed intemperance as a sign of masculinity and were well known for their drunkenness. Their king, Alexander the Great (336-323 BC), whose mother adhered to the Dionysian cult, developed a reputation for inebriety.

Pre-Columbian America

Several Native American civilizations developed alcoholic beverages. Many versions of these beverages are still produced today.

Pulque or octli is an alcoholic beverage made from the fermented juice of the maguey, and is a traditional native beverage of Mesoamerica. Though commonly believed to be a beer Pulque is depicted in Native American stone carvings from as early as AD 200. The origin of pulque is unknown; Mescal is made by distilling pulque. Tequila is a form of mescal.

Chicha is a Spanish word for any of variety of traditional fermented beverages from the Andes region of South America. It can be made of maize, manioc root (also called yuca or cassava) or fruits among other things. During the Inca Empire women were taught the techniques of brewing chicha in Acllahuasis (feminine schools). Chicha de jora is prepared by germinating maize, extracting the sugars, boiling the wort, and fermenting it in large vessels, traditionally huge earthenware vats, for several days. In some cultures, in lieu of germinating the maize to release the starches, the maize is ground, moistened in the chicha maker's mouth and formed into small balls which are then flattened and laid out to dry.

Chicha de jora has been prepared and consumed in communities throughout in the Andes for millennia. The Inca used chicha for ritual purposes and consumed it in vast quantities during religious festivals. In recent years, however, the traditionally prepared chicha is becoming increasingly rare. Only in a small number of towns and villages in southern Peru and Bolivia is it still prepared.

Cauim is a traditional alcoholic beverage of the Native American populations of Brazil since pre-Columbian times. It is still made today in remote areas throughout Panama and South America. Cauim is very similar to chicha and it is also made by fermenting manioc or maize, sometimes flavored with fruit juices. The Kuna Indians of Panama use plantains. A characteristic feature of the beverage is that the starting material is cooked, chewed, and re-cooked prior to fermentation. As in the making of chicha, enzymes from the saliva of the cauim maker breakdown the starches into fermentable sugars.

Medieval period.

Islamic world

During the 8^th and 9^th centuries, pure distilled alcohol was first produced by Muslim chemists, who developed the art of distillation. During the Abbasid Caliphate, the most notable of whom were Persian Jabir ibn Hayyan (Gebber), Al-Kindi (Alkindus) and Persian Al-Razi (Rhazes)

The development of the still with cooled collector—necessary for the efficient distillation of spirits without freezing—was an invention of Muslim alchemists during this time. In particular, Geber (Jabir Ibn Hayyan, 721–815) invented the alembic still; he observed that heated wine from this still released a flammable vapor, which he described as "of little use, but of great importance to science". Not much later, al-Razi (864–930) described the distillation of alcohol and its use in medicine. Al-Kindi (801-873) unambiguously described the distillation of wine.

The word was introduced into Europe, together with the art of distillation and the resulting substance itself, around the 12th century by various European authors who translated and popularized the discoveries of Islamic and Persian alchemists.

It seems that the word ‘alcohol’ is derived from the Arabic language, ‘Al-‘ is the Arabic definite article, but the second part maybe from al-gawi, meaning ‘spirit’ or ‘demon’ akin to liquors being called ‘spirits’ in English.

To continue in next post:-

1) Early modern period.

2) Colonial America.

3) Christianity and alcohol.

SPECIAL THANKS TO:-

- Hanson, David J. "History of Alcohol” Adapted from Preventing Alcohol Abuse: Alcohol, Culture and Control. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1995. Retrieved on 2005-09-18. (Author has relinquished copyright of this article and allowed its use for public domain purposes.) (Site is funded by the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States).

- Wikipedia.

Please post your comments:-