io9: Beer

This is what your brain on drugs really looks like

Robert T. Gonzalez — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 09:05:00 PST

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Scientists this week published a study that reveals what the human brain looks like under the influence of psilocybin, the hallucinogenic chemical found in magic mushrooms. More »

Moderate beer drinking could have the same health benefits as wine

Alasdair Wilkins — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 17:00:00 PST

We've known for a while now that moderate wine-drinking can confer some health benefits. Now a new study reveals moderate beer consumption can also reduce the risk of heart disease by 31%. So what's behind this unexpected health benefit? More »

Scientists have discovered the missing link in the evolution of lager

Robert T. Gonzalez — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 17:22:14 PDT

The yeast Saccharomyces cerivisiae is the brewer's go-to fungus for converting sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide in potent potables like ciders and ales, but when it comes to brewing lager beer... well, lager brewing is a completely different animal. In fact, to be more specific, lager-brewing requires a different organism altogether. More »

Experimental beer archaeology yields 3,000-year-old brew recipes spiked with thyme and poppy

Annalee Newitz — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 12:30:00 PDT

There's a terrific article in the Smithsonian today about "beer archaeologist" Patrick McGovern, a scholar who has unearthed millennia-old alcohol recipes by analyzing residues in ancient pottery. Now he's working with a brewer, Sam Calagione, whose pub Dogfish Head serves up beers based on recipes that are thousands of years old. More »

Make an ominous beer glass right out of The Prisoner

Cyriaque Lamar — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 06:30:00 PDT

On the episode of The Prisoner "The Girl Who Was Death," Patrick McGoohan stops by his local pub, only to learn — upon finishing his beer — that his drink's been poisoned. He saves himself by rallying like a champ. More »

Sport doctors raise false hopes in largest-ever study of beer's benefits for athletes

Robert T. Gonzalez — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 14:18:59 PDT

Here's some bittersweet news from the world of beer. In the largest-ever study of its kind, research scientists have shown that the consumption of wheat beer has a positive effect on athletes' health, with one caveat: the study was conducted using non-alcoholic beer as the test beverage — a not-so-minor technicality decried by beer-enthusiasts the world over as "totally lame." More »

This real life beer can Transformer would definitely be a Decepticon

Cyriaque Lamar — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 11:30:00 PDT

Ron Tajima's stealthy beer can robot would have guest-starred in that lost Transformers PSA in which one of Spike's maladjusted friends gives teenage drinking a whirl and ends up getting blotto on laser beams. More »

Mummies reveal that ancient irrigation created modern plague

Alasdair Wilkins — Mon, 23 May 2011 14:01:23 PDT

About 200 million people today have schistosomiasis, a serious chronic illness caused by a parasitic infection. A big part of why the disease runs rampant today is how our ancestors practiced irrigation...and it's a mistake 1500 years in the making. More »

Humanity's first beer is an archaeological mystery

Alasdair Wilkins — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 16:16:49 PDT

For nearly as long as humans have walked the Earth, they've had beer waiting for them when they got home. Beer and brewing date back thousands of years, but it's still anyone's guess which ancient culture drank the first beer. More »

Just discovered: A 2,500-year-old recipe for Celtic beer

Esther Inglis-Arkell — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 09:00:00 PST

An archeobotanist has figured out how they made beer in 500 BC. With a ditch in the back yard, some barley seeds, and some henbane, you too can drink up like the ancient Celts. More »

The worst and weirdest food disasters you'll ever experience

Cyriaque Lamar and Michael Ann Dobbs — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 16:07:47 PST

Food is a hoot to eat, but it's significantly less fun when it's exploding or drowning you or turning you into a psychedelic werewolf. Here are seven kinds of real-life food disasters that will make you lose your appetite...forever. More »

World's oldest wine and beer finally drunk after 200 years

Alasdair Wilkins — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 10:00:00 PST

Finnish divers recently discovered several crates of champagne and beer from a sunken ship that had been at the bottom of the Baltic Sea for nearly two centuries. The experts carefully identified, researched, and analyzed the alcohol...then they drank it. More »

What has a dark body and a light head?

Esther Inglis-Arkell — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 11:30:00 PDT

Beer! The head on a glass of beer is a different color than the body, and yet the chemical make-up is the same. Why? More »

Beer Commercials From The Future, Today

Meredith Woerner — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 09:30:00 PDT

This ad for Australian beer Carlton Natural Blonde asks you to "taste the future." If the Australian future includes golden unitards, Geordi glasses, robot handshakes and pogo feet, then I'm drinking this beer. More »

Max Headroom's Blipverts Infiltrate The Superbowl

Meredith Woerner — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 09:30:00 PST

Forget the 3D commercials — this Superbowl Sunday, our eyes will be peeled for the one-second Miller High Life commercials. That's right Miller only bought 4 seconds of airtime this Sunday, but the beermaker believes that it's just enough time to make the right mental impact on the audience. Finally, Max Headroom's high-speed advertising nightmare has come true! Hopefully the high-intensity moments won't actually cause your brain to overload and explode. [Winston-Salem Journal] More »

One Site That Covers Everything You Need In Life

Charlie Jane Anders — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 13:30:00 PST

We didn't think it would be possible for a single website to fill all of our needs — until we found the blog Beer And Scifi. What else is there? More »

BioBeer Fights Cancer and Gets You Drunk, Not Necessarily In That Order

Ed Grabianowski — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 10:40:00 PDT

A team of students from Houston's Rice University are a virtual lock for a Nobel Prize with their latest research. They've bioengineered a beer that has anticancer properties. Each sip of their new brew contains resveratrol, the chemical found in wine and believed to be responsible for reduced cancer rates in lab tests. How long before you can find Resveratrol IPA on store shelves? More »

What Exactly Is Beer Head? Find Out On New Science Show "The Works"

Annalee Newitz — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 14:10:50 PDT

If you're looking for a cool new science show to check out tonight, try The Works. It's debuting on the History Channel at 10 PM, and as you can see from this segment, you'll get to learn about very important scientific issues. Like why there is a head on beer. The best part is that The Works is hosted by io9 pal Daniel H. Wilson, roboticist and author of crucial apocalypse survival manual, How to Build a Robot Army. Only Wilson could really put the right inflection into the question, "What exactly is beer head?" Check him out on TV tonight! [The Works via History Channel] More »

Have a Beer With io9 Editors in San Francisco Tomorrow

Annalee Newitz — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 18:57:28 PST

Our sister site Valleywag hosts a happy hour every Friday afternoon at San Francisco bar Moose's, and this week they're buying beers for io9 editors Annalee Newitz and Charlie Jane Anders. You're invited too! We're hoping to convince Graeme McMillan, Geoff Manaugh, Lisa Katayama, and Lynn Peril to come along as well. We'll be there starting around 6:00. Come say hi and have a drink. How will you recognize us? Annalee will be in a Star Fleet Academy t-shirt. Oh yes, she will. And she might even talk about herself in the third person, too. More »

One-Fisted Beer-Drinking, Cut From Tonight's Lost Episode

charliejane — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 10:40:34 PST

Since today is officially Lost anticipation day, here's a scene that was cut from tonight's episode. It includes pretty minor spoilers, but you can pretty much see why they left it out. It does raise an important question about Juliette, however. It aired on last night's Jimmy Kimmel. [Lost-Media] More »

In SF, Third Breast Is More Common Than Third Eye

charliejane — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 07:30:00 PST

Why does science fiction love extra breasts so much? Blame Douglas Adams, who threw in a reference to the triple-breasted whore Eccentrica Gallumbits in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It sounded all sophisticated and sly coming from a Brit. But then William Shatner and Paul Verhoeven got their hands on the concept. Star Trek V, Shatner's directorial debut and swansong, features a three-breasted cat dancer (above) who wrestles Captain Kirk. In Total Recall a year later, a sex-worker flashes her accessory breast at Arnie, who miraculously doesn't grope her. How long before we have three breasts in 3-D? Find out in our gallery. (NSFW below the fold.) More »

Drink Beer to Cure Breast Cancer

Annalee Newitz — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 10:28:19 PST

Future oncologists may advise women to drink beer if they fear they may develop breast cancer. Xanthohumal, a chemical found in hops, could kill breast, colon, ovarian, and prostate cancers, according to early studies. [PhysOrg] More »