In 1928, Adolf Otto Reinhold Windaus won the Nobel Prize in chemistry for his work on sterols and their relation to vitamins, especially vitamin D. The Nobel Prize website's page titled "Speed read: Connecting vital functions" explains that some biological processes seem worlds apart but are chemically similar and explains his discovery in these words:
The key link in all these processes is a series of chemicals found widely in animals, plants and vegetables called sterols, of which the best known is cholesterol. Correctly believing that all sterols are derived from a parent substance, Windaus isolated digestive chemicals formed in the liver called bile acids, and showed that they are closely related to the sterols by successfully transforming cholesterol into one of these bile acids, cholanic acid. Windaus found the same to be true for several of the cardiotoxic compounds derived from the foxglove plant.
In perhaps his best-known achievement, Windaus discovered that the chemical precursor of vitamin D is also a member of the sterol group, and he showed how sunlight breaks one of the chemical bonds in the parent molecule, converting it into the active vitamin. The finding had major implications outside of chemistry; it revealed why exposure to sunlight can prevent rickets, a disease caused by vitamin D deficiency in humans.
The presentation speech was given by Professor H.G. Söderbaum and in part reads:
The so-called sterols are also an extremely interesting group from the physiological viewpoint. They too occur both in vegetation and in animals. Most numerous are the vegetable sterols, the so-called phytosterols, but the best-known is certainly cholesterol, which occurs in the animal organism, and which was first found about 150 years ago in gall stones. This substance occurs not only in bile but also in the brain, in nerve substance, in the egg, in blood, and presumably in all cells. Thus we can conclude that it plays an extremely important part in the life process of man and the animals, just as the phytosterols play an extremely important part in the life process of plants.
In 1964, Konrad Bloch and Feodor Lynen jointly won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discoveries related to cholesterol. Their findings were in part summarized by Professor S. Bergström thusly (emphasis added):
The word cholesterol means gallstone and the reason for this name is that cholesterol was isolated almost 200 years ago from human gallstones. Another connection between cholesterol and human diseases has been established more recently. During the last decade there has been a lively discussion, also in the newspapers, about the correlation between atherosclerosis and the amount of cholesterol and other fats in diet and in blood. This discussion has perhaps concealed from many the fact that cholesterol is a necessary constituent of all our cells and that it fulfils important functions.
At an early stage Bloch made another discovery of fundamental importance in showing that cholesterol is the precursor of bile acids and of one of the female sex hormones. These discoveries opened up a new field of research that has engaged a great number of scientists in different disciplines. We know now that all substances of steroid nature in our body are formed from cholesterol.
In 1985, Michael Brown and Joseph Goldstein jointly won a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discoveries related to cholesterol and atherosclerosis, the disease caused by its accumulation inside the blood vessels. In short, the two discovered the existence of cholesterol receptors on the surface of cells in the body, and they discovered that some people lack these receptors, causing them to accumulate cholesterol in blood, especially if their cholesterol intake is higher than they can process. The Nobel Assembly press release for their discovery states in part that:
The cholesterol debate during the last decade may have given the public the impression that cholesterol is something you have to avoid to survive. This is, however, neither possible nor desirable: cholesterol is present in all our tissues and is produced in the body. Cholesterol is also vitally important for several of the normal processes in the body.
A 2008 study titled "Cholesterol: a Century of Research and Debate" states that cholesterol is the most highly decorated molecule in history and that a total of 13 Nobel Prizes have been awarded because of discoveries related to cholesterol. None of that would be problematic or concern any of us, except that cholesterol is an alcohol, which we are told is a dangerous, prohibited substance and the consumption of which is allegedly determined by the use of a breath-testing machine aka. breathalyzer.
What you're about to read is a mind-shattering text, one that will plumb the depths of the government-sponsored roadside scam known as portable blood alcohol level testers aka. breathalyzers. I will show to you all the scientific shortcuts taken to produce as many false positives and to justify as many false stop, searches, arrests, convictions, and inflated police budgets as humanly possible. There is barely any science behind breathalyzers, yet they're used as irrefutable proof of drunkenness, on the basis of which the test subject's right of travel can be limited. Everyone who is involved in the deployment and use of breathalyzers knows they're a scam, and they'll keep using them no matter if you protest it or not, so save your breath and challenge the underlying law instead.
Pre-modern chemistry had unusual naming conventions. For instance, EtymOnline.com tells us that "helium" got its name in the following way (emphasis added):
1868, coined from Greek hēlios "sun" (from PIE root *sawel- "the sun"), because the element was detected in the solar spectrum during the eclipse of Aug. 18, 1868, by English astronomer Sir Joseph N. Lockyer (1836-1920) and English chemist Sir Edward Frankland (1825-1899). It was not actually obtained until 1895; before then it was assumed to be an alkali metal, hence the ending in -ium.
Therefore, a chemical element or a substance could get a placeholder name based on the assumptions surrounding its discovery, and that placeholder name could stick around even after they were refuted and there was a better name for it, and that placeholder name could even extend to an entire class of compounds related to the original discovery. In the case of alcohol, EtymOnline.com reveals the origins of the name and how it changed over time thusly:
1540s (early 15c. as alcofol), "fine powder produced by sublimation," from Medieval Latin alcohol "powdered ore of antimony," from Arabic al-kuhul "kohl," the fine metallic powder used to darken the eyelids, from kahala "to stain, paint." The al- is the Arabic definite article, "the."
Paracelsus (1493-1541) used the word to refer to a fine powder but also a volatile liquid. By 1670s it was being used in English for "any sublimated substance, the pure spirit of anything," including liquids.
The sense of "intoxicating ingredient in strong liquor" is attested by 1753, short for alcohol of wine, which then was extended to the intoxicating element in fermented liquors. The formerly preferred terms for the substance were rectified spirits or brandy.
In organic chemistry, the word was extended by 1808 to the class of compounds of the same type as this (a 1790 translation of Lavoisier's "Elements of Chemistry" has alkoholic gas for "the combination of alkohol with caloric").
You can clearly see how the word "alcohol" initially described what it was, where it came from, and how it was used, and that the word evolved to cover an entire class of compounds. Now let's go back to our good friend cholesterol and see what EtymOnline.com has to say about its name:
white, solid substance present in body tissues, 1894, earlier cholesterin, from French cholestrine (Chevreul, 1827), from Latinized form of Greek khole "bile" (from PIE root *ghel- (2) "to shine," with derivatives denoting "green, yellow," and thus "bile, gall") + steros "solid, stiff" (from PIE root *ster- (1) "stiff"). So called because originally found in gallstones (Conradi, 1775). The name was changed to the modern form (with chemical suffix -ol, denoting an alcohol) after the compound was discovered to be a secondary alcohol.
How we define alcohols today, based on Wikipedia entry on "Alcohol (chemistry)" is "organic compound that carries at least one hydroxyl (−OH) functional group bound to a saturated carbon atom." What it basically means is that we expect certain effects from the -OH group, which is also present in fats and sugars. In plain English, substances are joined together like Lego blocks, and if they have a specific Lego block, such as the -OH functional group, the entire shape becomes more or less alcohol-y, sugar-y, or fat-ty, and that also changes with their size and the position of the -OH group. What alcohols, sugars, and fats have in common is that they're all dealt with by common pathways in the liver. Without going too much into it, this already indicates that, if a person's liver is burdened with processing fats and/or sugars because of a poor diet, that person's liver might not be as equipped to handle alcohols and that person might be more prone to the effects of alcohols.
Today, the word "alcohol" has basically lost its entire original meaning, and it might as well be replaced with "thing" or "spirit" or "cloud." We know of many alcohols with different properties: some are sweet and liquid, and others are greasy and solid. We somewhat improved the naming convention for novel alcohols, and today we describe their structure by joining together the names of their constitutents and ending the name in "-ol." The original names of distinct alcohols are still widely used because of force of habit and because modern chemistry has roots in alchemy and its vivid experiments. The most relevant of these distinct alcohols is ethanol, which is present in alcoholic drinks such as vodka and tequila.
The modern meaning of "alcohol" most often refers to ethanol, which EtymOnline.com defines as:
"ethyl alcohol," 1900, contracted from ethane, to which it is the corresponding alcohol, + -ol, here indicating alcohol.
Ethanol is a naturally occurring alcohol that has unusual properties on mammals, putting them in a state of relaxation, numbness, and sleep. How much ethanol it takes to relax, numb, or put the mammal to sleep depends on many factors, including body weight, age, and whether the mammal has eaten anything before the consumption of ethanol. Wikipedia's article "Ethanol" describes ethanol as (emphasis added):
Ethanol is naturally produced by the fermentation process of sugars by yeasts or via petrochemical processes such as ethylene hydration. Historically it was used as a general anesthetic, and has modern medical applications as an antiseptic, disinfectant, solvent for some medications, and antidote for methanol poisoning and ethylene glycol poisoning.[14][15] It is used as a chemical solvent and in the synthesis of organic compounds, and as a fuel source for lamps, stoves, and internal combustion engines. Ethanol also can be dehydrated to make ethylene, an important chemical feedstock.
(...) Ethanol can commonly be found in overripe fruit.[99](...) Ethanol has been detected in outer space, forming an icy coating around dust grains in interstellar clouds.[102] Minute quantity amounts (average 196 ppb) of endogenous ethanol and acetaldehyde were found in the exhaled breath of healthy volunteers.[103] Auto-brewery syndrome, also known as gut fermentation syndrome, is a rare medical condition in which intoxicating quantities of ethanol are produced through endogenous fermentation within the digestive system.[104]
The presence of ethanol by itself does not signify that it was a consequence of a mammalian metabolic process, consumption of overripe fruit, alcoholic drinks, or anything else. Ethanol can appear on its own inside anyone's body, and if it does, the body will try to dispose of it in the most efficient way possible. Wikipedia states that ethanol boils at 78.2 °C, which means ethanol easily evaporates, and it makes sense that the body will try to release it through breath. Any device that tests the breath for ethanol presence and tries to establish conclusions about the person's sleepiness based on those readings is at best quasi-scientific and at worst fraudulent, and I intend to conclusively prove that breathalyzers are the latter because they are knowingly used with presumption of guilt to interrupt and harass people who have no way of disproving that presumption or proving their innocence.
What we're told about breathalyzers is that they analyze the breath sample of the test subject and, through the use of some proprietary sensors inside the device, detect "alcohol" in the breath sample, on the basis of which the breathalyzer does some unknown calculations and comes up with a number that supposedly shows the test subject's blood alcohol level, and if that number is higher than some predetermined number written in some law somewhere, the test subject is drunk and should be detained or arrested and his driving license suspended or revoked. Therefore, it is logical that a breathalyzer requires that there is: a) a reservoir of alcohol near it, and b) this reservoir produces vapors that contain alcohol and that are pushed into the breathalyzer. Do you see the problem with it?
To illustrate the backward logic behind breathalyzers, let's imagine that you're holding a balloon with 500 ml of vodka in it. Vodka contains ethanol, which is a proper alcohol, and thus evaporates readily at room temperature, and the more you heat it, the faster it will evaporate. However, let's say that you're holding the balloon's outlet tightly and thus no alcohol can leave the balloon and that next to the balloon's outlet is a breathalyzer. As vodka evaporates, the alcoholic vapors will mix with the air inside the balloon until the air is saturated and then the vodka will stop evaporating. The condition a) is satisfied, since we have a reservoir of alcohol near a breathalyzer, but condition b) is not satisfied, and therefore, the breathalyzer will indicate a 0.00 reading because there is no air with alcoholic vapor entering the device.
If you now imagine yourself slightly releasing your grip, the air inside the balloon will try to escape, producing an air current rich in alcoholic vapors that will rush outside and into the breathalyzer. In short, this setup mimics a "drunk human body" breathing into the breathalyzer. The human body is far more complex than a vodka-filled balloon, but for the purposes of examining the logic behind breathalyzers, it will do. So, let's say that you've managed to hold