h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

On of the first words that spring to mind is alcohol.

In laymans speech this is the thingy in in beer/wine/whisky/whatever that makes you dizzy.

In the scientefic sense "alcohol" is a group of organic compounds characterized by the -OH or hydroxyl-group. The laymans alcohol is in the correct nomenclature known as ethanol.

So there!!

cool thanks you did get it

With the exception of certain wino's who have moved on to methanol, with some nasty consequences.

Actually, methanol is downright poisonous ... in fact, it is added to ethanol, and sold cheaply as fuel. Of course, some people sell this stuff (at large profits), and then clear off the scene before the people who've drunk the stuff start getting diarriah (how do you spell that?) and die ...

A further crossover could be I.P.A. Down the pub this stands for India Pale Ale, and is very nice. In the lab, this stands for Iso Propyl Alcohol (another name for Propanol) and is handy for cleaning silicon wafers. Best to not get them mixed up

Just out of curiosity, what's "India Pale Ale"? (I'm from India, and I've never heard of it ...)

It was actually brewed in the UK and sent out to India and I guess other parts of the then empire.
In order for it to survive the long sea journies it had to be brewed to a higher alcoholic strength so that it would keep for months in the bottle.
Remember pasturisation etc had not yet been invented.
It also became popular in the UK and there are still some beers brewed as IPA over here.
I thought there were a couple of indian breweries who also still produce an IPA but I don't have my book of world beers to hand so I can't check.