The day-after misery that comes with excessive tippling may soon be history. Korea's Sunyang has created an oxygen-infused fizzy liquor called 02 Linn that researchers at South Korea's Chungnam National University claim causes fewer, less severe hangovers and — thanks to its high-oxygen content — allows imbibers to sober up again in under 30 minutes. While the study's author, Kwang-il Kwon, confirms that adding oxygen bubbles to alcohol "could provide both clinical and real-life significance," is it too good to be true? Bloggers have are having a lot of fun with the news:
Please let it be true!
"More research is needed," says Tim Barribeau in io9. But if the study means I don't have to spend another morning "feeling as though someone's kicked [my] skull in with jackboots, and stuffed the cavity with cotton wool," I'm all for it.
Hmm, what an interesting dilemma…
Talal Al-Khatib in Discovery News weighs his options: "Drink oxygenated booze to avoid the headache, nausea and potentially-cinematic memory loss that follows any serious bender, or just get schnockered the old fashioned way? It's a tough choice, but that's what science is all about: asking the difficult questions for the greater good of all humanity."
Call me, Sunyang, if you need research volunteers!
"Although we're a bit leery of these results," says Tim Stevens in Switched, "seeing as the study is already being used as part of an advertising campaign from the Korean Sunyang Co, we're still willing to recreate this experiment ourselves. For the sake of science, naturally."
Liquor me up, Scotty
"Perhaps the only question that remains," says Jason Mick in Daily Tech, "is whether the oxygenated drinks can equal their non-oxygenated counterparts in taste and mouth-feel. If they can, the study may indicate a significant leap towards Star Trek-like 'synthehol.'"
Hangover-free isn't for everybody
If you want an alcoholic beverage "that won't give you a hangover and has bubbles in it," says Jason Mick in Daily Tech, then 02 Linn is your drink. But if you ask me, "I don't want a fizzy glass of Lagavulin."
Alternatively, you could just skip the "get embarrassingly drunk" part
"If you really want to avoid the morning headache, sour stomach, and sense that there's a musty wool sweater on your tongue that can follow an evening of imbibing," says David Bois in Tonic, drink less.
