I have been told sucking on charcoal will mean that you can always give a positive sample on a breathalyser, no matter how much you drink. Is this true, and if it is, how does it work? If it isn't, would anything work?

I heard that there is some old (circa 1960-19070) and well known research showing that alcohol causes red blood cell to agglutinate into big "lamps" (tens or even hundreds in a lump). Apparently these lumps are clearly visible in eye capillaries if I were to use a microscope.

Some people say that agglutinated red cell can't get through small capillaries of the brain to reach neurons and as a result we get a high similar to what we get if we go too high on a hot air balloon without an oxygen mask.

I'd really like to know if all above is true/partially true/all wrong as it looks to me as a very likely explanation of how alcohol actually works.

Sergei Zhyzhyn, Glasgow

I have yet to find a person not affected in this way while drinking, and I can't put my finger on why it happens.

Alcohol as many people know inhibits ADH (Anti-Diuretic Hormone) in the Pituitary and makes you need to urinate more. Okay, fine... But why can people last for a few hours (well, a substantial amount of time at least) before urinating for the first time while drinking alcohol. But after urinating for the first time, the urge to go again comes incredibly quickly, hence the common colloquialism: "opening the floodgates".

Can anyone help to explain?

When I eat nuts I can get severe trapped wind and spicy food can give me heartburn as well as alcohol giving me migraines but I am impervious to such effects at other times

Reading through the questions put forward about the chemistry of alcohol, lead me to ponder what stops us giving ourselves an alcohol dehydrogenase shot after we've been drinking to speed up the process of metabolizing the ethanol in our blood system and thus sober us up more quickly?

Is it a physiological issue, i.e. there are interactions in the body that I don't know of. Or is it an issue of us not being able to synthesise alcohol dehydrogenase? 

There are tons of questions on The Last Word - the more difficult part of this community is finding great answers. To make finding great answers to unusual questions a bit easier, the team at New Scientist has compiled a list of posts to check out from this week.

Feel free to add your two cents, comment and interact.

Love libations? Enjoy ethanol in its various forms? Answers to our favorite questions surrounding the consumption and chemistry of alcohol top our highlight list this week.

Is James Bond ordering a watered down martini? A favorite Last Word question reinvigorated, check out the science behind "shaken not stirred" from our readers here: https://www.last-word.com/content_handling/show_tree/tree_id/2851.html

Does booze make you brave, angry, emotional? Frederick Allen asks, why do certain alcoholic drinks put you in different moods? Can you really blame it on the alcohol? https://www.last-word.com/content_handling/show_tree/tree_id/1857.html

 Pint of the usual? Why do we develop different tolerance levels to alcohol over time? Phil Manning, Dan Stotland and others chime in here: https://www.last-word.com/content_handling/show_tree/tree_id/1485.html

Continuing with the xmas theme of over-drinking...

If i drink enough wine, I usally start to feel very sleepy, after more wine, I start to get a headache..Why is this? What might the component of the wine be that causes this??