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Back in my misspent youth, while working in a certain laboratory at college, it came to pass that I had access to an essentially unlimited amount of "spectroscopic grade" ethanol, as pure as can be achieved by the hand of American industrial technology.

A certain amount of it passed my lips. I can tell you, it tastes warm, and sweet. Very, very "smooth," to use the language of drinkers.

I confided in a trusted graduate student a certain plan I had for the further exploration of the potential of this chemical resource.

The wise graduate student advised me not to follow through with my plan. He explained that doing so could very easily cost me my life.

I was surprised. I asked him "why, the stuff is perfectly pure, there's no adulterant in it, how could it kill me?"

The experienced and patient graduate student explained. It wasn't that the 99.995% pure alcohol was any more potent than the alcohol in Jim Beam or Johnny Walker Red.

The problem is that such pure alcohol is so "concentrated" that you can easily drink enough to kill you before your body can react to what you drank, before any natural reflex can kick in and cause you to throw up, or otherwise save yourself. You can consume a fatal dose in just a few swallows, and at that point you're a walking dead man. Nothing can save you.

I took his advice, and that was the end of it.

I drank a total of perhaps one tablespoon full of the stuff (15 mL), and became quite noticeably buzzed.