You happen to pass a bar. Distracted by your entrance into the bar, one of the humans inadvertently drank a beverage containing 80 ml methanol. Unfortunately, no medical personnel are on the station, and you do not have access to sickbay. Assume that methanol and ethanol have densities of 0.79 g/ml, and that the alcohols distribute themselves rapidly over the total volume of 73 liters of body fluids of your host. A quick check of the biochemistry textbook that you always carry with you when traversing the promenade reveals that the Km of alcohol dehydrogenase for ethanol is 1 mM and for methanol the Km is 10 mM, and reminds you that alcohol dehydrogenase converts ethanol into acetaldehyde (which can then be converted to acetyl-CoA). Alcohol dehydrogenase also converts methanol into formaldehyde, which is quite toxic to humans. Ingesting 80 ml of methanol will permanently harm the human unless you intervene. b. Someone has a single 600 ml bottle of Romulan ale (52% ethanol), which he is willing to sell you for an exorbitant price (and no other ethanol-containing beverages are available). Assume that (based on these numbers) 6% of the rate of methanol conversion to formaldehyde that would occur without treatment would probably avoid permanent damage. Do you have enough Romulan ale to save the day? How much, if any, of the Romulan ale will be left over?
You happen to pass a bar. Distracted by your entrance into the bar, one of the humans inadvertently drank a beverage containing 80 ml methanol. Unfortunately, no medical personnel are on the station, and you do not have access to sickbay. Assume that methanol and ethanol have densities of 0.79 g/ml, and that the alcohols distribute themselves rapidly over the total volume of 73 liters of body fluids of your host. A quick check of the biochemistry textbook that you always carry with you when traversing the promenade reveals that the Km of alcohol dehydrogenase for ethanol is 1 mM and for methanol the Km is 10 mM, and reminds you that alcohol dehydrogenase converts ethanol into acetaldehyde (which can then be converted to acetyl-CoA). Alcohol dehydrogenase also converts methanol into formaldehyde, which is quite toxic to humans. Ingesting 80 ml of methanol will permanently harm the human unless you intervene.
b. Someone has a single 600 ml bottle of Romulan ale (52% ethanol), which he is willing to sell you for an exorbitant price (and no other ethanol-containing beverages are available). Assume that (based on these numbers) 6% of the rate of methanol conversion to formaldehyde that would occur without treatment would probably avoid permanent damage. Do you have enough Romulan ale to save the day? How much, if any, of the Romulan ale will be left over? Please
justify your answer.
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