Oddball yet mildly amusing alien biology question

[Slacker]

I've got a question for the assembled bio geeks of the site that I haven't been able to come up with a good answer for myself given my apparently weak wiki-fu and google skills. I'm designing an alien species that has the same amino-acid bias as humanity and has generally the same nutritional needs-I would imagine some vitamin or mineral needs would be different, maybe they need some different specific amino acids in their diet, whatever. The general idea is that their food is at least in theory edible to humanity and vice-versa.

Now, with that benchmark, is it possible for caffeine and alcohol to have the opposite effects in this species? IE, can it be made so coffee gets them plastered and whiskey acts as a mild pick-me-up? I really don't know enough biochemistry to know if this is doable. I know alcohol can obviously be burned as fuel, so that might be an answer for one side of the equation, just have it so it doesn't affect their brain chemistry the way it does for us, but beyond that I've sort of stumped myself, I don't really know the effects caffeine can have other than the fact I need it to function in the morning.

It's not a major plot element or anything, I just think it would be amusing to have as background flavor. So...help?

[LaCroix]

caffeine only works because it blocks adenosin receptors. If 'they' don't use adenosin, but a slightly different , they would be immune. You could make them use caffeine instead of coffee in their metabolism instead of adenosin, so Coffee makes them tired.


And alcohol is a pick me up in mild doses (at least with me), so if you amp up their liver to process alcohol faster, they wouldn't get drunk (or not more than slightly tipsy). Basically, you could use the fact that a hangover is due to the waste products from alcohol, into explaining the effect, making them use Acetaldehyd as a stimulanz...

[Ziggy Stardust]

Biochemistry definitely isn't my strong point, but as LaCrois said, caffeine works by blocking adenosine receptors (which has a number of varied effects, and this is not even getting into metabolites of caffeine which contribute to the psychoactive process). This is because caffeine as a molecule is structurally similar to adenosine. In your theoretical alien species, there could be structural differences in whatever their adenosine equivalent is (or the receptors of such), so that caffeine acts as a promoter instead of an inhibitor. It is possible this could result in a "drunk" like effect, since adenosine inhibits activity in the CNS. It is also possible that the metabolic processes of caffeine in the liver could be modified to cause drunkenness (but I don't know enough about those to elaborate).

As for alcohol, it acts primarily by binding to the "GABAa" and "NMDAR" receptors, each of which produces different effects. The latter is related mainly to memory, so I don't think it is helpful for this hypothetical. The former is an inhibitor in the CNS. Alcohol essentially increases its effects, which is what causes drunkenness. If the "GABAa" receptor in your hypothetical aliens had a different structure, it is theoretically possible that alcohol could act as an allosteric inhibitor, and produce effects more similar to that of caffeine.

EDIT:

So, essentially, it is possible to think of a biochemical process that produces the desired effects.

[Spoonist]

Its not that farfetched. See how we react to different things just within the mamal branch.
Like canine and grapes.
Cats and catnip
Animals and chocolate poisoning

And note that those are the domesticated ones which we know a lot about. There are probably many many more strange reactions out there in the animal kingdom.
Spiders on drugs (spoof)

However note that this idea in sci-fi is not new and has been done many times with unintended comic effects. Like in the tv series V where the lizzards got drunk on spoiled milk. Lots of dirty jokes right there.

[Shroom Man 777]

If you don't go and give your readers an info-dump regarding the specific biochemical processes of your alien species aside from they're "vaguely similar to Earth life except when XYZ happens, they do ABC because the aliens react differently" then I guess it can work. There can be a lot of biochemical variations in all sorts of creatures because of something-something and creatures of different planets, or even just different species, don't exactly have to have the exact same biological processes and can have incompatible or dissimilar chemical receptors, hormones, and stuff that can do things radically differently.

[Sycrus]

Hello. First post here.

One idea I found interesting is that your alien species could be able to properly metabolize alcohol as an energy source. The effects would probably be more like the ones of sugar than caffeine on humans, though.

[Ziggy Stardust]

Hello. First post here.

One idea I found interesting is that your alien species could be able to properly metabolize alcohol as an energy source. The effects would probably be more like the ones of sugar than caffeine on humans, though.

If they metabolized alcohol as an energy source, it would be their primary food source. Their diet would essentially consist of mixtures of basic sugars (glucose, fructose) and ethanol. Which is actually a really interesting idea.

[EuelB]

Like in the tv series V where the lizzards got drunk on spoiled milk.

Hate to disagree, but it was the Newcomers in "Alien Nation" who got wasted on spoiled milk. All that lovely lactic acid, I suppose.

Don't know what the Lizards on "V" (old or new series) did to get a buzz...

[Omeganian]

I remember Asimov's story with a sentient insect (from Earth) which was rather immune to alcohol, but stated "if you tried catnip with just a bit of honey". Then, he has aliens who can eat human food (some vitamins are needed) - but need some HCN in the air they breathe. And he has a story where a demon changes a girl's metabolism so she can drink without getting sick (the girl had some too powerful inhibitions otherwise, and a friend took pity on her) - the new metabolism made her rather obese after a while.

[CaptainChewbacca]

Hello. First post here.

One idea I found interesting is that your alien species could be able to properly metabolize alcohol as an energy source. The effects would probably be more like the ones of sugar than caffeine on humans, though.

If they metabolized alcohol as an energy source, it would be their primary food source. Their diet would essentially consist of mixtures of basic sugars (glucose, fructose) and ethanol. Which is actually a really interesting idea.

Perhaps a creature that evolved from a scavenger which fed upon rotting/fermenting fruits and plant materials?

[ebs2323]

Yea I can imagine a exchange like this

Human “why are you eating road kill? We got a roast beef in the hotel.”

Alien “why aren’t YOU eating this, it’s fermented just to my liking, I must thank you for preparing such a wonderful dinner!”

Human “… uh you’re welcome.”

made me laugh at least...

[Slacker]

If you don't go and give your readers an info-dump regarding the specific biochemical processes of your alien species aside from they're "vaguely similar to Earth life except when XYZ happens, they do ABC because the aliens react differently" then I guess it can work. There can be a lot of biochemical variations in all sorts of creatures because of something-something and creatures of different planets, or even just different species, don't exactly have to have the exact same biological processes and can have incompatible or dissimilar chemical receptors, hormones, and stuff that can do things radically differently.

Oh, I had no plans of infodumping it, but I'm the sort of guy who has to know for himself if it's at least vaguely plausible.

I've got a couple of ideas here-really this stemmed from an image of a diplomatic mixer where one party's sipping on a fine wine and the other a mocha-latte for much the same effect. I get random mental images like that and I have to try and indulge them, otherwise the voices in my head get angry.

I realize it's a trope that's been done before, but to be fair at this point it's impossible to be 100% original, I'm just aiming for well done and internally consistent.

I figured the alcohol digestion would be like a sugar. I'm not sure if I want them to be actual out and out carrion eaters, but that's an interesting potential way to go too.