MMW 11 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Starch
14 Oct 2016
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Document Summary
9000 bc, hunter gatherers started farming: first civilization was mesopotamia. Agricultural revolution was started by barley, not for bread, but for beer: proof from ancient jug residue. Primitive people stumbled upon fermentation by accident: wild yeast converts barley sugars to co2 and alcohol, left barley in a jar while it kept constantly raining -> fermented barley and made beer. Beer"s i(cid:374)to(cid:454)i(cid:272)ati(cid:374)g taste -> made people want to domesticate barley: caused a domino effect of inventions, need to record stuff -> led to development of writing. Cuneiform was the first form of writing. By 3000 bc, civilizations were in full flow thanks to beer. Ancient beer was a vital source of nutrition: packed with minerals and vitamins, with low alcoholic concentration. Also used as currency and medicine: pioneered a change in medicine, beer was a source of tetracycline, an antibiotic founded officially in 1948. Ancient beer beat modern science by 3,000 years.
