Phones can recognise our faces on sight and there’s flying death robots in the sky, but modern science has failed to invent a proper cure for the nasty hangover.

You may swear by certain coping mechanisms like greasy food or a Barocca or three, but Professor Merlin Thomas, an expert in preventive medicine at Monash University assures us that the best cure is drinking in moderation before the fact.

Professor Thomas spoke to Victor Petrovic about what helps, what’s counterproductive and the lesser known elixirs for subduing the after effects of the party poison.