Bill Lumsden
Scientists from the Edinburgh International Science Centre have unveiled a two year experiment running on the ineternational space centre to find out what effects microgravity has on the production of whiskey.
NanoRacks LLC is the US company funding the research. They hope to understand the role of gravity in industrial processes, the maturation process of whisky being one of them.
We are all tremendously excited by this experiment – who knows where it will lead?
Bill Lumsden, Ardbeg Distillery
Drunken astronauts maybe?
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Neat! But I always thought gravity’s effect on good whiskey was to make it go down smoothly….
Just not damn fair – they get to go into space, play wonderful silly games with bubbles (h/t swansont a few days ago), and now get to drink ardbeg as well!
International Space Station Freedom FUBAR Space Hole One Alpha had but one credible mission: Put a habitate of wild (genetic palette) house mice in there first thing. ISS FUBAR has been continuously inhabited for 11 years and 160 days. Field mouse gestation is 22 days, both sexes safely breed by 12 weeks of age: maimum 110 days/generation.
In 4177 days ISS FUBAR could have bred 38 generations of mice. We would know if mammals can evolve to tolerate microgravity. Everything else has been uniquely non-productive – at astounding cost. They take pictures! Land an array of lunar seismometers. Strap on a couple of big solid boosters, crash ISS FUBAR into the moon. The moon is very dry. Its rock will ring like a bell. Discover unknown seismic hazards! for moon colonies!!! Studies must be done.
Okay, so, I know that scientific inquiry can often lead to completely unexpected technological advances, but I’m a bit skeptical here…assuming this program succeeds in isolating the effects of gravity in distilling, will that really be of use in modifying industrial processes here on earth, where, I assume, the effects of gravity are a given?
The stronger the gravity the better and faster the separation re theoretical plates, distillation or chromatography, per distance traveled. Before HPLC hit stride, centrifugal radial chromatography was very nice. Google, centrifugal tlc, 158,000 hits.
Space Scuttle payload boosted into low Earth orbit roughly cost its mass in gold, 3X Saturn V booster overhead. If you have that budget for single malt scotch, 1) Drink Lagavulin. A jigger of Laphroaig over very cold French vanilla ice cream is wonderful. 2) Drink Samuel Adams Utopias, no distillation necessary. “8^>)