Gravity-defying Good for You

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It’s supposed to snow in New York tonight, so we’re looking forward to that old-fashioned tradition we all love and know so well: A White St. Patrick’s Day!

Er….yeah.

Anyway, it would’t be St. Paddy’s if I didn’t find a good pint of Guinness to celebrate, but this year, when I’m watching those tiny bubbles sink into the rich dark stout, I’ll know it’s NOT the effects from the previous four or five shots of Bushmills. No, indeed, science has finally asserted something not even the Bush Administration will challenge*:

Guinness mystery finally solved

Now close examination has revealed that, as a pint settles, bubbles touching the walls of the glass experience drag, similar to that a person feels sliding their finger along glass, and that prevents them floating up.

The bubbles in the middle however, are free to rise, creating a circular flow within the glass that causes bubbles at the edge to be pushed downwards on the inside surface of the glass.

The Edinburgh team, working with researchers at Stanford University in California have produced high-speed video footage of the sinking bubbles — to put at rest the minds of any drinkers who might have felt they were seeing things.

*hmmm…unwise prediction most likely

3 thoughts on “Gravity-defying Good for You”

  1. Why not contemplate a Guinness patent while quaffing your delicious brew?
    OK, fine, I’ve got problems if, upon hearing of Guinness, my second thought is the patent protection for the Guinness draught-can system. (For the record, my first thought was “yes, please.”)

  2. Why not contemplate a Guinness patent while quaffing your delicious brew?
    here’s the gist of it:

    wherein the secondary chamber is arranged so that upon opening of the container the pressure differential caused by the decrease in pressure at the primary headspace causes beverage in the secondary chamber to be ejected by way of the restricted orifice into the beverage of the primary chamber and said ejection causes gas in the solution to be evolved and form, or assist in the formation of, a head of froth on the beverage.

    While it warms the cockles of my heart to know there are folks so dedicated to a good pint of Guinness they’ll go to such lengths, wouldn’t the cost of this container make it easier to fly to Dublin for a jar?
    My favorite St. Paddy’s in New York (at the end of which my good Irish friend Michael and I were rightly chucked out of an English-flavored bar), we spent the day contemplating the Guinness contest, which that year was to complete the following in x number of words or less.
    “The perfect pint of Guinness is…”
    In our very inebriated state we were sure we had a winner with “The perfect pint of Guinness is always your next one.” But somewhere between the mid 60’s and the Lower East Side we lost the application form…too bad, the prize was a pub in Ireland.

  3. Twenty years without alcohol, and six months in the blogosphere is starting to make me….very….thirsty.
    Not an alcoholic, don’t worry, just got tired of being sloppier that my sober state. But I really enjoyed the taste of Guinness with a straightup Bushmill chaser.

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