It’s Whisky Jim, But Not As We Know It!

It was a brisk day in late autumn of 2011 when a rocket ship blasted off from Earth at 25,000 mph carrying with it precious research vials of Ardbeg-crafted molecules. It was the beginning of a fascinating first – a research experiment by a distillary…in outer space!

Here comes the science part – concentrate…the aim of this audacious adventure led by US-based space research company NanoRacks LLC is to test the vials which contain a class of compounds known as “terpenes” – a set of chemicals which are very widespread in nature and often very aromatic and flavour-active – as well as other molecules. This is believed to be the first time anyone has ever studied such compounds in near zero-gravity.

The findings are set to be unveiled at Edinburgh’s International Science Festival on Tuesday 10 April 2015

Watch this “space”: sciencefestival.co.uk