If anyone thinks I’m making an awfully long stretch just to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day on the Tracker–I confess. You’re right. I am.

MIT's circuit-board cookies

Imagine my surprise, however, when I Googled “St. Patrick’s Day” and “science” and actually got some hits. One was an MIT blog about how to make science-y cookies with green frosting that teach a science lesson. Or something. Because the Tracker is an MIT blog, I’ll politely refrain from saying what I thought about the MIT cookies. I wouldn’t want to bite the hand that feeds me, nor would I be willing to bite into those cookies. (Aw, geez; that’s exactly what I wasn’t supposed to say…)

A Discover Magazine blog did a little better by examining beer. Why do the bubbles in Guinness, it asked, flow downward along the inside of the glass rather than up? Discover finds research that explains the curious phenomenon, although to my mind the explanation would seem to fit any beer–not just Guinness. This is one Irishman that isn’t convinced. Pull me a few pints, however, and I’m likely to agree with almost anything. (The single comment on the post includes a list of Irish pubs in New York City.)

An item by Jeannine Stein on the Booster Shots blog at the LA Times refers us to a history of alcohol, an explanation of alcohol-induced nausea, and something about the Breathalyzer. Party pooper.

I’m not sure any of this St. Patrick’s Day science would survive peer review, except perhaps down at the pub.

And if the pic of the circuit-board cookies was not enough to delight your senses, feast your eyes on this green beer photo from Booster Shots.

Me, I think I’ll forget this hapless attempt to create a St. Patrick’s Day post on the Tracker, and tend to the corned beef and cabbage now percolating on the stove.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day, one and all.

- Paul Raeburn

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 17th, 2010 at 5:12 pm and is filed under Science Stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.