REAL LIFE (ALMOST) IMITATES FED: THE COCKTAIL BOAT
by Hazed
Anyone who has sat with me in Chez Diesel will know I favour large pink frothy drinks that contain fruit and an array of cocktail accessories including a monkey:
Hazed has bought you a glass of something pink and frothy with a cherry in it, orange, lemon and lime slices, icecubes shaped like elephants, a Chez Diesel swizzle stick, a curly straw, a pink umbrella and a monkey hanging off the side of the glass.
Clearly I’m going to have to up my game, because real life is about to trump me.
An engineering student at MIT has invented a tiny boat, powered by alcohol, that will zip around the surface of your drink. And it’s edible, too!
The boat, invented by Lisa Burton after she sat through a class on fluid dynamics which explained how water-walking insects work, has a hollow cavity in the middle, with a slit in the back. You pour an evaporative fluid into the hole and as it streams out of the back the surface tension of the water pushes the boat forward. (That’s the simplified version: read the source link below for the proper science.)
After much experimentation, Lisa determined that the best fluid to use are strong liquors such as Barcardi 151, which is 75% alcohol. That can only make the cocktail more interesting.
She is talking to MIT’s Technology Licensing Office about getting a patent for this, and her other inventions.
Source: http://www.livescience.com/40487-cocktail-drink-boat-powered-by-booze.html?cmpid=514645
