Without it, the water from an inverted bottle must glug its way out, taking turns with pulses of air that move in to replace the water that has left the bottle. Swirling water creates a path in its center for air to replace the water that's leaving the bottle. When emptying water from a narrow-necked bottle after cleaning it, the water will exit the bottle about twice as fast if you swirl it, tornado style. The wine warms up during the travel time to just the right temperature in time for dinner. The lower-than-32-degrees freezing point of liquids that contain alcohol, like wine, allows you to chill a bottle of white wine to sub-freezing temperatures without it freezing, before you bring it a dinner party. On how general, broad knowledge of scientific concepts is useful in the kitchen. (By extension, that includes cuisine.) I recently talked with NdGT about how these all collide in the kitchen.

It was pretty symbolic of his twin passions – the heavens, and wine. As I recall, the bag would contain one of two things: either a weighty, mango-sized meteorite to show to guests of the museum, or a bottle of wine to gift to a colleague. He would sometimes carry around a small canvas tote bag. Some 16 years ago, before I was a journalist and illustrator, I worked with Neil at the American Museum of Natural History.

You might not be aware that he is also a great oenophile and lover of food. You probably know Neil deGrasse Tyson as an astrophysicist with a seemingly endless stream of science fun facts at his command.

Carl sagan pbs