The Exploratorium, a hands-on science museum in San Francisco, opened its doors after-hours on Wednesday to give people the chance to learn a little more about the beverages they throw back during a night on the town.
The Science of Cocktails event featured bartenders from several drinking establishments in the city by the bay. Attendees were treated to experimental cocktails that take advantage of the chemical and physical characteristics of their ingredients, demonstrations of the physics that make bar tricks work, the debunking of myths about absinthe, and scientific explanations for the dreaded hangover.
Watch this audio slideshow to hear some of the featured bartenders talk about their experiments and to see their creative libations.