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October 9, 2009

Strange But True!

Q. You don't ordinarily think of lifting a glass of beer to your lips as a triumphant human act. Think again.

A. Complex hand-eye coordination guides your hand's couple of dozen bones, muscles and nerves with a flexibility and finesse unmatched in the animal world, says Mark Denny in “Froth! The Science of Beer.” Fully a quarter of your brain's motor cortex is devoted to fulfilling this seemingly effortless articulation. Muscles in your hand and forearm control your grip on the glass. Sensory feedback from your fingertips lets you make fine adjustments to the glass without tilting it, crushing it, or spilling any of the brew. Then you gently tip the liquid at just the right angular rate to pour it comfortably down your capacious gullet. This is tricky stuff: For one thing, the beer is quite close to your eyes, which you may even have closed in an ecstasy of appreciation. Yet all of this happens automatically.


 
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