Pioneering research and skills
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
Whisky a no-no In an industry with an export value to the UK of ÂŁ2 billion, counterfeit whisky bootlegging is a serious and expensive problem. Now, EPSRC-supported physicists at the University of St Andrews have developed a new method for testing whether a whisky is genuine or not. Using a ray of light the width of human hair focused on a small whisky sample, the team are able to analyse the light scattered from the whisky, and so work out the brand, age and even which cask was used to create a single malt, from a sample no bigger than a teardrop.
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