In 2015, fluid physicist Roberto Zenit had a short conversation that turned into a five-year research project. Zenit, who calls himself a “bubble expert, despite how funny it sounds,” was intrigued when a student told him that bubbles play a crucial part in the production of mezcal, a distilled liquor made from agave plants by rural communities in Mexico. The student, whose family had distilled mezcal for generations, told him that producers tested if the liquor had the right amount of alcohol by squirting it into a small container and…
