Eric Simanek, chemist, chair and director of the IdeaFactory at Texas Christian University (TCU) comes to IdeaFestival 2017 to discuss his amazing and wonderfully illustrated book entitled Shots of Knowledge: The Science of Whiskey, a guidebook for bourbon lovers. The story begins with the Big Bang and travels through photosynthesis, bubble caps, oak speciation or a mechanistic enzymology. Simanek reveals the elegant beauty of whiskey production often masked behind the science and engineering.