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Making Antibubbles in Beer from Belgium

Posted by Hemos on from the useful-stuff-beer dept.

An anonymous reader writes "About.com reports on "Antibubbles in beer from Belgium". Scientists in Belgium have studied the movement of antibubbles (the exact opposite of regular bubbles) in Flemish beer. They found that the beer was very similar, but not the same as, dishwater. You can also learn how to make antibubbles in your kitchen from soapy water."

3 of 204 comments (clear)

  1. Antibubbles bursting by hurtstotouchfire · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Dr Dorbolo said "We also found that when they die, or burst, they morph into a form of structure which we have nicknamed the jellyfish form because it looks very like a jellyfish swimming through water. It slowly moves and fades away until it disappears altogether."

    For anyone who's seen a slow motion video of a bubble bursting, that sounds like it looks very similar. The whole forming and bursting of antibubbles is interesting, because from the articles it sounds like they're very similar to normal bubbles. That seems like it would imply some kind of air-counterpart to surface tension.

  2. these look like bicelles by McDrewbie · · Score: 5, Interesting

    At least looking at the picture for makign antibubbles with dishwater, these merely look like bicelles. Basically, the detergents line up so that their hydrophobic tails interact and their hydrophilic head groups form a barrier on each side, just like a lipid bilayer in a cell membrane. Air is in the tail layer, and water inside and outside.

  3. antibubbles and decomposition by photoblur · · Score: 5, Interesting

    An antibubble is a droplet of fluid surrounded by an gasseous membrane, as opposed to a fluid membrane around air. Of course, creating a gasseous membrane is a much more difficult proposition than creating a fluid membrane, which is why this is such an interesting discovery. (well, that and because it relates science and beer...)

    When discussing the death of the antibubble, Dr. Dorbolo states:

    We also found that when they die, or burst, they morph into a form of structure which we have nicknamed the jellyfish form because it looks very like a jellyfish swimming through water. It slowly moves and fades away until it disappears altogether.
    Wouldn't an antibubble just decompose to form a regular bubble of gas within the liquid? Or is he saying that the gas is re-dissolved into the beer?