Slashdot Mirror
Mad Scientist Invents Colored Bubbles
Anonymous Custard writes "Popular Science has a fascinating article up about toy inventor Tim Kehoe's quest to create colored bubbles. 'Chemical burns, ruined clothes, 11 years, half a million dollars--it's not easy to improve the world's most popular toy. ... It turns out that coloring a bubble is an exceptionally difficult bit of chemistry.'"
:repost:
He's a happy, idea-patented RICH inventor. ;)
That being said, this is EXCELLENT. Imagine possibilities like clothing that changes color depending on the soap you wash it with.
My broad just told me I was smiling like a freak and asked what was so happy-inspiring.
Who would have guessed bubbles can make a grown man giggle still?
Great story. I digg.
I can think of all kinds of chemicals (ingredients cheaply purchased at your local supermarket) that can make one see all kinds of different coloured bubbles...
"...Chemical burns, ruined clothes, 11 years, half a million dollars..."
Sounds like Michael Jackson's life story.
Is sane capitlists will profit immensely on this lunatic who spent a good ammount of his life doing that. Soon you can see colored bubble bath and whatever else bubbles come in.
"Chemical burns, ruined clothes, 11 years, half a million dollars--it's not easy to improve the world's most popular toy."
And yet, that never stops people from trying, does it?
(Posted anon because I would like to have a political career someday)
Coloured bubbles....reminds me of the Red Dwarf episode where they invented Tension Sheets, which were just packing bubbles coloured red, and they made billions off of it....
Post apocalyptic gaming goodness
There are about five paragraphs on each and every one of those pages. Anything more is unweildly and really annoying.
Ooo man the floppy drive is broken. No wait. The computer is just upside down.
I'm deeply concerned about the rapid decline of species, about global warming, the limping economy, political corruption, the war in Iraq and the ever-shortening attention spans of
OOH! COOL! COLORFUL BUBBLES!!
When one person suffers from a delusion, it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called Rel
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I would love to have these colored bubbles. This is such a neat idea.
Yeah. The two articles are not the same despite being from the same magazine. The one that you just mentioned was a one paragraph blurb. This article is a full fledged story.
Ooo man the floppy drive is broken. No wait. The computer is just upside down.
Ooo man the floppy drive is broken. No wait. The computer is just upside down.
http://www.popsci.com/popsci/printerfriendly/scien ce/0a03b5108e097010vgnvcm1000004eecbccdrcrd.html
Printer (and user) friendly!
"printer friendly" link... http://www.popsci.com/popsci/printerfriendly/scien ce/0a03b5108e097010vgnvcm1000004eecbccdrcrd.html
Oh wait, that linked to something slightly different.
We have a number of kinds of molecules that change color when heated... eg. mood rings or thermal printers. Are the colored bubbles different in that the process is irreversible? Or, what is the new development?
Scientist 1 "Haha! I have done it!"
Scientist 2 "What? Cured cancer...AIDS!?"
Scientist 1 "No, much better!"
Scientist 2 "Really? OMG What is it?!"
Scientist 1 "I have created..... the first coloured bubble!!!"
Scientist 2 "Your're a real jerk, Mark"
Scientist 1 "True, but look at the pretty colours!"
public class null extends java applet { System.out.print ("Tabula Rasa"); }
Yes, however it is the fact that they do not STAIN everything they touch that makes them special...
...before these colored bubbles start crying "bubbleism" and sue their white counterparts for discrimination?
An absolutely interesting article !
I imagine it would be difficult. I haven't RTFAd, but I'd guess that you'd have to constrain the width of the film. That way you could presumably create interference effects and "color" it.
I have discovered a truly marvelous
Slashdot posters banded together seem to have infinite knowledge.
Let's see. What's the order of the smallest non-abelian simple group?
There is video of children playing with the bubbles on the company's website:
http://www.zubbles.com/gallery/index.asp
Screw Hurricane Katrina, somebody make this guy Person of the Year.
DRM = Digitally Restricted Media. This is a viral sig, pass it on.
Like a man made rainbow, practical jokes that only last 30 seconds. Truly impressive, though I wonder what the cost of the chemical reagents required is, lactone rings are fairly expensive to synthesize if I recall my organic chemistry correctly.
Allegedly due out in February (not Real Soon Now) according to the article. Check out the awesome video on their website. (coral cached. Actual site is http://www.zubbles.com/
"Tell me doctor, with all of your defenses, are there any provisions for an attack by killer bees?"
wow that is just really really neat. I'm older adn I still think thats awesome. I'm definately going to have to get a bottle of those.
There exists some positive integer N that you are the Nth person to read this signature.
His first coloured bubbles stained clothes, people, pets and everything else, and horrified parents even though the dyes were washable. It took him another nine years to come up with bubbles with disappearing colour which will have implication on a lot of other fields beside toys. Security for example.
Naaah, it's called propaganda. Slashdot editors purposely repeat stories so they can pass subconscious messages. Just look at this paragraph from the TFA:
"The problem," Kehoe says, "was that if the bubbles touched you, they stained your skin for weeks.
It ruined everything. Everybody said the same thing: Call me when you get it right. So I went back
to work."
Scientists create colored bubbles...
Jesse Jackson proclaims them "Bubbles of color"
colored antibubbles?
I can get red bubbles in my beer!
Mmmm, red-bubbled beer....
Huh, the article doesn't mention if this works for inverse bubbles.
Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
not that i'm a raver but imagine yoru enxt rave party with colored psycodelic colors
Beans at the Kehoes' for supper, again?
.. paranoid crackpot leftover from the days of Amiga.
Tomorrow, to appear on Slashdot:
:( -- HEEELP!!!
Mad Bubbles invent colored Scientist (illustrated below)
oOoOOooOoOooOooOoOOo
ATTACK, of the colorful bubbles! Attack! of the colorful bubbles, I wonder if he'll get his own b-movie. Mad scientists are so photogenic.
Shots: A Populist Parable
As Popular Science went to press, Kehoe was looking for a partner with a factory that could keep the formula secret and crank out a million units in six weeks.
Did he patent the formula or is it a trade secret? The article implies the latter, but a trade secret wouldn't make any sense to me (all you'd need is a reasonably competent chemist to reverse-engineer the formula).
The most inspiring article I've read in a long long time. Sadly, my mos impossible-sounding dreams are dwarfed by the improbability of a colored bubble. Who'd have thought?
The eternal struggle of good vs. evil begins within one's self.
I for one welcome our... What the heck it's ridiculous.
...Goto page 10 of 11 to save yourself from the extensive history of bubbles and toy manufacturing.
Alternating group A5 of order 60.
Like Kehoe, Sabnis doesn't seem to consider the possibility that a problem can't be solved.
I love that one sentence. More than anything else, this one philosophy is what has led one person after another to change the world, even if it's just in the temporary-dye business.
Good for these guys.
So, how long before the colour fades while the solution is in the container? I guess it's good for bussiness if you can't save the solution too long. Besides most kids probably are not much into saving fun and playtime for later either. Potentially limited storage life time may be a larger problem with some of the other products mentioned in the article.
Um, from TFA:
But anyone who thinks entertainment and fun are not important and/or not business-worthy is living a lonely, sad life on a different planet from this one.
I stole this sig from someone cleverer than me.
I hope they have done safety testing on these new dyes, since children will be getting this stuff in their eyes. If they didn't, these colored bubbles might end up like the Opti-Grab. Then these two guys will look like real jerks.
Ceci n'est pas une sig.
And February 2nd, every store will be sold out and all of the clubs and raves will have colored foam and bubbles that will not stain clothes.
I found the "Any" key.
Tim Kehoe has stained the whites of his eyes deep blue.
It seems he even tried using melange. I am impressed.
If my grammar and spelling are off, I am [distracted/tired/careless] (take your pick)
.. just the result of the real breakthrough; dye which fades with time, this can have some real applications beyond bubble making. Also the one who experimented to create bubbles isn't the brains, the guy with a PhD in dyes made the real breakthrough.
This is a perfect example of how quantum physics is here to stay; you bet the dye he created was theorised and perfected using predictions made with quantum physics, no shady perpetual motion machine like the one seen posted here a while ago can undermine spot on predictions made by quantum physics all over the scientific world.
Sorry, it just slipped out.
There is no right to feel safe thru security vaudeville at the expense of everyone's freedom, privacy and tax money.
Oh, darn.
Microsoft just issued prior art claiming the rights to air encased in transparent film, under the nomenclature Shrink-wrapping...
And now his product will stain the eyes of toy makers green.
How is this different from disappearing ink?
I also remember a toy watergun called "Zap It" that used a richly-colored dye instead of water. You'd spray it on people's clothes, but in a few minutes the "stain" was gone.
If you go to the MFR's website www.zubbles.com and look at the video, they're all very small bubbles (less than a silver dollar I'd say). The pictures on the PS article have a single bubble that is somewhat larger.
I wonder if that's a limitation or just the way the pictures worked out.
Definately picking some up when they're available. The gag potential is enormous.
Platform advocacy is like choosing a favorite severely developmentally disabled child.
From TFA: The inventor is a 50% stakeholder in the company.
Read the thing, it's interesting. Really.
Platform advocacy is like choosing a favorite severely developmentally disabled child.
what a lovely story, just in time for Christmas!
Once he tried nitric acid, a toxic chemical that gives off red fumes at room temperature. "I got it making a really cool bubble, but it could've killed somebody," he recalls. "It ate through clothes." :D
Killer bubbles! YAY!
Kaetemi
If only Lawrence Welk were still alive!
Yeah, that one's easy. It's not even hard to prove. Here's a better one: prove or disprove the Generalized Continuum Hypothesis from ZF.
After all, I am strangely colored.
reading that article really makes you respect the dedication that some people have for a dream. i mean, 11 years of insane bubble making, constant rejection from the toy companies, and an undaunting, seemingly impossible task to make a dye the DISAPPEARS after a few minutes...i need to do something with my life, even if it is as "silly" as colored bubbles. props to this guy, well done man!
R.I.P.
I can't wait to get this for my kids. I'm sure I am not alone. This guy will be rich.
Flexible bare-metal recovery for Linux/UNIX
If someone told me they discovered a new continent I would not be more impressed.
We don't call 'em "colored" in MY house!
I, for one, welcome our new Colored Bubble overlords.
It's unprovable within ZF :(
How about the way it was done on the old Star Trek series. With bright lights !
Shine e red light on it - voila, it's red. Repeat as needed. You are allowed to use more than one source and mix colors too.
But then, science is a compulsive-obsessive pasttime. Fourier and all that.
That video of color bubbles along with the music really makes me think of the game Bust a Move. If you played it, you know what I'm talking about.
_ bust_a_move_24.jpg
http://gr.bolt.com/oldsite/games/ps2/puzzle/super
Life is not for the lazy.
George's Marvellous Medicine?
Shall we call this the 'Dahl Technique' for experimental chemical synthesis?
I used nitric acid for *se.com experiments in a lab, once.
http://www.happyfunball.com/hfb.html
-- Statistics are often used as a drunk uses a light pole: For support rather than illumination. --
For the last year I've been trying to think of a way to make a colored handsoap and toothpaste that change colors after 30 seconds and 2 minutes, respectively.
Fuck it.
At first I thought this might be a way to regulate the thickness of the bubbles, and thus the color generated due to canceling of light within a narrow band (as is shown on the cover of Feynman's QED). Apparently it's just plain old coloring (but I haven't RTFA yet, naturally), which yields much darker colors than the above could.
Come ON you guys. The man turned the whites of his eyes blue. BLUE. And you think of bubbles! For shame! Have you not considered that he may be the Kwisatz Haderach?
You know you're a slashdotter when you can call a dupe!
To do list for Windows
I could've sworn I saw blue bubbles on an SNL opening monologue involving Christopher Walken a few years ago. http://snltranscripts.jt.org/00/00tmono.phtml
I know why he did it. He has plans to start games of real life Bubble Bobble!
Except that he didn't invent anything. He got some money and hired some Ph.D.'s (at least one from India) to do the *real* hard work for him where he failed miserably. You see scientists (and execs at toy companies) don't always see the big picture because they are so busy trying to advance their own field or stuck up on old ideas. These new types of dyes invented because some dude wanted a colored soap bubble that don't permanently stain will have ramifications in fields other than entertainment. The possibilities are limitless.
I only wish the scientists would get more publicity. This guy will now forever be seen as the inventor of colored bubbles, even though he didn't do the actual science, thanks to the media.
Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.
Personally my respect goes to the chemist that solved the problem. Not the compulsive nut job that couldn't repeat anything because he didn't keep proper notes and who had to throw a massive party and cover everyone with colour to realise they'd freak out if you did that.
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
You missed the most important connection: Bubbles.
The context of this discussion is blowing bubbles. Most of us didn't want to make that sort of mental connection.
"I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
can a cute little black boy, turn into an scary white woman.
Oh well, what the hell...
That's why it was a trick question. ;-)
After all, I am strangely colored.
Hopefully they wont find out that its a actually carcinogenic or anything like that a few years from now...
I found the stuff in my grandparents basement. It was a silver colored heavy plastic bottle with a warning printed on the label in red. It made heavy, slow, sickly metallic/ever shifting colour spectrum bubbles. When they popped, you didn't get dye on you. You were, however, "contaminated". The tingling sensation in your extremeties lets you know that it's working!
I hate this story.. Think about it. The "inventor" hero of the story randomly trying everything and failing. It the dye master that made it work, and he's barely in the story. Typical.... and sad.
Ram Sabnis, Senior Chemist of Ascadia, Ram Sabnis is a leader among a very small group of people who can point to a dye-chemistry Ph.D. on their wall. Only a handful of universities in the world offer one, and none are in the U.S. (Sabnis got his in Bombay). He holds dozens of patents from his work in semiconductors (dying silicon) and biotechnology (dying nucleic acids). Which university is that? Come on, why can't they say the name of the Indian university, show a little bit of respect to the institution? Is it http://www.chem.iitb.ac.in/ by any chance?
What about dogs? I know I'm not the only person here who's played with bubbles in the presence of a dog. I swear, they will literally kill themselves from exhaustion chasing bubbles if you're not careful. These things could be dangerous for your pets...
Let's just hope we don't find out this sweet stuff causes cancer 6 months after it hits the market. : (
He needs to get his act in gear and make bouncing bubbles. That sounded almost equally as cool.
No comments by the "I hate patents" crowd? Nothing from the "there's no such thing as IP" kids? Hello? I know you're out there.
Read the article. Maybe you'll decide your views on patents and IP need some rethinking.
And no, the answer isn't that you should personally decide who gets a patent and who doesn't.
This article gets really cool when they talk about the tech at the end. I'd guess he's using conjugated chains of differing lengths on either side of a lactone that degenerates, under certain conditions, to a non-conjugated ketone chain with big conjugated chunks on either side. Like a dipropyl ketone, with a alkene chain at the terminal carbons, so that when said carbons link up into a lactone, it's a big conjugated structure, but otherwise it's not conjugated and so it's absorbing only nonvisible wavelengths. Cool. Does it seem to anyone else that it could, given the right/wrong circumstances, easily reform into the dye? Such that, say, one day you're giving a presentation in front of a board of suit dudes and it's getting a little humid, and suddenly you've got blue polka dots on your shirt. I wonder if it's honestly washing out, or just becoming invisible. Guess it's water-soluble so it must be washing out.
The part of the story that I found most interesting was the guy just screwed around in his kitchen, without any sort of plan for replicating his results. At one point, he created a bouncing bubble - one that didn't break, and was flexible, bouncing 'like a superball'. And he couldn't duplicate it again, since he's just been putting in a bit of this and a bit of that....
Sad, and educational.
The lesson: When you screw around inventing stuff in the kitchen, you should video tape yourself...because nothing beats having footage of you making exploding potions on America's Funniest Home Videos.
I wonder how the inventors came to the conclusion that those bubbles are really non-toxic. As a parent I would be very careful with that. My kids love to eat bubble solution and who knows what harm those newly created molecules could do.
"it's not easy to improve the world's most popular toy" Pssht. Bubbles are definitely NOT the world's most popular toy. That honor definitely belongs to the penis.
The picture (parent post) does not do justice to how disturbing this statue is in real life. It is about 125% real size. So, Mike would be about 7 1/2 ft (assuming 6ft). It is also shiny shiny white porcelain and of course shiny shiny gold.
When I saw it I had walked up the stairs (side staircase, IIRC) in the SF-MOMA, and there it was right at the top of the steps. It was placed it such a way that you couldn't see it until you reached the top. And then BAM! Coming at you.
It is utterly surreal.
Not a MAD scientist!!!
/veryobscurereference
an ANNNNGRRRY scientist!
It was a jump to conclusions mat. You see, it was this mat, with different conclusions written on it, that you could jump to!
Speculation: was not water soluble, and hence not usable for bubbles?
A new lady teacher came to teach 8th standard students. As it was the first day, she gave her intro, and asked all the students to Introduce themselves with name and hobby.
:)
She said, "Let's start with the boys first". Boys start giving their intro...
First boy: "My name is John, and my hobby is to see bubble in the Bathtub".
Teacher was confused to listen but said, "Interesting. Well, Ok. In fact, we must be honest in telling the hobby. And after all there is essentially a child in each of us. So it's ok John. Yes next".
Second boy: "Myself Peter and my hobby is to see bubble in the bathtub."
Teacher now got surprised and said, "Good. I like the spirit of supporting a friend. Ok next".
Third boy: "I'm Smith and my hobby is to see bubble in the bathtub".
Teacher: "Guys are you joking or what? Please be sincere. Ok next".
This continues...
And the last boy stands up "I'm Harry and my hobby is to see Bubble in the bathtub".
Exhausted, the teacher said, "I don't think I will be able to teach un-grown boys for long. Anyway, now the girls please."
First girl: "I'm Julie and my hobby is to see birds".
Teacher: "Good. At last I got something different. Ok next".
Second girl: "I'm Ruby and I like to collect perfumes".
Teacher "Now it's like educated grown up girls. Ok next.
You sweet Girl; Yes you..." Most beautiful girl of the class gets up:
"Mam, my name is Bubble, and my hobby is to take bath three times a day"
...still no cure for cancer. But hey, we got COLORED BUBBLES!!!!!!
omg seriously guys, ITS COLOUR WITH A 'U' YOU FUCKING MORONS!!!! Why oh why do you muppet americans still insist on ruining what is already and fuckin' bad language....
ilovegeorgebush
The main character in the story, Tim Kehoe, spent years mixing dyes with soap in his kitchen and blowing bubbles with it. Nothing worked.
After ten years of almost entirely unsuccessful tinkering, he got some financial backing and finally employed a guy with a PhD. in dye chemistry to work on the problem - who apparently cracked it by synthesising an unusual molecule called a 'lactone ring' - something Kehoe would never have created in a lifetime of messing about in the kitchen.
The '11-year quest' makes a nice story, but it was an actual scientist who created the bubbles. Props to Kehoe for the idea, but he didn't have the skills to realise it.
#define struct union
can they be seperated by density, boiling, or freezing point perhaps?
With shaking hands I buy a bottle for my wife... please ... oh, please ...
... if someone found a way to "reactivate"te residue? Just spray things and see if a color comes up. Best if it makes the paint permanent this time
Sig (appended to the end of comments I post, 54 chars)
On the pink, blue, yellow, and heliotrope surface, colored bubbles based on the chemistry they describe seem like an amazing toy. However, I'd be willing to bet that the bubble solution has a mediocre to poor shelf life, especially after being opened, assuming the colors fade with exposure to air, heat, etc. Oopsy...or maybe cha-ching!
Maybe Kehoe Bubble Jedi Master will vacuum-pack the solution and/or use stabilizers - seems likely. However, unless cash-fisted bubble wielders are prepared to use up all of their solution within a short time, they may find that the only colors they see are on the cool, plastic packaging of their ZGen-hip, anthroblowmorphic, bubble bottle characters. The more solution they use, the more air will accumulate in the packaging, and the worse the problem will become, conceptually not unlike my esteemed, dried-up glue bottle collection.
Maybe they could repurpose the famous Pokemon marketing slogan as: "Gotta blow 'em all!" Who knew that this Hudsucker-esque success of simplicity might become the ultimate porn industry sex toy!?
On the up-side, if the solution does fade, it will be no worse than run-of-the-mill bubbles, unless of course there is some as yet undetermined toxic effect of all the various lactone compounds they are using to achieve the slippery soap spectrum. We must consult BOB, the Bubble Oversight Bureau, or at least the FDA.
Despite my burgeoning product concerns, it's hard not to be inspired by the success of the Fabulous Bubble Boys and want to run right out and buy or seek to imitate their product. The dye chemistry involved is a great achievement.
Personally, I am about to embark on a 20-year mission to create "Safari Bubbles," also known as "The Hairy Grail." These are bubbles that form in surface-area-to-volume-ratio-defying animal shapes with iridescent safari print colors, which then sprout synthetic fur as they slowly drift over the suburban savannah. Rowr! Hmmm...maybe I can make them solar-powered and capable of playing mp3 animal noises! Eureka!
Tomorrow, I plan to go to all the regional zoos and buy one of every animal to blend up in my sink. Who needs scientists?! I may destroy a few kitchens, and the elephants may crush my dining room table and collapse the foundation, but thank God I have a Vitamix! With luck, success will be mine if the tigers don't kill me first.
Is this somehow different from:
1) Paintball dyes that fade a few minutes after you get splatted, and
2) Ceiling paint that rolls on pink and fades to white as it dries?
True it was the Indian chemist who did the final version of the bubbles (quite impressive work too - managed to do it within a year). I think few chemists would be able to do that sort of thing.
But this guy had the idea, AND the persistence, AND the luck to get the financing.
Otherwise the Indian chemist might be doing other stuff rather than bubbles.
So what if you're brilliant AND have the idea, if you can't get any money to pull the idea into reality, the idea just stays an idea.
Or if you're brilliant, but you have no ideas in that particular field. While you might be able to think of millions of ways of creating dyes (which might impress chemists in other fields), but that's different from thinking of things that could impress kids and toy manufacturers.
Without that particular team of people, there wouldn't be these coloured bubbles.
And interesting dye tech too.
Does it by absorbing light though.
I wonder if they can make bubbles which have intense iridescent colours. While normal soap bubbles do already get colours from iridescence, they don't really have intense colours. You might be able to also have something that washes away easily or that is fairly transparent - after all it probably won't be a "normal" dye - it'll be thin layers of transparent refractory stuff.
Touching story, Mr.Kehoe, but i'll be impressed when i see a square bubble! Or better yet, a triangle.
"You won't eat our meat, but you'll glue with our feet.." --Some cow
Coumarin is one of the oldest known fluorescent compounds, and is the base structure for at least 100 dyes, I think it's fair to say. Coumarin comes from the decomposition of lavender, and its relative, coumadin, is a very common blood thinner. When horses eat rotten lavender (mixed with hay, usually) they start bleeding internal as if they'd eaten rat poison.
I don't understand what took this guy so long. One of the oldest ways to monitor surface tension of water (i.e., evaluation of different soaps / surfactants) is to see how much soap it takes to solubilize a greasy, red dye. A dye like that is going to stick to the hydrophobic tail of any surfactant, not fall to the bottom of the bubble in a small, colored dot. On the other hand, the optical properties of a bubble are a lot different from those of a solution, so a red dye might not make a red bubble. Regular soap makes rainbow-colored bubbles, with no help from any dyes.
Greasy aromatic rings are generally required for color absorption, so most chromophores (the basic dye molecule) are already hydrophobic, and attaching a long, hydrophilic tail (PEO, polyethylene oxide, commonly used to solubilize hydrophobic drugs so they'll have a longer circulatory half-life) would be trivial for any chemist. It doesn't take a PhD, or even a pH meter.
Si la vida me da palo, yo la voy a soportar Si la vida me da palo, yo la voy a espabilar