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Mad Scientist Invents Colored Bubbles

Posted by Zonk on from the bubbles-make-the-heart-float dept.

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.'"

33 of 251 comments (clear)

  1. He's not a Mad Scientist! by Knight+Thrasher · · Score: 5, Insightful
    He's not a Mad Scientist!

    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.

    1. Re:He's not a Mad Scientist! by Scrameustache · · Score: 5, Funny

      That being said, this is EXCELLENT. Imagine possibilities like clothing that changes color depending on the soap you wash it with.

      Imagine?

      Ask your mom to put some bleach in your next color's wash, it's FUN! ;- )

      --

      You can't take the sky from me...

    2. Re:He's not a Mad Scientist! by moosesocks · · Score: 5, Funny

      According to the article, he initially tried using nitric acid to color the bubbles because of its red color.

      The fact that he thought he could sell nitric acid as a child's toy I believe qualifies him as being legitimately crazy.

      --
      -- If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? - Uli's moose
    3. Re:He's not a Mad Scientist! by Mr2cents · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I liked the exploding bubble. The article didn't say much about it, but my guess is that it might have been nitric acid reacting with glycerin (producing .. nitroglycerin!). Glycerin is often used for making bubbles, it allows them to grow larger.

      I did some experiments trying to create nitroglycerin when I was 17, but later I learned that the nitric acid sold commercially contain chemicals that inhibit the reaction (the bastards!). Maybe the guy found a way to inhibit the inhibitor?

      --
      "It's too bad that stupidity isn't painful." - Anton LaVey
    4. Re:He's not a Mad Scientist! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      I love how it's a given that mom is doing my laundry.

    5. Re:He's not a Mad Scientist! by Mr2cents · · Score: 3, Interesting

      The tests I did was with nitric and sulphuric acid mixed together. The sulphuric acid's role was indeed to boost the reaction. But if my understanding is correct, the nitric acid alone can also form nitroglycerin, just less, and it's slower. It could be enough to produce an audible bang.

      --
      "It's too bad that stupidity isn't painful." - Anton LaVey
    6. Re:He's not a Mad Scientist! by Muhammar · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Here is how you can make exploding bubbles by yourself:
      1.Get the bubble toy solution.
      2. Get the acetylene/oxygen welding torch to blow them.
      3. make these suckerz and ignite with a long twig

      (you do not turn the flame on when using the torch, of course).

      This explosive gas mixture trick works with hydrogen/oxygen also (and you get lighter-than-air floating bubbles) but acetylene+oxygen gives *much* stronger bang for the volume. Once we filled modest-size thrashbag with the mix and it cracked the window (and our eardrums) - and yes, we were standing on the veranda outside the house.

      --
      I doubt that we will ever figure out - and I suspect that even if we did figure out we couldn't do much about it
  2. Giggling Geek by dada21 · · Score: 4, Funny

    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.

    1. Re:Giggling Geek by rbarreira · · Score: 3, Funny
      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?

      Well, I guess you're using the expression "grown man" in the broad sense...
      --

      The AACS key is NOT 0xF606EEFD628B1CA427BEA93A9CA9773F
    2. Re:Giggling Geek by dada21 · · Score: 3, Funny

      Thanks, Tom, err Tom's neighbor :)

      This guy is going to be a billionaire over this technology.

      Makes me think of the circle on the bar napkin. You know? For kids?

  3. Really? by SpiritGod21 · · Score: 3, Funny

    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...

  4. Wow by ApuD2 · · Score: 5, Funny

    "...Chemical burns, ruined clothes, 11 years, half a million dollars..."
    Sounds like Michael Jackson's life story.

    1. Re:Wow by wildsurf · · Score: 4, Funny

      "...Chemical burns, ruined clothes, 11 years, half a million dollars..."
      Sounds like Michael Jackson's life story.

      Not to mention the color change.

      --
      Weeks of coding saves hours of planning.
  5. Wow, awesome. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    "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)

  6. As a socially concerned geek... by Elrac · · Score: 5, Funny

    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
  7. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 4, Funny

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  8. Not a dupe. by technoextreme · · Score: 3, Informative

    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.
  9. Whole article by Toothpick · · Score: 4, Informative

    http://www.popsci.com/popsci/printerfriendly/scien ce/0a03b5108e097010vgnvcm1000004eecbccdrcrd.html

    Printer (and user) friendly!

  10. I actually.. by Chickenofbristol55 · · Score: 5, Funny
    am a subscriber to popular science, so I read this article about a week ago. In the article it was kind of silly, because it was in the section of the "best of 2005", along with a super-advanced bionic arm, and the like. While it's a cool idea, it isn't even practical or useful (even as a form of entertainment). Here's how I think it went:

    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"); }
    1. Re:I actually.. by fliplap · · Score: 4, Informative

      Ok, apparently you didn't read the entire article then. Turn to page 130 and the last 2 paragraphs of the article.

      Other things they're thinking of:
      Finger paints that fade from everything but a special paper.
      Vanishing hair dye
      Disappearing graffiti spray paint
      Toothpaste that turns a kids mouth pink until he's brushed for 30 seconds and soap that does the same
      A swiffer type mop that dyes where you've already mopped
      A wall paint that lets you test paint colors

  11. Re:Huh?? There are five paragraphs on each page by interiot · · Score: 4, Informative
    Yes, "one paragraph" was an exageration. But it's spread over 11 pages, and most of the paragraphs are simply gush with no content. For those who just want the meat, the whole story can basically be boiled down to:
    Kehoe made a bubble like that when he was 26, after only two years of trashed countertops and chemical fires. He showed it to toy-company executives, who called it a "holy grail." And then it broke, as bubbles always do. And when it did, the dye inside escaped onto clothes and carpets and walls and skin, staining everything it touched. The execs told him to come back with a bubble they could wash off their boardroom table.

    The breakthrough finally happened in an empty lab in Minneapolis on a Sunday this past February. As with Kehoe's first bubble, it arose from the slow, subtle refinement of a process over thousands of experiments. But Sabnis could re-create it. He synthesized a dye that would bond to the surfactants in a bubble to give it bright, vivid color but would also lose its color with friction, water or exposure to air--not fade, not transfer to something else, but go away completely, as though it had never been there. When one of these bubbles breaks on your hand, rub your hands together a few times and look: Poof. Magic. No more color. If the bubble breaks on your shirt or the carpet or the dog, you have two choices: Dab it with a touch of plain water to remove it immediately, or forget about it for half an hour. Either way, the color will soon be gone.

    Sabnis's solution was to build a dye molecule from an unstable base structure called a lactone ring that functions much like a box. When the ring is open, the molecule absorbs all visible light save for one color--the color of the bubble. But add air, water or pressure, and the box closes, changing the molecule's structure so that it lets visible light pass straight through. Sabnis builds each hue by adding different chemical groups onto this base.

  12. Video by Mard · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.
  13. Think of the possibilities... by Massamune · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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.

  14. Company website by Scutter · · Score: 3, Informative

    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?"
  15. it's the diappearing part that's hard by lashi · · Score: 3, Insightful
    If you read TFA, it's not making coloured bubles that's hard, it's making the colour diappear that's hard.

    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.

  16. Noxious gases? by whitehatlurker · · Score: 3, Funny
    He's had to evacuate his family because he filled the house with noxious fumes.

    Beans at the Kehoes' for supper, again?

    --
    .. paranoid crackpot leftover from the days of Amiga.
  17. This is what science is all about: by mblase · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.

  18. Amazing range of experimental ingredients... by suitepotato · · Score: 4, Funny

    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)
  19. Re:Patent or trade secret? by The+Journalist · · Score: 3, Interesting
    all you'd need is a reasonably competent chemist to reverse-engineer the formula)

    Although you seem to have read the article, you also seem to have missed a few key points:

    From TFA:

    • "Ram Sabnis is a leader among a very small group of people who can point to a dye-chemistry Ph.D. on their wall."
    • "'What Ram did was an extremely difficult bit of chemistry,' [says Darlene Carlson, a former 3M chemist]."
    • "'Nobody has made this chemistry before,' Sabnis says. 'All these molecules--we will make 200 or 300 to cover the spectrum--they don't exist. We have synthesized a whole new class of dyes.'"

    Color me cynical, but I doubt even a "competent" chemist could reverse engineer something like this.

  20. Blue eyes by JazMuadDib · · Score: 5, Funny

    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?

  21. Re:Where can I invest a few bucks???? by CrazyJim1 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Even after 1999, we have people who want to invest in a bubble market.

    --
    God spoke to me.
  22. Um what about the chemist by syousef · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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
  23. MSDS? by iamlucky13 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.