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Electricity Gives Bubbles Super Strength

Posted by samzenpus on from the under-the-bubble dept.

sciencehabit writes "Left to its own devices, a bubble will weaken and pop as the fluid sandwiched between two thin layers of soap succumbs to gravity and drains toward the floor. But when researchers trapped a bubble between two platinum electrodes and cranked up the voltage, the fluid reversed direction and actually flowed up, against the force of gravity. The newly strong and stable bubbles could live for hours, and even visibly change colors as their walls grew fatter. Because soap film is naturally only nanometers thick, this whimsical experiment could help scientists create more efficient labs-on-chips, the mazes of nanotunnels that can diagnose disease based on the movements of a miniscule drop of blood."

42 of 66 comments (clear)

  1. Anti gravity applications? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Some washing up liquid bottles, sticky back plastic and Sellotape, Blue Peter were way ahead of their time, they just omitted the platinum electrodes and high voltage!

    1. Re:Anti gravity applications? by chronokitsune3233 · · Score: 2

      I thought about antigravity as well, though your reference is lost on me. I'm currently imagining Back to the Future II cars...with bubbles on the bottom. The world will be cleansed...by bubbles. Of course that means there will be people who instead of walking will take the aerobus, so there will need to be bubble shelters where people can avoid the bubbles while waiting for it. After all, who wants to walk into work with sticky clothing, hair, etc.?

      --
      I have been a captive in America my entire life. Everybody and everything uses customary units instead of metric.
    2. Re:Anti gravity applications? by Coisiche · · Score: 5, Informative

      The reference is to a British children's TV program called Blue Peter. Many decades ago, when I watched it, it would frequently feature construction projects where required materials were almost always an empty washing-up liquid bottle, sellotape and sticky-backed plastic. The last one being hard to come by in Aucherterarder; the target audience was clearly city kids.

    3. Re:Anti gravity applications? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Someone want to translate this cryptic passage to English?

      The irony is that it is in English.

      What you want is a translation to American.

    4. Re:Anti gravity applications? by RivenAleem · · Score: 1

      Wait wait wait, Are you trying to tell me that sticky back plastic and Sellotape were 2 different things? They never ever mentioned Sellotape on Blue Peter, because it is a brand name. Hence sticky back plastic.

    5. Re:Anti gravity applications? by Coisiche · · Score: 1

      The sticky-backed plastic they used (well, in 1970's anyway) always seemed to come in sheets. The sticky tape was clearly Sellotape. I was too young at the time to appreciate that brand names couldn't be used on BBC programmes but I did realise that the sticky-back plastic the presenter would use was not available in the town shop whereas the tape was accessible in the side-board cupboard. The empty washing-up bottles could be acquired by pestering my mother. But when the presenter would say "...and a sheet of sticky-backed plastic", I knew I was stymied.

    6. Re:Anti gravity applications? by Joce640k · · Score: 1

      Sticky back plastic is what you used at school to cover the outside of your books.

      --
      No sig today...
    7. Re:Anti gravity applications? by Canazza · · Score: 1

      No, Sticky-back plastic was something entirely different from Sticky-tape (which is what they called Sellotape)

      Sticky-back plastic was like a large sheet of plastic (normally A4 size) with one side sticky.

      --
      It pays to be obvious, especially if you have a reputation for being subtle.
    8. Re:Anti gravity applications? by Canazza · · Score: 4, Funny

      Posh bastard!

      We used brown wrapping paper and had to like it.

      Oh what I would have given for some sticky back plastic to cover our books with!

      --
      It pays to be obvious, especially if you have a reputation for being subtle.
    9. Re:Anti gravity applications? by Ginger+Unicorn · · Score: 1

      We used old offcuts of wallpaper. Also we'd get up every morning an hour before we'd gone to bed, and lick 'road clean wi't tongue.

      --
      (1.21 gigawatts) / (88 miles per hour) = 30 757 874 newtons
    10. Re:Anti gravity applications? by Coisiche · · Score: 1

      I remember having to use the offcuts of wallpaper too. And parents were oblivious to the strife you would be subjected to if the only bits available at the time were from your sister's room having just been decorated.

    11. Re:Anti gravity applications? by Canazza · · Score: 1

      Off cuts of wall paper! Oooh we'd have killed for off. cuts. of. wall. paper.

      We had to use sandpaper!

      And we didn't have rucksacks so we had to keep our jotters in our underpants!

      --
      It pays to be obvious, especially if you have a reputation for being subtle.
    12. Re:Anti gravity applications? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Having items in an electric field does not reduce gravity, it only adds an additional force which pulls them in the opposite direction.

      Example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil-drop_experiment

    13. Re:Anti gravity applications? by Coisiche · · Score: 1

      Ah, Grampian Television. Haven't been in any of the areas that was broadcast in nigh on twenty years. I know it's just part of STV now rather than remaining an independent entity.

    14. Re:Anti gravity applications? by L4t3r4lu5 · · Score: 2

      sellotape and sticky-backed plastic

      They are the same thing; Sellotape is a brand, and couldn't be named on the BBC. The third item you're missing is toilet / kitchen rolls :)

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      Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
    15. Re:Anti gravity applications? by Westwood0720 · · Score: 1

      I was the kid that paid some girl in candy and stickers to cover my book. I didn't have a clue how to do it. XD

    16. Re:Anti gravity applications? by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 1

      "Go go gadget bubble capture unit!"

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      (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
    17. Re:Anti gravity applications? by Coisiche · · Score: 1

      There's a debate about that further down the thread. But you're correct that the cardboard cores of paper rolls were also a regular feature on the required materials list.

    18. Re:Anti gravity applications? by Coisiche · · Score: 1

      It's either a careless typing mistake in typing the name of my home town of Auchterarder, which would not be serious in any way because I'm a very poor typist, or it's a case of being unable to correctly name the place in which I spent my first eighteen years which would be indicative of something more serious.

    19. Re:Anti gravity applications? by Palamos · · Score: 2

      Brands can be, and often are, mentioned on the BBC, as a result there were frequent references to Sellotape. Sticky-backed plastic is different from Sellotape, it's a wider plastic roll, typically about 50cm (20") wide.

    20. Re:Anti gravity applications? by jonadab · · Score: 1

      I don't think soap bubbles would provide enough lift for meaningful anti-gravity applications. They float because they are not significantly more dense than air. Weigh them down with any kind of payload, and they're going to land on the floor.

      --
      Cut that out, or I will ship you to Norilsk in a box.
    21. Re:Anti gravity applications? by Darinbob · · Score: 1

      Ah, that makes sense. I don't know what we called it in the states. We didn't use it on books, but used it to line cupboards and drawers. Brown paper bags for covering books, or sometimes other larger pieces of paper (no sticky stuff on school books as those were government property and had to be returned at the end of school year).

      Sellotape over here is just cellophane tape, or Scotch Brand(tm) tape.

    22. Re:Anti gravity applications? by chronokitsune3233 · · Score: 1

      Lining cupboards and drawers was sometimes done with wallpaper in some of the homes I've seen. Other times it's probably a form of contact paper.

      --
      I have been a captive in America my entire life. Everybody and everything uses customary units instead of metric.
    23. Re:Anti gravity applications? by chronokitsune3233 · · Score: 1

      From the "Uses" section of Wikipedia's "Contact paper" entry:

      - Commonly used to line or cover kitchen and bathroom cabinets and drawers, counter tops, bookshelves, closet shelving, and pantry areas
      - Covering up or protecting areas which have become (or could become) stained or ruined because of a project. Examples include art projects, foods and liquids, destructive substances
      - The clear variety can be used for laminating books, art projects, posters, pictures, or other objects
      - As part of a collage

      It's quite probable that while the term is "contact paper" of the clear variety, it was actually the sticky-backed plastic you're all talking about. I'm not saying paper can't be transparent, but I'm suggesting the possibility that it was not, in this case, paper as the name "contact paper" suggests.

      --
      I have been a captive in America my entire life. Everybody and everything uses customary units instead of metric.
    24. Re:Anti gravity applications? by L4t3r4lu5 · · Score: 1

      Sticky-backed plastic is different from Sellotape, it's a wider plastic roll, typically about 50cm (20") wide.

      Not a chance. Blue Peter creations were all about things you'd have in the home. Nobody, not one person has as a regular item in their home a roll of 0.5m wide sticky plastic sheeting. In fact, the only time I've seen that stuff is used as carpet protection for removals companies. Sticky backed plastic was sellotape, or maybe packing tape, but definitely not that stuff.

      --
      Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
  2. Bubbles Real Strenght; North American Style by flyneye · · Score: 1

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bD77ln7vZJU

    While you were washing up, we were getting dirty.

    --
    *Repent!Quit Your Job!Slack Off!The World Ends Tomorrow and You May Die!
  3. Prior art by game+kid · · Score: 2

    Electrically-enhanced bubbles have been used as weapons for decades.

    --
    You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.
    1. Re:Prior art by VortexCortex · · Score: 1

      I always thought the bubbles were from his butt -- I mean, if I was bubble man that'd be the simplest way I could think of to weaponize them. Makes sense, no? SBDs do about 5 bars of health damage...

      The electrified bubble should also act sort of like a Faraday cage, allowing current to flow around the outside of the bubble while what's inside has much less measurable charge (restructures the charge of the exterior material to equalize the field in the interior).

  4. Re:A bit late now by flyneye · · Score: 1

    What is the English fascination with M.J.? I mean besides letting little boys play with "rubba, the two tone dolphin "in his pants..." It's black, it's white, yeah, yeah, yeah" http://www.wnd.com/2003/11/21956/

    --
    *Repent!Quit Your Job!Slack Off!The World Ends Tomorrow and You May Die!
  5. Scientists! by nospam007 · · Score: 2, Funny

    "Because soap film is naturally only nanometers thick, this whimsical experiment could help scientists create more efficient labs-on-chips, ..."

    Wot? No new gadget to blow bubbles?

    Think of the children!

  6. Aerogel Application? by metallurge · · Score: 2

    I wonder if this could be used to fabricate aerogels using something akin to a hot piezoelectric print head.

  7. Re:That's all I need by oodaloop · · Score: 2

    See, I thought it was Chemical X that gave Bubbles, Blossom, and Buttercup their super powers.

    --
    Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
  8. Of course one just needs to look at Pokemon.. by Destoo · · Score: 2

    Squirtle - BubbleBeam!
    Pikachu - Lightningrod!

    There you go. Unbeatable bubbles!

    --
    Nouvelles de jeux et technologies en français. TC
  9. Re:That's all I need by foniksonik · · Score: 3, Funny

    Are you saying the Powerpuff Girls grew up and became hookers? I knew the economy was bad but that is just depressing...

    --
    A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
  10. Thin bubbles by mbone · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Normal soap bubbles are about 500 to 1000 nanometers thick - that's why you can see colors (iridescence) on the surface - it's from interference (diffraction) of light reflecting on the inside and outside of the bubble wall. These bubbles are, according to TOA, nanometers thick, which is very thin, at least compared to the soap bubbles we see.

  11. Attack from Atlantis! by RoccamOccam · · Score: 1

    Immediately, I thought of the science-fiction novel Attack from Atlantis, as the technology sounds very much like that used to create the super-strong bubbles described in the story.

  12. Someone forward this to the BBC by TheSkepticalOptimist · · Score: 2

    Yes, there are no more real innovations in Science anymore. Bah. Wicked hard bubbles is the future baby!

    --
    I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
  13. Another step toward GP hulls? by jeffb+(2.718) · · Score: 1

    Electrically reinforcing molecular bonds?

    Unfortunately, no. But it does look at least a bit more interesting than "electrostatic attraction draws the film upward", which was what i guessed before reading the linked articles.

  14. Re:That's all I need by VortexCortex · · Score: 1

    Are you saying the Powerpuff Girls grew up and became hookers? I knew the economy was bad but that is just depressing...

    I don't know about depressing... I always had a thing for Blossom; so now if she'll just take a bit of cash, my childhood fantasy can come true!

    Are you serious? How the hell do you make it to Slashdot and not know about Rule 34?!

    From the Rules of the Internet:
    Rule 34: If it exists there is porn of it, no exceptions.
    Rule 35: If no porn is found at the moment, it will be made.

    Just add "rule 34" to any search term for the porn version. (search results w/ safe=off, links may be NSFW). Since this is your first time here's some complimentary Star Wars Rule 34., or if you're more the mile-high club type: Why not declare Rule 34 on Jets? (both SFW, non nudes)

    If you need to invoke rule 35, just proclaim rule 34 has been violated to the right folks, then wait.

    Welcome to the Internet.

  15. bubbles? boring. Bobbles? yes! by cellocgw · · Score: 1

    Skip this version and wait for them to start producing bobbles

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    https://app.box.com/WitthoftResume Code: https://github.com/cellocgw
  16. Shields Up Mr. Worf by Ryyuajnin · · Score: 1

    Perhaps electrified zero-g super bubbles could be the first navigational shields? :)

  17. Electricity Pffft! by Roachie · · Score: 1

    You should see her on meth!!!

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    This sig is not paradoxical or ironic.