The 11 Year Soap Bubble 259
-Overdrive- writes "Popular Science has an interesting article about an inventor and his 11 year quest for Colored Bubbles" From the article: " It turns out that coloring a bubble is an exceptionally difficult bit of chemistry. A bubble wall is mostly water held in place by two layers of surfactant molecules, spaced just millionths of an inch apart. If you add, say, food coloring to the bubble solution, the heavy dye molecules float freely in the water, bonding to neither the water nor the surfactants, and cascade almost immediately down the sides. You'll have a clear bubble with a dot of color at the bottom. What you need is a dye that attaches to the surfactant molecules and disperses evenly in that water layer. Pack in more dye molecules, get a deeper, richer hue. Simple. Well, on paper anyway."
Re:Yet another dup... (Score:4, Interesting)
Also, I noted that the article referred to soap bubbles as "the world's most popular toy". Here is an interesting question for all of us: what is actually the world's most popular toy, and how do one measure it? I'm willing to bet a good amount soap bubbles isn't the correct answer...
why all the dupes (Score:2, Interesting)
The editors still choose the stories but we have some kind of quality control.
This dupe btw could have been avoided with a little script to compare the text and the links in the story with all the stories submitted in the last weeks.
Maybe Slashcode is a little too focused on the user and should try to work on the editor part instead.
no dup (Score:5, Interesting)
You should add a small snippet of code and insert it into the publication process; this snippet of code extracts all URLs from the href's in the proposed posting, and searches all posting of last 18months to see if they appear somewhere: in that case, a HUGE RED warning will flash on the screen, asking the post writer (and/or the editor) to check that the proposed posting is not a duplicate.
For example, Nov 11, the posting Mad Scientist Invents Colored Bubbles appears in
Re:DUPE! (Score:5, Interesting)
Since 1952 the US Government has been testing ketchup. Ketchup must flow between 3-7 centimeters in 30 seconds to be considered Grade A. Ketchup that flow closer to the 3-centimeter mark receive better scores. Ketchups that are too thick or too runny receive poor grades.
See the Zubbles video (Score:4, Interesting)
http://www.zubbles.com/flash/ZubblesVideoPlayer2.
Awesome! (Score:2, Interesting)
"a finger paint that fades from every surface except a special paper, a hair dye that vanishes in a few hours, and disappearing-graffiti spray paint. There's a toothpaste that would turn kids' mouths a bright color until they had brushed for the requisite 30 seconds, and a soap that would do the same for hand washing"
Not just washing for kids: doctors and nurses too, this could slow MRSA superbugs a bit! Anyone think of any other cool uses for the dye?
Not just bubbles (Score:2, Interesting)
It's not the bubbles that are important.
It's the *dye*.
A dye that will fade to nothing in air, or because of friction, or with plain water - anywhere, infact, other than in specific materials (i.e. the bubble solution), is fantastic! Anywhere where colour would be desired but has previously been avoided because of it's permanancy is now a target.
Yes, toys (ink grenades or coloured water gun fights anyone?) are the easiest applications to think of but I'm sure there are many more.
One I can think of (although I'd rather it never came to pass) is temporary signage or even (vomit) advertising. Some mobile printer just inks over whatever surface is available. After a set time, the print fades away. No more messy fly poster fragments or ripped posters.
Another that's just come to mind is the idea of exposure markings on air-tight or sterile products. Think medical syringes, dressings etc. Markings on these sealed products are made using one of these dye variants. It fades within 30 seconds or so. So if you get a approached by a nurse weilding a clear syringe you know it's been sitting around somewhere and can politely (or otherwise) ask for a fresh one.
What they have here is a completely new dye group - they have a scaffold they can tweak to get the exact properties (colour, fastness, fade speed etc.) they want. It's not gonna change the world but it's still an acomplishment.
OK, enough ranting - I guess I'm just quite taken with this idea. It seems like a mirror of what went into designing inkjet inks... Brings back fond memories of my student chemistry days too!