Research can also have practical benefits
French physicists have announced that they used glycerin to create a soap bubble with gas that lasted 465 days before bursting, UPI reported.
They described their experiment in the journal Physical Review Fluids.
Researchers at the University of Lille explain that, according to their research, soap bubbles burst quickly due to “drainage due to gravity and / or evaporation of the liquid”. In addition to soap bubbles, they studied “gas balls” – volatile bubbles of a liquid solution with plastic grains, analyzing those based on water and a solution of water and glycerin.
Glycerin gas balls proved to be particularly durable, with one lasting 465 days before bursting. According to scientists, this is a world record.
The results of the study can be used to create stable foams.
So what, exactly, is the point of a geriatric bubble?
Some suggest the science could be used in medicine and consumer products.
“I could imagine that the general problem of preventing evaporation could have many practical applications,” New York University math professor Leif Ristroph, who wasn’t involved in the study but has studied bubbles in the past, told NBC News.
“I’m daydreaming here, but I could imagine it might be useful to ‘armor’ little droplets in aerosols and sprays to make them last longer in air,” he added. “For example, some sort of medicine that’s administered by spraying
The researchers behind the study, however, have yet to comment on the possible use cases of their titan bubble.More on important bubbles:New Theory: The Universe is a Bubble Inflated by Dark Energy
