The Study of Bubbles

By Coggin Heeringa, Interpretive Naturalist, Crossroads at Big Creek, Inc.

When we at Crossroads at Big Creek selected “Bubbles” for the topic for  “Saturday Science” on the final day of August, the idea was to offer an effervescent fun-filled final fling to end our summer programming. Who doesn’t delight in blowing bubbles? And we all know about soap suds, carbonated beverages and the little air bubbles in fish tanks. But what do bubbles have to do with science? Quite a bit!

In fact, a few years back, the BBC produced a documentary called “Pop! The Science of Bubbles.” According to their promotional material, “Dr. Helen Czerski presents one of those rare science programs, which — if you’re not a physicist — is quite likely to change the way you see the world…

“The study of bubbles, explains Dr. Czerski, is helping scientists solve some of the toughest mathematical problems in nature. By observing the colors on the surface of a soap bubble they can follow fluid flows and study systems that would otherwise be inaccessible or invisible — say the storms in Jupiter’s atmosphere…

“Emperor penguins store air in their feathers which they release to form bubbles, reducing the density of water and increasing their speed by up to 50 per cent…” and on and on and on.

This week’s Saturday Science program will start with several clips from this documentary and will introduce a number of concepts about these floating iridescent spheres which enhance our beverages, make ice cream soft enough to eat and carry oxygen to our lungs and the oceans. Finally, (weather permitting) participants will have a bubble blowing summer ending fling outdoors.

But the science concepts may bubble up in our other programs this week. Our Wednesday Wander will visit Big Creek (which this time of year might better be called Itsy Bitsy Creek.) But if a torrential downpour refills the creek, we may find large mounds of suds in the water. When dead plant parts –leaves, sticks, logs – decompose, they release organic surfactants not unlike soap, which release the surface tension of the water so bubbles form. Mounds of suds add energy (and hiding places) to the creek.

When we wade into our wetlands during the afterschool Nature Exploration on Wednesday at 3:30, we may encounter another kind of bubbles. Called swamp gas, these bubbles are produced in wetlands when organic matter breaks down in waterlogged soils creating a mixture of methane, hydrogen sulfide, carbon dioxide, and trace phosphine. (Yes, it smells pretty bad.)

But beneficial air bubbles are formed when wind creates small waves  that add oxygen into the watery environments.

Finally, we can’t resist mentioning  “Ales & Trails”, the upcoming Crossroads fundraiser scheduled for Saturday, September 7. (See the Crossroads website for details and to purchase tickets.)

What would ales be without bubbles and foam? In the case of  beer, the bubbles are carbon dioxide gas. This carbonation occurs naturally because carbon dioxide and alcohol are produced when the yeast digests the sugar. And sometimes a brewer will force addition carbon dioxide into a keg or container. Anyway, when the container is unsealed and the pressure is released, the carbon dioxide rises to escape and creating the bubbles and a head of foams. Bubbles!