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Nature Physics 5, 315–316 (1 May 2009) | doi:10.1038/nphys1265

Fluid dynamics: The subtle art of blowing bubbles

Thomas P. Witelski

The elegant and complex behaviours exhibited by moving fluids have fascinated observers since the time of da Vinci and have driven scientific studies and technological developments on scales from the microscopic to the geophysical and the astronomical. This is particularly true of the dynamics at the 'free surface' between two different fluids, exemplified in such everyday phenomena as soap bubbles, fluid jets and ocean waves.