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  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

These levitating bubbles are long-lived and puncture-proof

Soap bubbles bombarded with ultrasonic waves rise into mid-air and can survive being stabbed with a needle.
Superstability of acoustically levitated bubbles formed from different liquids. Upper row: a sodium dodecylsulphate (SDS) bubble can be stably levitated for more than 15 min without bursting. Lower row, a pure water bubble, without the stabilization of any surfactant, can remain intact for more than 7 min.

A soap bubble (top row) can be levitated for more than 15 minutes without bursting; a pure water bubble (bottom row) can remain intact for more than 7 minutes. Credit: X. Ji et al./Droplet (CC-BY 4.0 DEED)

Bubbles can be made considerably more stable by suspending them in the air using sound waves1.

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Nature 628, 11 (2024)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-00859-2

References

  1. Ji, X. et al. Droplet https://doi.org/10.1002/dro2.119 (2024).

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