Jan 27
Pouring beer at home can be hit and miss: too much foam, not enough, and never ever the same as in a bar, that’s for sure. But help is at hand, in the form of beer science.
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Jan 25
I guess this makes sense when you think about it, but I never thought about it. Soap bubbles don’t stand a chance when it’s -4 degrees out, as YouTube’s NightHawkInLight elegantly shows us.
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Oct 11
There are few better sentences than one that includes the words "giant", "bubbles", "exploding" and "slow motion". Well, there’s one thing better: a video that fits that sentence.
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Oct 08
Though we can never be in awe of bubbles like we once were, we can still have fun with them. Lots of fun! And the easiest way to have more fun with bubbles is to go bigger and add in slow motion to capture the exploding bubbles. When you see these giant bubbles get popped in the park, they disappear instantaneously. When you see it in slow motion from Shanks FX, you see the water fireworks that follows the sphere-ish liquid amoeba.
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Jul 14
Childhood summers are all about blowing iridescent soap bubbles out of plastic wands. It seems like a short-lived activity, but somehow it provides endless fascination. Involving an Arduino and some stepper motors might seem like overkill, but these parabolic bubbles are pretty mesmerizing.
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Nov 13
This Is Not an Alien Planet
Posted in: Today's Chili
This might look like a satellite image of an alien planet, or the cover of a questionable sci-fi novel. But in fact it’s neither: incredibly, it’s a photograph of a humble soap bubble. More »
Oct 20
It doesn’t take a genius to realize dry ice is awesome, and with Halloween right around the corner, you’re bound to be seeing a lot of it. But did you know dry ice bubbles can be used as a practical effect to make whirling, churning alien planets? More »
Sep 19
MIT engineers use ultrasound for improved topical drug administration (video)
Posted in: Today's Chili 
Ultrasound is likely most often associated with sonograms, but some MIT engineers are poised to change that. By using two separate beams of inaudible sound waves (one at low-frequency, the other high) the team were able to increase the permeability of skin, in a bid to improve the efficiency of transdermal drug delivery. The technique works thanks to the waves exciting bubbles in a fluid (such as water), forcing them to swell and move chaotically. Once the bubbles reach a certain size they implode, sucking the surrounding fluid into the void. This process creates micro-jets of liquid, which cause miniscule tears in the skin, allowing it to (painlessly) absorb chemicals more effectively. In practice, a pre-treated area of skin is then covered with a patch containing the correct dose of drugs — but don’t worry, the skin is said to grow back just a few hours later.
Up until now, research into ultrasonic administration of drugs has concentrated on low-frequency waves, because the higher end of the spectrum doesn’t have enough energy to pop the bubbles. Higher frequencies do, however, help create more of them and also limits their lateral movement. By using both high- and low-frequencies, the MIT engineers found this produced better over all results, by not only increasing the skin’s uptake of the medicine, but also increasing the number of drugs that can be delivered this way. With pretty much anything that is usually delivered in capsule form being on the cards, this could make the administration of many popular drugs much more convenient and / or effective. Also excellent news for those who really don’t like needles.
Continue reading MIT engineers use ultrasound for improved topical drug administration (video)
MIT engineers use ultrasound for improved topical drug administration (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 Sep 2012 04:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Aug 10
Colloidal Display uses soap bubbles, ultrasonic waves to form a projection screen (hands-on video)
Posted in: Today's Chili 
If you’ve ever been to an amusement park, you may have noticed ride designers using some non-traditional platforms as projection screens — the most common example being a steady stream of artificial fog. Projecting onto transparent substances is a different story, however, which made this latest technique a bit baffling to say the least. Colloidal Display, developed by Yoichi Ochiai, Alexis Oyama and Keisuke Toyoshima, uses bubbles as an incredibly thin projection “screen,” regulating the substance’s properties, such as reflectance, using ultrasonic sound waves from a nearby speaker. The bubble liquid is made from a mixture of sugar, glycerin, soap, surfactant, water and milk, which the designers say is not easily popped. Still, during their SIGGRAPH demo, a motor dunked the wands in the solution and replaced the bubble every few seconds.
A standard projector directed at the bubble creates an image, which appears to be floating in the air. And, because the bubbles are transparent, they can be stacked to simulate a 3D image. You can also use the same display to project completely different images that fade in and out of view depending on your angle relative to the bubble. There is a tremendous amount of distortion, however, because the screen used is a liquid that remains in a fluid state. Because of the requirement to constantly refresh the bubbles, and the unstable nature of the screen itself, the project, which is merely a proof of concept, wouldn’t be implemented without significant modification. Ultimately, the designers hope to create a film that offers similar transparent properties but with a more solid, permanent composition. For now, you can sneak a peek of the first iteration in our hands-on video after the break.
Gallery: Colloidal Display hands-on
Filed under: Displays
Colloidal Display uses soap bubbles, ultrasonic waves to form a projection screen (hands-on video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 10 Aug 2012 12:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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