A Bubble That Does Not Move And it's a Big Deal

                It is a lesson learnt by generations of children who have had fun blowing bubbles – they wobble around all over the place and they never last long. But now scientists in France have managed to immobilize a tiny bubble in water in a surprising breakthrough that could help doctors treat blood clots. Normally bubbles in a liquid will naturally be pushed upwards, a phenomenon described by Archimedes in 250BC. “Any object, wholly or partially immersed in a fluid, is buoyed up by a force equal to the weight of the fluid displaced by the object,” the mathematician wrote. And Until now, no-one had found a way to stop this process from happening.

However, researchers found they could create micro-bubbles by running electricity through a tiny electrode in water. By changing the frequency of the electricity they discovered they could make the bubble stay a set distance from the electrode. So instead of slowly rising through the water, it would stay in a fixed position, and if they moved the electrode, the bubble went with it. The researchers demonstrated they could immobilize a micro-bubble created from water electrolysis as if the Archimedes’ buoyant force that would normally push it upwards didn’t exist. This new and surprising phenomenon could lead to application in medicine, the nuclear industry or micromanipulation technology.