
Two new papers explore the physics behind bubbles and foams - headalgorithm
https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/06/two-new-papers-explore-the-complicated-physics-behind-bubbles-and-foams/
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rotskoff
As a statistical physicist, the title of this article looks the way "Two new
papers explore the complexity of neural networks" might to a working ML
researcher. Bubbles and foams are, and have been, a topic of intense research
in soft matter physics for decades. Foams, in particular, have myriad uses in
industry and have many well-established models.

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semi-extrinsic
So, as a scientist working in fluid mechanics, I certainly find these two
papers interesting. But the interesting bits are highly technical. There
doesn't seem to be either a common link between the two papers, nor a good
reason why these specific ones are reported on by Ars. The only thing they
seem to have in common, is that they were both posted to EurekAlert (which is
a place where universities can post press releases) at about the same time.
These press releases seem to be the basis for the Ars article, but
unfortunately the Ars piece is full of pretty basic mistakes...

TL;DR: if you like bubbles and foams, go read the actual articles, please
don't read the Ars piece.

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behringer
That's basically all news reporting. Imagine all news is about as bad as this
article and you'll suddenly realize how misinformed you are on just about
everything.

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bigmattystyles
This documentary contains rudimentary information and applications about
bubbles -
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-Ub_r_GFZY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-Ub_r_GFZY)
The same host had one on the same topic from the BBC I can't find, it was also
great. BBC docs are very often very well done. Never overproduced or reliant
on useless special effects.

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dannykwells
For the mathematically inclined, I strongly recommend Frank Morgan's book on
Geometric Measure Theory, which is the math of bubbles, essentially:

[https://www.sciencedirect.com/book/9780128044896/geometric-m...](https://www.sciencedirect.com/book/9780128044896/geometric-
measure-theory)

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Quequau
When I was in high school Scientific American published a paper on
'AntiBubbles', which are thin films of a gas suspended in and filled with a
liquid.

I spent nearly a month in the science department of my school trying to
recreate them to no avail.

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FreeFull
There are a bunch of videos on youtube showing off antibubbles. Perhaps it'd
be easier to recreate them after watching one.

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Quequau
Actually, I bet the invention of digital video cameras and computer post-
processing makes the whole enterprise much easier. Because my most vivid
memory of that time is a debate between my friends about if one had formed or
not.

Being able to go back and look at a video that had been slowed down and zoomed
in would probably help enormously.

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javiramos
Anyone has non-paywall links to the papers?

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lizmunroe
[https://citationsy.com/archives/q?doi=10.1038/s41598-019-414...](https://citationsy.com/archives/q?doi=10.1038/s41598-019-41486-6)

[https://citationsy.com/archives/q?doi=10.1073/pnas.181974411...](https://citationsy.com/archives/q?doi=10.1073/pnas.1819744116)

