AntiBubbles: Science Fair '08-'09

[Michael]

Well, this year's science fair has once again begun. Of course, after last year's great success I enrolled in the elective once again. I have been doing a lot of research lately, and after last year's project, I've developed an interest in "water,' and hydrology.

I have been looking into many different topics: Ice Spikes and AntiBubbles and I have found, of the two, that AntiBubbles seemed REALLY interesting! I have done some brief research upon the topic, but have not really found a "question" on the topic.

For those who are not familiar with antibubbles: An antibubble, in short, is basically an inside-out bubble. A regular bubble is a ball of air surrounded by a thin layer of liquid. An antibubble is the total opposite! An antibubble is a rare bubble that consists of a ball of liquid surrounded by a thin layer of air (oxygen?).

On the otherhand, I've also done some research on Ice Spikes. These are very interesting as well, but I am having a very similar problem and not being able to develop a question! An ice spike, is a fairly rare formation that is formed when distilled water is frozen.

Any help on either topic would be appreciated. I'm looking for a fairly advanced topic.

Thanks,
MICHAEL

[phi-unit]

Congratulations on your success last year! It's nice to hear that your interest is growing.

I must agree with you on the point that antibubbles are quite an interesting topic within the field of hydrodynamics. They are also more appealing to me than the topic of ice-spikes, although it ultimately depends on your preference.
One notable thing about antibubbles is that they are relatively unstable, in the sense that they don't last for a very long time in solution. Additionally they also have some interesting applications for drug delivery.
One area of potential research that may interest you is in trying to find ways to maximize the lifetime; perhaps by varying the hydrodyamic environment of the anti-bubble.
I found an interesting an accessible article in Science News that discusses some recent developments in the field: http://63.240.200.111/articles/20040515/bob8.asp

Also wikipedia gives a nice, general description of antibubbles: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antibubbles

In particular it may be helpful to start looking at some of the references at the bottom of the wiki page.
As you mentioned if you are looking for a fairly advanced topic it will probably help if you start to read some scientific literature in your area of interest which hopefully allow you to make some interesting connections and see whether you can find anything interesting to investigate. I would also suggest reading the ScienceBuddies Advanced Project Guide if you feel that yourself heading in this direction.

Unfortunately, I personally don't know that much about ice-spikes but they do seem very interesting.
Best of luck in your research! Feel free to respond with further inquiries or more specific questions as they arise

[Michael]

Thank you for the "quick" response !

I have read the article you mentioned as well as some of the wikipedia sources and the more I read about antibubbes, the more I want to learn more ! They are actually quite facinating to me. I think i'm leaning in more that direction .

Anyhow, I had spent this morning reading a few articles and gathering some research. As I was researching, I had kind of thought of these two questions, which could potentially be a good science fair project, and one that it testable.

-Does temperature affect the rate at which antibubbles form?
To test this, I would get 3 different temperatures of the same liquid (water) and test to see which one forms the most antibubbles. I would get one very, very cold (possibly supercooled?) beaker of water, one room temp. water (control) and one beaker at boiling point (?) and test.

-Does the density of a certain liquid affect the formation of antibubbles?
To test this idea, I would get two - three liquids with different densities, and test. When I read that article about an Antibubble forming in Belgian Beer, I asked myself this. I'm not particularly sure the density of belgian beer, but if it's different from the density of water, than this may be a fairly interesting project.

Another idea I had, but really couldn't think of a "question" was the velocity of them. (So, velocity vs. Density? temperature?) Basically, which one reaches the top the fastest.

Imput is appreciated

Thanks for the help!
Michael

[Michael]

Before I forget to ask..

This may sound like a "stupid" question but what exactly do you mean by drug delivery.

Thanks,
Michael

[Gizzmo46]

Michael,

You have picked a very interesting topic and have some good ideas about what kinds of variables which you can alter. I agree it is more difficult to understand what can actually be measured. A good website for some further information on antibubbles is http://www.antibubble.org/. This site not only provides good explanations of antibubbles but discusses how they can be created and some experiments that have already been performed. Additionally, it provides references to other resources on bubbles.

Of course, you need to come up with your own idea for an experiment but this should help you to get a better idea of what kind of measurements can be performed and how some systems were designed. Part of the fun that comes with science experiments is how you can design them and measure what you are interested in. One of the best ways I have found to go about this is decide what you would like to measure and figure out what you need your system to do. Then head out to the hardware store and toy stores and wander around. This is the time to be creative. Things such as rain catchers and hot water bottles with tubes attached can come in wonderful. Of course if you have access to a chemistry lab or the like, experiments are easier but not always as fun to design and build! I should mention that you need to keep in mind what your limitations are when designing your experiments. For example, super cooled water might not be the easiest thing to obtain or work with considering the measurement time required.

Velocity is always a good measure but don't forget other quantities such as size. It is important to note that everything that you don't measure or use as a variable should remain as constant as possible. I feel that I should mention that one apparatus that will be extremely helpful with this experiment would be a video camera. No matter what you decide to measure the camera will allow you to enlarge and slow things down. Just don't forget to calibrate it so that you know what the camera time and size corresponds to in real life.

Sorry but I'm not exactly sure about the drug delivery question. This may be something useful to research.

[Gizzmo46]

One other quick note. Keep in mind when you do measurements that you want to be able to make sure that you can decipher the antibubbles from the liquid. For example if you are using boiling water it will be difficult to see what are the antibubbles. Not to mention that the water will be turbulent under these conditions.

You are definitely on the right track!! Don't forget the toy and hardware stores (oh, the cooking area and garage are always good places too!)! Good luck and have fun!

[Michael]

Hiya Gizmo,

Thank you for responding as well. I found your response to be very valuable towards my research. I would be able to use a chemistry lab in school, using beakers, and probably would be able to obtain many of the things that I would not be able to obtain at home. Now, my only concern with "velocity" is how would that be measured? I would need something to measure the speed at which it reaches the top, and using a timer may make the experiment more prone to error.

The website you linked is very helpful and definitely informative. In addition to the website you mentioned, I was also able to get many reports and articles that were posted on databases such as ScienceDirect, JSTOR and Science AAAS. My school provides the use of these databases for me, and to my surprise, I found some very detailed and informative reports.

The velocity at which the antibubble travels seems to be a fairly interesting topic, except I'm not quite sure how I would test it (as mentioned above). I guess, I would have to measure it in different liquids, so, kind-of combinding the density project with the velocity one.

Another project could be, making the dish soap used to produce them the variable. I was thinking about it but I think the project is a bit too basic and relies on what ingrediants are in the soap, which are really out of my command .

Anymore imput you have as to a topic would be very much appreciated.

Thank you once again for the response,
Michael

[Michael]

One other quick note. Keep in mind when you do measurements that you want to be able to make sure that you can decipher the antibubbles from the liquid. For example if you are using boiling water it will be difficult to see what are the antibubbles. Not to mention that the water will be turbulent under these conditions.

You are definitely on the right track!! Don't forget the toy and hardware stores (oh, the cooking area and garage are always good places too!)! Good luck and have fun!

Hehe! Yeah, I was kind of thinking about that. I guess I would still have some working out to do.

Thanks, again.

Michael

[Gizzmo46]

Michael,

It sounds like you have certainly been doing your homework! From what I understand you have three basic questions:
(1) What is the difference between a variable and a measurable?
Your density and velocity experiments are the same experiment! Here your density is the variable and your velocity is the measurable. From what I understand you would create antibubbles in different density substances and measure the velocity. So how would the velocity change in a more dense liquid? Your guess to a question like this would be your hypothesis.

(2) How do I change the variable systematically? As you mentioned, if you were to use different (brands?) soaps the ingredients would change but not necessarily the density. This may have been interesting for a younger student but you can definitely make things more controllable. There are a number of different ways to do this. You could pick a substance that you could make yourself and add more or less of one ingredient systematically which (depending on what you add) can change the density of the liquid (or other properties). You can also measure the density of the liquid to keep track of changes. This will be something you will have to think about and see what substances work best. Just a hint I would add something to water.

(3) How do I measure velocity? As you mentioned, it is difficult to measure the time with a stop watch as the antibubble moves from one place to another. (Besides you have to make sure that you are moving over exactly the same distance ... velocity = change in distance / change in time) As I mentioned think about what tools you have at your disposal. How can you slow things down, make them larger and keep track of time? A stop watch is a good idea ... but what can you combine with this to visually determine the change in position of the antibubble. Also, what can you use to make things appear larger and slow everything down, including the stop watch so you can track everything. I bet you can figure this out!

Don't forget that you are not constrained to velocity as a measurable. Think about other things that may also change or a combo of changes which are related. Some things you may not be able to control! I should mention that nothing is ever as simple as it seems and may not work the way you think it will! Of course this is what makes experiments fun and exciting! Good luck and I can't wait to hear what you figure out!

Heidi

[Gizzmo46]

Oh, one last thing ... if you want to reduce errors ... repeat, repeat, repeat. Errors go as (error in one measurement)/SQRT(the number of measurements) so the more you repeat a measurement the more you can reduce the error of the average measurement. You might want to look up more about error analysis. It is a big benefit to any data analysis! Good luck!

[Michael]

Michael,

It sounds like you have certainly been doing your homework! From what I understand you have three basic questions:
(1) What is the difference between a variable and a measurable?
Your density and velocity experiments are the same experiment! Here your density is the variable and your velocity is the measurable. From what I understand you would create antibubbles in different density substances and measure the velocity. So how would the velocity change in a more dense liquid? Your guess to a question like this would be your hypothesis.

(2) How do I change the variable systematically? As you mentioned, if you were to use different (brands?) soaps the ingredients would change but not necessarily the density. This may have been interesting for a younger student but you can definitely make things more controllable. There are a number of different ways to do this. You could pick a substance that you could make yourself and add more or less of one ingredient systematically which (depending on what you add) can change the density of the liquid (or other properties). You can also measure the density of the liquid to keep track of changes. This will be something you will have to think about and see what substances work best. Just a hint I would add something to water.

(3) How do I measure velocity? As you mentioned, it is difficult to measure the time with a stop watch as the antibubble moves from one place to another. (Besides you have to make sure that you are moving over exactly the same distance ... velocity = change in distance / change in time) As I mentioned think about what tools you have at your disposal. How can you slow things down, make them larger and keep track of time? A stop watch is a good idea ... but what can you combine with this to visually determine the change in position of the antibubble. Also, what can you use to make things appear larger and slow everything down, including the stop watch so you can track everything. I bet you can figure this out!

Don't forget that you are not constrained to velocity as a measurable. Think about other things that may also change or a combo of changes which are related. Some things you may not be able to control! I should mention that nothing is ever as simple as it seems and may not work the way you think it will! Of course this is what makes experiments fun and exciting! Good luck and I can't wait to hear what you figure out!

Heidi

Wow! Thanks for the amazing response, once again.

I think that sounds like a fairly intersting topic. I do have a few concerns, though, that I would like to say :

-You hinted at adding something (different substances/liquids, i'd assume) to the water in order to change it's density. Would it be more ( or less) accurate to take different liquids that are more dense than water and test it in the different liquids? The control would obviously be the water, and my results would be measured based upon the water.

-Velocity is definitely an area of interest. Especially, with the antibubbles being as unstabled as they are. I would hypothosize, if I were to do the project that the denser liquid would have a slower velocity. I'd have to gather up some more research to back that up, but using my basic knowledge of velocity, density and antibubbles, that's what I would guess

-Also, from your comments I most definitely think a video camera would be very beneficial for the project. Especially with the antibubbles forming so fast and being unstable, the slow motion features and the features of a video camera would be very beneficial to the project.

-Just to get this in writing, the independant variable of the project (in this case) would be the density of the liquid and the dependant variable would be the velocity of the antibubble. The controlled substance of my project would be the container that contains water, nothing added, possibly distilled?

Once again, I can't thank you enough for all your help, so far! I can't wait now to get this experiment started !

-Mike

[phi-unit]

Well it seems you've made quite a bit of progress in one day!

When mentioned anti-bubbles being used for drug delivery I meant that the bubbles would be a vehicle to move drugs around in the body. For example if you have a tumor, it makes sense to send as much of the drug as you can directly to the tumor and not anywhere else where it is not doing any good -- this increases efficiency and also protects other parts of your body from the potentially damaging effects of the drug. This idea makes sense but putting into practice can be more difficult. Now consider the unique properties of anti-bubbles. You would basically make an anti-bubble full of drug. Tag it with some flourescent dye( something that glows and you can see with some sort of scanner) put into the body. When the antibubbles get to the desired spot you would break them remotely with some sort of electromagnetic field.
At least this is I would envision them to work.

I also agree with Gizmos' advice to try and obtain a video camera to measure velocity. Freezing the frames to measure time will give you much better accuracy than just a stopwatch. Keep reading and good luck!

[Gizzmo46]

Michael,

I'm very glad you are having fun with this! That makes me happy! On to the questions:

-- Yes I did hint at adding something to water but I did not necessarily mean another liquid. Though you could use a liquid such as liquid soup ... one end of the spectrum would be all soap and the other would be water ... then you could just water down the soup for levels in between. Or you could use something like sugar or salt. In fact, if you heat water and add sugar then you can add A LOT of sugar and make it really thick. Of course I don't even know if you could make anti bubbles in sugar water. However, this was only a suggestion. It is up to you to find what interests you ... you can use different substances altogether or water and ketchup mixtures. The possibilities are endless. Of course I should mention that whatever means you use to change the density can also change other attributes of the mixture. For example if you compare water to orange juice, the OJ is more dense but also more acidic. I don't know if this matters but keep it in mind.
Needless to say this is up to you and whatever you do will be fine. Just make sure you track the differences between the substances and keep in mind what may affect the outcome. The goal here is to try to change as few variables at a time so that you can really say that what you see is or is not related to the change of variable.

--Your hypothesis sounds like a good start to me!

--You might want to use a graduated cylinder (in addition to the camera and a stop watch), too!

--correct, correct and correct! About the controlled substance ... it doesn't have to be distilled ... this is just the base to compare the rest to. It is the ground and you can climb or dive but you will always know where the ground is ... ah? So, it is water and if you want to use distilled you can but I do not believe that it is necessary.

A quick question ... hopefully you will be able to tell me the answer eventually ... when you change the density of the liquid will the size of the anti bubble be the same?

I am happy to help! I can't wait for you to get this experiment going so that I can hear all about the results! Have fun!
Heidi

[Michael]

Well it seems you've made quite a bit of progress in one day!

When mentioned anti-bubbles being used for drug delivery I meant that the bubbles would be a vehicle to move drugs around in the body. For example if you have a tumor, it makes sense to send as much of the drug as you can directly to the tumor and not anywhere else where it is not doing any good -- this increases efficiency and also protects other parts of your body from the potentially damaging effects of the drug. This idea makes sense but putting into practice can be more difficult. Now consider the unique properties of anti-bubbles. You would basically make an anti-bubble full of drug. Tag it with some flourescent dye( something that glows and you can see with some sort of scanner) put into the body. When the antibubbles get to the desired spot you would break them remotely with some sort of electromagnetic field.
At least this is I would envision them to work.

I also agree with Gizmos' advice to try and obtain a video camera to measure velocity. Freezing the frames to measure time will give you much better accuracy than just a stopwatch. Keep reading and good luck!

Ahh! That makes tons of sense Thanks for the clarrification.

[Michael]

Michael,

I'm very glad you are having fun with this! That makes me happy! On to the questions:

-- Yes I did hint at adding something to water but I did not necessarily mean another liquid. Though you could use a liquid such as liquid soup ... one end of the spectrum would be all soap and the other would be water ... then you could just water down the soup for levels in between. Or you could use something like sugar or salt. In fact, if you heat water and add sugar then you can add A LOT of sugar and make it really thick. Of course I don't even know if you could make anti bubbles in sugar water. However, this was only a suggestion. It is up to you to find what interests you ... you can use different substances altogether or water and ketchup mixtures. The possibilities are endless. Of course I should mention that whatever means you use to change the density can also change other attributes of the mixture. For example if you compare water to orange juice, the OJ is more dense but also more acidic. I don't know if this matters but keep it in mind.
Needless to say this is up to you and whatever you do will be fine. Just make sure you track the differences between the substances and keep in mind what may affect the outcome. The goal here is to try to change as few variables at a time so that you can really say that what you see is or is not related to the change of variable.

--Your hypothesis sounds like a good start to me!

--You might want to use a graduated cylinder (in addition to the camera and a stop watch), too!

--correct, correct and correct! About the controlled substance ... it doesn't have to be distilled ... this is just the base to compare the rest to. It is the ground and you can climb or dive but you will always know where the ground is ... ah? So, it is water and if you want to use distilled you can but I do not believe that it is necessary.

A quick question ... hopefully you will be able to tell me the answer eventually ... when you change the density of the liquid will the size of the anti bubble be the same?

I am happy to help! I can't wait for you to get this experiment going so that I can hear all about the results! Have fun!
Heidi

Hey again ,
To answer your question about the size varying from liquid to liquid, to be honest, I'm not all that sure. I don't believe that they were relatively large to begin with in water. I would assume though, that the size would differ.

The only reason why I mentioned distilled water is because somewhere along the lines of research I read that they form mostly in pure (distilled) water that has no additives, like tap water. They still can form in tap water but from what I understood, they are somewhat less common (in tap water).

Tomarrow I have class once again (Science Research) and I will most definitely bring these ideas to my teacher, to get third opinion.

I really can't wait to get this started, either! It's such an interesting topic .

-Michael