Science of Bubbles Revealed in a New TV Programme by Southampton's Dr Helen Czerski

Dr Czerski presents Pop! The Science of Bubbles aired at 9.00pm.

From the way animals behave to the way drinks taste, Dr Czerski takes us on an amazing journey into the science of bubbles to show how they affect our world in all sorts of unexpected ways – from the future of ship design to innovative new forms of medical treatment.
Fellow bubble physicist and Southampton colleague, Professor Tim Leighton joins Dr Czerski during the programme to prove that bubbles are far from trivial by demonstrating his new cleaning innovation which uses bubble technology.

"Bubbles are fabulous physical toys and we all love playing with them but I hope that this programme will show that there is much more to bubbles than that," said Dr Czerski. "They're important tiny tools, often dismissed as trivial but actually very useful."

"Bubbles may seem to be just fun toys, but they are also powerful tools that push back the boundaries of science," she continued. "The soap bubble with its delicate, fragile skin tells us about how nature works on scales as large as solar system and as small as a single wavelength of light. Then there are underwater bubbles, which matter because they are part of the how the planet works. Out at sea, breaking waves generate huge plumes of bubbles which help the oceans breathe.

"The best bit is that we all see them every day and so once you've learned a little bit about a bubble in the ocean or in a medical device, you can see the same things being done by every other bubble in your daily life," Dr Czerski concluded. "I promise you'll never see bubbles in the same way again."

Over the last few months, Dr Czerski has been involved in some of the BBC's biggest science-based programmes including Operation Iceberg and Dara O'Brian's Science Club both broadcast on BBC 2.

For further information and a sneak preview of the programme please visit http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01rtdy6