1 00:01:41,480 --> 00:01:44,320 A bubble contains all the colours of the visible spectrum. 2 00:01:50,520 --> 00:01:52,760 There´s no other thinner object 3 00:01:52,761 --> 00:01:55,400 that can be seen at a glance. 4 00:01:59,280 --> 00:02:00,720 Any living being 5 00:02:00,721 --> 00:02:03,320 of just some nanometers thick 6 00:02:03,880 --> 00:02:06,480 requires a microscope to be seen. 7 00:02:13,360 --> 00:02:15,440 Despite their short life, 8 00:02:15,520 --> 00:02:19,120 bubbles are great teachers of science 9 00:02:25,280 --> 00:02:27,040 To learn from them 10 00:02:27,360 --> 00:02:30,920 we just have to watch them carefully and, if possible, 11 00:02:31,240 --> 00:02:33,520 closely. 12 00:02:45,360 --> 00:02:48,760 It has never been generated such a spectacle 13 00:02:49,440 --> 00:02:52,440 in just a few seconds of life. 14 00:03:05,880 --> 00:03:07,400 When I was little, 15 00:03:07,480 --> 00:03:09,880 I really enjoyed visiting the house of one of my grandparents 16 00:03:09,960 --> 00:03:11,960 because the shower soap they used 17 00:03:12,000 --> 00:03:13,880 was different from the one I had at home. 18 00:03:13,960 --> 00:03:16,160 It was ideal for the creation of soap bubbles. 19 00:03:16,560 --> 00:03:20,560 I remember myself as a kid blowing soap bubbles, and I´ve got that memory 20 00:03:20,640 --> 00:03:24,560 linked to my childhood and, particularly to my grandparents house 21 00:03:24,640 --> 00:03:26,080 where they used that soap. 22 00:03:26,160 --> 00:03:29,120 Soap bubbles have been my life. 23 00:03:29,200 --> 00:03:32,440 I´ve dedicated myself to them for more than 16 years. 24 00:03:32,560 --> 00:03:36,080 So, a bond is created with those transparent beings 25 00:03:48,760 --> 00:03:50,960 As a kid I was fascinated by soap bubbles, 26 00:03:51,200 --> 00:03:54,120 as any kid. That perfection, that sphere, those colours 27 00:03:54,800 --> 00:03:57,520 I also remember that back then, in Sesame Street 28 00:03:57,600 --> 00:04:00,560 there was this guy that would blow soap bubbles 29 00:04:00,840 --> 00:04:03,120 and he would do wonderful things with them. 30 00:04:03,280 --> 00:04:04,360 I think it was Pep Bou 31 00:04:09,000 --> 00:04:12,200 Fairy was launched around 32 00:04:12,280 --> 00:04:15,200 1979, 80, I think. 33 00:04:15,280 --> 00:04:18,240 At least I found out about it then and it was by washing dishes that 34 00:04:18,399 --> 00:04:22,520 I realized that soap bubbles were not that small bubble children played with, 35 00:04:22,600 --> 00:04:25,800 I started to see possibilities to make them bigger. 36 00:04:26,360 --> 00:04:30,040 I wanted to take to stage something that could be created in situ, 37 00:04:30,120 --> 00:04:33,800 that would be created live, really, as a real experiment, 38 00:04:34,920 --> 00:04:38,240 almost handcrafted because I always loved craftsmen. 39 00:04:39,480 --> 00:04:42,040 I realized that soap bubbles were a didactic material. 40 00:04:42,280 --> 00:04:44,360 They´re a very valuable didactic material. 41 00:04:44,760 --> 00:04:48,080 First, because their playful side draws a lot of attention. 42 00:04:48,360 --> 00:04:53,960 Kids at school are really attracted to them, and as Mathematics, 43 00:04:54,240 --> 00:04:58,960 I can use bubbles to visually explain very complex problems. 44 00:05:11,640 --> 00:05:13,640 I first knew about surf when I was 14. 45 00:05:14,280 --> 00:05:17,120 I instantly fell in love with it. 46 00:05:17,560 --> 00:05:22,280 In winter, when we had less daylight, I would hang out with some surf friends 47 00:05:22,640 --> 00:05:27,040 One day it occurred to me I could take some soap bubbles with me, and we started to blow bubbles. 48 00:05:27,120 --> 00:05:28,880 To be honest we had a great time. 49 00:05:28,960 --> 00:05:33,320 I started to make liquids, different tools 50 00:05:33,400 --> 00:05:36,880 and I would take them with me in the evenings to play with them 51 00:05:42,800 --> 00:05:45,640 As years passed, it was a hobby in winter 52 00:05:45,840 --> 00:05:51,000 to go back to soap bubbles, and I slowly perfected it 53 00:05:51,240 --> 00:05:55,480 until we managed to blow bubbles so big, beautiful, wonderful 54 00:05:55,800 --> 00:05:58,200 that they looked like waves, ephemeral art. 55 00:06:06,600 --> 00:06:09,680 The molecules on the surface of a liquid 56 00:06:10,360 --> 00:06:12,920 don´t behave as the rest. 57 00:06:16,320 --> 00:06:19,160 What force makes them so different? 58 00:06:26,040 --> 00:06:30,440 Surface tension is a characteristic that liquids have 59 00:06:31,120 --> 00:06:34,080 that depends on how their molecules are attracted to one another. 60 00:06:34,440 --> 00:06:37,880 In liquids, molecules are attracted, but not the ones that are outside the liquid. 61 00:06:38,000 --> 00:06:40,240 Those, logically, are attracted only to the ones inside, 62 00:06:40,600 --> 00:06:43,080 and that creates a tension that generates a film. 63 00:06:43,560 --> 00:06:47,360 Water is made of H2O molecules that are connected 64 00:06:47,800 --> 00:06:49,800 by hydrogen bonds, covalent bonds. 65 00:06:50,200 --> 00:06:54,520 As we tell children, they are together as rugby players in a scrum. 66 00:06:54,600 --> 00:06:56,320 They are like holding one another 67 00:06:56,800 --> 00:07:00,640 and also, somehow, these molecules are like more at ease when they´re with other water molecules 68 00:07:00,720 --> 00:07:01,800 than when they´re with air molecules. 69 00:07:01,801 --> 00:07:04,560 Then, particularly on the part where they collide with the air 70 00:07:04,960 --> 00:07:07,720 it looks like they don´t want to be there, and that force is even greater. 71 00:07:07,880 --> 00:07:10,000 And that is what makes that, for example, when we fill a glass of water, 72 00:07:10,240 --> 00:07:13,240 the water rises, rises, rises and rises and sometimes thereÕs even more water than glass 73 00:07:13,600 --> 00:07:13,960 Why so? 74 00:07:13,961 --> 00:07:17,080 Because the molecules are grasping each other there, with that force, 75 00:07:17,200 --> 00:07:19,400 like the one in the rugby players scrums. 76 00:07:20,120 --> 00:07:23,640 This force that bonds some molecules with others, makes the contact surface of water 77 00:07:23,720 --> 00:07:32,200 with air behave like a membrane. 78 00:07:32,280 --> 00:07:33,840 The soap bubbles components, 79 00:07:34,080 --> 00:07:36,480 water, soap 80 00:07:37,040 --> 00:07:39,000 glycerine that can be added or not, 81 00:07:39,480 --> 00:07:42,680 and the air that it contains, they are in a perfect balance. 82 00:07:43,080 --> 00:07:45,760 Water is a fascinating liquid 83 00:07:45,840 --> 00:07:49,000 that has an excessively high surface tension. 84 00:07:49,920 --> 00:07:53,240 Its molecules are strongly attracted to one another. 85 00:07:53,800 --> 00:07:56,880 If I want to make a soap bubble, I need something that decreases 86 00:07:56,881 --> 00:08:00,520 the surface tension; a surfactant. And soap is a surfactant 87 00:08:00,760 --> 00:08:05,640 The air, which is the other element, is contained within and exerts pressure 88 00:08:05,720 --> 00:08:09,360 on the walls. That is what makes the bubble spherical in the end. 89 00:08:14,160 --> 00:08:16,720 It´s not that there´s a layer there, but 90 00:08:16,800 --> 00:08:19,720 the force among them, if there´s something that it´s not 91 00:08:19,800 --> 00:08:23,200 too heavy, like an insect, when it leans on it 92 00:08:23,880 --> 00:08:26,360 that force prevents it from sinking, it stays there like surfing 93 00:08:26,440 --> 00:08:27,360 on the water. 94 00:08:44,640 --> 00:08:47,560 When we blow bubbles in a place protected from the wind 95 00:08:48,560 --> 00:08:50,800 we see that all the bubbles, 96 00:08:50,880 --> 00:08:54,960 specially the smallest ones, have a spherical shape. 97 00:08:55,760 --> 00:08:59,440 Let´s see what the cause of this sphericality is. 98 00:09:02,080 --> 00:09:03,600 Soap bubbles are spherical 99 00:09:03,601 --> 00:09:06,080 because everything in nature tends to go to the lowest energy state, 100 00:09:06,160 --> 00:09:12,280 and that shape ensures the lowest energy to the system, which is characterized 101 00:09:12,360 --> 00:09:16,680 by being the smallest surface able to enclose the air volume that it contains. 102 00:09:17,080 --> 00:09:20,360 If human hair was the size of a football pitch, 103 00:09:21,000 --> 00:09:24,040 the soap bubble, the film, would be like 104 00:09:24,120 --> 00:09:24,920 my pinkie. 105 00:09:47,600 --> 00:09:49,200 Studying soap bubbles 106 00:09:49,201 --> 00:09:51,400 is something very interesting because they teach us a lot 107 00:09:51,480 --> 00:09:55,120 about the minimization problems, about how to determine minimums. 108 00:09:55,640 --> 00:09:57,080 Seeing how bubbles behave 109 00:09:57,081 --> 00:09:59,320 help us identify those minimums. 110 00:09:59,400 --> 00:10:00,320 Let´s imagine, for example, 111 00:10:00,321 --> 00:10:03,480 that we want to install an automatic irrigation system on a giant estate. 112 00:10:04,080 --> 00:10:05,880 It´s obvious that we have to place sprinkler heads 113 00:10:05,881 --> 00:10:10,720 on, let´s say, 50 trees. How do we make that system carry water 114 00:10:10,800 --> 00:10:14,440 to the 50 trees using as few pipes as possible? 115 00:10:14,520 --> 00:10:15,360 Well, that is a problem 116 00:10:15,361 --> 00:10:18,320 that soap bubbles solve almost by themselves. 117 00:10:18,560 --> 00:10:23,640 You place those 50 points in a sheet, immerse it in soapy water 118 00:10:23,880 --> 00:10:25,040 and the membranes that are created 119 00:10:25,041 --> 00:10:28,040 start moving until they find those minimum solutions. 120 00:10:28,800 --> 00:10:31,800 That´s tremendous, of course, because a computer or a math algorithm 121 00:10:31,880 --> 00:10:34,640 would need a very long time to calculate that structure which has a name. 122 00:10:34,720 --> 00:10:37,040 It´s called the Steiner Tree of minimum length 123 00:10:37,041 --> 00:10:39,480 which would be that tree connecting all those points, 124 00:10:39,760 --> 00:10:41,880 but using the minimum length. 125 00:11:08,640 --> 00:11:11,040 When soap bubbles combine, 126 00:11:11,760 --> 00:11:14,120 they do so by following the same principles that generate 127 00:11:14,200 --> 00:11:17,560 a soap bubble: they minimize the free surface. 128 00:11:17,920 --> 00:11:22,200 So, when you combine two soap bubbles, they share a surface. 129 00:11:22,440 --> 00:11:25,480 That free surface depends on the size of the bubble. 130 00:11:25,560 --> 00:11:26,000 For example, 131 00:11:26,001 --> 00:11:28,680 if the bubbles are the same size as the surface, it is usually flat. 132 00:11:29,320 --> 00:11:33,640 If one bubble is bigger than the other, the surface of the smallest one 133 00:11:33,720 --> 00:11:34,760 usually goes inside 134 00:11:34,761 --> 00:11:38,640 the big bubble because the internal pressure of the small bubble 135 00:11:38,720 --> 00:11:40,800 is greater, so it tends to go in. 136 00:11:45,040 --> 00:11:48,200 When some bubbles are grouped, or they are formed together, 137 00:11:48,840 --> 00:11:52,000 geometric shapes, hexagons or pentagons, are created 138 00:11:52,080 --> 00:11:54,880 at the interphases of each bubble. 139 00:11:55,160 --> 00:11:57,080 This answers to the same reason why bubbles are spherical, 140 00:11:57,160 --> 00:12:00,760 it´s the state in which the energy is lower, minimum. 141 00:12:00,840 --> 00:12:04,440 120 degrees is not any number, no, it´s what makes this angle 142 00:12:04,520 --> 00:12:05,840 as symmetrical as possible. 143 00:12:05,920 --> 00:12:10,360 Symmetry usually goes hand in hand with a state of calm, 144 00:12:10,440 --> 00:12:11,840 a relaxed state. 145 00:12:11,841 --> 00:12:15,360 And bubbles do tend to have the minimum energy 146 00:12:15,440 --> 00:12:18,080 to be as comfortable and as little stretched as possible. 147 00:12:18,560 --> 00:12:22,040 So, when bubbles intersect at an angle of 120 degrees, 148 00:12:22,120 --> 00:12:25,240 as they are creating flat films, it´s very natural. 149 00:12:27,760 --> 00:12:30,520 They don´t form hexagons like bee nests. 150 00:12:30,680 --> 00:12:33,600 Hexagons are a shape in nature so very common 151 00:12:34,120 --> 00:12:37,560 and they tend to minimize the energy 152 00:12:38,040 --> 00:12:40,480 and stabilise it all in a much better way. 153 00:12:49,240 --> 00:12:50,120 Soap bubbles 154 00:12:50,121 --> 00:12:53,760 have been used a lot in architecture precisely because 155 00:12:54,280 --> 00:12:59,600 they are extremely big constructions in proportion to their material thickness. 156 00:12:59,680 --> 00:13:01,600 That is for architects they say, 157 00:13:01,680 --> 00:13:07,680 if I follow that radius of curvature of a dome, I need thinner materials, 158 00:13:07,681 --> 00:13:08,880 not as thick 159 00:13:23,640 --> 00:13:25,800 And we, mathematicians, amuse ourselves saying hey, look here, 160 00:13:25,880 --> 00:13:27,640 they intersect like this, forming 120 degrees, 161 00:13:27,720 --> 00:13:29,280 it´s the same I get with my calculations. 162 00:13:29,281 --> 00:13:31,160 That makes us really happy. 163 00:13:38,480 --> 00:13:41,120 And the bubbles last moment arrive. 164 00:13:42,280 --> 00:13:45,800 Its energy is exhausted, its water gets evaporated 165 00:13:46,600 --> 00:13:49,360 and the bubble dies. 166 00:14:11,240 --> 00:14:12,640 Few structures 167 00:14:12,720 --> 00:14:16,640 are beautiful even at the moment of their own death. 168 00:14:19,800 --> 00:14:22,440 Soap bubbles say goodbye to us 169 00:14:22,441 --> 00:14:24,840 showing us their last rainbow. 170 00:14:35,400 --> 00:14:38,200 A bubble dies when 171 00:14:38,280 --> 00:14:40,320 when its energy has been exhausted. 172 00:14:40,400 --> 00:14:42,720 That´s the concept, 173 00:14:42,800 --> 00:14:45,080 an essential concept, very, very human too. 174 00:14:46,920 --> 00:14:49,040 When it exhausts its energy, when it hasn´t got any left 175 00:14:49,120 --> 00:14:52,120 to resolve its structural problems. 176 00:14:53,520 --> 00:14:56,320 Once again, I´m speaking about soap bubbles as if they were living beings. 177 00:14:58,200 --> 00:15:01,880 A soap bubble is short-lived, as everybody knows, and it can die 178 00:15:02,280 --> 00:15:03,080 for different reasons. 179 00:15:03,081 --> 00:15:04,960 If we don´t touch it with a finger and pop it, 180 00:15:04,961 --> 00:15:07,800 it usually happens when part of the water 181 00:15:08,320 --> 00:15:10,920 that exists on the surface layer of the bubble evaporates. 182 00:15:12,320 --> 00:15:15,240 The soap bubble stability depends essentially 183 00:15:15,800 --> 00:15:17,880 on not evaporating much water 184 00:15:17,960 --> 00:15:21,640 and on not touching other surfaces, or at least not surfaces 185 00:15:21,720 --> 00:15:26,000 that are dry or coarse which can alter the soap bubbles film. 186 00:15:27,000 --> 00:15:30,280 And, finally, when the soap layer is very, very thin, 187 00:15:30,360 --> 00:15:33,600 when it´s much smaller than the wavelength of light, 188 00:15:33,680 --> 00:15:37,560 -that´s between 400 and 700 nanometers, so, letÕs say for example, 20 or 25 nanometers- 189 00:15:37,640 --> 00:15:39,760 one starts to have interference, 190 00:15:39,840 --> 00:15:42,640 discrepancies, destructive interferences of all the wavelengths 191 00:15:42,720 --> 00:15:46,480 and the result is that you see an off-white colour or no colour at all. 192 00:15:46,560 --> 00:15:50,720 This anticipates that the soap bubble is unfortunately close to an end 193 00:16:04,360 --> 00:16:05,920 To have a soap bubble lasting a long time 194 00:16:06,520 --> 00:16:08,880 what we, artists devoted to this, do 195 00:16:09,320 --> 00:16:12,680 is to control the humidity and temperature. 196 00:16:12,760 --> 00:16:14,680 When there´s high humidity, 197 00:16:14,760 --> 00:16:18,200 soap bubbles take longer in evaporating that water film. 198 00:16:18,680 --> 00:16:21,280 For that reason, although they suffer a lot, 199 00:16:21,360 --> 00:16:23,360 (and we make them suffer greatly in the show, 200 00:16:23,440 --> 00:16:24,440 we do.) 201 00:16:30,160 --> 00:16:31,400 they last longer. 202 00:16:32,160 --> 00:16:33,680 With heat it´s the same, heat dries that water membrane too. 203 00:16:36,840 --> 00:16:39,960 So, the less heat, the better. 204 00:16:56,440 --> 00:17:01,200 When light passes through two grilles, the waves superimpose on one another 205 00:17:01,920 --> 00:17:04,359 producing interference patterns 206 00:17:04,440 --> 00:17:05,800 that are very curious. 207 00:17:20,760 --> 00:17:25,319 On very thin materials films, the ray that is reflected 208 00:17:25,400 --> 00:17:29,720 on the upper part also superimposes on the one reflected below. 209 00:17:30,920 --> 00:17:33,800 These are the so-called thin-film interferences, 210 00:17:34,760 --> 00:17:37,320 where iridescences appear. 211 00:17:39,560 --> 00:17:43,600 A soap bubble is, in essence, an air volume enclosed by 212 00:17:43,800 --> 00:17:45,040 a double film 213 00:17:46,040 --> 00:17:47,320 of soap. 214 00:17:47,400 --> 00:17:49,960 We´ve got two layers of soap that enclose water, 215 00:17:50,040 --> 00:17:53,760 which is the layer that generates the bubble. 216 00:17:53,840 --> 00:17:58,800 So, these two surfaces are facing each other: 217 00:17:58,880 --> 00:18:02,800 The surfactant molecules heads, hydrophilic, and among them 218 00:18:03,000 --> 00:18:05,040 there´s a certain amount of water molecules. 219 00:18:05,120 --> 00:18:08,200 So that film extends along a surface 220 00:18:08,280 --> 00:18:10,720 that is usually spherical but, logically deforms 221 00:18:10,800 --> 00:18:12,960 due to the airflow and other circumstances. 222 00:18:13,480 --> 00:18:15,240 And that is, in essence, a soap bubble. 223 00:18:29,000 --> 00:18:33,040 Soap molecules have like two parts, let´s say, 224 00:18:33,120 --> 00:18:35,520 one that likes water and one that doesn´t. 225 00:18:35,640 --> 00:18:38,760 That´s a very curious thing because if you´re there in the water 226 00:18:39,240 --> 00:18:41,400 it´s like they have a duality there, 227 00:18:41,480 --> 00:18:43,760 they´re like bipolar. They´re literally bipolar. 228 00:18:43,840 --> 00:18:45,360 In fact, that´s why we use soap to clean 229 00:18:45,440 --> 00:18:47,440 because it seems that soap traps fat 230 00:18:47,520 --> 00:18:49,960 The part that hates water tucks inside 231 00:18:50,200 --> 00:18:51,320 and the part that loves water 232 00:18:51,321 --> 00:18:53,720 points outward and that encloses fat 233 00:18:53,960 --> 00:18:55,720 and it´s removed from what we´re cleaning. 234 00:18:55,800 --> 00:18:58,000 In a soap bubble something similar happens. 235 00:18:58,001 --> 00:19:00,000 The part that loves water tucks inside, 236 00:19:00,001 --> 00:19:02,320 the part that hates water, that prefers the air 237 00:19:02,321 --> 00:19:04,320 points outward both in the outside 238 00:19:04,321 --> 00:19:06,840 and in the inside of the bubble, because actually there´s air in the bubble. 239 00:19:07,040 --> 00:19:09,920 Then, a membrane generates where all those molecules are placed 240 00:19:10,280 --> 00:19:12,840 so that the hydrophilic part, the part that prefers water, 241 00:19:12,920 --> 00:19:17,040 goes to the inside and the part that is hydrophobic, the part that repels water 242 00:19:17,400 --> 00:19:18,680 goes to the outside of the membrane. 243 00:19:34,120 --> 00:19:35,040 The bubbles colours 244 00:19:35,041 --> 00:19:38,720 are produced by the light interference when it falls upon it. 245 00:19:38,800 --> 00:19:41,480 In reality, we are seeing the light reflected in the bubble 246 00:19:42,120 --> 00:19:44,160 and if we light it up with sun light, with white light 247 00:19:45,000 --> 00:19:48,680 we don´t see white light because some colours are cancelled out 248 00:19:49,440 --> 00:19:51,960 due to the interference in that layer. 249 00:19:52,600 --> 00:19:54,680 So, colours depend on thickness. 250 00:19:54,760 --> 00:19:56,560 In fact, if we watch how the bubble evolves, 251 00:19:56,640 --> 00:19:59,000 there´s an area that seems redder, others turn blue. 252 00:19:59,680 --> 00:20:02,600 What that is telling us is that 253 00:20:02,680 --> 00:20:04,440 what is varying along time is the bubble thickness. 254 00:20:04,880 --> 00:20:08,120 It also varies because liquid tends to drop to the lower part 255 00:20:08,360 --> 00:20:09,320 as it´s attracted by gravity. 256 00:20:14,560 --> 00:20:15,280 When we look at a bubble 257 00:20:15,360 --> 00:20:18,480 from the outside, aside from those colours, movements can be seen. 258 00:20:18,880 --> 00:20:22,160 Those movements are produced by the bubble formation itself. 259 00:20:22,640 --> 00:20:25,560 In the end, bubbles are formed by blowing air 260 00:20:26,200 --> 00:20:29,520 in a liquid and that produces a movement in it, a turbulence. 261 00:20:29,600 --> 00:20:33,720 Those turbulences last a very long time. ItÕs a fluid that 262 00:20:33,760 --> 00:20:34,480 is moving. 263 00:20:38,000 --> 00:20:41,640 When the bubble doesn´t show any colours, We don´t see it, but there´s also flow. 264 00:20:41,720 --> 00:20:46,200 We simply don´t see the colours and we don´t see the thickness 265 00:20:46,280 --> 00:20:49,440 which is, ultimately, a witness of the existing flow beneath. 266 00:20:49,760 --> 00:20:51,480 We aren´t seeing it, but it´s happening all the same. 267 00:20:51,481 --> 00:20:55,320 So, the movements produced in the fluid, in the inside 268 00:20:55,480 --> 00:20:59,120 of the two layers of soap can be perfectly assimilated to the movement 269 00:20:59,200 --> 00:21:00,800 of any other fluid. 270 00:21:00,801 --> 00:21:05,200 And in this case, we also have the added value of seeing it in a very beautiful way 271 00:21:05,280 --> 00:21:08,480 through the interference pattern that gives us those iridescent colours 272 00:21:09,240 --> 00:21:14,320 that are so fascinating. 273 00:21:14,400 --> 00:21:18,920 A soap bubble, well, it has an intrinsic magic 274 00:21:19,640 --> 00:21:23,520 It´s like very fragile, very short-lived, and also very perfect. 275 00:21:23,600 --> 00:21:27,960 As everybody knows, the sphere is the most perfect shape in the universe. 276 00:21:29,400 --> 00:21:30,600 Look, don´t you see? 277 00:21:30,601 --> 00:21:33,600 Our planet is a sphere. 278 00:21:33,680 --> 00:21:35,680 Just to see a perfect sphere already excites us. 279 00:21:35,760 --> 00:21:41,880 But, of course, in the case of a bubble, it´s like very fragile and like very... 280 00:21:42,200 --> 00:21:47,520 you blow it and it moves, it deforms and it comes back to the same, it reflects... 281 00:21:47,600 --> 00:21:50,880 there, we see the colours, we see movements that we can´t explain 282 00:21:51,160 --> 00:21:54,320 very well why they are there, but they enchant us 283 00:22:05,520 --> 00:22:07,720 From a chemist, physicist 284 00:22:07,800 --> 00:22:09,720 point of view, 285 00:22:09,840 --> 00:22:13,360 it´s a beautiful and fascinating structure in which there´s a conjunction 286 00:22:13,440 --> 00:22:17,120 of balances among the forces of interaction of water with itself 287 00:22:17,320 --> 00:22:20,280 soap with itself, and the pressure exerted by air. 288 00:22:20,600 --> 00:22:24,600 And at the end, it´s a structure that you know itÕs going to die soon. 289 00:22:25,080 --> 00:22:27,040 So, you enjoy more seeing it. 290 00:22:27,120 --> 00:22:30,680 I´ve been 23 years blowing bubbles and IÕm still in love with them. 291 00:22:30,760 --> 00:22:34,040 Each time we blow bubbles either in daytime 292 00:22:34,120 --> 00:22:38,280 or nighttime, with coloured lights, with special effects it´s something magical. 293 00:22:38,600 --> 00:22:39,640 Extraordinary elements are created, 294 00:22:39,641 --> 00:22:43,680 full of colours, of shapes, of movements that dazzle you, 295 00:22:43,760 --> 00:22:47,360 that stand out, and that are a wonder to behold. 296 00:22:53,840 --> 00:22:57,640 We had children in some shows that, when the spectacle was over, 297 00:22:57,720 --> 00:23:01,480 came closer and told us, Today´s been the best day of my life. 298 00:23:01,760 --> 00:23:06,240 Then, you´re greatly touched you´re like a dog with two tails, 299 00:23:06,320 --> 00:23:08,480 and you say, you know? This job is worth it. 300 00:23:20,640 --> 00:23:25,240 For me bubbles are very hypnotic, very seductive 301 00:23:25,920 --> 00:23:30,280 And this is my path, to amaze people, that they are mesmerised 302 00:23:30,360 --> 00:23:33,640 by what can be done with soap bubbles. 303 00:23:33,720 --> 00:23:36,680 Everyone knows that children like very much popping them 304 00:23:36,760 --> 00:23:40,320 but adults like seeing what can be done with them. 305 00:23:40,400 --> 00:23:45,040 I greatly enjoy looking for those limits; working with smoke, vapour, fire, helium, 306 00:23:45,120 --> 00:23:49,840 and trying to introduce music, also lights to draw attention 307 00:23:49,920 --> 00:23:53,040 and to have the soap bubble do what I intended. 308 00:23:54,760 --> 00:23:59,400 I find that soap bubbles are fascinating 309 00:23:59,880 --> 00:24:04,600 because of their softness, the curvature they´ve got, the colours 310 00:24:04,920 --> 00:24:08,720 In that sense, as any other person, I´m attracted by the fact that 311 00:24:08,800 --> 00:24:13,640 shapes so subtle can exist briefly and randomly fly through the air, 312 00:24:13,760 --> 00:24:18,280 and they can offer us that fascinating rainbow range of colours 313 00:24:18,360 --> 00:24:21,640 which also gets deformed creating fascinating patterns. 314 00:24:22,440 --> 00:24:25,480 Inside the soap bubble a lot of fundamental physics processes happen. 315 00:24:25,640 --> 00:24:29,560 So, the fact that they minimize the surface, that they combine 316 00:24:29,640 --> 00:24:33,960 creating hexagons or pentagons, is, in my view, 317 00:24:34,200 --> 00:24:36,080 an absolutely fascinating and incredible thing. 318 00:24:43,840 --> 00:24:47,040 Enchanting everybody by means of soap bubbles 319 00:24:47,280 --> 00:24:50,760 is easy, to be honest, because they have all the appeal themselves. 320 00:24:51,960 --> 00:24:53,920 That aesthetical quality, their beautiful side itself 321 00:24:54,000 --> 00:24:57,760 make us all stand like this, open-mouthed. 322 00:24:57,840 --> 00:25:03,120 So, I´ve just been a medium, I´ve done my job conscientiously 323 00:25:03,400 --> 00:25:08,680 on stage and then, any person that has seen it has been delighted with it. 324 00:25:08,760 --> 00:25:11,320 But soap bubbles are the ones that get the prize. 325 00:25:21,120 --> 00:25:23,720 Soap bubbles are an element of nature. 326 00:25:24,760 --> 00:25:28,760 Nature is fascinating, something that we are passionate about 327 00:25:29,360 --> 00:25:32,000 precisely because we´re not accustomed to it, because 328 00:25:32,640 --> 00:25:35,520 we don´t live in nature and when, all of a sudden, 329 00:25:35,920 --> 00:25:39,320 we find something that we can´t conceptualize 330 00:25:39,400 --> 00:25:42,360 -as we always do assimilating the things we work with- 331 00:25:43,320 --> 00:25:46,360 then it happens what Kant said 332 00:25:46,440 --> 00:25:47,320 the sublime arrives. 333 00:26:08,080 --> 00:26:09,640 The physical laws are already written 334 00:26:09,720 --> 00:26:12,680 and those physical laws that stabilise 335 00:26:13,080 --> 00:26:16,040 the movements of all those planets, which seems incredible 336 00:26:16,240 --> 00:26:20,520 that all those huge masses of matter would turn around each other 337 00:26:20,880 --> 00:26:24,480 and not get attracted and make it all collapse and disappear. 338 00:26:25,720 --> 00:26:29,720 Well, those are the same laws that apply to the soap bubbles structure, 339 00:26:30,320 --> 00:26:34,640 where the bubble is extremely thin and can be enormous compared to its thickness 340 00:26:35,280 --> 00:26:37,640 and yet, it can last for a long time. 341 00:26:38,840 --> 00:26:42,120 Studying soap bubbles can be used for many things 342 00:26:42,480 --> 00:26:46,200 because there´s a lot of physical phenomena involved, 343 00:26:46,560 --> 00:26:49,040 the surface tension, the curvature independent pressure, 344 00:26:49,360 --> 00:26:52,960 the colours generated in the bubbles, how composition affects stability, 345 00:26:53,040 --> 00:26:56,240 the effects of air temperature 346 00:27:16,680 --> 00:27:21,560 The currents we see in seas, or oceans or, for instance, in the air 347 00:27:21,640 --> 00:27:25,960 in those satellite photos, the patterns clouds make. 348 00:27:26,040 --> 00:27:28,720 they are described by fluid mechanics. 349 00:27:29,000 --> 00:27:32,440 Fluid mechanics works the same way on a broad scale 350 00:27:32,520 --> 00:27:34,600 than on the small-scale of a soap bubble; 351 00:27:34,920 --> 00:27:37,200 in the inside of the two soap films 352 00:27:37,280 --> 00:27:39,000 there´s a fluid in motion. 353 00:27:39,001 --> 00:27:41,200 Everything must obey the same laws. 354 00:27:41,280 --> 00:27:43,840 The same processes that we can observe in the atmosphere, in the sea water, 355 00:27:43,920 --> 00:27:47,280 can also be observed in the colours of a bubble 356 00:27:47,360 --> 00:27:49,240 if we are lucky to see constructive interference. 357 00:27:52,360 --> 00:27:54,400 Holidays are here. 358 00:27:56,560 --> 00:28:01,200 On a sunny morning our young group of friends gather in the park 359 00:28:01,600 --> 00:28:06,520 to have fun making soap bubbles with very different tools. 360 00:28:09,480 --> 00:28:12,560 Sometimes they manage to blow bigger bubbles, 361 00:28:15,040 --> 00:28:21,560 sometimes they´re lengthened, but all the children enjoy blowing soap bubbles. 362 00:28:24,120 --> 00:28:26,040 Well, almost all of them. 363 00:28:41,800 --> 00:28:46,680 Now that we know some of the secrets that bubbles guarded, 364 00:28:47,280 --> 00:28:51,720 let´s go back in time to see bubbles again 365 00:28:51,800 --> 00:28:53,560 through the eyes of a child. 366 00:28:58,160 --> 00:29:03,360 This way only, we´ll be amazed by their beauty, 367 00:29:03,720 --> 00:29:05,960 as we were when we were children.