Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble… or not?
This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science.
Aaahhh…who doesn’t love a long bubble bath?… But can soap be MORE than relaxing? Can we put those bubbles to work?
Enter Xi Yang and Eijiro Miyako, from the Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in Japan. They came up with a new use for bubbles – pollinating plants! Why bubbles? They’re light, floaty and sticky! And they come in pretty rainbow colors!
But how to bring the bubble to the flower?
GET THE BUBBLE GUN READY! AIM! FIRE! Look at those bubbles go! The researchers blasted natural pear flowers with bubbles at a speed of two meters per second. The bubbles delivered the goods without damaging the flower.
The bubbles were specially designed with added calcium, magnesium and other things for happy pollinating. Blowing exactly ten bubbles worked best, with a ninety-five percent success rate! That’s as effective as doing it all by hand!
They’ve even developed flying drones to shoot the bubble-bees!
So sorry for bursting your bubbles. But we’ve gotta pollinate!