Do you know why soap bubbles are covered in those beautiful iridescent patterns? Dutch artist Nicky Assmann does–in fact, she’s based an entire series, called Solace, on the phenomenon. In Solace, the ...

Zoom in on a soap bubble just before it bursts and brilliant, complex patterns emerge. Shimmery rainbows appear in thicker portions of the soap film, while clusters of dark spots appear in the ...

French painters Jean Siméon Chardin and Édouard Manet both created well-known paintings that depicted children blowing bubbles through straw-like tubes, albeit painted more than a century apart. Those ...

Engineers have happened upon a way to stop the movement of the colorful eddies on the surface of soap bubbles. The results are works of art that could lead to stable engineered foams for medical ...

How does iridescence work? From rainbow bubbles to beautiful birds, bugs, and gemstones. Why is a soap bubble rainbow? What makes an oil slick beautiful? Iridescent colors, which transform depending ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I write about physics, science, academia, and pop culture. That's our four-year-old, who goes by the nom du Net "The Pip," ...