"Magic" Water and Bubbles

Hi-tech

Nanobubbles: No Ordinary Bubbles

The bubbles are too small to be seen with the naked eye, but nanobubbles with ozone in them cause water to appear pink (left, center).

Japanese scientists have also developed a way to achieve a similar phenomenon using a different mechanism, very small bubbles.

These tiny bubbles are just one-ten-thousandth of a millimeter across. They are amazing bubbles that can last for a very long time in water without disappearing. They are clusters of ions (electrically charged atoms) that wrap themselves around air in the water.

Putting nanobubbles into water produces special effects

In 2008, rice planted in a paddy using water with nanobubbles produced a much bigger harvest than rice planted in ordinary water. Creatures that had disappeared from rice fields returned to this paddy, and the field was not invaded by weeds.

Special bubbles called nanobubbles also allow freshwater and saltwater fish to swim together in the same water. These bubbles also have the effect of giving strength to weakened fish and making it harder for plants to go bad. There are still many things we do not know about plant and animal mechanisms, so we do not know for sure why they have these effects, but nanobubbles are expected to be put to use in such important fields as food and medicine.

Nanobubbles were developed jointly by Takahashi Masayoshi of the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology and Chiba Kaneo of the REO Research Institute.

Courtesy of Dr.Takahashi Masayoshi of the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology

(Updated in December 2008)

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