Sometimes, something that appears to be substantial turns out to be relatively unsubstantial.
Bubbles would be a good clown name, wouldn’t it? Maybe also for a jolly good fellow or gal. How about for a wall, an island, a universe, an economy, or a reason for strong emotions, including anxiety over trying something new?
Concerned about the invasion of Asian carp, Michigan has given $200,000 to Edem Tsikagta to prevent the fish from entering the great lake from the Illinois river.* His invention: Propellers that produce a wall of bubbles to discourage the fish from invading. I guess Tsikagta discovered that carp can’t take the noise of the bubble-making machinery and the appearance of the bubbles. Bet you wish you could solve some nuisance with a similarly simple solution, say line-jumpers at Disney World or competitors for the attention of someone whose affection you seek. Or how about convenience-store robbers that could never penetrate the bubble defense inside the glass doors?
For a while scientists believed that Titan, that giant moon the size of a planet, had lakes with “magic islands” that might have been bubbles. Recent evidence suggests that the islands are not nitrogen or ethane bubbles, but rather waves generated by the relatively docile breezes transferring their energy to lakes of liquid methane.** Talk about something insubstantial! Bubbles that were not even bubbles—or maybe they are; the debate isn’t completely settled.
So, we keep asking the theoretical physicists, “Are there other universes out there, and are they shaped like bubbles?” Not an easy concept to accept. If there are bubbles, do they assume a round shape? Do they touch? We know that where soap bubbles touch they share a bubble wall, and that as more bubbles join, their mutual walls take on the shape of polygons.*** So, is the end of our universe a polygon and not the outer margin of an expanding sphere? And if all the bubbles are expanding, does our expanding bubble feel the expansion of a neighboring expanding bubble in a multiverse of bubble-universes?
And then there’s the economic bubble. We ride inside one on our way to apparent riches only to find that such bubbles eventually burst. Money made becomes as insubstantial as a sphere of soap.
Bubbles. Fascinating to child and adult alike. Useful and possibly even instructive, but often not what they seem to be: Walls for carp, magic islands for planetary scientists, shapes for unknown universes imagined by theoretical physicists, and an expanding wealth that disappears in a seeming instant.
Bubbles. Are there other aspects of our existence that are ostensibly substantial but strangely insubstantial? Reasons for contention? Anger? War? Even reasons for not attempting to reach a goal?
After every contentious moment, every outburst of anger, and every tragedy of war, the bubble bursts. For a while, of course, each such bubble seems to be very substantial. You remember the reason that the Catholics and Protestants went to war in the sixteenth century, don’t you? You remember the reason for a news report last year about violence caused by a domestic dispute, don’t you? Surely, you remember that one instance of violence over the bubble of an argument. Wait! Don’t get confused. I’m not referring to the 10 million instances of domestic violence for the year. I’m just talking about that one instance when the police had to go to a house one block over.
You remember the reason for the genocide in Rwanda, don’t you? And certainly you remember the reason for all your strong emotional responses? Uh! Wasn’t that something So-n-so did last decade or maybe even two or three decades ago? You remember the reason for the bubble that seems to have followed you through decades, the bubble that wafts on the breezes of your life. Still upset about that bubble? Still enveloped in it?
And remember that wall of bubbles you broke to explore a new direction in your life? Oh! Wait! Don’t tell me that like the carp, you were prevented by a wall of “bubbles.”
Bubbles of all kinds. Many people seem to live their lives trapped in bubbles or stopped by walls of bubbles.
*Flesher, John, AP Environmental Writer. Michigan Crowns Winner in Contest to Prevent Carp Invasion. March 27, 2018. Online at https://www.usnews.com/news/news/articles/2018-03-27/michigan-crowns-winner-in-contest-to-prevent-carp-invasion
**They are bubbles: https://www.space.com/36501-saturn-moon-titan-magic-island-bubbles.html
They aren’t bubbles: https://www.cnn.com/2017/04/18/world/titan-magic-islands-fizzing-ocean-saturn-study/index.html
And a bunch of other stories on the subject.
***See The Code. Episode 2, at 10:41 for a demonstration (available on Netflix)
Bubbles would be a good clown name, wouldn’t it? Maybe also for a jolly good fellow or gal. How about for a wall, an island, a universe, an economy, or a reason for strong emotions, including anxiety over trying something new?
Concerned about the invasion of Asian carp, Michigan has given $200,000 to Edem Tsikagta to prevent the fish from entering the great lake from the Illinois river.* His invention: Propellers that produce a wall of bubbles to discourage the fish from invading. I guess Tsikagta discovered that carp can’t take the noise of the bubble-making machinery and the appearance of the bubbles. Bet you wish you could solve some nuisance with a similarly simple solution, say line-jumpers at Disney World or competitors for the attention of someone whose affection you seek. Or how about convenience-store robbers that could never penetrate the bubble defense inside the glass doors?
For a while scientists believed that Titan, that giant moon the size of a planet, had lakes with “magic islands” that might have been bubbles. Recent evidence suggests that the islands are not nitrogen or ethane bubbles, but rather waves generated by the relatively docile breezes transferring their energy to lakes of liquid methane.** Talk about something insubstantial! Bubbles that were not even bubbles—or maybe they are; the debate isn’t completely settled.
So, we keep asking the theoretical physicists, “Are there other universes out there, and are they shaped like bubbles?” Not an easy concept to accept. If there are bubbles, do they assume a round shape? Do they touch? We know that where soap bubbles touch they share a bubble wall, and that as more bubbles join, their mutual walls take on the shape of polygons.*** So, is the end of our universe a polygon and not the outer margin of an expanding sphere? And if all the bubbles are expanding, does our expanding bubble feel the expansion of a neighboring expanding bubble in a multiverse of bubble-universes?
And then there’s the economic bubble. We ride inside one on our way to apparent riches only to find that such bubbles eventually burst. Money made becomes as insubstantial as a sphere of soap.
Bubbles. Fascinating to child and adult alike. Useful and possibly even instructive, but often not what they seem to be: Walls for carp, magic islands for planetary scientists, shapes for unknown universes imagined by theoretical physicists, and an expanding wealth that disappears in a seeming instant.
Bubbles. Are there other aspects of our existence that are ostensibly substantial but strangely insubstantial? Reasons for contention? Anger? War? Even reasons for not attempting to reach a goal?
After every contentious moment, every outburst of anger, and every tragedy of war, the bubble bursts. For a while, of course, each such bubble seems to be very substantial. You remember the reason that the Catholics and Protestants went to war in the sixteenth century, don’t you? You remember the reason for a news report last year about violence caused by a domestic dispute, don’t you? Surely, you remember that one instance of violence over the bubble of an argument. Wait! Don’t get confused. I’m not referring to the 10 million instances of domestic violence for the year. I’m just talking about that one instance when the police had to go to a house one block over.
You remember the reason for the genocide in Rwanda, don’t you? And certainly you remember the reason for all your strong emotional responses? Uh! Wasn’t that something So-n-so did last decade or maybe even two or three decades ago? You remember the reason for the bubble that seems to have followed you through decades, the bubble that wafts on the breezes of your life. Still upset about that bubble? Still enveloped in it?
And remember that wall of bubbles you broke to explore a new direction in your life? Oh! Wait! Don’t tell me that like the carp, you were prevented by a wall of “bubbles.”
Bubbles of all kinds. Many people seem to live their lives trapped in bubbles or stopped by walls of bubbles.
*Flesher, John, AP Environmental Writer. Michigan Crowns Winner in Contest to Prevent Carp Invasion. March 27, 2018. Online at https://www.usnews.com/news/news/articles/2018-03-27/michigan-crowns-winner-in-contest-to-prevent-carp-invasion
**They are bubbles: https://www.space.com/36501-saturn-moon-titan-magic-island-bubbles.html
They aren’t bubbles: https://www.cnn.com/2017/04/18/world/titan-magic-islands-fizzing-ocean-saturn-study/index.html
And a bunch of other stories on the subject.
***See The Code. Episode 2, at 10:41 for a demonstration (available on Netflix)
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