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Tiny Bubbles Implode With the Heat of a Star (KENNETH CHANG, 3/15/05, NY Times)

When the force of sound waves implode tiny bubbles within a liquid at room temperature, the surface of the bubble can reach temperatures at least 25,000 degrees Fahrenheit, more than twice as hot as the surface of the sun, scientists reported this month.

The center of such a bubble may be even more astonishingly hot.

The scientists, at the University of Illinois, did not speculate just how hot the bubble became, but said they had managed to create a state of matter called plasma inside the bubble. In it, some of the electrons have been stripped off the atoms.

"This is the first definitive proof of the existence of a plasma" during this kind of bubble implosion, said one of the scientists, Dr. Kenneth S. Suslick, a professor of chemistry at Illinois.

Their finding supports the intriguing notion that it may be possible to compress these bubbles so violently that vapor molecules in them are heated to multimillion-degree temperatures.

The phenomenon of imploding bubbles, called sonoluminescence because it emits a flash of light as the bubble collapses, has been increasingly studied since it was discovered 15 years ago.

In 2002, scientists performing an experiment at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee even reported that they had used the technique to fuse hydrogen atoms into helium - the process that powers the sun. That experiment did not measure the bubble temperatures, but detected byproducts of fusion.

The Oak Ridge scientists said each burst produced only a smidgen of energy, but they speculated that it could develop into a practical power source.

Most other scientists remain skeptical of that claim, because the experiment has not yet been reproduced elsewhere, but the science increasingly appears at least plausible.

"I'm becoming skeptical about my earlier skepticism," said Dr. Lawrence A. Crum, a professor of electrical engineering at the University of Washington. But he added, "I won't say it's likely."

The latest results, reported in the journal Nature, did not offer signs of fusion. Rather Dr. Suslick and David J. Flannigan, a graduate student, provided tantalizing hints that these bubbles could reach temperatures high enough for fusion.

It's only a matter of time.

Posted by Orrin Judd at March 14, 2005 6:18 PM