surfactants

11.22.09

Episode 37: Super Paint

By Jonathan Coulton Posted 05.21.2007 at 11:29 am 1 Comment

Yes, I know, it's been a long time since I posted a podcast. I've been very busy here on the moon doing...important things. Let's not discuss it anymore.

PopSci editor Nicole Dyer is obsessed with paint, in particular the new Aura paint from Benjamin Moore. Not only does it cover most colors with only one coat (no need for primer), but it's low in smog-producing VOC's, dries quickly and doesn't stink. Nicole was so excited about it, and her excitement was so infectious, that we both forgot to even talk about the breakthrough chemistry that makes it possible - new and improved surfactants that bond better with pigment molecules. That's how exciting this story about paint is.

I also asked her for an update on the "Red Rain" story from an earlier podcast, but as you'll see, the paint insanity seems to have distracted her from more important things (like aliens)—Jonathan Coulton

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The 11-Year Quest to Create Disappearing Colored Bubbles

Chemical burns, ruined clothes, 11 years, half a million dollars-it's not easy to improve the world's most popular toy. Yet the success of one inventor's quest to dye a simple soap bubble may change the way the world uses color

By Mike Haney Posted 11.18.2005 at 2:00 am 3 Comments

Tim Kehoe has stained the whites of his eyes deep blue. He's also stained his face, his car, several bathtubs and a few dozen children. He's had to evacuate his family because he filled the house with noxious fumes. He's ruined every kitchen he's ever had. Kehoe, a 35-year-old toy inventor from St. Paul, Minnesota, has done all this in an effort to make real an idea he had more than 10 years ago, one he's been told repeatedly cannot be realized: a colored bubble.

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