The 11-Year Quest to Create Disappearing Colored Bubbles

Sabnis's solution was to build a dye molecule from an unstable base structure called a lactone ring that functions much like a box. When the ring is open, the molecule absorbs all visible light save for one color-the color of the bubble. But add air, water or pressure, and the box closes, changing the molecule's structure so that it lets visible light pass straight through. Sabnis builds each hue by adding different chemical groups onto this base.

"Nobody has made this chemistry before," Sabnis says. "All these molecules-we will make 200 or 300 to cover the spectrum-they don't exist. We have synthesized a whole new class of dyes." Sabnis also impressed Darlene Carlson, a former 3M chemist who helped Kehoe and his partners write the job ad. "What Ram did was an extremely difficult bit of chemistry," she says. "Somebody without his experience in dyes would not even know where to start."

Without the lactone structure (a phrase Kehoe had never heard before Sabnis presented it), Kehoe might have toiled in his basement for many more years and never made the dye he needed. Yet without Kehoe's obsessive dedication and belief in the idea, the project never would have been funded. And without his years of experimentation, Sabnis's dyes would have slipped straight down the walls of the bubbles.

Introducing Zubbles

Colored bubbles will hit shelves this February, if not sooner, under the brand name "Zubbles." The bottles are shaped like little bubble characters. Each color has its own name and personality-Zilch, the villain in black, is a favorite among boys. Girls prefer the pink Zilli. Kehoe is in talks with several major toy companies, and this time, they're begging him for a deal. Even though bubbles are a traditional summertime toy, Toys-R-Us told him that he'd be a fool not to have the bubbles in stores by Christmas. As Popular Science went to press, Kehoe was looking for a partner with a factory that could keep the formula secret and crank out a million units in six weeks.