Big bubbles are largely used in physics laboratories to study 2D turbulence, surface wavers, fundamental properties of soap systems. . . On a more artistic point of view, blowing big bubbles is part of many artistic shows. Both communities usually wan to get reasonably stable foam films. The purpose of this article is to propose the main physical ingredients allowing to identify a good recipe for making stable films and bubbles. We propose controlled experiments, to measure both the easiness to generate a bubble and its stability for different stabilizing solutions, which we choose by adding one by one the ingredients contained in an artist's recipe. The main results are that (i) the surfactant concentration must be not too high (ii) the solution must contain some long flexible polymer chains to allow an easy bubble generation and (iii) the addition of glycerol allows a better bubble stability by avoiding evaporation. We finally propose an efficient recipe, which takes into account all these considerations.

Quoi de commun entre un marionnettiste et une doctorante en physique, un couple de clowns et une physico-chimiste des matériaux, une vidéaste et un hydrodynamicien ? Une passion commune pour les films, bulles et mousses de savon, et une volonté tenace de construire l’interface artscience pour que les deux parties en retirent des idées fructueuses. Un atelier « Spectacle vivant et sciences » a réuni des artistes et des chercheurs en octobre 2017, et à nouveau en novembre 2019 au Laboratoire de Physique des Solides, à l’Université Paris-Saclay. Accrochez-vous, ça va buller...