Fill a flask with liquid, rattle it with ultrasonic waves, and hellish microcosms can form within the fluid. Tiny gas bubbles swell and then implode with a fury now revealed to be extreme enough to strip electrons from atoms trapped in the collapse.
SQUASH CAUGHT. In each column of microsecond snapshots, a gas bubble swells, then collapses to about the size of a blood cell.
Log in
Subscribers, enter your e-mail address for full access to the Science News archives and digital editions.