Cabinet 37: Bubbles

A child's plaything and an object of study for scientists; a space of protection but also of isolation: the "bubble" has a cultural significance far more substantial than its fleeting form suggests. Bubbles percolate through the hydrology studies of Leonardo da Vinci, the optical experiments of Newton and the architectural theories of Buckminster Fuller. "Cabinet" issue 37, with its special section on "Bubbles," features an interview with Richard Julin, the world's foremost authority on champagne; Susan Schuppli on Michael Jackson's orphaned chimpanzee Bubbles; Eben Klemm on the culinary applications of fizz; and Simon Schaffer on rationality and the physics of bubbles. Elsewhere in the issue: Paul Maliszewski on the color green; an interview with "nasalnaut" George Aldrich, the NASA employee whose nose has to approve every item sent into space; Adam Jasper on the cat paintings of schizophrenic artist Louis Wain; Jocko Weyland on the history of U.S. highway dividers; and an interview with Catalin Avramescu on the intellectual history of cannibalism.