The state of French research

Marie Curie, it's not. From the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, here's the great new paper to come out of France: "Champagne Experiences Various Rhythmical Bubbling Regimes in a Flute"

Bubble trains are seen rising gracefully from a few points on the glass wall (called nucleation sites) whenever champagne is poured into a glass. As time passes during the gas-discharging process, the careful observation of some given bubble columns reveals that the interbubble distance may change suddenly, thus revealing different rhythmical bubbling regimes. Here, it is reported that the transitions between the different bubbling regimes of some nucleation sites during gas discharging is a process which may be ruled by a strong interaction between tiny gas pockets trapped inside the nucleation site and/or also by an interaction between the tiny bubbles just blown from the nucleation site.

Somebody must have been really bored at a wedding. But I joke, because silly little papers like this sometimes lead to bigger and better research breakthroughs.