The flow of granular materials, such as sand and catalytic particles, is used in chemical reactors, and enables a wide range of natural phenomena, from mudslides to volcanos, as well as a broad array of industrial processes, from pharmaceutical production to carbon capture. A recent discovery by Chris Boyce, explains a new family of gravitational instabilities in granular particles of different densities that are driven by a gas-channeling mechanism not seen in fluids. The study is the first to demonstrate that “bubbles” of lighter sand form and rise through heavier sand when the two types of sand are subject to vertical vibration and upward gas flow, similar to the bubbles that form and rise in lava lamps. (1)

In a world full of being, bubbles of existence will always emerge.

Don’t be too fascinated by them. For when you try to catch them, they vanish.

In a cosmos looking up to the stars, people forget to look beyond the world.

Don’t be fooled.

It is not the bubbles rising to the sky.

 It is the sky coming down on them…

At some point it will touch you.

And you will start rising along with them…

Fragile and awesome.

Ready to explode…

At the very first touch of death…