07/17/2026
When you drop food coloring onto a thin layer of milk and touch it with a cotton swab dipped in dish soap, the colors violently swirl and explode. This happens because dish soap molecules are both hydrophobic (fat-loving) and hydrophilic (water-loving). When the soap enters the milk, the non-polar tails desperately search and latch onto the milk’s suspended fat droplets, violently churning the surface tension of the liquid as they do so. You can view how to do this at home Sarah McClelland
