ELLIOT SPENCER: Ah, washing-up liquid, bubbly water… Ha-ha! Ruben's doing the dishes, Ruben's doing the dishes. Here's a tip, don't do them like this. Do them in the shower. That way you get clean and so do the dishes.
RUBEN MEERMAN: Mmm, yes. Thanks for the tip, Elliot, but I'm not actually doing the dishes.
ELLIOT SPENCER: What are you doing then?
RUBEN MEERMAN: I'm making hydrogen. So put on your thinking gear because we're about to have some good fun with hydrogen.
ELLIOT SPENCER: Wicked-a-rific! Yes!
RUBEN MEERMAN: Hey, Elliot, what do you know about hydrogen?
ELLIOT SPENCER: I know that hydrogen is number 1. Not as in, 'It's so cool,' but 1 is its atomic number. I also know that it's the lightest chemical element in the universe, and that hydrogen is the most abundant substance in the universe. Over 75% of the universe's mass is hydrogen. So I'm kinda wondering… Why are you making more?
RUBEN MEERMAN: Hmm, hmm, hmm! I'm making more so that I can demonstrate some of its unusual qualities. Like for instance, the fact that it's highly flammable.
ELLIOT SPENCER: (Gasps) You said the F-word. Now I know what the washing-up liquid is for. It's to wash your mouth out, you dirty little Ruben.
RUBEN MEERMAN: No, Elliot, that's to make bubbles.
ELLIOT SPENCER: Bubbles? My second favourite thing in the whole world besides pretty colours, of course. But why bubbles?
RUBEN MEERMAN: Well, as you mentioned, hydrogen is the lightest chemical in the universe, and I'm about to make some, right? So let me get this chemical reaction started. We chuck some of that in there, and we'll get some bubbling happening in there. Here come some bubbles. That's hydrogen forming in that container, and when I put this little end of the tube in here, we're going to make bubbles full of hydrogen gas. Here they come. Now once they get full of hydrogen… Oops, that one's probably still got a bit of air 'cause we're clearing out the system here. OK, come on, little bubble. They're coming. There we go.
ELLIOT SPENCER: Whoa!
RUBEN MEERMAN: Right. OK.
ELLIOT SPENCER: Whoa!
RUBEN MEERMAN: Keep watching, Elliot. Down here, you're gonna miss it. Whoa! There goes another one.
ELLIOT SPENCER: Smells gassy.
RUBEN MEERMAN: Hey-hey! See ya, little bubble.
LLIOT SPENCER: Look! They're floating up straightaway!
RUBEN MEERMAN: Made with hydrogen.
ELLIOT SPENCER: Look!
RUBEN MEERMAN: Bye, little bubbles!
ELLIOT SPENCER: Fantastic. Look how quickly they go up.
RUBEN MEERMAN: I know.
ELLIOT SPENCER: Normal bubbles bomb… They bobble around and they get stuck in the wind, but these ones are just going straight up.
RUBEN MEERMAN: Up into the air!
ELLIOT SPENCER: Is that because they're lighter than the air around them?
RUBEN MEERMAN: Yes, exactly, Elliot, they're light, just like the gas inside a helium balloon is less dense than the air around it so just as wood floats on water, hydrogen floats in air.
ELLIOT SPENCER: Do some more.
RUBEN MEERMAN: OK, here you go. Ooh, ooh. Up you go. Oh, hang on.
ELLIOT SPENCER: You know what though? You know what I'm gonna ask you?
RUBEN MEERMAN: Yes?
ELLIOT SPENCER: Tell me more about this flammable bubbles thing.
RUBEN MEERMAN: Well, as I mentioned before, hydrogen is highly flammable and we're filling bubbles with hydrogen gas, so therefore the bubbles are…
ELLIOT SPENCER: Kaboom!
RUBEN MEERMAN: Mmm, exactly, highly flammable. So all we have to do is ignite them, but before I do that, I just wanna remind everyone that I am a trained scientist. Please don't try this at home. I'm doing it in a controlled environment. If you really wanna do this sort of chemistry and have this sort of fun, become a scientist. Now, I'm going to make some bubbles. You're going to ignite them using the ignition source. Let me see. Light that up and…
ELLIOT SPENCER: Right, we have flame-age.
RUBEN MEERMAN: Thank you very much. Now, in goes the thing here. I'm making a little bit of a bubble. Let's just get that one out of the road. And then you let it go. Wa-hey!
ELLIOT SPENCER: Wah-ooh!
RUBEN MEERMAN: Let's see if we can get a bigger one for you. There you go.
ELLIOT SPENCER: Woo-hoo-hoo!
RUBEN MEERMAN: Yay! Flammable bubbles! Another one, here you go.
ELLIOT SPENCER: Whoa! Oh, this is good. This is really, really, really good.
ELLIOT SPENCER: Whoa!
RUBEN MEERMAN: You know what's really cool about these little flammable bubbles?
ELLIOT SPENCER: What? What, what, what?
RUBEN MEERMAN: When you burn hydrogen, do you know what the by-products are?
ELLIOT SPENCER: Um… Heat!
RUBEN MEERMAN: Aha! Heat and what?
ELLIOT SPENCER: Heat and… wicked!
RUBEN MEERMAN: No, but it does start with a W.
ELLIOT SPENCER: Wow!
RUBEN MEERMAN: No, not heat and wow. Heat and water! The by-products of burning hydrogen are just heat and pure water. What a fantastic fuel that will be if we can ever figure out how to make it so economically we can drive our cars around and not make any rubbish and pollution.
ELLIOT SPENCER: I've got another word. More.
RUBEN MEERMAN: Oh, OK. Let me make some bubbles in here. And then maybe we can light them before they go flying into the air. So let me make a big one.
ELLIOT SPENCER: This is gonna be big. Gonna be a surface explosion.
RUBEN MEERMAN: OK, stick it in that one. Woo-hoo!
ELLIOT SPENCER: Yes! This is good, Ruben. You know what I've learned?
RUBEN MEERMAN: What have you learned?
ELLIOT SPENCER: I've learned not to go around bursting other people's bubbles, because they might explode.
RUBEN MEERMAN: Yes, if they're people full of hydrogen.
ELLIOT SPENCER: Let's do some more.