
The Invisible Anchor: How a Cascade of Coalescence Holds a Bubble at the Electrode
A hydrogen bubble on a platinum electrode behaves like a swimmer trying to surface, but every time it almost breaks free, something below grabs its legs. In the lab, high-speed cameras captured this behavior: a millimeter-sized bubble hangs near the surface, even though buoyancy pulls it upward with a force thousands of times stronger than surface tension can hold.