bubble growth in molten rocks. Though the timing is so brief, the researchers believe their study findings point to a need to develop volcanic monitoring systems that can measure rapid changes in gas flux and composition during those crucial moments. Utilizing technology from the Swiss Light Source facility in Villigen, Switzerland, researchers were able to examine the growth of volcanic bubbles in real time by heating water-bearing molten rock with a recently developed laser heating system. This new technology allowed the researchers to perform three-dimensional X-ray microtomography (CAT scans) of the samples during the first 18 seconds of bubble growth and foaming. Information gleaned from these observations allowed the researchers to measure the number and size of the bubbles, to investigate the geometry of the connections between bubbles, and to calculate how quickly gas was able to flow out of the sample allowing the foam strength to drop. In the earliest part of the measurement it was noted that thousands of small bubbles were able to form in each cubic centimeter. Each of these bubbles trapped gas inside them, but they swiftly coalesced into a foam of larger bubbles, rapidly decreasing the overall strength due to a significant increase in gas loss. This entire process occurred in the first 15 seconds of bubble growth. From here, researchers then were able to determine which conditions of  bubble formation and growth eventually led to a failure in the molten rock. Baker and his team were able to draw an hypothesis from their