Marine biologist, Paola Dyboski is a two-time Guinness World Record holder, not – it may come as a surprise to learn – for her successful past career as a professional sailor, but for bubbles.
You read that right. What Paola cannot do with a bubble simply isn’t worth doing. Or rather, what Paola cannot do with a bubble likely hasn’t been discovered upon yet. But mark our words, if anyone will figure out how to do, it’ll be Paola.
You see, Paola is also a celebrated bubble scientist. Yes, such things exist. This one happens to exist currently in a camper van with a glorious vista of the French Alps. But there are others… okay, there is one other that we know of. And it’s only because Paola told us about him, for he is the reason Paola is as celebrated in the world of bubble science as she is.
He is a Japanese scientist by the name Dr Eijiro Miyako and it was he who first proved the potential to pollinate crops through the use of bubbles, to give nature the helping hand it now needs thanks to the over commercialisation of crop farming and land use.
“He worked out that you could – in effect – ‘blow’ these bubbles carrying pollen across fields of crop to aid with pollination. And he figured out how to do it on a commercial scale,” Paola tells Products of Change. “The problem is, when looking into the formula he uses for his bubble solution, it’s a bit rubbish.”
The issue is the vast majority of formulas – or bubble solutions and surfactants – currently on the market are in fact petro-chemical based derivatives of fossil fuels in some shape or form. Not willing to settle with such a commonplace practice, Paola set about developing a fully plant-based, natural solution. It is this solution that forms the foundation of the Dr Zigs Extraordinary Bubbles business – where all the bubbles are plant-based.
They are also the essential ingredient for a collection of ‘bubble kits’ developed by Paola that take the fun and mischief of bubble-blowing to an entirely new level. Yes, there are her famous pollinator bubble kits in which the bubble solution carries pollen that children and families can use to reinvigorate their local flora population; but there’s also the Frozen Bubble Kit solely designed to blow the mind of any child or parent (or editor) that comes across it.
Neither of these, by the way, are what Paola and her Dr Zig’s Extraordinary Bubbles business holds its Guinness World Records for. No, that accolade is for something far more people orientated. Because alongside her self-appointed task to educate and engage children and their families with matters of science and sustainability, biodiversity and conservation, Paola is driven to connect communities and bring people together, too.
“These are community-focused World Records, all about giving back and bringing in charities, hospitals, and carers,” explains Paola whose plant-based mix has also been used for four other World Records, including the Largest Bubble Chain and the Largest Exploding Bubble.
“I’ve been asked to attempt to break one of our own records, this time raising awareness for ‘parallel lifestyles’ charities,” she exhales. “But it’s a lot of logistics and organising. These record-breaking attempts have been the best days of my life… it’s great. But a lot of work.”
Now Paola is not averse to a bit of hard work. Having grown up in Milan in the ‘70s – at the height of terrorist activity in Italy – she was moved out to a coastal fishing village where, by age nine and having witnessed an oil spill directly impact the sea life her village was both dependent upon and proud of, she became deeply engaged in matters of marine conservation.
“I saw seahorses that we used to have in their droves in our waters completely eradicated from the area due to this spillage,” she explains. “So, I had an appreciation for how man’s actions can be so destructive from an early age.
“On top of that, my father was a Polish refugee who fought in the war. So that human rights, social justice and activism was formed for me around his story.”
Leaving Italy at 17 having been told she wasn’t smart enough for University, Paola took up a life of travel, working on boats to kickstart a successful sailing career while learning traditional methods of maintaining and repairing vessels along her travels.
“I restored a Brazilian fishing boat by treating the sails with banana skin and linseed oil, learnt how to do all the traditional cotton corking between the wooden planks, and then pitched the boat with a traditional mix of pitch and hot peppers – learning how to use ancient methods that had been handed down,” she explains. “I also got the chance to witness the injustice done upon local biodiversity and the impact it had upon the lives of those – animals and humans – dependent upon it.”
By now, a clear picture of the type of person Paola is ought to be forming. Meticulous in her approach to natural methods where commercialisation has so often taken over and passionate about the planet’s harmony between man and nature, it was only after returning to the UK, becoming a mother, and completing a masters in Marine Biology at University, that Paola finally found herself exploring the science of bubbles.
“It was a way that I could bring all these passions together – playing with my children who loved bubbles, discovering alternatives to the plastic pollution crisis, and encouraging children and families into nature,” says Paola.
The Dr Zigs business was aptly named after her son, Ziggy, from whom the passion for bubbles ultimately sprang. Marrying this passion for play with a dedication to the environment, research quickly went into developing plant-based surfactants for her bubble mixture. It was at that same time that research emerged from Japan into the effectiveness of using bubbles as a tool for pollinating crops.
Paola has since taken that research, applied it to her own plant-based bubbles mixture, and delivered a range of Dr Zigs’ Pollinator Bubble Kits that don’t just deliver pollen to plants using a nature and bee-friendly solution, but also goes lengths to educate and empower children with knowledge around the importance of pollination and nature’s pollinators, including the fragility of a global food system that is solely dependent on successful pollination.
“The more we learn, the more empowered we are – the more we become stakeholders in this,” says Paloa.
True to form, Paola approaches the toy range holistically. Its flatpack cardboard packaging is designed to be used as a propagator for plants and can be dug into the ground when finished with, while she is constantly looking into ways to improve the system, eyeing any and all possibilities in reuse along the way.
“I would love to have a completely plastic-free range,” she says. “Even the little rubber toggle on the bottles, that is natural rubber, it’s not plastic. And every element like that takes a lot of time and effort in sourcing, finding the right partners… it’s all part of the process.”
For anyone screaming at this point into their laptop screens ‘what about bubble refill stations installed in toy shops?’ Well, you’re not alone. It’s always played on our minds, too. Is there a market for branded bubble refill stations? Needless to say, Paola has already been there, done that – and most likely refused the t-shirt for not wanting to place a drain on the earth’s natural resources.
“Yes, we did have a whole roster of around 20 Zero Waste Stores signed up with us,” she explains. “The first thing you have to be mindful of is getting the customer to sign off on a waiver for toy safety reasons… because of the potential for microbial residue when customers bring their own container.
“The second part is that since Covid and the cost-of-living crisis, Zero Waste Stores have been hit really hard. We now list with only three of the 20 due to forced closures through the economic crisis.”
On top of this, Dr Zigs has just closed down its own manufacturing operations to outsource that side of the business, citing cost as the reason. Paola is also – as anyone serious about sustainability in business would be – constantly wrestling with the conflicting notions of commercialisation versus sustainable integrity.
“Part of the Dr Zigs business is a ‘toys for hire’ initiative through which customers can hire the bubble kits and everything that’s needed and then return it all after they are done with it,” says Paola. “But we’ve had hurdles that include customers not returning things cleaned properly, or that we’ve had to require such an upfront deposit on items that it hasn’t been viable for the customer in the end.
“Figuring out how to make new economic systems work… it’s probably the biggest challenge we all face. Particularly in the toy industry. We have got a huge opportunity to be innovative and if we don’t take it, we are going to miss a bloody great big trick.”
And that’s out the mouth of a Guinness World Record-holding Marine Biologist.
