I hope the scientific community can settle an argument between myself and my father...

I often wash my dishes in cold water because it takes too long for the water to run warm (and I'm lazy). My dad insists that you have to wash up in warm water to dissolve the grease, but I say that the temperature of the water has no effect because it's the detergent that emulsifies the grease and does the actual "getting clean" bit.

Who is right?

A few days ago I noticed that bubbles floating on my dirty washing-up water had somehow arranged themselves into a perfect formation. Each bubble was exactly the same size, and as they stuck together they formed a perfectly regular matrix.

I've posted some photographs here: http://zump.net/bubbles/.

My first theory was that a sieve or grater might have filtered the bubbles, but I have been unable to repeat the appearance. Any theories out there?

Alan Bradshaw, Bradford, West Yorkshire, UK