Spencer Krum on Surface Tension

What is really happening here? Surface tension is a pretty good explanation because not many people really understand surface tension.

Surface Tension is the term used to describe the elasticity of the surface of a body of water. This phenomena is a result of the hydrogen bonding we talked about earlier. Take a droplet of water. In the center of the droplet molecules are completely surrounded by other molecules with which they can form hydrogen bonds. Water molecules on the very edge of of the water droplet do not have that luxury and so make less hydrogen bonds than more centrally located molecules. This results in a higher energy state for a water molecule near the edge than for one near the center. Because molecules want to be at the lowest energy possible the droplet of water arranges itself into a configuration that minimizes the number of molecules on the very edge. This means the droplet of constant volume will form to the shape that has the lowest surface area for that volume. In three dimensions the lowest surface area to volume ratio is found in a sphere. Throw away your teardrop expectations people, water droplets are always spheres. This phenomena is what makes it possible for a metal needle to float on still water. More energy would be spent in disrupting the outer layer of water molecules than would be gained by dropping the needle to the bottom of the pool.

I don't really get how soap rapidly mixes the milk and food coloring. Any thoughts from cyberspace?