... sicher bin ich leider nicht!

he high surface tension allows SILIKON™ 1000 to seal retinal breaks and prevent slippage. and folding of retinal tears by exerting a counteractive force ...
www.alconlabs.com/.../A25_Vitreoretinal_Surgery/A252_Tampon...

Without a counteracting force the bubble will vanish .. stabilize ...
www.biomedicalphysics.org/images/CompenMedPhyswebAUG_PDF.pd...

not restoring force, here. The reference, of course, is to what is known today as "surface tension". Surface tensions is important in many ways (e.g. the lungs of newborn babies are coated with high surface tension surfactants to keep the alveoli open...

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 1 hr (2006-11-09 16:36:23 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

The force acting in the surface of a liquid, tending to minimize the area of the surface. Surface forces, or more generally, interfacial forces, govern such phenomena as the wetting or nonwetting of solids by liquids, the capillary rise of liquids in fine tubes and wicks, and the curvature of free-liquid surfaces. The action of detergents and antifrothing agents and the flotation separation of minerals depend upon the surface tensions of liquids.

In the body of a liquid, the time-averaged force exerted on any given molecule by its neighbors is zero. Even though such a molecule may undergo diffusive displacements because of random collisions with other molecules, there exist no directed forces upon it of long duration. It is equally likely to be momentarily displaced in one direction as in any other. In the surface of a liquid, the situation is quite different; beyond the free surface, there exist no molecules to counteract the forces of attraction exerted by molecules in the interior for molecules in the surface. In consequence, molecules in the surface of a liquid experience a net attraction toward the interior of a drop. These centrally directed forces cause the droplet to assume a spherical shape, thereby minimizing both the free energy and surface area.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 12 hrs (2006-11-10 03:33:08 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

You could also say "attractive force"...

− 1 of 9 −
igure 2 illustrates the molecular basis for surface tension by considering the
attractive forces that molecules in a liquid exert on one another. Part a shows a molecule
within the bulk liquid, so that it is surrounded on all sides by other molecules. The
surrounding molecules attract the central molecule equally in all directions, leading to a
zero net force. In contrast, part b shows a molecule in the surface. Since there are no
molecules of the liquid above the surface, this molecule experiences a net attractive force
pointing toward the liquid interior. This ** net attractive force ** causes the liquid surface to
contract toward the interior until repulsive collisional forces from the other molecules
halt the contraction at the point when the surface area is a minimum. If the liquid is not
acted upon by external forces, a liquid sample forms a sphere, which has the minimum
surface area for a given volume. Nearly spherical drops of water are a familiar sight, for
example, when the external forces are negligible.
Figure 2 (a) A molecule within the bulk liquid is surrounded on all sides by other
molecules, which attract it equally in all directions, leading to a zero net force. (b) A
molecule in the surface experiences a net attractive force pointing toward the liquid
interior, because there are no molecules of the liquid above the surface.