When you drill 364 meters (1194 feet) down into Antarctic ice, taking out a cylindrical section called an ice core, you can find out about the Earth’s temperature and carbon dioxide levels from over 20,000 years ago. Information is held within the oxygen atoms in the ice and the air bubbles that formed within it.

Measuring ice cores is an effective form of time travel for scientists like the British Antarctic Survey team, who are studying how the Earth’s climate is changing. And Antarctica is full of untapped information:

Antarctica is thought to have been covered by ice for over 30 million years. So far, scientists have drilled ice cores stretching back 800,000 years, and they are now working to extend their records back to 1.4 million years ago.

In this video, Ice Core Scientist Nerilie Abram explains the process. You can also read more about the team’s work here.

Dry Ice and bubbles are nothing new, but it doesn’t get old too quickly either, especially when it looks great (cue the music and backlighting) and is a fun DIY.

You’ll need Dawn Dish Detergent (5 tablespoons), Glycerin (95%, 4 tablespoons), Distilled Water (1 cup), a bowl, a 100% cotton cloth strip, some dry ice (2 or 3lbs) and thick gloves for handling the dry ice (since dry ice will burn skin). Now watch!

Previous related DIY links: A dry ice and bubbles tutorial + how to handle dry ice safely.

Thanks, @mamagotcha.

Update: It’s Okay to Be Smart explains the science behind the fun!

Bubbles + Dry Ice (the solid form of carbon dioxide) come together in this step by step video for “creating planets.” It’s also a great DIY parent-kid project for learning about physics, gasses, surface tension, sublimation (when a solid turns into a gas without passing through a liquid phase), and — since dry ice will burn skin — how to safely conduct an experiment!

DIY: A dry ice and bubbles tutorial + how to handle dry ice safely.

via Gizmodo.

Previously: soap film rainbows on a bubble.

By Joanna Lurie, “partir” (leaving), a story of two creatures who adventure together along building walls and beyond, where each animation frame is drawn on a different wall in the city. 

French translation for the J.M. Kerwich quote at the end of the short: “Just now I heard the heartbeat of a tiny raindrop.”

via Visual News. 

Penguins can’t fly, but they can jump! Seriously. They can jump over 9 feet (or up to 3 meters), depending on their species. How? They wrap their bodies in a cloak of air bubbles that come from their feathers — swimming quickly to the surface, they burst out of the water and leap to their destination.

These are Gentoo Penguins and they’re demonstrating both the ease and difficulty of their jumping skills. Pretty phenomenal. (And it sounds like the tourists filming this video think so, too.)

Be sure to check out the BBC video in this post that shows the “coat of air bubbles” underwater.

via Science Dump.