The Kid Should See This

Marine scientist and Stanford PhD student Cassandra Brooks narrates a two month long time-lapse view from an ice breaker — a specially-designed ship with “a strengthened hull, an ice-clearing shape, and the power to push through sea ice.”

Cassandra joined the Nathaniel B. Palmer research vessel in the Ross Sea, Antarctica, to track the phytoplankton bloom and study organic carbon in the waters as the seasons shift from summer to autumn. She’s also exploring the balance between the region’s fishing industry — Antarctic toothfish are caught here and later sold on the market as “Chilean sea bass” — with the conservation of this remote and celebrated ecosystem for scientific study.

via National Geographic’s Ocean Views.

More videos from Antarctica are in the archives.

From NOVA PBS, Solar Power:

The amount of solar energy that strike the surface of the Earth in one hour is more than enough to supply every person on the planet with electricity for an entire year. However, there are limits that prevent us from being able to fully take advantage of this energy.

For now, at least!

Watch more videos about the sun in the archives.

Pale Blue Dot, a 2-D animation by London-based studio ORDER.

A visual response to Carl Sagan’s famed ‘Pale Blue Dot‘ piece where he muses on our planet’s appearance in a photograph taken by the Voyager 1 space probe. The most distant photograph ever taken of Earth.

More Must-Watch: these Carl Sagan-inspired videos.

via BrainPickings & It’s Okay to Be Smart.

With footage taken from the International Space Station, NASA fan Bruce W Berry Jr cleaned up and created this Time-Lapse | Earth homage. The location views are listed in order:

1. A Jump over the Terminator
2. Sarychev Volcano
3. From Turkey to Iran*
4. Hurricane Irene Hits the US
5. Indian Ocean to Pacific Ocean Through the Cupola*
6. Central Great Plains at Night*
7. Aurora Borealis over the North Atlantic Ocean*
8. Aurora Borealis from Central U.S.*
9. Up the East Coast of North America*
10. Myanmar to Malaysia*
11. Western Europe to Central India
12. Middle East to the South Pacific Ocean
13. Aurora Borealis over Europe*
14. City Lights over Middle East*
15. European City Lights*
16. Northwest coast of United States to Central South America at Night
17. Moonglow over Canada and Northern U.S.*
18. Stars from the Pacific Ocean (1)
19. Stars from the Pacific Ocean (2)
20. Stars from the Pacific Ocean (3)
21. Stars and the Milky Way over the Atlantic*
22. The Milky Way and Storms over Africa (1)
23. The Milky Way and Storms over Africa (2)

Footage Note: The slower video represents a closer resemblance to the true speed of the International Space Station; this footage was shot at one frame per second. Clips are all marked with an *.

There are more International Space Station videos in the archives, including a tour of ISS and what is perhaps our favorite time-lapse view: Further Up Yonder: A Message From ISS To All Humankind.

Thanks, @MarbleSpark.

Professor Brian Cox explains how Monarch Butterflies navigate by “monitoring the position of the sun, and compensating for its location in the sky using their internal timekeeping mechanism… even when it’s cloudy.” This is an episode 5 preview of the BBC’s Wonders of Life. Full screen this.