November 23rd, 2011 
I just can’t wait until the BBC series Frozen Planet airs here in the states. Take this clip for example, which the BBC released today. It shows a “brinicle”, which is a sort of underwater icicle that forms under sea ice in winter. As the surface ice freezes, it preferentially takes up fresh water, leaving the salt behind in a dense, supercold brine that sinks through the water column. The plume of sinking brine freezes the surrounding seawater, creating a sort of tube of sea ice extending down to the bottom. Look at how it spreads out along the bottom, trapping sluggish benthic invertebrates that get caught in its path. Its one of the more amazing bits of footage I’ve seen. Why in FSM’s name would you watch Glee when there’s stuff like this happening in the real world?
H/T to @stevesilberman on Twitter (his blog)
Absolutely stunning! Undersea frozen amber, of a sort.
For once the UK is ahead of America in the TV world! Frozen Planet is awesome. Rumours are the climate change episode has been ditched for America though…
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/8889541/BBC-drops-Frozen-Planets-climate-change-episode-to-sell-show-better-abroad.html
“A spokesman for the BBC said it would not make sense to force television networks outside the UK to buy the episode as it features 85-year-old Sir David talking a lot of the time to camera, and in many parts of the world he is not famous.”
I would rather hear Sir David Attenborough narrating a documentary than I would Oprah, any day of the week.
Isnt that ridiculous? (A) Everyone in America knows who he is, he’s the very essence of nature documentaries, and (B) If they don’t know him, they bloody well should.
They are really grasping at straws here. They crunched the numbers for their viewership and decided that they didn’t want to risk controversy over a global warming episode cause they have dumbed down science to point where we wonder if they even understand what science is.
the dumbing down of science… for some reason I am reminded of the first time I saw Jurassic Park. I remember thinking to myself “Frog DNA? Frog DNA? Shoulda used a tuatara.”