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  • Article

Bubbles of history

Since the 1960s, scientists have been able to study the air from past centuries by analysing particles in Arctic ice samples. But as the polar ice melts, the future of this research is changing.

  • Comic

Blowing bubbles

Is happiness as fragile as a bubble?

  • Article

What is air, and how do we know?

Watching bubbles in fermenting beer led 18th-century scientist Joseph Priestley to invent sparkling water – and to discover that different gases make up the air we breathe.

  • Article

Documents of my breath

Swati Joshi’s childhood bronchitis meant that she couldn’t imagine being able to breathe easily. As an adult, she chronicles her recovery through artworks created using bubbles and her breath.

All stories (23)

Images

  • Caricatures of speculative investment bubbles in Europe in 1720. Engraving.
  • A boy blowing bubbles. Engraving by M. Blot, 1792, after F. van Mieris.
  • A child blowing bubbles. Engraving by J.G. Wille, 1761, after G. Netscher, 1670 (?).
  • A man riding astride two galloping horses blows bubbles from a pipe. Line block process print.
  • Four personified condoms with speech bubbles representing a safe-sex and AIDS prevention advertisement. Colour lithograph, ca. 1995.
  • A family sits outside a house, one boy is blowing bubbles and the others are trying to catch them. Engraving.
  • One boy is blowing bubbles and another bouncing one off his hat, a parrot sits watching on his perch. Etching.
  • Rev. Pat Robertson converses with Vice-President Dan Quayle with numerous speech bubbles; a protest against their policies including those relating to AIDS. Lithograph.
  • Cartoon gay men sitting chatting on chairs with speech bubbles containing information on Schwulenberatung, an open discussion group and counseling service for gay men. Colour lithograph, 199-.
  • A condom called Proud Pete with speech bubbles warning parents to talk to their children about AIDS; advertisement for AIDS hotlines by the Pharmacists Planning Service. Colour lithograph, 1992.
All images (150)

Catalogue

All works (423)