Here’s a little lesson in how the aurora borealis happens, courtesy of forskning.no, animator Per Byhring, and the Department of Physics at the University of Oslo. There’s a little bit of spectacular video of the lights at the end, too:

It’s all in the animation. If they had educational films like this when I was in school, maybe I would have paid attention more. Although we DID have “Our Mr. Sun,” with Eddie Albert (Oliver!), Lionel Barrymore, and the ever-present Dr Frank Baxter, directed by Frank Capra:

Actually, that WAS pretty entertaining, compared to the usual classroom stuff.

HT: GeeksAreSexy.net