I was curled up with a good book the other night and one of the characters was attempting to calm another character down with the advice: “BREATHE! Smell a flower; blow out a candle.”

What the author was describing is a technique where one is to take a long, slow breath in and then exhale forcefully.

I don’t spend too much time thinking about breathing, but I do know with every exhale I breathe out carbon dioxide.

Carbon dioxide is talked about a lot with second-graders from the Jim Thorpe schools because their topic is seeds and plants.

We need the oxygen the plants release, and the plants need the carbon dioxide we release! Nifty, huh? The connection between plants and animals is a big part of the lessons.

I would bet my next paycheck on that fact that everyone living in Pennsylvania this winter knows what ice “is.”

It’s cold, wet and slippery. Ice melts and floats. So calling something dry ice can be confusing. It looks a little like ice, but it is extremely cold, and it’s not wet. It does not melt, and it does not float.

I know that solid sheet of ice in my driveway will melt into a liquid and then evaporate. But dry ice changes from a solid to a gas without passing through a liquid state. This is called sublimation, and this is why it is called “dry” ice!

So, what is this stuff? Dry ice is the solid form of carbon dioxide. In its frozen form as a solid its temperature is about minus 109.3 F.

In junior high, I had learned about the three states of matter: gas, liquid and solid and how each has its own characteristics. I also remembered with extreme temperature changes, pressure or energy, all matter can be changed.

Dry ice is used in plumbing and factories. It is also used for shipping, freezing food and spices. It is used in the medical field for stabilizing medicines, laboratory specimens and vaccines.

Dry ice is not dangerous, but it does have to be handled carefully because of the extreme temperatures. It can cause burns if touched with bare hands and it is recommended to use this ice in a ventilated area because of the gas being given off during sublimation.

Of course, when a shipment arrived at work packed in dry ice last week, I had to take some home. My plan was to experiment with it using wine, water and dish soap. When added to water, dry ice sublimation is accelerated and a smokelike fog is formed by the escaping gas.

Because all matter can be changed because of temperature changes, pressure or energy, when I drop the dry ice into the liquids, sublimation happens immediately.

The dry ice is releasing the gas in the form of fog because the dry ice is actually boiling in the water. The boiling point for dry ice is the point where it sublimates. I don’t understand it all, but I do understand that science is fun when done safely.

As the bubbling happens and the gas is released, it sinks instead of rising because it is heavier than the surrounding air. It flows over surfaces and sinks to the lowest points rather than rising into the air when water boils. Haunted houses, nightclubs and theater groups use dry ice to create mysterious and interesting effects from the fog.

There’s always a moment of panic as the fog rolls over my kitchen because my first instinct is that I will have a mess to clean up. And, then I realize as the fog disperses, there is no mess. I never have to clean up like I would have to if I was playing with water and “regular” ice.

Jeannie Carl is a naturalist at the Carbon County Environmental Education Center in Summit Hill. The center rehabilitates injured animals and educates the public on a variety of wildlife found in the area. For information on the Carbon County Environmental Center, visit www.carboneec.org.