Ice Station Antarctica
You know how, when one can't find one's front door keys, and they are invariably in the last place one would ordinarily think to look, like in the freezer under the ice-cube tray where one put them in the rush for that perfect martini? Well now, you can do that exact same thing with the kids. Clearly Social Services might have something to say about cramming your children into kitchen appliances, even if they did fit, but under the guidance of the Ice Station Commander, the Natural History Museum chaps have created a giant freezer just for that very reason, and with the promise of 'fun' the little darlings will even go willingly. Plus, you'll know exactly where to find them afterwards. And think of the potential for an Arctic Martini!

Crafting Beauty in Modern Japan
Existing between the dual cultural ideologies of tradition and innovation, between the Mount Fuji Ukiyo-e of Hokusai and Hello Kitty (if you can consider Hello Kitty innovative), a wealth of Japanese art thrives. It would be understandable, however, to presume that a British Museum exhibition of Japanese aesthetic traditions would be yet another of their, yawn, fascinating, yawn, collections of 13th Century bushi armour and beautiful, yawn, examples of 18th Century plant pots. Instead, this deceptively small exhibition, organised in association with the Tokyo National Museum of Modern Art, presents 112 items by members of Nihon Kogeikai (Japan Art Crafts Association) created over the last 50 years. Using traditional techniques and practices dating as far back as 13,500BC the contemporary yet classical works, in everything from textiles to lacquer and metalwork, demonstrate that the relationship between the past and present is hardly so binary, and that the heart of Japanese tradition still beats strongly.

Serpentine Pavilion
Olafur Eliasson, creator of the Tate's majestic setting sun Weather Project, is one half of the team behind the latest Serpentine pavilion. His partner, Kjetil Thorsen, as with so many architects, remains comparatively unknown, though his architectural collective Snøhetta was responsible for the stunning Bibliotheca Alexandrina. Where their interests overlap - and this is not the first time they have collaborated - is in their experimentation with time and movement, and its effects on spectators/participants. From such a union, this year's Serpentine pavilion was always bound to be a suitably dynamic affair. The vast, beguiling spinning-top that they have erected, uniquely multi-tiered within the Serpentine's tradition, erupts like an off-kilter volcano. Its dark ply-wood exterior is spiraled by a helical ramp that ascends to a beautiful view of the gardens and also down its off-centre mouth into the 'laboratory' beneath, where the architecture of the senses is explored at the behest of its mad creators.