SciencePoles news

Recent Polar Science and Climate Change news are featured here. Our news RSS feed will inform you when news are published on this website.

International Team to Explore Antarctic Sublglacial Lake Ellsworth

04.03.2009

An international team of scientists led by British researchers has beengiven approval to explore Lake Ellsworth, a subglacial lake hidden deepbeneath the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, during the 2012-2013 Antarcticwinter season. Buried under 3 km of ice sheet, Lake Ellsworth has beenisolated from the outside world for hundreds of thousands…
The IPY: A Success Story

02.03.2009

Scientists and policymakers gathered at the World Meteorological Organization in Geneva, Switzerland on Wednesday 25 February to mark the end of the fourth International Polar Year.
Two Different Poles, One Marine World

18.02.2009

Recent findings, to be published in October 2010 in the first global Census of Marine Life (CoML), have shown that, aside form species of birds and whales that migrate between the poles, at least 235 marine species can be found at both poles, raising questions as to these species evolved…
Antarctic Worm Produces Own Antifreeze

12.02.2009

Byron Adams, associate professor of molecular biology at Brigham Young University, and his Ph.D. student, Bishwo Adhikari, have discovered a worm that produces its own antifreeze on a recent trip to Antarctica to study nematode worms.
Ancient Tropical Turtle Found in the Arctic

02.02.2009

A team of geologists led by John Tarduno, a Professor of Geophysics from the University of Rochester, recently discovered a fossil of a tropical, freshwater, Asian turtle in the Canadian Arctic, which they have named Aurorachelys, or aurora turtle. Their findings recently published in Geology, Tarduno and his colleagues have…
CO2 Trapping Theory Dealt Major Blow

30.01.2009

The theory of adding iron to the oceans to help sequester atmospheric carbon dioxide cheaply and efficiently has suffered a major blow, according to research published in this week's edition of Nature, show that the amount of carbon that can be sequestered in the deep waters of the Southern Ocean…
New Study Shows Emperor Penguins May Be Heading towards Extinction

27.01.2009

The Emperor Penguin might be heading for extinction, according to a paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America on January 26th, 2009. This species of penguins - the largest one in the world and the only one breeding during winter on…
Young Emperor Penguins Find Their Way in Life by Themselves

20.01.2009

Unlike lducklings nad cygnets, young emperor penguins are left to fend for themselves as early as five months after their birth. The hungry fledglings have to find open water and learn how to hunt all by themselves, and until now, researchers were still guessing at where the young penguins went…
Warmer Antarctic Could Seriously Endanger Penguin Populations

03.12.2008

A new study commissioned by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) shows that 50% of the Emperor penguin colonies and 75% of the Adélie penguin colonies living north of the 70°S latitude could be facing a terrible danger if the mean global temperature should rise 2°C. This could happen in fewer…
Major Discovery in Antarctic Biodiversity

01.12.2008

Scientists from the British Antarctic Survey and the University of Hamburg have reported an abundance of species around a group of Antarctic islands located near the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, the South Orkney Islands. The inventory conducted by the scientists sheds a whole new light on the biodiversity of…