Polar News and Notes Polar News & Notes

If what’s been happening to the ecology of the North Sea had happened in a forest, we’d be shocked, according to researchers writing in the December issue of the Proceedings of the Royal Society. Hidden from view, the ecology has undergone a radical shift in the last half century, with jellyfish and crabs replacing cod […]

The Inuit people living in Canada’s North are transitioning from a diet of fish and caribou to one of prepackaged foods and soft drinks, with a resulting “spike in blood pressure,” according to the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada.
The foundation finds that Arctic store-bought foods provide 95 per cent of dietary sodium intake […]

Real data and citizen science projects are wonderful ways to engage students, but they often are best conducted during the fall and spring. What’s a teacher to do in the colder months of winter?
 The new Snowtweets Project from the University of Waterloo has one answer. The Snowtweets Project provides a way for people interested in […]

From now until the end of November, a DC-8 aircraft will make 17 low-level flights over West Antarctica to measure the thinning of the ice sheet. A project of NASA and known as Operation ICE Bridge, the flights carry nearly two dozen scientists and their airborne lab.
At 157-feet long, the DC-8 is too big […]

Sun-Earth Day, the annual culmination of programs and events from NASA’s Sun-Earth Connection, will be celebrated in 2010 on March 20. The theme is Magnetic Storms.
In weeks leading up to the event, NASA provides resources for schools and the public to learn more about solar storms, including space activities and demonstrations. 
At the Sun-Earth Day web […]