A new study of Arctic sea ice, carried out as part of the International Polar Year, suggests that at the current pace of change, there may be no sea ice whatsoever during sumemrtime in that region by 2030 at the latest. Whilst reports of this sort are nothing new, previous estimates of ice-free Arctic summers had suggested a more likely date around 2100.
The research has emerged from studies carried out in the Canadian north by a team of scientists from 27 nations; far from being a short-term study, the readings and measurement of the changing ice levels were carried out across a time span of some 15 months, from June 2007.
Arctic Ocean
Whilst the loss of summer ice in the Arctic is worrying, the changes are having enormous spin-off effects in the region; a more diverse range of wildlife has been spotted in the Arctic, whilst the arrival of cyclonic winds can futher accelerate the change, by dumping snow and breaking up ice packs.
BMAF (Business, Management and Accountancy Network) is off to Newcastle this Spring, to hold its annual conference. 20-21 April at the Newcastle Marriott Hotel in Gosforth. The theme is Assessment. BMAF is a brilliant organisation which supports business and management lecturers and is very active all round the UK. Intute has worked with BMAF over the years to support teaching and learning in Business Studies. There’s still time to book an Earlybird place at the conference. And sample the delights of Newcastle……
The final scheduled night launch of one of NASA’s space shuttles, Endeavour, was successfully completed at 4.14am EST today. The shuttle is carrying the final two main pieces of the International Space Station, which will finally be completed after almost 12 years under construction.
Barack Obama last week withdrew funding from the program set to replace the space shuttles, which are due to be decommissioned later in 2010, and so future launches of this type may well fall in the hands of commercial space companies. There are just 4 more shuttle launches planned before the fleet is retired.
The International Space Station is a collaboration of 16 nations, and has so far cost around 100 billion US dollars to assemble – the Obama administration has extended funding for this for another 5 years as compensation for the retraction of monies for the Orion capsule, which was to supersede the shuttles.
Costa Rica: Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP) The Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP) is based at the Center for the Americas Vanderbilt University. It carries out high quality public opinion surveys of importance to political science researchers and the social sciences in general. Topics covered include: citizen views on political tolerance, citizen participation, local government, political and economic corruption, and views on authoritarianism. This section provides free access to resources relating to politics, political participation, political culture and democracy in Costa Rica. Complete survey data files may be requested.
Latin America statistics Costa Rica. This site is maintained by the Social Sciences and Humanities Library, University of California San Diego. It aims to provide information on elections since independence at the municipal, state, and federal levels for selected Spanish-speaking Latin American countries and list sources of statistics for each election.
Finally if you want to find out more information about the political representation of women in politics and parliaments worldwide try the IPU Women in National Parliaments website
Five outstanding young communicators will be given the opportunity to present a prestigious Award Lecture at the British Science Festival. This year’s Festival will be held in Birmingham from 14-19 September.
The award categories are:
Joseph Lister Award – Social sciences
Isambard Kingdom Brunel Award – Engineering, technology and industry
Charles Lyell Award – Environmental sciences
Charles Darwin Award – Agricultural, biological and medical sciences
Lord Kelvin Award – Physical sciences and mathematics
Awards are given to professional scientists or engineers in the early stages of their career, who show outstanding skills in communication to a non-specialist audience.
While PMQs are often criticised in Britain for being formulaic or the worst example of yah-boo politics, they are a hit with political junkies from other countries and at least offer a regular opportunity for political leaders to cross swords and be held to account.
NASA has extended the Cassini mission for a second time, with the exploration of the Saturn system now set to continue until 2017. Having arrived at Saturn in 2004, the Cassini craft was initially due to spend 4 years exploring Saturn and its moons, but the mission was then given the green light to continue until 2010.
The Cassini craft has sent back a vast array of information about Saturn and Titan in particular, with a wealth of incredible images to support the data – over 210,000 images have been collected to date. Although the cost of the extended mission is around $60 million per annum, the understanding of one of our Solar system’s most recognisable and impressive bodies is considered invaluable. http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/main/
Having already travelled some 2.6 billion miles on its 6 year journey to date, the spacecraft is considered to be in good enough shape to continue its mission for the foreseeable future.
Material World, BBC Radio 4’s weekly science show, is searching for the BBC’s Amateur Scientist of the Year.
The “So You Want to be a Scientist?” competition asks entrants to submit ideas for scientific experiments that they would like to conduct. Finalists will conduct the experiments in their spare time, at home, with help from professional scientists, between April and September 2010.
The competition is open to anyone who isn’t currently working as a scientist or studying science at university. A-level science students are eligible to apply.
New imagery released by NASA from the Hubble Space Telescope shows that Pluto is undergoing significant seasonal changes. Once considered a member of the Solar System’s 9 planets, Pluto has since been downgraded to a “dwarf planet”, yet its study remains of great interest.
In 2015, NASA’s New Horizons mission will perform the closest ever fly-by of Pluto, and it is hoped that a vastly more detailed picture of the body will be painted at that time. However, the images released this month already tell us much more about this fascinating world. Over the course of its 248 year seasonal cycle, Pluto undergoes many seasonal changes; in the last two decades, for example, the surface colour has become redder, whilst the atmosphere is brighter. These changes may be attributable to surface ice sublimating on one pole and refreezing at the other.
The images also reveal a very bright area which is rich in carbon monoxide frost – it is thought this particular area will be of great interest to the New Horizons probe as it approaches Pluto in the next 5 years. As with the recent Cassini mission to study Saturn and its moons, the forthcoming visit to Pluto will afford astronomers a wealth of new information about one of our Solar System’s most well known bodies. For now, researchers are fascinated with the new imagery, and it is expected that more findings will be published in due course.
The images are published in the March 2010 edition of the Astronomical Journal.
It may seem strange but some Americans are asking for their politics to be a little more like ours.
