see also:
How Does Broadband Work?
How Fiber-to-the-home Broadband Works

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.

Discover Intute resources about climate change and read more in the Intute World Guide: Arctic Ocean.

Need to help students with information skills for business studies?  Try using our Internet for Business and Management tutorial.

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.

Learn more about the space shuttle and the International Space Station on Intute.

Here are some resources on the election as chosen by Intute staff

Tribunal Supremo de Elecciones Costa Rica has official results by district, as well as background information on the electoral system and past elections.

The OAS has reports from its Election observation mission

Daily newspaper Nacion has news, videos and poll coverage

University of Costa Rica has a special dossier with information and comment.

Observatoire Politique de l’Amérique latine et des Caraïbes (OPALC) is a major research body of staff, students and researchers based at Sciences Po, France. It also has some coverage and comment on the recent elections.

Other useful sites with background information on politics in Costa Rica include.

Observatorio Latinoamericano has historical statistics and information for Costa Rica.

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.

Nominations close on Friday 26th February 2010.

This does not mean that they want their own expenses scandals with Americanised versions of moats and duck houses paid for by the tax payer.

But the Demand Question Time campaign is trying to get the cut and thrust of Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) to be a part of US political life.

It follows a recent open question session between President Obama and Republican Congressmen at the GOP House Issues conference in Baltimore which featured the sort of tough questions and frank answers that don’t normally happen in front of the TV cameras in US politics.

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.

The Demand Question Time campaign has garnered support from left and right in the States, although the online petition has only garnered some 15,000 signatures – a similar number to those on the 10 Downing Street e-petitions website asking the government to “stop criminalising live music” in small scale venues like schools, hospitals and pubs.

It remains to be seen whether the Demand Question Time campaign will be successful or not – but a Sky News campaign for US style leaders debates in the upcoming British general election made it and their online petition had a remarkably similar level of support.

Intute features more Internet resources on Government and Politics.

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.

Rhea, against a backdrop of Saturn (NASA)

Why not search for other resources about Saturn and the Solar system on Intute?
Saturn and its moons | Cassini mission | Solar system

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.

Further details, terms and conditions, and the application form can be found on the competition’s website. Applications close on 28 February.

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.

Citation:
NASA. “New Hubble Maps of Pluto Show Surface Changes.” ScienceDaily 5 February 2010. 5 February 2010 http://www.sciencedaily.com­/releases/2010/02/100204234213.htm.

Discover a wide range of information and resources about Pluto and the Solar system from Intute:
Pluto | Dwarf planets | Solar system