http://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Preserving just 4 percent of the ocean could protect crucial habitat for the vast majority of marine mammal species, from sea otters to blue whales, according to researchers at Stanford University and the National Autonomous University of Mexico. Their findings were published in the Aug. 16 edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. http://phys.org/news233830054.html Biology Mon, 29 Aug 2011 09:47:57 EST news233830054 (AP) -- The old hunter was troubled by the foreigners encroaching on his Inuit people's frozen lands. http://phys.org/news233120088.html Space & Earth Sun, 21 Aug 2011 04:35:24 EST news233120088 A growing body of recent research indicates that, in Earth's warming climate, there is no "tipping point," or threshold warm temperature, beyond which polar sea ice cannot recover if temperatures come back down. New University of Washington research indicates that even if Earth warmed enough to melt all polar sea ice, the ice could recover if the planet cooled again. http://phys.org/news232820340.html Space & Earth Wed, 17 Aug 2011 17:19:14 EST news232820340 Black bears hibernate, sleeping their way through winter, and who can blame them? But science is only just beginning to understand the physiological changes that allow bears to re-emerge in spring without much muscle and bone loss, and how they escape from danger during the colder months. New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Physiology used cardiac monitors and radio collars to measure the year round changes in heart rate and activity of wild black bears. http://phys.org/news232773606.html Biology Wed, 17 Aug 2011 04:29:58 EST news232773606 (AP) -- An inquiry is under way into the treatment of suspended Arctic scientist Charles Monnett, an Interior Department official said. http://phys.org/news232429299.html Space & Earth Sat, 13 Aug 2011 04:46:54 EST news232429299 (AP) -- The government's suspension of an Arctic scientist was related to how a polar bear research project was awarded and managed and not his earlier scientific work detailing drowned polar bears, a watchdog group said Monday. http://phys.org/news231474534.html Other Sciences Tue, 02 Aug 2011 03:29:20 EST news231474534 (AP) -- The recent suspension of Alaska wildlife biologist Charles Monnett is unrelated both to an article that he wrote about presumably drowned Arctic polar bears and to his scientific work, a federal official said Friday. http://phys.org/news231227258.html Biology Sat, 30 Jul 2011 06:47:58 EST news231227258 (AP) -- A federal wildlife biologist whose observation in 2004 of presumably drowned polar bears in the Arctic helped to galvanize the global warming movement has been placed on administrative leave and is being investigated for scientific misconduct, possibly over the veracity of that article. http://phys.org/news231050977.html Biology Thu, 28 Jul 2011 06:40:01 EST news231050977 Polar bears forced to swim longer distances because of diminished sea ice off Alaska's coast may be paying a price in lost cubs or precious calories, according to a study by the U.S. Geological Survey. http://phys.org/news230353323.html Biology Wed, 20 Jul 2011 04:08:22 EST news230353323 Canada needs to create large protected areas of woodlands to help save caribou from the threat of extinction, scientists and environmentalists said Wednesday. http://phys.org/news229789506.html Biology Wed, 13 Jul 2011 15:25:13 EST news229789506 Polar bears' unique characteristics allow them to survive in one of the most extreme environments on Earth, but that survival is now threatened as rising temperatures and melting ice reshape the Arctic landscape. Now it appears that the stress of climate change, occurring both long ago and today, may be responsible for surprising twists in the bears' history and future as well. http://phys.org/news229261976.html Biology Thu, 07 Jul 2011 12:53:14 EST news229261976 An international team of scientists has discovered that the female ancestor of all living polar bears was a brown bear that lived in the vicinity of present-day Britain and Ireland just prior to the peak of the last ice age -- 20,000 to 50,000 years ago. Beth Shapiro, the Shaffer Associate Professor of Biology at Penn State University and one of the team's leaders, explained that climate changes affecting the North Atlantic ice sheet probably gave rise to periodic overlaps in bear habitats. These overlaps then led to hybridization, or interbreeding -- an event that caused maternal DNA from brown bears to be introduced into polar bears. http://phys.org/news229261177.html Biology Thu, 07 Jul 2011 12:39:51 EST news229261177 A new survey conducted by WCS scientists, supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), reveals that large mammals, including Asiatic black bears, gray wolves, markhor goats, and leopard cats are surviving in parts of Afghanistan after years of conflict. http://phys.org/news228397269.html Biology Mon, 27 Jun 2011 12:41:22 EST news228397269 The US space agency said Tuesday it is sending a team of scientists on the second and final mission of a NASA field study of how melting Arctic ice is changing the life cycles of sea creatures. http://phys.org/news227894173.html Space & Earth Tue, 21 Jun 2011 16:56:24 EST news227894173 The independent assessment, written by WCS Senior Conservation Scientist Dr. John Weaver, is a compilation and synthesis of the latest information on these species – and how climate change may affect them – from 30 biologists in the region and from nearly 300 scientific papers. In addition, Weaver spent four months hiking and riding horseback through these remote roadless areas to evaluate their importance for conservation. http://phys.org/news227891688.html Biology Tue, 21 Jun 2011 16:15:02 EST news227891688 Fires, felling and agriculture are whittling Europe's forests down into isolated patches, threatening to speed up desertification and deplete wildlife, a UN report warned Tuesday. http://phys.org/news226074857.html Space & Earth Tue, 31 May 2011 15:34:38 EST news226074857 Bears in westernmost Canada have begun leaving their dens in search of food after hibernating for the winter, officials said Friday, reminding residents to put away tempting treats to avoid deadly encounters. http://phys.org/news224574138.html Biology Sat, 14 May 2011 06:42:39 EST news224574138 (AP) -- Alaska Native groups worried about losing tax revenues and royalties from oil development filed a lawsuit Friday challenging the federal government's designation of critical habitat for threatened polar bears on the state's oil-rich North Slope. http://phys.org/news224573386.html Biology Sat, 14 May 2011 06:30:07 EST news224573386 Global mercury emissions could grow by 25 percent by 2020 if no action is taken to control them, posing a threat to polar bears, whales and seals and the Arctic communities who hunt those animals for food, an authoritative international study says. http://phys.org/news223819802.html Space & Earth Thu, 05 May 2011 13:10:31 EST news223819802 An international research team is in the land of snow and ice, in search of soot. http://phys.org/news222529892.html Space & Earth Wed, 20 Apr 2011 14:51:50 EST news222529892 All it takes is a few days of bed rest for human bones to start to weaken. Stretch that out many weeks, and we risk full-blown osteoporosis and its attendant woes of broken hips, wrists and vertebrae. Bears hibernate for months on end. Yet, when they wake up in spring, their bones are just as strong as before they settled down for their long winter’s nap. http://phys.org/news221315784.html Biology Wed, 06 Apr 2011 13:36:47 EST news221315784 Hibernating, it turns out, is much more complicated than one might think. http://phys.org/news216311734.html Biology Mon, 07 Feb 2011 14:35:53 EST news216311734 More mercury is deposited in the Arctic than anywhere else on the planet. Norwegian NTNU researchers think one explanation for this may lie in the meteorological conditions in the Arctic spring and summer. http://phys.org/news215778313.html Space & Earth Tue, 01 Feb 2011 10:26:09 EST news215778313 Environmental groups on Thursday accused US President Barack Obama's administration of failing to ensure the survival of polar bears after it stopped short of listing the animals as endangered. http://phys.org/news212348786.html Biology Thu, 23 Dec 2010 17:47:34 EST news212348786 In the snowy spring of 2009, Portland-based Marcot traveled with several colleagues onto the frozen Arctic Ocean north of Alaska to study and survey polar bear populations. These findings may have implications for citizens and natural resource managers in the Pacific Northwest working to manage resources for a warming climate, particularly in high mountain areas. http://phys.org/news212168816.html Biology Tue, 21 Dec 2010 16:20:02 EST news212168816 Climate change is pushing Arctic mammals to mate with cousin species, in a trend that could be pushing the polar bear and other iconic animals towards extinction, biologists said. http://phys.org/news211697055.html Biology Thu, 16 Dec 2010 04:44:33 EST news211697055 There is no "tipping point" beyond which climate change will inevitably push the Arctic ice cap into terminal melt off, according to a study released Wednesday. http://phys.org/news211645699.html Space & Earth Wed, 15 Dec 2010 15:00:01 EST news211645699 Polar bears were added to the threatened species list nearly three years ago as their icy habitat showed steady, precipitous decline because of a warming climate. But it appears the Arctic icons aren't necessarily doomed after all. http://phys.org/news211642105.html Space & Earth Wed, 15 Dec 2010 13:28:40 EST news211642105 The exact location of Santa’s Workshop has long been kept secret, but one thing every child knows is that he lives somewhere up by the North Pole. It’s a place that has seen great changes in recent years with melting sea ice and warmer summer temperatures attributed to global warming. http://phys.org/news210945809.html Space & Earth Tue, 07 Dec 2010 12:03:45 EST news210945809 The US government designated "critical habitat" for polar bears who live on Alaska's disappearing sea ice, a move that could impact new oil and gas drilling projects in the Arctic. http://phys.org/news209882550.html Biology Thu, 25 Nov 2010 05:50:01 EST news209882550