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. Russian explorers headed home Thursday after proving it is possible to drive from Russia to Canada across the North Pole, in buses with bloated tires over drifting ice, using a pickaxe to clear the way. http://phys.org/news287936452.html Space & Earth Thu, 16 May 2013 15:20:58 EST news287936452 (Phys.org) —NASA's Cassini spacecraft has provided scientists the first close-up, visible-light views of a behemoth hurricane swirling around Saturn's north pole. http://phys.org/news286461250.html Space & Earth Mon, 29 Apr 2013 13:34:27 EST news286461250 (Phys.org) —An ice cloud taking shape over Titan's south pole is the latest sign that the change of seasons is setting off a cascade of radical changes in the atmosphere of Saturn's largest moon. Made from an unknown ice, this type of cloud has long hung over Titan's north pole, where it is now fading, according to observations made by the Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) on NASA's Cassini spacecraft. http://phys.org/news284911027.html Space & Earth Thu, 11 Apr 2013 14:57:16 EST news284911027 (Phys.org) —Planetary scientist Tetsuya Tokano of Germany's University of Cologne has found that the right ingredients might exist on Titan, Saturn's largest moon, for the formation of tropical cyclones. In his paper published in the journal Icarus, Tokano says that if one the seas on Titan contains enough methane, then all the conditions could be present for the formation of the mini-hurricanes. http://phys.org/news283077723.html Space & Earth Thu, 21 Mar 2013 09:42:34 EST news283077723 Statistics is an important tool in sorting through information on how human activities are affecting the climate system, as well as how climate change affects natural and human systems, according to a Penn State statistician. http://phys.org/news280166045.html Space & Earth Fri, 15 Feb 2013 15:54:20 EST news280166045 The mystery of how salmon navigate across thousands of miles of open ocean to locate their river of origin before journeying upstream to spawn has intrigued biologists for decades, and now a new study may offer a clue to the fishes' homing strategy. http://phys.org/news279447975.html Biology Thu, 07 Feb 2013 12:00:27 EST news279447975 A pair of NASA spacecraft tumbled out of orbit around the moon and crashed back-to-back into the surface on Monday, ending a mission that peered into the lunar interior. http://phys.org/news274988388.html Space & Earth Mon, 17 Dec 2012 17:39:55 EST news274988388 NASA's latest moon mission is about to meet its end. http://phys.org/news274941933.html Space & Earth Mon, 17 Dec 2012 04:45:40 EST news274941933 Ok, are you ready for this? I know... WOW. http://phys.org/news273318927.html Space & Earth Wed, 28 Nov 2012 09:55:52 EST news273318927 National Geographic Society has chronicled scientific expeditions, wildlife and world cultures for more than 100 years, amassing 11.5 million photographs and original illustrations. http://phys.org/news270097051.html Other Sciences Mon, 22 Oct 2012 04:20:01 EST news270097051 (Phys.org)—Humanity has landed a rover on Mars. Now, say scientists, it's time to land a boat on Titan. This outlandish scenario could become reality, according to engineers presenting their proposals at the European Planetary Science Congress on 27 September. http://phys.org/news268049283.html Space & Earth Fri, 28 Sep 2012 11:08:14 EST news268049283 In a critical climate indicator showing an ever warming world, the amount of ice in the Arctic Ocean shrank to an all-time low this year, obliterating old records. http://phys.org/news267284102.html Space & Earth Wed, 19 Sep 2012 14:35:08 EST news267284102 With sea ice in the Arctic melting to record lows in summer months, marine animals living there face dramatic changes to their environment. Yet some crustaceans, previously thought to spend their entire lives on the underside of sea ice, were recently discovered to migrate deep underwater and follow ocean currents back to colder areas when ice disappears. http://phys.org/news266778292.html Biology Thu, 13 Sep 2012 18:05:15 EST news266778292 On Mars's poles there are ice caps of ice and dust with layers that reflect to past climate variations on Mars. Researchers from the Niels Bohr Institute have related the layers in the ice cap on Mars's north pole to variations in solar insolation on Mars, thus established the first dated climate history for Mars, where ice and dust accumulation has been driven by variations in insolation. The results are published in the scientific journal, Icarus. http://phys.org/news266149494.html Space & Earth Thu, 06 Sep 2012 11:25:06 EST news266149494 (Phys.org) -- Images from NASA's Cassini spacecraft show a concentration of high-altitude haze and a vortex materializing at the south pole of Saturn's moon Titan, signs that the seasons are turning on Saturn's largest moon. "The structure inside the vortex is reminiscent of the open cellular convection that is often seen over Earth's oceans," said Tony Del Genio, a Cassini team member at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, N.Y. "But unlike on Earth, where such layers are just above the surface, this one is at very high altitude, maybe a response of Titan's stratosphere to seasonal cooling as southern winter approaches. But so soon in the game, we're not sure." http://phys.org/news261212848.html Space & Earth Wed, 11 Jul 2012 08:07:58 EST news261212848 Roughly 180 million years ago, during the height of the Jurassic period, the Earth's magnetic field flipped, bringing the magnetic north pole once again into the Northern Hemisphere. http://phys.org/news256480428.html Space & Earth Thu, 17 May 2012 15:10:01 EST news256480428 The first detailed maps of the Earth's forests at the time of the dinosaurs have been drawn up. The patterns of vegetation, together with information about the rate of tree growth, support the idea that the Earth was stifling hot 100 million years ago. http://phys.org/news249651339.html Space & Earth Tue, 28 Feb 2012 11:35:43 EST news249651339 For the first half of this year's winter, the big news was warm temperatures and lack of snow. Ski resorts were covered in bare dirt, while January temperatures in southern California topped July highs. http://phys.org/news248690178.html Space & Earth Fri, 17 Feb 2012 08:36:34 EST news248690178 As evening twilight fades during February, the two brightest planets, Venus and Jupiter, will highlight the sky as they come into view in the southwest. http://phys.org/news247394356.html Space & Earth Thu, 02 Feb 2012 08:39:31 EST news247394356 Extraordinarily cold temperatures in the winter of 2010/2011 caused the most massive destruction of the ozone layer above the Arctic so far: The mechanisms leading to the first ozone hole above the North Pole were studied by scientists of the KIT Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research (IMK). According to these studies, further cooling of the ozone layer may enhance the influence of ozone-destroying substances, e.g. chlorofluorocarbons (CFC), such that repeated occurrence of an ozone hole above the Arctic has to be expected. http://phys.org/news246197253.html Space & Earth Thu, 19 Jan 2012 12:08:00 EST news246197253 Denmark, which is planning to lay a claim to the North Pole sea bed, on Tuesday named its first permanent envoy to the resource-rich Arctic. http://phys.org/news246033390.html Space & Earth Tue, 17 Jan 2012 15:00:01 EST news246033390 (PhysOrg.com) -- The Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding (MARSIS) instrument on board Mars Express has recently completed a subsurface sounding campaign over the planet's North Pole. The campaign was interrupted by the suspension of science observations several times between August and October due to safe modes and to anomalies in the operation of the spacecraft's Solid-State Mass Memory (SSMM) system. As MARSIS best observes in the dark, which for the North Pole only occurs every few years, it was among the first instruments to resume observations once a partial work-around for the problems had been implemented. http://phys.org/news243592051.html Space & Earth Tue, 20 Dec 2011 08:40:02 EST news243592051 (PhysOrg.com) -- After the many years of commuting on Christmas Eve, jolly old St. Nicholas is reconsidering his home at the North Pole. Given his job description, extreme isolation has lost its appeal. In true Christmas spirit, the University of Toronto's Martin Prosperity Insititute is offering Santa a top 10 list of places that would best suit him and his needs. http://phys.org/news243247011.html Other Sciences Fri, 16 Dec 2011 08:50:01 EST news243247011 One hundred years ago Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen won the race to the South Pole in a dramatic and ultimately fatal duel with British adventurer Robert Scott that captured the world's attention. http://phys.org/news243058151.html Space & Earth Wed, 14 Dec 2011 04:20:01 EST news243058151 From the North Pole to the Arctic Ocean, the frozen soils within this region keep an estimated 1,672 billion metric tons of carbon out of the Earth's atmosphere. This sequestered carbon is more than 250 times the amount of greenhouse gas emissions attributed to the United States in the year 2009. As global temperatures slowly rise, however, so too do concerns regarding the potential impacts upon the carbon cycle when the permafrost thaws and releases the carbon that has been trapped for eons. Like so many of the planet's critical environmental processes, the smallest players—microbes—have the most significant influence over the eventual outcome. http://phys.org/news239806538.html Biology Sun, 06 Nov 2011 13:00:01 EST news239806538 (PhysOrg.com) -- The Earth's moon has been an endless source of fascination for humanity for thousands of years. When at last Apollo 11 landed on the moon's surface in 1969, the crew found a desolate, lifeless orb, but one which still fascinates scientist and non-scientist alike. http://phys.org/news234682838.html Space & Earth Thu, 08 Sep 2011 06:48:29 EST news234682838 An artist has recreated Leonardo da Vinci's most famous sketch "Vitruvian Man" in the Arctic ice to draw attention to the ice melt, Greenpeace said Wednesday. http://phys.org/news234608874.html Space & Earth Wed, 07 Sep 2011 10:20:23 EST news234608874 You can't get any "higher": on 22 August 2011 at exactly 9.42 a.m. the research icebreaker Polarstern of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association reaches the North Pole. The aim of he current expedition is to document changes in the far north. Thus, the researchers on board are conducting an extensive investigation programme in the water, ice and air at the northernmost point on the Earth. The little sea ice cover makes the route via the pole to the investigation area in the Canadian Arctic possible. http://phys.org/news233313108.html Space & Earth Tue, 23 Aug 2011 10:12:05 EST news233313108 Denmark on Monday presented its "Arctic Strategy" for the next decade, confirming that it intends to lay claim to the North Pole sea bed by 2014 at the latest. http://phys.org/news233248601.html Space & Earth Mon, 22 Aug 2011 16:17:25 EST news233248601 A newly released image from ESA's Mars Express shows the north pole of Mars during the red planet's summer solstice. All the carbon dioxide ice has gone, leaving just a bright cap of water ice. http://phys.org/news231758484.html Space & Earth Fri, 05 Aug 2011 10:21:52 EST news231758484