Category: Blog
-
Behold the icy finger of death
It’s rough enough trying to eke out a living rooting around the seafloor in water that’s perennially hovering just around the freezing mark. But then, just when you let your guard down . . . well, check out this amazing video from the BBC, narrated with his inimitable understated drama by one of my heroes,…
-
Arctic sea ice hockey stick
A new paper in Science (Kinnard et al 2011) reports that the recent loss in arctic sea ice is likely to be unique over the last 15 centuries and caused by greenhouse gas emissions. Here we use a network of high-resolution terrestrial proxies from the circum-Arctic region to reconstruct past extents of summer sea ice,…
-
Algae eating polar bear
One of the half dozen polar bears that were frolicking around our tundra buggy today was grazing on macroalgae. The tide was out and she fed in the strandine on ulva and various brown alga for well over an hour. I recorded some short footage with narration by polar bear scientist Dr.Gregory W. Thiemann of…
-
got laid
…the first penguin eggs of the season, that is! Look at these proud parents: I am very excited. That’s easy for me to say, because unlike these penguins I don’t have to spend the next month fasting while I diligently keep my gestating baby warm, simultaneously fending off predators. It’s going to be a long…
-
Funny yet sad
-
penguin fight!
…complete with kicking and slapping, like a good old-fashioned high school cafeteria fight. These particular Adelie penguins make their home on Torgersen Island, near Palmer Station, and build nests out of pebbles. It’s mating season here in Antarctica – the stakes are high, and choice pebbles are something worth fighting over. I’m in Antarctica! Click…
-
Shipwrecks: fair game treasure or sacred sites?
Do shipwrecks need protecting? The answer seems to be a resounding No, judging by the lack of enthusiasm globally for a decade-old treaty aimed at doing just that. From Blackbeard’s pirate ship to WWII war graves there are thought to be 3 million…
-
Volvo Ocean Race starts today!
A round-the-world yacht race, held only once every three years, begins today! Skippers and crew on the handful of elite teams entered in the Volvo Ocean Race will spend the next nine months traveling nearly 40,000 nautical miles. All teams will race in Volvo Open 70s, making for a level playing field and awesome speed.…
-
Light at Night
We’re still wearing long underwear and puffy parkas and hats every day. We’re gearing up for Halloween and Thanksgiving and Christmas. We’re looking out our windows at a very convincing field of ice and snow. And yet here we are calling it “springtime.” There are a few clues that life here is transitioning into summer,…
-
Kelp me
We’ve done plenty of fluid inspirational coral reef videos and surf videos. How about one from the kelp forest — with soundtrack? [vimeo]http://vimeo.com/11200197[/vimeo] Hat tip to Jarrett Byrnes. Video by Gary Hawkins.