While the prospect of a polar research expedition in the Antarctic might seem like a dream come true for many, the reality of prolonged darkness in isolation is so severe that it actually shrinks parts of the human brain. Researchers from Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin and the Max Planck Institute for Human Development studied the effects of social isolation and extreme environmental... 

US nuclear weapons tests carried out in the Pacific Ocean during the 1950s and the 1960s resulted in release of high concentrations of radioactive isotopes that traveled around the globe, with some gas eventually deposited on Antarctica’s ice. Vast ice sheets of Antarctica are still discharging radioactive chlorine in the wake of nuclear weapons tests carried out in the 1950s, a new study published... 

There is no such thing as man-made global warming drastically melting ice in the Antarctic, according to analysis of Antarctic expeditions over the past 100 years. When the current sea ice extent in Antarctica is superimposed over past routes of expedition ships, it reveals that ice on the frigid continent is largely the same now as it was in the early 20th century. This is an revolutionary revelation... 

Analysis of satellite data of the Antarctic ice sheet has revealed a canyon system that dwarfs the Grand Canyon. The Antarctic is home to the world’s largest canyon, according to a study of satellite data by scientists from Durham University in the UK. “Antarctic scientists have long recognized that because the way ice flows, the landscape beneath the ice sheet was subtly reflected in... 

Two of Japan’s whaling ships have returned home from Antarctic with no catch onboard for the first time in nearly 30 years, local news reported. The news comes after a UN court ordered an halt to Japan’s annual “scientific” whale hunt. The 724-ton Yushinmaru and the 747-ton Daini (No 2) Yushinmaru returned to port in Shimonoseki, western Japan, which is considered to be one of the major whaling... 

An Australian rescue vessel trying to reach the Russian ship, MV Akademik Shokalskiy, trapped in Antarctic ice since Christmas Eve, is expected to arrive on Sunday after Chinese and French icebreakers failed to get through heavy sea ice. The Akademik Shokalskiy, with 74 scientists, tourists and crew members on board, has been on a privately-funded research expedition to Antarctica to retrace the footsteps... 

RADARSAT image of Lake Vostok, Antarctica. Scientists have discovered more than 3,500 unique gene sequences in Lake Vostok – the underground Antarctic water reservoir isolated from the outside world for 15 million years – revealing a complex ecosystem far beyond anything they could have expected. “The bounds on what is habitable and what is not are changing,” said Scott Rogers, Bowling... 

Nearly a year after Russian researchers reached the unique sub-glacial Lake Vostok, the first sample of transparent ice from its water has been taken. The finding is of great value as it could reveal if the lake harbors life. The Lake Vostok, isolated by 4-kilometer layer of ice for around the past 20 million years, has been of great interest to scientists since it was first discovered in the 1990s.... 

It took researches 30 years of drilling through a four-kilometer-thick ice to reach the renowned subglacial lake. Most importantly, million years-old secrets will be unveiled without causing harm to the lake’s ecosystem. ­“Yesterday [on Sunday] our scientists at the Vostok polar station in the Antarctic completed drilling at depths of 3,768 meters and reached surface of the subglacial lake,”... 

An ozone hole five times the size of California opened over the Arctic this spring, matching ozone loss over Antarctica for the first time on record, scientists said today. The white line marks the area within which chemical ozone destruction takes place Hole in the sky: Europe, Canada and Russia at risk as continent-sized ‘second hole’ in ozone layer opens over the Arctic. The ozone loss...