Polar Bears and Penguins May Live at Opposite Poles, But Census of Marine Life Explorers Find Hundreds of Identical Species Thrive in Both Arctic and Antarctic Contacts: Mr. Terry Collins, +1-416-878-8712; +1-416-538-8712; This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it Ms. Darlene Trew Crist, +1-401-295-1356; +1-401-952-7692; This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it Mr. Gregg Schmidt, +1-202- 448-1231; This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it Experts are available for advance interviews. Video and high-resolution images are online at www.coml.org/embargo/polar2009 Download PDF of CoML IPY Press Release for i...

LOHAFEX: An Indo-German iron fertilization experiment What are the effects on the ecology and carbon uptake potential of the Southern Ocean? Bremerhaven, January 13th 2008. The German research vessel Polarstern is currently on its way to the Southwest Atlantic Sector of the Southern Ocean. The team of 48 scientists (30 from India) on board left Cape Town on 7th January to carry out the Indo-German iron fertilization experiment LOHAFEX (LOHA is Hindi for iron, FEX stands for Fertilization EXperiment). About two weeks will be required to reach the area and carefully select a suitable location, after which a patch of 300 square kilometres will be fertilized with six tons of dissolved iron. This will lead to rapid growth of the minute, unicellular algae known as phytoplan...

December 4th, 2008, was our seventh International Polar Day (including the launch), this time focusing on research 'Above The Polar Regions'. You'd think by now we would know how to do these... but every time, without exception, is experimental and exciting. Much like the IPY science we are discussing. In the following days, we heard from people around the world: Brazil The last IPY Day, ...

Sub-Zero Soccer India is enthusiastically pursuing the outreach goal of IPY, which is being coordinated by National Centre for Antarctic & Ocean Research (NCAOR, under the Ministry of Earth Sciences, Govt. of India) in collaboration with WWF-India (World Wide Fund for Nature) and has carried out various competitions & exhibitions in several cities throughout the vast expanse of India. To further give impetus to our outreach efforts & to engage more students, we have planned an innovative Soccer Tournament called "Sub-Zero Soccer" on 15th-22nd November 2008, for College students. The main objective is to generate awareness among the youth by engaging them in sports and culture as this is very close to their heart and appeals to them. The salient features of this event are:...

“Preserve the Polar Regions and Glaciers”: A major philatelic event for the closing of IPY in March 2009 Last Saturday September 20t 2008, at the “Austria Center Vienna”, a few steps from the UN Headquarter in Vienna, have been officially presented the major philatelic event concerning the “International Polar Year 2007-2009”. To pay tribute to all the efforts made during this fourth “International Polar Year” 2007-2009 and to deliver a strong message aimed at the whole world, the postal administrations of around 40 countries have decided to joint to produce a common stamp issue concerning the problem of the Global Warming and featuring the slogan “Preserve the Polar Regions and Glaciers”. Started ...

Dr. Manish Tiwari, scientist at the National Centre For Antarctic & Ocean Research in Goa, India, writes: India is enthusiastically pursuing the outreach goal of IPY, which is being coordinated by National Centre for Antarctic & Ocean Research (NCAOR, under the Ministry of Earth Sciences, Govt. of India) in collaboration with WWF-India (World Wide Fund for Nature). Several competitions were conducted for the school children throughout India that included poster & model making, projects, stamp designing etc. as outlined in the chart below. The award winning posters of the first competition i.e.,...

On the occasion of the 31st Antarctic Treaty Consultative meeting held in Kiev, Ukraine, from the 2nd to the 13th of June 2008, SciencePoles looks at one of the lasting legacies of the International Polar Year (IPY) 2007-08: A series of high-tech scientific research stations recently completed, or in the process of being constructed in Antarctica. Never since the International Geophysical Year of 1957-58 has the frozen continent seen suc...

By Dr. Manish Tiwari Scientist, National Centre For Antarctic & Ocean Research, Goa, India As the IPY completes one year successfully, India has contributed strongly to its scientific & outreach program that will continue into 2008-09 & beyond. National Centre for Antarctic & Ocean Research (NCAOR, under the Ministry of Earth Sciences, Govt. of India) is acting as the national coordinating agency and has well defined outreach activities that seek to educate school children, general public & scientific community about the challenges & need of the polar research. Towards this, NCAOR has contributed & participated in exhibitions to celebrate IPY. It has also put effort in getting published many articles outlining the activities under IPY themes in Indian scientific journ...

To encourage larger participation in the international workshop

We have news from India about the various aspects of its involvement with IPY - through both scientific projects and outreach. The launching of the Indian chapter of the IPY 2007-2008 took place at National Centre For Antarctic & Ocean Research (NCAOR), Vasco-da-Gama, India and parallely at Jawaharlal Nehru National University (JNU), New Delhi, India on 1st March 2007. Details of the scientific and outreach projects can be read in this pdf document. Further details can be had at National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research website and ...