With the release of Google Earth 5 in February 2009, this freely downloadable virtual globe application gained a feature that makes it much more adept at exploring the oceans: The oceans are now rendered in 3D, using the best global bathymetry dataset currently available. Here's how to get started exploring interesting polar ocean content with Google Earth 5. If you haven't already, download and install the latest version of Google Earth, available for Mac, Windows and Linux. Go ahead and launch it. In Google Earth 5, when you look at the glob...

Throughout March, and the weeks of Polar Oceans Activities, we will be receiving regular updates from a research cruise on the Healy Icebreaker in the Bering Sea, as aswell as connecting live to researchers during our Live Events. This page introduces the 'Thin Ice' team who will be documenting the adventure, and sending us details about the researchers, and research, being carried our aboard. Quick links: Daily stories from the ship have started A documentary ...

By Jenny Rock, School of Biological Sciences, Bangor University Climate change and polar oceans: With global warming, the world's ecosystems have been described as migrating toward the poles, such that when the ice disappears entirely the ecosystems at the poles will be "pushed right off the planet". For the polar environment, these are of course dominantly marine ecosystems, and although many organisms are/or will soon feel the effects, the polar bears have become iconic for polar organisms in peril. There is grim irony here: Until very recently the ice bear was unconditionally feared by western man. As the early explorer's discovered, even when dead the beasts could kill you (their liver had the final say on numerous occasions). Polar bears we...