Environment / Arctic & Antarctic


When Arctic Ice Locks up Your Submarine, It's Time to Break Out the Chainsaw

The U.S. Navy runs into an unusual obstacle as it increases its activity in the far north. 02.08.2012

#100: Arctic Ice Hits 
Record Lows


Study records lowest measurement of ice yet; environmentalists (and polar bears) not pleased. 12.20.2011

The 100 Top Science Stories of 2010

Every year DISCOVER sorts through the scientific accomplishments of the past 12 months, and assembles a list of the coolest experiments, most brilliant discoveries, and most world-changing events. As you page through the countdown to the #1 science story, we think you'll come to the same conclusion we did: 2010 was quite a year. 12.16.2010

7 Visions of Our Hot, Awful Future

A bounty of 2010 books predict the future in a globally warmed world. Among the forecasts: boom town Detroit, abandoned Miami, an Arctic black gold rush, and a weirdly strong dried fruit market. 12.13.2010

Will the Walrus Withstand a Warmer World?

As the Arctic warms, researchers are scrambling to predict whether the walrus can adapt to its rapidly changing home. 11.05.2010

8 Keys to Deciphering Ancient Climates

Our lives extend only decades, so how do scientists study climate going back thousands and millions of years? Ancient pollen, clam shells, columns of sheer ice, and more. 07.08.2010

10 Science Hotspots—Where Mother Nature Reveals Her Secrets

From glaciers to undersea vents to tornado-wracked plains, these are the locations that draw boatloads of scientists from all over the world. 06.30.2010

The Coolest Science Experiments in Antarctica

Researchers go neutrino-hunting and penguin-watching at the South Pole. 02.25.2010

#60: Geographer Mark Serreze

He says a big Arctic melt is inevitable and readies us for what comes next. 12.28.2009

Visual Science: The Red Badge of Climate Change

Tracing the flow of a blood-red fluorescent dye may reveal the ultimate fate of the Greenland's ice. 05.18.2009

Nature's Great Piece of Art-Slash-Geometry Lesson: The Snowflake

What makes them look like that, investigating the age-old theory of snowflake singularity, and more 01.07.2009

#5: Nations Stake Their Claims to a Melting Arctic

Undiscovered oil and gas reserves below the ice set off a polar gold rush. 12.22.2008

#55: Polar Bears (Finally) Make the Endangered Species List

At long last, the government acknowledges the species is threatened. 12.12.2008

The Most Amazing Things the Sky Can Do

Rainbows, mirages, halos, and more: Tim Herd explains the gamut of visual wonders in the book Kaleidoscope Sky. 12.04.2008

The Ground Zero of Climate Change

Antarctica's Whillans Ice Stream helps researchers predict climate change—and the fate of coastal cities around the world. 09.08.2008

Welcome to the Hotel Relativity

From Icehotel to the Astronomers Inn, the world's best science-themed hotels and restaurants 04.14.2008

The Robo-Sub That Helps Predict Where the Ocean's Headed

An underwater glider measures parts of the ocean that scientists can't reach. 03.03.2008

Did Life Evolve in Ice?

Funky properties of frozen water may have made life possible. 02.01.2008

If Life Gives You Methane, Make Methane Energy

The global warming risk that's also a great opportunity 01.31.2008

4. Arctic Thaw

Rapidly melting ice in the Far North alarms climatologists and lures nations into competition for newly accessible trade routes and resources. 12.12.2007

After the Thaw

Global warming in the once-icy Arctic sets the stage for a modern-day landgrab. 11.21.2007

Halloween Science: Bacteria of the Living Dead

Chop up their DNA and the buggers still keep comin' back to life. 10.31.2007

The Last Unexplored Place on Earth

Scientists race to discover the secret world buried miles beneath Antarctica. 09.28.2007

Arctic Land Grabs Could Cause Eco-Disaster

After nations carve up the fast-melting region, will there be anything left? 08.30.2007

Sweeping The Ocean Floor

Strange sea creatures caught on film for the first time 06.13.2007

How to Pinpoint a Pinniped

It's easy—stick a big radio transmitter on their heads. 05.04.2007

The Hole Story

Think the ozone hole is on the mend? It's gotten worse. 03.01.2007

Biologists Find Life in Dark Frigid Trough

Biologists Find Life in Dark Frigid Trough 11.22.2005

Think Tank

What we learned in the last 25 years, and what we're likely to see in the next 25 04.28.2005

Wild Ones

Are gangs of orcas feasting on protected seals, sea lions, and otters because we fished their normal food supply out of the oceans? 04.21.2004

The Ice Cap Melteth

02.05.2004

Ask Discover

Ask Discover 11.22.2003

Environment

01.01.2003

Works in Progress

Each year Alaskans wager when a frozen river will thaw, and science is the winner 05.01.2002

The Big Arctic

11.01.2000

Works in Progress

Whither the biggest iceberg in recorded history? 10.01.2000

Antarctica's Hot Spot

Braving hurricane winds and 40-foot waves, scientists struggle to unerstand Antarctic warming. 11.01.1999

What Icebergs?

10.01.1999

The Year in Science: Animals 1997

White Penguin Spotted 01.01.1998

The Year in Science: Earth 1997

Antarctic Puzzle 01.01.1998

Meteorite Hunters

Ralph Harvey can ride a Ski-doo as well as anyone, and he looks pretty good in antlers--just the guy to search Antarctica for pieces of other worlds. 05.01.1997

One Very Cold Lake

01.01.1997

The Krill Drill

06.01.1996

Running on Tundra

Each summer a herd of scientists races north, enduring white nights and relentless mosquitoes to study one of the world's harshest ecosystems. 06.01.1996

Birth of a Berg

01.01.1996

Life on a Melting Continent

Every winter an expanse of ice twice the size of the United States forms around Antarctica. Before it disappears in the spring, a vast, unexplored ecosystem comes into being. 08.01.1995