Gianluca Frinchillucci writes: Some years ago I was in eastern Greenland on an research. I was visiting a very particular village, Isertoq, probably housing the last branch of Inuit migratory movements, remained isolated for ages. As an researcher, I usually don't travel without a notepad, where I can take note of my impressions, the people I meet, the places I pass through and everything I want to fix in my mind. It was the time of Iraq war, when televisions from all over the world talked about the flight and the torment of thousands of men, women and children. An inuit child took my notepad and started drawing a sketch of how war was in his mind. ...

The Map of Arctic People (MAP) project has been set up to study the culture and the lifestyles of the peoples of the Arctic and subarctic regions and to establish lasting relations based on reciprocal cultural exchanges. The project is promoted within the IV International Polar Year, in collaboration with the Geographic Polar Institute of Fermo, CNR-Polarnet and under the patronage of CAI (Italian Mountain Sports Association) Executive Presidency. The purpose of the project is to draw up a map meant to be a work of reference for students and researchers, where the concept of Arctic is defined not only from the geographical viewpoint but especially in its essence as the cultural backbone of the peoples who live there. Many fundamental elements will serve to ma...

My name is Gianluca Frinchillucci, I am an Italian polar researcher and the Director of the Polar Geographic Institute "S.Zavatti" of Fermo, Marche Region. In this moment I am in Eastern Greenland, in the village of Isertoq. Together with a group of Italian researchers, we are realizing a research expedition called "Saxum", in this part of Greenland. It is a very important initiative, one of the few Italian activities realized during IPY. For this reason also the President of Italian Republic, Giorgio Napolitano, give at this expedition a merit badge. It is realized in the sphere of the CNR-Polarnet Project "Map of Arctic People", in collaboration with the Explora-Nunaat Association, started on the 11th of June and finishing on the 9th of July....

An explorative and research expedition bordering on the inhabited world, in order to investigate the lands and the people living face to face with the ice. How could some hunter groups reach a remote area of Eastern Greenland, known as the Ammassalik District? The answer is not easy, but an Italian scientific expedition is trying to find a possible explanation to the question, while exploring the ice land. The expedition, called Saxum, is led by Gianluca Frinchillucci, director of the Polar Museum “S. Zavatti” of Fermo and responsible for the project CNR-Polarnet “Map of Arctic People”, on his seventh polar explorative mission, and involves several researchers and Italian universities. The initiative falls into the few Italian projects p...

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...

From May 15-24, 2008, science centers worldwide are joining forces with local students for an international, educational event about the importance of the Polar ice caps. To fully understand how these regions are critical to helping the Earth maintain its climate through their reflection of the sun's rays (a process called albedo), youngsters will create large white spots using available material. At a scheduled time determined by optimum overpass angle, NASA satellites will pass overhead, measuring the reflectivity of these white spots and recording images of the white spots. On June 9, the World Ocean Network will participate in the Albedo Experiment as part of its World Ocean Week closing ceremony. ...

By Lucia Simion Far away from traffic jams, polluted cities and rat races, one thousand people are getting ready to live a fantastic adventure on the most remote continent of the world: They are the over-wintering population of Antarctica. Inhabiting some 35 different permanent stations scattered across a continent twice as large as Europe, they will be alone on the ice, where they will experience the polar night, the austral auroras, the blizzards, the solitude and the confinement. They will be more isolated than the astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) as it is very hard to be evacuated from Antarctica during the polar night. One of these stations is Concordia, where the overwintering began on February 1, 2008 for a crew of thirteen people fr...

The site progettosmilla.it has an aim of explaining to the Italian students (with a target of 14 years old) and teachers, the ANDRILL project and the basic geographic features of Antarctica. In the various sections of the site, users can find detailed descriptions (made by a teacher of the educational project of ANDRILL with the supervision from ANDRILL scientists) of all the phases of the research viz. objectives, methods, instruments and results. The idea is to involve as many as possible students and teachers in the scientific process and adventure of the ANDRILL research. In order to support this, the site further contains: multimedia material (1450 photos, 20 videos and 10 audio), blogs, interactive a...

By Louise Huffman, ANDRILL Coordinator of Education and Outreach During survival training known as Happy Camper School. ANDRILL (ANtarctic Geologic DRILLing) is in Antarctica for the second back-to-back drilling season. It is a multi-national science research team drilling rock cores from the McMurdo Sound area. With each new meter of core recovered, the scientists are working to unlock the climate secrets stored there. By understanding past climates, they hope to fill in missing pieces of the climate puzzle that will help us explain the rapid changes around the globe we are experiencing tod...

Researchers and explorers will probe the Gakkel Ridge during expedition that begins on July 1. They will be using new robotic vehicles to hunt for life and hydrothermal vents on the Arctic seafloor. Researchers will use two new autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs)--Puma and Jaguar--in tandem to locate hydrothermal vent sites on the seafloor of the Arctic Ocean. (Illustration by E. Paul Oberlander, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) More information can be found on the project website. ...