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Polaris Project Seminar Series – July 2010
Though we often refer to this Siberian adventure as a field course, it really is more of a hands-on research experience. Nevertheless, we have taken advantage of brief breaks in the action to present a series of research seminars and discussions. …
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Remarkable Sampling Transect
Nikita Zimov and Max Holmes – sampling the Arctic Ocean off the mouth of the Kolyma River. The Polaris Project is interested in the transport and transformation of carbon and nutrients as they flow with water from uplands to the Arctic Ocean. …
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An Oasis in the Siberian Arctic
Research in the Arctic is tough – more often accomplished with duct tape than high tech instruments, which are typically sequestered in laboratories far removed from the Arctic. One of the challenges for foreign researchers working in Russia is that sample export is very difficult and expensive. …
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On the way…
Seven of us are now sitting in Dulles Airport, having traveled from Boston earlier today. Over the next few hours, our group will grow to 25 people (hopefully!), and at 4:50 pm we’ll depart together for Moscow. We’ll arrive in Moscow at 11 am on Saturday, Aug.…
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Polaris II Proposal Submitted
The Polaris Project got its start with a proposal submitted to the National Science Foundation (NSF) in March 2007. We learned six months later that the proposal was funded, and on Jan. 1, 2008, the Polaris Project was officially underway. Remarkably, we are now 2.5 years into the project, which was originally funded for three years. …
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2010 Polaris Project Students Selected
Though the 2010 Polaris Project field course in Siberia doesn’t begin for over 3 months, preparations are ramping up quickly. We have just finished selecting the 2010 undergraduate participants and are thrilled about the group, our largest yet. Fourteen undergraduate students have been selected, 10 new and 4 returning students. …
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4 Polaris Students Earn Scholarships to Arctic Conference in Miami
The State of the Arctic Conference (http://soa.arcus.org) will be held next week in Miami (March 16-19, 2010). This large conference is drawing Arctic scientists from around the world. Twenty-five scholarships were awarded to outstanding students to support their travel to the conference. …
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Polaris Project Video
After countless hours of work, Chris Linder has completed a 10-minute video that follows the Polaris Project during the 2009 field course. The video can be accessed from the “Stories” page of this website. Chris did a fantastic job – I really think that the video will help others get a better understanding of the “Polaris Project Experience”.…
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University of Nevada Reno Tells the Story!
One of the objectives of the Polaris Project is to help get the story of the Arctic, climate change, and the Polaris Project to as broad an audience as possible. The Polaris Project website is one means of doing so, as are public presentations by project faculty and students as well as media interviews.…
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The New York Times…
A story about the Polaris Project has just been posted to Andy Revkin’s Dot Earth blog at the New York Times. I think it is safe to say that Revkin is generally considered to be the top science journalist in the US, and of course the New York Times has a vast readership, so we’re really excited about this! …
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Polaris Project in the News…
An article about the Polaris Project was just published in Field Notes, the National Science Foundation’s Arctic logistics contractor Polar Field Services. To view the article, click here.…
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Optimism…
Most of the Polaris Project participants have probably heard me say how seeing the airplane that we take from Yakutsk to Cherskiy immediately separates the optimists from the pessimists. A pessimist would look at the age and condition of the plane and question whether it could possibly complete another flight. …
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Where is “the Arctic”?
In the previous post, Sudeep Chandra says that he hopes they’ll be able to post additional updates from Yakutsk before leaving for “the Arctic”. This raises the question: Where is the Arctic? What do you think?…
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Asleep (hopefully) in Moscow…
As I write this while sitting in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, at 8:20 pm Eastern time, I’m hoping that all members of the expedition team are now sleeping soundly in the hotel in Moscow. However, given the 11 hour flight they have just endured, the 8 hour time change, and the associated jet-lag, I suspect that some are tossing and turning, perhaps thinking about the next leg of the adventure (overnight flight tomorrow to Yakutsk, another 6 time zones to the East). …
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Polaris Project in the News
As Andy Bunn mentioned, on June 30 an article about the Polaris Project was published in EOS, the weekly publication of the American Geophysical Union (AGU). You can view the article here. AGU is one of the world’s largest scientific societies, and all 50,000+ members receive EOS each week. …
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