2.74 Million for UEA’s Arctic Ice Melt Project

The University of East Anglia—where I spent a semester abroad in 1996—is launching a project to predict how the Arctic will cope with global warming by constructing a sea ice chamber and using state-of-the-art computer models. The €2M ($2.74 million) research initiative will reproduce the chemical exchanges between the ocean, sea ice, snow and the …

“Fatal Passage:” Arctic Explorer John Rae and the Fate of Sir John Franklin

I’m halfway through Kenneth McGoogan’s excellent biography of John Rae, “Fatal Passage: The Story of John Rae, the Arctic Hero Time Forgot.” I love a good story about a forgotten scientific explorer, and McGoogan’s energetic and dramatic book has so far made a strong case for remembering Rae as a polar pioneer—not as the guy …

Plastic Bags Yield More Diesel, Using Less Energy, than Crude Oil

Yay, another valuable use for recycled plastic bags! Instead of throwing away 100 billion of them a year, Americans might want to look into gassing up their SUVs with fuel made from the petroleum-based bags. Researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (go Illini!) say that plastic shopping bags can be converted into diesel, natural …

New Study Questions Franklin Expedition Lead Poisoning Theory

Was the Franklin Expedition doomed by its badly canned food? Or did the men succumb to a combination of unfortunate factors? A new study asserts that all 129 British sailors on the fated expedition died from a “marvelously catastrophic” mix of causes—and lead poisoning was just one of them. Professors Keith Millar and Adrian Bowman …