Archive of News and Press Releases
Mooring Work on Foggy Days
After two long weeks of intense work we can be more than happy with what we have achieved! All our instruments worked really well, we took and analysed lots of water and sediment samples, recorded hundreds of pictures from the water column and of the sea floor so as to document life in the deep sea and we recovered almost a hundred instruments which were continuously recording water mass and current properties for the past two years.
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Questioning conventional understanding of antifreeze proteins
Scientists have discovered that an ice-binding protein (fcIBP) from the sea ice microalga does not fit in the conventional classification of ice-binding proteins, suggesting unknown mechanisms behind its antifreeze property. This finding could lead to a broader application of the antifreeze protein in food and medical industries.
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Ten scholarship holders in oceanography honoured
Today ten scholarship holders from around the globe presented their final papers at the Wissenschaftsforum conference centre in Berlin as part of the Centre of Excellence in Observational Oceanography. For the past ten months, all have been engaged in a training programme addressing all oceanographic disciplines at the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI). To close this important chapter of their lives with due pomp and splendour, there will be a festive graduation ceremony. Representatives of the programme’s…
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Chemistry on Board
Now we have been working in the working area for 7 days which were intense but successful. A lot of moorings were recovered and deployed. We also took many water and sediment samples and videos which are part of the work of the FRAM infrastructure. This has kept many of us busy, but also happy with the success. We will tell you more details on this next week. But today, let’s hear from two of our groups which are doing chemistry on this ship.
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Six German-Russian research groups receive three-year funding
The new German-Russian funding programme "Helmholtz-RSF Joint Research Groups" has completed its second selection round. The Helmholtz Association and the Russian Science Foundation (RSF) have selected six further Joint Research Groups, including one with participation of the Alfred Wegener Institute.
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Into the Arctic
A walk through the ship shows: Everything is ready to go! Just a few days ago there were partly unpacked transport boxes everywhere (from whole containers to small cardboard boxes).
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Beavers are changing the face of the Arctic
Beavers are highly effective ecosystem engineers: if a given landscape isn’t quite to their liking, they simply rearrange the terrain. And that’s what they’ve been doing for millennia in the temperate latitudes. But now they’re expanding their territory, and can increasingly be found in the North American Arctic. A German-American research team recently investigated the ramifications of this development. According to their findings, the animals could change entire ecosystems and contribute to the thawing of permafrost soils, as they report in the journal…
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Melting triggers melting
The melting of glaciers on one side of the globe can trigger disintegration of glaciers on the other side of the globe, as has been presented in a recent paper by a team of AWI scientists, who investigated marine microalgae preserved in glacial deposits and subsequently used their findings to perform climate simulations. The study highlights a process with alerting consequences for modern ice sheets: continuous warming of the ocean can result in a massive loss of polar ice mass, and consequently to rapid sea level rise.
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Research icebreaker Polarstern departs for the Fram Strait
On Tuesday, 10 July 2018 the research icebreaker Polarstern will leave its homeport in Bremerhaven, headed for the Arctic. The main focus of the journey will be on long-term oceanographic measurements and biological research in the water column and on the seafloor of the Fram Strait between Greenland and Svalbard.
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Experiencing Science
This Thursday the SILBERSALZ Festival starts in Halle. For four days everything revolves around film screenings, virtual reality, apps and live performances on various scientific issues.
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