A joint team of UK and Australian researchers has found that two separate groups of Antarctic octopuses, from the Ross and Weddell seas on different sides of the continent, are almost genetically identical.

Scientists report in the journal Nature that an Antarctic ice sheet may start to melt rapidly in this century.

The research vessel Polarstern of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association will arrive back at its homeport of Bremerhaven after a seven-month expedition on Friday, 20 May.

The first comprehensive study of the biological effects of Antarctic icebergs shows that they fertilize the Southern Ocean, enhancing the growth of algae that take up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and then, through marine food chains, transfer carbon into the deep sea.

WATERBURY, Vt., May 7 /PRNewswire/ -- Ireland's Crossing the Line Films will be filming an ambitious project about the 20th century race to the South Pole on Quark Expeditions' icebreaker, Kapitan Khlebnikov.