ANTARCTIC ICE IS MELTING FROM BELOW

NASA has found that the western shores of Antarctica have been melting from below instead of above. This is because the ocean is getting warmer and warmer faster than the air above it. In the video below, please note that the shelf thickness (how thick the ice is) is indicated by color. Red would be thick (550 meters or thicker) and blue would be thinner (200 meters or thinner).


The information in this graphic was gathered by NASA's ICESat, which was launched in January of 2003. It stand for Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation. It is located in orbit around Antarctica, and scientists collected data on how ice was melting from October of 2005 to 2008. They concluded that nearly half of all ice shelves were melting from below.

POLAR BEAR ANCESTRY DECODED

We used to believe that polar bears branched off from brown bears about 150,000 years ago to be able to live  on the Arctic Sea. This hypothesis might soon be disputed, for new DNA evidence says differently.

The new study looked at the mitochondrial DNA of black bears, polar bears, and brown bears. They found that brown and polar bears have a common ancestor and split up about 600,000 years ago. During the study it was found that polar bears are much more genetically unique than previously thought.

The new find does not only challenge the idea that polar bears branched off from brown bears, but also that polar bears adapted quickly to their new environment. One thing the study confirms is that polar bears have made it through warm periods on Earth in the past.

This makes me wonder, because while we now know that they've made it through warming periods on Earth without dying off that doesn't mean that the Earth warmed up at such an accelerated pace like it is today. Will polar bears manage to tough this one out like before? I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

GIANT DINOSAUR EGGS FOUND IN CHECHNYA?

Scientists at a university in Chechnya have discovered giant dinosaur eggs in a remote part of south Chechnya and have uploaded pictures to the university's website on Tuesday.

The eggs have been met with very high skepticism and Valentina Nazarova, a paleontologist at Moscow State University said that there is no way these are dinosaur eggs. She explained that dinosaur eggs are know to be a lot smaller, and that "Dinosaurs didn't lay eggs while jumping around like mountain goats."

Nonetheless, a lot of buzz has already been created from the news story as many news stations in Russia have covered it. Russia's NTV headlined the story as "Giant eggs set to lure tourists to Chechnya" and I couldn't agree more. Whether the eggs are really eggs or just round rocks, this will surely attract a lot of tourists from around the region and maybe even some from around the world. This is essential for Chechnya, for it has been a war torn republic for years now and needs a way to move on from it's dark and bloody past. While I'm not really sure that those really are giant dinosaur eggs, I'm sure that nothing bad can come from this find. If the eggs are just rocks, then Chechnya still got its attention and maybe a few surplus tourists. If the eggs really are eggs, then not only will Chechnya have a boost in its tourism, but another amazing scientific find would have been made.