The study, published in the latest edition of the journal Geophysical Research Letters, found that the actual rate at which summer sea ice had shrunk per decade during the past 50 years was more than three times faster than an average of 18 of the most highly regarded climate simulations.

CNN: Arctic melt worse than predictions

Researchers from Warwick University, writing in the British Journal of Psychology, said that dogs gave people a safe topic of conversation with which to break the ice with a stranger.

BBC: Dogs help you make friends