In fact, another recent study posted in Science, concluded that polar ice sheet melting has been massively overestimated.

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Pyle, head of Arctic Sciences in the National Science Foundation's Office of Polar Programs.

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Mark Brandon, a polar oceanographer at the Open University who specialises in public understanding of science, compiled his own account of recent communication on the Arctic.

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Last year, the American Association for the Advancement of Science got into a bit of a pinch when its flagship magazine, Science, was caught in the photoshop with a faked image of a lone polar bear on a tiny ice floe.

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And that is accepted by NERC, which instead says the primary motive is making the overall science effort more effective by creating 'synergies' between the marine researchers and the polar people - bluntly, getting them to collaborate more routinely and scheduling the four ships more coherently.

BBC: Decision looms on future for British polar research

Polar researchers have collaborated with artists and designers to produce a CD-Rom that allows kids to investigate the science of the White Continent whilst at the same time experiment with sound.

BBC: CD-Rom's ice cool music