The word arctic means "bear" in ancient Greek. It refers to the constel- lations of the Great Bear and Little Bear, which you can find in the night sky near the North Star. The North Star, currently Polaris, in the Alpha Ursae Minoris, or Little Bear Constellation, is also known as the Lode Star or Pole Star, and is part of the Little Dipper, 431 light years away.

In the strictest sense, the Arctic is all of the Earth north of the Arctic Circle, which is located at 66 degrees, 32 minutes North Latitude. However, there are other definitions to suit specific scientific or political interests. For instance, the U.S. Congress has decreed that all of the Bering Sea, which extends southward to about 53 degrees North Latitude, is part of the Arctic for internal U.S. planning and budgeting purposes.

The Arctic situation may be different. I have not studied it close enough to comment. From what I know it is different, and more observations have been made over the last several years to back up what is being researched there.

The Arctic environment is unique in many ways and offers the opportunity for a great many discoveries about how the physical and biologic environments function under the "extreme" conditions found in the Arctic. Several species of animals are unique to the Arctic (e.g., polar bear, walrus, musk ox) and many species of birds have their summer home there.

The Arctic is inhabited by several different groups of indigenous people, and also by relatively recent immigrants of mostly European background. In Alaska, for example, indigenous people account for about 70% or more of the total population in mainland areas bordering the Bering, Chukchi, or Beaufort Seas. In Russia, only 15% or fewer of the inhabitants along the north coast are indigenous people.

Arctic wolves hunt in packs and mostly eat caribou. They can eat up to twenty pounds of meat at one meal!

Well apparently it has to do with something called gene expression, which refers to the pattern in which genes are switched on and off. And gene expression has a major effect on your body's biological processes. Each cell in your body contains a 'power-factory' that produces energy, called the mitochondria.

The Arctic Circle is an imaginary line at latitude at 66° 32~33' North (depending on the earth's wobble) defined by the northernmost point where you can still see the sun on winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, December 21.

Studies now underway in the Arctic should lead to more reliable forecasts of weather over the Arctic and in heavily populated mid-latitude areas. We will learn more about how the Arctic influences the global climate and achieve greater insight about the climate our children will experience. We will be better able to quantify, manage and use the natural resources of the Arctic.

There is no simple answer to this question. Good records of temperature and precipitation are available for the last 50 years, but data quantity and quality are diminished in prior years. It is clear that the Arctic has undergone significant change in the last 50 years, but the changes differ in different regions in the Arctic. For example, Alaska has experienced significant warming over the past 30 years, with average wintertime temperatures about 6 degrees warmer now than in the 1960's.

The Arctic is a vast, ice-covered ocean that is surrounded by tree-less, frozen land, which is often covered with snow and ice. The rigors of this harsh environment are a challenge to living, working and performing research in the Arctic. None the less, the Arctic is an ecosystem that teems with life including organisms living in the ice, fish and marine mammals living in the sea, birds, land animals such as wolves, caribou and polar bears, and human societies.

American editions of The Arctic Incident and The Eternity Code do not have a code running along the bottom of the pages. The reason for this omission is unclear, but it was the publisher's choice.

Arctic Blend Antifreeze has its own on-site quality assurance laboratory equipped with a variety of scientific instruments and equipment. Arctic Blend Antifreeze performs several tests on incoming used antifreeze to verify that it is suitable for recycling. Arctic Blend Antifreeze also analyzes its finished recycled antifreeze products to ensure that harmful contaminants have been removed and each batch is properly formulated.

Significant reductions in ozone content in the stratosphere above the Arctic have been observed during the late winter and early spring (January-March) in 6 of the last 9 years. However, these reductions, typically 20-25%, are much smaller than those observed currently each spring over the Antarctic (the ozone hole). The difference between ozone content in the two polar regions (see figure below) is caused by dissimilar weather patterns.