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Science In Action: 22/03/2012

22/03/2012

BBC World Service - Science In Action, 22/03/2012

Data from the Mercury Messenger missions hints at ice at the planet's poles.

Data from the Mercury Messenger missions hints at ice at the planet's poles; 100 years after Scott, his Antarctic science collections still of use today; Director James Cameron dives into the ocean.

Ice on Mercury?
The first data from NASA's Messenger Probe has been analysed by scientists.  They have found that the closest planet to the sun, Mercury, far from always having been a dead planet as previously thought was once very active.  Not only that, but the findings suggest that water ice maybe hiding at the planet’s poles.  BBC News Online Science Editor, Paul Rincon, is at the 43rd Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Texas in the US where these findings were announced.


Scott, Antarctica and Science
A hundred years ago, the remaining members of Robert Scott's polar team died on the return from their failed bid to be the first people to reach the South Pole.  What tends to be forgotten is that Scott's expedition was much more than a dash to the Pole.  Many members of Scott's team were engaged in the serious scientific study of Antarctica, whereas Amundsen, the man in charge of the rival expedition to the South Pole, did no science at all.  Many of the Scott discoveries and specimens are still of great scientific significance and value today - from glaciology to marine biology.   Specimens of sea creatures collected on Scott's expeditions are turning out to be vital in seeing how climate change is affecting Antarctica today.  Kevin Fong went to investigate at the Natural History Museum in London.


Diving Deep
It is often said that we know more about the surface of other planets, than we do about the parts of our oceans, the deepest of which is the Mariana Trench in the Western Pacific.  It is 11km down, pitch black and icy cold.  It sounds like something out of a Hollywood movie and now one of the most famous film directors is attempting to explore it himself.  Director James Cameron has built a prototype submarine called the Deepsea Challenger that fits just one person, in the first manned mission to the bottom of the trench for 50 years.  BBC Science Reporter Rebecca Morelle has been speaking to James Cameron and has been watching events closely from his base camp in Guam, a small tropical Island in the Pacific Ocean, and the nearest major landmass to the Mariana Trench.

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