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National Geographic Broadcasts KAUST’s Journey to Becoming ‘Global’

Divers explore the depths of the Red Sea
Divers explore the depths of the Red Sea
    Thuwal - Asharq Al-Awsat
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National Geographic Broadcasts KAUST’s Journey to Becoming ‘Global’

Divers explore the depths of the Red Sea
Divers explore the depths of the Red Sea

National Geographic Abu Dhabi is shining the spotlight on Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Chasing Answers, a new four-part series that explores the emergence of the Thuwal-based institution as a hub for groundbreaking scientific research and development in the region and the world.

Home to elite scientists from all over the world, KAUST focuses on research that applies science and technology to areas of global concern.

The series delves into three areas in particular - human need, social advancement, and environmental sustainability - highlighting important projects with significant impact on both nature and mankind.

Episodes include Powering the Future, which will take a look at a team of KAUST researchers, as they spend countless hours tackling climate change and testing alternative energy solutions. The Red Sea Explored is a deep dive into projects that include underwater internet and coral spawning.

The episode (Feeding) The 10 Billion Challenge shows the inroads being made by the KAUST team in answering the ever-daunting question of how to feed the world’s growing population.

We Are Doers focuses on a group of problem-solvers as they look for ways to use technology to help overcome issues ranging from the global microchip shortage to filling knowledge gaps in our understanding of the past and our ambitions for the future.

Chasing Answers will air at 9 pm KSA time each Wednesday for four weeks starting June 1st.

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Scientists Drill Nearly 2 Miles Down to Pull 1.2 Million-year-old Ice Core from Antarctic

An international team of scientists announced successfully drilled one of the oldest ice cores yet - The AP
An international team of scientists announced successfully drilled one of the oldest ice cores yet - The AP
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Scientists Drill Nearly 2 Miles Down to Pull 1.2 Million-year-old Ice Core from Antarctic

An international team of scientists announced successfully drilled one of the oldest ice cores yet - The AP
An international team of scientists announced successfully drilled one of the oldest ice cores yet - The AP

An international team of scientists announced Thursday they’ve successfully drilled one of the oldest ice cores yet, penetrating nearly 2 miles (2.8 kilometers) to Antarctic bedrock to reach ice they say is at least 1.2 million years old.

Analysis of the ancient ice is expected to show how Earth's atmosphere and climate have evolved. That should provide insight into how Ice Age cycles have changed, and may help in understanding how atmospheric carbon changed climate, they said, The AP reported.

“Thanks to the ice core we will understand what has changed in terms of greenhouse gases, chemicals and dusts in the atmosphere,” said Carlo Barbante, an Italian glaciologist and coordinator of Beyond EPICA, the project to obtain the core. Barbante also directs the Polar Science Institute at Italy's National Research Council.

The same team previously drilled a core about 800,000 years old. The latest drilling went 2.8 kilometers (about 1.7 miles) deep, with a team of 16 scientists and support personnel drilling each summer over four years in average temperatures of about minus-35 Celsius (minus-25.6 Fahrenheit).

Italian researcher Federico Scoto was among the glaciologists and technicians who completed the drilling at the beginning of January at a location called Little Dome C, near Concordia Research Station.

“It was a great a moment for us when we reached the bedrock,” Scoto said. Isotope analysis gave the ice's age as at least 1.2 million years old, he said.

Both Barbante and Scoto said that thanks to the analysis of the ice core of the previous Epica campaign they have assessed that concentrations of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide and methane, even during the warmest periods of the last 800,000 years, have never exceeded the levels seen since the Industrial Revolution began.

“Today we are seeing carbon dioxide levels that are 50% above the highest levels we’ve had over the last 800,000 years," Barbante said.

The European Union funded Beyond EPICA (European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica) with support from nations across the continent. Italy is coordinating the project.

The announcement was exciting to Richard Alley, a climate scientist at Penn State who was not involved with the project and who was recently awarded the National Medal of Science for his career studying ice sheets.

Alley said advancements in studying ice cores are important because they help scientists better understand the climate conditions of the past and inform their understanding of humans’ contributions to climate change in the present. He added that reaching the bedrock holds added promise because scientists may learn more about Earth’s history not directly related to the ice record itself.

“This is truly, truly, amazingly fantastic,” Alley said. “They will learn wonderful things.”