New details are emerging on how the melting poles could raise
ocean heights [see "The Unquiet Ice"; SciAm, February 2008].
Researchers at the University of Toronto and Oregon State
University suggest that the rise could be uneven around the
world. They examined the West Antarctic ice sheet, which
contains enough grounded ice to boost global sea levels by five
meters if it splashed into the water. But such a huge
redistribution of mass in Antarctica would reduce the
gravitational pull in the area and shift the earth's rotation
axis by 500 meters. Taking these and other factors into account,
they figure that the seas will drop near Antarctica but rise in
the Northern Hemisphere by an additional one to two meters above
previous estimates. Gravitate toward the analysis in the
February 6 Science. Those fingertip whorls aren't just good for
gripping objects and identifying people; they also enable you to
feel fine textures and tiny objects. French researchers
constructed two mechanical sensors, one with a ridged en