11:01 a.m., March 26, 2009----University of Delaware research in Antarctica will be among the cutting-edge science featured at the International Polar Weekend, April 4-5, at the Maryland Science Center in Baltimore.

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Sponsored by the National Science Foundation, the event will offer activities for children and adults, from hands-on demonstrations of polar clothing to show what it takes to work safely on the world's coldest, highest, and driest continent, to talks by experts on penguins and other topics, art exhibits, and films.

Included will be the premiere of “Frozen,” a NASA multimedia presentation for NOAA's Science on a Sphere, which uses computers and video projectors to show planetary-scale environmental data on a six-foot-diameter animated globe.

Xinhua Bai, associate scientist, and James Roth, senior electronics instrument specialist, veteran travelers to the South Pole from the UD Department of Physics and Astronomy, will have a display on “IceCube,” a giant telescope being built deep in the Antarctic ice to look for neutrinos from far away in the universe.

Formed during such cataclysmic cosmic events as exploding stars and colliding galaxies, these elusive particles may hold important clues to the origins of the universe.

The researchers are part of a team from UD's Bartol Research Institute that is installing the telescope's surface array of detectors, known as “IceTop.” For the past two years, the team has shared their experiences with the public in a popular blog.

One of the detectors and a freeze control unit will be on display, as well as a laptop for showing how the telescope works.

The activities are open to the public and free of charge with paid admission to the Maryland Science Center. Located at Baltimore's Inner Harbor, it was named one of the nation's ten best science centers for families by Parent's Magazine in 2008.

The public events coincide with a meeting on the Antarctic Treaty governing international cooperation and scientific research on the southernmost continent, to be attended by delegates from more than 40 countries.

The meeting marks the official close of the International Polar Year (IPY), which involved scientists from over 60 countries in research in the polar regions. The National Science Foundation, the lead U.S. agency for the IPY, coordinates all U.S. research on Antarctica.

Article by Tracey Bryant