Beyond Partisanship: Engaging in Debates About Science and Society. New research suggests scientific institutions and organizations can improve their communication and outreach with the public by addressing people's strongly held beliefs about science and its role in society. These beliefs play a key role in shaping people's opinions, and ultimately, their support for scientific advances, according to the study "Understanding Public Opinion in Debates Over Biomedical Research: Looking Beyond Partisanship to Focus on Beliefs about Science and Society," by American University professor Matthew C. Nisbet, PhD, and Ezra Markowitz, PhD, a post-doctoral fellow at Columbia University. The study was published today in the interdisciplinary journal PLOS ONE. Science Codex

Alaska Sets New Wind Chill Record of -97 Degrees. The National Weather Service says a new Alaska wind chill record of -97 degrees has been set in remote Howard Pass in the Brooks Range. The Weather Service's Facebook page says the threshold was broken at 3:39 p.m. Friday. A temperature of -42 degrees with a sustained northern wind of 71 mph was recorded. Howard Pass is uninhabited. Fairbanks Daily News-Miner

With Population Shrinking, Canada's N.W.T Seeks Recruits. The Northwest Territories is one of the few places in Canada that saw its population shrink last year. Now the government has a new goal: to increase its population, currently about 43,000, by 5 percent. It is trying to recruit 2,000 people to come live and work in the territory over the next five years. The stakes are high. Alaska Dispatch

Sen.: Arctic Position Can't Be 'Window Dressing.' The U.S. State Department's announcement that it will create an Arctic representative position is nice, U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski said, but it's not enough. "Even though I have been beating the drum on this issue, I have embraced this news somewhat reluctantly," Murkowski, R-Alaska, said during her visit to Juneau. The senator is spending the week in Alaska and will speak to the Legislature on Tuesday. "'Special representative' is a position that's kind of undefined. Will they be sitting in the staff chairs behind, or will they be afforded a seat at the table (at the Arctic Council)?" Juneau Empire

Taking the Arctic Shortcut. The decision to take a ship from St Petersburg to Vladivostok across the icy Northern Sea Route had a lot resting on it. Specifically, six tugs weighing between 726 and 380 tonnes. Of course, there is the southerly Suez Canal route, explains Steve Hutty, Hansa Heavy Lift's Chartering and Operations director, but this is much longer, adding weeks to the journey time and, when it comes to an extremely large ship like the HHL Lagos, a huge amount onto the fuel bill. Maritime Journal

Russia Creates Arctic Military District. In 2014 Russia will create a new military structure, which will be called the Northern Fleet - United Strategic Command (NF-USC). General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces informed that the mission of the new unit would be the protection of Russian national interests in the Arctic. The active work in this direction started last year, after President Putin's televised appeal to the Minister of Defense "to pay special attention to deploying infrastructure and military units in the Arctic." Barents Nova

Atmospheric Layers Driving Accelerated Far North Warming. Recent research published in Nature Geoscience states that the largest contributors to warming in the Arctic are the region's distinct surface temperatures coupled with the Arctic atmosphere's prevailing vertical temperature structure. The research suggests that diminished snow and melting ice cover, previously thought to have the largest impact on Arctic warming by baring more dark surfaces which soak up heat from the Sun, in fact represents the second-largest contributor to Arctic warming. The paper "Arctic amplification dominated by temperature feedbacks in contemporary climate models" was written by climate scientists Felix Pithan and Dr. Thorsten Mauritsen of the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology. They analyzed cutting-edge climate model simulations to uncover their findings. Anchorage Daily News

Bigger Chinese Role Sought in the Arctic. Denmark welcomes China being more involved in the Arctic, particularly in sectors such as mining, fishing and sea route development. Danish Arctic Ambassador Erik Vilstrup Lorenzen and Greenlandic Deputy Foreign Minister Kai Holst Andersen made the remarks in an interview with China Daily in Beijing on Monday. They are in China seeking more opportunities for cooperation, focusing on fishing products, mining and scientific research. Xinhua