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103-587: In the 18th century, there was significant debate in the scientific community, specifically in the French Academy of Sciences ( Académie des sciences ), as to whether the circumference of the Earth was greater around the Equator or around the poles. French astronomer Jacques Cassini held to the view that the polar circumference was greater. Louis XV of France and the academy sent two expeditions to determine

206-544: A Russian scientific expedition Arktika 2007 made the first ever manned descent to the ocean floor at the North Pole, to a depth of 4.3 km (2.7 mi), as part of the research programme in support of Russia's 2001 extended continental shelf claim to a large swathe of the Arctic Ocean floor. The descent took place in two MIR submersibles and was led by Soviet and Russian polar explorer Artur Chilingarov . In

309-735: A financial crisis in France. Today the academy is one of five academies comprising the Institut de France . Its members are elected for life. Currently, there are 150 full members, 300 corresponding members, and 120 foreign associates. They are divided into two scientific groups: the Mathematical and Physical sciences and their applications and the Chemical , Biological , Geological and Medical sciences and their applications. The academy currently has five missions that it pursues. These being

412-508: A flight from Chicago to Beijing may come close as latitude 89° N, though because of prevailing winds return journeys go over the Bering Strait . In recent years journeys to the North Pole by air (landing by helicopter or on a runway prepared on the ice) or by icebreaker have become relatively routine, and are even available to small groups of tourists through adventure holiday companies. Parachute jumps have frequently been made onto

515-479: A journey to the Pole and back while traveling along the direct line – the only strategy that is consistent with the time constraints that he was facing – is contradicted by Henson's account of tortuous detours to avoid pressure ridges and open leads . The British explorer Wally Herbert , initially a supporter of Peary, researched Peary's records in 1989 and found that there were significant discrepancies in

618-527: A marble plaque prepared, with a bronze exemplar (varilla metalica) of the length of such a pendulum set into it, which he presented to the Jesuit College of San Francisco in Quito in 1742, engraved with an inscription reading: Penduli simplicis aequinoctialis, unius minuti secundi temporis medii, in altitudine Soli Quitensis, archetypus (mensurae naturalis exemplar, utinam et universalis) ["Archetype of

721-513: A modified Douglas C-47 Skytrain at the North Pole. Some Western sources considered this to be the first landing at the Pole until the Soviet landings became widely known. The United States Navy submarine USS Nautilus (SSN-571) crossed the North Pole on 3 August 1958. On 17 March 1959 USS Skate (SSN-578) surfaced at the Pole, breaking through the ice above it, becoming the first naval vessel to do so. The first confirmed surface conquest of

824-462: A party over the ice and reached latitude 86° 34’ on 25 April, setting a new record by beating Nansen's result of 1895 by 35 to 40 km (22 to 25 mi). Cagni barely managed to return to the camp, remaining there until 23 June. On 16 August, the Stella Polare left Rudolf Island heading south and the expedition returned to Norway. The US explorer Frederick Cook claimed to have reached

927-549: A permanent station at the North Pole ( unlike the South Pole ). However, the Soviet Union , and later Russia, constructed a number of manned drifting stations on a generally annual basis since 1937, some of which have passed over or very close to the Pole. Since 2002, a group of Russians have also annually established a private base, Barneo , close to the Pole. This operates for a few weeks during early spring. Studies in

1030-472: A result of this journey, which formed a section of the three-year Transglobe Expedition 1979–1982, Fiennes and Burton became the first people to complete a circumnavigation of the world via both North and South Poles, by surface travel alone. This achievement remains unchallenged to this day. The expedition crew included a Jack Russell Terrier named Bothie who became the first dog to visit both poles. In 1985 Sir Edmund Hillary (the first man to stand on

1133-452: A small group of scholars who met on 22 December 1666 in the King's library, near the present-day Bibliothèque Nationale , and thereafter held twice-weekly working meetings there in the two rooms assigned to the group. The first 30 years of the academy's existence were relatively informal, since no statutes had as yet been laid down for the institution. In contrast to its British counterpart ,

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1236-409: A supporter of the particle-theory of light, he looked for a way to disprove it. Poisson thought that he had found a flaw when he demonstrate that Fresnel's theory predicts that an on-axis bright spot would exist in the shadow of a circular obstacle, where there should be complete darkness according to the particle-theory of light. The Poisson spot is not easily observed in every-day situations and so it

1339-701: A symbolic act of visitation, the Russian flag was placed on the ocean floor exactly at the Pole. The expedition was the latest in a series of efforts intended to give Russia a dominant influence in the Arctic according to The New York Times . In 2009 the Russian Marine Live-Ice Automobile Expedition (MLAE-2009) with Vasily Elagin as a leader and a team of Afanasy Makovnev, Vladimir Obikhod, Alexey Shkrabkin, Sergey Larin, Alexey Ushakov and Nikolay Nikulshin reached

1442-451: A variety of themes and challenges dealing with African development and covering a large field spectrum. Specifically higher education in sciences, and research practices in basic and applied sciences that deal with various aspects relevant to development (renewable energy, infectious diseases, animal pathologies, food resources, access to safe water, agriculture, urban health, etc.). The Academic Standing Committees and Working Parties prepare

1545-478: A wandering of the Pole across the Earth's surface, by a range of a few metres. The wandering has several periodic components and an irregular component. The component with a period of about 435 days is identified with the eight-month wandering predicted by Euler and is now called the Chandler wobble after its discoverer. The exact point of intersection of the Earth's axis and the Earth's surface, at any given moment,

1648-659: Is Alert on Ellesmere Island , Canada, which is located 817 km (508 mi) from the Pole. While the South Pole lies on a continental land mass , the North Pole is located in the middle of the Arctic Ocean amid waters that are almost permanently covered with constantly shifting sea ice . The sea depth at the North Pole has been measured at 4,261 m (13,980 ft) by the Russian Mir submersible in 2007 and at 4,087 m (13,409 ft) by USS Nautilus in 1958. This makes it impractical to construct

1751-423: Is called the "instantaneous pole", but because of the "wobble" this cannot be used as a definition of a fixed North Pole (or South Pole) when metre-scale precision is required. It is desirable to tie the system of Earth coordinates (latitude, longitude, and elevations or orography ) to fixed landforms. However, given plate tectonics and isostasy , there is no system in which all geographic features are fixed. Yet

1854-576: Is now a journal series with seven titles. The publications can be found on site of the French National Library . In 1818 the French Academy of Sciences launched a competition to explain the properties of light. The civil engineer Augustin-Jean Fresnel entered the competition by submitting a new wave theory of light . Siméon Denis Poisson , one of the members of the judging committee, studied Fresnel's theory in detail. Being

1957-862: Is the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True North Pole to distinguish from the Magnetic North Pole . The North Pole is by definition the northernmost point on the Earth, lying antipodally to the South Pole . It defines geodetic latitude 90° North, as well as the direction of true north . At the North Pole all directions point south; all lines of longitude converge there, so its longitude can be defined as any degree value. No time zone has been assigned to

2060-641: The Geological Survey of Canada and the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research . Further stops for sample collections were on multi-year sea ice at 86°N, at Cape Columbia and Ward Hunt Island . On 4 May 1990 Børge Ousland and Erling Kagge became the first explorers ever to reach the North Pole unsupported, after a 58-day ski trek from Ellesmere Island in Canada, a distance of 800 km. On 7 September 1991

2163-783: The International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service and the International Astronomical Union have defined a framework called the International Terrestrial Reference System . As early as the 16th century, many prominent people correctly believed that the North Pole was in a sea, which in the 19th century was called the Polynya or Open Polar Sea . It was therefore hoped that passage could be found through ice floes at favorable times of

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2266-583: The Musée de l'Homme in Paris. A reproduction of the pyramids that marked the baseline for measurement at Yaruqui (which was destroyed by Quito authorities in the 1740s) was erected in 1836, the centennial of the expedition, by the Rocafuerte administration of the nascent republic of Ecuador. This monument fell into disrepair over the next century but was rebuilt in 1936, minus its original French inscription, for

2369-587: The airship Norge . Norge , though Norwegian-owned, was designed and piloted by the Italian Umberto Nobile . The flight started from Svalbard in Norway, and crossed the Arctic Ocean to Alaska. Nobile, with several scientists and crew from the Norge , overflew the Pole a second time on 24 May 1928, in the airship Italia . The Italia crashed on its return from the Pole, with the loss of half

2472-427: The 2000s predicted that the North Pole may become seasonally ice-free because of Arctic ice shrinkage , with timescales varying from 2016 to the late 21st century or later. Attempts to reach the North Pole began in the late 19th century, with the record for " Farthest North " being surpassed on numerous occasions. The first undisputed expedition to reach the North Pole was that of the airship Norge , which overflew

2575-473: The Arctic Ocean under the polar ice cap from September to November 1984 in company with one of her sister ships, the attack submarine USS Pintado (SSN-672) . On 12 November 1984 Gurnard and Pintado became the third pair of submarines to surface together at the North Pole. In March 1990, Gurnard deployed to the Arctic region during exercise Ice Ex '90 and completed only the fourth winter submerged transit of

2678-639: The Bering and Seas. Gurnard surfaced at the North Pole on 18 April, in the company of the USS Seahorse (SSN-669) . On 6 May 1986 USS Archerfish (SSN 678) , USS Ray (SSN 653) and USS Hawkbill (SSN-666) surfaced at the North Pole, the first tri-submarine surfacing at the North Pole. On 21 April 1987 Shinji Kazama of Japan became the first person to reach the North Pole on a motorcycle . On 18 May 1987 USS Billfish (SSN 676) , USS Sea Devil (SSN 664) and HMS Superb (S 109) surfaced at

2781-528: The Company its first rules. The academy received the name of Royal Academy of Sciences and was installed in the Louvre in Paris. Following this reform, the academy began publishing a volume each year with information on all the work done by its members and obituaries for members who had died. This reform also codified the method by which members of the academy could receive pensions for their work. The academy

2884-633: The Earth is oblate ; i.e. , flattened at the poles. However, problems with astronomical observations kept them in Ecuador several more years. Bouguer returned first from the expedition, going overland to the Caribbean and then to France. La Condamine, along with Maldonado, returned by way of the Amazon River . Louis Godin took a position as professor in Lima , where he helped rebuild the city after

2987-624: The Equator as a universal measure of length. He was more successful with his proposal to adopt the geodetic standard used in Peru as the official standard of the toise of Paris. The toise of Peru became the royal standard of the toise in 1766 under the name Toise de l'Académie . In the late 19th century, the Academy of Sciences sent another mission to Ecuador at the behest of the International Association of Geodesy to confirm

3090-805: The French American Committee of Ecuador sponsored the idea of the Ecuadoran geographer Dr. Luis Tufiño and raised a monument commemorating the bicentennial of the arrival of the First Geodesic Mission. They raised a 10-meter-high monument at Ciudad Mitad del Mundo in San Antonio de Pichincha , in Pichincha Province of Ecuador. However, there is no record that the Mission ever visited the area. There

3193-663: The Geographical North Pole. On 1 March 2013 the Russian Marine Live-Ice Automobile Expedition (MLAE 2013) with Vasily Elagin as a leader, and a team of Afanasy Makovnev, Vladimir Obikhod, Alexey Shkrabkin, Andrey Vankov, Sergey Isayev and Nikolay Kozlov on two custom-built 6 x 6 low-pressure-tire ATVs—Yemelya-3 and Yemelya-4—started from Golomyanny Island (the Severnaya Zemlya Archipelago) to

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3296-684: The German research vessel Polarstern and the Swedish icebreaker Oden reached the North Pole as the first conventional powered vessels. Both scientific parties and crew took oceanographic and geological samples and had a common tug of war and a football game on an ice floe. Polarstern again reached the pole exactly 10 years later, with the Healy . In 1998, 1999, and 2000, Lada Niva Marshs (special very large wheeled versions made by BRONTO, Lada/Vaz's experimental product division) were driven to

3399-413: The King was recognized until its abolishment in 1793. Membership in the academy the exceeded 100 officially-recognised full members only in 1976, 310 years after the academy's inception in 1666. The membership increase came with a large-scale reorganization in 1976. Under this reorganization, 130 resident members, 160 correspondents, and 80 foreign associates could be elected. A vacancy opens only upon

3502-721: The North Pole across drifting ice of the Arctic Ocean. The vehicles reached the Pole on 6 April and then continued to the Canadian coast. The coast was reached on 30 April 2013 (83°08N, 075°59W Ward Hunt Island ), and on 5 May 2013 the expedition finished in Resolute Bay , NU. The way between the Russian borderland (Machtovyi Island of the Severnaya Zemlya Archipelago, 80°15N, 097°27E) and the Canadian coast (Ward Hunt Island, 83°08N, 075°59W) took 55 days; it

3605-476: The North Pole after the ever first landing of four heavy and one light aircraft onto the ice at the North Pole. The expedition members — oceanographer Pyotr Shirshov , meteorologist Yevgeny Fyodorov , radio operator Ernst Krenkel , and the leader Ivan Papanin — conducted scientific research at the station for the next nine months. By 19 February 1938, when the group was picked up by the ice breakers Taimyr and Murman , their station had drifted 2850 km to

3708-422: The North Pole and spent 18 hours there. In July 2007 British endurance swimmer Lewis Gordon Pugh completed a 1 km (0.62 mi) swim at the North Pole. His feat, undertaken to highlight the effects of global warming , took place in clear water that had opened up between the ice floes. His later attempt to paddle a kayak to the North Pole in late 2008, following the erroneous prediction of clear water to

3811-452: The North Pole in recent years. The temporary seasonal Russian camp of Barneo has been established by air a short distance from the Pole annually since 2002, and caters for scientific researchers as well as tourist parties. Trips from the camp to the Pole itself may be arranged overland or by helicopter. The first attempt at underwater exploration of the North Pole was made on 22 April 1998 by Russian firefighter and diver Andrei Rozhkov with

3914-501: The North Pole on 21 April 1908 with two Inuit men, Ahwelah and Etukishook, but he was unable to produce convincing proof and his claim is not widely accepted. The conquest of the North Pole was for many years credited to US Navy engineer Robert Peary , who claimed to have reached the Pole on 6 April 1909, accompanied by Matthew Henson and four Inuit men, Ootah, Seeglo, Egingwah, and Ooqueah. However, Peary's claim remains highly disputed and controversial. Those who accompanied Peary on

4017-485: The North Pole on foot (albeit with the aid of dog teams and airdrops ). They continued on to complete the first surface crossing of the Arctic Ocean ;– and by its longest axis, Barrow, Alaska , to Svalbard  – a feat that has never been repeated. Because of suggestions (later proven false) of Plaisted's use of air transport, some sources classify Herbert's expedition as the first confirmed to reach

4120-453: The North Pole on the ground was in 1948 by a 24-man Soviet party, part of Aleksandr Kuznetsov 's Sever-2 expedition to the Arctic, who flew part-way to the Pole first before making the final trek to the Pole on foot. The first complete land expedition to reach the North Pole was in 1968 by Ralph Plaisted , Walt Pederson, Gerry Pitzl and Jean-Luc Bombardier, using snowmobiles and with air support. The Earth's axis of rotation – and hence

4223-408: The North Pole on two custom-built 6 x 6 low-pressure-tire ATVs. The vehicles, Yemelya-1 and Yemelya-2, were designed by Vasily Elagin, a Russian mountain climber, explorer and engineer. They reached the North Pole on 26 April 2009, 17:30 (Moscow time). The expedition was partly supported by Russian State Aviation. The Russian Book of Records recognized it as the first successful vehicle trip from land to

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4326-457: The North Pole over the ice surface by any means. In the 1980s Plaisted's pilots Weldy Phipps and Ken Lee signed affidavits asserting that no such airlift was provided. It is also said that Herbert was the first person to reach the pole of inaccessibility . On 17 August 1977 the Soviet nuclear-powered icebreaker Arktika completed the first surface vessel journey to the North Pole. In 1982 Ranulph Fiennes and Charles R. Burton became

4429-494: The North Pole was accomplished by Ralph Plaisted , Walt Pederson, Gerry Pitzl and Jean Luc Bombardier, who traveled over the ice by snowmobile and arrived on 19 April 1968. The United States Air Force independently confirmed their position. On 6 April 1969 Wally Herbert and companions Allan Gill, Roy Koerner and Kenneth Hedges of the British Trans-Arctic Expedition became the first men to reach

4532-514: The North Pole, so any time can be used as the local time. Along tight latitude circles, counterclockwise is east and clockwise is west. The North Pole is at the center of the Northern Hemisphere. The nearest land is usually said to be Kaffeklubben Island , off the northern coast of Greenland about 700 km (430 mi) away, though some perhaps semi-permanent gravel banks lie slightly closer. The nearest permanently inhabited place

4635-709: The North Pole, the first international surfacing at the North Pole. In 1988 a team of 13 (9 Soviets, 4 Canadians) skied across the arctic from Siberia to northern Canada. One of the Canadians, Richard Weber , became the first person to reach the Pole from both sides of the Arctic Ocean. On April 16, 1990, a German-Swiss expedition led by a team of the University of Giessen reached the Geographic North Pole for studies on pollution of pack ice , snow and air. Samples taken were analyzed in cooperation with

4738-404: The North Pole. The 1998 expedition was dropped by parachute and completed the track to the North Pole. The 2000 expedition departed from a Russian research base around 114 km from the Pole and claimed an average speed of 20–15 km/h in an average temperature of −30 °C. Commercial airliner flights on the polar routes may pass within viewing distance of the North Pole. For example,

4841-797: The North Pole." The first claimed flight over the Pole was made on 9 May 1926 by US naval officer Richard E. Byrd and pilot Floyd Bennett in a Fokker tri-motor aircraft. Although verified at the time by a committee of the National Geographic Society , this claim has since been undermined by the 1996 revelation that Byrd's long-hidden diary's solar sextant data (which the NGS never checked) consistently contradict his June 1926 report's parallel data by over 100 mi (160 km). The secret report's alleged en-route solar sextant data were inadvertently so impossibly overprecise that he excised all these alleged raw solar observations out of

4944-624: The Pacific, and continued by sail to Ecuador, then called the Territory of Quito by Spain. In Ecuador, they split into two groups, traveling overland through rain forests, arriving in Quito in June 1736. Pierre Bouguer established the length of a pendulum beating seconds on the Equator at Quito, near Quito at the top of Pinchincha , and at sea level to determine gravity of Earth . La Condamine had

5047-403: The Pole on skis after leaving Nansen's icebound ship Fram . The pair reached latitude 86°14′ North before they abandoned the attempt and turned southwards, eventually reaching Franz Josef Land . In 1897, Swedish engineer Salomon August Andrée and two companions tried to reach the North Pole in the hydrogen balloon Örnen ("Eagle"), but came down 300 km (190 mi) north of Kvitøya ,

5150-471: The Pole, was stymied when his expedition found itself stuck in thick ice after only three days. The expedition was then abandoned. By September 2007 the North Pole had been visited 66 times by different surface ships: 54 times by Soviet and Russian icebreakers, 4 times by Swedish Oden , 3 times by German Polarstern , 3 times by USCGC Healy and USCGC Polar Sea , and once by CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent and by Swedish Vidar Viking . On 2 August 2007

5253-477: The Third class, into a new Second class concerned with literature and a new Third class devoted to the fine arts. Still this relationship between the academy and the government was not a one-way affair, as members expected to receive their payment of an honorarium. Although the academy still exists today, after World War I, the reputation and status of the academy was largely questioned. One factor behind its decline

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5356-410: The academy decided against the practice and to begin filling vacancies with people with new disciplines. This reform was not only aimed at further diversifying the disciplines under the academy, but also to help combat the internal aging of the academy itself. The academy was expected to remain apolitical, and to avoid discussion of religious and social issues. On 20 January 1699, Louis   XIV gave

5459-408: The academy was founded as an organ of government. In Paris, there were not many membership openings, to fill positions there were contentious elections. The election process was at least a 6-stage process with rules and regulations that allowed for chosen candidates to canvas other members and for current members to consider postponing certain stages of the process if the need would arise. Elections in

5562-501: The academy was funded by and accountable to the Ministry of Public Instruction . The academy came to control French patent laws in the course of the eighteenth century, acting as the liaison of artisans' knowledge to the public domain. As a result, academicians dominated technological activities in France. The academy proceedings were published under the name Comptes rendus de l'Académie des Sciences (1835–1965). The Comptes rendus

5665-482: The academy was in 1944. Removal from the academy was often for not performing to standards, not performing at all, leaving the country, or political reasons. In some rare occasions, a member has been elected twice and subsequently removed twice. This is the case for Marie-Adolphe Carnot . The most direct involvement of the government in the affairs of the institute came in the initial nomination of members in 1795, but as its members nominated constituted only one third of

5768-448: The academy with his hands-on vivisection experiments, could not get his study into its own category. Despite Magendie being one of the leading innovators of his time, it was still a battle for him to become an official member of the academy, a feat he would later accomplish in 1821. He further improved the reverence of the academy when he and anatomist Charles Bell produced the widely known " Bell-Magendie Law ". From 1795 until 1914,

5871-681: The advice notes, policy statements and the Academic Reports. Some have a statutory remit, such as the Select Committee, the Committee for International Affairs and the Committee for Scientists' Rights, some are created ad hoc by the academy and approved formally by vote in a members-only session. Today the academies standing committees and working parties include: Each year, the Academy of Sciences distributes about 80 prizes. These include: The following are incomplete lists of

5974-815: The answer: a northern expedition was sent to Meänmaa in Lapland , close to the Arctic Circle , with the Swedish physicist Anders Celsius and under the guidance of the French mathematician Pierre Louis Maupertuis . The other mission was sent to Ecuador, at the Equator. Previous accurate measurements had been taken in Paris by Cassini and others. The equatorial mission was led by French astronomers Charles Marie de La Condamine , Pierre Bouguer , Louis Godin and Spanish geographers Jorge Juan and Antonio de Ulloa . They were accompanied by several assistants, including

6077-691: The applications of chemical, natural, biological, and medical sciences. On 8 August 1793, the National Convention abolished all the academies. On 22 August 1795, a National Institute of Sciences and Arts was put in place, bringing together the old academies of the sciences, literature and arts, among them the Académie française and the Académie des sciences. Also in 1795, The academy determined these 10 titles (first 4 in Division 1 and

6180-416: The area in 1926 with 16 men on board, including expedition leader Roald Amundsen . Three prior expeditions – led by Frederick Cook (1908, land), Robert Peary (1909, land) and Richard E. Byrd (1926, aerial) – were once also accepted as having reached the Pole. However, in each case later analysis of expedition data has cast doubt upon the accuracy of their claims. The first verified individuals to reach

6283-545: The bicentennial of the first geodesic expedition, along with a second pyramid at San Antonio de Pichincha on the Equator. These monuments still exist today. The new Quito International Airport opened in the Yaruqui Valley. Though talks of having a mural celebrating the Geodesic Mission took place during planning stages, no acknowledgement of the scientific importance of this site currently exists. In 1936,

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6386-401: The continent. Next year, on 9 May 1949 two other Soviet scientists (Vitali Volovich and Andrei Medvedev) became the first people to parachute onto the North Pole. They jumped from a Douglas C-47 Skytrain , registered CCCP H-369. On 3 May 1952, U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Joseph O. Fletcher and Lieutenant William Pershing Benedict , along with scientist Albert P. Crary , landed

6489-565: The crew. Another transpolar flight  [ ru ] was accomplished in a Tupolev ANT-25 airplane with a crew of Valery Chkalov , Georgy Baydukov and Alexander Belyakov , who flew over the North Pole on 19 June 1937, during their direct flight from the Soviet Union to the USA without any stopover. In May 1937 the world's first North Pole ice station , North Pole-1 , was established by Soviet scientists 20 kilometres (13 mi) from

6592-403: The death of members, as they serve for life. During elections, half of the vacancies are reserved for people less than 55 years old. This was created as an attempt to encourage younger members to join the academy. The reorganization also divided the academy into 2 divisions: One division, Division 1, covers the applications of mathematics and physical sciences, the other, Division 2, covers

6695-432: The devastating 1746 earthquake , and returned to Europe in 1751. Bouguer, La Condamine and the Spanish officers each wrote separate accounts of the expedition, which opened up European eyes to the exotic landscapes, flora and fauna of South America and led directly to the great naturalist expeditions by Alexander von Humboldt and others. La Condamine tried in vain to promote the length of the seconds pendulum measured at

6798-406: The distance between a belfry in Dunkerque and Montjuïc castle in Barcelona at the longitude of Paris Panthéon . This portion of the Paris meridian was to serve as the basis for the length of the half meridian connecting the North Pole with the Equator. The metre was defined as the ten-millionth of the half meridian's length extrapolated from an Earth's flattening of 1/334 obtained from

6901-448: The early days of the academy were important activities, and as such made up a large part of the proceedings at the academy, with many meetings being held regarding the election to fill a single vacancy within the academy. That is not to say that discussion of candidates and the election process as a whole was relegated to the meetings. Members that belonged to the vacancy's respective field would continue discussion of potential candidates for

7004-409: The eastern coast of Greenland. In May 1945 an RAF Lancaster of the Aries expedition became the first Commonwealth aircraft to overfly the North Geographic and North Magnetic Poles. The plane was piloted by David Cecil McKinley of the Royal Air Force . It carried an 11-man crew, with Kenneth C. Maclure of the Royal Canadian Air Force in charge of all scientific observations. In 2006, Maclure

7107-442: The encouraging of the scientific life, promoting the teaching of science, transmitting knowledge between scientific communities, fostering international collaborations, and ensuring a dual role of expertise and advise. The French Academy of Science originally focused its development efforts into creating a true co-development Euro-African program beginning in 1997. Since then they have broadened their scope of action to other regions of

7210-430: The equinoctial simple pendulum, of one second of a minute of mean time at the latitude of Quito (a natural and, may it be, a universal model of measure)"]. The plaque is now in the Observatorio Astronómico in the Parque La Alameda . Bouguer, La Condamine, Godin and their colleagues measured arcs of the Earth's curvature on the Equator from the plains near Quito to the southern city of Cuenca . These measurements enabled

7313-422: The explorer's navigational records. He concluded that Peary had not reached the Pole. Support for Peary came again in 2005, however, when British explorer Tom Avery and four companions recreated the outward portion of Peary's journey with replica wooden sleds and Canadian Eskimo Dog teams, reaching the North Pole in 36 days, 22 hours – nearly five hours faster than Peary. However, Avery's fastest 5-day march

7416-426: The final stage of the journey were not trained in navigation, and thus could not independently confirm his navigational work, which some claim to have been particularly sloppy as he approached the Pole. The distances and speeds that Peary claimed to have achieved once the last support party turned back seem incredible to many people, almost three times that which he had accomplished up to that point. Peary's account of

7519-591: The first accurate determination of the shape of the Earth, eventually leading to the establishment of the international metric system of measurement. When an International Commission for Weights and Measures was convened in Paris to settle the true length of the metre, it adopted on 22 June 1799 a standard metre based on the length of the half meridian connecting the North Pole with the Equator. The French Academy of Sciences had commissioned an expedition led by Jean Baptiste Joseph Delambre and Pierre Méchain , lasting from 1792 to 1799, which attempted to accurately measure

7622-608: The first people to cross the Arctic Ocean in a single season. They departed from Cape Crozier, Ellesmere Island , on 17 February 1982 and arrived at the geographic North Pole on 10 April 1982. They travelled on foot and snowmobile. From the Pole, they travelled towards Svalbard but, due to the unstable nature of the ice, ended their crossing at the ice edge after drifting south on an ice floe for 99 days. They were eventually able to walk to their expedition ship MV Benjamin Bowring and boarded it on 4 August 1982 at position 80:31N 00:59W. As

7725-401: The first world war, the French Academy of Science was the most prevalent organization of French science. Almost all the old members of the previously abolished Académie were formally re-elected and retook their ancient seats. Among the exceptions was Dominique, comte de Cassini , who refused to take his seat. Membership in the academy was not restricted to scientists: in 1798 Napoleon Bonaparte

7828-405: The following election process nominated only those whose focus was also mathematics in order to fill that discipline's vacancy. That led to some periods of time in which no specialists for specific fields of study could be found, which left positions in those fields vacant since they could not be filled with people in other disciplines. The needed reform came late in the 20th century, in 1987, when

7931-566: The government refused to accept the result of academy elections. The academies control by the government was apparent in 1803, when Bonaparte decided on a general reorganization. His principal concern was not the First class but the Second, which included political scientists who were potential critics of his government. Bonaparte abolished the second class completely and, after a few expulsions, redistributed its remaining members, together with those of

8034-457: The membership and most of these had previously been elected as members of the respective academies under the old regime, few objections were raised. Moreover, these nominated members were then completely free to nominate the remaining members of the institute. Members expected to remain such for life, but interference occurred in a few cases where the government suddenly terminated membership for political reasons. The other main interference came when

8137-622: The naturalist Joseph de Jussieu and Louis's cousin Jean Godin . La Condamine was joined in his journey down the Amazon by Ecuadoran geographer and topographer Pedro Maldonado . (Maldonado later traveled to Europe to continue his scientific work.) The Ecuadoran expedition left France in May 1735. They landed on the Caribbean coast in Colombia, sailed to Panama where they traveled overland to

8240-788: The northeasternmost part of the Svalbard archipelago. They trekked to Kvitøya but died there three months after their crash. In 1930 the remains of this expedition were found by the Norwegian Bratvaag Expedition . The Italian explorer Luigi Amedeo, Duke of the Abruzzi and Captain Umberto Cagni of the Italian Royal Navy ( Regia Marina ) sailed the converted whaler Stella Polare ("Pole Star") from Norway in 1899. On 11 March 1900, Cagni led

8343-525: The officers of the academy. See also Category:Officers of the French Academy of Sciences . For a list of the academy's members past and present, see Category:Members of the French Academy of Sciences Source: French Academy of Sciences North Pole 90°N 0°E  /  90°N 0°E  / 90; 0 The North Pole , also known as the Geographic North Pole , Terrestrial North Pole or 90th Parallel North ,

8446-535: The others in Division 2) to be their newly accepted branches of scientific study: The last two sections are bundled since there were many good candidates fit to be elected for those practices, and the competition was stiff. Some individuals like Francois Magendie had made stellar advancements in their selected fields of study, that warranted a possible addition of new fields. However, even someone like Magendie that had made breakthroughs in Physiology and impressed

8549-654: The pole, part of the British Arctic Expedition , by Commander Albert H. Markham reached a then-record 83°20'26" North in May 1876 before turning back. An 1879–1881 expedition commanded by US naval officer George W. De Long ended tragically when their ship, the USS ; Jeannette , was crushed by ice. Over half the crew, including De Long, were lost. In April 1895, the Norwegian explorers Fridtjof Nansen and Hjalmar Johansen struck out for

8652-560: The position of the North Pole ;– was commonly believed to be fixed (relative to the surface of the Earth) until, in the 18th century, the mathematician Leonhard Euler predicted that the axis might "wobble" slightly. Around the beginning of the 20th century astronomers noticed a small apparent "variation of latitude", as determined for a fixed point on Earth from the observation of stars. Part of this variation could be attributed to

8755-449: The results of the First Geodesic Mission and commemorate the relationship between the two republics. This second mission was led by Captain E. Maurain and several other military personnel during its tenure in Ecuador from 1901 to 1906. The only two members of the French mission to spend the entire time in Ecuador were Lieutenant (later General) Georges Perrier and medical officer Paul Rivet , later an important anthropologist and founder of

8858-417: The results of the survey by Delambre and Méchain combined with those of the Peru meridian arc as established by La Condamine and his colleagues. They completed their survey measurements by 1739, measuring the length of a meridian arc of three degrees at the Equator. They did this in spite of earlier news that the expedition to Lapland led by Maupertuis had already finished their work and had proven that

8961-477: The spirit of French scientific research . It was at the forefront of scientific developments in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries, and is one of the earliest Academies of Sciences . Currently headed by Patrick Flandrin (President of the academy), it is one of the five Academies of the Institut de France . The Academy of Sciences traces its origin to Colbert's plan to create a general academy. He chose

9064-408: The summit of Mount Everest) and Neil Armstrong (the first man to stand on the moon) landed at the North Pole in a small twin-engined ski plane. Hillary thus became the first man to stand at both poles and on the summit of Everest. In 1986 Will Steger , with seven teammates, became the first to be confirmed as reaching the Pole by dogsled and without resupply. USS Gurnard (SSN-662) operated in

9167-551: The support of the Diving Club of Moscow State University , but ended in fatality. The next attempted dive at the North Pole was organized the next year by the same diving club, and ended in success on 24 April 1999. The divers were Michael Wolff (Austria), Brett Cormick (UK), and Bob Wass (USA). In 2005 the United States Navy submarine USS Charlotte (SSN-766) surfaced through 155 cm (61 in) of ice at

9270-428: The vacancy in private. Being elected into the academy did not necessarily guarantee being a full member, in some cases, one would enter the academy as an associate or correspondent before being appointed as a full member of the academy. The election process was originally only to replace members from a specific section. For example, if someone whose study was mathematics was either removed or resigned from his position,

9373-427: The version of the report finally sent to geographical societies five months later (while the original version was hidden for 70 years), a realization first published in 2000 by the University of Cambridge after scrupulous refereeing. The first consistent, verified, and scientifically convincing attainment of the Pole was on 12 May 1926, by Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen and his US sponsor Lincoln Ellsworth from

9476-449: The wave-nature of light. For three centuries women were not allowed as members of the academy. This meant that many women scientists were excluded, including two-time Nobel Prize winner Marie Curie , Nobel winner Irène Joliot-Curie , mathematician Sophie Germain , and many other deserving women scientists. The first woman admitted as a correspondent member was a student of Curie's, Marguerite Perey , in 1962. The first female full member

9579-518: The world. The standing committee COPED is in charge of the international development projects undertaken by the French Academy of Science and their associates. The current president of COPED is Pierre Auger , the vice president is Michel Delseny , and the honorary president is Francois Gros . All of which are current members of the French Academy of Science. COPED has hosted several workshops or colloquia in Paris, involving representatives from African academies, universities or research centers, addressing

9682-551: The year. Several expeditions set out to find the way, generally with whaling ships, already commonly used in the cold northern latitudes. One of the earliest expeditions to set out with the explicit intention of reaching the North Pole was that of British naval officer William Edward Parry , who in 1827 reached latitude 82°45′ North. In 1871, the Polaris expedition , a US attempt on the Pole led by Charles Francis Hall , ended in disaster. Another British Royal Navy attempt to get to

9785-464: Was Yvonne Choquet-Bruhat in 1979. Membership in the academy is highly geared towards representing common French populace demographics . French population increases and changes in the early 21st century led to the academy expanding reference population sizes by reform in the early 2002. The overwhelming majority of members leave the academy posthumously, with a few exceptions of removals, transfers, and resignations. The last member to be removed from

9888-459: Was 90 nautical miles (170 km), significantly short of the 135 nautical miles (250 km) claimed by Peary. Avery writes on his web site that "The admiration and respect which I hold for Robert Peary, Matthew Henson and the four Inuit men who ventured North in 1909, has grown enormously since we set out from Cape Columbia . Having now seen for myself how he travelled across the pack ice, I am more convinced than ever that Peary did indeed discover

9991-401: Was a project to build a new pyramid exactly on the Equator, to be designed by the famed architect Rafael Viñoly (d. 2023). French Academy of Sciences The French Academy of Sciences ( French : Académie des sciences , [akademi de sjɑ̃s] ) is a learned society , founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert , to encourage and protect

10094-520: Was elected a member of the academy and three years later a president in connection with his Egyptian expedition , which had a scientific component. In 1816, the again renamed "Royal Academy of Sciences" became autonomous, while forming part of the Institute of France ; the head of State became its patron. In the Second Republic , the name returned to Académie des sciences. During this period,

10197-455: Was honoured with a spot in Canada's Aviation Hall of Fame . Discounting Peary's disputed claim, the first men to set foot at the North Pole were a Soviet party including geophysicists Mikhail Ostrekin and Pavel Senko, oceanographers Mikhail Somov and Pavel Gordienko, and other scientists and flight crew (24 people in total) of Aleksandr Kuznetsov 's Sever-2 expedition (March–May 1948). It

10300-452: Was only natural for Poisson to interpret it as an absurd result and that it should disprove Fresnel's theory. However, the head of the committee, Dominique-François-Jean Arago , and who incidentally later became Prime Minister of France, decided to perform the experiment in more detail. He molded a 2-mm metallic disk to a glass plate with wax. To everyone's surprise he succeeded in observing the predicted spot, which convinced most scientists of

10403-547: Was organized by the Chief Directorate of the Northern Sea Route . The party flew on three planes (pilots Ivan Cherevichnyy, Vitaly Maslennikov and Ilya Kotov) from Kotelny Island to the North Pole and landed there at 4:44pm ( Moscow Time , UTC+04:00 ) on 23 April 1948. They established a temporary camp and for the next two days conducted scientific observations. On 26 April the expedition flew back to

10506-443: Was originally organized by the royal reform hierarchically into the following groups: Pensionaires, Pupils, Honoraires, and Associés. The reform also added new groups not previously recognized, such as Vétéran. Some of these role's member limits were expanded and some roles even removed or combined throughout the course of academy's history. The Honoraires group establish by this reform in 1699 whose members were directly appointed by

10609-463: Was the development from a meritocracy to gerontocracy : a shift from those with demonstrated scientific ability leading the academy to instead favoring those with seniority. It became known as a sort of "hall of fame" that lost control, real and symbolic, of the professional scientific diversity in France at the time. Another factor was that in the span of five years, 1909 to 1914, funding to science faculties considerably dropped, eventually leading to

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