Adélie penguins are renowned for their natal philopatry on land-based colonies, requiring small pebbles to be used for nests. We report on an opportunistic observation via aerial survey, where hundreds of Adélie penguins were documented displaying nesting behaviours on fast ice ~3 km off the coast of Cape Crozier, which is one of the largest colonies in the world. We counted 426 Adélie penguins engaging in behaviours of pair formation, spacing similarly to normal nest distributions and lying in divots in the ice that looked like nests. On our first visit, it was noticed that the guano stain was bright pink, consistent with krill consumption, but had shifted to green over the course of ~2 weeks, indicating that the birds were fasting (a behaviour consistent with egg incubation). However, eggs were not observed. We posit four hypotheses that may explain the proximate causes of this behaviour and caution against future high-resolution satellite imagery interpretation due to the potential for confusing ice-nesting Adélie penguins with the presence of emperor penguin colonies.

The Korean Twin Registry is the first nationwide twin study in Korea. We compiled 154,783 twin pairs from existing nationwide data sources, mainly from address and national health insurance data. The coverage of this registry was almost complete for the twins born since 1970, but less complete as age increased, so that there were only 990 pairs who were born before 1930. The twins' health examination (N = 54,390 persons) and questionnaire (N = 44,546 persons) results were incorporated into the registry, yielding 12,894 and 9074 concordantly informative pairs. Morbidity and mortality outcomes have been followed up since 1990, for most diseases. For preliminary analysis of complex diseases, we selected ventricular septal defects (VSD) in young twins, stomach and colorectal cancers in adult twins. We identified 353 VSDs, 284 stomach cancers, and 116 colorectal cancers among twins. The prevalence rates of cancers, but not that of VSD, were lower in twins than those in population. The difference in the cancer prevalence was marked for twins born before 1926, implying some degree of selection. Like-sex (LS) twins showed familial recurrence risks (λLS) of 41.2 for VSD and 22.4 for colorectal cancers, and 1.74 for stomach cancers. For opposite-sex (OS) twins, we could estimate λOS of 19.8 for VSD only. These results were compatible with previous studies for VSD and colorectal cancers, but not for stomach cancers. Despite the strength in size, availability of health outcomes, and some lifestyle and basic laboratory data, we need accurate zygosity information to improve the validity of the results.

The Business Meeting of Commission 41 was held in Sessions 2 on 5 August 2009, with Acting President Clive Ruggles (UK) in the Chair. He called for a moment of silence for those members who had passed away in the last triennium, including Prof. Xi Zezong (b. 1927, d. 2008 Dec 27) and Prof. Chen Meidong (b. 1936, d. 2008 Dec 30).

Commission 41 of the International Astronomical Union deals with all aspects of astronomical history and heritage from ancient sky knowledge to developments in modern astronomy that have occurred within living memory. It encourages and supports research in the history of astronomy and related fields such as archaeoastronomy and is also concerned with the identification, documentation and preservation of vital aspects of our astronomical heritage such as sites, artifacts, instruments and archives. Commission 41 is one of the largest Commissions in the Union, and is a member of Division XII on Union-Wide Activities.

On Tuesday 22 August 2006 approximately 40 people attended the Commission 41 History of Astronomy Business Meeting at the IAU XXVI General Assembly in Prague. Commission president Alex Gurshtein opened the meeting, welcoming the commission members and calling for a moment of silence for those members who passed away in the last triennium. David DeVorkin was appointed recording secretary for the meeting, with Steven Dick as the scruitineer of the ballot. A moment of silence was then observed in the memory of members departed over the last triennium, including: Jerzy Dobrzycki (Poland), Robert Duncan (Australia), Mohammad Edalati (Iran), Philip Morrison (USA), John Perdix (Australia), Neil Porter (Ireland), Gibson Reaves (USA), Brian Robinson (Australia), and Raymond E. White (USA).

Following the Sydney General Assembly, the membership of C41 stood at 352, of whom, at the time of writing, three are known to have deceased. Since the formation of the Inter-Union Commission for the History of Astronomy (ICHA) prior to the Sydney General Assembly, C41/ICHA has subsequently acted, in effect, as an integrated Commission with a single OC. In this triennium the C41/ICHA OC made strong efforts to clarify and simplify the controversial issue of admitting non-IAU members to the ICHA. After prolonged and active consultation, the OC approved the document “Procedures for Admitting non-IAU members to the ICHA” and the OC Secretary Prof. Clive Ruggles officially presented this document to the history of astronomy community in C41/ICHA Newsletter no. 6. It is subject to ratification by the C41/ICHA Business Meeting in Prague in 2006.