Russia’s Arctic Floating University has possibly discovered a new warm current in the Barents Sea, which can be a branch of the Gulf Stream, according to the Arkhangelsk region authorities' press-service.

      “This may be no Higgs boson, but this is important, too,” Federal Meteorological Service head Alexander Frolov said at a press conference in Moscow. “But let’s wait until we’ve analyzed the data better.”

      According to preliminary results, the Gulf Stream branch may be active by Russia's Novaya Zemlya archipelago. It probably raises the temperature at the pole, which affects the whole planet's climate.

      "It may sound absurd, but the warm Arctic means cold winters. That theory is rather big and complicated but it is supported by some experiments. And it is a very important finding for scientific prognostication", Frolov said.

      The discovery was made during a unique expedition of The “Arctic floating university,” also known as the "Professor Molchanov" vessel, crisscrossed ice fields in the Barents Sea, taking some 8,500 samples of water and seabed along the way between June 1 and July 10. About 25 Russian master’s and postgraduate students took a 40-day tour of the Barents Sea. There are no any similar floating laboratories in Europe. The total bill for the expedition stood at 35 million rubles (just over $1 million).