Abstract
The stated aims of Science on Ice are to challenge stereotypes of scientists and to document the polar environment. Photographer Chris Linder enlists the help of four science writers who each accompany him on one of four polar expeditions: the accounts of each expedition make up the four chapters of the book. Throughout the book the beautiful full-page (A4) photographs tell the most compelling story – of the landscape, the science and the people.
In Chapter 1, Chris Linder and science writer Hugh Powell join scientists studying Adélie Penguins on Ross Island, Antarctica. A brief description of the arrival at McMurdo station and various safety drills and training precedes a detailed natural history of the penguin colonies at Cape Royds and Cape Crozier. The lives and work of veteran and newbie research scientists in the harsh but beautiful landscapes are documented and placed in the context of the first scientists to visit the locality as part of Shackleton’s expedition. The chapter concludes with a discussion on the challenges that the penguin colonies will face under a changing climate.
In Chapter 2, Linder and science writer Helen Fields travel on the ice breaker Healy as the scientists on board conduct experiments aimed at understanding the interplay between sea ice and life at the base of the food chain. Although the language is occasionally a little too ‘story book’-like – ‘thud thud rumble rumble grate grate! It growled below decks’ – the excitement amongst the scientists as the ship locates the hoped-for algal bloom is nicely captured. The challenges of successfully carrying out experiments under dangerous and challenging conditions are highlighted by attempts to recover floating sediment traps. Again the focus is on the scientists and crew as much as the science, even down to the choice of haircut available from the onboard barber.
Chapter 3 documents another cruise on an ice breaker as Linder and writer Lonny Lippsett accompany scientists using the Arctic Ocean as a testing ground for unmanned, untethered, deep-submergence vehicles – vehicles that might one day be used to search for extraterrestrial life in the ice-covered oceans of Europa. Employing a high-tech approach to navigating ice-covered seas with a helicopter scout and ice-breaking ballast tanks to rock the ship, the scientific aim of the research is to explore and sample plumes from undersea hydrothermal vents along the Gakkel Ridge, 2.5 miles below the sea surface. A large part of the chapter is devoted to the difficulties of deploying and then recovering the underwater vehicles after technical faults, and leads in the ice drift close up. The project does not, in the end, locate any vents but the team do find evidence of sea-floor eruptions and retrieve some samples from the ridge.
In Chapter 4, Amy Nevala and Chris Linder head onto the Greenland Ice Sheet with three glaciologists investigating the drainage of supraglacial lakes. They travel by helicopter to visit two lakes located 25 miles inland from the western Greenland coast, both of which drain through to the base of the ice sheet each summer. The chapter explains how data from GPS recorders, satellites, seismometers, aerial surveys and dye-tracing experiments can be used to inform understanding of how the lake drainage events enhance summertime ice flow speeds.
The book meets its aims by following scientists out of their labs and away from their computers. The excitement of fieldwork as well as the inevitable hardships and even tedium are well captured in picture and word. Each chapter tells a separate story and all but the third chapter conclude with a reflection on the future of the polar environment under a changing climate. Science on Ice is aimed at a wide audience, both scientists and non-scientists. First and foremost this popular scientific book represents a beautiful pictorial record of polar fieldwork.