PRESS RELEASE New book from the Natural History Museum Surviving Antarctica by David N. Thomas Foreword by Ray Mears “In this fascinating book David Thomas takes us to Antarctica in a very personal way...” From foreword by Ray Mears. In a land of terrifying winds, fearful cold and icebergs the size of London, survival is everything. Journey to the end of the Earth and discover how life survives some of the most extreme conditions on the planet in Surviving Antarctica. This timely book provides an invaluable insight into the lives of all beings living and working in this hostile environment. Find out how scientists prepare for an expedition, how male Emperor penguins use their feet to protect their...

Press release Exploration of lake hidden beneath Antarctica's ice sheet begins 15 January 2008 PR No. 1/2008 A four-man science team led by British Antarctic Survey's (BAS) Dr Andy Smith has begun exploring an ancient lake hidden deep beneath Antarctica's ice sheet. The lake - the size of Lake Windermere (UK) - could yield vital clues to life on Earth, climate change and future sea-level rise. Glaciologist Dr Smith and his colleagues from the Universities of Edinburgh and Northumbria are camped out at one of the most remote places on Earth conducting a series of experiments on the ice. He says, "This is the first phase of what we think is an incredibly exciting project. We know the lake is 3.2km beneath the ice; l...

Which way did the camera go first: north or south? The Antarctic edged out her northern counterpart by only a handful of years. James Clark Ross' narrative of his 1839-43 expedition does not reveal any photographic outfit in its inventory, but one of his medical men later noted just such an apparatus for posterity. Dr. Joseph D. Hooker was lecturing about the historic expedition at the Royal Institution of South Wales in 1846 when he offered these words: I believe no instruments, however newly invented, was omitted, even down to an apparatus for daguerreotyping and talbotyping, and we left England provided with a register for every known phenomenon of nature, though certainly not qualified to cope with them all. The responsibility for any photographic ...

Terrestrial ecosystems in ARctic and ANTarctic: Effects of UV Light, Liquefying ice, and Ascending temperatures. (TARANTELLA, IPY project no. 59) IPY project page TARENTELLA website Predicted changes in climate and ozone concentrations in Polar regions, make it critically important to understand how changes in key environmental factors influence Polar terrestrial ecosystems via the modification of their individual but interconnected components. Observational and experimental research on the effect of climate change and ozone depletion is affiliated to international research programmes to t...

Wow, what an incredible place this is – it goes way beyond my greatest expectations! I have been here a full week now, which has just flown by! We (26 of us) arrived by plane, having flown first to Cape Town, then down to Novolazarevskaya (a Russian base) where we camped overnight. We were met with such warm hospitality by the Russians and I was thrilled to see lots of IPY logos on the tents, the calendar, the planes – the list goes on and on!! What a great introduction to the Antarctic! Arriving at Halley Research Station was so exciting – we had a wonderful welcoming committee waiting for us and once we had unloaded all of our kit we were quickly shepherded off to our respective sleeping quarters to have a couple of hours of rest and relaxation and a cup of tea!...

"Ivan’s Appeal" is a new book by Catherine Drury which explores global climate change via Ivan, a talking iceberg. Aimed at 8-11 year olds, it is now available for order via this form, which also contains more information about the book (ISBN 978-1-904985-57-0). Below are some reviews of Ivan’s Appeal. Melanie Lister-Kaye Education Manager, Aigas Field Centre:Earnest, informative and sincere: Ivan’s appeal is packed full of information and ideas conveyed through endearing characters and a strong plot that is accessible to most children in the UK today. This book is a must for parents struggling to answer their children’s questions about climate ch...

He recalls that his passion for the extreme probably began when he first saw the snow, during a school holiday at New Zealand's Tongariro National Park, at the age of sixteen. He was a young teenager living in the countryside and he had never seen the magic of snow. Since that day, Sir Edmund Hillary has spent a great deal of his life amid snow and ice, blizzards and storms, high snowy peaks close to the sky and turbulent rivers flowing down to the sea. In May 1953 he was the first to reach the summit of Mt Everest – with Tenzing Norgay. Thanks to that success another great adventure would keep him close to snow and ice for almost two years: the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition (TAE), a joint-venture between Great Britain and New Zealand that aimed to cross Antarc...

Mark Speight and Simon Webbe honour young artistic talent in charity pavement art competition Monday 22 October 2007 -For Immediate Release- On Friday 19 October at The Royal Society in London, young people across the UK were honoured for their exceptional artistic talent and creative achievements in the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign’s Young Pavement Artists Competition 2007. TV presenter and competition president, Mark Speight was joined by R & B singer, Simon Webbe, at the special awards ceremony. Arthur Morris wit...

The exhibition has been open for over four months now and has seen the graduation of countless ice cadets. If you are yet to visit the exhibition, here is a virtual tour showing some of the exciting things you are missing out on. It all begins with a briefing from Sanjit, our Ice Station Commander, who will guide us through our Antarctic adventure. We soon learn of the perils that lie ahead as we enter the freezer room. This is set at a chilling -10ºC and you wou...

The IPY International Programme Office (IPO) has recently received some sponsorship to seed a meeting of the IPY International Youth Steering Committee (IYSC), including the Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS). This meeting will occur in Stockholm at the end of September. Below is background material for this meeting. Meeting Details (252 KB DOC) includes participants, overview, agenda, and logistics Planning Information and Summary (128 KB PDF) APEC...