Scientists in the Wild: Antarctica

Take a deep dive into the science surrounding the Antarctic, revealing how scientists work in remote, challenging places, armed with cutting edge research tools and technologies.

The reader is invited to join a crew of scientist as they sail around Antarctica studying one of the most vulnerable environments on the planet. Discover how scientists work in extreme environments, and how scientific methods have been adapted to suit this unique location. Join the team as they use drones and satellites in space to monitor colonies of penguins, seals and albatrosses, observe the team’s palaeontologist studying fossils that show Antarctica used to be covered in forests home to dinosaurs. Search for Shackleton’s lost ship using a deep-diving robot and help glaciologists unlock the secrets of the ice using ice cores and space lasers and finally experience the south pole sunrise after six months of darkness.

Dr Kate Hendry has spent 7 months at sea on research ships. So far, she’s lived for almost two years in total in the Arctic and Antarctica. In 2017, she was chief scientist on a research expedition to Greenland. In all that time, she’s become an expert in collecting animals from the seafloor, gathering tiny plankton, sampling seawater, mud and rocks. She’s mapped thousands of kilometres of seabed using sonar. She studies of impact of climate change on past, present and future seas, assesses plastic pollution and advises governments how to protect these fragile, important parts of the planet. In 2022 she is taking up a senior position at the British Antarctic Survey.

Dr Helen Scales is a marine biologist and best-selling author. She’s written several articles for National Geographic Magazine about Antarctica, including how climate change is threatening emperor penguins, and (this month) about the urgent need to protect more of the Southern Ocean in marine reserves.

Kate and Helen are sisters, who have often been mistaken for one another.

Rômolo D'Hipólito is a Brazilian artist and illustrator.  He is the winner of the 2019 Golden Pinwheel Special Mention Award and the 2018 Ibero-America Ilustra Catalog Official Selection.