Don't Scientists Do Funny Things?
Base H - Signy Island Antarctica

©Copyright W. Townsend - picture taken 1963

Here we are then in Antarctica with a whole host of exciting and interesting things to do and investigate and what are this pair up to? Looking at moss on the back slope it seems and even odder than that, taking a photograph of a bit of it. (Pete Tilbrook and Fred Topliffe photographing a springtail site)

Much of the "big stuff" tracking ice bergs, glaciology, seal studies etc. has been done in the basics and/or happens by satellite or remote or long term studies. A lot of the science in Antarctica happens by looking at and investigating the smaller scale and easily overlooked organisms and phenomena. These are utterly "embedded" in Antarctica and affected by the climate so can tell us far more about the effects of the environment than might be thought. Smaller scale science also has the advantage that repeats and large numbers of organisms and data are readily obtained.