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Turning the World Upside Down Research, Not Pole-Bagging, Was the Lasting Achievement of Antarctic Exploration 100 Years Ago, Says Edward J

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Turning the World Upside Down Research, Not Pole-Bagging, Was the Lasting Achievement of Antarctic Exploration 100 Years Ago, Says Edward J COMMENT CLIMATE CHANGE Experts fear CELL BIOLOGY Time to ditch NUCLEAR SCIENCE Cold- OBITUARY John McCarthy, permafrost thaw will release HeLa lines and move to stem war defection of an the father of artificial more carbon than thought p.32 cells p.34 Italian physicist p.35 intelligence p.40 H. G. PONTING/POPPERFOTO/GETTY Terra Nova: Robert Scott’s ill-fated 1911 expedition opened up the Antarctic to scientific exploration. Turning the world upside down Research, not pole-bagging, was the lasting achievement of Antarctic exploration 100 years ago, says Edward J. Larson. his month, and again in January, Competition drove early Antarctic in the Antarctic. In 1900, scientists in each hundreds of scientists across Antarc- research much as it still drives modern country used the threat of the other nation tica will set down their tools to mark science, but the contest did not begin with gaining the advantage in polar discovery to Tthe 100th anniversaries of the first explorers Amundsen and Scott’s 1911 race to the prod their own to fund what were planned reaching the South Pole. Most will see the pole. It had started a decade earlier in the as the first expeditions to winter in the centenaries as simply marking the end of rivalry between Britain and Germany to dis- Antarctic. Others rushed in with less ambi- a much-romanticized race between Roald cover a continent for science. With Britain’s tious ventures, but the expeditions aboard Amundsen’s dog-sledding Norwegians and Royal Society and Royal Geographic Soci- purpose-built research ships — Britain’s Robert Scott’s man-hauling Brits. Yet they ety and German geophysicist Georg von Discovery and Germany’s Gauss — launched should also celebrate those journeys, and Neumayer leading the way, a generation the heroic age of Antarctic exploration. the competition involved, for their role in of scientists in both countries had lobbied What was the science being sought? In launching Antarctic science. their governments for big-science projects 1900, no one knew if Antarctica was 1 DECEMBER 2011 | VOL 480 | NATURE | 29 © 2011 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved COMMENT Edgeworth David as scientific director for his Nimrod expedition. Accompanied by his former student Douglas Mawson and oth- ers, David climbed the southernmost active volcano and man-hauled heavy sledges more than 1,000 kilometres across sea ice, up a gla- CAMBRIDGE SPRI, UNIV. cier and over the Antarctic Plateau to reach the South Magnetic Pole in January 1909. Such extreme research efforts were typical of the British expeditions. Stung by Scott’s criticism of his physical shortcomings — supposedly a lack of endur- ance — on Discovery’s polar trek, Shackleton had returned south in 1907 with the clear goal of reaching the geographic pole, even as David and the other scientists on his expedi- tion pursued a rich research agenda. Besting the researchers on the Discovery expedition on virtually every score, they determined that Antarctica is a continental landmass, plot- ted the atmospheric patterns radiating from the South Polar Region, found widespread evidence of retreating glaciers, discovered freshwater algae and microorganisms in Robert Scott, Ernest Shackleton and Edward Wilson (left to right) setting out on the first attempt on the frozen lakes, and obtained fossil evidence South Pole in 1902. of higher plant life in a land now devoid of it. Antarctica had experienced a temperate a continent or simply a polar ice cap on Ross Island in a region already known to climate in earlier epochs, they concluded, anchored on an archipelago of islands. Yet contain a coastal mountain range, an active and was now warming again. Meanwhile, studies of deep-sea currents and high-altitude volcano, rich marine life and an ice shelf that displaying the determination and survival weather patterns suggested that the Antarctic some thought might extend to the South skills that would make him a legend, Shack- governed ocean circulation and influenced Pole. While researchers collected marine leton pioneered a route south across the ice the global climate. On the basis of seabed and geological specimens, took continual shelf, up the Beardmore Glacier and over the deposits and the fossil record further north, seismic, magnetic and meteorological read- Antarctic Plateau to within 200 kilometres of some scientists argued that it must contain a ings, searched for fossils, discovered the first- the South Geographic Pole. It earned him a continental landmass, which formerly had known emperor penguin rookery, measured knighthood on his return home. been warm enough to support higher plants the movement of glaciers and mapped the and had been linked to the other south- terrain and coastline, Scott set off for the pole SCOTT RETURNS ern continents, serving as a land bridge for with ship’s officer Ernest Shackleton and sur- With the pole still unclaimed, and intent species movement. Charles Darwin had geon Edward Wilson. Although they fell far on restoring his pre-eminence in Antarc- proposed the latter hypothesis to account short of their goal because of poor planning tic exploration, Scott headed south in 1910 for the abrupt appearance of imprints of and execution, they marched farther south aboard the ship Terra Nova with more scien- Glossopteris plants in the fossil record than any previous party and transformed tists than on any previous polar expedition. of Africa, South America and Australia. reaching the pole into a British obsession. “Doubtless there are those who will criti- Geophysicists sought reliable data on terres- Over the next decade, Shackleton and Scott cize this provision [for scientific research] trial magnetism for deep-southern latitudes returned to the region with two new expe- in view of its published objectives — that and wanted to determine the precise loca- ditions — Shackleton’s Nimrod expedition of reaching the South Pole,” Scott wrote of tion of the South Magnetic Pole, to which the (1907–09) and Scott’s ill-fated Terra Nova his final expedition. “But I believe that the compass points — a slowly migrating region expedition (1910–13) — that featured both more intelligent section of the community that, at the time, was located nearly 2,000 kilo­ a polar dash and scientific research. will heartily approve of the endeavour to metres north of the South Geographic Pole. At a time when the British Empire ruled achieve the greatest possible scientific har- one-quarter of the world’s land area and vest which the circumstances permit.” Scott FIRST STEPS sought to extend its reach still farther, these received more than 8,000 applications for Commanded by geophysicist Erich von British expeditions captured international 32 places on the shore party. Drygalski, the Gauss left Germany in the sum- attention. Newspapers, magazines and book Not knowing of Amundsen’s intentions mer of 1901. It became trapped in pack ice off publishers vied for first-hand accounts by before setting sail, Scott planned a deliberate the little-known Antarctic coast south of the Scott and Shackleton. Manufacturers of prod- assault on the pole. Like Amundsen, Scott Indian Ocean and its scientists made only ucts ranging from oatmeal and cigarettes to wintered on the edge of the Ross Sea before limited excursions onshore. They conducted scientific equipment and motor cars supplied embarking in the spring on the arduous trek oceanographic, magnetic, meteorological and their goods free to the explorers in exchange to the pole. But unlike Amundsen, who trav- wildlife research from the vessel for nearly a for the chance to tout elled light and only with those who would year before getting out of the ice in February their use in Antarctica. NATURE.COM go the entire 1,200-kilometre distance, Scott 1903 and heading home prematurely. Scientists lined up For a podcast set off with teams of men, ponies, tractors Under Scott’s command, the Discovery to serve, with Shack- on this story, and dogs that would leave depots of supplies expedition also sailed south in 1901. The leton snagging the dis- go to: and fall back in stages until only one group British team established its winter quarters tinguished geologist go.nature.com/ylfpwk remained to man-haul a single sledge over 30 | NATURE | VOL 480 | 1 DECEMBER 2011 © 2011 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved COMMENT subsequently accompanied Scott to the pole. A full regime of research continued through the Antarctic winter and into the spring. A month before setting off on the polar journey, Scott himself led a 240-kilo- metre trek into the Trans-Antarctic Moun- tains to measure the movement of the Ferrar Glacier. Critics have chided Scott for such H. G. PONTING/POPPERFOTO/GETTY actions, which inevitably handicapped him in the race with Amundsen. Two days before departing for Ferrar, however, after reviewing the expedition’s scientific work and weighing it against the likelihood of Amundsen beating him to the pole, Scott wrote in his diary: “It is really a satisfactory state of affairs all around. If the [polar] jour- ney comes off, nothing, not even lost priority at the Pole, can prevent the Expedition rank- ing as one of the most important that ever entered the Polar regions.” Science would make it so, and so science must be served. Of course, the polar journey did not succeed. The Norwegians beat the Brit- ish to the South Pole and Scott and his four companions died on the way back. The weather was unseasonably cold and the men steadily weakened. Nevertheless, near the end, they stopped to collect fossils from beside the Beardmore Glacier. Wilson had spotted Glossopteris impressions, which geologists on all the British expedi- tions had sought in hopes of proving that the southern continents were once linked to Antarctica. Scott’s party hauled these specimens to the final camp, where they were later found with the dead men, their diaries and their field notes.
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