| Tonight I'm going to talk to you about that remarkable continent Antarctica - |
| remote, hostile and at present uninhabited on a permanent basis. |
| For early explorers, it was the ultimate survival contest; |
| for researchers like me, it remains a place of great intellectual challenge; |
| while for the modern tourist, it's simply a wilderness of great beauty. |
| First, some facts and figures. |
| Antarctica is a place of extremes |
| - the highest, coldest and windiest continent |
| and over 58 times the size of the UK. |
| The ice-cap contains almost 70% of the world's fresh water and 90% of its ice, |
| but with very low snowfall, |
| most of the continent technically falls unbelievably into the category of "desert"! |
| Huge icebergs break off the continent each year, |
| while in winter half the surrounding ocean freezes over, |
| which means its size almost doubles. |
| Research and exploration has been going on in Antarctica for more than 200 years, |
| and has involved scientists from many different countries, |
| who work together on research stations. |
| Here science and technical support have been integrated in a very cost-effective way - |
| our Antarctic research programme has several summers-only stations |
| and two all-year-round ones; |
| I was based on one of the all-year-round ones. |
| The research stations are really self-contained communities of about 20 people. |
| There's living and working space, |
| a kitchen with a huge food store, |
| a small hospital |
| and a well-equipped gym to ensure everyone keeps fit in their spare time. |
| The station generates its own electricity |
| and communicates with the outside world using a satellite link. |
| Our station - Zero One - had some special features. |
| It wasn't built on land but on an ice-shelf, hundreds of metres thick. |
| Supplies were brought to us on large sledges |
| from a ship 15 kilometres away at the ice edge. |
| Living in the Antarctic hasn't always been so comfortable. |
| Snow build-ups caused enormous problems for four previous stations on the same site, |
| which were buried and finally crushed by the weight. |
| Fortunately no one was hurt, |
| but these buildings became a huge challenge to architects |
| who finally came up with a remarkable solution - |
| the buildings are placed on platforms |
| which can be raised above the changing snow level on legs which are extendable. |
| Food is one of the most important aspects of survival in a polar climate. |
| People living there need to obtain a lot more energy from their food, |
| both to keep warm and to undertake heavy physical work. |
| Maybe you know that an adult in the UK |
| will probably need about 1,700 kilocalories a day on average; |
| someone in Antarctica will need about 3.500 - |
| just over double! |
| This energy is provided by foods which are high in carbohydrate and fat. |
| Rations for fieldwork present an additional problem. |
| They need to provide maximum energy, |
| but they must also be compact and light for easy transport. |
| Special boxes are prepared, |
| each containing enough food for one person for twenty days. |
| You may be familiar with coffee processed by freeze-drying, |
| which preserves the quality of the food product while making a large saving in weight - |
| well, this type of presentation is ideal in our situation. |
| It wasn't available to earlier polar explorers, |
| whose diet was commonly insufficient for their health. |
| I think that being at the cutting edge of science has a special appeal for everyone working in Antarctica, |
| in whatever capacity. |
| As a marine biologist, my own research was fascinating; |
| but it's perhaps climate change research that is the most crucial field of study. |
| Within this general field, |
| surveying changes in the volume and stability of the ice-cap is vital, |
| since these may have profound effects on world sea levels and on ocean currents. |
| A second important area is monitoring the size of the hole in the ozone layer above Antarctica, |
| since this is an indicator of global ultra-violet radiation levels. |
| Thirdly, bubbles in the ice-sheet itself provide an index of pollution |
| because frozen inside them are samples of previous atmospheres over the past 500,000 years, |
| and these provide us with evidence for the effects of such human activities as agriculture and industry. |
| There are an increasing number of opportunities for young people to work for a period in Antarctica - |
| not only as research assistants in projects like mine, |
| but also in a wide range of junior administrative and technical positions |
| including vacancies for map-makers. |
| I hope that the insights I've provided |
| will encourage you to take up these opportunities in this fascinating continent. |