(via A Different Kind of Dinner Bell in the Antarctic | Food & Think)
There’s an article on the Smithsonian’s Food & Think blog (linked above) and on Edible Geography (where I found said article) about Frederick Cook’s finding that eating penguins prevented scurvy in his crew.
(via Up Front - NYTimes.com)
They also published an article on Sara Wheeler’s new book “No Surrender”. It has nothing to do with polar exploration, but if you’re one of Wheeler’s fans like I am, you may enjoy this news.
The New York Times Book Review published an article on Friday on a new book about S.A. Andrees balloon expedition. (Reviewed by the famed Sara Wheeler)
“The aurora australis provides a dramatic backdrop to a Scott Tent at Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station on July 14, 2009. (National Science Foundation/Patrick Cullis)”
François Auguste Biard, “Magdalena Bay, view from a peninsula in northern Spitsbergen,” 1841
(via threeoranges)
The Many Failures and Few Successes of Zany Iceberg Towing Schemes
1825: Tucked in among various environmental schemes including one plan for “conveying by means of pipes and air-pumps, the sea breeze to London,” we find this early 19th century author deriding “the old project of towing icebergs into the southern ocean, for the purpose of equalising the temperature of the earth.” Now, that’s some ambition. Where’s that spirit gone in modern times?
1835: It’s not just ships that tow icebergs, but the opposite can happen, too. A British expedition in the Arctic got stuck on an iceberg, which proceeded to get blown around the ocean.
It was perhaps the first time that an iceberg had the honor conferred upon it of towing a British ship, although we know that the direct contrary was once in contemplation, of towing the icebergs by British ships to the tropics, for the purpose of diffusing their refrigerating power on the countries situated between them.Mid 1800s: According to the Encyclopedia of Antartica, small icebergs were towed from southern Chile up to Valparaiso as part of the brewery supply chain. A Chilean researcher said, “The icebergs were towed by ships of the conventional type. Sometimes the icebergs were supplied with sails to utilize the prevailing winds. The ice was used for refrigerating purposes in the breweries and was generally substituted for artificial ice.” Apparently, the business continued until about the turn of the century.
Read more at The Atlantic. For an inside look at the research process behind this story, read Alexis Madrigal’s post on Google+
(via Doomed South Pole expedition remembered | PRI’s The World)
The World also remembers the “doomed” Scott expedition to the South Pole, all on yesterday’s episode. At the link above you can listen to the segment and go through a slideshow of what the supply hut at Cape Evans looks like today.
(via Life and Work at the South Pole | PRI’s The World: Science) (image via airports-worldwide)
PRI’s The World interviewed Freija Descamps about what it’s like doing research at the Scott-Amundsen Research facility at the South Pole. You can ask her a question yourself at the link above!
(via Image Viewer)
Color photo of the Endurance, taken by Frank Hurley during the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition. This one has been making the rounds on Tumblr, so sorry for the repeat.
