PETE CONVEY visited Antarctica twice at wintertime this year. 鈥淚鈥檝e been lucky,鈥� he says. 鈥淭he vast majority of people only go during the Antarctic summer.鈥�
Convey, a biologist, has been at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) for 20 years. 鈥淚 came in as a postdoc,鈥� he says. BAS offers research opportunities to graduates from a variety of backgrounds. 鈥淢y PhD was in behavioural ecology and evolution theory 鈥� nothing to do with polar biology at all.鈥� But he responded to a job advert to study the evolution of life in extreme environments, and has been a regular visitor to the southern polar regions ever since.
The longest Convey has spent in Antarctica is 18 months, braving temperatures as low as -40 掳C. 鈥淪urprisingly, you鈥檇 think that鈥檚 more of a problem than it really is,鈥� he says. 鈥淲e get kitted out with the proper equipment so we don鈥檛 get frostbite.鈥�
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Convey鈥檚 research has taken him to areas of Antarctica never before visited by people. 鈥淲hen we go to those regions we make exciting discoveries,鈥� he says. 鈥淲hat has come out of the last few seasons is indications that the fauna and flora has been there for several million years 鈥� it鈥檚 much more ancient than we thought.鈥�
Nigel Harris, a professor at the Open University, agrees that working in extremes can be scientifically rewarding. He is a geochemist and has visited the Himalayas regularly over the past 20 years. 鈥淭here鈥檚 nowhere else on Earth you can study continental collision today,鈥� he says.
Harris first visited Nepal in 1967 鈥渁s part of the hippy trail鈥� but only began professional research there in 1985, on a joint Royal Society-Chinese Academy of Sciences expedition.
Working at extreme altitudes carries many problems. 鈥淚鈥檝e been flown out of the field with pulmonary oedema before,鈥� Harris says. However, it is the extreme politics of the region that provides the biggest challenge. 鈥淵ou have to be prepared to move. A lot of my early work was done in northern Pakistan but that鈥檚 a no-go area now.鈥� Himalayan researchers have gradually moved eastwards, he says. 鈥淚 wouldn鈥檛 say it鈥檚 fun, but it is part of the challenge of working there.鈥�
It may not be very cold or very high, but Sarah Staniland also works at the extreme 鈥� with the very small 鈥� albeit from the comfort of a laboratory in Edinburgh. During her masters degree, Staniland looked into using magnetic nanoparticles for data storage. 鈥淭hat was all the rage around 2001,鈥� she says.
Over the course of a PhD and postdoc, Staniland鈥檚 research got smaller and smaller 鈥� and her magnetic nanoparticles could now be used to treat cancer. 鈥淲e started working with magnetic bacteria,鈥� she says. Inside the body the bacteria can be guided towards tumours. Once they are in place, the cancer patient is exposed to a magnetic field that causes the magnetic part of the bacteria to heat up, destroying the cancer cells.
Staniland鈥檚 work is helping to push the boundaries of our medical knowledge. 鈥淭his is still a very new research area,鈥� she says. 鈥淗opefully this field will grow.鈥�
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