Rising Fuel Costs Threaten Polar and Marine Research

By MARIA JOSÉ VIÑAS

Paying more than $4 for a gallon of gas makes a lot of commuters grind their teeth when they fill their tanks. They get little sympathy, however, from Robin Bell, who next winter could be looking at $60 to $130 for each gallon of fuel for her vehicles. The vehicles are two small aircraft that Ms. Bell, an ice-sheet expert at Columbia University, needs to survey an unexplored mountain range in Antarctica that holds an unparalleled record of global climate change.

Her project