February 12, 2012
U.S. Antarctic Science Is at a Crossroads as the Wider World Presses In
Chronicle Photo by Paul Basken
A C-130 military transport plane brings researchers to the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. The State Department sees year-round staffing of the three American research stations in Antarctica as "essential" to U.S. interests.
McMurdo Station, Antarctica
Antarctica invites exploration.
Its surface resembles that of a distant planet. It has moisture-free air and crystal-clear ice, ideal for the kind of exacting measurements dear to astronomers and physicists. And its miles-thick glaciers are center stage for the study of one of humanity's direst environmental challenges. All that has drawn hundreds of scientists from dozens of U.S. colleges to take advantage of the brief Antarctic summer and a variety of research opportunities
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