Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, January 2006. The new elevated station nears completion. NSF/USAP photo

How's the weather down there?

Join Ira and guests in this hour of Science Friday for a wintertime roundup of Antarctic science. We'll talk about the new Amundsen-Scott research base, and about the wide variety of research being done by researcher at the South Pole. Who wants to work there -- and why?

We'll check in with a researcher currently traversing Antarctica during the relatively mild polar summer, taking ice core samples for research into global climate change.

We'll also talk with scientists building an Antarctic home for a neutrino observatory called IceCube. Researchers are hoping that by using thousands of spherical photomultiplier tubes buried in deep Antarctic ice at depths of 1,450 to 2,450 meters, they will be able to detect high energy neutrinos given off by black holes, gamma ray bursters, or supernova remnants.

A researcher carefully excavates a fossilized juvenile plesiosaur on Vega Island, Antarctica. Credit: James E. Martin, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology

We'll also hear about the recent discovery of the fossil remains of a juvenile plesiosaur--a marine reptile that swam the waters of the Southern Ocean roughly 70 million years ago. The five-foot-long specimen was very well preserved, the researchers say, a fact they attribute to the fossil possibly being entombed by ash from a sudden volcanic eruption. We'll talk with one of the researchers about the challenges of digging for fossils in such a hostile environment.

Call in with your questions and comments at 1-800-989-8255 (3-4 Eastern). Teachers, find more information about using Science Friday as a classroom resource in the Kids' Connection.

Guests:
Scott Borg
Director of the Division of Antarctic Sciences
Office of Polar Programs
National Science Foundation
Arlington, Virginia

Donal Manahan
Professor of Biological Sciences
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, California

Paul A. Mayewski
Director of the Climate Change Institute
Professor, Department of Earth Sciences
University of Maine
Orono, Maine

James Martin
Paleontology Program Coordinator
Professor of Geology
SDSM&T Museum of Geology Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology
South Dakota School of Mines and Technology
Rapid City, South Dakota

Francis Halzen
Hilldale and Gregory Breit Professor
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Madison, Wisconsin

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This segment produced by Flora Lichtman