Science in Extreme Environments: Where research meets exploration? (TalkScience@BL)
Channel: British Library
Date: 2015-05-11

Why do scientists work in extreme environments, and is it worth the financial and human cost? Scientists travel to the tops of mountains, the polar regions and even outer space in order to conduct experiments, make observations and set up instruments. What have we learned from doing science in extreme environments? Is what we gain worth the high financial, and sometimes human, cost? Does exploring these places also make science a vehicle through which geopolitics is played out? Do we need to explore for the sake of exploration? Scientist, author and broadcaster Dr Gabrielle Walker chairs the debate at the 28th TalkScience event. Expert speakers include Director of the British Antarctic Survey Professor Jane Francis, UCL anaesthetist and space medicine expert Dr Kevin Fong and University of Cambridge historian Dr Michael Bravo.