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Antarctic hero
OPINION
Antarctic hero Scott’s reputation as an explorer has taken a battering in recent years, but he deserves reappraisal for his dedication to science, says Anil Ananthaswamy OF ALL the hills I have climbed, the one I remember most vividly is Observation hill in Antarctica, a mound of volcanic rock a mere 250 metres high. It was December 2007 and the summer sky was a clear, deep blue. From the summit I could see the frozen McMurdo sound and the sprawling McMurdo Station, the US base on the Antarctic coast. In the other direction lay the Ross ice shelf, a glistening expanse of white that stretched interminably towards the horizon, beyond which lay the South Pole. Near the summit stood a large wooden cross erected in 1913, on which were etched the names of five explorers: “Capt. R. F. Scott, Dr E. A. Wilson, Capt. L. E. G. Oates, Lt. H. R. Bowers, Petty Officer E. Evans… who died on their return from the pole March 1912”. Below it was the last line of Tennyson’s poem Ulysses: “To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.” Scott’s team reached the South Pole on 17 January 1912, 100 years ago next week, only to find that Roald Amundsen had got there first. Despondent, Scott pondered the bleak return trip in his diary: “Now for the run home and a desperate struggle. I wonder if we can do it.” They couldn’t. Evans died on 17 February, weakened by a fall into a crevasse. Oates walked out of his tent into a blizzard on 16 March and was never seen again. Scott, Bowers and Wilson froze to death in their tent two weeks later. They were just 18 kilometres from a depot full of fuel and food, and just 240 kilometres from McMurdo. When a search party reached 24 | NewScientist | 14 January 2012
Scott’s tent in November, they geographic exploration. From found the three dead men, their Ross Island, the site of McMurdo diaries – and about 15 kilograms of station today, Scott’s men rocks. Had the geological samples mounted an expedition to the slowed down the team? Had magnetic South Pole. They didn’t Scott endangered his men in a reach it, but were the first to scale misguided pursuit of science? the Transantarctic mountains Such charges have been levelled and glimpse the immense East at Scott, among others, to Antarctic sheet. undermine his reputation as Science became even more of a heroic leader of men (New an obsession during Scott’s fatal Scientist, 1 October 2011, p 30). second expedition, Terra Nova Scott got a lot of things wrong, (1910-1913). In the winter of 1911 the pursuit of science wasn’t one three members of his team – of them. Science was an integral Wilson, Bowers and Apsley part of his Antarctic expeditions. “Captain Scott got a lot His first, Discovery (1901-1904), of things wrong but the was as much about charting the pursuit of science wasn’t magnetic properties of the one of them” Antarctic region as it was about
Cherry-Garrard – undertook a near-suicidal mission to find a rookery of emperor penguins. The trio trekked in almost complete darkness, often sledging in knee-deep snow and repeatedly falling into crevasses. Their sleeping bags would freeze solid, and they spent hours making them pliant enough to sleep in. All this for a few penguin eggs. Emperor penguins were thought to be primitive birds. The idea was to collect embryos and see if any vestiges of reptilian ancestry could be discerned in the various stages of development. If so, it would link reptiles to birds and make a strong case for Darwin’s theory of evolution. Sadly, the men only collected three eggs and returned frostbitten, battered and bruised. “This journey had beggared our language: no words could express its horror,” wrote Cherry-Garrard in his aptly titled memoir The Worst Journey in the World. Cherry-Garrard never fully recovered, but Bowers and Wilson rebounded to join Scott on the illfated race to the pole. Even when they discovered that they had lost, the men did not forget the scientific aims of their expedition. By early February they had reached Beardmore glacier. But instead of pressing on to the Ross ice shelf, they stopped to study a nearby moraine. Wilson sketched exposed rock formations despite his snow blindness. Scott wrote about “perpendicular cliffs of Beacon sandstone, weathering rapidly and carrying veritable coal seams.” Then they loaded up with fossils and rocks. Would they have
Comment on these stories at newscientist.com/opinion
Anil Ananthaswamy is a consultant for New Scientist
One minute with...
Isak Gerson The spiritual leader of the world’s newest religion, Kopimism, explains why he thinks copying information is holy Tell me about this new religion, Kopimism. It was founded about 15 months ago . We believe that information is holy and that the act of copying is holy. Why make a religion out of file-sharing? We see ourselves as a religious group, so a church seemed like a good way of organising ourselves. Was it hard to become an official religion? We have had this faith for several years and one day we thought, why not try and get it registered? It was quite difficult. The authorities were quite dogmatic with their formalities. It took us three tries and more than a year to get recognised. What criteria do you have to meet to become an official religion? The law states that to be a religion you have to be an organisation that practises moments of prayer or meditation in your rituals. What are the Kopimist rituals? We have a part of our religious practices where we worship the value of information by copying it. You call this “kopyacting”. Do you actually meet up in a building, like a church, to undertake these rituals? We do meet up, but it doesn’t have to be in a physical room. It could be on a server or a web page too. Do certain symbols have special significance in Kopimism? Yes. There is the “kopimi” logo, which is a K written inside a pyramid, a symbol used online to show you want to be copied. But there are also symbols that represent and encourage copying, for example, “CTRL+V” and “CTRL+C”. Why is information, and sharing it, so important to you? Information is the building block of everything around me and everything I believe in. Copying it is a way of multiplying the value of information.
Profile Isak Gerson is a philosophy student at Uppsala University, Sweden. Together with Gustav Nipe – a member of Sweden’s Pirate party – and others he has founded the Church of Kopimism, which last week was recognised as a religion by the Swedish government
What’s your stance on illegal file-sharing? I think that the copyright laws are very problematic, and at least need to be rewritten. I would suggest getting rid of most of them. How many church members are there? Around 3000. To join you just have to read our values and if you agree with them, then you can register on our website, at kopimistsamfundet.se Is there a deity associated with Kopimism? No, there isn’t. Does Kopimism have anything to say about the afterlife? Not really. As a religion we are not so focused on humans. It could be a digital afterlife. Information doesn’t really have a life. I guess it can be forgotten, but as long as it is copied it won’t be. Interview by Alison George
14 January 2012 | NewScientist | 25
Lars Johansson
made it back to the depot had they not slowed down for science? We’ll never know. But the fossils turned out to be precious. They gave scientists a glimpse into Antarctica’s past, and set in motion the spirit of scientific enquiry that is still inspired by the continent today. As Francis Spufford notes in The Antarctic, his anthology of writings about the frozen continent, “carrying [the rocks] along was, perversely, among the most forward-looking things Scott ever did. It anticipated the coming time when scientists, not explorers, would be Antarctica’s defining inhabitants; when understanding, not surviving, would be the most pressing human business there.” Today, the scope of Antarctic science is deep and broad. Ice cores drilled from its ice sheets are giving us a glimpse of our past – and our possible future in a warming world. From Observation hill you can watch the launch of NASA’s 300-metrehigh long-duration balloons, which carry 2-tonne telescopes to the edge of the atmosphere. At the South Pole you find scientific instruments galore, from radio telescopes studying the afterglow of the big bang to IceCube, which monitors a cubic kilometre of ice for neutrinos from outer space (New Scientist, 19 April 2008, p 34). Elsewhere researchers are studying sub-glacial lakes to glaciers, biology to weather. In stories of the heroic era of Antarctic exploration, when the pursuit of personal glory and national pride fuelled expeditions, Scott often comes out as second best: Amundsen was the explorer par excellence and Ernest Shackleton the brave, natural leader. But it is Scott’s legacy of scientific study that has left the most enduring mark on Antarctica. The cross on Observation hill is a poignant reminder. n
Antarctic hero Scott’s reputation as an explorer has taken a battering in recent years, but he deserves reappraisal for his dedication to science, says Anil Ananthaswamy OF ALL the hills I have climbed, the one I remember most vividly is Observation hill in Antarctica, a mound of volcanic rock a mere 250 metres high. It was December 2007 and the summer sky was a clear, deep blue. From the summit I could see the frozen McMurdo sound and the sprawling McMurdo Station, the US base on the Antarctic coast. In the other direction lay the Ross ice shelf, a glistening expanse of white that stretched interminably towards the horizon, beyond which lay the South Pole. Near the summit stood a large wooden cross erected in 1913, on which were etched the names of five explorers: “Capt. R. F. Scott, Dr E. A. Wilson, Capt. L. E. G. Oates, Lt. H. R. Bowers, Petty Officer E. Evans… who died on their return from the pole March 1912”. Below it was the last line of Tennyson’s poem Ulysses: “To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.” Scott’s team reached the South Pole on 17 January 1912, 100 years ago next week, only to find that Roald Amundsen had got there first. Despondent, Scott pondered the bleak return trip in his diary: “Now for the run home and a desperate struggle. I wonder if we can do it.” They couldn’t. Evans died on 17 February, weakened by a fall into a crevasse. Oates walked out of his tent into a blizzard on 16 March and was never seen again. Scott, Bowers and Wilson froze to death in their tent two weeks later. They were just 18 kilometres from a depot full of fuel and food, and just 240 kilometres from McMurdo. When a search party reached 24 | NewScientist | 14 January 2012
Scott’s tent in November, they geographic exploration. From found the three dead men, their Ross Island, the site of McMurdo diaries – and about 15 kilograms of station today, Scott’s men rocks. Had the geological samples mounted an expedition to the slowed down the team? Had magnetic South Pole. They didn’t Scott endangered his men in a reach it, but were the first to scale misguided pursuit of science? the Transantarctic mountains Such charges have been levelled and glimpse the immense East at Scott, among others, to Antarctic sheet. undermine his reputation as Science became even more of a heroic leader of men (New an obsession during Scott’s fatal Scientist, 1 October 2011, p 30). second expedition, Terra Nova Scott got a lot of things wrong, (1910-1913). In the winter of 1911 the pursuit of science wasn’t one three members of his team – of them. Science was an integral Wilson, Bowers and Apsley part of his Antarctic expeditions. “Captain Scott got a lot His first, Discovery (1901-1904), of things wrong but the was as much about charting the pursuit of science wasn’t magnetic properties of the one of them” Antarctic region as it was about
Cherry-Garrard – undertook a near-suicidal mission to find a rookery of emperor penguins. The trio trekked in almost complete darkness, often sledging in knee-deep snow and repeatedly falling into crevasses. Their sleeping bags would freeze solid, and they spent hours making them pliant enough to sleep in. All this for a few penguin eggs. Emperor penguins were thought to be primitive birds. The idea was to collect embryos and see if any vestiges of reptilian ancestry could be discerned in the various stages of development. If so, it would link reptiles to birds and make a strong case for Darwin’s theory of evolution. Sadly, the men only collected three eggs and returned frostbitten, battered and bruised. “This journey had beggared our language: no words could express its horror,” wrote Cherry-Garrard in his aptly titled memoir The Worst Journey in the World. Cherry-Garrard never fully recovered, but Bowers and Wilson rebounded to join Scott on the illfated race to the pole. Even when they discovered that they had lost, the men did not forget the scientific aims of their expedition. By early February they had reached Beardmore glacier. But instead of pressing on to the Ross ice shelf, they stopped to study a nearby moraine. Wilson sketched exposed rock formations despite his snow blindness. Scott wrote about “perpendicular cliffs of Beacon sandstone, weathering rapidly and carrying veritable coal seams.” Then they loaded up with fossils and rocks. Would they have
Comment on these stories at newscientist.com/opinion
Anil Ananthaswamy is a consultant for New Scientist
One minute with...
Isak Gerson The spiritual leader of the world’s newest religion, Kopimism, explains why he thinks copying information is holy Tell me about this new religion, Kopimism. It was founded about 15 months ago . We believe that information is holy and that the act of copying is holy. Why make a religion out of file-sharing? We see ourselves as a religious group, so a church seemed like a good way of organising ourselves. Was it hard to become an official religion? We have had this faith for several years and one day we thought, why not try and get it registered? It was quite difficult. The authorities were quite dogmatic with their formalities. It took us three tries and more than a year to get recognised. What criteria do you have to meet to become an official religion? The law states that to be a religion you have to be an organisation that practises moments of prayer or meditation in your rituals. What are the Kopimist rituals? We have a part of our religious practices where we worship the value of information by copying it. You call this “kopyacting”. Do you actually meet up in a building, like a church, to undertake these rituals? We do meet up, but it doesn’t have to be in a physical room. It could be on a server or a web page too. Do certain symbols have special significance in Kopimism? Yes. There is the “kopimi” logo, which is a K written inside a pyramid, a symbol used online to show you want to be copied. But there are also symbols that represent and encourage copying, for example, “CTRL+V” and “CTRL+C”. Why is information, and sharing it, so important to you? Information is the building block of everything around me and everything I believe in. Copying it is a way of multiplying the value of information.
Profile Isak Gerson is a philosophy student at Uppsala University, Sweden. Together with Gustav Nipe – a member of Sweden’s Pirate party – and others he has founded the Church of Kopimism, which last week was recognised as a religion by the Swedish government
What’s your stance on illegal file-sharing? I think that the copyright laws are very problematic, and at least need to be rewritten. I would suggest getting rid of most of them. How many church members are there? Around 3000. To join you just have to read our values and if you agree with them, then you can register on our website, at kopimistsamfundet.se Is there a deity associated with Kopimism? No, there isn’t. Does Kopimism have anything to say about the afterlife? Not really. As a religion we are not so focused on humans. It could be a digital afterlife. Information doesn’t really have a life. I guess it can be forgotten, but as long as it is copied it won’t be. Interview by Alison George
14 January 2012 | NewScientist | 25
Lars Johansson
made it back to the depot had they not slowed down for science? We’ll never know. But the fossils turned out to be precious. They gave scientists a glimpse into Antarctica’s past, and set in motion the spirit of scientific enquiry that is still inspired by the continent today. As Francis Spufford notes in The Antarctic, his anthology of writings about the frozen continent, “carrying [the rocks] along was, perversely, among the most forward-looking things Scott ever did. It anticipated the coming time when scientists, not explorers, would be Antarctica’s defining inhabitants; when understanding, not surviving, would be the most pressing human business there.” Today, the scope of Antarctic science is deep and broad. Ice cores drilled from its ice sheets are giving us a glimpse of our past – and our possible future in a warming world. From Observation hill you can watch the launch of NASA’s 300-metrehigh long-duration balloons, which carry 2-tonne telescopes to the edge of the atmosphere. At the South Pole you find scientific instruments galore, from radio telescopes studying the afterglow of the big bang to IceCube, which monitors a cubic kilometre of ice for neutrinos from outer space (New Scientist, 19 April 2008, p 34). Elsewhere researchers are studying sub-glacial lakes to glaciers, biology to weather. In stories of the heroic era of Antarctic exploration, when the pursuit of personal glory and national pride fuelled expeditions, Scott often comes out as second best: Amundsen was the explorer par excellence and Ernest Shackleton the brave, natural leader. But it is Scott’s legacy of scientific study that has left the most enduring mark on Antarctica. The cross on Observation hill is a poignant reminder. n