Science at the Extreme by Peter Lane Taylor, McGraw Hill, $29.95, ISBN
0071354190
A LAB is not the only arena for research. There are plenty of scientists out
there who are more than willing to risk death for discovery. These addicts of
derring-do are the subject of Peter Lane Taylor’s Science at the
Extreme. A writer, photographer and explorer, Taylor tracks down the most
dangerous pursuits in science, and finds nine of the pursuers.
Hugo Delgado Granados, a Mexican vulcanologist, is one. Taylor tells how he
and Granados made the highest crater landing in history on one of the world’s
tallest volcanoes, travelling by helicopter to the “death zone” of
Citlaltépetl near Mexico City. In a nail-biting narrative he relates how
the helicopter paused on a snowfield in high winds just long enough for both to
scramble out.
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The aim of all this strenuous activity was to discover why the glacial ice on
the volcano’s shoulders is melting. Granados was, in effect, taking the pulse of
the volcano. Is it melting because of atmospheric pollution, global warming, or
is Citlaltépetl waking up from a 500-year sleep? If so, Granados’s data
may give people living nearby enough warning to escape an eruption.
A head for heights also comes in handy for the ornithologists Taylor follows.
The peregrine falcons living round the San Francisco Bay area nest in
skyscrapers and bridge struts—perfect substitutes for rocky cliffs, as far
as they’re concerned. So Taylor finds himself hanging with the experts high up
under the bridges spanning the bay, as they retrieve eggs and fledglings to be
introduced to the wild.
Not all of Taylor’s scientists reach for the skies. Some succumb to the lure
of the deep, sinking holes in the soft limestone of Florida’s underwater caves.
Here, speleologist George Irvine dives in search of isolated ecosystems and
unknown species. It’s a deadly business: these caves have claimed the lives of
roughly one diver every six weeks over the past 40 years. So what’s driving
Irvine and his colleagues? As Irvine tells Taylor, “Information and data
gathered at 14 000 feet in an underwater cave might as well be from the surface
of Pluto.”
Taylor’s breathtaking photographs add to his very readable account of science
in extreme conditions. You’ll find images of glacial ice caves in Switzerland,
hot sulphur springs and white sharks. All over the world, the great white shark
is killed as soon as it’s spotted. But what will happen when the top predator
becomes extinct?
The effect this would have on ocean biodiversity is an intriguing question
for marine biologists like Craig Ferreira, who’s leading what Taylor describes
as a “feeding frenzy of research” off the coast of South Africa. Here, there’s a
narrow strait off Gansbaai called Shark Alley. Great white sharks swarm through
these waters—one of only three such meeting places in the world—to
feed all year round on the extraordinary abundance of fish. Here you’ll find
Ferreira and his team in shark cages, observing the great whites. Once they had
it all to themselves. Now it’s part of a weird “tourist” boom, which Ferreira
thinks is quite dangerous as the sharks might end up associating the plentiful
food—juicy shoals of bonito and yellow tail—with the presence of
humans.
Who’s going to enjoy this book? Armchair adventurers and anyone fascinated by
unconventional science need look no further. The photographs are stunning, and
Taylor spins some readable tales. Explorers are a rare species, definitely worth
a preservation order in their own right.
