Captain Scott: South for Science

About

There was much more to Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s 1910-13 British Antarctic Expedition than an attempt on the South Pole. It was a scientific expedition.

The expedition is best remembered for the tragedy which befell Scott and his four companions on the return journey. One hundred years ago, on 17 January 1912, five men reached the South Pole after labouring for 78 days across 800 miles of Antarctic ice. They had hoped to be the first, but a Norwegian team had beaten them by a month.

All five died on the return journey, and as a result the expedition has long been regarded as the classic example of British heroic failure. But there was much more to Scott's expedition than this.
Teams of scientists explored this last great frontier, bringing back new knowledge of the continent's rocks, weather and wildlife. Parties of geologists surveyed and mapped unknown lands. Biologists studied and collected penguins, eggs and seals, and dredged the sea floor. Meteorologists recorded the weather and atmospheric conditions. Physicists researched the formation of ice and the movement of glaciers.

The expedition laid the foundations of modern Antarctic science.