Antarctic cold study

Press, 12 August 1980, Page 24

Antarctic cold study

PA Wellington An international team of scientists, including certain New Zealanders, will go to the Antarctic later this year to study the cold. The team will try to discover what effect temperatures of minus 40 degrees Celsius have on the human body, and study any changes in social and mental behaviour. The experiment will begin in Sydney in Octo-

ber, with preliminary tests and assessments of the British, French, Australian, New Zealand and Argentinian scientists taking part. The scientists will then travel to the Antarctic where they will spend 12 weeks living on the polar cap while additional tests are done at a base in the French territory. They will return to Sydney for final assessments, and to compile a report on the overall results to see how well they adapted to living in freezing temperatures.

Professor Tony Taylor, of the psychology department at Victoria University, said that the project was an attempt to find out more about the effects of hypothermia in a controlled experiment. It was possible that the Antarctic region would attract more than purely scientific interest in the future, and it was necessary to begin compiling facts about the environment and its effects on people who went there, Professor Taylor said.