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Scientists living on the edge!

Part researcher, part intrepid explorer, the line between the two can be a thin one…

Glaciologists roped up on the Astrolabe "school" glacier in Antarctica
Glaciologists roped up on the Astrolabe "school" glacier in Antarctica

© Thibaut VERGOZ / IPEV / LGGE / CNRS Images

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Some scientists really are adventurers in the realms of knowledge. From the depths of the oceans to the summits of the Himalayas, from the heart of the Amazon rainforest to the vastness of the Antarctic, scientists have been known to travel to the very ends of the world in their quest for knowledge! They have endured great physical and psychological hardship to install measurement instruments, gather data and carry out experiments. Here we focus on researchers whose exploits rival those of many a great explorer.

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Erwane Amice and Laurent Chauvaud, photographers and divers at the CNRS, discover the seabed near the French Antarctic base of Dumont d'Urville. They photograph the underwater polar fauna and flora which, in contrast to the surface, are very rich. In particular, they study scallops and date the marks on the surface of their shell, the chemical contents of the shell which are used as tracers to obtain information about sea water (salinity, temperature).

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- 2° C under the ice
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Mount Merapi is one of the permanently active volcanos on the island of Java, with a dense population living and working on its very fertile slopes. Every year since 1977, French specialists under the direction of Haroun Tazieff have come to sound the volcano and monitor changes.

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Gunung Merapi
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On Lake Titicaca, between Bolivia and Peru, the Pachamama mission researchers study the changes and transformations of pollutants in order to better hinder their mutations and reduce their poisonous impact on the environment. They focused on methylmercury, the most toxic form of mercury. It poisons molluscs and small animals that feed on the biofilms present on the totora (reeds that have been exploited for centuries by local populations), then their predators, thus infecting every link in the…

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Mercury Hunters of the Altiplano (The)

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Our work is guided by the way scientists question the world around them and we translate their research into images to help people to understand the world better and to awaken their curiosity and wonderment.