{"id":11011,"date":"2017-10-25T11:18:52","date_gmt":"2017-10-25T09:18:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.embl.de\/?p=11011"},"modified":"2025-07-14T12:51:52","modified_gmt":"2025-07-14T10:51:52","slug":"science-from-ice-simon-sheldon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/people-perspectives\/science-from-ice-simon-sheldon\/","title":{"rendered":"Science from ice"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
It\u2019s the weekend. You\u2019re in a tent and there\u2019s a storm blowing outside. A snowstorm. It\u2019s been going on for nearly five days. There are snowdrifts taller than you are, although the visibility\u2019s so low you can barely see them. You\u2019re on Flade Isblink \u2013 an ice cap nine degrees from the North Pole. Help, if you need it, has to come from a military base 50 km away. The wind speed is 40 mph, the temperature is -12 \u00b0C, your tents are collapsing to left and right, and the last of your three generators has just packed up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is how things looked for EMBL alumnus Simon Sheldon on 21 May 2006, when he was one of a team of nine on an ice core drilling expedition to Greenland. When the weather turned harsh, their generators began breaking down as a result of various manufacturing faults and the intake of snow into the air inlets. Despite a series of repairs, by the fifth day of the storm they had no working generators. They ended up using two Primus stoves to heat the main tent while they salvaged parts from two generators to make one working one. \u201cWe had one tent that was just full of engine parts everywhere,\u201d says Sheldon. \u201cA few of us got covered in oil up to our elbows, and with such a limited supply of water there was no chance of washing it off.\u201d Finally they managed to restore power, and within two days the weather calmed, becoming relatively mild for Greenland. He can smile about it now, but at the time it wasn\u2019t clear how things would turn out. \u201cIt was never a life or death situation,\u201d he explains, \u201cbut it was tough. We came pretty close to abandoning the project.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I first stood on the ice it was an incredible feeling. I couldn\u2019t believe I\u2019d finally got there<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Sheldon has spent more than a year and a half of his life in the polar regions \u2013 a total of 550 days spread over fourteen years. Based at the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen, he currently runs a laboratory in the field of quantum technology, but until May 2017 he worked as an engineer on ice core drilling projects in Greenland and Antarctica. This role took him to Greenland twelve times and Antarctica three times, for periods ranging from just over a week up to three months. His focus was primarily on developing drilling technology and the instrumentation for analysing ice core samples. He also built up expertise in field operations, dealing with things like the logistics of getting teams into the field, setting up camp, and using satellite and radio communications. \u201cI enjoy planning operations, trying to recognise where problems can occur and reducing the chances of them happening,\u201d he says. \u201cBut in the field, things always take you by surprise. There\u2019s always something that breaks, something that\u2019s been working for years and then suddenly gives up. There\u2019s a lot of \u2013 shall we say \u2013 excitement from a technical point of view.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Onto the ice<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Casey Station on the Antarctic coast is around 15,800 km from Sheldon’s office at the Niels Bohr Institute. At this point he still needs to travel 550 km inland for his next field operation. PHOTO: Simon Sheldon<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Sheldon first became curious about travelling to Antarctica when he was a teenager. It was a combination of two things: one was watching films and reading stories about the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, such as Shackleton\u2019s failed attempt to cross Antarctica in 1914, and the daring rescue mission that followed. Another was a fascination with the idea of going to a place that had been visited by relatively few people, and getting to live in a real survival situation in a harsh environment. \u201cI\u2019d always enjoyed camping,\u201d says Sheldon, \u201cand this seemed like camping taken to the ultimate extreme.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For a long time, it was just an idea. Not something he believed would ever be part of real life. After studying applied physics at university he began working for a company called Cambridge Instruments, developing technologies for electron microscopy and electron beam lithography. In 1993 he made the move to EMBL in Heidelberg, joining the group of Max Haider where he worked on techniques to improve electron microscopy images. He also met his future wife, EMBL alumna Susanne L\u00f8nstrup. After a few years they left to settle in Susanne\u2019s home country of Denmark. Sheldon spent six months refurbishing an old farmhouse they\u2019d bought there, before taking up a position in the Geophysics department at the Niels Bohr Institute. He joined an engineering team focused on improving ice core drilling equipment for the recovery of scientific-quality ice cores, and designing instrumentation for analysing ice core samples. He was 36 when he visited Antarctica for the first time. \u201cWhen I first stood on the ice it was an incredible feeling,\u201d he says. \u201cI couldn\u2019t believe I\u2019d finally got there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Warm atmosphere<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
In the 2013\u201314 austral summer, Sheldon was working in Antarctica as part of an Australian-led operation at Aurora Basin North. Returning from a break, he saw the principal investigator drop part of an ice core, shattering it. \u201cIf you consider the amount of time and effort you put in personally, and the costs involved in sending a team to Antarctica and running these drilling operations, the value of these ice cores is tens of thousands of euros per metre,\u201d Sheldon explains. \u201cSo when I saw him drop this piece of ice, it was horrifying.\u201d It turned out that his colleague had made a fake ice core by freezing water in a bag, so it was all an elaborate joke. \u201cI was so devastated, he couldn\u2019t keep up the pretence for more than a minute or so before he had to tell me,\u201d says Sheldon. \u201cBut immediately I could see the funny side \u2013 it was a very good prank.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lighter moments like this provide a welcome balance to the hard work of being in the field, which often involves working twelve or more hours per day in very tough conditions. The work of people like Sheldon and his colleagues serves a serious purpose too. The ice cores they collect play a vital role in studies of ancient climate, allowing scientists to better understand the interactions between atmospheric composition and the Earth\u2019s temperature, and to refine models of current climate change. Sheldon\u2019s group has also collaborated with researchers such as Eske Willerslev, an evolutionary geneticist whose work has involved extracting ancient DNA from the bottom of ice cores, where they make contact with the underlying rock. Willerslev\u2019s research<\/a> has revealed a warmer past in southern Greenland several hundred thousand years ago, with various insect species crawling and buzzing amid forests of conifer trees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"Casey](\"https:\/\/news.embl.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/171024-Casey-Station-274x300.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/news.embl.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Curiosity_150x150.jpg\")
Curiosity is a profoundly human trait. We start asking questions almost as soon as we learn to speak and continuously redefine our understanding of the world by questioning it. This is the driving force behind science, technology, engineering and maths. As part of our curiosity editorial theme, we are exploring what EMBL is curious about.<\/p>\n