IGY Bulletin, Number 9, March 1958 - Life sciences in the IGY

Research workers in the life sciences were encouraged to utilize access to remote regions during the IGY to pursue work in their own disciplines. Marine biology studies were conducted on all IGY oceanographic cruises. The nature of Antarctic and Arctic studies are very briefly summarized below.

Antarctic

    Dentistry. Polar expeditions had already shown dental disorders such as severe toothaches among participants (NY Times, 1956). The Navy's Bureau of Medicine and Surgery requested Navy dentists stationed at Little America and McMurdo Sound to undertake investigations.

    Human physiology. Extreme cold and long stays posed various health challenges to Antarctic personnel. Physiological measurements were to be made, comparing people who worked outside, inside, and on traverse parties.

    Psychology. Stress, isolation, and deprivation were polar psychology (Nature, 1991) issues for Antarctic personnel (and perhaps scientists were thinking ahead a few years to what astronauts might experience in other extreme environments). Records of such feelings were to be recorded via written diaries and voice recordings from workers at four IGY Antarctic stations and analyzed by the Division of Neuropsychiatry, Walter Reed Army Medical Center, and the Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery.

    Botany. The Arctic Institute of North America was to study the vegetation of Antarctica, specifically lichens.

    Animal physiology. Frozen whole specimens of Adelie and Emperor penguins were to be collected and studied for the anatomy of their respiratory systems.

    Animal migration. The annual migration of the skua is one of the animal kingdom's longest, with round-trip journeys up to 20,000 miles. It was studied by banding these birds during the IGY.

Arctic

    Sea ice studies. The physiology of frozen organisms such as bacteria, diatoms and protozoa were to be studied. Interestingly, millimeter-sized invertebrate tardigrades, or water bears, can freeze and survive, as well as be boiled alive; following the same link will tell you that frozen iguanas fall from trees but live on.

Tardigrade (World Atlas)

    Marine biology. Phytoplankton, zooplankton, and other organisms were to be sampled from drifting ice stations. Here is a video and its transcript I missed in my earlier posts about operations on top of Drift Station Alpha.