80 Master Minds of Modern Science 



least interesting piece of scientific work which still awaits 

 future explorers will be the completion of the evidence on 

 which these figures can be examined by a search for 

 information concerning the past and present thicknesses 

 of the ice-cap, and the determination of the areas over 

 which it is waning, together with its rate of movement 

 seaward, and the source of the snows that feed it. 



The more immediate task awaiting the scientist in the 

 Antarctic, however, is the further study of meteorological 

 conditions there. The South Polar region is the greatest 

 refrigerator of our planet, and though its effects are 

 passive compared with the sun's heat — the latter being 

 the main controller of both weather and climate on the 

 earth — Antarctic weather conditions have a very distinct 

 effect upon climate in general. Sir Edgeworth David is 

 of those who believe that long-range weather forecasts 

 may be made possible by the results of further scientific 

 investigations in the Great White South. 



