Book about fifty years of Dutch polar research

On the 8^th of March 2016 the first copy of the book ‘Door de kou bevangen. Vijftig jaar Nederlands onderzoek in de Poolgebieden’ will be offered to Stientje van Velthoven, member of the House of Representatives, at a fully booked KNAW symposium in Amsterdam. The book gives an overview of the colorful history of Dutch scientific research in both polar regions over the past fifty years. Many Dutch polar researchers contributed to the richly illustrated book.

Initiator of the book is Anita Buma. She, Annette Scheepstra - both University of Groningen - and Richard Bintanja - Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) - are the editors-in-chief.

Polar researchers tell their stories
Key objective was to let the many enthusiastic scientists tell their own stories. As a result, bird researchers explain about decades of observations of petrels on tiny Antarctic islands, or the reader is taken to desolated Siberia to learn about the melting permafrost. Also archaeological excavations on Spitsbergen, glacier research on Antarctica and plankton studies in the high seas around the Antarctic continent are discussed.

Working conditions
In addition, the researchers describe the special, sometimes amusing, but also extreme working conditions they have experienced during their research. In short, this book contains an informative but at the same time a fascinating cross-section of halfa century of Dutch research in the polar regions.