Science at the Extreme

There are some pressing scientific questions that just cannot be answered in the laboratory, and thus a special breed of scientists is exploring some very out-of-the-way places - and risking their lives - to do what is called extreme science. They hang from suspension bridges, climb the tallest trees on Earth, extract venom from lethal snakes, scuba dive into the crushing cores of moving glaciers, and explore the burning caldrons of volcanoes. In the tradition of the great naturalist-explorers, these bold searchers are working at the cutting edge of discovery, where there is no substitute for first-hand experience, no computer models or controlled experiments that will give them the data they need - and no room for mistakes.