Tonight I'm going to talk to you about that remarkable continent Antarctica - remote, hostile and at present uninhabited on a permanent basis.

今晚我将和你们聊聊这块特别的大陆，南极洲——偏远，恶劣，而且目前没有常住居民。

For early explorers, it was the ultimate survival contest; for researchers like me, it remains a place of great intellectual challenge; while for the modern tourist, it's simply a wilderness of great beauty.

对于早期的探险家，这里是终极的生存竞赛；对于像我这样的研究者，它仍是对智力有着巨大挑战的地方；而对于现代的旅游者，这里只是大美的荒原。

First, some facts and figures.

首先，一些事实和数据。

Antarctica is a place of extremes - the highest, coldest and windiest continent and over fifty-eight times the size of the UK.

南极洲是一块极端的地区——最高、最冷、风最大的陆地，是英国面积的58倍。

The ice-cap contains almost 70% of the world's fresh water and 90% of its ice, but with very low snowfall, most of the continent technically falls unbelievably into the category of 'desert'!

冰盖里含有世界上70%的淡水，以及90%的冰，但是由于降雪量极低，大部分陆地从技术上被难以置信的归为“沙漠”！

Huge icebergs break off the continent each year, while in winter half the surrounding ocean freezes over, which means its size almost doubles.

每年巨大的冰山将陆地分隔开来，而在冬天，周围一半的海洋会冰冻起来，这就意味着它的面积几乎要翻倍。

Research and exploration has been going on in Antarctica for more than two hundred years, and has involved scientists from many different countries, who work together on research stations.

在南极洲的研究和探索已经进行了200多年，已经涉及到了来自很多不同国家的科学家，他们一起在科考站工作。

Here science and technical support have been integrated in a very cost-effective way - our Antarctic research programme has several summers-only stations and two all-year-round ones; I was based on one of the all-year-round ones.

在这里，科学和技术支持通过低成本的方式结合在一起——我们的南极洲研究项目有几个夏季的科考站和两个全年科考站；我在一个全年科考站里。

The research stations are really self-contained communities of about twenty people.

这个科考站的确是个有着20人的自给自足的社区。

There's living and working space, a kitchen with a huge food store, a small hospital and a well-equipped gym to ensure everyone keeps fit in their spare time.

这里有生活和工作区域，有着巨大的食物储备的厨房，一个小型医院，和一个设施完备的健身房，以确保大家在业余时间可以保持体形。

The station generates its own electricity and communicates with the outside world using a satellite link.

科考站自己发电，并利用卫星连接和外部世界沟通。

Our station - Zero One - had some special features.

我们的工作站——零一号——有一些特别的特色。

It wasn't built on land but on an ice-shelf, hundreds of metres thick.

它不是盖在陆地上，而是在厚达几百米的冰架上。

Supplies were brought to us on large sledges from a ship fifteen kilometres away at the ice edge.

我们通过用雪橇把轮船上的供给送过来，这些轮船停靠在15公里开外的冰盖边缘。

Living in the Antarctic hasn't always been so comfortable.

居住在南极洲并不是一直都这么舒服。

Snow build-ups caused enormous problems for four previous stations on the same site, which were buried and finally crushed by the weight.

积雪堆积对处在同一地区的前四个科考站造成了巨大的问题，它们被积雪覆盖，并最终因为不堪重负而被压塌。

Fortunately no-one was hurt, but these buildings became a huge challenge to architects who finally came up with a remarkable solution - the buildings are placed on platforms which can be raised above the changing snow level on legs which are extendable.

幸运的是，谁都没有受伤，但是这些房屋给建筑师造成了巨大的挑战，他们最终想到了一个特别的解决办法——这些建筑都背放到了一个平台上，这个平台可以通过调节可伸缩的支腿来被托举到不断变化的雪层之上。

Food is one of the most important aspects of survival in a polar climate.

食物是在极地气候中生存的一个重要因素。

People living there need to obtain a lot more energy from their food, both to keep warm and to undertake heavy physical work.

住在那里的人需要从食物中获得多得多的能量，即为了保暖也为了承担繁重的体力工作。

Maybe you know that an adult in the UK will probably need about 1,700 kilocalories a day on average; someone in Antarctica will need about 3,500 - just over double!

也许你知道一名英国成人平均每天大概需要1700大卡，而在南极的人需要差不多3500大卡——几乎都翻番了！

This energy is provided by foods which are high in carbohydrate and fat.

这些能量由富含碳水化合物和脂肪的食物提供。

Rations for fieldwork present an additional problem.

户外工作时的食品定量引出了另外一个问题。

They need to provide maximum energy, but they must also be compact and light for easy transport.

这些食物要提供最大的能量，但同时它们要小巧轻便便于运输。

Special boxes are prepared, each containing enough food for one person for twenty days.

于是我们准备了特别的餐盒，每一份都含有足够的食物供一个人用20天。

You may be familiar with coffee processed by freeze-drying, which preserves the quality of the food product while making a large saving in weight - well, this type of presentation is ideal in our situation.

你们可能对于咖啡的冷冻干燥技术很熟悉，这样既可以保存食物的品质，又可以大大减轻重量——那么，这种方式对于我们的状况是再理想不过的了。

It wasn't available to earlier polar explorers, whose diet was commonly insufficient for their health.

对于早期的极地探险家这是没有的，所以他们的食物通常并不能满足他们的健康需求。

I think that being at the cutting edge of science has a special appeal for everyone working in Antarctica, in whatever capacity.

我想在科学的最前沿对每一个在南极工作的人都有着特殊的魅力，不论能力大小。

As a marine biologist, my own research was fascinating; but it's perhaps climate change research that is the most crucial field of study.

作为一名海洋生物学家，我自己的研究很令人陶醉，但是可能气候变化的研究才是最重要的研究领域。

Within this general field, surveying changes in the volume and stability of the ice-cap is vital, since these may have profound effects on world sea levels and on ocean currents.

在这个区域内，有关冰盖的体积和稳定性的研究是十分重要的，因为这个可能对世界的海平面和洋流有着深远的影响。

A second important area is monitoring the size of the hole in the ozone layer above Antarctica, since this is an indicator of global ultra-violet radiation levels.

第二个重要的领域是检测南极上空的臭氧层空洞的大小，因为这个对全球的紫外线辐射水平有着指示的作用。

Thirdly, bubbles in the ice-sheet itself provide an index of pollution because frozen inside them are samples of previous atmospheres over the past 500,000 years, and these provide us with evidence for the effects of such human activities as agriculture and industry.

第三，冰层中间的气泡提供给我们了污染的指数，因为冻在其中的空气可能是过去500，000年的气体样本，这可以提供给我们人类活动造成的影响的证据，比如农业和工业。

There are an increasing number of opportunities for young people to work for a period in Antarctica - not only as research assistants in projects like mine, but also in a wide range of junior administrative and technical positions including vacancies for map-makers.

现在有越来越多针对年轻人在这里工作一段时间的机会，不仅仅是作为像我的项目这样的研究助理，还有很多各种各样的初级行政和技术职位，包括像地图制作者的空位。

I hope that the insights I've provided will encourage you to take up these opportunities in this fascinating continent.

我希望我提供给你们的深入信息可以鼓励你们抓住这些来自于这片神奇大陆的机会。