NDSU researchers Allan Ashworth and Adam Lewis appeared in a live webcast from McMurdo Station in Antarctica on Dec. 14 to discuss major scientific discoveries made during the filming of the documentary “Ice People.” The film also was screened at the San Francisco Exploratorium. Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Anne Aghion attended both screenings. The live webcast is archived and available at www.exploratorium.edu/webcasts/index.php by clicking on “Ice Stories: Conversations with Ice People Scientists.”
An international team of scientists headed up by NDSU geoscientists Ashworth, Lewis and David Marchant, an earth scientist at Boston University, combined evidence from glacial geology, paleoecology, dating of volcanic ashes and computer modeling to report a major climate change centered on 14 million years ago. The scientists often spend months living in tents in the Transantarctic Mountains’ Dry Valleys doing their research. Ashworth, a university distinguished professor of geosciences; Lewis, assistant professor of geosciences; and NDSU student Spencer Salmon currently are conducting field research in Antarctica.
Documentary filmmaker Aghion spent four months at the U.S. research station McMurdo, and camped out for seven weeks with Ashworth and his research crew as they studied fossilized vegetation in Antarctic lakebeds. The film “Ice People” has been screened at science museums and film festivals in Australia, Vancouver, New York, Paris, San Francisco and Jerusalem. “The movie … gives viewers a glimpse of a side of science that is rarely seen,” according to Edyta Zielinska, The Scientist.com. The film is scheduled to be part of the Fargo Film Festival in March 2009.