In his book Scott and Amundsen (1979) Roland Huntford described Captain Robert Falcon Scott R.N. as ‘not well thought of in the Service’ and ‘an obscure, rather dull torpedo lieutenant with mediocre prospects’. A myth has subsequently arisen that Scott was forced into Antarctic exploration as his only route to naval promotion. In reality, Scott was an extremely able officer held in high regard by his naval contemporaries; he was on course for promotion to flag rank (rear-admiral and above) had he not taken up polar exploration; and his primary motivation for polar work was financial support for his family. In addition to a chronological account of Scott's career, this article will present his Admirals’ reports in full.

Over the last three centuries, geographers, oceanographers, geophysicists, glaciologists, climatologists, and geoengineers have shown great interest in Arctic Ocean sea ice extent. Many of these experts envisaged an ice-free Arctic Ocean. This article studies three stages of that narrative: the belief in an ice-free Arctic Ocean, the potential for one, and the threat of one. Eighteenth and nineteenth century interest in accessing navigable polar sea routes energised the belief in an iceless polar sea; an early twentieth century North Hemispheric warm spell combined with mid-century cold war geostrategy to open the potential for drastic sea ice loss; and, most recently, climate models have illuminated the threat of a seasonally ice-free future, igniting widespread concerns about the impact this might have on Earth's natural and physical systems. This long narrative of an ice-free Arctic Ocean can help to explain modern-day scepticism of human-induced environmental change in the far north.

For some time, Inuit have made it clear that they wish to play a more substantial role in research with implications for themselves and their territory. To understand how researchers communicate and relate to each other, cultural analysis is often employed. Although cultural differences are relevant to understanding problems in the conduct of research, limiting differences to these realities is overly deterministic and essentialist. Many differences arising in the research process are products of social constructions found in Canadian culture and, increasingly, in Inuit communities. The paper re-examines the complexities of cross-class relations, focusing on how different relations to money, as a proxy for other relations characteristic of the capitalist mode of production, consumption and commodification, impact Inuit interaction with western-educated researchers. Using the Nanisiniq Arviat History Project in the community of Arviat, Nunavut Territory Canada, as a case study, the paper is a qualitative analysis of miscommunication resulting from cross-class differences. The Nanisiniq project was a two-year participatory action research project bringing Inuit youth and elders together to rediscover, interpret and apply knowledge of their history and culture to contemporary social issues affecting them.

The Antarctic Treaty has been the principal governing force in Antarctica since 1961. The Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty (Madrid Protocol) requires that all past and present work and waste-disposal sites are cleaned up unless doing so would cause greater environmental damage or the site is considered to be a monument of significant historical importance. Despite this requirement, legacy waste issues remain unresolved in parts of Antarctica. Clean-up operations in Antarctica are complicated by a combination of restricted access, extreme weather, financial limitations and logistical constraints. Further complications arise at sites such as Wilkes Station, where the requirement for clean-up coexists with the desire to preserve potentially valuable heritage items.

Several buildings and artefacts with potential heritage value remain at Wilkes Station. However, Wilkes Station is not officially designated as a historic site or monument under the Antarctic Treaty, nor is it a national or world heritage place under Australian domestic legislation. Consequently the buildings and relics at Wilkes Station are afforded little protection under the existing relevant domestic and international legislative frameworks.

This paper uses Wilkes Station as a case study of the complexities associated with conducting clean-up operations at contaminated sites with informal heritage value in Antarctica. The legislative and environmental considerations surrounding clean-up operations at Wilkes Station are also investigated. Furthermore, we argue the importance of a multi-disciplinary approach to operations which facilitate the clean-up of legacy waste and preservation of the potential heritage values at Wilkes. Finally, we recognise that the complexities discussed in this paper have wider applicability and we investigate the relevance of these issues to other Antarctic contaminated sites with formal or informal heritage value.

The insulin responsive glucose transporter, GLUT4 is found predominantly in muscle and adipose cells. Maratou and others (2007) reported that there is GLUT4 in white blood cells (WBC) collected from human subjects in response to insulin activation. This study was designed to validate the presence of GLUT4 in white blood cells of sled dogs and furthermore to investigate whether changes in levels of the GLUT4 protein might be associated with aging. Additionally, we examined the blood insulin concentration of two populations of dogs, young and old, before and after a meal to observe their insulin response. It is documented in skeletal muscle that GLUT4 expression is increased as a result of conditioning, making sled dogs an excellent model in the circumpolar north for studying the effects of exercise, nutrition and diabetes (Felsburg 2002; Kararli 2006). Blood was withdrawn from 11 healthy sled dogs: 6 young (1–5 years) and physically fit, conditioned for racing and 5 old (7–13 years), retired from racing. The insulin response was determined using blood plasma and ELISA. The buffy coat (containing WBC) was collected with a glass pipette after centrifugation and washed and suspended in 1x phosphate buffer. GLUT4 was measured using ELISA kits (USCN Life Sciences). The results validate that GLUT4 is present in white blood cells in sled dogs. Age had no significant effect in the concentration of GLUT4 between the populations of old and young dogs. A significant difference in insulin levels pre and post meal in young (0.13 ± 0.03 ng/mL (pre), 0.22 ± 0.04 ng/mL (post), p < 0.05) and old (0.13 ± 0.02 ng/mL (pre), 0.22 ± 0.03 ng/mL (post), p < 0.05) dogs was observed, displaying the typical postprandial insulin spike. No significant difference was found in insulin concentration comparing old versus young dogs. Our data shows that white blood cells in young (40.4 ± 2.4 ng/mL) and old (35.3 ± 8.8 ng/mL) sled dogs have quantifiable but non-significant different GLUT4 levels (p > 0.05). Detecting GLUT4 via an ELISA in white blood cells, opens up minimally invasive avenues for studying the underlying molecular mechanisms associated with insulin resistance in more complex, dynamic and physiological systems. This project was the first step in developing a protocol for this simple, technique with a potential clinical application for diagnosing insulin resistance.

Sea ice is a unique environment providing a vast habitat for a variety of life, including microscopic organisms. It accounts for roughly 5–6% of the surface area of the oceans. It is a complex porous structure of crystalline water, gas bubbles, and pockets of brine, as well as a connected structure composed of macro- and micro-porosity filled with concentrated aqueous liquids. Using micro-Raman spectroscopy, it is possible to characterise features of ice at a spatial resolution of a few to tens of micrometers, the scale of relevance to trapped microorganisms, by providing information concerning the presence and amount of molecular species present in the trapped liquids. We have applied this technique to determine the spatial distribution of sulphate, phosphate and carbonate anions in sea-ice veins using ice obtained from the vicinity of the Palmer Station, Antarctica. The observed sulphate concentrations were approximately 20–30% higher than nominal surface seawater concentrations, consistent with the concentration of brine in vein and inclusion liquids during the ice formation process. This concentration was lower than that in veins present in laboratory-prepared ice. Carbonate and dibasic phosphate anions were also observed in the sea ice. This speciation is consistent with an alkaline environment in the sea-ice aqueous system. The mean dibasic phosphate concentration found throughout the sample was 648 mM, while, for carbonate, it was 485 mM. However, these anions showed extremely high spatial variability. The high phosphate and carbonate enhancements observed relative to sulphate point to the influence of processes other than brine formation controlling the chemistry of these anions in sea ice.

With the completion of a careful study of a photographic copy of the original notebook Frederick Cook kept on his attempt to reach the North Pole in 1908, now in Copenhagen, Denmark, many new details have been added that allow a more accurate account of his actual movements and timetable than has been possible previously. Because some records were altered or destroyed by Cook, however, a complete account still necessarily contains an element of speculation, which must be the case when based on the only records that exist of an unwitnessed assertion. But this uncertainty can be controlled to a reasonable degree by the notebook's remaining content in concert with the several other accounts Cook wrote of his expedition. One thing is sure, however: Cook was far behind his published timetable. At the outset, he set his start date back by one full week. He failed to report a number of delays in his journey and left out a lengthy detour that prevented him from reaching land's end at Cape Thomas Hubbard until well past 1 April 1908. This ruled out any chance to reach the North Pole in 1908. Frederick Cook was no fool; he was a veteran explorer. He knew any attempt that late in the season would be suicide. Furthermore his efforts to lay caches that would separate his own return route from that of his Inuit support party indicate that not only had he already given up the idea of making a serious attempt, but also that he was preparing for his eventual hoax of claiming to have reached the North Pole on 21 April 1908 long before he reached the Arctic Ocean.

The Arctic Council (AC) has been accorded the status of knowledge holder and knowledge provider for the Arctic region. This paper probes the broader definition-making power of Arctic knowledge, challenging the common notion that this knowledge is value neutral. It argues that attention should be paid to the ways in which power is exercised in, and though, the various reports and assessments published under the auspices of the AC. The specific focus of the paper is human development and gender as an aspect of that development. The research analyses the Arctic Human Development Report (AHDR) in order to examine the ways in which knowledge defines human development and its agents in the Arctic. The paper draws on Foucault-inspired and feminist approaches to analyse three vocabularies of rule in particular: strength of the community, vulnerability and the need for adaptation. These vocabularies are coexistent and share an emphasis on communities. Yet, questions of gender seldom figure in them, a lack of salience that reveals the power of the partiality of knowledge. The politics of knowledge operate by placing in the foreground only certain accounts of Arctic development.

An oil spill that occurred on 21 August 1944 near the Inupiat village of Barrow on Alaska's North Slope provides the focus for a brief history of activity in the face of extreme conditions and the evolving relationship of US Navy personnel and Inupiat natives of the region. The emotional recollections of an Inupiat elder are contrasted with the growing respect of the navy personnel for the Inupiat. The economic and social effects of oil explorations towards the end of World War II and the early post-war years are briefly discussed. These events form a part of the socio-economic background of current and proposed arctic oil development.

The Armenian-Russian artist Ivan Aivazovsky completed a painting of a polar seascape entitled Ledyanyye gory [Ice mountains] in 1870. The picture has usually been taken for an Antarctic scene depicting HIMS Mirnyi, one of the two ships of the Russian Antarctic Expedition of 1819–1821, in the presence of icebergs, ice cliffs and floes. The author contends, first, that this identification is open to considerable doubt, and second, that other aspects of the painting are also problematic. The painting is in the Aivazovsky Museum in Ukraine. The Museum kindly supplied him with high resolution photographs of the painting but personal scrutiny has proved impossible hitherto. Further research, especially into Aivazovsky's papers, might resolve some of the questions which it raises.

The wreck discovered by the Victoria Strait expedition in early September (Barr 2014) has now been positively identified as that of HMS Erebus. This identification was based on a thorough analysis of the acoustic imagery (side-scan and multi-beam sonar),comparison with the plans for both Erebus and Terror from the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, visual measurements made during inspection dives by Parks Canada personnel on the site (particularly with regard to the 1845 modifications to the stern), as well as certain telling details which were captured with photo and video. The fact that Erebus was a longer and beamier vessel than Terror is readily discernible from the acoustic data. The locations of various deck fixtures such as the fore and main hatchways, forward suction pumps, bowsprit partners, deck illuminators, and ringbolts, as compared to the same fixtures shown on the plans, all offer very strong correlation with Erebus (and not Terror) (Ryan Harris, Parks Canada, personal communication, 3 November 2014).

Since at least 2001 Ken McGoogan has been claiming that in discovering Rae Strait in 1854 John Rae also discovered the final link in the northwest passage. This claim is false, in that a substantial section of the passage further north, some 240 km in length (between Bellot Strait and where James Clark Ross had found the north magnetic pole) was still undiscovered in 1854. On the basis of McGoogan's false claim Mr. Alistair Carmichael, MP for Orkney and Shetland, has been pursuing a campaign to have a corrective plaque installed near the Franklin cenotaph in Westminster Abbey to the effect that Rae, and not Franklin, discovered the northwest passage. The Dean of Westminster and the Abbey authorities have decided that a simple tablet with the words ‘John Rae; arctic explorer’ but with no further elaboration, will be installed in the Abbey near the Franklin cenotaph.

William Barr's article on John Rae presents quite the spectacle (Barr 2014). Barr paints a picture of eminent British historians, staunch defenders of Arctic orthodoxy, scurrying around to deny Rae his rightful recognition and stumbling into an abyss of self-contradiction. In their anxiety to keep Rae in his ‘proper place’ at Westminster Abbey, Barr and his friends have repudiated Sir John Franklin's claim to being the discoverer of the northwest passage – the claim they sallied forth to defend.

The thrust of my note (Barr 2014), to which Ken McGoogan was responding (McGoogan 2014), was that in discovering Rae Strait in the spring of 1854 John Rae did not discover the final link in the northwest passage, since a substantial section of that particular variant of the passage some 240 km in length (namely Franklin Strait and Larsen Sound) lying further north, had not yet been discovered. McGoogan has wrongly concluded that I must therefore support the notion that Sir John Franklin discovered the passage. This is an unwarranted assumption. I do not subscribe to this belief; in this, at least McGoogan and I are in agreement. As David Buisseret, the editor of the The Oxford companion to world exploration has elegantly defined it, geographical discovery is ‘the process by which one or more people leave their society and venture to another part of the world [. . .] then return in order to explain what they have seen’ (Buisseret 2007, I: xxiii). Neither Franklin nor any of his officers and men returned.

We regret that there were a number of minor errors in the second paragraph of the recent publication (Barr 2014)

Richard Maitland Laws (Fig. 1) died on 7 October 2014. Usually known as known as Dick Laws, his career spanned the world. From his Northumbrian upbringing his career as a zoologist took him via Cambridge University to the Southern Ocean, the cold of Antarctica, the heat of Africa, the Directorship of the British Antarctic Survey and the Mastership of a Cambridge College.

Bernard Stonehouse (Fig. 1) died on 12 November 2014 at the age of 88. Best known for his pioneering studies of penguins, Stonehouse's proud claim was that he had been pecked by all the world's 17 species except one (the Galapagos penguin Spheniscus mendiculus). He was one of the few people to have spent three consecutive years in the Antarctic and was latterly involved with the Antarctic tourist industry both as a lecturer aboard cruise ships and as leader of a long-term study on its ecological impact.