Science at the Extreme: Scientists on the Cutting Edge of Technology - Tapa dura

Science At the Extreme profiles a breed of scientists who don't wear lab coats or hover over test tubes and formulas. What sets these researchers apart from their more sedentary peers is what they do in the field: They hand from suspension bridges, climb the world's tallest trees, and crawl through narrow shafts into the deepest bowels of the earth. They swim with great white sharks, wade with crocodiles, rappel into active volcanoes, and scuba dive inside creaking glacial caves, gathering data in perilous, unforgiving places. "Extreme Science," as I've dubbed this new style of research, is defined by a simple, time-honored principle: Screw up, and you die.

The experiences of nine extreme scientists show that there is a special breed of scientists that will go anywhere, from scuba diving in crushing glaciers to hanging from suspension bridges, to get the data they need.