This story originally appeared in bioGraphic, an online magazine about nature and sustainability powered by the California Academy of Sciences At 3 a.m. on December 31, 2019, the clouds hung low over Thwaites Ice Shelf, on the remote coast of Antarctica. A line of small tents reached into the distance, each flanked by a windbreak of snow blocks, though the air was still. The wan light left no shadows, and no clear horizon between the sky and the white plain that stretched out in all directions. The tents’ 11 residents…
