Hi! I'm L. Shelby, author of the story "Frozen Witness" which is a part of the POLARIS anthology of science fiction stories that came out as a part of the International Polar Year celebration. I've been asked to demonstrate how science fiction allowed me to explore polar science. To me that feels a little backward, I usually think of this story as an example of how polar science allowed me to explore science fiction.

It doesn't usually surprise people to learn that I do science research before writing science fiction stories. But it often surprises people to know that I do just as much research when I'm writing fantasy. I had been looking for books on animals to use as research for a fantasy story with a wilderness setting, when I happened on the book "Winter World" by Bernd Heinrich. This is a book that talks about how various animals adapt to seasonal changes -- most particularly, severe cold. The book was full of useful details I could use to flesh out the background for my fantasy, but one incident described in the book made a special impression on me. "That is just so cool!" I said. (I don't know about anyone else, but reading about science often makes me say "that is just so cool". In fact, although I'm also very fond of pirates, dragons and true love, I happen to think science is one of the coolest subjects out there.) Then I went one step further and said "And wouldn't it be even cooler if..." And that, as every writer knows, meant I had a new story idea on my hands.

You are all probably wondering what I thought was so cool. Unfortunately I ended up writing a detective story and I don't want to give away any clues, but you can probably deduce that the story has something to do with animals... and cold. The coldest places on earth are the poles, so I started reading about them. I read about polar expeditions to get a feel for what it takes for people to live in that sort of environment. I read about the history of Antarctica and how the glaciers have scoured away all evidence of the flourishing inland ecosystem it used to have, and most especially I read about polar animals. Animals like polar bears -- the biggest, strongest, most kick-butt characters in the frozen north, but because life is so hard up there, they still survive mainly by using their wits.

This is a science blog and I guess I'm supposed to be calling polar bears apex predators instead of kick-butt characters, but I'm a writer and I think of animals in more writerly terms. There are the heroic-type animal characters who live and die by their speed, strength or other physical abilities, and there are the trickster-type animal characters that survive by sneaking, thieving, deceiving and outwitting, and then there are cannon fodder animal characters who come in countless hordes each with nothing to live on but the hope they'll be lucky and make it all the way to the last page. Polar ecologies have all these characters in them, (and lots of others,) every one with its own special powers that allow it to survive in an environment that can kill a human in minutes. Special anti-cold super powers like solar energy conducting fur, overactive metabolisms, internal antifreeze, built-in thermal underwear, and suspended animation.

Super powered animals are cool. But wouldn't it be even cooler if...