A gripping story of polar exploration written by a scientist who has devoted his entire career to identifying the growing environmental threats to these regions in an increasingly warming world.
Beautiful Scoresby Sund in Greenland
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How would you like to travel to a place that is unlike any you’ve ever visited before? A place that is so quiet, so beautiful, so pristine, that being there feels sacred? If this idea appeals to you, then you simply must accompany paleontologist and popular science writer Neil Shubin on a lifetime of expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic. In his compelling narrative, Ends of the Earth: Journeys to the Polar Regions in Search of Life, the Cosmos, and Our Future (2025; Dutton/Penguin Random House / Bookshop.org), Professor Shubin presents us with a delightful blend of science, history, memoir and travelogue, all wrapped up in surprisingly concise storytelling punctuated with several spectacular maps of the Arctic and Antarctic.
Hardback book cover: Ends of the Earth: Journeys to the Polar Regions in Search of Life, the Cosmos, and Our Future By Neil Shubin (2025; Dutton/Penguin Random House)
Dutton/Penguin Random House
If you’ve read Professor Shubin’s previous books, you will find this one is quite different to them. Rather than sharing stories about individual animal species, this captivating book focuses on the environment in the polar regions, and on some of the many unique wonders to be found there. For example, Professor Shubin describes how a pilot lands a propeller plane in an icy Antarctic valley; how his team accidentally discovers a field of dinosaur footprints that had been miraculously preserved under layers of ice, and how an individual crew member is thrilled by a kaleidoscope of blue hues whilst spelunking in an Antarctic crevasse. Professor Shubin was apparently also impressed by the qualities of ancient blue ice:
“When ultra-compact ice from the depths is brought to the surface [of a glacier], it looks like a shiny version of an aquamarine. This ice, known as blue ice, can be a torment for polar researchers. It looks like a gentle azure pool of tropical water from a distance. But looks can be deceiving. Blue ice is so frictionless that even the simplest motion becomes fraught. There is absolutely no way of getting enough traction to move on a flat patch of it. Crampons often don’t work because they cannot etch into the ice’s rock-hard surface. Snowmobiles caught on a slope of blue ice have been known to slide hundreds of feet downhill.” (p.26)
Professor Shubin also provides information on a wide variety of topics such as the environmental impact of melting glaciers; international territorial disputes over the Arctic and how they were avoided in the Antarctic; and how animals and plants adapted to survive in polar climates. I was especially interested to learn a little about the biochemistry underlying the incredible resilience of tardigrades (“water bears”). Professor Shubin also discusses some of the evidence collected from over 50,000 meteorites discovered in the Antarctic, which provide clues about the history of the universe itself.
There are eight chapters in this book (273 pages) along with a prologue and an epilogue (also; 4 pages of acknowledgments; 20 pages of chapter notes and further readings; 2 pages of illustration credits; and an 11 page index). Each chapter jumps back and forth effortlessly between the Arctic and the Antarctic, to focus on a particular shared topic such as the history of exploration in polar regions, the climactic changes that are now occurring in both polar regions and their probable effects on the rest of the planet, and other related aspects of polar science.
I do have a couple nits to pick. First, I think the book would have benefitted from some color photographs. For example, the name of Blood Falls in Antarctica (p. 48) is just so evocative that I had to look it up online to see if this was a Halloween hallucination or if it really is that red.
I also wanted to see the Arctic woolly bear caterpillar photo in color (p. 59) because they are just so darned cute, but also because the color of their fuzz varies with the caterpillar’s age, species (surprisingly, there are more than 260 species in North America alone), and how well it has fed. These caterpillars also entertain observers who buy in to the notion that their stripe patterns can predict the weather for the upcoming winter.
Ends of the Earth is a truly remarkable and readable chronicle that skilfully interweaves travel writing and history in an account brimming with surprising and wonderful scientific discoveries. Written with infectious enthusiasm and irresistible curiosity, this book is a surprisingly fast read that most people will not be able put down until they’ve finished it (I, for example, finished the entire book in less than one day). Highly recommended.
Ends of the Earth: Journeys to the Polar Regions in Search of Life, the Cosmos, and Our Future was shortlisted for the 2025 Royal Society Trivedi Science Book Prize.
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NOTE: The Royal Society purchased a hardback copy of this book for me in exchange for my honest, unbiased review. No AI tools were used in the writing or editing of this review.