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34-574: The Halley Bay Important Bird Area with its emperor penguin colony lies in the vicinity of the base. Halley Bay base was founded in 1956, for the International Geophysical Year of 1957–1958, by an expedition from the Royal Society . The bay where the expedition decided to set up their base was named after the astronomer Edmond Halley . Taken over by FIDS (subsequently BAS), it was designated as Base Z. The name

68-576: A more light-hearted approach, though the subjects it covers remain serious. For instance, an episode broadcast in 2019 entitled "We Need To Talk About Death" features Kevin Fong talking to palliative care clinician Mark Taubert and some of his patients who are facing terminal illness. The down-side to Horizon ' s recent focus on "Pure Science, Sheer Drama" and the occasionally forced narrative this engenders has led to some accusations of dumbing down in recent years, with one former editor writing

102-537: A newspaper article about how the programme concentrates too much on human stories, and not enough on the science. One programme "Chimps are people too" was entirely presented by a non-scientist, Danny Wallace . Editor Andrew Cohen addressed the reasons why the programme went down this route on the Horizon web page. In October 2014, a three-part special – "Cat Watch: the New Horizon Experiment" –

136-466: A plumber, a field assistant, two electronics engineers, a meteorologist and a data manager. In addition there was a winter station leader who was sworn in as a magistrate prior to deployment and whose main role was to oversee the day-to-day management of the station. 1996 saw the first female winterers at Halley. In 2006, five out of sixteen winterers were women. Life in Antarctica is dominated by

170-450: A series called The Secret Life of Cats ; but don't insult the history of television by branding it, however obliquely, as a Horizon ". In the period of "Pure Science, Sheer Drama", Horizon won an unprecedented series of the world's top awards, including a BAFTA , an Emmy for Best Documentary, a Royal Television Society Award and a Grierson Trust Award. Other Emmy winning programmes are: "Chernobyl's Sarcophagus" (1991), "Assault on

204-625: A workshop for technical services. There are six external science cabooses which house scientific equipment for each experiment spread across the site and the Clean Air Sector Laboratory (CASLab) 1 km (0.62 mi) from the station. An architectural design competition was launched by RIBA Competitions and the British Antarctic Survey in June 2004 to provide a new design for Halley VI. The competition

238-472: A year-long fellowship with the BBC, was inspired to create an American program based on the same model . Since the early 1990s, Horizon has developed a distinctive narrative form, typically employing an underlying "detective" metaphor, to relate scientific issues and discoveries to the lives of its viewers. Many episodes of Horizon are structured in a format that starts with a tease or menu laying out what

272-413: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Horizon (UK TV series) Horizon is an ongoing and long-running British documentary television series on BBC Two that covers science and philosophy . The programme was first broadcast on 2 May 1964 with "The World of Buckminster Fuller", which explored the theories and structures of inventor Richard Buckminster Fuller and included

306-542: Is a string of eight modules which, like Halley V, are jacked up on hydraulic legs to keep it above the accumulation of snow. Unlike most of Halley V, there are retractable giant skis on the bottom of these legs, which allow the building to be relocated periodically. The Drewry summer accommodation building and the garage from Halley V were dragged to the Halley VI location and continue to be used. The Workshop and Storage Platform (WASP) provides storage for field equipment and

340-453: Is done in less than two weeks. The Halley summer season runs from as early as mid-October when the first plane lands, until early March when the ship has left and the last aircraft leaves, visiting Rothera Research Station before heading to South America. Significant dates in the winter are sundown (last day when the Sun can be seen) on April 29, midwinter on June 21 and sunrise (first day when

374-473: The Horizon mission statement: "The aim of Horizon is to provide a platform from which some of the world's greatest scientists and philosophers can communicate their curiosity, observations and reflections, and infuse into our common knowledge their changing views of the universe". Horizon continues to be broadcast on BBC Two , and in 2009 added a series of films based on the rich Horizon archive, called Horizon Guides , on BBC Four . In December 2016, it

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408-432: The 1980s Horizon , in common with all BBC documentaries, was shot on 16 mm film. Only rare programmes had a specialist writer – in most cases the producer/director was also the writer. The first Horizon in colour was "Koestler on Creativity", produced by Robert Vas , was shown on 5 December 1967. The Public Broadcasting Service 's (PBS) Nova series was created in 1974, after Michael Ambrosino, who had served

442-626: The BAS realised that it too could cut off the station, and possibly make it drift out to sea. Since evacuating the crew is all but impossible during winter, the BAS announced in March 2017 it would withdraw its staff from the base from March to October. Staff returned after the Antarctic winter in November 2017 and found the station in very good condition. The staff have been removed every winter since. In

476-646: The Male" (1993) and "The Fall of the World Trade Centre" (2003). In 1988, Horizon won a BAFTA for Best Drama, "Life Story" (about the elucidation of the structure of DNA ), another in 1996 for Best Documentary, "Fermat's Last Theorem" (which also won a Prix Italia ) and another in 2001 for Best Factual Series or Strand. Three Horizon episodes were included on The Wonders Collection Special Edition DVD and Blu-ray. The episodes were "Do You Know What Time It Is?", "Can We Make A Star On Earth?" and "What on Earth

510-636: The Sun rises after winter) on August 13. Traditionally, the oldest person on base lowers the tattered flag on sundown and the youngest raises a new one on sunrise. The 2019 movie Where'd You Go, Bernadette ends with footage and animated renderings of Halley VI. Halley Bay Halley Bay was a location on the fast ice on the north-western margin of the Brunt Ice Shelf in Coats Land , Antarctica . The series of British Halley Research Stations were constructed near here and named after

544-431: The bay. The original ice bay was transitory and no longer exists although other bays in the same area keep reforming and breaking off as the shelf calves into icebergs. The location contains a 177 ha site which has been designated an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because it supported a breeding colony of about 22,500 emperor penguins (estimated from 2009 satellite imagery) although as of 2019

578-497: The colony has dispersed due to repeated failure of the sea ice. In addition to the recent seasonal failures of ice the Brunt Ice shelf is approaching a large calving event which will reshape this section of coast and leave the original location of Halley Bay many Km out at sea. 75°32′17″S 27°24′19″W  /  75.53806°S 27.40528°W  / -75.53806; -27.40528 This Coats Land location article

612-408: The construction was to have as little environmental impact on the ice as possible. The BAS announced that it intended to move Halley VI to a new site in summer 2016–2017, prompted by a large crack that had been propagating through the ice and which threatened to cut the station off from the main body of the ice shelf. The station was shifted 23 km (14 mi) from its previous site, the only time

646-401: The implications of the science covered are intercut to create a sense of summary. Until early 2008, the length was standardised at 50 minutes, which was extended in the latter half of 2008 to 60 minutes. Some episodes are adapted from documentaries by other broadcasters such as PBS's Nova , and episodes of Horizon are in turn adapted by PBS (to American English) and other broadcasters around

680-424: The peak summer period, from late December to late February, staff numbers count about 52. Before BAS shut down winter operations, there were around 13 overwintering staff. Most were the technical specialists required to keep the station and the scientific experiments running. The 2016 wintering team at Halley included a chef, a doctor, a communications manager, a vehicle mechanic, a generator mechanic, an electrician,

714-500: The scientists and staff on the station. Solutions included consulting a colour psychologist to create a special colour palette to offset the more than 100 days of darkness each year, daylight simulation lamp alarm clocks to address biorhythm issues, the use of special wood veneers to imbue the scent of nature and address the lack of green growth, as well as lighting design and space planning to address social interaction needs and issues of living and working in isolation. Another priority of

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748-735: The season. As with the German Neumayer Station III , the base floats on an ice shelf in the Weddell Sea rather than being built on solid land of the continent of Antarctica. This ice shelf is slowly moving towards the open ocean and, if not relocated, each base would eventually calve off into a drifting iceberg . There have been five previous bases called Halley. Various construction methods have been tried, from unprotected wooden huts to buildings within steel tunnels. The first four all became buried by snow accumulation and crushed until they were uninhabitable. Halley VI

782-443: The seasons, with a short, hectic summer and a long winter. In bases such as Halley that are resupplied by sea, the most significant event of the year is the arrival of the resupply ship (planned RRS  Sir David Attenborough , until 2020 RRS  Ernest Shackleton , before 1999, RRS  Bransfield ) in late December. This is followed by intense activity to unload all supplies before the ship has to leave again; typically, this

816-457: The show has in store, followed by two "acts" with a "plot twist" around 25–35 minutes into the show. The twist frequently propels the story line from a focus on an individual scientist's human and intellectual journey of discovery through to explore the impact of that insight while, at the same time, providing a change of "texture" and filmic pace. Often, episodes of Horizon end up with a montage of "talking heads" as experts and people affected by

850-456: The station has been moved since it became operational. Horizon , the long-running BBC documentary series, sent film-maker Natalie Hewit to Antarctica for three months to document the move. Relocation was completed in February 2017. Whilst the station was being relocated, concerns over another crack (dubbed the "Halloween Crack") emerged. This crack had been discovered on 31 October 2016, and

884-409: The station lost its electrical and heating supply during record low temperatures (as low as -55   °C), due to coolant leakage. Plans were made to evacuate some of the eight modules and to shelter in the remaining few that still had heat. Power was partially restored 19 hours later, but all science activities, apart from meteorological observations essential for weather forecasting, were suspended for

918-452: The use of whale meat in pet food in 1972 ("Whales, Dolphins, and Men"), and produced award-winning documentary-dramas such as Life Story in 1987, which dramatised the discovery of the structure of DNA . A 1978 programme about the silicon chip documented the decline of the Swiss watch industry. In 1993, an Emmy -winning episode about decreasing male fertility ("Assault on the Male")

952-616: The world in their own languages. No new episodes were broadcast between July 2022 and 2024. In January 2024, a special episode on the Artemis program in conjunction with the American series Nova and the Open University was announced. Horizon has enjoyed high viewing figures, even though it covered subjects as complex as molecular biology and particle physics . It has shown a change of direction since June 2006, offering

986-407: Was announced that Horizon would no longer be made exclusively by the BBC's in-house production division, BBC Studios , and the BBC invited independent production companies to pitch to make episodes of the strand. There have been 57 series and more than 1,200 episodes produced. Horizon has investigated an eclectic mix of subjects and controversial topics. It opened the awareness of consumers to

1020-466: Was broadcast, following up on Horizon ' s 2013 "The Secret Life of the Cat". At the end of the first hour-long broadcast the findings of the experiment so-far were summarised on screen by presenter Liz Bonnin as: "Our cats can cope with change but you have to introduce them to it gently". Private Eye was critical of the scientific value of the programme saying: "By all means, if the BBC wants to, make

1054-433: Was changed to Halley in 1977 as the original bay had disappeared because of changes in the ice shelf. In 2002, BAS realised that a calving event was possible which could destroy Halley V, so a competition was undertaken to design a replacement station. The current base, Halley VI, officially opened in February 2013 after a test winter. It is the world's first fully relocatable terrestrial research station. On 30 July 2014,

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1088-583: Was entered by a number of architectural and engineering firms. The winning design, by Faber Maunsell and Hugh Broughton Architects was chosen in July 2005. Halley VI was built in Cape Town, South Africa. The first sections were shipped to Antarctica in December 2007. They were assembled next to Halley V, then dragged one-by-one 15 km (9.3 mi) to the intended final location and connected. Halley VI

1122-502: Was given a special screening at the White House . The format of the series has varied over the years. The first ever Horizon was "The World of Buckminster Fuller", produced and directed by Ramsay Short, was shown on 5 February 1964. It set the style; running time 50 minutes, no in-vision presenter, interviewees speaking off camera (in practice, almost always to the producer/director whose questions were usually edited out). Until

1156-470: Was officially opened in Antarctica on 5 February 2013. Kirk Watson, a filmmaker from Scotland, recorded the building of the station over a four-year period for a short film. A description of the engineering challenges and the creation of the consortium was provided by Adam Rutherford to coincide with an exhibition in Glasgow. A focus of the new architecture was the desire to improve the living conditions of

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