The upside to the end of the world

Disaster films and science-fiction stories can go one step beyond entertaining us: they can also help shape our values. By Susanne Leuenberger (From "Horizons" no. March 2016) The Antarctic wasteland stretches out endlessly before us on the movie screen. For several minutes, the aerial photography explores the sublime beauty and the terrors of this icy world. Only then do human figures appear in the picture. We see a team of scientists, drilling into the ice core. The palaeontologist Jack Hall is one of them.