To coincide with International Polar Year, Our Dynamic earth has opened its redeveloped Polar Extremes gallery following a £260,000 transformation.

Visitors will experience a tangible sense of the Polar extremes. Plasma screens, genuine film footage, a voiceover by veteran Scots actor, Bill Paterson, light shows and temperature effects will demonstrate that while superficially similar, the Poles are in fact radically different.

Dr Stuart Monro, scientific director of Our Dynamic Earth, commented: “Crucially this investment is part of the continuing redevelopment of Dynamic Earth, and is an important way of helping people to understand the part the Polar Regions play as laboratories of the Earth’s changing climate.

“No one really knows just how serious the outcomes may be. We do know that the level of greenhouse gases today is accelerating fast and that brings the possibility of more severe climate changes, the threat of melting ice and rising sea levels.

“International Polar Year will provide new information on this problem and how it is affected by the Earth’s natural cycles. By exploring the Polar Regions for themselves, visitors will learn about the differences, allowing them to come to their own conclusions about the challenges facing the planet today.”

Polar Extremes has been redeveloped with funds from the Scottish Executive and elements of the new installation have been developed in association with the British Antarctic Survey and the University of Edinburgh.